The tiered waterfall at Spencer Gorge Conservation Area, Dundas, Ontario, Canada, was originally known as Dr. Hamilton’s falls, owner of the land in 1818. The waterfalls and 78 acres of the surrounding land were purchased by Joseph Webster who had arrived from England in 1820. The Webster family manor still stands on Webster’s Falls Road, and their gravestones have been preserved in a small section just off the Bruce Trail, on the way to Tews Falls.
The stones are in poor shape although an attempt has been made to preserve them. They lie behind a protective fence.
Come near my friends and cast an eye
Then go your way prepare to die
Learn here your doom and know you must
One day like me be turned to dust.
In death’s cold arms lies sleeping
A tender parent, a companion dear
In love she lived, in peace she died
Her life was asked but was denied.
According to romantic legend, an Indian maiden named Na-Go-She-Onong (Evening Star in the Ojibway language), fell in love with a white man. Her lover was killed by a jealous Indian suitor, and rather than live without him, she pressed his dead body to hers and plunged into the roaring waters of Webster’s Falls.
