Front of Yonge is a township in the

United Counties of Leeds and Grenville The United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, commonly known as Leeds and Grenville, is a county and census division in Ontario, Canada, in the Eastern Ontario subregion of Southern Ontario. It fronts on the St. Lawrence River and the internation ...

in Ontario, Canada. It is the location of the

Thousand Islands National Park Thousand Islands National Park (established 1904), formerly known as the St. Lawrence Islands National Park, is a Canadian National Park located on the 1000 Islands Parkway in the Thousand Islands Region of the Saint Lawrence River. The islands ...

Visitor Centre and Brown's Bay Beach, as well as a number of private campgrounds, the Jones Creek walking trail system, and the 1000 Islands

Waterfront Trail The Great Lakes Waterfront Trail is a signed route of roads and trails in Ontario, Canada, running between Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Sault Ste. Marie and the Quebec border following the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. The trail connects ov ...

’s walking/bike path which runs from just beyond the township’s eastern boundary to neighbouring towns. The predominance of the Canadian Shield produces scenic and diverse landscapes which include exposed rock formations and heavy tree cover, as well as wide fields and beaches.

Geography

Front of Yonge is located along the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...

in the

Thousand Islands The Thousand Islands (, ) constitute a North American archipelago of 1,864 islands that straddles the Canada–US border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. They stretch for about downstream fr ...

region. Part of the

Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve The Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve is a Man and the Biosphere Programme, UNESCO Biosphere Reserve located in southeastern Ontario, Canada. The biosphere reserve was designated in 2002, and is one of 16 biosphere reserves in Canada. The Frontena ...

, Front of Yonge can be found between the larger towns of

Brockville Brockville is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Although it is the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, it is politically Independent city, independent of the county. It is included with Leeds and ...

to the east, and

Gananoque Gananoque ( ) is a town in the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville of Ontario, Canada. The town had a population of 5,383 year-round residents in the 2021 Canadian Census, as well as summer residents sometimes referred to as "Islanders" becau ...

to the west. Approximately away from

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

and from

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Front of Yonge is within driving distance to many of the larger cities of Ontario.

Communities

The township comprises the communities of Ballycanoe, Caintown, Mallorytown, Mallorytown Landing, McIntosh Mills, Trevelyan and Yonge Mills. The township administrative offices are located in Mallorytown.

Mallorytown

The largest settlement area of the township is the community of Mallorytown. It was founded by Nathaniel Mallory, a

United Empire Loyalist United Empire Loyalist (UEL; or simply Loyalist) is an honorific title which was first given by the 1st Lord Dorchester, the governor of Quebec and governor general of the Canadas, to American Loyalists who resettled in British North Ameri ...

who came to the area at Mallorytown Landing in 1784, and later moved inland in search of better farmland. This village is the site of Canada's first glassworks factory, which began in 1839, and closed in 1940. Only a few pieces of Mallorytown glass still exist, the most famous being the ‘Mallorytown Pitcher' which is on display at the

Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...

. A reproduction of this piece is currently on display at the Mallory Coach House, an 1850s stone home which has been renovated and is open to visitors on weekends during the spring and summer months.

Mallorytown Landing

Mallorytown Landing is situated on the St. Lawrence River and is the location of the Visitor Centre for the Thousand Islands National Park, which comprises several ecologically important mainland properties and more than twenty islands between Kingston and Brockville. Established in 1904 as the first Canadian national park east of the Rockies, it is also the smallest of the national parks. During the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

, Mallorytown Landing was a port for ships moving supplies and a

blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...

was built on nearby Chimney Island to defend the British supply line on the river (which is a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada () are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks C ...

today).

History

Front of Yonge is named for the Right Honourable Sir

George Yonge Sir George Yonge, 5th Baronet, KCB, PC, FRS (; 17 July 1731 – 25 September 1812), of Escot House in the parish of Talaton in Devon, England, was a British Secretary at War (1782–1783 and 1783–1794). He succeeded to his father's b ...

, a British Secretary during the

. The area was settled by many

s after the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, who also participated in the War of 1812. Officially designated as Front of Yonge in 1859, this township, along with the nearby Front of Escott and Front of Leeds and Lansdowne, were the only three municipalities with "Front" in their names because they all front the St. Lawrence River. Years later, both Escott and Leeds and Lansdowne were assimilated into the municipality of

Leeds and the Thousand Islands Leeds and the Thousand Islands is a township in the Canadian province of Ontario, located within the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville. The township is located along the St. Lawrence River, including most of the Canadian Thousand Islands, a ...

. That left Front of Yonge the only township in Ontario with "Front" in its name. In 1853, the Township of Yonge and Escott was divided into the Township of Front of Yonge and Escott and the Township of Rear of Yonge and Escott. A few years later in 1859, the Township of Front of Yonge and Escott was divided into the Township of Front of Yonge and the Township of Front of Escott. But in December 1888, these two townships were merged again into one municipality, named Township of Front of Yonge and Escott. In 1905, once more the united township was divided and the Township of Front of Yonge is separately incorporated.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Front of Yonge had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. Mother tongue (2021): * English as first language: 93.6% * French as first language: 2.1% * English and French as first language: 0.4% * Other as first language: 3.5%

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Lower-tier municipalities in Ontario Municipalities in Leeds and Grenville United Counties Township municipalities in Ontario Ontario populated places on the Saint Lawrence River