Leeds County, Ontario, Canada was first surveyed in 1792 in preparation for the United Empire Loyalists settlers. In 1850, Leeds County merged with Grenville to create the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville.
John Hagerman, Sr. was born about 1747 in Dutchess County, New York.
He married Phoebe Ferguson in Dutchess County, New York. Phoebe was born about 1756 at Rombout, Dutchess County, New York. Her prents were Richard and Rachel Ferguson.
John and Phoebe's children included:
Sarah Hagerman(1767),
John Hagerman, Jr. (1770, married Mary (Polly) LaRue daughter of Henry LaRue),
Margaret Hagerman (1771, married John Whitley),
Richard Hagerman (1772, married Eliza Dwyer),
Abigail Hagerman (1775, married William LaRue),
Zachariah Hagerman (1778 married Hannah Griffin), and
Mary Hagerman (1784 , married Joseph Buck).
John Hagerman served as a Private soldier in the Loyal Rangers. He served in the Royal Standard previous to 1783 and discharged in 1783 and removed from the Province of Lower Canada to the Township of Elizabethtown.
United Empire Loyalists were Americans who remained loyal to King George III and the British Empire. They moved to Canada after the American Revolution.
Brockville, Ontario was called Elizabethtown. The area was first settled by English speakers in 1785, when Americans who had remained loyal to the crown fled to Canada after the American Revolution.
John Hagerman Sr. (1725-1813) married Phoebe Ferguson and lived near Poughkeepsie, New York. He and at least one of his sons served with the British army during the Revolutionary War, and in 1784 the family immigrated to Canada as United Empire Loyalists. They settled on land grants in Elizabethtown Township, Leeds County, Ontario.
A sawmill was an important developmental step in a community. Before sawmills, boards could only be sawn by two men with a whipsaw. In a sawmill, the circular motion of a water wheel was changed to the back-and-forth motion of the saw blade with a pitman arm.
