This Community Memories
Exhibit tells the story of
courageous pioneers who
survived the challenge of
inhospitable terrain to
establish a small settlement
that is now a quiet, rural
town in southern Ontario 50
miles northeast of Toronto.
   For hundreds of years the

Mississauga Ojibway had
called the dense forests and
swamps bordering the north
slope of the Oak Ridge
moraine home, but early
European settlers were
discouraged by the marshy
terrain. In the 1830s, braver
pioneers began to move in to
the geographical centre of

what was then Reach Township,
discovering that the fine,
sandy loam deposited by ice
age glaciers was excellent
soil for farming.
   At first the settlers
named their village ‘Gimlet
Town’ and then ‘Smith
Corners.’ Later, at one of
the first community meetings,

townfolk changed the name to
Greenbank in tribute to the
English home of David Cragg,
one of the founding fathers
of the village. Other
families who first built
farms and cabins along the
10th Concession Road of Reach
Township included the Beares,
the Iansons and the Blairs.