Part 44

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 passed 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.

This house used to be known as Olive Grove; and was originally built by Mr. Campbell, proprietor and manager of the Ontario House Hotel, in York, once before referred to; eminent in the Masonic body, and father of Mr. Stedman Campbell, a local barrister of note, who died early.

Mashquoteh to the left, situated a short distance in, on the north side of the road which enters Yonge Street here, is a colony transplanted from the neighbouring Spadina, being the home of Mr. W. Warren Baldwin, son of Dr. W. W. Baldwin, the builder of Spadina. "Mashquoteh" is the Ochipway for "meadow." We hear the same sounds in Longfellow's "Mushkoda-sa," which is, by interpretation, "prairie-fowl."

Deer Park, to the north of the road that enters here, but skirting Yonge Street as well, had that name given it when the property of Mrs. Heath, widow of Col. Heath of the H. E. I. Company's Service. On a part of this property was the house built by Colonel Carthew, once before referred to, and now the abode of Mr. Fisken. Colonel Carthew, a half-pay officer of Cornish origin, also made large improvements on property in the vicinity of Newmarket.

Just after Deer Park, to avoid a long ravine which lay in the line of the direct route northward, the road swerved to the left and then descended, passing over an embankment, which was the dam of an adjacent sawmill, a fine view of the interior of which, with the saw usually in active motion, was obtained by the traveller as he fared on. This was Michael Whitmore's sawmill.

Of late years the apex of the long triangle of Noman's land that for a great while lay desolate between the original and subsequent lines of Yonge Street, has been happily utilized by the erection thereon of a Church, Christ Church, an object well seen in the ascent and descent of the street. Anciently, very near the site of Christ Church, a solitary longish wooden building, fronting southward, was conspicuous; the abode of Mr. Hudson, a provincial land surveyor of mark. Looking back southward from near the front of this house, a fine distant glimpse of the waters of Lake Ontario used to be obtained, closing the vista made in the forest by Yonge Street.

Before reaching Whitmore's sawmill, while passing along the brow of the hill overlooking the ravine, which was avoided by the street as it ran in the first instance, there was to be seen at a little distance to the right, on some rough undulating ground, a house which always attracted the eye by its affectation of "Gothic" in the outline of its windows. On the side towards the public road it showed several obtuse-headed lancet lights. This peculiarity gave the building, otherwise ordinary enough, a slightly romantic air; it had the effect, in fact, at a later period, of creating for this habitation, when standing for a considerable while tenantless, the reputation of being haunted.

This house and the surrounding grounds constituted Springfield Park, the original Upper Canadian home of Mr. John Mills Jackson, an English gentleman, formerly of Downton in Wiltshire, who emigrated hither prior to 1806; but finding public affairs managed in a way which he deemed not satisfactory, he returned to England, where he published a pamphlet addressed to the King, Lords and Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, entitled, "A View of the Political Situation of the Province," a brochure that made a stir in Upper Canada, if not in England, the local House of Assembly voting it a libel.

Our Upper Canadian Parliament partially acquired the habit of decreeing reflections on the local government to be libels. Society in its infancy is apt to resent criticism, even when legitimate. Witness the United States and Mrs. Trollope. At the same time critics of infant society should be themselves sufficiently large-minded not to expect in infant society the perfection of society well developed, and to word their strictures accordingly.

In the preface to his pamphlet, which is a well-written production, Mr. Jackson gives the following account of his first connection with Canada and his early experience there:--"Having by right of inheritance," he says, "a claim to a large and very valuable tract of land in the Province of Quebec, I was induced to visit Lower Canada for the purpose of investigating my title; and being desirous to view the immense lakes and falls in Upper Canada, where I had purchased some lands previous to my leaving England, I extended my travels to that country, with which I was so much pleased, that I resolved to settle on one of my estates, and expended a considerable sum on its improvement (the allusion is probably to Springfield Park); but considering neither my person nor property secure under the system pursued there, I have been obliged to relinquish the hope of its enjoyment."

The concluding sentences of his appeal will give an idea of the burden of his complaint. To his mind the colony was being governed exactly in the way that leads finally to revolt in colonies. The principles of the constitution guaranteed by the mother country were violated. One of his grievances was--not that a seventh of the public land had been set apart for an established Church, but--that "in seventeen years not one acre had been turned to any beneficial account; not a clergyman, except such as England pays or the Missionary Society sends (only five in number), without glebe, perquisite or parsonage house; and still fewer churches than ministers of the established religion."

He concludes thus: "I call upon you to examine the Journals of the House of Assembly and Legislative Council; to look at the distribution and use made of the Crown Lands; the despatches from the Lieutenant-Governor [Gore]; the memorials from the Provincial Secretary, Receiver-General and Surveyor-General; the remonstrances of the Six Nations of Indians; and the letters from Mr. Thorpe [Judge Thorpe], myself and others, on the state of the Colony, either to the Lords of the Treasury or to the Secretary of State. Summon and examine all the evidence that can be procured here (England), and, if more should appear necessary, send a commission to ascertain the real state of the Province. Then you will be confirmed in the truth of every representation I have made, and much more which, for the safety of individuals, I am constrained to withhold. Then you will be enabled to relieve England from a great burden, render the Colony truly valuable to the mother country, and save one of the most luxuriant ramifications of the Empire. You will perform the promise of the crown; you will establish the law and liberty directed by the (British) Parliament; and diffuse the Gospel of Christ to the utmost extremity of the West. You will do that which is honourable to the nation, beneficial to the most deserving subjects, and lovely in the sight of God."

This pamphlet is of interest as an early link (its date is 1809) in the catena of protests on the subject of Canadian affairs, from Whiggish and other quarters, culminating at last in Lord Durham's Report. Nevertheless, what the old French trader said of Africa--"Toujours en maudissant ce vilain pays, on y reviens toujours"--proved true in respect to Canada in the case of Mr. Jackson, as in the case likewise of several other severe critics of Canadian public affairs in later times. He returned and dwelt in the land after all, settling with his family on Lake Simcoe, where Jackson's Point and Jackson's Landing retain his name, and where descendants of his still remain.

Mr. Jackson had possessions likewise in the West Indies, and made frequent visits thither, as also to England, where at length he died in 1836. Up to about that date, we observe his name in the Commission of the Peace.

In the _Loyalist_ of May 24, 1828, a Biblical work by Mr. Jackson is advertised for sale at York. Thus runs the notice:--"Just received from England, and for sale at the book stores of Messrs. Meighan and Lesslie & Sons, York, a few volumes of 'The History from the Creation of the World to the death of Joshua, authenticated from the best authorities, with Notes, Critical, Philosophical, Moral and Explanatory: by John Mills Jackson, Esq., formerly Gentleman Commoner of Ball. Coll. in the University of Oxford.'" (Then follow laudatory notices of the work from private sources.)

Fifty years ago, in Canada, English families, whose habits and ideas were more in harmony with Bond Street than with the backwoods, had, in becoming morally acclimatised to the country, a tremendous ordeal to pass through: how they contrived to endure the pains and perils of the process is now matter of wonder.

One of Mr. Jackson's sons, Clifton, is locally remembered as an early example in these parts of the exquisite of the period--the era of the Prince Regent and Lord Byron. By extra-sacrificing to the Graces, at a time when _articles de cosmetique et de luxe_ generally were scarce and costly in Canada, he got himself into trouble.--In 1822 he had occasion to make his escape from "durance vile" in York, by opening a passage, one quiet Sunday morning, through the roof of the old jail. He was speedily pursued by Mr. Parker, the warden, and an associate, Mr. Garsides; overtaken at Albany, in the State of New York; apprehended under a feigned charge; and brought back to York. Among the inhabitants of some of the villages between Albany and Youngstown, a suspicion arose that a case of kidnapping was in progress, and Messrs. Parker and Garsides were exposed to risk of personal violence before they could reach the western bank of the Niagara river, with their prey. By a happy turn of affairs, a few years later, Mr. Clifton Jackson obtained a situation in the Home Colonial Office, with a good salary.

To distinguish Mr. Mills Jackson from another proprietor on Yonge Street, also called Jackson, the alliterative epithet, "Jacobin," was sometimes applied to him, in jocose allusion to his political principles, held by the official party to be revolutionary. In regard to the other Jackson, some such epithet as "Jacobin" would not have been inapplicable. On the invasion of Canada in 1812 by the United States, he openly avowed his sympathy with the invaders, and was obliged to fly the country. He was known and distinguished as "Hatter Jackson," from the business which he once followed. After the war he returned, and endeavoured, but in vain, to recover possession of the land on Yonge Street which he had temporarily occupied.

In the _Gazette_ of Nov. 11, 1807, we have Mr. Jackson's advertisement. Almost anticipating the modern "Hats that are Hats," it is headed "Warranted Hats," and then proceeds: "The subscriber, having established a hat manufactory in the vicinity of York on a respectable scale, solicits the patronage and support of the public. All orders will be punctually attended to, and a general assortment of warranted hats be continually kept at the store of Mr. Thomas Hamilton, in York. Samuel Jackson. Yonge Street, Nov. 10, 1807."

An earlier owner of the lot, at which we are now pausing, was Stillwell Wilson. In 1799, at the annual York Township meeting, held on the 4th March in that year at York, we find Stillwell Wilson elected one of the Overseers of Highways and Fence-viewers for the portion of Yonge Street from lot 26 to lot 40, in Markham and Vaughan. At the same meeting, Paul Wilcot is elected to the same office, "from Big Creek to No. 25, inclusive, and half Big Creek Bridge; and Daniel Dehart, from Big Creek to No. 1, inclusive, and half Big Creek Bridge." "The Big Creek" referred to was, as we suppose, the Don at Hogg's Hollow.

In 1821, Stillwell Wilson is landlord of the Waterloo House, in York, and is offering to let that stand; also to let or sell other valuable properties. In the _Gazette_ of March 25, 1820, we have his advertisement:--"For sale or to let, four improved farms on Yonge Street, composed of lots Nos. 20 and 30 on the west side, and 15 and 20 on the east side of the street, in the townships of York and Vaughan. These lands are so well known that they require no further encomiums than the virtues they possess. For title of which please apply to the subscriber at Waterloo House, York, the proprietor of said lands. P. S.--The noted stand known by the name of the Waterloo House, which the subscriber at present possesses, is also offered to be let on easy terms; as also an excellent Sawmill, in the third concession of the township of York, east of Yonge Street, only ten miles from town, on the west branch of the river Don. Stillwell Wilson."

In 1828, for moneys due apparently to Jairus Ashley, some of Stillwell's property has been seized. Under the editorial head of the _Loyalist_ of December 27th of that year, we find the following item:--"Sheriff's Sale.--At the Court House, in the Town of York, on Saturday, 31st January next, will be sold, Lot No. 30, in the first Concession of the Township of Vaughan, taken in execution as belonging to Stillwell Wilson, at the suit of Jairus Ashley. Sale to commence at 12 o'clock noon."

In our chapter on the Early Marine of York, we shall meet with Stillwell Wilson again. We shall then find him in command of a slip-keel schooner plying on the Lake between York and Niagara. The present owner of his lot, which, as we have seen, was also once Mr. Jackson's--Mr. Jacobin Jackson's, is Mr. Cawthra. (Note the tendency to distinguish between individuals bearing the name of Jackson by an epithet prefixed. A professional pugilist patronized by Lord Byron was commonly spoken of as "Gentleman Jackson.")

As we reach again the higher land, after crossing the dam of Whitmore's mill, and returning into the more direct line of the street, some rude pottery works met the eye. Here in the midst of woods, the passer-by usually saw on one side of the road, a one horse clay-grinding machine, laboriously in operation; and on the other, displayed in the open air on boards supported by wooden pins driven into the great logs composing the wall of the low windowless building, numerous articles of coarse brown ware, partially glazed, pans, crocks, jars, jugs, demijohns, and so forth; all which primitive products of the plastic art were ever pleasant to contemplate. These works were carried on by Mr. John Walmsley.

A tract of rough country was now reached, difficult to clear and difficult to traverse with a vehicle. Here a genuine corduroy causeway was encountered, a long series of small saw-logs laid side by side, over which wheels jolted deliberately. In the wet season, portions of it, being afloat, would undulate under the weight of a passing load; and occasionally a horse's leg would be entrapped, and possibly snapped short by the sudden yielding or revolution of one of the cylinders below.

We happen to have a very vivid recollection of the scene presented along this particular section of Yonge Street, when the woods, heavy pine chiefly, after having been felled in a most confused manner, were being consumed by fire, or rather while the effort was being made to consume them. The whole space from near Mr. Walmsley's potteries to the rise beyond which Eglinton is situated, was, and continued long, a chaos of blackened timber, most dismaying to behold.

To the right of this tract was one of the Church glebes so curiously reserved in every township in the original laying out of Upper Canada--one lot of two hundred acres in every seven of the same area--in accordance with a public policy which at the present time seems sufficiently Utopian. Of the arrangement alluded to, now broken up, but expected when the Quebec Act passed in 1780 to be permanent, a relic remained down to a late date in the shape of a wayside inn, on the right near here, styled on its sign the "Glebe Inn"--a title and sign reminding one of the "Church Stiles" and "Church Gates" not uncommon as village ale-house designations in some parts of England.

Hitherto the general direction of Yonge Street has been north, sixteen degrees west. At the point where it passes the road marking the northern limit of the third concession from the bay, it swerves seven degrees to the eastward. In the first survey of this region there occurred here a jog or fault in the lines. The portion of the street proposed to be opened north failed, by a few rods, to connect in a continuous right line with the portion of it that led southward into York. The irregularity was afterwards corrected by slicing off a long narrow angular piece from three lots on the east side, and adding the like quantity of land to the opposite lot--it happening just here that the lots on the east side lie east and west, while those on the west side lie north and south. After the third concession, the lots along the street lie uniformly east and west.

With young persons in general perhaps, at York in the olden time, who ever gave the cardinal points a thought, the notion prevailed that Yonge Street was "north." We well remember our own slight perplexity when we first distinctly took notice that the polar star, the dipper, and the focus usually of the northern lights, all seemed to be east of Yonge Street. That an impression existed in the popular mind at a late period to the effect that Yonge Street was north, was shown when the pointers indicating east, west, north and south came to be affixed to the apex of a spire on Gould Street. On that occasion several compasses had to be successively taken up and tried before the workmen could be convinced that "north" was so far "east" as the needle of each instrument would persist in asserting.

The first possessor of the lot on the west side, slightly augmented in the manner just spoken of, was the Baron de Hoen, an officer in one of the German regiments disbanded after the United States Revolutionary War. His name is also inscribed in the early maps on the adjacent lot to the north, known as No. 1 in the township of York, west side.

At the time of the capture of York in 1813, Baron de Hoen's house, on lot No. 1, proved a temporary refuge to some ladies and others, as we learn from a manuscript narrative taken down from the lips of the late venerable Mrs. Breakenridge by her daughter, Mrs. Murney. That record well recalls the period and the scene. "The ladies settled to go out to Baron de Hoen's farm," the narrative says. "He was a great friend," it then explains, "of the Baldwin family, whose real name was Von Hoen; and he had come out about the same time as Mr. St. George, and had been in the British army. He had at this time a farm about four miles up Yonge Street, and on a lot called No. 1. Yonge Street was then a corduroy road immediately after leaving King Street, and passing through a dense forest. Miss Russell, (sister of the late President Russell) loaded her phaeton with all sorts of necessaries, so that the whole party had to walk. My poor old grandfather (Mr. Baldwin, the father of Mrs. Breakenridge) by long persuasion at length consented to give up fighting, and accompany the ladies. Aunt Baldwin (Mrs. Dr. Baldwin) and her four sons, Major Fuller, who was an invalid under Dr. Baldwin's care, Miss Russell, Miss Willcox, and the whole cavalcade sallied forth: the youngest boy St. George, a mere baby, my mother (Mrs. Breakenridge) carried on her back nearly the whole way.

"When they had reached about half way out," the narrative proceeds, "they heard a most frightful concussion, and all sat down on logs and stumps, frightened terribly. They learned afterwards that this terrific sound was occasioned by the blowing up of the magazine of York garrison, when five hundred Americans were killed, and at which time my uncle, Dr. Baldwin, was dressing a soldier's wounds; he was conscious of a strange sensation: it was too great to be called a sound, and he found a shower of stones falling all around him, but he was quite unhurt. The family at length reached Baron de Hoen's log house, consisting of two rooms, one above and one below. After three days Miss Russell and my mother walked into town, just in time to prevent Miss Russell's house from being ransacked by the soldiers.

"All now returned to their homes and occupations," the narrative goes on to say, "except Dr. Baldwin, who continued dressing wounds and acting as surgeon, until the arrival of Dr. Hackett, the surgeon of the 8th Regiment. Dr. Baldwin said it was most touching to see the joy of the poor wounded fellows when told that their own doctor was coming back to them." It is then added: "My mother (Mrs. Breakenridge) saw the poor 8th Grenadiers come into town on the Saturday, and in church on Sunday, with the handsome Captain McNeil at their head, and the next day they were cut to pieces to a man. My father (Mr. Breakenridge) was a student at law with Dr. Baldwin, who had been practising law after giving up medicine as a profession, and had been in his office about three months, when he went off like all the rest to the battle of York."