We Were Here

The Credit Mission Village quickly grew to include a school, a Methodist chapel, a sawmill, and a meeting lodge, and under the leadership of Reverend Peter Jones, his brother John Jones, Joseph Sawyer, John Cameron, and Methodist minister Egerton Ryerson, the Mississaugas prospered for several years. By the 1830s, through their own hard work, they had added a hospital, mechanic's shop, eight barns, and many more houses, and had enclosed 900 acres along the Credit River for pasture and farming. In 1834 the Credit Harbour Company was formed, with the Mississaugas owning two-thirds of its shares to develop the natural harbour at the mouth of the Credit River for shipping and warehouses, and in 1835 a village plot was laid out on the west side of the Credit River on the shores of Lake Ontario, where lots in what would be called Port Credit were sold to incoming settlers. News of the community spread as Peter Jones traveled throughout North America and Britain to raise funds, including an audience with Queen Victoria in 1838. By the early 1840s, after adopting a new way of life and Christianity, about 250 Mississaugas supplied nearly all of their own bread, produce, beef, pork, milk, and butter; once hunters and fishers, they had become successful farmers in 20 years, and some had learned skilled trades such as carpentry and shoemaking. Yet their prosperous village faced mounting problems as forests were harvested, the salmon run along the Credit River nearly vanished because of the mills, disease increased, settler pressure grew, and the Crown did not recognize legal title to the reserve lands. Without secure land tenure at the Credit River, the Mississaugas decided in the winter of 1846 to relocate, and in early 1847 more than 200 moved to 4,800 acres south of Brantford, where they established the New Credit Reserve.

Ontario · Canada