The History of Mississauga’s James Austin Drive

Heritage Mississauga receives hundreds of inquiries each year. A recent question asked who James Austin Drive in Mississauga is named for. The road itself was laid out in 2002 as part of the Huron Heights subdivision near the southeast corner of Hurontario Street and Eglinton Avenue – which is where the Austin farm once was.

The property is known historically as parts of Lots 14 and 15, Concession 2, NDS (North of Dundas Street). James Austin (1806-1876) purchased the property on December 21, 1829. James was the son of John Austin Jr., a Loyalist, who had received a Loyalist land grant in the Ancaster area. James’ grandfather, John Austin Sr., was killed in 1781 while serving with the British forces during the American Revolution. The Austin family emigrated from North Carolina to the Niagara area in 1794.

James Austin married Eleanor Aikins (1816-1854) in 1834. Eleanor came from a prominent local family. Her brother, James Cox Aikins, and his son, Sir James Albert Manning Aikins, were both politicians and both served as the lieutenant governors of Manitoba. The Aikins family also produced notable early doctors, including Doctor Moses Henry Aikins and Doctor William Aikins.

James and Eleanor Austin had four children: James Augustus (1835-1900), Anne Jane (1835-1924), Caroline Elizabeth (1839-1874) and Ellen Amelia (1843-1909). There would have been an early house on the property, but the family added a new brick house, likely around 1865 or 1866. This house remained a fixture on the landscape until 1990.

Austin House, c1976

In 1866 James Austin sold part of the property to his son, James Augustus Austin, in 1866. The brick house may have been built by James Augustus. In 1876, the remainder of the property was willed to James Augustus following his father’s death. James Augustus did not hold on to the property long as his career followed a different path. In 1868 James Augustus married Susan Graham and the couple had four children: James Herbert (1871-1905), Annie Eleanor (1873-1958), Arthur Graham (1877-1950) and Carrie Isabel (1880-1940). James Augustus sold the farm to James Faris in 1879.

According to The Canadian Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men (1880), James Augustus Austin served as the clerk of the county court in Peel. He was “reared on the farm, attending a common school in his younger years, and subsequently spending three years at Victoria College, Cobourg, intending at one time to study for the medical profession, but not completing his College course on account of failing health. He continued farming in the township of Toronto until 1867, when he was appointed clerk of the county court, deputy clerk of the Crown, and registrar of the Surrogate Court, at which time he removed to Brampton, the county town. His variety of clerkships he is attending to with the utmost care, being always at his post. While on the farm, he acted part of the time as a director of the local Agricultural Society. Before taking a county office, Mr. Austin interested himself a good deal in the success of the Reform party.”

James and Eleanor Auston Gravestone, Britannia United Cemetery

Multiple owners followed the Austin family on the farm, and the house remained lived in until the early 1970s, and for a time the farm was operated as Greenacres Farms. In 1979 the property was acquired for development purposes. The initial intention was to retain the house, but it was demolished in 1990. A few years later, one of the primary roads in the new adjacent subdivision was named for James Austin. Many members of the Austin family are buried nearby at the Britannia United Cemetery, and several of James Augustus’ children relocated to Western Canada.