Showing 5 results

People, organizations, and families
Roche, G.M.
Person

G.M. Roche was a Land Surveyor in Canada West during the mid 1800s.

Wadsworth, Vernon B.
Person · 1844-1942

Vernon B. Wadsworth was born in 1844 and at the age of sixteen became an articled pupil of John S. Dennis, Provincial Land Surveyor, upon passing his preliminary surveying examination in Toronto in April 1860. Wadswoth assisted Dennison in the surveying of several colonization roads in the Muskoka, Parry Sound and Nipissing Districts. Wadsworth passed his final examination and became a licensed surveyor in 1864 and he continued to do surveys in the previously mentioned Districts. When John S. Dennis retired from his surveying practice and entered the Government Service as Surveyor General of Canada, Wadsworth arranged a partnership with Dennis' former partner B.W. Gossage and established a surveying office on Adelaide Street in Toronto. This partnership only lasted a few years. In 1868, Gossage gave up the surveying business, due to lack of business. In the same year, Wadsworth approached Charles Unwin, a successful and politically connected Toronto land surveyor, and the two formed the partnership of Wadsworth and Unwin. At the same time, the surveying business in Toronto and the Province took a turn for the better and Wadsworth and Unwin were able to develop a large practice. They received commissions from the Dominion and Ontario Governments, Railway Corporations and the City of Toronto. They were also employed as City Surveyors by the Corporation of Toronto and in 1872, they published the Wadsworth and Unwin's map of the City of Toronto which proved to be an invaluable resource to lawyers and those engaged in the real estate business. In February of 1875 Wadsworth married Laura Ridout. On 1 December 1876, Wadsworth entered the service of the London and Canadian Loan Agency Company as Chief Inspector. He also retained his name in his surveying firm. In 1899 he was made the General Manager of the company. On 1 April 1921, after 44 years of service, V.B. Wadsworth retired from the service of the London and Canadian Loan and Agency Company. He died in 1942 at the age of 98.

Bell, Robert
Person

Robert Bell was a Provincial Land Surveyor working in Canada West during the late 1840's. He was responsible for the survey of Bell's Line, a road which was never constructed, which was to have run westward through the northern portions of Peterborough and Hastings Counties, from the Madawaska River to Bracebridge. The Peterson Road, which was surveyed and constructed a few years later, eight miles south of and parallel to the Bell's Line survey, was considered to be a more suitable route for east-west travel in the region. It is thought that Bell was born in Ireland in 1821 and that he later emigrated with his parents to New York. In 1843, Bell obtained land in Kemptville, Canada West, and worked in and around Bytown (Ottawa) for three years. In 1847, he was instructed to begin the Bell's Line survey. Upon the completion of the survey in September 1848, Bell retired from surveying; and the following year, he purchased an Ottawa newspaper which was to become the Ottawa Citizen. He died in 1873 at the age of 52.

Huston, John
Person · 1790-1845

John Huston was born in Ireland in 1790. He married Martha Middleton (1787-1867), also of Ireland, and they came to Upper Canada by way of New York. Together they had four children: Mary Anne, Jane, Eliza, and Joseph. On 28 October 1820, Huston was authorized by the government to assist in surveying the Peterborough area. He also worked closely with Peter Robinson in settling the Irish immigrants into Emily Township in 1825. As well as being a highly respected surveyor, Huston was a Captain in the Durham Volunteer Militia, and a Justice of the Peace. He died in Cavan on 18 May 1845 at the age of 55.

Pierce, John Gourley
Person · 1918-2003

John Gourley Pierce was a Peterborough land surveyor and the son of John Wesley Pierce, also a land surveyor, and Mable Pierce. He graduated from Queen's University, served with the Royal Canadian Engineers in Italy and Europe during WWII where he won the Military Cross for Valour. On returning from the war, he joined his father's survey firm, which then became Pierce & Pierce Land Surveyors, in Peterborough, Ontario. In 1947 he completed the survey of the Ontario-Manitoba boundary started by his father in the 1920's. He was President of the Ontario Land Surveyors Association. He was also active in the community and earned numerous awards, among them a citation for outstanding contribution by the Ontario Land Surveyors Association, a City of Peterborough Award of Merit, Rotary's Paul Harris Fellowship, a Sir Sandford Fleming College Fellowship in Applied Education, and the Governor General's Caring Canadian Award.