Glen Williams, Ontario

Glen Williams is a hamlet in Halton Hills, Halton Regional Municipality, Ontario, Canada. It has a population of about 2700 people and its closest neighbours are Georgetown and Terra Cotta.

Glen Williams is noted for its visual artists, artist's studios, heritage buildings, a restaurant and bakery, a community centre (Town Hall), parks, churches and homes. The Credit River flow through the hamlet, providing a habitat for animals.

History

In the fall of 1824, a grant of in the township of Esquesing was made by the Crown to John Butler Muirhead. The land was eventually sold for £100 to Benajah Williams.

The Credit River was used to run saw and flour mills. By 1833, Williams had purchased another 200-acre parcel, giving him the that became Glen Williams. The Williams' Mill is where the first industry stood, a saw mill built by Benajah and sons Joel and Charles in 1825. Charles Williams became the leading figure in the community, and by the mid-1860s, he was proprietor of the flour, woollen, and saw mills, as well as a justice of the peace in Williamsburg.

thumb|left|Williams Mill Arts Centre

A second sawmill in the village was operated from 1856 by Joseph Tweddle, and a third saw mill was on "the Mountain," run by steam, erected by Charles Symons of Acton, and leased to and run by Cooper and sons of the Glen. It burned down in the summer of 1876.

Members of the Williams family worked as a blacksmith, cabinetmaker, leather tanner, and general store proprietor. Jacob Williams opened a woolen mill in 1839. In 1982, the mill was sold and closed. Beaumont Mill Antiques and Collectibles is now located there.

Glen Williams Town Hall, first used for a board meeting in 1870, has been used by numerous societies, churches, and political meetings, and acted as a polling station for elections.
Laidlaw House, the Frazier Shop, the Williams Chair Factory (Williams-Holt House), and the Beaumont Knitting Mill. The store is located in the storefront of Laidlaw House and the Frazier Shop in which Timothy Eaton first worked in retail.

Beyond the designated heritage properties, more than 35 other properties in Glen Williams are listed in the Town of Halton Hills Heritage Register.

Arts and culture

Famed Group of Seven artist A. J. Casson often spent summers in Glen Williams, which he used as a base to paint local scenes.

The village itself is the subject of Casson's 1938 oil on canvas, "Street in Glen Williams", a leafy, autumnal portrait of a quiet road in the hamlet, which sold at auction in Toronto on June 1, 2010 for a record $542,800, including buyer's premium, the highest such valuation ever accorded a Casson canvas. Casson, who joined the Group of Seven in 1926, "recorded small towns in every season," Canadian art critic and historian Paul Duval wrote in 1980, "and Street in Glen Williams is unquestionably his key autumn portrayal." Other paintings of Casson's time in and around Glen Williams include "Country Road - Glen Williams", "Village Street October",

Today Glen Williams is a predominantly residential community that provides housing for residents employed in other areas. Glen Williams is home to many visual artists, contains a collection of artist's studios and is a major draw to the area. Glen Williams has a compact community core that includes commercial uses, a restaurant and bakery, the community centre (Town Hall) and other recreational and community functions. This hamlet core is viewed as an important component of the hamlet character. All commercial and community uses are focused in this area.

The Williams Mill Visual Arts Centre and Glen Williams Glass are both housed in the heritage site of the Williams Mill. The Williams Mill provides studio space for artists of various media including ceramics, drawing, fibre, glass, jewellery, printmaking, sculpture and offers visitors the opportunity to interact directly with the artists, experience their work in progress and purchase a variety of art. The gallery showcases the works of other renowned artists and craftspeople. Art classes, lectures and workshops for all ages offered year-round in the Arts Education Centre. Glen Williams Glass is a collective studio made up of seven independent glass artists and is also part of The Williams Mill. In addition to its function as an artist's co-operative, Glen Williams Glass regularly welcomes non-members to the studio.

The former Beaumont Knitting Mill is now home to Beaumont Mill Antiques & Collectibles, a multi vendor Antique and Collectibles Market offering a broad assortment of collectibles and antiques, including furniture, toys, glassware, cookware, books, decorative items, and vinyl records. Adjacent to the mill is the Kids & Classics Boatshops Museum, a non-profit organization, which focuses on the restoration of classic wood boats, where volunteers learn and teach skills, working with kids-at-risk through a skiff building program for youth. In the space of a weekend, four children build and launch a skiff (the Bevin's skiff), get exposed to the world of boatbuilding and learn to have confidence in themselves and what they can do. Sale of the skiffs built by the youth helps fund the program.

Sheridan Nurseries operates their "Glen Williams Farm & Distribution Centre" along the hamlet's eastern boundary. The farm is their main growing facility and produces more than 800 hardy nursery stock varieties, ranging from evergreens, deciduous trees and shrubs. The Distribution Centre supplies its own nine garden centres in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and ships regularly to destinations in Eastern Canada and the U.S. Midwest to New England. Sheridan Nurseries has been selected as the Glen Williams Citizen of the Year in 2007, 2010 & 2011.

Annual festivals and events

Victoria Day - Fireworks and BBQ
Canada Day (July 1) - Parade, duck race, festival grounds, evening BBQ and fireworks

Attractions

thumb|Copper Kettle Inn

Three churches serve the village. St. Alban the Martyr Anglican Church, and St. John's United Church are historic buildings still used for worship, and are located on either side of the Credit River on Main Street. Despite the bishop's suggestion that the Glen people would be better off continuing to attend church in Georgetown, the cornerstone of St. Alban the Martyr was laid in 1902, and the church opened in June of following year. The architect was F. S. Baker, the son of a woollen miller in Kilbride, and a friend of Joseph Beaumont. F.S. Baker would later become the second President of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada from 1910–1912.

Union Presbyterian Church is located north-east of the village at Winston Churchill.

thumb|Glen Williams Park Ballfield

Glen Williams Park

Glen Williams Park, 509 Main Street. Glen Williams Minor Softball, still played in the park, was established in 1964 by the local hamlet's people. As the need increased for a place to play ball, the land where the park is located today was donated to Glen Minor Ball. The Glen organizers built a major diamond, a concession stand and a minor diamond. The major diamond and booth are still here today.

The park, now maintained by Town of Halton Hills staff, includes baseball diamonds, park pavilion, and flower gardens. Open for public use to have a picnic, organize a friendly game of baseball or listen to the sounds of Credit River flowing by.

Glen Williams Cemetery

thumb|center|800px|Glen Williams Cemetery

The 1840 deed to the Methodist Episcopal church in Glen Williams provided a site for "a Church Meeting-House or Chapel and Burying-ground." But the spot down by the river was not an appropriate place for burials, and it does not appear that any took place there.

In the Glen the Williams family chose a spot on the hill, overlooking the village, for use as a family cemetery. The earliest stone marks the resting-place of Ira, Elizabeth and Benajah's son, who died in 1833 just eleven days after his fifteenth birthday. Another son, George, lies nearby; he died in 1836, also at the age of 23. A grandson, Alfred (Joel's boy) died in 1844.

thumb|center|800px|Photo taken from the Glen Williams Cemetery Look-off in May 2012.

Others besides the family used the cemetery. There is a memorial to Robert Brown, who died in 1834. That is on a stone that was put up in 1876, and it is uncertain whether he is buried there. But near the Williams plot there are stones from 1845, for Latham Stull, and for Margaret, wife of Jacob Stull. Benajah Williams died on November 22, 1851. His son Charles must have felt that the time had come for the cemetery to be established on a more regular basis, and on December 22 he made over the land for a public burying-ground, "in consideration of the sum of one shilling of lawful money of the Province of Canada to him in hand paid." His brother Joel (now described as a carpenter, rather than a blacksmith as in an earlier deed) and another brother Jacob, were among the first trustees. The others were John Cook and John Stull, yeoman, and Thomas B. Frasier, tailor.

The original grant was of one acre, but with the passage of time, more land came to be needed. The oldest section bordered on the road, and is easily distinguished by the old limestone markers in it. In 1905 the Sykes and Ainley mill donated the piece of land between it and the top of the bank of the hill above the river. A further piece was bought for $30 in 1919. It was purchased from John Haines (1870-1932), a native of Somerset, who purchased Fred Cook's orchard and farm next to the cemetery. Then in 1957 Sheridan Nurseries gave a further piece to the cemetery board.

The Glen Williams Cemetery continues today as a community cemetery governed by a volunteer Board Of Directors. They do not receive government funding or maintenance assistance but rely on private donations.

Education

Glen Williams Public School, located at 512 Main Street, is a Junior Kindergarten to Grade 5 Elementary School, with a school library and gymnasium and a large outdoor play area next to the Credit River. Governed by the Halton District School Board with input from the local Glen Williams Parent Council, it is currently home to approximately 220 children.

The first frame (as distinct from log) school in the township was built in Glen Williams 1837, replaced by a large, one-room building in 1852. The present school is now housed in a modern building which has seen many additions since it was first erected in the 1950s. This school replaced the overcrowded two-room brick school S.S.11 (School Section 11) on Prince Street, which was built in 1873 and has since been converted into a private residence. The Glen Williams Public School also houses before and after school programs in cooperation with the Halton Hills Glen Williams YMCA Centre, a licensed child care centre.

Gallery

File:Charles Williams House, 514 Main Street, Glen Williams, Ontario, Canada.JPG|Charles Williams House, 514 Main Street, Glen Williams.

File:Norton House, 9 Prince Street in Glen Williams, Ontario, Canada. Circa 1881.JPG|Norton House, 9 Prince Street in Glen Williams. Circa 1881.

File:15 Prince Street in Glen Williams, Ontario, Canada. Built 1873. The former Glen Williams Public School.JPG|15 Prince Street in Glen Williams. Built 1873. The former Glen Williams Public School.

File:Credit River Spring Flood in Glen Williams, Ontario, Canada. 1912.jpg|Credit River Spring Flood in Glen Williams, 1912.

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References

External links

Official website