Woodstock Newsgroup By Paul Roberts
  • Woodstock News group Home Page
  • Woodstock Newsgroup
  • You Know You Grew up in Woodstock
  • Woodstock City election 2014
  • The Estelle was the streetcar that ran between Woodstock and Ingersoll.
  • The first commercial brewery in Woodstock,
  • The Woodstock Gas Light Company
  • A Smashing Kick Off 1975
  • McCormicks Candy Factory
  • Regal Constellation
  • Dickson Family Farmhouse in Ingersoll, Ontario
  • Royal Connaught hotel
  • Industries in the City of Woodstock 1968
  • Norwich Broom Factory
  • Altadore House
  • Handbags for Hospice
  • Pattullo Fountain
  • daso Spring fashion show event April 8 2014
  • Capital Theater Woodstock, Ontario
  • Dedicated Woodstock Fire Department
  • Central Senior Public School
  • The House of Refuge
  • The Canadian Literary Institute
  • James Stewart
  • Town crier
  • Woodstock Biscuit & Confectionery
  • barber shops
  • NewAnderson Furniture Factories Page
  • Perry Street Arena
  • Jones Brothers Cigar of Woodstock
  • Bicycling races
  • Waaa Park
  • Woodstock Little Theatre
  • CKOX
  • Woodstock Y.M.C.A
  • Fisher’s Glen
  • Buster Brown Wagon
  • Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA)
  • Train Accident
  • The camp at the fairgrounds
  • Tobin Arms Manufacturing
  • Milk in the Pattullo Fountain
  • Richardsons Soap Works
  • Woodstock Automobile
  • Ghostly stories
  • ghost
  • Holme’s Hardware
  • Woodroofe Bros
  • First fire Hall
  • Elizabeth Ann Tilford
  • Ben Johnson candy store and restaurant (Olympic restaurant today)
  • Constable Thomas J. Black
  • Margaret (Beattie) Eaton
  • Tommy Williams
  • Flour Mills
  • Port Dover & Lake Huron Railway
  • Royal Oak Hotel
  • Royal Pavilion Hotel- Royal Hotel
  • Caister House
  • Town of Woodstock
  • Karn Organ and Piano
  • Registry Office
  • Marshall Anderson
  • E.J. Coles Company
  • John Bain
  • Fire Alarm Boxes
  • James Hay
  • The Times
  • Medows Funeral Home
  • La France Textiles Canada Ltd
  • The Citys hotels
  • Cassie L. Chadwick

The House of Refuge

The House of Refuge closed in 1969. Those living there were moved to its modern replacement, Woodingford Lodge which officially opened on Oct. 25 of that year.
When Woodstock was but a town, the Oxford Jail offered a better-than-no-place for Oxford County residents to stay who were too disadvantaged in one way or another to own or to rent their own shelter. Concerned that jail was not the best place for the needy, several Anglican ministers (including Rev. Mr. Farthing of New St. Paul's Anglican Church) presented a petition from about 450 local citizens to Oxford Council in June, 1889, for a House of Refuge that would care for such people.
Council agreed and hired Messrs. Cuthbertson and Fowler as architects with instructions to design a Home for about 100 inmates costing $15,000 or less, exclusive of furnishings. The Council bought a 100 acre farm just west of Woodstock for the site, and a Mr. Thomas McClay built it. The final cost of the farm, new construction, all furnishings, new farm equipment, drainage, fencing and so on, was over $28,000.
James Leek was the first person admitted, on March 10, 1893. By year's end, there were 15 male and 7 female residents at the House of Refuge and each cost $6.05 per week to keep. It is interesting to note that costs were managed very well. On Dec. 31, 1966, the 22 males and 8 females then in residence still only cost $5.11 per week. While the number of residents varied constantly, the highest number was 125 in 1916; the lowest was 27, in 1965.
A thoughtful touch was the fencing off in 1895 of a quarter acre for a cemetery, at the centre of the western edge of the property. The youngest person buried there was a still-born baby; the oldest was a lady reported to be around 103 when she died. Over 60 years, about 200 residents were buried there.
At the start, a married man and woman were hired to act as a live-in Manager (later 'Superintendent') and Matron respectively. The Manager's job was to 'examine all persons received, suitably locate as to age, sex and character; treat with ... kindness all children, ... sick and infirm'. He also had to check that all lights were out at 9 p.m. in summer, 8:30 p.m. in winter; 'to see that all provisions is good and properly cooked and that no waste is permitted;. . . to inflict suitable punishment for disobedience ... not more than 24 hours confinement to be inflicted ...'.
Matron was to assign suitable work to all inmates; to see that the inmates clothes and bedding was kept repaired; 'and to prohibit all waste'.
All able-bodied inmates had to get up at 6 a.m. from April to September; at 8 a.m. at other times; present themselves at their assigned places at table for all meals; hands and face were to be clean and hair combed. No drunkenness, disobedience, immorality, profane language, theft, waste, etc. were allowed. The Sabbath Day was to be strictly observed.
The Manager and Matron managed servants and other local staff, and reported to a Management Committee who met monthly. At one of their meetings, in 1894, 'the Committee considered the matter of entertainment at the House of refuge and instructed the Manager to dispense with such as it was a County expense'.
Bearing in mind the alternative, the average citizen was certainly encouraged to have his or her own place.
Sources:
- Woodstock Museum, 'County of Oxford Historical Item # 5'
- Doug M. Symons, 'The Village That Straddled A Swamp'


HOUSE OF REFUGE CEMETERY
 
There are no stones in the House of Refuge Cemetery, only a large Cross which the County has erected with the names of people buried there. Many of the residents were claimed by family and buried at other cemeteries in the County. This cemetery is located on the west side of Fanshawe Road #515137 (County Road # 30) north of Dundas (Highway 2) at the west end of Woodstock Lot 3 Concession 10. Further information available at the Oxford County Genealogy Society, Woodstock.
This cemetery was made possible by Helen Brenneman.
Map of directions to this Cemetery.
This cemetery was last updated January 12, 2002. Click HERE to go back to the Oxford County Cemeteries HomePage.

ERECTED IN MEMORY OF THE RESIDENTS OF OXFORD COUNTY HOME 1895 - 1956

*(year of death after each name)
James CHANDLER 1895
Donald ROSS 1896
Jessie ING 1896
Daniel FOWLER 1896
Jane HEAD 1896
Thomas HOLMES 1896
Donald STEWART 1896
Peter HENRY 1896
James SLOAN 1896
James MCLAUGHLIN 1897
M. C. DALY 1897
Ezekiel THORN 1897
Reuben SAUNDERS 1897
Charles DAVIDSON 1898
(baby) WOOD 1898
William TYLER 1899
William THURLEY 1899
William OLLIS 1899
Thomas SHRUBSOLE 1899
Frederick HOFFMAN 1899
James TIZZARD 1899
William JOHNSON 1900
Jane CLEMONADE 1900
Elizabeth SMITH 1900
James KINCHOW 1900
William LAKEMAN 1901
John BELL 1901
Jame LEEK 1901
Thomas SCHOFIELD 1901
Joseph DIAMOND 1902
William DAVIS 1902
James HANDLEY 1903
Robert ROSS 1903
Isaac ROWE 1903
Agnes MATCHELL 1904
Ann WILLIAMS 1904
Ellen PETERS 1904
James FAIRBOTHAM 1904
George ARMSTRONG 1904
Thomas MANN 1904
Caroline REBERG 1904
John B. MCKENNEY 1905
Maria BAKER 1905
Mary HOFFMAN 1905
Thomas MCLEOD 1905
William SUTHERLAND 1905
Albert GAST 1906
Walkin SHAW 1906
Alan HAMILTON 1906
Wilhelmina ROSS 1906
George HUBBARD 1906
Hannah STEWART 1906
William PAYNE 1906
Abram BRADY 1906
Gottrich BINDER 1907
Alexander TAYLOR 1907
Ben BAKER 1907
William GRANT 1907
John W. BENNETT 1907
Job JOHNSTON 1907
John W. BENN
Sam GARNETT 1910
Horace HALL 1910
George GARNER 1910
A. HUTTON 1910
Mary BOYCE 1910
George H. TITUS 1910
John HAWTHORNE 1911
Sarah SOUTHWELL 1911
John GRAHAM 1912
Margaret CHARLTON 1913
Rudolf WILHELM 1913
Emily CRAWFORD 1913
Alexander P. FRASER 1913
Walter STRANGE 1913
George BOWERMAN 1913
Joseph SMITH 1913
Elizabeth SCHELL 1914
John MABEE 1914
Delena ROSS 1914
Ward SITZER 1915
Isaac WHITELOCK 1915
James DALY 1915
Neil MIDDLETON 1915
Marilda SOMERS 1915
William SMITH 1916
James HENDERSON 1916
James INNIS 1916
Wallace PEASE 1916
Miss WATLAND 1916
Hiram HEATH 1916
Caroline JOHNSTON 1917
Frank THOMPSON 1917
John MURRAY 1917
Jessie SUTHERLAND 1917
Hannah SIMPSON 1918
Stewart BATES 1918
Artimes PALLISTER 1919
Jehiel MILLARD 1919
Morden WILKINSON 1920
Jerome FULLER 1920
William SMITH 1920
James LANGSTAFF 1920
James STURGEON 1920
William CRADDOCK 1920
Annie MEIKLE 1921
John SMITH 1921
John BOSSENCE 1922
William HUSON 1922
Emmaline SNIVELY 1922
Clarissa FITCHETT 1922
Walter LAST 1923
Donald MCLEOD 1923
Samuel VENT 1924
Albert MARTIN 1925
Nelson PARKES 1931
Katie SWEIZERHOFF 1932
William HUFFMAN 1932
Baby LINTHWAITE 1932
Richard LACOCKE 1933
William SILVERLOCK 1933
Samuel MORRELL 1934
John FITZPATRICK 1935
George RICHARDSON 1935
Lucy BURTCH 1935
Thomas POTTER 1936
George WILSON 1936
John FOSTER 1936
James R. GRAHAM 1936
Joseph J. GRAHAM 1936
William WHITE 1936
Roderick MCKAY 1936
Addison FISHER 1937
Lambert SHERMAN 1938
Frank MARSHBANK 1938
Robert BRUCE 1938
John SULLIVAN 1938
Henry KLEIN 1938
John S. CUTHERBERT 1938
Frank BAXTER 1939
Charles CAMPBELL 1939
Lula SMITH 1940
Edwin MILLMAN 1940
William WATERS 1941
George GOOCH 1941
Karl JOHNSON 1942
Herman RADLOFF 1942
George GAUNT 1943
Wesley EVERETT 1943
Mary PARKS 1943
Elizabeth CRYOR 1944
Charles HARVEY 1945
Sarah J. WOODHOUSE 1945
Frederick E. SMITH 1945
Joseph SIBLEY 1947
Henry BEAM 1948
Oscar DAKIN 1948
Mary Ann STURCH 1948
Joseph SMITH 1949
John WINEGARDENER 1950
Robert GORDON 1950
Alois BRUNEEL 1951
Edward BEARFOOT 1953
James VENABLES 1955
Lewis HOWELL 1956
Walter PEARSON 1956
Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.