# Windham Centre, Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada in the 1910s

> A small railway post village in a farming township, tied to churches, stores, school, war news, and the Michigan Central line.

- Place: Windham Centre, Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada (42.917, -80.416)
- Years: 1910 to 1919
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/windham-centre-ontario-canada/1910s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Windham%20Centre%2C%20Norfolk%20County%2C%20Ontario%2C%20Canada&at=42.9168,-80.4164&year=1915

## Looking around

You stand in a post village of about 250 people[3], not a town. The place is laid out around roads and the railway, with a Michigan Central Railroad station[3][4] and offices where messages, parcels, and strangers arrive. Close by are two churches, Presbyterian and Methodist[3], and the cemetery lies on a hill west of the road crossing[5]. Shops are few: two stores, a temperance hotel, and two lumber mills[3] serve the village and the farms around it. Beyond the houses, Windham Township spreads as 104.63 square miles[7] of rural country, much of it worked by families counted in the township’s 3,453 people in 1911[7]. The old pioneer landscape is mostly gone: by the early twentieth century the woods, corduroy roads, stumps, oxen, sleds, log barns, cradle, hand rake, log schoolhouse, and old shanty were remembered as past[3]. Children still pass through Windham Centre School[6], and war news reaches even this small place.

## Work: Farms, mills, railway

Work centered on farms across Windham Township’s 66,963 acres[7], with village services clustered at two stores, a temperance hotel, and two lumber mills[3]. The Michigan Central Railroad station[3][4] made railway work, freight, express, and travel part of village life.

## Faith: Two village churches

The gazetteer named Presbyterian and Methodist churches[3] in Windham Centre. The cemetery, on a hill west of the road crossing[5], kept older family names and recent deaths in view.

## Law & power: Township and empire

Windham Centre was not a separate city but part of historic Windham Township, Norfolk County[1][2]. In 1917, household politics changed when Ontario women gained the provincial vote[9] and when the Military Service Act brought conscription[10][11].

## In the air: Temperance and conscription

A temperance hotel[3] points to the moral politics of drink already present in the village economy. By 1917, conscription was a national argument[10][11] that farm households could not ignore.

## What people feared: Children, war, burial

The cemetery record includes infant and child burials, and its stones stood in Windham Centre Community Cemetery on the hill[5]. During the war, conscription and casualty news[10][11] made distant fighting a household matter.

## Home & table: Small school world

Children attended Windham Centre School[6], still visible in records at the decade’s edge. Its 1920 promotion list named 27 pupils[6], the scale of a rural school rather than a town system.

## Money: Cash, board, credit

The village had two stores[3] where farm families bought goods, likely on cash or account, though no local store price list has been found online. Across Ontario farm districts, farm wages were commonly counted with or without board[8].

## Roads & news: Rail, post, telegraph

News and parcels moved through a post village[3] with telephone, telegraph, and express offices[3]. The Michigan Central Railroad station[3][4] tied Windham Centre to Simcoe, Lake Erie towns, and wider markets.

## Year by year

- **1911** (here): The census counted 3,453 people in Windham Township, fewer than the 3,884 counted in 1901.[7]
- **1914** (the country): The First World War began, and enlistment, casualty lists, prices, and imperial loyalty became everyday Canadian subjects.
- **1914** (the country): Ontario farm wage tables recorded hired labour by month or season, with board and without board, a useful measure for rural households around Windham Centre.[8]
- **1917** (the country): Ontario women won the provincial vote on 12 April 1917.[9]
- **1917** (the country): The Military Service Act made conscription law and divided Canadian politics in wartime.[10][11]
- **1918** (the world): The war ended on 11 November 1918, news that would have reached Windham Centre by rail, post, telephone, telegraph, and newspapers.[3]
- **1919** (the country): Ontario women became eligible to hold provincial office.[9]
- **1920** (here): The Simcoe Reformer printed Windham Centre School promotions, naming pupils from the village school just after the decade closed.[6]

## What the sources say

- Windham Centre stood in historic Windham Township, Norfolk County, Ontario; this description is at village and township scale because many surviving figures are township-wide. (from the sources)[1][2]
- In the 1911 census, Windham Township was reported as 66,963 acres, or 104.63 square miles. (from the sources)[7]
- Windham Township had 3,453 people in 1911, down from 3,884 in 1901. (from the sources)[7]
- Lovell’s 1906 Canada Gazetteer described Windham Centre as a post village with a population of 250. (inferred)[3]
- Lovell’s 1906 Canada Gazetteer called Windham Centre a station on the Michigan Central Railroad, and a county heritage railway map also places the Michigan Central Railroad through Windham Centre. (from the sources)[3][4]
- Lovell’s 1906 Canada Gazetteer listed two churches in Windham Centre: Presbyterian and Methodist. (inferred)[3]
- Lovell’s 1906 Canada Gazetteer listed two stores, a temperance hotel, two lumber mills, and telephone, telegraph, and express offices in Windham Centre. (inferred)[3]
- A Methodist-history account of Windham Centre remembered that, by about the early twentieth century, the old woods, corduroy roads, stumps, oxen, sleds, log barns, cradle, hand rake, log schoolhouse, and old shanty had disappeared from the local scene. (inferred)[3]
- Windham Centre Community Cemetery is recorded at Lot 14, Concession 8, and is described as 1.2 kilometres west of the County Road 25 and County Road 9 intersection, on a hill south of County Road 9. (from the sources)[5]
- Windham Centre School was operating at the end of the decade; a Simcoe Reformer list of 8 July 1920 printed its school promotions. (from the sources)[6]
- The 1920 Windham Centre School promotion list named 27 pupils, showing a small rural school population rather than a large graded town school. (from the sources)[6]
- The 1911 census district listing separated Windham Centre and La Salette as villages within Windham Township’s enumeration area. (from the sources)[2]
- Windham Centre was laid out in 1846 by William Millard, who built the first house there. (from the sources)[1]
- Windham Township had been opened for settlement in 1792, and by 1817 it had 48 houses and 293 inhabitants. (from the sources)[1]
- As across Ontario farm districts, hired farm labour in 1914 was paid by the month or season and often distinguished between wages with board and without board. (from the sources)[8]
- Women in Ontario gained the provincial vote on 12 April 1917 and became eligible to hold provincial office in 1919. (from the sources)[9]
- The federal Military Service Act passed in 1917, making conscription a national argument that reached rural Ontario families with sons of military age. (from the sources)[10][11]
- No detailed online description was found of the materials, sizes, or plans of ordinary Windham Centre houses in the 1910s. (not known)
- No local online price list was found for Windham Centre stores in the 1910s. (not known)
- No online issue of a Windham Centre newspaper was found; local school news appeared in the Simcoe Reformer by 1920. (from the sources)[6]

## Sources

1. Heritage Property Index: Windham Township. HeritagePIN. https://ontario.heritagepin.com/windham-township-in-norfolk/
2. 1911 Census of Canada Indexing Project: District 100 Norfolk. Automated Genealogy, 1911. https://automatedgenealogy.com/census11/District.jsp?did=100
3. Windham Centre Methodist Church – Windham Township, Norfolk County, Ontario. fadedgenes, 2015. https://krassoc.wordpress.com/2015/03/05/windham-centre-methodist-church-windham-township-norfolk-county-ontario/
4. Heritage Railway Map. Norfolk County. https://www.norfolkcounty.ca/media/1lacgnz2/norfolkcountyheritagerailways.pdf
5. Windham Centre Community Cemetery. Interment.net, 2012. https://www.interment.net/data/canada/ontario/norfolk/windham/windham_centre/index.htm
6. 1920 Windham Centre School Promotions. Norfolk Genealogy / John Cardiff, 1920. https://www.nornet.on.ca/~jcardiff/b-m-d/etc3/1920_windham_centre.html
7. Windham — 1911, HGIS Canada row 4993. HGIS Canada, 1911. https://jimclifford.ca/hgiscanada/sources/1911_V1T1_PUB_202306/rows/4993/
8. Average wages of farm help in Canada, by province, 1909, 1910 and 1914 to 1916. Statistics Canada, 1917. https://www65.statcan.gc.ca/acyb02/1917/acyb02_191702028-eng.htm
9. Ontario Women Obtain the Vote. Legislative Assembly of Ontario. https://www.ola.org/en/visit-learn/about-parliament/history-heritage/timeline/ontario-women-obtain-vote
10. Military Service Act (1917). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. https://www.biographi.ca/en/topics/topic-match-list.php?id=1488
11. Recruitment and Conscription: Conscription, 1917. Canadian War Museum. https://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/history/life-at-home-during-the-war/recruitment-and-conscription/conscription-1917/

## The same place in other decades

- [Windham Centre in the 1940s](https://yorehistory.com/place/windham-centre-ontario-canada/1940s/md)

## Nearby, about the same time

- [Bloomsburg, Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada in the 1900s](https://yorehistory.com/place/bloomsburg-ontario-canada/1900s/md) (10 km)
- [Guelph, Ontario, Canada in the 1880s](https://yorehistory.com/place/guelph-ontario-canada/1880s/md) (71 km)

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Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-13 from the sources listed. It is about the place and the time, not about any person. Statements marked "inferred" are conclusions, not records. Cite as: Yore, "Windham Centre, Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada in the 1910s", https://yorehistory.com/place/windham-centre-ontario-canada/1910s