Ingersoll (Ontario)

Ingersoll is a town of about 13,700 in Southwestern Ontario, southwest of Toronto between Woodstock and London.

Understand
The town is named after its first European settler Thomas Ingersoll, who was the father of Laura Secord, a Canadian war hero of the War of 1812. Ingersoll arrived in 1795. The Town of Ingersoll was a destination for runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad.

History
Ingersoll’s founder, Thomas Ingersoll (1751–1812), was a native of Massachusetts who moved to the Niagara District of Upper Canada in 1795. In 1793 he received a grant 1200 acres, which became the site of the community of Ingersoll. He established a farm for his family and settled other families nearby. Thomas's eldest child, Laura Secord, was a heroine of the War of 1812.

Ingersoll became Oxford County’s principal industrial centre with the Noxon Brothers and the Eastwood foundry, both manufacturers of agricultural implements. By the 1860s, dairying was an emerging industry, sparked farm-wife production of cheese and butter, and then by the introduction of the factory system of cheese production in 1864. In 1866, to promote Ingersoll cheese as a high-quality, standardized brand, a cheese producer, James Harris, and local businessmen produced a 7,300-pound mammoth cheese, exhibited it at the New York State Fair in Saratoga, and then exported it to England.

Get in
The nearest airport with local flights is in London, and the nearest major airport is Toronto Pearson International Airport, which is 140 km away.

By car

 * Ingersoll is about 156 km southwest of Toronto along the Gardiner Expressway/Queen Elizabeth Way/Highway 403 to exit 218 then north on County Road 119/Harris St.
 * It is 215 km northeast of Windsor. From Hwy 401, exit 218, then north on County Road 119/Harris St.

Sleep




Go next
Stratford, Ontario, a picturesque town that hosts the world-famous Stratford Shakespeare Festival, is about a 30-minute drive north of Ingersoll.

London, Ontario, is a 30-minute drive west of Ingersoll.