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The Township of Mariposa was a municipality located in the southwest corner of the former Victoria County, now the city of Kawartha Lakes, in the Canadian province of Ontario. The other municipal neighbours of Mariposa are Ops and Fenelon on the east, Eldon on the north, Brock on the west, and Scugog on the south, with the latter two located in the Durham Regional Municipality. The former township includes the communities of Little Britain, Manilla, Mariposa, Valentia, and Oakwood. Today, most of the former township is represented in the City of Kawartha Lakes by the Ward 8 Councillor, John Pollard, and Ward 4 Councillor Andrew Veale. ==History== Mariposa is the Spanish word for "butterfly" (see mariposa). No record or even legend persists to explain through what whim of early officialdom a backwoods township was so named. Mariposa township was surveyed in 1820 and formally attached to Durham County, Newcastle District in 1821. In shape it was originally a rectangle, nine miles from east to west and fifteen from north to south. There was added to it later, however, a broken southern front on Lake Scugog, now known as concessions A, B, C, and D, Mariposa, but formerly attached to the township of Cartwright, which now lies entirely on the south side of the lake. Its superficial area is 75,102 acres. The land surface is moderately undulating, with a very immature drainage system. The chief stream, the Mariposa Brook, (also known variously as Big Creek, Black Creek, Davidson's Creek, and West Cross Creek) rises in swamps near Manilla on the western boundary, flows eight miles northeast to about Lot 18, Concession 13, then turns directly south until it passes Little Britain on Concession 4, and finally turns, east to pass out of the township on the 3rd Concession and empty into the Scugog River in Ops. The meagre flow and gentle current of even this main stream and the consequent lack of any considerable water power is beyond doubt the explanation for the absence of any outstanding village in Mariposa. The soil, however has always surpassed in richness that of any other township in Victoria. Once the heavy timber had been removed, it held, as it still holds, an easy leadership in agricultural prosperity in the former Victoria County. This well-known fertility of the township resulted in the blocking of general settlement until nearly a decade after the major immigration into Emily. For the Canada Company secured large concessions here; George Strange Boulton of Port Hope, the Family Compact member for Durham, arranged for a rich grant to himself. For many years, Mariposa was visited annually by these economic parasites, who came in to inspect and invest for speculation, but not to occupy the land. At last in 1827, S. Patterson, of Markham, Ontario, settled near the modern Manilla. Others who located prior to 1830 on land near Manilla which they purchased from the Canada Company at from $1.50 to $2.00 per acre were the Ewings, McLeods, Houghs, McPhersons, Pillings, and Winters. Just before and during 1831, a large contingent of Scotch settlers, chiefly from Argyleshire, poured in along the Eldon boundary on the north. Amongst the families who overflowed on the south side of the line were the Blacks, Calkins, Campbells, Charltons, Copelands, Grants, Irishes, Kinnells, McCrimmons, McCuaigs, McGinnisses, McLeans, Ringlands, Spences and Wicks. In 1831, also, the Edwards and Williams families took up land along the western boundary and one Samuel Dick built his cabin in the hardwood forest near the site of modern Oakwood. His nearest neighbours on the east were at Purdy's Mills (now Lindsay), nearly nine miles away. In this same year, when actual settlers began to increase and set about the improvement of the land, the swarm of speculators became so 'numerous and importunate that the Land Office refused to grant any further locations without an express pledge of settlement. Fortunately men were not lacking to undertake such pledges. For the next three years there was a steady immigration of settlers of the very best type, chiefly Canadian born pioneers of the second generation whose fathers had hewn out prosperity in the front townships of Northumberland County and in the former Ontario County townships of Whitchurch and Markham. Most of these families settled in the centre of the township, along the Mariposa Brook. Amongst them were the Armitages, Bacons, Bunnells, Davidsons, DeGeers, Delongs, Dundases, Haights, Hubbells, Lakes, Lloyds, Marks, Minthorns, McNeils, McWilliams, O'Brien's, Penroses, Piersons, Pogues, Readers, Richardsons, Roadhouses, Taylors, Tifts, Waites and Weldons. From 1834 to 1837 a few more families drifted in each year. Prominent among those who settled in the eastern part of the township were William Brown, William Bowes, and John Cruse, a Quaker. For many years yet there was little or no communication between the Canadian born settlers in the centre of Mariposa and their Scotch neighbours on the northern border, for a deep tract of difficult forest, held by speculators, intervened. There were likewise very few early settlers in the extreme south of the township. All of these pioneers in Mariposa came in from the south and southwest and not by way of Peterborough, Cavan, or Emily. Supplies were first obtained from Newmarket, then from Prince Albert, on Lake Scugog, and finally from Port Perry. Trade was not opened up with Lindsay until very much later. In the beginning, the nearest post office for the receipt and despatch of mails was at Butcher's Point on Lake Simcoe. Then Prince Albert was for a short time the closest centre for mail, until "Mariposa" post office was opened at what is now Manilla. By 1850 the population of the township had risen to 1863, only 269 fewer than in 1920. The harvest of that year included 70,000 bushels of wheat, 41,000 bushels of oats, 14,000 bushels of peas, 33,000 bushels of potatoes, 31,000 bushels of turnips, 38,900 pounds of maple sugar, 10,500 pounds of wool, and 4,000 pounds of butter. This represented, however, only a small portion of the effort of that day, for the great task of each farmer was still the conquest of a virgin forest of oak and maple. Such crops as were exported were teamed in the winter time south to a village (now deserted) called Port Hoover, on the north shore of Lake Scugog, thence across the lake to Caesarea, in Scugog, and south by road to Port Whitby, on Lake Ontario. Municipal organization in the early thirties was very slight. Louis Winters was the first tax collector and E. R. Irish the first Township Clerk. The personnel of the Magistrate's Court for Mariposa and Eldon combined comprised Messrs. Irish, Ewing, Williams, and Calkins. Samuel Davidson represented Mariposa at Peterborough on the first Council of Colborne District in 1842. The first Township Council after the Municipal Act of 1849 included: *Reeve, John Jacobs; *Councillors, Samuel Davidson, Obadiah Rogers, Robert Whiteside, and William Ramsey; *Clerk, A. A. McLaughlin; *Treasurer, James Thorndyke. A ''Business Directory of Canada'' published in 1850, gives the following names in Mariposa: ;Coulter's Corners (now Manilla) *Mary Douglas, Postmistress; *George Smith, merchant; *L. McKinnon, carpenter; *D. McLean, carpenter ;Oakwood: *A. A. McLauchlin, Postmaster and inn keeper; *Thomas Marks, inn keeper. The Dominion census of 1911 throws interesting light on the population of Mariposa. The chief racial strains represented were: *English, 2,321 *Irish, 733 *Scottish, 646 The denominational subdivisions were as follows: *Methodists, 2,678 *Presbyterians, 757 *Anglicans, 125 *Christians, 114 *Baptists, 43 *Roman Catholics, 28 The population of Mariposa has fallen off remarkably during the last generation. From 1871 to 1920, it dropped from 5363 to 3132, a loss of 2231 or over 41 per cent. The assessed value of real and personal property within the township was set at $2,480,675 in 1886 and at $3,722,995 in 1920. This latter figure is greater than the assessment of Eldon and Emily combined, and more than twice the total value of Somerville, Bexley, Laxton, Carden, Digby, Dalton and Longford. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mariposa Township, Ontario」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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