Maidstone, Ontario



Maidstone, Ontario, is a small village on Essex County Road 34 in the municipality of Tecumseh, Ontario, Canada, since amalgamation in 1999. The town has a post office, a school, baseball diamonds, a park, a church, a church hall, a community center and a grain elevator.

The community was served by three main Provincial Highways in the past: Highway 3, until it was diverted onto its current alignment in 1977, Highway 114 (now just Malden Road, from CR 34/Former Highway 3, north to Middle Road, CR 46), and Highway 98, which was decommissioned in 1970, and became Essex County Road 46. It is also served by the very busy Manning Road (Essex CR 19).

Education
Schools in Maidstone include:
 * St. Mary Catholic Elementary School, operated by the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board

In the recent past -- 2011 -- there was a Maidstone Public School. Low enrollement and high cost of maintenance forced the Greater Essex County District School Board to sell the building and the eight-plus acre property to the "Saint Petka" Serbian Orthodox Mission Parish in April 2014.

Early Settlement
Immigrants came by sailing vessel: the journey requiring about eleven weeks on the water. The voyage was generally by way of the United States. Some of the earliest settlers recorded along the Talbot Road("TR") include: Timothy Connell(1819-L299STR), James Houlihan(1824-L300STR), Jeremiah McCarthy(1825-L301STR), Michael McCarthy(1825-L301NTR), Richard McCarthy(1825-L299NTR), Abraham Halford(1825-L297STR), John Halford(1825-L297NTR), Cornelius Sexton(1828-L300NTR), Owen Sullivan(1830-L298NTR), Joseph Bennett(1832-L294STR), Patrick Tumblety(1833-L294NTR), Denis Collins(1834-L293STR). Earliest settlement names along the Middle Road("MR") include: James Cavanaugh(1826-L1NMR), Michael Cavanaugh(1827-L2NMR)

Early references in the records of Assumption parish also include the names "the Irish Settlement" and "Maidstone Cross" to identify the settlement area. As early as 1831, Maidstone Cross was a mission of Assumption parish in Sandwich and was intermittently serviced by the priests - originally in the homes of the settlers. In 1836 Fr. Angus MacDonell built the first mission church(a log structure) at Maidstone Cross.

1857-58
An 1857-58 Canada Directory lists the following for Maidstone Cross:

''MAIDSTONE CROSS, - A small village situated in the Township of Sandwich and County of Essex. Distance from Sandwich by plank road 12 miles, and from Amherstburg 12 miles. Tri-weekly mail Population about 100.''

''McGee, J.L., innkeeper. | Bennett, Charles R., tailor and general dealer  |  Brown, A.  |  Devlin, James, J.P., teacher. | Downing, D., J.P., farmer.''

''Mitchell, James, blacksmith. | Ouelet, A., innkeeper  |  Reidy, A., innkeeper. | Toomey, M., postmaster, and general dealer.''

1866
An 1866 Farmers Directory describes Maidstone Cross as follows:

''A post village, situated in the Township of Sandwich East, Talbot Street, on Lots 293 and 294, both N. and S. and twelve miles from Windsor and the same distance from Sandwich, the County Town. The village was laid out first by Patrick Tumblety, in the year 1835, (that is lot 294) and the other lot (293) was settled by Dennis Collins, in the year 1837, who opened the first hotel in that year, the next by John McGee, in 1850, who was also Postmaster, the Post Office being established in 1850 The first store was opened by John McGee. The Roman Catholic Church was erected here in 1836, a log building, it was replaced by a substantial brick building in 1850. The village now contains two stores, three blacksmith shops - two of the same, manufacture wagons - one butcher, two shoe shops, two hotels, one church, one St. Patrick's Society, and a good school; there is a saw mill within one mile west of the village, carried on by James Halford, on lot 296, Talbot Street, south. Mails daily, Thomas Moran, Postmaster.''

An Agricultural Society, organized January 1866, Patrick McNally, President; John Halford, Vice-President; James Devlin, Secretary; James Moran, Treasurer.

''Population about 50. Two stages call here daily from Leamington.''

Other Maidstone history sources include:

The Sandwich South Historical Society website https://sshistoricalsociety.ca/communities/

My Moynahan Genealogy Blog https://moynahangenealogy.blogspot.com/2020/06/who-was-henry-collins.html

Ontario Rural Roots website https://www.ruralroutes.com/6229.html#