This property is listed in the 1868 Assessment Records as owned by the Canada Company.  Thomas William Draper purchased the land and built a house in 1871.
He continued to live in the house until 1878. 

Thomas William was born in South Easthope, Ontario in July 1844 to parents Thomas Joseph and Mary.  Mary (Mossop) was born in Corbally, Tipperary, Ireland in 1816. Thomas Joseph also born in Tipperary, Ireland on January 11, 1818. They married on January 7, 1841 in Roscrea, Ireland, immigrated to Canada 1842 and are listed in the 1861 Census as farmers in South Easthope, Ontario. Thomas William was the first child born followed by George (1847), twins James & Robert (1848), Joseph (1856), Martha Anne (1851), Francis (1858) and finally Mary in 1860. The next year Mary died on September 23 in South Easthope. Thomas married his second wife, Annie Powell on March 11, 1863 in Woodstock and had a son named Robert Johnston on December 12, 1863. Annie died on January 1, 1884.  Thomas lived to be 87 years and he died in Stratford on October 2, 1906.

Thomas William moved to Stratford and is listed as a new member of the Victorian Fire Company in 1869.  He is listed as a blacksmith in the 1871 Census.  In the same year, the Grand Trunk railway repair shops opens in Stratford bringing over 300 hundred tradesmen and their families. Housing was at a shortage, he had tenants listing living at the house, Joseph W. Humphrey, also a blacksmith, and George White, a bricklayer.   He married Matilda Collins, who was born in Downie Township on June 28, 1842 and had one son, Thomas W. C. Draper born in May 1874.  Sadly, he died on February 19, 1875 at only 7 months old.
An interesting fact - Thomas won $6.00 by submitting a set of iron harrow horseshoes in the Cultivation category at the 1876 Stratford Fair.

Thomas William died suddenly on March 7, 1882 at the age of 37. The circumstances of his death are not listed in his obituary which was in the March 10 edition of the Beacon.
Matilda married her second husband Robert Edwin Martell in 1894. Robert, born in England in 1850 and died in Stratford on December 26, 1907. Matilda, having outlived both husbands, died on October 19, 1927 at the age of 85.  She is buried in the Avondale Cemetery with her first husband Thomas William and son.