The Early History of Elora and Vicinity

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION This book provides little-known details about the settlement and development o£ the Elora area from the time the first log shelter was built by Roswell Matthews within sight of the Grand River's falls in 1817. From then until 1833, John Connon writes, "Elora seemed to be at the end of the civilized world. On the west side of the river there was not a settler between Elora and Lake Huron" (p. 62). Connon's book, The Early History of Elora, Ontario, and Vicinity (as it is named in full on the original title-page) is a compilation of material that first appeared in The Elora Express between 1906 and 1909, plus additional material written, it appears, in 1926. The book was published in a 10 x 6Yz inch, hard-cover edition in December, 1930, a few weeks before the author's death. Any of the 400 copies of that first printing have long since become rarities. This reissue of the 1930 work in a sense fulfills Connon's prophecy that "long years after this it will prove useful to those who really want to know the history of our country" (p. 171). His purpose is "to trace the progress of the very first settlers as they pushed their way, one by one, to the vicinity of Elora" (p. 7). "In a country closely covered with bush as Ontario was, the course followed by the pioneers must be up the streams. It has been so in all countries that are difficult of access. In Canada it was up the St. Lawrence, up Lake Ontario, and, in the part we are about to follow, it was up the Grand River and up the smaller streams" (p. 6). Connon begins at the point where the Grand River meets the Conestogo, near present-day Conestogo village, and works up river, along the river road to Elora, Fergus, and Bon-Accord, giving an account of the first owners of each farm, their families and descendants, and some of their triumphs and hardships. "For the human vine to grow that distance . . . fifteen miles, it took thirty years-from 1806 to 1836" (p. 99). After 1843, when Elora acquired a new grist-mill, store, and bridge, the pace of development increased. "For fifteen years Elora went ahead fast. It was the market for all the country toward Lake Huron" (p. 170). Railroad building and the Crimean War sent prices soaring. Sem Wissler founded a model village at Salem and it prospered for twenty years. "The little village of Alma sold by auction in January, 1856 for $18,500.00. That was when it was all bush. Now [1926?] with the buildings in it, no one would want it at that price". Later, at Elora, "the first Ingrain Carpet Factory in Canada" was so successful it was appropriated to Toronto. Development, inevitably, brought the railway. In 1870 it reached Elora and veered east to Fergus. "In 1873 the railway was continued north-west to Southampton and at once every small place to the north became as good a market for farm produce as Elora had been" (p. 170). The waterway that led the first settlers into the area, and the Falls that attracted the first developers were superceded by the railway and Hydro power. "The reason for Elora's existence was the Falls on the Grand River. There was no other reason. The cause of its.decline is that the land about the sources of the river has been completely denuded of the trees that grew there. . . . The water-powers are of little use now. They can not be depended upon for power". But, with or without dependable waterpower, the Falls and the Islet ix INTRODUCTION This book provides little-known details about the settlement and development o£ the Elora area from the time the first log shelter was built by Roswell Matthews within sight of the Grand River's falls in 1817. From then until 1833, John Connon writes, "Elora seemed to be at the end of the civilized world. On the west side of the river there was not a settler between Elora and Lake Huron"(p. 62). Connon's book, The Early History of Elora, Ontario, and Vicinity (as it is named in full on the original title-page) is a compilation of material that Hrst appeared in The Elora Express between 1906 and 1909, plus additional material written, it appears, in 1926. The book was published in a 10 x 6...