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Dashwood (original name ''Friedsburg'') is a small, primarily residential, community in
southwestern Ontario Southwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula bounded by Lake Huron, including Georgian Bay, to the north and northwest; the St. Clair River, Lake St. ...
, Canada. The former
police village A police village was a form of municipal government that was used in the province of Ontario, Canada in the early 19th century if the finances or the population of an area did not permit the creation of a village. Formation In the early 19th Centu ...
is located at the intersection of Bronson Line and Dashwood Road, on the boundary between the Municipality of Bluewater and the Municipality of
South Huron South Huron is a municipality in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in the southern part of Huron County. It was formed by amalgamation of the townships of Stephen and Usborne with the Town of Exeter in 2001, in an Ontario-wide municipal ...
. The community is situated approximately 50 kilometers north west of
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
near the resort village of
Grand Bend Grand Bend is a community located on the shores of Lake Huron in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is part of the Municipality of Lambton Shores in Lambton County. History Grand Bend is situated on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron ...
, which is located on the south east coast of
Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrology, Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Strait ...
.


History

Dashwood began when the brothers Noah and Absalom Fried formerly of Blenheim Township in Oxford County, resettled in the area in 1853.Rayburn, Alan (1997), ''Place Names of Ontario'' (University of Toronto Press), Toronto-Buffalo-London, ), pp.88 They first erected a
saw mill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ( dimens ...
, followed shortly by a
grain mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separated ...
, on the site of the future community serving the needs of the influx of mainly European settlers brought about by the local development of
Canada Company The Canada Company was a private British land development company that was established to aid in the colonization of a large part of Upper Canada. It was incorporated by royal charter on August 19, 1826, under an act of the British parliament,, ...
lands earlier in the century. The location of the initial development of the mills was intended to occur at
Sarepta Sarepta (near modern Sarafand, Lebanon) was a Phoenician city on the Mediterranean coast between Sidon and Tyre, also known biblically as Zarephath. It became a bishopric, which faded, and remains a double (Latin and Maronite) Catholic titular ...
, east of the present site of Dashwood on Dashwood Road. A change of circumstances brought about an alteration of the plans of the two brothers and lower cost land became available at the current site of the community. The name of the community changed from Friedsburg to Dashwood in December 1871, when a
post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...
was opened, Noah Fried became the first postmaster. Although the subject of some debate Dashwood was likely named after Dashwood House, in London England, the headquarters in Britain of the once regionally important
Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rai ...
. Peak economic activity occurred in Dashwood in the early to mid 20th century and at its height included a number of mills, hotels, general stores, a regionally large scale window manufacturing company and an assortment of shops and services geared to its rural surroundings.


References


External links

* {{authority control Communities in Huron County, Ontario