Galt and the Grand River Lands

After the Revolutionary War with the United States (1775-1783), the British Crown provided its Native allies with numerous land grants in its northern colonies. One such grant was provided to the Six Nations Indians (who had relocated from Ohio, and other Northern US states as refugees), and was comprised of the land six miles along each side of the Grand River from Lake Erie to Elora. (OHT)

Thomas Ridout's 1821 Survey of the former Six Nation Lands

On February 5, 1798, Colonel Brant, on behalf of the Six Nations, and acting as their legal attorney, sold to one Philip Stedman of the Niagara District, that portion of their lands known as Block number one, comprising 94,305 acres, and which, by an Act of Legislature of the Province, became known as the Township of Dumfries. The stipulated price was £8,841. (Young, 12) 

The township of Dumfries would later be home to the village of Galt. This sale was only one of six large transactions in 1798 in which the Indians sold off 352,707 acres for a total of £44,867. (Young, 13) This acreage included most of the Six Nations northern holdings along the Grand River, while they retained control over the southern portion. (See note below)

At the time, Mr. Stedman could do little with the land. The newly created province of Upper Canada (1791) had a population of only 20,000, and many residents were  located in the Kingston and Niagara areas. (Young, 14) Any plans that Stedman may have had are unknown, for after receiving the patent from the Crown for the land, he passed away. (Young, 14-15) With no heirs, the property was inherited by his sister, who along with her husband sold the deed to the Township in 1811 to the Hon. Thomas Clarke. (Young, 15)

Subsequent to his participation in the War of 1812 as a loyal British subject, the Hon. William Dickson decided that the time had come for him to purchase some land and open more of the province to settlement. After a conversation with Mr. Clarke in the summer of 1816, it was decided that Mr. Dickson would purchase, for the sum of £24,000, the entirety of the former Mr. Stedman’s lands along the Grand River. (Young, 17) Mr. Dickson immediately began his work advertising for settlement and assisting in developing Galt until his death in 1846.

*Here is what became of the other Six Nations properties sold in 1798. Waterloo County has been known as the Region of Waterloo since 1973. The Township of Dumfries was divided in half in 1852 with North Dumfries becoming a part of Waterloo County, and South Dumfries a part of Brant County.

Block No 1 – Township of Dumfries

Block No 2 – Waterloo Township, Waterloo County

Block No 3 – Pilkington Township in Wellington Country, and Woolwich Township in Waterloo County

Block No 4 – Nichol Township in Wellington County

Block No 5 – Moulton Township in Haldimand County

Block No 6 – Canborough Township in Haldimand County

Sources:

James Young's 1880, Reminiscences of the Early History of Galt and the Settlement of Dumfries
City of Cambridge, Cambridge Archives and Records Centre, 2014, "Honourable William Dickson"
A decent "Map of Southern Ontario Including Counties and Townships" can be found here
Ontario Heritage Trust (OHT) plaque dedicated to the Haldimand Grant of land to the Six Nations in 1784
The Waterloo Region Museum has a great collection of sites on the history of Waterloo, Wilmot, North Dumfries, and Woolwich Counties.

Further Reading:
Grand River Branch of the United Empire Loyalists, Website
Dictionary of Canadian Biography, "Clark (Clarke), Thomas"
Government of Ontario, 2014 "Six Nations of the Grand River"