VANISHED VILLAGES OF MIDDLESEX

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2 VANISHED VILLAGES OF MIDDLESEX

3 MIDDLESEX COUNTY, SHOWING LOCATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL TOWNSHIPS

4 VANISHED VILLAGES OF MIDDLESEX Jennifer Grainger NATURAL HERITAGE BOOKS TORONTO

5 Copyright 2002 by Jennifer Grainger All rights reserved. No portion of this book, with the exception of brief extracts for the purpose of literary or scholarly review, may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the publisher. Published by Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc. P.O. Box 95, Station O, Toronto, Ontario M4A 2M8 alheritagebooks. com Cover photographs, top: London South Post Office, courtesy of Donald McDonald. Below left: The Ryan House, Elginfield, courtesy of A. S. Garrett Collection, J. J. Tallman Regional Collection, The D. B. Weldon Library, University of Western Ontario. Below right: Napier General Store today, courtesy of the author. Back cover photographs, top: Devries Brass Band, Below: Mr. and Mrs. R. Bisbee. Both photos from the J. J. Tallman Regional Collection, The D. B. Weldon Library, University of Western Ontario. All visuals and maps courtesy of the author, unless otherwise indicated. Design by Blanche Hamill, Norton Hamill Design Edited by Jane Gibson Printed and bound in Canada by Hignell Printing Limited The text in this book was set in a typeface named Simoncini Garamond. Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Grainger, Jennifer Vanished Villages of Middlesex Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN i. Middlesex (Ont. : County) History, Local. 2. Ghost towns Ontario Middlesex (County) History. I. Title. FC3O95.M5Z yi.3' X Fio59.M6G Canada ontario arits council CONSEIL DES ARTS DE L'ONTARIO THE CANADA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS SINCE 1957 LE CONSEIL DBS ARTS DU CANADA DEPUIS 1957 Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc. acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) and the Association for the Export of Canadian Books.

6 CONTENTS Acknowledgements Introduction XI XII PART ONE: VANISHED VILLAGES OF MIDDLESEX MIDDLESEX COUNTY EARLY DAYS i. TOWNSHIP OF ADELAIDE Amiens Crathie Dejong Keyset Mullifarry Napperton Velma or Wanderland ii.b TOWNSHIP OF BIDDULPH Adare Awmik Elginfield Fallon Lewis Corners Mooresville Saintsbury Sauble Hill M I? V

7 CONTENTS m. TOWNSHIP OF CARADOC Amiens Burwell Road Caradoc Station Carradale Christina Colborne Ekfrid, Middleton or Longwood Station Falconbridge Glen Oak Hendricks Longwood Station (CPR) Roome Waubnakee iv. TOWNSHIP OF DELAWARE Calder Fielding Littlewood Raper, Howlett or Sharon v. TOWNSHIP OF EAST WILLIAMS Bornish Bowood Carlisle or Falkirk Fernhill Fort Rose Lochaber Springbank Williams vi. TOWNSHIP OF EKFRID Appin Crossing, Appin Junction or North Appin Ekfrid, Middleton or Longwood Station Ekfrid Station or South Ekfrid Inadale Lewis Corners VI

8 CONTENTS Macksville Mayfair North Ekfrid North Glencoe Station Osman Riverside Strathburn Tait's Corners or Alliance vii. TOWNSHIP OF LOBO Amiens Bowood Dewar's Corners Duncrief Fernhill Greystead Siddallville Vanneck vm. TOWNSHIP OF LONDON Devizes Edgewood Elginfield Ettrick Fanshawe Geary Corners Hopedale Maple Grove Masonville Muir Salmonville Silverwood Southgate Telfer The Gore The Grove Truthville i IOI in I 38 I4O M VII

9 CONTENTS ix. Union Hill Vanneck TOWNSHIP OF MC&LLIVRAY Adare Buffalo Gobblersville Hutchinson Lewis Corners Maguire Maple Lodge Mclnnis Mooresville Moray Spidertown West Corners x. TOWNSHIP OF METCALFE Calvert Glenwillow Inadale Katesville Kilmartin Napier Osman Springfield Walkers XL TOWNSHIP OF MOSA Cashmere Ferguson's Crossing or Shield's Siding Kilmartin Knapdale Newbury Station or North Newbury North Glencoe Station Pratt Siding Woodgreen l i i97 i VIII

10 CONTENTS xii. TOWNSHIP OF NORTH DORCHESTER Derwent Dreaney's Corners or Crumlin Forestville Edwardsburg or Frampton Pine Knot Plymouth Shaw Town Waubuno xm. TOWNSHIP OF WESTMINSTER Derwent Glendale Grand Junction Hubrey Littlewood Odell Plymouth Pond Mills Tambling's Comers Tempo White Oak Wilton Grove Woodbank xiv. TOWNSHIP OF WEST NISSOURI Belton Cherry Grove Cobble Hill Evelyn or Henshaw Corners Leesboro McWilliams Nissouri Oliver Plover Mills Rebecca I IX

11 xv. Salmonville Union Hill Wyton CONTENTS TOWNSHIP OF WEST WILLIAMS Bornish Lamon Sable Sylvan PART Two: VANISHED VILLAGES IN LONDON CITY OF LONDON EARLY DAYS Broughdale Byron Chelsea Green Baling Glanworth Hyde Park Lambeth Lilley's Corners or London East London South London West (Petersville and Kensington) Pottersburg or London Junction Scottsville Epilogue Notes Selected Bibliography Interview Credits Index About the Author x

12 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book would not have been possible without the assistance of a large number of people. This includes the staff of the J. J. Tallman Regional Collection at Weldon Library, University of Western Ontario, in particular Theresa Regnier, and the staff of the London Room, Central Public Library. The volunteers at the Ontario Genealogical Society office in Grosvenor Lodge and the workers at the Land Record Office, both in London, also were very helpful. Staff at the various township offices across Middlesex contributed much by answering many of my questions. But there were many other people who assisted me in writing this book. They are not usually involved in historical research or archival work. Instead, they are the inhabitants, or former inhabitants, of the vanished villages of Middlesex. They were usually quite surprised when a young woman knocked on their door and asked them for the history of their crossroads. On the spur of the moment they were asked to remember events long since over or buildings long since gone. But all of them helped me and some even gave me the "grand tour" of their village! Their names are listed under Interview Credits in this book. I thank them all. As well, my thanks must go to Steve Harding and Inge Sanmiya for their assistance in finding photos. While every effort has been made, in this my pursuit of the real stories, to ensure accuracy, the responsibility for any errors rests with me. Any such error brought to the attention of myself or the publisher will be rectified in subsequent editions. XI

13 INTRODUCTION YOUR FIRST THOUGHT upon picking up this book might be, "Could there really be this many "vanished" villages in Middlesex County?" The question is understandable. After all, Middlesex is, and always has been, one of the most prosperous counties in Ontario, with fertile soil and a fairly gentle climate. But the answer is "Yes!" Though few people realize it, Middlesex County, like much of the province, is liberally sprinkled with remnants of hamlets and villages that supplied goods and services to the pioneers and then quietly disappeared as their usefulness declined. Most of these villages included a general store and post office, a blacksmith and a cluster of houses. But often there were other industries, such as a variety of mills, carriage shops, wagon shops and shoemakers, as well as churches and schools. When roads were poor and travel by horse and buggy slow, these villages were located only a few miles apart, usually at crossroads for the convenience of people arriving from all directions. In these villages, local settlers bought supplies, received and sent mail, had a horse shod, worshipped and had their children educated. But perhaps most importantly, these villages were community centres, places where distant neighbours could meet once a week or so, discuss politics and the weather or gossip around the woodstove in the general store. So why did so many of these bustling hamlets disappear? The fact is that they simply were no longer necessary. A community must be able to adapt to changing times, changing industries and changing human needs. XII

14 INTRODUCTION A man drives his horse and wagon along an unidentified road in London township. Poor conditions such as this rutted road hindered pioneer travel. London Free Press Collection, The D. B. Weldon Library, University of Western Ontario. If it cannot, it declines. Many mill villages disappeared when the trees were chopped down reducing streams which had once been rushing torrents to mere trickles no longer able to provide the necessary water power. The industrial revolution, which created modern factory systems, destroyed the village craftsman. Some villages declined when the railway failed to go through as hoped and businesses and industries relocated to be near the rail lines. But perhaps the automobile did more to destroy small communities than anything else. Once roads were paved, travel was faster and easier. People had easy access to larger centres, such as London, Strathroy, Parkhill, Glencoe or Lucan for shopping or entertainment. Rural mail delivery, which started about 1913, shut down the rural post offices, which, in many cases, had become the last vestiges of once bustling communities. When the post offices went, many of the general stores which housed them could no longer stay in business. When the general store went, so did the village. Residents moved XIII

15 INTRODUCTION away and homes were torn down. By 1920, many of the hamlets and villages of Middlesex County were only memories. Of course, many large and prosperous communities have decreased in size over the past few years. Young people go to the cities to be educated or find work and businesses tend to be founded in or to move to places where there will be more customers. Sometimes it seems as though there are few communities in Middlesex which have not suffered a decline in recent years. But, although communities such as Parkhill, Lucan and Ailsa Craig may not have maintained their former status, they certainly have not vanished. And many smaller centres, such as Adelaide, Appin, Harrietsville and Corbett, although drastically reduced in population or industry, or both, are still recognizable as communities. Furthermore, some once fading communities, such as Melrose, Kilworth, Birr and Den field, are starting to take on new life as commuter villages for London. City dwellers of today, searching for peaceful rural surroundings in which to live and raise children, seem to be attracted to such spots. What then is a definition of a "vanished village?" No hard and fast rule applies. It is not possible to define a vanished or "ghost" village merely in terms of a decline in population. One cannot say, for example that a ghost village is one which once had about one hundred people and now has fewer than ten. The real situation is much more complex. For one thing, it is often difficult to know precisely what the population of a community would have been at a earlier time. There are too many conflicting reports. Besides, old population estimates seem to include the total number of people who picked up their mail at the post office and this number might include a huge number of farmers in the area surrounding the village. Furthermore, some of the old Middlesex County directories listed businesses under a certain village heading when they were not really there at all, but only nearby, possibly a mile down the road. An example is an directory placing Kendrew's mill under both Pond Mills and Wilton Grove, no doubt because the communities were so close together. 1 This practice makes it even more difficult to determine a village's size or limits. Frankly, the decisions regarding what communities to include in this book have often been somewhat arbitrary! Sometimes a hamlet has been included just because it has a "ghostly" feel to it. XIV

16 INTRODUCTION For the readers who might wish for a stricter definition of a "vanished village/' one has been provided. For the purpose of this book, a vanished village is a community which either has disappeared entirely or is a mere shadow of its former self. It might have shrunk dramatically in both population and commercial enterprise, or it might have the same tiny population it always had, but have few or no businesses or industries left. In other words, it is no longer recognizable as the flourishing community it was at one time. Amazingly, there are over seventy such places in Middlesex County! There were other problems involved in the researching of this book. It should be stated that for an historian researching the history of Middlesex County, there is not a lack of information, but rather a super abundance. It took some time (two years, in fact!) to sort out the huge amount of data collected by other local historians over the years. To add to the complexity, quite often the information is contradictory. One author stipulates one detail, while another says something quite different. Often it is difficult to know which one is right. To make matters worse, twentieth-century sources often contradict the nineteenthcentury documents, directories and maps. One occasionally wonders if some of the local historians who published in the first half of this century ever read any primary sources at all! Then, in the conducting of interviews, facts emerged which were completely different from ones I had read. Sometimes good stories have been given precedence over facts. As a result, some readers, especially those who are long-time residents of Middlesex County, may find facts or recorded opinions in this book with which they disagree. All I can say by way of explanation is that I really have tried to be as authentic as possible in the presentation of facts about these little places, using as much primary source material as available to me. This book includes a section on places which have been annexed by the city of London over the years. Usually these villages did not fail; they merely were "swallowed up." Yet communities such as Petersville, Pottersburg, Lilley s Corners, Crumlin, Glendale, Byron and Broughdale are also "vanished villages." A visitor or newcomer to London would not recognize most of them as former independent communities. Today, these are regarded simply as sections or suburbs of London. And such xv

17 INTRODUCTION annexation is not a thing of the past, for London continues to expand at the expense of smaller communities and has, as recently as 1993, swallowed most of Westminster township. Lambeth and Glanworth have become two of London's latest "vanished villages." If you want to see one of these vanished villages as it might have looked in its heyday, visit Fanshawe Pioneer Village, a recreation of a typical crossroads village of the nineteenth century. But don't stop there. Go out and see the real thing, the boarded-up shops, the general stores and schools now converted into private homes, the tiny country churches and the pioneer cemeteries. Take this book along as your companion to the vanished villages of Middlesex County. And try not to feel too sad about the demise of these little places. Had they prospered, they would have been full of modern noise and pavement. Instead they are peaceful and beautiful havens for a modern sojourner to reflect upon the not-so-distant past of our pioneers. XVI

18 PART i VANISHED VILLAGES OF MIDDLESEX

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20 MIDDLESEX COUNTY EARLY DAYS UP UNTIL 1793, the territory ultimately identified as the County of Middlesex was an extensive wilderness, the only human habitations being the Native Peoples of the area. In February of 1793, Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe and his men left Navy Hall in Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) to visit Fort Detroit. During this extensive excursion, while exploring the forks of the Thames, Simcoe is recorded as believing this spot to be an ideal location for a capital city, an idea that was not realized. It would be Lieutenant Thomas Talbot, one of Simcoe s party at the time, who would be instrumental in establishing, along with Elgin County, much of the early southern portions of Middlesex. Delaware Village, where the Springers and Tiffanys settled, is considered to be the first permanent settlement of white families in the County. At this time, the County was part of what was known as the Western District, with headquarters, until 1816, at Turkey Point in Norfolk County. Once colonization roads such as the Egremont and Goderich roads were opened, settlement followed. While the population was still quite sparse at the time of the War of 1812, by the outbreak of the Rebellion of 1837, ^e southern portion of the County was fairly settled. By 1865, when the townships of Biddulph and McGillivray were removed from Huron County and added to Middlesex (other townships previously having been moved out of Middlesex to become parts of other counties) the County was defined and, by 1877, was described as being one of the largest in Ontario. 3