PAGE I & WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1980,, 'OUR HISTORICAL HERITAGE", WHITBY FREE PRESS Peter Perry was the man responsible for founding Whitby and giving itlife prom tio of ail ays ort By EUGENE HENRY had a prime location for his Perry's Corners and it is this Whitby's founding father, first general store, at the in- fact, above all others Peter Perry came here in tersection of the Centre perhaps, that gave the man 1836 and with great energy Road (Brock St.) and the his permanent image as a and determination quickly Simcoe-built York to Whitby builder. made a.name for himself as Kingston Highway. Peter Perry had a fun- a man of action and great In this way he created the damental development con- ability. "Four Corners" cross- cept that energized all his He was a mature 43 years roads, trading centre. As it other Whitby area projects of age at the time. exists today. and remained with him al Perry obviously had an For a while his small cen- his life. eye for a good piece of real tre two miles north of Win- It was his view, that the estate, because soon after dsor Harbour (as it was north/south transportation his arrival in three parts he known then) was called network terminating in Whitby harbour would make Whitby and the Whitby area dominating central, commercial force on the north shore of Lake Ontario in Upper Canada-inviewing Toronto. Amost everything he did in his relatively short life time was focussed on this fundamental concept is: "The development of Whitby Harbour the improvements of the Centre Road the promotion of railways north to simcoe and beyond and the one-going lobbying for government funds to support his projects that were always of great public demand-so he said." Perry had a knack for get- ting a piece of the action as he moved along and made one project feed another. He had land to sell in Port Perry and grain to sell in Port Whitby surely his greatest critics could see the benefit to the public of a planked road and toll gates from Whitby Harbour to Port no doubt to the logical and inevitable incorporation of Whitby as a town in 1855. Perry found time and energy to shape events by entering politics by sitting irW the provincial legislautre 49 a member for "South On- tario" riding. Captain James Rowe was his outside man in the constituency. They made a formidable team getting to know all the settlers on an across the fence basis. There were no conflict of interest regulation in those days and political parties as we know z- 'v 1/ 1, Perry. Give him full credit, he created the infra structure greatly needed in the 1850's to support the bourgeoning grain and lumber trade of those days. He must have had boun- dless energy because at the same time he was orgain- zing a chain of general stores in the area, going all the way to Lindsay. In this connection it is not worthy that the ubiquitous Chester Draper who would later become very much involved in the affairs around Whitby Harbour started his career in business as a store manager for Perry in Port Perry. In politic, Peter Perry was a reformer, a moderate reformer and that meant achieving desirable political objectives, over the long term by the democratic processes of those days. He did not buy the "Holeves if necessary" concepts of William Lyon Mackenzie in 1837, a year after his arrival in Whitby. Perry was nowhere in sight on that cold day in November when the rebelion burst upon everyone in the southern parts of Upper Canada in- cluding Whitby. Peter Perry played an im- portant role in separating what is now the Region of Durham from the Home District and in this way con- tributed to the setting up of Ontario County in 1852-3 and them today were a thing of the future. A pragmatte realist, Perry used politics as a means to achieve finan- cial goals for himself and improved conditions for the Whitby area. Obviously he believed in the oppor- tunities inherit in land ownership and the formation of capital. He was so socialist like MacKenzie and he abhored the Tories. As you can see I have backed. him into the Liberal camp. Peter Perry died on August 24 in 1851. He was only 58 at the time. He had accomplished much during his active 15 years as a mer- chant, promoter and poltician in the Whitby area and there were indications then that some of his visionary projects might have succeeded if had been around to contribute his promotional skills and credibility to the projects in the eyes of Whitby area people. Peter Perry had several daughters and two sons, Robert and John Ham. It was the latter one, that con- tinued to play an important role in local and county politics. He was, however, no builder or inovator like his father. Peter Perry remains inex- tensibly identified with the eary and formative years of the Town of Whitby. . . . - -- -1