Part 1 (1/2)

Toronto of Old.

by Henry Scadding.

PREFACE.

It is singular that the elder Disraeli has not included in his ”Curiosities of Literature” a chapter on Books originating in Accident.

It is exactly the kind of topic we might have expected him to discuss, in his usual pleasant manner. Of such productions there is doubtless somewhere a record. Whenever it shall be discovered, the volume here presented to the reader must be added to the list. A few years since, when preparing for a local periodical a paper of ”Early Notices of Toronto,” the writer little imagined what the sheets then under his hand would finally grow to. The expectation at the time simply was, that the article on which he was at work would a.s.sist as a minute scintilla in one of those monthly meteoric showers of miscellaneous light literature with which the age is so familiar; that it would engage, perhaps, the attention for a few moments of a chance gazer here and there, and then vanish in the usual way. But on a subsequent revision, the subject thus casually taken up seemed capable of being more fully handled. Two or three friends, moreover, had expressed a regret that to the memoranda given, gathered chiefly from early French doc.u.ments, there had not been added some of the more recent floating folklore of the community, some of the homely table-talk of the older people of the place; such of the mixed traditions, in short, of the local Past of Toronto as might seem of value as ill.u.s.trations of primitive colonial life and manners. It was urged, likewise, in several quarters, that if something in this direction were not speedily done, the men of the next generation would be left irremediably ignorant of a mult.i.tude of minute particulars relating to their immediate predecessors, and the peculiar conditions under which were so bravely executed the many labours whereby for posterity the path onward has been made smooth. For many years the writer had quietly concerned himself with such matters. Identified with Toronto from boyhood, to him the long, straight ways of the place nowhere presented barren, monotonous vistas. To him innumerable objects and sites on the right hand and on the left, in almost every quarter, called up reminiscences, the growth partly of his own experience and observation, and partly the residuum of discourse with others, all invested with a certain degree of rational, human interest, as it seemed to him. But still, that he was sometime to be the compiler of an elaborate volume on the subject never seriously entered his thoughts.

Having, however, as was narrated, once tapped the vein, he was led step by step to further explorations, until the result was reached which the reader has now placed before him.

By inspection it will be seen that the plan pursued was to proceed rather deliberately through the princ.i.p.al thoroughfares, noticing persons and incidents of former days, as suggested by buildings and situations in the order in which they were severally seen; relying in the first instance on personal recollections for the most part, and then attaching to every coigne of vantage such relevant information as could be additionally gathered from coevals and seniors, or gleaned from such literary relics, in print or ma.n.u.script of an early date, as could be secured. Here and there, brief digressions into adjacent streets were made, when a house or the scene of an incident chanced to draw the supposed pilgrim aside. The perambulation of Yonge Street was extended to the Holland Landing, and even to Penetanguishene, the whole line of that lengthy route presenting points more or less noteworthy at short intervals. Finally a chapter on the Marine of the Harbour was decided on, the boats and vessels of the place, their owners and commanders, entering, as is natural, so largely into the retrospect of the inhabitants of a Port.

Although the imposing bulk of the volume may look like evidence to the contrary, it has been our ambition all along not to incur the reproach of prolixity. We have endeavoured to express whatever we had to say as concisely as we could. Several narratives have been disregarded which probably, in some quarters, will be sought for here. But while anxious to present as varied and minute a picture as possible of the local Past, we considered it inexpedient to chronicle anything that was unduly trivial. Thus if we have not succeeded in being everywhere piquant, we trust we shall be found nowhere unpardonably dull: an achievement of some merit, surely, when our material, comprising nothing that was exceptionally romantic or very grandly heroic, is considered. And a first step has, as we conceive, been taken towards generating for Toronto, for many of its streets and byways, for many of its nooks and corners, and its neighbourhood generally, a certain modic.u.m of that charm which, springing from a.s.sociation and popular legend, so delightfully invests, to the prepared and sensitive mind, every square rood of the old lands beyond the sea.

It will be proper, after all, however, perhaps to observe, that the reader who expects to find in this book a formal history of even Toronto of Old, will be disappointed. It was no part of the writer's design to furnish a narrative of every local event occurring in the periods referred to, with chronological digests, statistical tables, and catalogues exhibiting in full the Christian names and surnames of all the first occupants of lots. For such information recourse must be had to the offices of the several public functionaries, munic.i.p.al and provincial, where whole volumes in folio, filled with the desired particulars, will be found.

We have next gratefully to record our obligations to those who during the composition of the following pages encouraged the undertaking in various ways. Especial thanks are due to the a.s.sociation of Pioneers, whose names are given in detail in the Appendix, and who did the writer the honour of appointing him their Historiographer. Before a.s.semblages more or less numerous, of this body, large abstracts of the Collections and Recollections here permanently garnered, were read and discussed.

Several of the members of this society, moreover, gave special _seances_ at their respective homes for the purpose of listening to portions of the same. Those who were so kind as to be at the trouble of doing this were the Hon. W. P. Howland, C. B., Lieutenant-Governor; the Rev. Dr.

Richardson; Mr. J. G. Worts (twice); Mr. R. H. Oates; Mr. James St.i.tt; Mr. J. T. Smith; Mr. W. B. Phipps (twice).--The Canadian Inst.i.tute, by permitting the publication in its Journal of successive instalments of these papers, contributed materially to the furtherance of the work, as without the preparation for the press from time to time which was thus necessitated, it is possible the volume itself, as a completed whole, would never have appeared. To the following gentlemen we are indebted for the use of papers or books, for obliging replies to queries, and for items of information otherwise communicated:--Mr. W. H. Lee of Ottawa; Judge Jarvis of Cornwall; Mr. T. J. Preston of Yorkville; Mr. W.

h.e.l.liwell of the Highland Creek; the late Col. G. T. Denison of Rusholme, Toronto; Mr. M. F. Whitehead of Port Hope; Mr. Devine of the Crown Lands Department; Mr. H. J. Jones of the same Department; Mr.

Russel Inglis of Toronto; Mr. J. G. Howard of Toronto; the Rev. J. Carry of Holland Landing; Major McLeod of Drynoch; the Rev. George Hallen of Penetanguishene; the Ven. Archdeacon Fuller of Toronto; Mr. G. A. Barber of Toronto; Mr. J. T. Kerby of Niagara; the Rev. Saltern Givins of Yorkville; the Rev. A. Sanson of Toronto; the Rev. Dr. McMurray of Niagara; the Rev. Adam Elliott of Tuscarora; Mr. H. J. Morse of Toronto; Mr. W. Kirby of Niagara; Mr. Morgan Baldwin of Toronto; Mr. J. McEwan of Sandwich; Mr. W. D. Campbell of Quebec; Mr. T. Cottrill Clarke of Philadelphia.--Mrs. Ca.s.sidy of Toronto kindly allowed the use of two (now rare) volumes, published in 1765, by her near kinsman, Major Robert Rogers. Through Mr. Homer Dixon of the Homewood, Toronto, a long loan of the earliest edition of the first _Gazetteer_ of Upper Canada was procured from the library of the Young Men's Christian a.s.sociation of Toronto.--The Rev. Dr. Ryerson, Chief Superintendent of Education, and Dr. Hodgins, Deputy Superintendent, courteously permitted an unrestricted access to the Departmental Library, rich in works of special value to any one prosecuting researches in early Canadian history. To Mr. G. Mercer Adam we are much beholden for a careful, friendly interest taken in the typographical execution and fair appearance generally of the volume.

The two portraits which, in no mere conventional sense, enrich the work, were engraved from miniatures very artistically drawn for the purpose, from original paintings never before copied, in the possession of Capt.

J. K. Simcoe, R. N., of Wolford, in the County of Devon.

The circulation to be expected for a book like the present must be chiefly local. Nevertheless, it is to be presumed that there are persons scattered up and down in various parts of Canada and the United States, who, having been at some period of their lives familiar with Toronto, and retaining still a kindly regard for the place, will like to possess such a memorial of it in the olden time as is here offered. And even in the old home-countries across the Atlantic--England, Scotland and Ireland--there are probably members of military and other families once resident at Toronto, to whom such a reminder of pleasant hours, as it is hoped, pa.s.sed there, will not be unacceptable. For similar reasons the book, were its existence known, would be welcome here and there in Australia and New Zealand, and other colonies and settlements of England.

In an attempt to narrate so many particulars of time, place, person and circ.u.mstance, it can scarcely be hoped that errors have been wholly avoided. It is earnestly desired that any that may be detected will be adverted to with kindness and charity, and not in a carping tone.

Unfairly, sometimes, a slip discovered, however trivial, is emphatically dwelt on, to the ignoring of almost all the points in respect of which complete accuracy has been secured, at the cost of much painstaking.

Conscious that our aim throughout has been to be as minutely correct as possible, we ask for consideration in this regard. A certain slight variety which will perhaps be noticed in the orthography of a few Indian and other names is to be attributed to a like absence of uniformity in the doc.u.ments consulted. While the forms which we ourselves prefer will be readily discerned, it was not judged advisable everywhere to insist on them.

10 Trinity Square, Toronto, June 4th, 1873.

INTRODUCTORY.

In French colonial doc.u.ments of a very respectable antiquity, we meet with the name Toronto again and again. It is given as an appellation that is well-known, and its form in the greater number of instances is exactly that which it has now permanently a.s.sumed, but here and there its orthography varies by a letter or two, as is usually the case with strange terms when taken down by ear. In a Memoir on the state of affairs in Canada, transmitted to France in 1686, by the Governor in Chief of the day, the Marquis de Denonville, the familiar word appears.

Addressing the Minister de Seignelay, the Marquis says: ”The letters I wrote to Sieurs du Lhu and de la Durantaye, of which I sent you copies, will inform you of my orders to them to fortify the two pa.s.sages leading to Michilimaquina. Sieur du Lhu is at that of the Detroit of Lake Erie, and Sieur de la Durantaye at that of the portage of Toronto. These two posts” the marquis observes, ”will block the pa.s.sage against the English, if they undertake to go again to Michilimaquina, and will serve as retreats to the savages our allies either while hunting or marching against the Iroquois.”

Again, further on in the same Despatch, Denonville says: ”I have heard that Sieur du Lhu is arrived at the post of the Detroit of Lake Erie, with fifty good men well-armed, with munitions of war and provisions and all other necessaries sufficient to guarantee them against the severe cold, and to render them comfortable during the whole winter on the spot where they will entrench themselves. M. de la Durantaye is collecting people to entrench himself at Michilimaquina and to occupy the other pa.s.s which the English may take by Toronto, the other entrance to lake Huron. In this way” the marquis a.s.sures de Seignelay, ”our Englishmen will have somebody to speak to. All this, however,” he reminds the minister, ”cannot be accomplished without considerable expense, but still” he adds, ”we must maintain our honour and our prosperity.”

Du Lhu and de la Durantaye here named were the French agents or superintendents in what was then the Far West. Du Lhu is the same person whose name, under the form of Duluth, has become in recent times so well known, as appertaining to a town near the head of Lake Superior, destined in the future to be one of the great Railway Junctions of the continent, like Buffalo or Chicago.

The Englishmen for whom M. de Denonville desired an instructive reception to be prepared were some of the people of Governor Dongan of the province of New York. Governor Dongan either could not or would not restrain his people from poaching for furs on the French King's domain.

When Denonville wrote his despatch in 1686 some of these illicit traders had been recently seen in the direction of Michilimackinac, having pa.s.sed up by the way of Lake Erie. To intercept them on their return, the Marquis reports that he has stationed ”a bark, some canoes and twenty good men” at the river communicating from Lake Erie with that of Ontario near Niagara, by which place the English who ascended Lake Erie must of necessity pa.s.s on their return home with their peltries. ”I regard, Monseigneur,” continues Denonville to the minister, ”as of primary importance the prohibition of this trade to the English, who, without doubt, would entirely ruin ours both by the cheaper bargains they could give the Indians, and by attracting to them the Frenchmen of our colony who are accustomed to go into the woods.” Governor Dongan was also always holding communications with the Iroquois and spiriting them on to resist French encroachments. He even audaciously a.s.serted that his own sovereign--it soon became doubtful who that was, whether James II.