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• New Credit Indian Reserve and Mission
  Faced with the pressure of white settlement, the Mississauga Indians began considering in 1840 the relocation of their Credit River Village near Toronto. In 1847, the Six Nations Council made them an unsolicited offer of land on its Grand River reserve. Native spokesmen for resettlement, including the Reverend Peter Jones, a Mississauga chief, selected land in Tuscarora and later in Oneida township. Although several had located elsewhere, some 266 Mississauga settled on lots on the...

• Founding of Brantford, The
  In the 1820s, significant improvements to the Hamilton and London road attracted settlers to the Indian lands at Brant's Ford where this thoroughfare crossed the Grand River. A thriving village soon developed and in 1830 the Six Nations surrendered its site. The opening of navigation to Brantford in 1848, the completion of the Buffalo, Brantford and Goderich Railway to the town in 1854 and the development of a rich agricultural hinterland fostered significant commercial and manufacturing growth in Brantford.

• Lawren Harris 1885-1970
  Born into a prominent Brantford family, Lawren Harris began to paint as a child. At the University of Toronto, a professor noticed he sketched during lectures and advised he be sent to Europe to study art. While in Germany (1904-1907), Harris was influenced by urban realism, landscape regionalism, and theosophy, a transcendental, mystical school of thought. In 1920 he helped found the Group of Seven, an association of landscape artists dedicated to creating a distinctly...

• Mohawk Institute, The
  The Mohawk Institute was established in 1831 for children of the Six Nations Iroquois living on the Grand River. Pupils from other native communities in Ontario attended the school as well. Like all Canadian residential schools, the Mohawk Institute tried to assimilate its students into the rapidly growing Euro-Canadian society. To that end, it disregarded native cultural traditions and stressed instead Christian teachings, English-language instruction, and manual labour skills. This building was constructed in 1904...

• Mohawk Village
  Allies of the British during the American War of Independence, the Six Nations Iroquois received extensive lands along the Grand River in 1784. Mohawks, led by Joseph Brant, established a village of some 400 inhabitants here by 1788. The community was situated at an important crossing point on the river ("Brant's Ford") and prospered as a resting place for travellers on the "Detroit path", a trail linking the Niagara and Detroit rivers. Increasingly, European settlers...

• Syl Apps (1915-1998)
  Born in Paris, Ontario in 1915, Charles Joseph Sylvanus "Syl" Apps was a professional hockey player, businessman and politician. Throughout his life, Apps displayed remarkable breadth in his abilities and accomplishments. He was a varsity football star and as a pole vaulter won two national championships and competed at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. During an extraordinary 10-season hockey career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Apps was renowned for his skill and impeccable sportsmanship. He was...

• Brant County Court House
  In July, 1852, the Six Nations Indians sold to Brant County the land upon which this court-house now stands. Designed by John Turner and William Sinon and errected by the Provisional County of Brant, the stone and brick building was largely completed in l852. The original structure containted court rooms, county offices, a law library and a gaol. Additions were made in 1861 and 1886, but the building remains predominantly Greek Revival in style. The...

• 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...

• 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".

• "King" Capron 1796-1872
  This house was built in 1831 by Hiram Capron, a native of Vermont who, in 1822, had emigrated to Norfolk County where he helped to establish one of Upper Canada's earliest iron foundries. He settled here at the Forks of the Grand in 1829, divided part of his land into town lots, and in 1830 constructed a grist-mill. The following year, he renamed the community "Paris." In 1842, with other partners, he purchased the nearby gypsum deposits which he built into the village's primary industry. His leadership in founding and developing the town earned him the nickname "King."

• Adelaide Hunter Hoodless 1858-1910
  Adelaide Hunter was born in this farm house and lived here until she married John Hoodless in 1881. On February, 19, 1897, she organized at Stoney Creek the world's first Women's Institute. It was her belief that, in this organization, rural women could discuss their problems and work together to improve their standard of homemaking and citizenship. The movement spread rapidly throughout Ontario and later to the other provinces. Mrs. Hoodless, a natural leader and...

• Asa Wolverton House, The
  This house and the adjoining structure were built by Asa Wolverton, a native of Cayuga County, New York, who had immigrated to Upper Canada in 1826. About 1832, he settled in Paris, where he erected sawmills and became a prosperous lumber dealer and contractor. Wolverton acquired this site in 1851 and soon constructed an outstanding residence of stuccoed frame. Designed in a classical manner, the house is distinguished by the entrance portico and the attached...

• Battle of Malcolm's Mills 1814, The
  In October, 1814, an invading American force of about 700 men under Brigadier-General Duncan McArthur advanced rapidly up the Thames Valley. He intended to devastate the Grand River settlements and the region around the head of Lake Ontario which supplied British forces on the Niagara frontier. McArthur reached the Grand, and after an unsuccessful attempt to force a crossing, attacked a body of some 150 militia here at Malcolm's Mills (Oakland) on November 6th. Canadian forces, comprising Elements of the 1st and 2nd Norfolk, 1st Oxford and 1st Middlesex regiments, put up a spirited resistance.

• Canada's First Telephone Business Office 1877
  In 1877, this house, then located in downtown Brantford, became Canada's first telephone business office. It was the residence of the Reverend Thomas Philip Henderson (1816-1887), a former Baptist minister and school inspector in Paris, Ontario who in 1870 had encouraged the Bell family to come to Brantford. In 1877, he retired from the ministry to become the first General Agent for the telephone business in Canada and played a significant role in its establishment...

• Dr. Augusta Stowe Gullen 1857-1943
  Canada's first woman graduate in medicine was born in Mount Pleasant. She attended the Toronto School of Medicine, received her degree from Victoria University in 1883, and was licensed to practise. Her mother, Dr. Emily Howard Stowe, had graduated in New York State in 1868, and after a prolonged struggle for recognition had been licenced to practise medicine in 1880, thus becoming Canada's first woman doctor. Both were ardent feminists, and devoted themselves to the...

• Duncombe's Uprising 1837
  Dr. Charles Duncombe (1791-1867), prominent physician and politician, was leader of the militant reform movement in the London District at the time of the Rebellion of 1837. He rallied the local "Patriots" at the settlement of Scotland, planning to move against Brantford and Hamilton and join forces with William Lyon MacKenzie. On December 13, 1837, word was received of the latter's defeat at Montgomery's Tavern and Col. Allan McNab's approach with a strong Loyalist force. Disheartened, Duncombe's followers dispersed during the night and he fled to the United States.

• Reverend Peter Jones 1802-1856, The
  This house, "Echo Villa", was built by the Reverend Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby) who lived here from 1851 until his death. Son of the noted surveyor, Augustus Jones, and Tuhbenahneequay, a Mississauga chief's daughter, Peter was born at Burlington Heights. He was converted to Methodism in 1823 and began to preach in the Grand River area. In 1826, he moved to the Mississauga settlement on the Credit River and was elected a chief of that band...

• Honourable Arthur Sturgis Hardy 1837-1901, The
  Ontario's fourth prime minister was born in Mount Pleasant, called to the Bar in 1865, and practiced law in Brantford for many years. In 1873 he was elected to the Ontario legislature and sat as Liberal member for South Brant until 1899. Appointed provincial secretary and registrar in 1877, he became commissioner of crown lands in 1889. Following the resignation of Sir Oliver Mowat in 1896, Arthur Hardy assumed the portfolios of prime minister and...

• Hon. George Brown 1818-1880
  Across the Grand River at this point lies Bow Park, once the farm of George Brown, a leading architect of Confederation, who built up an estate of some 800 acres beginning in 1866. A Scottish immigrant, Brown founded the Toronto Globe in 1844, the influential Reform journal which helped him become a powerful political figure. As leader of the "Clear Grit" Liberals and champion of Canada West, Brown entered the "Great Coalition" government of 1864...

• Honourable Harry C. Nixon 1891-1961, The
  Ontario's thirteenth prime minister was born on this farm and in l9l3 graduated from Ontario Agricultural College. A supporter of the United Farmers of Ontario, he was elected to the provincial legislature in 1919 as member for Brant North and served as provincial secretary until the defeat of the Drury administration in 1923. During the Liberal administration of Mitchell F. Hepburn (1934-42), he served as provincial secretary and minister in charge of the department of...

• Ontario School for the Blind, The
  In 1869, on the recommendation of the Rev. Egerton Ryerson, Superintendent of Education, funds were allocated to establish the first provincial school for blind children. The Ontario Institution for the Education of the Blind, which included the nearby gate-keepers lodge, opened in May 1, 1872, with eleven students. Under its first Principal, Dr. E.S. Wiggins, the residential institution combined elementary school subjects with manual and vocational training, and soon gained recognition for its contribution to...

• Paris Plains Church 1845
  Built by the free labour of its own congregation with stones gathered from nearby fields, the West Dumfries Chapel was completed and dedicated in 1845. It is a fine example of a type of cobblestone construction seldom found elsewhere in Canada, and introduced into this area about l838 by Levi Boughton, an American builder. The first minister, the Rev. John Law, served from 1845-47, and the church remained active in the Methodist Conference until services were discontinued in 1921. The building was restored in 1948 as a memorial to the pioneers of the community.

• Sara Jeannette Duncan 1861-1922
  An internationally renowned author, Duncan was raised in the adjacent house and educated locally. She taught school briefly, but then determinedly turned to journalism, gaining notice for her distinctive and witty writing style. In l890 Duncan published her first book, A Social Departure, based on dispatches produced during a trip around the world. Following her marriage, the next year, she took up residence in India where she continued to pursue a literary career. A prolific...

• Tom Longboat 1886-1949
  An Onondaga from the Six Nations of the Grand River, Tom Longboat was one of the world's great long-distance runners. He ran his first race in Caledonia in 1905 and two years later shot to international attention with a record-breaking win in the Boston Marathon. He represented Canada in the 1908 Olympics. Hailed as professional world champion the following year, Longboat went on to set world records for 15- and 20-mile races. During the First...

• William Charles Good 1876-1967
  A leading spokesman for Canadian agrarian and co-operative movements, Good was born and raised on Myrtleville farm. He early developed a strong sense of social responsibility and, returning here after attending the University of Toronto, he embarked upon a career that effectively combined public service with farming. Good initially focussed his attention on agrarian issues. In 1914 he helped found the United Farmers of Ontario and the United Farmers Co-operative Company, organizations he subsequently served...