The Steering Committee on Bikeways was approved by Peterborough City Council in April 1975. The Peterborough Bikeway Report, published in February 1975, summarizes the interest in and potential of developed bicycle paths around Peterborough. The City Council undertook to subsidize the planning and implementation of routes in the city.
The Peterborough Board of Trade was formally established March 21, 1889 in accordance with the Boards of Trade Act Sec. 2 a c, Chapter 130, R. S. C. 1886 to oversee all business transactions taking place in the town of Peterborough. This designation was changed by order-in-council to Peterborough Chamber of Commerce on April 26, 1922.
This item is a by-law of the City of Peterborough replacing previous by-laws in order to conform to provincial requirements.
The Peterborough Museum and Archives (formally known as the Peterborough Centennial Museum) originated from the need in the city for a new museum. The Peterborough District Historical and Art Museum Foundation was established in 1961 to fund and establish a new museum and safeguard remnants of the Victoria Museum collection. Originally Victoria Museum grew out of the Peterborough Historical Society's efforts to preserve the past. The museum had a number of cases of birds and animals, Indigenous curios, old documents, antique firearms, an old canoe and displays of minerals. T.A.S. Hay became the first curator when the Victoria Museum moved from Inverlea Park to the top floor of the new library building on April 23, 1912. G.H. Clarke became the next curator as Hay died in 1917 and at the same time the Library Board took over stewardship of the museum. By the 1950's much of the museum's collection had been dispersed to other sources in the Peterborough area. The Historical Society re-established itself and the museum became renewed with display cases on the upper floor and in the basement of the library. On November 19, 1966 the Historical Society transferred ownership of the Victoria Museum collection to the Peterborough District Historical and Art Museum Foundation since the society was not incorporated. Eventually the artifacts which were part of the Victoria Museum's collections and later under library stewardship came to be housed in the Peterborough Museum and Archives. On October 28, 1967 the Peterborough Museum and Archives was officially opened on Armour Hill and the collections of the Victoria Museum became a part of the Peterborough Museum's collections. (Taken from: Doherty, Ken "Preserving Peterborough's Past: 150 Years of Museums and History." Occasional Paper 16. Peterborough Historical Society, November 1995.)
The Peterborough Chamber of Commerce was originally designated as the Peterborough Board of Trade which was established in 1889. This designation was changed by order-in-council to the Peterborough Chamber of Commerce on April 26, 1922.
The Stratford Festival is an internationally-acclaimed drama festival. It opened in July 1953 in a tent theatre beside the Avon River in Stratford, Ontario. Currently the Festival has three stages, and over 100 actors in its acting corps. Stratford Festival has gained a reputation as the leading classical theatre in North America.
Robert Romaine, along with two brother-in-laws, established the Peterborough Review in 1853 in Peterborough, Ontario. Romaine was editor and publisher at the "Review" until 1864. In 1853 he also wrote a paper on the subject of ploughing and pulverizing by steam power, and in 1868 became the first librarian of the Peterborough Mechanics Institute, the forerunner to the Peterborough Public Library. In 1870, he headed, along with others, a gas company which introduced the first gas street lights to the city. In 1877 he was a member of a committee which was appointed to look at possibilities for a waterworks system for the city of Peterborough.
The Strickland family originated in England at Light Hall, Colton-in-Furness as yeoman farmers and their ancestry can be traced back to the fourteenth century. They were tenants of the Abbey of Furness until the dissolution of the monasteries during the lifetime of Henry VIII. At this time they became landowners and later started to move out of the area to London and other environs. Samuel Strickland (1804-1867) was the first of the Stricklands to come to Canada in 1825. He first spent time in Newcastle District and then later cleared some property for a farm in Otonabee Township. He later sold his farm and purchased land in Douro and there he began clearing land at the present site of Lakefield. His sisters, Catharine Parr (Traill) and Susanna (Moodie) eventually followed him to Canada and settled near him.
St. Anne's Parish was established in 1956 at 859 Barnardo Avenue in Peterborough, Ontario. The Parish had the St. Anne's Catholic Women's League, sports activities such as hockey and softball leagues and the St. Anne's Boy Scout Association. They organized fun fairs and picnics. St. Anne's School was nearby for the parishioners to use.
The Royal Commission on the Northern Environment (Ontario) was established 13 July 1977 by an Order-in-Council of the Ontario Cabinet. The Commission was established pursuant to The Public Inquiries Act of 1971 and furthering the purpose of The Environmental Assessment Act of 1975 which dealt with the betterment of the people, of the whole or any part of Ontario, by providing for the protection, conservation and wise management in Ontario of the environment. It was created to inquire into any beneficial and adverse effects on the environment for the people of Ontario of any public or private enterprise north of the 50th parallel of north latitude relating to harvesting, supply and use of timber resources, mining, milling, smelting, oil and gas extraction, hydro-electric development, nuclear power development, water use, tourism and recreation, transportation, communications or pipelines. The Commission also inquired into methods that should be used in the future to assess, evaluate and make decisions concerning the effects on the environment of major enterprises and to report and make recommendations to the Minister of the Environment from time to time and to carry out the purpose of the Environmental Assessment Act of 1975. The Commission gathered information by holding informal meetings in communities such as Timmins, Geraldton, Nakina, Moosonee, Moose Factory, Sioux Lookout, Dryden, Red Lake, Ear Falls, Pickle Lake, Osnaburgh, Sandy Lake, Kenora, Whitedog and Toronto. The purpose of these meetings was to gather information about the north, its people, its communities and resources by means of submissions from government departments, northern communities, northern residents and a wide range of organizations and enterprises with experience and knowledge of the north of Ontario. The Commission also heard submissions relating to issues that it needed to address, the roles it should play and the manner in which its inquiries were to be conducted. Submissions ranged from women and health services to trappers and methanol production. There were community and native people historical surveys as well as community and business officials' responses to reports published by the Commission.
Smith-Ennismore Historical Society was formed in 1983 and incorporated in 1985. The Society actively publishes historical works on the local area and provides research assistance to genealogists and school children.
In 1827 the first Anglican church service was held in Peterborough by Reverend Samuel Armour. It took place in a log Schoolhouse located where Central Public School now stands. In 1835, the first Protestant Church in Peterborough began construction with the assistance of a Crown grant. In 1853, buttresses and pillars were added to the exterior and in 1876 a parish hall was added. In 1911, the congregation presented the church with a set of bells for the bell tower. In 1957 the building was remodeled and renovated, and a new chapel was added. (Taken from: "Peterborough :Land of Shining Water." Peterborough: Published by the City and County of Peterborough, 1967.)
Captain Charles Rubidge, land agent and author, was born 20 April 1787 in the Parish of St. George-in-the-East, London, England. He was the son of Robert and Margaret Rubidge. In October 1796, at the young age of nine, Rubidge entered the Navy as a midshipman on the Arrow, Sloop of War. He served under Lord Nelson and Lord Cochrane and was honourably discharged in 1815, at the end of the War of 1812. In June 1819, Rubidge emigrated to Canada with his wife and three children (they later had three more children) and in May, 1820, became the second person to settle in Otonabee Township. He assisted in the settling of the Peter Robinson immigrants in 1825 and other immigrants in 1831 and 1839. In 1831 Rubidge was appointed Immigrant Agent at Peterborough by Lord Seaton, Governor-General of Canada. He was also the author of two books. The first was A Plain Statement of the Advantages Attending Emigration to Upper Canada (London, 1838) and the second An Autobiographical Sketch (Peterborough, 1870). Captain Charles Rubidge died 5 February 1873.
St. Regis mission was established by the Jesuits for the Iroquois in 1755 in the lower St. Lawrence Valley, Quebec. Today, St. Regis is a reserve mission of Valleyfield parish, located on the St. Regis Reserve, Valleyfield, Quebec.
The Conference on the State of English Language Publishing in Canada was sponsored by Trent University's Cultural Studies Program. Held in 1975 at the University on January 24 and 25 it had writers, teachers, publishers and librarians who attended, presented and discussed papers on a variety of subjects. Each delegate at the conference was assigned a student as a guide and host. Secretary of State, Hugh Faulkner gave the opening address and speech to the delegates. Out of the conference was the founding of the Canadian Book and Periodical Development Council. (Taken from: Cole, A.O.C. "Trent the Making of a University, 1957-1987." Trent University, 1992.)
The Lintonia and the Empress were both steamships that plied the Trent-Severn waterway between Lakefield and Young's Point. The Lintonia was wrecked at Sturgeon Point. The Empress was captained by W.H. (Billy) Reynolds. (Taken from: 77-1013.)
The Church Missionary Society of the Church of England placed Reverend John Horden, the first Anglican priest in the region, at Moose Factory, formerly of the Diocese of Prince Rupert, on August 26, 1851. Over twenty years later, on December 15, 1872, he was consecrated the first Bishop of Moosonee. At this time Moose Factory became the episcopal seat of an immense diocese which covered a band of territory, two to three hundred miles wide, surrounding the the eastern, southern and western shores of Hudson Bay. St. Thomas Church was already in existence when Rev. Horden arrived in Moose Factory. The original church was built by Reverend George Barnley, of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, and it was replaced by a larger building in 1860, which was built by workmen of the Hudson's Bay Company. St. Thomas Anglican Church was the Pro-Cathedral of the Diocese of Moosonee from 1872 to 1903.
The American Canoe Association was founded in 1880 in the United States and spread rapidly throughout North America. During the third year of its organization the American Canoe Club held its annual meeting and regatta at Juniper Point on Stoney Lake north of Peterborough.
Thomas Willington Snarr from Rawdon Township, Hastings County and Annie Eliza Webster of East Whitby Township, Ontario County were married in July 1879. Witnesses were Samuel Robert Webster and Isabella Jane Snarr.
The Community of Temagami (formerly Timagami) in the geographic township of Strathy is located at the tip of the Northeast Arm of Lake Temagami about 60 miles north of North Bay. Prior to the arrival of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (now Ontario Northland) the area was primarily an Indian settlement. Its inhabitants were trading at one of the Hudson's Bay Company's outposts, first situated on the south shore of Temagami Island, and moved in the 1870s to Bear Island. By the mid 1900s Temagami had become the centre of a popular tourist region with daily boat and seaplane service in the summer months to remote resorts on the lake. About that time copper was discovered on some of the lake's islands and by the late 1960s a large iron mining complex was taking shape a few miles to the north of Temagami. Today, Temagami is best known as a site of protest against the forestry industry. (Taken partially from: Mika, Nick and Helma. Places in Ontario. Belleville: Mika Publishing Company,1983.)
Several generations of the Stewart family have lived in the Peterborough area. Thomas A. Stewart and his wife, Frances, were prominent and influential early citizens of Peterborough. Extensive biographical information on the Stewart family, plus friends, neighbours, and associates, may be found in 02-001.
