A tiny Irish settlement along the river on Main Street north of Davis Drive (formerly Huron Street) remains a vital part of our Newmarket history.
It took many years for Newmarket to spread north over the hill on Main Street north and this is the story of a tiny community that was indeed ahead of its time.
Fleeing the potato famine at home, a wave of Irish Catholics arrived in our area in 1847 and eventually settled in a small community north of Davis. These new arrivals would build homes on relatively small acreages with a barn nearby, geese, hens, pigs and cattle being kept and gardens and orchards newly planted.
They existed on the proceeds from their produce and the funds they received as part-time labourers. They were a thrifty group who raised large family units on a meagre piece of land. In 1980, a bypass was built, and today the history of Paddy Town has been relegated to an historical marker on North Main Street.
Although there is very little evidence of Paddy Town today, 175 years ago the small Irish settlement sprang up along the village’s northern border and flourished. Many of these Irish migrants found a temporary quarantine facility located in the Jeb distillery on D’Arcy Street their first Newmarket home.
The story of Paddy Town has long been a curiosity for me as there are so many stories of how it was established and how its residents fit into the village mosaic. There have long been local references to it being the focus of anti-Irish or anti-Catholic sentiment. A video on YouTube purports to offer evidence of systemic racism at its core and even the name Paddy Town would seem to carry an odd ring to it, given that these new citizens were primary of the Catholic faith.
During numerous discussions with my uncle, George Luesby, while I was serving my local history apprenticeship, we spoke of the tremendous hardships these immigrants endured. I, being a youth and fascinated by all things controversial, was intrigued with the possibility of some ‘historical dirt’ related to the story. Like most potentially hot stories, it turned out to be just another story of survival and ingenuity.
The story of Paddy Town was one of survival as the Irish arrived tremendously poor and had to tackle widespread disease upon their arrival. Many of the newcomers brought a disease know at the time as the ship plague from incredibly poor conditions on their voyage to America. In fact, to deal with the epidemic conditions in the village, a makeshift clinic was established in the Jeb Brewery building on D’Arcy Street to house them.
Remember these epidemics were associated with high casualty rates and so it is only natural I would think that groups, new immigrants and established populations would group together in different areas for isolation purposes. There appears to be little evidence that the village of the time was anything but an amicable community.
The Irish immigrants were primarily Irish Catholics whilst the established village population were primarily Protestant. The extent to which each group was tolerant of the other’s religious affiliations is perhaps what the whole story tends to hinge upon.
By about 1874, the Catholic population had increased to make up about 10 per cent of the village’s population and this necessitated the establishment of a parish house on Ontario Street, named St. Mary’s. There is little evidence that the group did not integrate socially with the rest of the village.
Slowly they began to engage in local commerce, establishing shops and black smitheries. When factories began to appear within the village, they found employment in these new industries. These new factories were often established in the north end of the village, within easy walking distance of the Irish establishment.
These houses and businesses were primarily wooden structures, makeshift and hewed out of the bush. Eventually, wooden clapboard structures replaced these primitive cabins and when brick became the building material of choice locally, we began to see buildings of brick appearing. Many of the first settlers to the area termed ‘success’ as being the opportunity to move into Newmarket proper, once they had established themselves. The fact that they did move into Newmarket proper seems to negate the image of a town deadset against an Irish presence within the town proper.
Just like the rest of the residents of the village, the endless series of disasters (floods and fire) and quickly spreading epidemics created a resolve deep within the community. One thing we know from our history is that ‘hardship tends to bring out the best in people’.
If there was a divide between the residents of Paddy Town and the larger village community, it likely rested on religious differences. Newmarket was strongly Protestant with a sprinkling of Quakerism. If you read my article on the history of the establishment of the Catholic Church on Ontario Street, you will notice that a divide existed between the Protestant and Catholic communities, one which continued until the 1960s. I suspect that if there was any undercurrent of prejudice, it was likely due to religious tensions rather than racial or ethnic differences.
I would be remiss if I did not point out that Paddy Town sat within the confines of East Gwillimbury and remained so until the 1970s. I can certainly remember as a youth referring to the area north of Davis Drive, in East Gwillimbury, as out in the country.
The land in Paddy Town was notoriously swampy. I had a distant relative who owned land in the area, dating back to the initial land grants and they noted in their letters the issue of extremely swampy lands along the second concession. In my research, I found several articles which purported the land north of Huron (Davis Drive) at Main to be unsuitable for agriculture and of questionable value.
I believe that it was primarily due to the dire economic state of these new Irish immigrants that led to their choice to acquire these lands as it would have better suited their meagre financial means.
We know a little bit about those original Irish settlers thanks to various stories and family oral histories that have passed down to us over the years.
We know a little bit about Patrick Forham who in 1886 lived on the west side of Main north of the bridge along with another family headed by Michael Creeden.
John Stollard built a frame house covered by plaster just south of Penn Avenue on the east side of Main. This house was one of the oldest homes on Main North with a door renowned for its carving of doves and grape vines. This home was eventually purchased by the Pegg family in 1927. Stollard operated a successful butcher shop in town. Several houses to the west of the Stollard house were built by Charles Denne a little later.
Thomas McTague and the Teal family were the first residents on Franklin Street. The McTagues built the white brick home on the west side of Main and Robert Murray had a carriage shop and a tan-coloured brick house on the east side of Main, just north of what was the township line (Davis Drive) in 1875. The Murray family were renowned for their production of buggies and cutters that had proven a very profitable business.
We know a little less about many of the other original settlers to the area. Names like Kitely, Kelly, Fairburn, McCarthy, McGuire, Lewis, McFidell and Currie dot the early land maps of the area. Many of these families may have had a short residence in Paddy Town, ‘moving on up’ as they say, but each one contributed to the fabric of the area without doubt. And with their struggles and eventual successes, they provided this area with a entrepreneur soul, one that is still very much on view today.
When we look at the early work books from the period we find a plethora of Irish workers in nearly every aspect of Newmarket’s commerce. They had an interesting habit back then of listing employees by name and ethnicity, which while a bit disconcerting is a gift to local historian as it provides another historical context for us.
I urge those who are interested in the provenance of this tiny group of Irish Catholics who would find themselves a part of a staunchly Orange Protestant community upon their arrival to read my various articles on the early days of Newmarket, pre-1900 and my article on the establishment of St. Mary’s, the first Catholic Church on Ontario Street. The building of St. Mary’s is a tribute to many of those first Irish Catholic settlers, their determination, resourcefulness, and foresight.
Paddy Town represents a story of triumph over poor circumstance, tragedy and resolve which is really the prevailing story of Canadian and Newmarket history. Were there clashes between the various factions in our area, undoubtedly, but as all flourishing communities will attest, the best evidence of a peoples having matured as a community are the lessons they were forced to learn and the distances socially that we were asked to travel, culminating in a true sense of community. I would suspect that we still have a way to travel but we are firmly on the right path.
I hope that I have provided a bit of insight into that mystical place called Paddy Town and that you now have a greater appreciation for our Irish descendants and their struggles. I believe Elman W. Campbell Museum will be presenting a display on our local Irish roots in September, so there is an event that will be well worth checking out.
Sources: The Newmarket Era and The Newmarket Courier; East Gwillimbury in the Nineteenth Century by Gladys M. Rolling; The History of Newmarket by Ethel Trewhella; Stories of Newmarket, An Old Ontario Town by Robert Terence Carter
Newmarket resident Richard MacLeod, the History Hound, has been a local historian for more than 40 years. He writes a weekly feature about our town's history in partnership with NewmarketToday, conducts heritage lectures and walking tours of local interest, and leads local oral history interviews.
