Major Daniel McCall

After the close of the French War, Donald McCall was discharged from his regiment, and settled in the then British Province of New Jersey, where he lived until the breaking out of the Revolutionary War in 1776, in which he took part as a sturdy defender of the Crown.  After the war closed he returned to his farm in New Jersey, but the new state of things was anything but pleasant to the loyal old Highlander, and in 1796 he availed himself of the offer of a free grant of land from the British government, and came and settled under the old flag under which he had fought. The party consisted of the father, and five sons and three daughters, and landed at the mouth of Big Creek, in the township of Walsingham, about July 1st, 1796.  They constructed a shanty of poles and bark, and on the 26th of July the subject of this sketch, Major Daniel McCall, was born, being the first white child born in the county of Norfolk.  In the following spring the family removed removed to the township of Charlotteville, and Donald McCall and his unmarried sons settled on Lot 18 in the 4th Concession.  Duncan McCall, his son, who was the father of Major McCall, settled on Lot No. 23, in the 5th Concession. Here the Major spent his youth in clearing land and helping his father on the farm. In 1812 the American War began, and father and son, true to the loyal instincts of the family, enlisted and served during the war.  Major McCall took part in the battle of Lundy's Lane, and in a skirmish at Malcolm's Hollow in Oakland, where the British were outnumbered and driven back by the American General McArthur's command, losing two killed, and inflicting an equal loss on the enemy.  He is now in receipt of the honorary stipend voted by Parliament to the veterans of 1812. In June, 1824, his father, Duncan McCall, was elected to the Upper Canada Parliament and in 1828 he was re-elected, and died of cholera in 1833, while attending to his duties at the House of York (now Toronto).

In 1837 Major McCall did duty as Lieutenant, although only holding an Ensign's commission.  He was sent out with a party to disperse a body of rebels who had collected at Malcolm's Hollow, but the rebels fled on the approach of the militia.  He now holds a Major's commission in the Second Battalion of Norfolk Militia.

The Major married in 1821 Hannah Shearer, who is still alive, and for her age remarkably active and intelligent.  They have four children living, D. A. McCall and Francis McCall, merchants, St. Williams, and Simpson McCall, Jr., who has a farm near that village, and Mrs. William Nevitt, also residing at St. Williams.

Major McCall, although over eighty-years old, is still active and in the possession of all his faculties except his eyesight, which is somewhat defective.  He still owns the lot on which he settled, and which he helped his father to clear, and it is now one of the finest and most valuable farms in Charlotteville.

In the respect and veneration of the whole community, Major McCall in his old age is receiving his reward for the sterling honesty which has characterized his whole life.