"Pickering Village" to distinguish it from the neighbouring city of Pickering. History Early settlers The Iroquois Seneca people had established river-side villages such as Ganatsekwyagon on Rouge and Teiaiagon on Humber in what is now the Greater Toronto Area. However, the Duffins Creek was not as attractive for building a settlement, because of low navigability and the existence of a sand bar at its mouth which prevented boats from entering it. At least one Ojibwe family resided in the area, as attested by Arthur Field. This family lived at the east edge of the Duffins Creek marshes until the mid-19th century. In 1760, French missionaries from Ganatsekwyagon reached the Duffins Creek, but did not create any settlement there. Mike Duffin (died c. 1791), a fur trader of Irish descent, was the earliest European to settle in the area that later came to be known as Pickering Village. A bachelor, he arrived in the area in the 1770s. Past Years in Pickering, a 1911 book by William R. Wood, describes him as a "King's County Irishman" who had come from "the Green Isle". Duffins cleared a few acres of forest land, but survived mainly by fishing, hunting (fowl and deer), and eating tubers. He trapped animals for fur, and traded with the natives. A Methodist minister, who traveled across Ontario, used to meet Duffin when passing through the area, and found his dead body one day. Wood speculated that he may have been murdered by the natives. Another theory is that he was murdered by one of the travelers for whom he provided lodging. Duffins cabin was located on the east side of the Creek, north of Kingston Road. Augustus Jones, who surveyed the area for the Government of Upper Canada in 1791, named the Duffins Creek after him. The municipality that contained the area was known as Edinburgh Township until 1792, when it was renamed to Pickering Township. Major John Smith of 5th Regiment of Foot, who had served the commanding officer at Detroit, became the first person to receive a land patent in the region. He was an absentee landlord, and his grant of 5,000 acres of land included a part of what later became the Pickering Village. The grant was inherited by his son David W. Smith, who received an additional 1,200 acres of land. In 1799, the Government of Upper Canada converted the major trail in the