In Praise of Small Town Museums

Those who find small-town museums boring - or all the same - are missing a lot. Arguably, small museums keep local history alive in ways no one else can, by preserving the unique heritage that larger big-city institutions overlook. The sites I visited yesterday do a deep dive into the specific industries, families, and history that shaped their parts of Oxford County. 

Ingersoll Cheese Museum

This cheesiest of all small town museums first opened in 1977 with a grant from the Canadian government, on a site donated by the Town of Ingersoll. It began as a recreation of a nineteenth-century Oxford County cheese factory, appropriate for this dairy capital of Ontario. In fact, it's just along the road from where cheesemaker James Harris' original factory was, the current site of Elm Hurst Inn. Harris and two other gents produced the 1866 Mammoth Cheese, as a display in the museum's gallery indicates:

Part of the historical signage featuring Oxford's Mammoth Cheese.

Over time, the museum has acquired other buildings, including a local history gallery, blacksmith shop, barns, and a schoolhouse portraying two different time periods of one-room schools.

Some railway history in the main gallery.

The Allen Dairy milk wagon.

Blacksmith shop.

The Museum Mouse, at large in the smithy. Every museum needs a Critter Curator.

Children might be freaked out by the schoolteacher's desk, complete with straps. Ouch!

The Reta L. Dickson classroom. How much could you learn, sitting on a bench, facing the wall, and writing on a slate, while the woodstove crackled behind you?

Beachville District Museum

Beachville is one of Oxford County's earliest European settlements, but it probably has only about 1,000 residents, so it might still be surprising that it has such an imposing museum. But it does:

The ground floor of the historic main building dates to 1851, which was when owner Philander King had the home built out of local fieldstone. The second storey, made of limestone, was added by the Downing family in 1902. The Downings were big figures in the local limestone industry, John Downing being one of the founders of the local quarries. The family sold the home in 1969, but Beachvilime Ltd. retained the house for decades before selling it to the Beachville District Historical Society in 1992.* The cost? $2.

The interior features a reproduction drawing room and a kitchen filled with antique equipment. Upstairs is a work in progress, but staff are completing a bedroom, antique children's toy collection, display on the lime industry, replica of a general store, and even an old-time bathroom.

What's unique, however, is the connection to baseball history. Beachville is the site of the earliest recorded baseball game in Canada:

In fact, we now know it was the earliest recorded baseball game in North America, predating Cooperstown by a year. Little did those pioneer players know they were literally making history. But it turns out that in 1886, Dr. Adam E. Ford, a Beachville doctor who moved to Denver, wrote a letter to Sporting Life magazine describing the match he witnessed as a child in Upper Canada. His letter is the first formally recorded account of a baseball game.* 

Note that the game wasn't played on the museum site, but farther into the village. But the museum is making the most of the ballgame connection, including Assistant Curator Sidney Williams' hands-on baseball-making workshops. 

Some Other Thoughts on Small-Town Museums

The guides in such museums are often local residents or historians, eager to share the origins of their displays. Enthusiasm makes the driest history come to life. 

The two museums above operate on a pay-what-you-can donation basis, which makes them accessible learning places for families and those without ample means. 

There's an informal, non-intimidating aura about such museums. The world's largest, supposedly greatest, museums are daunting as heck. Not Ingersoll and Beachville. Go out and enjoy.

* https://beachvilledistrictmuseum.com/baseball 

Day Trips: Kintore

Yes, I went to Kintore. On purpose. 

Why, you ask, would anyone go to Kintore? Well, I usually pass through this Oxford County community of about 150 people on my way to Stratford. Last time, I noticed a few things I wanted a closer look at but I didn't have time to stop. It occurred to me that one day I should actually go to Kintore and look around. 

This little place at the intersection of Oxford roads 16 and 119 was originally in a township called East Nissouri which in 1975 amalgamated with West Zorra and North Oxford townships to become Zorra Township.  Early pioneers such as the first postmaster, William Murray, were from Kintore, near Aberdeen, Scotland. Hence, the new community took on the name of the old. While the first post office is said to have been in a hotel half a mile north of the intersection, it moved into a store on the northeast corner in 1870. This is what's on the northeast corner now but I have no idea of it's that building.

Kintore was a typical nineteenth-century village with the usual assortment of services. Aside from the general store and post office, it had a blacksmith, shoemaker, flour mill, saw mill, and, according to an 1888 directory, Kintore Cheese Company. It's now typical of our former bustling villages, with numerous homes but few businesses left. 

First I visited the pioneers. They're to be found in two cemeteries on the west edge of "town," right across the road from one another. The Methodist Cemetery was founded on the south side of the road on land donated by Benjamin Swayze in 1861. Not surprisingly, there was once a Methodist church just to the east of the cemetery. 

Visitors must climb up a hill to see the graves of most individuals buried here:

One area, surrounded by trees, has a gate standing on its own, with no fence or hedge surrounding it. I assume the rest was damaged or fell down.

From the top, one can see Kintore Presbyterian Cemetery across the road:

The Presbyterian side of the road is larger, a bit better kept, and has its own website, complete with a short history, here. According to the story, the Bain family owned a farm here before the graveyard was founded. Mr. Bain was putting up the rafters in his log house when one of the timbers fell on him, breaking his neck. The poor fellow was buried here and that's how the spot became a cemetery. (One wonders how many pioneers met their ends in such a manner. In my own family, we have a story about an inept young Irishman who died when the tree he was chopping down fell on him.)

The highlight of Kintore Presbyterian Cemetery is undoubtedly this dignified war memorial:

In November 1920, East Nissouri Township Council (as it then was) met at their hall in Kintore and decided to raise a war memorial dedicated to local men who died in World War I. The statue, carved of Italian marble and mounted on Canadian granite, cost $1,200. Erected by Hayes Brothers of St. Marys, it was unveiled in October 1921. According to the London Free Press on October 29 of that year: "For the first time in the history of the Township of East Nissouri, the whole countryside turned out en masse to attend the unique and impressive celebration of the unveiling of the soldiers' monument at Kintore." The story records that four wounded soldiers stood, one at each corner, and were assisted by the township reeve in removing a flag to unveil the statue. A poignant occasion. 

I never list the names on war memorials, since Tim Laye's wonderful blog records the names from war memorials all across the province and I see no reason to duplicate. Tim's Kintore post includes pictures of every side of this monument, including one featuring the additional names from World War II. 

Kintore Presbyterian Cemetery, its gates, and war memorial, as seen from the road.

Not surprisingly, there was also a Presbyterian congregation in the Kintore neighbourhood. The history of the Methodist and Presbyterian congregations and their various buildings may be found on the website of Kintore Chalmers United Church which is east of the intersection on the north side (the church, I mean, not the website!) In case you think church history is invariably dull, think again. Trinity Methodist Church, built in 1862, came to a dramatic end in 1904 when Sunday School Superintendent W. J. Dunster stood at the front to speak to the children ... and the arch above his head came crashing down, covering the pulpit and platform with plaster, lath and dust. Fortunately, Mr. Dunster was uninjured but the congregation decided to build a new church. But the replacement Trinity, finished in 1906, is gone now too, its bricks used to build a home on a country road nearby.

Kintore Chalmers United Church (below) was built in 1914 as Chalmers Presbyterian. After United Church union Chalmers and Trinity combined to form this congregation, still in existence today. 

Oddly, a piece of the demolished Trinity Methodist is resting against Chalmers' west wall:

If ordinary churches aren't your cup of tea, you may find this intriguing little chapel east of Kintore more to your liking. Local resident Ross Calder built it in 1989 as a spot for quiet reflection. So small that it can only seat a few people at once, it does contain a pulpit, Bible, and several visitors books signed by folks from all over the continent. And yes, it's open.

And now for la pièce de résistance. Back at Kintore's main intersection, on the southeast corner, is McRatterson's Antiques & Oddities, a creepy collection of taxidermy, skulls, vintage medical instruments, ventriloquist dolls, and, um, whatever this is:

Some unusual individuals guard the door:

It just goes to show what you can do with an old variety store:

Now that I know what I was missing on those trips to Stratford, I'll likely stop at Kintore again.

Thanks to Rev. Pirie Mitchell and congregation member Barb Irvine of Chalmers Church. 

The End of Elgin Hall

This is Elgin Hall - a 173-year-old pre-Confederation home in the village of Mount Elgin, Southwest Oxford, once the home of the first MP for Oxford County, Ebenezer Vining Bodwell. Bodwell was an MP in Sir John A. Macdonald’s government as well as a superintendent of the Welland Canal. 

For some reason, a company called Mount Elgin Development is building cookie-cutter homes around the site. And needs to demolish the old home to do so. Once he's demolished Elgin Hall, the developer has offered to build a new apartment structure on the site with a façade that would mimic the “style” of the old house using the existing building materials. Oh goody! Another replica like the Sir Adam Beck Manor in London (see No. 4 here). The developer also states the building is in poor shape. Of course it is. Guess who let it get that way? 

Last year a group of concerned individuals trying to save the building felt they’d made some progress towards designating the structure and selling it. But the developer refused an offer of more than a million dollars from Garth Turner, who has won awards for heritage restoration projects from Heritage Canada, among other organizations. Turner is a great-grandson of Bodwell. 

Southwest Oxford Council met yesterday, April 18, to discuss placing a heritage designation on Elgin Hall. Unfortunately, they voted 4-3 to not grant heritage designation. Despite the fact that the building meets four of the criteria required for heritage designation (only two are needed) the developer can now apply for a demolition permit and is expected to do so. 

My pictures were taken last year. I assume the deterioration is even more advanced at this point.

Attractive recessed front doorway.

Advanced deterioration to rear wing. At least the front might have been preserved. 

Note 6 over 6 wooden sash.  

Update, May 2, 2023: The developer smashed the house to bits yesterday. To add insult to injury, the demolition company chose to make jokes about the building on their website.  

Our architecture just doesn't get any respect. At the very least this home could have been deconstructed, not demolished, so that its windows, bricks, and interior fixtures could be used in another old building being restored.