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• Samuel Thomas Greene 1844-1890
  Samuel Greene was the first deaf teacher to teach deaf children in the Ontario school system. An American by birth, he was educated at the National Deaf-Mute College, now Gallaudet University, in Washington, D.C. After graduating in 1870, he came to teach at the new provincial school for the deaf in Belleville (later Sir James Whitney School). Believing that the education of deaf children should be based on solid language skills, Greene devised a progressive...

• John Weir Foote, V.C. 1904-1988
  The only chaplain in World War II to receive the Victoria Cross, Foote was born and raised in Madoc. He entered the Presbyterian ministry in 1934 and enlisted in the Canadian Chaplain Service five years later. Assigned to the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, Foote distinguished himself during the ill-fated Dieppe Raid on August 19, 1942. Acting with utter disregard for his personal safety, he ministered to the wounded and carried injured personnel from exposed positions...

• Captain George Fraser Kerr, V.C., M.C., M.M. 1895-1929
  Born at Deseronto, Kerr attended schools here and in Toronto. With the outbreak of the First World War he enlisted on September 22, 1914 with the 3rd Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, and arrived in France the following February. He won the Military Medal at Mount Sorrel on June 13, 1916, the Military Cross at Amiens on August 18, 1918, and a Bar to the latter award at Queant later that summer. The Victoria Cross, the...

• Flying Frenchmen, The
  Professional hockey was in its infancy in the autumn of 1909 when the promoters behind the National Hockey Association, forerunner of the National Hockey League, created the Montreal Canadiens team to attract French-Canadian spectators. Belleville-born Jean-Baptiste "Jack" Laviolette was hired as the playing-manager and captain. Laviolette signed Cornwall's Édouard "Newsy" Lalonde to play forward and recruited his friend Didier "Cannonball" Pitre from the Renfrew Creamery Kings ('Renfrew Millionaires') as a defenceman. This trio of francophone...

• James Bertram Collip 1892-1965
  A co-discoverer of insulin, J.B. (Bert) Collip was one of Canada's most prolific medical researchers in the first half of the 20th century. Born and raised in Belleville, Collip received a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Toronto in 1916. There, on leave from the University of Alberta in 1921, Professor J.J.R. Macleod invited him to work with Frederick Banting and Charles Best on a substance they hoped could treat diabetes. In 1922, Collip...

• 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...

• Albert Carman 1833-1917
  A commanding figure in Canadian Methodism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Carman was born in Iroquois and educated at Victoria College, Cobourg. He worked briefly as a teacher and was then appointed principal of Belleville Seminary, later Albert College, in 1858. A masterful administrator and, after entering the Methodist Episcopal ministry, a militant advocate for Methodist education, Carman spearheaded the successful development of this Methodist school during his 17-year term there. Following...

• Albert College
  In 1854, the Methodist Episcopal Church, recognizing the need to improve the training of its clergy, began the construction of a seminary on this site. Designed to accommodate 150 residents with classroom facilities for 400 students, Belleville Seminary was opened in July 1857. Under the able direction of its principal, Albert Carman, the school flourished, producing several eminent graduates. In 1866, it was rechartered as Albert College, an affiliate of the University of Toronto, and...

• Asa Turner
  One of the first Baptist missionaries to serve the scattered communities along the north shore of Lake Ontario, Turner came to Upper Canada from New York State and settled in this vicinity by 1798. With great dedication, he ministered to the residents of Thurlow and Sidney Townships, conducting services in pioneer homes and organizing several congregations, including the forerunner of this parish. In 1802, Turner and two other American missionaries, Reuben Crandall and Joseph Winn...

• Belleville
  By 1790, the mill, tavern and stores established here near the Bay of Quinté had stimulated the growth of a settlement. Named "Belleville" in 1816, the village progressed steadily as a milling and shipping centre, and in 1834, the thriving community became a police village. The completion in 1856 of the Grand Trunk Railway between Toronto and Montreal, a booming lumber trade, and the development of a fertile agricultural hinterland fostered significant commercial and industrial...

• Belleville City Hall
  This imposing structure was erected in 1872-73 to house the public market and administrative offices of the rapidly expanding municipality of Belleville. It was designed by John Evans, a local architect, and constructed by contractor John Forin. A fine example of High Victorian architecture, the handsome brick and limestone structure was built as an expression of civic pride and confidence in the future. It is distinguished by tall, arched windows on the second floor, a...

• 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...

• Formation of the Methodist Church (Canada, Newfoundland, Bermuda) 1884, The
  The largest Protestant denomination in Canada during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Methodist Church (Canada, Newfoundland, Bermuda) was established in 1884. Its formation marked the culmination of a long series of mergers between groups of British and American origin. The first broad union occurred in 1874 when three denominations, amalgamations of smaller groups, joined to form the Methodist Church of Canada. Nine years later, at meetings held in Belleville, union of all...

• Founding of Actinolite, The
  In 1853, Billa Flint (1805-94), a lumberman, member of the legislative assembly and later of the senate, built sawmills here on the Skootamatta River. A village, at first named Troy but soon renamed Bridgewater, was laid out the same year. Extensive marble deposits were subsequently discovered here and this church, erected 1864-66, is believed to be the only one in Canada constructed of that material. The first resident minister's son, the eminent gynaecological surgeon, Thomas...

• Founding of Madoc, The
  Mills constructed about 1832 by Donald MacKenzie, a Belleville merchant, and the ironworks erected by American entrepreneurs Uriah Seymour and John Pendergast formed the nucleus of a settlement here on Deer Creek. A post-office, Madoc, was established in 1836 and the hamlet grew gradually, stimulated by lumbering, farming and the opening of the Hastings Colonization Road (1854), which ran north from Madoc Township. Following the nearby discovery of gold-bearing quartz in 1866, it became a...

• Founding of Tweed, The
  During the 1830s, a settlement, initially called Munroe's Mills and later Hungerford Mills, developed here on the Moira River. In 1850, when its population had reached approximately 100, it was surveyed and renamed Tweed by prominent mill owner, James Jamieson. The community grew steadily during the mid-19th century with the development of lumbering and mining in the area. Later, as agriculture assumed greater importance, it became a service centre for local farmers. By 1891, when...

• Hastings Road, The
  This road was begun in 1854 as part of a network of "Colonization Roads" planned by the government to open the southern fringe of the Precambrian Shield to settlement. Under the supervision of Robert Bird, construction began at the northern boundary of Madoc Township and within a year 40 miles of summer road had been built northward to a point near present-day Bancroft. The road, when completed, was about 100 miles in length. The free-grant...

• John Wesley Dafoe 1866-1944
  Born in Bangor Township, Dafoe began his career with the 'Montreal Daily Star' in 1883. Two years later he became editor of the 'Ottawa Evening Journal' following which he served on the 'Manitoba (later Winnipeg) Free Press', 1886-92. Returning to Montreal he worked on the 'Daily Herald' and 'Star'. In 1901 he rejoined the Winnipeg paper remaining its editor until 1944. A crusading journalist, he championed Dominion status, the League of Nations and the welfare...

• Marmora Ironworks 1823, The
  In 1821 an Irish immigrant, Charles Hayes, began building here one of the provinces earliest smelters and foundries, which by June, 1823, was ready to produce pig iron from ore mined near present-day Blairton. Economic difficulties and transport problems soon ended Hayes venture, but his principal creditor, the Hon. Peter McGill, continued operating it until 1826. In 1837 the government rejected a proposal to use convict labour for the works. Joseph Van Norman's attempt in...

• Merrill Denison 1893-1975
  A prolific and accomplished playwright, Denison was born in Detroit and raised in Ontario. In 1921, after pursuing studies in architecture, he became Art Director of Hart House Theatre, Toronto. Denison soon began to write comedies, some of which were conceived at his summer home in Bon Echo and performed in this playhouse. As author of "The Romance of Canada", a highly successful series of historical plays broadcast in 1931-32, he received wide acclaim as...

• Monck Road, The
  This road was constructed for the dual purpose of opening up a wilderness area to settlement and providing an alternative, less vulnerable military route between the upper Great Lakes and the Ottawa Valley. Its line from the vicinity of Lake Couchiching to the junction of the Hastings and Mississippi Colonization Roads at the hamlet of York River (now Bancroft), was surveyed in 1864-65 at the time of the American Civil War. Named in honour of...

• Ontario School for the Deaf, The
  In 1869, at the urging of John B. McGann, a pioneer educator of the hearing impaired, the Ontario government sanctioned the establishment of the first provincial school for deaf children. A residential institution combining elementary school instruction with vocational training, the Ontario Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb was officially opened in October 1870. Increasing enrolment during the following decades led to steady expansion and improvement of facilities. When curricula were revised...

• Ontario's First Gold Mine
  In August 1866, Marcus Herbert Powell, Clerk of the Division Court and part-time prospector, struck gold nearby on the farm of John Richardson. The following year Ontario's first gold mine went into production on that site and the community of Eldorado was founded. The Richardson Mine proved unprofitable and soon ceased operation, but its discovery caused a substantial gold rush to the surrounding region. A number of small gold mines were subsequently established in southeastern...

• Oronhyatekha 1841-1907
  The renowned Mohawk chief, orator and physician is buried in this churchyard. Born on the Grand River Reservation, he attended the Universities of Toronto and Oxford. At the age of twenty he was selected by the Six Nations to present official greetings to the visiting Prince of Wales. In 1871 he was a member of Canada's first Wimbledon rifle team and in 1874 became President of the Grand Council of Canadian Chiefs. Oronhyatekha was largely responsible for the successful organization of the Independent Order of Foresters.

• Peterson Road, The
  The Peterson Road was named after Joseph S. Peterson, the surveyor who determined its route in this region. Constructed 1858-63 at a cost of some $39,000, it stretched about 114 miles between the Muskoka and Opeongo Roads and formed part of a system of government colonization routes built to open up the southern region of the Precambrian Shield. Poor soil disappointed hopes of a large-scale agricultural settlement along this road both on government "free-grant" lots...

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