Robert Bell: Politics, Railways and Newspapers

Robert Bell had a huge influence on the development of North Grenville in the nineteenth century. Born in Strabane, Ireland, in 1821, his family...

Kemptville Public School, 1873-1936

The B&H Grocery store in Kemptville stands today on what was once the site of this really lovely school. The Kemptville Public School served...

The last invasion

In the summer of 1866, as British America moved slowly towards Confederation, one threat which had been hanging over the provinces for years seemed...

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...

HISTORY VIGNETTES

It seems that quite a crime spree took place in Kemptville in the summer of 1872, according to an Ottawa newspaper. There was no...

Robert Leslie: Pioneer public servant

by Doug Macdonald The signature of Robert Leslie can be found on thousands of documents from Oxford Township and the village of Kemptville between the...

Echoes of Kemptville past

by Melanie Low One of my hobbies that was boxed up and put in storage when baby raising started was a curiosity for tracking inscriptions...

New book of “Stories from the South Branch” available starting December

For all those who have enjoyed Dr. David Shanahan’s articles on local history that have appeared regularly in the NG Times, the good news...

Strange bedfellows indeed!

It is not too much to say that George Brown and John A. Macdonald detested each other. This went far beyond the usual political...

Jones Building, Clothier and Sanders Streets, Kemptville

This building has a long and varied history. It was built by Francis Jones, a teacher and land surveyor whose family had moved here...