1829 John Strachan, the first Anglican Bishop of York (Toronto) established lots on his property in the Trenton area to create a community named Annwood. Strachan was a visionary. He encouraged craftsmen to settle on his land and donated a site for St. George’s Anglican Church. The church, Trenton’s oldest, was constructed in 1845, replacing an earlier frame structure. Despite his efforts, Annwood eventually merged with Trenton.
Another influential figure was Captain Sheldon Hawley, who along with his brother-in-law Josiah, assisted in the further development of the community. They established a lumber business and a mercantile store. Trenton quickly became an important lumbering centre. From here the lumber was shipped to Montreal and Quebec City. Two large steam-powered mills, owned by Gilmour and J. Flindall, set up operations on the east side of the Trent. On an island in the Bay of Quinte, there were the mills of Baker and Company and C. Weaver Esq. At the time the Rathun Lumber Company of Trenton was the largest operation in all of Ontario, harvesting timber in North Hastings.
By the 1860s the lumber industry in Trenton was shipping 5,000,000 cubic feet of square white pine by raft annually to the Quebec market. Several hundred thousand logs (each season) were also shipped to American ports.
By the mid-1870s, the Gilmour Company employed at least 400 men in their planing mill, the box plant, and in the sash, door, and veneer factory. Sawdust from this sawmill was used to provide fill for many of Trenton’s building sites.
In the 1830s construction started on the Trent Canal. Trent Port became the gateway to a water system which eventually linked Bay of Quinte and Georgian Bay.
Trent Port had a population of 1,500 residents when it was incorporated as a village and officially named Trenton in 1853. Three years later the Grand Trunk Railway steamed into the village. Trenton became the hub of transportation with a network of three railways for a brief interlude.
Trenton became one of Ontario’s major industrial towns when Robert Waddell established the Trenton Bridge and Engine Works in the 1870s. The company manufactured steel and iron bridges, iron piers, engine boilers, tugs, and steamboats.
On Dominion Day, 1880, Trentonians held a gala celebration in honour of their new status as a town. Dr. W.H. Day was elected as Trenton’s first mayor.
Trenton suffered its first serious setback in 1910 when the Gilmour Sash and Door Factory burned to the ground. It made a strong comeback when it was chosen as the site for the British Chemical Company’s multi-million-dollar ammunitions plant during the First World War. Tragedy struck again on Thanksgiving Day 1918, when a fire broke out in that factory and ignited explosives that blew the buildings apart. Amazingly enough, no one was killed.
Trenton circa 1931. The film industry here was once thought to be Ontario’s Hollywood.
Archives of Ontario
The fireworks continued throughout the night and the town telephone operator, Eva Curtis, stayed at her switchboard to keep vital communications open. For courage in a danger zone, she and seven others were awarded the medal of the Order of the British Empire.
Welcome to Hollywood! That’s how it seemed in 1919 when Trenton was chosen by the government as the site for a film plant. Numerous films, including The Great Shadow and Carry on Sergeant, were produced here. The only reminder of these bygone days is a street in Trenton named Film Street.
During the Depression, Trenton and its residents managed to escape some financial hardships thanks to Senator William Alexander Fraser. Through his efforts Trenton was chosen to be the home of the Royal Canadian Air Force. The town’s unemployed were quickly hired to build the airport and base. In the Second World War, this military centre served as the Commonwealth Air Training Base. In 1949 Memorial Gates at the airport entrance were erected to commemorate the contribution made by the base during the war. Over the years the military presence has contributed greatly to the economy and social stability of the town.
In the 1950s Trenton’s industrial base included 25 major manufacturing companies, including Quaker Oats, Delft Gelatin, and S.H. Camp & Company, a subsidiary of one of the world’s largest manufacturers of surgical garments and braces.
The downtown core was devastated by three fires in 1978. Merchants and town officials rallied to the task of rebuilding, and by midsummer of the same year a 26-store shopping complex replaced what the fire had destroyed.
On July 1, 1980, exactly 100 years after Trenton was incorporated as a town, it became a city. Now, Trenton may be best known as a tourist centre. It has many claims to fame, but for me it was my start in life because my mother called it home.
I, personally, have fond memories of summers with my family (the Gauens).
Whitby
Whitby certainly has a great history of characters, including at least one very mysterious murderer.
The early settlement of the district began around Whitby’s natural harbor at the lakeshore and along the Kingston Road. Jabez Lynde settled here on the Kingston Road at Lynde’s Creek in 1804. Samuel Cochrane soon arrived and a Mr. Storey and a Mr. Losie opened shops in the area circa 1818.
The first post office between Toronto and Port Hope was opened by J.B. Warren in 1823. In 1835 John Hamer opened a store, and the settlement became known as Hamer’s Corners at what is now Dundas and Anderson Streets.
The harbor was called Windsor Bay and it was a thriving grain port, with a storehouse, a tramway, and a warehouse, in the 1830s.
By October 1836 Peter Perry, the MPP for Lennox and Addington Counties near the Bay of Quinte, lost his seat in Parliament and moved to the area. He purchased most of the land around the present four corners of the town. This wealthy entrepreneur and visionary built a store on the site of the present-day Bank of Commerce as well as a large brick home. He hired a provincial land surveyor to draw up a town plan for the area around the four corners in 1844. Perry then encouraged merchants and businessmen to settle in his community; this area became the centre of commerce instead of Hamer’s Corners. The four corners of this settlement were soon named Perry’s Corners.
By 1848 the harbor had become so busy that a plank road was constructed to Port Perry to facilitate the movement of grain and lumber from the northern part of the region. Conflict arose over the name of the harbour, since “Windsor,” a name favoured by many residents, already existed elsewhere in the province. The name Whitby, from a seaside town in Yorkshire, England, was then assigned to the area. At least they got to keep the initial. Whitby was incorporated as a town in 1855.
Whitby circa 1880s. Looking closely at the picture, Whitby might have resembled Dodge City in the American southwest.
Courtesy of Whitby Historical Society
Sheriff Nelson Reynolds may not have been a Wyatt Earp, but he was an adventuresome fellow. A God-fearing man, he always mixed a taste for personal glory with his somewhat righteous goals. Few citizens of Whitby knew that in his youth he had been treasonous, part of the failed Rebellion of Upper Canada against the Family Compact. He was the man who would one day build the castle of his dreams, right in Whitby.
Born in Kingston in 1814, Reynolds rose to lead his own cavalry regiment there during the Rebellion of 1837. Government
