Bowmanville is a community of approximately 60,000 people located in the municipality of Clarington, in the Durham Region of Southern Ontario, Canada. It is approximately east of Toronto, and east of Oshawa along Highway 2. Bowmanville was first incorporated as a town in 1858, but later incorporated with the neighbouring townships of Clarke and Darlington in 1974 forming the Town of Newcastle, which was renamed in 1994 to the Municipality of Clarington. Bowmanville is part of the Greater Toronto Area.
History In 1794, John Burk and his family arrived west of Barber's Creek (now Bowmanville Creek) on the beach of Lake Ontario, attracted to Canada when John Graves Simcoe proclaimed that all males over 18 who settled in the country would receive of land. Burk purchased land and began to clear the forest in an area that would become Bowmanville.
Mills were built first on Barber's Creek (now called Bowmanville Creek), including Vanstone's Mill, which still stands today at the present-day intersection of King Street and Scugog St. More mills were built on nearby Soper Creek. One of them still stands and houses the municipality's Visual Arts Centre, which has been designated as an architecturally protected historical building.By-law 79-033 - Municipality of Clarington.
Burk later sold his land to Lewis Lewis. Lewis opened the first store in what was then called Darlington Mills. Charles Bowman (for whom the town was eventually named) purchased the store around 1824. He then established the settlement's first post office. Its first postmaster, Robert Fairbairn, ran the post office from 1828 to 1857. Bowmanville incorporated as a town in 1858.
By 1866, the town of Bowmanville had a population of about 3,500 in the township of Darlington, County Durham, on the north shore of Lake Ontario. A station of the Grand Trunk Railway was located there. The town possessed a good harbour, and extensive water power potential in its vicinity. The surrounding country was fertile.The province of Ontario gazetteer and directory. H. McEvoy Editor and Compiler, Toronto: Robertson & Cook, Publishers, 1869
The success of the Vanstone Mill, fueled by the Crown's land grant program, led to rapid expansion of the Bowmanville settlement in the early years of the 19th century. Under the generous yet discriminating eyes of wealthy local merchants such as John Simpson and Charles Bowman, small properties were sold to promote settlement and small business. The town developed a balanced economy; all the while gradually establishing itself as a moderate player in shipping, rail transport, metal works and common minor business (including tanneries, liveries, stables and everyday mercantile trade in commodities).
By the time of Confederation (1867), Bowmanville was a vital, prosperous and growing town, home to a largely Scots-Presbyterian community with all manner of farmers, workers, and professionals making the town their home. It had local economic stability and accessible, abundant land available for the construction of housing. The town soon supported several new churches, each designated to house Free and Auld Kirk, Anglican and Nonconformist congregations, including the Bible Christian Church, later to be a major stream of Canadian Methodism.
At present, St. John's Anglican Church. St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, St. Paul's United Church and the impressively ornate Trinity United Church (site of an old Auld Kirk church) still serve the community. All of these edifices, appropriately, lie on or are in close proximity to present-day Church Street.
In the 19th century, in 1857, the Ontario Bank was founded in Bowmanville, with local resident John Simpson as its first president. The bank, while appearing to be a local enterprise, was primarily controlled by 16 Montreal businessmen. The Ontario bank eventually opened local branches including locations in Whitby, Oshawa, and Port Hope. In 1874, it was moved to Toronto, and would later become insolvent as a result of investing in speculative stocks in 1906.Humber, William."A Small Town On The Edge". Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc.,1997, p19-21 The historic Ontario Bank building at the intersection of King and Temperance was demolished in 1971 Humber, William."A Small Town On The Edge".Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc.,1997, p121
CensusPopulationTown of Bowmanville184150018713,03418813,50418913,37719012,73119112,81419213,23319314,08019414,11319515,43019617,39719718,947Town of Newcastle198132,229199149,479Bowmanville - Newcastle200132,777200638,966201143,555Bowmanville201135,168201639,371202156,742
In 1884, Scottish immigrant John McKay opened the Cream of Barley Mill next to Soper Creek to manufacture a cereal of his own creation. "Cream of Barley" was shipped throughout the British Empire.Taws, Charles. "When Barley was King!" ClaringtonPromoter, December 2012.Taws, Charles, "From Cereal to Elephants, the History of the Bowmanville Zoo", Clarington Promoter, December 2013.
Local business organized and modernized in the 20th century, with the Dominion Organ and Piano factory, Specialty Paper Company, the Bowmanville Foundry, and the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company (1910) all providing steady work for Bowmanville's ever-growing working populations. Goodyear even went so far as to provide affordable housing for its employees, and present day Carlisle Ave. (built by Goodyear president W.C. Carlisle) in the 1910s still stands as one of Ontario's best preserved examples of industrial housing. The land on which the Bowmanville Hospital was built was donated by J.W. Alexander, the owner of the then-prospering Dominion Organ and Piano factory.
Formal education evolved in-step with Ryersonian philosophies of the day, and the advent of the Central Public School (1889) and the Bowmanville High School (1890), (both designed by Whitby architect A.A. Post) were the finishing touches to the town that was a model of then-Ontario Premier Oliver Mowat's philosophy of education, expansion and innovation for the citizens of the province.
The 20th century saw a steady rise in the construction of area schools, with Vincent Massey P.S. (1955); St. Joseph Catholic Elementary (1962, 2000 at present site); Waverly P.S. (1978); Dr. Ross Tilley P.S. (1993); St. Elizabeth Catholic Elementary (1998); John M. James P.S. (1999); Harold Longworth P.S. (2003); and Holy Family Catholic Elementary School (2007), all accommodating gradual population increases and building developments in specific demographic areas of the town. The local school board was amalgamated with neighboring jurisdictions to form the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board in 1997. The Catholic schools are part of the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board which had already merged four counties in 1969 (at that time it was named the Peterborough, Victoria, Northumberland and Durham Separate School Board).
As the town grew and prospered, so arrived Bowmanville's grand era of architectural building and refinement. Specimens of Italianate, Gothic Revival, Colonial Brick and Queen Anne architecture remain in Bowmanville's older central neighborhoods. Much of Bowmanville's residential and commercial architectural heritage was either lost or threatened by demolition and modern development from 1950 to 1980, but a 25-year renaissance in appreciation and awareness (led largely by local historians and LACAC members) helped to preserve the remnants of days gone by.
Bowmanville was incorporated as a village in 1852 and as a town in 1858. In 1974, the town was amalgamated with neighbouring Clarke Township and Darlington Township to form the Town of Newcastle which in turn was renamed the Municipality of Clarington in 1994.
Subdivided housing developments first arrived in the 1950s, with a significant increase in housing development through the 1980s and 1990s. The population rose to about 10,000 in the 1970s, about 20,000 in the 1980s, about 25,000 in the 1990s and today is about 35,000. Transportation improvements in the 1980s included a widening of Highway 401 (first built through Bowmanville in 1952) to six lanes and of Highway 2 to 4/5 lanes. Many have referred to this as the "Lane Era" of Bowmanville.
Prisoner of war camp
Camp 30, the Lake Ontario Officers' Camp-Bowmanville, held captive German army officers from the Afrika Korps, Luftwaffe aircrew and naval officers from the Kriegsmarine. Farms surrounded the camp that had been a delinquent boys' school prior to the war. In several accounts by former prisoners of war (POWs), the prison was represented as very humane, in that the prisoners were well treated and well fed.
Among the German officers transferred from England to Bowmanville was Korvettenkapitän Otto Kretschmer, who was the top U-boat ace of World War II. Kretschmer assumed the duties of the senior naval officer, sharing the command with the senior Luftwaffe officer Oberstleutnant Hans Hefele and the senior army officer General Leutnant Hans von Ravenstein.
The Bowmanville boys' school had been quickly turned into a POW camp by surrounding the existing school buildings with a barbed wire fence. The facility, which had been designed to house 300 boys, was cramped and undersized for grown men. Two fences with electric lights every twelve feet and nine guard towers surrounded the site. The fence had sixty miles of barbed wire looped around the small perimeter. Lieutenant Colonel R.O. Bull M.C. had a support staff plus the Veterans Guard of Canada, consisting of nine officers and 239 other ranks under his command to guard the prisoners.
When the naval prisoners arrived at Bowmanville, there were no recreational facilities. The naval officers quickly transformed the camp. Flower and vegetable gardens were planted, sports fields, tennis courts and a swimming pool were built. The quarters were expanded, giving the prisoners better living conditions. The prisoners received money from home or earned extra money by manufacturing wooden furniture. They were able to purchase beer, cigarettes and dry goods from Eaton's mail order catalogue. It was an ideal life except that there were no women and no freedom. For some there was the urge to get back to the war and defend their country, and for others a desire to remain POWs for the duration of the war.
A daily routine of exercise, sporting events and work assignments was established. As well as English being taught, professors from the nearby University of Toronto gave lectures for university credit classes. A school was also formed, which taught midshipmen seamanship and navigation courses.
Current movies were shown each week. National and religious holidays were observed, and music concerts were given regularly. Elaborate stage plays were produced. Extraordinary puppets were designed and fabricated for puppet shows. Although the conditions were good in the Canadian POW camps, there was very little to do, and the routine was always the same.
Battle of Bowmanville
In October 1942, in a prisoner of war uprising known as the Battle of Bowmanville, between 150 and 400 mostly German prisoners revolted against the guards at Camp 30 after they were shackled as retribution as part of the escalation of Germany's new Commando Order.
Lt.Col. James Taylor had asked German senior officer Georg Friemel to supply 100 prisoners to volunteer to be shackled as part of the ongoing international dispute. When he refused, Otto Kretschmer and Hans Hefele were also asked to provide volunteers, but refused.