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Laura Secord Gravesite

6110 Lundy's Lane Niagara Falls, Ontario L2G 1T1

TRIP CLIP AUDIO - LAURA SECORD GRAVESITE

 

Click to play or download Laura Secord Gravesite TripClip (mp3 format).

 

Left: full view of gravestone; Right: close-up of bust of Laura Secord atop gravestone (photos: Cavelle Schmid, Kristin Atkinson).

 

 

SECORD SIGNIFICANCE

Laura and her husband James Secord were buried in Drummond Hill Ceremony alongside many veterans of the War of 1812. A memorial bust was placed on her gravesite.

 

 

General Information

Laura Secord's famous grave is located within the Drummond Hill Cemetery.  Laura was a prominent figure during the war of 1812.  Laura shares her final resting place along with many of those who fought during the Battle of Lundy's Lane in the War of 1812. 

 

The story of Laura Secord and her exploits became more widely known after she was honoured in 1860 by Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, with a gift of 100 pounds. The publication of an erroneous but popular account of her deeds by William Coffin in 1869 and an epic dramatic poem about her by Sarah Curzon in 1887 further spread her fame. But it took until the beginning of the 20th Century for any formal memorial to be erected to honour Laura’s memory.

 

Photo Gallery

 

Directions

 

 

From Toronto:


Take QEW (Niagara) to Niagara Falls, Ontario

Once in Niagara Falls stay to the right, avoid the ramp going towards Fort Erie

Exit from QEW at Drummond Road turn Left after exit

Turn right onto Drummond Road

Follow Drummond Hill past Lundy's Lane

Turn left on Buchner Place

 Entrance to Cemetery straight ahead

 

 

From Niagara Falls:

 

Head south on Victoria Avenue toward Crawford Place

Continue onto Ferry Street

Continue onto Lundy's Lane

Turn left onto Drummond Road

Turn left onto Buchner Place

Entrance to Cemetery is straight ahead

 

 

From Rainbow Bridge (US/Canada Border):


Rainbow Bridge turns into Roberts Street

Take Roberts Street to Stanley Avenue

Turn Left onto Stanley Avenue

Turn Right onto Ferry Street

Ferry Street turns into Lundy's Lane

Turn Left onto Drummond Road from Lundy's Lane

Turn Left onto Buchner Place

Entrance to Cemetery is straight ahead

 

Historical

 

 Laura Ingersoll Secord died in 1868 at age 93 at the Village of Chippawa (today part of Niagara Falls, Ontario). She was buried in the Drummond Hill Cemetery next to her husband James Secord.
 
The story of the Laura Secord grave began in the late 1880s. In 1887, M.M. Fenwick, the principal of the Drummondville Grammar School, wrote letters to the Toronto Mail and World newspapers deploring the neglected state of the cemetery at Lundy’s Lane. He appealed for contributions to erect a monument to Laura Secord and others who fell during the War of 1812. Sarah Curzon also continued to lobby for the recognition of Laura Secord and other historically significant women. In 1891 she followed up her dramatic poem with a short biography, The Story of Laura Secord, 1813, at the request of the Lundy’s Lane Historical Society. According to historian Norman Knowles,
 
“…the Society had had started a public subscription list and approached the provincial government for a grant to cover the costs of marking Secord’s grave ‘with a memorial stone somewhat worthy of her and of us’. A petition with over 1000 names was presented to the provincial government by the local member of the legislature, but to little effect. In 1892 the Lundy’s Lane Historical Society issued a circular to teachers and students in the counties of Lincoln and Welland asking for contributions. By 1895 less than 200 pounds had been collected.
 
Curzon herself died in 1896, but was succeeded in the memorial movement by Elizabeth Jane Thompson, an active member of the Women’s Canadian Historical Society and the Daughters of the Empire. Shewas able to interest the Ontario Historical Society in the project, and a monument committee was established in February of 1899.
 
The committee urged other historical and patriotic organizations to join the Ontario Historical Society in making the Laura Secord memorial a reality. The appealwas successful, and the Ontario Historical Society commissioned Mildred Peel, sister of the renowned London painter Paul Peel, to create a bust of Secord placed on a granite pedestal.
 
Constructed of Vermont granite, Laura's memorial is eight feet in height and is surmounted with a bust of bronze. It is a significant work: not only was it the first public memorial to a woman erected in Canada, and a significant departure from earlier practice of only portraying male heroes in public monuments, but it was created by a Canadian woman sculptor. The project to see it erected was also largely overseen to completion by women. The monument replaced the original marble slab grave markers, which were transferred to Holy Trinity Church in Chippawa, where Laura and James Secord were parishioners.
 
The monument was unveiled on 22 June 1901 by Catherine Ross, the wife of the province’s premier, before a crowd of 2000 people. Several of Laura Secord’s descendents, friends, and relatives were present at the ceremony, and were introduced to the thousands of visitors in attendance by Rev. Canon Bell, President of the Lundy's Lane Historical Society. She and several other speakers lauded Laura Secord’s exploits, and heralded the occasion as a reminder of the irrefutable importance of Canadian women in the history of the country.
 
The monument reads,
 
To perpetuate the name and fame of Laura Secord, who walked alone nearly 20 miles by a circuitous, difficult and perilous route through woods and swamps and over many roads to warn a British outpost at Decew's Falls of an intended attack and thereby enabled  Lieut. FitzGibbon on the 24th, June, 1813, with less than 50 men of H.M. 49th Regt., about 15 militiamen and a small force of Six Nation and other Indians under Captains William Johnson Kerr and Domonique Ducharme, to surprise and attack the enemy at Beechwoods (or Beaver Dams) and after a short engagement to capture Col. Boerstler of the U.S. Army and his entire force of 542 men with two field pieces.
 
Unfortunately, two months later, it was discovered that the dates of the Battle of Beaver Dams on the inscription were in error, and the monument had to be dismantled. The base was sent back to England for correction.
 
Not everyone felt that the modest memorial to Laura Secord was an adequate and fitting tribute. Members of the United Empire Loyalist Association felt that the monument should be located at Queenston Heights and be of much grander proportions. A second, larger monument was indeed created near the Brock Monument in Queenston Heights, but not without considerable controversy.
 
Meanwhile, the Mildred Peel bust of Laura Secord still stands as a precedent-setting recognition of the exploits of Laura Secord in particular, and of Canadian women in general.
 

 

Further Information

The War of 1812 Website: Biography of Laura Secord (2000). http://www.warof1812.ca/laurasecord.htm

 

 

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Ownership & Management

City of Niagara Falls, Ontario

Address

6110 Lundy's Lane
Niagara Falls, Ontario
L2G 1T1

GPS Co-ordinates

Latitude 43.0894728
Longitude -79.0959907
Take Buchner Place off Drummond Rd. - Lundy's Lane is on north side of cemetery.

Administration

Cynthia Roberts
Cemetery Manager

 
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