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• Colonel Thomas Hornor 1767-1834
  Born in New Jersey, Hornor first came to Upper Canada in 1793 and visited the unsettled township of Blenheim. Disposing of his holdings in the United States, he emigrated to Blenheim in 1795. That year, he completed (on lot 15, concession 1) the first sawmill, and in 1802 the first grist-mill, in what is now Oxford County. In 1800, he was appointed a justice of the peace for the London District and registrar for Oxford...

• Wolverton Hall
  Designed in the Regency style with some Gothic flourishes, Wolverton Hall was built about 1855 by Enos Wolverton, a native of New York who in 1851 registered a village plot on his land and became the community of Wolverton's first postmaster.

• Big Cheese 1866, The
  Lydia Chase Ranney and her assistant Robert Facey began making cheese locally in the mid-19th century. Ranney shared her knowledge of cheese making with her son-in-law James Harris, and in 1865 he established Ingersoll's first co-operative cheese factory on this property. To stimulate international interest, specifically in the lucrative British market, local cheese factory owners and entrepreneurs created the Ingersoll Cheese Manufacturing Company of Oxford to produce a mammoth wheel of cheddar cheese, here in...

• Establishment of Free Rural Mail Delivery, The
  It was largely through the efforts of George Wilcox and Joseph Armstrong, residents of South Norwich Township, that the Laurier government, anxious to retain the farm vote, established a system of free rural mail delivery in September 1908.

• Harold Adams Innis 1894-1952
  A native of Oxford County, Innis became an economic historian whose books, especially The Fur Trade in Canada, profoundly influenced interpretive historical writing in Canada. His later studies dealt with the effects of communications technology on cultural and social values.

• Norwich Quaker Settlement, The
  In 1810, brothers-in-law Peter Lossing and Peter De Long purchased 15,000 acres in Norwich Township. The following year, nine families from Dutchess County, New York joined the Lossings and the De Longs to form the nucleus of one of the most successful Quaker settlements in Upper Canada.

• Emily Howard Jennings Stowe, M.D. 1831-1903
  Born in Norwich Township to Quaker parents, Emily Stowe became the first female physician to practise medicine in Canada. A passionate advocate for social reform, she campaigned vigorously for female suffrage while still maintaining her medical practice.

• Robert F. Gourlay 1778-1863
  A radical Scot who crusaded for social reform, Gourlay spent two tumultuous years in Upper Canada. He challenged government immigration policies, led protest gatherings, and attacked authorities with wit and heated rhetoric. He was charged with sedition in 1818 and banished.

• Aimee Semple McPherson 1890-1944
  Born to a Methodist father and a Salvation Army mother in Salford, Aimee became the most famous evangelist and faith healer of her time. She made her headquarters in Los Angeles where she preached her message of Christian Love daily to thousands of listeners in the Angelus Temple.

• George Tillson 1782-1864
  Born in Enfield, Massachusetts, Tillson came to Upper Canada in 1822, where he operated the Normandale Iron Foundry, Norfolk County, in partnership with Hiram Capron and James and Benjamin Van Norman. In 1825, he sold his holdings in that pioneer enterprise and bought some 600 acres of land, including a mill site, in this vicinity. Here, in partnership with Benjamin Van Norman, he built a new forge and a sawmill. The settlement that grew around...

• Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Whiteside Boyle, D.S.O. 1867-1923
  Known for many years as Klondike Joe, Boyle was a prospector in the Yukon where he invested in timber and electric power operations as well as gold dredging. His daring exploits during the Second World War, especially on behalf of the people of Romania, are legendary.

• Captain Andrew Drew, R.N. 1792-1878
  This house was built by Capt. Drew, who came here in 1832 as agent for Admiral Henry Vansittart, founder of Woodstock. Purchasing land now included in the eastern section of the city, Drew divided it into town lots and formed the nucleus of this community. During the Rebellion of 1837-38, he led the Canadian force that destroyed the American steamer "Caroline," which was supplying William Lyon Mackenzie's supporters on Navy Island. This action almost precipitated...

• Old Stage Road, The
  Following in part the aboriginal trail known as the Detroit Path, the Old Stage Road was part of a series of linked roads from Ancaster to Detroit and during the War of 1812 was the main route used by both American and British troops. Sections of the old route can still be travelled in Oxford East and West Townships.

• St. Paul's Church 1834
  Financed and built through the efforts of Woodstock's two founders, Admiral Henry Vansittart and Captain Andrew Drew, St. Paul's Anglican Church also served as a temporary jail for rebel captives during the Rebellion of 1837.

• Thomas "Carbide" Willson 1860-1915
  His discovery in 1892 of a commercial process for producing calcium carbide, a chemical compound used in the manufacture of acetylene gas, earned Tom Willson the nickname "Carbide".

• Reverend Newton Wolverton 1846-1932, The
  A man of multiple talents, Wolverton was a noted expert on meteorology, a teacher of mathematics, a Baptist minister, and from 1881 to 1886 principal of Woodstock College where he set up the first manual-training department in Canada.

• Woodstock College 1857-1926
  Sponsored by the Baptist Church, the Canadian Literary Institute (later renamed Woodstock College) opened in 1860 as a coeducational institution offering courses in theology and the arts. During the 1880s, the theology faculty was transferred to the Toronto Baptist College and the women's department to Moulton College. The college then operated as a boys' prep school until it closed in 1926.

• Henry John Cody 1868-1951
  A native of Embro, Cody gained distinction as both a churchman and an educator. Rector of St. Paul's Anglican Church in Toronto for more than 30 years, he also played a vital administrative role at the Unversity of Toronto, serving as that institution's president (1932-45) and chancellor (1944-47).

• Reverend George Leslie Mackay 1844-1901
  Son of Scots immigrants, Presbyterian missionary George Mackay was born near Embro, Zorra Township. In 1872, he founded the first Canadian overseas mission in Tamsui, Taiwan. An unconventional character, but sensitive to local needs, Mackay practised lay dentistry and trained local clergy. He married a Taiwanese, Tiuⁿ Chhang-Miaⁿ, and had three children. The "Black-Bearded Barbarian" worked in north Taiwan until his death, establishing 60 chapels, several schools and a hospital. In 1881, he raised funds...

• Otterville African Methodist Episcopal Church and Cemetery
  Encouraged by local Quakers, free Blacks and escaped slaves fled persecution in the United States and found homes in the Otterville area beginning in 1829. As skilled tradespeople and farmers, these people made significant contributions to local development. In 1856, trustees of the African Methodist Episcopal Church purchased this half-acre lot and built the first Black church in Oxford County. Later that year, the church was transferred to the newly established British Methodist Episcopal denomination...