A Butcher, a School, and a Street

The name Cawker is well known in Scugog Township, but where did it originate? Samuel Thomas Cawker was born in Devon, England in 1844, and along with his family, immigrated to Canada as a young boy. His father, John Cawker, was a butcher who established a business in Bowmanville, and it was there Samuel learned the craft that would define much of his working life. Several of the Cawker brothers followed the same path. Emmanuel and John became well-known butchers in Oshawa, while Samuel looked north and east for opportunity.

In 1861, he ventured into Reach Township, opening a butcher shop in Borelia (North Side of Queen Street at Hwy. 7A). As the community grew, so did his presence within it, and he later secured a permanent stall in the Port Perry Market on Perry Street, placing the Cawker name firmly at the centre of local commerce. Samuel married Mary Hannah Thorndike of Whitby, and together they raised twelve children.

Their son Samuel John, born in 1872, continued in his father’s trade. He married Leona Bell Boynton, and their family left a lasting cultural imprint on the community. Their daughter Grace, married Frank Hastings, and became a respected music teacher, teaching in local elementary schools and leading numerous community choral groups. Grace’s granddaughter, Dana (Forder) Smith, later became a jeweller. Another child of Samuel John and Leona, Samuel Arthur Cawker, chose education over trade. His career as a teacher was commemorated when S. A. Cawker Public School opened in Port Perry, in September 1989.

Another son, William Weston, known as Wesley, followed a different path. He worked for Courtice and Jeffrey, completing an apprenticeship in harness making, before later joining W. M. Letcher as an undertaker. He retired from that profession at the same time as his employer, marking the end of a long working partnership.

The seventh son, Alymer Bolton began his working life unusually early, leaving school at just seven years of age, to learn his father’s trade. He travelled with Samuel, selling and delivering meat throughout the countryside, before striking out on his own. Alymer later purchased a horse and entered the livery business in Borelia, though he eventually returned to butchering, forming a partnership with his brother John. His son Albert became the fourth generation of butchers in the Cawker family. He was the last of the Cawker line to operate a butcher shop in Port Perry.

Of Alymer’s other children, Jack became an engineer, while William trained as a veterinarian and settled in New Zealand. Albert remained in the butchering business only briefly and, upon his father’s retirement, turned to other ventures. With that decision, the long Cawker tradition of butchering in Port Perry quietly came to an end, closing a chapter that had spanned generations, and helped supply the town’s tables for more than a century.

Cawker’s Meat Market was located on Queen Street in Port Perry, now the home of Brock’s on Foot.