The evolution of

Woodstock, surrounded by what is arguably the best farm land and most densely populated area of dairy cattle in the world, began about twenty thousand years ago when the Wisconsin glacier began to recede. As the melting process accelerated it formed what we now call the Thames River and the fertile area through which it flows. Since there is a definite lack of written history from that period, our A to Z chronicle begins with the native Attawandaron tribe and concludes, in Chapter Ten, with local actor Kevin Zegers. The Attawandarons, a peaceful and industrious Indian tribe, were the first known permanent inhabitants of this lush real estate. French explorer Samuel de Champlain called them Neutrals as other tribes rarely fought with them, mailny because they were vicious opponents when aroused. They also contolled the flint supply and the other needed their product. Apparently Oxford was an industrial centre 500 years ago, even before it existed in name. Coureur-de-bois Etienne Brule was the first resident of European descent when he spent a year around 1526 hunting and living with the Neutrals. He explored the river the Chippewas called the Askunessippi, the French called LaTranche and the English called the Thames. He was not an appealing character and met a miserable end when the Hurons tortured and allegedly cannibalized him a few years later. Basd on a study of the Jesuit Relations there is uncorroborated evidence that legendary Jesuit missionary Father St Jean de Brebeuf spent the winter of 1639-'40 in this area in an unsuccessful effort to establish a mission among the Neutrals. He travelled the Ancient Indian Trail cum Upper Trail cum Detroit Path cum Thames Road and what continued in 1997 as the Old Stage Road about a mile south of Woodstock. After Wolfe's defeat of Montcalm at the Battle of Quebec in 1759 France ceded New France to England in the Treaty of Paris. It was the key to British development as it created an alternative for the United Empire Loyalists after the American Revolutionary War. Thousands took advantage of the opportunity for patriotic and economic reasons. Many came to this area. The Canada Act which passed British Parliament in 1791 created two political entities: Upper Canada, comprised of what became Ontario and known land to the west; and Lower Canada which embraced Quebec and the east. John Graves Simcoe, a distinguished Revolutionary War veteran and member of the British Parliament, was appointed the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada. Simcoe was obsessed by the fear of an American invasion. Accompanied by a few aides, about 20 soldiers and a dozen Mohawks from Brant's Ford he soon made a tour of inspection through southwestern Ontario to explore the possibility of a military road from the capital at Newark, now Niagara-on-the-Lake, to Fort Detroit. On the night of 12 February 1793 the entourage camped on the Indian trail at what is now Oxford Centre. The next day they examined the area around the Cedar Creek rapids just above the Thames south of what became Dundas Street. Simcoe envisioned the site as a garrison town called Oxford. Alas, it was to be known only as the Town Plot for another 40 years (Doug M Symons, "The Village that Straddled a Swamp: An Informal History of Woodstock", Woodstock, Fabruary 2005).