History of Simcoe Co.
Northward from Bond Head, two miles and a half, another village arose at an early date, and was known as Latimer's Corners from the name of the innkeeper of the place.
It was also called Springville, but this name did not adhere to it,
and it finally appears on the map as Newton Robinson.
At Newton Robinson settlers arrived almost as early as at Bond Head.
James Hill settled in Tecumseth here in 1825, near the edge of the wide swamp northward, over which there was a good view.
Thomas and Edward Matchett arrived amongst the first settlers of the neighborhood and took up lots 1 and 2 respectively in the 10th concession.
Isaiah Rogers came to lot 3, con. 10, with his family from King Township in 1827;
and John Lee located about the same time on lot 3, con. 11.
In the south west, in the vicinity of Mono Mills, a few settlers arrived about the year 1820, and within the next few years the following took up lots in the adjacent parts of Adjala:
John Cobean, con. 3, lot 3,
Jones Hall, con. 3, lot 6,
James Darraugh, con. 2, lot 5,
Stewart Mason, con. 2, lot 1,
James McKenna, con. 3, lot 7.
The first named, John Cobean, was the constable of his neighborhood in the early years, having been appointed to that office in 1836 or perhaps earlier.
A sad misfortune overtook the family of the second person (Jones Hall) named on the above list in the early years of the settlement.
He sent his son, Joseph, a young man, for a froe (a tool used by the pioneers for splitting shingles), to a settler's in a part of the adjoining Township of Tecumseth, near the eighth and town line corner. Joseph lost his way in the forest and did not return home at night as his father expected. Next day the father called out the settlers to search for him. Many turned out to give help, and one of them, James M. Tegart, of Tecumseth, came upon his lifeless body lying in the woods; he had perhaps died through fear of exhaustion. They brought his remains to the house of one of the Tecumseth settlers,
Mr. White, and buried him in front of Mr. Tegart's farm.
This became the first burial in the cemetery a mile east of Tottenham;
other graves soon were added, and a regular graveyard began.
This was more than eighty years ago, and he was perhaps the first white man who died in Tecumseth. No stone marks his resting place, but settlers of the locality for many years lamented the untimely end of poor Joseph Hall.
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In "North Adjala", which is the part of the township north of the wide swamp of the Nottawasaga River, a settlement was made very soon after the southerly parts.
Among the first settlers in this part were the following:
William Cassidy, con. 1, lot 29,
Matthew Conway, con. 3, lot 28,
Michael Healey, con. 5, lot 29,
John Hoey, con. 4, lot 32,
Thomas Irwin, con. 4, lot 31,
Thomas Langley, con. 4, lot 29,
John Reilly, con. 6, lot 30,
William Ryan, con. 5, lot 26.
The first named on this list received a patent for his land in 1821,
but did not actually settle so early.
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THE WEST ESSA SETTLEMENT
Among the first in the western settlement of Essa were:
James Robinson,
James Bullock,
John Bryce,
Alexander and Robert Ruthven, senior,
William Stevenson,
William Allan,
William Hall.
These men with their familes had emigrated from Scotland
during the "radical times" in Glasgow,
preferring to face the forests of Upper Canada
rather than endure the political and social oppresion of the Mother country.
They first settled in the County of Lanark, in the Ottawa River district,
but finding that region somewhat unpromising, they soon removed to Essa.
They were, indeed, part of the same Scotch migration which settled in the southeast of Innisfil. Soon they became comfortably located, and they have left a large line of descendants in that beautiful farming district.
Alex. Ruthven, a weaver from the vicinity of Glasgow,
with his sons and brothers, Robert, William, George and James,
were amongst the best known settlers in this Scottish group.
William went to Elderslie Township, Bruce County, in the early years. The brothers, Robert and George Ruthven,
settled on lot 9, concession 1, Essa, in the spring of 1832,
and thus became pioneers in that settlement.
George Ruthven was an assistant to Charles Rankin, surveyor,
in the survey of Collingwood Township in the summer of 1833.
This was the first township in the present County of Grey to be surveyed, being then included in Simcoe County.
George Ruthven, while thus engaged, located a farm in that township at the time, viz., lot 31, concession 12, and afterward settled upon it,
becoming a pioneer of Collingwood Township.
On their way to make the survey of Collingwood Township in 1833,
they went from West Essa through the woods near to Angus
of the present time, an got their provisions over the Nine Mile Portage
from Barrie, then just newly established.
Robert Ruthven, senior, a brothr of Alexander,
was also a pioneer in West Essa.
He was born in Glasgow and died November 21, 1879, in his 77th year.
It is one of the traditions of the West Essa setlement
that one of the sons in the Ruthven family was the first white child to cross the Nottawasaga River in the westward movement of settlement.
William Ruthven, of this settlement,
was an early school teacher in the fifties near Cookstown.
About this time also, Charles Handy came out of Tosorontio,
where he had been living out of reach of neighbours,
and settled upon the west half lot 5, concession 4.
The Turnbull family and Mr. Brewster also belong to this early period.
James Robinson, settled in 1831 on lot 4, concession 1, Essa,
and after living a while here, moved to Tecumseth,
and later to Vespra, where he died.
John Bryce, of lot 6, concession 1, settled in 1831, also.
He, like the other people in this group, went to the settlement by way of Bradford and Perry's Corners (Cookstown, Ontario).
Thomas Bruce, another pioneer, had come first to the Township of Tyendinaga in Hastings County, and afterward removed to West Essa.
His Grandson, Geo. W. Bruce, of Collingwood, was warden of the county in 1904, and is Lieut.-Col. of the 35th Battalion, Simcoe Foresters.
A true story, written by Ernest Bruce, of West Essa,
entitled "The Barn Raising," gained the prize for the County of Simcoe in 1890, in the Montreal Witness competition.
It appeared in that newspaper, and related the story of how a barn was once raised in pioneer days of West Essa without whiskey,
- an event that rarely ever happened in that period, or locality.
The Mormon movement in the early forties took some hold in West Essa.
A Mr. Lake was the Mormon missionary, and held services from house to house in the settlement, the meetings being attended by crowds, as preaching from higher ideals was then scarce.
At these meetings, William Ritchey also did some preaching in an unknown tongue. They baptized in Hall's Creek, having made a number of proselytes. Before long these left their lands, several families in number,
and like a swarm of bees they went off all at one time in covered wagons, or prairie schooners, going to swell the Mormon settlement in Illinois or Missouri, and later at Salt Lake City.
At a later time some adherents of the Mormons built a church or meeting house of that denomination in Alliston, Ontario but it is now obsolete.
~William G. Miller
Archiver > CAN-ONT-SIMCOE > 2000-04 > 0955612896
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