Black History Month - Train Porter called Mississauga Home

Uncle John Bush.

A wonderful thing about history is that there’s constantly more to discover. While Heritage Mississauga did extensive research on early Black residents in the past (available online, and even as comics), the recent release of the 1931 census has unlocked an additional name.

Along with mentioning the Vignale family in Lakeview, it brought the story of a train porter to the attention of Mississauga’s heritage community.

John Gilbert Bush was born in Oro Township, just north of Barrie. This area of Simcoe County was home to a longstanding Black farming community. Why?

Veterans of the War of 1812 received land grants for their service in defending Canadian sovereignty against an American president bent on expansionism. A militia known as The Coloured Corps fought at the Battle of Queenston Heights and the Battle of Fort George and helped build Fort Mississauga at Niagara-on-the-Lake. Their land grants were in Oro Township, just north of Barrie, Ontario. As a result, the area developed a strong, continuous Black community over multiple generations.

John’s father, Mark Bush, was the last person to lead services at the Oro African Methodist Episcopal Church, now a National Historic Site.

Mark Bush.

We don’t know much about John’s life, but he married a woman from Simcoe County in 1899. His second marriage was to a white woman born in Quebec, in 1909, while he was working for the Canadian Pacific Railway. They lived on Leslie Street in Toronto in 1911, moving to Edward Street by 1921, where they lived with another railway worker and his family.

Around 1923, the family moved to Lakeview, now in Mississauga’s southeastern corner. By 1931, he was known to be working for Canadian National Railway.

JG Bush death notice omcn.PortCreditWeekly_7.788.

As of 1948, the Bushes lived on Third Street in Lakeview. On April 2 that year, after a quarter century in the community, John Gilbert Bush died. According to a notice in the newspaper, “Employed for some 40 years with the Canadian National Railways, Mr. Bush had been ill for the past six years. He is survived by his wife, two sisters, and a brother in Jamaica.” He’s buried in Park Lawn Cemetery, Etobicoke, without a headstone.

Region of Peel Archives has newly published a free e-book in PDF format. For a bit more on John’s life, or to explore the life of an 1850s Black woman teaching at a one-room schoolhouse, or a professional singer who toured Canada beginning in the 1880s, take a look here.