Elgin County

Sugar Maple - Until the 1930s, a huge sugar maple was located southeast of this barn about one mile from the four corners in Sparta. Found by the surveyors who decided to build the road (Sparta Line) around it, the...

Star of Bethlehem - Archibald, the brother of Duncan McKillop – whose descendants still manage the farm he cleared at 24810 Talbot Line – settled here in the early 1800s. A “fold” of Highland cattle can be found in this...

Rippling Waters - Across from the barn lies Catfish Creek on which scows once took flour, lumber and whisky from the village of Jamestown inland to Port Bruce on Lake Erie. In 1864, Thomas Pineo bought the village and turned...

Railway Crossing - For 90 years, a rail line ran through this farm. The station was located nearby and the station master lived across the road. When he died, his daughter, Edith Allen, looked after it until its closure in...

Rail Fence - Wallacetown is one of the early communities of the Talbot settlement. Once known as Frogtown for the frog-filled swamps in the vicinity, it was renamed for the Scottish hero William Wallace. The hall was moved here after...

Pinwheel Star- One of a number of former tobacco farms in the area, this farm today produces cash crops. The house was built in the 1870s. The TransCanada Trail follows Vienna Line east from here to the Village of Vienna,...

Peace Star - Thomas Ford, from Edinburgh, emigrated to the United States in 1808 and eventually established a brewery in Caledonia, New York. When war erupted in 1812, the U.S. government confiscated Thomas’ horses to draw munitions and compelled him...

Oak Plains - In November 1830 on the oak plains of South Yarmouth Township the “First Yarmouth Regular Baptist Church” was established as a Branch of the Iona or First Southwold Baptist Church. It became a separate church in March,...

Log Cabin - Originally Smoak’s Corners, the village once located here became known as Middlemarch, named after George Elliott’s novel. One of the three American rail lines that once passed through Elgin County, the Chesapeake and Ohio, was built near...

Irish Star - Col. Thomas Talbot’s first settlers arrived near here in 1809 and were all related to Leslie Patterson, an Irishman from County Fermanagh. Each of the Star’s points represents one of the four founding families – Backus, Patterson,...

Indian Trail - These corners are named for Col. Mahlon Burwell, who surveyed many nearby townships and the Talbot Road from Port Talbot east to Delhi and west to Windsor. Afterwards he built a home and registry office on the...

Grist Mill - The Tufford Barn occupies the site of the Neil McAlpine farm. In the 1830s, when McAlpine settled here, the Talbot Settlement was still small. When a severe frost destroyed the wheat crop it transpired that only McAlpine...

Four Corners - These corners are named for Henry Coyne who arrived here in 1817 and built an inn. For many years, Coyne’s Road was the route south to the busy lake dock at Tyrconnell from which grain and timber...

Evening Star - This site was once the home of Sarah Haight, the Quaker Community’s first minister. Haight settled here in 1820. This home, built by her son in 1837, is still owned by the family. The barn behind contains...

Drunkard's Path - Three of Sparta’s four taverns voluntarily closed with the rise of the temperance movement. Led by two ministers and Dr. Shannon, citizens lifted the license from the fourth, the Ontario House. On its last day, patrons lit...

Dove In Flight - The great, great grandparents of Lynda Prong, William and Catherine Hilborn, purchased this property in 1862 from John Mills. The Hilborn’s were Quakers from Pennsylvania. The dove in the centre of the quilt square represents a...

Corn & Beans - For the 30 years preceding the building of the London and Port Stanley Railway in 1853, what is now Sunset Road was the main route to London. Supplies, settlers and even the British Army travelled this...

Compass Rose- The name compass rose comes from the figure’s compass points which resemble the flower’s petals. It has appeared on maps and charts since the 1300s, originally to indicate wind direction.  It is now used on all marine charts....

Churn Dash - Gay Lea Dairy Heritage Museum is one of Ontario’s largest collections of dairy industry artifacts. Built up over a span of 30 years, the collection is the work of former dairy farmers, Andy and Lotty van Kasteren....

Bike Wheel - Perry Doolittle, a Luton native, built the area’s first bicycle with the help of a nearby blacksmith in the 1860s. He raced in the 1880s, won numerous trophies and, in 1896, invented a braking system that became...

Welcome with Open Arms - was Elgin County’s first barn quilt, erected in 2010 by the owner of a lavender farm that is now closed.  South of ‘Four Corners’ this century old farmstead was deeded to Col. Talbot in 1821....

All Tangled Up- The McKillops are a founding family of Elgin County; this farm is now managed by the seventh generation. Originally from Lochgilphead in the Highlands of Scotland, Duncan McKillop and his brother Archibald (30312 Talbot Line) were among...