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London and Port Stanley Railway, The
After the Great Western Railway reached London in 1853, local businessmen and politicians began promoting a competitive line south to Lake Erie. The London and Port Stanley Railway began operations in 1856. Like most early Canadian railways, it was expensive to build and difficult to pay off, but it contributed enormously to the local economy. Its main business was shipping coal from Pennsylvania and carrying tourists to and from the lakeshore. The City of London... -
Great Western Railway, The
The main line of "The Great Western", from Niagara Falls through Hamilton and London to Windsor, was opened in 1854. The company extended its line from Hamilton to Toronto in 1855, from Komoka to Sarnia in 1858, and from Glencoe to Fort Erie (the "Loop Line") in 1873. "The Great Western" was an important connecting link for through traffic between railways in Michigan and New York states. This necessitated conversion from the original 5'6" gauge... -
Great Sauk Trail, The
Part of an ancient network of Indian paths, the Great Sauk Trail, as it came to be known, extended from Rock Island in present-day Illinois to the Detroit River. It played a significant role in the communications between the native peoples in the Upper Mississippi Valley and the British in this region, particularly during the period of Anglo-American rivalry following the American Revolution. For four decades pro-British tribes such as the Sauk and the Fox... -
Founding of Stoney Point, The
French-speaking settlers from the Detroit-Sandwich area and Lower Canada (Quebec) were the first to locate in Tilbury West Township after it was surveyed in 1824. They established farms along Lake St. Clair and later near the Tecumseh Road and by 1851 formed a community called Stoney Point. After the arrival of the railway in 1854, the village developed into a market and industrial centre serving an agricultural and lumbering hinterland. In 1881, Stoney Point and... -
Founding of Leamington, The
Parts of Mersea Township were surveyed in the 1790s, but it was not until 1833 that Alexander Wilkinson, who had acquired land elsewhere in the township by 1810, obtained his patent for a lot now located in the heart of Leamington. A settlement known as Wilkinson's Corners developed and on June 1, 1854, a post office called Leamington was opened. A saw and grist-mill was in operation the following year. By 1860 the community comprised... -
Founding of Tecumseh, The
The intersecting of the Tecumseh Road, named for the eminent Indian leader, by the Great Western Railroad line in 1854 stimulated settlement in this largely French-Canadian area. A community gradually developed, and in 1873 it contained a sawmill, several stores and hotels, and a population of about 200. The village, first called Ryegate, and later Tecumseh, evolved from a local service center to a shipping point for area timber, cordwood, and especially grain. The establishment... -
Founding of Dunnville, The
The construction of a dam and canal designed to feed water from the Grand River to the new Welland Canal fostered the development of a settlement here during the late 1820s. A town plot, named Dunnville after John Henry Dunn, Receiver General of Upper Canada, was laid out and, following the opening of the Feeder Canal to navigation in 1829 the community thrived as a trans shipment point and industrial centre. By 1832 it contained... -
Founding of Bayfield, The
In 1832 Carel Lodewijk, Baron van Tuyll van Serooskerken, a Dutch nobleman, purchased large holdings in the Huron Tract including 388 acres here which he set aside for a settlement. During the next decade an extensive town plot was laid out, grist and sawmills were erected and a community was established. The settlement, named Bayfield after the nautical surveyor Henry Wolsey Bayfield, developed as a centre for the surrounding agricultural community. By 185l the hamlet... -
Founding of Clinton, The
The earliest settlers on this site had arrived by 1834. Peter Vanderburgh opened a tavern north of here at the junction of the London and Huron Roads, and Jonas Gibbings began farming to the east. "The Corners" grew slowly until William Rattenbury purchased three corners of the intersection and laid out a town plot. In 1852 a post office was opened and named Clinton, reportedly after Lord Clinton on whose English estate Rattenbury's father lived... -
Founding of Sarnia, The
The French-speaking families of Ignace Cazelet, Jean-Baptiste Paré and Joseph LaForge arrived here 1807-1810. Other settlers, many of Scottish descent, came in 1832-1834 following the 1829 survey of Sarnia Township. A community called "The Rapids", renamed Port Sarnia in 1836, soon developed and among its prominent early residents were Richard Vidal, George Durand and the Hon. Malcolm Cameron. Called Sarnia after 1856, the village flourished, stimulated by regional lumbering activity, nearby oil discoveries and the... -
Founding of Lucan, The
Lucan was founded in anticipation of the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway in Sarnia, projected in 1854 and built 1855-59. The first settlers had been members of the Negro Wilberforce Colony in 1830-35. One of this group, Peter Butler Sr., had by 1855 acquired the western part of the site of Lucan. The eastern part was acquired jointly by the Hon. Donald and John MacDonald, and the first village lots were sold in 1855... -
Founding of Newbury, The
The opening of a railway station near here in 1854 on the recently completed Great Western main line from Niagara Falls to Windsor provided the nucleus around which a community was soon established. In that year, John Tucker and Robert Thompson registered subdivisions and a post office named "Newbury" was opened. The community flourished and by 1857, with a population of almost 500, it contained hotels, stores, sawmills, a grist-mill, a foundry and several other... -
Founding of Parkhill, The
The opening of a railway station near here in 1860 on the recently completed Grand Truck line from Guelph to Sarnia, provided the nucleus around which a community soon became established. A post office named Westwood (renamed Swainby in 1861 and Park Hill in 1863) was opened that year. In 1861, a village plot was laid out by William Kelly. Growth was slow until 1865 when a bonus subscribed by the citizens induced John Harrison... -
Founding of Strathroy
In 1830, James Buchanan, the British Consul at New York City acquired a tract of 1,200 acres of unsettled land in Adelaide Township. He transferred control of the property to his son, John Stewart Buchanan (1815-1875), who settled there within the next two years. By 1836, John had built a sawmill and grist-mill on the Sydenham River. These pioneer industries formed the nucleus of a settlement which was named Strathroy by James Buchanan after his... -
Long Point Portage
This portage, which crossed the isthmus joining Long Point to the mainland, was used by travelers in small craft following the north shore of Lake Erie in order to avoid the open waters and the length of the journey around the Point. Although used earlier by the Indians, the portage was first recorded in 1670 by two Sulpician missionaries, Dollier de Casson and René de Bréhant de Galinée. For about 150 years traffic increased over... -
"Old Stage Road, The"
This road, which follows in part the Indian trail, known as the "Detroit Path", across East Oxford Township, was opened by settlers at the expense of Major Thomas Ingersoll in 1796-97. It joined a wagon road opened across Burford Township by local settlers, connecting near Brant's Ford on the Grand River with a road to Long Point from Ancaster. Extended later to Delaware, it became the preferred highway to Sandwich and was used by British... -
Founding of Stratford, The
In 1832, some three years after company surveyors had erected shanties near this site, the Canada Company, a large private land settlement agency, initiated the development of "Little Thames" as the market centre for the eastern Huron Tract. By 1834, a tavern, sawmill and grist-mill existed here and a year later, a post office called Stratford was opened. Settlement was slow until the early 1850s when the advent of the railway and the designation of... -
Holland's Landing Depot
The Royal Navy Depot Holland Landing, constructed during the War of 1812, stood just north of this site on the east bank of Soldiers' Bay. Its buildings and other facilities served as an administrative and transshipment centre within a network of roads, waterways, portages and posts that connected Lake Ontario to the upper Great Lakes. To avoid American forces in the Niagara-Lake Erie-Detroit River corridor, British authorities moved vital supplies from York (Toronto) through this... -
Founding of Georgetown
After British officials acquired a block of land from the Mississaugas in 1818, the initial survey of Esquesing Township was undertaken in 1819. A township surveyor, Charles Kennedy, and several of his brothers settled lands located in the Silver Creek Valley. George Kennedy dammed the stream running through his property to establish a sawmill and later a gristmill. This provided the nucleus of a small settlement, known as "Hungry Hollow." The York to Guelph Road... -
Lake Light, The
This lighthouse, one of the earliest on the Great Lakes, was completed in 1808 as an hexagonal tower 52 feet high, topped by a wooden cage with a fixed whale-oil lantern. In 1832, it was raised to 82 feet and later equipped with a revolving light. The mysterious disappearance of its first keeper, J.P. Rademuller, in 1815 and the subsequent discovery nearby of part of a human skeleton enhanced its reputation as a haunted building. -
Montgomery's Inn
The main section of this building, one of the province's finest remaining examples of Loyalist Georgian architecture, was erected about 1832. Its original owner, the innkeeper, Thomas Montgomery (1790-1877), was a native of Ireland and a Captain in the York Militia. Situated on Dundas Street, one of Upper Canada's principal highways, the inn was a favourite stopping place for travellers and its large rooms provided space for public meetings. The Home District Council designated Montgomery's... -
Founding of Weston, The
Settlers were attracted to this vicinity in the 1790s by the area's rich timber resources and the water power potential of the Humber River here. By 1792 a sawmill was established on the west bank and within two decades a small hamlet, known as "The Humber", had developed. About 1815 James Farr, a prominent local mill-owner, named it Weston after his English ancestral home. The community subsequently expanded along both sides of the river until... -
Yonge Street 1796
The shortest route between the upper and lower Great Lakes lies between here and Georgian Bay. For John Graves Simcoe, Upper Canada's first lieutenant-governor, this protected inland passage had strategic military and commercial potential. He founded York (Toronto) in 1793, then ordered a road built to replace native trails that led north to Lake Simcoe and its water links with Lake Huron. Completed on February 16, 1796, it was named after British Secretary for War... -
Founding of Chippawa, The
In 1792-94 a village grew up near Fort Chippawa on Chippawa Creek at the end of the new portage road from Queenston. In 1793 the creek was renamed the Welland River, but the village, where a post office was opened before 1801, remained "Chippawa". It was largely destroyed 1813-14 when British and American forces fought for control of the Welland River. Portage traffic revived after the war and continued until Chippawa became an outlet for... -
Niagara Harbour and Dock Company
Formed by local businessmen in 1831, the Niagara Harbour and Dock Company created a shipping basin here on the Niagara River by hiring hundreds of labourers to excavate a riverside marsh. By the late 1830s, the company employed close to 400 workers and was operating one of the busiest ports and shipyards in Upper Canada. The local economy boomed as the business prospered, then lapsed into recession after financial problems crippled the company in the...