Small's Creek was one of the three watercourses that flowed into Small's Pond, a small body of water of several acres in area, located near the intersection of Queen Street and Kingston Road, in

Toronto, Ontario 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 ...

. There is a small plain between the shore of

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...

and the bluffs which marked the shore of the larger

Glacial Lake Iroquois Glacial Lake Iroquois was a prehistoric proglacial lake that existed at the end of the last ice age approximately 13,000 years ago. Description The lake was essentially an enlargement of the present Lake Ontario that formed because the St. ...

, Bedrock was shallow on the plain. Smalls Creek, Tomlin's Creek, the other watercourse that drains into Smalls Pond, and Ashbridge's Creek to the east were all small, short watercourses, with their headwaters on that small plain, had each become polluted by the turn of the 20th century, when the regions they flowed through were annexed into the growing city of

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 ...

. A gentleman farmer named

Charles Coxwell Small Charles Coxwell Small (b 1801) was a wealthy farmer and public official in Upper Canada. Like his father, John Small (Canadian politician, born 1746), John Small, Small was the Clerk (legislature), Chief Clerk of Upper Canada's Privy Council. ...

, who was also the Clerk of Upper Canada's Privy Council, dammed creeks to create a

millpond A mill pond (or millpond) is a body of water used as a reservoir for a water-powered mill. Description Mill ponds were often created through the construction of a mill dam or weir (and mill stream) across a waterway. In many places, the co ...

to power

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

s on his property, and the pond and one of the creeks were named after him. After a few years of debate, in 1909, the three creeks were buried, and turned into sewers. Smalls Pond also became polluted, and was drained and filled in, in 1935.

References

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