|
Contact
Community
Studies: Publications
Educational Resources
Historic Sites in Scarborough Heights
Links for Toronto Links
mccowan.org
Scarboro Heights Record
Search This Site
Table of Contents
Sources
| |
Kingston Road
and Transportation
Some
Regional and Contextual Background Information
-
The first
thoroughfares on Scarboro
Heights
were Indian trails -- dating back almost 10,000 years. The McCowan
collection of arrowheads and other points includes evidence that suggests
that the Fenwood Heights Blvd. / Kingston Road
area could very well be the earliest known site of human occupation in Toronto. These ancient artifacts could tell a story or two! (See also Dr. B.
Schroeder, Evidence
for Early Human Presence in
Scarborough, Scarborough Historical Notes and Comments, V13 #1.)
-
Until 1834
Toronto
was called “York”.
-
Kingston Road
was first blazed by William
Cornell, Levi Annis and other early settlers along the front of the Township
in about 1800. A good portion of the original “
Front Road
”, as it was initially called, was in the lower area or “flats” below
the hill which marks the old
Lake
Iroquois shoreline east of
Markham Road.
Danforth Road
was sometimes referred to as the “Back Road”.
-
The Annis
family were probably the very first white pioneers in Scarboro. They chopped
a clearing out of the forest near the present
Washington
United
Church
in about 1793. Several tales from the annals of this family are interesting
for their references to travelling along the “front” of
Scarborough
two centuries ago.
-
In late
1832, Rev. William Proudfoot travelled between his home near York
and what is now called St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in the McCowan Road
and Lawrence Ave.
area. He was considering the possibility of becoming their full-time
Minister. He had arrived in
York
from Scotland
in September 1832. See also Transactions
of the
London
and Middlesex Historical Society, Pt. VI (1915) and Pt. XI (1922) or
Scarborough
Historical Notes and Comments Vol
8 #3.
-
In 1815-17 Kingston Road
was improved and given a second alignment, generally to the north of the
first.
-
In 1836-37 Kingston Road
was straightened to its present alignment and “planked” with thick
boards. The roadway was sixteen feet wide.
-
The free
land grant policies of the period 1793-1826 had been unsuccessful in
effectively settling Upper Canada. The enormous government land reserves and the holdings of speculators
resulted in a scattered population immediately beside the St. Lawrence River
and Lakes Ontario and Erie. The scattered and mobile form of the population hampered development of
educational and other social institutions. Beginning in 1826, a policy of
selling Crown Lands to the highest bidder was initiated, although the free
grants to Loyalist and military claimants continued.
-
Beginning
in 1831, policy was directed to preventing poor settlers from buying land on
credit -- the theory being that only those with ample capital could properly
improve the land. It was more important to the economic development of the
colony, argued Edward Wakefield, to have a ready supply of wage labour than
to have a population of poverty-stricken freehold farmers. Land prices were
therefore set just low enough to attract the farmer with capital and just
high enough to force the poor into a landless labouring class.
Wakefield's theory was further adopted into economic policy through the Land Act of
1841.
-
This policy
of holding land prices out of reach of ordinary immigrants was intended to
create a labouring class. A readily available working class was necessary,
according to
Wakefield
, to attract development and investment capital from
Britain
-- public construction projects could not be built without labourers.
-
One of the
major public works of the mid-late 1830's was the improvement of the
Kingston Road, the most important land route in the province. (see also When the Ground Fails)
-
According
to their obituaries, James Weir (1814-1897, from Lesmahagow,
Scotland
, 1833) and James Neilson (1820-1897, also from Lanarkshire, about 1832)
were partners in a
Scarborough
land-clearing enterprise for several years in the 1830s. Contracting by the
job, “James could cut, split and
pile his three cords per day”. These two professional
“bush-whackers” probably cleared a fair bit of land along the front of
the township. Indeed, it is entirely possible that at least Weir was
contracted to clear parts of the alignment for the “new Kingston Road” when it was straightened in 1836-37. James Weir bought his first farm in
1845. The Neilsons first lived on the lakeshore near Highland Creek.
-
In 1855 the
Grand Trunk Railway bought about an acre from Robert McCowan toward the
north end of the farm. Two years later, the GTR bought another 3 acres. The
train station was probably built on the latter parcel. The Grand Trunk was
eventually absorbed into the CNR.
-
According
to a McCowan family story, David Purdie, father of Jenny McCowan, purchased
a car in 1911, only the fourth in
Scarborough.
-
On
Anniversary Sunday, there would likely be a few former members at the Church
service, some perhaps from outside the Township.
-
Ruth Evelyn
McCowan (1883-1972) was the only surviving daughter of Robert McCowan Jr.
and Hannah Ashbridge. Her husband, Jack Heron, served in France
during the First World War. Ruth kept Jack up-to-date on
Scarborough
news with her many letters written from her father’s farm. Their children
were Margaret, Ruth and Jack.
-
William
“Harold” McCowan was the second son of Robert and Hannah McCowan. Until
1950 he and his older brother, Robert Ashbridge (Ashley), farmed the
almost-200 acres on the east side of McCowan Road
between Eglinton Ave. and Lake
Ontario
.
-
Ashley
McCowan and his wife, Flo Green, and sons Walter and Frank lived in the
re-built farmhouse (1917) that still stands at 23 McCowan Road.
-
Harold and
his wife, Janet (Jenny) Purdie, and their family (Bob, Jack, Helen, Bill and
Jim) lived in the huge Queen Anne style farmhouse that stood until 1975 at
3100 Kingston Road on the east side of where Arby’s is now. (This house
(built 1914) replaced the regency cottage in which William Ewart Young was
born. Mr. Young was a co-founder of McLeod, Young, Weir a prominent
brokerage firm. He was a grandson of Andrew Young.)
-
The
parents, Robert and Hannah McCowan, lived in the third farmhouse, built in
1916, which was on the west side of Arby’s.
-
Hannah
Ashbridge McCowan was born on her father’s homestead, lot 26 concession B,
about a mile west of her husband’s family farm.
-
William
“Billy” McCowan was Robert’s younger brother. He spent his last years
driving radial cars along Kingston Road
.
-
By 1901,
the Toronto Railway Company had extended the electric radial line to the
Half-Way house at Midland Ave.
The “stop” numbers at that time were not as they are today. “Stop
19” today is at McCowan Road. “Stop 19” at the time of the 1919 fatal accident was at Courcelette Road.
-
Refer also
to The McCowans’ Who’s Who for
1992
-
Refer also
to R.R. Bonis, A History of
Scarborough, 1965, p. 255-277 “Old Scarborough Roads”
-
Refer to
our Transportation page and Information
Processing program
-
Go to our Search
page -- use your language and critical thinking skills to define helpful search criteria
Pioneer
Travel, 1800-1835
One member of
the family, Levi, was a little better equipped than usual, took his mount, a
horse, and before daylight was attacked by wolves; he slung himself from his
mount into a branching tree, and with flint and steel stood off the pack till
daylight. The sun was a great defender. Another member, Jerry, had not so far to
go and in the darkness wended his way homeward along a familiar trail, crossed
by a large fallen tree, along which he carefully felt his way, and then jumped
fully five feet to the accustomed path, the spot had become the rendezvous of a
settler's large drove of hogs and his unexpected intrusion created a panic, and
hastened his arrival at his father's cabin.
Annis
Annals
(William Annis)
was a dispatch and mail carrier from Toronto to Oshawa, mounted on a horse, and
who had many encounters with highway robbers and later, before the construction
of the Grand Trunk Railway, he drove the Royal Mail Coach from Toronto, east
over a corduroy road, that was afterwards planked with four inch pine, laid on
cedar mud sills, which proved to be a high point in the development of good
roads. But with all the prevailing banditry he never lost a mail bag.
Annis
Annals
The day
exceedingly cold. Hard frost, the trees coated all over with ice, and many of
them beaten to the ground by the weight of the ice. Took five and a quarter
hours to go to
Scarborough
[St. Andrew’s] -- twelve miles --
on horseback. The roads were bad.
Diary
of Rev. William Proudfoot,
Dec. 1 1832
(in Transactions of the
London and Middlesex Historical Society, Part VI (1915)
Walked from
Scarborough
home. Took six and a half hours... The frost began to give way in the morning
and by the time I got home they were wrought mire.
Diary
of Rev. William Proudfoot, Dec. 3 1832
The road for
three miles, ie from York
to the forest the very worse road I ever saw. The mud at the least four inches
deep, and so thin that it's surface was quite smooth. For four miles through the
forest, it was pretty good, but from Mr. Brownlee's to Mr. Thomson's [beside the
Church], was wretched. In consequence I was spattered up to the knees and was
very much indisposed in consequence of the ride [on horseback].
Diary
of Rev. William Proudfoot, Dec. 8 1832
It had freezed
all night. The roads were exceedingly rough and in those places where they were
in pools yesterday the ice was not yet strong enough to bear the horse. As the
best way of getting on I walked a great part of the way and led the brute. This
saved much pain to the animal and, perhaps, some broken bones to myself. By the
time I got to York
the snow was falling so heavily that I could scarcely see my way.
Diary
of Rev. William Proudfoot, Dec.19 1832
The
Labouring Class and Capital Projects, ca 1837
In the demise
of the late Jas. Neilson, Scarboro has lost one of its earliest settlers, one
who away back in the thirties helped to fell, clear and fence hundreds of its
acres of primeval forest. He and his partner, the late Jas. Weir, in that early
day were noted bush whackers. Both boasted of making the foundation of their
wealth by clearing land and chopping cordwood in Scarboro. For the cordwood they
received 25 cents per cord and the price for clearing land was in the same
ratio, yet both died wealthy.
James
Neilson obituary, 1897, Pherrill Scrapbook
William Jess, a
native of
Norfolk,
England, emigrated to
Canada
June, 1836, and was first employed by Richard Beatty on the construction of the
Kingston Road
in Scarboro and was dubbed “Billy Go The Road” by his fellow workmen,
presumably from the fact that he was tramping around in search of employment
when first seen in
Scarborough
.
David
Boyle Collection
John Duncan ...
left Tyrone Ireland in 1836 ... not having any friends or acquaintances here he
had to trust to
Providence
for someone to give him employment. He first hired with Arch Muir on a farm
about 9 miles east of Toronto on Kingston Road [in Scarborough at Bellamy Road]
... In the spring of 1837 Elizabeth, his wife, and 3 children left Ireland ...
made their way to Toronto and then to the farm of Mr. Arch Muir where her
husband was still at work and lived there for about 1 year, then moving to Lot 2
Con 2 on Kingston Road ... and was living there at the time of the straightening
of the Kingston Road, helping to break the first stone that was put on the road.
David
Boyle Collection
The
Auto Arrives
Chesters have
been making a grand trade of their horse, buggy, harness, wagon and sleigh for
an
Overland
automobile.
Ruth
McCowan Letters, October 27 1916
This is
anniversary Sunday and the church was full this morning. We had our own choir,
and Dr. Tanner sang a solo... There were not so many at church tonight, but
Ashley [McCowan] says he thinks there must have been thirty cars there... Harold
is getting a new car this week, a Ford.
Ruth
McCowan Letters, June 17 1917
Ashley and
Mamma and Papa drove out to Mount
Albert. It rained a good deal yesterday and the roads were not very good, but they
made the trip each way in about two hours. I remember when we used to take old
Maud. We would leave home about eight or nine and would get there about five in
the afternoon.
Ruth
McCowan Letters, June 24 1917
They sold the
cattle this week. Seven of them at $.14 per pound, and weighed at Neilson’s.
[Mr.] Vivian [a cattle dealer] took them to the market and got $15.40 per cwt,
but they had lost about 100 pounds. Some price for beef, eh what? It is almost
twelve o’clock and the automobiles are still on the go. This afternoon Ashley
counted 75 go past here in 15 minutes. It has been like a procession all day and
I don’t see much pleasure being in it. I often wonder how it is so many people
have time to go motoring now, when there is so much work to be done and so few
to do it. Of course there are always more on Saturday and Sunday.
Ruth
McCowan Letters, May 19 1918
The Kingston Road
traffic was always heavier on weekends in the summer. The men had quite a time
getting the loads of hay across the road from the opposite field. As there was a
little slope on the lane up to the road, the horses had to stand there straining
while the cars went by. I remember once the load upset but thankfully no one was
hurt. On Sunday nights we often sat on the verandah and watched the
“jam-ups” as we called them. Being a single lane each way [before 1935], it
was stop-and-go for the cars for miles. We always referred to McCowan Road
as “the sideroad”.
Helen
McCowan Thomson, 1990
Papa had a
two-car garage at his house. But I don’t believe he ever drove a car. Even
though we had a big driving shed of our own and Uncle Ashley had a long
implement shed, both Dad and Uncle Ashley “had to” keep their cars in
Papa’s garage. We had to parade across the orchard to get into the car. I
think the Dads didn’t trust us kids fooling around inside the cars if they
were parked at our place. Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Alex Thom got his sister’s
old green Chev when she died but no one at Uncle Alex’ drove. By this time I
had learned to drive but didn’t have a licence. Once in a while Uncle Alex
would ask Mom and me to come down to their place at Dunbarton on the Gray Coach
Bus. I would drive us in the old chev out through the country visiting our Annis
relatives. When Uncle Alex died, Auntie decided to give me the car. We named it
“Gertie”. I didn’t drive it much, but when the war was over Jack drove it
to
Toronto
to work every day. I remember the Willy’s-Knight that Dad had. It seemed to
be bigger than a coupe and was a dreadful mustardy brown colour. A tool box was
built onto one end of the back seat. Bob and Jack sat on the seat. They were the
oldest. Bill and I had to sit on the edges of the tool box with our legs in
amongst the tools. Bill rode backwards -- I guess he was too young to complain.
Helen
McCowan Thomson, 1990
Our early
‘20s Willy’s-Knight was one of only two ever made of that particular model
-- at least that’s what we were told. Dad bought it at the estate sale of the
Ames
family at
Kingston Road
and Main Street.
Ames
were a well-known brokerage firm. It would never seem to start when it was damp
out. We would have to push it outside to let the sun dry things off. Uncle
Ashley’s ’26 McLaughlin, on the other hand, would always start no matter how
damp it was. The Willy’s-Knight was so big and heavy that Uncle Ashley called
it “the freight train”.
Jack
and Bob McCowan, April 2001, as
told to Bruce McCowan
We finally
stopped using the grand Willy’s-Knight and parked it in the garage. We
hadn’t driven it for 3 or 4 years when quite a regretable incident occurred.
It was during the depression and General Motors was going around buying up old
cars. They wanted to get the old cars off the road in order to stimulate sales.
There was also
the argument that these older cars (such as our Willy’s-Knight) that had
two-wheel brakes were dangerous -- if the guy in front had a new car with
four-wheel brakes and you only had two-wheel brakes, it was quite likely that
you could rear-end him. The back fender of four-wheel-braked cars had to carry a
red triangle warning drivers behind that they had four wheel brakes -- ie
“leave lots of room” if yours only had two-wheel brakes! Most cars for the
working-man got four wheel brakes in about 1928.
In any event,
one day a GM guy came in to our place and walked into the garage. I saw him pick
up a crowbar and smash a hole in the engine block of the Willy’s-Knight just
to be sure that no one ever drove it again.
GM did not even want to take it away.
Eventually, the
top and the engine were taken by a wreckers. The rest of it finally got pushed
into the gully south of the house to help stop the erosion. An old Model T went
into the ravine too.
Dad and Uncle
Ashley had quite a good working partnership on the farm. Dad loved horses and
would use only them to work the land -- I only saw him drive the tractor once.
Uncle Ashley, on the other hand, never seemed to use the horses -- he enjoyed
driving the tractor. Of “the Dads”, Uncle Ashley was the farm mechanic.
Bill
McCowan, April 2001, as told to Bruce McCowan
Two-Wheel
Brakes, A Radial Car and Tragedy, 1919
Lack of evidence last night at the Morgue caused the adjournment of the inquest
into the death of Elizabeth Caroline Bell, who was killed on June 29 when an
auto-truck in which she was riding was struck by a radial car at Stop 19, Kingston Road. Testimony given showed that at the time of the fatality, the truck driven by
Samuel Barnes, now in hospital with a broken collar-bone, was heading from the
lake and ran straight into the street car, in charge of Motorman William
McCowan. The truck was hurled into a tele-graph pole and overturned, Miss Bell
being thrown upon her head. She sustained a fractured skull.
Newspaper
clipping, believed
to be 1919,
supplemented by an interview with Clark Secor, March 2, 1984
Exercises
Individual Exercises
1) In 100
words, compare the difficulties of road travel in the pioneer days with road
travel today.
2) Re-read the
paragraph above which begins and ends: “One
member of the family, Levi ... and hastened his arrival at his father's cabin.”
Now rewrite this paragraph in a way that you feel is more understandable.
3) If you were
in charge of “planking” Kingston Road with boards in 1836, how many trees
would you need to cut down to plank one mile of the road? State the sources of
your data and explain your assumptions.
4) Draw a
sketch showing the way in which Kingston Road
was “planked”.
5) What do you
think happened when the Grand Trunk Railway was built? The construction of the
Grand Trunk Railway and the construction of the Don Valley Parkway 100 years
later had somewhat similar economic effects on Scarboro
Heights. Explain. Look for physical examples today on Kingston Road.
6) Who was
“old Maud” and how was her role about to change?
7) How did the
arrival of the “car” affect social life in the farming community?
8) Write a 100
word paragraph on the importance of good brakes on a car. Refer to some of the
engineering principles that are involved.
Class Discussion
1) Discuss the merits of the government labour and land policies of the 1830s.
2) Discuss the
future of the motels along Kingston Road.
Field Trip and
Research Paper: Landforms
1) Ask your parents to take you on three short drives in your neighbourhood.
-
Drive a)
Drive to the south end of Meadowcliffe Drive. Then go back to Kingston Road
and go west.
-
Drive b)
Drive to
Fairmount
Park
(south on
Dorset
to Sloley). Walk through the Park toward the bluffs. Go back to Kingston Rd
then west to Midland
.
-
Drive c)
Drive south on
Scarboro Crescent
to Scarborough
Bluffs
Park
.
What was
different about Drive b? How is this significant regionally? How did Scarborough Heights Blvd
get its name? How would you find the 3 highest points of land within a 30 mile
radius of
Scarboro
Heights? Find them.
2) Refer to our
Scarboro bluffs pages starting here; Bonis A History of
Scarborough
(p.1-14) Morrison The Bellamy Bluff; and McCowan A
Lakefront Estate Residential Development in Scarborough Historical Notes and
Comments V13 #2.
3) Write a 500
word essay on “People and the
Scarborough Bluffs”. Be sure to give your essay a “people” aspect.
Research, Analysis,
Writing Assignment: Transportation c1837
Describe a
corduroy road. Discuss the pros and cons of making the Kingston Road
into (a) a planked road and (b) a macadamized road. Discuss the importance of
road improvement to the growing City of
Toronto
and to the Township
of
Scarborough. Suppose the planking of
Kingston Road
had been delayed twenty years. What effect might this have had on the
development of (a) Toronto
and (b) the Province? Output the results of your analysis to a 300 word essay.
List your resources. Note: Refer also to R.R. Bonis, A History of Scarborough, 1965, p. 255-277.
The
Scarboro Heights Record V13 #12
|