[3] At some point, Shaw emigrated to Canada West and operated a general store in Cooksville, before moving to Enniskillen Township sometime in the late 1850s or early 1860s.

[8] After fixing the pipe and calling out to be hauled back up, Shaw began coughing and fell backwards into the oil well.

[8] Contemporary historians and journalists often miscredit Hugh Nixon Shaw as the discoverer of Canada's first oil gusher.

[1][2] The confusion over who struck the gusher appears to have arisen from historian Robert Harkness, who claimed in his 1940 publication Makers of Oil History: 1850–1880 that a series of articles in the Toronto Globe credited Hugh Nixon Shaw with the discovery.

[1][2] In fact, the articles Harkness cited were written months before the gusher was struck, and only discuss Hugh Nixon Shaw's distillation process.