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The Johnston Family Farms

It has already been noted how some pioneer families, such as the Risebroughs, have made the work of genealogists and historians more difficult by giving their sons the same first names as their fathers and grandfathers. With the Johnstons, this phenomenon has not only been duplicated, but carried to the next level by the frequent elimination of the letter “t” from the family’s surname in official records. It’s not the family’s fault of course and an honest mistake since the two spellings sound virtually identical. Thankfully, the Johnsons — sorry, Johnstons — have made things a little easier by doing their farming in a well-defined area around Leslie and Finch, so even if a couple of the exact names are unclear, the family narrative is not that difficult to follow.

Some sources list a Thomas Johnston as the first member of the family to arrive from Sligo, Ireland, in the early 1800s. This may well have been true, but the first Johnston to appear on deeds in the area was James Johnston, who was granted Lot 22-3E by the Crown in 1816, and who bought the west half of Lot 20-3E, on the southeast corner of Leslie and Finch, as well as the eastern quarter of Lot 22-2E, in 1817. Other sources describe Thomas arriving in North York in 1837. The land records clearly give the nod to James. It is equally clear that the Johnstons would continue to accumulate farmland in the area for nearly eighty years after James’s first land grant, and would continue to farm in North York for nearly 140 years — an incredible demonstration of perseverance, matched only by two or three other families in the entire area.

The pattern of the Johnstons’ land acquisitions was somewhat unusual in that they never really purchased entire lots. In fact, James Johnston’s original Crown grant to Lot 22-3E was the only time that the family would ever acquire an entire two-hundred-acre lot in one fell swoop. They would eventually own over six hundred acres in the area, but it was all acquired in increments of fifty or one hundred acres at a time. As noted, James himself had assembled 350 acres by 1817.

Twenty more years would pass before Thomas’s name appeared on a deed when he bought the southern half of lot 24-3E, three-quarters-of-a-mile south of Steeles Avenue, between Leslie Street and Woodbine Avenue. This was the most northerly land that the family would ever farm. James passed away and willed his farmland to his wife, Lois, and their six sons in 1837, with the provision that the sons pay an annual stipend to their sisters who, inherited household goods and furnishings but not farmland.

Thomas Johnston’s house on Lot 23-3E, shown here in the 1890s in its original configuration, was located on the east side of Leslie Street between Finch and Steeles Avenues.

Photographer unknown, North York Historical Society, NYHS 1229.

For the next sixty years, the family would continue to buy more land and expand their farms. They would also get into milling when John Johnston bought the Reading Mills, in the middle of Lot 22-2E, from John Cummer in 1868. By all accounts, the Johnstons took a progressive approach to the business of farming, as was the case when Thomas was credited with owning the first threshing machine in York County. The family was also involved in many community activities and hosted the first meetings of the local Primitive Methodist Church in James’s house.

For nearly a century and a half, the Johnstons’ names fluttered down through North York history like autumn leaves. Here is a roughly chronological list of some of the names as they appeared on the deeds to the farms from 1817 to 1955: James, John, Thomas, Thomas Jr., Henry, Ellen, another John, another James, William, another Henry, Silas, Lucy, Robert J., Silas W., William H., Fanny, and, finally, Robert Wesley Johnston. The last two names on the list, Fanny and Robert Wesley, son of Robert James Johnston, may be the most interesting to current residents of North York, since they appear to be among the last to farm Johnston family lands.

The last ride, looking east along Finch Avenue East, from Page Avenue to Leslie Street, in March of 1961. A group of riders set out from the Edwin Ness stables, heading north across Finch to the still-open land in that direction. At one point, the Johnstons’ farms covered virtually all of the land in this photo.

Photo by Ted Chirnside, Toronto Public Library, TC-365.

In 1934, Fanny sold the east half of Lot 20-2E, on the southwest corner of Leslie and Finch. The farm had been in the family since 1868 and stretched from Leslie Street westwards towards the present-day Page Avenue. It was a particularly beautiful farm, even by North York standards, embracing as it did the majestic sweep of the East Don Valley. The farm’s new owner in 1934 was one Joseph Thadeus Sutherland Cannon, a Toronto stockbroker who seemed to be weathering the Depression rather well. He bought the Johnston farm to use as a country estate. The farm already featured two houses and a large barn, to which he added a beautiful new stone house that stands to this day at 10 Woodthrush Court. He christened his new estate “Bridleridge.”

In 1940, the western fifty acres of Bridleridge, including the main house, were sold to Charles T. McMullen for somewhere in the neighbourhood of $35,000. Imagine going back in time and making that purchase? The McMullens were avid equestrians and enjoyed riding their horses through the valley lands until they sold the property in 1950. This time the new owner, Edwin Ness, had a commercial venture in mind. Edwin converted the property to accommodate a riding school and stable, but mother nature and urban sprawl had a couple of surprises up their sleeves that would soon still the sound of hoofbeats.

Shortly before midnight, on October 15, 1954, Hurricane Hazel roared through Toronto with life-altering results. Eighty-one people were killed, including five volunteer firemen whose truck was swept into the raging Humber River. Houses and businesses in the river valleys were severely damaged or swept away altogether. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the City of Toronto created the Metropolitan Toronto and Region Conservation Authority to oversee the valley lands of the Humber, Rouge, and Don Rivers and their tributaries. Further development in the river valleys was forbidden and private land in the valleys was expropriated to allow for the implementation of flood control measures.

At the same time all of this was happening, the new subdivision of Bayview Village was being constructed directly to the southwest of Edwin Ness’s riding stables. It was a perfect storm of change, and yet the stables held on for a surprisingly long time, isolated as they were on Bayview Village’s northern border. The group of people on horseback setting out at the corner of Finch and Page Avenues in 1961 likely participated in one of the last rides, since the surrounding area to the southwest was now fully built out.

Soon the riding stables were gone, and, by 1962, the last houses in Bayview Village were built in the area surrounding Heathview and Page Avenues, looking distinctly different than their 1950s neighbours to the south. The river valley was now in the hands of the municipal government. This latter change preserved a spectacular piece of the Johnstons’ original farmland. Now known as the East Don Parkland, the trail through the river valley offers the twenty-first-century visitor a tantalizing chance to escape the hustle and bustle of the surrounding tableland. This farm will be revisited in the somewhat bizarre tale of oilman Donald Springer and the massive barn that he converted into a house on former Johnston farmland in the 1940s.

In 1955, Robert Wesley Johnston sold the farm his family had farmed for four generations and retired to a house in Willowdale. The farm on the southeast corner of today’s Leslie Street and McNicoll Avenue had been started by Robert’s great-grandfather, Thomas, in 1853. That was the year that Thomas, who had emigrated from Ireland some years earlier, was granted the northwest fifty acres of the lot — Lot 23-3E. Eleven years later the family would add another fifty acres to the farm when they purchased the southwest corner of the lot. The Johnstons now owned the western half of the lot, while the James Bell family of Spruce Lane Farm owned the eastern half.

The Johnston farm was handed down through the years as each new generation took the reins. Thomas Johnston Junior took over from his father, who died in 1869, two years after confederation. Following Thomas Junior was his son, Robert James Johnston, who helped build the Zion schoolhouse on Johnston family farmland in 1869. In 1902, Robert Wesley Johnston was born on the family farm. As he grew up, the Zion School would loom large in his life. He attended the school as a boy and later served as a school trustee. He even met his wife there, the former Agnes Euphemia McDougall, who taught at the school. They would work together on the farm, raising three daughters — Mary, Roberta, and Audrey — along the way, surrounded by countless relatives on the neighbouring Johnston farms. Robert Johnston’s farm included pigs, chickens, a dairy herd, and acres of grain. The family turned part of their front yard into a vegetable patch to supply their own larder and also grew raspberries, strawberries, apples, and pears. Robert travelled into the city on a regular basis, selling hay to Toronto delivery companies who depended on horse-drawn wagons to deliver milk, bread, ice, and many other commodities well into the 1950s.

Robert Wesley Johnston, the last Johnston to farm in North York, is pictured here circa 1910 as a determined looking young lad with his sister, Zelma May (Mrs. John Johnston), and their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert James Johnston.

Photographer unknown, North York Historical Society, NYHS 1242.

Thomas Johnston’s house is shown in 1964 after subsequent additions and renovations.

Photo by Dorothy Milne, North York Historical Society, NYHS 861.

By the 1950s, property taxes in North York were spiralling out of control as the demand for postwar housing reached a fever pitch. When 1955 rolled around, Robert, though not an old man, was old enough to read the writing on the wall. When he started farming in the 1920s, the population of the newly created Township of North York was somewhere in the region of 7,000 people. By 1955, that figure had exceeded 150,000 and was increasing rapidly. By 1963 there would be over 300,000 people in North York. These people all needed somewhere to live and Robert decided that his farm would be as good a place as any, so, in 1955, he sold it to developers who were planning a subdivision that they called Hillcrest Village.

Photos from 1964 show the family home still standing in a livable condition, but by year’s end it was gone. It wouldn’t be until the late 1960s that the new subdivision was completed, however. This was not an unusual situation as much of the farmland in North York was bought on speculation, before any rezoning, financing, blueprints, or permits had been finalized. In addition, North York would have had to agree to the construction of new roads, sewers, and other essential infrastructure. These steps often took years. In the interim, developers would rent the land to any farmers still working in the area and then use the farmhouses as sales offices for the new subdivisions. The houses were usually the last physical traces of the farms that once surrounded them. When the subdivisions were sold out, the farmhouses, no longer needed as sales offices, would be demolished. Other Johnston farmhouses in the area also survived into the 1960s, but not beyond.

Robert Wesley Johnston died at Branson Hospital on December 20, 1966, survived by his wife, daughters, sister, and three grandchildren. He had not yet reached official retirement age, but he had enjoyed his own eleven-year retirement that was spent gardening, restoring antique furniture, and involving himself with the Willowdale United Church. His pallbearers included fellow North York farmers Robert McDougall, Worts Gooderham, and Alfred Trimble, as well as newly retired district police chief and former farmer, John Harrison.

What remarkable thread ran through this family that would see farms passed seamlessly down through the generations for nearly 150 years? What would they think of their farms now? What would they think of us?