Samuel Johns House
149 Hibernia Street
Built 1856
The Smith Gazetteer of 1846 describes Stratford as: Stratford contains about 200 inhabitants, post office, post three times a week, two physicians and surgeons, one grist and sawmill, one tannery, three stores, one brewery, one distillery, one ashery, two taverns, two blacksmiths, one saddler, two wheelwrights, three shoemakers, and two tailors. This was shortly before the Johns family arrived in town from England.
Their journey was a long one, seven weeks crossing the Atlantic, they made their way up the Ottawa River to Bytown (Ottawa), sailed through the Rideau Canal to Kingston, crossed Lake Ontario to Hamilton. From Hamilton they made their way by cart to Stratford.
By 1856, Stratford was a railroad town and the population grew with the arrival of the Grand Trunk Railway.
By 1851, the Johns family was well settled in Stratford. Father, Samuel Johns (1801), Mother Mary (Downs) (1800) and children Samuel Jr. (1826), Elizabeth (1827), Joseph (1830), Charlotte (1834), Ann (1838), James (1840) and John (1843). All were born in Devonshire, England.
In the 1851 Census, Samuel Jr's occupation was listed as a tavern keeper. In The Stratford Beacon dated
Friday January 19. 1855, there were four hotels in town, Farmer's Hotel, Western Saloon and Queens Arms Hotel. Interesting fact, by 1876, Samuel's younger brother John, was the proprietor of the Farmer's Hotel, located on the corner of Church & St. Andrew Street, maybe which is where Samuel Jr. worked.
Samuel Jr. purchased the house at 149 Hibernia Street in 1856. His brother Joseph and his family, wife Ann (Vanstone) and their children Mary and Edwin lived with Samuel. Somewhere between 1860 and 1865, the house on Hibernia Street was sold to William Dean. Samuel was also listed as the owner of property at 175 John Street.
Samuel Johns Jr. died at his resident on August 22, 1861, after a short illness, as it states in his obituary. He never married.