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Dally Journal · Record Centennial Edition, FMtfay, Sept. 1, 1967 Bronte: New Life In Old Town HERB'S SHELL The origins o f Bronte, now a o f Oakville itself. In 1814 Philip part of the new town o f Oak Sovereign bought a lot on the ville, go back farther than those west side of the Tw elve Mile Creek and settled there with his fam ily. His son Charles started a private school there the fol RAYMOND'S RECORD lowing year. John Belyea, a William Fleuty purchased the United Em pire Loyalist from weekly newspaper, Raym ond' s New York, leased land on the R ecord, In 1907, and changed the east side of the creek from the nam e to the Oakville Record. Mississauga Indians. At that time, Arthur Forster published the Oakville Star, and later three weeklies were in op eration when Gerald Mitchell launched the Oakville News. The Joum al-R ecord's daily publica tion resulted from the am alga mation of the first mentioned weeklies. The deputy surveyor's plan showed five ranges of blocks divided into lots of different sizes, ranging from small ones HEALTHY SITE on the lake front up to ones of William Hawkins, the deputy 10 acres in the northern section. provincial surveyor, in submit The bridge across the Twelve ting plans to the Surveyor-Gen Mile Creek was very close to the eral in Decem ber, 1833, report lakeshore. At a public auction on lands in ed that the place was ` `an eli As town lots w ere sold, the the 3rd Concession of Trafalgar, gible and healthy site for a town, m oney was deposited to the ac originally part of the Mississau but before it can be expected to count of the Mississauga Indians, ga Indian reserve, held on De becom e of much im portance a who were living in a village cem ber 28, 1826, a lot was bought harbor must be m ade by pro which the governm ent has pro by William Peacock, on which a jecting piers and rem oving the vided on the west bank of the mill rite was located, and other accumulated m asses of stone Credit River, the site of the Mislots were purchased by Joseph and gravel. Schooners can sail issauga Golf Club. up the creek about one mile, and Hixoh and Asabel Davis. BUYS MILL Plans w ere m ade for a town at the mouth o f the creek, and by 1832 the Surveyor-General was receiving inquiries from people desirous o f purchasing town lots. other boats in proportion to their size can proceed still farther." mouth of the Tw elve Mile Creek. An act of incorporation w as giv en royal assent, and John L. Biggar, William Chisholm o f Oak ville, and W illiam Johnson Kerr were appointed to decide the ex a ct location of the harbor. TWO TAVERNS Bronte is described in Smith' s Canadian Gazetteer of 1846 as a small village containing about 100 inhabitants, grist and saw mills, one store, two taverns, one wagon maker, one black smith, one cabinet maker. As grain shipments from the port increased, the population rose to 500. The com ing of the railw ay and the consequent de cline o f the port caused it to drop back to 200, however, and for m any years it rem ained ab out stationary. A large num ber of Bronte men in the last century w ere Great Lakes sailors, and up until fair ly recent times it was the centre of a small but busy fishing in dustry. At one time a p(jlice vil lage, it becam e an incorporated village in 1951, but in 1959 revertecl to Trafalgar township. perienced a spurt of residential building which is still proceeding. BIG FUTURE New com m ercial buildings have given a new look to the central part of the once quiet rural ham let, and even greater changes are in prospect. Plans for multi-million dollar hi-rise apartment projects are in the making, which will give Bronte a decidedly ur ban look and change the pace o f living there. The form er village gets its name from the duchy of Bronte in Sicily, which was presented to Horatio Nelson, the great Bri tish naval hero, by King Ferd inand of Naples and Sicily, in gratitude for Nelson' s saving the Neapolitan m onarchy from the French in 1799. SERVICE Authorized ALLENTR0NIC Service Centre Palermo's Dr. Buck Was Warden, Reeve Palerm o, a small pioneer set tlement about eight m iles north west o f the original site of Oak ville, was founded by Lawrence Hagar, who in 1805 becam e the first whit# m an to aettle the Trafalgar area. It was not until the next year that the land, so recently pur chased from the Mississauga Indians, was surveyed by depu ty provincial surveyor Samuel S. Wilmot and divided into three townships. These three townships were named Alexander, Grant (both named for the president and ad ministrator o f the government o f Upper Canada, the Hon. Alexander Grant) and Toronto. CHANGE NAMB* A few w eek jf later Britain' s Admiral Nelson defeated the com bined French and Spanish fleets in the Battle of Trafalgar, and in honor o f the victory th? DR. ANSON BUCK nam es of Grant Township (now OUTLAWS LIQUOR Burlington) and Alexander And, the newspaper reports, Township (now Oakville) were lican Church, built In 1845, is the township was indebted to one of the oldest church build Changed to Nelson and Trafal the good doctor for something ings in Halton county. The placc else, because ` `a s a life long gar. And it was In honor of the was the centre of a flourishing temperence advocate he has aame victory that Lawrence tem perance m ovem ent in the much to do with the strong tem H agar's little settlement, origin last century. perence sentiment of the town ally called Hagarstown, was For m ore than half a century ship, in which there i» absolute given the nam e o f the Sicilian Palerm o was the home of one prohibition." city of Palerm o. Palerm o never attained vil of Ontario's outstanding country Most o f the first settlers of doctors, Dr. Anson Buck, who lage status, but rem ained a part the area w ere United Em pire was born in the district in 1833, of Trafalgar township, and is Loyalists, who w ere given a direct descendant of a United now included in the new town Crown grants o f land. Within Em pire Loyalist fam ily. of Oakville. Situated on No. 5 a few years the little hamlet A graduate o f the Royal Highway at the junction of becam e the centre of a busy School of Medicine in Toronto, Bronte Road and Highway 25, farm ing district. A foundry Jefferson Medical College, Phil leading to Milton, it is on a started there by Jacob Law adelphia, and the Royal College heavily travelled traffic route. rence in 1842 developed into a o f Physicians and Surgeons of Its appearance has been con good-sized implement factory. London, England, he began siderably altered in recent years SECOND SCHOOL practising in Palerm o before by the widening of the highways and the building of a number 2t>* second gram m ar school' he was 21. of new houses, but it still re in Upper Canada was establish tains a measure of its rura' i ed in 1844, but was transferred CIVIL WAR to Galt in 1850. St. Luke's AngHe gained recognition for his |dtficarff. In 1837 a well-known barrister and jurist nam ed.Sam uel Bealey Harrison, who had com e to Can ada from England to farm , ac quired the m ill site, and built a grist mill and a sawmill on the creek below the point where the railway crossed later. ANOTHER FIRST # 0 # 0 0 0 LICENSED M ECHANIC REPAIRS TO A L L CARS ELECTRONIC EN GINE T U N E UP W H E E L B ALAN C IN G M U FFLER S l BRAK E SERVICE TO W IN G SERVICE Three years later Harrison and work in surgery, and in the 34 other residents of the district Am erican civil war served for petitioned the governm ent for four years with the northern the incorporation of a com pany arm y as an assistant surgeon. to construct a harbor at the He was at Burksville field hos pital when Lee surrendered 20 miles away, at Appom atox, and was in Washington when Lin coln was shot. Besides being actively engag ed in his profession, Dr. Buck took a leading part in munici pal affairs. He served as deputyreeve of Trafalgar Township for seven years and reeve for 17 years ,and was warden of Hal ton county in 1891. On the occasion of his retire ment from civic life in 1909, a newspaper reported that "a s a result of his administration of the township affairs, Trafalgar, which is one of the wealthiest townships in the province, has today surplus funds of over $45,000, with no indebtness." Ontario'* first tem perance hall was that built on Dundas St. in 1843 by a group headed by Justus Williams. Local bov vivants w ere prone to refer to the Oaikville Tem perance R efor mation Society as " that damned cold w ater bunch." The vener In the years following the end able structure now serves as the o f the Second World W ar it ex- I Salvation Arm y Citadel. 6 4 5 3 R D . L IN E 827*4201 -T ja B r - JB O B B k 1 9 G ^ CANADIAN CONFEDERATION A Century of which Canadians proudly boast of from coast to coast. A century in which Ontario, Canada's most populated pro vince looks back on with great respect. Ontario, heart of the country in which Ottawa the capital of Can ada is situated along with some of the greatest cities in this land of ours, cities such as Toronto, Hamilton, Windsor, Sudbury and Oakville, playing a most important part in the progress w e're en deavoured to bring throughout the past years, both in the indus trial and commercial world. Hopedale Plaza are proud to join in this salute to Confederation. A Shopping Centre that looks back over the past d e c a d e w ith great sophistication, but looks ahead to even brighter things to come, such as expansion which in turn w ill bring better service, greater variety plus many more impovements for the convenience of our shoppers. We join with Canadians on this occasion celebrating the hundrefh year of Confederation M c C U T C H E O N ' S C A M E R A SHOP 2 2 6 L a k e th o r* Road