In the Beginning
The Saugeen Community
About 5,000 years ago, the Indigenous people arrived in the Great Lakes Region. We know that they all originally settled at the mouths of rivers. Being there gave them access to the necessities of life: water and, food, as well as movement to and from the settlements of other peoples.
And yes, that included right here at the mouth of our river. Today it is called Saugeen. The local Ojibway people never had a written language, and there are a number of ways that they write it today including Sangeeng, Zaagiing etc. Saugeen is an English corruption of the Ojibway word.
There was an era around 1600 when the Iroquois from south of Lakes Erie and Ontario invaded the area to their north, and there were a series of wars before peace came, and then they all settled back to their way of life. These wars were all about the pelts and skins of the animals that the First Nation people relied on and were very plentiful in present-day Quebec and Ontario.
This all happened as a result of the Dutch along the US East Coast arming the Iroquois with guns to go into the rich beaver areas of the Ojibway and bring animal pelts to them. Soon, the French and English armed the Hurons to fight the Iroquois, and the murdering of thousands of indigenous people resulted.
The Ojibwa settlement at that time would have moved upriver a short distance to what we now call Chippewa Hill. This area provided good visibility of any visitors and gave protection by being on top of the hill, and the deep gully at the West end was difficult for invaders to get through. There was at least one major conflict between them and the Iroquois on the flats below the village.
The first contact with Europeans would have been in the 1600’s as explorers came to this area out of Montreal. In time, traders came to the area to trade European goods for animal skins and pelts. Knives, saws, pots, pans, cutlery, etc. initially were very popular. Fair trade was undertaken by the North West Company, who later amalgamated with the Hudson Bay Company, and they were regular visitors before opening a post here for some time. That post was at the mouth of the river on the north bank.
Missionaries came in hopes of converting the local Indigenous population. Originally, they were Roman Catholic priests who were followed by the Church of England and others.
In time, the Wesleyan Methodists established a permanent mission in the village.
There were also “Independent” traders out of Montreal. They were frowned on by the missionaries, as they used alcohol in trade. They knew that the gods worshipped by the indigenous people were many, and represented the necessities needed in life. The traders told them that the alcohol would bring them closer to their gods, and they would have wonderful visions of being together with them. These were transient traders who came, traded, took the animal pelts, and left. Many returned on an annual basis. They were not welcome in the Chippewa Hill village and stayed along the shore south of the mouth of the river, where they conducted their trading.
By the 1840’s there was more and more activity by European pioneers, fishermen, and settlers along the Lake Huron coast. Some of the best fishing grounds on Lake Huron were around the islands offshore from present-day Oliphant. Fishermen would come from Goderich, which had been opened much earlier than other ports along the coast. Eventually, the area at the mouth of the Saugeen River became a popular spot for them to set up their fishing operations during the non-winter seasons.
In 1848, Captain John Spence arrived and built a permanent residence on Huron Street. He was followed immediately by European settlers, and the town as we know it today began to take shape. Eventually, and gradually, the name of the place at the mouth of the river changed from Saugeen to Southampton.
The history of Southampton since then has been well recorded.
