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385 plaques found that match your criteria
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David Allanson Jones 1836-1910
World-renowned breeder of bees and pioneer of the North American beekeeping industry, he came in 1867 to Clarksville which, in 1874, was renamed Beetown (now Beeton). Jones searched the Old World for species of bees, and brought queens for isolated breeding to the islands of Georgian Bay. First president, in 1881, of the Ontario Beekeepers' Association, and in 1885 founding editor of the Canadian Bee Journal, Jones was Canada's first major commercial honey producer. -
David Gibson 1804-1864
This building, a good example of an early Victorian farm-house was completed in 1851 by David Gibson. Born in Glamis Parish, Forfarshire, Scotland, Gibson emigrated to Upper Canada where, in 1825, he was appointed a Deputy Land Surveyor. He was an ardent supporter of William Lyon Mackenzie, and was twice elected as a Reform member to the provincial parliament. One of Mackenzie's chief lieutenants in the unsuccessful Rebellion of 1837, he fled to the United... -
David Vivian Currie, V.C., 1912-1986
A much-honoured World War II army officer, Currie, who is buried in Owen Sound, was born and raised in Saskatchewan. He enlisted in 1939 and was sent overseas with the 29th Canadian Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment (the South Alberta Regiment) three years later. On August 18, 1944, Currie, leading a small force in Normandy, was ordered to help seal the Chambois-Trun escape route to the German forces cut off in the Falaise pocket. He met fierce... -
E. Pauline Johnson
In this house "Chiefswood", erected about 1853, was born the Mohawk poetess Emily Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake). Her father, Chief G.H.M. Johnson a greatly respected leader of the Six Nations, built "Chiefswood" as a wedding gift for her English mother, a cousin of the well-known American novelist William Dean Howells. By her writing and dramatic recitals from her own works in Great Britain and throughout North America, Pauline made herself the voice of the Indian race in the English-tongue. No book of poetry by a Canadian has outsold her collected verse, "Flint and Feather". -
Ebenezer Allan 1752-1813
Born in New Jersey, Allan joined the Loyalist forces in 1777 and served with Butler's Rangers and the Indian Department during the American Revolution. The founder of Rochester, N.Y., he moved to Upper Canada in 1794 and obtained 2,000 acres of land in this area. That year he built a grist-mill around which grew the community of Delaware. Allan became involved in bitter disputes with the authorities over his land transactions, and at the outbreak... -
Edith Kathleen Russell 1886-1964
A distinguished Canadian educator, Kathleen Russell was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia. She graduated in 1918 from the Toronto General Hospital School of Nursing and, in 1920, became first director of the University of Toronto's Department of Public Health Nursing, established to prepare personnel for the expanding field of public health service. An outspoken advocate of progressive reform in nursing education, she soon became dissatisfied with the inadequate training provided at many Canadian hospitals. As... -
Eileen Vollick 1908-1968
Canada's first licensed woman pilot, Eilleen Vollick was born in Wiarton and cam to Hamilton about 1911. She was fascinated by aviation and in 1927 enrolled in the flying school established near her home on Hamilton Bay by Jack V Elliot, a Hamilton businessman and pioneer in Canadian commercial aviation. The spirited Eilleen Vollick devoted her spare time to flying and soon mastered the school's Curtiss JN-4 training aircraft. On March 13, 1928, she passed... -
Elise von Koerber and Swiss Settlement
In 1873 a small group of Swiss immigrants arrived in the Parry Sound District and formed the basis for a Swiss colony. The settlement was organized and directed by Elise von Koerber, a native of Baden, Germany, who had been living in Canada for some sixteen years. Appointed immigration agent by the federal government in 1872, she actively promoted immigration as an outlet for poor and socially dislocated persons and by 1877 had brought several... -
Elizabeth Posthuma Simcoe 1766-1850
The wife of the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim was born at Whitchurch, Herefordshire, England. Orphaned at birth, she lived with her uncle, Admiral Samuel Graves, and subsequently married his god-son, John Graves Simcoe. She accompanied her husband to Upper Canada where she travelled extensively. Her diaries and sketches, compiled during these years, provide a vivid description and invaluable record of the colony's early life. In 1794, near this site, Mrs. Simcoe... -
Emily Ferguson Murphy 1868-1933
A leading Canadian feminist, journalist and reformer, Emily Murphy lived in Chatham from 1890 to 1894 when her husband was rector of this church. In 1916 she was appointed police magistrate for Edmonton. Her authority was challenged by a lawyer who claimed that under the British North America Act women were not legal "persons" and could not hold crown appointments. Women's organizations tested the law repeatedly by submitting female candidates for the Senate. All were... -
Emily Howard Jennings Stowe, M.D. 1831-1903
The first female physician to practice medicine in Canada, Emily Jennings was born in Norwich Township to Quaker parents. For some years she taught school, then, in the early l860's she decided to pursue a career in medicine. Refused admission to an exclusively male institution in Toronto, Stowe enrolled in the New York Medical College for women. She received her degree in1867 and, returning to Canada, established a successful practice in Toronto. A passionate advocate... -
Father Pierre Potier 1708-1781
The first Pastor of the Assumption Church, Potier was born in Blandain, in present day Belgium. In 1721 he entered a Jesuit college and, after pronouncing his final vows in 1743, he came to Quebec. An avid scholar, Potier began an intensive study of the Huron language at Lorette. A year later, he was sent to Bois Blanc (Bob-Lo) Island to serve the Huron Mission of the Assumption. In 1748 he moved with the mission... -
Chief Francis Pegahmagabow, 1889-1952
Francis Pegahmagabow, an Ojibwe of the Caribou clan, was born in Shawanaga First Nation. He volunteered at the onset of the First World War and served overseas as a scout and sniper with the Canadian Expeditionary Force's 1st Battalion. He was one of 39 Canadian soldiers awarded the Military Medal and two bars for bravery. He is Canada's most decorated Indigenous soldier. After the war, Pegahmagabow settled on Wasauksing First Nation, where he married and... -
Champlain in Ontario, 1615
In April 1615, Samuel de Champlain (c.1574-1635) embarked from Honfleur, upon his seventh voyage to New France. Upon arrival in Quebec, Champlain was informed of increasing tensions with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) the traditional rival of his Anishinabe (Algonquian) and Wendat (Huron) allies. He travelled west to Huronia on a diplomatic and military expedition where he visited several villages including Cahiagué, a large and important Wendat settlement. With a mixed force of 400-500 First Nations warriors... -
Jean Lumb, C.M., 1919-2002
Jean Lumb was born Jean (Toy Jin) Wong in British Columbia, and came to Toronto in 1935. She was soon operating a profitable fruit store and, by 1959, she co-owned the well-reputed Kwong Chow restaurant with her husband, Doyle Lumb. Energetic and outgoing, she established strong links with prominent politicians and, in the 1950s, lobbied successfully for the removal of discriminatory immigration regulations in Canada. Wide-ranging community work earned her numerous honours, including appointments to... -
James Baby 1763-1833
The first member of Upper Canada's French community to gain prominence in government circles, Baby was born in British-controlled Detroit, the son of a well-established trader. He was educated in Quebec and, after returning to this area, entered the mercantile business. In 1792, through his family's influence, he received lifetime appointments to the Executive and Legislative Councils, Upper Canada's pre-eminent political bodies. Three years later Baby moved from Detroit to the south shore and in... -
Jeanne Lajoie, 1899-1930
Jeanne Lajoie, a dedicated teacher and advocate for the establishment of French schools in Ontario, was born in Lefaivre, near Hawkesbury, in 1899. In 1923, Lajoie helped a group of francophone parents to establish the first independent French school in Pembroke. The school ensured that their children were educated in their own language. The creation of L'École Sainte-Jeanne d'Arc was one of the last major events in the Franco-Ontarian struggle against Regulation 17, which from... -
Marie-Rose Turcot 1887-1977
Born in Laurierville, Quebec, Marie-Rose Turcot moved to Ottawa around the age of 20 to work in the civil service. Later, working as a journalist, Marie-Rose Turcot published in the daily newspaper Le Droit, as well as in several other weekly and daily publications in Ottawa and Montreal, sometimes using the pseudonym Constance Bayard. She also worked in broadcast journalism for the French radio station CKCH in Hull, Quebec. Turcot was the author of a... -
Elisabeth Bruyère 1818-1876
In the 1840s, Bytown (Ottawa) was a growing timber-trade village with a substantial French-Canadian population but no Catholic schools and few social services. In February of 1845 the Sisters of Charity of Montreal (Grey Nuns) sent four nuns here. Led by Élisabeth Bruyère, a devout, well-educated young woman, the sisters quickly established a bilingual school for girls, a hospital and an orphanage. They helped the poor, the elderly and the sick, including hundreds of immigrants... -
"Cariboo" Cameron 1820-1888
Born in this township, John Angus "Cariboo" Cameron married Margaret Sophia Groves in 1860. Accompanied by his wife and daughter, he went to British Columbia in 1862 to prospect in the Cariboo gold fields. That year at Williams Creek he struck a rich gold deposit. While there his wife died of typhoid fever and, in order to fulfil her dying wish to be buried at home, he transported her body in an alcohol-filled coffin some... -
"Cyclone" Taylor 1885-1979
An outstanding hockey player, Frederick W. Taylor was born in Tara and began his amateur career with the Listowel juniors about 1901. His exceptional skating ability and irrepressible energy drew widespread attention to "whirlwind" (later "cyclone") Taylor and in 1905, in Michigan, he entered the International League, hockey's professional organization. Having joined the Canadian Civil Service in 1907, he continued to play with Ottawa and Renfrew teams, and soon confirmed his reputation as a brilliant... -
"Howie" Morenz 1902-1937
An outstanding hockey player, Howard William Morenz was born in Mitchell. He began his career with the Mitchell Juveniles, 1917-18, and after his family moved to Stratford, he played with several teams there. His skilful play, characterized by exceptionally fast skating and intense concentration, brought the "Stratford Streak" offers from several professional teams, and in 1923 he joined the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League. His success was immediate and he remained in the... -
"King" Capron 1796-1872
This house was built in 1831 by Hiram Capron, a native of Vermont who, in 1822, had emigrated to Norfolk County where he helped to establish one of Upper Canada's earliest iron foundries. He settled here at the Forks of the Grand in 1829, divided part of his land into town lots, and in 1830 constructed a grist-mill. The following year, he renamed the community "Paris." In 1842, with other partners, he purchased the nearby gypsum deposits which he built into the village's primary industry. His leadership in founding and developing the town earned him the nickname "King." -
"Pirate" Johnston 1782-1870
At nearby Wellesley Island on the night of May 29-30, 1838, a band of Upper Canadian rebels and their American supporters burned the Canadian steamer "Sir Robert Peel." The attackers, about thirteen in number, were led by William "Bill" Johnston, a former Canadian who had fled to the U.S. during the War of 1812. He became a trader and smuggler and, in 1838, was appointed Commodore of the "Patriot" army. He participated in several attacks upon Canada during the Rebellion and subsequently settled in Clayton, New York, where he became keeper of a lighthouse. -
Abel Stevens
Born at Quaker Hill, New York, about 1750, Stevens served as a British agent during the Revolutionary War despite being enrolled in the rebel militia. After the war, he lived in Vermont where, as an ardent Baptist, he became a deacon in 1786. Attracted by Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe's offer of land in Upper Canada, he moved to the province and settled in this area in 1796. A vigorous colonizer, Stevens within two years of his arrival...