PAGE 10. WEI)NESI)AY. lUNE Il. 1980V,"OUR HISTORICAýL HERITAGE ,WHITBY FREE PRESS The age of- sail bro ught Whitby m to Canada's economie forefront By EUGENE HENRY For the Town of Whitby the age of sali lasted for more than 50 years. It star- ted in the days of first set- tiement, grew rapidly after the war of 1812 and lasted well into the 1860's. in retrospect it looks as if the peak period for the sailing ships on the lower Great Lakes was during that decade when the reciprocîty treaty with the United States was operative (1854-64). Our birthday year in 1855 was at the beginning of Whitby's most prosperlous period and it was in the hey day of the sailing ship. The sailing shîp, the two mastered schooner to be more precise, withstood the competitve onsluaghts of woodburning steamers on the Great Lakes and the railways on land. The first steamers were inefficient because they had to devote valuable cargo space for fuel and even though the railroads ran on time, throughout the winter months, their rates were high for years, to cover the costly financing of the roads when they were being built. The bluff-bowed schooner in this illustration became the common carrier of the age o! sail. lit was cheap to build and repair. It had a shallow draft and a small crew could work it well. Its capacity to function in shallow water made it essential for standing off landing areas where there was no real harbour. Take the north shore of Lake Ontario, for example, betWeen Hamilton Bay and Port Hope. There were more landing spots than harbours in the early days and they ran like this for schooners moving east along the shore of Lake Ontario to such places as Wellington Square, Port Nelson, Bronte and Oakville, the Anchorage Farm, Port Credit, Ducks Bay, Etobreoke Mouth, the Dutchman's Bar, Mimico Creek, the Humber Mouth in Toronto, Highland Creek, Port Union in Dunbartofl, Frenchmans Bay, Duffins Creek, Port Whitby, Darlington, Bond Head Har- bour and Port Hope. It is easy to see why marine tranport planners chose Whitby for dredging, pier construction and long term use as a real port and not just a harbour of refuge in a time of emergency. There were more than 1,000 schooners working the CONT DON PG. 1l SCOTT FENNELL The spirt ofPe rry stili li1tves in Whitby Preparing for this, the 125th anniversary o! the Town of Whitby, has been an enjoyable and reflective ex- perience. In many ways Whitby has changed tremen- dously since it made the officiai transition from village to town in 1855. The community's main non- agricultural industry was soon to be a buekie factory. Who could have thought 125 years ago that Lasco and Sklar and Toronto commuters would grow to play such an Important role in the town? But in many ways, Whitby has not changed. It is stili the County Town. Thanks mainly to the proliferation of dedicated and bard working historical agencies, especially since 1967, Whitby can boast of a link to the past that other commumities can only envy. George Brown, a father of confederation and founder of the Toronto newspaper, the Globe, once attempted to represent Whitby in the federal parliament. In the 1867 election for the riding of Ontario South, Brown was rejected by Whitby voters in favor of T.N. Gibbs of the village of Oshawa. But if any man can claim paren- tage to Whitby it is Peter Perry. A staunch radical (Whitby was once known as Radical's Corners), Perry was a supporter of William Lyon McKenzie and his arrivai in Whitby instrumental in encouraging the town's commerce and with his son, Robert, helped make the grain business an integral part of Whitby's economy. He died in 1851, a member of the provincial assem- bly, but it was Perry's belief In a separate destiny for Ontario County that eventually lead to the creation of the Town o! Whitby four years later. Inspired by Perry and Joseph Gould, another prominent entrepreneur and a Reeve of Uxbridge, Oin- tario County was made separated from the regional Home District in 1852. Three years later, encouraged by fears of excessive taxation for Toronto's benefit, Perry's Corners, Port Whitby (now Whitby Harbour), and Hamer's Corners were incorporated into the Town of Whitby. Now Perry's entrepreneurial spirit and the history of the Town of Whitby are celebrated by tpe annual Peter Perry Awards and it hs my privilegé to represent a riding named after Ontario County, an entity inspired by Whitby's "founing fater. " Scott Fenneli fis the Member of Parlia ment for Ontario Ridlng. 1