Strathroy Caradoc History

         Strathroy-Caradoc is located approximately 35 km from London, 240 km from Toronto, 160 km from Windsor and             Detroit, and is 65 km from Sarnia. Strathroy-Caradoc has immediate access to Highway 402 which connects Strathroy
    to the major US cities. Strathroy-Caradoc is also located in close proximity to Highway 401 which is a major link to the             Windsor Tunnel and to New York State. County Road 81 bisects Strathroy-Caradoc and connects to County Road 2 to
    the South and to County Road 22 and the Lake Huron Cottage Country to the North. The CN and CP Railway service             Strathroy-Caradoc, running between Toronto and Chicago.
 

    Strathroy

         A century of progress. The year 1960 A.D. marked the 100th anniversary of Strathroy's incorporation as a village.
    Since that time it has become a town, and in view of its accomplishments over the years civic officials believe it can
    display its motto "We Progress" with considerable pride.

         The Town of Strathroy is the second urban community in the County of Middlesex being surpassed only by the city
    of London. Its settlement occurred in 1832, some years after the founding of the community at Fork of La Tranch which
    is now London. It became a Village in 1860 and a Town in 1872. The first settler, John Stewart Buchanan, was alive for
    the first few years of this century, and within his lifetime he saw the pine forest along the banks of the Sydenham River
    give place to a modern, improved community of comfortable homes, occupied by prosperous, contented people.

         As was the case with so many of the early Ontario settlements, Strathroy had its inception in a water power, at a site
    upon a river where there was flow and fall sufficient to turn a wheel and grind wheat. In 1830, following the survey for
    the Egremont Road from London through what is now the Township of Adelaide, a grant of water power on the
    Sydenham River, together with 181 acres of land, was made to James Buchanan, British Consul at the City of New
    York.  The grant was transferred to John Stewart Buchanan who came out from Ireland as a very young man, and in
    1832 occupied the water site. He built a house and a small mill. A little later he had both a grist mill and a sawmill
    operating. Buchanan came from a small seaport on the north-east coast of Ireland, called Strathroy and he immediately
    gave this name to his new home in the wilderness.

         From the time of Buchanan's arrival until the year 1860 the Strathroy community was a part and parcel of the
    Township of Adelaide, and its history part of the history of that township. There were two classes, both from Ireland.
    The first class came to Adelaide to establish in the new country a duplication in Ireland, military officers who commuted             their pensions for grants of land, who brought their money and ideas to the wilderness to build up a social structure
    based on their ignorance, for the hardships, the leveling influences of the life of a pioneer, and their experiment was a
    huge failure.

         These "gentleman farmers" brought with them immigrants to do the actual work of opening up the country. The
    working farmers were the second class of settler. They adapted themselves to the new life, surmounted its hardships,
    and soon controlled the community. To these humble newcomers is the present community deeply indebted, while
    the efforts of their superiors has left but little trace, save as a memory of a disastrous, foolish experiment.

         The "gentleman farmers" formed two settlements, one on the Egremont Road, called Adelaide, a few miles to the
    north and west of Strathroy and the other, called Katesville, on the Sydenham River a little to the south-west of the
    Strathroy settlement.
 

    Caradoc Township

         Colonels Mahlon Burwell and Roswell Mount surveyed Caradoc Township in 1821. The Township had an international         reputation for potato growing and its tobacco was said to be the finest in Canada.  The Township has an area of 61,000             acres exclusive of the two Indian reserves, which are adjacent at the southern part of the Township. The Caradoc Indian             reserves are the Chippewa of the Thames First Nation and Muncey Delaware First Nation and consist of 16,000 acres
    of some of the best land in the area.

         Colonel Roswell Mount and Major Bullen received land patents along Longwoods road, issued in 1821-1825. The
    name “Long Woods” stemmed from the dense virgin stands of hard oak and walnut. The war of 1812 brought significant         change to the original trail, which extended from Delaware to McGregors Creek near Chatham and was used by the
    Native Indians. On April 14, 1821 Caradoc Township became part of the County of Middlesex. The name came from
    a place in Shropshire England. One of the petty Briton Kings had a camp in a place called Caer Caradoc.

         In 1853 the Sarnia branch of the “Great Western Railway” was built with the first train making a complete run on                 January 17, 1854. Improvements began after the building of the railway, which brought settlers to the area. Villages
    within the Township were Mount Brydges and Muncey. Other smaller communities included Burwell, Roaci, Cairngorm,             Carradale, Christina, Falconbridge, Glen Oak, Hendrick, Longwood Station, Frome, Middlemiss and Waubnakee.
 

    Mount Brydges

         Mount Brydges dates back to 1854-55. The first settlers to arrive in the area were from the British Isles. The only                 commercial activity in the early days was the production of potash from the cinders of burned tree stumps. Development         began after the Great Western Railway was built in 1854 through the area, then known as Hartford. The station became
    a major shipping point for surrounding farms. The village was renamed Mount Brydges which came from two sources.
    First, from the fact that it is the highest point on the nearby railway and the highest point on the watershed between the             Sydenham and Thames Rivers. Second, from the surveyor of the railroad property, Charles Brydges. Mount Brydges
    was the seat of the municipal headquarters for the township and was made a police village with 3 trustees in the year 1906.
 

    Melbourne

         Melbourne was the only other village of considerable size in Caradoc. The original name was “The Old Fort” which
    stems back to the seventeenth century and the days of the Neutral Indians. It was still called the Old Fort until 1856 when
    the name was changed to “Long Woods Post Office”, which was the way mail destined for the village was marked. In
    1859 it was given the name “Wendigo” meaning evil spirit in the forest, and in 1887 it was given its present name. The
    village was completely destroyed by fire on March 23, 1878 and was quickly rebuilt by the inhabitants.