Alma is an unincorporated rural community in
Mapleton Township,
Wellington County, Ontario, Canada.
History
Pioneers began settling along the Elora Saugeen Road, which forms the main street of Alma, during the 1840s.
Alexander MacCrea and his wife settled here in 1848, and built a store. The "MacCrae's Corners" post office was established in 1854, and MacCrae was postmaster.
In 1854, the settlement's name was changed from MacCrae's Corners to "Alma", after the
Battle of Alma
The Battle of the Alma (short for Battle of the Alma River) took place during the Crimean War between an allied expeditionary force (made up of French, British, and Ottoman forces) and Russian forces defending the Crimean Peninsula on 20Septe ...
.
James Ledingham and his family moved to Alma in 1864, and built a saw and chopping mill.
In 1865, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church was established in Alma. The church moved to a new stone church in Alma in 1892.
The
Wellington, Grey and Bruce Railway built a line through Alma in 1870.
The line was eventually taken over by
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States.
CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...
, and was abandoned in 1983. The Alma railroad station has since been destroyed.
After the railway was constructed, Alma became "a bustling service centre for the local settlers and travellers".
Alma was noted for having a post office, wagon maker, weaver, telegraph office, shoemaker, grist mill, several saw mills, several stores, three churches, and four hotels. In 1879, the population was 250.
Wallace Cummings Park in Alma was constructed in 2003 on of donated land. The park features a playground, walking trail, toboggan hill, picnic shelter, community hall, wetland boardwalk, and garden labyrinth.
Education
Alma Public School, part of the
Upper Grand District School Board, is located in Alma.
Notable people
*
James Scarth Gale (1863 – 1937), Presbyterian missionary, educator and Bible translator in Korea.
*
George Alexander McQuibban (1886 – 1937), physician and member of the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA; ) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly are given royal as ...
. McQuibban lived in Alma and had a practice there.
Gallery
File:Alma, Ontario (1910).jpg, Alma, 1910
File:Houses on Peel Street in Alma, Ontario (1910).jpg, Houses on Peel Street, 1910
File:Alma, Ontario (2017).jpg, Alma, 2017
File:Alma Station Steam Train - panoramio.jpg, Historic locomotive near the former railroad station
References
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Communities in Wellington County, Ontario