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125th ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE Port Perry named after early settler by William Brock owas Peter Perry? G.H. Armstrong's "The Ori- gin and Meaning of Place Names in Canada" states that this vil- lage has been known as Port Perry since 1852, named after Peter Perry of Whitby who laid out the first town plot. Prior to that date it was called Scugog Village. The book also mentions that Chester Draper opened the first store in 1840. This information had been proferred by Thomas H. Follick, Principal of Port Perry High School at time of printing in the 1920s. Most of his information seems to have come from Beer's Atlas of Ontario County (1887). This has been about the full ex- tent of information we have had about the name Port Perry. Many people have recently been asking - Is it true? Who was Pe- ter Perry? Members of the Scugog Shores Museum on a recent visit to the Ontario Archives in To- ronto were delighted to come upon the answer to the Peter Perry mystery. Although the in- formation has been there for the asking for some years, it is ap- propriate that it comes to light in Port Perry in this Centennial year. Local citizens will be proud to learn that our home-town bears the name of one of the un- sung heroes of Upper Canada; A leading member of the Reform party from 1824 to 1836 and member of the Legislative As- sembly in Toronto for those years; a speaker dreaded by the ruling Family Compact and the subject of a vitriolic pamphlet by the influential Tory, Egerton Ryerson; a prime mover in the development of Whitby Har- bour; and officer of the Windsor Road Company (Whitby was at one time Windsor Bay) which es- tablished the toll road opening the back of the county to the 'Front'; a leader in the 'Clear Grit' party in 1849 under Robert Baldwin, and one of our early M.L.A.'s; a power hehind the move to separate Ontario County from York (the so-called Home District) in 1851. This was Peter Perry. Why has his story remained in limbo for these many years? The answer to this question is simple enough. His most spec- tacular years in politics were spent as M. L. A. for Lennox and Addington (Napanee area} where he had been bornin 1793 to Robert Perry of Ernestown, a United Empire Loyalist from the state of New York. Peter grew up on the farm and devel- oped an interest in political ac- tivity. He spent 12 years har- rassing the 'establishment' - the so-called 'Family Compact' - in the fight for responsible gov- ernment. So effective a fighter was he that he was considered for the leadership of the reform movement. In 1836, however, at a time when the Reformers actually held a majority in the Assembly but were being frus- trated at every turn by the en- trenched oligarchy, the famous Egerton Ryerson made him the subject of a pamphlet, Peter Perry Picked to Pieces.' The ef- fect of this, and other political manoeuvrings of the Lieuten- ant-Governor Sir Francis Bond Head, was that almost all of the leaders of the Reform Party were defeated in the elections. Perry was discouraged and retired to Windsor Bay, east of Toronto, where his new store gave the name of Perry's Cor- ners to the present intersection of King and Brock Streets in Whitby. The defeat of 1836 was one of the incidents which drove the reformers to the desperate and abortive Rebellion in 1837. Perry, although an extreme radical himself, took no part in the rebellion - possibly because he had not yet established him- self politically in his new rid- ing, or because he was perhaps just too busy with his new busi- ness plans. In addition, he was known to distrust William Lyon Mackenzie and may have wanted no part in the rebellion for that reason. At any rate, had he joined in the rebellion, his fame might have lived on in Ontario County. Perry's deal- ings in all the produce of the hinterland interested him in the development of Windsor Harbour and in communication with the north. Around 1840 he established the store at Scugog Village (now Port Perry} in Reach and sent Chester Draper to manage it. Perry's plan of the village drawn by John Shier, Provincial Land Surveyor, was registered on January 2, 1855, four years after his death. Al- though Port Perry' would not rise to prominence until the coming of the railroad in 1872, its location and basic outline had been established. In 1849 Perry had once more gone to the Assembly as a leader in the Clear Grit party. He was considered too radical for a top leadership position, and over-shadowed by Bald- win. In addition his health was failing. He made a few speeches which showed some of the old fie, but found it necessary to re- move to Saratoga, New York, a health spa which was popular at the time. He died there on August 24, 1851 and was brought back to Whitby for bu- rial. The next year, Port Perry was named. It is ironical that a man of his stature should be remem- bered mainly for a few streets laid out in the woods. Indeed he had been forgotten by the time , those streets began to bear the" traffic of the community that he had envisaged for them. Len- nox and Addington had taken his departure in stride in 1836 and by the time of his death was concerned with the more timely topics of defence against the American, the Rideau Canal, and the fight for responsible government which went on and was won without Perry. The registration of his plan in the Registry Office in 18556 was Please turn to page 19 Enjoy our HOME COOKING in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere Delicious Lunches @» Homemade Desserts » Take out 143 Perry Street, Port Perry 985-3942 SRR i i i a rm. -- eee