History of East Lake, Prince Edward County, Ontario

 

East Lake - first area settled in the Tenth County (P.E.C.)

 

500 million years ago during the Ordovician period the mixture of trilobites, crinoids, cephalopods, gastropods, brachiopods and corals, compacted and hardened into the limestone that now underlies the County.

 

1 million years ago a glacier moved across this area from the north west, the sand from this till is being washed up on the south west shore of Lake Ontario and blown inland as far as the south side of East Lake and beyond and building the now famous Sandbanks.

 

As the glacier receded mastodons, mammoths and caribou migrated into the area followed by "Paleo-Indians" . There presence is shown by the fluted chert spear points found in the area and dated at about 10,000 B.C. In some of these points the chert flint can be traced to it's source in Ohio.

 

Somewhere around 1,500 B.C. the earliest settlement of Prince Edward County was by the mound builders, named for the mounds they built to cover elaborate burial pits and said to be off-shoots from the Mongolian tribes which migrated from Asia. Signs of them have been discovered between Rednersville and Massassaga. At Green Point were deposits of tools. On the old Leslie farm and Markland hill on East Lake mounds were found and near Milford the skeletal remains of 9 mound builders was discovered. The mound builders were agrarian and grew corn and beans, and crafted metal and coiled pottery. A copper mine on Isle Royal was dated as more than seven centuries old.

 

Around 500 A.D. the early Iroquois were here and settled this area for the next 1000 years. There presence is indicated by pottery made by the paddle and anvil and remains of cultivated corn and tobacco. Their small villages, of perhaps 150 people, grew into large villages when beans and squash were introduced into their crops. Several Long-houses of 70 feet by 26 feet would be enclosed by wooden palisade. Soon after 1550 due to inter tribal wars the Iroquois in this area moved northwest to form the Huron Confederacy, leaving Prince Edward a no mans land and buffer between the Hurons in Ontario and the Five Nation Iroquois in New York state. The Massassaga members of the Cree linguistic group settled this area soon after, they were hunter-gatherers unlike the agricultural Iroquois.

 

In 1615 Samuel De Champlain sailed to what is now Picton, embarking from what is now Glenwood cemetery portaging to the foot of Markland Hill on the East Lake Road. He then took the stream that passes there through the back of Beaver meadow into the head of East Lake. He was accompanied by 200 Huron warriors on this expedition and paddled down East Lake to the Outlet River. Then he embarked onto Lake Ontario and followed the eastern shore of the County back to the mainland. He reported no Indian villages in the county at that time. As a direct consequence of their attacks against the Iroquois tribes the five Nations Indians consisting of Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, Mohawks and Oneidas fought the French and Huron; which ended with the complete extermination of the Huron tribe. The County was the scene of the opening encounters.
 
In 1669 Robert Cavalier, Sieur de Lasalle led an expedition on behalf of the Sulpician Seminary, which had founded a mission on East Lake. The Iroquois were at that time the complete master's of this part of Ontario and a large band of Cayuga Indians had established a village on the north side of East Lake. As the Iroquois control weakened it is said that the Cayuga moved south to the Mohawk valley in New York and by the end of the seventeenth century the County was again without a permanent Indian population.
 
In 1758 Col. Bradstreet sailed from Oswego to attack Fort Frontenac at Kingston, then held by DeLevis from France. As the ship neared the upper gap a French gunboat was seen and chased rounding Salmon Point and landing at the Outlet river. The French burned the ship and buried a barrel of gold escaping overland. It was said that the gold was buried half way between the bay and East Lake on the shore of the Outlet river but never found.

In 1759 after the Battle of Quebec, Prince Edward County (as yet unnamed) fell under British rule. After the revolt of 1775-1783 some 6000 United Empire Loyalists came to Upper Canada and it is estimated that nearly 1000 of them made there way to Prince Edward County.
 
In 1783 the very first U. E. Loyalist to settle in the County was Colonel Henry Young he was retired on half pay at the close of the war with a grant of 3,000 acres plus the usual quantities for members of his family. In that year he claimed the north shore of East Lake and around the lake head down to what is now known as lots 4, 5 and 6 on the south side of East Lake. He left his two sons on East Lake late that year and returned with 4 of his daughters the following spring; Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine and Sarah. The Colonel died at East Lake in 1820 at the age of 83.

In 1788 Capt. James Rogers UEL settled near Cherry Valley on 200 acres a small part of his land grant. His brother was Major Robert Rogers, hero and founder of "Rogers Rangers". Jame's son David Rogers represented Prince Edward in the second Parliament of Upper Canada.  
 
Included in the list of earliest U. E. Loyalist settlers was James Blakely, who settled on the south side of East Lake prior 1800. He built a home there that is still the residence of a direct descendant.
 

January 1800 East Lake was settled by 34 families, 19 on the south side and 15 on the north side.

In 1812 Cherry Valley was given it's name by Alva Stephens who came from a village of the same name in New York State and there was a large number of wild cherry trees in the vicinity of East Lake at that time.

 

During the war of 1812 with the United States the Prince Edward County militia was called up and saw some action but no fighting took place on our land.

 

In 1870 the first life saving station on the Great Lakes was set up at Salmon Point (Wicked Point). Also in that year the Athol Township Hall was built in Cherry Valley. Also, In 1870 the sloop "Carrier Dove" was built in the creek at Cherry Valley.

 

In 1871 the Salmon Point lighthouse was built.

 

To be continued…………...