TORONTO OF OLD. 259 



Yonge Street on easy terms from 5Ir. Ketchiim, on t)ie condition that the Society should 

 annually distribute in the Public Schools the amount of the ground rent in the form of books — 

 a condition tliat continues lo be punctually fulfilled. Tlie ground-rent of an ad.joiuing tenement. 

 was also secured to the Society by Mr. Ketchuni, to be distributed in Sunday Schools in a 

 similar way. Thus by hi.s generous gifts and arrangements in Buifalo, and in our own town and 

 neighbourhood, his name has become jjermanently enrolled in the list of public benefactors in 

 two cities. Among the subscriptions to a "Common School " iu York in 1820, a novelty at the 

 period, we observe liis name down for one hundred dollars. Subscriptions of that amount to 

 any object were not freciuent in York in lS-20. (Among the contri))utors to the same school we 

 observe Jordan Post's name down for £17 Qs. Sd. ; Philip Kliuger's for £2 10s. ; Lardner Bost- 

 wick's for £2 10s.) Mr. Ketchuni died in Bufl'alo in 1867. He was a man of quiet, .shrewd, 

 homely appearance and manners, and of the average stature. His brotlii?r Seneca was also a 

 character well known i]i these parts for his natural benevolence, and likewise for his desire to 

 offer counsel to the young on every occasion. "We liave a distinct recollection of being, along 

 with several young friends, the objects of a well-intended didactic lecture from Seneca Ketchum, 

 who, as we were amusing ourselves on the ice, approached us on horseback. 



It seems singular to us, in the x>resent day, tliat those who laid out the region called the 

 " New Town," that is, the land westward of the original town-plot of York, did not apparently 

 expect the great nortliern road known as Yonge Street ever to extend directly to the water's 

 edge. In the plans of ISOO, Yonge Street stops short at Lot Street, i. e., Queen Street. A 

 range of lots blocks the way immediately to the south. The traffic from the north was expected 

 to pass down into the town by a thoroughfare called Toronto Street, three chains and seven links 

 to the east of the line of Yonge Street. Mr. Ketchura's lot, and all the similar lots southward 

 were bounded on the east by this street. The advisability of puslnug Yonge Street through to 

 its natural terminus must liave early struck the owners of the properties that formed the 

 obstruction. We accordingly find Yonge Street in due time "produced" to the Bay. Toronto 

 Street was then shut up, and the proprietors of the land tln-ough which the northern road now 

 ran received iu exchange for tlie space usurped proportionate pieces of the old Toronto Street. 

 In 1818 deeds for these fragments, executed in conformity with the ninth section of an Act of 

 the local Parliament, passed in the fiftieth year of George III., were given to Jesse Ketchum, 

 William Bowkett, mariner, son of William Bowkett, and others, by the .surveyors of highways, 

 James Miles for the Homo District, and William Richardson CaklM-'ell for the County of York, 

 respectively. 



The street which supplied the passage-way southward p]-e\'iously afforded liy Toronto Street, 

 and which now formed the easterly boundary of tiie easterly portions of the lots cut in two by 

 Yonge Street, was, as we have liad occasion already to state in another place, called Upper 

 George Street, and afterwards Victoria Street. 



(The line of the now-vanished Toronto Street is, for purposes of reference, marked with fine 

 lines on the map of Toronto by the Messrs. H. J. and J. O. Browne.) 



What the condition of some of the lots to which we liave been just referring was in 1801 we 

 gather from a surveyors report of that date. The Government had issued an order to examine 

 how far the settlement duties had been fulfilled by the occupants of lots in this locality. As a 

 result of this order we have a "Sketch of the Part of t!ie Tom'u of York, west of Toronto 

 Street," consisting of a collection of squares, some blaulc, some coloured blue, some coloured 

 black, to whicli the following explanation is attached : "The blank lots are cleared agreeable 

 to the notice issued from his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, bearing date Sejitember the 

 fourth, 1800. Tlie lots sliaded blue are chiefly cut, but the brush not burnt; and those marked 

 with the letter A, the brush only cut. The lots sliaded black, no work done. This survey 

 made by order of the Surveyor-General's office, bearing date April the 23rd, 1801." The report 

 was held to be not sufficiently complete and explicit. Another was demanded. The explana- 

 tion of the chequers in the second sketch is as follows : 1st. Tlie blank lots are (deared. 2nd 

 The lots shaded black, no work drme. .3rd. The lots sliaded brown, the brush cut and burnt- 

 4th, The lots shaded blue, the brush cut and not burnt. N. B. The lots 1 and 2 on the north 

 side of Newgate Street [these are Mr. Ketchum's lots], are mostly clear of the large timber and 

 some brush cut also, but not burnt ; therefore omitted in the first Report. This second exam 

 ination done by order of the Honourable John Blmsley, Esq., and performed by (the name is 



