East Garafraxa Township

Bibliographies Cemeteries Chronology Pioneer Families Pioneer FamiliesVillages

History of the township:

1821 - first surveyed made by Samuel Ryckman
1826 - first settlement by Dobson, McKee, Felker and Headley families
1835-1850 - main settlement of the area (major settlement came from the vicinity of Oakville, Port Credit and Streetsville)
1837 - Garafraxa road is surveyed by Charles Rankin
1840-41 - John McDonald is hired by the Canada Company to assign lots on each side of the Garafraxa Road
1841 - population was 320
1850 - Garafraxa becomes incorporated
1851 - population was 2083 (East and West)
1869 - East and West Garafraxa separate
1871 - population was 2579
1872-73 - Gazetteer and Directory of Wellington County is published; farmers directory is included
1881 - population was 2635
1901 - population was 1895
1963 - Writeup of Vanatter/The Maples in the Orangeville Banner on November 28, 1963, p. 6.

Villages of the township:

References are taken from: Carter, Floreen Ellen. Place Names of Ontario. London, Ont.: Phelps Publishing Co, 1984.

Hereward - rural community located 16 miles southeast of Orangeville. The post office was established on November 1, 1867 and the first postmaster was John Allen. The office closed on June 1, 1913.

Marsville - (also called Frogtown, Mars, Mars Village) - rural community located 10 miles southwest of Orangeville. The post office was established in 1873 and the first postmaster was W.J. McCormack. The office closed on Feb 15, 1916. "This place was named by John Carroll about 50 years prior to 1905."(p. 722)

Orton - rural community located 18 miles north of Guelph. The post office was establiished in 1882 and the first postmaster was Thomas Turner.

Reading -(also known as Donaldson's Corners) rural community located 8 miles southwest of Orangeville. The post office was established on September 6, 1852 and the first postmaster was W.J. Donaldson.

Vanatter (The Maples) - rural community located 4.5 miles southwest of Orangeville. The post office was established on May 1, 1870 and the first postmaster was W.H. Vanatter. The office was closed on November 1, 1913.

Cemeteries:

McKee Pioneer Cemetery and Price's Corners - Black, Lois. Gravestone inscriptions of McKee and Price's Corners cemeteries, East Garafraxa Township, Dufferin County. Toronto: L. Black, 1992.

Providence / The Maples

The Grove - Giilck, Shawn and Helena Lee. The Grove Cemetery, concession 12, lot1, East Garafraxa Township, Dufferin County. Kitchener, Ont.: Waterloo Wellington Branch, O.G.S., 1990.

Pioneer Families:

under construction

The families listed below* were among the first settlers in the township. If you would like to submit a family query, please fill out a query submission . If you are interested in posting a link to your family tree homepage, please email me the URL.

Queries submitted after August, 2000
Older Surname Queries

These items (*) are available through interlibrary loans from the National Library of Canada:

*Brown, Stephen J. and Krista Taylor. East Garafraxa : a history. Orton, Ont. : Corp. of the Township of East Garafraxa, c2006. Table of contents

*Dean, David E. East Garafraxa settlement period. Orangeville, Ont.: Jacques Studios, 1990. Index and purchase information

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Last updated: September 24, 2007
© Amy Menary