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11 plaques found that match your criteria
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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... -
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... -
Frederick Arthur Verner 1836-1928
Verner was born at Sheridan, Halton County, and educated at Guelph. In 1856 he went to England to study art. Returning to Toronto, he established his first studio in 1862. Like his older contemporary, Paul Kane, Verner travelled through the west, recording the life of the Plains Indians and painting the great buffalo herds. An early member of the Ontario Society of Artists, he was later elected to the Royal Canadian Academy. He lived in... -
Acton
Methodist preachers Ezra and Zenas Adams and their brother Rufus settled on the west branch of the Credit River in the 1820s. A community of pioneer families grew around the Adams family farms. Nicklin's saw and grist mill and Nelles' tannery operated here by the early 1840s. They were the nucleus of a hamlet first named Danville, then Adamsville after its first settlers and, by 1844, Acton. In 1856 the Grand Trunk Railway arrived, stimulating... -
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. -
Colonel William Chisholm 1788-1842
The founder of Oakville was born in Nova Scotia of Loyalist parents who moved to Burlington Bay in 1793. William served with distinction in the militia during the War of 1812. He settled in Nelson Township in 1816 and became a successful store keeper, timber merchant and ship owner. In 1827, he purchased from the Crown 960 acres of uncleared land at the mouth of Sixteen Mile Creek. Here, he built mills, laid out a town plot and opened the harbour to shipping. Chisholm was thrice elected to represent this district in the Legislative Assembly. -
P.L. Robertson Manufacturing Company, The
The first firm in the world to produce socket-head screws, the P.L. Robertson Manufacturing Company was formed in Hamilton in 1907 and relocated here the following year. It was established by an Ontario inventor Peter Lymburner Robertson and, using an ingenious process he had developed to punch square holes into cold metal, it manufactured the innovative new screw for industrial markets. In its first two decades the company steadily expanded operations. By 1930, when the... -
Reverend Thomas Greene at St. Luke's, Wellington Square, The
St. Luke's Church was built in 1834 on land originally patented by Chief Joseph Brant. Consecrated in 1838 by the Right Reverend C.J. Mountain, Anglican Bishop of Quebec, the church was a simple two-storey, frame building, with tower, plain gothic windows and box pews. St. Luke's first permanent rector, Reverend Thomas Greene, was appointed the year of the church's consecration. Greene (1809-1878) had been brought to Canada from Ireland in 1836 by Bishop Stewart's Upper... -
Toronto's Radial Railways
Electric railway service on routes radiating from Toronto began in 1889. Within 20 years, the Toronto and York Radial Railway Company operated lines north on Yonge Street to Sutton, with a branch to Schomberg; from the east end of Toronto to West Hill; and from Sunnyside to Port Credit. In 1917, the Toronto Suburban Railway Company completed its line from west Toronto to Guelph; it also had a route to Woodbridge. These companies operated about... -
World Championship Wheat
At the 1954 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto, William E. Breckon of Burlington won the World Wheat Championship with grain grown on his Nelson Township farm about two miles north-east of here. He led the white winter wheat class seven times before becoming "wheat king" with a sample of Genesee, a variety developed at Cornell University, N.Y. Since western Canada's hard spring varieties had long dominated the wheat awards at the Fair, Breckon's world... -
La Salle at the Head of the Lake
In 1669, René-Robert Cavelier de la Salle, intent on reaching the Ohio River in order "not to leave to another the honour of finding the way to the Southern Sea, and thereby the route to China", set out on the first of his many journeys of exploration. Accompanied by the Sulpician missionaries Dollier and Galinée, he left Montreal in July and reached Burlington Bay at the head of Lake Ontario some two months later. La...