Part One 1806 - 1850 Captain Samuel Smith - 1806
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(Constantine Leimic, Artist, 1976) Artist, Leimic, (Constantine Part One 1806 - 1850 Captain Samuel Smith - 1806 Colonel Samuel Smith (Region of Peel Archives, Perkins Bull Collection) 3 aptain Samuel Bois Smith (b.1756, d.1826) was one of the first people to receive land grants in Toronto Township. He was granted part of Lots 3 and 4, Con. 2, South Dundas Street (SDS), and Lots 3, 4 and 5, Con. 3, on August 11,1806, for his work with the Queen’s RangersC on building roads and government buildings in the province. He bought Lots 6 and 7, Con. 3, from Thomas Lucas. Smith leased out his properties to incoming settlers, who did not qualify for grants. When he passed away, his son, Samuel, later purchased Lot 2, the rest of 3 and 5, and by 1872 he had sold all these properties. The Smiths owned approximately 800 acres (320 ha) in Toronto Township. Captain Smith had been born in Long Island, New York, and during the American Revolution (1775-1783), he had served with the Queens Rangers Loyalist Corp under Colonel John Graves Simcoe, Etobicoke Map of Colonel Smith Tract who became the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada in 1791. As Captain-in-command of the Second Division of the newly formed Queen’s Rangers, he accompanied his commander to Upper Canada. He would become Lieutenant Colonel, major in command of the Queens Rangers at Fort York. Part One 1806 - 1850 4 Etobicoke Map, 1999 (Waterfront Generation Trust) This group of soldiers were skilled craftsmen, carpenters, black- He was the first Etobicoke settler and he had acquired grants of smiths, masons and the much needed axemen, who would open up 1,530 acres (622 ha) there that stretched from Dundas Street to Lake the new country for incoming pioneers of their day. They were to con- Ontario. He built a house below the Lake Shore Road in 1805, where struct public buildings and open roadways and they were well reward- his descendants resided until Colonel Samuel Smith Jr. sold the last ed with land grants. 500 acres (202 ha) to James Eastwood in 1871. The property con- Under Simcoe’s direction Smith and his 100 Queen’s Rangers tained the old Colonel’s original homestead that remained intact until worked on Dundas Street, referred to as the Governor’s Road, from 1955. Burlington Bay to the Thames River, with surveyor Augustus Jones in Colonel Samuel Smith is remembered by a park at the bottom of September, 1793. Kipling Avenue named in his honour. Lakeview: Journey From Yesterday The Shaw Family - 1816 5 Shaw Homestead (Region of Peel Archives, Perkins Bull Collection) hey came to America in 1808 to reside in Westchester County, New York, where they developed West Farms. Disillusioned WILLIAM SHAW WAS BORN IN 1779 TO JOSEPH AND Tafter the War of 1812, they left the United States for Upper Isabel Noodle Shaw in Garsdale Parish, Sedburgh, Yorkshire, Canada in 1816 when William leased Lot 12, Con. 2, SDS, a Clergy England. He married Ann Robinson (b.1776, d.1849) in Kirby Reserve in Toronto Township. He was a blacksmith by trade. Not Lonsdale Church, Westmoreland, on March 18, 1800. They had enjoying the desolation, the family returned to Westchester in 1820, five sons, Joseph (1801-1850), Thomas, William, Benjamin and leaving 19 year old Joseph to take care of their property. They James Robinson and a daughter, Hannah. returned in 1831 with their two sons, Thomas and James. Part One 1806 - 1850 On February 18, 1850, James received another 100 acres (40 ha) that Joseph had farmed these many years as a grant and on April 30, 1852, the remaining 25 acres (10 ha). James did not farm but hired help and continued his work as a smithy and wheelwright. William Jr., who had joined his family, purchased his brother James’ original 75 acres (30 ha) on February 18, 1850, nephew Joseph, 50 acres (20 ha) in 1856 and Benjamin, 50 acres in 1857. James and his family moved to Port Credit where he operated a gen- eral store. James was an altruistic man, who assisted people with their health problems. He even pulled teeth. The money he was paid, he generously donated to the Methodist Church, to which he was ded- icated. Mary Jane died at age 55 in 1880. James passed away in 1907 at 96 years of age. Both are buried in the family plot at the Dixie Union Church Cemetery. Several acres (hectares) of the northern portion of the Shaw property was sold to Benjamin Lynd on April 30, 1891. He had married James’ daughter, Ida, in 1880, and they had Leda, 1881, Garnet, 1882, Lemuel, 1884, Gough, 1885, Ida, 1888, and Lloyd, 1893. Reverend Garnet Lynd, a United Church minister, and his brother, 6 Mary Jane and James Shaw (Region of Peel Archives) Gough, inherited the property east of Kenmuir Avenue and put in a subdivision they called Lyndwood Upon their return, son James Robinson (1811-1907) opened a Gardens. They named the streets blacksmith shop on their property and also made a liniment called after their children, Garnet and Fester Oil, which he sold to his neighbours.He received a 75 acre Leda. Garnet named one street (30 ha) grant of Lot 12 on November 9, 1837. He married Jane Lynd Avenue and he built a house Polley, who died within a year and he took a second wife, Mary Jane there. He was a minister for 48 Thompson (1825-1880) in 1842. They had eleven children, William, years and died in May, 1961. 1844, John, 1847, Hannah (1850-1872), Emily, 1857, Ida, 1859, On October 13, 1920, Plan F-20 James, 1862, Alice, 1863, Jessie (1865- was registered for a subdivision of 1887), and Rosetta, 1873. A John and 97.7 acres (39.5 ha) of the Shaw James died in infancy. grant by E. T. Stephens. According William died in 1833 and was buried in to a couple of sources the company the Union Chapel cemetery on Dundas that subdivided the property into Street in the area that would become 321 - 30 and 50 foot (9 m-15 m) Dixie in 1867. His wife, Ann, passed lots for Stephens was Bowes and away in 1849 and son Joseph in 1850. Rev. Garnet Lynd Bowes. The property was pur- chased by Stephens from William Shaw’s executor, Joseph Morgan. James Robinson Shaw He called it Maywood Gardens. It went from the Lake Shore Road to (Mississauga Library System) the Middle Road (QEW). Lakeview: Journey From Yesterday The remaining Shaw acreage would change hands over the years with owners such as Richard and John Richey. In 1948, it was sold for urban development. Cedar Heights Construction would build the rest of the area up and 6.28 acres (2.5 ha) would become the location of the Canadian Admiral Corporation in 1951. Stephens named all the streets from Shaw Drive, named in remem- brance of the original owners of Lot 12, and Enola Avenue, to Trotwood and Kenmuir Avenues. Memories “James Robinson married Mary Jane Thompson, who was born in York in 1825. Jane’s mother died when she was young and her father remarried; she did not get along with her stepmother, being very unhappy, so when she was 15 years old Grandpa Shaw and her brother Thomas abducted 7 Jane from her home in Scarboro. They went by canoe and when returning were overtaken by a storm in crossing the Humber River, being forced to take refuge in Mimico Creek. The canoe was completely wrecked and they walked six miles to the Shaw home on the Lake Shore Road. Jane kept house for her brother and Grandpa Shaw until she was 17 and then she and James were married.” Interview with Kathleen Lynd Lye, November, 1987 By Verna Mae Weeks for her book on Lakeview Lot 12, 1923 (Frank Slater) Part One 1806 - 1850 The First Church Services - 1825 THE FIRST CHURCH SERVICES IN THE he Watsons’ home was used for church services until Wesley Lakeview area were held in 1825 at the home of sold his property to George Heap for £300 ($750) in TSeptember, 1857. It is believed that his barn was moved to Wesley Watson. The Watsons had settled here in Meadowvale Village by Harold South in 1920 (torn down in 2001). 1812, having travelled from New York State. Wesley He died in 1867. worked other settlers’ land, until he purchased 40 acres (16 ha) of Lot 11, Con. 3, south of the Lake Shore Road on June 10, 1831, for £50 ($125) from Kings College and initiated his own farm. When the Methodist circuit rider came through his territory, he used the Watson’s house to preach his sermon to an eager congregation of local farmers. Upper Canada was divided into seven Methodist 8 Episcopal circuits. Toronto Township was included in the circuit along the Lake Shore Road from Pickering to Trafalgar. Early church services were conducted by Home District circuit riders, some- times referred to as saddlebag preachers, who rode their horses from one community to another, preach- ing wherever a home was open to them. The first marriage in Toronto Township was Thomas Ingersoll’s 27 year old daughter, Elizabeth, to 35 year old Reverend Daniel Pickett, on January 15, 1806. Rev. Luther Bishop conducted the service at the Government Inn, operated by Thomas since 1805. Daniel Pickett had the circuit rider run along the Lake Shore Road and he lived at the Government Inn. (Mississauga South Peel Historical Society) Lakeview: Journey From Yesterday NEWS ITEM Preaching With Passion This month marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of John Wesley, founding genius of the Methodist Movement.