The Pallett family can be traced back to the Sydenham community in1850’s. The community had been known as Fountain Hill, Onion Town, Fonthill and Corn Town before it was named Sydenham.
In 1865 the area was finally named Dixie to honour Doctor Beaumont Dixie, an Erindale doctor, who donated a significant amount of money to the Union Chapel, which is still located at the northeast corner of Cawthra and Dundas Roads.
William Pallett, and wife Mary, came from Hertfordshire, England to Canada in 1834 and settled first in Toronto at Hoggs Hollow. They had seven children, two of which, Robert (1828-1906) and Thomas (1834-1909), were the patriarchs of the Pallett families who settled in Sydenham.
The Pallett families were farmers. They grew root vegetables and sold them to the Toronto markets. At one time, the Palletts farmed more than 500 acres in the Dixie area. They involved themselves in community events and soon were among the area’s most prominent families. As with most early communities, the church was the focal point.
By 1885, when St. John The Baptist Church was holding its own annual meetings, after having taken on its autonomy by moving away from ‘The Missions of Toronto Township’, the first Rector’s Warden was a Pallett. Four members of the Pallett clan shared the Rector’s Warden duties between the years 1885 to 1907. All had been elected to that position. The Palletts continued to be elected as Rector’s Warden and People’s Warden of the church through to the late 1940’s.
Leslie Howard Pallett was highly regarded in the community and was often called upon to take a leading role in community affairs. (As noted in Chapter Two, when Leslie took charge of a Cooksville Businessmen’s Association meeting that was on the verge of ending in total chaos, he brought order and provided much needed direction). Leslie was a very persuasive businessman. He could motivate and provide leadership and was known as a tenacious individual. It was Leslie who was the guiding light in the quest to build Dixie Arena and was the leader in the phenomenal $200,000 community fund raising drive. During the construction phase of the arena, Leslie would start each and every day with a round of phone calls to all parties concerned.
He was a market gardener but also held interests in other area business operations including a local night-spot known as the Dixianna, a Lakeshore dance spot which operated nightly. Leslie served the community as a member of Peel Council in 1913 and again in 1927. He was made Deputy Reeve in 1914 and elected to the position of Reeve twice, serving in 1924 and again in 1931.
Leslie and Gladys Pallett lived at 1400 Dixie Road around 1911. The house is believed to have been used in the 1920s as the summer home of descendants of a cousin of William McMaster (after whom McMaster University is named), and known by the family as ‘Alannah’. The sunroom and an addition mirroring the original home virtually doubled the size of the house in later years. The house is now used as a recreational facility by the residents of the Fairways Condominium. Photo by Dave Cook