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The Acton Free Press Wednesday September AMONG THE DIGNITARIES present at the unveiling of the historical plaque at Sunday were representatives from municipal and provincial and federal governments Mrs Jesse president of I who Initiated the project is In the centre Staff Photo THE FOUR CORNERS at Ballinafad a pioneer meeting place were again the centre of attraction Sunday when an historical plaque was unveiled on the cemetery qrounds commemorating 150 years of set tlement staff Photo Hisio of Erin Nathaniel Roszel first Ballinafad settler 150 years ago Erin Township was formed from the Mississauga Tract an area of land extending from the western line of the Toronto Purchase now the west boundary of York County and Metropolitan Toronto to another Purchase Line running northwest from the outlet of Burlington Bay Hamilton Harbour This tract had been reserved for the or sept known as the Mlssissaugas of the Credit Tffese had been allowed the townships to be laid the largest and most important out on paper and It would seem part of the Eagle Totem of the that the names chosen for them Chippewa or Ojibway Nation by the LieutenantGovernor Sir amounting almost to a separate Peregrine Mai t land were known nation themselves Since the in his office by November 11 1818 although his formal un reduced their numbers By a of the first three of preliminary purchase treaty these names was on April signed on August 1 1805 they hod and the name Erin surrendered to the Crown a atrip evidently not yet reached the between five six miles wide SurveyorGeneral by April along Lake Ontario in front of Charles Kennedy had their tract reserving only some Dieted his survey of the front part lands on the rivera to protect of Erin Township before their salmon fisheries and corn- November 10 and by fields This treaty was ratified In September 1806 This strip along the front of the Tract was surveyed In the first half of 1B06 laid out in three townships Toronto Trafalgar November 11 Nelles seems to have drawn his lots which he divided with Kennedy A mill site was reported on Lot 14 Con which seems to have been drawn by but be was evidently and Nelson and opened for not permitted to keep this lot settlement which was very rapid Location tickets could now be In the next 10 years the numbers Issued for particular lots for the of this band of Mlssissaugas positions of the reserve lots and declined still further and those the contractors holdings had frequenting the Tract became been ascertained Nelles and even fewer Kennedy were given leave to Crown gets title recommend settlers and did so A treaty signed on October lhe names of two or three ore gave the Crown title to all is an implied the remaining land in the Tract reference to their list the small reserves on the fortunately It has not survived excluded by the treaty of notable that the first The three ers in Enn were all from townships were extended nor Gainsborough Township Charles thwarda by New Surveys and Kennedys place of residence room was found for two tiers of moved to new townships within the Tract The new townships Tract were laid out under a system of sun adopted in December 1818 a result of the reluctance of settlers to take out their patents and pay the patent First settlers These first actual settlers were George Nathaniel and Eldridge and David Fowler With a number of other applicants they received location tickets for lots and survey fees they were near the site of t forced to do This was a long standing difficulty in providing for the expenses of the office to which the settlers survey fees were appropriated Lieutenant Governor Peter Hunter had solved the problem during his term of office by or dering that all fees must be paid November 12 1819 and seem to have moved to their locations almost at once According to tradition Nathaniel Roszel was the first settler in Township This may very well be the case but he was probably accompanied or soon followed by the other within three days of the date of and David Fowler They the location ticket which gave all seem to have been established the settler the right to occupy a in the township early In 1820 particular holding This order It was George who first was unpopular especially after got the SurveyorGenerals all land fees were increased by Description of holding Mi the Regulations of and Lot Con 7 settlement duty Hunter successor Francis performed and patent fee and Gore was forced to rescind it survey paid on January The method tried in 1818 was to survey townships by contract paying for the survey with a percentage of the area surveyed About December 1818 a rather vaguely worded ad The other three received their descriptions on November io Samuel DPS wrote to the Surveyor General offering to was published in contract for the survey of the various newspapers calling for rear half of the Township of Erin tenders for surveying a township and the Gore a township lying In or townships in the the rear thereof at Five per cent Tract land Magistrate replies high tender was accepted Among the replies received because Erin and was one from Abraham were remote of Grimsby dated April contained a good deal 1819 offering to survey a town quality ship In association with Charles Complete survey Kennedy of could not get his Township Nellea was a welltodo instructions until near the middle magistrate a merchant and the of August 1820 He probably owner of land and mills at completed his work in Erin GrimsbyandatractontheGrand Township by April when River near the site of York His he made a brief report on its soil part In the contract was to etc provide funds for the survey turned in his plan until he had parties under Kennedy who finished Garafraxa late in the lacked the means to do so and autumn and It was not until wait to recoup expenses until December that Thomas the landa became valuable reported that Ryckman was willing to accept had drawn his lands per cent Meanwhile a good many Hla offer was accepted about location tickets were being issued April and he was told the next for the Township day that he might survey the By January 1B21 rear of and the front of locations were reported to have a Township at rear The fact been issued for Erin Township that the boundaries of the Tract but the are that fewer had already bees surveyed than 10 families were living there Among the reasons for the large Crown purchases of Indian lands In 1818 was the need to provide for the children of Loyalists who of age or married If girls during the war years when little or no land was granted and were each entitled to acres Besides there were claims from members of the regular forces who had served in Upper Canada during the war To these were added in 1821 the claims of militia veterans of the war of 1812 who were now permitted to take their grants wherever they could find vacant land Instead of being settled In special townships as had been Intended land demand The result was a sharp demand for land in the townships of the Tract and the majority of the grants in Erin between 1821 and were to persons who had no desire to settle there who paid others to perform their set tlement duty and though they might sometimes find a tenant were apt to leave their grant vacant as soon as they had their certificate until it became profitable to sell it John Slung I who worked in one of Kennedys survey parties in and settled in Erin Township in 1825 said in 186G that there were only about families in the township when he came to Erin This agrees quite with the assessors return for which may include 115 persons The return for Erin and in was and for Erin only in 1B2620 By 1828 the return had Increased to and by 1830 to 368 divided between households Five years later it reached These figures give an in die at ion of the years in which settlers were entering Erin in some numbers a few in 1821 more in and a con siderable number in Spread out These settlers were spread out through the concessions but certain important developments took place among two groups one centred on Lots 24 Cons and the site of Hillsburgh 8 and the other on Lot 14 Cons 10 the site of Erin Village Of these two developments the one at may perhaps claim a slight priority for Christopher son of a Loyalist got his location ticket for Lot Con on May 1821 had per formed his settlement duty by November 1823 patented the lot on February 1B24 and sold the whole lot to Aaron on April 1824 Both Aaron and James Wheller sign their names distinctly with this spelling but it was sometimes spelled Wheeler and this seems to be the present form of the name On the other hand Lot Con drawn but not patented by Abrahams was rejected by the first grantee Joel Talman in as unfit for cultivation At request he was allowed another lot and a ticket of location was issued in January to Henry Gabel a militia grantee for the west half of Lot 14 Con 10 who probably continued to live in Toronto township put in his certificate of settlement duty in April This was signed by William Trout and Henry Trout who in addition to the or dinary duties stated there is also a saw Mill built and in operation and an actual settler on the said half lot First mill This sawmill the first mill of any kind returned for Erin Township appears in the assessment return for 1828 and was probably in operation and taxable by the end of It may have been begun in 1826 as stated in some older histories but was evidently not working when the 1827 assessment was made up It was probably built and run for a time by the Trouts under some unregistered agreement with Gabel but they never became owners of the half lot This was sold by Gabel in October 1B28 to William Chisholm who in turn sold it in November 1837 to Daniel McMillan Meanwhile Aaron had sold the east half of Lot 25 Con in February to Ann Hen and may well have used the money to meet the cost of building a grist mill on the west half The first grist mill is returned for Erin in and so was probably operative by the end of 1B29 It is not quite clear whether actually built his mill on his own land as he says in his petition of 1830 or whether he held a lease of Lot Con a Clergy Reserve which he tried later to purchase The former is perhaps more likely for found the mill site unsatisfactory In he not only tried to buy the east half of Lot Con 7 where the later mills at were located but also petitioned to be allowed to buy the east half of Lot Con a Crown Reserve which George Trout had been making great efforts to purchase first from he Canada Company who did not own it and then from the Crown asked leave to move his grist mill to this lot pointing out that when he built it there was none in Erin Eramosa or Garflfraxa The Surveyor- General favoured application and it was granted Apparently Aaron Wheller ob tained this half lot and moved his mill there though it was not patented until by George Wheeler who sold it to David and Charles McMillan In 1844 Aaron petition had been signed by settlers in cluding members of the Howe Dowling Hill Farmer Dunn Hen McMillan Dean and now Root families the names are spelled as in the signatures The assessment returns suggest that the moving of Whellers grist mill may have taken place about 1833 and that the mill was operative on the new site until 1838 or In 1633 no grist mill was returned for Erin Township but in 1636 the number increases from one to two This suggests that Daniel McMillan began his pu chase of the mill sue on Lot Con completed a new grist mill there before the assessment This agrees very well with statements in the older histories There is no return for 1837 and in 1838 only one grist mill is listed It may be assumed that the old Wheller mill had ceased running No second grist mill is returned until after 1851 No grist mill is returned for 1839 as might be expected since it is recorded that the McMillans built a larger stone mill in which was evidently not running until after the roll was made up Sure enough the mill returned for 1B40 had three sets of stones rather than one Village grows A village had now grown up at McMillans Mills where a post office for Enn was opened on October According to the custom of the time Erin signified the township but was soon adopted for the village William Cornock was the first postmaster The pond on Lot Con 9 was kept up as an extra source of Doner out sawmill and grist mill were on Lot 14 Con though later some installations were placed on the site There appear to have been no mills on the site of between 1833 and At the most there could have been a sawmill in the later 1840s but no mention of one has been found David Hill had been granted land south of the site in the tenth concession and on his death his eldest son Nazareth inherited the half of his lot the first land he appears to have owned in this vicinity In 1841 Nazareth Hill bought acres of Lot Con and in 1B42 he bought from Aaron Wheller the west 100 acres of Lot Con According to a certificate obtained in February 1847 Nazareth Hill had then settled on the cast half of Clergy Lot 25 Con 7 since April but whether as a or a squatter is not stated However he seems to have been able to buy the east half for in June 1851 he sold the acres to William Godderham and James Worts of the City of Toronto Millers for pounds Such a price would not cover even a sawmill and the site Is likely to have been vacant Hill had already sold off a few small parcels from the various lands he had been acquiring during the forties but his formal subdivisions seem to be later than and the majority of his sales in arc later as late as 1659 The same applies to subdivisions made by the Hen shows Rows and others mining There Is no description of In W Smiths Gazetteer of 1848 In 1851 he calls Continued on Page B7 AB SUPERMARKET 9 MILL ST ACTON WHITE OR PINK RED BRAND BEEF Short Rib Roast Choice Blade Roast 69 lb Cross Cut Roast 75V Chuck Steaks IDEAL FOR B1RBECUE lb SCHNEIDERS KENT SLICED Side BACON as 79 FROZEN FOOD SUNNY TIN LEMONADE 10 KRAFT 02 JAR SAVE MIRACLE WHIP 39 HEINZ OZ TINS SAVE TOMATO SOUP 8 AYLMER OZ JARS SAVE PICKLES 3 HEINZ TINS SAVE TOMATO JUICE 3 NESTLES 2 LB TIN SAVE QUIK CHOCOLATE DRINK 89 LI BBYS TINS SAVE SPAGHETTI or I MAXIM FREEZE- JAR COFFEE SCHNEIDERS BOLOGNA 59 FRESH PRODUCE DAILY Fresh Fruit Vegetables Arrive Daily At Lowest Possible Prices PRICES EFFECTIVE OCEAN KING OZ TIN SAVE He SALMON WHITE SWAN SAVE TOILET TISSUE PANTRY SHELF19OZ TINS1SAVE35C Orange or Grapefruit SECTIONS CHRISTIES OZ LOAF BUTTERMATB WHITE SLICED BREAD 51 CAN NO FRESH CREAMERY LB PRINT BUTTER 65