TORONTO IN 1850 -

A hundred years ago Toronto was known as the "chief town of Canada West", with a population of about 25,000.  The old Cawthra house, torn down in 1949 to make way for a modern skyscraper, had not even been built; Toronto Island was still connected to the mainland by a marshy peninsula which has long since disappeared under the waters of Lake Ontario; and there was not a railway or a street-car track in the whole city.

The city in 1850 included only what is now the central portion of "downtown Toronto", between the present City Hall and the lakefront. The actual limits were thus Queen Street on the North, John Street on the West, and the Don River on the East. The main thoroughfare of the city was King Street, along which were situated the most important buildings; Yonge Street was occupied at its lower end by dry goods warehouses and banks, but towards College Street it was lined by surburban residences and country estates, among them the Villa of the Governor-General. The lake came up much higher in 1850, so that Front Street, now high and dry and far from the lakeshore, was then the site of the Customs House, steamboat offices and wharves!

The Toronto of 1850, although small by present-day standards, was a thriving centre, growing by leaps and bounds. Its population had increased three times over since its incorporation as a city sixteen years before; the docks and wharves were busy during the shipping season with trade to the American ports across Lake Ontario or up to Prescott for transfer to Montreal boats, and no fewer than ten steamers were shipping out of Toronto. Weller's Stage Coaches ran regularly several times a day carrying their passengers west to Hamilton, north to Lake Simcoe, and east to Oshawa, along "the Kingston Road", so well known to the members of St. John's, Norway.

As in all rapidly expanding centres, Torontonians were early interested in educational facilities for their children. Upper Canada College was already twenty years old, and the city had had a King's College (later the University of Toronto) since 1843.  This latter date is not without interest for the history of St. John's, Norway, for among the staff of King's College, when it opened its doors to students in June 1843, was a grave middle-aged theologian of whom we shall hear more in these pages. He had just arrived from England to lecture in Divinity, a subject that disappeared from the curriculum when the College was withdrawn from Church of England control six years later. To be reinstated on the University payroll, the erstwhile Professor of Divinity had to become a Professor of Metaphysics and Philosophy, a painful wrench for a devout churchman.  This unhappy victim of circumstances was none other than the first Rector of St. John's Norway, Dr. James Beaven.