Lucan, Ontario
Lucan is a community in the
Canadian province of
Ontario, located in
Lucan-Biddulph township in
Middlesex County. It is approx. 30 km (18 miles) north of
London, which is the most important urban centre in the county and
Southwestern Ontario.
The land in the area is almost entirely
agricultural, relatively fertile soils used for crops (grains, tobacco) and livestock. Many of the township's residents are in employed in the same industries.
Despite being more than 500 km (300 miles) to the North, in
1829, the area became a refuge for a group of free slaves from
Cincinnati,
Ohio who were under threat of being enslaved again, as a result of the
Black Codes in Ohio. This group of roughly 200 disenfranchised Blacks were granted refuge and land by the
Canada Lands Company and duly set up a colony named Wilberforce. This was one the earliest, if not the earliest, slave refuge colony in
Upper Canada and existed before
emancipation. The fleeing of Blacks northward into Canada beginning around this time was part of the
Underground Railroad.
Most of the Blacks came from city life and did not adapt well to the harsh farming environment. Large lots of land were cleared (logged) and efforts were made to sustain the colony, but much it dwindled through the 1840s and many of the original colonists, moved on to larger, growing urban centres such as
Detroit,
Cleveland or
Toronto to obtain wage-based employment. A small number remained on to work the land through subsequent generations.
The area was then further logged and settled by whites, many from
Ireland, some of whom purchased farmsteads from the departing Blacks or new lots sold to them cheaply by the
Canada Lands Company.
After this time c.
1850, the majority of the townships landholders were Irish Catholics, a large number originating from then-meagre farming lands in
County Tipperary,
Ireland.
A very important railway route belonging to the
Grand Trunk Railway opened in
1856, passing through the town. The town and surrounding township prospered a result of quicker access to larger marketplaces, such as
Toronto further to the east.
The township is probably most known for being the site of the brutal
February 4 1880 massacre of five of the
Black Donnellys, an immigrant Irish family caught up in a long-standing local
feud. This true story has been written about countless times and is etched into the criminal history of rural Ontario and is also known throughout the rest of Canada and the
United States.
The area received an influx of
Dutch farmers after
World War II.
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Township of Lucan-Biddulph website
