Francis Hewson is a giant among Innisfil pioneers. He was the first European to settle the township and literally watched as history unfolded before his lakeside homestead.
Born in Ireland in 1778, Hewson was the product of a prominent family with a proud lineage dating back centuries. His father was a distinguished reverend, the rector of Killgoblin, while an uncle was an admiral in the Royal Navy. Hewson served in the Royal Navy for a time himself during the turbulent era of the Napoleonic Wars.
In 1811, he married Rebecca Hart. Tragically, she died just two years later, likely in childbirth. The following year, in 1814, he married again, to Anne Maria Hutchinson, a woman 14 years his junior. Hewson would gain much of the acclaim in historical records for being Innisfil’s first settler, but it must be acknowledged how remarkably strong his wife would prove to be.
In 1817, he kissed his wife and two young children goodbye as he boarded a ship for Canada. He’d call on them later, after he’d established a new home for them in the young colony. What he couldn’t know was that Anne was pregnant at the time and would give birth to twins in his absence.
Hewson seems to have wandered a bit in Canada, not putting down roots, until he headed for Innisfil in 1819 and laid claim to a 200-hectare (nearly 600 acres) plot of land at the tip of Big Bay Point. This was a year before Innisfil was even surveyed. He was alone in the wilderness. The only sound to interrupt the birds chirping and squirrels chittering was his axe as he cleared land for a homestead.
Family lore tells that Hewson got lost in the woods several times, and each time was guided home by the unerring sense of direction of his faithful hound, Sultana.
Having built a rude log cabin and barn, and cleared acreage for crops, he returned to Ireland in 1820 to retrieve his family. History doesn’t record Anne’s experience in the still-virgin wilderness of Innisfil, isolated from civilization and residing in primitive conditions. Certainly, it couldn’t have been easy, and would have been made more difficult by the loss of two-year-old Margaret only a few months after their arrival.
Still, the Hewsons persevered. Their daughter, Anne Maria, born in 1824, was the first white child born in Innisfil. Four more children followed. The Hewson family is rightfully hailed as Innisfil pioneers.
In my next Postcard Memories article, we’ll explore the rest of Hewson’s life.
