Samuel Williams came to Canada from the United States in 1784. Along with other United Empire Loyalist he began clearing land in what his grandson later reported as “howling wilderness”. In October of 1792 he married Jemima Platt, also from New York State, and they settled within sight of the “lovely Sand Banks which were shaded at the top by spruce and willow, rising at one point to a height of 125 feet above West Lake”*. The couple were to have 13 children, 3 of whom they settled on bush farms before Samuel died at the age of 55. Caleb was one of those three sons and the maple, beech, butternut and elm covered land he was given was located a mile south-east of the fledgling Quaker settlement of Bloomfield.

*taken from Merton Yarwood Williams’s The Samuel Williams and Jemima Platt Family.