The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

COWAN "Henry Cowan and his wife and family came to the district of Altona and 1st. Concession in 1832, after seven weeks crossing the Atlantic on a sailing ship and losing all of their possessions by fire on a tow barge coming up the St. Lawrence River. The next year the family moved to Lot 32, at the mouth, and mostly west of the Rouge River. One of their sons, William, later my Grandfather, was five years old when they came to Canada from Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland. He never owned the farm, across the Rouge, as we called it, but it became the property of his eldest son, namesake of the first Henry. "The Grandfather lived there all his seventy-one years, but Uncle Henry, died at the age of twenty-nine when his daughter and heir, Janet, was only a few months old. The daughter, later Mrs. Arthur Eades, owned the old place for many years and then sold it to Mr. Cecil White, who developed it with other farms into the Community of Rouge Hills. This is not to be confused with the East Rouge Hill, Kingston Road, which was an old community and had a Post Office by that name, served by stage coach up until the end of 1915, with Mr. Geo. Toyne, as Post Master. "William Cowan Sr., bought lots 30 & 31 for his second William, a farm at Greenwood for Robert and a farm at Highland Creek, for the youngest son, John. The farm on lots 30 & 31 were named Rosebank by my parents. The Rouge River entered Lake Ontario through this property, the channel being diverted to the east when the railway was built. From a campsite and picnic grounds, this property developed into a summer resort, with communiting service at first by the railway station at Port Union, but shortly had a stop of its own. The first station house was built by Mr. Wm. Cowan of Rosebank, but during the doubling of the railway tracks from Port Union to Whitby, about 1900, the station had three different locations, finally settling at the sideroad which had not been extended to the south before. During the doubling of the railway tracks, the Rouge River bridge was raised to 13 ft. and the cuttings to the east were cut to 19 ft. lower. This eliminated a very heavy grade which required double header engines. These went so slowly that a little boy, starting to school could ride half way on the steps of the caboose. "At one time, Rosebank was served by seven passenger trains, two weigh freights as well as Picnic Specials, and the railway had built a waiting room on the east side of the tracks which was later moved to the other side. Strange to say, the railway actually runs north & south at this point. On the hill by the big oaks over-looking the mouth of the river, was once an Indian Village of over 2,000 people. I did not know this when I built my first house there in 1916; but we were continually finding arrow heads, skinning knives and iron axe heads, such as brought by La Salle. Bones identified as Indian, were found in the erosion of the lake bank. Rosebank has had a Post Office from Jan. 1st, 1916, served at first by the railway which serves us no more, but now by courriers of the rural route. "There was a great deal of traffic between the two farms on either side of the river, through a toll gate on the west hill. Once my brother went over to bring a saddle horse home, forgetting the toll money, so he waited a long time for old Mr. Luke, to open the gate for someone, and then galloped through. He then remembered that it was Sunday, no toll being collected on that day. A lot of this is heresay, but I have every reason to believe it. "After a century and a quarter, I am the only member of the family to visit in Ayrshire, Scotland. The only relative living there, Mrs.Thos. Wilson, told me proudly that we were related to Robbie Burns. The rest of the relatives moving to Hamilton and Calgary, Canada. She didn't blame Mr. Burns for this, but because of a depression when the shoe factory burned down. I have since found out, her son, Thos. Wilson, has been teaching Science at Trinity College, Port Hope, for the past three years." (Ref: Gerald Cowan, Rosebank.)