Historical Plaques of
Northumberland County

By 1825 James Crooks, a prominent entrepreneur and land speculator of West Flamborough, had acquired over 1,000 acres here at the rapids on the Trent River. He soon erected a small grist-mill but made no further improvements until the government began the canalization of the Trent waterway in 1837 and constructed a lock and dam at "Crooks Rapids". Crooks erected a new grist-mill and a sawmill and in 1839 surveyed a village plot. Few lots were sold and in 1851 the whole property was acquired by Henry Fowlds, a lumberman fron Asphodel Township. Fowlds expanded the mills, began a steamship service and established several textile industries. Within 10 years the community, renamed Hastings, contained about 700 inhabitants. Hastings was incorporated as a village in 1874.

In 1804 an Indian, Ogetonicut, arrested near York, was accused of murdering a trader, John Sharp, at Lake Scugog. The trial was to be held here in the projected, but never completed district town of the Newcastle District. On October 7, the schooner "Speedy" sailed from York. Her passengers, in addition to the prisoner, included Solicitor-General Robert Gray, Judge Thomas Cochrane, High Constable John Fisk, and other participants in the trial. The ship appeared briefly off Presqu'ile on the 8th, before vanishing forever. The loss of so many prominent persons was a severe blow to the small colony.

Peter Smith, a fur trader, occupied a house here at "Smith'sCreek" in 1788. The first permanent settlers were Loyalists brought to the Township in 1793 by a group of associates headed by Jonathan Walton of Schenectady, New York, and Elias Smith formerly of New York City. Walton and Smith were granted land after promising to build mills on the creek. The mills were operating by 1797 when Smith moved here, and in 1800 he laid out a town plot. The cemeteries name, "Port Hope" was adopted at a public meeting in 1818, despite local pressure to call it "Toronto". A village with a board of police, in 1834, it was incorporated as a town in 1850.

The world of today differs from that of Napoleon Bonaparte more than his world differed from that of Julius Caeser, and this change has chiefly been made by engineering". These were the words of civil engineer Thomas Clarke, a New Englander who came to Port Hope in 1853 to work for the local railway. He married and raised a family here, and in the 1860s was a partner in a Port Hope firm that constructed the East and West Blocks of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. Clarke then moved to the United States where he pioneered the modern iron viaduct and built massive railway bridges that brought him international acclaim. Clarke is buried in St. John's Cemetery, Port Hope.

Following the peace settlement of 1783 the British sought alternative trade routes north of the new boundary. Among these was the communication, via river and portage, between Lakes Ontario and Huron. Here at the Bay of Quinte carrying place, on 23 September 1787, preliminary negotiations for cession of lands enclosing the route were held between some Mississauga chiefs and Sir John Johnson. The purchase of a tract at Toronto and one at Matchedash Bay was completed the next year and reaffirmed in 1805. While the route was never developed, the purchase did facilitate settlement in Toronto.

A store established here about 1819 by Joseph Abbott Keeler, a prominent early settler, provided the Nucleus around which a small community began to develop. Within ten years a distillery and a blacksmith’s shop had been erected. The settlement, named Colborne reputedly after Lieutenant Governor Sir John Colborne, soon emerged as a service centre for the surrounding region and, with the establishment of a harbour nearby for the shipment of lumber and grain, it prospered. By 1846 it contained a foundry, a pottery, six stores, three churches, a number of tradesmen and artisans and some 400 residents. The arrival of the Grand Trunk Railway in 1856 spurred further growth and three years later Colborne, with a population of about 800, was incorporated as a village.

This church, built from local stone, was begun in 1830 on land acquired by the Presbyterian congregation from Joseph A. Keeler, a prominent local merchant. It was designed by Archibald Fraser, a Scottish architect-builder, in a plain and classically proportioned Georgian style and, upon completion in 1833, services were held under the direction of the Reverend Matthew miller. Later in the century the interior was recast and a new roof featuring projecting eaves supported by paired brackets was added giving the building a decidedly Italianate character. In 1910-11 the original tower was heightened, a belfry constructed and a hall housing the Sunday School erected at the rear. Little altered since then, St. Andrews remains one of the oldest surviving Presbyterian churches in Ontario.

A superb example of a prosperous Upper Canada home, this elegant classical building was erected about 1819. Though its interior has been modified several times since, the façade remains essentially unaltered. In the first historic house restoration undertaken in the province, the structure was refurbished by the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario in 1940. Since 1982 its continued preservation has been entrusted to the Ontario Heritage Foundation.

Built ca. 1820 for Colonel Eliakim Barnum, an American emigrant, this timber-framed home is recognized as an outstanding example of Neoclassical domestic architecture in Canada. While retaining a Palladian composition of centre block and wings, the house expresses the Neoclassical mode in the temple facade of the principal building, the dominant pediment and the smooth wall surfaces relieved by blind arcading. The pedimented, pilastered door, the enriched cornices and the tympanum fan are Neoclassical decorative motifs executed here with a delicacy and linearity peculiar to wood.

French translation unavailable at this time

On this site in 1829 the first pier was built by a local enterprise known as the Cobourg harbour Company. In the year 1841 alone, 597 vessels of over 50 tons each and many smaller vessels docked here. Due to increased activity, protective piers were added in 1843 and in the 1870s. Tolls were charged for harbour usage and goods transported included lumber, grain, and later, iron ore. In the 1840s and 1850s Irish emigrants landed here to embark on a new life. 1859 saw the dream of an international port die with the failure of the Cobourg-Peterborough Railroad. The 1876 America’s Cup challenger "Countess of Dufferin" and the steamship "Cobourg" called this port home. Between 1907 and 1950 the large freight-car / passenger ferries "Ontario 1" and "2" sailed between Cobourg and Rochester. Today, with the assistance of the Federal Government, Cobourg has become an important small craft harbour.

Saw and grist mills erected in this area during the first decade of the 19th century fostered the development here of a small settlement. The completion of the Kingston Road by 1817 facilitated its growth and within a decade it had a population of about 350. Known as Hamilton, then Cobourg, the community expanded rapidly as a commercial and shipping centre and as a port of entry, particularly after harbour improvements were completed in 1832. Five years later, when it was incorporated as a town under an elected Board of Police, Cobourg became the administrative centre for the Newcastle District. The establishment of several industries spurred further growth and in 1850, with about 3800 residents, Cobourg was incorporated as a town under a Council and Mayor.

This Anglican church was begun in 1851 to replace a frame building erected in 1820. Distinguished by the stepped battlements of its facade, the new building was designed in early Gothic Revival style by the noted architect Kivas Tully, who was later responsible for Victoria Hall, Cobourg. After the plan was altered, St. Peter’s was constructed by the contractor Samuel Retallick, and gradually encased the earlier church, which was dismantled. On October 15, 1854, this building was opened for service by its rector, the Venerable Alexander N. Bethune (1800-79), Archdeacon of York and an outspoken advocate of Church of England rights in Canada. St. Peter’s was later enlarged by extending the chancel, and in 1893-95 the interior was extensively renovated.

This resident of Cobourg was the province’s leading stage-coach proprietor from about 1830 to 1856. His Royal Mail Line ran from Hamilton to Montreal, with links to other centres. In February, 1840, Weller drove the Governor-General, Charles Poulett Thomson, from Toronto to Montreal in the record time of 37 hours and 40 minutes. Three times mayor of Cobourg, he was also chairman of its Harbour Commission, president of the Cobourg-Rice Lake Plank Road Company and organizer of the International Telegraph Company.

One of the finest public buildings in Canada, this imposing structure was built as an expression of civic pride and confidence in the future. It was begun in 1856 and opened by the Prince of Wales four years later. Designed by the renowned architect Kivas Tully, Victoria Hall is classical in form and is distinguished by elaborately carved ornamentation, an elegant pediment supported by four Corinthian columns and a massive, column-ringed cupola. The building’s interior with its traditional pit-style courtroom and richly decorated concert hall is as magnificent as the exterior. Briefly closed after serving as a town hall and court house for almost 100 years, Victoria hall was officially re-opened for public use in 1983 following an extensive restoration program.

Leila Maria Koerber, a talented actress and singer known internationally as Marie Dressler, was born in Cobourg. About 1883 she joined a touring stock company, later gaining recognition on Broadway in a series of successful comedy productions, including "Tillie’s Nightmare". Although she made her first film in 1914, entitled "Tillie’s Punctured Romance", with Charlie Chaplin, her real success in motion pictures began in 1930 when she played "Anna Christie" with Greta Garbo. During the following years she made over twenty films and created her best-known character roles as "Min" and "Tugboat Annie". In 1931 she received the best actress award given annually by the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences. Marie Dressler died three years later at Santa Barbara, California.

A father of Confederation, James Cockburn was born in Berwick, England, and came to Canada with his parents in 1832. Admitted to the bar in 1846, he formed a partnership with D.E. Boulton in Cobourg, and in 1849 established a law practice independently. Entering politics, he represented Northumberland West in the Legislative Assembly of Canada, 1861-67, and served as solicitor general, 1864-67. At the Quebec Conference of 1864 he shared in drafting the plan for Confederation, and in 1867 was elected the first Speaker of the new federal House of Commons, a post which he held until 1874. He resigned in 1881 owing to illness and died two years later.

Largely financed by the citizens and town, Cobourg’s railway to Peterborough was chartered 1852 and opened 1854. Like many others of this period, it suffered from excessive optimism, land speculation and faulty engineering. Ice made the three-mile-long Rice Lake bridge unsafe and finally destroyed it 1860-61, ending use of the northern section. Reorganized in 1866, the remaining part carried considerable iron ore from Marmara. The line was acquired by the Grand Trunk in 1893 and closed 1898.

Trenton was home to one of Canada’s earliest and longest running film studios, built on this site in 1917. A number of local citizens lent financial support to a series of small film-making companies which used the studio over the next 17 years. American film stars came to Trenton and the cameras began to role. Film crews at work became familiar sights on the streets of the town, and many Trentonians found work as actors, technicians and extras in the early movies.

In 1923 the Government of Ontario purchased the Trenton Film Plant to house the studio and laboratory of the Ontario Motion Picture Bureau - the largest and most active government film agency in Canada at that time. Captain Bruce Bairnsfather, internationally famous for his World War I cartoons of "Old Bill", came to Trenton in 1927 from England to direct his screen story, "Carry on Sergeant!". Billed as Canada’s first epic production, it premiered in Toronto in 1928. Although it compared favourably with other feature films of the day, the film did not achieve financial success.

With the arrival of the "Talkies" and the advent of 16mm film the equipment at the Trenton laboratory became outdated, and in 1934 the dream of "Hollywood North" died and the doors of the Trenton Film Plant closed for the last time.

This plaque is dedicated to Trenton’s film-making pioneers and is dedicated by Gordon Sparling, Assistant Director of "Carry on Sergeant" and veteran film director. Dedicated May 3, 1992

In the 1830’s, the quiet, dead-end channel before you was alive with activity – it was intended to be the original entrance to the Trent-Severn Waterway. It didn’t quite turn out that way…

Nicol Hugh Baird had recommended a lock, dam and a canal cut around Meyer’s Island in 1833. Contractors Francis and Hay were awarded the contract in 1837, and began to excavate the channel and quarry stone for the lock. Frustrated by irregular payments from the commissioners in charge, they abandoned the works in 1839, leaving this half-dug channel behind. Progress faltered on the Trent River locks until the turn-of-the-century. Finally in 1910, the entrance lock to the canal was completed at a new site upstream. It continues to welcome boaters today.

Cutting straight through the narrow strip of land connecting Prince Edward County with the north shore of Lake Ontario, The Murray Canal is an 8 kilometre canal cut linking Lake Ontario with the Bay of Quinte. It was constructed between 1882-1889 to provide an alternative shipping route to the treacherous waters surrounding Prince Edward County. Now thousands of boaters each year use this short-cut, which is operated by the Trent-Severn Waterway.

· Long before the Murray Canal was constructed, this narrow neck of land linking Lake Ontario and the Bay of Quinte was a native "Carrying Place" or portage.
· Asa Weller was an enterprising settler who operated a marine railway at Carrying Place in the early 19th century, using his oxen to haul bateaux across the portage.
· The Murray Canal, saving a hundred mile open water voyage around Prince Edward County for anyone wanting to go from Lake Ontario to the Bay of Quinte, was surveyed and laid out on paper in 1797.
· By the mid-1800’s, Lake Ontario had the busiest shipping industry of all the Great Lakes. The stretch around Prince Edward county, however, posed a real danger. Lobbying soon began for the construction of the Murray Canal.
"When it is remembered that the stretch between Presqu’ile Harbour and Kingston is the most hazardous on Lake Ontario, the advantages to be derived from such a cut-off will be evident, especially in the fall when stormy weather is most prevalent. Had the little canal existed last year, a number of marine disasters might have been avoided." - Board of Trade report, City of Montreal, 1865 · Men and muscle built the Murray Canal between 1882 and 1889 with the help of steam-powered dredges, derricks and pumps.
· When the canal was finished, commercial traffic began to sail through the canal. Three-masted schooners were among the first vessels to try out the new short-cut.
· Before long commercial steamers began to glide through the Murray Canal. By 1913, several express freight and passenger steamers were maintaining a regular service along the north shore route.
· Once built, the "little canal" significantly reduced dangerous open water navigation, and helped to foster a thriving coastal trade in the early 20th century. With the evolution of new modes of transportation, commercial shipping vessels gradually disappeared from the Murray. · Today the Murray Canal is a popular short-cut for recreational boaters.

John David Kelly, a gifted painter and illustrator, is best known for his meticulously researched paintings depicting important events in Canada’s history. Many of Kelly’s paintings and sketches were commissioned for reproduction and were widely distributed. The artist was born at Gore’s landing in 1862 and grew up in Percy Township. He graduated from the Ontario School of Art in 1882, contributed to the noted calendars of the Toronto Art League, and was active in the Graphics Art club and the Ontario Society of Artists. Kelly’s historical painting is represented in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario.

In 1854, fourteen German immigrants who had been employed on the construction of the Cobourg and Peterborough Railway, died of cholera on this property (lot 6 concession 8, Hamilton Township). They were buried in unmarked graves beside the nearby railway berm. In 1882, J. R. Barber, a one-time superintendant of the railway, erected a wooden cross to mark the site. The inscription on the cross reads:
"IN MEMORIAM Fourteen GERMAN Labourers who DIED of CHOLERA, 1854", and "POTTER'S FIELD".

Erected 1987
by
Cobourg and District Historical Society
Township of Hamilton
Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Culture

Named after Thomas S. Gore, an Irishman who settled in this vicinity in 1845, the village of Gore's Landing prospered for a time as the terminal point of a plank road constructed from Cobourg to Rice Lake 1847-48. Among the well known residents of Gore's Landing were Archibald Lampman (1860-1899), noted poet; Derwyn T. Owen (1876-1947), Anglican Primate of All Canada from 1934-1947; J.D. Kelly (1862-1958), historical artist; and Gerald S. Hayward (1845-1926), a painter of miniatures who won acclaim in the U.S. and Britain. Hayward contributed to the building of the present St. George's Anglican Church, constructed of stone in 1908 to replace the wooden church erected 1846-48, and is buried in the adjacent cemetery.

In 1831 two Scottish-born brothers, Lieut.-Col. Robert Campbell and Major David Campbell, were granted 2200 acres of land in Seymour Township, which had been surveyed in 1819. Robert who had achieved an outstanding record in the Napoleonic Wars, died here in 1836, while David served as Crown Land Agent for the Township, 1832 - 1839. Here at "Campbell's ford" there arose a settlement which, about 1853, was named Campbellford. David Campbell, by then living in Cobourg, formed a syndicate in 1856 with Nesbitt Kirchhoffer and James Cockburn to develop Campbellford, which was incorporated as a village in 1876. Campbell died at "Sidbrook", his Cobourg estate, in 1881.

This area, purchased in 1828 by Robert Harwood, a Montreal merchant, did not begin to develop rapidly until the arrival of the Cobourg and Peterborough Railway in 1854. Harwood was surveyed in 1855, and the line, which transported passengers, lumber and goods to Peterborough, and later ore for the Marmora iron foundry, encouraged commercial development here. The near-by crib bridge, which carried the track across Rice Lake and on to Peterborough was, however, poorly engineered and constructed and was closed in 1862. Competition from the Port Hope-Peterborough railway was severe and service on the Cobourg-Harwood line ceased in 1895 after the local lumber mills had closed. Today Harwood remains primarily a summer cottage community.

One of several technical training institutions operating in Upper Canada during the first half of the 19th century, the Alderville Manual Labour School was established here by 1839 by Wesleyan Methodist missionaries. The school was designed, as were others of this type, to assimilate Native children into the Euro-Canadian society that was growing rapidly within the province. To that end, it attempted to eradicate the traditional Native way of life, and stressed instead Christianity, the rudiments of an English education, and skills in farming and domestic crafts. Believing that the school proved the effectiveness of the manual labour approach, Reverend Egerton Ryerson, Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada, recommended in 1847 that similar facilities be established for Native children throughout the province.

The Mississaugas of the Ojibway (Objebwa) nation collected on Grape Island in the Bay of Quinte in the year 1826 to establish a Wesleyan Methodist Mission. Elder Case with the assistance of Peter Jones converted 102 native peoples and taught them agricultural methods. The lack of sufficent agricultural land on Grape Island caused the transfer of the Mission to an area of (approx.) 3500 acres in Alnwick Township on the south shore of Rice Lake in the year 1837. This Mission, established by Rev. E. Case with the assistance of Rev. John Sunday, John Simpson, William Beaver, Jacob Shippegaw, and John Pigeon, was named Alderville after the Rev. Robert Alder. The centre in this thriving settlement of 40 families, a total of 200 people, was the Chapel, the Manual Labour School, and the Mission House.

This fine limestone house, originally painted blue, was completed in 1834 by John David Smith. Born in New York City in 1786, he came here in 1797 with his father, Elias Smith, who had played a leading role in the founding of this community. The family recieved large grants of land in Hope Township, and John David Smith served during the War of 1812 as a captain in the 1st Durham Militia. A prosperous merchant, he served as a local justice of the peace and was elected to the legislature of Upper Canada in 1829. This house built in the Greek Revival style, remains an outstanding example of its type in Ontario.

Built in 1822 this Anglican Church was consecrated in 1828 and dedicated to St. John the Evangelist. With an enlargement in 1842 and alterations to windows and tower in 1851 the church approached its present size, form and Gothic appearance. A new St. John's was opened on Pine Street in 1869 and this building was closed. Re-opened in 1873 and re-dedicated, it became the church of a separate parish. Further alterations were made about 1895 and in 1962 the church was carefully restored. On July 26, 1959, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, and His Royal Highness, Prince Phillip accompanied their host the Right Honourable Vincent Massey, Governor General of Canada and a parishioner of St. Mark's, to morning worship here.

A pioneering operation in the development on nuclear energy, the Eldorado refinery was established in 1933 by Gilbert LaBine, a veteran prospector, and his brother Charles. It extracted radium, used in the early treatment of cancer, from ore mined in the Northwest Territories. In 1942, soon after the uranium atom was split for the first time, the Canadian government acquired Eldorado to refine uranium oxide, a waste product in the radium extraction process. The only operation of its kind in North America, it supplied uranium for American nuclear research during the Second World War. In 1944 this important industry was made a crown corporation. Since 1965 it has concentrated on energy markets, processing uranium to fuel reactors throughout the world in the production of electricity.