Mrs. William Swayzie

Mrs. William Swayzie In this issue we publish a photo of Mrs. William Swayzie, Brooklyn, N.Y., an old lady still alive, in fair health, and aged 93 years.
Born at Queenston, January 2, 1808, she was present at the battle of Queenston Heights, and took part by passing refreshments to British officers resting at her father's house. Her father, James Durham, was a U. E. Loyalist, and one of the very first settlers in the Niagara district, purchasing and receiving his title from the Crown for 200 acres of land situated on the Niagara River road, one mile from Queenston. The said Crown land deed, with its original antiquated large wax seals, is still in the possession of his granddaughter, Mrs. William Armstrong, Riverside Fruit Farm, Queenston.
Mrs. Swayzie still remembers many incidents of an exciting nature of public interest, especially incidents which occurred during those eventful days of 1812 and 1813 — how the early settlers fought and suffered through that struggle; how the Americans carried off her father's cattle and horses, part of which he recovered after a prolonged hunt. She saw an American soldier kill a sheep in her father's apple orchard, and while he was in the act of skinning the sheep he was shot dead by a British soldier who came along at the time. The body lay in the orchard until night, when it was removed by comrades. Mrs. Swayzie says their stock of provisions was looted by the soldiers at different times, and the Indians, with their savage ways, frightened them almost to death. The Indian had a weakness for blankets, as the darky has for chickens, so they lost many blankets. Her father-in-law, Colonel Isaac Swayzie, of Niagara, Out., was a member of the first Parliament of Canada.