Canadian Districts, Jurisdictions, Counties, et al - Are You Confused?

On February 13, 2010, I posted a blog entry entitled, "What is Canada West?." When I first saw the term "Canada West," I assumed that Canada West referred to the Northwest Territories and the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and even Manitoba. As I pointed out in the February 13th blog entry, I was quite wrong. I am repeating below a bit of what I said in that blog entry.

The variations between French law and British law became an issue in Canada when the Loyalists from the American War of Independence, were settling into the parts of French Canada that are currently in the Province of Ontario. French Canada was split into Lower Canada and Upper Canada. Lower Canada retained the French rules of law. Upper Canada comprised the southern part of today's Ontario. This split occurred December 26, 1791.

The Rebellion of Upper Canada in 1837 over the allocation of land resulted in changing the names of Upper and Lower Canada. On February 10, 1841, Lower Canada became known as Canada East and Upper Canada called Canada West. These names lasted about 27 years when the Dominion of Canada was established in 1867. At this time Canada West was called the Province of Ontario. You can guess what Canada East was called.

Just when I got the dates of the various names for Ontario and Quebec memorized, I find myself being confused about which county a town resides. I have relatives who were Loyalists and settled around Niagara Falls, Ontario. The early records indicate that they settled in what was called the Home District. However, in 1798, a new district was formed from the Home District and was called the Niagara District.

As I was locating records of these relatives and their descendants throughout the 19th century, I found records that had Niagara Falls in Lincoln County and then later in Welland County. The Niagara District existed between 1798 and 1849. Between 1849 and 1851, the southern portion of Lincoln County was split off and called Welland County.

Just when I thought that I had all this straight, I have come to learn that in the latter part of the 20th Century, this area became part of the Regional Municipality of Niagara. So it seems that we and our ancestors researching us will always be faced with the changes of time.

Politics Do Not Change

In the process of attempting to determine what may have motivated my great uncle on my father’s side and my great-great grandfather on my mother’s side to move to Alberta, Canada, I came across a couple of books written about western Canada and the Canadian Pacific Railway.

A book that in particular attracted my interest was the History of the North-West, Volume III by Alexander Begg (Toronto: Hunter, Rose & Company, 1895). Chapter I “The Canadian Pacific Railway” was fascinating. Just having watched Republican’s in the United States House of Representatives employing delay tactics concerning the health care reform, I was struck with the similarity with regards to the establishment of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

The establishment of a transcontinental railroad in Canada was being discussed. The Toronto Globe printed an article on February 3, 1871 extolling the importance of an ocean to ocean rail routed through Canada. Apparently, Canadians travelling to Fort Garry (near Winnipeg) had to go to the United States in order to more easily reach this outpost in Manitoba.

William H. Seward of the United States saw the plan to build a transcontinental Railway through Canada as providing vast opportunities for Canada. It would open access to the Canadian timberlands near the Rocky Mountains but more importantly make Canada a major world trading company. The distance between Vancouver in British Columbia and Asia was much shorter than the distance between San Francisco and Asia. Seward (of Seward’s Folly) believed that a Canadian transcontinental railway would draw commerce to and from Canada to Europe, Asia and the United States.

Something changed between 1871 when the Toronto Globe supported the concept and 1880 when the same newspaper attacked the plan to construct a line north of Lake Superior as useless.

A contract was presented to Parliament on December 10, 1880 by a group of men who were connected with the success of the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway. The House of Commons had to approve the contract. Mr. Mackenzie and Sir John A. Macdonald of the Opposition party could not secure capitalists to bid. But miraculously George Stephens and colleagues presented to the House of Commons an offer to build the railroad for less money and provide more favorable terms to the government. These offers were deemed not legitimate.

The Opposition seemed more interested in bringing down the majority party than approving the building of a transcontinental railway. They waged a campaign throughout Canada to encourage citizens to send petitions to the House of Commons. A few citizens sent petitions; some were in favor but most of those who sent petitions were against the contract. During the Christmas recess, the Opposition tried to rally the people to rise up against the Syndicate offer. The populace did not respond.

So the Opposition turned to another tactic. Edward Blake on January 18, 1881, moved to amend the contract to make the contract between the Government and Sir W. P. Howland, et. al. vs. the Government and George Stephens, et. al. The Howland offer was not consider as genuine and voted down.

At this point the Opposition proceeded to introduce one by one twenty-three additional amendments to the contract. Each was defeated. Had any one carried then the contract would have been defeated. Sir John A. Macdonald, of the Opposition, ultimately on January 28, 1881, introduced the bill for the incorporation of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.

It was still a hotly contested debate but the House of Commons passed the bill on February 1, 1881 and sent the bill to the Senate. The Senate accepted the bill without amendment and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company officially was incorporated on February 17, 1881.

Can you imagine the impact on the economic growth of Canada had the Opposition party been successful at delaying the building of the transcontinental railway simply because the Opposition wanted to take down the majority party?

It looks like politics do not change.

United Empire Loyalists

I am willing to bet that most US citizens don't know what a United Empire Loyalist is. If you ask a Canadian, you will learn the answer. These people are descendants of the families who sided with the British during the American Revolution and whose property was confiscated at the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783. The British government gave land grants to these families primarily in the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. In the case of my ancestors, the grants were allocated in the easternmost part of Ontario Province. Ontario was called Upper Canada during this time, Canada West sometime later and finally the Province of Ontario. Unlike the organizations founded around 1900 such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, Colonial Dames, Sons of the American Revolution, etc., United Empire Loyalists was established by 1786 and the designation UE is an honor not motivated by exclusion.

Peter Stoutenburg's Tower of Babel

Each year, I put together an annual newsletter for the Stoutenburgh-Teller Family Association. The following is based on an article entitled, "The Tower of Babel" that I included in the 2006 Newsletter. The source I used for the newsletter article is the "Illustrated History of Collingwood Township." I have added some additional explanatory comments to this article.

Collingwood Township was a township in Grey County, Province of Ontario, Canada but in 1998, it became a part of the Town of The Blue Mountains.

Grey County is on the western side of Nottawasaga Bay. In the early days of my research, I was not aware that there were two Collingwoods and that Stoutenburgs lived in both. One was a township and another was a city in Simcoe County. After a little research, I realized that it is not surprising that their were two places named Collingwood in Ontario.

Lord Cuthbert Collingwood was an admiral under Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in the Napoleonic Wars. He assumed the role of head of the British fleet upon the death of Lord Horatio Nelson.

The Tower of Babel is about a structure that Peter Stoutenburg built in the community of Kolapore. Peter, a grandson of Jacobus and Margaret (Teller) Stoutenburgh, was born near Toronto. The book erroneously claims that he was of Pennsylvania Dutch origin.

His parents moved from Hyde Park, NY, settling in Ontario just before the turn of the 19th century. Having reached adulthood, he married and raised a family. By 1860, Peter made the decision to move. He was the second settler in the settlement of Paradise (Kolapore) in Collingwood Twp. A Milo Parks was the first settler in Paradise. Peter had purchased Lot 9 of Concession 9.

By 1865, Peter erected the first sawmill in Kolapore at Lot 10, Concession 8, on a branch of Mill Creek. This sawmill was moved out of the area by 1880 and the only sawmill in operation was Archibald McKean’s sawmill, on Lot 7, Concession 8, on another branch of Mill Creek. It was run by Archibald and his son Andrew until the early 1900s when it burned.

Archibald McKean married Peter’s daughter Ellen. They moved to Pasadena, California in early 1904 for health reasons, but Archibald died there in April 1904.

Peter’s son, Peter, built another sawmill that was purchased in 1890 by Johnston, White and Company. At this time, I do not know where this sawmill was located nor have I found any information about the Johnston, White and Company.

The elder Peter Stoutenburg built a wooden tower that was called the Tower of Babel. The article did not explain why it was called this. He apparently built it on his property as a hobby and for the purpose of seeing the town of Thornbury from its top. Although the tower was four stories high, it was not high enough to see Thornbury.

There were windows on each floor and a winding stairway, which took visitors to the top where a railing gave some protection. It was still standing in 1934 but was dismantled sometime later.

Reverend J. Vickery was the 1st minister of the Kolapore Methodist Church. The early families that supported the church included the Lawsons, Stoutenburgs, Longs, Parks, McAteers, McEdwards, Wilsons, Collins, McKeans, Allcocks, Peggs, Teeples, Sayers, Clemens, Johnstons, Craigs, Carefoots, Smalls, Moores, Winneys, Shaws, McDermitts, Saggetts, Hallets, Ranshaws, Gardiners, and Strongs. Peter Stoutenburg's children and descendants married into many of these families.

Paradise Settlement was renamed to Kolapore in 1884. The book did not offer a good explanation as to why the name changed. However, in 1881, a Scottish born Ontarian, Col. John Gibson, led the Canadian team to win the Rajah of Kolapore Cup at Wimbledon. You may note that in the list above a number of the names of the early settlers are of Scottish origin. I will let you draw your own conclusions.

Peter’s nephew, Alfred Stoutenburg was postmaster of Kolapore in 1912.

The picture of the Tower of Babel and other pictures that included members of the Stoutenburg family are not clear on the copy I received. In attempting to locate a copy of the book, I found that the appears to primarily be available in libraries in Ontario.

Source: Illustrated History of Collingwood Township, William Shannon. Collingwood, Canada: Council of the Township of Collingwood, 1997. Pages 167-170 Chapter 17 Kolapore.