Laura Secord

This popular Canadian heroine was born Laura Ingersoll in Massachussetts in 1775 and emigrated with her parents to Upper Canada in 1795. There she married James Secord, the youngest son of a Loyalist officer in Butler ’s Rangers, who himself became a sergeant in the 1^st Lincoln Militia. When he was wounded at the Battle of Queenston Heights as the War of 1812 began she rescued him from the battlefield. On 21 June 1813 she overheard some American officers dining at her house planning to surprise our outpost at Beaver Dams. Laura resolved to warn the outpost commander, Lieutenant James Fitzgibbon, herself. Avoiding the direct road, where she might have run into American troops, she went first to St. David’s and then to Shipman’s Corners (now St. Catherines). Uncertain of the way and walking through fields and heavy bush until the evening, she happened upon an Indian encampment. She persuaded the chief to take her to Fitzgibbon who acted on her news and set up an ambush which forced the surrender of 462 American troops on 24 June. Her action favourably altered the course of the war in that area. Laura Secord died in 1868.