Glencoe

Glencoe. . , The birth of a settlement here can be attributed to the location; that is, the intersection of the Great Western Railroad and the town line road between Ekfrid and Mosa townships., Ekfrid Township was surveyed in 1820 and Mosa, in 1821, and the registration of the first deeds to land at Glencoe took place in 1823., Most significant to the development of Glencoe was the construction of the Great Western Railroad through this area in 1854, followed by the G.W.R.'s air line from Glencoe to Niagara in 1870., The early settlers found the area to be a somewhat swampy region in the midst of a dense forest. History describes those settlers as "iron-souled men, with a determination to hew out a town from the Longwoods and build a prosperous community.", The first survey plan for the settlement was registered by Angus Peter McDonald and Randolph Ross in 1860. Mcdonald, who had built the right-of-way for the Great Western, served as a member of parliament both before and after Confederation. His career also included a term as mayor of Toronto. By 1873 the hamlet had grown to over 750 inhabitants. In that year the residents petitioned Middlesex County Council and the council responded on December 5, 1873 by passing by-law no. 235 which incorporated the Village of Glencoe. , This plaque, erected in 1984, the year of the Bicentennial of the Province of Ontario, serves as a tribute to Glencoe's early settlers.