Real Hauntings 4-Book Bundle. Mark Leslie

lot where the house used to stand with sheets of misty rain running down and cooling me off from the run I just completed. Three, perhaps four building towers from the city below peek out over the overgrown grass and bushes growing behind the wrought-iron fence at the back of the lot. There are sounds of traffic on the mountain access a hundred feet below. Standing on the spot where the house once stood and looking out onto Belvidere, I can see the entrance to the lot is overgrown with bushy trees and shrubs. I can hear a couple of cars passing by on that front street and catch a quick glimpse of them as they pass a small cut-out window in the canopy of greenery that blocks almost all of the street from view. This giant, beautiful, overgrown lot has sat vacant now for more than ten years. There’s barely any evidence left of the building that once stood here, except perhaps for the eerie feeling that I bring with me from the things I have read about it.

      As I stood there recording my thoughts and observations about the lot, I realized that, though I had been prepared to be frightened, though I had been prepared to feel some supernatural chill in the air, perhaps even to sense an evil presence lurking in wait for me, I instead felt sad for the loss our city faced when the building came down.

      A barren and overgrown lot stands, still empty, where the Bellevue used to majestically look out over the city from atop the mountain brow for over 150 years. The lot has remained empty since the remains of the building were taken away that fateful September in 2000, and nobody knows if anything will ever stand there again; the continued vacancy of the lot is perhaps evidence enough that people still believe the legends about the evil spirits, which might continue to haunt that land.

      Chapter Four

      Battlefield House Museum

      Battlefield House is a living history museum that sits within Battlefield Park, thirty-two acres of field and forest nestled at the foot of the Niagara Escarpment in Stoney Creek near King Street West and Centennial Parkway. The park is the site of the historic Battle of Stoney Creek, which took place on June 6, 1813, during the War of 1812.

In 1812 the United States declared war on Britain and invaded Upper Canada from the border of the Niagara Peninsula. American forces crossed the Niagara River and captured Fort George in Niagara-on-the-Lake (then Newark) in May 1813. Approximately 3,500 American troops moved on in pursuit of the British who had retreated to Burlington Heights, a location in Hamilton where Dundurn Castle now stands.[1]

      Approximately three thousand American troops arrived at Stoney Creek on June 5, 1813, and camped down for the night. The Gage House was used as headquarters by the two American generals, William H. Winder and John Chandler.

      Early the next morning, the British launched a surprise assault under the cover of darkness. It was made possible through the assistance of Billy Green, a nineteen-year-old local civilian. Having witnessed the attack from the Niagara Escarpment, Billy rode and walked to Burlington Heights to alert the British soldiers. The British decided on a night attack, and Billy, an experienced woodsman who knew the area well, was given a sword and uniform and acted as a scout.

      About seven hundred regulars of the 8th and 49th Regiments of Foot, under Lieutenant-Colonel John Harvey, stopped the American advance and allowed the British to re-establish their position in Niagara.

During the forty-minute battle, hundreds of soldiers died and the British captured the two American generals. The Americans retreated to Forty Mile Creek (Grimsby) and then to Fort George.[2]

      This was the last time American soldiers ever advanced so far into the Niagara Peninsula region.

      Battlefield Park’s tall trees, huge stretches of open space, and winding stream are open for the public to enjoy through each season of the year, with all visitors enjoying and appreciating the natural beauty of the park.

      But the ghosts of both the British and American soldiers who died on that very soil are never far from visitors’ minds, particularly with the Battlefield Monument — one hundred feet tall and the second-largest monument built in Canada to commemorate the War of 1812 — standing over the grounds.

Influenced by the towering monument to Admiral Nelson at Calton Hill, erected in 1816 in Edinburgh, Scotland, Battlefield Monument is a tapered, castellated tower that rises from a buttressed base. It was designed in the English Gothic Revival style. Observation decks at the top of the base and tower afford picturesque views of the entire battlefield.[3]

The monument was constructed shortly after the turn of the century, at a time when men and women were active in improving their communities through the development of schools, libraries, and museums. A small group of citizens formed the Wentworth Historical Society in December of 1888.[4] The women of the group, led by Sara Calder, formed a separate group in 1899 called the Women’s Wentworth Historical Society. Through their spirited fundraising, organizing, and work with the federal government, the park was opened to the public and work began on the monument.

In 1900 the architectural firm of F.J. Rastrick and Sons submitted a design for the monument. These plans, in keeping with the nationalistic attitude, called for only Canadian materials such as Queenston limestone to be used.[5]

On the centennial of the Battle of Stoney Creek, June 6, 1913, the completed monument was unveiled by Queen Mary in London, via a transatlantic cable. Approximately fifteen thousand people, both civilians and military, were in attendance, and children were given a half-day off school.[6]

      The dedication stone at the base of the monument reads:

      UNVEILED BY ELECTRICITY JUNE 6TH 1913 BY

      HER MAJESTY QUEEN MARY

      THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED BY THE PEOPLE OF CANADA, COLONEL THE HONOURABLE SAM HUGHES BEING MINISTER OF MILITIA AND DEFENCE, TO COMMEMORATE THE BATTLE OF STONEY CREEK JUNE 6TH 1813.

      THE BRITISH TROOPS UNDER COMMAND OF GENERAL VINCENT AND LIEUT. COLONEL HARVEY CONSISTED OF THE 49TH REG’T IN COMMAND OF MAJOR PLENDERLEATH AND FIVE COMPANIES OF THE 8TH OF KING’S IN COMMAND OF MAJOR OGILVIE, TO WHICH WAS ADDED THE VOLUNTEER ASSISTANCE OF THE SETTLERS HEREABOUTS LED BY CAPT. W.H.MERRITT OF THE CANADIAN MILITIA, THE TOTAL NUMBER BEING ABOUT SEVEN HUNDRED. THE AMERICAN FORCE NUMBERED UPWARDS OF THREE THOUSAND UNDER COMMAND OF GENERALS CHANDLER AND WINDER.

      THEY WERE ENCAMPED IN THIS IMMEDIATE VICINITY WITH STAFF HEADQUARTERS IN THE GAGE FARM HOUSE, NOW MAINTAINED BY THE WOMENS WENTWORTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY THROUGH WHOSE REPRESENTATIONS AND UNDER WHOSE DIRECTION THIS MEMORIAL WAS BUILT.

      IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT THE BRITISH ADVANCED FROM BURLINGTON HEIGHTS AND SURPRISING THE ENEMY, PUT HIM TO CONFUSION. THIS IS HELD TO HAVE BEEN THE DECISIVE ENGAGEMENT IN THE WAR OF 1812–13.

      HERE THE TIDE OF INVASION WAS MET AND TURNED BY THE PIONEER PATRIOTS AND SOLDIERS OF THE KING OF ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

MORE DEADLY THAN THEIR LIVES THEY HELD THOSE PRINCIPLES AND TRADITIONS OF BRITISH LIBERTY OF WHICH CANADA IS THE INHERITOR.[7]

Down the hill from the monument, facing King Street and central to the mystique of this location, lies Battlefield House. It was the homestead of the widow Mary Jones Gage and her two children, James Jr. and Elizabeth. Her husband, James Gage Sr., died in the American Revolutionary War while defending Fort Clinton against the British. Mrs. Gage and her children packed up their belongings, came to the Stoney Creek area in 1790, and received a grant of two hundred acres in exchange for swearing allegiance to the British monarchy.[8]

First built as a rough-hewn log house, the building was replaced