Toronto of Old: Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of OntarioScadding, Henry
History
Toronto of Old: Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario
Scadding, Henry
Toronto (Ont.) -- Description and travel; Toronto (Ont.) -- History
At the west end of the bridge, just across what is now the gore between
Queen Street and King Street, there used to be the remains of a military
breastwork thrown up in the war of 1812. At the east end of the bridge,
on the south side of the road, there still stands a lowly edifice of
hewn logs, erected before the close of the last century, by the writer's
father, who was the first owner and occupant of the land on both sides
of the Kingston road at this point. The roadway down to the original
crossing-place over the river in the days of the Ferry, and the time of
the first corduroy bridge, swerving as it did considerably to the south
from the direct line of the Kingston road, must have been in fact a
trespass on his lot on the south side of the road: and we find that so
noteworthy an object was the solitary house, just above the bridge, in
1799, that the bridge itself, in popular parlance, was designated by its
owner's name. Thus in the _Upper Canada Gazette_ for March 9, 1799, we
read that at a Town Meeting Benjamin Morley was appointed overseer of
highways and fence-viewer for the section of road "from Scadding's
bridge to Scarborough." In 1800 Mr. Ashbridge is appointed to the same
office, and the section of highway placed under his charge is on this
occasion named "the Bay Road from Scadding's bridge to Scarborough."
This Mr. Ashbridge is the early settler from whom Ashbridge's Bay was so
called. His farm lay along the lower portion of that sheet of water.
Next to him, westward, was the property of Mr. Hastings, whose Christian
name was Warren. Years ago, when first beginning to read Burke, we
remember wondering why the name of "the great proconsul" of Hindustan
looked so familiar to the eye: when we recollected that in our childhood
we used frequently to see here along the old Kingston road the name
Warren Hastings appended in conspicuous characters, to placards posted
up, advertising a "Lost Cow," or some other homely animal, gone
astray.--Adjoining Mr. Hasting's farm, still moving west, was that of
Mr. Mills, with whose name in our mind is associated the name of "Hannah
Mills," an unmarried member of his household, who was the Sister of
Charity of the neighbourhood, ever ready in times of sickness and
bereavement to render, for days and nights together, kindly, sympathetic
and consolatory aid.
We transcribe the full list of the appointments at the Town Meeting of
1799, for the sake of the old locally familiar names therein embodied;
and also as showing the curious and almost incredible fact that in the
language of the people, York at that early period, 1799, was beginning
to be entitled "the City of York!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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