HomeMy WebLinkAbout790"Article written by Louise Rorke for the Pickering Women's Institute scrapbook.
Pickering's First Settler
The first white settler of Pickering village, though he was scarcely a ""settler""
in the later-accepted meaning of the term, was an Irishman named Mike Duffin*.
He built for himself a little log cabin on the east bank of Riviere au Saumon close to,
and north of, the Indian trail which led from Kente westward (now No. 2 Highway,
the Kingston Road). There he hunted and trapped, trading his furs in Teyagagon for
supplies and above these for money or credits, as did his Indian neighbours.
He was good natured and very hospitable and his cabin was a welcoming shelter to
any passerby who came to its door.
But one of these parties found the floor and the rough furniture of the cabin stained
with blood, and Mike Duffin's furs gone from their place of storage.
No one heard again of this intrepid hunter, and the little cabin by the river rotted and
fell apart. But the Riviere au Saumon which had in common parlance come to bear
his name, after all the changes of the years, still remains ""Duffin's Creek.""
Louise R. Rorke,
Pickering, Ont.
This article is copied from a Pickering Women's Institute scrapbook which predated the
official Tweedsmuir (scrapbook) History assembled in c. 1954.
The scrapbook, in the form of a black 3-ring binder is located in the Pickering Village
Public Library on Church St. No.
* Note: There is no verification that this man's name was ""Mike"" Duffin."