The Tillicum Crews operated in the 1920s. They were part of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) organized camps and only members of the YMCA could participate. The director of the Tillicum Crews was G.A. Anderson of Might Directories, a man knowledgable on the Temagami region. The Tillicum Crews were named Tillicum which came from the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush.
Town & Gown Concerts series ran from 1969-[1979], providing a unique and distinguished contribution to the musical life of the city of Peterborough and of Trent University, both artistically and in terms of audience support. A broad spectrum of musicians were presented, both professional and amateur, local and out-of-town. The programmes were varied, and the music ranged from baroque and classical to romantic and modern, including contemporary folk. Town & Gown Concerts reported to Trent University's Vice President Academic and the University provided some of the financial support for the series. Professor Joseph Wearing of Trent University was the first chairman of Town & Gown Concerts, followed by Professor Jim Henniger.
"Papers concerning the Treatment of German Nationals in Germany" was number 2 in a series on Germany. It was printed and published by His Majesty's Stationery Office.
Trent University was formally created in 1963 by the Ontario Legislature. Located in Peterborough, Ontario, Trent opened its doors to its first students in 1964.
J.J. Turner & Sons was a commercial sign distributor (and general retailer) in Peterborough, Ontario.
Underwood & Underwood established itself in 1882 as a stereographic distributing company. The company was founded by two brothers, Elmer and Bert Underwood. They distributed stereographs for Charles Bierstadt, J.F. Jarvis and the Littleton View Company. In 1891 Bert learned how to operate a camera and thus the firm of Underwood & Underwood Publishing entered a new merchandising sphere. By 1897 the company had a number of full-time staff and free lance photographers. In the same year the Underwoods purchased the businesses of Jarvis; Bierstadt; and, William H. Rau. Underwood & Underwood were publishing twenty-five thousand stereographs a day by 1901. The firm still canvassed and sold its own stereographs. Around 1900 Underwood & Underwood introduced boxed sets, with specific themes such as education and religion, and travel sets depicting popular tourist areas of the world. By 1910 Underwood & Underwood had entered the field of news photography. Due to this expansion stereograph production was reduced until the early years of World War I. Altogether Underwood & Underwood produced between 30 000 and 40 000 stereographic titles. In 1920 stereograph production was discontinued and Underwood & Underwood sold its stereographic stock and rights to the Keystone View Company. (Taken from: Darrah, William C. The World of Stereographs. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 1977.)
It was in May of 1819 that the first settlers came to the region in Newcastle District which is now known as Peterborough. One of these settlers was Adam Scott (1796-1838), and he erected a saw and grist mill on the west bank of the Otonabee River (at the location where King Street now crosses the river). This location, then known as Scott's Plains, was to become the City of Peterborough. The area had been previously surveyed by Samuel Wilmot in 1818, and at that time, he recommended to the surveyor general that land be set aside for the development of a town at the junction of Smith, Douro, North Monaghan and Otonabee Townships, along the shores of the Otonabee River. In 1825, the recommended townsite was surveyed again by Richard Birdsall and the creation of a town plan was undertaken. From 1819 to 1825, the only inhabitants of Scott's Plains were Adam Scott's family and a few hired men. This changed with the arrival of the Peter Robinson immigrants in 1825 who numbered close to 2,000 people. Many of them settled in the townships surrounding Scott's Plains, which was renamed in 1826, to Peterboro by Sir Peregrine Maitland, in honour of Peter Robinson. By 1827, there were 20 buildings located within the townsite, and in the summer of 1828, another 20 houses were built. Shops, taverns, schools and churches were built within the town boundaries. Timber, and then lumber, dominated the Peterborough industrial scene from 1825 to 1875, but it was not the only form of industry. Peterborough also had a tannery, three iron foundries, and several woolen and grain mills. The location of Peterborough along the shores of the Otonabee was extremely important in the development of Peterborough as a manufacturing centre. The river provided not only water power, but a means of transportation for both people and goods. In 1890, Edison Electric, later known as Canadian General Electric, set up a plant in Peterborough, and by 1892, it became the site of the CGE head office for Canadian Operations. In 1900, Quaker Oats also came to Peterborough. Not only did Quaker employ a substantial number of people, they also used locally grown grains in the production of their cereals. The period between 1875 and 1930 was one of rapid industrial growth in Peterborough. As well, the population was constantly increasing. In 1838, the population was between eight and nine hundred and by the 1852 census, it had risen to 2,191. In 1871 it had increased to 4,611 and it became necessary for Peterborough to annex land from the surrounding townships. In 1872, 239 acres were annexed from Smith, 50 acres from Douro, and 581 acres from North Monaghan. After the annexation, the population was close to 7,000 inhabitants. Peterborough officially became a city in 1904 and by 1921 the population had increased to 21,000.
Reverend Samuel Armour opened the Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational Institute on May 1, 1826. The school, originally known as the Peterborough Government School, was first located in the back playground of present day Central Public School on Murray Street in Peterborough. As the population increased, due to immigration, the Common School (public school) students moved into smaller schools while the Grammar School (high school) students stayed in the original school building. By 1854 the school trustees had leased an old church, on the corner of Hunter and Sheridan Streets, to hold the school but the student population soon grew too large. In 1855 plans to build a new school had begun. The new building was completed in 1859 and was intended to be used by both common and grammar school students. It was located where the present day Central School is built. The new school was known as the Union School. By 1868 the principal of the school asked that girls be allowed to attend grammar school. A new building was constructed west of the Union School to allow for the increased student population. In 1871, with a government bill abolishing the term grammar school and replacing it with collegiate, the Union School became the Collegiate Institute. Due to overcrowding and various moves within the buildings it soon came time for the Collegiate to have its own building, separate from the public school. On August 1, 1907 the cornerstone for the new school was laid. The new school opened in 1908 on the corner of Aylmer and McDonnel Streets near the Armouries. In 1927 a vocational school was added to the P.C.I. Students and staff at the school helped in a variety of projects including creation and publication of the student monthly newsletter "The Collegiate Echoes" which began publication in 1905. The Collegiate has played a major role in the shaping of Peterborough through the changes that the community has sustained during the years of settlement, growth, war, poverty, industrialization and computerization. (Taken from: "Echoes Sesquicentennial Edition." 1977.)
The Peterborough Horticultural Society was established April 9, 1861 by a few gentlemen interested in horticulture. Within a few weeks time the new horticulture club was registered in Toronto. Rev. Vincent Clementi was the first president. The first exhibition, which consisted of exhibits of flowers, fruits and vegetables, was held September 20, 1861. The first two day show was held in 1872. In 1885 the Society, with the help of the Peterborough Council, started a town beautification project in the Court House park. In 1898 the first lawn and garden competition was held. Eventually the Society joined with other societies to form the Ontario Horticultural Society. There were junior members as well as the adult members.
The Peterborough Humane Society opened its doors to stray, sick and abused animals around the 1940's. The objectives of the Society were to prevent cruelty to animals and birds; to provide shelter and food for animals and birds which were lost, injured or abandoned; to provide unclaimed animals and birds with homes; to investigate complaints of cruelty to animals and birds; and to create public interest in humane work. The Society had a president, secretary, officers, a board of directors and a council as well as a women's auxiliary and affiliation with other societies such as the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies. The Humane Society formerly operated from a building on Townsend Street in Peterborough. In 1957, the shelter on Lansdowne Street was built.
Construction of the Peterborough Lift Lock began in 1896 and finished in 1904. It opened the Otonabee River to navigation connecting Rice Lake and the Kawarthas.(Taken from: Francis, Daniel."I Remember....An Oral History of the Trent-Severn Waterway."Peterborough: Friends of the Trent-Severn Waterway, 1984.) The Lift Lock is considered one of the great engineering projects of the century and is the world's second highest lift lock. The photograph was produced as a souvenir from the town of Peterborough to people who visited it.
The land which is now Peterborough County was originally part of Newcastle District before 1841, and the Colbourne District until 1850, the year when districts were replaced by counties in Upper Canada. At this time the United Counties of Peterborough and Victoria was created. In 1861, Victoria County was given independence from Peterborough. Peterborough County is made up of the following townships: Galway, Cavendish, Anstruther, Chandos, Harvey, Burleigh, Methuen, Ennismore, Smith, Douro, Dummer, Belmont, North Monaghan, Otonabee and Asphodel. (taken from "Illustrated Historical Atlas of Peterborough County 1825-1875." Peterborough: The Peterborough Historical Atlas Foundation Inc., 1975.)
The Peterborough Social Planning Council (PSPC) was developed to promote greater co-ordination between different providers of social services in Peterborough and area. It was to provide consumers of social services the opportunity to have input into the social system and to identify the needs and problems, and receive recommendations about services and activities. The PSPC was to build a data base, to be open to the public, with information of existing services. In 1978 the PSPC reported on the task force on Children's Services. It conducted various research projects on existing and future implementation of social services. It provided a community forum for preparation of briefs in response to the published intentions of governments. The PSPC monitored the emergence of urban and rural planning developments. It also encouraged and assisted groups establish programs in needed areas. The PSPC was located on King Street in 1978 in space given to them from the United Way office.
The Peterborough Women's Committee was a local organization which lobbied at various levels of government and also provided resource material on women's issues. The committee opened a resource centre for women, published a directory of services available locally for and by women, and held all-candidates' meetings. The committee was in existence between 1977 and 1987.
The early 1940's saw the rapid development of Canadian-American relations brought about by the pressures of World War II. These new relations included military co-operation and economic co-operation exemplified by the Ogdensburg Declaration of August 1940 and the Hyde Park Declaration of April 1941. An area of concern for both Canada and the United States was the region known as the Canadian northwest (north of 60th parallel, west of the 110th meridian). After the Japanese attack on the military base of Pearl Harbour, December 7, 1941, the United States military became increasingly concerned over the safety of Alaska. American military leaders decided that the Canadian northwest was the ideal region on which to build secondary lines of communication to Alaska. This led to the development of the Alaska Highway and the Canol pipeline project to provide transportation into and out of Alaska and petroleum products for the military bases which were quickly cropping up in the area. Both of these projects were under the supervision of the Northwest Service Command of the United States Military and lasted from 1942 to 1945.
Hart House was opened in 1919 at the University of Toronto, Ontario. It was a gift to the University by the Massey Foundation. Built by two Canadian architects, Sproatt and Rolph, it had a dining-hall for undergraduates, a faculty club, club rooms for graduate members, a music room, a chapel, a library, a room for debates, a completely equipped little theatre, a sketch room and various offices plus a running track, rooms for boxing, fencing and wrestling, a swimming pool, a billiard room, photographic dark rooms, a rifle range, common-rooms and guest rooms. Hart House was essentially a club for men. (Taken from: Wallace, W. Stewart. A History of the University of Toronto. Toronto: The University of Toronto Press, 1927.)
The Province of Upper Canada, the predecessor of modern day Ontario, came into existence with the passing of the Constitutional Act by British Parliament in 1791. The passing of the Act divided the old Province of Quebec into Lower Canada in the east and Upper Canada in the west, along the present-day Quebec-Ontario border. The creation of Upper Canada was the result of several different factors. During the Seven Years' War, the French abandoned most of the region of the province of Quebec to the British and after the surrender of Montreal in 1760, the British took over the territory which was later to become Upper Canada. Also, in the 1780's, after the end of the American Revolution, thousands of Loyalist refugees flooded northward, across the border. The Constitutional Act was a direct response by London to the American Revolution and Upper Canada was to develop with tight British control. The first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada was Sir John Graves Simcoe. Simcoe's prime goal was to win the American Loyalist emigrants back into the British camp. Simcoe did not fully succeed in his goal when he retired in 1796, but the War of 1812 helped to further his cause and strengthen Britain's control over Upper Canada. Over time, the people of Upper Canada found the Constitutional Act of 1791 too rigid, and there was much pressure for change. A second wave of settlers came to the region between 1815 and 1820. These settlers were immigrants from the British Isles who came to the Canadas looking for a better life. By 1838 the population of Upper Canada had risen to more than 400 000 inhabitants. In 1838, the Governor General of Canada, the Earl of Durham, drafted his famous Durham report, calling for the re-unification of Upper and Lower Canada and creation of "responsible government". Britain approved the union of Upper and Lower Canada and on February 10, Upper Canada ceased to exist, and in union with Lower Canada, became the Province of Canada. (Taken from : The Canadian Encyclopedia, Volume three. Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1985.)
John Gourley Pierce (1918-2003) 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.
John Wesley Pierce (1886-1949), father of John Gourley Pierce, was born in 1886 in Eaton, Quebec, the son of Reverend Barry Pierce and Catherine Farnswoth. He attended University of Toronto and was a member of both the Dominion and Ontario Land Surveyors Associations. He was responsible for the definition of the Ontario-Manitoba boundary, begun in 1921 and finally completed by his son in 1947. Until 1932, he worked for the Topographical Survey Branch of the Dominion Department of the Interior and traveled from New Brunswick to the North-West Territories. In 1932 he settled in Peterborough, Ontario and started the survey firm which would become Pierce & Pierce Land Surveyors. (Biographical account supplied by Catherine Cramer).
The Serpent Mounds Foundation of Peterborough was founded March 22, 1956, as a non-profit organization. The founding members of the foundation all had a common belief in the ethnological and archaeological importance of the Peterborough Serpent Mounds and wanted to create a group whose interests would lie in protecting the site. In the past, the Serpent Mounds had incurred irreparable damage by well and not so well intentioned persons digging for relics. The purpose of the foundation was: to promote the systematic and sustained archaeological investigation of the Rice Lake Serpent Mounds; to assist in the development of the site as an educational and tourist centre; to co-operate with the Royal Ontario Museum and the Parks Division of the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests in these endeavours; to be a local focus point to stimulate interest in the work and support for it; and to provide and administer funds which would enable a thorough archaeological "dig" and study to begin in the summer of 1956 and to continue for four years following 1956.
The Shakespeare Club, Peterborough's oldest ladies' club, was founded by Dr. Jessie Birnie in approximately 1912. The club did not meet during World War I but has met continuously since 1918. For the most part the club studied and produced plays written by Shakespeare. Studies by the club have included queens of history, great rivers, famous women of history, political studies, world religions, famous authors, poets, playwrights, composers, artists as well as countries and ancient civilizations of the world including studies of these civilizations' arts and literature. Meetings were usually held in members homes with a paper being read about some aspect of what was currently being studied. Food befitting the topic of the occasion was usually supplied for after the meeting. Open meetings were popular as members were able to bring their husbands. The structure of the Club has changed over the years as parliamentary procedure gave way after, World War II, to peculiar Shakespearean rules. Membership elections were eliminated and other methods of selecting the executive were arranged over the years. The Club, with the advent of the Stratford festival, studied pieces being performed for particular seasons and started taking trips to Stratford, Ontario, Niagara-on-the-Lake and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
The Townships of Sherborne and McClintock are located in the north-west corner of Haliburton County. They form part of the United Municipalities of Sherborne, McClintock and Livingstone which was created in 1979 and it has a population of approximately 500 people. Sherborne was the first of the Townships surveyed in 1862. It was named after the English town of Sherborne. McClintock was surveyed in 1876 and it was named after Sir Francis Leopold McClintock, the artic explorer. (Taken from: Mika, Nick and Helma. "Places of Ontario, Part III, N-Z." Belleville: Mika Publishing Co., 1983.)
We-Can: World Emergency Centre for Non-Violence was the local Peterborough Group of Alliance for Non-Violent Action. The Alliance for Non-Violent Action was a geographically dispersed collective of groups and individuals who gathered together to plan, organize and participate in education and events for non-violent direct action. They sought to remove oppression from the world through building a non-oppressive and non-exploitative world by removing the economic and political institutions and practices which supported injustice. They did this through supportive local groups such as We-Can. The strategy behind the Alliance organizations was through organizing public, non-violent actions and the development of educational materials, resources and projects. We-Can in Peterborough took on protests at the Litton Systems Plant in Rexdale, Ontario; a study on dismantling bombs and the cruise missile amongst other projects.
Founded in 1931, Beta Sigma Phi is an international women's organization that focuses on stimulating personal growth and development of its members through cultural and social programs and through service to others. Members volunteer for such activities as blood donor clinics, daffodil day, and meals on wheels. The organization supports various charities. Beta Sigma Phi was established in Peterborough in 1944. The Xi-Iota Chapter folded in 1998 or 1999.
The Charles E. Goad map making company was established in Montreal, Quebec, in 1875. In its business of creating fire insurance plans, the Charles E. Goad map making company was the most comprehensive company in its coverage of Canada. By 1885, the company was firmly established in Canada and by 1910, Goad and his surveyors had created fire insurance plans for more than 1300 Canadian communities. When Charles E. Goad died that same year, the company was taken over by his three sons, who continued to run the business under the name Chas. E. Goad Company. In 1911 an agreement was reached between the Chas. E. Goad Company and the Canadian Fire Underwriters' Association, by which the Goad Company was to create and revise plans for the Association exclusively. The Canadian Fire Underwriters' Association was founded in 1883 for the purpose of standardizing fire insurance rules. This agreement ended in 1917, and in 1918, the Canadian Fire Underwriters' Association established its own plan making department. It was named the Underwriters' Survey Bureau Limited. At the same time, the Bureau acquired the exclusive rights from the Chas. E. Goad Company to revise and reprint the Goad plans. The Goad Company, which continued to exist until 1930, stopped producing fire insurance plans. In March 1931, the Underwriters' Survey Bureau purchased all of the assets of the Chas. E. Goad Company, including copyright. The Underwriters' Survey Bureau continued to produce fire insurance plans for the cities and towns in Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes. The Canadian Fire Underwriters' Association remained responsible for the production of plans in the western provinces and the B.C. Underwriters' Association was responsible for plans in British Columbia. In 1960, these regional operations were amalgamated with the production of plans under the centralized Plan Division of the Canadian Underwriters' Association. In 1975, the Association changed its name to the Insurer's Advisory Organization, and at the same time, decided to cease fire insurance plan production and sell all plan inventory. This was the end of 100 years of continuous fire insurance plan production in Canada. (Taken from: Hayward, Robert J. Fire Insurance Plans in the National Map Collection. Ottawa: Public Archives of Canada, 1977.)
