TimeLine
York Pioneers gather in front of scadding cabin September 3rd 1904
Toronto’s oldest suriving home
This August (2003) the CNE celebrates
its 125th exhibition; and so does a little log cabin which was moved
to the exhibition site in August, 1879. When you’re ready for a break from the hurly-burly of the midway, wend
your way to just west of the bandshell and step back in time more than 200 years
as you enter the dim interior of Toronto’s oldest building. The square-timbered Scadding Cabin, built in 1794, is a little oasis surrounded
by a split rail fence and a re-creation of a nineteenth-century garden featuring
native plants. Visitors are welcomed by volunteers in period costumes who happily
explain the cabin’s history, describe artifacts and demonstrate spinning. The volunteers
are all members of one of Canada’s oldest historical groups, The York
Pioneer and Historical Society (YPHS) or, as they usually call themselves,
The Pioneers. The cabin’s first owner was John Scadding, an assistant to Upper Canada's
first Lieutenant Governor, John Graves Simcoe. Scadding’s 250-acre
property was on the east bank of the Don River and his log home sat near
where present-day
Queen Street crosses the Don Valley Parkway. The story of how the 209-year-old cabin got from its original site on the Don
to the exhibition grounds is entwined with the history of the YPHS. In 1869, a small group of men formed the society to preserve the pioneer
history of York township. A decade later, John Smith, then owner of
the Scadding property,
gave the cabin to The Pioneers. As 1879 was also the beginning of the Toronto
Industrial Exhibition (later renamed the CNE), the YPHS worked with the CNE’s
founders to move the cabin to its current site to celebrate the fair’s
inauguration. How the cabin was physically moved to the CNE isn’t known, but
some York Pioneers suspect the logs from the dismantled house were
floated down the Don
River and along the shoreline of Lake Ontario. The rebuilding of the cabin
(then 85 years old) was well-documented in newspapers of the day. Several society members met at a seed store on Adelaide Street. Holding
aloft the Union Jack emblazoned with “York Pioneers”, they trundled along
King Street in a wagon pulled by a team of oxen. At the exhibition grounds, they
met other volunteers and the rebuilding “bee” began. One mean-spirited article, perhaps attempting humour, described “ feeble
old men attempting to raise the timber with the aid of walking sticks”.
Regardless, the energetic workers, sustained with quantities of “lukewarm
tea and coffee” and “five-gallon lager beer kegs”, were ready
to christen “Simcoe Cabin” by 5 p.m. A bottle was broken over the cabin and a cannon fired. The Pioneers
shouted themselves hoarse and one remarked “a jollier time had not been seen for 50 years”. (The building was later renamed “Scadding Cabin”, not
to remember its first owner but to honour his son, Henry Scadding.
Henry was a founding
member and president of the YPHS for 18 years, as well as a renowned historian.)
In addition to maintaining and staffing Scadding Cabin, members hold an annual
dinner in an historic venue, take a yearly out-of-town bus trip and publish several
newsletters and an annual magazine of history articles,The York Pioneer. Scadding Cabin is open every day during the CNE. Admission is free, but small donations are appreciated to defray the cost of conserving the cabin. Among the small items for sale is Mrs. Scadding’s Receipt Book, a collection of nineteenth century recipes.
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The 1794 Scadding Cabin on the CNE grounds Volunteers are always needed to staff the cabin. |
St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, circa 1848 The stone church was transferred to the YPHS in 1968 by Lady Eaton. |
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Below are transcriptions of the headstones in the cemetery attached to Eversley Church; they are excerpted from an article in the 1972 issue of The York Pioneer magazine. |
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