The Huron Expositor, 1978-06-29, Page 33II formfogo voluitiumi AntPnri mmiammi talmsaiia
JOS. KIDD-& SON IMPORTERS 8a GENERAL DEALERS. GREAT WESTERN STORE. DUBLIN, PERTH CO.ONT.
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From Belden's Perth County Atlas 1879. •
Dublin' was first settled. in-1'832
(From A Hibbert Review, Part 2 by Isabelle
Campbell, 1959)
Carronbrook
As early as 1832, where the brook
crosses the Huron Road at the Hibbert,
Logan and McKillop intersection, a small
clearing had been made, but no building,
had been erected. Who fell these first trees'
- will always remain --a- mystery,
Robert Donkin, a native of Northumber-
land, England, who is said to have been the
firstr settleT on the Hibbert side of the
village, had his log tavern built on the
northeast cornet of Lot 16, Concession 1,
Hibbert, ptior to 1840. It was here the first
Hibbert council meetings wereheld in the
early 1850's.
' Donkin gave the place its first name,
which was Carronbrook. He named it for
the little brook which flows through it, but
which was renamed the Liffey sometime
after the village name was changed to
Dublin.
Donkin was a surveyor, and from the- -
time he settled here he took an active part
in the development of the community. By
an early date he 'owned the three lots at this
intersection - two in Hibbert and one in
McKillop. It was not till 1847 that Hibbert
had its own representative at the Huron
District Council in Goderich, and it was
Robert Donkin who was -appointed its first
District Councillor, an office which he held
until the new municipal system carne into
effect at the beginning of 1850. That year
Donkin was appointed Hibbert's first
reeve.' While in Carronbrook he served as a
magistrate and dealt in real estate. Part of
his land he' had surveyed -into -Village 'lois.
These are in'the Donkin Survey. Sometime
in the 70's he moved to Port Rowan, Ont.,
where he died on July 8, 1887, aged 85
years. His wife, Ann, a native of Boyle,
Wand, after his death lived in SeafOrth,
where she died on December 24, 1890,
aged 84 years. Both are buried in Avondale
Cemetery in Stratford. The Donkins had no
children.
Among the first purchasers of land off
Donkin's lots was Joseph Whitehead, Who
had the contract to build the railroad from
Buffalo to Goderich. The land he pur-
chased ran parallel with the railroad track,
and-The -Ws lie,suiveyed beat the name of
the Whitehead Survey.
Whitehead was born in Guisboro
Yorkshire, England. As a young lad he hac a
little education as he was sent off to work a ,
a very early age. He was first employed or
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