Agricultural area.

Details of Site Location: on a 200-acre Farm Lot on the north side of Eglinton Avenue, west of Dufferin Street.

Boundary History: The farm was bounded by Eglinton on the south side, by Dufferin on the east side, and by other farms adjoining on the north and west sides.

Current Use of Property: The area is developed with commercial buildings on the street frontages with residential areas behind them. A CNR line passes through the area and forks on the property to continue both directly north and directly east.

Historical Description: Farm Lot 1, Concession 3 West of Yonge was first granted to Jacob Anderson (6991 RJ) but had been acquired by Jacon McKay, a United Empire Loyalist from Oswego, New York. Matthew Parsons purchased it in 1835 along with other pieces of land. Parsons had arrived in the area in 1816 and first worked as a millwright on the Humber and as a carpenter. According to his grandson, C.B. Parsons, Matthew was arrested while riding horseback in 1837 and, just as mysteriously, released the next morning while watering his horse. Evidently, he was suspected of being a Mackenzie sympathizer. On his farm there was a large pine forest with trees 2 ft to 3 ft in diameter, and parts of this forest remained intact until around 1900. Two branches of Castle Frank Creek also ran through the farmland. There were clay deposits, which Parsons used for making the bricks for his own home, for his neighbour Anderson’s house, and for the Fairbank School of 1863. A small lot was donated for the building of Fairbank Methodist Church (now Fairbank United) in 1889. His neighbour Anderson engaged mainly in dairy farming, while Parsons ran a mixed farm, which was worked by his sons and then his grandsons. The 200 acres remained in family hands into the mid-1950s. It was one of the last working farms in York Township. Other members of the Parson family had farms in Weston, and some family members still live in the area. There were other farms run by people named Parsons in the same area, but they were of no relation to Matthew Parsons.

Reference Sources: Bill Bailey, editor, Stories, of York (1980).

Acknowledgements: Heritage York.