From the first, it will be seen that the village of Kingston was to a great extent indebted to the public service for its prosperity. Isaac Wild, writing in 1796, says that from 60 to 100 men are quartered in the barracks.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
Contents—The situation of Kingston—Under military influence—Monopolist—Early history of legislation—In 1810—Gourlay’s statement—Police—Modern Kingston—Lord Sydenham—Seat of government—Perambulating—Surrounding country—Provisions—An appeal for Kingston as capital—Barriefield—Pittsburgh—Building of small crafts—Famous—Roads—Waterloo—Cemetery—Portsmouth—Kingston Mill—Little Cataraqui—Collinsby—Quantity of land—Early and influential inhabitants—Post masters—“Honorable men”—Deacon, Macaulay, Cartwright, Markland, Cummings, Smiths, Kerby—Allen McLean, first lawyer—A gardener—Sheriff McLean—“Chrys” Hagerman—Customs—Sampson, shooting a smuggler—Hagerman, M.P.P.—Removes to Toronto.
THE FIRST TOWNSHIP—EVENTS IN ITS EARLY HISTORY.
It must be admitted, the place did not possess from its geographical situation the requisites for becoming a great city, although its situation at the head of the St. Lawrence, would always secure for it a certain degree of importance. There are evils incident to places, depending upon the military and naval bodies, and these can be seen in connection with the history of Kingston. Anything which drew away for a time, to any extent, either arm of the service, had a damaging effect upon the prosperity, and stagnation resulted in business.
Early Kingston must be regarded as a town growing up in the back woods, with a population governed and influenced more or less by the society of officers and soldiers, and while the former gave dignity and tone to the higher classes, the lower portion of society was correspondingly and for evil, affected by the presence of the soldiers, with the numerous groggeries, and low houses of entertainments, which particularly in former days, were found to exist in connection with military establishments.
In the first years of Canada, speculation was common with a certain class. Land claims could be purchased for a mere song. The holder of a “location ticket,” would often part with his title for a few quarts of rum, while many other holders were glad to sell for a few pounds of ready money, or certain articles of stock. It came that in time, a certain number of monopolists, living at Kingston, held land in the rear concessions and neighboring townships. The Imperial money in Kingston was often spent without contributing to the improvement of the adjacent country. But the time came when the encircling settlers compelled a more generous course of conduct.
But, much obscurity rests upon the history of the first seven or ten years of the village of Kingston. The effort has been made to gather up the fragments pertaining thereto, and arrange them so as to form a connected whole.
Cooper says that “the town was laid out in 1793, being then confined to what is now the eastern portion in the vicinity of the Tête du Pont barracks, and what was then known as the Cataraqui Common, lots 25, 24, 23, on which is situated the chief part of the city, were then farm lots of 200 acres each, and uncleared.”
According to the census roll in the office of the clerk of the peace 1794, the population of Cataraqui village was 345. It would seem that the appearance of the village was not very pleasing. But the surroundings had a certain wild beauty. The first buildings were of the most inferior kind. Kingston now so beautiful in its fine buildings and well appointed streets, had in its first days but the humblest of log tenements, with the rude Indian wigwam for a neighbor. Instead of fair broad streets, and a well ordered park, there was the Indian foot path, and the thick tangled wood, with the stately pine.