In 1871 when the first locomotive of the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway steamed north toward Owen Sound, it passed through Orangeville, stopping at its new railway station. Ten years later, this growing town had become Dufferin’s County Town, the site of its courthouse, registry office and jail.
Orangeville, Dufferin County’s major town, was not incorporated until 1863. Accoridng to a new book on Dufferin County by Nicola Ross, its name, however, was not connected with the Loyal Orange Lodge, an organization that at the time, was a powerful force in Ontario. Nor was it a choice between the names Newtonville and Orangeville that involved a bet concerning how fast it would take a whiskey bottle to travel safely over the rapids in a local millrace. Orangeville was named as a tribute to Orange Lawrence, the mill’s owner and the town’s first postmaster. And, no, Orange Lawrence was not an Orangeman.
But Orange Lawrence was not Orangeville’s only leading citizen. There was also Jesse Ketchum the Third, the son of another Jesse, a philanthropic temperance leader and a member of Upper Canada’s legislature. Jesse was also the nephew of Seneca Ketchum, an unordained preacher licensed by Bishop John Strachan (strawn) as the Missionary of the Township of Mono. Jesse was the man who laid out the streets of Orangeville, naming the main thoroughfare Broadway and numbering the streets and avenues. All of this was borrowed from New York City, a reflection of the hope Jesse Ketchum had for his new town.
Though Broadway did not live up to its more famous namesake, Orangeville fared well. The seat of County Council and home to a completely renovated Opera House, Orangeville, with a population of over 25,000, is a flourishing, creative community that was not named after the Loyal Orange Order. And it remains one of the few parts of Ontario that did not fall under the knife of municipal amalgamation.
Originally aired September 9th 2016
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