Do you ever look at a map of Essex County and wonder what the heck all those little dots with strange names are? All kinds of phantom towns or villages are listed on the maps, new and old. So off we went in the hopes of finding some of lost Essex County.
The first target was Lukerville, or as it shows on some maps, Delisles Corners.
Map from 1959 showing Lukerville
More recent incarnation showing Delisles Corners
The old faded sign refers to Delisles Corners, but then again it shows Anderton Township, which hasn’t existed in about a decade. Google returns hits for Lukerville, showing Ministry of the Environment tests results, etc… One Genealogical website refers to Lukerville as a “Dispersed Rural Community”. Anyone out there know exactly what that means? The 1911 Ontario Census, returns results for Lukerville Village. The archives of Ontario has this helpful page: http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/English/guides/rg_209_municipal_records.htm.
Many places in Ontario were never incorporated as municipalities but included a post office or railway station. These places often are known by locally-recognized names. When trying to locate a hamlet, dispersed rural community or other small centre, consult the Gazetteer of Ontario.
It also sums up villages as the following:
Villages
Like cities and towns, villages are incorporated when a community within a township reaches a certain population density that justifies the creation of a separate administrative structure. Villages are governed by elected councils consisting of a Reeve, Deputy Reeves and a number of councillors based on the population of the village. A village is part of the county administration but not part of the surrounding township.
A view of downtown Lukerville.
Looking west. The large brown building is Western Secondary School.
Most of the houses of what was Lukerville are very old.
This old building sits on the s.w. corner of Lukerville, it is now some kind of Metalworking shop, but the building is from the early part of the last century.
Not sure what the history is of Lukerville, and why it’s basically vanished and ceased to be a village. If anyone out there knows anything, or has any stories, I’d love to hear them.
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Andrew, I think the term "dispersed rural community" can be taken quite literally, as a community of widely spread residents with no "core" area. In places like Harrow, you have a well-defined center of town, whereas perhaps Lukerville was nothing more than a rural area with nothing more than a railway station to justify giving it a name of any kind at all.
D'oh! I think you're right John... I was thiking dispersed, along the lines of sent away...
Years ago, there was a small blue sign (like a shrunken version of the typical provincial town name signs) that marked Delisles Corners on the 6th. For some reason, as I kid I thought it referred to the type of intersection (with Paquette Corners further east on North Townline as another type)!
Nice post; I've had an old map of Essex County since a kid and wondered about places like Delisle's Corners, Strangefield & Mount Carmel. The map even has a font for smaller places - Klondyke, Elford, Windfall, &c.
Im curious as to what all would've gone on at Paquette corners. It looks like the Paquette corners of today is walker and townline, but not so in the map. Was Paquette Station a real hub activity? with and actual station house?
A: alot of those places are actually still listed on maps produced even today..... for example... The Meadows is listed as a similar place now we all know it as a bar/restauraunt..... but your right, windfal, elford, salem.......lots and lots of named communities and if you look real hard in some of these areas you will find reminence of these places if not actually marked signs such as the one in Delisle Corner's.....
These names are sort of like ghosts, listed on maps. The trace endures.
Sammy, it's actually amazing where I see these names pop up. Frequently, an Mapquest, for starters. Also, on my Mappoint topo mapsets there are tonnes of lost/vanished villages still acknowledged, which is very handy. I'm not sure if it's just the cartographers not updating Essex county's data or what, but I like it...
In the 60's and 70's the metalworking shop that you pic'd was "Kearns Aluminum and Bronze Foundry" run by Bob Kearns, a very talkative and opinionated gentleman, who I assume succumbed to some disease from all of the fumes .He also cast some lead mostly ornamental type stuff.. Not sure what it was when it first was built, but I think it has always been a Foundry. This is from back when you worked like a man and didn't think about wearing something stupid like Respiration equipment, how could you smoke cigarettes and wear sissy stuff to protect yourself.
Absolutley...I have a few really good books on Ghost Towns and Ghost Railways of ontario with maprs, directions wheat to find everything!!! leaving these places on general use maps sure helps!