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PAGE 14, WEDNESDAY MARCH 26, 1980, WHITBY FREE PRFSS Yankees ffrst Wbitby settlers By EUGENE HENRY After the American Revolution of 1775-1783 there was a wide spread bitterness against everything British throughout the United States and those that remained loyal to Britain were badly abused. Compensation for proper- ty lost during eight long years of war was not forth- coming and most loyalists felt that they should bloody well get out of the country. Some went home to Britain but the majority looked north to Canada for a new home, in a new land - a place of refuge in a hostile, republican world. Here we see in this illustration by C.W. Jeffreys a party of United Empire Loyalists enroute to their grant of land in Upper Canada. A shallow-draft ferry is waiting to take them across a river that will un- doubtedly have a bridge over it in the years to come. We can see three generations of loyalists in the picture and it under- scores the fact that Yankee immigrants played a big and important role in the first settlement of Upper Canada and some of them came to this area as our first set- tiers. Benjamin Wilson, his wife and two sons from Putney, Vermont along with two young men, L. Lockwood and E. Ransome were the first to arrive in these parts as permanent settlers, sometime between 1788 and 1794. They came along the shore of Lake Ontario to a new Canadian home in Whitby Township. Technically they were squatters because they were outside of the official im- migration and settlement policies of those days that were geared to assist loyalists in recognition of the hardships and losses they suffered during the Revolutionary War. In 1784 Governor Hald- mand instituted a very generous land grant struc- ture for both civilian and military loyalists and then in 1792 John Graves Simcoe issued a proclamation of- fering free land to all who would cultivate it and sign an oath of loyality to the King. Thousands came north from the United States in answer to this proclamation and as you can imagine there were a few land grab- bing yankees in the lot. Out of a population in Upper Canada of 94,000 in 1813, it has been estimated that some eighty per cent were of American origin and only one quarter of these were of loyalist stock. Our first American im- migrants were independant and individualistic people and many of them were con- firmed republicans. They were vocal agitators against minor restrictions that still remained from our colonial times and they urged the need for new schools, roa-s and churches. Upper Canada was slow in developing. Large tracts of land were granted to in- dividuals who had no inten- tion of working their proper- ty as a farm. In addition, thousands of acres were held as reserves for the clergy or the governmnent itself, who had land bank concepts even back in the days of early set- tlement. After 1800 there was a steady stream of English, Irish, Scots and Dutch im- migrants and in the course of time those of British origin became the dominant however, one American element of society in Upper immigrant was heard to say Canada. Before it happened .to his friend "there are so many British here, they are spoiling the neigh- bourhood". Co-op Information Day to be held on March 30 Two Whitby housing co- East Whitby Co-operative ops, Athol Green Co- Homes Inc. have been in- onerative Homes Inc. and vited to send speakers to Valley Park Co-op infor- mation day to be held in Oshawa on Sunday, March 30, 1980from2- 5 p.m. The information day, at Southminster United Chur- ch, 1173 Cedar Street, South, is intended to provide infor- mation about co-operative housing and the newly developing Valley Park Co- op to the general public. The project, a former con- dominium development at 420 Bristol Cresc., Oshawa, will house fifty four families in newly renovated three and four bedroon townhouses. The cost to a co- op family will be $305. for a three bedroom and $324. for. a four bedroom home. This cost includes insurance, maintenance and ad- ministration, and water, but members will pay their own heat and hydro costs. Other guest speakers at the information day will in- clude representatives from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Co- operative Housing Foun- dation of Canada, East Cen- tral Ontario Development Foundation and other co-ops in the surrounding area. Speakers will provide in- formation to families in- terested in obtaining decent housing at a price they can afford. Anyone from the Oshawa- Whitby area interested in membership in Valley Park Co-op is invited to attend the information day or contact East Central Ontario Development Foundation at 571-0320.