In 1831, Donald Cameron, his wife Elizabeth Christina MacIntosh Cameron (of the family who propagated the MacIntosh apple), and their eight children relocated from Lancaster in Glengarry County to the Port Whitby in Ontario County. Donald Cameron was the second son born to Scottish United Empire Loyalists, Alexander and Jean Grant Cameron. His decision to relocate his family was prompted by his parents' desire to uphold the British tradition of primogeniture, which dictated that the eldest son inherit the bulk of the family estate. According to family tradition, Donald was the favoured son, and was extremely angry upon learning that he was not to inherit any of his parents' property. Vowing never to return to Lancaster again, Donald's move to Whitby caused a rift withing the Cameron family that appears to never have been fully mended. A series of letters addressed to Donald's son James during the 1850s and 1860s indicate that while written correspondence existed between James and a few of his Lancaster cousins, Donald apparently refrained from renewing ties with his Lancaster relatives before his death on February 28, 1855. The estrangement of the two branches of the family is highlighted in a letter from Lancaster received in 1850 which pointedly asks if they intended "ever to visit glengary any mor or not."

Despite the bitter reasons behind Donald Cameron's move to Port Whitby, his children, particularly his four sons, Allan, James, Alexander and Daniel, flourished. At the time of their arrival in 1831, Ontario County was undergoing a tremendous expansion in both settlement and industry. Between 1820 and 1840 the population of the township of Whitby increased ten-fold, mushrooming from 508 to 5,013. W.H. Smith published the following observations about the Whitby area:

Whitby is an exceedingly fine township...the land is level, and the soil composed of rich loam. The harbour is capacious, but ists borders are bounded by a considerable quantity of marsh, through which a small stream enters the bay. A number of houses have been erected here; but the principla business transacted is in storing and forwarding goods and produce, for which purposes there are large warehouses, and others are in the course of erection.

By mid-century, each of Donald Cameron's sons operated his own farm within the township. Allan Cameron, who at the time of the move to Whitby was only three years old, also owned and operated the International Hotel, located on Port Whitby's waterfront. Described as "a sort of Royal York, St.Lawrence Market, Albany Club, Board of Trade, and Union Station rolled into one", the International Hotel was essentially a stop-over point for travellers awaiting passage to Montreal, Kingston, Toronto and Hamilton. Its location on the waterfront also made it an ideal base for farmers shipping out their wheat, oats and barley or purchasing their winter supplies. A first hand account describes the scene:

The International Hotel was the scene of many a dicker, from the hiring of foremast hands to the sale of a season's corn or a winter's lumbering. The bar glowed warmly against the night and the sobering east wind as I passed its windows and lounged in through the ever-creaking door. It was thick inside with the smell of pine tar and coal oil lamps: pungent with spilled beer, whisky, and the reek of spitttoons. City fellows were there, in wide-checked suits and 'christy-stiffs' buying barley or selling horse rakes. ...Swanky farmers in long boots with copper toes and red or blue tops and broad brimmed felt 'knowckabouts' blue or back with crowns ringed instead of creased, were elbowing sailors in fur caps with ear-flaps or dinted derbies. A couple of side-bearded men in stove-pipes, and clothes more solemny black than any undertaker dares to put on nowadays, were store keepers.

The Cameron family has had an uninterrupted presence in the Whitby area to this day. A home on Brock Street in Whitby has been occupied by a member of the family since 1877. The papers relating to the early history of the family are presented here for research and personal use with the permission of the family member who owns them and retains the originals. They were scanned in May of 2003. For convenience they are divided by type of document.