TORONTO OP OLD. 439 



iTiidge, known anciCTitly sometimes as Big Creelc bridge and sometimes as Heron's bridge, the 

 track ascended tlio further bank, at first by means of a narrow liogsback, which conveniently 

 sloped down to the vale ; afterwards it made a sweep to the northward along the brow of some 

 broken hills, and then finally turned westward until the direct northern route of the street was- 

 again touched. The banks of the Don are here on every side very bold, divided in some places 

 into two stages by an intervening plateau. On a secondary flat thus formed, in the midst of a 

 grass-grown clearing to the left, as the traveller journeyed from York, there was erected at an 

 early date the shell of a place of worship appertaining to the old Scottish Kirk, put up here 

 through the zeal of Mr. James Hogg, a member of that communion, and the owner, for a tima 

 at least, of the flour mills in tl-.o valley, near the bridge. From him this locality was popularly 

 known as Hogg's Hollow, despite the postal name of the place, York Mills. Mr. Hogg was of 

 Scottish descent and a man of spirit. Ho sent a cartel in due form in 1832 to Mr, Gurnett, editor 

 of the Courier. An article in that pai^er had spoken in oflcnsive terras of supposed attempts 

 on the part of a committee in York to swell the bulk of a local public meeting, by inviting 

 Into town persons from the rural parts. " Every wheel of their well-'organized political machine 

 was set in motion," the Courier asserted, " to transmute country farmers into citizens of York, 

 Accordingly about nine in the morning, groups of tall, broad-shouldered, lnUking fellows were 

 seen arriving from Whitby, Pickering and Scarborough, some crowded in waggons, and others 

 on horseback ; and Hogg, the miller, headed a herd of the swine of Yonge Street, who made 

 just as good votes at the meeting as the best shopkeepers in York." No hostile encounter, 

 however, took place, although a burlesque, account of an "airairof honour" was published, 

 in which it was pretended that Mr. Hogg was saved from, a mortal wound by a fortunate 

 accumulation, under the lapel of his coat, of flour, in which his antagonist's bullet buried itself 

 Mr. Hogg died in 1839. Here is an extract from the sennon preached by the Rev, Mr. Leach 

 on the occasion of his funeral : " Ho was faithful to his word and promise," the preacher said, 

 'and when surrounded with clanger and strongly investigated, and tempted to a departure 

 from public faith by the enemies of his coimtry, his determination expressed in his own words, 

 was, 'I will die a Briton.' Few men had all the veins of nature more clearly and strongly 

 developed; and few men had a better sense of what is due to God." 



The circuit of the hills overhanging the mills below was always tedious ; but several good 

 bits of scenery were caught sight of. On the upland, after escaping the chief difficulties, on 

 the left hand a long low wooden building v/as seen, with gable and door towards the road. 

 This was an early place of worship of the Church of England, an out-post of the mission at 

 York. The long line of its roof was slightly curved downwards by the weight of a short chimney 

 built at its middle point for the accommodation of an iron stove within. Just before arriving 

 at the gate of the burying-ground attached to this building, there were interesting glimpses to 

 the left down into deep woody glens, all of them converging southward on the Don. In some 

 of them were little patches of pleasant grass land. But along here, for the most part, the forest 

 long remained undisturbed. The church or chapel referred to was often served by divinity 

 students sent out from town; and frequently, doubtless, had its walls echoed with prentice- 

 attempts at pulpit oratory. Gourlay says that this chapel and the Friends' Meeting House 

 near Newmarket were the only two places of public worship on Yonge Street in 1817, "a 

 distance of nearly forty miles." A notice of it is inserted in " A Visit to the Province of Upper 

 Canada in 1819, by James Strachan," (the Bishop's brother) — a work published at Aberdeen in 

 1820. "My brother," Mr. Strachan says, p. 141, "had, by his exertions and encouragement 

 among the people, caused a chapel to be built about eiglit miles from York, where he officiates 

 once a month, one of the young students under his care reading the service and a sermon on 

 the intermediate Sundays. On his day of doing duty," Mr. S. continues, " I went with him 



and was highly gratified. The chapel is built in a thick wood The dimensions are 



60 by 30 feet ; the pews are very decent, and what was much better, they were filled with an 

 attentive congregation. As you see very few inhabitants on your way out, I could not conceive 

 where all the people came from." A public baptism of five adults is then described. Some 

 six and twenty years later (in 1843), the foundation stone of a durable brick church was laid 

 near the site of the old frame chapel. On that occasion Dr. Strachan, now Bishop Strachan 

 named as especial promoters of the original place of worship, Mr. Seneca Ketchum and Mr 

 Joseph Sheppard, "the former devoting much time and money in the furtherance of the work" 

 and the latter giving three acres of land as a site, together with a handsome donation in cash." 



