_U. E. Loyalists and their Times_, "the period of the U. E.
Loyalists was one of doing, not recording," therefore little beyond
tradition has conserved anything of all that we would now like to know
of the heroism, the bravery, the endurance, the trials of that bold army
of men and women, who, having laid strong hands on the primeval forest,
dug wide and deep the foundations of a nation whose greatness is yet to
come. In such a light the simple records that follow will be attractive.

Laura Secord came of loyal blood. She was the daughter of Mr. Thomas
Ingersoll, the founder of the town of Ingersoll, and his wife Sarah, the
sister of General John Whiting, of Great Barrington, Berkshire County,
Mass. At the close of the War of 1776, Mr. Ingersoll came to Canada on
the invitation of Governor Simcoe, an old friend of the family, and
founded a settlement on the banks of the Thames in Oxford County. On the
change of government, Mr. Ingersoll and his struggling settlement of
eighty or ninety families found their prospects blighted and their
future imperilled; Mr. Ingersoll therefore saw it necessary to remove to
Little York, and shortly afterward settled in the township of Etobicoke.
There he resided until some time after the War of 1812-14, when he
returned with his family to Oxford County. Here he died, but left behind
him worthy successors of his honourable name in his two sons, Charles
and James.

Charles Ingersoll, with that active loyalty and heroic energy which
alike characterized his patriotic sister, Mrs. Secord, held prominent
positions in the gift of the Government and of the people, and was also
a highly respected merchant and trader.

James Ingersoll, though of a more retiring disposition than his brother,
was a prominent figure in Western Canada for many years. He was a