North American Barns
Pennsylvania Barns
D-L Design
D-L History
York & Upper Canada
Pennsylvania-Deutsch
Scots in Canada
Family History
Corporate History
York & Upper Canada were very young when Johannes Schmidt built his barn. After the American Revolutionary War of 1776, their were many citizens who remained loyal to the King Of England. British North America (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Quebec) was the nearest haven for these loyalists. To satisfy the new english speaking immigrants, and the existing French majority in Quebec, the British government passed the Constitution Act of 1791. This law divided the province of Quebec into two new colonies, Upper and Lower Canada, roughly equivalent to today's southern Ontario and southern Quebec. This division recognized the diversity of the population, accommodating the aspirations of the loyalists without interfering with the traditions of the French-speaking Canadians.
The settlers from the United States adopted the name, "United Empire Loyalists" - former American colonialists who wished to remain loyal to the British flag. These settlers brought with them a knowledge of farming and farm construction acquired through generations of pioneering in the US. Canada's early settlers differed from those in the United States, such as the Pilgrim Fathers of the 17th century, who arrived in the new world with little concept of how to survive.
Europe was still the technological centre of the world. This was seen by the number of books dealing with building and construction that were exported to 18th-century North America and made available to the farmer. The settlement of Upper Canada greatly benefited from this improvement in communications as different cultures came together in what is now Ontario.
As literature on carpentry reached its height economic conditions in North America forced the farmer to employ more practical techniques. This ingenuity became known as "Yankee know-how". In British America, John McGregor wrote of his travels throughout Upper and Lower Canada describing farmers as possessing "an eminent degree, a quickness of expedients where anything is required that can be supplied by the use of edge-tools; and as carpenters and joiners they are not only expert but ingenious workmen." This sentiment was also echoed by James Brown in his View of Canada and the Colonists. "In the principle towns of Canada... the workmanship required is not inferior to that in the best towns of Britain. Inferior hands experience difficulty in getting employment, while superior tradesmen in most branches are highly prized."
It can be argued the settlers of Upper Canada had to work harder than their kinsmen to the south: the environment was more harsh and the commercial markets provided less resources than those south of the border. But this did not stop Lt. Gov. John Graves Simcoe from passing building codes and zoning by-laws to protect property values and ensure buildings went up as quickly as possible.
Vaughan and York Townships were opened for settlement in 1794. For the first couple of years, settlement was confined almost entirely along Yonge Street. Most unreserved lots west of Yonge were granted by 1798 but were mainly additional land grants to loyalists, veterans, surveyors, or to settlers already located in the town of York. Owners of new lots were not forced to take out deeds and develop property.