Tiverton, Ontario

Tiverton is a community in the Municipality of Kincardine, Ontario, Canada in Bruce County. It is near the shore of Lake Huron on Highway 21 between Port Elgin and Kincardine.HistoryThe name of a town in Devonshire, England. It is said that Norman McInnis and the other petitioners, when applying for a post-office, suggested the name "St. Andrews." This the Department would not agree to, there being another post-office of that name. Of several names offered "Tiverton" was chosen, it being the name of the borough for which Lord Palmerston, the English Prime Minister, sat in Parliament, and this no doubt had something to do with the choice made.It was in the fall of 1850 that the primeval forest that covered the present site of Tiverton was entered by its first settler, Timothy Allan. The survey of the north part of Kincardine Township had just been completed, but that part of the township of Bruce in which Tiverton lies had not been commenced. For several years the work of clearing the bush went steadily on before the idea of a village at that spot was thought of. It was the fortune of the author, in the spring of 1857, to tramp along the "Boundary Line" from Inverhuron east to the fifteenth side-road, but he cannot recall of then seeing any evidence of the village that subsequently was developed.It was, however, in the same year that Norman McInnis there opened a store, and it is probably the year which Tiverton may claim as that when it commenced to take form; but it was 1860 before it became known by the name it now bears, that is, when "Tiverton" was given as the name of the post-office then opened. The one store was the most suitable place for the office, so naturally the postmastership was given to Norman McInnis, of whom it may be said in passing, he, as much as anyone else, deserves the honor of being called the founder of the village.