Editing Aurora, Ontario (section)

=== Becoming a town ===
The settlement was incorporated as a village in 1863 with Charles Doan as the first reeve. Records from 1885 describe Aurora as the "largest village in the county" an "enterprising and stirring business community" with several factories and mills, five churches, a school house with 210 students, and two weekly newspapers. The population in 1881 was 1540.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ttEOAAAAYAAJ&q=Newmarket%2C+ontario+war+of+1812&pg=RA1-PA181|page=186|title=History of Toronto and County of York, Ontario|publisher=C. Blackett Robinson|author=G. Mercer Adam, Charles Pelham Mulvany, Christopher Blackett Robinson|year=1885}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/CA/344/Aurora+and+North+King/York+County+1878/Ontario/|title=Aurora and North King|website=historicmapworks.com|access-date=November 23, 2018}}</ref> The population reached 2,107 by 1888.

By the turn of the century, many industries moved out of Aurora and as a result, the town suffered a downturn and reverted to its agricultural roots. From then on the town experienced slow growth until the rise of suburbia after the end of the Second World War, when Aurora was rejuvenated and experienced a boom in development due to its proximity to Toronto.

Aurora was the childhood home of [[Lester B. Pearson]], Prime Minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968, when his father, Rev. Edwin Pearson, was the Methodist minister.<ref name="McIntyre" />{{rp|40}}