Deseronto’s history as a settlement can be traced back to the period just after the American Revolution when the British Government obtained grants of lands on the north side of Lake Ontario from the Mississauga people. These lands were then granted to Loyalists who had fought for the British and had been compelled to leave their homes in America. A large tract of land on the Bay of Quinte was awarded to a group of twenty Mohawk families led by Captain John Deserontyon (c.1740-1811). Deserontyon had a farm at the eastern edge of this land: the area now occupied by the Town of Deseronto. You can read more about the early history of the Mohawk settlement in our catalogue of the archival materials copied by the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte for the Culbertson Tract Land Claim.
Deserontyon’s daughter married a Scottish fur trader and their son, John Culbertson, inherited Deserontyon’s property. Culbertson improved the lands and built a wharf on the waterfront. In 1836 he applied to the Crown for the right to own these lands and was granted them in 1837. The village that grew up around the waterfront became known as Culbertson’s Wharf.
A portion of the village was purchased from Culbertson by Amos S. Rathbun, Thomas Y. Howe and L. E. Carpenter in 1848 and formed the site of the area’s first sawmill, which became a centre for transport and processing of lumber from trees that were cut from a wide area and transported down the Napanee, Salmon, Moira and Trent rivers. Amos’s brother, Hugo Burghardt Rathbun (1812-1886) continued the business by himself from 1855 until 1863, when the Rathbun Company’s management was taken over by his son, Edward Wilkes Rathbun (1842-1903), who significantly expanded the company’s operations. Mill Point, as it was then known, became incorporated as a village in 1871. The map below shows the mill, wharf and post office of the village as they were in 1875.
Milll Pond, Mill Point, 1875
[Accession 2008:02(2)]
In 1881 the village was renamed Deseronto in honour of Captain John Deserontyon. In April of that year, an American journal, The Lumber World, noted that:
Were Deseronto, and its location, in the United States, it would achieve fame as a summer resort: as it is, it has become a hive of industry, and it is questionable whether we in this country have any place of like size to compare with it.
Deseronto was incorporated as a Town in 1889. By the 1890s it was home to more than 3,000 people, many of whom worked in the Rathbun Company’s concerns, which included a sash and door factory, shipyard, railway car works, terra cotta factory, flour mill, gas works and chemical works. The plan below shows the industrial sites in the area around Mill Street at this period, criss-crossed with the railway lines that shipped goods out of the town.
Mill Street, c.1895
[Accession 2008:02(1)]
Main Street and St. George Streets were thriving shopping centres in the late nineteenth century, boasting bakeries, drugstores, hardware stores and busy hotels. A number of churches were built in the town during this period. Naylor’s theatre put on a wide range of plays, musical performances and other events and could hold an audience of up to 550 people.
One of the most famous Mohawks associated with Deseronto was Dr Oronhyatekha (1841-1907), originally from the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford. He trained as a physician and was educated at Oxford for a while. He became involved in the Independent Order of Foresters and successfully transformed the finances of the organization. Oronhyatekha married Ellen Hill, a Mohawk from Tyendinaga. They had a house in Tyendinaga and the doctor also built properties on Foresters’ Island, which is situated in the Bay of Quinte, opposite Deseronto. These included ‘The Wigwam’, his elaborate summer residence; a hotel and pleasure grounds. The picture below shows the orphanage on the Island that Oronhyatekha constructed for the Order, which operated from 1906 to 1907. There is no trace today of any of these buildings.
Imperial Order of Foresters’ orphanage
[Postcard donated by R.N. Goodfellow]
The First World War brought the Royal Flying Corps to Deseronto, with two training camps close to the town: Camp Mohawk was near the site of the current Tyendinaga (Mohawk) Airport, while Camp Rathbun was to the northeast of the town. Young pilots came here to learn how to fly between 1917 and 1918. There were a number of accidents: this photograph shows the recovery of an aircraft that has crashed into the waters of the Bay of Quinte, with Foresters’ Island in the distance. The graves of the pilots killed in training can be found in Deseronto Cemetery.
“High Diving”: aircraft crashed in the Bay of Quinte
[Accession 2009.20 (67), donated by Denzil Devos for scanning]
As timber stocks became depleted, the economic base for the town’s industries was eroded to the point where it was no longer viable for the Rathbun Company to continue its operations. The early twentieth century saw a period of gradual decline in the town’s industrial concerns. The Rathbun Company surrendered its charter in 1923 and the population of the town fell as people left to find work elsewhere.
Other industries arrived during and following the end of the Rathbun era including The Dominion Match Company (which was later sold to the E.B. Eddy Co.); Redi Heat Electrical Appliance Co.; Deseronto Electronics Ltd.; Ideal Vendors and Canada Optical. The Clapperton Glass factory manufactured cut-glass items in Deseronto between 1916 and 1931. Ellwood Metcalfe established his first canning factory at the age of 24 and the firm was a major employer in the town for many years, both before and after the Second World War. The photo below shows some of the employees of the firm in a picture taken on August 18, 1938. Many of the businesses in Deseronto today are focused on the town’s tourist industry, as it now aspires to be the “summer resort” that The Lumber World writer envisioned in its industrial heyday.
Metcalfe’s staff
Deseronto’s Loyalist, Mohawk, and industrial heritage have contributed significantly to its history, and continue to influence the town. Our heritage is celebrated through the preservation and commemoration of historic buildings, events, sites and documents and through activities to enhance awareness and appreciation of our past.
Deseronto Archives 