Amacy Matthews Letters, 1918

The correspondence is dated October 19, 1918 and December 17, 1918. Amacy Matthews was the treasurer for the Township of Crowland. The correspondence is from J.W. [John Wells] Marshall, the county school inspector and relates to payments to be made to each teacher listed in the correspondence. Each letter includes the signature of the teacher acknowledging receipt of the funds. Teachers listed are Orlin McKenney, Edward Farr, Leonard Matthews, Charles Terreberry, Hiram Pratt, William VanAlstine, Grant Jenkinson and Harry Terreberry.

An Act to authorise the stock held by private parties in the Welland Canal to be purchased on behalf of the Province [Welland Canal Stock Bill], 1841

The bill is a proposal by the government to purchase Welland Canal stock held in private hands. The bill was read for the first time on Wednesday 4 August, 1841, and received second reading on 10th August, 1841. One hundred and fifty copies were printed of the bill. This example was addressed to Samuel Street at the Falls of Niagara, by William Hamilton Merritt, September 1841.

David Skene-Melvin papers, 1918, 1995, n.d.

David Skene-Melvin, literary historian and bibliographer, donated his extensive collection of books on Crime, Mystery and Detective fiction to the Popular Culture Program at Brock University in July 2001. The donation forms a significant part of the Skene-Melvin Collection of Crime, Mystery and Detective Fiction, James A. Gibson Library, Brock University.

Bell Family Bible, Miscellaneous, 1895 - 1918

A page from the Bell Family Bible entitled "Miscellaneous" recording the dates and places of birth of the children of Charles and Mary Bell. The birth dates for the eight children listed range from 1895 to 1918. There is also a single entry under the heading "Age of Children of Delbert Bell". This Bible was in the possession of the Rick Bell of St. Catharines. The Bell family is descended from former Black slaves from the United States who settled in Canada.The handwritten entries appear to be as follows: "Ages of the children of Charles and Mary Bell are Wilbert Otto Bell born November 7th 1895 Erie Pa. Edna Beatrice Bell born May 25th 1897 Erie Pa. Lewis Terrell Bell born April 8th 1899 St. Catharines Ont. Gertrude Bell born November 26th 1902 St. Catharines Ont. Charles Henry Bell born June 6th 1906 St. Catharines Ont. Richard Wilson Bell born March 19th 1911 William Willoughby Bell born May 2nd 1912 both in St. Catharines Ontario Age of Children of Delbert Bell March 12th 1918 Delbert Charlie Bell"

Laura Dexter letter, commenting on the McLeod murder trial, October 5, 1841

Alexander McLeod was Deputy Sheriff of the Niagara District during the Rebellion of 1837-38 in Upper Canada. On December 24, 1837, he became aware of a scheme by the rebels to use the American steamboat Caroline to provide supplies to William Lyon Mackenzie and his followers on Navy Island in the Niagara River. McLeod notified the authorities in Upper Canada about the situation. A few days later, on December 29, Commodore Andrew Drew led a band of men, including McLeod, to the American side, where the Caroline was moored at Schlosser’s Wharf. A scuffle ensued, in which American Amos Durfee was killed. The Caroline was then released from its moorings, set on fire, and drifted downstream before sinking. Many Americans viewed the incident as a violation of their sovereignty. Tensions between the United States and England were already strained over a boundary dispute between Maine and New Brunswick, and the situation with the Caroline further escalated the tension. McLeod was subsequently arrested in November, 1840 in Lewiston, NY and indicted for arson and murder. The British foreign secretary, Lord Palmerston, insisted that McLeod be released and could not be held personally responsible for the incident, as he was acting on orders from authorities in Canada. Eventually, McLeod was acquitted.

Letter - Andrew Cowan to William Cowan

A letter from Andrew Cowan to his son William Cowan 29 Septemer 1841. The letter reads "Dear William, I have taken my pen the third time since I have received any word from you, my first letter was about the beginning of the year, and the second in the month of April with John Armstrong of Northhouse, he sailed from Liverpool the fifteen of that month with his sisters Jane and Jenny and their two children. I received a letter from him dated Cleavland in the State of Ohio the 6 of June. He did not intend stopping in that place. The leaves us all well for any thing that I know, but I have not heard from Andrew since March altho I have writen to him three months since your Mother and I are both sore faild altho we have tolerable good health for which we desire to be thankfull to the giver of all our mercies, which are new every day, that we may be found in Christs and clothed in his imputed righteousness at the last, for in him is only found true happyness. We have had another cold wet Summer and the crops is far back ------ not light, the price of -----is high and trade bad, but sheep and cattle are high. Cattle have not been higher since the French war, but the cattle trade is very bad at present and the opperatives out of imployment and consequently verrry badly of. If none of my former letters have reached you this will inform you that James is at Lanshawburn, and gets imployment all the year, he keeps a cow and five or six sheep, they have three children, Mary, Hannah, and Andrew; I was there after clipping time seeing them, they seem to be verry happy. James Lamb is well he was here the other night, he has got two letters from his son Adam this Summer; they are still in the same place and will finish their job this fall, and seem to be doing well, your Uncle Adam Scott and family are well. John was there lately there is little prospect of his getting to America as the money that was left him is not got yet and will not for some time, If ever this reach you, you must let us know how all the Scotch people that are near you, that went from this place of the Country are doing, as their freinds are anxious to hear from them, perticularly if you know what is becomed of Alexander Hoggs widow and family of ------hill, as I was desired to write to you about them - I got a letter from John Miller dated Gatt but I understand it is a long way from your place he was a gentleman and had the charge of a farm and seems verry ----- Now William if this ever reach you, you must excuse me for not filling this letter up, but if I receive an answer I promise to fill the next better, We all join in our love and respect to you and family. From your loving Father Andrew Cowan

Indenture between William Kingsmill and Joseph Hamilton

Indenture (sheriff's deed) (vellum) between William Kingsmill, Sheriff of the District of Niagara to Joseph Hamilton regarding part of Lot no. 19 in the Township of Stamford, August 26, 1841.

Indenture (vellum) between the Honourable William Dickson of Niagara and Robert Dickson of Niagara

Indenture (vellum) between the Honourable William Dickson of Niagara and Robert Dickson of Niagara for 970 acres in the 1st and 2nd Concessions of Dumphries. Some of the details on the outside of the document are faded and illegible. All text on the inside is legible, Jan. 9, 1841.

Indenture (vellum) between the Honourable William Dickson of Niagara and Robert Dickson of Niagara

Indenture (vellum) between the Honourable William Dickson of Niagara and Robert Dickson of Niagara for the mill tract and town plot in Dumfries, Ontario, Jan. 16, 1841.

Indenture between the Honourable William Dickson of Dumphries, trustee and executor for the late Honourable Robert Hamilton Dickson to Samuel Street of Stamford

Indenture between the Honourable William Dickson of Dumphries, trustee and executor for the late Honourable Robert Hamilton Dickson to Samuel Street of Stamford for 50 acres in the Township of Gainsboro consisting of part of no. 27 in the 2nd Concession – instrument no. 599, Dec. 30, 1841.

Dr. William Hull

Professor of Politics.

William Hogan

Bill Hogan was a student at Brock for two years. Among other things, he was editor in Chief of the Badger, now called The Press, and was involved in all things journalistic. His wife Pauline Hogan graduated from Brock in 1970 as well and both live and work in St Catharines. He is an antique dealer and she is a Theologian and has just earned her doctorate.

William Hogan

Bill Hogan was a student at Brock for two years. Among other things he was editor in Chief of the Badger, now "The Press", and was involved in all things journalistic. His wife Pauline Hogan graduated from Brock in 1970 as well and both live and work in St Catharines. He is an antique dealer and she is a Theologian and has just earned her doctorate.

Behaviour and life history of a large carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica) in the northern extent of its range

Large carpenter bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Xylocopa) have traditionally been thought of as exhibiting solitary or occasionally communal colony social organization. However, studies have demonstrated more complex fonns of social behaviour in this genus. In this document, I examine elements ofbehaviour and life history in a North American species at the northern extreme of its range. Xylocopa virginica was found to be socially polymorphic with both solitary and meta-social or semi-social nests in the same population. In social nests, there is no apparent benefit from additional females which do not perfonn significant work or guarding. I found that the timing of life-history events varies between years, yet foraging effort only differed in the coldest and wettest year of2004 the study. Finally, I that male X virginica exhibit female defence polygyny, with resident and satellite males. Resident males maintain their territories through greater aggression relative to satellites.

Nestmate recognition in the large carpenter bee, Xylocopa virginica /

Abstract Many species of social insects have the ability to recognize their nestmates. In bees, sociality is maintained by bees that recognize which individuals should be helped and which should be hanned in order to maximize fitness (either inclusive or individual) (Hamilton 1964; Lin and Michener 1972). Since female bees generally lay eggs in a single nest, it is highly likely that bees found cohabitating in the same nest are siblings. According to the kin selection hypothesis, individuals should cooperate and avoid aggression with same sex nestmates (Hamilton 1964). However, in opposite sex pairs that are likely kin, aggression should increase among nestmates as an expression of inbreeding avoidance (Lihoreau et al. 2007). Female bees often guard nest entrances, recognizing and excluding foreign conspecific females that threaten to steal nest resources (Breed and Page 1991). Conversely, males that aggressively guard territories should avoid aggression towards other males that are likely kin (Shellman-Reeve and Gamboa 1984). In order to test whether Xy/ocopa virginica can distinguish nestmates from non-nestmates, circle tube testing arenas were used. Measures of aggression, cooperation and tolerance were evaluated to detennine the presence of nestmate recognition in this species. The results of this study indicate that male and female X virginica have the ability to distinguish nestmates from non-nestmates. Individuals in same sex pairs demonstrated increased pushing, biting, and C-posturing when faced with non-nestmates. Males in same sex pairs also attempted to pass (unsuccessfully) nOIl-nestmates more often than ncstmates, suggesting that this behaviour may be an cxpression of dominancc in males. Increased cooperation exemplified by successful passes was not observed among nestmates. However, incrcased tolerance in the [onn of head-to-head touching was observed for nestmates in female same sex and opposite sex pairs. These results supported the kin selection hypothesis. Moreover, increased tolerance among opposite sex non-nestmates suggested that X virginica do not demonstrate inbreeding avoidance among nestmates. 3 The second part of this study was conducted to establish the presence and extent of drifting, or travelling to different nests, in a Xylocopa virgillica population. Drifting in flying Hymenoptera is reported to be the result of navigation error and guard bees erroneously admitting novel individuals into the nest (Michener 1966). Since bees in this study were individually marked and captured at nest entrances, the locations where individuals were caught allowed me to determine where and how often bees travelled from nest to nest. Ifbees were captured near their home nests, changing nests may have been deliberate or explained by navigational error. However, ifbees were found in nests further away from their homes, this provides stronger evidence that flying towards a novel nest may have been deliberate. Female bees are often faithful to their own nests (Kasuya 1981) and no drifting was expected in female X virginica because they raise brood and contribute to nest maintenance activities. Contrary to females, males were not expected to remain faithful to a single nest. Results showed that many more females drifted than expected and that they were most often recaptured in a single nest, either their home nest or a novel nest. There were some females that were never caught in the same nest twice. In addition, females drifted to further nests when population density was low (in 2007), suggesting they seek out and claim nesting spaces when they are available. Males, as expected, showed the opposite pattern and most males drifted from nest to nest, never recaptured in the same location. This pattern indicates that males may be nesting wherever space is available, or nesting in benches nearest to their territories. This study reveals that both female and male X virginica are capable of nestmate recognition and use this ability in a dynamic environment, where nest membership is not as stable as once thought.