Canada became a nation, the Dominion of Canada, in 1867. Before that, British North America was made up of a few provinces, the vast area of Rupert's Land (privately owned by the Hudson's Bay Company), and the North-Western Territory. By 1864, many leaders felt it would be good to join into one country. These leaders met and wrote a constitution for the new country, which had to be passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Once passed, it became known as the British North America Act which brought together the three provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Canada (which became the...

Thomas MacKay, a wealthy Scottish stonemason and entrepreneur, helped build the Rideau Canal. Following the completion of the canal, McKay built mills at Rideau Falls, making him the founder of New Edinburgh, the original settlement of Ottawa. With his newly acquired wealth, McKay purchased the 100 acre site overlooking both the Ottawa and Rideau Rivers and built a stone villa in 1838 where he and his family lived until 1855. The building, an eleven-room mansion, was known as MacKay Castle. Following Confederation, Rideau Hall was purchased by the Canadian government as a permanent vice regal...

The ByWard Market has been the heart of Ottawa's commercial activities since the early 19th century. Throughout its history it has been a market for farmers in the Ottawa region and associated with wholesale and retail purchase of natural products and trade of manufactured goods and supplies. It has provided the services and sometimes the industrial support to consolidate the markets role as the center of Ottawa commerce. The heart of the market is characterized by low profile buildings typical of the nineteenth century interspersed with succeeding commercial development until the 1970s. Its...

Midland is located on the southern end of Georgian Bay's 30,000 Islands about ninety miles north of Toronto. Huronia was named for the Huron Nation and consists of the areas around southeastern Georgian Bay which include Midland and Penetanguishene. The area was visited by French Jesuits traveling with the Voyageurs to the Wye River in 1639. They were welcomed by the Huron tribe who traded furs and skins for metal goods and clothing from France. They built a settlement named Fort Ste. Marie which thrived for ten years until it was burned to the ground in 1649 by the Jesuits themselves after...

Midland is located on the southern end of Georgian Bay's 30,000 Islands about ninety miles north of Toronto. In 1871 a group of the principal shareholders of the Midland Railway, headed by Adolph Hugel, chose this location as the northern terminus of their line which they ran from Port Hope to Beaverton. The town site was surveyed in 1872-73. The railway line was completed in 1879 and soon attracted settlers to the area. The new community, Midland, achieved its early growth through shipping and the lumber and grain trade. John Dollar established the Ontario Lumber Company in 1875. The success...

Penetanguishene, sometimes shortened to Penetang, is a town on the southeasterly tip of Georgian Bay. It is a bilingual, French and English, community. The name means "land of the white rolling sands." In 1793, John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, visited the area and saw the location's potential as a naval base. He wanted to use the bay to shelter warships to protect British interests on lakes Huron, Erie and Michigan. Beginning in 1814, the British-Canadians built the Penetanguishene Road to provide the area a land route to Barrie and Toronto, as it was...

Kemptville is a community located in south eastern Ontario in the northernmost part of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville and is about fifty-six kilometres south of Ottawa. Kemptville Creek begins southwest of the town, divides Kemptville, and flows four kilometres to empty into the Rideau River. Much of Kemptville is forested with farmland covering the rest of the area. The name Kemptville was adopted in 1829 as a tribute to Sir James Kempt, the Governor of British North America. In 1812, Lyman Clothier bought one hundred acres of land from John Byce for the price of a yoke of oxen,...

Cornwall is Ontario's easternmost city, located on the Saint Lawrence River about 100 kilometres southeast of Ottawa. It is named after the English Duchy of Cornwall. It is the seat of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry. In June 1784, disbanded Loyalist soldiers and their families settled at New Johnstown, the site of present day Cornwall. Native traders and French missionaries and explorers came here in the 17th and early 18th centuries. By 1805 Cornwall had a court house, a schoolhouse, two churches and many homes. The construction of the Cornwall Canal in 1834-42...

In 1997, Morrisburg was amalgamated with the Village of Iroquois, Matilda and Williamsburg Townships into the Township of South Dundas, in the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. The county was named in 1792 to honour Henry Dundas, who was Lord Advocate for Scotland and Colonial Secretary at the time. Matilda and Williamsburgh were two of Upper Canada's original eight Royal Townships. On November 11, 1813, the Battle of Crysler's Farm, at which a British force repelled an invading American army, took place near here. United Empire...

Mariatown and Iroquois are in the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, about sixty miles/one hundred kilometers south of Ottawa. The McIntosh apple was discovered and cultivated in South Dundas near Williamsburg. John McIntosh moved to Upper Canada in 1796. In 1811 he acquired a farm in Dundela, and while clearing the land of second growth discovered several apple seedlings. He transplanted these, and one bore the superior fruit which became famous as the McIntosh Red apple. Morrisburg and Iroquois were partially flooded by the...