Tomstown is an unincorporated community in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in the unincorporated township of Ingram within the Unorganized, West Part division of Timiskaming District.
The community is located on Secondary Highway 569, a few kilometres east of Heaslip, Ontario.
The town was named after Ulysses Henry Thomas when the town's post office opened in 1903. Previously, the place had been known colloquially as Uncle Thomas Town. [1] The abridged "Tomstown" appears to be the homophonic spelling of "Thomastown".
The first people to live in the Lake Temiskaming area were Algonquins who used the area for trapping, hunting and fishing. They inhabited the lands along the Lake Temiskaming-Ottawa River waterway, Lake Kippawa, North Temiskaming, Blanche and Wabi Rivers.
During the late-19th century, the provincial government had become interested in the economic potential of "new" or northern Ontario. The government organized surveying parties to travel through northern Ontario identifying natural resources and mapping the region. In 1874, the Ontario-Quebec boundary was surveyed and the land above Lake Temiskaming, including the northern townships, was mapped by Dr. Robert Bell and his assistant Arthur Barlow in 1887. In 1899, Barlow wrote a report on the geology and natural resources of the area, which suggested that the rich belt of clay that lay north of the big lake was ideal for agricultural settlement.
From 1897 to 1901 80,000 acres of land had been sold in the Temiskaming area. The government put restrictions on the sale of each piece of property to prevent speculators from buying up all of the land. Property owners were required to clear at least 15 acres (61,000 m2) of land, build a 16x20ft house, and spend a certain amount of time on the property. Veterans of the Fenian Raids and the Boer War were given free land.
Initial settlers to the Township of Ingram, Ontario and 'Uncle Thomas Town' were from the Counties of Simcoe, Oxford and North Glengary who decided to settle north of Thornloe because much of the good land close to the town had already been taken up. They were followed by settlers from Renfrew and the Southern Counties of Leeds, Cumberland, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington, many of whom where descendants of United Empire Loyalists United Empire Loyalist
Paddle wheel boats operated by Oliver Latour in the early 1880s, from the most southern tip of Lake Temiskaming, at Mattawa traveling as far north as 'Uncle Tom's Town' on the Blanche River delivering settlers, livestock and supplies. One of the early roads in the area was built in 1904 connecting Charlton and Dack, Ontario to Tomstown to improve the flow of goods and people. With the coming of rail to Englehart in 1908, the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway ended the steamer service, and Tomstown's commercial and logistical importance declined.
The settlers worked their farms during the spring, summer and fall and during the winter many worked for large lumbering companies such as J.R. Booth. Logs were hewed and transported by teams of horses onto the frozen ice of the Blanche River below the rapids at 'Uncle Thomas Town' during freeze up when the steamers could not operate. With the spring thaw these timber rafts were floated downriver to the mills at New Liskeard. This cheap means to transport timber was continued until the late 1960s when halted for environmental concerns.
Essex County is a primarily rural county in Southwestern Ontario, Canada comprising seven municipalities: Amherstburg, Kingsville, Lakeshore, LaSalle, Leamington, Tecumseh and the administrative seat, Essex.
Timiskaming is a district and census division in Northeastern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. The district was created in 1912 from parts of Algoma, Nipissing, and Sudbury districts. In 1921, Cochrane District was created from parts of this district and parts of Thunder Bay District.
The District Municipality of Muskoka, more generally referred to as the District of Muskoka or Muskoka, is a regional municipality in Central Ontario, Canada. Muskoka extends from Georgian Bay in the west, to the northern tip of Lake Couchiching in the south, to the western border of Algonquin Provincial Park in the east. A two-hour drive north of Toronto, Muskoka spans 6,475 km2 (2,500 sq mi). Muskoka has some 1,600 lakes, making it a popular cottaging destination.
Temiskaming Shores is a city in the Timiskaming District in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It was created by the amalgamation of the town of New Liskeard, the town of Haileybury, and the township of Dymond in 2004. The city had a total population of 9,634 in the Canada 2021 Census. Temiskaming Shores is Ontario's second-smallest city, in terms of population, after Dryden. Haileybury is the seat of Timiskaming District.
The Grand River, formerly known as The River Ouse, is a large river in Ontario, Canada. It lies along the western fringe of the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario which overlaps the eastern portion of southwestern Ontario, sometimes referred to as Midwestern Ontario, along the length of this river. From its source near Wareham, Ontario, it flows south through Grand Valley, Fergus, Elora, Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, Paris, Brantford, Oshweken, Six Nations of the Grand River, Caledonia, and Cayuga before emptying into the north shore of Lake Erie south of Dunnville at Port Maitland. One of the scenic and spectacular features of the river is the falls and Gorge at Elora.
Bradford is the primary country urban area of the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury, Ontario, in Canada. It overlooks a farming community, known as The Holland Marsh, located on the Holland River that flows into Lake Simcoe.
Whitewater Region is a township on the Ottawa River in Renfrew County, located within the scenic Ottawa Valley in eastern Ontario, Canada. Whitewater Region is made up of the former municipalities of Beachburg, Cobden, Ross and Westmeath, which were amalgamated into the current township on January 1, 2001.
Minden Hills is a township in and the county seat of Haliburton County, Ontario, Canada. It is an amalgam of the townships of Snowdon, Lutterworth, Anson, Hindon and Minden. It is usually referred to as Minden, after its largest community.
The Clay Belt is a vast tract of fertile soil stretching between the Cochrane District in Ontario, and Abitibi County in Quebec, covering 180,000 square kilometres (69,000 sq mi) in total with 120,000 square kilometres (46,000 sq mi) of that in Ontario. It is generally subdivided into the Great Clay Belt to the north running eastward from Kapuskasing, past Lake Abitibi and on to Amos, and the V-shaped Lesser Clay Belt to its south, running from Englehart down to the Wabi River to the northern tip of Lake Timiskaming, and long the eastern side of Timiskaming and back up to Rouyn-Noranda. The Clay Belt is the result of the draining of the Glacial Lake Ojibway around 8,200 BP, whose lakebed sediment forms the modern landform. The Clay Belt is surrounded by the Canadian Shield, forming an island of "southern flatlands" in the midst of the hilly and rocky surroundings. Similar "glaciolacustrine deposits" dot the northern areas of Ontario, Quebec and Labrador.
Englehart is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, located on the Blanche River in the Timiskaming District.
Deseronto is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, in Hastings County, located at the mouth of the Napanee River on the shore of the Bay of Quinte, on the northern side of Lake Ontario.
Latchford is a single-tier municipality town in Timiskaming District in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is located on Bay Lake on the Montreal River, near the town of Cobalt and the municipality of Temagami, and is 20 kilometres from the city of Temiskaming Shores. The population of the town in the Canada 2011 Census was 387, which makes it the smallest town by population in Ontario. The town's slogan is "The Best Little Town by a Dam Site!"
Timiskaming—Cochrane is a provincial electoral district in northern Ontario, Canada. It elects one member to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
James is an incorporated township in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in Timiskaming District. The primary community within the township is Elk Lake, which is located at the junction of Ontario Highway 65 and Ontario Highway 560.
Chamberlain is a township in the Canadian province of Ontario, located within the Timiskaming District.
Charlton and Dack is a municipality in the Canadian province of Ontario, located within the Timiskaming District. Its population in 2016 was 686.
The city of Timmins, Ontario, Canada contains many named neighbourhoods. Some former municipalities that were merged into Timmins continue to be treated as distinct postal and telephone exchanges from the city core.
Thorne is an unincorporated community within the unincorporated township of Poitras, in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is located in the census division of Nipissing District. A designated place served by a local services board, the community had a population of 204 in the 2016 Canadian Census.
The Cobalt silver rush was a silver rush in Ontario, Canada that began in 1903 when huge veins of silver were discovered by workers on the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (T&NO) near the Mile 103 post. By 1905 a full-scale silver rush was underway, and the town of Cobalt, Ontario sprang up to serve as its hub. By 1908 Cobalt produced 9% of the world's silver, and in 1911 produced 31,507,791 ounces of silver. However, the good ore ran out fairly rapidly, and most of the mines were closed by the 1930s. There were several small revivals over the years, notably in World War II and again in the 1950s, but both petered out and today there is no active mining in the area. In total, the Cobalt area mines produced 460 million ounces of silver.
The Great Fire of 1922 was a wildfire burning through the Lesser Clay Belt in the Timiskaming District, Ontario, Canada, from October 4 to 5, 1922. It has been called one of the ten worst natural disasters in Canadian history.