535-03 Page 30 (1)time Kiln, 118-Year-Old Mill Pondandi •
Recall Centreville Era When
t, ;erg." e.�<� -
By J. C. Shuttleworth swallowed up by quarrying ope I?; s
The little village of Centreville, ations. The mill building was ap- v�.�w a'I
now just a row of houses on both parently still standing, unused,
sides of No. 2 Highway, east of late as 1809, when it was used
Ingersoll, was, in its heyday, a as a boundary point in Ian.
prosperous centre with numerous measurement in that year.
,
small industries, long before Lon- The in sexy or tan -yard stoo
don or Woodstock came into on the south side a nignway,
existence. e7q� west of the creek, and used the"X`
Ipaa Squatter's Rights spring on the hillside behind for t�,W Fpn,•-
The village occupies part of th water. No doubt the water was
6,600 acres of land that was brought down to the tannery
granted to Thomas Ingersoll, an vvats in a- wooden flume for soak-
American, in the .early 17 's bu ing the hides.
was occupied by squatters even In those days, hides were
before that. The squatters just soaked in a mixture of water
built themselves cabins and and .wood ashes, the acid thus F,
cleared a bit of land without too formed gradually removing the i.•
much regard to the owners of hair from the hide. This spring s • - a6�yw:
the property. - above the tannery was muchVil1-,
In later years, some of the mentioned in deeds for many
squatters were able to prove years, the right to use the spring
their grants and receive deeds to being mentioned each time either
their land. Others found that the tannerypropertyor the hill- E V'
their homesteads were part of side was sold.
some huge block of land given Smithy's Shop
to a courtier or a wealthy man - Across the creek from the tan.
h had even been into nery was Dakes store, blacksmith
w o never p ,
the area, and they were .evicted shop and a huge willow tree, Free Press Retracts D 4
with only small compensation for both used m survey marks for � {
all the land clearing Way a village lots. In later years when �,; Portion of Article jYh"-P' f 'I>T•
AX
ames
r --One Tree -Remains---
f One old tree, a Blenheim Pip -
pen, still remains of this orchard.
Being neatly check -mated, the
school board bpilt their new
school on the site of the old
mill, on Mill street. This school
still stands, although it is unused,
as a modern school was built lust
yeealmost the exact site
where was desired to build 100.
years ago.rlp umuej tz_ I
The West Oxford Church was'l
started as the.West Oxford'
Chapel in the 1820's, but long be-!
fore that it was common place
for Methodist "saddle -bag preach-
ers" to come through this area.
on horseback. They preached a
dogma of "hellfire" and "damna-
tion" to all who listened, per-
formed long overdue marriages,
Christenings, and at times acted
sa doctor In emergencies. They
lived at the settlers' homes and
generally got their board and
clothes and little else, although
they were supposed to receive
some eighty dollars a year as
salary.
done. t.erj Vfrn-(S8s-gtM the blacksmith shop was gone
Fred R. Williamson, of Inger
Indian Hill
The Thames Rive w Haul- and the old willow rotted away,
,...",aa. - t
soil, Ontario, has advised this _ H ,m_, ..:..,,-,,,,,_- ,. �„„?,-,,,��
The hill to the south of the
gable for canoes d flat bot- this method of surveying was to
head-
newspaper that that part of its
Tarticle built in 1837, originally a grist mill owned by
village .has always been called
toured boats so considerable trade cause surveyors a lot of
through the village going aches and lawyers earned some
on Centreville, published'as
Gin its issue of the 5th of Febru-ruCture, until 1945,. was owned by the same family
Indian Hill because of the Indian
moved
either to Fort Detroit for ship- fees in trying to untangle boun-
f<ary last, in which it was stated is are pinned together with wooden pins and the floor
graves found there. At the north
ment by lake boats or eastward dary lines. To this day, there is
Williamsons, at one time, ground are pinned to the overlays., __. _. _
end of the hill a mass grave was
found, of -
to Brant's Ford and Niagara. a lot by the highway with no
grain for grist, made flour and - - d - - - wood used in lime burning was
later years the mill deterior-
once, possibly
pox victims or else of some ion
Early Mill '4 ae1:I known owner.
yy
in The Dake Hotel steed on the
oatmeal and had a cider press.In
7 They made a lot of hard cidered back to a grub mill, then, enormous and it furnished winter
jun's
forgotten m Ind
One of the earliest mlilis
Southern Ontario stood near the west corner where Mill street
the themselves, and kept barrels of itaen the quarrying and lime- employment for local farmers
n the south of
grave was on the south end of
hill, by large field
Thames, where the joins the highway and its bar
as in the root cellar of the big barnirning was begun by the Inner- from miles around, cutting and
the marked a
the
Creek flows into the river, or did was noted as the rowdiest saloon
wh on their farm, which was on In-p Lime and atone Company, on hauling the best hardwood to be
stone, carved with clasped
Bill Infirm
4wit the river course was in Oxford. One night the whole
in dien Hill overlooking the village.@ river flats near the mill, stacked in great piles near the
hands of friendship.
local Indian chieftain,
hanged a few years ago. The liquor stock was stolen, and al-
elm A lot of potatoes were grown on ley installed lime dehydrating
kilns.
was a
known to have been a scout with
ikes, until recently, could still though no one was ever arrested
the
the the farm and the thirstier vil-5ripment and the building was
in clouds of lime dust Beech, oak and hard maple
George Nichols far the British in
e found, but will shortly be for the crime, It was noted
L
of lagers often picked up potatoes'eathed
h at harvest time, with hard cider itil torn down a few years ago. were certainly cleared from this
the War of 1812-14. He killed
..a...,
e
a , � > � "s"
an[ sa a good percentage of their: Lime Deposits area at a faster rate than from
the pay" was untrue. The article was has long been a just because of this
in a brawl in the tavern the
used to stand by the Stage R d
_
l "
dime burning other areas,
be. published in good faith, but in industig for the village, as The of
at th cot'of Indian Hill
m logs or
ready market. remains
sta view of Mr. Willie' state- flats contain one of
mong the arm
first
y
river one of these old kilns stands west
aliment this newspaper fully re-.
ndian Hill was one of the
�� 't •." St
t
vest deposits of limestone on
the tracts the Portion quoted above continent. The old lime kilns of Munroe's Crossing on the
upright silos In the country. I1
huge square building, built
s-•�'" .,'
"
and apologizes W Mr. Williamson rAI
e large grey atone structures north aide of No. 2 Highway.
�( Y
a
f flat limestone slabs and s<co
rr
and regrets any inconvenience ed with fire brick and burned Centreville's first school waide
he may have been occasioned:
Jw"
that it waa not too success.
andthat
ge quantities of three-foot corda
what Is now Fled Petman'ul
as a silo for it caused tons
btherby. cr see-
in udden haft of water shoot wood as fuel to burn the lime- farm several miles east oathf_
silage to. spoil, so finally Wet
a e s
out of the top of the 20-foot
stone into lime. The kilns we •
hollow and open at the top, ' ld Stage Road, built around
stand -pipe, when the mill w
fireplaces on each side. A wooden logs. a teacher farmed
shut off.,5q„si {IusaC
�mm' aJ'
ramp ran over the top so that and in the summer and tar
carry Ox.
Gider Making
teams and wagons could chool II thhee w�int�er. bleat
Williamson., at one time,
limestone up on top and dump as said to have an atmospl
ground grain for grist, made
it into the hollow centre. of intelligence since this so
flour and oatmeal, and had a
When the kiln was filled with was open more frequently t
i
cider press. They made a lot of
themselves, kept
atone the fireplaces were lit, and the only othe school in Ox:
smoke went up County. ky{:S ttas(eM
hard cider and
the heat and Frki+�ieBV
-'
barrels of it in the root cellar
!I scII
through the atone, gradually The next ac' of wa
One of the last hand -fired wood -burning lime kilns in lof the big barn on their farm, burning it into lime. closer to the village, on Mill
Western Ontario is located on the north side on No. 2 which was on Indian ,Hill over T7 us "theyre smoke does pall
Highway, two miles east of Ingersoll, a relic of Centre street, and lasted until about
looking the village. A lot of po- We sun at noonday, and at inight 1850 when it was decided to find
-- - nth ' S ff t it th old 80hool-
most of the village residents,
never very temperate, were
rather drunk for several weeks.
Hotel Burned
Doke Hotel stood until
94, when it burned, mysterious-[
ly, under insurance coverage, two
days before it was to come up for
public auction. 411111%VA
TTre HollYlo�k was the village,
general store and stood acroa+
Mill street from the hotel. A ]big]
red building, it was kept by th
Hollylock family to many year_
until torn down- Several nev
house now stand on its old loca-
tion.
i A small fanning -mill factory
Ilbuilt in 1824 by a man named
i .lshelby was once'in business on
'3+c north aide of the highway
�-
lier do s.
rear ere a welding a op now
stands, and another lot mat
shh
op was east that. A small
frame u ing,. i was usecTas a
gar a unill } .n Anwn in the
:ail 1930s. The red post office
stood beside it.
Williamson's Mill, at the north
end of Mill street, was used for
IL variety of purposes until
wrecked for its timbers several
years ago. A high three -storey
frame building, the mill got its
water for power from the Centre-
vp'e pond, in the swamp, at the
south side of the village. A
buried cast iron flume carried
the water from the pond several
hundred feet under the highway
down to the side -shot water-
wheel in the bottom of the mill
tatoea_were Brown. o e. *m
and the thirstier villagers often
picked up potatoes at harves
time, with hard cider as a good
percentage of their Pay.
It was once Centreville's boast
that it had street lights before
the town of Ingersoll. A gen-
erator was installed at one time
In the bottom of the mill, run by
the water wheel, and wires
strung into Ingersoll for the
street lights. Several light bulbs
were pdt up on the wires as they'
went through the village and
when the power was turned on,
the light bulbs, it was claimed
by the villagers, were lit in Cen-
treville before they were lit in
,Ingersoll. F jolJ liJ-1 iJ
thyre-fires are as a devils n-
erno."
When the stone was sufficiently
burned, the fires were allowed to
0 out and the hot lime was
removed at the bottom, for use
n mortar and whitewash. rm
The lime kilns were a wa
hangout for the village men on
cold nights, and many a village
chicken was stolen from its coop
to be roasted in the kiln Eor a
fireman's lunch. The firemen on,
the kilns were famous for the
veat amounts of hard cider they
could consume and considering
the heat in which they worked,
they likely sweated the cider out
through their hides as fast as
they drank it. The amount of
a deren a e as e
yard was on a side hill. The
school board wanted to buildthe
new school on the corner of the
Furtney Sideroad and the old
Stage Road, on land belonging
to the Williamson farm. As this
was good farm land, the owner
was opposed to the school being
tilt. there and refused to sell
yland to the school board. The
board decided to expropriate the
needed land, but on the morning
of the proposed expropriation the
local people were amazed to see
that the field, where they wanted
to build the school, was set out
as an apple orchard. The owner
had found an old township law
which forbid the building of a
school within one hundred yards
of an apple orchard.4%NsIk.
used as a straw storage. It
torn down some five years
and, old as it was, it took c
mite and a buildazer,toa leve
George Nichols built fil mill-
pond and grist mill in 1837 on
the farm south of t e vi ag
which, until 1945, had been 1
the Nichols family for 145 years.
The dikes still remain of his mill-
pond and theoldearthen flume.
is easily found, leading to where
the water -wheel used to be. The
timbers of the mill were used
to build a. barn that still stands
on the farm. The rafters aM
timbers are all pinned together..
with wooden pins and even the"
planks on the floor are pinned,
to the beams instead of being_
nailed as nowadays.
Trick of Location
It is hard to realize today why
a village like Centreville, which
started out so well, never got
any bigger, although it was
thriving long before Woodstock
or Ingersoll. Some trick of loco-
lion or history caused it to be
passed by so that it remains nog.
only residential area,