OntarioGenWeb > Leeds & Grenville GenWeb > Local Information

Local Information

Political Evolution In October 1792, the old District of Lunenburg (1788-1792) was renamed the Eastern District and included the present counties of Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry, Prescott, Russell, Leeds, Grenville and Carleton. In the Act of 1798, proclaimed in 1800, the Counties of Leeds, Grenville and Carleton were separated out of the Eastern District to become the Johnstown District. As of January 1850 all Districts were abolished and the Johnstown District became the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville and remain the United Counties to this day. As of January 1998, the townships of South Gower and Oxford-on-Rideau, and the Town of Kemptville amalgamated to become the Township of North Grenville; the townships of Bastard and South Burgess, South Elmsley, South Crosby, North Crosby and the Village of Newboro amalgamated to become the Township of Rideau Lakes; and the Township of Wolford and the Village of Merrickville amalgamated to become the Village of Merrickville-Wolford. return to top

Research Facilities & Organizations Brockville & District Historical Society Brockville Museum 5 Henry Street Brockville, ON K6V 6M4 Site: http://www.brockvillemuseum.com/ Brockville Public Library 23 Buell St. P.O. Box 100 Brockville, ON K6V 5T7 Tel: (613) 342-3936 Fax: (613) 342-9598 E-mail: http://web.ripnet.com/~gchs/ Leeds & Grenville Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society 5 Henry Street P.O. Box 536 Brockville, ON K6V 5V7 Loyalist Resource Centre PO Box 607, Twp of South Dundas 3 Augusta Street Morrisburg, ON  K0C 1X0 613-543-2045 The resource centre is not a public library, and Mrs. Cook should be contacted prior to your visit The home of Mrs. Lynne O'Brien Cook is filled with books, binders, clippings, files, microfilm and photographs, including transcriptions or copies of Local Information, cemetery, church and land records, local histories and last wills covering much of Eastern Ontario and upstate New York. The centre also serves as the library for the St. Lawrence Branch, United Empire Loyalists Association, and contains a variety of Loyalist resources and includes research material on the Palatine (Germany) and the Mohawk Valley, New York. A microfilm, microfiche reader and photocopier are available. Merrickville and District Historical Society PO Box 294 Merrickville, ON K0G 1N0 Email: [email protected] Site: http://www.merrickvillehistory.ca/ North Grenville Historical Society Archives: Open through the summer months on Sundays and by appointment: 1631 County Rd 43 (seven miles west of Kemptville) Acton's Corners, ON Email: [email protected] Site: http://www.nghs.ca/ North Grenville LACAC Email: [email protected] Site: http://www.northgrenville.on.ca/Heritage/HNG%20site/ return to top

Municipalities United Counties of Leeds and Grenville 25 Central Avenue W., Suite 100 Brockville, ON K6V 4N6 Tel: (613) 342-3840 Fax: (613) 342-2101 City of Brockville 1 King St. W. Brockville, ON K6V 7A5 Tel: (613) 342-8772 ext. 430 Email: [email protected] Village of Merrickville-Wolford 317 Brock Street West Merrickville, ON Tel: (613) 269-4791 Fax: (613) 269-3095 return to top

History - Bibliography As the Pages Turn Chant, Edna B. Athens Reporter, 1968. A history of Farmersville (now Athens); no Forward, no Index. History of Leeds and Grenville Leavitt, Thaddeus William Henry. Brockville, Ontario: Recorder Press, 1879. Reprints by Mika Publishing and Higginson Books. Hub of the Rideau : a history of South Crosby Township Warren, Susan. Elgin, ON: LACAC, Township of South Crosby, Leeds County, 1997. Kemptville Past and Present Anderson, J. Carr. Kemptville: Telegram Printing Co., 1903. Leeds and Grenville: Their first two hundred years McKenzie, Ruth. Toronto: United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, 1967. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, reprinted 1984. Leeds the Lovely Earle, Evelyn Purvis. Toronto: Ryerson Publishing, 1951. 2nd printing, Prescott, ON: St. Lawrence Printing Co. Ltd., 1974. My Own Four Walls Haskins, Diane. Council of Bastard and South Burgess Township, 1985 Covers the historical buildings in the area, including schools, houses, businesses and churches. Also has information on property owners, their way of life and more. North Crosby Township "There have been several thesis and papers written (some at Queen's University in Kingston ) about Benjamin Tett, the general merchant in Newboro. As well, Tett's extensive correspondence and business records are housed at the Queen's University Archives. As well as being a general store merchant, Tett was a millowner, lumber agent, coronor, local politician, postmaster. Many of his records mention local families from Newboro, Westport and North Crosby. As well, the Queen's University Archives holds a few other records to do with Westport. For example, I believe that some of the papers of the Foley family (Westport merchants) have been a recent acquisition there. The Archives of Ontario has microfilmed copies of some of the municipal records for Westport, Newboro and North Crosby as well. There is a little history of Newboro done in 1967 called "The Isthmus" but generally it is anecdotal and not much concrete information. Land records for Westport and North Crosby are housed at the Registry Office in Brockville and Queen's Archives also has some of the original land books for Leeds and Grenville. South Crosby, Bastard and South Burgess and Rear of Leeds and Lansdowne all did have local histories done and there is a bit of overlap into North Crosby sometimes in these histories." (Courtesy Sue Warren) Rideau Reflections Churchill, G. Clare. Gananoque, ON: 1000 Islands Publishers, 1982. The Rear of Leeds & Lansdowne, The Making of Community on the Gananoque River Frontier 1796 - 1996 Lockwood, Glenn J. Lyndhurst, ON: Corporation of Rear of Leeds and Lansdowne, 1996. Kitley, 1795 - 1975 Lockwood, Glenn J. & Munro, John D. Prescott, ON: St. Lawrence Printing Co. Ltd., 1974. South Elmsley in the Making 1783 - 1983 Kennedy, James R. Lombardy, ON: Corporation of the Township of South Elmsley, 1984. Brockville The River City Disotell, Russ. Toronto: Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc., 1997. Augusta Royal Township Number Seven Connell, Goldie A. Prescott, ON: St. Lawrence Printing Co. Ltd., 1985. Montague: A Social History of an Irish Ontario Township, 1783 - 1980 Lockwood, Glenn J. 1980. Although this township is now in Lanark County, in the early years it was part of Grenville County and the records for that time period are found in Grenville. Edwardsburgh Township History Edwardsburgh Historians. Spencerville, ON: Edwardsburgh Historians, 1995. Edwardsburgh Family Histories Edwardsburgh Historians. Spencerville, ON: Edwardsburgh Historians, 1996. Merrickville, Jewel of the Rideau (A History and Guide) Turner, Larry. Ottawa: Petherwin Heritage, ca 1995. Prescott 1810 - 1967 Morris, John A. Prescott, ON: The Prescott Journal, 1967. A Rideau Bibliography http://www.rideau-info.com/canal/history/rideau-bibliography.html By Ken Watson History of the Township of North Crosby and Westport Patterson, Neil A. ON: Wesport Mirror Print, 2006. ISBN 1-4243-1829-7 The book also covers Newboro. The village, before its incorporation in 1876�was partly in South Crosby and partly in North Crosby, but I covered most of its history up to 1939. As an appendix, I included the 1842 and 1848 census as they are not�readily available plus information from the Johnstown District Assessments from 1820 to 1849. Westport details from its founding in 1828 to 1939 and North Crosby settlements�from 1819 to 1939. The notes list 170 sources of where the material used can be acquired. History - Online History of Leeds and Grenville, Ontario, from 1749 to 1879 http://www.ourroots.ca/e/toc.asp?id=3666 By Thad Leavitt (Thaddeus William Henry Leavitt), publ. 1879 The Leacy Family https://sites.rootsweb.com/~onleedsg/docs/m_leacy.htm Margaret Madden includes an extensive description of the Village of Cardinal and the origins of Canada Starch Company Early Canadiana Online http://www.canadiana.org A full text online collection of more than 3,000 books and pamphlets documenting Canadian history from the first European contact to the late 19th century Fort Wellington National Historic Site http://www2.parkscanada.gc.ca/Parks/Ontario/Fort_wellington/English/history_e.htm Historic Plaques of Ontario - Leeds & Grenville http://www.waynecook.com/aleeds-grenville.html Lanark County - History and Maps https://sites.rootsweb.com/~onlanark/history.htm The political evolution of eastern Ontario, by the Lanark County GenWeb Post Offices National Archives of Canada listing of about 160 post offices names, both historical & current, from mid-1850's onwards, with general location and postmaster names Rideau Canal Waterway - Human History http://www.rideau-info.com/canal/history/hist-human.html Rideau Canal Waterway - Community Histories http://www.rideau-info.com/canal/history/community-histories.html Township of Rideau Lakes - Heritage of the Township http://www.twprideaulakes.on.ca/heritage/ Caintown - Its Beginning http://www.homestead.com/caintown/ Orange Lodges In The Front Of Leeds & Lansdowne https://sites.rootsweb.com/~onleedsg/docs/orange.htm By Paul Côté Early days of Gananoque and Front of Leeds and Lansdowne Township https://sites.rootsweb.com/~onleedsg/docs/gr_lansdowne.htm Excerpts from the Gananoque Reporter, transcribed by Paul Côté Seeley's Bay Historic Scrapbook http://www.king.igs.net/~elgin/seeleys/page12.html Royal Sappers and Miners http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~marj/genealogy/Sessional/royalsap.html Nominal List of Non-commissioned Officers, Privates and Buglers of the Companies of Royal Sappers and Miners, disbanded at the Rideau Canal in December 1831 Herbert Stone McDonald, Judge http://www.electricscotland.com/history/canada/mcdonald_herbert.htm Frederick William MacQueen http://www.electricscotland.com/history/canada/macqueen_frederick.htm The War of 1812 http://www.electricscotland.com/history/canada/scot/chapter12.htm Brockville History Album http://dmgrant.wordpress.com/ By local historian Doug Grant return to top

Mailing Lists ONT-LEEDS-GRENVILLE-L - A mailing list for anyone with a genealogical or historical interest in the "united counties" of Leeds and Grenville. You must be a subscriber to post to the list. To subscribe send the word "subscribe" (without the quotes) as the only text in the body of a message to: [email protected] (mail mode), or [email protected] (digest mode). Archives of this list are available at: http://newsarch.rootsweb.com/th/index/ONT-LEEDS-GRENVILLE return to top

Thanks to contributors: Marguerite Miller, Sue Warren, Sandy Wunder, Doug Sly

This site is part of OntarioGenWeb Last updated: 2008/03/08