Importance of the Church

For the settlers their Christian faith was strong and the church was very important to them. Part of getting a land grant involved proving their faith.  I'm not sure how they would do this, whether by letter from their home minister, or by reciting a passage or the Lords Prayer, but the founders of Canada thought it was important to the foundation of the country to have settlers who were not only loyal to the crown, willing to fight if necessary, but also members of the Christian faith.

James Gray would have had his Cromwell's Soldiers Pocket Bible that he'd been carrying as part of his kit for years, but I'm sure the purchase of a complete bible would have been high on his priority list, and reading a few passages of scripture daily would have been normal routine for most of the settlers, and especially on Sundays and on holy days like Christmas and Easter. 

In the early years settlers were visited by circuit riders who were primarily methodist, but other denominations as well.  The circuit riders would travel long distances through terrible conditions to keep to their route, through all kinds of weather, and over roads that were barely tracks, sometimes having to pick their way through the woods, then on arriving, a service might be held in homes, a barn, a store.  Later when there were churches, often the minister had his own circuit which would take him 4 to 6 weeks to cover, then he'd start all over again, taking care of the flock in his district and only being in his home church once a month.  

In 1816 an Anglican church was built in York Mills, St. John's Anglican, and though our Gray ancestors were primarily Presbyterian, records from St. John's Anglican show up on occasion in the family tree research.  

St. John's Anglican, York Mills

In 1820 the First Presbyterian Congregation of York was formed and a church was built on Richmond Street in the Town of York, but this was a long way to travel for families from the Don.  It would have been a 3 to 4 hour horse and wagon ride one way. 

First Presbyterian Congregation of York

In 1830 the larger St. Andrew's Church was founded, and it became the primary Presbyterian church in the Town of York.

York Mills Baptist Church also plays a part in the Gray family history with some of the family marriages taking place there.  It plays a prominent part in the history of the Bond family, who intermarried with the Grays. With most construction being done by work bees, I wouldn't be surprised if our Grays weren't involved in the construction of this church as well.

York Mills Baptist

The church was built in 1833, and was at what is now 102 York Mills Road until 1948.  The manse at 106 York Mills Road is a heritage protected property, and the cemetery is at 104 York Mills Road.

York Mills Baptist Parsonage

By 1836, people from the Don and Yonge Street formed their own congregation and built a church, known as the Scottish Presbyterian Church on land at York Mills/Hogg's Hollows, on land donated by James Hogg.  No pictures survive, but it was reportedly a pretty little church.

The manse was a one story Ontario Cottage that was built in 1833 and is now known today as the C.W. Jeffery's house.  It was saved from destruction by the Jeffery's family who insisted on the house being moved when Yonge Street was widened.

York Mills Presbyterian Manse 
known as the C.W. Jefferys house

In the mid 1850's James Hogg's sons decided to subdivide, so the church had to go.  It was carefully taken apart and rebuilt on two acres of land on the west side of Yonge Street, with a burial ground on the top of the hill.

According to Harold Grays notes, the church was on the west side of the street from Birrell's Hotel (laterly known as the Jolly Miller Tavern). The congregation would drive their buggies or wagons to the hotel and leave their horses and wagons or buggies in the hotel shed, and walk up the path to the church on top of the hill.  By horse and buggy in ideal conditions on good roads the distance from Grays Mills to Hogg's Hollows would take at least an hour.  If the weather was bad and the roads muddy this time could probably be doubled.

Birrell's Hotel

In 1885 the congregation left York Mills and built a new church, now known as Bethesda Presbyterian Church at Leslie and Lawrence.  The first Bethesda Church was a yellow brick church that the congregation purchased from a Methodist congregation. Harold Gray as a young boy remembers the pews being very uncomfortable and slippery for a small boy.  He said that from a ministers point of view this was a good thing as nobody was liable to fall asleep during the sermon, as you couldn't get comfortable enough to do so.  Harold remembers his mother having a pair of soft moccasins for him to wear during service so that he wouldn't make a noise when his feet kicked into the pew in front of him.

Harold had fond memories of Church socials, garden parties with suppers, Christmas pageants and parties.  He also mentioned a bee to build the 2nd Bethesda Presbyterian Church, recalling as a 14 year old boy being up on the roof shingling.

I think as well as hearing a sermon, the churches also served as a welcome respite after a long week of work, and gave the congregation time to socialize with others, probably the men networking finding out who needed a barn built, who had a horse to sell, who had oxen to lend for pulling out stumps, and for the women time to talk with other women.  

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First Name

The 1st Don Log Schoolhouse

I came across this snippet about the 1st Don School today when in the Toronto Historical Society Site:

http://www.torontohistory.net/don-school-i/

I'm posting it because of the information about the 'building bee' lubricated by whisky.  From what I've read no bee would occur without the liberal application of whisky.  But of particular note is the prank played by the students which had to leave the teacher mystified.  Read on.  I hope you'll find it as amusing as I do.  I wish I could find a copy of the Owen Staples painting of the school, but I've had no luck so far.

Boundary History: The school was on part of Farm Lot 9, Concession 3 West of Yonge, and was School Section 9 Don Mills.

Current Use of Property: Apartment buildings.

Historical Description: William Gray owned the Farm Lot and, in 1837, donated a building lot for a school. Construction was described as a “building bee” with local farmers getting together with a jug or two of whisky, cutting the logs, and dragging them to the site to put up the building. The result was a log schoolhouse. An amusing story has surfaced about this building. The children had discovered a loose plank in the floor of the schoolroom. While the teacher was writing on the blackboard, one by one, children would lift the plank and slip under it to hide under the schoolroom. When the teacher turned around, up to half the class might be missing. He would then rush outside to retrieve the miscreants, not one of whom was to be seen. While he was outside, the children would lift the plank and slip back into their seats, ready to greet the teacher when he rushed back inside. How often this prank was played is not known. The log schoolhouse is recorded in a photograph as well as in a painting by Owen Staples. It ended its days as a stock pen on the Hogg Farm on Lot 7, Concession 3. A second school was built in 1853 on the same site and is also recorded on film. After 1825 it was unused because a third school had been built across the road. The second school survived until April 1948. When the third school was opened, among the former students of the first two schools was Thomas Gray, son of William, the donor of the original property. All three schools have vanished.

Relative Importance: The Don School buildings were among the first buildings in the area, and preceded the development of Don Mills as a community.

Planning Implications: A plaque and display are recommended for installation at either Don Mills Collegiate or in front of the apartment building on the site.

Reference Sources: Files of the North York Historical Society; Toronto Reference Library newspaper collection.

Possible Mystery Solved

Who were the 'relations and friends' mentioned in James Grays land grant application, that would help him get outfitted?  

The likelihood of ever knowing for certain is unlikely; however I got thinking about it, and started going through records, looking for the names of the few direct ancestors of James Gray that we know of, but none of those names appeared on the early maps or list of residents of York.  My older brother suggested that maybe it was our United Empire Loyalist ancestors that helped him; but, I knew it wouldn't be them, because they were the family of Phoebe Gray, nee Street, that married James' younger brother William Gray.  

The seed of an idea was planted though, and I went to the Old United Empire Loyalist list and discovered an Alexander Gray, who with his sons settled in York, on Yonge Street in 1799.  Alexander and his sons, Thomas, Alex Jr, and William show on the list of inhabitants 1793 - 1823.  

https://static.torontopubliclibrary.ca/da/pdfs/229901.pdf

Not that it's relevant to our branch of the Gray family, but I thought it was very intriguing to read on Thomas Grays application for a grant of land on Yonge Street in 1798 as the son of a United Empire Loyalist, his father Alexander having been in the Royal Artillery fighting under General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham; he later joined the Jersey Volunteers in the American Revolutionary War; and once they disbanded, no longer being welcome in the United States and having to forfeit his property, he was granted 200 acres of land in New Brunswick, later relocating to York, Upper Canada in 1799 with another 200 acres on Yonge Street.  

The early settlers were helped by the existing settlers anyway, it was a matter of survival, they all needed help at some time or other, but clan kinship would have been a strong bond, even if they weren't closely related.  Alexander Gray is believed to have come from Berwick upon Tweed, Berwickshire, Scotland, on the Scottish borders, and our James and his brothers came from Paisley, Renfrewshire, quite a distance apart, (207km) but clan loyalty meant a lot, so they'd have been honor bound to help their fellow clan member, and it would have been a matter of pride that they'd helped their relation.

Grist Mills were like a community hub, and taverns were meeting places too, so it's possible that James, who was in all likelihood an outgoing man, or he'd never have been as successful as he was; would have met these 'relations and friends' in either of those places, plus the total population in both the city of York and the township of York in 1816 was only 1678 in 576 households, so it would be highly probable that people would think that James could be related to Alex and his sons who had in various years been poundkeepers, assessors, etc. and it would have been easy for them to meet.  

"The town meetings, to which all inhabitant householders were called, met yearly to nominate a clerk, a collector, assessors, pathmasters, poundkeepers and wardens for the ensuing year. ...According to the act of 1793, town meetings were to be held once a year on the first Monday in March. A special act of the legislature was passed in June, 1797, to allow York to hold its first meeting in July of that year. ... The York Town Meeting was held every year; no minutes were recorded in 1815 or 1820, but the meetings for these years are referred to in the minutes of the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the Home District. Lists of inhabitants were made in only 19 of the 27 years, and the list for one of those years, 1810, is incomplete. The lists were made by eight different town clerks. They are full of inaccuracies in addition and spelling. Much of the spelling is obviously phonetic. Simple variations, such as Wilson and Willson,..." from YORK, UPPER CANADA MINUTES OF TOWN MEETINGS AND LISTS OF INHABITANTS 1797-1823

Regardless who the 'relations and friends' were, James had arrived and had help getting established, so he wouldn't freeze or starve until he could get his log cabin built and 1st crops harvested.

James Gray 1791-1834: The plot thickens, more answers lead to more questions, another 'fact' of family lore is proven wrong.

I made a happy discovery a few days ago.  The Upper Canada Land Grants were digitized in 2019, which makes it possible to locate the actual written applications.  It's a bit of a challenge, but once you search the name and find the search information, microfilm reel, petition number, etc. then you can slowly scroll through.  They offer two options PDF and JPEG, it's easier to search using the PDF, but once you locate the right application, use the JPEG to enlarge and read the document.  You might still go partially blind trying to read it, and struggle to understand the old fashioned writing, but it's a good source of info.  It certainly taught me a few things I didn't know before.

James submitted his application for a grant of land on July 14th, 1816, which was approved by order of Governor Gore on July 16th, 1816.  This grant was for 200 acres, being Lot 9, Concession 3, East of Yonge Street.

https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c4547/618?r=0&s=4

https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c4547/619?r=0&s=4

The application reads (forgive me for any mistranslations or omissions)

James Gray, late Corporal in His Majesty's 90th Regiment of Foot, humbly showeth that your excellencies Memorialist is a native of Scotland and having availed himself of the merits of His Majesty's benevolent Proclamation and good will for the discharging of certain meritorious soldiers in this colony in order to become useful subjects and settlers therein he subsequently took his discharge in April 1815 at Niagara, that having joined the service when a lad and having an idea of the culture of wild lands he thought it proper to engage himself to be a gentleman farmer in order to be made  acquainted with the exercise of the plough and axe which in a short time became as natural to him as the duties of the field to which he has served a long and toilsome apprenticeship at foreign nations. That your excellencies memorialist having an ardent desire to become a settler amongst a few relations and friends which he has found in the neighborhood of York which are willing to bestow on him all the appurtenance in their power, therefore he humbly requests that your excellency in council may be generously pleased to allow him to make his location on a certain crown lot of land at the east side of Yonge St in the 3rd Concession, Lot #9.  This token of your excellencies wisdom.....ample remuneration for his service towards his King and country for his 9 years for which we are duty bound.

At the bottom it reads, 'He will again fight if required.'

James Gray, was the first of our Gray family to emigrate to Canada and we had always been told that he'd emigrated in 1816, possibly because that was when he got his land grant; however, it turns out that he never returned to Scotland after finishing up his military service when he took his discharge on April 27th, 1815 in Niagara!   His discharge papers are so faded and creased that I suppose we never gave any thought to where they were actually signed if indeed it even mentions where they were signed.

The 90th arrived in Canada in June of 1814 and had been guarding the American fort, Fort Niagara from October 1814.  After the war was over in Feb 1815, the soldiers stayed on until the fort was ceded back to the Americans in May of 1815.  

After discharge James made his way from Niagara to York, and found relatives and friends in York who were willing to help him get settled, and it sounds like in the meantime he must have been working learning the ins and outs of farming, and learning to use an axe and a plough, after his discharge.  

There must have been several letters back to the family in Paisley from him as he convinced some of the family that there was a good life to be had in Upper Canada.  William and Alexander didn't need much convincing as they came out quickly, with John not far behind, and George a few years later.  

In 1819, James renewed his application having fulfilled his settlement duties thus far, clearing a minimum of 5 acres which are being farmed, a dwelling house built 18 feet by 16 feet , and cleared the one half of the breadth of the road, within the first 18 months of his land lease.  James' log cabin was one of the first dwellings built in what is now Don Mills.  This was quite a good amount of work to have done in 18 months, though he did have his then teenage brothers William and Alexander to help and possibly the 'friends and relations' mentioned in the grant application.

In July 1823, James applied for the completion of his grant, now having 20 acres cleared, fenced and improved, with a barn.

What the land grant applications don't mention is that, James' brothers, William and Alexander, are living with James in the log cabin, and together they've built the mill dam, the saw mill and the grist mill (1819) which are both in operation, plus a mill lane to access the mills entering off of the 3rd Concession Line.  

Janet Gray, either a sister or a cousin, also emigrated along with William or Alexander, and probably lived with them for a short period, before she married a neighbor, William Sylvester in 1822.  John Gray emigrated in 1820 and presumably he moved in as well. James himself married in 1822, so that little log cabin is getting pretty crowded.  Not only that, but their mother Janet Salmond Gray arrived in 1825 with brother George and his wife and a son and another child on the way.  Could 10 people really have all lived together in a log cabin 18 x 16.

This is a photo of the Grays Mill Dam, from the Donalda Club collection

According to Harold Grays notes, the family were always back and forth, from one side of the river to the other on the cart road across the top of the dam.  The saw mill was on the east side of the river and the grist mill on the west side.  When one of the brothers needed a surge of power, he'd call across the river. 

As well as farming, James also had a distillery close by the grist mill, where he would make use of excess grain and trailings from the milling process to make whisky.

James very generously deeded the land and the mills to his brothers in 1825 with William getting total ownership of the grist mill and the 12 acres on the south and west side of the river, and Alexander getting the ownership of the saw mill and about the same amount of land on the east side of the river and south of the access lane.  

Alex would eventually buy the balance of the east half of Lot 9 Conc. 3, from James' estate, plus a small section of Lot 10, Conc. 4, giving him 100 acres to farm by the time of the 1851 census, and William would buy the E 1/2 of Lot 8 Conc 3 in 1847.  At some point John would buy a small section of about 15 acres from William on the E side of Lot 10, Conc 2 (Victoria Park Rd). The Mill Cart Road ran from James acreage through the mill lands, past the grist mill, across the dam, past the saw mill and across Woodbine right through to Victoria Park to where John, a wagon and carriage maker, had his small homestead and wagon shop pt of Lot 10, Conc 4.  John had a 2nd wagon shop at Milneford Mills, Milnes Hollow by Lawrence Ave and Don Mills Rd.

The brothers ran their homes, farms and businesses like a co-operative, working well together so that there was no duplication and they would all help each other out, even as to what they grew on their farms.  They didn't all have to be self sufficient because they took care of each other and were sufficient to themselves as a group.

Tragically, James died in 1834 at the age of 43, and his wife Margaret nee Craig died in 1837, leaving their son James an orphan at the age of 12.  Fortunately he had his uncles to take care of him, and he would eventually take over the running of his fathers farm.  From the census records, it looks like his Uncle John took over running the farm until James was old enough to run it himself.

According to Harold, James is interred at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, with his tombstone having the ominous inscription:  As you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so you will be. Prepare yourself to follow me.  

Both William and Alexander built their own homes in 1839.  Can they really have been living in James log cabin all this time? That will be one of the many mysteries lost to time.  Alex built his home on the east side of the Don, just across from William's on the west bank.  James' house was on the hill above William.  William built a second house for his miller in 1849.

By the 1851 census, William and his wife and a four young children are sharing their log home at the mill with George and his wife and one child.  George's daughter, Euphemia, married the miller and is living in the newly built frame house at the mill.  In the 1861 census, William and his growing family (8 children) are now in a plank house, along with 3 of Alexanders children.  Later there would be 2 bricked homes.  Harold believed that the two homes were bricked in the 1880s.

The Grays Mills Complex, with the two William Gray houses, the old Mill lane, the Donalda Barn which incorporated the original Grays Grist Mill are all protected under the City of Toronto Heritage Act.

Mary Grays painting of her memories of the mill and the cart road.  

  

George Gray was a builder and a farmer.  Not a lot is known about George.  He relocated to Whitechurch, before 1861 and farmed there.   

Even though, I now have more questions:  Who were these relations that helped James?  Who was the family member who's ship took 16 weeks to cross the ocean?  Why did George move away?  I'm still left amazed at James and his generosity and realize that if it weren't for James there would be no story of the Grays on the Don.

 

School Days on the Don with information gleaned from the notes of Harold Gray

The 1st school on the Don, built on the corner of John Hogg's farm.  John Hogg donated land for the construction of the 1st school in Don Mills.  It was just a log cabin, but it filled a need for the community, with it's growing families.  It was on the corner of his farm on Lot 7, Conc. 3, where it adjoined William Grays farm, with it's Grist Mill.  This school was built in 1837 and was used until 1853, when a new one room brick school was built to replace it, at which time the log school became a storage shed.  As well as all the Hogg children, the children of all the Gray brothers, James, George, John, William and Alexander would attend school here.

The New (2nd) Don School was built in 1853, with builder Thomas Gray, son of William Gray, laying the cornerstone and directing construction.  This was your typical early Ontario one room schoolhouse.  It was built on the southeast corner of Lawrence Ave and the Don Mills Road. This school was used until 1924-25.  When the students left the log school for the opening of the new schoolhouse, they paraded south from the old school to the new school with Timothy Gray and his cousin Robert Alexander carrying a flag at the head of the procession. The new school also had a library in it.  People that went to school there recall being distracted in class by the horses in the field next to the school.

Class of 1902/1903 with Edward Diefenbaker, Harold Gray is one of the students, though the picture quality isn't great, I'm fairly certain, from his posture and another photo I have of him from the same year, that Harold is the 4th boy in from the right.  I'm sure that some of the other children are his 1st cousins, but I have not way of identifying them, at least not yet; but there were several children of the right age in the expanding Gray family to have been at the school at the time.  Gladys Gray, granddaughter of William through his son George was one of the teachers in later years; she might well be in this photo as a young girl.

Aggie Hogg's Store, Post Office and Library

Aggie's store was next to the old log schoolhouse and the children had to pass it on the way to the new schoolhouse.  Grampa (Harold) Gray had some fun memories of Aggies store, writing that he spent many a copper and dime there when he was a boy.  You could get a couple of Bull's Eyes or a colored sugar stick for a penny, or when he or his friends Gordon Duncan and Milton Johnson had a dime, that meant a large bottle of pop for the 3 of us.  He also wrote that Aggie openly displayed her goods, one of which was a big box of icing sugar that sat on the counter.  A favorite trick of the local boys would be to have one of them distract Aggie, which another would grab a handful of the sugar and hightail it out of the store.  Aggie finally had enough of that nonsense though and got even with the boys by replacing the icing sugar with epsom salts.  What a shock the boys would have gotten on tasting the epsom salts. In later life, Harold would run his own store for a while in Malvern, I wonder what tricks would have been played on him in turn.

In 1896 Aggie rearranged her store to make room for a public library with books provided by the local literacy society that did various fundraisers to make money to buy books.  The library would remain here until the new postmaster decided he wasn't interested in having the books in the store in 1918.  At this point James Muirhead, on an adjoining lot offered an abandoned WW1 communications hut on his farm for use for the library and so the library lived on.

Aggie's store was also used as a meeting place and sometimes even a dance hall, with the Hogg's all being talented musicians, sometimes the music would go on all night.

 

Where my genealogy searches take me, following the Gray roots

I find the hunt for information, and the facts I dig up about our Gray family and connections fascinating, plus what they had to go through.  They had to have patience, perseverence, optimism, be resourceful, be thrifty, and not be afraid of hard work.  There is no doubt they worked hard to achieve all they did. It wasn't all hard work though, the work bees always ended in a competition and a party.  The competition might have been seeing who could get the most beams or boards in place, or who could cut the most trees, or haul the most logs.  It's a guy thing.

One of the things I've always been interested in finding out was where James, Alexander, William, George and John found their wives.  After all they are in the middle of dense forest, with small clearings of farms in their infancy stages, with muddy tracks for roads, working hard trying to clear more land to plant more crops, striving to become self sufficient.

William Gray married Phoebe Street who was born in Prescott, Ontario.  I always wondered, until a recent discovery, how William and Phoebe would have ever met.  Phoebe's parents, Timothy Street and Betty Scott, were both the children of United Empire Loyalists and as such, though they'd already had a land grant near Prescott, which was being farmed by a son; they were entitled to a second land grant, and by 1837 Timothy and Betty were located in Toronto, on Yonge Street.  In order for William to get his flour to market he had to drive his wagon right by her parents farm.  One possibility is that they attended the same church in York Mills.  Or they might have brought grain to Grays Mills to have it made into flour.

Alexander Gray married Marion McLean of Islay, Scotland, and I scoured the census records and land grants for York trying to find a McLean, with no luck, but by chance when reading "Don Mills, From Forests and Farms to Forces of Change" by Scott Kennedy, which has lots of interesting items of information about the Grays in it, I came across another McLean and I had a light bulb moment

...boing!  This McLean was Christina McLean and she met her husband John Coulson in York Mills, and they ended up buying a farm right across the road from Alexander Gray and Marion McLean. I wondered if she might have been a sister.  It might have just been a coincidence to have two women with the last maiden name the same across the road from each other, but they might be cousins.  Another book "Full text History of Toronto and the County of York" gave me the answer I needed, Marion McLean was the daughter of John McLean and Mary McLachlan of Wellington County, Ontario.  It's a bit of a trek from Wellington to Don Mills to get your wheat ground to flour, but I imagine that is how they met.  I'm thinking Grays Mills was a bit like a matchmaking service.

John Gray married Anne Gravely Carley of Wexford, Ireland who's parents I believe to be Joseph Carley and Elizabeth Free who settled near Elizabethtown, Leeds and Grenville.  How they met will probably continue to be a mystery.  John was a wagon maker and his shop was in Milneford Mills, on the Don River, where there was a well known woolen mill. Maybe he had a wagon to deliver, maybe her father brought wool to the mill.  John and Anne named their first daughter after her, their second daughter after John's mother Janet, the third daughter was Elizabeth (after her mother?).  Their first son was after John's father Thomas, and the second son was Joseph, so the naming of the children is a possible clue that I might be on the right track, as that was a common system of naming children back then.

James Gray married Margaret Craig of Glasgow, Scotland who has proved to be a road block for me, but I will persevere.  In the 1861 census, James Jr. has relatives staying with him named John and Ann Craig, but so far, I haven't been able to work out the connection.  I'm assuming that John is a nephew of Margaret but there I'm stuck, for now anyway.  And yes, I'm assuming that James met Margaret at Grays Mills. 

That leaves us with George Gray, that last of the brothers to arrive, and he married in Scotland Mary McMillan also from Renfrewshire, Scotland.

In finding marriage licences for the Gray brothers and some of the nieces and nephews, I found a witness named Christopher Sylvester, and another William Sylvester shows up repeatedly as a witness to Gray family marriages, so I started to wonder, just who are these Sylvesters.  I started a search through Ancestry and in my search I discovered that William Sylvester of Wexford, Ireland, was married to Janet Ellen Gray! Eyebrows go up, but it could be a coincidence, then I see that the place of the birth of one of their sons is Grays Mills, York.  Boing! Bells going off.  That cannot be a  coincidence! 

I'd always assumed that there were Gray sisters and had gone through all the names of their daughters to see which names kept showing up, Janet was one, after their mother, Ellen was another.  I always thought it strange that William Grays sons had a group portrait taken, but there wasn't one of the daughters, so it didn't surprise me that there was no mention of sisters, not even one that came to Canada.

The Sylvester farm was the next concession over from the Grays Mills.  Janet arrived in 1820 with Alexander and married William in 1822.  William Sylvester had also been a soldier in the British Army, so he and James Gray would have had that in common.

Hmmm. Little lightbulb. William Sylvester was from Wexford Ireland.  Anne Gravely Carley was from Wexford.  Another thread to pull to see if it leads anywhere.

The Don River & Grays Mill...according to Harold

According to Harold:  (my grandfather, who started writing down memories in the 1960s)

"In the early days the little stream (the east branch of the Don) that trickles down the Don Valley was a fair sized river that supplied power to run 21 mills from the head waters up in King Township to Todmorden.  These mills were mostly small sawmills which disappeared from the scene once the local timber was cut.  As far as I know there were only 2 flour and chopping mills on the river; one was Schmidt's Mill where Bayview Ave and Steeles Ave meet, which was later converted into an artists studio, the other was our mill (Grays)"  Schmidt's Mill was later torn down when the intersection was widened in 1965.

Grays Mill was built by James Gray and William Gray who started building the mill in 1819.  This was a 4 story building made of hand hewn log beams with wooden pegs and thick wide plank floors and the exterior was clad in yellow brick.  William was 17, James was 28.  

Before the mill would be operational, they'd have to dam the river to create a mill pond, and dig a mill race to carry the water to the water wheels.  The dam was not far from the mill and William and Alex and the rest of the family would use the top edge of the dam as a bridge to cross the river.

 James deeded the land with the mills to William and brother Alex in 1825.  Alex operated a  Saw Mill on the opposite side of the river until the lumber ran out about 1880.

"Grays Mill was operated by water power, with turbine water wheels.  There were two sets of mill stones, one set for grinding feed for cattle and one for flour only. In that period all flour was whole wheat flour, there was no separation of bran and shorts."  

Harold wrote that they had a long reel system for separating the bran and shorts to make white flour, but it was never used.

"The roller mill and steel plate chopper were used for grinding feed for cattle."

"Our mill was rated as a 40 barrel mill, that is, it could produce 40 barrels of flour in 24 hours.  A barrel of flour consists of 196 pounds, which was packed into 24 1/2 pound and 49 pound paper bags.  Flour for bakeries was packed in 98 pound jute sacks."

"In my grandfathers time there was not much money around, and a lot of the grinding was done by toll, that is, the miller took a share of 1/12th of the flour milled for his toll."  The 1/12th was set by law.  

"The Grays Mill flour, packaged under the name 'Wee MacGregor' was so popular that people from King township used to bring their grain for grinding at Gray's Mill.  It was a long journey by horse and the wheat was usually strapped to logs on a sled for hauling.  The trip was so long that people from far away places always spent the night at Gray's before returning home."  

This possibly explains how some of the daughters and nieces of William Gray ended up marrying farmers from King township, and Osprey township.    

"In the early days the only way for the Don people to get to Toronto (to the St. Lawrence Market) was by what is now Lawrence Avenue to Yonge St. and down Yonge.  The farmers got together and gave sufficient land to open the Don Road to what was then the Plains Road, now called O'Connor Drive.  The property given extended from O'Connor Drive to York Mills Road and was an independent road. I believe the road was built in 1835."

The original Gray's Mill (1819) is still standing, but was altered considerably after the property was sold to the Dunlops in 1917, to make Don Alda Farms, with huge additions and new exterior cladding to make the cattle barn and storage barn.  In 1966, Harold Gray, received a letter from Lorna Gardner, a historian from Willowdale, who received permission from the manager of the Donalda Club to explore; that letter indicates that it is still 3 stories plus the attic, so most of the original structure is still there, hidden inside the newer structure.  

I have to think that James Gray was a man with a plan.  I'm not sure how much land James was initially granted; Harold's notes indicated that he thought James grant gave him about 1/2 the land in Don Mills, that seems a bit far fetched but they did eventually own about 860 acres and lease other land. Some day I'll have to make the trip to Ottawa to go to Library and Archives Canada to get more details.  

Harold also said that James encouraged the brothers to emigrate and join him.  The fact that James arrived in 1816 and got established enough to support William (age 15) who arrived in 1817; and Alex (age 15) and Janet (age 20) who arrived in 1819, and started construction on the mill by 1819 certainly indicates that he was a man with a mission.  You don't just decide, let's build a flour mill. a sawmill and a distillery.  He had to have done research to know what was required, and that had to be a factor in his choice of land on the Don.  Not to mention that he's a new settler, living in a single room log cabin or shanty (not much difference except for the roof), with land to clear and crops to grow.  From a practical viewpoint, I imagine that he built the sawmill first, because they were going to need a lot of planks.