What's in a Name

What’s in a Name Earl Plato
What’s in a name? While researching at Fort Erie Centennial library in Louis McDermott’s extensive historical collection I came across Fort Erie historian George Tait’s 1927 writings. George was interested in local street and place names. This first article is centred around Bridgeburg (North end of Fort Erie). We old timers well remember that name, Bridgeburg. Tait said, “The name means the ‘burg’ at the end of the bridge. The word ‘burg’ is an old German term for a collection of houses or a village. Think of Jarvis Street. That’s centred in old Bridgeburg and once one of the most active streets in the area. Today there are still many stores and shops serving the North End. The first road I researched was Bowen Road. No Queen Elizabeth Way back in George Tait’s day. Today on the Q.E.W. the signs for Bowen Road are quite evident. Bowen Road just north of Highland Avenue in Fort Erie North was the dividing road between the village and the historic Township of Bertie - Lots 8 and 9. Tait tells us that where the Bowen Road began at the river back in the eighteen forties and fifties a ferry boat ran across the Niagara river from Black Rock, New York. This road was commonly called Ferry Road for many years. Later with a new major dock site at Fort Erie South the name Ferry Road gradually died away. Follow Bowen Road west at that time. Three brothers - William, Robert, and Henry Bowen had extensive farms along that country roadway. The name for this long country road became Bowen’s Road. Tait said in 1927, “ Bowen Road now applied from the river to the Humberstone Township line.”
Writer’s note: My ancestor, Cornelius Bowen, was grandfather to the three Bowen brothers. He had been a member of Butler’s Rangers and received an extensive Crown grant in Bertie Township in 1784. His grandsons inherited the Crown grant.
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Tait also told us about Frenchman’s Creek. Go north from Bowen Road on the Niagara Parkway and there is Frenchman’s Creek. It’s one of the oldest names found on our earliest maps. It is frequently mentioned in the War of 1812-14. Tait wrote, “ Just why the name Frenchman’s Creek was applied to this stream is a conundrum which has not yet been solved. This writer ( George Tait) asked historian Colonel E. Cruikshank a few years ago (circa 1925) and he said it was a puzzle.” Anyone have an answer?