HomeMy WebLinkAbout2100JONES-ELSON HOUSE
1065 Concession 2 Road
Concession 2, Lot 1
Town of Uxbridge
Ex-Elson
PIN 181
March 2003
by
John W. Sabean
Historical Consultant
Jones-Elson House
1065 Concession 2 Road
Concession 2, Lot 1
Town of Uxbridge
PIN 181 Ex Elson
PROPERTY HISTORY
The patent for Lot 1, Concession 2, Uxbridge Township was given to John Willson, 13
March 1805. David Willson, probably John’s brother, purchased the entire 200 acres four
and a half years later.1 David kept the land for another 20 years and then began to sell the
lot in parcels. Peter Sebodo purchased the southwest quarter in 1834, and sold the same
land to Joseph Brown three years later.
Brown disposed of his land to John Nigh in 1841. Abraham Stouffer then purchased 91
acres from Nigh in 1849, and turned them over to his son Christian. In 1850 William Cooper
purchased two sections of land in the southwest corner, upon which he erected an inn. Five
years later, Andrew Lindsay bought Cooper out.
Lindsay ran the inn after Cooper, but did not retain all of the property. He sold portions of it
to James Forsyth in 1856 and 1858. From Forsyth the land passed through several hands:
Leonard Morden in 1860, Joseph Monkhouse later that same year, Jacob G. Hoover in
1868, Thomas Boothby in 1875, Fanny Lehman in 1880, and Jacob B. Hagey in 1895.
When Abijah Jones, Jr. purchased the land in 1901, he came to stay. He lived on the lot for
40 years before selling to watchmaker Weyman E. Irwin in 1941. After Irwin’s death, his
estate sold the land to Cecil Story in 1953. Story immediately disposed of the land to
Ellwood and Isola Elson. The Elsons were in possession in 1972 when the land was
expropriated by Her Majesty the Queen.
PERSONAL HISTORY
Willson
Most of the patentees of the southwest corner of Uxbridge Township—Bostwick, Winn,
Hazard, Millard, and Evans—were Quakers. None, however, except Millard, settled in
Uxbridge.2
John Willson, the patentee of Lot 1, Concession 2, took the Oath of Allegiance before
William Willcocks in York on 11 March 1805:
JOHN WILLSON of Gwilingbury Yeoman Twenty three Years Old a Protestant, Dark brown
Hair and Hazel Eyes five feet six Inches high, having taken the Oaths prescribed by Law do
Subscribe the same at York the 11th Day of March 1805.3
John was not a Quaker, as evidenced by his swearing an oath, but David (his brother?), who
purchased the land from him, became a noted Quaker after converting from his former
Presbyterian faith. It was David Willson who founded the Children of Peace in 1812 and was
the inspiration behind the building of Sharon Temple in the 1820s. Neither John nor David
settled Lot 1, Concession 2 in Uxbridge, but about 1829 David began to sell the lot off in
parcels— perhaps to help finance the building program in Sharon and to defray the
expenses of Sharon Temple’s costly festivals.4
Cooper and Lindsay
There is no record of any building having been erected in the southwest corner of Lot 1,
Concession 2 before 1850. In that year William Cooper, already 60 years old, came to
Altona and built an inn at a strategic location mid-way between Claremont and Stouffville.
With his son James, Cooper ran the Altona Inn for five years, then retired and sold the
business to Andrew Lindsay.5 Lindsay carried on with the hotel until his death about 1859.
Not needing all of the land to run the business, Lindsay sold off several parcels north of the
inn—most notably to George Morden and James Forsyth.
Morden and Forsyth
The Mordens and Forsyths were the earliest families to settle in southwest Uxbridge
Township. David Morden brought his family up from Pennsylvania and shortly thereafter
James Forsyth arrived in the same area on his own, having set out from Georgia. Forsyth
married David Morden’s daughter, Eleanor. Their son, David, born in 1808, may well have
been the first immigrant child born in Uxbridge Township. Nine more children were to follow
—all being raised in what later became the hamlet of Glasgow.6
Monkhouse and Jones
Joseph Monkhouse owned the parcel in question for about eight years, but did not live on it,
his home being on the Pickering side of Altona, where he ran the mill and a store, and
farmed at various times in his life.7 The family that occupied the lot the longest was that of
Abijah Jones, Jr. It was Abijah’s father who built the Temperance Hall (probably in the
1850s) on his own land on the northwest corner of the hamlet of Altona. Abijah Jones, Sr.
was a Universalist and used the Temperance Hall in part to hold religious services—when it
was not in use as an alternative to the licenced establishment across the street.8
BUILDING HISTORY
The Township of Uxbridge Heritage Inventory assigns the erection of this house to about
1860.9 This date corresponds to the time when the land was subdivided by Andrew Lindsay,
and seems to be the most likely time for a house (or houses) to have been built. But whether
the house was built for the Forsyths, Mordens or Monkhouses it is not now known. There is
no documentation or tradition that reveals the exact circumstances of the building of the
house. Even the evidence of the census data is inconclusive, because each of the property
owners around that period had another property, which was their principal residence.
The compilers of the North Pickering Project in 1974 failed to include this house in their
inventory.10
Notes
1 All land transactions as per the Abstract Indices of Deeds. John Willson appears on
Wilmot’s Survey Plan of 1805. David Willson’s purchase was dated 14 November 1809, but
was not registered until June 1825.
2 Wilmot (1805); Sabean (2002), p. 8; York Pioneer (1961), pp. 28, 32, and (1963), p. 23.
3 York Pioneer (1961), p. 31, #64.
4 Sabean (2002), pp. 8-9.
5 Sabean (2002), pp. 11-12.
6 Todd (1980), p. 10.
7 Monkhouse was a prominent figure in Altona and in Pickering Township. He served as a
Township Councillor and as Reeve. See Sabean (2002), pp. 5-6.
8 Gauslin (1974), pp. 207-208; Sabean (2002), p. 7. In the Census of 1881 Abijah Jones’s
religion was given as Universalist. His wife and daughter Sarah (age 27) are described as
“Free Thinkers.” Abijah Jones, Jr. and the other children are listed as Canada Baptist.
9 Woods (1991).
10 Yost (1974).