|
 |
|
|
| Neighbourhood History |
|
|
 The history of the neighbourhood plays a vital role in the identity of its residents. If you have lived in the neighbourhood for many years, the neighbourhood history is a heartfelt reminder of days gone by.
If you have just come to call the neighbourhood home, it is a way to learn more about the new community you have joined. We would love nothing more than to share the history of the neighbourhood with all who reside here.
The name 'Sheridan Homelands' has some historical connection: Sheridan refers to the small village which has disappeared (there is a cairn and silo remaining) and was named after an English playwright. Homelands refers to the 'Home District'
which preceded the formation of Peel and Halton Counties.
The following articles have been kiindly submitted by Matt Wilkinson - Heritage Mississauga -THANKS MATT!!
Several books have been printed pertaining to our history.
'Erindale at The Crook of the Credit' by Jean Adamson
'Erindale the Pretty Little Village' by Verna Mae Weeks
'Mississauga: Where the River Speaks' by Alan Skeoch
'Mississauga:The First 10,000 Years' Heritage Mississauga
Historical pictures can be found on
http://www.mississauga.ca/portal/residents/erindalegallery |
|
|
|
History of Sheridan Homelands
Toronto House
Excerpt from “Erindale at The Crook of the Credit” by Jean Adamson
In 1821 the stone structure called Toronto House was built for Colonel Peter Adamson on two hundred acres of land between Dundas Street and the Middle Road (Queen Elizabeth Way) near Credit (Erindale), purchased for £300. He had come from Scotland in 1817, and after buying property from a Mr. Stevens left plans for his house to be built then returned to finish his service in the army. He began as an Ensign in 1800. On loan from the British to the Portuguese army, he rose to rank of Brevet-Major General and was made Knight of the Tower and Sword. He earned several medals for services in the Peninsula Wars. Though he took part in the battles he was not injured except for a bullet wound in his hand. He was given grants of land by the government, some around London, Ontario but bought the land where he built his house and later an additional one hundred acres to the west. He also owned several properties around Erindale village.
It was the Colonel who helped start St. Peter’s Anglican Church and used his influence to bring the Rev. James Magrath as rector. Just a few years later they quarreled and in a temper he moved to Norval where is started St. Paul’s Church, still being used. He was appointed to the Legislative Council which made him the “Honourable Peter Adamason”, and he was also a magistrate.
Toronto House, later called Thorne Lodge from the imported English hawthorns, was a four sided structure and an inner courtyard. About three-quarters of the house was built of fieldstone gathered from the farm. The south side and part of the west wing were frame, but since there was no foundations under this part, the timbers have long ago rotted away. The Colonel lived in the front side of the house, and the east wing was occupied by a man brought from Scotland to work the farm. The frame part of the west wing was called the Assembly Hall and was used for meetings and dances. Church services were held there before the first church was built. There was a large frame barn too, but was replaced years later by other owners who built a barn with a foundation of stone hauled from a wide creek that ran in front of the house.
His daughter, Mrs. Mitchell, lived in the house for some time and then it passed to other hands. Faskins, the next owners, built barns which remained until recently. Cartons owned it for a time until Stanley Harmer bought it in 1932 and his family farmed it continually until 1964 when it was sold for subdivision. The house was much the same as it was one hundred and forty years ago. The ten rooms that were left had not been greatly changed except that the interior had been modernized.
There was a plan to save the house to serve as a library for the community. The subdivision, Sheridan Homelands, was redesigned to leave untouched the three lots on which it stood. It was hoped that the township or other interested parties would see its potential and come to its rescue. However, before anything could be accomplished, on May 24th, 1965 the house had accidentally burned.
Today there is not a trace of where the house stood except for a willow tree that was nearby. Rows of houses cover much of the farm, and the Sheridan Park Research Centre takes up most the back along the Queen Elizabeth Way. A small subdivision was started by Mr. Harmer in 1953 where Thorne Lodge, Liruma and Loanne streets are, near Dundas Highway. Two of these streets are named for the ladies in his Family – Lily, Ruth, Mary (Liruma) and Lois and Anne (Loanne). United Lands Corporation began developing the rest of the property in 1965.
Liruma Plaza was built in 19968, with the Royal Bank added to the corner of Dundas Highway in 1970. Just to the west, though not on the original farm, Woodchester Plaza was under construction in 1971.
A Forgotten Crossroads Hamlet
By Matthew Wilkinson-Courtesy of Heritage Mississauga
How many of us have heard of Frogmore? Certainly to some residents and busy passersby’s-by of today, the name probably has little recognition value. The small hamlet of Frogmore was located on the town line of Toronto Township (Mississauga) and Trafalgar Township (Oakville), around what is today the intersection of Winston Churchill Boulevard and Dundas Street. The first postmaster, Mr. C. Anderson, dubbed the hamlet “Frogmore” due to the overwhelming amount of frogs that could be heard in the nearby marsh. The store and post office were located on the northeast corner of the modern intersection while a school (which operated from about 1870 – 1922) was located on the south side of the intersection. The post office was only in operation from 1863 to 1874, prior to and afterwards the mail came to the Sheridan. The small Methodist congregation at Frogmore would gather at George Falconer’s home (once located at the corner of the Fifth Line and Dundas Street) to listen to services given by traveling Methodist Preachers. In 1857 the Freeman Congregation built the Zion Wesleyan Methodist Church (1857 – 1884) in Frogmore, located just to the east of the crossroads and on the north side of Dundas. Jonathan Scott is listed as one of the early ministers at the Zion Chapel in Frogmore. When the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches joined in 1884, the residents of Frogmore either traveled to Erindale or to Munn’s United Church in Trafalgar Township. The Zion Chapel sat empty until 1890 when it was purchased by the Sons of Temperance and moved to the Village of Sheridan, only to be torn down a short time later. Also in Frogmore, directly across Dundas Street from the church, was Cameron’s Wagon Shop (shown on the 1859 Tremaine Map). The other claim to fame for this crossroads community was Samuel Conover’s brewery (just to the east of the wagon shop). The Marlatt family had extensive apple orchards and notable Erindale merchants Christopher and Truman Miles Boyes also called Frogmore home for a time. After the post office closed in 1874 most of the areas settlers were considered “official” residents of either Sheridan (to the south) or Erindale (to the east). Once Frogmore lost it post office (to Sheridan) and its congregation (to Erindale) it seems that it had little reason to remain and slowly disappeared from official recognition. Some of the names associated with Frogmore bare witness to its memory in the form of tombstones at the Cosmopolitan Cemetery at St. Peter’s Church in Erindale - names like Boyes, Cameron, Carpenter, Conover, Falconer, Marlatt, Shain and Stafford. Please share your memories and photographs of Forgmore with us and help preserve the story of this forgotten vanished hamlet and the settlers who once called it home.
Articles Written for the “Erindale Herald” Community Newsletter
By Matthew Wilkinson
Searching for Old Erindale
What story does the landscape around us tell? Does it tell the tale of the people who built, the families who lived and the children who played there? Take a stroll around your own property and neighbourhood and look for evidence of previous owners, such as slight variations of fence lines, old wells, or crumbling walls. How about odd changes made to your house? Why and when were these made? If your house is newer, is there evidence of a previous structure on the landscape? Ask these questions of your own property. The answers are all around us.
The quiet streets of Erindale have a story of their own outside of the larger history of Mississauga. Erindale has its own tidbits just waiting to be explored and explained. You might be surprised by the stories that the Erindale has to tell if we only take the time to look and listen.
Chances are, wherever you live in Erindale, someone else has lived there before. Maybe not in the same house but certainly on the same property. Think of what Erindale must have been like when it was first established circa 1825. But whom were the village streets named for? What was the old road at the corner of Robinson and Thompson used for? What about the dam at Erindale Park, Lake Erindale, and the old Hydro tunnel? Where were the first two schools in Erindale? The third school building, presently used by Visual Arts Mississauga, still evokes memories of bygone days.
The streets of the old village, outside of the First and Second Forty-foot Roads (modern Mindemoya & Nanticoke) were named for some of the founding families and influential people who helped carve modern Mississauga from the pioneer landscape. But who was Alexander Proudfoot and where was Thomas Racey’s sawmill? Enjoy the search.
Discover what lies about you. Walk the trails and see if you can find traces of the old millrace. Erindale was home to at least eight different mills. Evidence for at least two mill-sites is still faintly discernable. Can you find them? What does an odd depression in the ground tell you? Where were Ross’ Hill, Prosperity Point, and Cedar Swamp Road?
Two churches occupy the two highest points of land in Erindale, but who built them and why were they built? And what about taverns and inns? Erindale has had a few. One of Erindale’s oldest surviving buildings, the former St. Peter’s Rectory, was built on a tavern-site.
Erindale was also the home of a few firsts! It was home to the first licensed doctor in Toronto Township, the first licensed mechanic, and the first farm to produce pasteurized milk. Who were they and where did they live? Erindale was home to two blacksmiths and at least five different general stores, three of which still stand. Can you find them? On the darker side, Erindale was also home to a notorious murder, a tar-and-feathering incident and a fire that changed the face and fortunes of the village. Take a stroll through the two cemeteries at St. Peter’s Church and see if you can find the people who might have lived on your property. Think of the stories they might tell. Think of the stories your house or street could tell if only they could talk. And they can talk; we just need to know how to listen. I urge you to look about your village and question and remember. Share your stories, as I will share mine, and we might find that this little village is just bursting to tell its tale and to be remembered.
The Roads & Streets of Erindale
What’s in a name? If you drive around small-town Ontario, you will invariably notice similarities in street names. Almost every hamlet or village has some variation of the following street names: Main, Queen, King, Centre or Mill – names that are usually self-explanatory. Even our sister villages within Mississauga follow a little of this pattern. Erindale is a bit different. Have you ever wondered for whom the streets in Erindale were named?
Erindale does have a ‘main street’ running through the ‘centre’ of the village: Dundas Street. Dundas was surveyed as a military road in 1798 under the order of the Lt. Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe. The road connected two important commercial centres in Upper Canada – York and Dundas – and had to be of sufficient distance from the shore of Lake Ontario as to offer protection from American attack. The road was named “Dundas” simply because it led from the provincial capital of York (now Toronto) to the town of Dundas. The town was named after British Home Secretary Henry Dundas. The road took the path of least resistance through Erindale and wound its way into the valley, taking a sharp ‘S’ turn at the eastern edge of the village and navigating the easiest slope of the steep valley. The original ‘S’ turn of Dundas is still evident today with the North and south sections of Dundas Crescent.
The main intersection of Erindale was much the same as it is today – Dundas and Mississauga Road (then known as the Streetsville Road to the north and Cedar Swamp or Springbank Road to the south). Cedar Swamp Road traced an old Native trail that followed the Credit River past the Native village (the Mississaugua Golf Club), to the harbour that would become Port Credit. The name Mississauga means “River of the North of many mouths” and is in reference to the Mississauga Natives who once inhabited this area.
Other Erindale street names include Jarvis Street – named for Fredrick Starr Jarvis, the first constable in Erindale and a staunch Tory supporter during the Rebellion of 1837. His daughter Amelia married Alexander Proudfoot, a local mill owner, United Empire Loyalist and well-to-do merchant. The Proudfoot family had extensive holdings and business interests both here and in Trafalgar Township. Robinson Street is named in honour of the Attorney General of Upper Canada, Sir John Beverley Robinson: his small summer cottage stands just west of the village – “The Grange” now houses the Boy Scouts’ Head- quarters. This building acted as the government office between York and Dundas. Thompson Street was named for Colonel William Thompson, a Clarkson resident, United Empire Loyalist and the first Justice of the Peace in Erindale. Adamson Street derives its name from the prominent Adamson family, namely two brothers: the Honourable General Peter Adamson and Doctor Joseph Adamson, who were among the earliest and most influential settlers in the area. The other two village roads, Mindemoya and Nanticoke, received their modern names only in the 1950’s. They probably represent the oldest two streets in the village, originally leading to the mills (Nanticoke) and to a farm (Mindemoya). These roads were simply called “The First and Second Forty-foot Roads” (forty feet wide so that wagons could pass each other!). A local resident, Betty Boyd, tired of those names, looked on a map of Ontario and picked two Native names she liked: Mindemoya (“My Old Woman”) and Nanticoke (“People of the Water”). And if we extend our vision of Erindale a little farther, we can find Hammond Road – named in reference to Oliver and Thomas Hammond, important members of the St. Peter’s Congregation and of the Erindale Community. The historically designated Hammond house still stands – one of the hidden gems of modern Mississauga. The street names of Erindale give interesting insight to the life and times of early Upper Canada: most were named for somewhat wealthy members of the Anglican Church and of the “Family Compact”, and reflect Erindale’s early importance as a vital crossroads and the government seat between York and Dundas. Our village was christened “Erindale” (meaning “Ireland in the Dale”) on August 2nd, 1900, after the estate of Reverend James Magrath of St. Peter’s. Our village was previously known as Toronto, Credit, Springfield and Springfield-on-the-Credit. An interesting place!
St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Erindale
St. Peter’s Anglican Church proudly stands atop a hill, overlooking the village of Erindale, as it has done for the past 177 years. As the City of Mississauga continuously encroaches on its banks, the Church itself, resplendent in it’s Victorian Gothic architecture, looks on unconcerned, still tending to its flock, as if standing guard over the once important crossroads of Dundas Street, Mississauga Road, and the Credit River.
The congregation of St. Peter’s Anglican Church was founded in 1825, when prominent Erindale resident, the Honourable General Peter Adamson, opened his home to the Bishop for services twice a year. Several settlers in the area combined their efforts to purchase a plot of land from the Crown and to build a small white clapboard structure in 1826. The early gravestones and the stained-glass windows in the present church bear witness to and commemorate the founding fathers and their families; The Honourable General Peter Adamson, Doctor Joseph Adamson, Alexander Proudfoot, Colonel William Thompson, Fredrick Starr Jarvis, and Henry Carpenter.
General Adamson was also able to use his influence to secure the services of Reverend James Magrath, a new immigrant from Ireland, to become the first minister for the newly christened church. The first service was held in November of 1827, and for many years St. Peter’s was the only Anglican Church west of York, and settlers from many surrounding areas attended church in Erindale.
With the support and efforts of local citizens, such as Charlotte Schreiber, Alfred Adamson and Thomas Hammond, the existing church was erected in 1887, using credit valley stone hauled from the river. The spire was added in 1910, and the narthex in 1959.
Within the Bell Tower, the volunteers of St. Peter’s have created a small museum, dedicated to the late Tommy Adamson, a local historian and descendent of Doctor Joseph Adamson. St. Peter’s Cemetery actually consists of two cemeteries; the larger one is the Anglican cemetery, while the Union (or Cosmopolitan) Cemetery is to the back. The earliest graves, generally marked by the old white stones, are closest to the church. The oldest surviving stone is 1829, but there are earlier unmarked burials. The stones are sort of a role call, listing the names of the early settlers who helped carve modern Mississauga out of the pioneer landscape. Among the more prominent settlers buried in the cemeteries are General Peter Adamson, Doctor Joseph Adamson, Reverend James Magrath, Captain James Harris, John McGill, Samuel Conover, Roy Ivor, Samuel Wolfe, Doctor Beaumont Dixie, Captain Patton, W.W. Evans, Emerson Taylor, Weymouth Schreiber, Thomas Barker, Henry Carpenter, Oliver Hammond, Duncan Turpel and George Armstrong, just to name a few who left a significant mark on Erindale and the surrounding township that would become Mississauga. They represent our connection to some significant events, such as the foundation of a village, the first miller, the brewer, the captain of the militia, the first minister, the first doctor and other prominent individuals. They all have a story to tell.
St. Peter’s Anglican Church is located at 1745 Dundas Street West, Erindale.
The Missing Mills of Erindale
The establishment of Erindale, like other pioneer villages, can be attributed to three main factors: the people, the presence of major routes of transportation, and an available source of natural waterpower. We often think in terms of a burgeoning village consisting of a General Store, a Post Office, a Blacksmith Shop, an Inn, a Church and a School. We often fail to include Mills in our historical inventory, likely because most mills have not survived to the modern day. These once vital pioneer industries have faded, over time, into relative obscurity in our modern and rapidly expanding city. Yet mills provide a vital link to our past, not only as places of service and industry, but also of employment and as a vital building block that helped to form the communities we call home today.
Mills were often the catalyst that spurned the development of early villages, and in this respect Erindale is no different. The lazy course of the Credit River today belies its importance to the development of Erindale and of Mississauga. To think in other terms, likely without the “crook” of the Credit River in this location or the large shale deposits through which the winds, there would likely be no village at this location. To early settlers, it was advantageous and essential to be located in close proximately to a potential mill site in order to fulfill many of the basic needs we perhaps take for granted today, as water was the only source of available natural power, and as such almost all types of early industries, and therefore the villages that grew around them, were initially dependant upon waterpower.
The ‘crook’ (or bend) of the Credit River at Erindale allowed for the development of early water-powered sites along the river. Initial efforts eventually culminated in the construction of a mill-race that ran at the foot of the bank of what is now Erindale park, passed under the Dundas Highway roughly where the park entrance is today, continued south of Dundas and rejoined the river as it makes its southward turn. There were at least eight distinct mills in Erindale, six of which were located along this mill-race. The last of these mills was torn down only in the 1940’s prior to the Dundas widening.
The first mill established, a simple drag saw mill, was built by Thomas Racey about 1822. It was located on the flats just to the south of Dundas, below Nanticoke Road. After Racey was unable to fulfill his financial obligations, his 37.5 acres (Which included the future village site and the mill allowance), were put up for auction. John McGill purchased the sawmill and additional land along the millrace. McGill operated a grist mill (possibly already built by Racey) on the north side of Dundas, roughly where the park entrance is today. Further along the millrace, south of the sawmill, a turning mill was constructed where the millrace rejoined the Credit River.
A knitting mill, built by Edwin Turner around 1860, was located along the bank of the hill just to the west of Nanticoke Road and slightly south of the old access road that leads down to the flats.
One of the few pictures we have of mills in Erindale is of Brown’s Flour & Cider Mill (the depression in the bank to the east of the modern O’Neill’s Vacuum Store gives the location). It was built in 1903, survived the fire of 1919, but burned itself in 1924. The stone shell of the mill was torn down in the 1940’s. This same depression in the slope also marks an old road that lead to an old Flour Mill on the flats below Dundas. When Brown’s Mill was built, the building was two-storeys at road (Dundas) level, but three stories at the back as it was built into this depression. Alexander Proudfoot also had an Oatmeal Mill in the 1840s & 1850s on the north side of the modern intersection of Dundas and Dundas Crescent, on the flats below (perhaps where a modern swimming pool is today). He later concentrated on his extensive milling interests in Halton County, where Lion’s Valley Park is today.
Other Erindale mills included the Adamson Sawmill, which operated briefly in the 1850s and was located on the east bank of the Credit River, south of Burnhamthorpe and south of the Credit River and Mullet Creek confluence. A trace of the short millrace where this sawmill is believed to have been located is evident along that part of the Culham Trail. There is also reference made to a shingle mill on Sawmill Creek in 1880s, but its exact location has been lost. The mills in Erindale appeared to have all employed an undershot wheel (a wheel which sat directly in the water of the mill race and rotated by the force of the water traveling underneath). Of the various types of water-powered wheels, the undershot wheel was the earliest, and the most prone to difficulty. The wheel was entirely at the mercy of the water current, and spring floods could often damage or destroy not only the wheel, but also the mill itself.
The mills themselves outlived their era of usefulness as technology and materials changed. Mills were often built of wood (only two in Erindale were at least partly constructed of stone – Brown’s and Proudfoot’s) and disappeared without a trace. The evidence of the main millrace has also all but disappeared over time. The creation of the hydro dam and the headpond in the early 1900’s and the modern ‘landfill raising’ of Erindale Park has obliterated evidence left behind – almost. In the spring, look at the banks along the Dundas slope in the park and you’ll find large groupings of stone and concrete – perhaps some pieces of the missing mills? Also, south of Dundas, at the base of the hill along Nanticoke, you might follow the swampy depression of ground that is slowly filling in naturally – this ‘gully’ or trough is all that is left of the millrace and leads past three mill sites prior to rejoining the river. Another two depressions in the ground, clearly evident in the spring, show another two mill sites. One sits just off Nanticoke, the other is just east of the Vacuum Store. And the location of the Racey’s Sawmill (the one that started it all) lies at the base of the access road leading down into the flats from Nanticoke – in the clearing where no trees are growing. Who knows what we might find here if we were to dig! The two stone mills were each torn down in time, leaving no physical evidence behind. Some of the stone from Brown’s mill went to build a septic bed adjacent to the old Barker Store (now O’Neill’s Vacuum) – possibly under the small parking lot. And who knows what lies buried along the bank or under the landfill, or indeed under Dundas itself – is there a grindstone or a mill wheel waiting to be found? All in all, the image that Erindale presents today is entirely different from its industrial and industrious past.
Erindale Public School / Springbank Visual Arts Centre
Many Erindale children learned the “3R’s” in this building. It is the third school in Erindale. The first school was built on Adamson Street in 1845, and was replaced in 1873 by the second school building located on Mississauga Road (then called the Streetsville Road) just in front of and a little to the north of the surviving building. The present structure, which houses the bell from the 1873 school, was built in 1922. It is a fine example of early 20th Century Neo-Classical and Colonial Revival architecture. The two side wings were added in 1952 to accommodate the growing number of children. In 1957 the building became the Springbank Community Centre after the Springfield Public School was constructed in the Credit Woodlands. In 1962 it became the property of the municipality and home to Visual Arts Mississauga, a non-profit organization, since 1981. S.S. #4 remains one of the highly visible and functional vestiges of Erindale’s past.
|
| Benares Historic House
With over 160 years of history, this exquisite estate has
been home to four generations of the Harris Family.
Originally purchased in 1836 by Captain James Beveridge Harris, the estate consisted of 197 partially cleared acres, a running stream, and most importantly “an elegant tone house...well adapted for any gentleman’s family”, (along with numerous other buildings) “...forming a most desirable investment for any gentleman possessed of capital” Upper Canada Land, Mercantile & General Advertiser August 1835
Harris came from a family rich in the tradition of military service. By selling his officer’s commission in the British Army, he was able to purchase Benares and move here with his wife Elizabeth Molony. Together they raised eight children, but tragically three of their sons died early in life, leaving Arthur Harris (1843-1932) to inherit the property.
The farm was a vital part of the family life at Benares. In the early years it provided much of the family’s food and income. The estate at one time extended from the current QEW in the north to the C.N.R. tracks in the south, from Clarkson Road east to Lorne Park Road, and consisted of a number of outbuildings, including a large barn and a separate hired man’s house. The potting shed, dairy, bake oven and stable still stand today.
To Arthur and his wife, Mary Mcgrath, were born three daughters, Annie (1882-1986), Naomi (1884-1968)
and Margaret (1887-1887). While Naomi spent her entire unwed life at Benares, Annie was married to
Beverley Sayers. Their three children, Geoffrey Harris Sayers, Dora Sayers Caro and Barbara Sayers
Larson, donated the home and many of the original furnishing to the Ontario Heritage Foundation (now
Ontario Heritage Trust, or OHT) upon the death of their aunt, Naomi Harris.
Benares is said by some to be the inspiration for Canadian author Mazo de la Roche's famed Whiteoaks
of Jalna novels. Mazo did in fact live in a nearby residence known as Trail Cottage, on land which once
belonged to the Harris family. A close friend of the family, she lived here while writing several of her world
famous novels. What are the mysterious connections between Jalna and Benares? Are they one and the
same? Nobody really knows for sure! However, in April 2008 Parks Canada and the Historic Sites and
Monuments Board unveiled a plaque at Benares, honouring Mazo de la Roche as a person of national
historic significance. http://www5.mississauga.ca/museums/plaqueunveiling.html.
To find out more about the intriguing life and work of Mazo de la Roche go to the Mazo de la Roche Society website at www.mazo.ca .
The home was restored, and furnished with original family artifacts, by the OHT to reflect the early decades of the 20th century. In 1995 Benares Historic House opened to the public as a museum. It is now owned and operated by the City of Mississauga as one of the Museums of Mississauga.
Why is it called Benares?
What’s in a Name?
Edgar Neave, the original builder of the house, named the home ‘Benares’, a Holy City in India that is
now known as Varansi. There had been a British military garrison at Benares, and although Captain Harris did serve in India, he was closer to Kanpur, not Benares. However, the Harris family adopted the name that had been given to their new home.
So, Why ‘Benares’?
Neave was clever to use the name of a British military garrison. After all, he was a land developer who
profited by selling ‘improved’ farms to established buyers. At the time, the most likely buyers for readymade
farms were men retiring on a military pension or, in Benares’ case, to a man who had sold his rank
for cash. Retired soldiers had wealth but had little prospect of fitting into the established nobility in Britain,
so most of these officers moved to Canada to start a new gentry. The Harris’ neighbour, George Truscott, was also a retired army officer who had served in India.
Early History of the House
A small home started in 1836 or 1837 by Edgar Neave,
was sold to J.B. Harris in 1837. Most sources say that
Benares was 'incomplete' when J.B. bought it but, to be
precise, the structure was finished except for doors and
windows. Until these were added, houses were not
officially considered ‘houses’ by the taxman, so
developers like Neave left homes ‘incomplete’ to
circumvent property taxes while awaiting a buyer for the
land.
Fires
The first home burned in 1855. Made of masonry, the present ‘back kitchen’ was the only part to survive
the fire. There was a second fire in an outbuilding around 1856 where the family may have been living
while the ‘new’ house (today’s house) was under construction. However we don’t know where this elusive second fire occurred or, for that matter, if there was a second fire. See the separate entries on the two fires for
details on the myth and mystery surrounding the curious conflagrations.
Cheap Bricks
To replace the burned home, construction of the present house was started in 1856 in the Georgian Revival style. Captain James wisely chose to build the new home with brick – a building material far less susceptible to fire than wood. The contractor of another home rejected these bricks, from a brickwork in Milton, so the thrifty J.B. got them on the cheap.
When Was the House Completed?
A letter to J.B written in December 1857 by his sister Margaret, gives us a clue as to when the present home was finally completed. Margaret writes, 'I hope your new house will soon be ready for you.' So, a house must have been started many months before Christmas of 1857 – probably right after the first crops were sown in April. Given the time it takes to build a solid masonry structure the size of Benares, the Harrises probably didn’t move in until sometime in 1858.
Website: http://www.museumsofmississauga.com
|
|
|
|
|
