County of Brant Public Library Digital Collections

Historical Account of the Early History of Burford Township

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This item is an historical account spanning 4 pages of the early history of Burford Township. The pages are numbered and the fourth page appears to be missing. The author of this paper is unknown but it was likely written in the late nineteenth century.

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Page 1:

1 To the first settlers the plains of Burford
looked very attractive but [many] of them estim-
ated the farming value by the growth of timber
so passed by the land which only grew scrub
[oak] + softer-wood trees, to select homes where
the land had to be cleared of immense growth
of timber thinking thus to obtain the richest
soil. They paid for this lack of good judgement
by many a day of hard labour [but] no doubt
there was compensation in healthy work + pleanty
of game wild turkey venison being pleantiful
also coon + bear akins for the shooting
In [1793] the old Indian Trail was the only By-
way approaching the nature of a road + when
the present Stone Road was laid out it followed
very closely the old trail through the township.
As traffic increased + necessitated better
roads a [plank] road 57 1/2 from London

Page 2:

2 to Hamilton was constructed but in a
couple of years this was found to be quite
unequal to the traffic + it had to be re-
placed with gravel. It is said there
were twelve inn keepers on the raod
who did a thriving business.
In 1854 when the R.R. line was opened
the stage coach + teamsters lost their
jobs. But it was not until 1879
that the present R.R. was put through
Burford. The first P.D. was opened in
our village in 1819 Brantford 1825
Mt. Vernon 1851
In 1839 a union church was built
in which all denominations were to

Page 3:

3 have the right to worship with the old
bell which is still here "ringing" [was] used to
ring to tell the time of day to the
settlers. In time this arrangement became
unsatisfactory and about 1850 the
Anglicans withdrew + for a time they
worshipped in the old Orange Hall until
they built their church they still use
Burford one time had four ministers
whose names were Hay Hayhurst Hyde
Hind
Our first school was opened in 1808
and has been growing ever since
Dr Nicholl + Mr Seymour were two of the
earlier ones my first recollection is
of [Mr. H.E.Kennedy]

Page 4:

5 in our own time Mr Andrew Messacar
has taken an active interest in their well
doing.

Some things we would like to see
A domestice science course in our High S.
An old boys and girls reunion
Thanks to our historian
How we got our [P.A.?]

Date of Publication