Brock's Monument
Upon arriving in Niagara, Baker's first stop was at Queenston Heights. He writes that “…we took the cars for Niagara and were drawn over the mountain by horses, three being attached to each car. At this place there is an apology for a monument erected to Gen. Brock...The land on this mountain very fertile and the view of the Lake from its summit very interesting…"
A drawing of Brock's Monument in Queenston, 1840. The village of Queenston, the Niagara River and Lake Ontario can also be seen.
The damaged Brock's Monument after a terrorist attack in 1840.
At the time of Baker's visit, Brock's Monument had been damaged by a terrorist attack that occurred in April of 1840. Although the monument was still standing, it was considerably damaged. It was widely accepted that Benjamin Lett, an Irish agitator with a history of rebellion and violence against the British, was responsible for the attack although this was never proven.
The shaft of the monument was cracked and half of the parapet and roof were blown off. The monument remained in this state until a new monument was built between 1853 and 1856. The remains of General Isaac Brock and his aide-de-camp John Macdonell, both killed while trying to reclaim Queenston Heights from the Americans in 1812, were buried at the base of the monument. Their remains were temporarily removed to the Hamilton family burial ground in Queenston and reinterred at the site of the new monument in 1853.