Glen Eden Park in northwest Mississauga is home to some seemingly out-of-place concrete posts. If you have not seen them, it might be worth a visit. There is an interpretive plaque that tells you about them, so what they are (or were) is not really a secret. But they are fascinating reminders of a past landscape. The posts are likely from around 1900, and we have Alfred George Waite to thank for them. Although for him, they had a simple job – to help keep the farm animals in and likely away from the house garden. The remnant posts are gate posts that led into the barnyard.

The patriarch of the Waite family, Isaac Waite (1815-1876), was born in Cumberland, England. He came to Canada in 1818. In 1842 he leased the 200-acre Clergy Reserve here in historic Mississauga, and in 1844 he married Ann Brown (1817-1886). In 1846 he purchased the Clergy Reserve property, and in 1868 donated a portion of his land for the building of a new Eden Methodist Church (at what is now the northeast corner of Derry Road West and Copenhagen Road.

Ann and Isaac had eleven children: Jane (1846-1915), Joseph (1846-1924), Mary (1847-1922), Margaret (1848-1924), Frances (1851-1858), Elizabeth (1853-1863), Arminella (1856-1920), Sarah (1856-1920), Isaac Thomas (1859-1863), Matilda (1861-1945) and Alfred George (1863-1947). There must have been heartbreak at times, with several children passing away quite young, including Elizabeth and Isaac Thomas who died on March 25 and April 2 of 1863, respectively.

In the 1860s the Waite family lived in a two-storey brick farmhouse. Following Isaac’s death, the property was left to his wife Ann. When Ann passed away in 1886, their youngest son, Alfred George Waite, inherited the farm. Alfred either enlarged (and likely embellished) the existing family home, or had a new home built. In 1890 Alfred married Clarice Mason (1865-1948), the daughter of another nearby farming family. Historically the Waite family were connected to the “lost village” of Lisgar (also known as Switzer’s Corners) and attended Eden Wesleyan Methodist (later United) Church. Several members of the family are buried nearby in the historic Eden Cemetery.

From census records the family appears to have been fairly well to do. Between 1891 and 1911, several domestic servants were listed as living in the Waite household, including George Sherman, Jane Creath, Joshua Sherman and Timothy Arnold. In the 1860s, a schoolteacher, Lucy Axford, was also listed as living with the Waite family.

Clarice and Alfred had one son, Elmer Lloyd Havelock Waite (1892-1965). Elmer lived on the home farm, working alongside his father. In 1947 the farm was transferred to Elmer when his father died. Elmer married Edna Wagner (1893-1980) in 1918, and the couple had three children: Doris, Glenn and June.

The farm remained in the Waite family for over 100 years and 4 generations. Elmer sold the farm in 1959. The house and barn were demolished in the early 1970s to make way for the residential development. A large portion of the former Waite farm is now Glen Eden Park, in which survives the former Waite farm gate posts.