Menu
Search results
325 plaques found that match your criteria
-
Founding of Ridgetown, The
By 1826, the earliest settlers on the site of Ridgetown, notably William Marsh, James Watson, Edmund Mitton and Ebenezer Colby, had located in this vicinity. Marsh, the first to arrive, was granted a lease on 200 acres of Clergy Reserve land in 1831. Although the settlement's growth was slow, in 1853 a post office was opened. By 1858, with a population of 300, Ridgetown contained stores, hotels and a mill owned by John Moody, one... -
Founding of Cobourg, The
Saw and grist mills erected in this area during the first decade of the 19th century fostered the development here of a small settlement. The completion of the Kingston Road by 1817 facilitated its growth and within a decade it had a population of about 350. Known as Hamilton, then Cobourg, the community expanded rapidly as a commercial and shipping centre and as a port of entry, particularly after harbour improvements were completed in 1832... -
Founding of Colborne, The
A store established here about 1819 by Joseph Abbott Keeler, a prominent early settler, provided the nucleus around which a small community began to develop. Within ten years a distillery and a blacksmith's shop had been erected. The settlement, named Colborne reputedly after Lieutenant Governor Sir John Colborne, soon emerged as a service centre for the surrounding region and, with the establishment of a harbour nearby for the shipment of lumber and grain, it prospered... -
Founding of Orillia, The
In 1820, the government surveyed Orillia Township and a decade later located Chief William Yellowhead's Ojibwa band on lands near the "Narrows". By 1849, when the government laid out the Orillia town plot, these Indians had been moved across Lake Couchiching to Rama. The first white settlers arrived about 1832 and by the 1850s, the community had become an agricultural and lumbering centre with two churches and a population of some 200. Advantageous transportation links... -
Founding of Midland, The
In 1871, a group of the principal shareholders of the Midland Railway, headed by Adolph Hugel, selected this location as the northern terminus of their line which then ran from Port Hope to Beaverton. Known at the time as Mundy's Bay, the region was sparsely inhabited, but the interest aroused by their action resulted in the survey of a town site in 1872-73. Most of the lots were owned by the Midland Land Company which... -
Founding of Stayner, The
Settlement on this site began with the arrival in 1854 of the Toronto, Simcoe and Lake Huron Union Railroad (later the Northern Railway). Edward Shortiss and Charles Lount acquired land here, divided it into village lots and the first settler, Andrew Coleman, opened a hotel. He was followed by Gideon Phillips who established a sawmill. First called Nottawasaga Station, and later Stayner after a prominent local landowner, the community flourished as an agricultural and lumbering... -
Founding of Huntsville, The
During the late 1860s, a small agricultural settlement, founded largely through the efforts of Captain George Hunt, developed here. In 1870, a post office called Huntsville was established and the following year the Muskoka Colonization road was extended to this point. Improvements in transportation including the opening of a navigable water route north from Port Sydney to Huntsville in 1877, and the arrival of the Northern and Pacific Junction Railway eight years later spurred the... -
Loyalist Landing at Cataraqui 1784, The
Following the end of the American Revolution in 1783 Frederick Haldimand, Governor of Quebec, approved the resettlement of loyalist refugees in what is now southern Ontario. Favourable reports on the Cataracoui area led to its occupation by British forces in the spring of 1783 and to the commencement of surveys the following October. In June 1784, a party of Associated Loyalists from New York State under the command of Captain Michael Grass, part of a... -
Bedford Mills
In 1831 Benjamin Tett (1798-1878), later an important merchant at Newboro, anticipating the completion of the Rideau Canal, acquired a sawmill here on Buttermilk Falls. Tett and various partners, including the prominent Chaffey brothers, extensively exploited local forests and through the Canal sent timber, lumber, and cord-wood to American and St. Lawrence River market centres. Active trade and settlement of the district led him to build a store and, in 1848, construct the stone grist-mill... -
Hazelton Spencer 1757-1813
An important figure in early Upper Canada, Spencer was born in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. During the American Revolution he fought with the British forces and in 1784, when his unit was disbanded, he settled here. Widely acknowledged as a man of ability and stature, Spencer quickly achieved prominence. He represented this region in the province's first parliament (1792-96) and secured several judicial and administrative appointments. Continuing his distinguished military career, he was commissioned an... -
Madeleine de Roybon d'Allonne
Of noble French birth, de Roybon was the first European woman to own land in what is now Ontario. She came to Fort Frontenac (Kingston), probably in 1679, where she acquired property from René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle, governor and seigneur of the fort. In 1681 she loaned him money to finance his explorations, and about this time he granted her a seigneury extending westward from Toneguignon (Collins Bay). On this land she built a... -
Founder of Pembroke, The
Peter White, born in Edinburgh, was a merchant seaman when he was impressed into the Royal Navy in 1813 and sent to Canada. Following serve on the Great Lakes under Commodore Sir James Yeo, he left the navy and entered the lumber trade in the Ottawa Valley. In May 1828, he first visited the wilderness site of Pembroke and. Attracted by its timber potential, made his headquarters here. One of the area's principal lumber merchants... -
Founding of Renfrew, The
Attracted by the development of the lumbering industry in the Upper Ottawa Valley, a few settlers had located in this region by 1830. Six years later, Xavier Plaunt acquired land here near the second chute of the Bonnechère River and by 1848 was selling village lots and had provided land for the community's first church. In that year a post office, Renfrew, was opened and in 1851, the settlement contained a sawmill, grist-mill, tannery and... -
William Buell, Sr. 1751-1832
Renowned as the founder of Brockville, Buell was born in Hebron, Connecticut. Shortly after the outbreak of the American Revolution, he moved to Quebec where he joined the British forces and eventually served as a commissioned officer in the King's Rangers. In 1784, after his unit had been disbanded, he settled on a Crown grant here in the centre of present-day Brockville. One of the area's first permanent residents, Buell became an influential local citizen... -
Roebuck Indian Village Site
Approximately 500 years ago, an Iroquoian agricultural community of about 1,600 persons occupied this site. Archaeological excavations suggest that approximately 40 communal longhouses, averaging nearly 100 feet in length, stood in this village, palisaded with a stout double stockade. The farmers on the site grew corn, beans, squash, sunflowers and tobacco. A similar village, Hochelaga, on the present site of Montreal, was visited by Jacques Cartier in 1535. After this first contact with Europeans, these... -
Founding of L'Orignal, The
The earliest settlers in the area, Joseph La Rocque-Brune and Raymond Duffaut, had located by 1791. Five years later, Nathaniel Treadwell, a land surveyor and speculator from Plattsburg, New York, acquired the seigneury of Pointe-à-l'Orignal, some 23,000 acres. Treadwell built a sawmill and a grist-mill and opened roads. By 1812, a small community was established here named L'Orignal after the moose found in the Pointe area. In 1816, it became the capital of the newly... -
Founding of Cornwall, The
In June 1784, disbanded Loyalist soldiers and their families settled at New Johnstown, the site of present-day Cornwall. Initially called Pointe Maligne, the area had been visited by native traders and French missionaries and explorers during the 17th and early 18th centuries. In 1794, Cornwall was designated a judicial and administrative centre for the Eastern District and by 1805 contained a courthouse, a schoolhouse, two churches and numerous dwellings. The community grew gradually and was... -
MacLeod Settlement, The
In 1793, some 40 families, including members of several clans, emigrated from Glenelg, Scotland, under the leadership of Alexander MacLeod and landed at St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island). The following year they came to Glengarry County and petitioned for land. In August 1794, the majority were authorized to occupy 200 acres each in the vicinity of Kirkhill, which was for many years known as Glenelg. Alexander MacLeod, who was located on this property... -
Founding of Brampton, The
Chinguacousy Township, part of the Mississauga Indian tract, was surveyed in 1819. John Elliott, John Scott and William Buffy were early settlers here of a crossroads hamlet first known as Buffy's Corners. In 1834 Elliott laid out a village plot and by 1837 the community numbered 18 families. Elliott and William Lawson, a fellow native of Brampton, England, were influential in naming the village, which was incorporated in 1853, and in establishing a Primitive Methodist... -
Founding of Bolton, The
In 1821 George Bolton, an English immigrant purchased 200 acres of land here on the Humber River. Two years later in partnership with his uncle, James Bolton, one of Albion Township's earliest settlers, he erected a grist-mill. This provided the nucleus around which a community known as Bolton's Mills was established by 1830. A post office named "Albion" was opened in 1832. By 1850 the settlement contained a sawmill, stores, a woollen factory, tannery and... -
Credit Indian Village 1826
In 1826 the government assisted a band of Mississauga, who had recently been converted to Christianity, to settle in this vicinity, and within five years laid out a village plot and constructed log cottages and a sawmill. Methodist missionaries, notably Peter Jones and Egerton Ryerson, ministered to the converts who in 1829 built a combined schoolhouse and chapel. By 1837 about 50 houses had been erected for the Indians. Three years later they had approximately... -
C. Beck Manufacturing Company
The C. Beck Manufacturing Co. Ltd. operated from 1875 to 1969 with its centre of operations in Penetanguishene. The company sold wholesale lumber, shingles, lath, box shooks, pails, tubs and woodenware to firms in Ontario, Quebec, western Canada and the northern United States. It produced the special wooden tubs, boxes, barrels and pails that carried early 20th century Ontario food products to markets across Canada and throughout the British Empire. It was a family business... -
Cornwall Grammar School
Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational School traces its beginning to an educational institution founded by John Strachan in 1803. Strachan, an Anglican priest, opened a private school in his home where he hoped to educate young men to take on leading roles in society. In 1806 he built a schoolhouse that became one of the first provincially funded district grammar schools one year later. Many of Upper Canada's elite received their education under Strachan's respected and... -
Founding of Englehart
Englehart owes its beginnings to the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (T. & N.O.), a colonization line designed by the provincial government to open agricultural lands of the Little Clay Belt to settlement and to provide access to the area's vast timber resources. In 1905 the railway stockpiled equipment and materials on the east bank of the Blanche (now Englehart) River, at mile 138, for the line's first major bridge. This drew entrepreneurs to provide... -
Kapuskasing - Garden City and Model Town
In 1921 the Kimberly-Clark and the Spruce Falls companies constructed a pulp mill in Kapuskasing that would employ many workers. To plan for Kapuskasing's anticipated growth, the provincial government commissioned the architectural landscape firm of Harries & Hall to create a town plan, which incorporated elements of the late 19th century Garden City and City Beautiful town planning movements. The first provincially-planned single resource town in Ontario, Kapuskasing's design focused on a healthy living environment...