The First Nations are known to have inhabited this area as early as the 14th century. They must have found the pristine Rouge Creek and surrounding valley to be a perfect food source for their village. I would imagine that the first European settlers also viewed Box Grove as a land of opportunity when they arrived here in the early 1800s. These first settlers included the Beebe, Burkholder, Tomlinson, Raymer, Reesor, and Rolph families among others. Many of these pioneer families were of Mennonite origin by way of the United States. They viewed the Rouge River as a natural source of energy to power their saw, wood and grist mills.

In the early days this community took on the name Sparta. Certainly residents worked very hard and by all accounts they played hard to. The hamlet quickly grew with a schoolhouse, church, general store and even a cheese factory. It also included a hotel and not one but three taverns which earned Sparta a reputation as a popular watering hole and at times a bit of a rough and tumble place that some of the more god fearing nearby residents would make a point of avoiding except to pick up essentials and pass through town.

Canada’s Confederation in 1867 marked a new era for Sparta which opened a post office and changed its name to Box Grove. The new name may have made reference to the large number of boxwood trees that proliferated in the area and were used to manufacture wooden crates. Or was the name Box Grove linked to a hamlet of the same name in West Sussex, England. Both are plausible but nobody knows for certain. In any event a new era for Box Grove was ushered in and the community continued to grow.

The largest and one of the earliest landowners in Box Grove were the Tomlinson family. They were involved in the first registered subdivision in the area around 1850. Some of the first houses built in Box Grove can still be seen scattered along 9th Line, north and south of 14th Avenue. In 1950 much of the Tomlinson land had been transformed into a golf course. The story goes that the developer of the course Nelson Davis invited golf legend Arnold Palmer to play the course and Palmer remarked it was one of the toughest courses he had ever played. In 1967 IBM bought the course as a retreat for its employees. In 1997 IBM sold the golf course. The Town of Markham purchased half the course retaining it as a golf course while developers bought the rest of the land which led to the development of the Legacy and Rouge-Fairways communities considered part of present day Box Grove.