On This Ground

The Credit Mission, also known as the Credit Indian Village, stood on the high ground overlooking the Credit River at the site of what is now the Mississaugua Golf and Country Club. It was established in 1826 under the direction of Reverend Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby) and Colonel James Givins as part of the Government's plan to settle Native peoples in one area and open surrounding lands to new settlement. The village was described as an elevated plateau cleared of wood, with three rows of detached cottages among fenced fields, and it grew to include about 52 family dwellings with an estimated 500 acres under cultivation. The Mississaugas also used land extending one mile on each side of the Credit River, where they raised grain, hay, apples, potatoes, other root vegetables, cattle, pigs, and other livestock. By the late 1830s, the Credit River Mississaugas had cultivated nearly 900 acres of the 3,000 acre Credit Indian Reserve. In 1838, Eliza Jones wrote that the village had about forty houses, with a chapel, school-house, Mission-house, and a burial place on the brow of a sloping bank. Despite Government misgivings, the Mississaugas prospered there, and travellers remarked on the community's good order, sobriety, cleanliness, morality, and regular worship. The Credit Mission thrived for more than a decade, but pressure from surrounding settlement, the loss of title to traditional lands, and population decline led the Mississaugas to relocate to the New Credit Reserve in 1847. The village later disappeared, though the meeting lodge, a barn, and a building called the chief's residence survived until the 1920s, and a cemetery likely remains on a high bank overlooking the river.

Ontario · Canada