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• Charles Rankin 1797-1886
  This pioneer surveyor was the pathfinder who opened much of this region to settlement. Born in Enniskillen, Ireland, Rankin came to Upper Canada with his family at an early age. He was appointed a deputy provincial surveyor in 1820 and at first worked in the southwestern section of the province. In 1833, he began surveying the Nottawasaga Bay area and settled on some 200 acres of land west of the present town of Thornbury. His...

• Major Charles Stuart 1783-1865
  Son of a British army officer, Stuart was born in Jamaica. After fourteen years' service as a commissioned officer in the service of the East India Company, he came to Upper Canada in 1817. Devoutly religious, Stuart found an outlet for his humanitarian zeal in vigorous anti-slavery activity. Although most of his written works are polemical tracts denouncing slavery, his "The Emigrants Guide to Upper Canada" is a useful summary of the progress of areas...

• Old Mail Road, The
  For some years prior to the by-law that established it as a public road in 1846, this route had been travelled by settlers destined for the newly-opened townships of Osprey, Collingwood, Euphrasia and St. Vincent. From its junction near Duntroon with an extension of the Sunnidale Road, it ran some 21 miles northwesterly to Griersville. Though it was entitled to maintenance by statute labour, the road was chronically in poor repair. Nevertheless, it remained an...