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18- PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, April 6, 1999 "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" of Scugog by Paul Arculus Sketches of Scugog is a historical column written by local resident and historian Paul Arculus and published in the Port Perry Star each month. EACH TOWNSHIP was one of the last townships in this part of Canada West to be settled. This was largely as a result of the late establishment of roads into the township. Although Reach was surveyed over the winter of 1809-1810, it was not - until 1821 that Reuben Crandell, Reach Township's first white settler made his way to establish a home- stead at the eastern edge of what is now Manchester. When Crandell made his way from Lake Ontario, he did not have the luxury of a road to travel on. He made his way north following an old and well estab- lished Mississauga trail. This trail followed a route which is close to present day Old Simcoe Road. It took him two days to widen the trail sufficiently for his ox to make its way to the fifth concession and then west to the land which he had purchased. The term "concession" originated from the first settlers in New France. The system of dividing land came to be known as the seigneural system in which large parcels of land were granted to wealthy individ- uals, seigneurs. These individuals subdivided the land and granted or "conceded" the land to families who rented the land. The lines between these rental properties became known as "concessions" roads. It was two years before Crandell had any neigh- bours in the Reach Township wilderness. John Ray cut his path north in 1823 from what is now Whitby This map drawn up in 1851 shows the roads into Reach Township. The reason that the Centre Line road does not meet the Lake Scugog shoreline is that the map maker had used Wilmot's 1809 survey which was drawn before the Lake was dammed at Lindsay, doubling the size of Lake Scugog. Notice that even in 1852, the road north of Manchester is still an "intended road" whereas the Nonquon road is complete. Old Mississauga trails led to opening Scugog basin and settled on lot 11 on the second concession, just south of Crandell. In 1824, Abner Heard and Reuben Dayton followed Crandell's path and estab- lished themselves on the fifth concession but remained east of Crandell. The settlement they began became known as Dayton's Corners. The name was changed to Prince Albert in 1840 to commemorate the marriage of Queen Victoria to her cousin Albert. By the time of Crandell's arrival, the areas which surround Reach had been well settled. Jonathan Gould, the father of Joseph Gould settled in Uxbridge in 1805. There is an excellent' account of their journey in "The Life and Times of Joseph Gould". The Goulds had made their way into Uxbridge Township by travelling from York (now Toronto) up Yonge Street to Newmarket and then east into the interior. That was a four day journey! Other settlers followed a route from Port Hope and Cobourg to Rice Lake and then west to settle the southern townships of Victoria County before 1820. A number of settlers had built homes in Brock Township by that time. In 1825 massive migrations from Ireland began, bringing both protestant and Roman Catholic settlers into Emily, Ops and Cavan Townships. It wasn't until 1827 that a recommendation was made to the government by John Smith, the Deputy Provincial Surveyor, that roads be established in Reach Township. Finally, three years later the gov- ernment issued orders to have two roads built. These two roads were; (1) Simcoe Street which followed Simcoe street north from Oshawa to the ridges and then followed what is now Old Simcoe Road through Prince Albert and on to the Nonquon River and (2) the Centre Line Road which ran from Windsor Harbour (now Whitby) north to what is now Manchester and then east to Lake Scugog. It should be noted that the northern extremities of these roads were respectively the Nonquon River and Manchester. Beyond were only barely passable tracks. In 1831 a further road, the Brock Road, was built from Whitby to just beyond what is now Epsom. In 1832, Reuben Crandell bought 400 acres where the two roads met; at the intersection of the Nonquon Road and the section of the Centre Line road running from Fitchett's Corners to Lake Scugog. At first this settlement was known as Crandell's Corners but later he changed the name to Borelia. This was later to become the western section of Port Perry. - The building of these two roads, primitive though they were, finally presented the opportunity for more settlers to move into Reach Township in the knowledge that they would have opportunities to travel the Lake Ontario centres for supplies with more ease. When Peter Perry was defeated in the 1836 election he immediately immersed himself in the development of his grand dream: to build a trans- portation route from his harbour at Windsor (now Whitby) on Lake Ontario all the way to Lake Huron. With this in mind, he bought land at the south western end of Lake Scugog in 1844 from the Williams family and used his influences in the Legislature to develop his harbour and the Centre line road. Naturally, he did all in his power to discourage the development of the Scugog Road which fed his rival harbour at Oshawa. At the point where the Centre Line Road turned east, a tavern was built by Hiram Fitchett on the western side of the road. This intersection then became known as Fitchett's corners. In spite of the fact that the road north of Manchester was not improved, this route presented the opportunity for farmers to the north to bring their grain down to the Danforth Road and to Perry's harbour, drawing traffic away from the Uxbridge and Newmarket route. It wasn't long before a number of grain merchants realized the potential of Fitchett's Corners as a grain centre. Warehouses were built at the intersection so that the farmers to the north could sell their grain there rather than having to make the long and arduous journey to the front. Hotels and stores were also built to accommodate the traffic. One of the toll gates along the Centre Line Road, in Whitby Township, which was owned by Peter Perry in the 1840s. This route was safer due to the added traffic which came from Perry's settlement at the Lake Scugog waterfront. Fitchett's Corners grew and along with it, the desire to give the settlement a more dignified name, so the name was changed to Manchester in 1852. Uxbridge had become a "boom" town before 1845, but the strategic location of Manchester and its growth increasingly drew trade away from the much older community. At that point Uxbridge's growth came to a complete halt. In 1849 Peter Perry returned to the legislature and used his influence to have almost $200, 000 spent by the government on the improvement of the Centre Line road and on his harbour at Whitby. In spite of this vast expenditure, the Centre Line route was still impassible for several months of the year, due to the rough terrain and the number of swamps and creeks in its path. This gave the edge to the Nonquon Road. In the early 1840's a substantial bridge had been built across the Nonquon River a few meters east of where the main road to Manilla now crosses the same river. Farmers from the north and east journeyed to Prince Albert down this route with much more confi- dence. For this reason Prince Albert became the second busiest grain handling centre, by volume, in the whole of Canada. Brampton had the highest. Manchester was not too far behind; fifth place. The Provincial Government, anxious to reduce its costs and its expenditures decided to sell its roads to private toll road companies. Naturally Peter Perry bought the Centre Line road, and in keeping with his plans for its development name his company the Port Whitby, Lakes Scugog, Simcoe and Huron Road Company. A group of Oshawa businessmen bought the Nonquon Road. Perry's acquisition of the road caused an uproar. Not only was Perry a member of the Legislature in which he had campaigned for the vast expenditures on the development of his harbour and the road which serviced it, but the price which he paid was less than half the cost of the 1849 improvements. When Perry died in 1851, the Road company was sold. One of the new owners was James Rowe whom Perry had encouraged to financed the building of the first steamship in the Kawarthas, the Woodman, built at Port Perry's waterfront. Rowe's partner was John Watson who was the treasurer for the Windsor Warehouse Company which owned and operated the warehouse on the Windsor (Whitby) dock. Watson and Rowe changed the name of the company to the Port Whitby and Lake Huron Railway Company. The company went bankrupt in 1863 and the road and harbour were bought by Joseph Gould and Chester Draper. Draper had been the manager of Peter Perry's first store on the waterfront in 1844. Draper and Gould later parted company with Gould taking control of the road division of the company and Draper took the harbour. In 1876, the road was taken over by the county and the toll booths closed. A ------ A A IS A HR EAA