"THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF ALLISTON, 1891 - 1991, by Alliston Centennial Committee, 1991. 88 p. illus."

The following history is verbatim from the book "The History of Simcoe County" by Andrew F. Hunter. First published in 1909 and reproduced in 1948 by the Simcoe County Historical Society.

Tecumseth appears to have excelled all the other townships, so far as rapid progress is concerned. Beginning with 1822, with scarcely a single white man within its borders, its population in 1829 had reached 546, as we learn from a copy of Mackenzie's Colonial Advocate, dated April 9th, 1829. The rapidity of its development during the succeeding years is indicated in the following table: -


Year .........................Population 1829...............................546 1836..............................1410 1842..............................2491 1850..............................3612

Notwithstanding the rapid settlement of the township, from which one would infer that pioneer life there was beset by fewer obstacles, the hardships of the first settlers in that township seem to have been unusally severe.

A part of the pioneers in the extreme south east of Tecumseth came from the North of Ireland. A partial list of these early settlers in the south east, mostly in the ealy twenties, is here given; - Robert Clark, (1825) , lot 23, con.2, Gilbert Coffey, (1825), lot 21, con.4, John Coffey, (1825), lot 22, con. 4, James Manning, (1819), lot 24, con. 5, Joseph Walker, (1827), lot 21, con. 3.

This group of pioneers mostly came by way of King Township, and settled, as we see, in the corner adjacent to that township, and in the vicinity of Dunkerron. The had very hard times after their arrival, not only in getting their first crops harvested, but in finding a market for the grain. It was related that Robert Clark, who was the first person to bring a wagon into Tecumseth, could neither get money nor tea for the first produce of the fields. "Tea was a cash article in those days, and though Clark offered the merchant as much wheat as chose to take for a pound, he could not get it. The best he could do was to trade his load for deer calico and earthenware, at the rate of fifty cents per bushel. He drew to little York, a distance of at least thirty miles, five barrels of flour; but all he could get for it was $2.50, half cash and half 'trade,' with the understanding that he was to have one barrel of salt for one barrel of flour.

James Manning, sr., named on the above list, was indeed one of the very first to settle in the township. He died, Dec. 19th, 1866, aged 90 years.

Joseph Walker was a native of County Tyrone, Ireland, and came with his brothers and sisters early in the twenties to the new settlements in West Gwillimbury and Tecumseth. In 1849, or the following year, he moved west to the township of Brant, Bruce County, and pursued his vocation of milling at the present site of the town of Walkerton, the town being named after him. Sketches of this useful pioneer are in Belden's Atlas of Simcoe County, and in Norman Robertson's History of Bruce County, with a portrait in each.

A few from other countries settled amongst these Irish residents in the early years, of whom were the following: - Henry Dean, lot 22, con.2, Jeremiah Lundy, (1822), lot 19, con. 1, Henry Nolan, (1829), lot 23, con. 2, Peter Doyle, (1829), lot 24, con.3.

Henry Nolan and his wife were both of good Quaker stock. Their son, George A. Nolan, of Tottenham, was reeve of the township for four years - 1870-73. He was again reeve in 1881-2-3, and on the incorporation of Tottenham as a village he was elected as its first reeve in January, 1885, but resigned the position a few months later.

Peter Doyle, also named in this list, was the first to settle in his neighborhood. He was a Qualker, and he made the first wagons in the neighborhood.

One of the first persons to settle in the township was Andrew Carswell. The travelling catechist, John Carruthers, relates in his Retrospect (page 232), that Mr. Carswell and some others opened the forest here in 1819. At any rate, he received the patent for the north part of lot 24, con. 4, as early as June 21st, 1823. They had come in by way of the settlements of West Gwillimbury, adjoining them.

A member of this family, John Carswell, settled farther north, near Bond Head. In the early days, his house was used as a place for preaching by the Presbyterians. He was one of the Home District Councillors for Tecumseth in 1842, and in the following year represented the township in the Simcoe District Council.

It is worthy of notice that the first distinct influx of settlers into this township, came in or about the year 1825, and most of those settled in this southeast quarter of the township. Among the names of settlers entering or taking up lands before this period, not already mentioned, we find that of John Connor (1822) who took up lot 19, con. 1, and that of William Walker, (1821) on lot 15, con. 1.

The Hawke family were amongst the earliest settlers in this southeast corner of the township. Benjamin Hawke, the head of the family, came to Yonge Street from Pennsylvania about the year 1811, his wife being a sister of Samuel Lount, who was executed after the Rebellion. During the war of 1812-15, Mr. Hawke was the contractor for hauling the cannons and supplies passing through Holland Landing, and across the portage from the Head of Kempenfeldt Bay to the Nottawasaga River. His sons, along with himself, settled in King and Tecumseth townships in the twenties, when the parts around Lloydtown and Schomberg were opening for settlement. He was one of the canidates to represent the County of Simcoe at the election for the Assembly in 1834, but was not successful. He was appointed a justice of the peace in 1843. He was lame, and in his day had a full share of the rugged experiences of frontier and pioneer life. Periphen Hawke, was taken prisoner during the Rebellion disturbances of 1837, and, after five months' imprisonment, was pardoned, according to the list of persons arrested appearing in Lindsay's Life of W.L. Mackenzie. And it is said that Gabriel Hawke, of Tecumseth, was also taken prisoner during the Rebellion, although his name does not appear in that list. Gabriel was a large, powerful man, and well-known in the early days of the Township of Tecumseth. Some part of the Hawke family moved to the Township of Wellesley, County of Waterloo, where the village of Hawkesville is named after them.

Farther north, in the vicinity of Bond Head, and northward, the settlers were of different types, and less uniformly of one nationality than is some other parts, though there was also here a large sprinkling of North of Ireland people. Chief amongst the earliest in this central part of the township were: - James Armstrong, (1825), lot 22, con. 7, Richard Batters, lot 21, con. 6, Richard Callaghan, (1825), lot 24, con. 9, George Clunis (1825), lot 19, con. 6, Adam Graham, (1821), lot 24, con. 8, James Hill, (1825), lot 24, con. 11, William Mares, (1827), lot 22, con. 9, James McDermott, (1825), lot 18, con. 8, Edward Rorke, (1824), lot 15, con. 7, Henry Willoughby, lot 24, con. 8.

George Ramsay was amongst the first to arrive, having come in 1822, and taken up lot 19, con.8; although, being a bachelor, he did not settle upon his land until 1825, hiring others in the meantime to make a clerance on it. In that year he married, and with his young wife repaired to his home in the backwoods, taking along with his household outfir a small coffee mill. He was an early magistrate and it was "Squire" Ramsay who married Henry Morris and Margaret Kidd of Essa, this being the first marriage in the settlement. During some seasons of the year, the Holland River was so swollen with floods that it was impossible for the Tecumseth settlers to cross it on their way with grists to Newmarket, where was the nearest mill. At such time Ramsay's little coffee mill was in great demand, and it is said that people came for several miles to grind a few quarts of grain, in order to ward off starvation while the floods lasted. Mr. Ramsay also taught the school in Section No.11 for some years in the forties and fifties. He was a native of the County Tyrone, Ireland, and died November 10th, 1865, aged 69 years and two months.

The original settler in the northern part of Tecumseth was Thomas Cooke, whose name (on lot 24, con. 14), is remembered in connection with Cookstown. But settlers located in the north rather slowly, chiefly on account of the "Big Swamp," which shut them off from communication with the south, and also because the Government Road from Bradford westward, drew the traffic into the central and southern parts. Mr. Cooke was a native of County Leitrim, Ireland, and had advanced far enough with his affairs to raise a house on his land in 1833, across the road from James Kidd (in West Gwillimbury), who was the pioneer of this locality. Mr. Cooke's sons may be classed as early settlers, as well as himself, viz., James, Christopher, Thomas and George.

Hiram Bigelow received a patent for lot 12, con. 6, as early as 1823, and became one of the first settlers of this township. Afterwards, he started the first grist mill in the township, in 1832, or earlier, on lot 20, con. 9, on the stream a mile west of Newton Robinson. Like all the other mills of that early day, it was turned by water power, there being no steam mills at the time. It had wooden wheels, and its remains were to be seen at the place until recent years. Mr. Bigelow had built a sawmill here before he built the grist mill. Some part of the "race" to carry water for the wheel, he made of scooped logs, about a quarter of a mile lomg, or nearly. His son, Nelson Gordon Bigelow, became a prominent lawyer in Toronto, and was at one time member of the Ontario Legislature for the city.

William Monkman, a native of Lancashire, Eng., settled in 1819 or early in the twenties on the S. half, lot 17, con.3. His wife, Hannah Dale, was a native of Yorkshire. He prospered, and in course of time became the owner of 300 acres. He is best remembered as the founder of "Monkman's Meeting-house," the Methodist church at this place. As early as 1828, a travelling Methodist missionary, Rev. John Black, held services in his house, as we learn from Carroll's work on Case and his Contemporaries, (111,. 200). He had a family of three sons and six daughters. The sons were: George who died in 1846; John and Lawrence, both of whom moved to Garafraxa Township. His daughter, Sarah, was the wife of Thomas Gamble, J.P., a well-known resident of the township in later years.

In this part of the township, also, Gilbert Williams was one of the earliest settlers, on lot 15, con.2. He died Feb. 11th, 1865, at the age of 88 years. Joseph Hollingshead received a patent for lot 13, con. 4, in April, 1822, and his son, William, was a resident on this land for many years. He died March 24th, 1890, in 87th year. About the same time as the others, in this early group of 1822 or the next year, was William Rogers, who settled on lot 12, con. 2. He was, like a number of his neighbors, a native of England.

A little further west than the Monkman settlement, towards the centre of the township, in the first four concessions (especially in concessions one and two), several familes of Irish Catholics settled among the rest. In course of time these established a Catholic Church, with presbytery and burying-ground, on the second line on lot 14.

PENVILLE AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD

At Penville, Adna Penfield, a native of Connecticut, was one of the first settlers, his land being lot 18, con.4. Jesse Mills, a shoemaker, was also a settler of long standing. A village sprang up here at an early date, and a cross road, for the convenience of the settlers, was opened through six concessions, traversing the village in its course. It became an important center soon after the settlement of this neighborhood. In 1837, William Lyon Mackenzie held one of his meetings at Penville, and their was the usual excitement, but this did not prove to be one of the most seditious quarters in that stirring time. Sir Francis Bond Head has had but few admirers even among loyalists, yet the only place in Canada bearing his name as a memorial is to be found in this vicinity - the neighboring village of Bond Head; thus bearing witness to the ultra-loyal and satisfied condition of the inhabitants generally. In later years, the municipal council erected a Township Hall at Penville, and it thus became the "capital." When the railway passed up the valley through Tottenham and Beeton in 1877, Penville waned, and lost the importance it had in the earlier years. In this neighborhood there were some good forests of white oak, which is one of the most valuable trees for timber on this continent.

In the neighborhood of Penville, a few others settled in the early years to which we are referring: - James Coady, (1823), lot 14, con. 7, John Milligan, (1825), lot 14, con. 5, John McDermott, (1825), lot 15, con. 6, Daniel McCurdy, lot 13. con. 5.
The last named of these pioneers reached the century mark, having died June 3rd, 1878, aged 100 years, 5 months and 17 days. He was a native of the County Antrim, Ireland.

James Ellison came from the North of Ireland and settled on lot 8, con.2, in 1822, or soon afterwards. Early in the thirties before any church had arisen in the settlement, the house of Mr. Ellison was used as a Presbyterian place of worship, and a cemetery was started in the neighborhood, on lot 7 on the third line, in 1837 or earlier. The members and adherents of this preaching appointment built a log church at the place late in the thirties, and a manse was also added in course of time. Mr. Ellison had only one son, William. Two of his grandsons entered the Presbyterian ministry in the Hamilton Synod. Mr. Ellison died March 7th, 1880, aged 93 years.

Before the Rebellion, John Pearcey had settled on lot 10, con. 2. He had come from the North of Ireland, like nearly all the other settlers in the same neighborhood. He died October 9th, 1868, in his 64th year. Beside him on a part of the same lot settled John Fleming about the same time, who survived till January 15th, 1891, reaching the age of 75 years. James Milligan had arrived in this neighborhood in 1825, if not before. He is recorded for lot 9, con. 2, but always lived, in subsequent years at any rate, on S. half lot 9, con. 3. Other early settlers in this locality, with their approximate dates of settlement, were: - Owen Casey, (1825), lot 6, con. 2, William Hamner, (1824), lot 6, con. 1, Thos. McGoey, (1825), lot 7, con. 1.

To the northward of the last group of settlers a few others established themselves early in the twenties. Robert Martin came in 1822 and settled on the fourth line, his land being recorded as lot 9, con. 4. He received a patent for N. half lot 8, con. 3, April 28th, 1825. On the fifth line he had a small mill, with turning lathe, in the forties and fifties. After passing through the usual hardships, he reached a mature age, and died December 29th, 1867, aged 72 years.

TOTTENHAM AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD

James M. Tegart arrived in 1823 and took up lot 8, con. 4. It is recorded that when he had cleared three acres of his land he found his cash almost at an end, and had to go to the frontier settlements and hire out for three months in order to raise some ready money. He got $24, or six pounds, for wages, and with this sum he purchased a cow, a spinning wheel for his wife, and some flax. With the wheel, his wife spun enough in six weeks to purchase another cow. Such were some of the hardships of Tecumseth pioneers. As early as 1828, Mr. Black, a travelling missionary of the Methodist church, held services in Mr. Tegart's house (Carroll's Case and his Contemporaries, 111., 200), and about the same time a cemetery was started at this place, and has become the burial place of many old settlers, and the one now chiefly used by the inhabitants of Tottenham, a mile west of the place. Mr. Tegart died March 7th, 1881, aged 80 years 6 months.

In 1825, Hugh Semple, a native of Scotland, settled on the next land westward, lot 7, con. 4, and spent his lifetime in this locality. He died October 2nd, 1882, aged 72 years. His eldest son, Andrew Semple moved to Garafraxa in the pioneer days of that township, and subsequently became member of the Dominion House of Commons for Centre Wellington during three parliaments (1887 to 1900).

James White, a native of County Down, Ireland, settled on lot 8, con. 3, at an early date. Mr. White died October 3rd, 1846, aged 52 years.

John Totten secured a patent for thesouth-west quarter of lot, con. 2, in 1825. Alexander Totten, a member of this man's family, started a store on lot 6, con. 3, in 1835 or 1836 (before the Rebellion). They were natives of the County Armagh, Ireland. In 1840, Alex. to wife, Isabella, daughter of John Willoughby, of Newton Robinson, and this couple lived here more than fifty years. Beside them a village grew up, and when a post office was opended here in 1858, the name Tottenham was given to it out of compliment to the pioneer of the locality.

When the question of incorporating Tottenham as a village came before the County Council in June, 1884, John Thomas Smyth was appointed enumerator for taking the census of the village. He found the proposed limits contained 792 inhabitants and the council incorporated it with George P. Hughes as the first returning-officer. The first reeve elected was George A. Nolan (1885).

BEETON AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD

The first settlers near Beeton were William Hammill, Frederick S. Stephens, John Nelson and Selby Evans, all of whom settled before 1836. Mr. Hammill was one of the two Home District Councillors for Tecumseth in 1842, John Carswell being the other. The date of Mr. Hammill's arrival is given as 1827. He died, March 1st, 1854, aged 82 years. Mr. Stephens was a magistrate prior to 1836, and also served his township as District Councillor in 1847-48. At a later time the village itself sprang up. Robert Clark, having purchased some portion of the land here in 1852, on which were two or three vacant buildings - a log tavern, and a small house and shop - took up his trade as blacksmith, and also started business as a gunsmith, though the forest coverd much of the land about him. He sold off parts of his land as building lots whenever an occasion arose, and the place in course of time began to take on some appearances of a small village. It was first called Clarksville, then Tecumseth, aftre the Tecumseth post office was moved to the place in 1860. A post office in Essex County received also the name Tecumseth, and this led immediately to what might be expected, viz., the mail matter for both offices going astray and getting confused. As an alternative the name Beeton was suggested as a suitable change for this office, on account of the bee trade of D.A. Jones, who was then postmaster, and it was adopted in 1878. The County COuncil purchased the south part of lot 11, con. 8, near this place, for an Industrial Farm, and built the House of Refuge on it in 1898.

The incorporation of Beeton, as a village, came up at a session of the County Council in June, 1884. The Council appointed Thomas Atkins enumerator for taking the census of the village, which he found, within the proposed limits, to contain 781 inhabitants, and the Council incorporated it , W.H. Dickson being appointed the first returning officer. Thomas Atkins was elected as the first reeve of the village, but some inhabitants (Mr. Fenton and others) threatened suit against the county to set aide the By-law of Incorporation. The matter was taken into the courts, and the case of Fenton vs. County Simcoe was a topic in the newspapers of the day. Chief Justice Wilson quashed the By-law (No. 379), and his decision extends over a number of pages in volume 10 of the Ontario Law Reports, but there was an appeal from his decision, and the case entered in the Court of Appeal. In the meantime (January, 1886), the County Council asked the Legislature by memorial to pass an Act to confirm and legalize By-law No. 379, and the Legislature passed an Act for the purpose, as 49 Vict., Chap. 51 (1886), which closed the matter in dispute.

Patrick Hughes, a native of the County Armagh, Ireland, took up lot 6, concessions 6 and 7, in 1832. He was a pensioned soldier, and had served through the Peninsular war, having been wounded at the battle of Vittoria, 1813. His wife was a Portuguese, a native of Lisbon. Mr. Hughes died in 1872, aged 87 years. His son, George P. Hughes, is also to be classed in the roll of pioneers, having been born on the Tecumseth homestead in November, 1834. He became one of the early merchants at Keenansville, where he established a local newspaper (called the Simcoe Observer), as early as 1865, and was also postmaster and magistrate. Some time after the opening of the Hamilton Railway through Tecumseth (viz., in 1882), he moved to Tottenham, where he carried on a banking business, and also the Sentinel newspaper, this being the name he gave the Observer after its third year.

Another notable pioneer in this part of the township was John C. Colgan, who settled on lot 1, con. 5, in 1828, or very soon afterwards. Across the town line from his home, the first Catholic Church of St. James was erected in 1833, and a small village grew up here, to which was given the name of "Colgan." This pioneer will be remembered as the poet "Fagan," the name he signed to his poetical effusions which used to appear in local newspapers. A volume of his poems was printed in Toronto in 1873, written during the preceeding thirty years. They were mostly of local interest; the titles of the pieces, and many references throughout them, recall scenes and events of bygone times in Tecumseth and Adjala.