South Gower: a strange and changeable township
When the Township of South Gower was amalgamated with Oxford-on-Rideau and the Town of Kemptville in 1998, it officially ceased to exist. But that...
Walter Turnbull: Man at the top
Walter James Turnbull probably had one of the more interesting lives of anyone who grew up in Oxford Mills. His mother, Sophronia Williams, came...
The push to amalgamate
Looking back on twenty years of amalgamation, it is easy to assume that what we see now is what was always going to be;...
William Tutin Thomas, Architect of St. James
by Doug MacDonald
A few years ago, Dr. George Fisher mentioned that St. James Anglican Church, Kemptville, had been designed by an architect of importance....
Oxford Mills Cheese Factory
A cheese factory had been established here some time after 1871 by Lyman Beach before being bought by Murdock Gair in 1882. The factory...
The CIBC Site, Prescott & Reuben Streets
This is yet another important site in Kemptville’s history that hides its past well. The first school house in the area was opened here...
On the brink of war – again
As the Maritime delegates arrived in Quebec City in October, 1864, ready to continue the talks that had begun in Charlottetown, they were in...
Magee Tavern and Kidd’s Store, 14-16 Water St
Archibald Magee ran a tavern on lot 16 from 1853, and it later was bought by Murdoch Gair, along with lot 14, which had...
The devil in the details
By September of 1996, the amalgamation project seemed to be going nowhere. Although there were regular meetings of the Tri-Council Committee delegated with coming...
The Leach Blacksmith Shop and Banks Bros Livery Stable
The Leach, Blacksmith Shop
On the south-east corner of Asa and Thomas is the parking lot, an empty space which was once, and for decades,...