Haunted Ontario 4. Terry Boyle

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      The Joseph Brant Museum in Burlington.

      Our story begins with Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea), a Mohawk leader who, in 1798, was granted 3,450 acres on Burlington Bay by King George III for service to the Crown during the Seven Years’ War and the American Revolutionary War. Brant built a home on his property just a few hundred yards to the southwest of the present-day museum. His dwelling was a two-storey house built of timber brought from Kingston by water in 1800. He chose a site at the Head of the Lake overlooking the bay and beyond. He and his wife, Catherine, and their family resided here. In 1807 Joseph Brant died in his home at the age of sixty.

      Brant’s son, John, was thirteen when his father passed away and he and his younger sister, Elizabeth, continued to live there with their mother. Little is known of their lives over the years that followed. W.L. Stone, biographer of Joseph Brant, believes that Elizabeth and her husband, William Johnson Kerr, were residing in the old mansion in 1837. Apparently, Elizabeth inherited the home when John died in 1832.

      In 1845 the Kerrs died, leaving behind four children. One son, W.J. Simcoe Kerr, followed in his father’s footsteps and graduated from Osgoode Hall in 1862 as a lawyer. It was during this time that the Kerrs, for reasons unknown, resided elsewhere and rented the estate and the farm to a Mr. Henry.

      On December 17, 1869, Simcoe Kerr moved back to the homestead. A year later he married Kate Hunter. The couple had no children. Simcoe Kerr died on February 18, 1875. A year later his sister also passed away. It was during this period that the estate was sold and the homestead was incorporated as the Brant House, a luxurious summer resort. The house had a verandah that swept two sides and many gables. The interior, according to Clair Emery and Barbara Ford in their book From Pathway to Skyway, was turned into a series of individual motel-like apartments and became a popular spot for vacationers. The Halton Atlas of 1877 featured the Brant estate, which at that time sported twenty acres of gardens, croquet lawns, a bowling green, bathing “machines,” ice cream parlours, and a dance hall. The proprietor of the establishment was J. Morris.

      A.B. Coleman eventually purchased the property and in 1899 began the promotion of a second hotel structure adjacent to the Brant House. On July 2, 1902, the new hotel, named the Hotel Brant, opened its doors to the public. Erected at a cost of $100,000, the Hotel Brant was described as “a spacious building with accommodation for 250 guests.”

      The hotel was very modern and popular. It had elevators, electric lights, sanitary plumbing, and hot-water heating. This new tourist centre, surrounded by lawns and numerous shade trees, was situated on a high bluff overlooking both Lake Ontario and Hamilton Bay. The hotel’s dining room was a massive 900 metres (8,000 square feet) and live music played at mealtimes. Hotel rates started at $2.50 a day. A special feature of the establishment was a roof garden. An early brochure of the hotel advertised golf, tennis, croquet, bowling on the green, bathing, boating, fishing, cycling, driving, pin bowling, billiards, pool, bagatelle, and ping pong. The manager of these many fine amusements was Thomas Hood. The Brant House complex was renamed The Hotel Brant and Annex.

      The Hotel Brant was unable to serve alcohol due to its location in the dry part of town. Male guests found this situation quite inconvenient. Mr. Coleman was sensitive to the needs of his guests and thereby resolved to purchase a piece of land across the way and open a country club in the wet section of town to satisfy his thirsty patrons. This building was later remodelled and became known as the Brant Inn. It was destroyed by fire in 1925 and then reconstructed. Famous entertainers such as Sophie Tucker, Ella Fitzgerald, Liberace, Lena Horne, and Benny Goodman were frequent entertainers at the Brant Inn.

      In August of 1917 the Hotel Brant and Annex was expropriated by the federal government and remodelled for use as a soldier’s hospital. The expansive verandahs were boarded up and remodelled to create wards. Many of the other hotel rooms became operating theatres. The hospital staff resided in the annex. There are no reports to indicate how many soldiers were treated or died there.

      In the 1930s the remaining veterans were transferred to Toronto. A short time later the hotel and annex were vandalized and parts of the building destroyed by fire. Eventually the buildings had to be demolished.

      Ontario minister of highways T.B. McQuesten was instrumental in the erection of Joseph Brant House. McQuesten recalled visiting the original Brant Annex with his mother as a little boy. He was so impressed with the history of the area that he felt obligated to ensure that a piece of that history be honoured. On May 23, 1942, the Joseph Brant Museum, a replica of Joseph Brant’s home, was officially opened. The museum was situated a few hundred yards from the original site. The loading docks of the Joseph Brant Hospital, located to the west, are said to be on the actual site of the hotel and annex.

      The first reports of a haunting of Joseph Brant’s home were recorded as early as 1873 in the American Historical Record and later recounted in the Hamilton Spectator. One visitor shared his experiences within the building during Brant’s ownership.

      This venerable structure presents nearly the same appearance as it did … when Captain Brant, with a retinue of 30 servants and surrounded by soldiers, cavaliers in powdered wigs and scarlet coats and all the motley assemblage of that picturesque era, held his barbaric court within its walls. The rumour was reported to me in good faith by a neighbouring farmer that the Brant House is haunted.

      According to Michael Bennett’s report in the Hamilton Spectator, “Visiting psychics have said the supernatural ‘heart’ of the building lies in the small third-floor room.”

      Mr. Bennett also refers to an article that appeared in the Hamilton Spectator in 1891. “Grisly find on the Brant property. Investigators digging in a mound discovered the skeleton of a large, male Native. Two ivory rings still pierced his nose and alongside him in the grave lay a tomahawk, pipe and knife.”

      Who was the person and why was he buried here? Certainly the disturbance and removal of a body from its sacred burial place is often enough to begin a spirit haunting.

      Who really haunts the Joseph Brant Museum?

      For years the nursing staff on the second and third floors of the Joseph Brant Hospital have witnessed unusual activity in the museum across the way. The nurses have a very clear view and have reported lights going off and on in the rooms on the second floor and in the attic space on the third floor; some have seen an apparition walk by a second-storey window in the middle of the night. Could it be the “Lady in White”?