~Uf ~ ':)\ =t . \~~<± T5 "!) \~.\:d­ B" TORONTO PUBLIC LIBRARY. Refel'e nee Departm ent , THIS BOOK MUST NOT BE TAKEN OUT OF THE ROO M. ;l[lLN-BlXGHAM Pl<ESS, TOIlON'l'O ~ ~I .1----------------------________________________________________________________________ • GREATER TORONTO ILLUSTRATED Published for the Department of Industries and Information about Toronto will be furnished on Publicity by Ernest E. Fligg and Albert E. Hacker application to JOSEPH E. THOMPSON, Co.:o­ at Nos. 6,8 and 10 Johnson Street, Toronto, Canada missioner, City Hall, Toronto, Canada [J .0 0 .--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------~~-------. ?~~~~~:~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~ 1~t ~f ¥!~U~~~~t g~ g~~~~~: ~:~ ~~: ~~~~ g~~ i:~~~~~~~~ ~i;~~ t!~~g;~g ::~~ ~~~r~n, ~;~ J€:~~:~~'~: ~: ~l~::~~: ~~ ~~: E~~~!t~~;!~i ~~ 1~~~~~~~~~~· Entered a,ceol'din~ to Ad of Pa.rliament of CnlHtlln, ill 1.he yea,r One Thousand Nine Hundred l:tlld Eight. by Ern-a;;;']' E. I~LIG(., at thl' Departnu>:nt of Agllcullure. Entered aceol'ding tu Act uf Parliament of CalHtcta, in the year One Thousand Nine Hundred and Nine, hy ERNEST E. FJ .. wc" at the Department of Af,rl1('ulture. i;tntnrtral ~lt~tr4 nf ~r~at~r IDnrnutn REATER TORONTO, the capital city of Ontario, In the period intervening between the destruction of the fort the centenary of whose foundation was held in and the settlement of the town, the fur trade continued to be very !884, occupies a position which was of great valuable, and it is said £ 1,000 was offered by traders for a season's Importance long before the advent of the white monopoly, as far back as 1767. race, at a time when the entire Province was The termination of the American Revolution and the declaration covered with a dense hardwood forest, pene­ of independence was followed by the expulsion of the United trated only in a few directions by the Indian Empire Loyalists, many of whom settled in Upper Canada. Some trails. i ' of these settlers found their way to the vicinity of Toronto and The site of Toronto was the termination of civilized settlement then had its beginning. At that time the eyes the most import<\nt of these trails which sup­ of the Imperial officials were cast on it as a suitable site for the plied the shortest and most convenient road future capital of Ontario. Surveyor-General Collins reported it between Lake Huron and Lake Ontario. The in 1788 as possessing a capacious, safe, and well-sheltered harbor. name itself is of Huron origin and means a The Surveyor-General at Lower Canada, Colonel Bouchette who "place of meeting," a term applied to the neigh­ conducted extensive surveys in the western lakes, wrote approv­ borhood of Lake Simcoe, which was the northern ingly of it, giving among other information the following interest­ end of the first stage on the great portage. ing description of it: "I distinctly recollect the untamed aspect In course of time the name has been transferred which the country exhibited when first I entered the beautiful from the neighborhood of Lake Simcoe to the southern basin. Dense and trackless forests lined the margin of the lake end of the trail. It was by this road that the Six Nation and reflected their inverted images in its glassy surface. Th~ Indians passed, during the middle of the seventeenth century, wandering savage had constructed his ephemeral habitation beneath through to the present County of Simcoe, and in a series of bloody their luxuriant foliage-the group then consisted of two families conflicts almost entirely exterminated the Huron Indians. At the of Mississaugas-and the many neighboring marshes were the time of the conquest of Canada the Province was occupied by hitherto uninvaded haunts of immense convoys of wild fowl." the Mississaugas, a branch of the Algonquin people. Its situation certainly commended it as a convenient and safe place During the latter part of the seventeenth and the beginning of for the capital of the Province, and when Lieut.-Col. John Graves the eighteenth century, the fight for the fur trade with the Indians Simcoe, the first Governor of Upper Canada, came to the conclusion was maintained with great vigor between the English from Albany that Newark, as Niagara-on-the-Lake was then called, was unsuit­ and the French from Montreal. The control by the French of able for the seat of Government, on account of its proximity to the the trade passing by the Niagara River led the English to establish United States' border and its not being central enough for Pro­ a fort at Oswego for the purpose of gaining the traffic from the vincial purposes, he had no difficulty in selecting Toronto as the Northwest, and as a counterstroke a French trading-post was place best suited for his capital. established in 1749 on the site of Toronto, which was named Fort Accordingly he did so choose and promptly made a journey Rouille, after the French Colonial Minister. It was situated on by water, to lay the foundation of the new town, accompanied by the lake shore in what is now the western part of the city, and its his officers of state and a detachment of the Queen's Rangers. site is marked by an obelisk in the southwest corner of the The town plan was very simple, and was in the form of a parallelo­ Exhibition grounds. gram, the street area being bounded on the west by George Street, In 1758 the threatened attacks on Quebec, Montreal and NIagara on the south by Palace Street, on the east by Ontario Street, and by the English forces under Wolfe and Amherst compelled the on the north by Duchess Street. At this interval of time it is Governor of Canada, M. de Vaudreuil, to withdraw his force from worth recalling the meaning of the early street nomenclature of the smaller forts, and under his instruction Fort Rouille was the city. George Street was named after George, Prince of Wales burned in 1759. (George IV.), Duchess Street after the Duchess of York, the King's daughter-in-law, Frederick Street after the Duke of York, he who designed the city arms and motto: "Industry, Intelligence, Caroline Street after Queen Caroline, then Princess of Wales, Integrity." Y onge Street after Sir Frederick Y onge, Secretary of State for Here it may be proper, as it surely will be interesting, to give War. Governor Simcoe changed the name of the new town from the names of the Chief Magistrates who have ruled the city since Toronto to York, and for many years it was so known. its incorporation, viz.: r834, William Lyon Mackenzie; r835, At the beginning of this century the town had taken form and Robert Baldwin Sullivan; r836, Thos. D. Morrison, M.D.; r837, was spreading its buildings over the fairly large area laid out. George Gurnett; r838-40, John Powell; r84r, George Munro; r842-44, Public buildings were erected and others were projected and resi­ Hon. Henry Sherwood, Q.c.; r845-47, William Henry Boulton; dence.s sprung up in goodly proportion and architectural variety. r848-50, George Gurnett; r85r-53; John George Bowes; r854, Joshua At this period the town was twice captured by the Americans. Geo. Beard; r855, George W. Allan; r856, John Beverley Robinson; It surrendered in r8r3 to General Pike, when the Houses of r857, John Hutchison; 1858, William Henry Boulton and David B. Parliament and the records were burned and much damage inflicted Read, Q.C.; r859-60, Adam Wilson, Q.C.; r86r-63, John George on property; and three months later the town was taken by the Bowes; r864-66, Francis H. Medcalf; r867-68, James E. Smith; American fleet under Commodore Chauncey. The social and r869-70, Samuel B. Harman; r871-72, Joseph Sheard; r873, Alex­ commercial life of the town was progressing very rapidly, but in ander Manning; r874-75, Francis H. Medcalf; r876-r878, Angus this brief sketch cannot be dealt with. Some of the leading men, Morrison, Q.C.; r879-80, James Beaty, Jr., Q.C.; r88r-82, W. however, may be mentioned and their names will revive the scenes Barclay McMurrich; r883-84, Arthur R. Boswell; r885, Alexander in which they moved as controlling actors. Manning; r886-87, William H. Howland; r888-9r Edward F. Clarke; Following Simcoe as Governor were Peter Russell, Peter r892-93, Robert J. Fleming; r894-95, Warring Kennedy; r896, Hunter, Sir Francis Gore, Sir Isaac Brock, and contemporary Robert J. Fleming; r897, Robert J. Fleming and John Shaw; were Baldwin, Jarvis, Robinson, Powell, Osgoode, Small, Hager­ r898-99, John Shaw; 1900, Ernest A. Macdonald; r90r-2, Oliver A. man, Chuwett, Draper, Ridout, Boulton, Bidwell, Allan, Shaw Howland, C.M.G.; r903-4-5, Thos. Urquhart; r906-7, Emerson and Denison. One figure stands out pre-eminent in the person Coatsworth; r908-9, Joseph Oliver. of Bishop Strachan, the sturdy Aberdonian, who was an ecclesiastic At the date of its incorporation, the population of Toronto was and statesman who left his mark on the events of the day as prob­ under ro,ooo and the ratable property within the city limits did not ably no one else did. Meanwhile the town grew and prospered. exceed three-quarters of a million dollars. The western boundary Successful business enterprises were established, churches built, was Peter Street and the city did not extend beyond the Don. schools provided, and colleges for the higher branches of education There were few buildings to the north of Queen Street, then founded. The printing press poured forth its broadsheets and known as Lot Street, the primeval forest being still uncut and "Y ork," then as now, was the Provincial centre of political agitation uncleared on the northern border.