Click here to hear William Hamilton Merritt performed by Alex Sinclair
William Hamilton Merritt would stare at the water as it flowed down the 12 Mile Creek.
There’s enough in the stream to keep the mill wheel turning today but there might not be next week.
The temperature rises, the water level drops
and the wheel slows down and finally stops
William Hamilton Merritt would tear at his hair and wonder at the whim of his God
Who gave him this fine opportunity for fortune and left it so fatally flawed.
If he could just dig a ditch to bring water from the Welland
His wheel would keep on turning, there’d be flour he could sell, and so
William Hamilton Merritt used the carrot and the stick to make politics bend his way
there were lots of other businessmen who knew if he got water power they too could find a way to make it pay
so he got himself elected to the Family Compact
And used public/private partnerships to get money for his contracts
William Hamilton Merritt wasn’t scared to reach farther than the average fellow in Niagara
Just listen to a list of some of the things he started and see if it doesn’t stagger ya:
Salt mine, flour mill, distillery, and store
Canal, career at Queen’s Park, and a bridge over the gorge
And it all started when
William Hamilton Merritt would stare at the water as it flowed down the Twelve Mile Creek.
Alex Sinclair. “William Hamilton Merritt.” Track 1 of his CD Flights of Fancy, SGB Productions, 2004.
Published in Spirit of the Big Ditch: The Story of the Welland Canals in Pictures, Poems and Songs. Compiled, edited and annotated by Robert Ratcliffe Taylor. St. Catharines: The Historical Society of St. Catharines, 2024
The Historical Society of St. Catharines 