page_title: Peterborough, Ontario
section_title: 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Peterborough, Ontario / History / 19th century
caption_attribution_description: Cox Terrace, a National Historic Site of Canada in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.
context_page_description: Peterborough is a city on the Otonabee River in Central Ontario, Canada, 125 kilometres northeast of Toronto and about 270 kilometres southwest of Ottawa. According to the 2016 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 81,032. The population of the Peterborough Census Metropolitan Area, which includes the surrounding Townships of Selwyn, Cavan Monaghan, Otonabee-South Monaghan, and Douro-Dummer, was 121,721 in 2016. In 2016, Peterborough ranked No. 32 among the country's 35 census metropolitan areas according to the CMA in Canada. Significant growth is expected starting in late 2019 when the Ontario Highway 407 extension is completed, connecting it to Highway 115/35 south of Peterborough. The current mayor of Peterborough is Diane Therrien.
  Peterborough is known as the gateway to the Kawarthas, "cottage country", a large recreational region of the province. It is named in honour of Peter Robinson, an early Canadian politician who oversaw the first major immigration to the area. The city is the seat of Peterborough County.
  Peterborough's nickname in the distant past was "The Electric City" as it was the first town in Canada to use electric streetlights.
context_section_description: In 1818, Adam Scott settled on the west shore of the Otonabee River. The following year he began construction of a sawmill and gristmill, establishing the area as Scott's Plains. The mill was located at the foot of present-day King Street and was powered by water from Jackson Creek. This location, adjacent to the Ontario government Ministry of Natural Resources building, and Peterborough's Millennium Park may have been the site of landfall for a portage which connects in a direct line with Bridgenorth. The site has an Ojibway name "Nogojiwanong" which means "the place at the end of the rapids".
  The year 1825 marked the arrival of Irish immigrants from the city of Cork to Scott's Plains. In 1822, the British Parliament had approved an experimental emigration plan to transport poor Irish Catholic families to Upper Canada.
  Peter Robinson, a member of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada and a prominent businessman from York, Upper Canada was the man who took on the emigration plan of 1825. Scott's Plains was renamed Peterborough in his honour. Robinson interviewed families and individual males to make the long voyage. These families had to meet specific criteria in order to be eligible for the voyage. The specifics required for Robinson's settlers were that they had to be Catholic, poor and with a knowledge of farming. Males had to be less than forty-five years of age and in good health and families were unrelated. The majority of the Irish emigrants were chosen from Fermoy, North Cork.
  Robinson was urged by landlords to remove the "pauper and undesirables". He resisted and stated that he had "no wish. to hold out a bounty to persons of bad character. but as Robinson travelled through the countryside they became flesh and blood 'people of a good sort' he called them, 'bred to farming. I found them much more intelligent than I expected. Most of them could read and write'".
  Thomas Poole, a nineteenth century writer, wrote that all 2024 passengers boarded nine ships in June 1825, with everything they owned, from Cork across the Atlantic Ocean to Quebec City. The journey took 30 days to cross the Atlantic and on board the ship they were provided with bunks and food rations. Hard tack or ship biscuits were one of the many foods that were made to provide energy for the passengers. Hard tack was very easy to make and could be stored for months without spoiling. After the settlers landed in Quebec City they travelled further down the St-Lawrence River eventually reaching Lachine where they boarded a bateau. Heading west to Kingston and ultimately to Kingston and Cobourg. They camped in tents in Cobourg for several weeks until Peter Robinson joined them to lead them up to their final destination. The long voyage across the ocean was enough to weaken the emigrants but having to camp out in tents in the mid-summer heat brought on several other complications. Nearly all of the settlers experienced fever and ague, and several perished from it. Even faced with these hardships they forged ahead and put their trust in Peter Robinson, the man leading them to their settlement in Peterborough.
  In 1845, Sandford Fleming, inventor of Standard Time and designer of Canada's first postage stamp, moved to the city to live with Dr. John Hutchison and his family, staying until 1847. Dr. Hutchison was one of Peterborough's first resident doctors.
  By 1846, the community was flourishing, with a population of about 2000. A stone jail and court house had been built and there were seven churches and various government offices. There was a fire company, two newspapers and a post office that received mail daily. Industry included  two grist mills, two saw mills, one brewery, one ashery, two distilleries, three foundries, three tanneries and tradesmen of various types worked here. One school and one bank agency were operating.
  Peterborough was incorporated as a town in 1850, with a population of 2,191.
  Beginning in the late 1850s, a substantial canoe building industry grew up in and around Peterborough. The Peterborough Canoe Company was founded in 1893, 
caption: Cox Terrace on Rubidge Street, built in 1884 and declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1991
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