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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SHERIDAN POLLARDS IN WHAT IS NOW PEEL, HALTON AND TORONTO, ONTARIO by David L. Pollard, August 1991 (updated February 2000) [email protected] Purpose of this History One of the objectives of this report is to fill in the gaps in the family genealogy prepared by Maurice Pollard and updated since by several of the Sheridan Pollards, most recently Earle Brock Pollard of Winnipeg, Paul Plante of Brampton ([email protected]) and Chris Landry of Burlington ([email protected]). The genealogy file is stored on the Family Tree Maker site at http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/p/o/l/David-L-Pollard/. More importantly, however, I wanted to convey something of the personalities and lifestyle of the Sheridan Pollards, since so many of the family and area histories tend to be long on glorification of individuals (notably Barnett's history of the Clarksons) and on quaint quotations, and short on honest portrayal of just what pioneer life in Upper Canada was really like. The Sheridan Pollards can be credited with some notable "firsts" in this part of Canada, but otherwise lived unspectacular but courageous and typical lives for the times. Their story is the story of most of the pioneer families of the times: a struggle against a harsh and heavily-forested wilderness, and a life of resettlement in a strange new land where community life and cooperation was not only the only alternative to loneliness and isolation, it was essential to their very survival. The Sheridan Pollards are the descendants of Joshua Pollard Sr., a United Empire Loyalist who left his parents and siblings in the Billerica, Massachusetts area (near Boston) near the turn of the 18th century. Upper Canada prior to 1811 - a Geographic Overview Prior to 1788, Upper Canada was merely a part of the Province of Quebec, and its central region was called the Nassau or Home District. When Upper Canada was established in 1788, the central region consisted of 4 counties (see Exhibit 1). From East to West they were: • York (including Toronto), • Peel (now comprising, from North to South, Town of Caledon, City of Brampton, City of Mississauga), • Halton (including Oakville) and • Hamilton-Wentworth The counties were broken into several townships as shown Exhibit 1, each of which had several pioneer villages. The Pollard homestead was in the centre of a triangle of 3 villages in the Southern or Old Survey part of Toronto Township: • Springfield (later called Credit or Erindale) to the Northeast, at the junction of Dundas Street and the Credit River, • Clarkson's Corners (later shortened to Clarkson) to the Southeast at the junction of the Railway and Clarkson Road, and • Sheridan (originally called Hammondville) to the West, at the junction of the Peel-Halton county line and Middle Road (now QEW). Toronto Township (now principally Mississauga) should not be confused with the City of Toronto well to the East. The village of Credit (now Erindale) should not be confused with Port Credit, the village at the mouth of the Credit River to the Southeast. In 1806 there was only one non-Indian dwelling in the area, the Government Stopping House at the mouth of the Credit River. In 1806 a survey was conducted breaking the South part of what was then called Toronto Township Old Survey into 200-acre lots. By 1811 there were about 40- 50 families in the Township, with the major concentration being 13 families in the Southwest corner (the Clarkson/Sheridan/Erindale area) and the next largest 7-8 on Dundas Street just East of what is now Erindale, on the other side of the Indian Reservation straddling the Credit River (see Exhibit 3). The First 13 Families in Southwest Toronto Township The original families each received a full 200-acre lot consisting of a (usually) rectangular lot designated by lot # and Concession # (see Exhibits 2-3). They were: Concession I South Lot 28-31 Joshua Pollard Sr. (pie-shaped lot) Lot 32 John Utter Lot 33 Peter Conover (formerly Coenhaven) Lot 34 Asa Patrick Lot 35 Charles Cameron Concession II South Lot 29 Peter Hess Lot 30 Benjamin Monger Lot 31 David Hibbs Lot 34 Sebastian Greeniaus Concession III South Lot 26 Christian Hendershott Lot 27 John Marlatt Lot 28 Lewis Bradley Lot 35 Henry Gable Sr. Concession I South was bounded on the North by Dundas Street, then a dirt trail opened in 1806 (Governor Simcoe's original military road to Hamilton & Windsor), graveled in 1836. Between Concession I and II ran the Middle Road or Commissioners' Road, also a dirt trail, carved out by the above families foot by foot. The Lakeshore Road between Concessions II and III was built later so the early Concession III owners probably traveled mainly by water on their Lake Ontario frontages. The first North-South road, other than the mandated sideroads carved out by the pioneers between every 5 lots as required in the initial survey, was what is now called Clarkson Road (between lots 28-29). Until then, travel to the Spring Creek grave-ground and other areas to the South was across farmers' fields. The Indian Trail running diagonally from the mouth of the Credit was the only other road in the area. See Exhibit 3. Other Families of early Toronto Township New arrivals of note over the next few years were Concession I South Lot 12-14 (Indian Lands adjacent to Lots 28-29 ceded by Indians in the 1820's): Oughtreds, Cables, Teeters, Cordinglys and Hammonds Lot 28-29 Shooks Lot 31 Falconers (north part) Lot 32 Adamsons, Mitchells Lot 33-35 Adamsons, Camerons, Boyes Lot 35 Long's Shoe Store (Sheridan village) Concession II South Lot 26 Carthews Lot 27-28 Harrises, Clarksons, Peels Lot 29-30 Proctors, Morgans, Cavans, Clarksons, Bowbeers, Shooks, Stewarts and Wards Lot 31-32 Johnsons, Adamsons, Hemphills, Specks, and Utters Lot 33 Clarks, Kellys, Greenlaus', Ryersons, Munns Lot 34 Marlatts and Marshalls Lot 35 Wills, Clarks and Shunks Concession III South Lot 27 Oliphants and Slades Lot 28 Merrigolds, Uphams, Hepwoods and Masons Lot 29-30 Oliphants, Mclntoshes, Taylors, Orrs, and Bush's Inn Lot 31-32 Evans', Hammonds1 Bredins Lot 33-34 Orrs, Cordinglys, Oliphants Lot 35 Robertsons and Hammonds Directly adjacent to Lot 35 was the Township of Trafalgar, now part of Halton County, which included the Village of Oakville. Some families had properties on both sides of the county line. The Arrival of Joshua Pollard Sr. Joshua Pollard Sr., a United Empire Loyalist, and member of the Billerica branch of the Pollards (descended from Thomas Pollard who settled in Billerica, Massachusetts from Warwickshire, England in about 1692) was born in 1772 in Harvard, Massachussetts. He moved to Canada somewhere between 1792 and 1808. He move first to Saltfleet, Ontario (now Stony Creek, Hamilton), and then, after a brief period as squatters near King & Bay Streets (fairly commonplace procedure in those days prior to being awarded a land grant), to Sheridan. He received a pie-shaped parcel of land of 200 acres from the Government in the Toronto Township Old Survey 1st Concession S. Lots 28-31, on petition on August 8, 1808. Ontario Archive #01C14003030 dated October 2511808 applies to this land. It is on what is called Middle Road or Commissioners' Road (now Queen Elizabeth Way or more precisely between the QEW and the North Sheridan Way service road adjacent thereto). On August 15, 1810 he signed off on the certificate granting final title to the property, acknowledging that he had "proved up" i.e. completed the requirements of building, fencing and clearing sufficient of the property as required by law at that time (see Exhibit 4). The house was frame and log construction and twice the normal size (it was 38' by 26'), speculatively because of his intention to include an Inn on the premises once construction of Middle Road permitted it. The house was built near the road at the South end of Lot 30. The new arrivals in Toronto Township came from three general areas. The largest group, including the Merigolds, came from the Maritimes; they traveled together and each helped the others "proving up" i.e. clearing and fencing their properties. A second group came from the Pennsylvania area (including the Shooks and Mongers), while the Pollards and a few others came from Massachusetts. The two latter groups were United Empire Loyalists, though none of them is listed in the official UEL membership list, probably because none of their descendants bothered to go through the process of admission (it is not automatic). The latter two groups also helped each other in the proving up process e.g. Henry Shook helped Joshua Pollard clear his property and build his home, and vice versa (see Exhibit 4). At the time, the area was uncleared and heavily forested wilderness (see photo of Orr Rd in Exhibit 5h). The concession and side roads were cleared foot by foot to meet the requirements of settling up as the homes were built. Five acres (about 200,000 sf) then had to be cleared on each lot, about 2.5% of the grant area, with rudimentary tools. The home had to meet minimum size requirements (300-400 sf), and was usually built of frame and log construction. Then the job of clearing additional land for crops began. Geographic accident left the Toronto Township Old Survey with land considerably less arable than the areas to the North, which probably accounts for their slower growth despite their earlier history—the first villages formally incorporated in Peel were Brampton and Streetsville, and Brampton was for years the capital of the region and its largest town.

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