Ingersoll Cheese & Agricultural Museum

About Us

Come and explore the Ingersoll Cheese & Agricultural Museum in the heart of the dairy capital of Canada!

Location

We are located at 290 Harris Street, Ingersoll just 1 km North of Hwy 401 at Exit 218. We serve as the cycling hub of Ingersoll as well as the hub of the Oxford County Cheese Trail.

Museum Buildings

The Ingersoll Cheese & Agricultural Museum was first opened on August 27th, 1977, consisting of a re-creation of a 19th century cheese factory. A former barn had been dismantled and the pieces moved to Centennial Park where they were re-assembled in the shape and design of a typical cheese factory in Oxford County. The museum is just down the road from where renowned cheesemaker James Harris’ original factory was, at the current site of The Elmhurst Inn.

black and white view of the construction of the Ingersoll cheese museum, with two men on the roof

Over time more buildings have been added to the grounds. The two galleries in our main building feature the Ingersoll Sports Hall of Fame and Wilson Johnston’s exquisite world-renowned woodcarvings as well as our local history. You will also find our gift shop with local cheeses, candy, Ingersoll souvenirs, and books about local people and events for sale as well as tourism information. Our other buildings include a working blacksmith shop, two barns, a bread oven and a schoolhouse portraying two different time periods of one room schools.

We have over 45,000 artifacts in our collection, more than half of which came to us from The Oxford County Museum School. All of these pieces combined tell the story of Ingersoll and the surrounding area – our agricultural roots, settlement, our industries and businesses, our athletes, our churches and schools, and our culture and events.

Behind our main building you will find an outdoor picnic pavilion and Canada’s only cheese playground nestled in Centennial Park. Continuing down the lane you will discover the Ingersoll Creative Arts Centre, an accessible playground and splash pad, sports fields and the Victoria Park Community Centre. The Thomas Ingersoll Trail continues through two more parks along Hall’s Creek to Ingersoll’s downtown and all that it has to offer.

When You Visit

Admission is by donation. See the Admission tab for specialized group tour and education program fees.
Free parking is available on site.
You are welcome to take in as much or as little of what is here as you like.
We ask that small children are accompanied at all times by an adult.
Only registered service animals are allowed in the main building.

view of Ingersoll Cheese Museum with an orange filter

The museum was started as a way to pay tribute to the significant cheese making history of Oxford County and the Town of Ingersoll. While the building is a replica, the contents are all from working factories.

As word of the new cheese factory museum spread, donors came forward to offer a variety of farming devices related to the production of milk and cheese. It wasn’t long before a second building, the North Barn, was moved to the site.

In 1983, Doug Harris, the Mayor of Ingersoll, spearheaded the establishment of the Ingersoll Sports Hall of Fame. To house this collection of sports memorabilia, a new building was constructed on site, using the bricks from the former Waterworks Pumping Station on Hamilton Road.

This building and the addition which was added to it ten years later is now the main office and exhibition space.

Prior to 2012, the museum operated seasonally but in that year, Ingersoll Town Council approved the recommendation to operate year-round with a full time curator. Since then the museum was voted Top Small Museum in Ontario, received the Ingersoll Chamber of Commerce Business Award for Excellence in the category of agriculture, and is a co-winner with other museums in the county of the Dorothy Duncan Public History Award from the Ontario Historical Society for the Oxford Remembers Oxford’s Own project.

brick building on the Ingersoll cheese museum property

Over the next few years, other buildings were moved to the museum grounds, including a blacksmith shop, the large Sherbrooke Barn, and a newer building that currently houses the Oxford County Museum School.

The Ingersoll Museum collection now numbers over 20,000 artifacts while the School collection contains roughly 25,000 items related to education in Ontario.

The museum is open year-round!

Fall / Winter Hours (September - mid-May)

Monday to Saturday

10:00 AM to 4:30 PM

Summer Hours (mid-May - end of August)

Monday to Sunday

10:00 AM to 4:30 PM

General admission is by donation.
The group tour fee is $5.00 / person plus tax
Educational Programming: New curriculum-based school trips
Educational Programs: $7.00 / student plus tax (program dependent)

Early Settlement

In the early 1790s the Massachusetts born Thomas Ingersoll met with Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe and struck a deal to receive 66,000 acres of land. The one proviso was that Ingersoll had to bring at least 40 families with him from the United States as new settlers in this area. The result was the creation of a settlement along the Detroit Trail where it met the Thames River, known as Oxford-on-the-Thames.

The small village continued to grow, in spite of three separate attacks by invading American forces during the War of 1812, and by 1832 the name was changed to Ingersoll to reflect the efforts of the founding father.

James Ingersoll, son of Thomas Ingersoll, is considered the first child to be born in the fledgling community. In later life he would become Registrar for Oxford County. His oldest stepsister was Laura Secord. Laura was Thomas Ingersoll’s first-born child, from his first marriage to Elizabeth Dewey. His second wife, Mercy Smith, bore him no children but his third wife Sarah Backus Whiting gave birth to another seven children including James in 1801.

black and white drawn photo of a woman wearing a bonet

In many ways, Ingersoll is a town built on cheese.

In the 1850s, on a farm just outside of Salford, Hiram and Lydia Ranney owned a large herd of milking cows. As the cow numbers increased, young men and women were hired to help with milking the herd. Lydia, who had a background in both teaching and dairying, would teach those in her employment how to make cheese. Each week she manufactured cheese in her summer kitchen and Hiram peddled it in different towns and neighboring cities.

In 1864, the first cooperatively owned cheese factory in all of Canada was started just outside Norwich Ontario, south and east of Ingersoll. By 1866 there were six of these types of factories producing a cheddar style of cheese in the county. That spring, the Ranneys, their son-in-law James Harris and George Galloway identified an opportunity to sell their cheese in Great Britain. To introduce the English to this Oxford County cheese, they combined their efforts to manufacture a giant wheel of cheese weighing over 7,000 pounds! It inspired poets and toured the British countryside before being bought and consumed. The success of this marketing gimmick led to the development of the cheese industry with the end result of there being 98 factories operating in Oxford County by the year 1900. Ingersoll became the market town for all of those factories with every box of cheese being exported bearing the name Ingersoll on its side.

black and white drawn photo of a mammoth cheese celebration

Having captured the British market the cheese makers had to keep it, and this they did by ensuring quality control through the establishment of the Canadian Dairymen’s Association in Ingersoll in 1867. This annual convention of cheese makers, dairymen, farmer, scientists and professors shared the latest in manufacturing techniques every year.

As the dairy industry grew, so too did the town of Ingersoll. New industries and shops were enticed to move to the area and so the town grew.

“We have seen thee, queen of cheese,/Lying quietly at your ease,/Gently fanned by evening breeze,/
Thy fair form no flies dare seize.”

These four lines are the opening stanza of James McIntyre’s famed poem, “Ode on the Mammoth Cheese”. For these verses and many others which celebrated cheese and the dairy industry of Oxford County, McIntyre became known as ‘the cheese poet’.

Born in Scotland in 1827, James immigrated to Canada in 1841, first settling in the St. Catharines and Thorold areas of Ontario. Here he learned the cabinetmaking trade, and like so many other tradesmen of the day, also the undertaking business.

In 1854 he moved to Ingersoll and set up a furniture and undertaking business. He managed to stave off the fiery disaster which struck the town in 1872. “Twas on a pleasant eve in May,/Just as the sun shed its last ray,/ The bell it rang, citizens to warn,/ For lo! a fire appears in barn….Our once fair town is now in woe,/ And we have had our Chicago,/ but soon a noble town will rise,/ For our town is all enterprise.”

About four years later however bad luck befell him when first his son and then his wife both died. He also suffered financial hardships in this same decade when a partnership went sour. In 1891 he lost most of his inventory in a flood that raged through the town. He must have received some solace and assistance from certain members of the townsfolk. I have been loaned an 1889 published copy of his poems which he personally signed and presented to ex mayor Joseph Gibson “who proved to be my best friend in my hour of need” (dated December 3rd, 1891).

It appears that James had dabbled in poetry most of his life. This volume has poems written from the 1850s through to the late 1880s judging by the various topics. Subjects of his pen tend to reflect everyday life in and around Oxford County, while at the same time paying homage to other great poets and heroes of the day.

James McIntyre black and white photo He wrote of Shakespeare, Tennyson and Hawthorne; of horses, pigs and men. He composed lines on bear hunts, General Brock, field tiles and even a patriotic hen! Written from the point of view of the chicken who lays eggs that will spite the American trade tariff, McIntyre’s loyal hen woos her mate with such poetic words as “My love for you, my rooster, grows,/ There’s none can match your morning crow,/ You crow the hour Chronometer,/ You weather crow Barometer.”

For rhymes and verse such as these, McIntyre was posthumously included in a book entitled The Four Jameses published in 1927. Written by William Arthur Deacon it was a humorous and affectionate tribute to the four worst poets in English speaking Canada.

The “Dictionary of Canadian Biography” reveals that McIntyre remarried in 1887 to Mrs. Belinda Walker. Her two sons took over James’ furniture business in the 1890s. According to Harry Whitwell’s book on the history of Ingersoll, Alonzo and George Walker operated a funeral home on the corner of Church and King Streets and started the Walker Casket Company on Charles Street East following their step-father’s death in 1906. The businesses passed through a few other hands before eventually being taken over by P.T, Walker.

Whatever you may think of James McIntyre’s doggerel, you cannot deny that he was a staunch supporter and advocate for Oxford County in general and his adopted hometown of Ingersoll in particular. In 1859 he gave an address to mark the centennial of the birth of Scotland’s favourite son Robert Burns. His verse echoes some of Burns’ own feelings about the brotherhood of mankind. It ends: “So here we’ve met in distant land/ Poor honest Robin to extol,/ Though oft we differ let us stand/ United now in Ingersoll.”

The Ingersoll Cheese Museum is proud to be one of the primary anchors on the Oxford County Cheese Trail. To find out more about this award winning tourism experience, check out this link: Oxford County Cheese Trail

In 1983 the Ingersoll Sports Hall of Fame was established, as a means of recognizing individuals and teams who have excelled in their different sports at the provincial, national and international levels. These include athletes, teams and builders. Click on the links below to read biographies of the different inductees.

Sports Hall of Fame Inductees

A-F	G-M	N-R	S-Z
Chrissy Allin	Alex Gasson	Dick Parker	F.E. Scott
Ken Armstrong	Ashley Geris	Tom Pavey	Bob Shelton
Ron Armstrong	Peter Griffin	Had Petrie	Shelton Ford Foldens Midget Girls
John "Wacky" Bartram	Doug Harris	Gord Pittock	Dolph Staples
Ralph Beemer Sr.	George Hayes	Max Poole	Reg Stone
Buck Billings	Henry Hayes	Ron Quipp	Elizabeth "Betty" Taylor
Gary Bowman	Hazen Masonry Ladies Slo-Pitch Team	Andrew Richens	Joe Todd
Carol Bragg	James "Nip" Henderson	Bev Riley	Fred Vale
Casey Chambers	Meghan Henderson	Run The Table	Harry Vinkenvleugel
Al Clark	Robin Henderson		Maria Vinkenvleugel
Wilfred "Red" Clarke	Clarence "Chief" Henhawke		P.T. Walker
Beth Clement	Mark Hominick		Ron Watling
Climate Control Juniors	Becky "Taz" Huntley-Elliott		Ralph Williams
Leonard Coles	Hurley's IGA Tykes		E.A. Wilson
Al Costello	IDCI Blue Bombers		Harold Wilson
Brent Coyle	Ingersoll Bantams		Kieran Mackenzie Wilson
Cecil Crane	Ingersoll Centennials Fastball Club		Mac Wilson
Jack Cross	Ingersoll Intermediate Baseball Team - 1930		Rick Witcombe
Cathy Cussons	Ingersoll Intermediate Baseball Team - 1937		Doug Wituik
Thomas "Bud" Cussons	Ingersoll Lawn Bowling Trebles - 1954		Shihan Isao Yabunaka
George Currie	Ingersoll Legion Branch 119 Ladies Auxiliary Dart Team
Dave Daniels	Ingersoll Lions Novice Travel Team
Jeff Dennis	Ingersoll Reems
Brenda Eckhardt	Ingersoll Senior Trebles Lawn Bowling Champions
Garnet Elliott	Ingersoll Y's Girls Basketball Team
Les Felmar	Ingersoll Golf and Country Club Founders
Tom Filmore	Byron Jenvey
Max Fisher	Junior B Mets
Jim Fitzmorris	Charlie Kelly
Joe Foster	Marlene Waters Kirwin
	Roy "Goose" Land
	George Law
	Jack Lewis
	Al Lockhart
	Don Lord
	Andrew Malcolm
	Lorne Moon
	Tony Mucha
	Jim McCann
	Penny Wilson McDougall
	Tom McKee
	Don & Jack McNiven
	Jack McNiven

School Programs

The Ingersoll Cheese and Agricultural Museum is excited to offer four on-site educational programs with cross-curricular connections. Each program runs for approximately 90 minutes and can be scheduled for either the morning or afternoon. Programs can be tailored for Grades 1 to 6. For further information, please reach out to the Museum.

The Museum can offer specialized programs based on your classes curriculum needs. New programs can be designed in collaboration with the Museum Programmer and require at least a month to develop.

The Ingersoll Cheese & Agricultural Museum is excited to announce their NEW mobile curriculums. We can design curriculum-based programs and bring our museum to your classroom/school.

Fees

Pre-planned curriculums
- $7.00 / student plus tax (program dependent)
Mobile curriculums
- $10.00 / student plus tax (program dependent)

For more information about our programs, a full breakdown of curriculum connections, please contact the Museum Programmer at museumprograms@ingersoll.ca

Map Maker Mission

This lesson asks students to interact with and create maps. The goal is to increase map literacy (ability to read, understand, and extract information from maps), demonstrate understanding of information contained in maps, and to encourage using the social studies inquiry process to consider why maps are useful and important tools.

Students will learn about cardinal directions and medicine wheels, familiarize themselves with local maps, create a treasure map, and use their classmates’ maps to find objects.

This program is ideally conducted outside. However, in the case of inclement weather, it can be adapted for indoor sessions.

Journey to the Creek

This lesson asks students to interact with and study a variety of life forms found on the museum site. Students are asked to consider how these life forms and the local ecosystems have shaped human development in Ingersoll and Ontario. Interwoven into the lesson are sections about indigenous relationships to the land. Plants of particular significance to local Indigenous communities are highlighted and open up the way for conversation about Indigenous history, colonization, modern relationships with the land, and conservation.

Students will complete guided observations of various species of flora and fauna found on the museum site and record their findings in their provided nature journals. Students have the opportunity to collect specimens for pressing or rubbings.

This program is ideally conducted outside. However, in the case of inclement weather, program providers can offer a significantly altered version of the program that addresses similar curriculum standards.

Poetry and Verse

This lesson asks students to interact with and create poems. The goal is to increase literacy and fluency in abstract/representative language, specifically as used in poetry. At the same time, students are asked to engage with poems as historical objects and use the social studies inquiry process to consider how poems and literature can serve as important tools in historical study.

Students are immersed in local poetry through group readings, handle and use a variety of historical writing implements, including a slate, dip-pen, and typewriter, and write their
own poems.

Treaties and Wampum Belts

This lesson aims to introduce students to treaty history and issues between settlers and Indigenous peoples in Ontario. Students are asked to think critically through activities,
engage with multiple historical narratives, and reflect on their place in ongoing relationships.

Students take part in a group activity about treaties, learn about wampum, engage with Indigenous languages, and have the opportunity to make their own beaded creation.

Room inside of Ingersoll cheese museum which represents a old school room

The museum is part of the Town of Ingersoll Safe Cycling Committee and has been identified as the hub of cycling in our community. For additional information visit Ontario By Bike

Contact Us

For general information, please contact us at:
519-485-5510 or email us at museum@ingersoll.ca

Town of Ingersoll
130 Oxford Street (2nd Floor), Ingersoll, ON, N5C 2V5, Map this location
Phone: 519-485-0120, Email Us

Ingersoll Cheese & Agricultural Museum

Ingersoll Cheese & Agricultural Museum

About Us

Museum Buildings

When You Visit

Museum's History

Hours

Admission

Local History – Early Settlement

Early Settlement

Local History – Say Cheese!

Sports Hall of Fame

Educational Programs

School Programs

Map Maker Mission

Journey to the Creek

Poetry and Verse

Treaties and Wampum Belts

Cycling

Contact Us

Contact Us