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• Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Whiteside Boyle, D.S.O. 1867-1923
  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 Russia in 1917 to help reorganize...

• "Old Stage Road, The"
  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...

• Aimee Semple McPherson 1890-1944
  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 built the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles in 1923. Sister Aimee preached her message of Christian love daily in the...

• Emily Howard Jennings Stowe, M.D. 1831-1903
  The first female physician to practice medicine in Canada, Emily Jennings was born in Norwich Township to Quaker parents. For some years she taught school, then, in the early l860'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 in1867 and, returning to Canada, established a successful practice in Toronto. A passionate advocate...

• Establishment of Free Rural Mail Delivery, The
  One of the most significant developments in the history of postal service in Canada, free rural mail delivery was established largely through the efforts of two Ontarians, George Wilcox and Joseph Armstrong. Wilcox, a farmer here in South Norwich Township, roused wide support for the system through numerous newspaper articles and a prolific letter writing campaign. At the same time, following his election in 1904 as the representative for Lambton East, Armstrong became a tireless...

• Big Cheese 1866, The
  Lydia Chase Ranney and her assistant Robert Facey began making cheese locally in the mid-19th century. Ranney shared her knowledge of cheese making with her son-in-law James Harris, and in 1865 he established Ingersoll's first co-operative cheese factory on this property. To stimulate international interest, specifically in the lucrative British market, local cheese factory owners and entrepreneurs created the Ingersoll Cheese Manufacturing Company of Oxford to produce a mammoth wheel of cheddar cheese, here in...

• Captain Andrew Drew, R.N. 1792-1878
  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 1837-38, 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...

• Colonel Thomas Hornor 1767-1834
  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...

• George Tillson 1782-1864
  Born in Enfield, Massachusetts, Tillson came to Upper Canada in 1822, where he operated the Normandale Iron Foundry, Norfolk County, in partnership with Hiram Capron and James 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 that grew around...

• Otterville African Methodist Episcopal Church and Cemetery
  Encouraged by local Quakers, free Blacks and escaped slaves fled persecution in the United States and found homes in the Otterville area beginning in 1829. As skilled tradespeople and farmers, these people made significant contributions to local development. In 1856, trustees of the African Methodist Episcopal Church purchased this half-acre lot and built the first Black church in Oxford County. Later that year, the church was transferred to the newly established British Methodist Episcopal denomination...

• Reverend George Leslie Mackay 1844-1901
  Son of Scots immigrants, Presbyterian missionary George Mackay was born near Embro, Zorra Township. In 1872, he founded the first Canadian overseas mission in Tamsui, Taiwan. An unconventional character, but sensitive to local needs, Mackay practised lay dentistry and trained local clergy. He married a Taiwanese, Tiuâ¿ Chhang-Miaâ¿, and had three children. The "Black-Bearded Barbarian" worked in north Taiwan until his death, establishing 60 chapels, several schools and a hospital. In 1881, he raised funds...

• Robert F. Gourlay 1778-1863
  Gourlay was a radical Scot who crusaded for social reform in Britain 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...

• St. Paul's Church 1834
  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.

• Harold Adams Innis 1894-1952
  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 trade and...

• Henry John Cody 1868-1951
  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...

• Norwich Quaker Settlement, The
  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 1829, an additional group...

• Reverend Newton Wolverton 1846-1932, The
  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...

• Thomas "Carbide" Willson 1860-1915
  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...

• Wolverton Hall
  This fine brick house, regency in style with some Gothic touches, was built about 1854-55 by Enos Wolverton. It retains the splendid circular stairs, which originally led to a windowed belvedere above the house's roof. Wolverton was born in Cayuga County, New York, in 1810 and came to Canada in 1826. In 1844, he bought 200 acres here on the River Nith and in 1851, laid out a village plot. He became Wolverton's first postmaster...

• Woodstock College 1857-1926
  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 (1860-78), 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...