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,Stagecoach
,Taunt to
jSg9 O 73S19
137,90 3 §-196
The Old Stage Road, which is a�
continuation of Ingersoll's King St., l
-although now only a secondary
country road, was, in the very early
1800's the main artery for over-
land travel between Toronto, Brand -
fordo and Chatham. .Boats and
barges plied the Thames and Lake
Erie, but were slow and inconven-
lent, so all passenger travel was by
stage -coach on the Stage Road.
Even this form of travel ,was so
dangerous, uncomfortable and in-
convenient, that only those who ab-
solutely had to travel were found
on the roads; it was/uot uncommon)
for a person to take out life incur -
,nee before undertaking tt ��a T long''
trip. ' z^
^i There were the remittance men''
from England, in foppish and am -
suitable clothes, pushed out of the
family home to fend for themselves
in the colonies; itinerant preacher's,
bringing the fear of "Hell -fire and
Damnation" to their scattered back-
woods
Dods parishioners;
rxsht fast -talking
Deers• e g
,salesmen with bats of samples,
des
and
often an officer's wife, newly out
from England to join her husband
at his garrison post. She had likely
heard endless tales of life in the
Canadian wilds and was terrorized
with thoughts of being scalped by
Indians, or eaten by bears and
and wolves. _^
Built for Strength
The coaches in use in the early
1800's were built for strength, and
not for comfort, The coach driver
sat on a seat on top of the coach,
with the trunks and baggage behinc
The earliest coaching inns were
very crude affairs of log walls and
shake roofs. The only thing that
made them habitable in the winter
was the great abundance of fire
wood, stacked in great piles behind
the inn, and hauled "in three foot
lengths, to be burned in great fire-
places built of stone and clay. Some
of the fireplaces had no chimneys,
and the smoke went out through a:
a hole in the roof, or between the
rough uneven shake shingles. So
much smoke stayed in the Peale of
the roof, before finding its way out,..
that hams and • sides of bacon were
hung there to be smoke -cured, and
certainly no flies ever bothered
them. If meat was left there too-.,,
long before being, used it was often,,
found to be as smoke blackened asp
charcoal and as hard as a rock. Atli
the cooking was done over the fire
of... in iron pots, swung on a crane,
and as few early inns had passengersmore thall
gen-
erally rooms, the Die,
e fire. In the
erally slept byh
summer they slept in the barn or
outside. The women passengers
shared a bed with the inn -keeper's
wife or her often numerous children.
The Martin Stand .Hotel, which
stood on the Stage Road south of
the village of .Beachville, must have
sue'
W4_A m°
w R/Jxj;s,
him, and managed his four horses
by four reins and a foot brake. The
ungraded hills were often so steep x
that hard and continuous braking
of the rear " wheels was necessary, 1
sometimes causing the wooden
brake -blocks to catch on fire from
the friction. On some difficult and
rough hills the wheels were chaintad
together and skidded down. The x
steel springs of later years had not
come into use and the coach body
itself was suspended over the axles
by rawhide straps which allowed it'
to roll from side to side and Pitch
tip and down. The wheels were of
wood with steel rims, and very high I n
to give the axles maximum clearance
for often stumps and stones were
left in the centre of the road, fit
hopes that sooner or later some irate
freighter with several span of
oxen, would pull out the stumps
after smashing a wagon wheel on
them once too often.
The army originally cleared the
road through to Chatham in order
supplies,
s later
s and
more troops Pp
to P
for UP -
keep
nsibili
the res o tY
P g
town -
of the xoad over to the
ships. The townships in turn made
every property owner responsible!
for the road in front of his property.
Some farmers soon found that ifl
they let their road section get in'
bad enough shape, the heavy freight-
ing -wagons would get stuck. The
farmer then turned up with a good�
team of horses and pulled the'
freighter out, for a fee. One man
had a particularly profitable niud-
hole on his section of the road and
every night he drew a wagon -load of
,water which he dumped in the hole
to keep it from drying UP.
Become Quagmires
It was always a toss-up as to
whether summer travel was any
more comfortable than winter trav-
el. In spring, when the frost came
out of the ground, the dirt roads
became quagmires and the coaches
sank in the holes, even on the main
stx•eets of the towns. In the open
country, travel sometimes stopped
for days for the creeks were on -
fordable where there were no
bridges. In the heat of tine summer
the dust rose behind the horses in
great clouds, and covered the pass-
engers, who were also harried by
Ries and great swarms of mos-
quitoes.
Winter brought drifted roads, and
passengers dressed in great buffalo
and coonskin coats. Lady Passenger's
`were given footwarmers; these were
metal boxes, which were filled with
hot coals at every stage stop.
The coaching ions were spaced
,at along the road, generally at
ire rya 1 s but short
d rivin it
- a g
ha if d Y
l stops were made at. every post office,
for the coach carred the mail and
as usually all the mail was carried in
one bag, it had to be dumped out on
the floor and sorted over to find the
letters for that community. The
post office was also the local
barroom and inn, and since a good
deal of the inn -keeper's business
came from the coaches stopPing
ven
there, the drivers were always g
Tire, drinks in return for the cus-
tomers they brought in. In places
where the inns and drinks were 'too
close together, the driver was some-
times unable eventually to get up to
his high seat on the coach top. If one
of the passengers had the skill and
nerve to drive the horses, the coach
might go on, but if no one voluu-
toenail, a stop was made for the
night.
way. At one time-th J t U I I Ci U
paved with planks a
naturally enough, the By Robert J. Spenoe
At that time a vast t In 1804 the Reverend Nathan
umber was being cut Ban s became the Pirat Methodist
and taken to Land on issionary to Essex County.
endless line of team' Arriving at the door of a set -
On a frosty mornip tler's horse at mid -afternoon
wheels on the Plank
.oiling rumble, like. on Saturday he said: "Do you
could be heard for want the Gospel "preacbed here.
direction. "Yes, that we do, Are you a
The Bugles built preacher?"
cross-roads now kno "That is my occupation."
Corners", between "Then get off your horse and
Salford. It is built come in."
bly because of clay
and still stands toda3 In this manner almost a
as the "Wiseman ,Hrentury-and-a-half ago the
time, and was the no Church, in the form of this Meth -
Port Burwell stage. odist missionary, came into be -
south was the ',Madan ing. in the district between Lon-
m Mount Elgin, a tv don and Detroit. It was at this
building', where a time, too, that the original con -
At one time there wi gregation of Epworth United
there, also, the Gaul, Church in Kingsville came into
Rob Stage being, a church which is among
o v nerabl
the most e
�soll's end of
In ex
t
he
Ho ern Ontario.
was t Brady s
Imperial Bank is now There had not b
barns, where the at: a great deal of
kept, still stand in t Canada West, b
Oxford County's was there at the
stage -coach robbery Na�t_han Ba s to
tween Ingersoll and ular th`�gy to th
the Old Stage Road, ever he found th
1800's. An army x his horse through
negro; batman wen would come upon
coach to 'London, wit and ask for a h
tity of gold for the to preach, for t
East of Beachville churches. But a
stopped and robbed, 1 from settlement t
soil to believe that always found a h
in cahoots with the people anxious to
negro batman was n People took the!
He was probably kil ously in those da
from talking, and h it into their he
The gold was supPos times seems a s
buried near Karns ,the resent en
many years a great P g
Bing was done by Ic feel the frustra
attempt to 'find it. S which inspired t
Centreville got tire' these towns and
digging and went their first crude c
GypsY fortune tells'. and finally the
exactly where to ang
treasure, but warned them not toI
speak a word while they dug, or
they would never find it. They start-
ed to dig a big hole and just as
they thought they should be reaching
the gold, a run -away horse and
wagon dashed through the trees.
One of the men inadvertently spoke,
and they always said afterwards that
was the only reason they were not
successful. Another story told is
about an old empty barn that was
frequently
sett use
d as a
re Y
neve
r the q
t cachet
Jiang -out and a good place o
a bottle of whiskey. One old-timer �I
needed a drink, early one morning,
and went to the barn to see if he
could find a bottle. :Somebody had
dug up the earth floor during the,
night. and he could see where they,
they had liften out a box from the
hole, for the imprints were still in
the dirt. Who they were, or what
was in the box, nobody ever found
out. Officially, the payroll gold was
`never found" out -strangely enough,..
not too long after the robbery, the
large mortgages on several local
farm were paid off in full. In goldl.j
he
e in all West-
een before 1804
settlement in
ut the Church
very beginning.
ok his partic-
e people where-
em. Riding on
the bush he
a settlement
ouse in which
here were no
s Bangs rode
o settlement he
filled with
hear him speak.
r religion seri-
ya and brought
mes. It some -
ad thing that
oration cannot
tion of spirit
he founders of
villages to build
hurches of logs,
fine meeting
W
1 I l,l t,, l i Cl
places which stand in numbers in
every community today.
Bangs was a practical minister.
When he rose for the first time
before the people of a settlement
he would give them an account
of his birth, his call to the min-
istry, and his motives in life, so
that all would understand why
he was there, why he rode from
clearing to clearing, living with-
out pay on a meal here and a
night's lodging there.
Then he would say: "I am a
Methodist preacher, and our
manner of worship is to stand up
and sing, and kneel in prayer;
then I stand up and preach
while the people sit. As many
as see fit to join me in this
method can do so. If not, you
can choose your own method."
The idea was to preach. The
� manner was not important.
Once Bangs had finished his
sermon he would say: "All
those who wish to hear any more
n rise u :' A d suchpreaching,
P
e ever on would rise.
Y
This was the beginning of so-
cial life in the territory. And in
Kingsville today there seems to
be a trend back toward the
social life of the Church.
r • w
Bangs was an intinerant
preacher. A regular missionary
was appointed to the Kingsville
area in 1805. His name was Wil-
liam Case, the "Father of Indian
Missions" in Canada, whose
headquarters were in Detroit,
which in that year had become
the capital of the Michigan ter.
ritory. The "Thames Circuit"
was next covered by Vivian
Holmes and Silas Hopkins, but
in 1812 the war broke up the
circuit until Joseph Hickcox re-
sumed office in Detroit. Gideon
Leaning followed him ,and in
In 1805-8 James Burdick erected
a combination grist at) on
Reynolds' Creek (Centrevilleeek)
thwnship
h thbrpres-
e
on Concession I in To
of West Oxford, soutof e -
ent village of Centreville. It is de
scribed as a building 16 feet
square, and stood south of the road
where a small house now stands,
The mill -race from the original
pond can still be traced.
In 1810 the mill was sold to An-
drew Westbrook, of Delaware, wide
disposed of it just prior to the
beginning of the War of 1812. He
then turned traitor and joined the
American forces at D etr oltr into hence
he led raiding ff ties prisoners and
Can -
,,is carrying
destroying property.
In 1814 he led 300 soldiers and
Indians into Oxford, .and among
other buildings burned the mil),
which was the only one in opera-
tion 1n the district. Later, how -
the owner was paid by the
British Government for his
The millstones, used by James
Burdick, lay for over a century at
the entrance to the farm just west
of the creek, owned from 1804 until
recent times by the Nichols family,
and then sold to its present own-
er, J. Shuttleworth. When the farm
changed hands the stones were
moved to Sweaburg, and may be
seen at the entrance to the home
i of Mrs. Wiseman, daughter of John
Nichols, the last of the pioneer
Nichols family to own the farm.
HYS w
1818 the work came strictly under
Canadian control.
A lot happened in those 18
years in the world of religion.
When Case first came to the
district Joseph Smith was found-
ing Mormonism in Vermont. In
1807, John Smithurst, the lover
of Florence Nightingale who was
to enter the ministry and come
to Canada at her request, was
born. In 1813 David Livingstone
was born in Scotland. Then in
1818, Karl Marx, the man whose
philosophy would one day per-
secute Christianity in many parts
of the world, was born. And on
December 23 the pastor of the
Lutheran Church at Arnsdorf in
Germany wrote one of the great
inspirational hymns, "S i l e n t
Night."
Through a succession of minis.
ters in he Thames
t am a Circuit the
Rev. William Cas
e presided as
elder. in 1826 the Amheratl?ari4
Circuit was formed. This inclAdcd
Gosfield Town h n, and in 1833,
as the populatiEh of the area
grew, the Gosfield Circuit, in.
cluding. Kingsville, was formed.
Between 1833 and 1866 the gos.
field Circuit was served by 42
different ministers, and from
1866 to the present the Kings-
ville Circuit, now 85 years old
has had a total of 36 incumbents.'
As should be expected, the first
church building in the Kingsville
Circuit was constructed of logs,
just east of Kingsville as it
stands today. The events precool,
ing the building are recorded it
the following manner, one whirl
is not at all unique cninederim
the piety of many of the fir.,
settlers.
"Now in the year 1817, wile
.tire children of Leonard Krai
aiid Wendel Wigle had great!.
increased and multiplied in th!
land, and when Werdcl, .p
friend of Leonard, had died an.
had been gathered to his father -
Leonard called his sons and ld
daughters and his sons-in-lavi
and his daughters-in-law, andtb'
sons and daughters of Wendel
his departed friend, and salt
unto them, 'It has been our eue�
tom for these many years t'.
worship the God of our father
in the house of Wendel for
Weaver; let us now, I pray yet -
build a house of the Lord in th
Land of Gosfield, over agents
the lake that is called Erie', an,
the children of Leonard am
Wenfgl' said unto their a.ge.
father, 'Than hest spoken we.
we will do according to th
words and build a house of tb
Lord.'
"And Peter, the son of Leon
ard, gave the ground for tt
house of the Lord; and Leona.r,
his father being rich in monk=
and in cattle, gave largely t,
build the house of the Lord, an
the people round gathered oal,
maple and walnut timber fryu'
the woods of Gosfield, 1{
which to build the house; and)
the year 1818 the house of ,:
Lord was finished, and in t,�u
seventh nimrth in the si th ob,}
of the month, in the first day iv
the weep, and at the 10th hoV
of the day, Warren, the priest
dedicated the house of the Lot
which the descendants of%f
and and Wendel had huiL, CT
the people said 'Amen."