Toronto of Old Part 38

For Mile No. 33 we have the entry. "Course do. (N. 9 W.) 80 chains; descended; at 10 chains, small creek; cross aforesaid small creek; at 30, several cedars to 35-50; at 33, creek about 30 links across, runs to left; at 80 chains, hemlock tree on the right bank small creek; hemlock, pine, a few oak; broken soil. At Mile 34, do., 53 chains to Pine tree marked at Landing; timber, yellow and white Pines; sandy soil; slight winds from the north; cloudy, cold weather."

The survey and opening of the Street from York bay to the Landing thus occupied forty-three days (January 4, to February 16). Three days sufficed for the return of the party to the place of beginning. The memoranda of these three days, and the following one, when Mr. Jones presented himself before the Governor, in the Garrison at York, run thus: "Wednesday, 17th, returned back to a small Lake at the twenty-first mile tree; pleasant weather, light winds from the west.

Thursday, 18th, came down to five mile tree from York; pleasant weather.

Friday, 19th, came to the town of York; busy entering some of my field notes; weather as before. Sat.u.r.day, 20th, went to Garrison, York, and waited on His Excellency the Governor, and informed him that Yonge Street is opened from York to the Pine Fort Landing, Lake Simcoe. As there is no provision to be had at the place," Mr. Jones proceeds, "His Excellency was pleased to say that I must return to Newark, and report to the Surveyor General, and return with him in April next, when the Executive will sit, and that my attendance would be wanted. Pleasant weather, light winds from the west."

The entry on the following Monday is this: "The hands busy at repairing (caulking) the boat to return to Burlington Bay, and thence to Newark; light winds from south, a few clouds. Tuesday, 23rd, high winds from the south-west hinder going on the Lake. Wednesday, 24th, high winds from the south drove a great quant.i.ty of ice into the harbour; obliged me to leave the boat and set out by land; went to the Etobic.o.ke. Thursday, 25th, came along the Lake to the 16 mile creek; winds left from south, thaw. Friday, 26th, came down to my house, Long Beach; calm, thaw," &c.

Then on Tuesday, the 1st of March, 1796, the entry is: "Came down to 12-mile creek; lame in my feet; high winds from N. W., frosty night.

Wednesday, 2nd, came down to Newark; some snow, calm, frosty weather.

Thursday, 3rd, busy entering some field notes; some snow, calm weather.

Friday, 4th, busy protracting Yonge Street; cold weather, high winds from N. W." Finally, on Monday, 7th March (1796), we have the entry: "Busy copying of Yonge Street; high winds from the north, cold, snow fell last night about six inches."

Some romance attaches to the history of Mr. Augustus Jones. We have his marriage mentioned in a _Gazette_ of 1798, in the following terms: "May 21, Married, at the Grand River, about three weeks since, A. Jones, Esq., Deputy Surveyor, to a young lady of that place, daughter of the noted Mohawk warrior, Terrihogah."--The famous Indian Wesleyan missionary, Peter Jones, called in the Indian tongue Kah-ke-wa-quo-na-by, Sacred Waving Feathers, was the issue of this marriage.

Peter Jones, in his published autobiography, thus speaks: "I was born at 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, towns.h.i.+ps 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 superst.i.tions of her fathers--how to gain the approbation of the Munedoos (or G.o.ds,) and how to become successful hunters. I used to blacken my face with charcoal, and fast, in order to obtain the aid of personal G.o.ds 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 towns.h.i.+p 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 doc.u.ment likewise throws light on the mode of laying out towns.h.i.+ps 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 Towns.h.i.+p of York (formerly Toronto), to be surveyed by Messrs. Aitken and Jones.--The front line of the front concession commences adjoining the towns.h.i.+p of Scarborough, (on No. 10), at a point known and marked by Mr. Jones, running S. 74 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 doc.u.ment 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 Sh.o.r.e.) "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 pa.s.sable 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 pa.s.s, 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 towns.h.i.+ps of King and Whitchurch. Of No. 1 in the towns.h.i.+p 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 towns.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+fting 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 pa.s.sed 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 doc.u.ments 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 towns.h.i.+p 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 a.s.sisting 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-s.e.xtant" supplied to him. He says: "Sir,--I beg you will have the goodness to send me by the bearer a Bush-s.e.xtant, 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 circ.u.mstance 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 c.o.c.krell, 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-pa.s.senger 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 quant.i.ty 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 ca.n.a.l 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 pa.s.s 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 pa.s.sing 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 n.o.ble 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 a.s.sociated 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.s 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 windla.s.s 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 pa.s.sed 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.