354 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY. 



Town clerk, Mr. Edward Hajrward, sworn. Assessors : Elisha Beaman and John Ashbridge. 

 Collector : Mr. Jacob Herchmer. Overseer of Highways and Roads, and Fence-viewers : Jon- 

 athan Asbbridge, from Scadding's Bridge to Scarboro'. Parshall Terry, from the Bay Road to 

 the Mills. Elias Anderson, Circle of the Humber : sworn. Mai. "Wright, Yonge Street, from 

 half Big-Creek bridge to No. 1, inclusive. John Bndicott, west end of the cityT!]. Edward 

 Wright, do., east end. David Thompson, for Scarboro' : all sworn. Pound-keepers : Alexan- 

 der Galloway, Circle of the Don. John Dennis, do. Humber. John Eomen, sen., Yonge street 

 No. 10 to 25. David Laughton for the City. Town-wardens, sworn : Ephraim Payson, Andrew 

 Thomson. Constables, sworn : John Matthews, Eliphalet Hale, Nat. Jackson, for the City. 

 John Haines for the Humber, and Thomas Gray for Yonge Street." At the same meeting the 

 following understanding was arrived at : " It is agreed by the majority of the inhabitants of 

 the Town that no hogs of any description shall be allowed to run at large within the limits of 

 the City from and after the first day of May next ensuing ; and it is further agreed by a majority 

 that every person or persons shall be liable to pay the sum of five shillings lawful currency for 

 each time and for each hog found running at large after that period. It is further agreed that 

 all persons who keep hogs shall cause them to be marked, which mark shall be registered with 

 the town clerk It is further understood that hogs shall run at large in the country as usual. 

 —The majority of the inhabitants agree that all fences shall be five feet high."— When, in 1800 

 staid inhabitants were found seriously dignifying the group of buildings then to be seen on 

 ,the borders of the bay, with the magnificent appellation of the " City of York," it is no wonder 

 that at a later period indignation is frequently expressed at the ignominious epithet of "Little," 

 which persons in the United States were fond of prefixing to the name of the place. Thus 

 for example, in the Weekly Register so late as June, 1822, we have the editor speaking thus in a 

 notice to a correspondent: "Our friend on the banks of the Ohio, 45 miles below Pittsburg, 

 will perceive," tlie editor remarks, "that notwithstanding he has made us pay postage [and 

 postage in those days was heavy], we have not been unmindful of his request. We shall always 

 be ready at the call of charity when not misapplied ; and we hope the family in question will 

 be successful in their object. — There is one hint, however," the editor goes on to say, "we wish 

 to give Mr. W. Patton, P. M. ; which is, although there may be many "Little" Yorks in the 

 United States, we know of no place called "Little York" in Canada ; and beg that he will bear 

 this little circumstance in his recollection when he again addresses us." Gourlay also, as we 

 have seen, when he wished to speak cuttingly of the authorities at York, used the same epithet. 

 In gubernatorial proclamations, the phrase modestly employed is — "Our Town of York." 



A short distance east from the bridge a road turned northward, known as the "Mill road." 

 It led to the multifarious works, flour-mills, saw-mills, fulling mOls, carding-mills, paper-mill, 

 and breweries, founded, in the first instance, by the Helliwells, a vigorous and substantial 

 Yorkshire family, whose heads first settled and commenced operations on the very brink of 

 Niagara FaUs, on the Canadian side, but then transferred themselves to the upper valley of 

 the Don, where that river becomes a shallow, rapid stream, and where the surroundings are, 

 on a small scale, quite Alpine in character — a secluded spot at the time, in the rudest state 

 of nature, a favourite haunt of wolves, bears and deer ; a spob presenting difficulties peculiarly 

 formidable for the new settler to grapple with, from the loftiness and steepness of the hills 

 and the kind of timber growing thereabout, massive pines for the most part. Associated with 

 the Helliwells in their various enterprises, and allied to them by copartnerships and inter- 

 marriage, were the Eastwoods and Skinners, all shrewd and persevering folk of the Midland 

 and North country English stock. It was Mr. Eastwood who gave the name of Todmorden to 

 the village overlooking the mills. Farther up the river, on the hills to the right, were the Sin- 

 clairs, very early settlers from New England ; and beyond, descending again into the vale, the 

 Taylors and Leas, substantial and enterprising emigrants from England. Hereabout were the 

 "Forks of the Don," where the west branch of that stream, seen at York Mills, enters. The 

 hills in this neighbourhood are lofty and precipitous, and the pines that clothed them were of a 

 remarkably fine growth. The tedious circuit which teams were obliged to make in order to get 

 into the town from these regions by the Don bridge, has since been, to some extent, obviated 

 by the erection of two additional bridges at points higher up the stream, north of the Kingston 

 road. 



