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535-03 Page 4eachr lle Was `First Name Identified With Oxford is ishi By bL E. Crape-tliI In the Township of Oxford Captain Barclay, had control of The old story casts an interest- buildings were burned, and several then every. Nichols bride Beachville was the only name , there was only one taxable house, Lake Erie, with the superior ing light on the times, upon the army officers and local citizens planted a walnut tree. in Oxford Township for 31 built of squared logs. American fleet bottled up in unsettled and -unformed state of carried off to be used for exchange In 1812 only one grist mill years, (Y791.1822). Consequently Th Min an interesting note presqu'ile Harbour. Supplies for the young nation, when some of its purposes later on. Among the poll- operating in _Oxford Township, the area for miles around was for 1812 in an old county book the army in the Detroit area. citizens would steal the pay of Its oners were. Captain John Carroll, Reynolds' Creek (Centrevil,le known as the Beachville District. concerning monies to be spent were broughtoverland from the own army. General Proctor wrote son of the original John Carroll Creek), just east of George Nichols" There was no village here for on roads. The amount of £50 Head -of -the -Lake, by way of urgent letters to headquarters in who settled near Beachville in 1784, house. It was burned but the earth. years, the community being too was to be spent "from Levi Bab- Brant's Ford, dawn to Dover, the east for supplies and money and two other men by the name of works of the dam may be seen to small and poor to support one. bit's the wilderness west of From here they were carried by that never arrived. Much disap- Curtis and Hall. Westbrook made this day by the road where a small peared en route. his prisoners ride his own horse, house now stands. The mill had In 1804 Lord Selkirk traveled the Rive La Tranche." Thus the water. '. day about, in turn, as they retreated been built in 1806 by James Bur- t'n*ough Western Ontario looking Governor's Road penetrated In the summer of 1813 the peo- • * % down river. A rescue party fol dick and is described as a building fW a place to settle, the immi- North Oxford west of the Town ple of Dover invited Capt. Bar- In the meantime Captain Bare- lowed them, and Captain John Car- 16 feet square, containing by 1812 ,rants finally located in the Red Plot (Woodstock), clay to a banquet in his honor. lay had built another ship. He roll, who happened to be riding theboth grist and sawmills. Burdick River District. He reported that • * * Whether or not his conscience came out to engage the Americans pinto when the raiding party was sold the mill to Andrew Westbrook Oxford was too isolated and A few -stories havecome down and the British fleet was destroyed. troubled him is not recorded, but , overtaken, was shot and killed by about 1810. At a later date the backward. In 1806 Charles Askin to us of the War of 1812. When Fort -Detroit had to be evacuated he attended the affair. When his beat friend, who supposed the Nichols rebuilt the grist and saw wrote that all the supplies for war broke out, a Mr. Kern, from and Proctor's army, without am he got back to Presqu'le the rider of the horse to be its owner, mills. Still later, power was gen- this district were brought in by j g American fleet had escaped. munition, mono or food, had to erated to supply the farm build - wagon north of the present village Y Westbrook. pP Y wagon from the Head -of -the- of Beachville, hitched up his They chased the British fleet off retreat. The Americana followed The raiders also carried off all ings with electricity. The old mi11 ll '..ake. Shenstone's Gazette for team and drove 6 wagon load the lake, ending the movement and defeated them October S0, 1813, the horses they could lay their stones are now In possession '852 states that in 1912 there of recruits down to Niagara. of supplies for Detroit by boat at Moraviantown. The remnants hands on. Other stock they de- Mrs. Gordon Wiseman, of straggled east to the Niagara. sec- borg, a descendant of G were still no stores in Oxford. Only about half of them re- from Dover. Now they had to tor, and Western Ontario was left. stroyed. * * * $PtK. \Q�Qr k+ Nichols. They are the small =af The village of Oxford, which turned. Later a local woman be carried by struggling wagon open to the, depredations of me stones the writer has se became Ingersoll, did not come walked to Niagara with socks train from Brant's Ford, west rending American bands and their One of the homes burned was Without their mu;, - into existence until 1822, when she had knit for her soldier hu.q- through Oxford and along the Canadian sympathizers. that of George Nichols, on Con- f the Beachville discrr ECharles Ingersoll, who had re- band. Sixteen -year -old William primitive river road. Oxford was now defended only cession 1, one half mile south of the lunged once more into -gently built a store, got permis- Doc ga took his father's musket, % % % by its local militia, under the com- Present Centreville, on the west I hips of pioneer times. Sion to open a post office, which which was almost too heavy for r✓ Charles Askin does not mention mand of Major Sykes Tousley. side of Reynold's Creek. The farm,] a told in the annals of th, Che Government said must be him to lift, and went to war in Martin's Tavern at Beachville Major Tousley had been sent up until recently in a rchols fain-; amily who settled east called Oxford. Earlier references, his father's place. When his ily, was sold to�rea Shut a resent Ingersoll in 1803. in 1806, but by 1812 it stood a from Alien's Settlement a4 the be- g `n diaries, letters, etc., to Oxford, mother wept, he told her that the mile south of the g worth who served as a scout Sur present mill ginning of the war..Ebenezer Allen the British all through the.'"is "Horses were seized and bui refer to the township or the family needed his father more dam, where the side road meets founded the place (later.Deleware) ings destroyed. Those fortune county, but not a village. than they needed him. A neigh- the Ingersoll Road. Legend says about 1793. Another large land own- George Nichols came to Upper enough to have ridden a horse to, The village of Woodstock. came bor boy, Warner Dyger went that it was fitted with secret er there was Andrew Westbrook, Canada in 1800. He stayed a year their grist to Norwich on her; into being in 1834. with him. These two families doors and that wise travelers a six foot, red haired giant, who , to perform his settlement duties, .back. The others had no altern % • % lived about thre miles south of - slept with one eye open, rode a pinto horse known all over then went out and did not return five but to pound their wheat j Families known to have been the, present village, on the In- the peninsula. Tousley and West- `until 1805 with his bride. Their flour with homemade improvi A wagon train, loaded with g• cabin was built across the drive in the district before the year gersoll Road. The two lads brook had never gotten alon tions." supplies for General Proctor's from the present house. The bride 1800 are —Burdick, Cook, Craw- fought all through the Niagara When war broke out Allen and It n said that x Oxford there iy aimy in the west, and aceom- ]anted several walnut trees, three Ford Harris, Nichols, Scott, Ma- campaign, and when the war was Westbrook threw in their lot with P still no mill in Oxford Townshil over walked home again, asking Ponied by a paymaster in charge the Americans whom they expected of which survive. By. 1812 the Nich- bee, Beach, Brink, DygerE, Dodge, of finds for the soldiers' pay_ would win an easy victory. Tousley cis had three children. During the Until recently I thought that tl Dexter, Carroll, Kern, Topping, their way; and begging food and Y a put up for the night at Martin's remained loyal, and Westbrook fearful days of 1814 many families War of 1812 meant a battle Ingersoll, Canfield Chsnte Ed- lodging ,from settlers along the tavern. The money disappeared. swore he would hid for days in the woods. Upon route. get Tousley. brimstone Heights not flre,�•a, .d wards, Sage, and'car and Legend says that the money was 'one occasion George Nichols rode brimstone here at home! i Allen and Westbrook were cap- ; '3urtch. CiwO'4. ° 1 The Oxford Militia was mobi- buried and the boxes filled with y up to his door to find a group of Shenstone, who compiled a Gaz- By 1812 there were 64 land- lized earl in 1812 under Lieut. brood h the British, but West- p Y rocks. The wagon train went raiders asking for him. He said he ette for Oxford in 1852, mon:rned owners in Oxford Count the Col. Henry Bostwick, of Dover brook soon escaped, and led raid- y, to its destination unsuspecting. ing parties all over the peninsula. •knew where he was and would that even then most of the pioneers majority of them in the Beach- Mills, and was on active service Official search was made, and. In April of 1814 he entered Tous- lead them to him. He led the party were gone and their stories with ville District. To the family almost continuously until its spasmodic digging carried on for ley's .home at night, woke the off and lost them in. the woods. them. The only person he ehen names mentioned above were close in 1814. The regiment took years, but thetreasure was never When the house was burned, Nich- knew who could give him irst added —Mc. Name., Williams, part in numerous skirmishes and major, and ordered him to come 5 discovered. Suspicion pointed along. He told the terrified Mrs. ols was absent and his wife had. hated information said he wasitoa �rtr3sa3A,-is;ins, Douling, Hall, five actual battles: hidden in an outhouse. The raid- busy. So easily has much of however at a certain local family Tousley that he would shoot her Y `)j' Lick, Wrigat, Wo)sey Clark, Free, Detroit, August 16th, 1812. who became unaccountably well husband if she raised an alarm. ors told Mrs. Nichols to take any thrilling story of our country bc, Babbit, Loomis, Janes, Spragge, Fort Erie, November 26th, 1812. to. do. Many years later, when Tousley was carried off tied to his thing she wished out of the house, lost. Those who knew such Stoll Sales, Martin, Reynolds, Piper, Nanticoke Creek, November the father of this family died, own horse, and Westbrook told and among other things was her should write them down, as a 1,1 "aylor, Luddington, Youngs, 13th, 1813. - he left a box of money made up Mrs. Tousleythat he would be spinning wheel, today in posses- jag, patriotic duty. Tousley, Matthews, Teeple, Hill,Lundy's Lane, July 25th, 1814, of Spanish coins, gold sovereigns •back soon with a party of In- sion of Mrs. J. U. Nichol, of Inger- Shenstone also wrote that stor Jnderwood, Choatf and Curtis. Maleolm's Mills, November 6th, and half sovereigns, and Ameri- dians. soll. of pioneer times paralleling 'h". The county's livestock in 1812 1814. can $10 and $20 gold pieces, such * ' * Two of the walnut trees were of our own country, might; : onsisted of 78 horses, 66 oxen During the first year of the as had filled the Governmental Late in August he returned with .destroyed by the dire. One survived, found in the book, Rougbilur °' ,nd 146 cows. war, the British fleet, under money boxes in 1812. a large party of raiders. Many and Is now a beautiful tree. Since the Bush,' by Susann _ a SaY.� .•-•x- r A w r S `U �1�'\Gh,'Ma+�, "v4 _ .— u V u W.IIN M 610 5w, biI&T,r 3Nm W. Oxford �yqQ} } * * Ere sin could blight `o 3 r Cemetery Stones Our parents here lie under g The stone upon which the Nz Or sorrow fade above verse is found is rather ✓�j2, ground, Death came with friend] care, r Varied in Verses The dearest friends we ever had. Y unique. The figure carved upon 1��n1®rJC11 _—I_CrS�iJ The opening bud to heaven con- w And through the Lord's unbound- veyed it must surely represent the de- , The stones in the West Oxford ed love ceased. There he stands in his os By M. E. Cro We hope to meet in heaven AnH bade it blossom there. Pripce Albert and his elegantly pp Cemetery are interesting their * % • bagged trousers, with his hand There are familial in the dis- cause of the wide variety of their — above _ This lovely bud se, young and resting upon a pedestal, in the - trict whose ancestors were bur- memorial verses. There is hardly Sweetly sleep, lie and slumber, fair, exact, manner of photographs of ied in the first West Oxford any repetition, which is quite un- Rest thy, body in the tomb. Called hence by early doom, that day. It is quite impossible t Cemetery.The usual. It almost seems as though Days, weeks and years may I Just come to show how sweet to mistake him for an angel. question again some local verse -maker had number, arises, was the site that of the prided himself upon creating a I Still thy memory e'er shall Present cemetery, or has it been distinctive memorial for each bloom, obliterated, like several other, Person. pioneer cemeteries in the vicin-r ity? There are only three, ors four stones in the present ceme-f tery dated before 1830, and these. appear to have been erected ats a later date. There are graves - marked by field stones. Thesef •nay or may not indicate earliers ,urials. t Ti Here are a few: Mourn not for me, my life is past, My life with you not long did last, God mercy show and pity take, And love my children for my sake: I like this little lamb, said He,.. And lay him on my breast. ProtysJon it shall find in Me We miss his welcome footstep, His eye of love so light, And his smile of warm affection Hath faded from our sight. % % * Lone are the days and sad the hours Since thy meek spirit's gone, But O, a brighter home than ours Inheavenis now thine own, x. a flower In Paradise may bloom. Sad thoughts which find imper- fect bent In words, while I the past recall, Raise thee this simple monument, Our friendship's last memorial. �- fi p.sLt,.l.' h /41 6-ec