The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

The Smiley Family Among the early settlers in Aldershot was Robert Smiley born in 1829, County Mayo, Ireland, and died in Aldershot 1909. He came to Smithville, Ontario in 1854, and from there to Aldershot in 1855, and for a short time he lived at the foot of the hill near Brown's Wharf (now La Salle [LaSalle] property). In 1856 he bought approximately 60 acres in Lot 8 -Concession 1, East Flamboro [Flamborough], the boundaries of which were - All of Lot 8, Concession 1, East Flamboro, fronting on Plains Road West about 1476 feet from Smiley's Sideroad, on the East (now Howard Road) to lot line between Lots 8 and 9 on the westerly or Hamilton side of the property. The farm extended to the North to the flat lands and Creek bottom of Applegarth Creek. The present baseball diamond of Hidden Valley Park, and the area immediately west of it, was the westerly boundary of the property. The easterly side of the farm was bounded by Smiley's Sideroad, and the family homestead stood on a rise of ground about 300 yards north of Plains Road. At a fork in the Road about 200 yards north of the farmhouse, the farm boundary followed the westerly fork, to the bridge crossing Applegarth Creek, and extended beyond the bridge about 250 feet to the baseball diamond mentioned above. At the above mentioned fork in the Smiley Sideroad, the easterly branch leads to the C.N.R. tracks, the lands between these two branches of the road, and extending to the railroad tracks, was owned by Robert Smiley, together with a 10 acre piece of land immediately above or north of the R.R. [railway] tracks. In 1871 about 3/4 acres of land at the corner of Smiley Sideroad and Plains Road west, part of the Smiley farm was sold for the purpose of erecting a schoolhouse. A two-roomed brick school was built in that year and known as S.S. No. 1, East Flamboro. It was the only school in the Aldershot Area, and remained in service until 1914, when the district was divided into two school sections, and Fairfield School, Plains Road west, and Maplehurst School, Plains Road East were built. Robert Smiley and Rose Ann Mullen of Waterdown were married in 1855, and their union was blessed with 12 children. Andrew, John, James, Robert D., Joseph A, Margaret, Hugh F., Annie, Henry Samuel, Mary, William and Andrew, 11. Of this large family Henry Samuel, who remained unmarried, Robert D. and Joseph A. stayed on the family farm, engaged in Market Gardening, and the latter two built homes on the property near Plains Road. Robert D. Smiley and Minnie Dean were married in 1896, and they had two children, John and May (Mrs. Walter Fitzgerald ) of Hamilton. John was drowned in Burlington Bay, January 8, 1916.