Fletcher is a small

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

community located in southwestern

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It lies north of the shores of

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

. Fletcher was the home of Armstrong Brick and Tile, whose plant was remarkable for three large Beehive-style kilns. The company made drainage tile for the surrounding farmlands at a time when drainage tile was made of clay, and not today's plastic. It was run by Thomas Henry "Harry" Armstrong and his wife Annie (née Bowman). Harry fought in WWI, was a noted marksman and served at Vimy Ridge. They had two daughters Paula and Sheila. His great grandson, through Paula's son Jason and wife Linda (née Langner), was in turn named Fletcher Harrison Smith, after the town and Harry. Fletcher Smith became a track and field thrower of note. At 17 he threw shot put, discus and javelin, having won National Legion Gold For shot put and National Bronze for javelin in 2015. If the clay was good enough and Harry felt there was demand he would make bricks and many of the surrounding towns, such as

Tilbury Tilbury is a port town in the borough of Thurrock, Essex, England. The present town was established as separate settlement in the late 19th century, on land that was mainly part of Chadwell St Mary. It contains a 16th century fort and an ancie ...

, would have homes and city buildings made of his brick. Many of the family farms are now cropped by larger industrial-style farms. In the 2000s, members of the community have been debating the zoning of a

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...

to be located within its borders.

External links

Fletcher
at Geographical Names of Canada Communities in Chatham-Kent {{WesternOntario-geo-stub