page_title: Ingersoll, Ontario
section_title: Elm Hurst
hierarchical_section_title: Ingersoll, Ontario / Historical landmarks / Elm Hurst
caption_attribution_description: English: advertisement for Christopher Brothers, Ingersoll, Ontario
context_page_description: Ingersoll is a town in Oxford County on the Thames River in southwestern Ontario, Canada. The nearest cities are Woodstock to the east and London to the west.
  Ingersoll is situated north of and along Highway 401. Oxford County Road 119 runs north diagonally through the town. A Canadian National rail line bisects the town east to west through its centre. Passenger service from the Ingersoll train station is provided to other stops in Southwestern Ontario by Via Rail. To the south is a CPR line, with spurs into local industries, which provides freight service to points in the region. The local high school is Ingersoll District Collegiate Institute.
  The Ingersoll area was first settled in the 1790s by families from New England, became famous for homemade cheese production before the War of 1812, and its surrounding County of Oxford was home to the first cheese factories in Canada, starting in 1864. In 1866, through collaboration by the town's businessmen, a giant wheel of cheese weighing 7,300 pounds was produced at the James Harris Cheese Factory just south of Ingersoll, for promotion of the area's cheese industry.
context_section_description: Now the hub of the Elm Hurst Inn and Spa (Harris Street at 401), this was the home of James Harris (1824-1885), who operated the Maple Leaf Cheese Factory on the same property, where the world-famous Mammoth Cheese was manufactured in 1866.
caption: 1862 ad for Christopher Brothers, master builders during Ingersoll's boomtown years
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