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• Founding of Stratford, The
  In 1832, some three years after company surveyors had erected shanties near this site, the Canada Company, a large private land settlement agency, initiated the development of "Little Thames" as the market centre for the eastern Huron Tract. By 1834, a tavern, sawmill and grist-mill existed here and a year later, a post office called Stratford was opened. Settlement was slow until the early 1850s when the advent of the railway and the designation of...

• Tom Patterson, 1920-2005
  A native of Stratford, Ontario, Tom Patterson grew up during the Great Depression and dreamed of plans that might revitalize his community. After serving in the Second World War and completing university, he worked as an associate editor for a trade publication in Toronto. During the early 1950s, Patterson began discussing plans to establish an internationally renowned Shakespearean festival in his hometown. Although considered a risky venture by some, Patterson gained encouragement from Mayor David...

• Andrew Edward McKeever 1895-1919
  A World War I flying "ace", McKeever was born and raised in Elma Township. He enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1916 but, attracted by the life of the fighter pilot, transferred to Britain's Royal Flying Corps once he was overseas. From May 1917 to January 1918 McKeever was posted to the 11th Squadron on the Western front. An outstanding operator of the two-seater Bristol Fighter, he, with his various observers or gunners, shot...

• "Howie" Morenz 1902-1937
  An outstanding hockey player, Howard William Morenz was born in Mitchell. He began his career with the Mitchell Juveniles, 1917-18, and after his family moved to Stratford, he played with several teams there. His skilful play, characterized by exceptionally fast skating and intense concentration, brought the "Stratford Streak" offers from several professional teams, and in 1923 he joined the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League. His success was immediate and he remained in the...

• Founding of Listowel, The
  Among the earliest settlers on the site of Listowel was John Binning who, tradition has it, became the community's first permanent settler in 1852. Within four years, D.D. Hay, one of the most enterprising early settlers, had erected a sawmill and a settlement called Mapleton developed. On June 1, 1856, a post office named Listowel was opened and the community, with a population of 200, contained taverns and a general store operated by W.H. Hacking...

• Founding of Milverton, The
  By 1851, Andrew West, a New York native, had opened a hotel in the recently surveyed township of Mornington. This building was the focal point around which a small community initially known as West's Corners developed. The hamlet grew gradually and a post office was opened in 1854. Ten years later, the settlement contained a sawmill, a tannery, two churches and some 200 residents. About 1871, the name of the village was changed to Milverton...

• Founding of Mitchell, The
  In 1836, the Canada Company, a large private land settlement agency, laid out a town plot (Mitchell) here on the Huron Road. Within a year, John Hicks, one of Logan Township's earliest settlers, had erected a hotel near that point where the road crossed the River Thames. Although settlement proceeded slowly at first, a sawmill was in operation by 1842. Following the opening of the Mitchell-Blanshard Road in 1845, stores and other mills were built...

• Founding of St. Marys
  When opening Blanshard Township for settlement in 1839, the Canada Company made an arrangement with Thomas Ingersoll, a brother of Laura Secord, to build mills at "the Little Falls" of the Thames. In 1841-43, he erected a sawmill and a grist-mill and, in return, obtained 337 acres of land in this vicinity. The mills formed the nucleus of a settlement named St. Marys. In 1854, the community was incorporated as a village. The building of...

• Fryfogel's Inn
  Erected about 1844-45, this building was situated on the Huron Road, a pioneer highway that opened up the Canada Company's Huron Tract. Its original owner, Sebastian Fryfogel, said to be the first settler in County of Perth, was operating a partially completed log inn on this property in December 1828. The inn became a favourite stopping place for travellers and persons settling in the Huron Tract. Fryfogel held various important municipal offices, became the first...

• R. Thomas Orr 1870-1957
  A life-long member of the Stratford Parks Board, R. Thomas Orr was the driving force behind the Stratford parks system. Orr led the fight to save the riverfront and millpond from railway development and oversaw the transformation of the former industrial area into parkland. In 1936, Orr's plans to link Stratford with the birthplace of the English playwright William Shakespeare led to the creation of the Shakespearean Gardens. These parklands provided an inspirational setting in...

• Right Honourable Arthur Meighen 1874-1960, The
  Born on a farm near here, Meighen graduated from the University of Toronto in 1896, and in 1902 moved to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, to practice law. In 1908 he was elected to the federal parliament as Conservative member for that riding. He served successively as solicitor-general, secretary of state and minister of the interior under Sir Robert Borden, whom he succeeded as prime minister from 1920 to 1921. He again served briefly as prime...

• Sir John Cunningham McLennan 1867-1935
  An outstanding Canadian scientist, McLennan was born in Ingersoll and moved to this house in 1883. He attended the University of Toronto where he later became Head of the Physics Department. His research and publications brought international recognition to the University's physics laboratory, which bears his name. A leading advocate of close ties between science, industry and government, McLennan was instrumental in founding the Advisory Council on Industrial and Scientific Research, later the National Research...

• Stratford Normal School
  In the 1900s, concerns about the quality of rural education prompted the Ontario Government to build four new Normal Schools to increase the supply of qualified teachers in the province. Identical Italian Renaissance buildings were constructed in North Bay, Peterborough, Hamilton and Stratford. The Stratford Normal School attracted women and men from surrounding districts and educated them with an emphasis on conditions in the rural schools that employed most new teachers. Known as the Stratford...

• Timothy Eaton 1834-1907
  Born at Clogher, County Antrim in Northern Ireland, Timothy Eaton emigrated to Canada about 1854. In 1856, he and his brother James opened a general store of log construction about a quarter mile from this site in the hamlet of Kirkton. From 1860 to 1868 the Eaton brothers operated a dry goods business in the nearby community of St. Mary's. In the latter year Timothy moved to Toronto. There, in December, 1869 he opened a...