James Gage (25 June 1774 – 15 February 1854) was born in Greenbush, New York. Lumber merchant, miller. His father, a private in the New York militia, was killed fighting the British in 1777. His mother moved with the family to Canada in 1790 and they began farming in the Stoney Creek area. James gradually took responsibility for the farm and in 1796 married. He later opened a general store and became a successful merchant.
On May 1796 Gage received a land grant. He died in Hamilton, Ontario and was buried in Hamilton Cemetery.
Gage Avenue and Upper Gage Street in the city of Hamilton, Ontario are named simply because the avenue below the mountain brow is located along the western border of the park named after the Gage family. The parkland was sold by lawyer Robert Russel Gage a direct descendent of the William Gage, the uncle of James Gage. Together both James, whose mother the Widow Mary (Jones) Gage, who lost her husband in the American Revolution, had been granted the land, and William (who had married the Widow Marys sister Susannah Jones) had farms that were the principal site of the Battle of Stoney Creek during the War of 1812. The wounded were treated inside their homes and they were both awarded compensation for it by the government. [1]