Bronte On 12 Mile Creek: by Andrew Armitage

From its source in the Beverly Swamp, Twelve Mile Creek makes its way 50 kilometres (32 miles) to its mouth on Lake Ontario. With a fall of approximately 262 metres (800 feet), Twelve Mile Creek's main stream is enhanced by at least twelve tributaries. Along its path are many small waterfalls and rocky rapids offering numerous mill sites that quickly attracted settlers. During the early 19th century, a number of once-thriving villages grew up on Twelve Mile Creek. These included Carlisle, Progreston, Tallyho, Dakota, Cedar Springs, Lowville, Zimmerman, Tansley and Merton.

Prior to the arrival of European settlement, the vast area at the mouth of the river they called "esquisink" or "Last Out Creek" was inhabited by the Mississauga Indians who had traditionally used it as a hunting and fishing ground. On a 1760 map, French surveyors gave the name Riviere de Gravois to Twelve Mile Creek. As settlement spread along the shores of Lake Ontario, the government of Upper Canada negotiated in 1805 with the Mississagua to purchase a tract of land large enough to accommodate the influx of new settlers, mainly United Empire Loyalists, who wished to settle in Canada. ¹

Between 1805 and 1820, the Mississauga continued to utilize the land around the mouth of Twelve Mile Creek for subsistence purposes, inhibiting the growth of what would become Bronte. However, with a decline in both wildlife numbers and their fishery and as a result of increasing pressure for land for settlement, on February 20, 1820, five Mississauga chiefs formerly surrendered their rights to reserved lands at the mouths of Twelve and Sixteen Mile Creeks and the Credit River. ²

The name Bronte, like many other names in the southern sections of the Regional Municipality of Halton, takes its name from Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson and his famous victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. Nelson was granted the Duchy of Bronte, a 17,000 acre estate on the slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily by King Ferdinand III to commemorate the liberation of the Neopolitan monarchy from France in 1799. Prior to his knighthood, Lord Nelson often signed his name "Nelson & Bronte". ³

The land through which Twelve Mile Creek ran was both level and fertile. As the forests were cleared, prospective settlers began assessing the area's possibilities. As early as 1814, Philip Sovereign had settled on land around the mouth of Twelve Mile Creek. The village's first schoolhouse would be built a year later.

For a time, Bronte's development was slow but, by 1826 area residents had petitioned the government of Upper Canada to place lands around the mouth of Twelve Mile Creek up for public auction. In 1833, the Deputy-Provincial Surveyor, William Hawkins prepared a plan for the town site of Bronte. However, unlike its neighbour, Oakville, no mills were immediately developed along the waterway that ran through the slowly growing community. ⁴

Further, while William Chisholm had developed a privately supported harbour in Oakville by the late 1820s, the development of a similar facility for Bronte was delayed near nearly twenty years. After the establishment of the Bronte Harbour Company in 1846, development of a navigable harbour was begun. The work was finally finished in 1856 allowing Bronte to take its place as a fully active port on Lake Ontario.

By 1850, Bronte had 200 inhabitants, two hotels, a sawmill, two grist mills, a clothing factory, a shingle mill, a wagon maker's shop, a cabinet maker and a blacksmith shop. Warehouses were built on the waterfront and the first Bronte-built schooners were being launched. ⁵

Accessible initially over land by way of the Lakeshore Road, Bronte welcomed railroad service in December, 1855 when the Great Western Railway opened its tracks north of the village for service. Still, Bronte was, first and foremost, a port community with an active harbour and supporting industries.

For a period in the middle of the 19th Century, Bronte's harbour became a major exporter of grain to both Britain and the United States. One of Ontario's largest steam grist mills was opened for business in 1858. However, following the collapse in the grain trade in the late 1850s, activity in Bronte harbour declined. Between 1856 and 1877 the population of the village dropped from a peak of 550 to approximately 220. ⁶

After the end of the wheat trade, Bronte's fortunes revolved around the presence of an active commercial fishery that would continue until after World War II. Bronte was also one of four Canadian ports along Lake Ontario which had a stonehooking fleet which used to mine shale from the lake's bottom. The stone harvested in Bronte was utilized in the construction industry, both locally and in nearby Toronto.

By 1901 the population of Bronte had climbed to 400 people. In the years before World War I, Bronte, like her neighbour, Oakville, enjoyed a tourist boom. Visited regularly by cruise and excursion vessels, the village was known as one of the most picturesque communities on Lake Ontario.

Bronte was incorporated as a village in 1952 with its own fire and police departments. Ten years later, the township of Trafalgar, the town of Oakville, and the village of Bronte were amalgamated into the new town of Oakville. Today, while Bronte represents the thriving west end of Oakville, its residents retain a strong sense of Bronte's nearly two centuries of history. ⁷

Footnotes

1. Philip Brimacombe, The Story of Bronte Harbour, p. 6-7.
2. Peter S. Schmalz, The Ojibway of Southern Ontario, p. 108-110.
3. Alan Rayburn, Place Names of Ontario, p. 44.
4. Clare McKeon and Joseph p. McKeon, Oakville: A Place of Some Importance, p. 42.
5. Ibid., p. 44.
6. Ibid., p. 45.
7. Ibid., p. 47.