Edgeley was a small rural community located in the city of

Vaughan Vaughan () (2021 population 323,103) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increas ...

York Region The Regional Municipality of York, also called York Region, is a regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, between Lake Simcoe and Toronto. The region was established after the passing of then Bill 102, An Act to Establish The Regional M ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

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, which today is the site of Vaughan's planned downtown core;

Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Vaughan Metropolitan Centre is a central business district in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. Measuring , the district is located at the intersection of Highway 7 and Jane Street, northeast of the Ontario Highway 400, Highway 400 and Ontario Highway 40 ...

. The first inhabitants of the Edgeley area immigrated from Somerset County,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, circa 1800. Early family names were ''Smith, Stong, Shunk, Hoover, Burkholder, Muskrat, Snider, Brown,'' and ''Dalziel''. A

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...

church, built of logs in 1824 on the northern portion of Lot #7, Concession #4, was one of the first churches built in Vaughan Township. A steam-powered shingle mill stood on the northwest corner of Highway 7 and

Jane Street Jane may refer to: * Jane (given name), a feminine given name * Jane (surname), related to the given name Film and television * ''Jane'' (1915 film), a silent comedy film directed by Frank Lloyd * ''Jane'' (2016 film), a South Korean drama fi ...

. A hotel was located on the northeast corner, with a general store on the southeast corner. The store contained the Edgeley post office from 1872 until 1960. Just south of the store, Samuel Snider operated a horse-powered cider mill. His son-in-law, Abraham Winger, and Abraham's brother Henry, later assumed the business, putting up a new steam-powered mill and producing apple cider, butter and jelly until the early 1900s. The area was also served by a blacksmith, a shoemaker, a casket maker, a dressmaking establishment, a chopping mill, a woodworking shop, which supplied wagons and buggies, two slaughterhouses and a community hall. The Edgeley farmers club was organized in 1917, and for years the farmers in the area obtained their supplies of coal, binder twine, salt and other necessities through the club. The club's annual oyster supper was one of the community's social highlights. The oldest extant Mennonite

meeting house A meeting house (meetinghouse, meeting-house) is a building where religious and sometimes public meetings take place. Terminology Nonconformist Protestant denominations distinguish between a * church, which is a body of people who believe in Chr ...

in Ontario was moved to

Black Creek Pioneer Village Black Creek Pioneer Village, previously Dalziel Pioneer Park, is an open-air heritage museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The village is located in the North York district of Toronto, just west of York University and southeast of the Jane and ...

during the autumn of 1976. Edgeley was famous for fruits (mainly apples), thereby supporting many of the settlers who worked its fertile lands. Almost the entire landscape of Edgeley was covered in fruit trees, most notably west of Jane Street and north of Highway 7. Because of these fertile lands, great success came to the town's settlers, and today, many streets in and around Edgeley have been named after them and their products. The largest park in Vaughan is Edgeley Pond and Park.

References

Neighbourhoods in Vaughan {{GoldenHorseshoe-geo-stub

See also

References