In this second of a two-part series, History Hound Richard MacLeod highlights the story of how lands were acquired by the Canadian government, paving the way for settlers. Let’s return to the story of the development of our area before the arrival of our earliest settlers and the story of the Indigenous peoples who lived in our…
Month: March 2020
Indigenous Trails Were ‘Highways’ For Newmarket Area’s First Settlers
Let’s look back at the time before many of our ancestors arrived in 1801. In this first of a two-part series, I’ll focus on the Indigenous in this area pre-1799. The opening of the region north of the Oak Ridges Moraine, the elevated area between Lake Ontario and Lake Simcoe, in large part occurred because…
The Spanish Flu Vs. Covid
This weekend on Newmarket Today, we look at a topic that is very much in the news world-wide, that of pandemics and the Canadian connection. They say that learning from the lessons of the past is essential to our species’ survival and the case of the Spanish Influenza 1918-1920 is certainly such an event. The…
Newmarket’s Boer War Soldiers Honored With Pomp And Ceremony
The story behind Newmarket’s connection with the Boer War isn’t well known. In 1899, Great Britain declared war on the Boers in South Africa. At once, Lt. Col. T.H. Lloyd of Newmarket, commanding the 12th Battalion, York Rangers, offered their services and a cablegram of acceptance was received from the Imperial War Office shortly afterward. At…
In Fair Weather And Foul, Newmarket’s Early Doctors Made House Calls
Newmarket’s early doctors had practices that covered an apparently boundless territory. In those years prior to the arrival of the car and paved roads, in fair weather and foul, often on horseback, they arrived at isolated homes to administer help to the sufferer and to comfort the anxious family. Sometimes the only facility in which…
