Bartholomew Bull
Section 12, Lot 12
Prospect Cemetery
One of the earliest landowners in the district, immigrated to Canada in 1818 from Tipperary, Ireland with his wife and daughter. He first rented, then bought a tract of uncleared land extending eastward from the present-day intersection of Dufferin Street and Davenport Road. He had contracts for cord wood with the garrison at Fort York, and expanded his landholding. A zealous Methodist who preached at marathon tent meetings, his log cabin was the site of the first Sunday School classes in the area, before the erection of a church for the growing congregation at Dundas and Bloor Streets. In 1857, the foundations of today’s Davenport-Perth United Church (then Davenport Methodist) were laid on Davenport Road. Originally known as “Bull’s Road”, Davenport was named after the homestead of a neighbour and crony of Bartholomew, Colonel Joseph Wells. It was a portion of the ancient Indian trail, “Spadunk”, which extended between the Don and Humber rivers. In 1894, the remains of Bartholomew and his wife Elizabeth, along with several other relatives, were disinterred from the church graveyard, placed in a Saratoga trunk, and transferred to Prospect Cemetery. The sealed trunk was lowered into a grave, encased in stone and cement, and topped off with the Bull monument.