Oshawa

We are going to Parkwood Estate on Tuesday to see the home of Col. am McLaughlin. To prepare , earlier we did some work on Sam , but now we are focusing on other parts of his involvement with Oshawa.

Robert McLaughlin

He was born November 16^th 1836. He died November 23^rd 1921 at the age of 85. Robert was the Mayor of Oshawa. He was born in Cavan Township, Upper Canada. He was married to Sarah Jane Parr. His brother James was a doctor. His first wife died because of the disease consumption. He married Eleanor McCullach after his 2^nd wife died. His sons were George William, John James, and Robert Samuel. He began building carriages in Enniskillen before he moved the factory to Oshawa. In 1918 his companies were taken over by General Motors. He was the first president of the YMCA. He was a business man. Robert McLaughlin was a Canadian industrialist.

Colonel Mclaughlin’s Gifts to Oshawa

Cameron C.

Colonel McLaughlin put the city of Oshawa on the map. He has donated to the Art Gallery, the library and Woodview Park. In 1951, Colonel McLaughlin made the McLaughlin foundation. In 1953-2003 the foundation donated to the McLaughlin Planetarium and the Royal Ontario Museum. Parkwood Estate, his mansion, began in 1916. In 1989 Parkwood Estate became a National Historic Site of Canada. He also donated $1 million to the library building of the University of Guelph, and he donated almost $200 million to the University of Toronto. In Oshawa he donated Lakeview Park to the city. He gave Camp Samac to the Boy Scouts. He donated land and money to make the First Oshawa General Hospital.

Adelaide McLaughlin

Dora, Abi, Alisha, Mia

Adelaide was born on February 9^th, 1875. She died when she was 83 in 1958. Adelaide’s full named is Adelaide Louise Mowbray.  In 1898, she married Sam McLaughlin.  Her mother was Victoria Nutting and her father’s name was Ralph Mowbray. Her husband, Sam McLaughlin had a nickname for her, Always Late Mowbray. She attended a Teacher’s College. It was in Ottawa. After she graduated she worked as a teacher in Whitby, Ontario. Adelaide met her husband when they were both attending to church. It was love at first sight. When they had met, Sam said that day at church, he only saw a beauty of vision in choir. Sam and Adelaide had 5 daughters. Their names are Eileen, Mildred, Isabel, Hilda and Eleanor. Eleanor’s nickname was Billy. She only had 2 dates with Sam, before he proposed.  The wedding took place on the Mowbray farm, and their honeymoon was in New York for a week.  They lived in a mansion together. Today it is well known as Parkwood. It is located on 270 Simcoe St. N Oshawa ON L1G 4T5. She gave up her teacher career after the marriage. She grew up in Brougham, Ontario. Sam worked for the McLaughlin Carriage Company.  She was the benefactor for Queen’s University. A benefactor is when you give something. She gave donations to Queen’s to help construct Adelaide Hall which was named in her honour. Her husband died January 6^th, 1972. He was 100. Adelaide loved flowers.  She grew to be an expert on flowers. That’s why the greenhouses and gardens were very important to her.  That’s why they are so big. She has many talents.  One of her daughters is an artist. There are schools named after her, a street named after her, as well as a soccer team named after her.

All About McLaughlin Carriage Company

Jaycee, Jaylah, Rheya, Olivia

The full name for the company is the McLaughlin Carriage Company. It was first located in a blacksmith shop in the village of Enniskillen. Robert McLaughlin started the carriage company in 1876. At that time they only made horse drawn carriages. When Robert got older, in 1907 he gave his son the opportunity to be the vice president of the company. After a while, Sam became president of the carriage company. He changed it over to making cars. It is now a part of GM.

Murals in Oshawa

The murals are located in downtown Oshawa. They are the Oshawa Historical Murals. They were begun in 1993. There are tours are in the summer. Each mural has a scene from Oshawa’s history. They are about people , places and events that happened in Oshawa a long time ago.

Museums

There are 4 main museums in Oshawa. The most important is Parkwood Estate, the home of Col. Sam and Adelaide Mclaughlin. There is also an auto museum that has many cars that were made in Oshawa as well as important cars in the car trade. There is also the Sydenham Museum which features three houses down at the lake, Henry House, Robinson House and Guy House. You can learn about early Oshawa settlers there. There is also a museum at the airport.

The Oshawa Generals

Zach, Aidan,

The Oshawa Generals are a hockey team in the OHL. The name for the building they play in is the General Motors Centre.  This is their home rink.  They also won the Memorial Cup four times, in 1939, 1940, 1944 and in 1990.  The original rink the played in had a fire. It was the Hambly Arena that burnt down. It took a very long time for the rink to be rebuilt.  In order for the rink to be made again the people of Oshawa donated a lot of money. They built the Oshawa Civic Auditorium.  Then they had to buy the new equipment for the team.  The arena was back to holding the hockey games again.  The team rink is located in Oshawa, Ontario.  The logo colours are red, blue and white.  They have two distinct eras. Eras means of time. One was the time before the fire. The other was the time after the fire. Bobby Orr and John Tavares both played for Oshawa.