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Ontario
A History of Ontario from about 1870, with a focus on the locations associated with two branches of the Farndale family
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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
- Ontario,
an overview
- Particular
locations associated with the Farndale family
- Ontario
Timeline
- Links,
texts and books
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.
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.
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