Historical Plaques of
Oxford County

This church was completed in 1834 shortly after the founding of the community. It was financed through the efforts of Admiral Henry Vansittart and constructed under the direction of his agent, Captain Andrew Drew R.N. The Admiral also pledged maintenance of its first incumbent, the Rev. William Bettridge, who served the congregation 1834-79. During the Rebellion of 1837 the building became a temporary jail for prisoners captured by local Militia. St. Paul's was consecrated in 1838 by Bishop G. J. Mountain. The Chancel was added to the original structure in 1843 and the Transepts in 1851.

Here stood the Canadian Literary Institute which was incorporated in 1857,opened in 1860 and renamed Woodstock College in 1883. Sponsored by the Baptist Church its establishment was largely the result of the efforts of its first principal (1860 - 75) the Rev. R. A. Fyfe. It was a co-educational institution providing training in theology and arts and at one time was expected to attain full university status. In 1881 its faculty of theology was transferred to Toronto Baptist College and in 1888 its ladies department was moved to Moulton College in Toronto. Woodstock College served as a boys' preparatory school from 1890 until it was closed in 1926.

Born in Oxford County, Wolverton taught mathematics at Woodstock College (Canadian Literary Institute) from 1877 - 1891, being principal from 1881-1886. Here he set up the first manual training department in Canada. He also established a meteorological observatory and was a recognized authority in that field. He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1877. At the age of 15 he had seen military service in the American Civil War, and served as an officer with the 22nd Oxford Rifles in 1864-5, and in the Fenian Raids of 1866. In 1891, he was appointed principal of Bishop College, Texas, and in 1901 he was associated with the founding of Brandon College, Manitoba.

This house was built in 1895 by Thomas Leopold Willson, an electrical engineer who discovered the first commercial process for the production of calcium carbide, a chemical compound used in the manufacture of acetylene gas. He was born at Princeton, Ontario, and educated in Hamilton, where he performed his early experiments. The discovery which earned him his nickname was made at Spray, North Carolina in 1892. In 1896 he established a carbide works at Merritton, Ontario. After establishing a similar plant at Shawinigan, Quebec, he settled in Ottawa in 1901. His varied scientific achievements were recognized in 1909 by the University of Toronto which awarded him the first McCharles Prize.

Born in Enfield, Massachusets, Tillson came to Upper Canada in 1822 where he operated the Normandale Iron Foundry, Norfolk County in partnership with Hiram Capron and Joseph and Benjamin Van Norman. In 1825 he sold his holdings in that pioneer enterprise and bought some 600 acres of land including a mill site in this vicinity. Here in partnership with Benjamin Van Norman he built a new forge and a sawmill. The settlement which grew around these industries was known at first as Dereham Forge but following the survey of the town plot in 1837 it was named Tillsonburg in honour of the founder.

A legendary adventurer known as Klondike Joe, Boyle was born in Toronto and came to Woodstock with his family in 1872. He worked at various jobs before attaining great success as a prospector and entrepreneur in the Yukon. At the outbreak of the First World War, Boyle raised, financed and equipped a fifty-man machine gun contingent. Determined to help the war effort further, he headed an allied mission to Russian in 1917 to help reorganize the railway system. His adventures soon took him to Rumania where he became a confidant of the Royal Family. He was charged with obtaining famine relief for the Rumanian people and with negotiating a peace treaty with Russia. Much honoured for his effort, Boyle died in England.

The celebrated evangelist and faith healer Aimee (Kennedy) McPherson was born on a farm west of here. She led revivalist meetings in Ontario in 1915-16 and then barnstormed the United States, drawing large crowds in tents, concert halls and sports arenas. Capitalizing on her vast popularity she founded the Church of the Foursquare Gospel and build the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles in 1923. Sister Aimee preached her message of Christian love daily in the temple's 5000 seat auditorium and over its radio station. She staged morality plays, healed countless invalids, and oversaw social relief programs. Although scandals and financial troubles beset McPherson at the height of her fame, the Foursquare Gospel Church flourished. It now operates worldwide.

Born in Massachusetts, Major Thomas Ingersoll (1749-1812) came to the Niagara peninsula in 1793 and was promised some 80,000 acres of land in the present Oxford County for himself and a group of American associates. He brought a number of settlers into this area before the government revoked the agreement in 1797. Ingersoll moved to the Credit River in 1805. His son Charles (1791-1831) a veteran of the War of 1812 and a half-brother of Laura Secord, acquired the Oxford family homestead in 1817. He became a leading citizen of this pioneer community known at first as Oxford but later re-named Ingersoll.

Oxford County was the birthplace of the commercial cheese industry in Canada. In 1865 James Harris erected on this farm the first cheese factory in the Ingersoll district. To stimulate interest among foreign buyers, a group of Oxford's producers co-operated to manufacture a gigantic cheese here in June, 1866. Weighing 7300 pounds and measuring 21 feet in circumference, it was exhibited at the New York State Fair and in London, England.

One of Canada's outstanding economic historians, Innis was born on this farm. Graduated from McMaster University, he obtained a Ph. D. from the University of Chicago, and in 1920 joined the Department of Political Economy at the University of Toronto where he subsequently became Department Chairman and Dean of Graduate Studies. His works, such as the monumental "Fur Trade in Canada" (1930), largely interpreted Canadian history as a thrust to control the St. Lawrence trace and connecting traffic routes, and profoundly influenced Canadian historical writing generally. His later studies, for example, "Empire and Communication" (1950), investigating the effects of communications technology on cultural values and social institutions helped establish international communications theory. Innis College, University of Toronto, is named in his honour.

Gourlay was a radical Scot who crusaded for social reform in the early nineteenth century. His activities in Upper Canada sent shock waves through the province. He arrived in 1817 to examine property he owned just east of here and became interested in promoting settlement. To encourage immigration Gourlay began compiling his Statistical Account of Upper Canada (1822). He soon decided that government favouritism and mismanagement were stifling growth. Gourlay challenged the authorities, organizing protest meetings and publishing colourful heated attacks on office holders. Cleared of charges of seditious libel in Kingston and Brockville he was charged under the Seditious Alien Act late in 1818 in Niagara, jailed for eight months, then banished.

The first female physician to practise medicine in Canada Emily Jennings was born in Norwich Township to Quaker parents. For some years she taught school, then, in the early 1860's, she decided to pursue a career in medicine. Refused admission to an exclusively male institution in Toronto, Stowe enrolled in the New York Medical College for Women. She received her degree in 1867 and, returning to Canada, established a successful practice in Toronto. A passionate advocate for social reform, Stowe campaigned vigorously for increased educational opportunities for women, effectively challenging the right of Canadian universities and medical schools to exclude female students. As first president of the Dominion Women's Enfranchisement Association (1889-1903), she also contributed significantly for the advancement of women's voting rights.

In 1809 Peter Lossing, a member of the Society of Friends from Dutchess County, N.Y. visited Norwich Township, and in June, 1810, with his brother-in-law, Peter De Long, purchased 15,000 acres of land in this area. That fall Lossing brought his family to Upper Canada and early in 1811 settled on this lot. The De Long family and nine others, principally from Dutchess County joined Lossing the same year and by 1820 an additional group of about fifty had settled within the tract. Many were Quakers and a frame meeting house planned in 1812, was erected here in 1817. These resourceful pioneers founded one of the most successful Quaker communities in Upper Canada.

This road, which follows in part the Indian trail, known as the "Detroit Path", across East Oxford Township, was opened by settlers at the expense of Major Thomas Ingersoll in 1796-97. It joined a wagon road opened across Burford Township by local settlers, connecting near Brant's Ford on the Grand River with a road to Long Point from Ancaster. Extended later to Delaware, it became the preferred highway to Sandwich and was used by British and American troops in 1812-14. After 1826 it became the stage route from Ancaster to London until the building of the plank road from Brantford to Woodstock in 1842-3. Sections of the road are still open between Ingersoll and Cathcart.

This house was built by Capt. Drew who came here in 1832 as agent for Admiral Henry Vansittart founder of Woodstock. Purchasing land now included in the eastern section of the city, Drew divided it into town lots and formed the nucleus of this community. During the rebellion of 1837-39 he led the Canadian force that destroyed the American steamer "Caroline" which was supplying William Lyon Mackenzie's supporters on Navy Island. This action almost precipitated war between Britain and the United States and several attempts were made on Drew's life. He returned to England in 1842 and resumed his naval career.

Born at Embro and educated at Galt Collegiate Institute, this distinguished churchman and educationist graduated from the University of Toronto in 1889. Ordained to the Anglican ministry in 1893, he was rector of St. Paul's Church, Toronto, from 1899 to 1932. He was appointed Canon in 1903 and Archdeacon of York in 1909. A member, and later chairman, of the board of governors of the University of Toronto, he was Ontario's minister of education, 1918-19. He played a vital role in the administration of the University as president, 1932-45 and chancellor, 1944-47. His outstanding contributions in the fields of education and religion were recognized in 1943 when he was created a C.M.G. by King George VI.

Born at Dores, Inverness, Scotland, and educated in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, he was ordained by the Presbytery of dingwall, Synod of Ross, 1834 and sent as a missionary to Zorra. In June, 1835, he was inducted in to the Zorra congregation (Log church, Lot 9, Con. 7, Zorra) as its first minister. In 1836 a frame church (Auld Kirk) was built in Embro, and in 1861 the cornerstone was laid for a large brick edifice, with a seating capacity of 1000, and a steeple 52 feet high. Mr. McKenzie taught some elementary education as well as the classics, was instumental in having schools built, and teachers obtaining certificates. In 1844 he was appointed the first superintendent of Education in Zorra.
In 1872 he resigned, after 38 years as Minister of the Zorra Church, having guided 38 young man into the Ministry and many more into the Professions.
Mr. McKenzie died in Ingersoll, April 1884, and is buried in the North Embro Cemetery.

This memorial is to honour Elijah and Phila Cody, United Empire Loyalists, who settled here in 1824, and for whom these corners were named.
Five generations of the Cody family residing here throughout their lifetime were Elijah, Harrison, Elmer, Andrew and Bryden.
This cairn is erected by the Cody's Corners Community and dedicated on the closing of Cody's School July 30, 1966.

Born in Odessa, November 8, 1889, he spent most of his boyhood years in Embro and attended school at Cody's Corners.
His name symbolizes world wide evangelization. In 1928 he founded The Peoples Church, which may be the largest church in Canada, with an income for world Missions of more than one million dollars annually.
As a missionary statesman, he visited seventy-two countries and received the B.R.C.S. degree. His thirty-six books have been translated into one hundred and twenty-five languages of which over six million copies have been circulated.
His twelve hundred hymns and poems make him one of the most prolific song writers. Dr. Billy Graham has called him, "The most remarkable man I've ever met."

Bob Hayward brought international fame to Canada and to this area when he drove the world champion speedboat MISS SUPERTEST III to victory, winning for Canada the Harmsworth (British International ) Trophy August 27, 1959, and which he successfully defended in 1960 & 1961.This cairn is erected to his memory on the former Hayward farm where Bob was born and raised and dedicated on the closing of Cody's School July 30, 1966.

Born in New Jersey, Hornor first came to Upper Canada in 1793 and visited the unsettled township of Blenheim. Disposing of his holdings in the United States, he emigrated to Blenheim in 1795. That year he completed (on lot 15, concession 1) the first sawmill, and in 1802 the first grist-mill in what is now Oxford County. In 1800 he was appointed a justice of the peace for the London District and registrar for Oxford and Middlesex Counties. He served as an officer in the 1st Regiment Oxford Militia and became its colonel in 1822. Elected to the provincial legislature as Oxford's first member, Hornor represented this riding 1820-31 and 1832-34.

The most famous murder and murder trial in Canadian history took place in the Princeton area. Frederick C. Benwell of Cheltenham, England, came to Eastwood with John Reginald Birchall of Accrington, England, believing that he was to train and invest with Birchall under the popular Farm Pupil Industry Program. Supposedly en route to a prospective farm, Birchall took Benwell to a swamp on the 2nd conc. of Blenheim Twp. Later, two local woodcutters found Benwell's body, which was taken to J.B. Swarts Funeral home in Princeton. An autopsy showed cause of death to be two gunshot wounds to the head. Though buried unidentified, the body was exhumed and identified by Birchall.
Due to the work of Ont. Chief Government Detective John W. Murray, Birchall was charged with murder. His trial by jury took place in Woodstock before Justice Hugh MacMahon. The case became world famous due to widespread interest in the farm pupil industry, Murray's unprecedented use of newspapers to publish a picture of an as-yet-unidentified corpse, legal use of meteorological evidence to determine time of death and transmission of the trial proceedings via the new trans-Atlantic telegraph cable.
Convicted on circumstantial evidence, Birchall was hanged Nov. 14, 1890- and is buried in the Woodstock Jail Yard. Benwell is buried here in the Princeton Cemetery.