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393 plaques found that match your criteria
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Jean Baptiste Rousseaux 1758-1812
Rousseaux was the first European to settle in the Toronto area. He and his father were interpreters for the Indian Department and were licensed to trade in this region. In 1787, Jean-Baptiste married Margaret Clyne, a ward of Mohawk chief Joseph Brant, and by 1791 he had built a trading post here at the Toronto Carrying Place. When Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe arrived by schooner to establish the provincial capital of York in 1793, Rousseaux piloted him... -
Major-General The Hon. Aeneas Shaw
Aeneas Shaw, a son of Angus, 9th Chief of Clan Ay, was born at Tordarroch, near Inverness, Scotland. A Loyalist, he served in the Queen's Rangers during the American Revolution, and later settled in what is now New Brunswick. Commissioned in the reorganized Queen's Rangers, he went to Quebec in 1792 and from there led the Rangers' first division to Upper Canada. The following year he settled at York (now Toronto) and later built a... -
Corporal Frederick George Topham, V.C. 1917-1974
Toppy" Topham was a medical orderly with the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion when it parachuted behind enemy lines on March 24, 1945 during the Allied assault on the Rhine. As he tended to casualties, he saw two medical orderlies killed in succession while treating a paratrooper in the drop zone. Topham rescued their patient and, despite being shot through the nose, continued to clear wounded from the area before seeking treatment. While rejoining his company... -
Lieutenant-Colonel John Butler 1725-1796
Born in New London, Connecticut, Butler served in the Mohawk Valley, New York, in 1742. Commissioned in the British Indian Department in 1755, he served in the Seven Years' War. At the outbreak of the American Revolution, he was compelled to leave his estates, and was ordered to Fort Niagara. In 1777, he organized the Loyalist corps known as Butler's Rangers. By the end of the war, this unit, with British regulars and Indian allies... -
Major John Richardson 1796-1852
This pioneer historian, author and soldier was born in Queenston. His family moved to Amherstburg about 1802, and at the outbreak of the War of 1812, Richardson joined the British army. Retired on half pay in 1818 in London, England, he published the epic poem "Tecumseh" and the celebrated historical novel "Wacousta" which established his literary reputation. In 1838, Richardson returned to Upper Canada where he published two weekly newspapers, "The New Era" (1841-42) and... -
William Hamilton Merritt 1793-1862
A pioneer in the field of transportation, Merritt was born in Bedford, New York and settled at Twelve Mile Creek (St. Catharines) with his Loyalist family in 1796. He served with the provincial cavalry during the War of 1812, then operated mercantile and milling enterprises here. Primarily responsible for the construction of the first Welland Canal (1824-33), Merritt worked tirelessly to promote this ambitious venture, both by raising funds and by enlisting government support. During... -
Louis Shickluna 1808-1880
A prominent Canadian shipbuilder, Shickluna was born in Malta, where he worked before emigrating to North America. By 1835, he was engaged in ship construction at Youngstown, New York. Three years later, attracted by the traffic stimulated by the Welland Canal's completion in 1833, he purchased a shipyard on the Canal at St. Catharines. Shickluna steadily expanded his operations, which contributed significantly to the commercial prosperity of the region. Between 1838 and 1880 he directed... -
Harriet Ross Tubman c.1820-1913
A legendary conductor on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman became known as the "Moses" of her people. Tubman was born into slavery on a Maryland plantation and suffered brutal treatment from numerous owners before escaping in 1849. Over the next decade, she returned to the American South many times and led hundreds of freedom seekers north. When the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 allowed slave owners to recapture runaways in the northern free states, Tubman... -
Thomas James and the Search for the Northwest Passage
In May 1631, Thomas James set sail from Bristol in search of a northwest passage to the Orient. After an arduous journey through Hudson Strait and across Hudson Bay, he proceeded southeast, exploring the bay that now bears his name. Convinced that no northwest passage existed there and alarmed by the rapid weather change, James anchored off Charlton Island, sank his ship to prevent its being smashed by ice and prepared for the first deliberate... -
Henry Hudson and the Search for the Northwest Passage
In 1610, Henry Hudson, a renowned English navigator, commenced his second voyage in search of a northwest route to China. With great daring and resolution he navigated the treacherous waters of Hudson Strait and descended into Hudson Bay. Believed to be the first European to explore this vast inland sea, Hudson laid the basis for English claims to much of present-day Canada. His accomplishments were marred, however, by discord on the voyage. Having prolonged his... -
Grey Owl 1888-1938
As a youth in England, Archibald Belaney was fascinated with wildlife and tales of North American Indians. At seventeen he came to Canada and soon began living among the Ojibwa on Bear Island. He adopted native dress and customs, and worked as a woodsman, fire ranger and trapper in northeastern Ontario. In the 1920s, Belaney became concerned that the lumber industry and sportsmen were plundering the northern wilderness and threatening the survival of native culture... -
Jean Nicollet
Nicollet arrived in New France from his native Normandy in 1618-19 to work in the fur trade. To help build alliances with the native peoples, Samuel de Champlain sent Nicollet to live in an Algonquin camp for two years. The young Frenchman then came to this vicinity and lived among the Nipissing for eight years. He learned the language and customs of his hosts, gained their trust, and acted as an interpreter in dealings with... -
Jacques de Noyon 1668-1745
The coureur de bois Jacques de Noyon was born at Trois-Rivières and raised at Boucherville, near Montreal. In 1688, he led a trading party north of Lake Superior and explored further west than any Frenchman of his time. He ascended the Kaministiquia River, crossed Dog Lake and, through several portages, reached Rainy Lake. Near Fort Frances, on Rainy River, Noyon built a post where he spent the winter. He traveled on to Lake of the... -
Louis Hémon 1880-1913
The author of "Maria Chapdelaine", Hémon was born at Brest, France. He emigrated to Canada in 1911 and spent about eight months in the Lac St-Jean region of Quebec. While working on a farm near Péribonka, he wrote this well-known novel, a story of habitant pioneer life, which won widespread recognition. Acclaimed by literary critics in France, it was translated into English and many other languages. The French and English versions sold over a million... -
William McGillivray 1764-1825
Born in Iverness-shire, Scotland, McGillivray joined the North West Company in 1784, became a partner in 1790 and its principal director in 1804. Fort Kaministiquia, the Company's wilderness headquarters, was renamed Fort William in his honour in 1807. He was largely responsible for the Nor'Westers' bitter opposition to Lord Selkirk's Red River Colony, but later supported negotiations, which led to the union of the Hudson's Bay and North West Companies in 1821. He served as... -
Lady Aberdeen 1857-1939
A passionate advocate for social reform, Ishbel Maria Marjoribanks was born in London, England. Following her marriage in 1877 to John Gordon, 7th Earl of Aberdeen, she established several humanitarian associations in Great Britain. Widely respected for her firm public commitment and remarkable organizational skills, Lady Aberdeen served as president of the International Council of women from 1893-1939. During her husband's term as Governor General (1893-1898), she helped form the National Council of Women of... -
Thomas McKay 1792-1855
Born in Scotland, McKay emigrated to Canada about 1817 and worked as a mason in Montreal until 1826, when he began building the entrance locks of the Rideau Canal and the first bridge across the Ottawa River joining present-day Ottawa and Hull. In 1829, McKay acquired land where the Rideau River met the Ottawa. Here he laid out the village of New Edinburgh, and established an industrial complex that, by 1848, included two sawmills, a... -
Samuel de Champlain
Born at Brouage about 1570, this world-renowned cartographer and colonizer sailed from Honfleur in March 1603 on the first of more than twenty Atlantic crossings between France and Canada. Five years later, he established Quebec and thereby laid the foundation of the French empire in North America. An intrepid explorer, he journeyed into the interior of the continent (1613-1615), penetrating much of what is now Ontario. His account of these travels provided the first recorded... -
William Berczy 1744-1813
Johann Albrecht Ulrich de Moll was born in Wallerstein and educated at the Leipzig Academy and the University of Jena. He was trained as an artist and adopted the name William Berczy. In 1790, while in London, he became involved with Sir William Pulteney's scheme to establish a settlement in the United States. As Pulteney's agent, Berczy brought some 200 settlers from northern Germany to New York State in 1792. Two years later, he came... -
Honourable George Brown, The
Across the Grand River at this point lies "Bow Park". Once the farm of George Brown, a leading architect of Confederation, who built up an estate of some 800 acres beginning in 1866. A Scottish immigrant, Brown founded the Toronto "Globe" in l844, the influential Reform journal which helped him become a powerful political figure. As leader of the "Clear Grit" Liberals and champion of Canada West, Brown entered the "Great Collection" government of 1864... -
Lieutenant-Colonel John By, R.E., 1779-1836
Born in London, England, about 1779, By graduated from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1799. He was attached to the Royal Engineers in Canada (1802-1811) and later served in the Peninsular War. By was sent to Canada in 1826 to superintend the construction of an Ottawa River – Lake Ontario waterway from "Bytown" (Ottawa) to Kingston. The 123-mile-long Rideau Canal, built as a military route and incorporating 47 locks, 16 lakes, two rivers and... -
Grey Owl 1888-1938
As a youth in England, Archibald Belaney was fascinated with wildlife and tales of North American Indians. At seventeen he came to Canada and soon began living among the Ojibwa on Bear Island. He adopted native dress and customs, and worked as a woodsman, fire ranger and trapper in northeastern Ontario. In the 1920s, Belaney became concerned that the lumber industry and sportsmen were plundering the northern wilderness and threatening the survival of native culture... -
Lawren Harris 1885-1970
Born into a prominent Brantford family, Lawren Harris began to paint as a child. At the University of Toronto, a professor noticed he sketched during lectures and advised he be sent to Europe to study art. While in Germany (1904-1907), Harris was influenced by urban realism, landscape regionalism, and theosophy, a transcendental, mystical school of thought. In 1920 he helped found the Group of Seven, an association of landscape artists dedicated to creating a distinctly... -
Mary Ann Shadd Cary 1823-1893
African Americans came to Canada in increasing numbers after the United States passed the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850. Some settled in segregated communities: others, like Mary Ann Shadd, promoted full integration into society. A teacher and anti-slavery crusader, Shadd immigrated to Windsor in 1851. She started the "Provincial Freeman" in 1853 to encourage Blacks to seek equality through education and self-reliance. Two years later she moved to the newspaper to Chatham, where it operated... -
James Paris Lee 1831-1904
One of the foremost 19th century arms inventors, Lee was born in Scotland. In 1836 his family came to Canada and settled at Galt. Lee was trained in his father's profession of watchmaker and jeweler, before moving to Wisconsin about 1858, where he began his career as an inventor. His greatest contribution to firearms design was made in 1878 when he completed the development of the "box magazine." Tradition holds that this occurred at Wallaceburg...