Oakville Ontario in Colour Photos: Saving Our History One Photo at a Time

Publisher Marketing: Under the Royal Proclamation of 1763, European settlement could not proceed without a formal treaty with the aboriginal proprietors of the land. In 1805 the Mississauga agreed to surrender all the lands from Etobicoke River to Burlington Bay. Since the fishery was important to them, the Mississauga insisted on reserving for themselves the lower portions of the rivers, including Sixteen Mile Creek, together with the flood plains where they had their camps and small cornfields. These reserved parcels were ceded to the Crown in 1820. The Mississauga moved out of the area in 1847. Their descendants now live at the New Credit Reserve near Hagersville, Ontario. Oakville is situated on Lake Ontario in southern Ontario. In 1793, Dundas Street was surveyed for a military road. By 1807, British immigrants settled the area around Dundas Street and on the shores of Lake Ontario. In 1827, George Chalmers built a settlement with water-powered mills beside the Sixteen at the Dundas crossing. A small sawmill and gristmill were constructed on the valley bottom at the edge of a pond formed by a dam. In future years, a church, school, ashery, blacksmith shop, distillery, and tavern provided services to the local farmers. The village continued to prosper with the addition of a tannery, carding mill and steam stave mill until the coming of the railroad to Oakville in 1855. In 1827, William Chisholm purchased 960 acres of uncleared land at the mouth of Sixteen Mile Creek. He built mills, and laid out the Town of Oakville and opened the harbour to shipping. As the village prospered and grew, roads and ships were built to connect it with the rest of Upper Canada. The area was developed by his son, Robert Kerr Chisholm and his brother-in-law Thomas Merrick. Oakville's first industries included shipbuilding, timber shipment, and wheat farming. The town became industrialized with the opening of oil refineries, and Procor (manufactured railway shipping cars), and the establishment of the Ford Motor Company's Canadian headquarters and plant. Trafalgar Township settlers lived in isolation in the early years. Travel was difficult and there was no newspaper or postal service. The first stagecoach service began along Dundas Street in the 1820s. By 1833, stagecoaches were also travelling along Lakeshore Road, and Oakville had regular steamship service to Hamilton and York. Farmers north of Oakville needed a road to deliver their crops to Oakville's mills and harbour. In 1831 the House of Assembly provided funds for the construction of Seventh Line or Trafalgar Road. Fifteen years later this road was upgraded to a planked road complete with toll booths. With postal service beginning in 1822 and a newspaper (the Oakville Observer) starting up in 1836, Oakville and Trafalgar Townships early years of isolation came to an end.