Bowmanville, Ontario

Bowmanville is a community of about 40,000 people located in the municipality of Clarington, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately 75km east of Toronto, and 15km east of Oshawa along Highway 2. Bowmanville was first incorporated as a town in 1858, but later incorporated with the neighbouring townships of Clarke and Darlington in 1974 forming Clarington. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area.HistorySettlers were attracted to the area by the farmland, and creeks for water mills, first at Bowmanville Creek, at the present-day intersection of King Street and Scugog St., from which businesses and housing spread east, and later on Soper Creek .The lands which would later become Bowmanville were first purchased by John Burk, who later sold it to Lewis Lewis. Lewis opened the first store in what was then called Darlington Mills. The store was purchased in about 1824 by Charles Bowman who then established the first post office. Its first postmaster was Robert Fairbairn, who ran the post office from 1828 to 1857.By 1866, Bowmanville was a town with a population of about 3,500 in the township of Darlington, County Durham. It was a station of the Grand Trunk Railway. It was established on the north shore of Lake Ontario. It possessed a good harbour and there was extensive water power in the vicinity. The surrounding country was fertile.