Caledonia, Ontario

Not to be confused with Caledon, Ontario.

Caledonia
Unincorporated community
Argyle Street
Motto:  Gateway to Haldimand County
Caledonia Caledonia
Coordinates: 43°53′53.1″N 79°57′18.3″W
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Regional Municipality	Haldimand County, Ontario
Government
• Mayor of Haldimand	Shelley Ann Bentley
• Governing body	The Council of the Corporation of Haldimand County
• Ward 3 (Caledonia) Councillor	Dan Lawrence
• MP	Leslyn Lewis (Conservative)
• MPP	Toby Barrett (PC)
Area
• Total	5.57 km2 (2.15 sq mi)
Elevation	206 m (676 ft)
Population  (2021)
• Total	12,179
Demonym	Caledonian
Time zone	UTC−05:00 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−04:00 (EDT)
Forward sortation area	N3W
Area code	905 / 289 / 365

Caledonia is a community located on the Grand River in Haldimand County, Ontario, Canada. It had a population of 12,179 as of the 2021 Canadian Census. Caledonia is within Ward 3 of Haldimand County. The Councillor elected for Ward 3 is Dan Lawrence. As of 2021, there were 4,310 private dwellings in Caledonia.

Caledonia is located at the intersection of Highway 6 and Haldimand Highway 54 (within the town, these streets are called Argyle Street and Caithness Street respectively) on the Grand River. On Highway 6, the town is 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) south of Hamilton and 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) north of Hagersville. On Haldimand Highway 54, the town is 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) east of Brantford, Ontario and 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) west of Cayuga, Ontario.

History

Census	Population
1841	300
1871	1,246
1901	801
1911	952
1921	1,223
1931	1,396
1941	1,401
1951	1,681
1961	2,198
1971	3,183
1981	N/A
1991	N/A
2001	9,228
2006	9,740
2011	9,871
2016	9,674
2021	12,179

Caledonia was once a small strip of land between Seneca and Oneida villages. The Oneida village was started by the Grand River Navigation Company, who laid out the village of Oneida on the south side of the Grand River. The Oneida village plot originally contained 16 acres and was named after the township where it began. In 1835, the same company began the village of Seneca about a mile down the river from Oneida on the opposite side of the Grand River. It was named "Seneca Village" after the township in which it began. The Grand River passed through Caledonia dividing it into two sides, North and South. In 1834, Ranald McKinnon was hired by the Grand River Navigation company to build a dam in Seneca and a dam in Caledonia. Completed in 1835, the dams made water power available with the accompanying lock and excavation finishing early in the following year. Mills sprung up all over Seneca village, and five mills were built in Caledonia by 1850. One renamed Caledonia Mill which has been rebuilt and is now used for office space.

In 1835, William Bryant was the first to own a tavern in town. Official deeds to the lands early settlers occupied were not provided until 1850, however they did have bills of sale. There was a high concentration of Scottish immigrants and as such many of Caledonia's streets are named in honour of this. Most notably, the main street being named "Argyle" after the example of Glasgow in Scotland.

The Hamilton to Port Dover plank road was brought through Caledonia in 1838. A bridge was built across the river in Caledonia and Seneca in 1842. These wooden bridges lasted around 19 years before they were swept away by the ice on the river. The Seneca bridge was never rebuilt. As of 2011, the Grand River Bridge built in 1927 serves Caledonia's traffic. When first built, a stagecoach traveled to both Hamilton and Port Dover daily.

In 1846, David Thompson of Ruthven became the first Member of Parliament for Haldimdand County and died in office 5 years later in 1851. In the succeeding by-election, Ranald McKinnon ran for office but was ultimately defeated by William Lyon MacKenzie. In 1853, Caledonia was incorporated as a village, when the villages of Oneida and Seneca were amalgamated, and later as a town. Ranald McKinnon was the village's first Reeve. By 1860, the Grand River Navigation company was bankrupt, and their land was sold to different organizations. Seneca village was failing; many people from Seneca moved to Caledonia. Navigation on the river ended by 1880. A whole new way of transportation arrived around 1883; the Grand Trunk Railway passed through Caledonia. Oneida had become part of Caledonia and the town limits were expanding. By 1960 Caledonia was a bustling town.

On April 1, 1974, the town was amalgamated into the new town of Haldimand within the Regional Municipality of Haldimand-Norfolk. Although the largest community in Haldimand, the town hall was located in nearby Cayuga. In 2001, Haldimand and all other municipalities within the region were dissolved and the region was instead divided into two single tier municipalities with city-status but called counties. Caledonia is now an unincorporated community in Ward 3 of Haldimand County.

In 2006, the Grand River land dispute involving First Nation land claims brought Caledonia to national attention. The land at the centre of the dispute in Caledonia covers 40 hectares, which Henco Industries Ltd. planned to develop as a residential subdivision to be known as the Douglas Creek Estates. It is part of the 385,000-hectare plot of land originally known as the "Haldimand Tract", which was granted, in 1784, by the Crown to the Six Nations of the Grand River, for their use in settlement. Henco argues that the Six Nations surrendered their rights to the land in 1841, and Henco later purchased it from the Crown. The Six Nations, however, maintain that their title to the land was never relinquished. The Grand River Land Dispute continued with 1492 Land Back Lane, protests occurring during 2020 and 2021.

Ranald McKinnon

McKinnon was born in Ardelum, Scotland on September 11, 1801. He came to Masonville, Newyork, Delaware County in the United States of America with his paternal grandparents, Malcolm McKinnon, his wife and a number of siblings. He worked in Virginia and Kentucky until 1820 when the family moved to Trafalgar, Esqueing and Vaughan. At 24 he began working on the Rideau Canal System. On March 3, 1835, he married his first cousin, Euphemia McKinnon who was 22 years old at the time. The pair would go on to have 9 children.

McKinnon was very involved in the community. He was the Treasurer of the Presbyterian Church for a time. In 1850 he petitioned that Caledonia be made its own township that would be absorbed into the township of wentworth but nothing came of this. He ran for Haldimand County's member of parliament as a conservative when the predecessor died in office in 1851 but lost the election. He became Caledonia's first Reeve shortly after in 1853.

Demographics

Canada census – Caledonia community profile

	2021	2016
Population	12,179 (+23.9% from 2016)	9,674 (-2.0% from 2011)
Land area	9.18 km2 (3.54 sq mi)	5.57 km2 (2.15 sq mi)
Population density	1,326.7/km2 (3,436/sq mi)	1,738.2/km2 (4,502/sq mi)
Median age	37.2 (M: 37.4, F: 38.8)	40.5 (M: 39.2, F: 41.5)
Private dwellings	4,310 (total)	3,485 (total)
Median household income	$110,000	$96,614

References: 2021 2016 earlier

Ethnicity

Only those populations which compose more than 1% of the population have been included.

Ethnic Groups in the Community of Caledonia, Ontario (2021)

Ethnic Group	2021		2016
	Pop.	%	Pop.	%
Canadian	1,935	15.89%	3,380	27.75%
English	3,325	27.3%	3,455	28.37%
Irish	2,345	19.25%	2,105	17.28%
Scottish	2,830	23.24%	2,785	28.79%
French	650	5.34%	865	8.94%
German	1,620	13.3%	1,380	14.27%
Chinese	125	1.03%	70	0.72%
Italian	725	5.95%	565	5.84%
Indian	165	1.35%	45	0.47%
Ukrainian	445	3.65%	350	3.62%
Dutch	970	7.96%	980	10.13%
Polish	495	4.06%	370	3.82%
Filipino	135	1.11%	45	0.47%
Welsh	205	1.68%	180	1.86%
Portuguese	260	2.13%	120	1.24%
American	145	1.19%	75	0.78%
Hungarian	235	1.93%	255	2.64%
Pakistani	175	1.44%	10	1.81%
Jamaican	140	1.15%	25	0.26%
Croatian	125	1.03%	40	0.41%
Total responses	12,085	99.23%	9,560	98.82%
Total population	12,179	100%	9,674	100%
Note: Totals greater than 100% due to multiple origin responses.

Language

As of the 2021 census, there were 11,510 citizens that spoke English only, 10 that spoke only French, 595 that spoke both official languages and 60 that spoke neither.

Attractions

• Caledonia Mill
• Caledonia Old Town Hall (Edinburgh Square)
• Grand River Bridge
• Grand River Dam
• Grand Trunk Railway Station
• Haldimand House
• Oasis Drive-In
• Caledonia Opera House
• Caledonia Fair
• Seneca Park & Rotary Riverside Trail
• Kinsmen Park
• Caledonia Lions Pool

Toll House

The Caledonia Toll House is the second oldest building in Caledonia, Ontario still standing; the first being Haldimand House. The toll house is currently a private residence.

The toll house was there when the original iron bridge collapsed and the new concrete one (still used today) was built.

With the historic Caledonia Bridge in need of complete replacement, the beautiful historic toll house which is currently a home and business has been expropriated as part of the Ministry of Transportations plan to replace.

Sports

• Hockey team: Caledonia Corvairs

Schools

Public education in Caledonia is administered by the Grand Erie District School Board and the Catholic schools by the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board. Schools located in Caledonia include:

• Caledonia Centennial Public School
• Notre Dame Catholic School
• River Heights
• St. Patrick's Catholic School
• Oneida Central Public School
• McKinnon Park Secondary School

Notable people

• Andrew Campbell, NHL player
• Roy Edwards, (1937–1999), former NHL player
• Jack Hamilton (1886–1976), ice hockey and multi-sport executive
• Isaac Kragten, actor
• Cam Talbot, NHL player
• Byron Edmund Walker, (1848–1924), banker and patron of the arts
• William Winegard, (1924-2019), educator and politician