Wyoming Ontario
    Wyoming Ontario
is a beautiful town 4 miles North of Petrolia. Some of these pics are from the impressive David Burrwell collection. Wyoming ( in my life time) has always been known for it's tuff baseball teams  and strong farm based family values.
             Wyoming has a history built around the fact that they are on the main rail line between Sarnia and London. Very soon there will be a very extensive history here on Wyoming Ontario's beginnings. Most of these pics have no need of text and if you have more send them and I will post them here.



 
fhomes4.jpg
                                                                      editor's collection
Downtown Wyoming Ontario ca.1908

 
fhomes4.jpg
                                                                         editor's collection
'Rice Popular Bookstore'  Wyoming Ontario
ca.1908


fhomes4.jpg
                                                                  editor's collection
Downtown Wyoming Ontario ca. 1900
fhomes4.jpg
Downtown Wyoming Ontario ca.1908

Yet another Downtown Wyoming view from early ca.1900. Notice the team of horses and what is that to the horse's right? Looks like a tombstone or a shrine marker of some sort.

Downtown Wyoming ca.1930s. Notice old cars.
fhomes4.jpg fhomes4.jpg

fhomes4.jpg
                                                                          editor's collection
Interesting foldout postcard showing Wyoming Ontario views

fhomes4.jpg
                                                           editor's collection
Interesting foldout postcard showing Wyoming Ontario views (other side)


fhomes4.jpg
Wyoming Ontario public school ca.1912
fhomes4.jpg
                                                                              editor's collection
Wyoming Ontario rail crossing
 looking North ca.1900


fhomes4.jpg
Wyoming Ontario public school same as above, different angle.

fhomes4.jpg

fhomes4.jpg

fhomes4.jpg
Train station at Wyoming  Ontario ca.1920s

Allan Duncan's General Store  Wyoming Ontario  ca.1908



                                                                                                        editor's collection
Another view of the Wyoming train station, with a passenger car on the left. Lots of detail on the loading dock. An all round great action view.ca.1910s

Detail of Wyoming train station platform. Too bad we can't read the chalk board. ca.1908

Nathaniel Boswell House Wyoming Ontario ??


Time flies.  It has been over a year since I visited Petrolia last year  and stayed at the B&B across the park from your place.  I was looking over your website tonight and see I have to make some corrections as a result of our visit.
Nathaniel Boswell’s house in Wyoming.  Visiting the county historical library in Wyoming I found pictures of Nathaniel’s home as it was being torn down and the picture that we posted is not the same, but similar.  It was located on Broadway, just south of Isabella St. Since it had Nathaniel’s daughter and husband in it, maybe it was their home in Ohio. Your library had a nice picture of the Fletcher Boswell hotel (American Hotel) in 1867.  I have read many mini-biographies. Some appear to be rewording the same information.  But here and there I pick up a new fact.As  to the Eureka mill, no luck in finding where it was located.  As near as I can tell, he either owned or was involved in at least 6 mills, including the one with a Mr. Mustard that I believe has just been torn down or will be that was located on Broadway near Plympton St. in Wyoming
The truth is a hard thing to find.  When the untrue has been repeated often enough, it seems to become the “truth”.
Cheers,Bob
fhomes4.jpg
Nice colored post card at Wyoming Ontario rail yard
fhomes4.jpg
                                                                           editor's collection
The A.Hill residence Wyoming Ontario

fhomes4.jpg fhomes4.jpg
                                                                            editor's collection
fhomes4.jpg
                                                                                   editor's collection
Very fashionable ladies waiting for a train in Wyoming Ontario. ca.1910s
fhomes4.jpg
Another view of A.Hill residence.
fhomes4.jpg
                                                                            editor's collection
fhomes4.jpg
This is a card that I acquired. In my family it was a significant day as my great grandfather was an Orangeman. He almost had a heart attack because he was so happy that I was almost born on the "Glorious 12th of July." I was born on July 11th.. I fly the Orange from the front of our home proudly every July 12th.

Yet another view of downtown Wyoming Ontario.

Interesting Wyoming train station card with Gibson Girl decoration.ca.1908
This item ran in the Petrolia Topic May 9/07 and we thought it was a good story for the Wyoming page.
Speaker: Dutch immigrants saw this region as mini Netherlands
By JOHN PHAIR
The Dresden Leader
One might wonder why a guy named Campbell, who lives in a town with an Anglo name like Petrolia, would have such an interest in post-Second World War Dutch history.
Joel Campbell is a Petrolia councillor and LCCVI English teacher and was guest speaker at the regular meeting of the Dawn Township Historical Society.
He explained that along with his Scottish roots, his mother's maiden name was Wilpstra and that side of his family came to Canada from the Netherlands in 1948.
Another reason for his abiding interest in Dutch history, he suggests, may have something to do with the fact he grew up in Wyoming.
With 17 per cent its population either Dutch immigrants or the offspring of Dutch immigrants, he says that makes it the second most Dutch town in Canada.
"When you live in a small town and attend a Christian Reformed Church and a Christian school, you are immersed in a very Dutch Canadian culture," he said, adding he wrote several papers on the subject while attending the University of Western Ontario where he received an MA in public history.
"I wanted to know more about my Dutch heritage, not only in a local sense but about things that were personal," he said.
"I wanted to look at the role Canadians played in liberating Holland and what it was that prompted my grandparents and so many like them to come to Canada."
Campbell said a spirit of friendship between Canada and the Netherlands developed during the Second World War.
He noted that during the Second World War, the Dutch Royal family fled to England at first and later, princess Juliana, who would later become Queen, moved to Canada.
While there, she gave birth to a daughter, Princess Margarette, in an Ottawa hospital.
Through an act of Parliament, the Canadian government declared the hospital room was on Dutch soil so it could be said the princess was born on Dutch territory.
"There was a fascinating relationship developed and every year since, the Netherlands sends tulip bulbs to Canada in recognition of the favour the Canadian government did for them," he said.
He also noted Canada's involvement with the Netherlands escalated in 1944 when following the D-Day invasion of Europe, Canada's second and third divisions were given the task of liberating Holland from the Nazis, a task it completed by May 5, 1945, three days prior to Victory-Day in Europe.
He noted the Canadian troops did not pull out right away and consequently many of the soldiers became enamoured with Dutch girls.
"Canada was looked upon as a desirable country and Canadians appeared to be healthy and good people to the Dutch," he said.
Consequently, the first wave of Dutch immigrants to Canada was largely made up of war brides and their children and numbered 1,886 in 1946.
"They were the first group of post-war Dutch immigrants," he said.
Campbell said while researching citizenship and immigration records at university, he started to notice there was an explanation of what brought so many Dutch immigrants to Ontario and particularly to, what he calls, the "four counties" region of Lambton, Kent, Middlesex and Elgin Counties.
He noted more than 200,000 Dutch immigrants have come to Canada since the end of the Second World War, with the majority — 120,000 or about 60 per cent — arriving in a 10-year window from 1946 to 1956.
Of those numbers, he said 10 per cent settled in the Maritimes, 34 per cent went to the Western provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
But the majority, fully 55 per cent, settled in southwestern Ontario, with the majority of those opting to live in the four-county area.
Campbell said there are two reasons for that: one being cultural.
But the largest factor by far, he says, is geographical.
"Southwestern Ontario had something the rest of the country did not; the beginning of Dutch churches that had been started by a wave of Dutch immigrants following the First World War," said Campbell.
"Canada was attractive to them not only because there were jobs here but because there was also some type of cultural framework in that there were churches and other Dutch people here."
However, he said the larger reason was geographical, pointing out the area is highly similar of the Netherlands in terms of climate, growing conditions and the wide range of soil types prevalent in the area.
"The land here is the same range of sand, loam and clay found in the Netherlands," he said.
In addition, he noted the drainage system is similar as well.
"In the Netherlands, the land is drained into the ocean while in Southwestern Ontario, it is drained into the Great Lakes
. . . the Dutch people felt right at home working this land and growing essentially the mix of crops grown in Holland."
Campbell noted most of the Dutch immigrants came as farm labourers and it took many years of hard work before they owned their own farms.
However, there was one industry prevalent in Lambton and Chatham-Kent that assisted many along that route, that being the sugar beet industry.
"Many Dutch immigrants worked in the sugar beets and many of the women were employed in the processing plants bagging sugar and sewing the cloth sugar bags," he noted.
However, Campbell said inspite of their obstacles and personal struggles, the Dutch successfully transplanted themselves and set down deep roots from which their family trees have grown and continue to thrive.
"So when you go out in the community and wonder what it was that attracted large numbers of Dutch to Lambton and Chatham-Kent, just consider this was the most comfortable alternative, it was geographically and to a limited extent, socially, a miniature of the Netherlands," said Campbell.























We are always looking for vintage Petrolia pics of anything to buy or borrow for copying. If you have pictures that I can borrow I only need a few minutes to scan them.
Email  martyd@ebtech.net