In my mother’s box of newspaper clippings, I found the following story of Abigail Becker, the Heroine of Long Point. I had never heard of her or this story.
Heroic rescue of sailors off Long Point recalled
by L. N. Bronson
November storms on the Great Lakes are treacherous – those on Lake Erie among the worst due to the shallowness of the water.
The storm of November, 1854, struck suddenly. A three-masted schooner, the Conductor out of Amherstburg, was driven ashore on Long Point, and the subsequent rescue of its crew provided one of Canada’s great stories of heroism.
It is now 125 years since Abigail Becker, wife of a trapper, described as an Amazon in build, dashed seven times into the pounding waves to drag seven crewmen of the Conductor to safety, Nov. 25, 1854.
Mrs. Becker, née Jackson, described in biographical works merely as “heroine,” was 24 at the time. At 18 she had married Jeremiah Becker, a widower, becoming step-mother to his several children. He lost his life when caught in a winter storm while working on his trap line in 1867. Two years later she married a widower named Henry Rohrer, a farmer in Walsingham Township. She died suddenly in Mar, 1905, aged 75. A Free Press report on her death Mar 22, identified her as :
“Mrs. Rohrer, familiarly known as Abigail Becker, the heroine of Long Point.”
In terse form the story narrated how she risked her life to save the captain and crew of the Conductor; how ship owners gave her a purse of gold.
Mrs. Becker could not write. She could not acknowledge the receipt of her medal; instead a picture was taken showing her displaying the award.
Harry B. Barrett in his book Lore and Legends Of Long Point relates that the Beckers’ attempts at farming – in the years following the rescue – were not successful and that Abigail once offered her gold medal to a mill owner as payment for a bill. After hesitation he took it and kept it until she was able to reclaim it. He had feared that some one else would take the medal in lieu of payment without any thought of returning it.
Abigail was widely honored for her rescue. At one time, elementary school readers in Ontario included a poem recalling her work.
An 1880s story of her heroism was included in the widely circulated work Picturesque Canada. The writer was J. Howard Hunter.
Capt. Robert Hackett and his crew of seven had lashed themselves to the mast when the ship struck, during an early season snowstorm, accompanied by cold, howling winds. Waves broke over the schooner’s deck and pounded the shore. The lifeboat had been washed ashore.
Abigail was in her cabin with several children. Her husband had left the previous day to cross to Port Rowan for winter supplies.
On the beach she spotted the wrecked lifeboat, then the grounded schooner. Back to the cabin she went; the children gathered driftwood and a fire soon blazed on the beach.
After hours at the mast, the captain plunged into the heaving waters. A good swimmer, he battled high waves and strong undertow. His strength was failing when Abigail dashed into the surf, grabbed his collar and pulled him to safety. A second crewman sought the shore. Abigail went to his aid. So did the captain but he was caught by the undertow and she had to drag both men ashore.
Five more men plunged into the icy waters and each time the pioneer woman rushed to help them ashore. She was barefooted by that time. Once a crippled stepson tried to help but he too had to be helped ashore. The ship’s cook couldn’t swim so he remained aboard the wreck until the lake had calmed.
Hunter wrote in his book:
“She was a giant in stature, and she had a brave heart to match!” Also he quotes her as saying “She did no more’n she ought to, no more’n she’d do again.”
Bruce Pearce, writing in The Free Press, Nov. 23, 1929, included an account of an interview she once gave. A portion of this read:
“Yes, the day was bitterly cold when I rescued the sailors. In the early hours of the morning, I heard the crackling of torn sails in the wind. Hastening to the shore, I soon sighted the vessel and the men in the rigging. I waded out into the breakers and signalled them to jump in and swim and I would help them. One at a time they did so and I clutched each half-frozen man and dragged him through the terrible breakers to shore.
“I helped them to the fire on the beach and then to our cabin. To one I gave my shawl and to another my shoes to protect his partly frozen feet. Barefooted I toiled on, my clothes frozen like iron on me. Throughout the day the rescue continued until by nightfall seven of them were safely ashore…”
Ship owners honored her when her story became known. So did the men who sailed the lakes. The total purse was $1,000 which went to furnishing a farm, the operation of which was unfamiliar to both the heroine and her trapper husband.
Down the years her story has been told, yet today her fame like many another of Canada’s heroes and heroines is probably known only on a limited scale, familiar in a certain area, but practically unknown in many parts of the country. Undoubtedly Southwestern Ontario, particularly the Norfolk area, knows the Becker story, or the older residents do.
But are the younger people fully aware of her heroism. Or is she merely a name from the past?
This is the theme which has been pursued by various writers and speakers seeking to offset the U.S. influence was building up the legends of Canadians who could become folk heroes.
If Abigail Becker had been a U.S. woman, her name would be far better known than it is in Canada.
Introducing our own views, we would suggest Norfolk historians take the lead in campaigning for a Canadian postage stamp in her honor.
Dates of her birth vary. One biographical record gives it as 1830; Pearce in his story gives Mar 14, 1831.
Looking over Western Ontario, London Free Press Wednesday, Nov. 7, 1979 p. C2
Family
Names in this column were familiar from my genealogy database, and, yes, Abigail was already there. She’s what my mother would call “a shirt-tail relative” on the Mabee side of my family.
Her first husband, Jeremiah Becker, was the widower of Mary Ann Mabee. He had six children with Mary Ann before she died about 1847 at the age of 35. Daughter of Pelham Mabee and Mary Layman, she was a half second cousin twice removed of my father’s mother.
After her death, Jeremiah married Abigail Jackson and they had three sons, DeWitt, Charles and Nehemiah. Jeremiah, son of Hans John Becker, was born about 1810 in Ulster County in New York.
After Jeremiah died in 1864, Abigail married Henry Rohrer, son of Hans John Becker. He was the half second cousin once removed of Mary Ann Mabee (also half third cousin once removed of my father’s mother). Henry and Abigail had three daughters, Margaret, Eleanor and Ann. She raised 19 children – her children, stepchildren and adopted children.
Abigail (1831-1905) was the daughter of United Empire Loyalist Elijah Jackson and Maria Grozaine. The parents of Elijah’s father and mother came from New York to Ontario after the American Revolution. So, ironically, she sort of was an American woman.
She also saved another six shipwrecked sailors and a boy who fell in a well. It is worth noting that other accounts of her actions specify that she could not swim.
Honour
Her, and her children’s, willingness to do “no more’n she ought to” was needed on Long Point. Just by itself, the spit of land sticking out in Lake Erie was treacherous for ships. But locals increased its dangers. They would build false lighthouses on the shore to lure ships in to a spot where they would run aground. Then they would steal everything of value off the ship. Nothing I read gave names of the “blackbirders” as these land-based pirates were called. Considering the extensive history of my family in the area, I wouldn’t be surprised if some were relatives.
There is a historical plaque on Front Street in Port Rowan honouring Abigail Becker. Part of her Walsingham farm was protected as a conservation area bearing her name. But, according to my googling, Canada Post has not honoured her with a stamp. Yet.
- You can read more about her at the National Museum of the Great Lakes. Also many other tellings of her story – just google her. My Mabee Family Tree shows her husbands (#62. i and 166. ii) but isn’t updated with their entire families yet.
