Captain Meyers
David Versus Goliath
26/03/13 12:49
David Versus Goliath
Fred Meyers’ Desperate Battle To Save His Family Farm From Expropriation
By Paul Dalby - Watershed Magazine
Trenton farmer’s land officially expropriated
The letter arrived in the mailbox at the end of Frank Meyers’ driveway, tucked in with a few bills and a supermarket flyer. It landed like a ticking time bomb.
Inside a brown manila envelope, the letter from the federal Department of Justice informed the 84-year-old farmer that the land he and his ancestors had worked continuously for more than two centuries was no longer his.
The letter Mr. Meyers received from federal lawyers warned him he is now “unlawfully occupying land absolutely vested in the Crown”, and if he doesn’t leave right away, they will send in the sheriff’s bailiffs to remove him.
In the arcane world of the government land grab, this is the “drop dead” stance. It means that for Mr. Meyers and his family, all their petitions, protests, and letters over the past six years have officially come to nothing. They lose.
Read More...
Fred Meyers’ Desperate Battle To Save His Family Farm From Expropriation
By Paul Dalby - Watershed Magazine
Trenton farmer’s land officially expropriated
The letter arrived in the mailbox at the end of Frank Meyers’ driveway, tucked in with a few bills and a supermarket flyer. It landed like a ticking time bomb.
Inside a brown manila envelope, the letter from the federal Department of Justice informed the 84-year-old farmer that the land he and his ancestors had worked continuously for more than two centuries was no longer his.
The letter Mr. Meyers received from federal lawyers warned him he is now “unlawfully occupying land absolutely vested in the Crown”, and if he doesn’t leave right away, they will send in the sheriff’s bailiffs to remove him.
In the arcane world of the government land grab, this is the “drop dead” stance. It means that for Mr. Meyers and his family, all their petitions, protests, and letters over the past six years have officially come to nothing. They lose.
Read More...
Family of a Loyalist war hero vs. Joint Task Force 2
05/04/12 15:24
Family of a Loyalist war hero vs. Joint Task Force 2
After years of fighting Ottawa to keep his land, the descendant of John Walden Meyer may have lost the battle
by Michael Friscolanti on Thursday, April 5, 2012 12:00pm - Macleans Magazine
In some ways, John Walden Meyers was the 18th-century equivalent of a special forces commando. A New York farmer who sided with the British during the American Revolution, he became a legendary loyalist spy, a giant of a man with fire-red hair and a gift for infiltrating enemy lines. Two centuries later, some of the stories have morphed into myth (according to one uncorroborated tale, he wore moccasins that were pointy at both ends so his footprints couldn’t be tracked), but the historians do agree on one detail: patriot children considered him the bogeyman. If you don’t behave, their mothers would say, Capt. Meyers “will come and eat you.”
The good captain is most famous for directing a late-night raid on the Albany mansion of Philip Schuyler, one of the Continental Army’s highest-ranking officers. Although the mission—to snatch the general—was doomed to fail, Meyers somehow survived the ensuing gun battle and led his troops back to Quebec. “He had plenty of close calls and narrow escapes over the years,” says Doug Knutson, a filmmaker who has spent two decades researching Meyers’s heroics. “He was a strong individual, but more than that, he was very innovative and resourceful.” Read More...
After years of fighting Ottawa to keep his land, the descendant of John Walden Meyer may have lost the battle
by Michael Friscolanti on Thursday, April 5, 2012 12:00pm - Macleans Magazine
In some ways, John Walden Meyers was the 18th-century equivalent of a special forces commando. A New York farmer who sided with the British during the American Revolution, he became a legendary loyalist spy, a giant of a man with fire-red hair and a gift for infiltrating enemy lines. Two centuries later, some of the stories have morphed into myth (according to one uncorroborated tale, he wore moccasins that were pointy at both ends so his footprints couldn’t be tracked), but the historians do agree on one detail: patriot children considered him the bogeyman. If you don’t behave, their mothers would say, Capt. Meyers “will come and eat you.”
The good captain is most famous for directing a late-night raid on the Albany mansion of Philip Schuyler, one of the Continental Army’s highest-ranking officers. Although the mission—to snatch the general—was doomed to fail, Meyers somehow survived the ensuing gun battle and led his troops back to Quebec. “He had plenty of close calls and narrow escapes over the years,” says Doug Knutson, a filmmaker who has spent two decades researching Meyers’s heroics. “He was a strong individual, but more than that, he was very innovative and resourceful.” Read More...
Captain Meyers - Belleville Intelligencer
06/04/11 16:40
Finding Bellevilles founder
By Luke Hendry The Intelligencer
Local News - Saturday, November 25, 2006 Updated @ 10:48:17 PM
For 18 years, Doug Knutson has been on the trail of an elusive man. It’s a tough task: the man he’s seeking is a legendary rogue, a maverick military man feared by both his allies and enemies. There are no photos of him, and everyone who knew him is now dead.
Capt. John Walden Meyers was the founder of Belleville, a spy for Britain, a United Empire Loyalist raider, mill owner, father, and in the words of one ally, a “damned rascal.” And for nearly two decades, Belleville filmmaker Knutson has been working on an hour-long documentary film about the man. Borrowing the Damned Rascal term for its title, it’s become Knutson’s passion — and his plague.
“I’ve worked so long and so hard on this that I really feel like I knew him — or that he’s still around, some days.”
Read More...
By Luke Hendry The Intelligencer
Local News - Saturday, November 25, 2006 Updated @ 10:48:17 PM
For 18 years, Doug Knutson has been on the trail of an elusive man. It’s a tough task: the man he’s seeking is a legendary rogue, a maverick military man feared by both his allies and enemies. There are no photos of him, and everyone who knew him is now dead.
Capt. John Walden Meyers was the founder of Belleville, a spy for Britain, a United Empire Loyalist raider, mill owner, father, and in the words of one ally, a “damned rascal.” And for nearly two decades, Belleville filmmaker Knutson has been working on an hour-long documentary film about the man. Borrowing the Damned Rascal term for its title, it’s become Knutson’s passion — and his plague.
“I’ve worked so long and so hard on this that I really feel like I knew him — or that he’s still around, some days.”
Read More...
Captain Meyers - Ottawa Citizen
23/07/06 16:42
from The Ottawa Citizen - July 23, 2006
by Tony Atherton
A legend's silver lining: John Walden Meyers was a Loyalist spy, Belleville founder and a true Canadian pioneer, but rumour still swirls around his brush with a fabled silver mine in Bon Echo provincial park
DRIVE-BY HISTORY
PART 2 OF AN occasional series: They're on duty all year long, nearly 1,200 mute sentries standing watch over Ontario's past. We're more likely to notice them at this time of year, however, on a Sunday drive along backroads and byways, or during an evening stroll through a park. It's been 50 years since the first of these embossed metal plaques, surmounted by the provincial coat of arms, were planted along roadsides, or affixed to walls and rocks, to preserve the memory of the people and events that shaped Ontario. In an occasional summer series, the Citizen celebrates half a century of heritage preservation with a closer look at some fascinating stories only hinted at by several provincial plaques in eastern Ontario.
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Read More...
by Tony Atherton
A legend's silver lining: John Walden Meyers was a Loyalist spy, Belleville founder and a true Canadian pioneer, but rumour still swirls around his brush with a fabled silver mine in Bon Echo provincial park
DRIVE-BY HISTORY
PART 2 OF AN occasional series: They're on duty all year long, nearly 1,200 mute sentries standing watch over Ontario's past. We're more likely to notice them at this time of year, however, on a Sunday drive along backroads and byways, or during an evening stroll through a park. It's been 50 years since the first of these embossed metal plaques, surmounted by the provincial coat of arms, were planted along roadsides, or affixed to walls and rocks, to preserve the memory of the people and events that shaped Ontario. In an occasional summer series, the Citizen celebrates half a century of heritage preservation with a closer look at some fascinating stories only hinted at by several provincial plaques in eastern Ontario.
- - -
Read More...