Celebrating Courtice, held at the Courtice Community Complex earlier this month, offered a glimpse into the history of Clarington through artifacts, stories and community involvement.
Located just east of Oshawa, Courtice is home to 25,000 people. But according to Mark Stanisz, head of the Courtice Vintage History group on Facebook, British settlers arrived there over 230 years ago.
“We have stories of John Trull, the Loyalist, coming across in 1793 to scout the area out,” Stanisz told The Chronicle. “Then he went back, assembled the Loyalist families, and they came here on Oct. 2, 1794. That is the date we have recorded.”
He added that, on the first night after they arrived, “the fires kept burning to scare off the wolves.”
Janice Jones, president of the Rotary Club of Courtice, shared that the initial plan was to host an Antiques Roadshow-style event. “We had some great families that wanted to share this information, and they graciously loaned us family photos, albums, maps – all kinds of things,” she said.
However, the roadshow idea didn’t pan out. Instead, they decided to have a community panel comprised of longtime residents and descendants of the founding families.
Jim Vincent, who was born in 1945 and has lived his entire life in Courtice, described his own efforts to preserve part of his community’s history.
Located on Courtice Road across from Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School, is the W & D Courtice Memorial Park. At the entrance of the park stands an arch with the park’s name. Built in the 1930s, the original arch was removed about 20 years ago.
“I had a picture at home of the old arch, and I had a friend of mine enlarge it to full scale – about 23 feet long,” Vincent explained. “I shopped around, but one would rebuild it, [they said] it was too much to do.”
Eventually, he found a welder who agreed to take on the task. “Not only did they rebuild the sign, [but] they put it up, welded it on spot, and another buddy of mine did the masonry work on the stone pillars,” said Vincent. “It was just the way it was originally.”
Clarington Mayor Adrian Foster emphasized the importance of events like Celebrating Courtice in fostering community connections. “For people that have no connection to Courtice now, […] it builds that sense of belonging and community that we need to work on,” he said.