Elizabeth Bell Ferguson
Life in Canada was not very easy in the nineteenth century, if you were an intelligent and ambitious woman. Traditional social and family structures...
The Rideau River Bridge on old Highway 16
In the late 1930's, the road from Kemptville to the Rideau River followed a different route and ended at the swing bridge at Beckett’s...
The Streets of North Grenville: Reuben and Riverside Park
In 1857, the Village of Kemptville separated from the Township of Oxford-on-Rideau, becoming an Incorporated Village with its own municipal government. But the financial...
Buttergate: the cover-up
By early summer of 1976, the immediate consequences of the Buttergate controversy seemed to have died away. A joint investigation by the OPP’s Criminal...
Union Bank building, Prescott Street, Kemptville
This is now the location of Mr. Mozarella Pizza, but it has a long and colourful history.
Kernahan & Wood opened a store along this...
Mightier than the sword: Newspapers in North Grenville
The rulers of New France had a very strong rule about the society that they wanted to see in Canada. For that reason, they...
33 years later: The “almost” Smiths Falls train collision of 1991
Have you ever heard of the near-collision of two trains in Smiths Falls in 1991? The incident may not have a well-known name (like...
South Gower: a strange and changeable township
When the Township of South Gower was amalgamated with Oxford-on-Rideau and the Town of Kemptville in 1998, it officially ceased to exist. But that...
Always something new in history
It may seem an odd thing, but there’s always something new in history. Now and then, a document may be found, a diary, letter,...
Clothier Hotel, 9 Water Street, Oxford Mills
Here is a building that no-one but older residents from Oxford Mills will recognise. It was constructed c 1835 of timber frame and served...