Pin Quest Ontario

Oxford County is actually a regional municipality but is the only one of the eight in Ontario that has kept the title “County” in it’s name. It’s also the only regional municipality with a “Warden” as the head of government instead of a Regional or District “Chair”.

When John Simcoe was carving Ontario into townships, Blandford was originally set aside as “school reserve” land and it would be decades until settlers would arrive on the land. Blenheim however was granted not to Canadian settlers, but to Thomas Watson of New Jersey who was a prisoner of Simcoe during the US Revolutionary War. Watson brought along his friend Thomas Horner and the two surveyed and developed the land. However, when SImcoe was later replaced as Governor, his successor, seeing Watson and Horner as Americans, refused to recognize the grant. 

Ingersoll became famous for cheese making even before the War of 1812. This fame was bolstered in 1866 when the “Mammoth Cheese” was exhibited at the New York State Fair and then in England. This giant cheese wheel weighing 7,300 pounds brought such attention to the local industry that the next year, the Canadian Dairymen’s Association was founded in Ingersoll.

European settlements in Norwich Township date back to as early as 1792, but one of the earliest and largest settlements was a Quaker settlement. By 1820, over sixty Quaker families had settled in the area, building a religious community based on a doctrine of opposing political and religious authority, opposing war, oppression and slavery, and the teaching that all humans are equal. The Quakers helped former slaves escaping the United States find homes and work in Norwich, and advocated to the government for complete abolition of slavery.

South-West Oxford’s Beachville community is home to the first recorded game of baseball in North America (June 4, 1838). Photos, a plaque, gloves, bats and baseballs from the early baseball community are on display at the Beachville Museum.

Once known mostly as a tobacco production hub, Tillsonburg’s industry has diversified to replace tobacco. It is now a largely a manufacturing hub, producing parts to supply Ontario’s auto manufacturing industry. Tobacco has been replaced by more diverse agriculture including ginseng and watermelons.

Incorporated  in 146, Woodstock is one of few cities in Ontario that still has all of its original administration building including two town halls, jail, court house, fire hall, registry office public library, and even the original market building.and train station most of which have been retrofitted and are still in use in some capacity to this day.

In the 1830s, British Admiral Henry Vansittart was encouraging retired British military officers to settle in the Woodstock area. He named the community after the village Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England where he had been educated. The original Old English name “Wodestock” was first recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as a royal forest.

One of the oldest buildings in Zorra is the Harrington Schoolhouse. Originally built in the mid-1800’s as a one-room log schoolhouse, it was enlarged in 1869 with a stone addition. After the closing of one-room schools, a group of residents purchased the school to use as a community centre which can still be visited today.

An older lapel pin for the Township of Zorra.