legacy cf tre City moved ahead and British Loyalists in the thirteen colonies were subjected to persecutions, several thousands of United Empire Loyalists settled in what is now the Province of Ontario. In June 1784, one such group landed at Adolphustown, near the site where Belleville now stands. Although some Loyalists settled in the vicinity of Belleville priorto 1789, that year generally is acknowledged as the beginning of the community. Among the It was about 1666 when M. Trouve and new settlers in 1789 was Captain John W. Meyers, whose sawmill was the first M. de Fenelon of the Roman Catholic Sulpician Order established the Kente industry in the city. Meyers later engaged in other activities that resulted in the Mission on the north shore of Lake establishment of the city, and in the early Consecon in Prince Edward County, which lies across the bay from Belleville. nineteenth century the site briefly bore his name as Meyers Creek. The mission, however, languished It was in 1816, however, that a group because of native apathy, and soon after of prominent citizens decided that the its establishment it was abandoned. area should be named in honour of Lady In the latter part of the eighteenth Arabella Gore, wife of the province's century, as the American Revolution l< Htifll lieutenant governor, Sir Francis Gore. The original spelling was "Bellville." Surrounded by rich timberlands and blessed with the Moira River as access to those lands, Belleville's early history is a tale of French-Canadian loggers bringing drives of timber downstream to one of the many sawmills where cut timber was prepared and loaded every day onto schooners for shipment to England. In 1832 an English immigrant, Henry Corby, arrived in Belleville and soon became one of the city's -- and one of Canada's-- most distinguished citizens. In 1849 Corby erected a mill on the Moira River and 10 years later established the Corby Distillery. In 1867 Henry Corby celebrated Canadian confederation by becoming mayor of Belleville. Henry Corby and his descendants gave the city a legacy that to this day is evident in museums, beautiful parks, and political leadership. On October 27,1856, the Grand Trunk Railway's first Montreal-Toronto train arrived in Belleville, marking the beginning of a new industry in the city. The Grand Trunk selected Belleville as the site for one of its three stops and, from that time to the present, Belleville has been a major rail centre. Ten years after the arrival of the Grand Trunk, gold was discovered in Eldorado, 30 miles to the north, and Belleville became known as the "Gateway to the Golden North." The event seemed full of promise then, but a year later, as the citizens of Hastings County massed in front of the court house to celebrate Confederation, the Eldorado mines gradually were closing. Until the turn of the century, Belleville and Hastings County prospered little and grew only slightly. On January 1,1878, the city was officially incorporated, and the event was marked some seven months later, on Dominion Day, which a reporter for the Ontario noted as having "dawned still and very hot." "About 3 o'clock in the morning," the journalist said, "the booming of a cannon and the discharge of small arms awoke the citizens of Belleville to their Jubilee day." For the next 25 years the city seemed caught in an economic struggle that was the outgrowth of the new age of mechanization. The new century, however, brought a new prosperity that continues to the present day. The United Empire Loyalists of 1789 are gone now, but their descendants remain; and the city's streets are a veritable gallery of greatness in architectural achievement. Her industries flourish. Her people are young and vital, a third of them under the age of 20, and half between 20 and 59 years. leaders fer trie Next Century Albert College, which offers Ontario secondary systems, were elementary and secondary programmes inconceivable. The handicapped of the earliest days and business courses, was founded by were neglected entirely. But in 1870, the the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1857; Ontario Institution for the Education of at that time it bore the name Belleville the Deaf and Dumb opened and counted Seminary. The present name was given a total of three students in attendance. in 1866. Now operating as Sir James Whitney Private education in Belleville is School, and still a school for the deaf, focused mainly in the Ontario Business this excellent centre is unmatched in its College, which offers certificates in facilities and curriculum. Equal commercial and business-administration educational opportunity for the deaf is a courses. The college was established in fact of life today, and as educational 1866 by Samuel G. Beatty and George Generations born in this century are, technology improves, so does Sir James Wallbridge. Both day and evening at best, only vaguely familiar with the Whitney School, just as any other school courses are offered. primitive one-room schoolhouses of Both Albert College and the Ontario Loyalist College of Applied Arts and earlier times, although many of our Business College have received Technology is one of Belleville's forebears did attend such schools. In proudest institutions of higher education worldwide recognition, and many fact, today's grandparents, born just at students from Caribbean and Asian and offers two-year programmes in a the turn of the century, may well countries follow in the footsteps of their number of occupational and academic remember fondly the experiences and fields. Its graduates often go on to four- fathers, who came to Belleville for the hardships of those schools. their education. year universities, but the aim of the The first schoolhouse in Belleville The Roman Catholic Separate School college is to prepare the students to probably came into being about the end become self-sufficient members of the Board operates six schools in Hastings of the eighteenth century. Historians do business community. Its founding and Prince Edward counties and record the existence of such a one-room president, J.K. Bradford, is still a maintains standards that rank very high school -- a log cabin -- around 1809, but Belleville resident and still in touch with in the nation. Its graduates, like those of the exact date of its construction is the Hastings County Board of Education, the college he fondly calls his unknown. That it had a low ceiling and are among the leaders of the city and the "offspring." It was under Bradford's was a cramped affair is a matter of history keen guidance that Loyalist became region today. The Belleville & District Chamber of more than a training centre. Centennial Secondary School on Commerce and the Belleville Economic Public education in Belleville is Palmer Road is, in 1978, one of Canada's most modern and complete educational directed by the Hastings County Board Development Commission work closely with the secondary and higher-education of Education, located in the Education units. Its two-storey climate-controlled institutions to maintain programmes that edifice, with more than 1400 students in Centre at 156 Ann Street. More than successfully direct the students toward daily attendance, is far beyond what the 25,000 students are enrolled in its first educators in our city could have programmes. The school board meets on existing and future vocational hoped for in that tiny, stooped log cabin the second and fourth Mondays of every opportunities. that was the first school in our city. Such month at the Education Centre, and the notions as grade 13, now common in meetings are open to the public. Century ef Coed Cevernment Alexander Robertson was the first mayor of the newly incorporated city of Belleville that Dominion Day in 1878, which "dawned still and very hot." He served with 21 aldermen in the city hall that stands today as the centre of Belleville's city government. Remodelled and enlarged since that time, the city hall is a magnificent example of Gothic architecture, with its clock tower rising 185 feet above street level. Many successors have followed Alexander Robertson, but only Francis McAnnany, who began his first term in office in 1842, before incorporation, can claim 10 election victories in that office. Today the office is presided over by His Worship Mayor J. Ben Corke, who serves his city with not 21 aldermen as did Mayor Robertson, but 10 aldermen and an appointed city manager, Wilbur Purcell. As mayor, Mr. Corke is head of the city council, chief magistrate of the city, and a member of all city boards and commissions. A