"The Indians occupied one large tent, which was 220 feet long and 15 feet broad. It was covered overhead with boards, and the sides were made tight with laths to make it secure from any encroachments. It had four doors fronting the camp ground. In this long house the Indians arranged themselves in families, as is their custom in their wigwams. Divine service commenced towards evening. Elder Case first gave directions as to the order to be observed on the camp ground during the meetings. Brother James Richardson then preached from Acts ii. 21; after which I gave the substance in Indian, when the brethren appeared much affected and interested. Prayer-meeting in the evening. The watch kept the place illuminated during the night." The meeting continued for four days.
Where the dividing line occurs between York and Markham, at the angle on the right was the first site of the sign of the Green Bush, removed afterwards, as we have noted, to the immediate outskirts of York; and to the left, somewhere near by, was a sign that used to interest from its peculiarity, the Durweston Gate: a small white five-barred gate, hung by its topmost bar to a projection from a lofty post, and having painted on its lower bars "Durweston Gate," and the landlord's name. It was probably a reproduction by a Dorsetshire immigrant of a familiar object in his native village.
Not excluding from our notes, as will be observed, those places where Shenstone sighed to think a man often "found the warmest welcome" we must not forget Finch's—a great hostelry on the right, which we soon reached as we advanced northward, of high repute about 1836, and subsequently among excursion parties from town, and among the half-pay settlers of the Lake Simcoe region, for the contents of its larder and the quality of its cooking. Another place of similar renown was Crew's, six or eight miles further on.
When for long years, men, especially Englishmen, called by their occasions away from their homes, had been almost everywhere doomed to partake of fare too literally hard, and perilous to the health, it is not to be wondered at, when, here and there, at last a house for the accommodation of the public did spring up where, with cleanly quarters, digestible viands were to be had, that its fame should speedily spread; for is it not Dr. Samuel Johnson himself who has, perhaps rather sweepingly said, "there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn."
Where a long slope towards the north begins soon after Finch's a village entitled Dundurn was once projected by Mr. Allan McNab, afterwards the famous Sir Allan, acting, we believe at the time as agent for Mr. H. J. Boulton; but Dundurn never advanced beyond incipience. The name was afterwards familiar as that of Sir Allan's château close by Hamilton.
A well-travelled road now soon turned off to the right leading to certain, almost historic mills in Markham, known as the German Mills. In the Gazetteer of 1799 these mills are referred to. "Markham township in the east riding of the County of York fronts Yonge Street," it is stated in that early work, "and lies to the northward of York and Scarborough. Here" it then adds "are good mills and a thriving settlement of Germans."
The German Mills are situated on Lot No. 4 in the third concession, on a portion of the Rouge or Nen—a river which the same Gazetteer informs its readers was "the back communication from the German settlement in Markham to Lake Ontario. The expectation in 1799 was, as the Gazetteer further shows, that this river, and not either the Humber or the Don, would one day be connected with the Holland river by a canal." It was not certainly known in 1794, where the river which passed the German Mills had its outlet. In Iredell's plan of Markham of that date, the stream is marked "Kitcheseepe or Great River," with a memorandum attached—"waters supposed to empty into Lake Ontario to the eastward of the Highlands of York." Information, doubtless, noted down, by Iredell, from the lips of some stray native. Kitche-seepe, "Big River" is of course simply a descriptive expression, taken as in so many instances, by the early people, to be a proper name. (It does not appear that among the aborigines there were any proper local names, in our sense of the expression.)
The German Mills were founded by Mr. Berczy, either on his own account or acting as agent for an association at New York for the promotion of German emigration to Canada. When, after failing to induce the Government to reconsider its decision in regard to the patents demanded by him for his settlers, that gentleman retired to Montreal, the German Mills with various parcels of land were advertised for sale in the Gazette of April 27, 1805, in the following strain: "Mills and land in Markham. To be sold by the subscriber for payment of debts due to the creditors of William Berczy, Esq., the mills called the German Mills, being a grist mill and a saw mill. The grist mill has a pair of French burs, and complete machinery for making and bolting superfine flour. These mills are situated on lot No. 4 in the third concession of Markham; with them will be given in, lots No. 3 and 4 in the third concession, at the option of the purchaser. Also, 300 acres being the west half of lot No. 31, and the whole of lot 32 in the second concession of Markham. Half the purchase money to be paid in hand, and half in one year with legal interest. W. Allan. N.B.—Francis Smith, who lives on lot No. 14 in the third concession, will show the premises. York, 11th March, 1805."
It appears from the same Gazette that Mr. Berczy's vacant house in York had been entered by burglars after his departure. A reward of twenty dollars is offered for their discovery. "Whereas," the advertisement runs, "the house of William Berczy, Esq., was broken open sometime during the night of the 14th instant, and the same ransacked from one end to the other; this is to give notice that whoever shall lodge an information, so that the offender or offenders may be brought to justice, shall upon conviction thereof receive Twenty Dollars. W. Chewett. York, 18th April, 1805."
We have before referred to Mr. Berczy's embarrassments, from which he never became disentangled; and to his death in New York, in 1813. His decease was thus noticed in a Boston paper, quoted by Dr. Canniff, p. 364, "Died—In the early part of the year 1813, William Berczy, Esq., aged 68; a distinguished inhabitant of Upper Canada, and highly respected for his literary acquirements. In the decease of this gentleman society must sustain an irreparable loss, and the republic of letters will have cause to mourn the death of a man eminent for genius and talent."