The Founding of Ridgetown

Photo by Alan L Brown - August, 2004

Plaque Location

The Municipality of Chatham-Kent
In Ridgetown, on the south side of Main Street West, across from Water Street

Plaque Text

By 1826 the earliest settlers on the site of Ridgetown, notably William Marsh, James Watson, Edmund Mitton and Ebenezer Colby, had located in this vicinity. Marsh, the first to arrive, was granted a lease on 80 ha of Clergy Reserve land in 1831. Although the settlement's growth was slow, in 1853 a post office was opened. By 1858, with a population of 300, Ridgetown contained stores, hotels and a mill owned by John Moody, one of its most enterprising businessmen. The arrival in 1872 of the Canada Southern Railway from Fort Erie to Amherstburg spurred the development of the community and with a population of 803 it was incorporated as a Village by a County by-law of 1875. Six years later it became a Town.

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