The sale by Brant of lots in his block marked the beginning of the area that evolved into Burlington. The wave of Loyalist settlers into this area as a result of the American Revolutionary War was followed by immigration from the British Isles and Europe. Homesteaders had to clear some timber from their lots in order to patent the deeds for their Crown Grants of land. Wheat became the major export during the Crimean War when European sources of wheat were disrupted.
By , Burlington had evolved into a prosperous farming community with mixed farms and cash crops of fruit and vegetables. Commercial canneries, ice harvesting and basket factories have been replaced by modern companies and high tech industries which have brought an influx of residents. From the visit of LaSalle to this area over years ago, Burlington has grown into a highly successful urban area with an appealing quality of life.
Seasonal Activities. Captain Wilson was also an important member of the Temperance Union. Chuck was a teacher with the Halton District School Board for more than 25 years. He taught at Mohawk Gardens, W. Breckon and C. He was an outstanding teacher, adored by his students and respected by his colleagues. He loved going to work everyday to create memorable and meaningful experiences for his students.
Chuck was truly committed to the Jump Rope For Heart Program and inspired schools throughout the province to participate in this most worthy cause. He created the Burlington Bouncers, who not only promoted the Heart and Stroke Foundation and its programs, but also competed across Canada. He wanted his school community to be healthy and active and to make a difference in the lives of others through their fundraising efforts. He influenced and enriched the lives of everyone who knew him.
Following his death in , his family helped open the newly-built school on Clubview Drive in Note: For the —04 school year C. Beaudoin Public School was temporarily located at the former W. Breckon Public School site. Chisholm owned the first tavern, sawmill and gristmill in Oakville and served as postmaster and customs collector. In , he was appointed Justice of the Peace in the Gore District and was reelected in Halton in and Rebecca Street, is named after his wife, Rebecca Silverthorn Chisholm.
At the age of 12, he started a school-based club to raise funds and awareness about child labour. Today, that club is Free the Children, an international non-profit organization empowering North American students to become global and active citizens. Since its founding, the organization has built more than schools in developing countries, provided education to more than 55, children every day, established 23, alternative income programs and provided clean water and medical programs to hundreds of thousands of families.
Kielburger is also co-founder of Me to We, an innovative social enterprise challenging the notions of consumption and redefines the relationship between business and charity. Charles Best Public School was named after Dr. Charles Best , an important person in the medical field. When Charles Best was an assistant to Dr. Fredrick Banting at the University of Toronto, he played a role in the discovery of insulin, enabling an effective treatment of diabetes.
During World War II he was influential in establishing a Canadian program for securing and using dried human blood serum. In his later years, Dr. In , he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. In , he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. In , he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. David R. Williams completed residency training in Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine and held numerous leadership positions in emergency medicine at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre as well as academic positions at the University of Toronto.
Williams was selected for the Canadian Astronaut program in Williams served as a mission specialist on two space shuttle missions. The following year Williams was made an Officer of the Order of Canada for his work in space exploration.
In he received the Order of Ontario and the Award of Excellence from the College of Family Physicians of Canada, as well as numerous honorary degrees.
Williams is the author of several children's books. He and his family reside in Oakville. Frank J. In the early s at the University of Toronto, Dr. Hayden began researching the fitness levels of children with intellectual disabilities. Based on this research, he proposed a national program of sport training and competition for persons with intellectual disabilities. His research became known to the Kennedy Foundation in Washington DC, and for two years Hayden helped establish a fitness award program and federal legislation to assist the disabled.
The school is named after Ernest Jimmy James, a man who had no middle initial, but whose nickname was Jimmy; hence the addition of the initial to the school's name. Returning from war, he held various positions in the Oakville area then Trafalgar Township , including postmaster, trustee and business administrator for the school board. When Mr. She was also the first practising Canadian woman engineer and first female aircraft designer.
There, she headed the Canadian production of Hawker Hurricane fighter planes during the Second World War - producing more than 1, aircraft. MacGill is a recipient of the Order of Canada. She also taught art to children between and , painting in a unique and modern style that was rejected at the time. In addition to painting, Emily Carr was also an acclaimed writer, receiving the Governor General's award for her book titled, "Klee Wyck".
More than 50 years after her death, Carr has become a Canadian icon, known to many who are not readers or who know nothing of art. She has been and continues to be the subject of books, academic theses, poetry, film and theatre productions. During her lifetime, her art was exhibited in Canada, the United States and Europe.
She is valued as an important part of Canadian art history. Foster Public School was named in honour of the late Edgar William Foster, a distinguished citizen of Milton and long-time educator. Florence Meares Public School is named in honour of Florence Meares and her lifelong commitment to education in Halton. She is a former teacher, Vice Principal and the first female elementary school Principal, appointed by the former Burlington Board of Education. In her retirement, she continued to serve in education as a public school board trustee from He established a number of forts on the Great Lakes and engaged in a series of battles against the English and the Iroquois.
Ethel Gardiner served Halton community as an educator and as a leader in education for about 40 years.
She was a Halton District School Board teacher from , and a trustee for the Halton Hills community from She was also elected Chair of the Board for six consecutive years She was quick to herald the accomplishments of students, educators and support staff, and often did so in a public forum, further promoting the successes of public education.
Ethel also met each task in a fair and equitable manner, and sought relevant information in order to make informed decisions for the betterment of students and staff of the Board, and public education as a whole. As Chair of the Board, Ethel brought leadership and vision to the board of trustees in Halton, pioneering change and focusing outcomes on student achievement. Ethel was honoured for her accomplishments and outstanding service to public education with the prestigious provincial "Dr.
Since its opening, more than school groups and hundreds of teachers and educators have visited the Juno Beach Centre. Webb passed away in Gary Allan — was an incredible teacher who had a lifelong passion for learning. Gary began his career path as a chef and then entered the teaching profession in , first in Hamilton and then at General Brock High School in Burlington in , becoming the first Technical Director at E.
Drury High School in Milton. Flexible timetabling provided opportunities to take classes during the day, evenings and weekends. Gary understood students entered the programs for a variety of reasons and with diverse needs. If they needed something that was not offered, he was determined to find a way to help them and thus Gary and the staff committed to "do whatever it takes" to encourage their students.
Adults and adolescents alike responded to the opportunity to return to school and an extraordinary learning environment was nurtured. Gary Allan High School provides a variety of alternative learning opportunities for students outside the traditional high school setting.
These programs provide many of the same credit courses found in high schools but the mode of delivery or the location is different. George Kennedy , was one of the original settlers in Georgetown and whom Georgetown is named after. George Kennedy settled in the area in and built a sawmill, gristmill, foundry and a woolen mill, which fostered the early economic development of the area.
Gladys Speers was the first female Inspector of Schools in the Oakville Board and donated the land upon which the school is located. She also donated a piano to the school. She used to come to the volunteer tea at the school between and She resided in Oakville until her death in She began her teaching career in the s in a one-room schoolhouse, spending most of her career in Milton schools, retiring in as Principal at Kilbride Public School.
One influential family, the Filmans, arrived in the late Eighteenth Century, opening land along the bayshore from King Road to Indian Point. Avid bird-lovers, the Filmans are supposedly commemorated by "Birdland," the housing development with street names such as Finch, Lark, Tanager, Oriole and so on.
It would seem that these settlers brought some special qualities with them, because Aldershot has always had a fiercely independent quality about it, in spite of the fact that it was never incorporated as a village.
Other early communities were not so lucky. If you were asked to venture off to Cumminsville, Hannahsville, Tansley or Zimmerman, would you know where to find them? Probably not, because they haven't existed in many years. And only older generations could pinpoint the site of Port Nelson, Freeman, Dakota and Appleby today. Yet each of these was a thriving village in its time, and their residents no doubt would be surprised to learn that the collection of shops and homes at the foot of Brant Street then called "Wellington Square" would one day become the focal point and namesake for the entire Nelson Township as the City of Burlington.
But it did, and the manner in which it grew, in fits and starts and eventually in a post-war explosion, is the basis of Burlington's story. In early years, another settlement called "Highville" was begun on the hills above the town. At its prime, Lowville counted a furniture factory, paint factory and agricultural equipment plant among its industries. More a site than an actual community. O ne of the most vexing questions of Burlington's history is a very simple one: what is the source of its name?
Was it, as some have suggested, an evolution of "Bridlington," the Yorkshire town? Or was its namesake the London suburb of the same name, long since absorbed within the English city? Popular folklore leans towards the "Bridlington" origin - an idea supported by the revised City crest.
But Governor Simcoe's wife refers to the area as "Burlington" in her diaries, and the name was well established by the time Brant settled here. Burlington Heights, where the High Level Bridge stands today, was a major area landmark at the time; what's more, the body of water known variously as "Macassa Lake" and "Lake Geneva" was officially designated Burlington Bay in , long before any settlement occurred here.
There is, in fact, absolutely no direct reference to "Bridlington" anywhere in historical records. So, while we may never know the exact source of the name, it's safe to say that the area was referred to as "Burlington" from the very beginning. When Brant's land began to be parceled off after his death, the settlers who formed the young community were seeking a clear identity for their area, distinct from "Burlington Heights" and "Burlington Bay.
Thus, Wellington Square. While legend has it that Joseph Brant named the hamlet in honour of The Iron Duke, the facts suggest that an early developer of Brant's land, Joseph Gage, was responsible. Wellington, after all, did not become a celebrity until the Battle of Waterloo, eight years after Brant's death.
The other hero of the time, Lord Nelson, inspired names for communities in the area such as Palermo and Trafalger, as well as for the new Township of Nelson.
In many ways, the history of Burlington is really the history of Nelson Township, and the story of the communities within its borders. A Royal Act passed in established townships as the first imposition of government on this part of the country. Unfortunately, the survey was carried out by two individual surveyors working 11 years apart, leading to some interesting consequences.
The first was conducted by Samuel Wilmot in June , who surveyed the area north from the lake as far as two concessions above the Dundas Highway. The balance of the Township had to wait until for surveyor Rueben Sherwood, who surveyed the lots in a different manner, running their lengths perpendicular to Wilmot's. Why change the direction? Only Sherwood knew, but the results can be seen to this day, where north-south roads above Highway 5 all contain a small "jog" at the 2nd Concession to account for the different surveying techniques.
In any case, the survey led to settlers clearing the land throughout the area, including much Brant's Block extending from west of Indian Point to Brant Street. Many of the settlers were Late Loyalists leaving the Revolution behind, and among them were the Ghents, wealthy plantation owners from North Carolina.
Legend has it that many of our local apple trees were begun from seeds of Ghent trees in North Carolina. During a year spent in the Saltfleet area, the Ghents had started small trees from the seeds and supposedly carried the seedlings across Burlington Bay in canoes.
The young trees, planted upon their arrival in Wellington Square, are said to have thrived in the sandy soil and launched an agricultural industry that was to sustain the are for more than years. English settlers formed the next small wave of newcomers to the western end of Lake Ontario. Those who had any energy remaining after a rough ocean voyage and the trek onward from Quebec or Montreal faced a difficult life in the unopened wilderness areas.
T hroughout Nelson Township, communities were springing up at cross-roads and near mills and port facilities, while existing settlements expanded; Wellington Square grew from a cluster of 16 houses in to an impressive inhabitants by , when it could boast of a doctor, taverns, churches, and boat travel to Hamilton.
During the early 's, Port Nelson welcomed the first rector of St. Luke's Anglican Church, Dr. Thomas Greene, as a resident. Natives of Ireland, Dr. Greene and his wife, like the Ghents, brought seedlings of their favourite plants with them - in this case, Mrs. Greene's prize roses. The Irish roses flourished in the sandy soil, inspiring the name that the area is known by to this day: Roseland.
In , both villages were joined by the new Lakeshore Road originally called "Water Street" , but it would be years before vehicle travel would surpass ships, especially for transporting cargo. Between the snow drifts of winter and the mud of spring rains, Upper Canada's roads were practically impassable six months of the year. In fact, few roads were to be found at all; the area was well behind much of what is now Southern Ontario in road building, as a result of its relatively late settlement.
What's more, there were no navigable rivers in the area, so Lake Ontario became a lifeline to the region, bringing equipment and materials from abroad and carrying away exports to the rest of Canada and eventually to Europe. Many of the original roads in the region were built by settlers, whose contribution of labour was for a time accepted in lieu of taxes. I n the latter half of the Nineteenth Century, changes occurred which altered the emphasis on wheat in Nelson Township.
The export markets died off, a gradual move towards western wheat began, and our local farmers followed the normal evolution of land use, moving from wheat to mixed crops. Melons, too, became something of an area specialty, particularly those grown in Aldershot soil; for a period of time, an "Aldershot melon" was almost as common a term as a "P. Parallel with the strong grain industry, lumbering became an important part of Wellington Square's commercial life in the mid's. Cutting down trees not only provided much-needed timber to construct homes and ships, but also opened the land for agriculture and homes.
Naturally, the settlers who toppled trees weren't interested in replacing them with similar stands of young oaks, elms and beech. And just as naturally, the lumber boom was relatively short-lived. Still, it was prosperous while it lasted.
By the mid's, Nelson Township could boast of 17 saw mills, all water-powered and all generating hamlets around them, such as Kilbride, Lowville and Zimmerman. Most of the timber was marked for export, and when grain carts weren't lined up along Guelph Line and Brant Street waiting for the ships, lumber carts were. Lower-grade wood was cut and sold as fuel for the many steamers plying up and down the Great Lakes, their high stacks trailing plumes of thick black smoke and cinders.
Timber destined for local use required yards and dealers, and there were several large lumberyards in Wellington Square and Port Nelson at the time. Customers who came into the villages for lumber looked for other supplies as well, and from to Wellington Square was humming with activity. A ll of this commercial development provided jobs. Jobs attracted workers. And workers needed homes in which to live and raise their families. While the earliest settlers had begun farming in the Indian Point area, the heart of Wellington Square was on land originally awarded to Joseph Brant.
But for the first forty years, there was little to indicate that Wellington Square had a future any more promising than other hamlets in this part of Upper Canada.
Significant advances during this period were few and far between: the completion of the canal through Burlington Beach into the Bay and the launching of regular stagecoach service to Hamilton and Toronto are about the only highlights.
G rowing up during the first years of Burlington as an incorporated village seems like some northern Huck Finn story to us from the viewpoint of the late Twentieth Century. The village extended from the Lakeshore on the south to the apple orchards north of Caroline Street. At the foot of Brant Street, high-masted schooners sailed in from faraway destinations such as Kingston, Montreal and Windsor.
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