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• Honourable Alexander Grant 1734-1813, The
  Alexander Grant, son of the seventh Laird of Glenmoriston, was born in Inverness- Shire, Scotland. During the Seven Years' War he served with the Montgomery's Highlanders, eventually commanding a sloop on Lake Champlain. In 1776, Grant became Commander of the Great Lakes. This appointment, reduced to Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan in 1778, he held until 1812. With an estate at Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Grant served on the Land Board of the District of Hesse...

• William Dummer Powell 1755-1834
  The first professionally trained lawyer appointed a judge in what is now Ontario, Powell was born in Boston and educated abroad. He opened a legal practice in Montreal in 1779 and quickly gained a reputation as a brilliant advocate able to conduct cases in French and English. Powell was appointed sole presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas here in the District of Hesse in 1789. When the district courts were abolished five years...

• Thomas Baker McQuesten 1882-1948
  Over a 30-year career, Hamilton lawyer and politician Thomas Baker McQuesten presided over a remarkable array of public works and beautification projects. Starting in his hometown of Hamilton, McQuesten led multiple park development projects — including Gage Park, the Sunken Garden at McMaster University (which he helped bring to Hamilton) and Royal Botanical Gardens, which he saw as his legacy. Appointed provincial Minister of Public Works and Highways in 1934, in less than a decade...

• Josiah Blackburn 1823-1890
  The son of a Congregationalist minister, Blackburn was born in London, England. After some experience in journalism, he immigrated to Canada West (now Ontario) in 1850 and joined the staff of The Star in Paris. Two years later he purchased a small London weekly, The Canadian Free Press, from its founder, William Sutherland. Blackburn's keen business sense and flair for political writing made this newspaper a success. In 1855, he began a daily, The London...

• Founding of London, The
  In 1793, here on the River Thames, Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe reserved a site for the capital of Upper Canada. York, however, became the seat of government and the townsite of London lay undeveloped until its selection in 1826 as the judicial and administrative centre of the London District. A court-house and gaol (1829) and homes for the government officials were built, stores and hotels were opened and by 1834, the community contained over 1,100...

• 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...

• Gideon Tiffany 1774-1854
  A native of New Hampshire who had come to Niagara in 1794, Tiffany was appointed King's Printer and published the official "Upper Canada Gazette" until 1797. He was not a Loyalist and the government, concerned by his American background, forced his resignation. In 1799, he and his brother Silvester founded at Niagara this province's first independent newspaper, the "Canada Constellation". When it failed in 1800, Gideon moved to Delaware where, with Moses Brigham and another...

• Honourable Edward Blake 1833-1912, The
  Born near Strathroy of Irish parents, Blake, a distinguished lawyer and brilliant orator, was elected in 1867 both to the Canadian parliament for West Durham and to the Ontario legislature for South Bruce. After serving as leader of the Liberal opposition in the provincial house, he became Ontario's second prime minister in 1871, but resigned his provincial seat the following year. Blake served as federal minister of justice in Alexander Mackenzie's cabinet and was recognized...

• Honourable James Young 1835-1913, The
  Born in Galt, Young was educated locally, and from 1853-63 was editor and publisher of the Dumfries Reformer. From 1867-78 he represented South Waterloo in the Canadian parliament, and from 1879-86 was member for North Brant in the Ontario legislature. Appointed provincial treasurer in 1883, he was compelled by illness to resign the post four months later, though he remained a member until 1886. A frequent speaker and writer on commercial affairs, Young was also...

• Waterloo County
  Waterloo County held its first council meeting on January 24, 1853 on this site, at the newly built county courthouse in Berlin (now Kitchener). Council's 12 members came from five townships (North Dumfries, Waterloo, Wellesley, Wilmot, Woolwich) and two villages (Galt, Preston) and selected the reeve of Waterloo Township, Dr. John Scott, as the county's first warden. With the establishment of Waterloo County emerged a series of enduring institutions, including roads and bridges, a judiciary...

• Niagara Parks Commission, The
  In 1885, the Province of Ontario established The Niagara Parks Commission as part of an international effort to preserve the natural scenery around Niagara Falls. Originally, the Commission included Colonel Casimir Gzowski, Chairman, John W. Langmuir and J. Grant Macdonald, and was responsible for making the park self-financing while keeping admission free to the public. The Commissioners acquired parkland along the river to create Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park, which opened on May 24, 1888...

• Burwash Industrial Farm
  Burwash Industrial Farm was established in 1914 based on the revolutionary premise that low-risk inmates would benefit from the exercise and skills learned while working outdoors at self-supporting institutions. Burwash Industrial Farm accommodated between 180 and 820 minimum and medium security offenders with sentences of three months to two years less a day. Over time, it grew to occupy 35,000 acres owned and 101,000 acres leased, housing three permanent camp sites, several temporary ones, and...

• Chloe Cooley and the 1793 Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada
  On March 14, 1793 Chloe Cooley, an enslaved Black woman in Queenston, was bound, thrown in a boat and sold across the river to a new owner in the United States. Her screams and violent resistance were witnessed by a neighbour, William Grisley, who informed Peter Martin, a free Black and former soldier in Butler's Rangers. They brought the incident to the attention of Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe who immediately moved to abolish slavery...

• The Honourable George Alexander Drew, C.C. 1894-1973
  George Alexander Drew, Premier of Ontario from 1943-1948, was born in Guelph, Ontario in 1894. Educated at Upper Canada College, the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall, Drew served in the First World War as an artillery lieutenant. He practised law in Guelph, entered municipal politics there in 1922 and became mayor in 1925. Drew was the first chair of the Ontario Securities Commission (1931-1934). Chosen as leader of the Ontario Conservative Party in 1938...

• Honourable George Stewart Henry 1871-1958, The
  Ontario's tenth prime minister was born in King Township but throughout his life farmed on this property. From 1903 to 1910, as York Township councillor and reeve and warden of York County, he promoted the cause of good roads and formation of a Metropolitan Toronto government. In 1913, he was elected to the Ontario legislature as Conservative member for East York. In 1918 he became minister of agriculture and, in 1923, was appointed minister of...

• Macdonald-Mowat House 1872, The
  Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, purchased this house in 1876 and lived here 1876-78. It was built in 1872 in the French Second Empire style by Nathaniel Dickey, a Toronto iron founder. Macdonald owned the property until 1886 and it was occupied by his son, Hugh John, 1879-82. The Hon. Oliver Mowat, prime minister of Ontario, bought and occupied the house in 18888 and retained ownership until 1902. The property was leased, 1897-98, to the Hon. Arthur Sturgis Hardy who succeeded Mowat as prime minister, and sold to Knox College in 1910.

• Honourable William McDougall 1822-1905, The
  Father of Confederation, William McDougall was born on a farm in this vicinity. He became a solicitor and in 1850 founded the North American, a newspaper which became the voice of the "Clear Grit" Liberals. A leading Reformer, McDougall became Provincial Secretary in the coalition government that sought confederation. He attended the Quebec and London Conferences which negotiated the terms of federal union. Appointed first Lieutenant-Governor of the North West Territories in 1869, he was...

• Jean Baptiste Rousseaux 1758-1812
  Rousseaux was the first European to settle in the Toronto area. He and his father were interpreters for the Indian Department and were licensed to trade in this region. In 1787, Jean-Baptiste married Margaret Clyne, a ward of Mohawk chief Joseph Brant, and by 1791 he had built a trading post here at the Toronto Carrying Place. When Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe arrived by schooner to establish the provincial capital of York in 1793, Rousseaux piloted him...

• Major-General The Hon. Aeneas Shaw
  Aeneas Shaw, a son of Angus, 9th Chief of Clan Ay, was born at Tordarroch, near Inverness, Scotland. A Loyalist, he served in the Queen's Rangers during the American Revolution, and later settled in what is now New Brunswick. Commissioned in the reorganized Queen's Rangers, he went to Quebec in 1792 and from there led the Rangers' first division to Upper Canada. The following year he settled at York (now Toronto) and later built a...

• First Town Meeting 1790, The
  Near this site on April 5, 1790, was held the earliest known session of a municipal government in what is now Ontario. This "town meeting" of Township No. 6, later named Grimsby, dealt with such matters as the height of fences and the registration of livestock marks. While magistrates, appointed by the Crown, still exercised the most important functions of municipal administration, this marked a beginning of local self-government by elected representatives of the people.

• First Newspaper 1793, The
  The Upper Canada Gazette or American Oracle, first newspaper in what is now Ontario, was published in the town of Niagara. Its first issue, edited by Louis Roy appeared April 18, 1793. On this site was published The Gleaner which from 1817 to 1837, under the editorship of Andrew and Samuel Heron, was one of the most prominent newspapers in Upper Canada.

• Town of Niagara, The
  Known at various times as Butlersburg, West Niagara and Newark, its first permanent settlers, including Butler's Rangers and other Loyalists, arrived about 1780. The first five sessions of Upper Canada's legislature met here under Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe between September 17, 1792 and June 3, 1796. The town was captured by American forces May 27, 1813, which burnt it during their withdrawal December 13, 1813. It was the administrative and judicial centre of the Niagara District and Lincoln County until 1866.

• First Provincial Parliament 1792, The
  On September 17, 1792, Colonel John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, opened in this community, then the capital, the first provincial parliament. The legislature consisted of an appointed Legislative Council and an elected Legislative Assembly. Its opening marked the introduction of a form of representative government into this province. Previously, both the French and British regimes had been directed by a royal governor advised by an appointed council of officials and prominent citizens. This...

• William Hamilton Merritt 1793-1862
  A pioneer in the field of transportation, Merritt was born in Bedford, New York and settled at Twelve Mile Creek (St. Catharines) with his Loyalist family in 1796. He served with the provincial cavalry during the War of 1812, then operated mercantile and milling enterprises here. Primarily responsible for the construction of the first Welland Canal (1824-33), Merritt worked tirelessly to promote this ambitious venture, both by raising funds and by enlisting government support. During...

• Chicora Incident 1870, The
  The St. Mary's River was the scene of an international dispute between Canada and the United States in May 1870. The Canadian government had sent an expeditionary force to quell a Métis uprising led by Louis Riel at Fort Garry (Winnipeg). It chartered the steamer Chicora to ferry troops and supplies as far as Fort William. The canal at Sault Ste Marie was on American territory, and U.S. officials refused passage to the ship because...

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