Ingersoll | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Ingersoll

Ingersoll, Ont, incorporated as a town in 1865, population 12 146 (2011c), 11 760 (2006c). The Town of Ingersoll is situated on the THAMES RIVER, 36 km east of London.

Ingersoll, Ont, incorporated as a town in 1865, population 12 146 (2011c), 11 760 (2006c). The Town of Ingersoll is situated on the THAMES RIVER, 36 km east of London. Founded as Oxford Village in 1818 by Charles Ingersoll, it was renamed Ingersoll for his father, Thomas, and incorporated as a village in 1852. Following the opening of the Great Western Ry in the 1850s, its population grew rapidly to about 4000 by 1871, and increased gradually thereafter.

Its economy, based initially on the export of wheat and hardwood lumber, shifted to the production of cheese and agricultural implements in the mid-1860s. Ingersoll was the commercial centre for Canada's first cheese export trade and the Canadian Dairyman's Assn was founded there (1867).

In 1866 the town sent a 3300 kg "Mammoth Cheese" - celebrated in verse by James McIntyre, the "cheese poet" - to exhibits in NY state and England. Now a manufacturing and residential centre, Ingersoll celebrates its past with an annual heritage day.

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