The families who were most associated with this dubious group were Orr, Waits, Cole, Miller, Cantlan and Cook, with the leaders being variously described as Henry “Harry” Cole and John Miller. Miller had a ferocious reputation and may have served as the first Master of their Orange Lodge, creating a community leadership opportunity for him. Certainly Harry Cole was the most feared and notorious member of the gang, and his name is most often mentioned when stories of the gang are told. The Coles were said to live near where Osprey Woods Public School is now located. 

     Farming in the earliest years of settlement was backbreaking work in the spring and summer and excruciatingly dull and isolating in the winter. These Irish loyalists set up the first Orange Lodge in the area at Harry Cole’s home in order to maintain their shared social bonds. It eventually moved north to Whaley’s Corners and was denominated L.O.L. Victoria Lodge No. 62. These settlers were a hard-drinking group, and when they desired entertainment they would descend on local taverns looking for whiskey and a fight. The largely American-born, "Late Loyalist" Methodist Episcopal populations of Churchville, Huttonville and Meadowvale would have served as obvious targets for their aggression, but the young community of Streetsville, with its seven taverns, was their primary theatre of activity. The gang would regularly terrorize the village and very few individuals were willing to risk confronting them or trying to hold them accountable for their actions.

Streetville's own Orange Lodge in the early 20th century. Despite the constant local violence associated with the Town-Line Blazers in the 19th century, the Orange Order would later thrive in Streetsville. The lodge building is still standing in 2024 (Heritage Mississauga).  

       The Townline Blazers were reputed to assault and rob anyone who they met on the roads during these times. They were known to have refused to use weapons, as they believed that this created an unfair advantage, relying instead on their firsts; however, they were documented in the 1830s as fighting with shillelaghs. They were said to scorn the law, such as it was in 1820s Toronto Township, and seemed to see anyone who was Catholic, Grit or Reformer as a natural target for their hatred. 

       Political rifts between the Palatine Irish settlers emerged as their own community became divided between Tories and Grits. Of the reformers, Martin Switzer and his family were the most prominent and there is much information about him available online. Martin Switzer, who also immigrated from Ireland, but did so as a member of the Beatty Caravan, seems to have been the primary enemy of the Townline Blazers. There were numerous violent standoffs between his family and members of the Tory gang. The community where the Irish settlers lived, known variously as Switzer’s Corners, Eden and Lisgar, became so divided that two school houses were erected on adjacent lots to cater to the different factions. In the winter many of those attending school were adults, and a number of violent fights broke out between the two groups. Eventually both schools were demolished and in 1877 Eden Public School was erected to serve the community. Many members of Churchville’s Arnott and Burton families attended Eden P.S. until it was demolished in the 1960s. 

(Image: M. H. Gill & Son, 1921)

       In the 1830s, as the population of Upper Canada began to push back against the ruling Family Compact and the Anglican establishment, the Townline Blazers became increasingly politically active in the area. They harassed and assaulted W.L. Mackenzie and his supporters whenever they appeared in the region. When Mackenzie visited Mary & Heman Hyde’s hotel in Streetsville in 1836, the Townline Blazers violently broke up the Reform meeting and famously ate all of the remaining food, finding enjoyment in Mother Hyde’s protests. Mary, or “Polly” Hyde was Amaziah Church’s sister; one of two who are buried in Streetsville. 

         In August of 1837 the Townline Blazers organised perhaps their most significant physical attack on the Reformers during a meeting at Church's Mills, known as the Churchville Affray. You can read about it in this article. 

      During Mackenzie’s famous three-day flight across the region in December 1837, William and Sarah Comfort, who lived where the Barber House is now located, gave shelter one night to Mackenzie. The Townline Blazers arrived the next morning and tortured the pregnant Sarah with cold water for information about their political enemies. She miscarried and died as a result. Her husband William, who was subsequently arrested and put in jail, could not attend her funeral. 

       Although he was a frightening, drunken Tory thug in the eyes of many, Harry Cole’s relationship with the local population on both sides of the town line was complex. He was named a Captain of the local militia during the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837 and, when he was arrested for assaulting a 12 year-old girl in 1838 and sentenced to two years hard labour, a petition was circulated and signed by 688 men from both Peel and Halton counties, demanding his release on the grounds that Cole was framed. It was effective and he was pardoned after serving only one year of his sentence.

The Brampton Gaol, where Cole would have likely served at least past of his sentence.

       The Townline Blazers’ grip over the communities of northwest Toronto Township ended in the 1840s, when their leader, John Miller, attended a Methodist Camp Meeting. Though historians over the years have questioned the sincerity of his intentions in participating in the multi-day, open-air event, Miller seems to have had an epiphany during the camp and vowed to turn his life around, giving up drink and violence and effectively dissolving the Townline Blazers. 

       The Townine Blazers and their terrible grip on the community shine light on the lawlessness of the earliest years in Toronto Township, and how the community was largely left to police itself. Most of the social infrastructure was provided through church and service club hierarchies. A brutal gang like this, which operated out of a duly constituted Loyal Orange Lodge exposed the dangerous weaknesses inherent in a society based upon this sort of system. A formal police force did not come into existence in the area until the 1850s. 

       Henry "Harry" Cole died on October 21st, 1849 and was buried alongside members of many of the other families mentioned in this article, in St. Andrew's Cemetery in Streetsville.