Woodstock Ontario

Community Partners & Sponsors

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The Oxford Historical Society would like to thank the Canadian Heritage Museum Assistance Grant Program for the generous grant that we received. This grant will be used in maintaining our Resource Centre, which is home to a large number of documents and records relating to Oxford County.

Along with the Canadian Heritage Grant the Society also receives grants from other organizations like Oxford Community Foundation and the City of Woodstock. These grants enable us to publish books, bring in guest speakers, hold special events like the Christmas Tour of Homes, and take part in many activities throughout the year.

The Society throughout the year works with many different organizations to bring about various events and publications. The Pattullo Press newsletter is published with the Woodstock Museum, NHS, as were the books Quizzical History and Defined Under Pressure. Together with the WERC centre we offer a Person’s Day celebration, an event held in mid-October to honour women being recognized as Persons and therefore could sit in Canada’s Senate. Tours and teas with the Woodstock Public Library and Château la Motte.

There are many more examples of how the Society and other local organizations have worked together to bring events and share local history with the residents of Oxford County. In honour of these associations a new page was added to our website: Community Partners & Sponsors page!

Vintage Christmas Card Sale

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Hello Everyone,

Please see the attached post from the Woodstock Museum, NHS.

Stay connected with your loved ones this holiday season with the Woodstock Museum’s Vintage Christmas Card Sale.

Cards are sold in packs of 12 and feature four festive designs from the Museum’s collection, dated 1912 to 1945 C. The cost is $15 per 12 pack.

Purchases must be made in advance through our online order form starting October 13, 2020:

https://www.cityofwoodstock.ca/en/live-and-play/museum-events.aspx

Pickup Information

Orders will be available for pickup at the Woodstock Museum during our regular operating hours.

There will be two pickup windows for cards ordered online by the following dates:

Order DeadlinePickup Windows
October 25 at midnightNovember 3 – 7
November 22 at midnightDecember 1 – 5

If you have any questions please send contact the Museum at 519-537-8411 ext. 2901, or send them an email.

Postcards! Postcards! Postcards!

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Hello Everyone,

Woodstock, ON Aerial View 1919, D.W. Collection

Do you keep your postcards? Have you ever collected them on your travels as a way to remember the sites that you visited?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions then you are not alone.

Postcards are a wonderful way to keep in touch with families and friends, a quick note to let them know that you’re thinking of them. Sometimes they are whimsical and other items they show local business, sporting events, tourist destinations. The photos used on postcards are often of a professional quality and thus are good keepsakes of your travels.

  • Feeding the Cat, D.W. Collection
  • Woodstock, ON Courthouse Lawn Bowling, D.W. Collection

Not only do postcards serve as keepsakes they are also a very good source of visual historical records. They let you see how a city looked throughout the decades. The Society has two fantastic collections of postcards, both from long time members. The John Gruszka (J.G.) Collection contains postcards from most of the cities in Oxford County and the Don Wilson (D.W.) Collection contains mostly images of old Woodstock. Pictured below are three views of Dundas St., in Woodstock, Ontario from different eras.

  • Woodstock, ON Dundas St. 1907, J.G. Collection
  • Woodstock, ON Dundas St. 1920’s, D.W. Collection
  • Woodstock, ON Dundas St. 1950’s, D.W. Collection

Historic buildings and churches are often favourite photographic choices for postcards. Showing below are some of the historic churches from Oxford County.

  • Dereham, ON – Methodist Church, J.G. Collection
  • Embro, ON – Congregational Church, J.G. Collection
  • Ingersoll, ON – Various churches, J.G. Collection

Next time you’re travelling or are needing historical pictures for your project, contact the Oxford Historical Society – we might just have the postcard that you need!

Salvation Army Burnside Lodge

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Many thanks to Dr. Elaine Becker for providing the information in this post.

Stamp issued by Canada Post in October 2010

Your help is needed!

Dr. Elaine Becker is in the process of compiling another local history which is related to an important immigration scheme that ran from 1923 to 1936 – the story of Burnside Lodge over the years and the young men who became valued citizens in this area of Ontario should not be lost.

Small scale operations began in 1903 when The Salvation Army established the “Migration and Settlement Department”.

The principles of the department were:

  1. The needs of the individual were of major concern, including his mental and physical condition
  2. Ascertain the reasonable prospect of the individual succeeding overseas
  3. The absorbing power of the overseas Dominion was taken into account
  4. The after care of the migrant was to be undertaken as a moral obligation by The Army

The work that was carried on at Burnside Lodge in Woodstock, Ontario should not be confused with any of the programs, such as the Dr. Barnardo group which brought orphaned children to Canada. The young men who came to Woodstock came by their own choice and planning.

The Salvation Army Boy Farmers Scheme

The Boy Farmers program was only a small segment of The Salvation Army’s immigration scheme. The Army sponsored and oversaw the migration to Canada of more than 250,000 immigrants from England and other European countries.

Young men between the ages of 14 and 20 applied to the Salvation Army to come to Canada under this plan.  If accepted for the training, they attended farm training at Hadleigh Farm in England and then were examined for their suitability to immigrate to Canada.  Once accepted they were booked for transportation to Woodstock or to Smith Falls, Ontario. They were employed by local farmers and their situations were supervised by an officer from Burnside Lodge.  They stayed at the lodge until everything was settled.

Some of the boys who would arrive in Canada

Burnside Lodge was located on the present site of the YMCA at 808 Dundas St, Woodstock ON

Some of you may remember the building on Dundas Street and have pictures or memories of the facility later used during the war for housing the Women from the training base at the fairgrounds.

We are working to compile some of the stories of the young men who immigrated to Canada to work on local farms.  If you can help in any way with this story or if you know any of the families who share those roots or any of the farmers who engaged the young men when they arrived, please contact the Oxford historical Society by email at info@oxhs.ca, thank you.

Woodstock Museum, NHS – New Hours

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Thanks to the Woodstock Museum, NHS for providing the information for this post.

The Oxford Historical Society is very pleased to hear that the Woodstock Museum, NHS has re-opened as of today, Tuesday, July 7, 2020!

Information about how the Museum is handling COVID-19 safety concerns can be found on their website or by calling them at 519-537-8411.

The Museum has started an email subscription list. To keep yourself informed about Museum activities follow this link to join their mailing list. Or you can send an email to museum@cityofwoodstock.ca and request to join their mailing list.