Popular Lincoln folklore has maintained the town is the birthplace of the hockey net.

And at least one local man is intent on proving it.

Businessman and historian Brian Romagnoli has studied Niagara history for 25 years. He began researching the origins of the hockey net in 1996.

After thorough examination, Romagnoli found evidence establishing Beamsville as the first place to use a hockey net.

The Lincoln legend begins with a man named William Alexis Vosburgh.

Vosburgh, who was referred to by many people as the "captain" because of his position in the 19th Lincoln Battalion, was Beamsville's blacksmith in the late 1800s.

He worked out of his shop on what is now known as Central Avenue.

Vosburgh was "sociable, likable and a man of the town," his great-grandson Brian Stouck said.

"Even up to 20 years ago, people still talked about him," the retired auto mechanic said.

During the 1880s, Vosburgh built a full-sized community skating rink, complete with dressing rooms for males and females, just east of his shop on King Street.

The rink was widely used by the townsfolk for leisurely skating, but it was also home to Beamsville men's hockey team.

Often, 500 fans would crowd around the rink to watch Beamsville play they're most bitter rival, Grimsby, said Stouck, 65.

The Beamsville team was part of a league that also included teams from Niagara-on-the-Lake, St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, Welland and Hamilton.

Kelly Masse, a Hockey Hall of Fame spokeswoman, said during this era, it was customary for leagues to use two rocks or two poles as a net.

By about 1896, the standard practice was to use two four-foot poles, six feet apart and 10 feet from the end of the rink. To determine if a goal was scored, she said, an official would be stationed at the end of the rink, watching to see if the puck passed between the two poles.

Many times the official's decision would be called into dispute by the players. Teams would constantly argue over disputed goals and sometimes accuse the home team of biased officiating, Romagnoli said.

To solve the problem, Beamsville goaltender William Fairbrother got some netting from local fishermen and strung it between two posts, which Vosburgh had stuck into the ice, to stop pucks, he said.

Stouck said his family records show this happened in 1889.

Players in the league were "immediately satisfied with the new system," as the net reduced the amount of arguments and kept games moving faster, Masse said.

Fairbrother was soon credited for the idea by the Southern Ontario Hockey Association, which is now part of the Ontario Hockey Association, Masse said.

The Hockey Hall of Fame's records indicate this happened in either 1897 or 1898.

Masse said the idea rapidly spread, leading to the next development in the evolution of the hockey net in Montreal, where the first framed, portable hockey nets were marketed in 1899.

Romagnoli, on the other hand, said he thinks there is a missing link.

He believes Vosburgh took a hold of the idea and most likely worked with Fairbrother to fashion the first framed net in his shop in 1898.

"There's an evolution here. You're going from two rocks to two stakes to two posts to netting spread between two posts and finally you have an enclosure, an actual portable net that could be packed away during the summer months and brought out during the winter," he said. "I believe it happened here in Beamsville."

He plans to strike a committee to research this historical event to stake Lincoln's full claim to being the sole creator of the hockey net.

"In Ontario, it's widely accepted that the hockey net was created right here in Niagara and we're narrowing it down to Beamsville," Romagnoli said.

Masse said the Hall of Fame has no records showing Beamsville created the first framed, portable hockey net; rather, its records show the first-framed net was created in Montreal by Art Ross and Co.

"It looks like this event was the first time they used some sort of a netting system. But the first produced net was from Montreal," she said.

It may be possible that the Beamsville creation is what inspired the invention in Montreal, but she said she was unable to substantiate that inference.

Romagnoli, a former chairman of the Jordan historical museum committee and a member of the Lincoln heritage committee, said he shelved his hockey net project in 1998, after missing the centennial anniversary of the invention. However, after seeing the community's enthusiasm in its recent Hockeyville 2009 bid, he believes this discovery could be the catalyst that cements Lincoln's hockey heritage.