The History of the Dawson Manor

Many of Yonge Street's first settlers came empty-handed and impoverished to the frontier, looking for a chance to carve a new life out of the forest with axe and bare hands. But there were those fortunate few who brought financial resources, servants and other makings of a gentile English household. Prepared to turn their forested lands into prosperous farming "estates", these well off settlers soon built fine manor houses in the tradition of the English landed gentry and garnered often-lucrative government positions.

Dawson Manor, a classic Georgian red brick home which once stood on a 400-acre estate stretching from Bathurst Street to the Holland River, is one such manor house. This mansion was so renowned in its heyday as a fine piece of colonial architecture that in October, 1923 the Toronto Star sent the young reporter named Ernest Hemingway North to Newmarket to view it and write about. Times were tough in the British Isles during the early to mid-years of the 19th century. The new industrial age brought massive unemployment, consolidation in the farming sector caused great distress, and all this was severely aggravated by a depression, which followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Thousands fled this poverty and unemployment, migrating to the largely unsettled spaces of North American colonies. Young Street--the governments' settlement road to the vast interior, a trade route, a military road to the Upper Lakes, and most importantly of farm Road linking the rich table lands of York County to the port and the market at Toronto-- provided choice locations for a number of these prosperous settlers.

Dr. John Dawson and Stanley took up Yonge Street frontage on the west side of the hill about a mile west and a little north of the village of Newmarket, which lay nestled in its river valley. A well-off Yorkshire medical man, Dr. Dawson decided sometime in 1820s that the future of his family lay the new world. In 1830, he chartered a sailing vessel and in it, stowed family and servants, farm animals and implements, glass, wrought iron and household goods. Twice the ship was turned back by weather and on the third attempt, was blown far off course, making port well south of its New York City destination. Undaunted, the Dawson family loaded their goods onto wagons and sent out for the York County frontier. Finally arriving in New York (soon to be renamed Toronto), Dr. Dawson purchased 400 acres on Yonge Street, enough to leave 100 to each of his four sons, and sent off up the muddy wagon road.

Family and servants set to work at once to construct a log cabin that would serve as home until a proper manor house could be built. It took until 1837 to finish the manor. Bricks for the 14-inch thick walls and three chimneys were made from clay found on the property and baking endured nearby kiln. Enoch Rogers, a Newmarket builder, did the carpentry work. The house was probably the first in the area to have central heating--a wood-burning furnace was installed during construction. Dr. Dawson not only offered medical care but also filled his own prescriptions from a dispensary he ran from his home. A staunch government man, he was named a justice of the peace and performed many a wedding in days when preachers were scarce on the frontier. His neighbors soon called this multi-talented landowner and physician Squire Dawson.

The Dawson Stanley took up residence in the Manor in 1837, the year of the rebellion. Dr. Dawson often ministered to the Indians in the area and was well liked and admired by them. Newmarket was the center of rebel activity, so when word reached his native patients that their friend might be in danger, an Ojibwa war party came south down Yonge Street and pitched its tepees on the lawn at Dawson Manor, serving notice that the family was under its protection.

Squire Dawson died in 1851, but his Manor remained in the family until 1988.