Historic Downtown Walking Tour
A self-guided walking tour of Historic Downtown Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.
An Overview of the History of Galt
In 1784, the British Crown granted to the Six Nations
Confederacy, in perpetuity, all of the land along the Grand River six miles
deep on each side of the river, from its source to Lake Erie. The Six Nations, led by Joseph Brant, had the land surveyed in 1791 and divided it into
their own Reserve lands and large tracts which they intended to sell to land
developers. The parcel of land along
the Grand River known as Block 1 was purchased by Philip Stedman from the Six Nations
on February 5, 1798. This property,
containing 94,305 acres, later became known as the Township of Dumfries. Philip
Stedman died a few years later, and the entire Block 1 was ultimately purchased
on July 3, 1816 by William Dickson Sr. for a total of 24,000 pounds, or a
little over a dollar per acre. It is
interesting to note that Philip Stedman…only 18 years before … had paid just 8,841
pounds!
William
Dickson Sr.,
born in Scotland, and a resident of Niagara-on-the-Lake, set off to tour his
newly purchased land accompanied by Absalom
Shade, a carpenter from Buffalo, New York and a person who would become a
leading businessman in the community. In
1816, they chose where Mill Creek flows into the Grand River as the site for
Shade’s Mill. To reinforce the new settlement’s distinct Scottish heritage, in
1825 it was renamed Galt in honour of the Scottish novelist and Canada Company
Commissioner John Galt, a friend of William Dickson … and a person who would go
on to play a significant role in the development of Guelph, Ontario in 1827.
The settlement grew slowly, and began to prosper with the
development of textile mills, foundries and factories. The opening of the railway in 1855
contributed to the prosperity of the community and in 1857 Galt was incorporated
as a town, with a population of nearly 3,000 souls. The face of the main
streets also changed over time, as stone buildings were erected to replace the
original wooden ones often lost to fire, resulting in Galt being known as the
“granite city”.
On January 1, 1973 the City of Galt ceased to exist as a
separate political entity as it merged with Preston and Hespeler to create the
newly formed city of Cambridge, Ontario.
History of
the Dickson Family
There are a few names that will come up during the tour,
especially about the Dickson family, as they played such a critical role in the
development of Galt.
The Honorable William Dickson was born in Dumfries,
Scotland (hence the name of the Township), on July 13, 1769, the son of a
merchant. William immigrated to Canada in 1785 to join his cousin in Quebec,
and ultimately settled in Niagara about five years later, where he married
Charlotte Adams. They had three sons:
Robert, William Jr. and Walter.
In 1803, Mr. Dickson was granted a special licence to
practice law at the provincial bar, which led to an interesting story of an
illegal dual being fought, and William Dickson mortally wounding his opponent.
He was also taken prisoner during the war of 1812 and removed to the United
States for a period of time, after which he returned to Canada, and in 1815,
was made a member of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada.
William Dickson Sr. made significant efforts to attract people from Scotland, specifically Dumfries, Roxbrugh and Selkirk counties, to settle in what was still called Shade’s Mills, and this Scottish heritage is evident in the names and architecture of the area.
While Mr. Dickson Sr. only lived in Galt for 11 years, he
left the administration of the land to his sons, particularly William Jr.
The Honorable William Dickson Sr. died in February, 1846 at the age of 77 and is buried in St. Mark’s Church cemetery in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
The tour: Begins at the Cambridge Farmers’ Market
Datasets available for download
This dataset has no data
Additional Info
| Field | Value |
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| Last Updated | March 25, 2026, 01:49 (UTC) |
| Created | March 25, 2026, 01:49 (UTC) |
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Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
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Title
Title for the Dataset.
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Historic Downtown Walking Tour |
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Description
A description of the dataset.
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A self-guided walking tour of Historic Downtown Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. An Overview of the History of Galt In 1784, the British Crown granted to the Six Nations
Confederacy, in perpetuity, all of the land along the Grand River six miles
deep on each side of the river, from its source to Lake Erie. The Six Nations, led by Joseph Brant, had the land surveyed in 1791 and divided it into
their own Reserve lands and large tracts which they intended to sell to land
developers. The parcel of land along
the Grand River known as Block 1 was purchased by Philip Stedman from the Six Nations
on February 5, 1798. This property,
containing 94,305 acres, later became known as the Township of Dumfries. Philip
Stedman died a few years later, and the entire Block 1 was ultimately purchased
on July 3, 1816 by William Dickson Sr. for a total of 24,000 pounds, or a
little over a dollar per acre. It is
interesting to note that Philip Stedman…only 18 years before … had paid just 8,841
pounds! William
Dickson Sr.,
born in Scotland, and a resident of Niagara-on-the-Lake, set off to tour his
newly purchased land accompanied by Absalom
Shade, a carpenter from Buffalo, New York and a person who would become a
leading businessman in the community. In
1816, they chose where Mill Creek flows into the Grand River as the site for
Shade’s Mill. To reinforce the new settlement’s distinct Scottish heritage, in
1825 it was renamed Galt in honour of the Scottish novelist and Canada Company
Commissioner John Galt, a friend of William Dickson … and a person who would go
on to play a significant role in the development of Guelph, Ontario in 1827. The settlement grew slowly, and began to prosper with the
development of textile mills, foundries and factories. The opening of the railway in 1855
contributed to the prosperity of the community and in 1857 Galt was incorporated
as a town, with a population of nearly 3,000 souls. The face of the main
streets also changed over time, as stone buildings were erected to replace the
original wooden ones often lost to fire, resulting in Galt being known as the
“granite city”. On January 1, 1973 the City of Galt ceased to exist as a
separate political entity as it merged with Preston and Hespeler to create the
newly formed city of Cambridge, Ontario. History of
the Dickson Family There are a few names that will come up during the tour,
especially about the Dickson family, as they played such a critical role in the
development of Galt. The Honorable William Dickson was born in Dumfries,
Scotland (hence the name of the Township), on July 13, 1769, the son of a
merchant. William immigrated to Canada in 1785 to join his cousin in Quebec,
and ultimately settled in Niagara about five years later, where he married
Charlotte Adams. They had three sons:
Robert, William Jr. and Walter. In 1803, Mr. Dickson was granted a special licence to
practice law at the provincial bar, which led to an interesting story of an
illegal dual being fought, and William Dickson mortally wounding his opponent.
He was also taken prisoner during the war of 1812 and removed to the United
States for a period of time, after which he returned to Canada, and in 1815,
was made a member of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. William Dickson Sr. made significant efforts to attract people from Scotland, specifically Dumfries, Roxbrugh and Selkirk counties, to settle in what was still called Shade’s Mills, and this Scottish heritage is evident in the names and architecture of the area. While Mr. Dickson Sr. only lived in Galt for 11 years, he
left the administration of the land to his sons, particularly William Jr. The Honorable William Dickson Sr. died in February, 1846 at the age of 77 and is buried in St. Mark’s Church cemetery in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The tour: Begins at the Cambridge Farmers’ Market |
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Tags / Keywords
Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.
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Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc)
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Dataset Size
Dataset size in megabytes.
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1.47 |
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Metadata Identifier
Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
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Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
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2018-05-08 |
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Time Period Data Span (start date)
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Time Period Data Span (end date)
End date of time data in the dataset.
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GeoSpatial Area Data Span
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| Field | Value |
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Access category
Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
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public |
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License
License used to access the dataset.
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License not specified |
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Limits on use
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Location
Location of the dataset.
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https://data-cityofcambridge.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/cityofcambridge::historic-downtown-walking-tour |
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Data Service
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Owner
Owner of the dataset.
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Cambridge.GIS |
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Contact Point
Who to contact regarding access?
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Cambridge, Ontario |
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Contact Point Email
The email to contact regarding access?
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[email protected] |
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Publisher
Publisher of the dataset.
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Cambridge, Ontario |
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Publisher Email
Email of the publisher.
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Author
Author of the dataset.
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Cambridge.GIS |
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Author Email
Email of the author.
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Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
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2021-08-17 |
| Field | Value |
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Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
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b8d6131a37684232b0661b7d65f7bb32 |
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Language
Language(s) of the dataset
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English |
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Link to dataset description
A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
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https://data-cityofcambridge.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/cityofcambridge::historic-downtown-walking-tour |
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Persistent Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
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Globally Unique Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
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Contains data about individuals
Does the data hold data about individuals?
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Contains data about identifiable individuals
Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
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Contains Indigenous Data
Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
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Portal Type
Platform type of the source portal.
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Version
Version of the datatset
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None |
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Source
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None |
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Version notes
Version notes about the dataset.
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Is version of another dataset
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Other versions
Link to datasets that are versions of it.
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Provenance Text
Provenance Text of the data.
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Cambridge, Ontario |
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Provenance URL
Provenance URL of the data.
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Temporal resolution
Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
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GeoSpatial resolution in meters
Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
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GeoSpatial resolution (in regions)
Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.
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Indigenous Community Permission
Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
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Community Permission
Community permission (who gave permission).
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The Indigenous communities the dataset is about
Indigenous communities from which data is derived.
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Number of data rows
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Number of data columns
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Number of data relations
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Number of entities
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Number of data properties
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Data quality
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Metric for data quality
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