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Wilkins Expedition 1763, The
On November 7, 1763, a fleet of small boats carrying nearly 700 officers and men of the 60th and 80th Regiments under Major John Wilkins was forced ashore by a violent storm about three miles east of this point. The expedition had set out from Niagara on October 19 to relieve the British post at Detroit, commanded by Major Henry Gladwin, which was then under siege by a powerful force of Indians led by Pontiac... -
French Settlement on the South Shore
Windsor is the oldest known site of continuous settlement in Ontario. The government of New France, anxious to increase its presence on the Detroit River, offered land for agricultural settlement on the south shore in 1749. That summer, families from the lower St Lawrence River relocated to lots which began about 6.5 km downstream from here. Along with civilians and discharged soldiers from Fort Pontchartrain (Detroit), they formed the community of La Petite Côte. Additional... -
Honourable Alexander Grant 1734-1813, The
Alexander Grant, son of the seventh Laird of Glenmoriston, was born in Inverness- Shire, Scotland. During the Seven Years' War he served with the Montgomery's Highlanders, eventually commanding a sloop on Lake Champlain. In 1776, Grant became Commander of the Great Lakes. This appointment, reduced to Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan in 1778, he held until 1812. With an estate at Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Grant served on the Land Board of the District of Hesse... -
Hull's Landing 1812
On July 12, 1812, Brigadier-General William Hull, Commander of the North Western Army of the United States, landed with about 2,000 men near this site. He issued a proclamation stating that he came to liberate Canada from oppression. The British garrison at Amherstburg was too weak to oppose the invasion but later fought several skirmishes at the River Canard. On July 26, British reinforcements under Colonel Henry Proctor arrived and, on August 7-8, Hull withdrew to Detroit, leaving a small garrison near Sandwich which retired on August 11 at the approach of Major-General Isaac Brock. -
Capture of the "Anne" 1838, The
On January 9, 1838, a force of Canadians and Americans sympathizing with Mackenzie's Rebellion, sailed from United States territory and landed on Bois Blanc Island. The schooner "Anne", supporting the invasion, cruised along the Canadian mainland firing on structures near Fort Malden. Defending militia under Col. T. Radcliff returned the fire, disabling the helmsman and damaging the rigging. The "Anne" grounded on Elliott's Point and those aboard were captured. Their leader, Dr. E.A. Theller, an... -
Lieutenant-Colonel William Caldwell
Born about 1750 in Fermanagh County, Ireland, Caldwell emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1773. During the American Revolution, he served with the British forces as a captain in Butler's Rangers at Niagara and Detroit. In 1784, he obtained land near the mouth of the Detroit River and became one of the area's earliest settlers. Caldwell's exceptional influence with the local Indians enabled him to obtain control of some 11,000 additional acres on the north shore of... -
"Philo Parsons" Incident, The
On September 19, 1864, the American steamer "Philo Parsons" was seized off Kelley's Island, about 35 miles southeast of here, by some twenty Confederate sympathizers under John Y. Beall, a Southern naval officer. The group, whose members had embarked at Sandwich and Amherstburg, Canada West, intended to free the Confederate inmates of a prison camp in Sandusky Bay, Ohio. The plan included the capture of the U.S. gunboat "Michigan" for use in commerce raiding and... -
Lieutenant Charles Davidson Dunbar, D.C.M. 1870-1939
An internationally renowned piper, Dunbar was born in Halkirk, Scotland. In 1886 he joined the British army, embarking upon a distinguished career as a military piper. During the Boer War, Dunbar was wounded while piping troops into battle. For his gallantry he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. In 1911 he emigrated to Hamilton where he soon joined the 91st (later the Argyll and Sutherland) Highlanders. As pipe-major of the 19th Battalion, he saw action... -
British Garrison in London, The
In one of several concentrations of British troops in Upper Canada, various infantry and artillery units were stationed on a military reserve here during the mid-19th century. The garrison, which contributed significantly to the economic growth of London, was first established in 1839 to guard against border raids following the Rebellion of 1837. Although its troops were withdrawn in 1853 to serve in the Crimean War and military duties were assumed by pensioners, it was... -
Long Point Settlement, The
Long Point was known to traders and travellers before the area was purchased from the Mississauga Indians in 1784. In this unsurveyed area twenty to thirty "squatters" had settled by 1791, some of whom were allowed to remain following surveys and Governor Simcoe's visit in 1795. Further land grants were made to approved applicants, including many Loyalists. During the War of 1812 General Brock raised militia volunteers here for the attack on Detroit. The settlement's... -
Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Whiteside Boyle, D.S.O. 1867-1923
A legendary adventurer known as "Klondike Joe", Boyle was born in Toronto and came to Woodstock with his family in 1872. He worked at various jobs before attaining great success as a prospector and entrepreneur in the Yukon. At the outbreak of the First World War, Boyle raised, financed and equipped a fifty-man machine gun contingent. Determined to help the war effort further, he headed an allied mission to Russia in 1917 to help reorganize... -
"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... -
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... -
Armenian Boys' Farm Home, Georgetown, The
On July 1, 1923, a group of 50 Armenian boys arrived at this farm site from an orphanage in Corfu, Greece. The 'Georgetown Boys,' as they came to be known, arrived in Canada between 1923 and 1927 – 109 boys in all. The orphans were survivors of the Armenian Genocide (1915-1923). Their plight touched the hearts of thousands of Canadians, who raised significant funds and lobbied the Canadian government to bring them here. Under the... -
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... -
Fort Rouillé
The last French post built in present-day southern Ontario, Fort Rouillé, more commonly known as Fort Toronto, was erected on this site in 1750-51. It was established by order of the Marquis de La Jonquière, Governor of New France, to help strengthen French control of the Great Lakes and was located here near an important portage to capture the trade of Indians travelling southeast toward the British fur- trading centre at Oswego. A small frontier... -
Gibraltar Point
Because of its large and easily defended harbour Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe decided to make Toronto the naval and military centre of Upper Canada. This site, guarding the harbour, was named Gibraltar Point. Fortification was begun here in 1794 and by 1800 two defensible storehouses and a guard house had been erected. These buildings were destroyed by the Americans during the second raid on York (Toronto) in 1813. By the following May a small blockhouse mounting one... -
Flight Lieutenant David Ernest Hornell, V.C. 1910-1944
Born in Toronto and educated in Mimico, Hornell enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force on January 8, 1941. He was commissioned Pilot Officer later that year. On June 24, 1944, while serving with 162 Squadron and stationed at Wick in northern Scotland, Hornell was on anti-submarine patrol in a twin-engined Canso when he and his eight-man crew sighted and attacked a German submarine. Heavy enemy fire quickly crippled the aircraft but Hornell persevered with... -
Loyalists in Upper Canada, The
When United Empire Loyalists who had “adhered to the Crown” during the American Revolution and, in most cases, served in volunteer regiments, came to settle in this province in the 1780s, the region was largely uninhabited. These Loyalists, all of whom had suffered persecution and confiscation of property, were granted land in the vicinity of the Bay of Quinte and the Upper St Lawrence, Niagara and Detroit rivers. They laid the foundations of a new... -
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... -
The British army established a military post here in 1840-41 to replace aging Fort York. Known as the New Fort, it consisted of seven limestone buildings around a parade square, and a number of lesser structures. Massive defensive works were planned for the perimeter but never built. In 1893, the fort was renamed Stanley Barracks in honour of Governor Lord Stanley. Canadian forces assumed responsibility for the post in 1870 and garrisoned it until 1947. The barracks then served as public housing until the early 1950s, when all but this building, the Officers' Quarters, were demolished.
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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... -
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... -
Mackenzie's Crossing 1837
On December 7, 1837, William Lyon Mackenzie's "Patriot" forces were defeated north of Toronto by Loyalist militia and he fled toward the United States. Travelling little used routes in order to avoid government forces which were scouring the countryside, he reached this vicinity on December 11th. Capt. Samuel McAfee, who owned the property at the time, provided Mackenzie with a boat to cross the Niagara River. While the rebel leader was embarking, Col. William Kerby... -
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...