Mariposa Township, Ontario

The Township of Mariposa was a municipality located in the southwest corner of the former Victoria County, now the city of Kawartha Lakes, in the Canadian province of Ontario.

The meagre flow and gentle current of even this main stream and the consequent lack of any considerable water power is beyond doubt the explanation for the absence of any outstanding village in Mariposa.

For the Canada Company secured large concessions here; George Strange Boulton of Port Hope, the Family Compact member for Durham, arranged for a rich grant to himself.

Others who located prior to 1830 on land near Manilla which they purchased from the Canada Company at from $1.50 to $2.00 per acre were the Ewings, McLeods, Houghs, McPhersons, Pillings, and Winters.

Amongst the families who overflowed on the south side of the line were the Blacks, Calkins, Campbells, Charltons, Copelands, Grants, Irishes, Kinnells, McCrimmons, McCuaigs, McGinnisses, McLeans, Ringlands, Spences and Wicks.

In 1831, also, the Edwards and Williams families took up land along the western boundary and one Samuel Dix built his cabin in the hardwood forest near the site of modern Oakwood.

Amongst them were the Armitages, Bacons, Bunnells, Davidsons, DeGeers, Delongs, Dundases, Haights, Hubbells, Lakes, Lloyds, Marks, Minthorns, McNeils, McWilliams, O'Brien's, Penroses, Piersons, Pogues, Readers, Richardsons, Roadhouses, Taylors, Tifts, Waites and Weldons.

For many years yet there was little or no communication between the Canadian born settlers in the centre of Mariposa and their Scotch neighbours on the northern border, for a deep tract of difficult forest, held by speculators, intervened.

In the beginning, the nearest post office for the receipt and despatch of mails was at Butcher's Point on Lake Simcoe.

Then Prince Albert was for a short time the closest centre for mail, until "Mariposa" post office was opened at what is now Manilla.

This represented, however, only a small portion of the effort of that day, for the great task of each farmer was still the conquest of a virgin forest of oak and maple.

The personnel of the Magistrate's Court for Mariposa and Eldon combined comprised Messrs. Irish, Ewing, Williams, and Calkins.

The chief racial strains represented were: The denominational subdivisions were as follows: The population of Mariposa has fallen off remarkably during the last generation.

This latter figure is greater than the assessment of Eldon and Emily combined, and more than twice the total value of Somerville, Bexley, Laxton, Carden, Digby, Dalton and Longford.

The old Indian portage of Onigoning at the rapids in the Scugog River in Ops has had both and has therefore become the site of Lindsay, the only town in the county.

Woodville is an incorporated village on the Eldon boundary but is usually reckoned as belonging to the latter township, even though part of its population has spilled over on the 15th concession of Mariposa.

Linden Valley in the northeast, Glandine on the Ops boundary, Valenta in the southeast and Fingerboard in the southwest are former postal hamlets with little more than a church and a smithy.

A grain warehouse is its chief ornament Manilla straddles the boundary between Durham Region and the City of Kawartha Lakes on the line between the 8th and 9th Concessions of Mariposa.

In 1881 the village boasted a flour mill, run by steam because of the absence of waterpower, a rake factory, and half a dozen stores.

The chief business firm in 1888 was the general store of Hogg Bros., with which was associated a 30,000 bushel grain elevator at Mariposa Station, a mile to the south from the village.

Little Britain is on lots 15 and 16, concessions 4 and 5, four miles straight south of Oakwood on the old grain route to Port Hoover.

This mill, which was not demolished until 1910, required the efforts of nearly the whole country side for its erection, for its beams and posts were of ponderous white oak.

Prominent among the pioneer names in and about Little Britain are those of Broad, Cory, Davidson, Dix, Eakins, Glass, Glennie, Greenaway, Hall, Henderson, Johnston, King, Marks, Metherell, Netherton, Parkinson, Prouse, Rays, Rodman, Siemmon, Stewart, Wallis, Webster, Whiteside, and Wickett.

The reason, as already suggested, lies in the absence of power for industry and in the fact that no railway station has been placed within a mile of their borders.

Stephen Leacock, McGill University political economy professor and humorist, spent about a decade of his childhood in Egypt in Georgina Township about 20 kilometres away from Mariposa.

When Leacock wrote Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, the subject matter was provided by Orillia and thinly disguised.