Ontario

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A History of Ontario from about 1870, with a focus on the locations associated with two branches of the Farndale family

 

 

 

  

Home Page

The Farndale Directory

Farndale Themes

Farndale History

Particular branches of the family tree

Other Information

General Sir Martin Farndale KCB

Links

 

Introduction

 

Dates are in red.

Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.

Headlines of the history of Ontario are in brown.

References and citations are in turquoise.

Contextual history is in purple.

 

 

This webpage about Ontario has the following section headings:

 

 

The Farndales of Ontario

 

The Ontario 1 Line are the descendants of John George Farndale (FAR00337)(1836 to 1909) who served about 1853-56 in the Crimea in the 28th of Foot a Yorkshire Regiment, and emigrated to Ontario (possibly via Australia) in about 1870.

The Ontario 2 Line are the descendants of Samuel Kirk Farndale (FAR00512), born 1871 who emigrated to Oshawa, Ontario in 1895.

 

Ontario, an overview

 

Between 1825 and 1842, the population of Upper Canada tripled to 450,000, and by 1851 it had doubled again. Most of the immigrants came from the British Isles, made up roughly of 20 per cent English, 20 per cent Scottish and 60 per cent Irish immigrants. Settlement generally spread from south to north, moving away from the lakes as land along them became settled.

 

In the 1850s, Ontario’s economy was primarily agricultural, particularly wheat growing. The balance gradually shifted to dairy, fruit and vegetable farming.

 

 

 

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Urban and industrial growth increased from the 1850s through the 1860s with the development of textiles and metalworking, farm implements and machinery.

 

Toronto grew as both a railway and manufacturing centre, and as the provincial capital.

 

Particular locations associated with the Farndale family

 

Oshawa, Ontario

 

Etobicoke, Ontario

 

Etobicoke is today part of Toronto. On March 18, 1797, Sergeant Patrick Mealey received the first land patent for a plot on the west side of Royal York Road on Lake Ontario. This was part of the First Military Tract, or "Militia Lands". The Crown was providing land to Loyalists in compensation for property they left behind in the U.S. and to veterans of the American Revolution in payment for service. In other parts of Ontario, the Crown granted land to the Iroquoian First Nations who had served as allies during the war and were forced to cede most of their land in New York to the state.

 

The census of 1805 counted 84 people in the township of Etobicoke. In 1806, William Cooper built a grist mill and saw mill on the Humber river's west bank, just south of Dundas Street. The 1809 census counted 137 residents. The Dundas Street bridge opened in 1816, making the township more accessible.

 

The township of Etobicoke was incorporated on 1 January 1 1850. In 1850, the township's population was 2,904. By 1881, the population of Etobicoke township was 2,976.

 

In 1911, the community of Mimico was incorporated on land taken from Etobicoke township. New Toronto was incorporated on 1 January 1913. Early on, there was talk of merging Mimico and New Toronto. A 1916 referendum on amalgamating the two communities was approved by the residents of Mimico, but rejected by residents of New Toronto. In 1917, Mimico became a town and in 1920, New Toronto became the Town of New Toronto.

 

Peel, Ontario

 

Peel is a regional municipality in the Greater Toronto Area, Southern Ontario, Canada. It consists of three municipalities to the west and northwest of the city of Toronto: the cities of Mississauga and Brampton, and the town of Caledon, each of which spans its full east–west width. The regional seat is in Brampton.

 

The area was first settled in the early 1800s after being divided into townships in 1805. County of Peel was formed in 1851. It was named after Sir Robert Peel, the nineteenth-century Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

 

The townships that would eventually constitute Peel were initially part of York County in the Home District, and were designated as the West Riding of York in 1845.

 

In 1867, Peel officially separated from York County. Peel County was dissolved in 1974.

 

Brampton, Ontario

 

Brampton was virtually a village in 1834. The only building of consequence at the corner of Hurontario (now Main) and Queen Streets, today the centre of Brampton, was William Buffy's tavern. In fact, at the time, the area was referred to as "Buffy's Corners". All real business in Chinguacousy Township took place one mile away at Martin Salisbury's tavern. By 1834, John Elliott laid out the area in lots for sale, and applied the name "Brampton" to the area, which was soon adopted by others.

 

Chiguacousy Township, Ontario

 

Chinguacousy Township is a former municipality and present-day geographic township in the Regional Municipality of Peel, Ontario. Several villages were once located within Chinguacousy Township. In most cases only small remnants like churches and cemeteries of many of these former villages exist.

 

Pickering, Ontario

 

Beginning in the 1770s, the area was settled by primarily British colonists. An increase in population occurred after the American Revolutionary War, when the Crown resettled Loyalists and encouraged new immigration. The township was originally called "Edinburgh" but in 1792 was renamed after Pickering, North Yorkshire. Pickering Village, now part of Ajax, emerged as the major population and commercial centre of the Pickering Township in the early 19th century. The conversion of a local trail into the Kingston Road in 1799 contributed greatly to the increased settlement in the area. In 1807, Quakers led by Timothy Rogers settled in the area, and by 1809, the population of Pickering Township consisted of 180 people, most of whom lived along the Duffins Creek. In 1811, the Pickering Township became a separate municipality. Several sawmills, gristmills, taverns, and other businesses operated in the area. During the War of 1812, the maintenance of the Kingston Road improved because of the increased military traffic and further contributed to the development of the area. In 1851, the Pickering Township was severed from the York County, and became a part of the newly established Ontario County.

 

In the later decades of the 19th century, a fall in the demand for wheat led to economic decline in the primarily-agricultural township. The township lost over 40% of its population in the second half of the 19th century, and the decline continued in the first half of the 20th century.

 

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Ontario 1877

 

Whitby, Ontario

 

Whitby Township was established in 1792 as part of what was then York County. Whitby Township was one of five townships along Lake Ontario named for towns in northeast England (York, Scarborough, Pickering, Whitby and Darlington). In 1852, the Township became part of the newly formed County of Ontario. In 1855, the Town of Whitby was incorporated as a separate municipality in the southern portion of the Township and in 1858, the Township of East Whitby was formed from the eastern portion of the municipality near Oshawa.

 

Kinsale, Ontario

 

Part of Pickering and Oshawa.

 

Sarnia, Ontario

 

Sarnia is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, and had a 2016 population of 71,594. It is the largest city on Lake Huron and in Lambton County. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes where Lake Huron flows into the St. Clair River, which forms the Canada–United States border, directly across from Port Huron, Michigan. The city's natural harbour first attracted the French explorer La Salle, who named the site "The Rapids" on 23 August 1679. This was the first time anything other than a canoe or other oar-powered vessel had sailed into Lake Huron, and La Salle's voyage was thus germinal in the development of commercial shipping on the Great Lakes. 

Located in the natural harbour, the Sarnia port remains an important centre for lake freighters and oceangoing ships carrying cargoes of grain and petroleum products. The natural port and the salt caverns that exist in the surrounding areas, together with the oil discovered in nearby Oil Springs in 1858 led to the massive growth of the petroleum industry in this area. Because Oil Springs was the first place in Canada and North America to drill commercially for oil, the knowledge that was acquired there led to oil drillers from Sarnia travelling the world teaching other nations how to drill for oil.

The township was surveyed in 1829, and in the early 1830s, there were many Scottish immigrants to this area. After its foundation, Port Sarnia expanded throughout the nineteenth century. On 19 June 1856, Parliament passed An Act to Incorporate the Town of Sarnia and the name Port Sarnia was officially changed to Sarnia, effective 1 January 1857. The Act mentioned 1,000 inhabitants in three wards at that time. The wealth of adjoining stands of timber supported the lumber industry at a time of development throughout this Great Lakes area.

Oil was discovered in nearby Oil Springs in 1858 by James Miller Williams. The Great Western Railway arrived in 1858 and the Grand Trunk Railway in 1859. The rail lines were later linked directly to the United States by the opening of the St. Clair Tunnel under the St. Clair River at Sarnia in 1890, by the Grand Trunk Railway. This was the first railroad tunnel ever constructed under a river. 

Canada Steamship Lines formed in 1913 from many previous companies that plied the waters of the St. Clair River. One of these companies was Northwest Transportation Company of Sarnia, which was founded in 1870. By 20 April 1914, when Parliament passed An Act to Incorporate the City of Sarnia, the population had grown to 10,985 in six wards. Sarnia officially became a city as of 7 May 1914.

 

 

Ontario Timeline

 

11,000 year ago

The first residents of present-day Ontario arrived during the last ice age, approximately 11,000 years ago. As the ice retreated, Paleo-American inhabitants moved into the northern region of the province. For many years, Indigenous people probably lived by fishing and hunting; deer, elk, bear and beaver could be found in the south, and caribou in the north.

1000 BCE

By 1000 BCE, pottery had been introduced, and archaeological sites show a far-flung trading system with importations from as far as the Gulf of Mexico.

800 CE

By 800 CE, certain tribes living south of the Canadian Shield, including the Wendat and the Haudenosaunee, were well-established farmers, growing primarily corn, beans and squash. The known inhabitants of the Ontario region before the arrival of Europeans included the Iroquoian-speaking agricultural Huron, Tionontati, and Erie peoples of the south and the Algonquian-speaking hunting Algonquin, Ojibwa, and Cree peoples of the north.

1610

French explorer Étienne Brûlé surveyed part of the area in 1610–12.

1611

The English explorer Henry Hudson sailed into Hudson Bay in 1611 and claimed the area for England, but Samuel de Champlain reached Lake Huron in 1615. In their effort to secure the North American fur trade, the British and the French established a number of fur trading forts in Ontario during the 17th and 18th centuries; with the former establishing a number of forts around Hudson Bay, and the latter establishing forts throughout the Pays d'en Haut region.

1763

Control over the area remained contested until the end of the Seven Years' War, when the 1763 Treaty of Paris awarded the colony of New France to the British.

1774

The Quebec Act of 1774 established Ontario as part of an extended colony ruled from Quebec.

1791

Following the American Revolutionary War, the province saw an influx of loyalists settle the area. In response to the influx of loyalist refugees, the Constitutional Act of 1791 was enacted, splitting the colony of Quebec into Lower Canada (present day southern Quebec) and Upper Canada (present day southern Ontario).

John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, supervised the introduction of English legal and local government practices, laid out the land-granting pattern, supported the construction of trunk roads, and fixed the capital at York (now Toronto).

1812

Simcoe’s policy of welcoming massive immigration from the United States was a source of tension between the newcomers and the established anti-U.S. loyalists, a rift that deepened during the War of 1812.

After the war and throughout the nineteenth century, immigrants came mainly from Ireland and Great Britain, with large numbers from Scotland.

1815 to 1840

From 1815 to 1840 the province was dominated by a conservative oligarchy known as the “Family Compact,” alleged to be an elite tied together by family relationships. Even when this group lost its majority in the elected legislative assembly, as happened twice, it continued to control the governing bodies. The oligarchy favoured the Anglican Church and the Crown and Clergy Reserves but also rapid economic growth. Its commitment of public funds, borrowed in Great Britain, to private infrastructure projects, such as the construction of the Welland Canal to bypass Niagara Falls, led to mounting opposition as costs rose. Reformers demanded “responsible government,” by which they meant that the government should enjoy the confidence of a majority of members of the elected assembly.

1840

The Canadas were reunited as the Province of Canada by the Act of Union 1840.

1857

Ottawa became the capital of the Province of Canada.

1867

On July 1, 1867, the Province of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia were united to form a single federation. The Province of Canada was split into two provinces at Confederation, with the area east of the Ottawa River forming Quebec, and the area west of the river forming Ontario.

1872

The lawyer Oliver Mowat became Premier of Ontario and remained as premier until 1896. He fought for provincial rights, and sought to weaken the power of the federal government in provincial matters. His battles with the federal government greatly decentralized Canada, giving the provinces far more power than John A. Macdonald had intended.

He consolidated and expanded Ontario's educational and provincial institutions, created districts in Northern Ontario, and fought to ensure that those parts of Northwestern Ontario not historically part of Upper Canada (the vast areas north and west of the Lake Superior-Hudson Bay watershed, known as the District of Keewatin) would become part of Ontario. This was embodied in the Canada (Ontario Boundary) Act, 1889.

He also presided over the emergence of the province into the economic powerhouse of Canada. Mowat was the creator of what is often called Empire Ontario.

1875–1885

The construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway through Northern Ontario and the Canadian Prairies to British Columbia.

Mineral exploitation accelerated in the late 19th century, leading to the rise of important mining centres in the northeast, such as Sudbury, Cobalt and Timmins. The province harnessed its water power to generate hydro-electric power and created the state-controlled Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, later Ontario Hydro. The availability of cheap electric power further facilitated the development of industry.

1879

Sir John A. Macdonald's National Policy in 1879

Ontario manufacturing and industry flourished.

1893

Population increase slowed after a large recession hit the province in 1893.

Many newly arrived immigrants and others moved west along the railway to the Prairie Provinces and British Columbia, sparsely settling Northern Ontario.

1904

The Ford Motor Company of Canada was established in 1904. 

1912

In July 1912, the Conservative government of Sir James Whitney issued Regulation 17 which severely limited the availability of French-language schooling to the province's French-speaking minority. French Canadians reacted with outrage, journalist Henri Bourassa denouncing the "Prussians of Ontario". The regulation was eventually repealed in 1927.

1916

Influenced by events in the United States, the government of Sir William Hearst introduced prohibition of alcoholic drinks in 1916 with the passing of the Ontario Temperance Act. However, residents could distill and retain their own personal supply, and liquor producers could continue distillation and export for sale, allowing this already sizeable industry to strengthen further. Ontario became a hotbed for the illegal smuggling of liquor and the biggest supplier into the United States, which was under complete prohibition.

1918

General Motors Canada was formed in 1918. The motor vehicle industry became the most lucrative industry for the Ontario economy during the 20th century.

1927

Prohibition in Ontario came to an end in 1927 with the establishment of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario under the government of Howard Ferguson.

 

Links, texts and  books