Our Lands Speak Volumes 1-4 (paperback bundle)

The Archaeology of Patterson Village, a 19^th Century Company Town in the Township of Vaughan, Ontario.

In October 2012, Michael Pozzebon, Vice-President of DG Group, a major Greater Toronto land developer, called to announce the purchase of 180 acres of prime land at the corner of Bathurst Street and Major Mackenzie Drive in the City of Vaughan. Michael requested that we conduct an archaeological assessment on a priority basis as the property development was imminent.

Little did I know that this would become one of the two largest, most complex, archaeological excavations that I have ever undertaken. Two full, and one partial field seasons were required to complete all field work and an additional two years were required to clean, catalogue, describe, and analyze the very large collection of artifacts to prepare the final report for the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport. We discovered that there had been a partial assessment of the property by a previous archeological consultant and that they had delimited Patterson Village, the 19th century company town beside the Patterson & Bro. Manufacturers of Agricultural Implements, as being 1.46 hectares in size, and did not collect a single artifact.

The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport defines four stages in undertaking archaeological assessments. Stage 1 is background research of existing knowledge of the property. This was done by the staff in our office. The second stage was to assess the remaining parts of the property to ensure that there were no additional sites which needed to be investigated. This work was done in November 2012 and demonstrated that Patterson Village was the only significant archaeological site on the property.

Stage 3 involved collecting the artifacts from the surface of the freshly cultivated site to determine its size and to dig test pits across those parts of the site which could not be cultivated. This work revealed that the site covered about 7.75 hectares, more than five times larger than the previous estimate.

DG Group’s plan was to develop the northern and eastern portions of the property first. To do that they needed two corridors cleared of archaeological resources to install their services to those parts of the property outside the site. Thus, our next task was to undertake the Stage 3 test excavation and the Stage 4 salvage excavation of the North-South, and East-West Service Corridors. This was started in November and completed in the spring of 2013.

Our final tasks were to complete the Stage 3 test excavation and the Stage 4 salvage excavation of the two remaining parts of the site which we called Area 1 – the Triangle, and Area 2 – the area west of the North-South Corridor.

After more than 18 months of fieldwork, our excavations revealed the presence of 18 houses, a church, a raised grain storage building, 20 pit privies, 16 box privies, six cisterns, and a well within the residential part of the village. In the western part of the village we found the boarding house with four pit privies, one box privy, and five cisterns. Our excavations investigated 334 other features in the subsoil which produced varying quantities of artifacts. The excavations produced a total of 291,911 artifacts and an additional estimated 1,113,097 artifacts of preserved plant remains from the processing of soil samples using a flotation technique.

In the fall of 2012, I met Ruth Redelmeier, whose family trust had sold the property to DG Group. Ruth had spent the previous 25 years researching both Patterson Village, and Patterson & Bro. Manufacturers of Agricultural Implements. She graciously provided a CD with copies of her research which yielded a bonanza of historical information which would not otherwise have been available. Her data has provided many significant insights into the site interpretations which would not normally have been possible.

This book is intended to provide the public with information about Patterson Village, Patterson & Bro. Manufacturers of Agricultural Implements, and the results of the archaeological excavations. Filing a 1,200 plus page licence report on such a significant site is simply not enough.

Peter Patterson was an exceptional individual who immigrated to Canada about 1850 and eventually established one of the first major manufacturers of farm equipment and also established one of the earliest company towns in Ontario.

Unlike many company towns, Patterson paid fair wages, and provided housing for both families and single men at reasonable rates. Families were provided with seeds for planting gardens near their houses, and fruit trees as a source of fresh fruit. In part, Patterson was controlling his workforce by providing quick access to the factory and improving their lives by forbidding alcohol and tobacco. His wife also checked-in with the villagers weekly to see that all was well. Thus, Peter Patterson was a paternalistic capitalist at a time when capitalism reigned with little care for the workers or their families.

Our work on DG Group land has provided a wealth of new information on Patterson Village, its residential houses, and a boarding house. While most of the Patterson & Bro. manufactory was demolished and the area redeveloped as farm buildings after closure of the factory and village, more research could be undertaken outside DG Group land. The original factory building constructed in 1856 lies within land now under ownership of the Metro Region Conservation Authority. Further, Peter Patterson’s house remains standing in its original position on a lot to the west of the factory. A search for privies on this property might provide interesting details about the content of privies used by the Patterson family compared with those of the villagers in their family residences and the boarding house.

Excerpted from William D. Finlayson’s Preface

The Archaeology of Five Queensville Farmsteads: a 19^th Century Crossroads Community in the Township of East Gwillimbury, Ontario

Welcome to The Archaeology of Five Queensville Farmsteads – a 19th Century Crossroads Community in the Township of East Gwillimbury, Ontario. The Children of Peace were a break-away sect of Quakers who settled in Sharon, Ontario. “With a goal of establishing a utopian, non-sectarian community, the Children of Peace devoted themselves to self-sufficiency, fair-dealing and democratic equality.” (Canada’s Historic Places, 2007). The sect was led by the charismatic David Willson who built the Sharon Temple between 1825 and 1832. The temple is a unique architectural structure in Canada and is now a National Historic Site which is open to public visitation and operated by the Friends of the Temple.

The temple was a timber-frame building constructed on a stone foundation. It was an imposing building which measured 60 by 60 feet and combined elements of Christian and Jewish faiths. “The Children of Peace used the temple 15 times a year—12 times for regular monthly offerings and three times for special high holidays.” (Canada’s Historic Places, 2007). The sect actively supported democratic reforms of the government and some members joined the Upper Canada Rebellion led by William Lyon Mackenzie. They then helped elect Robert Baldwin and Louis LaFontaine who were reformers for the Responsible Government movement in 1837. The Children of Peace created the first farmers’ co-op, the first credit union, and the first homeless shelter in Canada.

The temple was constructed by master builder Ebenezer Doan, who was assisted by other highly skilled craftsmen including Rueben Burr, a joiner who was responsible for the timber framework of the temple.

David Willson lived in Sharon and the temple was built on his property. Ebenezer Doan lived on Concession 3 just north of Sharon. Rueben Burr lived on Lot 17, Concession 2, on the southern edge of Queensville. Burr purchased the southern half of Lot 18 in 1825 and sold it to Ebenezer Doan in 1832, who sold it to his son, Ira, in 1834. While the temple was located in Sharon, there were other ties to Queensville. Lot 16 was originally settled by William Willson, a cousin of David Willson, the leader of the Children of Peace. William and his wife Sarah were active members of the Children of Peace.

Since 2007, my company, This Land Archaeology Inc., has undertaken more than a dozen archaeological assessments for DG Group on lands owned by Queensville Properties Development Corporation. This has involved a Stage 1 archaeological assessment of all lands owned by the corporation and Stage 2 assessments of most of their lands located west of Leslie Street and one parcel located east of this street.

These assessments discovered five 19th century farmstead sites, four located on adjacent lots on the west side of Leslie Street (Lots 16 through 19, Concession 2) and one adjacent (Lot 17, Concession 3) to these on the east side. These sites have been called Queensville Site 1, Queensville Site 2, Queensville Site 3, Queensville Doan, and Queensville Milne. Stage 3 test excavations of these sites began in 2008 and the Stage 4 excavations at the Milne site were completed in the fall of 2017.

The archaeological investigation of five 19th century sites in such close proximity to each other by one archaeological consulting firm presented us with a unique opportunity to produce a published account of their excavation. This included a description of the architectural features preserved in the soil, the artifacts contained in them, and the interpretation of the results of our excavations to allow a better appreciation of the results of our work in helping to understand the occupation of Queensville in the 19th century.

Queensville Site 1 was originally occupied by Rueben Burr, one of the master builders of the Sharon Temple. He originally built a small house on the property, and later, a more substantial home with a large stone-walled basement and a sizable outbuilding attached to the house. It appears that both houses continued to be occupied while Burr lived on the property. I suggested that this was the result of Burr housing apprentices who worked on the temple under his direction and training. Burr sold his property to Dr. Edward Morton in 1838. Morton was one of the farmers who had grain threshed by Ezra Doan and in return helped Doan thresh his grain.

Queensville Site 2 was located east of Leslie Street. Our excavations exposed the cellar of the original house and the second-generation house with a stone-walled cellar and an attached outbuilding with a stone foundation. In 1871, the property was owned by Peter Crann. Crann had his grain threshed by Ezra Doan as well, and in turn helped Doan thresh his grain.

Queensville Site 3 was settled by William H. Willson, a cousin of David Willson, founder of the Children of Peace, in 1843. Willson lived on the property until 1870 when he sold it to Henry Mosier.

Queensville Doan was purchased from Rueben Burr by Ebenezer Doan in 1832 at the time of the completion of the Sharon Temple. Ebenezer sold it to his son, Ira, who lived there until his death in 1871. Ira farmed the land with his son, Ezra, who acquired a 10-acre parcel at the northeast corner of the lot. Ezra and his father operated the farm on shares. Our excavations at this site revealed the cellar of the first house built on the property and a midden, along with one privy which uncovered large numbers of complete or almost complete dishes. It was Ezra who kept a diary in 1871 which provided us with a glimpse of life in Queensville in that year.

At Queensville Milne, we discovered the cellar of the first house occupied by Rueben Richardson in 1802. Our excavations here produced more than 60,000 artifacts featuring a full array of the artifacts in use at this property in the 19th century.

Excerpted from William D. Finlayson’s Introduction

The Archaeology of Two Whitchurch-Stouffville Farmsteads in a 19th Century Rural Community in the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario (formerly the Township of Markham)

In the second half of the 19th century, John Yake Sr., a prominent Stouffville businessman, purchased two parts of Lot 32, Concession 10, in what is now the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville.

John Yake Sr. rented the small house at the western end of the lot, which eventually became the Yake site. John Yake Jr. lived on the western part of the lot, initially in the large house which became the Windmill site, and ultimately in a new brick house which was still occupied at the time of our excavations.

The Archaeology, History, and Architecture of the Philip Eckardt Log House: The Oldest House in the City of Markham, Ontario, Canada

The Eckardt family narrative and their log house form an integral part of the Berczy Settler story of the initial colonial settlement of Markham. My first ancestor in America, Francis Schmidt, travelled with Philip Eckardt on the ship the Catharina in its Atlantic crossing from Altona, Germany to Philadelphia in 1792. Together with the other settlers they opened the first inland trail from Philadelphia northward through the Alleghany Mountains to the Genesee Valley in New York State. They also worked together opening Yonge Street and clearing the Rouge River to make it navigable as far as Box Grove (originally named Sparta).

The Eckardt Log House has become a symbol of those settlers arriving in Markham in the fall of 1794 to establish the first European-Canadian community in Markham Township. It is a visible linkage to our past and a monument to history that is so important to our city. Its location adjacent to Settlers Hill Park in the Upper Unionville community and to the Bethesda Lutheran Cemetery, the burial site of a number of those first settlers, has created a significant visual representation of the early history of Markham.

George Duncan has captured the complex history of the Eckardt family, some of it based on verifiable facts and some of it rooted in family folklore, and he’s put this wealth of information into a compelling narrative of a vanished past. George has taken a careful look at the remarkable architectural history of Markham’s oldest house and worked to fit together the pieces of a challenging puzzle.

Two centuries or more of this early farmstead’s history are brought to life with William Finlayson’s detailed account of the extensive archaeological investigations that were carried out in the vicinity of the Eckardt Log House in 2012. Rarely do we see such a thorough analysis of an historic farmstead that combines the history of a family, a building, and its archaeological context in one document. Evidence for two historic kitchen wings and numerous features of interest in the surrounding landscape, were revealed by the excavations that greatly enhance our knowledge of the lives of those who lived here. I was particularly struck with the analysis of all the animal bone fragments found on the site.

The City of Markham can be proud of its efforts to save significant and representative samples of early architecture, with the Eckardt Log House as its premier example. These buildings provide a physical representation of how the early and later settlers lived and progressed as their wealth improved. These windows to the past become ever more valuable as we advance into the future. This book provides one of the most vivid pictures we have of a first settler family, their changing accommodation, and their lifestyle. This is particularly relevant today as we see the increasing development of Markham’s first-class farmland that provided the livelihood of generations of subsequent settlers.

Excerpted from Lorne R. Smith’s Foreword