History of Silverthorn

Thomas Silverthorn (1715-1788) of New Jersey, was a United Empire Loyalist. Many of his compatriots suffered torture and punishment as a result of their British support, and he, too, was heavily fined, imprisoned and put in irons. Arriving in Upper Canada as a war refugee in 1786, he was recognized as a first generation Loyalist. John Graves Simcoe acknowledged his sacrifice by granting his family lands in the Niagara and York regions.

In 1807, Thomas's son, John, and grandson, Joseph, arrived in York (Toronto) to establish family roots. In 1811, John Silverthorn and son, Aaron, began construction of a saw and grist mill on the banks of the Etobicoke Creek just north of Dundas. A small community grew around the mill and in the early days, the area was known as the District of Silverthorn.

Aaron Silverthorn had an active military career. When the war of 1812 broke out, he was 22 years old and fought in battles at Queenston Heights and Lundy's Lane. He remained a military man until 1823 and, in 1850, began serving his government again as a Justice of the Peace. The mill shut down in the late 1800s and over the next hundred years, the Silverthorn properties were sold or consolidated as Toronto expanded.

The Silverthorn Symphonic Winds began in 2006 and had the privilege of using the Silverthorn Legion Hall as its home base for the first three years of operations. The SSW believes strongly in the ideals and core values promoted by the Silverthorn family; integrity, independence and community service drive our organization's decisions both artistically and socially.

September 2016 marks the beginning of our 10th Anniversary and we are looking to celebrate in several ways: We will continue with our outreach focus of up to 12 performance events at community centres, schools, hospitals and senior's residences; We will restart our highly successful Artist-In-Residence program; We hope to commission a work by a Canadian composer to commemorate the event; We will expand our community support efforts and reach out to more local schools and organizations to share our music, our message and our experience.

Silverthorn Symphonic Winds - proudly Canadian.