By the 1780s, under the pressures of the American Revolution, survey parties had penetrated far into the endless forests. With the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe in 1793, the village of York was established and, by 1800, permanently settled on the layers of fertile, often muddy, sediment deposited by ancient Lake Iroquois. Beyond the village limits, well up into the hills, scattered settlements were forming across the countryside.
Large numbers of slaves from the United States, following the famed “Underground Railway,” sought shelter in Ontario, from the 1850s up to 1865 when the American Civil War ended. More than 1,500 of the estimated 40,000 settled in Toronto where they contributed to economic and political life of the area.5 “For a time the population of what is now Leaside was largely augmented by the influx of negroes escaping from the bondage of slavery prevalent in the United States at that period.”6
Forty-one years prior to this, however, the arrival in Canada of a British immigrant and his subsequent purchase of land in York Township, marks the true beginning of the Leaside we know.
THE HISTORY of the Lea family is at the heart of the history of Leaside. In no other part of the Toronto area has a family been more closely associated to the development of a community than the Leas were in Leaside.
The Lea name appears in mid-15th century Spain. A Ferdinando Lea emigrated from Spain to England. In succeeding generations, one branch of the family anglicized the surname to “Leigh,” the other branch retained the “Lea” spelling. Both branches prospered and many rose to nobility. In the mid-1500s, Sir Thomas Leigh became Lord Mayor of London.1
John Lea was born in Lancashire in 1773. He married Mary Hutchison from Cumberland. On May 28, 1814, their first child, William Lea, was born in Lancaster. Four years later they left England for the United States.
In the spring of 1818, John and Mary Lea, with their son, sailed from Liverpool in a barque commanded by Captain Birkett. After tossing on the Atlantic for three months, they arrived in Philadelphia. There they remained for only a short time, then travelled by stagecoach over the Alleghany Mountains to Pittsburgh, where they stayed for a year. Either not liking the country or the people of their new home, or possibly concerned about the lingering anti-British sentiment, John Lea decided not to stay in America. Leaving his family to follow when he was resettled, he went to Canada in search of a suitable place for a home. Once John Lea had found a location to his liking in the Township of York, he informed Mary of his purchase of Lot 13, Concession 3, situated three concessions north from the Toronto bay. She and William were to join him.
Mary Lea, with her young son, travelled east along the shore of Lake Erie, crossed the Niagara River at Black Rock and went on past the Falls, the sound of which William remembered hearing. The sight of the more familiar British soldiers in their scarlet uniforms at Niagara on the British side of the river gave Mary courage.
With William, who was about five years old, Mary crossed Lake Ontario in a schooner belonging to a person named Garside. The year was 1819. Upon arrival at York, at that time a town consisting of 1,174 people (including children), 91 one-storey houses, 68 two-storey ones and a total of 21 shops,2 they proceeded to the newly-acquired farm, a small log house with a few cleared acres. The rest of the two hundred acre property was heavily timbered. Records indicate that the log home was located where Laird Drive and Lea Avenue meet. Over the ten years that they lived there, John Lea Jr. was born (1823) and later, a daughter, Mary Margaret, was added to the family.
John Lea had chosen York because the price of land there was inexpensive as compared with other parts of Upper Canada. He desired land that was fertile and easily drained for the crops he planned to grow. “Leaside stands about 150 feet above lake level on land that is high and dry.”3 With close proximity to Yonge Street (the only main road at the time) and close to a good market to sell his produce, he found Lot 13 in the third concession a perfect match for his ambitions. The 200 acres were purchased from Alexander McDonnell for two hundred guineas. This transaction was recorded on January 20, 1820. (According to family tradition, he paid one guinea per acre for the land which was expensive for the time but, the cleared land and the completed log home probably contributed to the higher price)4 While it seemed expensive for property in this area, it had in its favour woodlands that could be cleared quickly, with a portion of this tough, back-breaking labour already completed.
John Lea was a successful farmer. In time, he bought cows and kept a dairy as well as planting an orchard of Northern Spy apples.5 In 1829, only ten years after his initial purchase, he was able to erect a larger brick home, in the same vicinity as the original log cabin. It is claimed that this was the first brick house to be built in York Township.6 The house resembled an English country home and, with its four chimneys, was considered to be unique. At that time, homes were taxed according to the number of fireplaces they contained, however one fireplace was tax-free. This home may, in fact, have had five, as one (the middle) chimney was purported to be double-sized, perhaps to accommodate the construction of two back-to-back fireplaces.
The home of John Lea Sr. Built in 1829 and belived to be the first brick home in York Country, it would have stood in the vicinity of the juncture of Lea and Laird. Collection of the Lea Family. Courtesy Ted and Barbra Lea.
Behind the home was a large pond into which the “Leaside Creek” flowed from the vicinity of today’s Bayview and Eglinton. From here the pond would have connected to the Don River. Access to the Lea farm was by way of Williams Street which came across from Yonge Street at what is now Glebe Road.
“Little is recorded of the early period of John’s pioneering days. These must have been days of hard work and loneliness for a young English farmer, but he apparently prospered through his toil as the area became known for its high productivity. There are stories that at one time negro slaves escaping from the United States took up residence in the area. It is possible they assisted with land clearing, and were, for the most part, employed as farm help.”7
John Sr. died in 1854 at the age of 81 years.8 His wife, Mary Hutchison, had predeceased him in 1846, at the age of 55 years. They are buried in the cemetery of St. John’s Anglican Church, York Mills. Upon his death, the farm was divided and each son received about 100 acres of land. The brick home and one hundred and ten acres (this included the house, orchard and all the out-buildings) were left to his son, John Jr.
John Jr. had married Sarah Charles, daughter of James Charles, a well-known Toronto dry goods businessman. Their daughter, Mary, and son, James, were born there. In its final years, this brick house was left vacant and subsequently burnt down about 1912.9
Plan of the William Lea house. Sketched as the late Estella M. Lamb (daughter of Charles Lea) remembered it. She was born in this house and she approved the final drawing as being correct. From The Town of Leaside by J.I. Rempel, 1982.
John Sr. had left ninety acres of the old homestead, part of Lot 13, Concession 3 to his eldest son William. In 1841, he bought additional land, 130 acres, just to the south of his father’s farm. When William Lea founded the Village of Leaside, somewhere between 1851 and 1854, he built an odd-looking house with eight gables that reminded one of the old toll house. This strange-looking octagonal structure, two storeys high with an additional much smaller storey added on top, he named “Leaside.”10
Octagonal houses had been a