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Canadian Genealogy

Victoria County, Ontario Canada Centennial History

Author's Preface

This history has been appearing serially through the Lindsay "Watchman Warder" for the past eleven months and is now issued in book form for the first time. The occasion for its preparation is, of course, the one hundredth anniversary of the opening up of Victoria county. Read more..

Table Of Contents

	Introductory Outline A New Domain and a Virile Race A Long Rough Journey From Old to New The Work of Settlement in the Wilderness The Steady Changes Wrought With Time An Early Tragedy in Ops Township How Grist Mills Grew to Villages The Beginnings of the Trent Canal The First One-third Century a Pioneer Era The Establishment of Municipal Institutions The Second One-third Century a Railway Era The Development of the Northern Townships Victoria County Reaches Maturity in 1861 Wardens of Victoria 1864-1921 Canada, Also Reaches Higher Unity Final One-third Century, a Modern Era
	The Southern Townships The Beginnings of Emily Township The Robinson Immigration The Mill Village of Omemee First Village Council The Municipal History of Emily The Township of Mariposa First Township Council A Trio of County Villages A Section on Recent Statistics The Township of Ops Pioneers in Southwest Ops The Eastern Concessions South and Center Some Annals of the Scugog Forgotten Highways of Long Ago Officials and Figures First Township Council The Township of Eldon Survey and Settlement Roads and Railroads First Township Council The Early Kirk in Eldon Lorneville Argyle Bolsover Kirkfield The Township of Fenelon Early Settlements in Fenelon The Village at the Falls First Village Council Farm Villages and Summer Villages Cameron Sturgeon Point Population and Assessment The Township of Verulam Survey by John Houston in 1831 First Settlers Hunter and Bell The Mill Village of Bobcaygeon Bobcaygeon Since Incorporation First Council Slow Development of Verulam Some Verulam Hamlets Dunsford Fairbairn Ancona Point
	An Agricultural Transformation Comparisons and Contrasts Rise of Dairying Cheese Factories Butter Manufactories Seven Cheese Factories Figures of Prosperity Factors in Agricultural Development The Development of Machinery Improvement of Transportation Agriculture Benefits From Science New Forms of Cooperation The Rise of Agricultural Societies Victoria County Agricultural Society Other Societies History of the Lindsay Central Exhibition The Grangers and the U. F. O.
	The Northern Townships The Beginnings of Baxley A Phantom Village Where the Sea Gulls Nested The City of Peace Hell's Half Acre Features of Somerville Township A Second Generation of Pioneers Somerville's Villages Outline of Laxton Township The Tamarack Plains of Carden Lakes in the Digby Granite The Wilderness of Longford
	Economics of North Victoria Not a Mining Country Farming a Precarious Calling An Era of Lumbering Now Past Reforestration Needed A Resort for Recreation Recapitulation
	Town on Lindsay Early Settlers The Millers of the Scugog The Survey of the Townsite Purdy's Mills in the Thirties A Period of Invasions From Village to Town Municipal Officials Scourge of Fire Further Threats of Fire Primitive Conditions of Life Growth in Civic Stature Summary of Industrial Development Engaged in Lumbering Miscellaneous Industries Commercial Lindsay Family Business The Banks of Lindsay Delayed Civic Improvements Lindsay's Lighting System Search for a Water Supply Sewage System Long Delayed Summary of Public Utilities The Streets of Lindsay Shelter for the Aged Mail and Music A Few Municipal Statistics The Record of the Press Half Century of Sport
	The Record of the Rocks Norland on the Pacific Coast of Greenland The Great Limestone Cliff Lindsay Under a Mile of Ice Ancient Niagara River at Fenelon
	Annals of the Red Man Who These Ancient Villagers Were The First White Man in Victoria The Downfall of the Huron The Coming of the Mississaga The Days of Mississaga Settlement The Surrender of the Soil Camp Sites in Victoria County Verulam Township Fenelon Township Eldon Township Bexley Township Somerville Township Laxton Township Digby Township Carden Township Strange Works and Stranger Ways
	Kawartha Navigation A Season of Surveys Further Construction in the Thirties Progress Under Board of Works Development of Lumbering Revival of Canal Project Steamboats of Victoria County Future of Trent Valley Canal
	Spinning the Railway Web The First Train to Lindsay Toronto and Nipissing Railway Whitby and Lindsay Railway The Victoria Railway The Blight of Bonuses The Battle of the Barricade George A. Cox Achieves Amalgamation Irondale, Bancroft, and Ottawa Ry. Hope Deferred Maketh Bobcaygeon Sick A Line for Manitoba Wheat Recapitulation
	A Century of Politics The U. C. House of Assembly, 1821-41 Politics Following the Act of Union Rise of Political Parties Circumstances Leading to Confederation Basis of Confederation Victoria County Federal Politics Victoria County Provincial Politics Senators From Victoria
	A Schoolhouse Revolution
	General History of Education in Ontario Administration of School System Public School System Develops Development of Secondary Schools Libraries and Technical Education
	Elementary Schools in Victoria Agricultural Instruction Secondary Education in Victoria Public Libraries in Victoria Technical School Founded Present Needs of our Schools
	Military Annals of Victoria County, Ontario, Canada Early Militia Organization in Canada Local Militia in 1828 and 1839 4th Regiment of Durham Militia, Personnel of the Regimental Staff 5th Regiment of Durham Militia, Personnel of the Regimental Staff Changes in 1847 and in 1851 Effects of the Trent Affair, 1861 The Fenian Raids Stimulate Enlistment History of the 45th Regiment The Saskatchewan Rebellion, 1885 Personnel of the 45th detachment from Lindsay and the surrounding district Lindsay Soldiers Lead Batoche Charge The Victoria County Rifle Association Events Leading up to Boer War The Sending of Canadian Troops The Progress of the War Outbreak of World War in 1914 Victoria County Enlistments Victoria County Soldier Dead List of Victoria County War Dead A Brief Summary, Beginning from 1914 Canadian Share in War in 1915 Canadian Share in War in 1916 The War's Progress in 1917 The Closing Campaigns in 1918
	Pages of Parish History Catholic Church History of St. Mary's Church, Lindsay First Resident Priest of Lindsay Father Chisholm Plans New Church A Famous Apostle of Temperance Methodist Church The First Resident Methodist Minister 1854 to 1868, Senior Incumbents A Season of Amalgamation Pastors of the Cambridge Street Church East Ward Methodist Church Pastors 1891-1917 Presbyterianism in Lindsay The Coming of Disruption The Church Reunited Once More Church of England Curates of Church Baptist Church Pastors 1893-1920 The Salvation Army
	Cemeteries of Lindsay
	Research into Pioneer Survival
	Biographies from Past and Present

Its chief purposes are four in number:
(1) to place on record the local details of pioneer life that are fast passing into oblivion.
(2) to instruct the present generation of school children in the origins and development of the social system in which they live.
(3) to show that the form which our county's development has taken has been largely determined by physio-graphical, racial, social, and economic forces.
(4) to demonstrate how we may, after a scientific study of these forces, plan for the evolution of a higher economic and social order.

The difficulties of the work have been prodigious. A Victoria County Historical Society, formed twenty years ago for a similar purpose, found the field so sterile that it disbanded, leaving no records behind. Under such circumstances, I have had to dig deep. The Dominion Archives at Ottawa and the Crown Lands Department at Toronto have been systematically ransacked; libraries at Kingston, Peterborough, Lindsay, and Toronto have been consulted; the municipal records of the county have been thumbed over; scores of interviews have been secured with old and prominent citizens; and complete local press files for 47 years have been read through in their entirety. To provide a proper background of general history, over one hundred standard works on history, economics, and sociology have been studied. Every page of the book represents the results of laborious and incessant research.

General readers may perhaps be interested in the following "background" sketches,. which, to the best of my knowledge, are not to be found anywhere else in printed form.
(1) The review of Trent Canal construction, in Chapter IX.
(2) The sketch, in Chapter XII, of the development of the Ontario school system.
(3) The history of the early Canadian militia, in Chapter XIII.
(4) The condensed outlines of Canadian military campaigns, in Chapter XIII.

Victoria County, Ontario Canada Centennial History, Watson Kirkconnell M.A., 1921

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