Front Street in Toronto in the 1880s. – One of Canada’s great cities closely associated with the founding of Yorkton in 1882. The York Farmers Colonization Company, founders of Yorkton in 1882 was a Toronto Company. The Company goal was to settle experienced farmers from York County and other parts of Ontario. There was a shortage of land in that province. Here are names of a few pioneers of Yorkton: James Sharpe, Sr. from Carleton, the Bull brothers from York County, Thomas W. Jackson, York County, Charles Langstaff, York, William Simpson, Toronto, William H. Meredith, Tecumseh, Ontario. The Company also invited men from England such as William and Edward Hopkins, Middlesex; Joseph Caldwell, Lancashire; John and Thomas Coates from Yorkshire; Robert S. Hall, Durham and Cosmo J. McFarline, Warrngton Cheshire. From Scotland: John F. Reid, James Reid, and Robert Reid of Orkney; Francis Wetherspoon; William, James and David Fergus, Orkney. The directors also spent time in Winnipeg and invited men from Manitoba to come help settle York Colony: Walter Clayton, George Grayson, George and John Kerr; John Wrixon, to name a few of many. Eight years later, the railway had not reached Yorkton. Finally, in 1890, the Manitoba and North Western Railway decided to lay the tracks west of Saltcoats up to Yorkton. However, they did not lay the rails to Yorkton (the first site) they wanted the railway to go through their land (a grant from the Dominion government) which is the quarter section south of Broadway Street. When the Yorkton residents and business men moved to the new Yorkton site the colony pioneers named the first street in honour of Front Street in Toronto, a street with a special story to it. The first engine built in Ontario in James Good’s shop on Queen Street made its maiden voyage down Yonge Street on temporary rails to Front Street at the end of April 1853. Pioneers of the West tended to use names for their communities or streets that reminded them of their old homes. Front Street North was Yorkton’s first main thoroughfare. We still have Front Street South but North Front Street was renamed Livingstone Street to honour fallen army officer Major D. Livingstone in 1917. Our thoughts and sympathy are with the people of Toronto following the recent tragedies on Yonge Street.
Contact Terri Lefebvre Prince,
Heritage Researcher,
City of Yorkton Archives,
Box 400, 37 Third Avenue North
Yorkton, Sask. S3N 2W3
306-786-1722
[email protected]
