Life on a Niagara Farm: A Historical Perspective
Our site is steeped in hundreds of years of rich, layered, agricultural tradition. This article unites the past with the present, showcasing The Brown Homestead’s modern gardening practices while tying them into stories of past life here on this historic farmstead.
Heirloom vegetable seedlings from our spring Giveaway
The Powers Family farm with the John Brown House in the background. The Brown Homestead, Ethel (Powers Simpson) Collection.
It’s been a hot summer out here in Niagara, and our garden is loving it! We’ve watched our lettuce, swiss chard, beans, cucumbers, eggplant, squash and tomatoes thrive this season as we’ve (so far) harvested close to 100 lbs. of produce for Community Care. Our dedicated Garden Keeper volunteers have been hard at work since early this year, planting, watering, weeding, and lovingly caring for this vegetable garden.
As has become an annual tradition, we planted approximately 500 seedlings and gave them away to the public for free during our Seedling Giveaway Initiative in May. Folks from all over Niagara came to pick up free seedlings and it was exciting to once again serve our community and share resources.
Over time, the stewards of The Brown Homestead kept up with contemporary farming trends, and were acutely aware of the importance of maintaining a functional household economy. To us, this is a beautiful example of the history of the common person, and spurs us on to learn more about the development of our society at a community level. Continue reading to learn more about what was grown on site over the past few centuries, and how that fits in with the broader picture of Niagara’s agricultural development.
But first… check out the interactive map to see where in Niagara our seedlings were planted this season!
Seedling Giveaway Impact
Click on “Layers” in the sidebar on the left side of the screen and toggle them on and off by clicking on the “eye” icons to see the data symbolized in different ways. Expand the 2024 and 2025 groups to see all of the layer options.
This webmap indicates where our seedlings were distributed during the 2025 Seedling Giveaway Initiative. Note how our main audience comes from the City of St. Catharines. No surprises there!
Map Analysis
What can we learn by exploring this map?
Maps can be used as teaching tools for understanding spatial data. Something we noticed right away when viewing the points on the map was that the majority of the individuals who picked up seedlings were from the Western Hill area. This St. Catharines community is the nearest urban area to our site, so it is encouraging to see those folks engaging with us as we continue to expand our outreach. Visualizing data in this way can also show us what is lacking. It shows us the geographic areas we are currently helping, and indicates where we may want to target our efforts more thoughtfully in the future.
It’s also helpful to see how our efforts have evolved over time. For example, in 2025, the percentage of people who took home free heirloom seedlings was more concentrated within the City of St. Catharines than it was in 2024 when seedlings were more spread out amongst the region’s other municipalities. We can continue to use maps like this in the future to see where we are making an impact!
Heirloom Gardening Resources
As part of the seedling giveaway, we handed out these one-page heirloom gardening fact sheets. Please feel free to print them off, keep for your own reference, or share them in your classroom, or with your friends. There are so many benefits to growing heirloom seeds!
For more on heirloom gardens and local historic gardening, check out these educational resources that we’ve developed in past years with two of our trusted partners and local historians.
Life on a Niagara Farm
The heirloom seedlings that we grow on site today are part of a longstanding agricultural tradition here in this rural corner of St. Catharines. In fact, this special place has been primarily a family farm for most of its existence. Many people have asked us:
“What crops did families grow at The Brown Homestead?”
The concept of farming itself has looked very different at different points in time, in different municipalities throughout the Niagara Region, and this is especially true for the different families that lived here. The following section explains the evolution of this cultural landscape as experienced by Indigenous peoples, Loyalist settlers of German origin (the Browns), mid-19th century English immigrants (the Chellews), and early 20th century multi-generational Canadians (the Powers’).
Indigenous History
The Brown Homestead is within the traditional and historic territory of the Attawandaron (Neutral), Anishinaabek, and Haudenosaunee peoples. By the 1600s, the Neutral peoples were engaged in forms of agriculture in Niagara, in addition to hunting and trading. At that time, there were about 40 Neutral villages dotting across Southern Ontario, interconnected by established trail networks including the Mohawk Trail (now Pelham Rd.) which ran along the top of the escarpment between the Niagara River and Dundas. [1]
Farming, or “maize agriculture” affected the movement of Indigenous peoples, as they looked for land that would be better for large-scale farming, as opposed to grazing around the lakeshores. This meant searching for land with adequate drainage, natural fertility, and low-moderate slope. Archaeological evidence points to the gradual movement of people from the lakes towards the interior, and seasonal encampments on high elevation areas with better drained soils, such as parts of the Fonthill Kame. [2]
Corn was the dominant field crop being grown here. It could be ground into cornmeal and used in breads, soups and stews, along with beans to make succotash, or meats gathered while hunting. We will be doing an archaeological field survey in our back meadow next month and look forward to seeing if we can detect any evidence of human activity dating that far back in time!
The Brown Family (1783 -1858)
Likewise the Brown Family, refugees during the American Revolution, had their own unique relationship to this land. Originally of German descent and arriving in New York in 1710, they settled in Schoharie and farmed the land for seventy years. John Brown served as a private in the Butler’s Rangers from 1781 until his discharge in 1783. He was subsequently granted 900 acres of land in adjoining corners of Thorold, Pelham and Louth Townships to reward his loyal service to the crown and to replace lands he lost in Schoharie.
Some of Niagara’s first colonial settlers, the Browns were not alone in their new life. They knew some of their neighbours from back home in Schoharie, and had become acquainted with other refugees during their brief stay near Fort Niagara. They struggled to settle the wilderness but at the same time they understood the potential of this region’s fertile lands, towering escarpment and numerous waterways because they were accustomed to establishing life in new territory. Here they grew crops for subsistence. This means that they grew what was necessary to keep them and their handful of farm animals alive - at first. Wheat, corn, rye, oats, barley, and a variety of other field and grain crops were commonplace. Vegetables like potatoes, turnips and peas, and animal byproducts like butter, eggs, beef, and pork regularly appear in local ledgers and account books. Eventually, mixed farming became a key to success throughout the colonial period as farmers grew staple grain crops as their main source of income by trading surpluses with local merchant millers, and supplemented sales with a variety of other field crops, fruit and vegetables, animal byproducts, and early industrial endeavours.
The Chellew Family (1858-1902)
Joseph Chellew is indicated in the 1876 Illustrated Atlas of Lincoln & Welland Counties in the 100 acres of Lot 3 Concession 8, as well as 50 acres in Lot 1 Concession 7, and the adjoining 50 acres of Lot 1 Concession 6.
The Chellew family were British immigrants to Niagara and brought along with them an entirely new perspective, and an army of children to help get the farm work done. The Chellews were part of an influx of immigrants to the from the British Isles, and had gotten a chance to lay down some roots a few years earlier in nearby land to the northeast.
Around that time, most farms in Niagara consisted of somewhere between 50-100 acres. [3] The Chellews owned 220 acres here in Niagara and continued to grow similar crops to the Browns. The presence of the brick smokehouse and dairy on site here, built around 1860, shows they were able to improve their home economy by broadening their access to different markets and sources of income. Livestock and poultry were an important part of the mixed-farm economy during the period of early colonial settlement, and their value evolved as technology advanced, and as markets became more specialized. This style of mixed farming prevailed across Niagara and was evident here at the Homestead in the mid-late 19th century.
The livestock & animal products section of the 1871 Agricultural Census of Canada tells us that Joseph and Eliza Chellew (and their eight children) had 3 horses and 1 colt, as well as 5 milk cows, 15 other horned cattle, and 25 sheep. In addition to this, they owned 6 cattle and 30 sheep specifically for slaughter and/or export, plus 300 pounds of butter and 200 pounds of wool. The real estate, vehicles, and implements section of the census tells us that the Chellews owned 2 houses (the ones shown on the map in Lot 3 Con 8 and Lot 7 Con 1), 2 barns, 3 carriages/sleighs, 4 wagons, 6 ploughs/cultivators, 2 reapers/mowers, 2 horse rakes, 1 threshing machine and 1 fanning mill. The cultivated land, field products and fruits section indicates that the Chellews had improved most of their land (200 acres) with 30 acres in pasture, 28 acres of hay, 20 acres of wheat, 4 acres of orchards, and 1 acre of potatoes, producing 500 bushels of fall wheat, 300 bushels of barley, 500 bushels of oats, 200 bushels of potatoes, 30 tons of hay, 20 bushels of grass/clover seed, 400 bushels of apples, and 100 bushels of “other fruits” (type not indicated).
When comparing these quantities to their neighbours, the Chellews appear to have done quite well. The fact that three generations of Browns had cleared the land and built the family home, barn and fences in the first half of the 19th century was no doubt a major contributor to the Chellews’ success. Joseph Jr. sold the farm in 1902, passing The Brown Homestead’s legacy on to the next family to live here.
The Powers Family (1902-1979)
Ethel (Powers) Simpson explains her memories of their family farm by pointing to part of a painting of the historic farm landscape, completed by her sister Mary Ann.
Oral histories and photographs from the Powers family provide us with some incredible insight into what farming was like here during the first half of the 20th century. The family, listed in the recently released 1931 census as “Stock and Grain farmers”, continued to also care for fruit orchards while adding onto the barn to raise more livestock. This barn no longer exists, but is visible in a 1958 painting by Mary Ann (Powers) Martin.
Decadal censuses from the early 20th century suggest that between 7-14% of Niagara’s improved agricultural lands at that time were planted with orchards, vineyards, small fruits, vegetables, nurseries and market gardens. [4] This percentage was much higher than in any other part of the province. The Powers’ grew apples, pears, plums, and planted a small vineyard. The apple varieties they grew included Spy, Empire, McIntosh, Sweet Bough, Red Delicious, and Yellow Delicious. A small scale grower compared to some of the larger operations that functioned at the time, the Powers’ sold these products to local markets as part of Niagara’s renowned fruit industry for many years. In general, the destination for the peninsula’s agricultural products was mostly within the immediate area and surrounding cities, but jams, jellies and other fruit and vegetable by-products made their way into Western Canada, Quebec, and the Maritimes [5].
Photo of orchards c. 1952, facing southeast towards the curve in Pelham Road. The Brown Homestead, Ethel (Powers Simpson) Collection.
Our interviews with family members have provided us with valuable information about what exactly was taking place on this site. Interviewees have explained how the family would grade and sort the fruit in the summer kitchen of the John Brown House, and then drive it to the train station in Western Hill for it to be distributed further. Our Oral History Project continues to be a key primary resource as we learn about this site’s prior land use, family involvement in local industry, and how The Brown Homestead’s cultural landscape has evolved over time.
Description of apple varieties handwritten on the back of a photograph.
The Powers’ adopted modern farm technology, as had their predecessors the Chellews, with all of their above mentioned reapers, mowers, ploughs, sleighs and wagons. The invention of the modern farm tractor ultimately eliminated these families’ strong dependence on livestock. The use of tractors in Ontario skyrocketed in the 1940s. One study of Ontario farms revealed that only 32% of farmers visited in 1941 had been using tractors, but by 1950 this number had increased to 85% [6]
Niagara was also an early adaptor of motorized vehicles, like the trucks that were commonly used on fruit farms and orchards that dominated Lincoln County. First recorded in the 1931 agricultural census, the region’s farms reported 1,289 total motor trucks. [7] This made up 9% of all motor trucks in the entire province and was more than any other county. These trucks, along with the railroads and streetcars, were essential for shipping produce —something the Powers’ have attested to.
Another aspect of farm life that was crucial to success was access to manual labour. For the Browns, work was completed by the family unit, including husbands, wives, children, and extended family members and sometimes neighbours. Workers could be hired on occasion for an hourly wage, but most people worked their own farms in the early years. In the decadal censuses you start to see young men and women appearing as farm labourers and domestic servants living with families throughout the mid-late 19th century.
During peak harvest, temporary workers were essential to ensure the produce did not go to waste. Ethel (Powers) Simpson recalled in her oral history interview that their neighbours and family members would also help one another to pick fruit in the summer and fall. In this way, we see The Brown Homestead has been stewarded not only by the families that lived here, but also their broader community. Interestingly, while the Powers’ were stock and grain farmers in 1931, most of their neighbours around them were listed primarily as fruit farmers. For the Powers’, fruit supplemented their income while for others, it was their main source.
Niagara’s fruit industry in particular is indebted to the thousands of temporary farm workers who toiled in those fields and orchards and provided essential labour that allowed the sector to achieve such success. The 1931 census shows us that a temporary farm worker named Charles Ecker worked with the Powers family — likely one of many who helped out here over time, picking fruit with the Niagara Escarpment towering behind them.
Charles Ecker was one of 5,809 total temporary male workers in Niagara that year (the second highest number in the censuses, after Kent County). [7] The census also shows that Niagara had 4,032 temporary female workers that year. Nowhere else in Ontario were there even close to that many women temporarily employed on farms. The next highest county was Wentworth with 1,451 temporary female labourers. [8] Menial farm labour was often performed by local women, as Ethel described, but these statistics reflect the work completed largely by non-British immigrant women and girls, mostly of Italian and Polish descent and coming over from Buffalo. These women were housed in dormitories in St. Catharines, Beamsville, and Niagara Falls. During wartime when young men were not available to work on the farm, there was a shortage of labour and teenaged girls and young women from the cities, known as “Farmerettes”, were hired to help pick and pack fruits. They were billeted at the farms in temporary housing. A wonderful documentary about these “daughters of Canada” will be playing on October 23rd at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in St. Catharines and we hope to see you there!
The Present - History’s Continuum
Garden keeper volunteers (left to right) Joanne, Diana, and Maria
The Brown Homestead's farming era came to an end in 1966 when the majority of the land in Lot 3 Concession 8 was sold, leaving one single acre remaining. The 94.5 acres were sold to the Mastersons who continued farming, and much of it was eventually planted with vineyards now owned by Henry of Pelham Estate Winery. The Brown Homestead’s boundaries have expanded once again to include a total of 7.5 acres as some of the lot was bought back piece by piece in recent years. You can explore the development of our site’s cultural landscape by scanning through its historic layers in this interactive Story Map.
Now, through our gardening programs which began in 2022, we have enjoyed seeing the land return back to doing what it does best once again.
Grow @ the Homestead Speaker Series
The concepts explained in this article are ripe with exciting possibilities for further research, understanding, and explanation. For that reason, we are thrilled to announce our lineup for this year’s fall Speaker Series. The theme this year is focused on the idea of change and technological advancement in agriculture on a local scale, and our knowledgeable experts come to us from a variety of educational backgrounds. All of the talks will be taking place at The Brown Homestead this fall, and are completely free to attend! More info can be found on our Grow @ the Homestead webpage. Mark your calendars!
Thank you to our Generous Donors!
The Brown Homestead gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the United Way Niagara through Healthy People, Strong Communities with a 3 year commitment towards our GROW @ program. A sincere thank-you also goes to JVK for the in-kind donation of pots to support our annual Seedling Giveaway Initiative!
Author Bio
Jessica Linzel [M.A. History, Brock University], is the Director of Research & Collections at The Brown Homestead. Jess has studied the history of Niagara since 2016, and her M.A. thesis [2020] focused on economic development in Niagara during the early Loyalist period.
From 2023-2024 she worked with Brock University as a research assistant for the Niagara Community Observatory’s work on the Wilson Foundation Project where she investigated the history of Niagara’s agricultural development, as well as Niagara’s other main economic sectors. You can read these working papers on the special project website, hosted by the Brock Library’s Archives & Special Collections.
References
[1] John H. Thompson, Jubilee History of Thorold Township and Town, (Thorold: The Thorold Post Printing and Publishing Company), 1897-98, 7.
[2] J. Linzel, E. Vlossak, and K. Monk, “A History of Agriculture in Niagara, pre-1969”, Niagara Community Observatory Working Paper (2024), 7, https://exhibits.library.brocku.ca/s/NiagEconHist/item/18797.
[3] Ibid, 5.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid., 18.
[6] Ibid., 10.
[7] Ibid., 19
[8] Ibid.