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urveys © & aE Wm. Edward Yarnold John Shire The naming of Port Perry’s oldest streets! Some time ago, Focus on Scugog delved into the background of the town’s street names, including Casimir, Crandell, Clark and Caleb. This month we are continuing that search into the origins of some more Scugog street names. Rueben Crandell, the first settler in Reach Township had bought 200 acres immediately east of present day Manchester in 1821. Six years later he bought the 200 acres west of today’s Sim- coe Street between Reach Street and Highway 7A. Here he built a home, a few metres east of the present day Beer Store, to begin the community of Borelia. In 1849 he added a further 100 acres to his holdings. Over the years he had the land surveyed and sold off sections to developers. All the early surveys were carried out either by William Yarnold or John Shier. The first European settler in what is now downtown Port Perry was Elias Williams who settled here in 1831. In 1843 Peter Perry bought 80 acres of waterfront property from the Williams family. Perry immediately began to develop the property as part of a transportation route from Whitby on Lake Ontario to Lake Huron. He laid out a town plan, naming the streets after his family. Mary Street (his wife), John Street (his first son), Perry Street (for the family) and Cin- derella Street which he named after his eldest daughter. Cinderella Street was later removed and renamed Casimir Street in honour of the railroad engi- neer Casimir Gzowski. Peter Perry gave the name Scugog Village to the settlement on Lake Scugog. Unfortunately he died in 1851, but by this time he had already persuaded several businessmen to locate here including five waterfront Peter Perry 40 FOCUS - FEBRUARY 2015 mill owners of and a shipbuilding company. The community was renamed Port Perry in his honour. After Peter Perry’s death, the man who as- sumed leadership in the development in the community was Joseph Bigelow. He was a store owner and became the community’s first post master in 1852. The next major phase of development of Port Perry began in 1854 and a surveyor, William Edward Yarnold, was hired to lay out more street plans. Many of the early surveys of the area bear his signature . One of the plans which Yarnold surveyed included an area south of Queen Street west of today’s Simcoe Street. In it he used the names of the owner Rueben Crandell (Crandell St.) and his son Caleb, (Caleb St.). However Yarnold also used his own daughter’s name for the next street, naming it Ella Street. When Ontario County was brought into being on January 23, 1854, John Shier was appointed as the County Engineer. Shier was born and trained as a surveyor in Scotland. He initially settled in the United States but moved to Canada in 1845. Although Shier’s signature can be found on numerous Port Perry plans, his attempt to leave his personal mark on street names vanished in the 1860s. He had named a street, Maria Street, after his daughter but that was eliminated as the town expanded in the 1860s. But more about that in a future issue. By Paul Arculus Focus on Scugog