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535-03 Page 12 a„Stagecoach Jaunt . Ingersoll �7360 93sa 15-00 him, and managed his four horses _3y0d Road, which is a Road, by four reins and a foot brake. The The Old Stage continuation to In l's King St., ungraded hills were often so steep that hard and continuous braking although now only a secondary in the very early of the rear wheels was necessary, country road, was, for Over-lbrake-blocks sometimes causing the wooden 1800's the main artery Toronto, Brant- to catch on fire from land travel between the friction. On some difficult and ford, and Chatham. ;Boats and Labe rough hills the wheels were chained barges plied the Thames and together and skidded down. The Erie, but were slow and inconveu travel was by steel springs of later years had not body lent, so all passenger the Stage Road. cone into use and the coach stage-coach rot itself was suspended over the axles Even this fount of travel ;was so Even in- rawhide straps which allowed it dangerous, uncomfortable thaatt Only those who an- and lrta to roll from side to side and pitch. convenient, had to travel were found a and down. The wheels were of solutely on the roads; it was�110 uncommon wood with steel rims, and very high the maximum clearance life ineuY- for a person to take out h long ,up to give axles for often stumps and stones were n ance before undertaking a� ,,„¢ e left in the centre of the road, lit trip. mein hopes that sooner or later some irate There were the remittance from England, in foppish and un- freighter with several span of out the stumps suitable clothes-, pushed out of tliel .. .- I- _ oxen, would pull smashing a wagon wheel on been fairly elaborate for those days.�— [t was a log building, with two stor- � A ies and a stone foundation. him an official One coach line in later years ran aboard the Tur- fron Ingersoll to Port Burwell, on till must fill out what is now number nineteen high- officials' forms. way. At one time the road-:1 }w = paved with planks and was called, tonight with his naturally enough, the"Plank Road.” A Mrs. Martin At that time a vast amount of pine ,µme to Britain lumber was being cut near the lake by plane to see and taken to London by an almost endless line of teams and. wagons ' to get back tc On a frosty morning, the wagon and his two chip wheels on the Plank Road made a and but report, rolling rumble, like thunder, that the loss epep hi: direction. could be heard for miles in every �m here another The Hagles built ' a hotel at the i cross-roads now known as "Hagles Es to go to Lou Corners", between Ingersoll and Lay there a da. Salford. It is built of brick, (poss- :flying back t( ibly because of clay pits nearby), hs. and still stands today. It was known t one House", a rid: as the "Wiseman ,Hon the thmtsa time, and was the noon stop to t could see th, Port Burwell stage. T e next stop ! when he one, south was the :Madam. HuntleyHotel �,on land. The; in Mount Elgin, a two storey frame that ripples building, where a garage is now. narrow street£ .. __ .._.._ .a,.,."...". "loth er hotel ife i ex aunty *44 ,vith, Preacher places which stand in numbers in 1818 the work came strictly under every community today. Canadian control. Bangs was a practical minister. A lot happened in those 18 When he rose for the first time years in the world of religion. before the people of a settlement When Case first came to the. he would give them an account district Joseph Smith was found - of his birth, his call to the min- ing Mormonism in Vermont. In istry, and his motives in life, so 1807, John Smithurst, the lover that all would underst; nd why of Florence Nightingale who was he was there, why he rode from to enter the ministry and come clearing to clearing, living with- to Canada at her request, was ,out pay on a meal here and a born, In 1813 David Livingstone night's lodging there. was born in Scotland. Then in he would say: "I am a 1818, Karl Marx, the man whose fThen Methodist preacher, and our philosophy would one day per - manner of worship is to stand up secute Christianity in many parts and sing, and kneel in prayer; of the world, was born. And on then I stand up and preach December 23 the pastor of the while the people sit. As many Lutheran Church at Arnsdorf in this a see fit to 'din me in t t s J wrote on German ate e of the rent Y g method can do so. IP not, you inspirational hymns, "Silent I can choose Your own method." Night" fn the colonies; .rrocro , r­­^- The army originally cleared the mere, a11o, ,,,,� _� _------- , He stands live --- ---- bringing the fear of Hell -fire and y manner was not important. Through a succession of iumis- Damnation" to their scattered back- road through to Chatham in order Rob Stage Coach and is slender, ters in the Thames Circuit the woods parishioners; fast -talking ack-Ito move troops and supplies, later Ingersoll's end of the stage line ' After a night's r Once Bangs had finished his\f Rev. William Case presided as salesmen with bags of samples, and turning the responsibility for up- was the Brady House, where the (•moil he looked sermon he would say: "All { elder. In 1826 the Amherst?.&r& Imperial Bank is now.` The old horse (tired as the day those who wish to hear any more /f Circuit was formed. This inclti8ed often an officer's nvi£e, newly out keep of the road over to the town- p rise up." And from England. to join her husband I ships. The townships in turn made barns, where the stage horses were .:yes were still a such reaching, Gosfield Township, and in 1833.. at his garrison post. She had likely every property owner ' responsible kept, still stand in the alley behind. leveryone would rise. G the population of the area heard endless tales of life in the for the road in front of his. property. Oxford County's one and only xrm around Carl- This was the beginning of so- p p stage -coach robbery occurred be- eial life in the territory. And in grew, the Gosfield Circuit, in. Canadian wilds and was terrorized Some farmors soon found that rf tween Ingersoll and Woodstock, on Kingsville today there seems to eluding. Kingsville, was formed with thoughts of being scalped by they let their road sectioi get in and the young Between 1833 and 1866 the gas Indians, or eaten by bears and bad enough shape, the heavyfueight- the Old Stage Road, in the early are close pals be a trend back toward the and wolves. ing-wagons would get stuck. The 1800's. An army major and his social life of the Church. field Circuit was served by C farmer then turned up with a good,negro, bativan were travelling by , « « « « different all platers, and frorr Built for Strength team of horses and pulled the 1866 to the'/resent the Kings for a fee. One liar coach to London, with a large quan-, cued each other Bangs was an iissionary ville Circuit, now 85 The coaches t use r the early freighter out, tity of 'gold for the army payroll. reacher. A regular missionary years nts oi 1800's were built for strength, and had a Particularly profitaUle nrud- (lies,. fought to p has had a total of 36 incumbents East of Beachville the coach was was appointed to the Kingsville not for comfort. The coach driver hole mn his section of the road and wire towline on- area in 1805. His name was Wil- stopped and rubbed, but there is rea- As should be expected, the fire sat t e seat on top of the coach, every night he drew a wagon -load of son to believe that the major was slept half on fam Case, the "Father of Indian church building in the Kingsvlhi with the trunks and baggage behin_ Water which he dumped in the hole in cahoots with the robbers, for his alf on the. floor Circuit was constructed of logs to keep it from dn'Ying up. , Misdquar in Canada, whose neg'ro batman was never seen again. tilted cabin, head neuters were in Detroit, Just east of Kingsville as i 4<JV `XJV _ Become Quagmires He was probably killed to keep him' xther from near q stands today. The events preced ery ru e 1 ,vhich in that year had become P from talking, and his body buried. is frothing sea, -be capital of the Michigan ter- ing the building are recorded ii The earliest coaching inns were It was always a ter - toss as t� The gold was supposed to have been ,e close in after itor The "Thames Circuit" the following manner, one whirl very crude affairs of log walls and whether summer travel was trav-an buried near Karns Hill, and for ?ped Wednesday. i y is not at all unique considerim / shake roofs. The only thing that more comfortable than winter came es next covered by Vivian when the frost came many years a great amount of dig- zyor T. L. Morris P the piety of many of the fix. made them habitable in the winter el. In spring', Bing was done by local people in an er, wearing his Iolmes and Silas Hopkins, but settlers. was the great abundance of fire out of the round, the dirt roads attempt to find it. Several men from) er, n I81.2 the war broke up the « # « wood, stacked in great piles behind. became quagmires and the coaches p low overhead, "Now in the year 1817, whe the inn, and hauled in three foot. sank in the holes, even on the main Centreville got tired of ha hazard xumed until Joseph rit. re - In ns.digging and went to Consult a gifts showered umai office w Detroit. Gideon children of Leonard Kxaf lengths, to be burned in great fire- streets ofti•avel the ovsometimes the stopped pP Gypsy fortune teller. She told them) Darcy l panning followed him ,and in places built of stone and clay. Some the add Wendel Wight had greats exactly where to dig to find the increased and multiplied in th of the fireplaces had no chimneys for days for the creeks were on -treasure, but warned their not to I land, and when Wendel, tb and the smoke went out through a. bridge" in sheath of the summerere were speak a w'md while they dug, nr / _ --- — _, ,,f friend of Leonard, had died an a hole in the roof, or between the they would never find it. They start- —In 1806-B James Burdick erected c0 tough uneven shake shingles. So the (lust rose behind the horses ed to dig a big hole and just as user �%' had been gathered to his father. much smoke stayed in the peal: of great clouds, and covered the p a combination g on d5" Leonard called his sons and Ill they thought they should be reaching Reynold"' Creek (Centreville t7reek) daughters and his sons -in -la) the roof, before finding its way out,., engers, who were also harried by the gold, a run -away horse and that. hams and - sides of bacon were flies and great swarms of trios" wagon dashed through the trees. on Concession I in the Township and his daughters-in-law, and th hung there to be smoke -cured, and quitoes' one of the -men inadvertantly spoke, of West Oxford, south of the press p' sons and daughters of Wends certainly no flies ever bothered 1 Winter brought drifted eat buffalo 18 feet 'f(1y his departed friend, and sai them. If meat vvas left there took >assengers dressed in gand they always said afterwards that ent village of Centreville. It is de- unto them, 'It has been our cu: and coonskin coats. Lady passengers was the only reason they were not ser! as a building long before being used it was often successful. Another story told is square, and stood south of the road tom for these many years t were given footwarmers; these were worship the God of our fn.thei found to be as smoke blackened as .metal boxes, about an old empty barn that was where a -mall house now original �Q- charcoal and as hard as a rock. All whit sta e stop. lied with) 1 in the house of Wendel tP the cooking .was done over the fire-' hot coals at every g' p never there, frequently used as a The mill -race from the original Weaver; let us now, I pray yo The coaching itnis were spaced hang-out and a good place to cache I pond can still be traced. place in iron pots, swung of a crane, out atone the road, generally at In 1810 the mill was sold to An• ; build a house of the Lord in it a bottle of whiskey. One old-timer i of Delaware, who and as few early inns had more than needed a drink, early one morning, drew Westbrook, Land of Gosfield, over again two rooms, the men Passengers get'- half -day driving intervals, but short he the lake that is called Erie', ar .rally' slept by and went to the barn to see ifhadi disposed of it just prior 1 the 4 the fire. In the stops were made at every post office, could find a bottle. �SomebodY beginning of the War of 1612. He the children of Leonard at 1 summer they slept in the barn or for the coach carried the mail and dug up the earth floor during the, then turned traitor and joined the Wenl.' said unto their ag. ' outside. The women passengers ones bag, it had to be all the dux npedr out on night. apd he could see where they' American forces at.Detrott, whence father, 'Thou hest spoken we] the floor and sorted over to find the they had lifter out a box from the "unsex into Can- we will do according to ti } I shared a bed with the inn-keeper'e he led raiding p letters for that community. The bole, for the imprints were still in carrying off prisoners and words and build a house of tl wife m her often numerous children. post office was also the localLord. The Martin Stand ,Hotel, which the dirt. Who they were, or what ads, stood on the Stage Road south of barroom and inn, and since a good was in the box, nobody ever found destroying property. deal of the inn -keeper's business out. Officially, the payroll gold was In 1614 he led 300 soldier" and "And Peter, the son of Ls-t), I the village of Bose ville, must have came from the coaches stopping never found;• but strangely enough,.{ Indiana into Oxford, .and among ard, gave the ground for tl there, the drivers were always given not too long after the robbery, thel other building" burned the roll- house of the Lord; and Lconax j Tires drinks in return .for the cis- large mortgages on several local which was the only one in Opera- his father being rich ar morn tamers they brought in. In places farm were paid off in full. In gold?',,(' tion in the district, Later, how - sea h� budild incattle. house of of the lLo Lord, / .where the inns and drinks were too ever, the owner was paid by r, - British Government for his loss. the people round gathered oa .(f➢M.,', i elose together, the driver was some- Jams$ 'ma. le and walnut timber fro times unable eventually to get up to' The millstones, used by p i his high seat on the coach top. If one >� Burdick, lay for over a century at the woods of Gosfield, w� of the Passenandl gers 'had the skill and - the entrance to the farm Lust west which to build the house; of nerve to drive the horses, the coach bA of the creek, owned from 1804 until the year IBIS the house of ��p ; might go on, but if no one volun- �. recent times by the Nichols family. Lord was finished, and in t U)q,A �0�� t leered, a stop was made for the ( -,( and then sold to its present own, seventh month, in the sixth d night. / _ �M er, J. Shuttleworth. When the farm of the month, in the first day wy(e - li- Q Q changed hands the stones were the week, and at the Loth he i' moved to Sweaburg, and may be of the day. Warren, the prie seen at the entrance to the home derheated the house of the £in which the descendants OF v _ of Mrs. Wiseman, daughter of John a.rd and Wendel had built a Nichols, the last of the ptorieee �. the people said Amen'" , tF ,ts Nichols family to own the farm.