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THE OAKVILLE BEAVER COMPUTER TRAINING MS/WORD for WINDOWS 338â€"6600 | acapemy or Leaanine Oakville‘s Business School Village history in book about Bronte Creek By WILMA BLOKHUIS Focus Editor here must be something romantic about Bronte Creek, it‘s 31.5 meandering miles through little towns and vilâ€" lages as it drops 800 feet through deep ravines, ending at a place called Wuthering Heights in Bronte. It makes you think of Emily Bronte‘s wonderful yet melancholy 1847 book titled ‘Wuthering Heights.‘ Perhaps, you may think, as did historian, writer and photograâ€" pher Dorothy Turcotte, that Bronte Creek and the former Village of Bronte, got their name from the renowned author. As romantic an origin this appears to be for the name Bronte given to this one time shanty town, it‘s not the case, as Turcotte of Grimsby discovered when doing her research for ‘Places and People on Bronte Creek.‘ But, the name for the west bank at the mouth of the creek was indeed taken from the book ‘Wuthering Heights.‘ "How did Bronte get its name?" she prompts the reader. "Some have thought there was a connection with the famous Bronte sisters (the others Charlotte and Anne were also novelists)." Bronte, writes Turcotte based on historiâ€" cal records, was named for the Dutchess of ’ TOP: Early settlers Sam and Archie MacDonald, photographed in ‘ 1899. BELOW: The old Bronte Railway Station. Unfortunately, the \ Grand Truck Railway, when built, bypassed Bronte. . (All photos courtesy of Dorothy Turcotte, Places and People on Bronte Creek) Dorothy Turcotte ar.ranged io e We accept all vision care programs Trafa‘QaI' Village 125 Cross Aveâ€" Tsm _ ~~ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1994 Page 13 _FOCUS Hopedale Mail Serving Oakville for Over 30 years, Monday to Friday 9:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. *Sunday 12 Noon to 5:00 p.m. (*Not all stores may be open) Located at 3rd Line and Rebecca in Oakville * 827â€"0229« The Bronte Steam Mill, circa 1858, one of many built along Bronte Creek. Bronte in Sicily, given to Lord Horatio Nelson in 1799 by King Ferdinand of Naples and Sicily in appreciation for saving the king‘s throne from takeover by the French. In 1805, the government of Upper Canada reached an agreement with the Mississauga Indians to purchase a large tract of land along Lake Ontario from York (Toronto) to the Burlington Beach Strip. By the early early 1800s, Bronte was a sparse settlement. In December 1825, the Welland Canal Company asked for permission to cut timber on this government land, thus creating employment for the local pioneers. A year later, December 1826, the government announced the sale of the lands at the mouths of both Bronte and Sixteen Mile creeks through public auction, and Joseph Hixon (for whom Hixon Street is named) purchased the Bronte millsite for 257 pounds, 50 shillings. Bronte‘s first mill was not built until Samuel Bealey Harrison, a lawyer from England, arrived in 1837 and built the much needed saw and grist mill. In 1856 the harbor was completed. ~ By this time, Bronte had established itself "as a fishing town and shipping port for grain, however, stone hooking and shipbuilding were also among Bronte‘s strengths. The building of the Grand Truck Railway through Georgetown and Acton, instead of Bronte, ended Bronte‘s grain shipping era â€" only to see it replaced by steamships taking fresh fruit and passengers to Toronto and Hamilton. Several local pioneer families are chronicled in this brief, yet detailed history of the former Village of Bronte, included in Turcotte‘s 100â€"page book filled with history, anecdotes and old photographs. Interest in Bronte, and the creek that A MONTH* flows into it, has prompted Turcotte, who had previously written extensively about the hisâ€" tory of Burlington, to write ‘Places and People on Bronte Creek,‘ her seventh book. Her last four books are about the history of Burlington; two of them commissioned by the Burlington Historical Society. The others are histories of Grimsby Park, and Port Dalhousie. A journalist, former CKOC copyâ€" writer (during her student days), and for the past 18 years, a columnist for the Grimsby Independent, Turcotte graduated from McMaster University in 1950, in English. "A friend of mine in Bronte suggested I write a book about Bronte and Bronte Creek," said Turcotte in a recent interview. ""I studied the course of the creek, and found it had a lot more places along its way than I had expected. I was quite pleased by what I discovered and it made the book all the more interesting for me to write." She discovered 22 villages, many still in existence today. Originally known as Twelve Mile Creek, a name based on its distance from the sand trap that separates Lake Ontario from Hamilton Harbour (or Burlington Bay), the Ontario Geographic Names Board in 1930‘s decided to change its name to Bronte Creek to avoid confusion with a similar creek namâ€" ing sequence along the Niagara Peninsula based on distance from the Niagara River. The southern Twelve Mile Creek, part of the Welland Canal, empties at Port Dalhousie, the subject of Turcotte‘s second book. ‘People and Places on Bronte Creek,‘ selfâ€"published with the assistance of husâ€" band Jim Turcotte as were her six previous books, is available locally at Fireside Books and Gifts in Bronte Village mall, Quest Booksellers in downtown Oakville, plus W. H. Smith and Coles. â€"â€"Family Heal E. MISSISSAUGA 1590 Dundas Street E. BRAMPTON _ W. MISSISSAUGA 250 Clarence Street 1100 Burnhomthorpe Rd.W. 454â€"4722 896â€"2870 ETOBICOKE BURLINGTON 1800 The Queensway 3430 Fairview Street 622â€"8887 333â€"8100 272â€"1311 TORONTO 475 Yonge Street 323â€"9259 N. YORK/THORNHILL AJAX/PICKERING | GRAND OPENIN 34 Doncaster Avenve 59 Westney Road 76 Davenport at Bay 731â€"6941 427â€"2977 323â€"9259 â€"â€"â€" OAKVILLE 842â€"236 474 Iroquois Shore Road