parents →     Samuel Dearborn    and     Mary Dearborn

siblings →     Henry Dearborn     and     Elizabeth Dearborn    and     Jane Dearborn    and     Maritta Dearborn    and     Margaret Dearborn    and     William Dearborn    and     Samuel Dearborn    and     John Dearborn

Hudsonville, March 4th, 1895 Mr. Pedlar I received your questions today. I will try to do the best I can to answer them. I will try to tell you all I can. In the first place we moved to Canada to a place called the Highland Creek from York State, myself being only seven years old in the year 1817. I do not remember how long we resided there, and from we went to Mr. Farewell's mill near Harmony. I could not we left there & moved to Oshawa to the place known as Gibbs Mills building the present mill it has never moved or broken away. My Father sold out to my brother-in-law Mr. William Cleveland. & from there we bought where Edward Dearborn now resides. It being two hundred acres. & from there a little over two years. & from there to lot third concession. I then being nineteen years old 1829. being there before us having the sawmills & sawed the lumber for our house. I believe you could find our house by Harvey Karr or Hiram Gifford & how long he was t here before us. & now I think Enos Hall or Lewis Hall was the next settler on the place on the corner south of Mr. Thomas Ekh's (?) place being the next place north now owned by Edwin Henry. & Mr. Hira Calkins was the next north. U being the next to ours. I cannot give the date of any of those when they moved into the county but know it was soon after we did. Mr. Lovejoy lived where Mr. Grierason doe now. & Mr. Anthony Hill across the road from Mr. Calkins. Mr. Daniel Dearborn lived where Mr. Condlin[sic] does now. & Sherburn Dearborn where Mr. Richard Luke lived near Columbus. Mr. Morris owned the sawmill north. & Mr. Peter Taylor the Grist Mill on the opposite side. Mr. Town being Son-in-law of Mr. Winterfield lived just near him. I am sorry I annot give you the date of their comingbut it is impossible. I think that is all I can tell you or remember about the old settlers. Hoping this will be satisfactory to you I remain, yours truly, Henry Dearborn P.S. My Fathers name was Samuel Dearborn. P.S. Mr. Samuel Hall came second to Lewis Hall P.S. I forgot to say what I know of the Indian Trail. It passed downfrom the creek north where the road is now & down through thenorth orchard & west of the House as near as I can remember & on down through the fields. yours H.D. 1821 -- DEARBORN & CLEVELAND (Grist Mill) The principal partner in this early Oshawa industry, Mr. Samuel Dearborn with his family came from New York State and first of all settled at Hyland Creek in 1817. This family from there moved to Farewell Corners (now Harmony), and from there they moved to the "Hollow" (now south Oshawa). In the year 1821, Dearborn and his brother-in-law Cleveland erected the dam across the Creek at the Hollow, which it is said has never wholly given way. The same year they erected a grist mill and saw mill near the dam. In 1829 the mills were sold to Mr. John Gibbs a relative of the Gibbs family who settled at the Hollow in 1832 as described elsewhere. The Dearborn family purchased a farm on the base line a short distance west of the Hollow and about two years afterwards moved to a farm lot 11 in the 3rd concession where a grandson of Pioneer Samuel Dearborn resides at the present time. The father of the present occupant of the Homestead, Mr. Henry Dearborn now a resident in Michigan, remembers seeing the Indian trail which passed from north to south through the farm, a little west of the homestead. The pioneer Dearborn died in 1837. His wife following him about the year 1842. This couple left a large family as follows: Mrs. Cleveland, Mrs. Master Moore, Samuel Dearborn Jr., Daniel Dearborn, and Polly Dearborn. These became well known citizens of the "Oshawa of Old". Mr. Samuel Dearborn Jr. for many years was one of the best known farmers in the vicinity of Oshawa. He died on the 8th of June 1876, leaving a wife and a number of children. The sons are now residing on the homestead and other farms once owned by Samuel Dearborn Jr. Mrs. Samuel Dearborn now in her 85th year is the writer's authority for some of the facts in this brief sketch of the pioneer Dearborn and his children. Also the facts relating to pioneer John Dickie her father. The writer called upon Mrs. Dearborn at her son's home on the base line in the vicinity of the Demill College on the 17th of January 1895 and found her in the best of health. In reply to questions as to Oshawa when she first came to the place she remarked that she went to Andrew Mason's School, a log building which stood on the roadway about due east of the Gibbs block on t he south west corner of the town. In these days the bush land exceeded the cleared land. She remembered the store kept by Skae and McDonald on the corner opposite A.C. Jones, the Town's solicitor in 1830. She is of the opinion that this the first store in the Oshawa of Old was kept some years prior to 1830. Mrs. Dearborn also mentioned that she attended the school kept by Andrew Mason on the farm before it was purchased by John Wilson on the Kingston road. The late Joel Ray and others went to this school at the same time. Owing to the early settlement at Harmony and the broken front in that vicinity, this old school house must have been more centred then the log school house in the early village now the town of Oshawa.

married →       Elizabeth Ann Henry     date of marriage →     1864

Claretta Dearborn     and     Warren Edward Hathaway Dearborn     and     Jean Dearborn