James Wesley Hill was an escaped slave who crossed the Potomac River into Pennsylvania and then across the border in a packing box. His first earnings he sent back to his former owner as payment on his purchase price.
Hill first stayed with his friend Warren Wallace in Bronte. He became employed in Oakville by John Alton about 1850, to remove stumps and clear underbrush from a cleared wood lot. Hill rented a house from Alton and later rented the 100-acre Samuel Harris farm on 9th Line. He built a house which still stands today at 457 Maple Grove Drive. His strawberry farm helped to make Oakville the one time strawberry industry capital of Canada.
James Wesley Hill made several trips to Maryland, leading an estimated 700-800 African Americans back to Oakville along the Underground Railroad. Hill\’s reputation as a “Conductor” led to a price being put on his head, and in the United States he was wanted “dead or alive”.
Hill had married Adeline Shipley in Maryland in 1859. His children Ruth and Frank remained in Oakville throughout their lives, and neither married. Today James Wesley Hill\’s memory continues to be honoured in Montgomery County, Maryland, where he was known as “Canada Jim”.
© Oakville Museum at Erchless Estate, The Corporation of the Town of Oakville, 2000
The following information is reproduced from the display panels in the exhibit “Oakville’s Black History”, as written and designed by Deborah Hudson, Curator of Collections, Oakville Museum at Erchless Estate.
