Hidden Ontario (22 page)

In 1791, surveyor Augustus Jones was authorized to survey the land between the Trent and Etobicoke Rivers and divide it into a series of townships. When Jones arrived to survey Pickering Township, he named Duffin's Creek, a stream of water flowing into Lake Ontario, after a trader by the same name. Although he seems to be somewhat of a myth, Duffin is said to have lived there. His cabin, it is said, was always open to travellers, one of whom found the door ajar, signs of a struggle, and blood on the floor. Duffin was gone and never seen again.

William Deak, another fur trader, settled at the mouth of Duffin's Creek in 1799. Between 1801 and 1807, a small group of houses formed a settlement at Duffin's Creek. In July 1807 David W. Smith, surveyor-general of Upper Canada (1792–1804), sold an 850-acre block around the creek to Timothy Rogers, a prominent Yonge Street Quaker. He began to build a sawmill and a gristmill near his house, southeast of the Kingston Road bridge, but four years later he was forced to sell his property and enterprises to settle his debts. He considered Pickering Township to be the centre of Quaker settlement in Upper Canada. Roger's grandchildren settled in both Pickering and Newmarket and pioneered the Imperial Oil Company development in Canada, as well as the Elias Rogers Coal Company. Although the Quaker population had increased the size of the settlement, it still only consisted of a few homes. By 1825 the population had reached 675.

During the early 1830s, Charles Fothergill, the noted naturalist, author, and politician, conceived an elaborate plan for a new community to be called Monodelphia. Churches, a tavern, a printing office, some mills, and a distillery were all part of his plan. Fothergill's plan failed, but his scheme brought further construction of homes and he himself lived there from 1831 to 1837.

In 1846 the population of Duffin's Creek was 130. There were now four churches, a grist-mill, a brewery, a tannery, several taverns, shoemakers, tailors, a blacksmith, and a wagon maker in the village. The excellent harbours, at both the mouth of the Rouge and at Frenchmen's Bay, were used for shipping, and Duffin's Creek was navigable for small boats as far up as the Kingston Road.

In 1856 the Grand Trunk Railway opened a line between Oshawa and Toronto. The railway benefitted the milling operations of the district. Each mill was served by a spur line of the Grand Trunk. By this time more than 50 percent of the township had been cleared of trees.

The U.S. Civil War in the 1860s hastened industrialization. War orders from the northern United States kept mills humming and encouraged farmers to put more land into wheat. Despite this, by the 1870s Pickering began to decline. Even at that time, many people could not afford to purchase Ontario farms and had headed west to homestead. The best pine and hardwood had already been exhausted and the remaining woodlots were cut again and again to pick up a little more ready cash. Many local flour mills ceased operation and were torn down or destroyed by fire.

Frenchman's Bay Harbour Company received a $70,000 grant in 1875 to improve the harbour. It was put to good use in the construction of a lighthouse, a wharf, and a 50,000-bushel grain elevator at the bay. The formation of a tiny village, with two hotels and numerous houses, evolved. Wagons often lined up on Liverpool Road to unload barley for breweries in the United States. Later, the imposition of duty on the barley closed off the market, and the harbour activity began to fade.

In 1881 the
Pickering News
described the village as a growing community and drew particular attention to Pickering Woodworks and other local industries and institutions. Pickering College, a residential secondary school built by the Quakers near their yearly meeting house at Pickering, was among those institutions. The college stood on five acres of beautiful grounds with a winding, tree-lined drive that lead up to the fine red-and-white brick structure that crowned the hill. Sectarian difficulties within the Society of Friends (Quakers) in Canada forced the closure of this Quaker-run school in 1885.

Pickering was incorporated as a village in March, 1953, and on January 1, 1974, it was amalgamated with the Town of Ajax to become Ajax-Pickering.

Today a walking tour of the quaint village of Pickering allows the visitor to step back in time. Beginning at the eastern edge of the village, a 19th century home, circa 1898, numbered 145 Kingston Road, has managed to survive the march of time; at 135 Kingston Rd. E. stands a typical Victorian house built circa 1887. South on Mill Street is the Friends Cemetery where 15 or more Quaker families, who had joined in Timothy Rogers settlement, were buried. Apparently Rogers, too, lies here in an unmarked grave. The Quaker Meeting House, built around 1867 at 117 Kingston Rd. E., is now the home of the Doric Lodge. It was built as the Canada Yearly Meeting House to serve Upper Canada. The first session took place on June 28, 1867. The stone regency cottage at 124 Kingston Rd. E. was built around 1850. The attractive two-storey frame house at 107 Kingston Rd. was built circa 1911 for Dr. Fields, a general practitioner in the village.

A good example of late Victorian architecture incorporating polychromatic brickwork and Romanesque arched windows is a home, vintage 1870, at 97 Kingston Rd. E. Next door is a well-preserved red-frame cottage with an inviting entrance, built around 1842. This is one of the earliest houses in the village. Immediately opposite is a well-maintained Greek Revival white-frame house, built around 1880.

Turning north on Church Street and walking on the west side there is a white frame cottage, 22 Church Street N. This building was built circa 1880. A picturesque brick house with pointed gables at 68 Church Street south was built circa 1880. This home features a decorative front veranda with gingerbread and brackets. The spire of St. Francis de Sales Church (circa 1871), on Church Street S., was an early landmark in Pickering village.

North on Church and west on Randall Drive is St. George's Anglican Church, built circa 1841. This church was built of brick that was supplied by the Grand Trunk Railway in exchange for a railway right-of-way. Church lands extended at that time as far south as the present 401 highway.

At 22 Linton Road is one of the earliest properties in the village. This 1.5-storey Ontario cottage, built around 1843, was an adaption of the Regency style popular in Ontario from the early 19th century.

Winding through the back streets are a host of historic buildings. For example, 23 Elizabeth Street is an archetypal Gothic Revival cottage. And there is much more!

Far from the death and starvation of the first winter here, Ajax-Pickering is now almost a suburb of Toronto. As a matter of fact, there is continuous development from Toronto through Ajax-Pickering, and Whitby to Oshawa. Despite all of that growth, the historic village of Duffin's Creek remains visible.

 

The tall whispering pines in the Ganaraska Valley have always sounded a call of peace and tranquility for those who would stop to hear it.

The dense undergrowth on the hillsides provided abundant coverage for both rabbits and partridge. Deer and bear once roamed those forests in large numbers. It was here that a Mississauga tribe numbering 200 built their wigwams on the grassy slopes of the riverbank. They called their village Cochingomink. Like the Mississaugas, a fur trader named Peter Smith heard the call of this land and erected a log building in 1778.

Peter Smith's mission in life was to establish a trading-post business, and he did. His skill as a hunter and trapper won him great respect among the Mississaugas, which helped his endeavour to profit. In 1790 Smith decided it was time to leave. Another trapper, named Herchimere, took possession of Smith's cabin and kept the trading post going.

Unknown to Smith, his vision later spawned interest in the development of a community bearing his name. Only a year after his departure, the valley was surveyed, and the government offered grants of land to anyone willing to develop a settlement. Ironically, a United Empire Loyalist with the same surname, Elias Smith, and his friend Jonathan Walton, applied for settlement grants here.

On June 8, 1793, the soon-to-be fathers of Port Hope landed on the stony beach of their new home. This party of arrivals also included Myndert Harris, Lawrence Johnson, Nathaniel Ashford, James Stevens, and their families. By sunset a group of white tents dotted the flats across the creek from the trading post. By morning, construction of log houses, thatched with bark and with huge dutch fireplaces, had begun.

In no time at all, Smith and Walton helped to settle 40 families at a place later named Smith's Creek in honour of the first white settler, Peter Smith.

In 1817 Charles Fothergill received authority to establish a post office at Smith's Creek and was made postmaster. For some unknown reason, Fothergill was unimpressed by the name and proceeded to change it to Toronto. Two years later a petition was drawn up to request that the lieutenant governor of Upper Canada make the community a port of entry and clearance, where vessels from the United States could lawfully stop to discharge their cargoes. Inexplicably, this prompted the Executive Council of Upper Canada to require that the site be given yet another name. The inhabitants of the community met and G.S. Boulton suggested the name Port Hope in honour of Colonel Henry Hope, lieutenant governor of Quebec from 1785 to 1789. It was agreed. (It was 15 years later that the settlement of York adopted the name Toronto).

It was during these early years that some residents of Port Hope first encountered the “Haunted Meadow.” This swampy spot had originally been created as the result of a beaver-dam. It was covered with a dense undergrowth and was surrounded by wild plum-trees in great profusion. The presence of “will-o'-the-wisps” gave it an uncanny reputation. According to Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black, in their book entitled
Arthur Spiderwick
'
s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You
, “The will-o'-the-wisps are spotted deep in forests, swamps, and other desolate places and appear as glowing orbs that move slowly over the landscape. These phantom lights are called by many different names. Elves particularly delight in using will-o'-the-wisps as a source of illumination and decoration for their revels.

“Lost travellers spotting wisps often believe they are seeing an artificial light and head toward it, causing them to become even more lost. Many have died, lost and alone, or fallen prey to some more dangerous faerie.”

Early settlers steered clear of the Haunted Meadow. These feelings were magnified by the mysterious disappearance of an orphan-boy who was said to have been ill-treated and ultimately murdered by a surly old settler adjacent to the meadow. The boy, it was rumoured, had been buried in the meadow and his ghost was known to wander at night. This tale was supported by the accounts of two bold young men who, throwing caution to the wind, went to pick plums one evening at the so-called charmed circle. They had scarcely climbed into the trees when weird, guttural noises could be heard, and a ghostly figure began to flit around. They retreated hastily — with a gruesome story to tell everafter!

By the year 1826, the village had grown to include four general stores, a distillery, a tannery, three taverns, and one hotel. That year the first regular mail stage began to run through Port Hope. The coach stop was the old inn at the present site of the Queen's Hotel. In their heyday these stage coaches were large vehicles drawn by four horses, one of the picturesque elements that have rolled out of our sight today.

Commander John Tucker Williams established a 100-acre homestead in Port Hope in 1829. Williams named his house Penryn, after the village in England, where his parents were married in the late 1700s. In 1841 he ran for the Parliament of Upper Canada to represent the united counties of Durham and Northumberland. His campaign met with success, and one of his first acts as a member was to introduce the first copyright for published books in Canada. This bill was passed and became law. Mr. Williams held office until 1848, and in 1850 became the first mayor of Port Hope. He died four years later at the age of 65.

The railway arrived in 1856, when the Grand Trunk Line was opened between Montreal and Toronto via Port Hope. Thereafter, four passenger trains per day stopped at Port Hope.

One of the oldest private schools for boys in Canada, Trinity College School, relocated from the village of Weston to Port Hope, in 1868. The buildings were provided free of rent for three years. The reverend C.H. Badgley was then headmaster and was assisted by a staff of nine instructors. Known in some circles as the “Eton of Canada,” it offered old-school traditions and associations, which rendered this nickname appropriate.

In 1870 Reverend Charles J.S. Bethune was appointed as the new headmaster. He was instrumental in creating a permanent institution. As a first step, in 1871, he purchased the 10 acres of land where the school still stands today. The central portion of the school was soon constructed. By an act of the Legislature of Ontario, passed during the session of 1871–72, Trinity College School was constituted a corporate body. The next year 96 boys attended there. That same year the Chapel and Dining Hall were completed. The following year the western wing of the old school was ready. The finished structure had a 90-metre (300 foot) southern face and extended 24 metres (80 feet) to the west, all at a cost of $62,000. In 1875 an additional 10 acres was purchased to ensure ample room for sports of all kinds.