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Jesse Ketchum Public School
61 Davenport Road
Toronto, Ontario  M5R 1H4

Jesse Ketchum: A Short History

by Tiffany Trespicio and Ayda Askari

Jesse Ketchum was born in 1782. When he was five, his mother died and was replaced with unloving foster parents, so Jesse ran away from home to join his brother Seneca. In 1804, he got married to Anne Love, who's husband died in an accident while bear hunting in Rosedale ravine. In 1816, Jesse helped organize the first public school. It was completed in 1858 and known as the Yorkville Central. Jesse Ketchum had bought and donated the land for what we remember as the first Jesse Ketchum School. He died in 1867, when Canada became a country. In 1883, Yorkville was annexed to Toronto and the school was renamed Jesse Ketchum.