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New Fairfield 1815
In 1792 Fairfield, a Moravian missionary settlement of Delaware Indians was established by David Zeisberger just north of here across the Thames. It was destroyed by invading American forces following their victory at the Battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813. Christian Frederick Denke, who guided the homeless Fairfield Indians during the war years, re-established the mission here at New Fairfield in 1815. A small log church was then built which was replaced by a... -
Gull River and the Clergy House
This site was an early Indian camping ground, the Gull River watershed being the hunting territory of bands living around Lake Simcoe who came by way of the Balsam Lake portage and Gull River waters. Before the days of the settlers, lumbering companies moved large quantities of white pine from the area and it is probable that they erected this building about 1870. In 1899, it was acquired by the Anglican Diocese of Toronto and during the early years of this century, served as headquarters for itinerant missionaries who travelled extensively throughout the surrounding district. -
Molly Brant
Born about 1736, Molly Brant (Degonwadonti) was a member of a prominent Mohawk family. About 1759, she became the wife of Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Province of New York and a powerful figure in that colony. Well-educated and a persuasive speaker, Molly Brant wielded great influence among the Iroquois and was responsible for much of Johnson's success in dealing with them. Following the outbreak of the American Revolution she and... -
Champlain's Journey of 1613
The Father of New France, Samuel de Champlain, made the first of two voyages into what is now Ontario in 1613. He travelled up the Ottawa River seeking the northern sea (Hudson Bay) which one of his five companions, Nicolas de Vignau, claimed to have seen. The expedition struck inland above Lac des Chats and followed a chain of small lakes towards present-day Cobden. Here, on June 7th, Champlain visited with the Algonkin chief Nibachis... -
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... -
Colonel Darby Bergin, 1826-1896
Bergin was born in York (Toronto) and received his medical degree from McGill College in Montreal. He practised medicine in Cornwall, where he also assisted at a local typhus hospital. He later worked with the Mohawks of Akwesasne during a devastating smallpox outbreak. Bergin was elected Member of Parliament in 1872. He was a passionate and early advocate for rural affairs, public health and social justice. His innovative efforts and political appeals to improve workplace... -
Aqua-Plano Indians of the Upper Great Lakes, The
In 1950, archaeological investigations in this area uncovered a site which had been used as a workshop camp by a group of the earliest known people in this part of the Upper Great Lakes basin. Called Aqua-Plano Indians because they migrated from the western plains to fossil beaches of glacial and post-glacial lakes in this region, they appeared about 9,000 years ago following the retreat of the glaciers and the northward movement of plants and... -
Captain John Brant 1794-1832
John Brant was born at the Mohawk Village (Brantford), the youngest son of the renowned Joseph Brant. He was educated at Ancaster and Niagara, and fought with distinction during the War of 1812. Brant devoted his life to improving the welfare of his people. He initiated the establishment of schools, and from 1828 served as superintendent of the Six Nations, the first native person appointed to that post. Around 1830 his mother Catharine (Ohtowa?kéhson), clan... -
Champlain's War Party 1615
In September, 1615, a small party of Frenchmen commanded by Samuel de Champlain, and some five hundred Huron Indians, passed down the Trent River on their way to attack the Iroquois who lived in what is now northern New York State. Joined by a band of Algonkians, they skirted the eastern end of Lake Ontario and journeyed southward to a palisaded Onondaga village near the present site of Syracuse, N.Y. Champlain was wounded, the attack... -
Chief William Yellowhead
Born about 1769, Yellowhead (Musquakie) served with the British during the War of 1812. Named chief of the Deer tribe of the Chippewa (Ojibwa) Indians in 1816, he settled with his band at the site of Orillia in 1830 in accordance with lieutenant-Governor Colborne's plan for gathering nomadic tribes on reserves. Pressure from white settlers forced the Indians to relinquish their land and Yellowhead's band moved to Rama in 1838-1839. It is believed that the... -
Nipigon Canoe Route, The
Indigenous peoples who hunted and traded here thousands of years ago developed a water route by which they could travel from Lake Superior to James Bay via Lake Nipigon and the Albany River. Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that people living in the Lake Nipigon region were part of an intricate system of trade that extended to the Atlantic coast. In the 1600s, native people began to share their knowledge of canoe travel on North American... -
In 1830 aboriginals of the surrounding region were gathered on a reserve along a newly opened road connecting The narrows (Orillia) and Coldwater. The superintendent, Capt. Thomas Gummersal Anderson, and a band of Ojibwa under chief Aisance, settled in Coldwater. Land-hungry settlers influenced the government to move the aboriginals to Rama and Beausoleil Island in 1838-39. This grist-mill, financed with aboriginal funds, was constructed by Stephen Chapman, Jacob Gill and others in 1833. The mill was sold to George Copeland in 1849 and been in operation for over 125 years.
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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". -
Early Settlement in Erin Township
Erin Township was formed from land purchased by the Crown from the Mississauga Indians in 1818. It was surveyed in 1818 and in 1820-21. A few grantees, including three named Roszel, settled near the site of Ballinafad by 1820. Other settlers came in 1821-27. By 1828 Aaron Wheller had built a grist mill on the site of Hillsburgh, where Nazareth Hill later established a village. Another settlement formed near the site of Erin village where... -
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... -
Battle of Moraviantown, 1813 (Battle of the Thames)
In September 1813, during the second year of the War of 1812, the United States won control of Lake Erie, cutting British supply lines with the east and forcing the British to withdraw from the Detroit River region. Then, on October 5, 1813, 3,000 Americans, including their Aboriginal allies, defeated 950 British, Canadians, and Natives at this site. Among those killed was the famous Shawnee leader, Tecumseh, who had worked to unite the First Nations... -
Jean-Baptiste Lainé Site
In the 16th century, prior to the arrival of Europeans, a village was founded on this site by the Huron-Wendat, a Nation of agriculturalists and fisher-hunter-gatherers. In response to increased conflict in the region, many smaller villages merged to form a three-hectare settlement of 1,700 people, with more than 50 longhouses arranged around a central plaza, surrounded by a palisade, a ditch and an embankment as protection. The economic and political functions of the Huron-Wendat... -
Anishinaabeg at Lake of Bays, The
A water-based people, the Anishinaabeg - the original people of this region - were a hunter-gatherer society that often travelled here to the narrows at Trading Bay (Lake of Bays). The area that is now Dorset was a special, spiritual place abundant in natural resources. For thousands of years the Anishinaabeg set up small camps here harvesting maple syrup and birch bark, fishing and trading in the spring and summer, and hunting and trapping during... -
Upper Gap Archaeological Site
First Nations peoples lived in this area thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. In 1995, archaeological evidence of Iroquoian settlement was discovered nearby. The artifacts found reflected several periods of habitation dating from A.D. 700 to A.D. 1400 and included the remains of decorated ceramic pots, vessels for cooking and storage, and stone tools. Hundreds of years ago, the Iroquois lived in longhouses and practised an agricultural way of life, cultivating primarily corn... -
Alderville Manual Labour School
One of several technical training institutions operating in Upper Canada during the first half of the 19th century, the Alderville Manual Labour School was established here by 1839 by Wesleyan Methodist missionaries. The school was designed, as were others of this type, to assimilate Native children into the Euro-Canadian society that was growing rapidly within the province. To that end, it attempted to eradicate the traditional Native way of life, and stressed instead Christianity, 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 warriors... -
Brant House, The
The original house on this site was built about 1800 by the famous Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea). Two years previously, Captain Brant had been granted some 3,500 acres of land in this area for his military services to the Crown during the American Revolution. He died here in 1807, and the house, around which grew the community of Wellington Square, was thereafter occupied by his wife Catherine and his youngest son Captain John Brant (Ahyouwaeghs). The present house, a replica of the original, is the result of an extensive restoration carried out in 1937-38. -
Christ Church 1843
The Mohawks, allies of the British during the American Revolution, settled permanently in Canada following that conflict. A party led by Capt. John Deserotyon landed here in 1784 and constructed a chapel shortly thereafter. The church's historic Communion Plate is part of a gift represented to the Mohawks in 1712 by Queen Anne. In 1798, King George III gave to the chapel, which became known as a "Chapel Royal," a triptych, bell and Royal Coat-of-Arms... -
Rama Indian Reserve
In 1830, Sir John Colborne, lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada (1828-1836), settled several nomadic bands of Indians on a reserve stretching along the portage between the Atherley Narrows and Georgian Bay. They were placed under the superintendency of Captain Thomas Gummersall Anderson. The Ojibwa (Chippewa) tribe, led by Chief William Yellowhead (Musquakie), were located at the Atherley Narrows. Pressure on the government by land-hungry white settlers forced the Indians, in 1836, to relinquish their holdings, and... -
Reverend Albert Lacombe, O.M.I. 1827-1916, The
Born at St. Sulpice, Quebec and ordained in 1849, Father Lacombe took up mission work at Fort Edmonton in 1852. The following year, he founded Ste. Anne, first of several Oblate missions he established in what is now Alberta. He won the confidence of the region's Indians and, on occasion, averted serious inter-tribal warfare. Father Lacombe ministered to C.P.R. construction crews, 1880-82, from mission headquarters at Rat Portage (Kenora), where he began construction of a...