The area of Chatham-Kent is part of the traditional territory of the
Odawa,
Potawatomi,
Ojibwe and
Wyandot First Nations of Canada. After the Treaty of Paris in 1763 ceded control of the area from the French to the British, it became part of the Territory of Quebec. The title to the Chatham-Kent area was surrendered to the British as part of the 1790 McKee's Purchase, (named for
Alexander McKee) to provide land for settlers. McKee's Purchase was designated an Event of National Historic Significance in Canada in 1931. A historical plaque for the purchase is located in Blenheim Park in Blenheim. Following the
American Revolution and the
Gnadenhutten massacre, a group of
Christian Munsee settled in what is now the Moraviantown reserve. In the
War of 1812, the
Battle of the Thames took place between Moraviantown and
Thamesville on October 5, 1813.
Black population During the 19th century, the area was the northern
terminus of the
Underground Railroad, and several important local events and area landmarks were important to the abolitionist movement. By the 1850s, the city of Chatham was referred to as the "
black mecca of Canada". A museum in the city, the Black Mecca Museum, still bears this name. The small village of
North Buxton, a part of the
African Canadian Heritage Tour, also played an important role in the
Underground Railroad. Chatham-Kent is now part of the African-Canadian Heritage Tour. Josiah Henson Museum for African-Canadian History, formally known as
Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site is a museum of the Dawn Settlement, established in 1841 by
Josiah Henson near Dresden as refuge for the many slaves who escaped to Canada from the United States.
Militant abolitionist John Brown was in Chatham in 1858 and held a Convention of Colored Men on May 8–10. Black activist
Mary Ellen Pleasant, at the time Mrs. James Smith, was also in Chatham at that time. She met with John Brown, who was planning
a raid on the Harpers Ferry Arsenal. Brown accepted her financial help and recruited several Chatham-area men to participate in the raid that he led a year later. However, after the abolition of slavery in the United States, many black families left the area. Today the city of Chatham is just 3.3% black, with Chatham-Kent as a whole being 2.1% black. Few of the black-owned institutions are still in operation.
After slavery ended in the United States In 1846, the town of Chatham had a population of about 1,500, with part of the town being called Chatham North. There were four churches, a theatre, a weekly newspaper and a cricket club. The road between London and Amherstburg was open, and transportation by stagecoach was available. A fast boat also provided transportation to Detroit and Buffalo. Chatham had many tradesman, a foundry, two banks, three schools, a tavern and a library where one could read books and newspapers. By 1869, the population was 3,000 in this industrial area with several mills, foundries, and breweries; a great deal of wood was being produced. A steamboat offered transportation to Windsor and Detroit. There was one bank office. Automobile manufacturers located in Chatham include
Chatham Motor Car Company (1906 and 1909),
Gray-Dort Motors (1915 to 1925), and Denby Motor Truck Company of Canada (1919 to 1921). It was also where the
Hyslop and Ronald steam
fire engine manufacturer was located; the factory would be taken over by Chatham Motor Car.
Later History The
Hawaiian pizza is claimed to have been invented in Chatham in 1962 at the Satellite Restaurant by
Sam Panopoulos. In 1966, then-
Ohio Governor
Jim Rhodes proposed building a bridge across Lake Erie linking
Cleveland to the southern coast of Kent County. Early on, Kent County consisted of the
townships of
Camden,
Chatham,
Dover,
Harwich,
Howard,
Orford,
Raleigh,
Romney,
Tilbury East and
Zone. In some of Canada's earliest post-Confederation censuses, some residences in Kent County were incorrectly reported as being in
Bothwell "County", which was a separate
electoral district comprising parts of Kent and
Lambton counties but not a distinct county in its own right. In 1998, the
County of Kent and the
city of Chatham were amalgamated by the Province of Ontario to form the Municipality of Chatham–Kent. Most services were also combined. Since then, bus service has begun to serve all of Chatham-Kent. Starting in 2007, routes were set up to include the former towns of
Wallaceburg and
Dresden. The Chatham-Kent Fire Department was created from earlier separate departments. Likewise, the Chatham-Kent Police Service was formed consolidating the police services in the former municipalities of
Chatham, Wallaceburg, Dresden, and
Tilbury, each of which had had their own departments. Many residents opposed amalgamation, as 18 city councillors boycotted the official vote, and the final decision to amalgamate was imposed on the County by a provincial commissioner. In a study on amalgamations in Ontario from 2003, 48% of respondents in Chatham-Kent felt the value they received as taxpayers became worse after amalgamation, and 64% of respondents still did not think of the community as "the Municipality of Chatham-Kent." Chatham-Kent has many historic festivals throughout the year, such as the
Battle of Longwoods reenactment, which takes place on Labour Day weekend at Fairfield Museum on Longwoods Road. Chatham Kent is also home to many historic buildings which are part of an annual ghost tour offered each year at Halloween. The participants go on a guided walk of downtown while the guide informs them of various ghost stories tied to the local buildings in which they pass. Chatham-Kent was a major part of the
Underground Railroad and as such hosts the
Buxton Homecoming each September. This celebrates the area's black culture and the roots laid by early black settlers in the Buxton area. ==Communities==