Youngsville

United Empire Loyalist Gabriel Youngs, in 1838, settled at this crossroads which came to bear his surname and rightly so, as all four properties on the corner were at some time owned by a Youngs (until 1975). John L. Youngs (1867-1947) made a mark as a contractor, building the Embro Town Hall and Stratford City Hall, as a soldier commanding the 110th (Perth) Battalion and as a politician, serving as Mayor Stratford before WW1. Several members of the Youngs family are recognized in the Heroes of Zorra website at Youngsville marked a natural stopping point for travellers between Beachville and Stratford (toll-free as of 1904) and so became noted for its hotel on the southeast corner property, bearing the name Great Western Hotel from before 1850 until 1881 when it became the Ross Hotel, owned and operated by Walter Ross. The prominence of the hotel in the community was clear: it hosted numerous meetings of the Zorra Township Council from 1850 to 1911 and was home to the Youngsville Post Office from opening on Dominion Day, July 1 st, 1874 (with Edward Youngs as Postmaster, go figure) until the post office closed May 17 th, 1902. The hotel became newsworthy in 1901 when temperance supporters objected that its liquor license was not cut off.

The other public building was Youngsville School (officially “School Section No. 6”), which initially (from 1831) operated a little south on the next concession west of Youngsville. A purpose-built school was built in 1866 on the northwest corner of the intersection on an acre purchased from John Youngs for $125. The Youngsville School also made the news in 1895 when a teacher was brought up before a magistrate charged with assault for having too severely punished a student. Through the 1880s and beyond, the school was the site for December nomination meetings before the election of the following year’s council members.

As the 20th century loomed, Youngsville supported carriage works and a blacksmith shop. Just west and south of the corner, there was a cheese factory and a sawmill about a kilometre east. There is no sign of these activities, although a natural gas pipeline traverses the countryside, west to east, just south of what once was a critical settlement.