One of the most peculiar stories from our history books is the chicken blood election. Local politics can often present us with some funny and even weird stories, and this is certainly one of them. Through the annals of municipal contests in Newmarket, occasional bits of humour flash across the pages and this is a…
Author: HistoryHound
History Reminds Us, And Gives Us Hope, Newmarket: We Will Get Through This
As mentioned in my article on the Spanish Flu, history contains so many examples of us having been taken to the breach and our ancestors fighting their way back, eventually becoming even stronger than ever. The Great Depression of the 1930s is such an event. The Great Depression was a shock worldwide, both socially and…
Area Indigenous Peoples Ceded Their Territory In Later Disputed Toronto Purchase
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…
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…
Stories Of Newmarket’s First Settlers Preserved In Burying Ground
The Pioneer Burying Ground on Eagle Street is the final resting place of some of our earliest settlers. The story is as much a story of the people who are buried there as it is one of a heritage site. The first official map of the Village of Newmarket in 1862 shows that the Boultons…
Wasn’t That A Party When Newmarket Officially Became A Town
I have often referred to the incorporation of Newmarket as a town on Jan. 1, 1881 in my various articles on Newmarket Today, but let’s look at this momentous occasion in a little more depth as it was captured at the time. Newmarket incorporated as a village in 1857. In 1878, the village had been…
Main Street Saw Banks Come and Go, Until Bank of Montreal Arrived
The history of banking in Newmarket is a particularly interesting story, indicative, I believe, of the trend of development that we saw nation-wide, growing into our present efficient national banking system. Before 1865, all of the banking business of the village of Newmarket had to be carried out in Toronto. However, in August 1865, the Royal…
