Grafton and Bolton Ontario and Area in Colour Photos

The Township of Alnwick/Haldimand is located in central Ontario in Northumberland County, situated between Lake Ontario and Rice Lake. It was formed in 2001 by the merger of Alnwick Township in the north and Haldimand Township in the south. Alnwick Township was originally surveyed in 1795 when twenty-four lots were laid out on the first concession. It was named for Alnwick in Northumberland, England. The township's first residents were made up of United Empire Loyalists, attracted by large unencumbered land grants. In 1835, 3,600 acres of land along the first and second concessions were set aside as an Indian settlement. Shortly after, the Indian Band from Grape Island was moved into this settlement and a school and church were built at Alderville. Haldimand Township was formed in 1791 and was named in honor of Sir Frederick Haldimand - a British general who served as Governor-in-Chief of Canada between 1778 and 1796. By 1804, there were 356 settlers in Haldimand Township making it the second most populous township in the region after Hamilton Township to the West. Alnwick/Haldimand is part of the Oak Ridges Moraine. Thirty-one square kilometers of the Cobourg Creek watershed runs through the Township. The Creek supports a diverse ecosystem including forests, meadows and wetlands. The Ganaraska Forest is an 11,000-acre forest located in the Township. It is one of the largest blocks of forested land in southern Ontario. The township is rural based with agriculture being the largest contributor to the economy. Grain, cash crops, milk, livestock, vineyards and apple farming are all viable in the area. Grafton is located in this township. The first known settlers to Grafton were just before the turn of the nineteenth century - all from the new United States of America. Most were looking for new land and opportunities. New settlers from the British Isles started arriving twenty years later. Likely the hamlet was named Grafton after John Grover's birth town of Grafton, Massachusetts. He arrived in Upper Canada in 1798 and was in Grafton by 1804. Bolton is a community in the town of Caledon, located in the Region of Peel about fifty kilometres northwest of Toronto. The downtown and area that historically defined the village is in a valley through which the Humber River flows. The town was founded around 1822 when James Bolton helped build a flour mill for his relative George Bolton. It was established on the line of the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway with stages to and from Weston. Sandhill Ontario is about 9 miles east of Caledon. Abraham Campbell's father and six brothers took up one thousand acres in Chingacousy about 1820, after having journeyed from the old family home in Lincoln County by an ox-team. From Cooksville to their locations, the way led over a road made through the bush with their own axes. Mr. Campbell spent his life on the farm on which he was born when Chingacousy was the farthest settlement north of the lake. A quarter of a century later Campbell's Cross, on the highway connecting north and south, was a scene of bustling life. There was a tavern there with eighteen rooms. There were three stores in the village at that time. As many as one hundred teams from the North Country would arrive with grain in a single day. Part of the grain was bought by local merchants and teamed by them to Port Credit for shipment by water. Some of the farmers hauled their own grain all the way to the lake port.