Toronto's Founding Dog & How He Almost Got Eaten
Plus more canine history & The Festival of Bizarre Toronto History begins tomorrow!
It was the summer of 1793. The summer our city was founded. As the late July sun rose above Lake Ontario on an early Tuesday morning, a British warship sailed into Toronto Bay. It was HMS Mississauga. The ship had sailed overnight from Niagara, arriving in darkness, waiting for dawn and a local fur trader to lead the way through the treacherous shoals at the mouth of the harbour. On board was the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada: John Graves Simcoe. His family was with him, too. The Simcoes had come to found a new capital for the new province: a tiny muddy town that would eventually grow into a booming metropolis of concrete and glass filled with millions of people.
The Simcoes weren't alone. They had brought their pets with them. There was a white cat with grey spots and a big friendly beast of a dog. He was a Newfoundland. His name was Jack Sharp.
Newfoundlands are a Canadian breed. By the time Jack Sharp was born, the dogs had already been living on the island of Newfoundland for centuries. As I explain in a new episode of Canadiana you’ll find below, they've been there so long no one is entirely sure where they came from. Theories about their ancestry range from the wild wolves of Newfoundland to the domesticated hunting dogs of the local First Nations to the big black bear dogs the Vikings brought with them across the Atlantic a thousand years ago. But the most likely idea about their origin seems to be that they were bred by the first European fishermen to come to Canada — sailors from places like the Basque Country who spent their summers fishing the waters off the coast of Newfoundland in the very early 1500s. However it happened, by the time the first colonists made the island their permanent home, the Newfoundland dog was solidly established as its own distinct breed.
They were perfect for life on the frontier. Big and strong and brave. Smart and loyal. They’re strong swimmers with webbed feet and a thick, waterproof coat, famous for rescuing people. When the first European explorers headed west toward the Pacific, Newfoundlands were at their side — one travelled with the famous British-Canadian map-maker David Thompson; another with the Americans Lewis and Clark. The dogs became a familiar sight for Canadian settlers.
Jack Sharp was one of those frontier dogs. He lived in Niagara-on-the-Lake back in the days when it was still a new settlement — an isolated outpost at the spot where the Niagara River empties into Lake Ontario. It was called Newark back then, a tiny town with a tiny population. It didn’t even have a church yet. But for a few brief years, it was the centre of political power in Upper Canada, the capital of the colony founded by the British as a safe haven for Loyalist refugees fleeing the United States in the wake of the American Revolution. And built on land where Indigenous people had already been living for thousands of years.
The first lieutenant governor of the new province arrived at Niagara in the summer of 1792. It took John Graves Simcoe and his family nearly a year to make the long trip from England all the way out to the edge of the Canadian frontier. They spent two months sailing across the Atlantic, an entire winter stuck in Quebec City, and another two months travelling up the St. Lawrence River and across Lake Ontario.
Back home in England, they'd enjoyed life on a sprawling country estate with a legion of servants to take care of them. At Niagara, life was much more rustic. They pitched a pair of elaborate tents on the banks of the river — the same “canvas house” once used by the British explorer Captain James Cook on his famous travels through the Pacific. The Simcoes still had plenty of help and lots of nice things, but life in Canada was much more difficult than it had been back home. The governor's wife, Elizabeth, even suffered from a bout of malaria.
Still, the Simcoes did all they could to bring their British way of life to Upper Canada — that was, in fact, part of their mission. While her husband busied himself running his new province, Elizabeth kept a detailed diary, painted watercolours, did needlework and entertained the most powerful Upper Canadian families. Her calendar was filled with social events: dinners, dances, balls and card games. Even Prince Edward, the future father of Queen Victoria, came all the way to Niagara for an official state visit. And there were visits from important First Nations allies, too, like the Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, Thayendanegea.
Elizabeth also had a family to run. The Simcoes had brought their youngest children with them to Canada: Sophia was in her terrible twos; Francis had just turned one. Even with a pair of nurses to help, the toddlers were more than a handful. And Elizabeth was pregnant yet again. That winter in the canvas house, she gave birth to a baby girl they named Katherine.
Even on the frontier, the Simcoe children would grow up with plenty of pets. Once they got to Upper Canada, the Simcoes had been given a white cat with grey spots and a hound called Trojan. Trojan was a gift for the kids, but it was Elizabeth Simcoe that he loved best. He even slept in her room inside the canvas house at night. And soon, there was another new addition to the menagerie. Jack Sharp had been the sheriff's dog. But when the Simcoes arrived, the big Newfoundland quickly fell in love with them. Before long, he had managed to adopt them as his own, joining their growing family.
Elizabeth wrote about the animals in her diary — and about the mischief they caused. When Jack Sharp joined Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe on a long trip to Detroit, the big dog faced off against a raccoon and then attacked a porcupine and earned a neck full of quills. When Elizabeth left Trojan alone in her tent with a map she'd painstakingly drawn, the hound tore it to pieces. Her husband, who fancied himself something of a poet, even wrote some verses to mark the occasion: "Upon the Dog Trojan tearing the Map of N. America."
Sadly, Trojan wouldn't live to see Toronto. He met a tragic end in the spring of 1793 — on a strangely hot day in early April. The heat was sweltering, recorded as high as 45°C. It was so hot, Trojan fell ill. When one of Simcoe's soldiers noticed the symptoms, he made a terrible mistake: he thought the dog had contracted rabies. Trojan hadn't; if he had, he would have been scared of the water and not waded out into the river to cool off like he did. But the soldier didn't know any better. He shot the dog dead.
So that summer, when the Simcoe family left Niagara, it was only their cat and Jack Sharp who came with them.
They left because Niagara wasn't going to be safe anymore. Soon, the Americans would be taking over the other side of the river; it was one of the peace terms negotiated at the end of the Revolution. The big guns of Fort Niagara were over there — just across the mouth of the river from Niagara-on-the-Lake. The tiny capital would be almost impossible to defend if the Americans decided to invade. And it seemed inevitable they would. Simcoe needed to find a new capital. Fast.
The spot he eventually chose was directly north across the lake from Niagara: a place called Toronto. It stood at the end of an ancient First Nations portage trail and there, a natural harbour had been formed by a long sandbar that would eventually become the Toronto islands. There was only one way into the bay, so it would be relatively easy to defend against attack. That's where Simcoe would build his new capital.
In the middle of July, the lieutenant-governor sent a hundred soldiers across the lake to begin work. They were the Queen's Rangers; some of them, the very same men Simcoe had commanded while fighting against the American rebels during the Revolution. At Toronto, his troops would build on land the British had "bought" from the Mississaugas years earlier (with a treaty so sketchy the Canadian government would eventually settle a land claim for $145 million). Simcoe's men made camp at a spot near the entrance to the harbour, at the mouth of what would become known as Garrison Creek. There, they got to work felling trees, hacking away at the old forest that towered over the shore. Great pines and oaks came crashing to the ground. In their place, a military base began to take shape: Fort York. It was the beginning of a brand new town. Simcoe would call it York; we call it Toronto.
Back at Niagara, the Simcoes were getting ready to follow the Queen's Rangers across the lake. The lieutenant-governor had just finished overseeing a session of the Upper Canadian legislature — one of the most important parliamentary sessions in Canadian history. Simcoe wanted to abolish slavery. Parliament balked. Slave-holding families like the Jarvises and the Russells, invited to Upper Canada by Simcoe and given powerful positions within his government, were planning to bring enslaved people with them to the new capital. Simcoe was forced into a compromise. People who were already enslaved in Upper Canada would remain enslaved for the rest of their lives, while any children they had would be born into slavery and only freed when they reached the age of 25. The Act Against Slavery was the first law to limit slavery anywhere in the British Empire, but it didn’t immediately free anyone.
It was at the end of that same month, on July 29th, that the Simcoes left Niagara. That night, the family and their pets climbed aboard HMS Mississauga. It was a big warship, an armed schooner, an impressive way to travel — for a human or a dog.
As the Simcoes slept, the warship sailed north across the lake. Early the next morning, it made its careful way into Toronto Bay. It was the middle of the afternoon by the time the governor and his wife went ashore for the first time. And when they did, they brought the dog with them.
Jack Sharp was far from the first canine to ever set paw on this land. Wolves and foxes both roamed the forests of Toronto. And domesticated dogs had been here as long as humans. The people of the First Nations and their ancestors had been hunting with them on the northern shores of Lake Ontario for thousands and thousands of years before our city was founded. As Wendat historian George Sioui points out, dogs played an important role in the spiritual life of his own nation. French missionaries — anxious to paint the First Nations as "uncivilized" — claimed those dogs were only being raised for their meat. "Like sheep," they said. But in fact, dog meat was only consumed during important ritual ceremonies, and the people shared a close bond with their canine companions. The Wendat had long said that souls travel a path through the stars when they die: humans along the Milky Way, their dogs along a celestial dog path next to them. In more recent years, as the first Europeans arrived, other dogs must have visited Toronto, too. Many of the explorers, fur traders and early settlers who passed through the area must have dogs with them.
So Jack Sharp wasn't Toronto's first dog. But he was our city's founding dog: the canine member of the first family to establish the town that would grow into our modern metropolis.
A few days after they arrived, the Simcoes pitched their canvas house just across the creek from Fort York, where they could watch as the Queen's Rangers chopped and hammered and sawed. That's when they brought the children ashore, along with the nurses and servants. By the end of the first week of August, the entire Simcoe family, including Jack Sharp, was living in the fancy tents at the mouth of Garrison Creek. In the months to come, the town itself would begin to take shape: the first ten blocks were carved out of the woods where the St. Lawrence Market neighbourhoood is now. From George Street over to Berkeley; from Front Street up to Adelaide.
It's easy to imagine what life in Toronto must have been like for Jack Sharp. Splashing in the shallows of the bay as waterfowl scattered into the sky. Playing with the Simcoe children on the beach. Racing through the old forest, chasing chipmunks, rabbits and squirrels.
But for the humans, life on shore at Toronto was even harder than life at Niagara. There, at least, the settlers enjoyed an established town. Here, the town was still being built. Many of the province's most powerful families were shocked by the Simcoes' living conditions. As Peter Russell wrote to his sister, "you have no conception of the Misery in which they live." Many leading political families dragged their feet, staying at Niagara as long as they could before following the Simcoes across the lake to the new capital.
The First Family of Upper Canada suffered through an entire winter at Toronto. But the most terrible moment of the Simcoes' time in Canada came the following spring. Katherine Simcoe had been a very healthy baby; she was more than a year old now, beginning to walk and to talk, old enough to start playing with the cat and Jack Sharp. But in April she suddenly fell very ill. Based on the symptoms, it seems like to have been a case of meningitis. A fever turned into a terrifying night of uncontrollable spasms. By morning, she was gone. She was buried in a new cemetery near the fort; today, it's a park we call Victoria Memorial Square, near Bathurst & King.
For the Simcoes, death was never far away. The previous fall, Jack Sharp had had his own brush with mortality. And Lieutenant Governor Simcoe, too.
It came during a long trip north. Simcoe wanted to find the best route from Toronto all the way up to Lake Huron. Easy movement through the province would be vital in case of an American invasion. That threat was seeming ever-more imminent: the British were now at war with France, the Americans' allies, caught up in the violence that engulfed Europe in the wake the French Revolution. Simcoe was worried the trouble would spread across the Atlantic — as it eventually would with the War of 1812. The Simcoes' peaceful life at Toronto felt precarious. Enemy ships might sail over the horizon at any moment; enemy troops might emerge from the woods. As she slept in her canvas house at night, Elizabeth had nightmares about it. In fact, when the Simcoes finally sailed home to England, French warships would be waiting to chase them out of the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Both John Graves Simcoe and his son Francis would eventually die in the fight against Napoleon.
So that September, Simcoe and his men headed north with the help of Ojibway guides. Jack Sharp went with them, too. They travelled up the ancient Indigenous portage route that gave our city its name: the Toronto Carrying-Place. The big dog made for something of an awkward passenger in a canoe, but they made quick progress up the Humber River, through the marshlands far to the north of Toronto, and then along the Holland River to a lake the French called Lac aux Claies.
When they arrived, Simcoe renamed the lake, like he was renaming just about everything he found in Upper Canada. He called it "Lake Simcoe" — not after himself, but after his father, who had died in Canada during the last war against the French, just a few months before the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.
There, Simcoe found his route north. It wouldn't be hard to get from Lake Simcoe to Lake Huron — and to make things even easier, he would have a road built north from Toronto toward the lake. He named the road after a friend, the British Secretary at War: Sir George Yonge.
But getting home now — with Yonge Street still just a dream — would prove to be an unexpectedly perilous challenge.
As Simcoe, his men, his dog and the Ojibway guides all headed back south toward Toronto, luck began to turn against them. One man had nearly severed a toe and couldn't walk anymore; others would fall ill. The party was forced to split up. The group Simcoe was with only had enough food for one day, but had a five-day journey ahead of them. From there, things quickly got worse. They were taking a different route home than the one they'd taken north: this time, they were heading along the eastern fork of the Toronto Carrying-Place portage route, which headed south down the Rouge River. They got lost along the way, stumbling through the woods for days on end, never quite sure where they were. Meanwhile, their rations were growing dangerously low. If they didn't find home soon, they would starve.
Things were getting desperate. So a plan took shape. If they didn't find their way home that day, they would have no choice. They would kill Jack Sharp. And then eat him.
The Newfoundland was spared just in the nick of time. First, the men came across a surveyor's line. It was a good sign. And then, through the trees they spotted it: Lake Ontario. They finally knew where they were: just a few kilometres from their tiny new town. They were ecstatic. That morning, they wolfed down the rest of their food for breakfast and then finally headed west toward home.
The founder of Toronto was saved. And so was Toronto's founding dog.
If you’d like more strange stories about the city’s past, The Festival of Bizarre Toronto History is happening this week! You can find more information and get your tickets at www.bizarretoronto.com.
I was originally thinking of giving a talk about Jack Sharp during the festival, but couldn’t resist sharing the story of the Toronto Circus Riot instead. I will be giving a couple of lectures about him soon, though: for the Tecumseth and West Gwillimbury Historical Society on April 17 and then for the Swansea Historical Society on May 3. I’ll share more details about those in the weeks to come.
This story originally appeared on my old blog. You can find more sources and related links there.
Henderson Brewing Co. recently created a beer in honour of Jack Sharp, which you can learn more here. And it looks like they’ll be offering a special surprise for some attendees of The Festival of Bizarre Toronto History. Make sure to get your tickets or follow me on social media at @todreamsproject for more news about that as soon as I can officially share it.
And those aren’t the only reasons I thought this would be a good week to share the story of Jack Sharp. He also features in our brand new episode of Canadiana…
The Extraordinary Adventures of the Newfoundland Dog
As I mentioned above, Jack Sharp is far from the only Newfoundland dog to play an interesting role in Canadian history. They’ve saved lives in shipwrecks, crossed the continent with famous explorers, and even fought on the frontlines during the Second World War. So, we made a whole episode of our Canadian history documentary series, Canadiana, all about them.
It came out last weekend and it’s free to watch right here:
The Festival of Bizarre Toronto History Begins Tomorrow!
After being an idea in my head for years, tomorrow it becomes a reality. The Festival of Bizarre Toronto History is dedicated to exploring strange stories from our city's past — a week filled with online lectures, panels, interviews, and walking tours featuring some of Toronto's greatest storytellers. Every weeknight will feature a live Zoom event (all of which will also be recorded so you can watch it whenever you like) and then on the weekend we’ll head out into the city for a couple of walking tours.
You can get tickets for the whole festival or for individual events.
You’ll find more information at www.bizarretoronto.com.
A quick reminder that even if you aren’t able to attend the festival, you can support my work by switching to a paid subscription for The Toronto History Weekly. Fewer than 5% of readers have made the switch so far, which basically means that by offering a few dollars a month you’ll be giving the gift of Toronto history to 20 other people. You can make the switch by clicking here:
QUICK LINKS
The best of everything else that’s new in Toronto’s past…
KNIVES CHAU NEWS — A beloved piece of modern Toronto history looks like it will soon be returning to our screens. The Scott Pilgrim graphic novels captured the city of the early 2000s in print. Then they were adapted for the big screen in the joyous 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Now, director Edgar Wright has announced the film’s star-powered cast is set to reunite to make an anime version for Netflix. Read more.
WE’RE GETTING A NEW MUSEUM NEWS — A new museum is set to open in Toronto this fall, as Joshua Chong reports in The Toronto Star. “Canada’s Theatre Museum has found its new home at the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre, with actor Colm Feore as its honorary patron.” Read more.
FORE! NEWS — Jason Kucherawy (owner of Tour Guys and president of the Tourist Guide Association of Toronto) will be leading the Weird Queen West tour with me on the final day of the Festival of Bizarre Toronto History. He recently shared a strange little piece of Toronto history: a Wayne and Shuster comedy sketch about urban golf that gives us a glimpse into what the city looked like back in 1971. Watch it.
POTUS NEWS — At Toronto Life, Morgan Cameron Ross shares some old photos of American presidents visiting Toronto. And some other U.S. politicians and their relatives, too. From Dwight D. Eisenhower to Barack Obama. Read more.
TORONTO HISTORY EVENTS
TEN OF TORONTO: WHAT DO TEN NEIGHBOURHOODS TELL US ABOUT WHO WE ARE?
Until April 30 — Myseum — 401 Richmond Street West
“Toronto is vast and diverse in people, places, and experiences. With 2.8 million of us who call this dynamic city home, we explore what it means to call Toronto a ‘city of neighbourhoods’ through the lens of 10 distinct communities and themes. In Ten of Toronto, we reflect on our shared histories by looking at the forces that have shaped the city’s neighbourhoods: geography, economy, immigration, finance, urban development, culture, inequality, and social values. Join us, steal away, and stay awhile. We invite you to discover your own path through the stories and histories we’ve unearthed for this exhibit, and lend your voice – what do neighborhoods mean to you?”
Free!
I TURN MY CAMERA ON: TORONTO ALT-ROCK IN THE 1980s
Until April 30 — The Local — 396 Roncesvalles
West end bar The Local will be displaying photographs taken by Jeremy Gilbert during the golden age of Toronto alt rock.
Free presumably!
TORONTO’S MAYORS FROM MUDDY YORK TO MEGA CITY
April 13 — 7pm — Toronto’s First Post Office — Town of York Historical Society
“Join special guest speaker, Frank Nicholson, on Thursday April 13 at Toronto’s First Post Office, as he unfolds the history of Toronto through the careers of some of the sixty-five chief magistrates the city has had since being incorporated in 1834; a timely subject given Toronto’s upcoming mayoral election!”
$11.98 for non-members; $6.66 for members
BLACK HISTORY IN ONTARIO: ONLINE SERIES
This is a series of three free online talks hosted by the Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society, each one beginning at 7:30pm:
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD (April 13)
“Adrienne Shadd will discuss her research for her book The Underground Railroad: Next Stop, Toronto!, co-authored by Afua Cooper and Karolyn Smardz Frost. Her discovery of freedom seeker Deborah Brown, who settled just north of Bloor and Bathurst streets, led to the unearthing of a community of neighbours in this York Township west area, some of whom were immortalized by William Still in his famous work, The Underground Railroad. She will also talk about some of the research and personalities that are profiled in the new 2022 edition of the book.”
THE SEARCH FOR ALFRED LAFFERTY, BLACK EDUCATOR AND LAWYER (April 20)
“In 1869 Alfred M. Lafferty, M.A., Richmond Hill, was a witness to the marriage of William Denis Lafferty, a black farmer who lived in Etobicoke. Who was the man with the same surname and a university degree? Hilary J. Dawson’s research uncovered the story of the Lafferty family, and the successes, challenges, and tragedies they faced. The Lafferty parents arrived from the United States in the 1830s as freedom-seekers. They were illiterate and penniless, yet gave their children the best education they could afford. Alfred Lafferty won prizes for excellence at both Upper Canada College and the University of Toronto. He would become the first Canadian-born black lawyer in Ontario. This presentation will show the resources Hilary used to develop a picture of the Lafferty family.”
BLACK HISTORY IN ONTARIO, 1793–1965
“Winston Anderson will be presenting a timeline of events from the passing of the Act To Limit Slavery in 1793 by Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe, to 1965 when MPP Leonard Braithwaite pushed for the Separate Schools clause on segregated schools for Blacks to be officially removed from the provincial education policy. He will be discussing a number of people of Black heritage, both free and enslaved people, who shaped Toronto.”
Free!
STREETCARS AND THE SHIFTING GEOGRAPHIES OF TORONTO
April 20 — 8:30pm — Online — The Toronto Railway Museum
“What can photos taken by streetcar enthusiasts reveal about the changing nature of cities? This is the question explored by Brian and Michael Doucet in their book Streetcars and the Shifting Geographies of Toronto: a visual analysis of change. The Doucets carefully and meticulously rephotograph these images taken in the 1960s and 70s to bring them into dialogue with contemporary planning, policy, political and public debates.”
ERNEST HEMINGWAY IN TORONTO
April 27 — 2pm — Brentwood Library
“Ernest Hemingway lived in Toronto during 1923 while he worked for the Toronto Star newspaper. He had moved to the city from France with his pregnant wife Hadley, as she preferred to give birth in North America. Their son, John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway, was born at Wellesley Hospital, in Toronto, on October 10, 1923. This special centennial presentation considers the role the area played in Hemingway's apprenticeship as a writer, and in his personal life.”
Free!