Showing 44 results

People and organizations
Atkinson Bros.
Frost postcard collection · Corporate body · [190]-[190]
CA: RPA · Person · 1886 - 1963

Bert Hillson was born James Albert Hillson in Glen Williams in 1886 and attended school in Huttonville before moving to Brampton. His varied jobs included volunteer firefighter, teamster and waggoner, painter and decorator, and governor of the Peel County Jail (1935 to 1943). He was also involved in sports, especially lacrosse. He married Emily Ada Kathleen Chambers in 1910 and had eight children, including two sons (Jim and John) and six daughters (Mildred, Anne, Edith, Eva, Georgina, and June). He died in 1963. He was a member of Grace Church, Brampton, at the time of his death but earlier was a Baptist.

CA: RPA · Person · 1911 - 1988

Mildred Hillson O'Hearn was born in 1911 to James Albert Hill and Kathleen Hill. She was active in Grace Church and played softball. She worked for Gummed Papers as their head bookkeeper for a time. She married William (Bill) O'Hearn in 1942 and had three sons, Bill, Bob, and Bert. She died in 1988.

Lakeview Golf Course
CA: RPA · Corporate body · 1907 -

Lakeview Golf Course is a municipally-owned golf course in the City of Mississauga. Designed by Herbert Strong in traditional, parkland style, the course was host to the first Ontario Open (1923), the first Ontario Amateur (1923), and two Canadian Opens (1923, 1934).

Forster, John, 1818-1896
CA: RPA · Person · 1818-1896

James Forster (1790-1873, in Glen Williams) and Elizabeth Moffitt (1795-1847, in Streetsville) had seven children, including John Forster (1818-1896, buried at Churchville Cemetery) and Thomas Forster (ca. 1825-1872). Thomas is the father of John Wycliffe Lowes Forster (1850, Norval–1938, buried at Brampton Cemetery), making John his uncle.

Hokea, Ben (1898 - 1971)
CA: RPA · Person · 1898 - 1971

Ben Hokea is credited as the steel guitarist "who had the most impact on Hawaiian music's acceptance in Canada." Born in Hawaii, after a gig playing on a cruise line, he toured with Charlie Clark's Royal Hawaiians. The group played in Toronto for several years, beginning in 1915, and Hokea remained in the city afterwards. Hokea was a music educator and performer, and appeared both on radio and television.

Hokea's public performances in Toronto date back to at least 1918, when he performed at Massey Hall in a variety show.

His first known commercial recording was released in December 1919 by His Master's Voice Records as part of their January 1920 lineup. Hokea, Luther Hokea and Richard Hokea recorded three trial records for Victor in Camden, New Jersey, 1917. (University of California's Santa Barbara Library Discography of American Historical Recordings) He is known to have released records with Victor, Columbia, and Starr Co. of Canada.

As of 1925, Hokea operated a photography studio at 195 Yonge St, Toronto. This may be how he met Cecil A. Chinn, creator of the records relating to Hokea at the Region of Peel Archives. Chinn toured with Hokea in the 1940s around southern Ontario, including Owen Sound, as part of "Ben Hokea's Orchestra".

CA: RPA · Person · 1905 - 1964

William (Bill) O'Hearn was born in 1905. He worked at Hewitson Shoe Company from childhood, rising to become a foreman. He served on the Brampton town council and played lacrosse for the Brampton Excelsiors. He was also attended Grace Church and was an active singer in choirs and as a soloist and also played in the Brampton Citizens' Band. He died in 1964.

CA : RPA · Person · 1850 - 1938

John Wycliffe Lowes (1850-1938) was an artist. Born in Norval, Ontario, he was a Methodist/United layman active in church affairs. As an artist, he was known principally as a portrait painter. He travelled and painted in Europe, did portraits of several Canadian Prime Ministers and Governors-General, leaders of the Methodist Church in Canada and England, the Emperor and Empress of Japan, and many other Canadian leaders.

Betts, Al
CA : RPA · Person · 1924-2017

Al was born in the City of Toronto on February 3rd, 1924 to Fred and Violet Betts. He was named Alfred like his dad; however, to avoid confusion he was called Al. He spent his formative years growing up in the north part of the city.

Al enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1943. He trained in Medicine Hat, AB, Chatham, NB, and Charlottetown, PEI as a Navigation-Bombardier on the Lancaster bombers. During the Second World War he was stationed in Bournemouth in the south of England.

Al’s passion was photography. Family legend has it he became interested in photography when he scooped up an old Kodak “Brownie” camera that had been tossed away. Always the curious individual he took it apart, repaired it, and started experimenting with photography.

After the Second World War he began working at Toronto Western Hospital where he met the love of his life, Helen Colville. They wed in 1950 and lived in Toronto before leaving the city in 1956 for Streetsville, then in Toronto Township (now Mississauga). By the time they moved to Streetsville, their first two children, Doug and Marylyn, had been born.

In 1958 a second son, Brian, was born and Al was working at A.V. Roe in Malton. Here he had the privilege of working on the Avro Arrow project in the Photography Department. He took several of the iconic pictures of the Avro Arrow in production and in flight. This job was short-lived, however, with the cancellation of the Avro project in 1959.

Al started A. Betts Photography in Streetsville around 1965. During this time Al and Helen completed their family with the addition of Stephen and Cynthia. The entire family settled into the three bedroom bungalow on Vista Boulevard in Streetsville. He gave back to the town by initiating the Bread and Honey Festival, helping with the Boy Scouts, and being the official photographer for the local Streetsville newspaper. He was active as a professional photographer to ca. 1983.

As the children grew older, Al had more time to travel the world with Helen (and sometimes with their children in tow). Their travels took them throughout North America, Europe, as well as Central America and the Caribbean.

Al passed away peacefully, with family by his side, on Friday, January 20th, 2017, at the Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga.

John McDermid
CA : RPA · Person · 17 Mar. 1940 -

John Horton McDermid was a member of Parliament for the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1979 until his retirement in 1993. He represented the federal riding of Brampton-Georgetown from 1979 to 1988, and, when the riding was separated in two in 1988, he became the first elected member of Parliament for the federal riding of Brampton.

McDermid was born in Hamilton on March 17th, 1940. His parents were Reverend John Andrew McDermid and Nora Horton McDermid. In 1942, the family moved to Brampton, Ontario, after the Reverend McDermid was offered a ministry at St. Paul’s United Church, which he led until his death in 1970. Nora died eleven years later on March 6th, 1981.

John H. McDermid married his first wife, Elayne, a Peel schoolteacher, in the early 1960s, and they divorced near the end of his political career. Prior to his election in 1979, McDermid worked a variety of jobs: he was a radio and television announcer in Welland and Kitchener for six years; he was an assistant executive director of the Ontario Real Estate Association for seven years; he was an executive assistant to Ontario’s Ministry of Industry and Tourism, under Claude Bennett; he was a founder and shareholder of a private airline company, Pem-Air; and, in 1978, when he made his successful bid for the Progressive Conservative nomination for his riding, he was the Manager of Public Relations and Planning at the Ontario Place Corporation.

McDermid first announced his candidacy for the Progressive Conservative nomination for his federal riding in 1971. He lost the party’s nomination to Ellwood Madill, who went on to win the riding, defeating the Liberal candidate, Ross Milne. Madill lost to Milne in the 1974 federal election.

In 1978, McDermid sought the nomination again as the Progressive Conservative candidate to represent his federal riding, which had by then changed into Brampton-Georgetown. He won the nomination, and defeated Milne in the May 1979 federal election, becoming Brampton-Georgetown’s member of Parliament in Prime Minister Joe Clark’s minority government.

McDermid worked on multiple portfolios during his fourteen years in politics. In 1984 he began the first of two Parliamentary Secretary appointments under Minister Pat Carney, first as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources, and then followed her as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for International Trade. As Carney’s Parliamentary Secretary, McDermid worked on, and successfully campaigned for, the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. This success began a series of Cabinet appointments as a Minister of State in Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s government: he jointly held the portfolios for International Trade, and for Housing (1988 – 1989); he held the Privatization and Regulatory Affairs portfolio (1989 – 1991); and he held the Finance and Privatization portfolio (1991 – 1993), during which he also briefly was an acting Minister of State for Housing.

On March 28, 1993, McDermid announced his retirement from politics after Brian Mulroney decided to retire. Looking back over his career, he was quoted in the The Hill Times, “[i]f I had to say what the highlights of my career were I’d say working with Brian Mulroney and carrying the free trade legislation through the House. My first election, my appointment to cabinet and dismantling the National Energy Program was definitely a highlight.”

In 1992, McDermid married former pro-golfer Sandra Post, and after his retirement they settled in Caledon, Ontario. Since retiring, he has been involved with the Lorne Scots (Peel, Dufferin and Halton Regiment), with the Central West Local Health Integration Network, and has followed his passion for golf.

CA : RPA · Corporate body · 1944-

The Cloverleaf Garden Club of Mississauga was founded in February 1944 as the “Clover Leaf Horticultural Society.” In 1964 the name was changed to “Cloverleaf Garden Club” with the current name adopted in 1999. The club was started with the goal of providing a meeting forum for people interested in gardening.

The club is the oldest gardening club in Mississauga, and has been very active since its founding: at the first meeting 100 members signed up; by the end of its first year membership had grown to around 200, with overall membership hovering at or around 200 from 1946 to 2013. Some ongoing activities include booking guest speakers at meetings, hosting monthly flower shows, and taking part in annual plant sales and tours. The club belongs to the Ontario Horticultural Association (District 15).

The specific objectives of the club include:

  • Spreading the knowledge of horticulture by means of regular meetings, illustrated lectures, and free workshops
  • Holding exhibitions of flowers, vegetables, and decorative arrangements at which members are encourage to participate
  • Encouraging the beatification of home and public grounds
  • Stimulating the interest of children in gardening and the environment through the Junior Programme.

Various committees reporting to the Club Executive Board administer activities and programs in support of club objectives. As of 2013 the following committees are active: Awards; Bus Tour; Communications; Community Projects/Civic Program; Draw [raffles]; Flower Show; Garden Tour; Junior Program; Membership; Member Greeter; Newsletter; Nominating; Plant Sale; Official Photographer; Premiums; Program; Publicity; Social Convenors; Social Secretary; Yearbooks; and Website. The club used to have a Library Committee, but this has been discontinued.

Sources: Club Yearbook, Club website, and FAQ provided by the Club

CA : RPA · Corporate body · Nov. 1934 - [1968]

Queen Elizabeth Home and School Association was an organization to represent parent interests at the Queen Elizabeth Public School, and help teachers organize class events.

The first monthly meeting of the Middle Road Home and School Association was held in November 1934. (1) The school was renamed in honour of the then-Queen Consort, Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, better known as "The Queen Mother", in 1943, and the Home and School Association followed suit. (2) During the Second World War, the organization provided preschool services, to allow area mothers the time to take on war work. (3) Very active throughout the decades, they were the largest such organization in Peel County as of 1958, with a membership of 445. (4) During the late 1940s and early 1950s, the group ran an association library at the school, distinct from the school's own facility. (5)

A library at the site of the Queen Elizabeth Public School was started during the Second World War by the Queen Elizabeth Home and School Association, no later than 1944. It was completely separate from its venue and namesake, the school, receiving funding from both adult membership and government grants. In May 1948, it was spun-off as a separate organization, the Queen Elizabeth Library Association. It was volunteer-run, under direction of a librarian, Mrs. Wallberg. (6) Queen Elizabeth had the tenth highest circulation among the 219 Association Libraries in Ontario as of the 1952 annual general meeting. (7) As of 1952, the library would serve students on Wednesdays and Fridays through the day, and adult members on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. At some point in 1952 or 1953, the school established its own library for students.

Their January 1953 annual general meeting, intended to discuss the future of the library association, attracted only the members of its board. By March, the Toronto Township Recreation Commission was contesting the existing system of granting individual libraries and the Peel County Library Co-operative; previous correspondence suggests that the QELA wasn't able to get council to fund more than $30 per year. With only 10 members regularly borrowing books, the QEL didn't reopen in that autumn. (Records don't explain the sudden drop in users, although the school library may be key.)

Deciding that the members would be "adequately served by the Port Credit Public Library and the Cooksville Library", coupled with the school itself establishing their own library, they requested information from the Ontario Department of Education in October, requesting information on dissolution. Juvenile books were to be distributed to schools in south Peel, adult books to the Port Credit and Cooksville libraries, and remaining funds meant to purchase additional kids' books for the schools.

The Toronto Township bookmobile program was not started until 1958, and did not stop at Mineola until 1959. As of 2017, the closest branch to this area remains Port Credit.

The last known reference to the Queen Elizabeth Home and School Association was in January 1968. (8)

The Ontario Federation of Home and School Associations is the umbrella organization for this sort of entity. It was Canada's first provincial body for H&S As, incorporating in 1919. The first such group in Ontario was founded in 1896. Home and School Associations were similar to Parent Teacher Associations.

The school was also known as Toronto Township School Section No. 23.

Fitler, William Crothers
CA : RPA · Person · 1857-1911

Fitler is known as a "tonal landscape painter," whose works primarily covered New York, Connecticut, and Long Island. He moved from Philadelphia to New York in 1881.

Fitler married Claude Raquet Hirst, a female still life artist, on 18 June 1901. He became seriously ill in January 1911, dying on October 31. Hirst spents the majority of 1912 to 1915 liquidating Fitler's studio, and selling off his work throughout New York and the Midwest.

CA : RPA · Corporate body · [ca. 1975] - [ca. 1994]

Bramalea Parent Co-op Nursery School was originally created as the Bramalea Parent Co-operative Association, a group of nine parents from the Bramalea community, led by Anne Phillips. With the cooperation of the Greater Metro Toronto Parent Co-operative Preschool Council, the program was initiated "after some months," in September 1973, running two days a week.

The organization reached two milestones in September 1974. The first was growing to its maximum capacity of 42 children, spread between morning and afternoon programs, an enrollment cap that it maintained until at least 1991. The other occurrence was incorporation, incorporation was complete by February 1975. The co-op corporation became a registered charitable organization in July 1976. The group chose to become a formal affiliate of the City of Brampton in 1977, which afforded it various privileges, such as an exemption from Day Nurseries Act.

but also required the filing of board minutes, annual meeting minutes, and financial statements with the City.

The co-op had programs in music, creative arts (in partnership with Sheridan College), and Parent Education. The latter's involvement with the Toronto Association of Individual Psychology led to the creation of the Peel Parent Education Committee, formed of representatives from the Peel Children's Aid, Peel Family Services, Region of Peel Social Services department, the Brampton Public Library system, the YMCA, and Bramalea Parent Co-operative Nursery School. The organization also produced nine half-hour television programs, "Parents are People", aired on Rogers Cable 10.

The program expanded to three days a week in 1980, and five mornings a week in autumn 1985, split between two-day and three-day programs. With the creation of Junior Kindergarten in the autumn of 1989, enrollment declined and staff was decreased.

Kalec-Forster
CA : RPA · Corporate body · ca. 1923 - after 1941

Based on a document at mipolonia.net and the holdings at Region of Peel Archives, the company was named Kalec‐Forster from at least 1923 to 1927, and named Kalec Inc from at least 1931 to 1941. The business operated from 1420 Broadway (1923 to 1924), the "Hofman Building" (1925 to 1927, 1931 to 1932), and 5521 Cass Ave (1935 to 1938, 1940 to 1941).

Adams, Maureen (1924 - 2011)
CA : RPA · Person · 1924 - 2011

Maureen Adams was a children's librarian and puppeteer who lived in Brampton. She is best known for the 1950s family troupe "The Adams Marionettes", which performed across southern Ontario.

Studying at the University of Toronto, she earned a Bachelor of the Arts and a Bachelor of Library Science, working at libraries in Niagara Falls, Welland, Saskatoon, and Leeds, England. Once in Brampton, she was a teacher-librarian at Ridgeview Public School, McHugh Public School, and Agnes Taylor Public School.

She introduced puppetry into schools as an extracurricular activity, and taught workshops in Brampton and Toronto. She was a Charter member of the Ontario Puppetry Association, member of the Puppeteers of America, and co-founded the Puppetry Guild of Halton/Peel, of which she was President. (The guild made many appearances at the Peel Heritage Complex during kid's events in the 1990s.) A member of the Brampton Arts Council, she received Arts Person of the Year from the organization in 2006.

She met her husband John Adams while in library school, and married in 1952. They had three children.

Avondale Recreation Centre
CA : RPA · Corporate body

Avondale Recreation Centre is 55 Avondale Boulevard, a structure in front of Victoria Park Arena.

As of 2019, the building is home to 758 Argus Squadron and Peekaboo Child Care - Avondale.