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Berczy Settlement 1794, The
In November 1794, William von Moll Berczy (1744-1813), colonizer, road builder, architect and painter, brought the first settlers to Markham Township. This group had originally emigrated from Germany to New York State, but moved to Upper Canada in 1794 and acquired extensive lands in this area. In 1795-96, sickness and famine reduced their numbers, but those who remained or returned to their holdings laid the foundation for the rapid development of Markham Township after 1800... -
Big Cheese 1866, The
Lydia Chase Ranney and her assistant Robert Facey began making cheese locally in the mid-19th century. Ranney shared her knowledge of cheese making with her son-in-law James Harris, and in 1865 he established Ingersoll's first co-operative cheese factory on this property. To stimulate international interest, specifically in the lucrative British market, local cheese factory owners and entrepreneurs created the Ingersoll Cheese Manufacturing Company of Oxford to produce a mammoth wheel of cheddar cheese, here in... -
Bobcaygeon Road, The
This colonization road was designed to open up the districts lying inland from the settled townships. Construction began in 1856 from Bobcaygeon running northward to the interior of Haliburton. In 1858, Richard Hughes was appointed government land agent at Bobcaygeon and directed the progress of settlement. Free grants of land along its route were made to persons fulfilling the required settlement duties. By 1863, the road, sections of which follow the boundaries between Victoria and... -
Development of Pelee Island, The
The largest in a string of islands in the western end of Lake Erie, Pelee Island forms, together with nearby Middle Island, the southernmost portion of Canada. In 1788, it was leased to Thomas McKee, the son of an influential Indian Department official, by the Ojibwa and Ottawa nations. The island, whose name is derived from the French "pelée," meaning bare, remained largely undeveloped, however, until William McCormick purchased it in 1823. In 1868, it... -
Dutch Settlement of Holland Marsh, The
The Holland Marsh consists of 7,000 acres of reclaimed land in the Schomberg River Valley. Named after an early provincial official, this fertile area was drained between 1925 and 1930. John Snor, Canadian Representative of the Netherlands Emigration Foundation, visited the sparsely settled Marsh and proposed the relocation here of recent Dutch immigrants in Ontario. Assisted by grants from the Netherlands, Canada and Ontario, fifteen Dutch families, many from Friesland and Groningen originally, settled on... -
Dutch Settlement of Holland Marsh, The
The Holland Marsh consists of 7,000 acres of reclaimed land in a river valley north of Toronto, Ontario. Named after an early provincial official, this fertile area was drained between 1925 and 1930. John Snor, Canadian Representative of the Netherlands Emigration Foundation, visited the sparsely settled Marsh and proposed the relocation there of recent Dutch immigrants in Ontario. Assisted by grants from the Netherlands, Canada and Ontario, fifteen Dutch families, many from Friesland and Groningen... -
First Forestry Station 1908, The
Here, on 100 acres of wind-eroded sandy land, the Ontario government established Canada's first provincial forestry station. That father of reforestation in Ontario, Edmund John Zavitz, was born July 9, 1875, graduated from McMaster, Yale and the University of Michigan and taught forestry at the Ontario Agricultural College. He entered this province's public service in 1905, was Deputy Minister of the Department of Lands and Forests 1925-34, and served thereafter as Chief Forester until his retirement 1953. Through his leadership, large areas of waste land have been restored to productivity. -
Founding of Arkona, The
By 1836, the earliest settlers on the site of Arkona, notably Henry Utter, Nial Eastman and John Smith, had located in this vicinity. Within three years, Utter, the first to arrive, had constructed a grist-mill around which a small community, the Eastman Settlement gradually developed. About 1851, a post office was opened, a village plot laid out and the village became known as "Smithfield." Situated at an important road junction and serving a fertile region... -
Founding of Arthur, The
Arthur, named for Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, was the southern terminus of the Garafraxa "colonization road" to Owen Sound. Settlers arrived in 1840, but the town site was not officially surveyed until 1846. The establishment of saw and grist mills hastened growth in the community, which was also the natural market centre for the area's agricultural production. In 1851, a post office was opened and the first church and school were organized. A weekly... -
Founding of Milverton, The
By 1851, Andrew West, a New York native, had opened a hotel in the recently surveyed township of Mornington. This building was the focal point around which a small community initially known as West's Corners developed. The hamlet grew gradually and a post office was opened in 1854. Ten years later, the settlement contained a sawmill, a tannery, two churches and some 200 residents. About 1871, the name of the village was changed to Milverton... -
Founding of Mount Forest, The
During the survey of the Garafraxa Colonization Road, constructed from Arthur to Georgian Bay in 1840-48, land was reserved for a settlement here at the South Saugeen River. By 1851, a post office had been established and, two years later, a village-plot named Mount Forest was laid out. Surrounded by excellent agricultural country and stimulated by the improvement of the Garafraxa Road, the hamlet grew quickly and was incorporated as a village in 1864. Three... -
Founding of New Hamburg, The
A grist-mill built by Josiah Cushman about 1834 formed the nucleus around which a small community of Amish Mennonites and recent German immigrants developed. A village plot was surveyed in 1845 and, six years later, a post office, New Hamburg, was established with William Scott, an early mill-owner, as postmaster. By then, the village, with a population of 500, contained several prosperous industries, including a pottery, and the carriage-works and foundry of Samuel Merner, a... -
Founding of Newmarket, The
In 1801, Joseph Hill, attracted by the water-power potential of the Holland River, built a grist-mill on the site of present-day Newmarket and opened a general store. The settlement here in 1803-1804 of Elisha Beman, a major local landowner and entrepreneur, provided a strong stimulus for the community's growth and, within a few years, the village had emerged as the market centre for the rich, surrounding agricultural region. The arrival of the Ontario, Simcoe and... -
Founding of Seaforth, The
Anticipating the construction of the Buffalo, Brantford and Goderich Railroad through this region, Christopher and George Sparling acquired, during 1850-53, most of the present site of Seaforth. George laid out a subdivision in 1856 and Christopher sold most of his land in Tuckersmith Township to a syndicate headed by James Patton of Barrie. Patton is said to have procured a railway station and named it Seaforth. Situated on the Huron Road and the railway, and a shipping point for wheat, Seaforth had a post office by December 1859, was incorporated as a village in 1868, and as a town in 1875. -
Founding of Spencerville, The
By 1821, Peleg Spencer was operating a grist-mill and sawmill on the South Nation River on a Clergy Lot he had leased in 1817, having previously owned a sawmill on the site from 1811 till 1814. David Spencer, son of Peleg, took over the mills in 1822 and patented the mill lot in 1831. By 1828, an inn was located near "Spencer's Mills" and a settlement developed. David Spencer had a village plot surveyed in... -
Founding of Springfield, The
About 1850, some ten years after this area was settled, a school and a Methodist meeting house were erected here on the town-line between the townships of South Dorchester and Malahide. Shortly afterwards, a post office named Clunas was opened, with Archibald Clunas as postmaster. Although a village plot called Springfield was surveyed in 1857, its growth was slow until the Canada Southern Railway, completed in 1873, selected Springfield as a station site. The community... -
Founding of Thornhill, The
Settlement began here after the opening of Yonge Street in the mid-1790s and, by 1802, a grist mill and sawmill were operating on the Don River. The community developed slowly until 1829 when Benjamin Thorne built a large flour mill, tannery and store. Within a year, the village also contained a post office named "Thornhill," a church, school and tavern. Thornhill's growth as a milling and agricultural centre suffered after 1846 when the loss of... -
Founding of Waterford, The
Settlement of Townsend Township began in 1794 and, within six years, Paul Averill was operating saw and grist-mills on Nanticoke Creek where it met an established trail. Here grew a community, known successively as Sayles' Mills, Sovereign's Mills, Lodersville and finally as Waterford when a post-office was opened around 1826. Located in a rich agricultural and lumbering region, Waterford developed as Norfolk County's northern market centre and, by 1851, contained the township hall and numerous... -
Founding of Wingham, The
In the early 1850s, settlers began moving into the townships in the Queen's Bush north of the Huron Tract. One of these townships, Turnberry, was surveyed by 1853 and a plot for a market town designated where two branches of the Maitland River met. Among the earliest settlers on the plot was John Cornyn who was operating a hotel here in 1861. A year later, a post-office named Wingham was established and, by 1866, Wingham... -
George Chaffey 1848-1932
Born at Brockville, Canada West, Chaffey became a shipbuilder on the Great Lakes and the inventor of a new type of propeller. Subsequently, he went to California where, in partnership with his brother, he built a model irrigation project and founded the city of Ontario. At the request of Alfred Deakin, later Prime Minister of Australia, Chaffey went to that continent in 1886 where he began irrigated fruit production in the Murray Valley. By proving that irrigation was practical, Chaffey was largely responsible for the successful development of the fruit industry in Australia. -
Rama Indian Reserve
In 1830, Sir John Colborne, lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada (1828-1836), settled several nomadic bands of Indians on a reserve stretching along the portage between the Atherley Narrows and Georgian Bay. They were placed under the superintendency of Captain Thomas Gummersall Anderson. The Ojibwa (Chippewa) tribe, led by Chief William Yellowhead (Musquakie), were located at the Atherley Narrows. Pressure on the government by land-hungry white settlers forced the Indians, in 1836, to relinquish their holdings, and... -
Reverend Charles Alfred Marie Paradis 1848-1926, The
Born in Kamouraska County, Quebec, Paradis studied at Sainte-Ann-de-la-Pocatière College and taught art in Ottawa. Following his ordination in 1881, he was posted to Lake Timiskaming as missionary of the Oblate Congregation. Paradis' travels as a missionary provided the information for his pamphlet "From Temiskaming to Hudson Bay". In it, he strongly recommended the colonization of the region. After leaving the Congregation in 1890, he encouraged many French-Canadian farm families from Michigan to settle in... -
Simon Fraser 1776-1862
This famous fur trader and explore, son of a Loyalist officer, was born in what is now Vermont and came to Canada in 1784. He entered the fur trade with the North West Company in 1792 and, in 1805, was placed in charge of operations west of the Rocky Mountains. In 1808, while searching for a water route to the Pacific, Fraser descended the turbulent river that bears his name. The skill and daring required... -
Scotch Settlement 1819, The
In 1815, some 140 Highland Scots from Lord Selkirk's Red River Settlement, disheartened by crop failures and the opposition of the North West Company, moved to Upper Canada. Transported in the Nor'Westers' canoes, they disembarked at Holland Landing in September. They found temporary employment in the Yonge Street settlements but, in 1819, many took up land in West Gwillimbury. In 1823, a Presbyterian congregation held services in a building on this site, which was replaced by a frame church in 1827. The present structure was completed in 1869. -
Hastings Road, The
This road was begun in 1854 as part of a network of "Colonization Roads" planned by the government to open the southern fringe of the Precambrian Shield to settlement. Under the supervision of Robert Bird, construction began at the northern boundary of Madoc Township and within a year 40 miles of summer road had been built northward to a point near present-day Bancroft. The road, when completed, was about 100 miles in length. The free-grant...