Peter Van Alstine (Vanalstine) (1743–1811) was a farmer, soldier and political figure in

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...

. He was born in

Kinderhook, New York Kinderhook is a town in the northern part of Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 8,330 at the 2020 census, making it the most populous municipality in Columbia County. The name of the town means "Children's Corner" in th ...

, in 1743. He served as a major in the Board of Associated Loyalists during the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

. He helped settle a group of

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

s and a number of former Loyalist soldiers in the

Bay of Quinte The Bay of Quinte () is a long, narrow bay shaped like the letter "Z" on the northern shore of Lake Ontario in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is just west of the head of the Saint Lawrence River that drains the Great Lakes into the Gulf of ...

area. Van Alstine first settled in Adolphustown Township in Upper Canada. He was made a justice of the peace in Montreal District in 1785 and became a justice of the peace in the Mecklenburg District in 1788. He was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada The Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada was the elected part of the legislature for the province of Upper Canada, functioning as the lower house in the Parliament of Upper Canada. Its legislative power was subject to veto by the appointed Lis ...

to represent Prince Edward and Adolphustown in a 1793 by-election after his neighbour Philip Dorland was unseated because he could not take the oath of office as a Quaker. Van Alstine later moved to Marysburgh Township in Prince Edward County near the current site of Glenora where he built a

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

in 1806, which is still known today as Van Alstine's Mill. He operated a

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

between this location and Adolphustown. A small settlement developed in the area around his mill. Van Alstine died at Adolphustown in 1811. His mill stayed in the Van Alstine family until the late 1830s. Hugh Macdonald, the father of

John A. Macdonald Sir John Alexander Macdonald (January 10 or 11, 1815 – June 6, 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career that sp ...

, was the miller there from 1829 until 1836.

References

*''Becoming Prominent: Leadership in Upper Canada, 1791-1841'', J.K. Johnson (1989) {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Alstine, Peter 1743 births 1811 deaths Members of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada Farmers from Ontario Canadian soldiers Upper Canada judges Canadian justices of the peace History of Prince Edward County, Ontario United Empire Loyalists People from Kinderhook, New York