Otterville is a village in Norwich Township in

Oxford County, Ontario Oxford County is a regional municipality in the Canadian province of Ontario. Highway 401 runs east–west through the centre of the county, creating an urban industrial corridor with more than half the county's population, spanning 25 km ...

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 is located on the Otter Creek with many historic features including Otterville Mill and Dam, Grand Trunk Station,

African Methodist Episcopal The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. The African Methodist Episcopal ...

Cemetery and a park.

History

Early black settlement

Otterville was settled in 1807. Encouraged by local Quakers, free blacks and escaped slaves fled persecution in the United States and found homes in the Otterville area beginning in 1829. Otterville African Methodist Episcopal Church and Cemetery served the local black community until the late 1880s. The cemetery is one of the few preserved black pioneer burial grounds in the province and dates from 1856. In 1982 during the 175th anniversary celebrations of the community, a plaque was placed at the cemetery to commemorate the historical black settlement.

Attractions

The Otterville Mill

Built in 1845 by Edward Bullock, the mill is run by water power supplied by a dam on the river. The first mill on the site was built, in 1807, by partners John Earle and Paul Averill Jr. The Averill family was from the Great Barrington area in Massachusetts, where Thomas Ingersoll had lived before coming to Oxford. Paul Averill, Sr. had developed mills in Townsend township in the 1790s. John Earle married Paul's daughter Mary and with Paul Averill Jr. managed the Townsend mills. In 1806, Earle purchased the land surrounding the mill site at Otterville and with his brother-in-law Paul (sometimes referred to as Paul Avery) built the first mill on the site. The South Norwich Historical Society, on a lease basis, maintains this historic site and offers tours on request. A beautiful setting in the center of the village, the mill and its surrounding meadow is the site of an annual barbecue.

G.T.R. Station Museum and Blacksmith Shop

The South Norwich Historical Society has restored this 1875 station to its condition as an 1881

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 ...

station. The waiting room and office are restored authentically, the baggage room is an interpretation room for displays of the area's history. Permanent displays feature railway construction of the 1880s with many artifacts of all periods. The

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...

and early

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

settlement of the area is another highlight, as well as the story of early

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

heritage in the area.

Otterville Park

Just north of the main corner, and through the stone gates, is of parklands graced with beautiful tall pines, with a swimming pool, ball diamond, horseshoe pitch, tennis and basketball courts, and children's playground.

St. John's Anglican Church - 23 Dover Street

One of the first churches established in the township

Education

Otterville had one school that was closed and sold in 2012, Otterville Public School, which was operated by the

Thames Valley District School Board The Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB; known as English-language Public District School Board No. 11 prior to 1999) is a public school board in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It was created on January 1, 1998, by the amalgamation of the E ...

Library

The Otterville Public Library is a branch of the Oxford County Library.Otterville Public Library
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Notable residents

* Felix Douma (scholar, writer, teacher, cellist, and translator) immigrated to Otterville at the age of 12. *

Harold Innis Harold Adams Innis (November 5, 1894 – November 9, 1952) was a Canadian professor of political economy at the University of Toronto and the author of seminal works on media, communication theory, and Canadian economic history. He helped devel ...

(professor of economics, historian, and writer) was born and raised in Otterville

References

External links

Norwich town site
{{authority control Communities in Oxford County, Ontario