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• French Settlement on the South Shore
  Windsor is the oldest known site of continuous settlement in Ontario. The government of New France, anxious to increase its presence on the Detroit River, offered land for agricultural settlement on the south shore in 1749. That summer, families from the lower St Lawrence River relocated to lots which began about 6.5 km downstream from here. Along with civilians and discharged soldiers from Fort Pontchartrain (Detroit), they formed the community of La Petite Côte. Additional...

• Tolpuddle Martyrs, The
  Within this cemetery lies George Loveless. He, with his brother James, John and Thomas Standfield, James Brine and James Hammett, were condemned to penal servitude in 1834 for organizing in Tolpuddle, Dorsetshire, England, a union of farm labourers. George Loveless was sent to Van Diemen's Land, the others to New South Wales. Public indignation brought about their pardon and return to England in 1837. The case of the "Tolpuddle Martyrs" became a turning point in...

• James Morrison 1861-1936
  J.J. Morrison, an influential activist in farmers' causes, lived on a farm 2 km south of Arthur. He entered politics in the early 1900s, a time when many farmers felt ignored in an increasingly urban and industrial society. Morrison became deeply involved in farm organizations and helped found the United Farmers of Ontario (UFO) and the United Farmers' Cooperative in 1914. The UFO surprised the province by winning the election of 1919. Morrison declined the...

• Founding of New Liskeard
  The Little Clay Belt, the rich agricultural belt extending north from New Liskeard, was originally inhabited by the Algonquin First Nations, including Joachim "Clear Sky" Wabigijic and Angela Lapointe who lived by the mouth of the Wabi River. In 1891, William Murray and Irvin Heard settled here and two years later Crown Lands Agent John Armstrong arrived to supervise development. The abundance of good, inexpensive farmland attracted people from southern to "new" Ontario and the...

• John McIntosh 1777-1846
  McIntosh's parents emigrated from Inverness, Scotland to the Mohawk Valley, N.Y., and John moved to Upper Canada in 1796. In 1811 he acquired a farm near this site, and while clearing the land of second growth discovered several apple seedlings. He transplanted these, and one bore the superior fruit which became famous as the McIntosh Red apple. John's son Allan established a nursery and promoted this new species extensively. It was widely acclaimed in Ontario...

• Founding of Killarney, The
  Etienne-Augustin de la Morandière, fur trader and founder of Killarney, settled here in 1820, when this locality, on the voyageurs' canoe route to the Northwest, was known as Shebahonaning ("narrow channel"). A substantial trading establishment, built by La Morandière on Drummond Island after the War of 1812, was destroyed by fire in 1817, and he moved here permanently after trading for a time at Flat Point, Bay of Islands. La Morandière raised crops and brought...

• Founding of Oliver Township, The
  In the late 1860s, the need to develop a local agricultural base to serve the growing population of the Thunder Bay region became apparent, and when the 1873 survey of Oliver Township indicated that it contained good agricultural land, attention focused here. Active efforts were begun to encourage farmers from the region and elsewhere in Ontario to settle on the free grant lands in the township, and within five years some seventy families had moved...

• Founding of Osgoode Township, The
  Named for William Osgoode, the first Chief Justice of Upper Canada, Osgoode Township was established on lands the British acquired from the Mississaugas in the 1780s. Land for farming and a plentiful supply of white pine and white oak attracted the first non-native settlers, the families of Archibald and Catherine McDonell and William and Ann York, who arrived in 1827. They founded the new community's first industries and institutions, and they built the first two...

• Founding of Wiarton, The
  In 1855, a town-plot was laid out here on recently acquired Indian Land and named Wiarton, reputedly after the English birthplace of Edmund Head Governor General of Canada (1854-61). Settlement commenced in 1866 and two years later a post office was established. Agricultural prosperity, excellent harbour facilities and extensive sawmilling operations stimulated the community's growth. In 1880, with a population of about 750, it was incorporated as a village. The operation of the Stratford and...

• Founding of Orillia, The
  In 1820, the government surveyed Orillia Township and a decade later located Chief William Yellowhead's Ojibwa band on lands near the "Narrows". By 1849, when the government laid out the Orillia town plot, these Indians had been moved across Lake Couchiching to Rama. The first white settlers arrived about 1832 and by the 1850s, the community had become an agricultural and lumbering centre with two churches and a population of some 200. Advantageous transportation links...

• Founding of Stayner, The
  Settlement on this site began with the arrival in 1854 of the Toronto, Simcoe and Lake Huron Union Railroad (later the Northern Railway). Edward Shortiss and Charles Lount acquired land here, divided it into village lots and the first settler, Andrew Coleman, opened a hotel. He was followed by Gideon Phillips who established a sawmill. First called Nottawasaga Station, and later Stayner after a prominent local landowner, the community flourished as an agricultural and lumbering...

• Honourable Ernest Charles Drury, The
  A descendant of one of this area's pioneer families, Drury was born on this farm in 1878. His father, the Hon. Charles Drury, had served (1888-1890) as Ontario's first minister of agriculture. A graduate of the Ontario Agricultural College, E.C. Drury was appointed secretary of the Canadian Council of Agriculture in 1909, and became first president of the United Farmers of Ontario in 1914. The U.F.O. formed a political party in 1918, and with support...

• Founding of Huntsville, The
  During the late 1860s, a small agricultural settlement, founded largely through the efforts of Captain George Hunt, developed here. In 1870, a post office called Huntsville was established and the following year the Muskoka Colonization road was extended to this point. Improvements in transportation including the opening of a navigable water route north from Port Sydney to Huntsville in 1877, and the arrival of the Northern and Pacific Junction Railway eight years later spurred the...

• Holstein Friesian Cattle in Ontario
  In 1881, Michael Cook, who operated a prosperous 200-acre farm here, imported the first Holstein Friesian cattle into Ontario. This was part of a movement among progressive farmers to find a breed of cattle that would produce enough milk for Ontario's growing dairy industry, especially cheese production. Initially Cook imported two bulls and ten cows. He continued to import Holstein cattle from the United States and The Netherlands, and distribute them throughout the province. The...

• Founding of Brampton, The
  Chinguacousy Township, part of the Mississauga Indian tract, was surveyed in 1819. John Elliott, John Scott and William Buffy were early settlers here of a crossroads hamlet first known as Buffy's Corners. In 1834 Elliott laid out a village plot and by 1837 the community numbered 18 families. Elliott and William Lawson, a fellow native of Brampton, England, were influential in naming the village, which was incorporated in 1853, and in establishing a Primitive Methodist...

• Honourable Thomas Laird Kennedy 1878-1959, The
  Born on a farm which included this site, Kennedy was educated locally and in Toronto, and became active in local politics. He served with distinction in the First World War, later attaining the rank of colonel in the militia. Elected in 1919 to the provincial parliament as a Conservative member for Peel, he retained this seat, with the exception of one term, until his death. A fruit grower most of his life, he was concerned...

• Dale Estate, The
  The Dale Estate nurseries played an instrumental role in the development of Brampton, establishing its reputation as "The Flower Town of Canada." The business began in 1863 with its founder Edward Dale selling vegetables from his garden and it soon expanded to include the cultivation of greenhouse roses. By the early 20th century, the Dale Estate employed a quarter of Brampton's population and was among the largest greenhouse flower producers in the world. International success...

• Canada's First Polish Settlement
  The first group of Polish immigrants to Canada, some 300 in number, established a settlement in this area in 1864. Adverse social conditions and political unrest in their partitioned homeland had encouraged them to leave. They cleared the land and rapidly established a thriving agricultural community. During the 1880s, the village founded here was called Wilno after the birthplace of the Reverend Ludwik Dembski, one of their spiritual leaders. In 1875, the Parish of Wilno...

• Canadian National Exhibition, The
  The second half of the 19th century was an era in which technological innovation brought rapid economic progress and social change. The spirit of the age was reflected in an annual fair that first opened on this site on September 5, 1879. Staged by the Industrial Exhibition Association of Toronto, it offered medals and prize money to encourage innovation and improvement in agriculture, manufacturing and the arts. The fair quickly became a popular attraction and a boon to the local economy. A national event since 1912, the CNE continues to showcase Canadian creativity and achievement.

• Captain Miles Macdonell
  Born in Scotland about 1769, Mile emigrated with his father 'Spanish' John, and other members of the family to New York in 1773. Following the Revolution, they settled near Cornwall at St. Andrew's West. In 1811-12 he became Lord Selkirk's agent, and let the first Band of settlers to the Red River colony. The Nor' Westers endeavored to destroy the Settlement, and arrested Macdonell on a false charge in 1815. Released without trial, he returned to his farm in Osnabruck township, but later moved to his brother's residence at Point Fortune, where he died in 1828.

• Ferguson Highway, The
  In 1925 the Ontario government began construction of this 260-mile trunk-road between Cochran and North Bay. The road was intended to link the rapidly developing mining and agricultural communities of "New Ontario" with the province's southern regions. Several sections of rebuilt local roads were incorporated into dense Timagami forest. The highway was officially opened on July 2, 1927, and named in honour of the Hon. G. Howard Ferguson, Premier of Ontario(1923-30) and long-time promoter of...

• 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...

• French Presence in Lafontaine, The
  French explorers first arrived in the Lafontaine area around 1610. An intermittent French presence of fur traders, soldiers and missionaries continued until 1650 when the sojourns ended after the Huron-Iroquois wars. Eventually a group of former French Canadian and Métis voyageurs from Drummond Island settled here in 1830 followed by successive waves of immigrants from Quebec, the three main groups originating from Batiscan, Joliette and the counties of Soulanges and Vaudreuil. The church and parish...

• 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...

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