Oakville's First Industrial Era: by Deborah Lerech

After the Mississauga Purchase, the land that is now between Etobicoke and Burlington was treated in the same manner as all other Upper Canadian lands. Lands were divided into townships. Within a township, "the size of a farm lot was fixed at 200 acres, but at the discretion of the government any person might be granted an additional amount up to 1000 acres." Lands were not to be sold without the consent of the government, and all other land agreements were required to be legal transactions. ²

Though often planned for, discussed and legalised, land purchases did not immediately develop into working, productive farms. It was widely recognised that the land would be fertile, once it was cleared; however, clearing land took several years and a continuous effort by the farmers and their families. Their efforts were not in vain, because once the heavy forest had been cleared, "the Halton plain proved to be fertile wheatland". ³

The first farmers, mostly of American or direct British descent, arrived in Trafalgar Township around 1806-07. They made the Oakville area into a region of small self-sufficient farms. As a result of low densities of population and poor transportation facilities, self-sufficient farming was necessary within Halton and throughout the whole province. ⁴ Early writing on Upper Canadian agriculture direcly addressed these settlers concerns. Agricultural advice included a discussion of the plough as opposed to the non-plough method of planting. Simmilarily by the same forum, it was decided that Indian corn was the most likely to survive the climate, along with durable crops such as hemp and carrots (for horses) if they were planted at the same time as the flaxseed to complement what the soil would support. ⁵ Early writing on Upper Canadian agriculture direcly addressed these settlers concerns. Agricultural advice included a discussion of the plough as opposed to the non-plough method of planting. Simmilarily by the same forum, it was decided that Indian corn was the most likely to survive the climate, along with durable crops such as hemp and carrots (for horses) if they were planted at the same time as the flaxseed to complement what the soil would support. ⁶ It was likely, then, that Oakville's soil was of a similar nature.

Agriculture supported the town's milling industry as well. The first industry was generally be the sawmill, which was "usually started by one of the more affluent of enterprising settlers," and "was the nucleus from which many a village and town grew." The second industry would be a gristmill which "would be added, often as part of the same establishment, where farmers could get their wheat milled into flour". ⁷ Sending home-grown grain to the local mill was a better deal for struggling farmers than buying pre-milled flour. This was only an option, however, once a farm was completely cleared, affording the farmer a year-round supply of grain for his family, before this, milled flour from abroad would be necessary to feed the household. They would have to pay a fraction of the cost for home grown grain ⁸, an incentive to clear ones farm as quickly as possible. The Oakville gristmill was completed in good time. In England, around the end of the end of the 1820s, wheat prices began fluctuating wildly. The 1828 British wheat crop "proved to be the poorest in a decade." Although prices were "stabilised by a good English harvest the following year, poor crops in 1830 and 1831 kept wheat prices at 70-75s [a quarter]". ⁹ Local milled flour continued to be the best of the options since it was vastly less expensive than the grain imported from Great Britain or elsewhere.

Grain was used for several other purposes besides flour. Oats and barley were planted for livestock feed and extra or poorer quality wheat was made into beer. In Oakville, at the same time as the gristmill was finished, "a distillery was established by Mmes. Hopkirk and Watson, called the Oakville Brewing and Distilling Co. It used the poorer grades of grain as well as the surplus of the better grains". ¹⁰ Beer was a common household drink, sometimes drunk in place of questionable water and was often made at home. The consumption of great amounts of beer would indicate an ever-increasing population in the area around Oakville at the time. ¹¹

By the Union Period (1841-1867), agriculture in and around Oakville was booming. The abolishment of the Corn Laws by Britain in 1846 changed the grain trade system irrevocably. Instead of protectionist rules for British colonial grain, a free market economy was established where the best price of wheat was sought in England. Oakville itself was not seriously affected since most of their grain went across the lake to the United States regardless of the changes in English trade. The rise in the export of whiskey in Oakville, however, may explain what was done with excess grain during this time. ¹²

The agricultural boom of the middle of the century in Oakville followed the general patterns of development in Upper Canada/Canada West. In the pre-1840 period the concentration was strictly on land settlement and clearing, but the 1850s brought railway building, a spur in the development of agriculture. The changes in the 1850s had more impact than the changes in any other decade: soaring world demand for wheat, increase in the access to the American market (through canals and by rail), the Reciprocity Agreement in 1854 between the united Canadas and the United States, the outbreak of the Crimean War, the urban market, and mechanisation. ¹³ It was no wonder that Oakville was carried along with the flow of good fortune. The amount of wheat "shipped out of the port of Oakville mounted steadily. The 11, 234 bushels exported in 1840 rose to 165,839 bushels in 1850". ¹⁴

After the railway construction in 1855 which bypassed Oakville's town centre, agriculture produce began to pass through the train station. With the advent of the railroad there was also a chance to settle further west in Canada West than ever before. Wheat farming became established in western farms while agriculture in the older farms were diversified. Changes in agriculture during the time period after the railroad included the addition of "fruit growing, which became so important an industry in and around Oakville?Strawberries were among the small fruits that were native to many sections bordering Lake Ontario." One author recorded in 1851 that strawberries grew "luxuriantly, but they are not so much cultivated as their valuable properties deserve". ¹⁵ Farmers in and around Oakville were possibly the first "to recognise the possibilities of growing strawberries commercially in Oakville, some say in Canada." In 1869 cultivators of strawberries included: J. Hagaman, Capt. John A Chisholm, W.H. Jones, Capt. W.B. Chisholm, E. Skelly, J.T. Howell, A. Mathews. ¹⁶ The strawberry industry would flourish for almost a hundred years long after the grain production in the area had ceased and the mills had shut down completely.

Footnotes

1. Hazel C. Mathews, Oakville and the Sixteen: The History of an Ontario Port p. 17
2. Gerald M. Craig, Upper Canada, the Formative Years, 1784-1841, (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1963) p. 34
3. Philip Brimacombe, The Story of Oakville Harbour
4. Ibid.
5. George Henry, The Emigrants Guide to Upper Canada..., (Quebec, 1835) pp. 96-98
6. Robert Barclay Allardice, Agricultural Tour in the United States and Upper Canada, (Edinburgh/London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1842) p. 73
7. Gerald M. Craig, Upper Canada, the Formative Years, 1784-1841, p. 146
8. Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle, Canada and the Canadians, (London: H. Colburn, 1849) p. 254
9. T.W. Acheson, "The Nature and Structure of York Commerce in the 1820s", p. 181
10. Philip Brimacombe, The Story of Oakville Harbour
11. Ibid. 
12. Hazel C. Mathews, Oakville and the Sixteen: The History of an Ontario Port, pp. 191-192
13. Marvin McInnis, "Marketable Surpluses in Ontario Farming, 1860", (in Douglas McCalla, ed., Perspectives in Canadian Economic History, Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman Ltd., 1987) p. ³8
14. Hazel C. Mathews, Oakville and the Sixteen: The History of an Ontario Port, p. 195
15. Ibid., pp. 385-387
16. Ibid.