INGERSOLL TOWN HALL 

Ingersoll

The Ingersoll Town Hall built in 1856 and its accompanying plaque on Main Street was demolished in 1996. The town hall was a characteristic example of the provinces’s early municipal buildings. The commodious auditorium had often been used for public meetings, and many early personalities spoke here such as John Brown, the white abolitionist who was supported by many black and white abolitionists in Canada. He travelled and spoke in communities from Chatham to St. Catharines. As well, Robert Gourlay, the radical reformer was a popular speaker. He had come to Canada in 1817, and his Statistical Account of Upper Canada exposed the nepotism and corruption in the province. Although banished from Upper Canada in 1819, in later life he was well known to the farmers in the Ingersoll area and Oxford County, where he stood for election.