James Bell Ewart

This biography is an excerpt of a larger project about the Mayors of Dundas developed and created by Judy Morphet, a Museum volunteer. It has been years in the making. The Museum is thankful for Judy’s hard work and perseverance in bringing these stories to light. To read more, click here.

Born in 1801, in Surrey, England, James Bell Ewart, 18, emigrated to Upper Canada where he found employment as a clerk in a mercantile firm, Clark & Street. In 1820 Ewart opened their store in Coote’s Paradise, subsequently leaving their firm in 1825, when he moved to Dundas and purchased the Dundas Mills from the estate of Richard Hatt.

In 1832, Ewart married a local woman, Mary Margaret Crooks. From 1837 until 1853 Ewart served as the town’s Postmaster. He was as well, from 1844, the Dundas agent for the British Bank of North America. At about this time he built a home and bank at the location which is now 8 Hatt Street.

From 1834 Ewart was a vigorous promoter of the London and Gore Rail Road (Predecessor of the Great Western Rail Road) along with Sir Alan MacNab (knighted for helping to quell the 1837 uprising). In 1845 the two gentlemen travelled to London, England to arrange financing for their ventures.

Ewart held shares in the Desjardins Canal Company and was a founding director of two road building companies – the Dundas and Paris and the Guelph and Dundas roads.
In 1840, Ewart became the owner of the water rights on Spencer Creek from Creighton Road to Main Street. He subsequently enlarged the dam which was located west of McMurray Street.

That same year Ewart donated land, which had been part of his Carfin Farm in the area of Ogilvie and Hatt Streets, for the construction of the first St. James Anglican Church on Hatt Street, where he served as an elected vestryman.

In 1849, Ewart was elected by the town’s councillors to preside as President for a year during which time land was purchased from the heirs of Richard Hatt to build a firehall at the current site of the Armoury.

James Bell Ewart died on December 17, 1853. Accompanied by a large funeral cortege, his remains were interred in the Crooks’ family cemetery at Crook’s Hollow and relocated later in the Grove Cemetery.