Description : Following four years of volunteer work by a team of members of the Bradford West Gwillimbury Local History Association, Governor Simcoe Slept Here - The Legacy of West Gwillimbury was launched on December 15th. In October, 2001 over forty people responded to the initial invitation to meet and discuss the possibility of writing a history of West Gwillimbury and they choose to call themselves WEGWHIST - West Gwillimbury History. The book was written by a team of 15 Bradford West Gwillimbury residents. Governor Simcoe Slept Here tells the story of the two waves of pioneer settlers to West Gwillimbury - the Scottish, Irish and English, who settled on the highlands during the 1820 - 1830 period and the European settlers who arrived a century later to the Holland Marsh. Churches, schools and hamlets are documented in the two volumes, along a CD which includes "The Many Faces of West Gwillimbury" as photographed by Franz Aschwanden, a listing of the Marsh Land Owners in 1949 and a Genealogical Index of the Families.
When the WEGWHIST Team launched Governor Simcoe Slept Here last December, we underestimated your response. Hindsight, which always has 20/20 vision, indicates that we should have printed more copies, but by the same token, we didn't anticipate that many of you were going to buy 4 or 5 copies. All 1,023 copies have found a home, and many of you asked if we are going to do a reprint. We have considered this request, and we have decided to do a reprint that will be available about Aug. 15, 2006. Some factual errors have been brought to our attention, so we are preparing a correction addendum that will be included with the reprint, and will be available to all who have already purchased a book. Pre-publication sales of the reprint will begin July 1st. The pre-publication price will be $65, the post-publication price $75.
Governor Simcoe Slept Here: The Legacy of West Gwillimbury is now sold out! The Bradford West Gwillimbury Local History Assoc. has sold all 1,000 copies of the first printing.
Contains items relating to the transportation methods of Bradford's past. Headings include:
200th Anniversary of Yonge Street
Canals
Carrying Place
Early Transportation
Government Records
Highway 11
Highway 27
Highway 89
Highway 404
Old Plank Road/ Highway 88
Roads - General
Radial Railway
The Grand Trunk Railway
The Northern Railway
The Simcoe & Huron Railroads
Train Wrecks *Transport by Water
The mural of Yonge Street's 200th anniversary restored for Bradford's Sesquicentennial (150th Anniversary). "After: From left, sponsor Larry Timbers of Home Depot, Mayor Doug White, Councillor Peter Dykie Jr., Artist Bill Lewotchko, and assistant Rick Mackay (Home Depot) in front of restored mural."
Large Wesleyan Methodist Bible, printed in 1857, bound in a black embossed leather cover. A handwritten inscription inside reads "Presented by John Lancaster to the trustees of the Wesleyan Methodist Congregation Bradford on the occasion of the opening of their new Church" dated "Bradford January 18--" (corner is torn off). Inside is an insert noting an announcement from M. Rutherford and containing information on the Provincial Sunday School Convention. Another insert appears to be a handwritten programme of service. Some pencil markings inside, including Psalm 80:13 written in at the end of the Old Testament. Revelations is missing.
This was the Bible presented to the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Bradford (later the Bradford United Church) by local preacher John Lancaster at the opening and dedication of the Church on January 15, 1865.
