Among the few men now living in. Ingersoll who has had a taste of pioneer life, is Henry Crotty, one of the first men to locate on the north side of the Thames river. He was born in the county of Tipperary, Ireland, January 12, 1812, his parents being Henry Crotty, gentleman farmer, and Mary Antony. His paternal grandmother was a Cashel, a somewhat noted Irish family. In 1831, Henry Crotty, senior, immigrated with his family to Canada, coming directly to Ingersoll. There was then a small village here on the south side of the Thames River, but only two log cabins on the north side, just east of Thames street. The family reached here in November, and the winter following young Henry and his older brother, Richard, made an opening of eight or ten acres in the forest, unbroken before. A small beginning at farming was made the next season: new openings and more extensive sowing and planting were made from year to year, and from that humble start in 1832 our subject has carried on farming to this date. He had two hundred acres in what is now the town of Ingersoll, and another hundred outside the corporation. No inconsiderable portion of the original farm in the town was divided into lots, and sold long ago; and latterly the disposing of such property, and the building and care of houses and shops on other lots has absorbed much of Mr. Crotty’s time. The natural rise of his property and his careful handling of it placed him in very comfortable cir
cumstances years ago.
He has been a magistrate for a quarter of a century or more; was chairman of the school board a long time, and in the town council several terms, and is deputy returning officer, both for Provincial and Dominion elections.
His politics have always been Conservative, and he has taken a lively interest in Governmental affairs; is firm in all his views, political and religious; is a member of the Church of England, and has been a delegate to the Diocesan Synod of Huron for the last twenty years, and is also a delegate from the diocese of Huron to the Provincial Synod held at Montreal. He was warden of St. James’ church, Ingersoll, a number of years, and bears an excellent character.
In October, 1840, Mr. Crotty was joined in wedlock with Miss Margaret MacNab, a native of Limerick, Ireland. They have lost two children and have ten living. William, the eldest son, has a family, and lives in Chicago; the others are unmarried.
