Bradford, Ontario

However, early settlers also used this route to get to the frontier of Simcoe County, bypassing the areas of West Gwillimbury and Essa townships.

The first settlers to cross the Holland River, arriving in the fall of 1819, were three Irishmen: James Wallace, Lewis Algeo and Robert Armstrong.

The new settlers sent a petition to the province of Upper Canada early in 1824, stating they were separated from the settlements of Yonge Street, by an impassable swamp.

On January 24 the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada made a grant for the first main road in West Gwillimbury (4 Geo.

The first, on May 23, 1871, destroyed upwards of one hundred homes including all of the business part of the village except two hotels being consumed.

This history goes back to the 1900s, to horse and buggy days, when the Village Inn was a favourite meeting place for local residents and travellers en route for other parts of the country.

The village of Bradford was established to supply the agricultural interests of its surrounding area, and for a brief period in the mid-19th century, lumbering was a major industry, as trees had to be removed in order to commence farming.

The family of Thomas Maconchy, one of the early settlers of Gilford, built a sawmill in Bradford at the bridge over the Holland River, in 1840.

Sometime after the line opened, Toronto lumber merchant Thompson Smith put up a large sawmill on the river near the Bradford station.

First evidence of Smith in the village was 1862 when his partner James Durham cut the Holland River bridge in two, while driving logs to the mill.

With logs coming from as distant as Head Lake, Smith put up a third mill, south of the Holland River bridge in 1869.

Following an example set by American lumberman Henry W. Sage, Thompson Smith established a number of mills at Cheboygan, Michigan.

In 1923, William Henry Day began the drainage system that turned the wetlands of the Holland Marsh into arable land, which now consists of thousands of acres where fresh vegetables are grown.

[2] Bradford West Gwillimbury has people from many different backgrounds ranging from Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, Hungary, and Ukraine.

County Road 88 interchanges with Highway 400, a limited-access freeway that connects to Toronto in the south and "cottage country" in the north.