the heights of Burlington Bay, Canada West, on the first day of January,
1802. My father, Augustus Jones," he continues, "was of Welsh
extraction. His grandfather emigrated to America previous to the
American Revolution, and settled on the Hudson River, State of New York.
My father, having finished his studies as a land surveyor in the City of
New York, came with a recommendation from Mr. Colden, son of the
Governor of that State, to General Simcoe, Governor of Upper Canada, and
was immediately employed by him as the King's Deputy Provincial
Surveyor, in laying out town plots, townships and roads in different
parts of the Province. This necessarily brought him in contact with the
Indian tribes, and he learned their language and employed many of them
in his service. He became much interested in the Indian character--so
much so that he resolved to take a wife from amongst them. Accordingly,
he married my mother, Tuh-ben-ah-nee-quay, daughter of Wahbanosay, a
chief of the Mississaga tribe of the Ojibway nation. I had one brother,
older than myself, whose name was Tyenteneget (given to him by the
famous Captain Joseph Brant), but better known by the name of John
Jones. I had also three younger brothers and five sisters. My father
being fully engaged in his work, my elder brother and myself were left
entirely to the care and management of our mother, who, preferring the
customs and habits of her nation, taught us the superstitions of her
fathers--how to gain the approbation of the Munedoos (or gods,) and how
to become successful hunters. I used to blacken my face with charcoal,
and fast, in order to obtain the aid of personal gods or familiar
spirits, and likewise attended their pagan feasts and dances. For more
than fourteen years I lived and wandered about with the Indians in the
woods, during which time I witnessed the woful effects of the firewater
which had been introduced amongst us by the white people."
There is a discrepancy, it will be observed, between the _Gazette_ and
the autobiography, in regard to the name and tribe of the father of Mr.
Jones' Indian bride. The error, no doubt, is on the side of the
_Gazette_.
It is pleasant to find, in 1826, the now aged surveyor writing in the
following strain to his missionary son, in a letter accompanying the
gift of a horse, dated Coldsprings, Grand River: "Please to give our
true love to John and Christina," he says, "and all the rest of our
friends at the Credit. We expect to meet you and them at the camp
meeting. I think a good many of our Indians will come down at that time.
I send you Jack, and hope the Lord will preserve both you and your
beast. He is quiet and hardy: the only fault I know he stumbles
sometimes; and if you find he does not suit you as a riding horse, you
can change him for some other; but always tell your reasons. May the
Lord bless you! Pray for your unworthy father, Augustus Jones."
Augustus Jones was, as has been already seen, concerned in the very
earliest survey of York and the township attached. As we have at hand
the instructions issued for this survey, we give them. It will be
noticed that the Humber is therein spoken of as the Toronto River, and
that the early settler or trader St. John is named, from whom the Humber
was sometimes called St. John's River. The document likewise throws
light on the mode of laying out townships by concessions. On general
grounds, therefore, it will not be inappropriate in an account of the
early settlement of Yonge Street.
"Surveyor-General's Office, Province of Upper Canada, 26th January,
1793.--Description of the Township of York (formerly Toronto), to be
surveyed by Messrs. Aitken and Jones.--The front line of the front
concession commences adjoining the township of Scarborough, (on No. 10),
at a point known and marked by Mr. Jones, running S. 74 deg. W. from said
front one chain, for a road; then five lots of twenty chains each, and
one chain for a road; then five lots more of twenty chains each, and one
chain for a road; and so on till the said line strikes the River
Toronto, whereon St. John is settled. The concessions are one hundred
chains deep, and one chain between each concession, to the extent of
twelve miles."
We subjoin a further early notice of Mr. Augustus Jones, which we
observe in a letter addressed to him by John Collins, Deputy
Surveyor-General, dated "Quebec, Surveyor-General's Office, January
23rd, 1792." Mr. Collins mentions that he has recommended Mr. Jones to
the notice of Governor Simcoe, who was at the time in Quebec, _en route_
for his new Province in the west.--"Colonel Simcoe, the Governor of your
Province," Mr. Collins says, "is now with us. I have taken the liberty
to recommend you to him in the manner I think you merit, and I cannot
doubt but that you will be continued in your salary."
Another early surveyor of note, connected with the primitive history of
Yonge Street, was John Stegmann, a German, who had been an officer in a
Hessian regiment. He was directed in 1801, by the Surveyor-General, D.
W. Smith, to examine and report upon the condition of Yonge Street. The
result was a document occupying many sheets. We will give some extracts
from it. They will furnish a view of the great thoroughfare which we are
beginning to perambulate, as it appeared a few years after Jones'
expedition. Though somewhat dryly imparted, the information will
probably not be without interest.
(The No. 1 referred to is the first lot after crossing the Third
Concession Road from the Lake Shore.) "Agreeable to your instructions,"
Mr. Stegmann says to Mr. Smith, "bearing date June the 10th, [1801], for
the examination of Yonge Street, I have the honor to report thereon as
follows: That from the town of York to the three mile post on the Poplar
Plains the road is cut, and that as yet the greater part of the said
distance is not passable for any carriage whatever, on account of logs
which lie in the street. From thence to Lot No. 1 on Yonge Street the
road is very difficult to pass, at any time, agreeable to the present
situation in which the said part of the street is. The situation of the
street from No. 1 to Lot 95 on Yonge Street will appear as per margin."
We have then a detail of his notes as to the condition of the road
opposite every lot all the way to the northern limit of the townships of
King and Whitchurch. Of No. 1 in the township of York, on the west side
of Yonge Street, it is reported that the "requisition of Government" is
"complied with, except a few logs in the street not burnt." Of Lot 1 on
the east side also, that it is complied with, except a "few logs not
burnt."--No. 2, west side, complied with; the street cut but not burnt.
East side, complied with; some logs in the street not burnt; and in some
places narrow. No. 3, west side, complied with, except a few logs not
burnt; east side, complied with; the clearing not fenced; no house; some
logs in the street not burnt. No. 5, west side, complied with; east
side, non-compliance. No. 8, west side, complied with; the street cut,
but not burnt. East side, complied with; the street cut, but logs not
burnt; here the street, it is noted, goes to the eastward of the line on
account of the hilly ground. No. 3, west side, complied with in the
clearing; the street bad and narrow. East side, non-compliance; street
bad and narrow, and to the east of the road. No. 16, west side, nothing
done to the road; about 5 acres cut; not fenced and no house thereon.
East side, complied with. No. 17, west side, complied with; the
underbrush in the street cut but not burnt.--East side, complied with,
except logs in the street not burnt. No. 18, west side, well complied
with. East side, well complied with. No. 25, west side, complied with.
East side, complied with;--nothing done to the street, and a
school-house erected in the centre of the street. This is the end of the
township of York.
Then on No. 33, west side, Vaughan, clearing is complied with; no house,
and nothing done to the street. East side, Markham, clearing is
complied with; south part of the street cut but not burnt; and north
part of the street nothing done. No. 37, Vaughan, clearing complied
with, but some large trees and some logs left in the street. Markham,
some trees and logs left in the streets; some acres cut, but not burnt;
no fence, and a small log house. No. 55, Vaughan, clearing complied
with; the street cut and logs not burnt. Markham, clearing complied
with; the street cut and logs not burnt; a very bad place for the road
and may be laid out better. No. 63, west side, King, non-compliance.
East side, Whitchurch, non-compliance; and similarly on to No. 88, on
which, in King, the clearing is complied with; not fenced; the street
good; in Whitchurch clearing is complied with, and nothing done to the
street. No. 93, King, four acres cut, and nothing done to the street.
Whitchurch, six acres clear land, and nothing done to the street. Here
King and Whitchurch and the Report end.
Mr. Stegmann then perorates thus: "Sir,--This was the real situation of
Yonge Street when examined by me; and I am sorry to be under the
necessity to add at the conclusion of this report, that the most ancient
inhabitants of Yonge Street have been the most neglectful in clearing
the street; and I have reason to believe that some trifle with the
requisition of Government in respect of clearing the street."
Mr. Berczy brought over his sixty-four families in 1794. The most
ancient inhabitants were thus of about seven years' standing. If we men
of the second generation regarded Yonge Street as a route difficult to
travel, what must the first immigrants from the Genesee country and
Pennsylvania have found it to be? They brought with them vehicles and
horses and families and some household stuff. "The body of their
waggons," we are told in an account of such new-comers in the
_Gazetteer_ of 1799, "is made of close boards, and the most clever have
the ingenuity to caulk the seams, and so by shifting off the body from
the carriage, it serves to transport the wheels and the family." Old
settlers round Newmarket used to narrate how in their first journey from
York to the Landing they lowered their waggons down the steeps by ropes
passed round the stems of saplings, and then hauled them up the ascent
on the opposite side in a similar way.
We meet with Mr. Stegmann, the author of the above quoted report, in
numerous documents relating to surveys and other professional business
done for the Surveyor-General. His clear, bold handwriting is always
recognizable. His mode of expressing himself is vigorous and to the
point, but slightly affected by his imperfect mastery of the English
language. He gives the following account of himself in his first
application to the Surveyor-General, asking for employment. "My name is
John Stegmann," he says, "late lieutenant in the Hessian Regiment of
Lossberg, commanded by Major-General de Loos, and served during the
whole war in America till the reduction took place in the month of
August, 1783, and by the favour and indulgence of His Excellency, Lord
Dorchester, I obtained land in this new settlement and township of
Osnabruck, and an appointment as Surveyor in the Province; I have a wife
and small family to provide for."--Descendants of his are still to be
found in the neighbourhood of Pine Grove in Vaughan. Their name is now
Anglicised by the omission of one of the final _n_'s. The rivulet at the
Blue Hill was spoken of, in 1799, as "Castle Frank Creek." It is the
stream which runs through the Castle Frank lot. Mr. Stegmann was
concerned in the building of the first bridge at this point. We have a
letter of his to the Acting Surveyor-General, D. W. Smith, referring to
timber, which he has provided for the structure. In the same he also
takes occasion to mention that the fatigue party of soldiers who were
assisting Mr. Jones in the opening of Yonge Street, had as yet received
no compensation.
He says: "Sir,--You were pleased to order me to inform you what time I
should want a team for to get the timber for the bridge at Castle Frank
Creek, for which I am ready, whenever you please to send the same." He
then adds: "The party of Rangers now on this road begged of me to inform
you that they have not received any pay for the work since they have
been out with Mr. Jones." This note is dated, "Castle Frank Creek, Feb.
27, 1799." On the 4th of the following March, he dates a note to Mr. D.
W. Smith in the same way, "Castle Frank Creek," and asks to have a
"bush-sextant" supplied to him. He says: "Sir,--I beg you will have the
goodness to send me by the bearer a Bush-sextant, and am, sir, your most
obedient and very humble servant, John Stegmann, Deputy-Surveyor."
(According to some, the Blue Hill had its name from the circumstance
that the bridge at its foot was painted blue).
The names of other early surveyors may be learned from the following
notice, taken from a _Gazette_: "Surveyor-General's Office, York, 25th
April, 1805. That it may be known who are authorized to survey lands on
the part of the Crown within this Province, the following list is
communicated to the public of such persons as are duly licensed for that
purpose, to be surveyors therein, viz., William Chewett, York; Thomas
Smith, Sandwich; Abraham Iredell, Thomas Welch, Augustus Jones, William
Fortune, Lewis Grant, Richard Cockrell, Henry Smith, John Rider, Aaron
Greeley, Thomas Fraser, Reuben Sherwood, Joseph Fortune, Solomon
Stevens, Samuel S. Wilmot, Samuel Ryckman, Mahlon Burwell, Adrian
Marlet, Samuel Ridout, George Lawe. (Signed), C. B. Wyatt,
Surveyor-General."
Of Mr. Berczy, above spoken of, we shall soon have to give further
particulars. We must now push on.
Just beyond the Blue Hill ravine, on the west side, stood for a long
while a lonely unfinished frame building, with gable towards the street,
and windows boarded up. The inquiring stage-passenger would be told,
good-humouredly, by the driver, that it was Rowland Burr's Folly. It
was, we believe, to have been a Carding or Fulling Mill, worked by
peculiar machinery driven by the stream in the valley below; but either
the impracticability of this from the position of the building, or the
as yet insignificant quantity of wool produced in the country made the
enterprise abortive.
Mr. Burr was an emigrant to these parts from Pennsylvania in 1803, and
from early manhood was strongly marked by many of the traits which are
held to be characteristic of the speculative and energetic American.
Unfortunately in some respects for himself, he was in advance of his
neighbours in a clear perception of the capabilities of things as seen
in the rough, and in a strong desire to initiate works of public
utility, broaching schemes occasionally beyond the natural powers of a
community in its veriest infancy. A canal to connect Lake Ontario with
the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, _via_ Lake Simcoe and the valley of the
Humber, was pressed by him as an immediate necessity, years ago; and at
his own expense he minutely examined the route and published thereon a
report which has furnished to later theorizers on the same subject much
valuable information.
Mr. Burr was a born engineer and mechanician, and at a more auspicious
time, with proper opportunities for training and culture, he would
probably have become famed as a local George Stephenson. He built on
his own account, or for others, a number of mills and factories,
providing and getting into working order the complicated mechanism
required for each; and this at a time when such undertakings were not
easy to accomplish, from the unimproved condition of the country and the
few facilities that existed for importing and transporting inland, heavy
machinery. The mills and factories at Burwick in Vaughan originated with
him, and from him that place takes its name.
The early tramway on Yonge Street of which we have already spoken was
suggested by Mr. Burr; and when the cutting down of the Blue Hill was
decided on, he undertook and effected the work.
It is now some forty years since the peculiar clay of the Blue Hill
began to be turned to useful account. In or near the brick-fields, which
at the present time are still to be seen on the left, Messrs. James and
William Townsley burnt kilns of white brick, a manufacture afterwards
carried on here by Mr. Nightingale, a family connection of the Messrs.
Townsley. Mr. Worthington also for a time engaged on the same spot in
the manufacture of pressed brick and drain tiles. The Rossin House
Hotel, in Toronto, and the Yorkville Town Hall were built of pressed
brick made here.
Chestnut Park, which we pass on the right, the residence now of Mr.
McPherson, is a comparatively modern erection, put up by Mr. Mathers, an
early merchant of York, who, before building here, lived on Queen
Street, near the Meadows, the residence of Mr. J. Hillyard Cameron.
Oaklands, Mr. John McDonald's residence, of which a short distance back
we obtained a passing glimpse far to the west, and Rathnally, Mr.
McMaster's palatial abode, beyond, are both modern structures, put up by
their respective occupants. Woodlawn, still on the left, the present
residence of Mr. Justice Morrison, was previously the home of Mr.
Chancellor Blake, and was built by him.
Summer Hill, seen on the high land far to the right, and commanding a
noble view of the wide plain below, including Toronto with its spires
and the lake view along the horizon, was originally built by Mr. Charles
Thomson, whose name is associated with the former travel and postal
service of the whole length of Yonge Street and the Upper Lakes. In Mr.
Thompson's time, however, Summer Hill was by no means the extensive and
handsome place into which it has developed since becoming the property
and the abode of Mr. Larratt Smith.
The primitive waggon track of Yonge Street ascended the hill at which we
now arrive, a little to the west of the present line of road. It passed
up through a narrow excavated notch. Across this depression or trench a
forest tree fell without being broken, and there long remained. Teams,
in their way to and from town, had to pass underneath it like captured
armies of old under the yoke. To some among the country folk it
suggested the beam of the gallows-tree. Hence sprang an ill-omened name
long attached to this particular spot.
Near here, at the top of the hill, were formerly to be seen, as we have
understood, the remains of a rude windlass or capstan, used in the
hauling up of the North-West Company's boats at this point of the long
portage from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron.
So early as 1799 we have it announced that the North-West Company
intended to make use of this route. In the Niagara _Constellation_, of
August, 3, 1799, we read: "We are informed on good authority that the
North-West Company have it seriously in contemplation to establish a
communication with the Upper Lakes by way of York, through Yonge Street
to Lake Simcoe, a distance of about 33 miles only." The _Constellation_
embraces the occasion to say also, "That the government has actually
begun to open that street for several miles, which example will
undoubtedly be no small inducement to persons who possess property on
that street and its vicinity to exert themselves in opening and
completing what may be justly considered one of the primary objects of
attention in a new country, a good road."
The _Gazette_ of March 9, in this year (1799) had contained an
announcement that "The North-West Company has given twelve thousand
pounds towards making Yonge Street a good road, and that the North-West
commerce will be communicated through this place (York): an event which
must inevitably benefit this country materially, as it will not only
tend to augment the population, but will also enhance the present value
of landed property."
Bouchette, writing in 1815, speaks of improvements on Yonge Street, "of
late effected by the North-West Company." "This route," he says in his
Topographical description, "being of much more importance, has of late
been greatly improved by the North-West Company for the double purpose
of shortening the distance to the Upper Lakes, and avoiding any contact
with the American frontiers."
As stated already in another connection, we have conversed with those
who had seen the cavalcade of the North-West Company's boats, mounted on
wheels, on their way up Yonge Street. It used to be supposed by some
that the tree across the notch through which the road passed had been
purposely felled in that position as a part of the apparatus for helping
the boats up the hill.
The table-land now attained was long known as the Poplar Plains.
Stegmann uses the expression in his Report. A pretty rural by-road that
ascends this same rise near Rathnally, Mr. McMaster's house, is still
known as the Poplar Plains road.
A house, rather noticeable, to the left but lying slightly back, and
somewhat obscured by fine ornamental trees that overshadow it, was the
home for many years of Mr. J. S. Howard, sometime Postmaster of York,
and afterwards Treasurer of the counties of York and Peel: an estimable
man, and an active promoter of all local works of benevolence. He died
in Toronto in 1866, aged 68.
This house used to be known as Olive Grove; and was originally built by
Mr. Campbell, proprietor and manager of the Ontario House Hotel, in
York, once before referred to; eminent in the Masonic body, and father
of Mr. Stedman Campbell, a local barrister of note, who died early.
Mashquoteh to the left, situated a short distance in, on the north side
of the road which enters Yonge Street here, is a colony transplanted
from the neighbouring Spadina, being the home of Mr. W. Warren Baldwin,
son of Dr. W. W. Baldwin, the builder of Spadina. "Mashquoteh" is the
Ochipway for "meadow." We hear the same sounds in Longfellow's
"Mushkoda-sa," which is, by interpretation, "prairie-fowl."
Deer Park, to the north of the road that enters here, but skirting Yonge
Street as well, had that name given it when the property of Mrs. Heath,
widow of Col. Heath of the H. E. I. Company's Service. On a part of this
property was the house built by Colonel Carthew, once before referred
to, and now the abode of Mr. Fisken. Colonel Carthew, a half-pay officer
of Cornish origin, also made large improvements on property in the
vicinity of Newmarket.
Just after Deer Park, to avoid a long ravine which lay in the line of
the direct route northward, the road swerved to the left and then
descended, passing over an embankment, which was the dam of an adjacent
sawmill, a fine view of the interior of which, with the saw usually in
active motion, was obtained by the traveller as he fared on. This was
Michael Whitmore's sawmill.
Of late years the apex of the long triangle of Noman's land that for a
great while lay desolate between the original and subsequent lines of
Yonge Street, has been happily utilized by the erection thereon of a
Church, Christ Church, an object well seen in the ascent and descent of
the street. Anciently, very near the site of Christ Church, a solitary
longish wooden building, fronting southward, was conspicuous; the abode
of Mr. Hudson, a provincial land surveyor of mark. Looking back
southward from near the front of this house, a fine distant glimpse of
the waters of Lake Ontario used to be obtained, closing the vista made
in the forest by Yonge Street.
Before reaching Whitmore's sawmill, while passing along the brow of the
hill overlooking the ravine, which was avoided by the street as it ran
in the first instance, there was to be seen at a little distance to the
right, on some rough undulating ground, a house which always attracted
the eye by its affectation of "Gothic" in the outline of its windows. On
the side towards the public road it showed several obtuse-headed lancet
lights. This peculiarity gave the building, otherwise ordinary enough, a
slightly romantic air; it had the effect, in fact, at a later period, of
creating for this habitation, when standing for a considerable while
tenantless, the reputation of being haunted.
This house and the surrounding grounds constituted Springfield Park, the
original Upper Canadian home of Mr. John Mills Jackson, an English
gentleman, formerly of Downton in Wiltshire, who emigrated hither prior
to 1806; but finding public affairs managed in a way which he deemed not
satisfactory, he returned to England, where he published a pamphlet
addressed to the King, Lords and Commons of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, entitled, "A View of the Political Situation of the
Province," a brochure that made a stir in Upper Canada, if not in
England, the local House of Assembly voting it a libel.
Our Upper Canadian Parliament partially acquired the habit of decreeing
reflections on the local government to be libels. Society in its infancy
is apt to resent criticism, even when legitimate. Witness the United
States and Mrs. Trollope. At the same time critics of infant society
should be themselves sufficiently large-minded not to expect in infant
society the perfection of society well developed, and to word their
strictures accordingly.