The History of Glenwood House
   
The Johns Period: 1855 - 1925
By 1855, Samuel and Joseph had established themselves as tavernkeepers in Stratford, a town that had been founded by the Canada Company, which had been chartered by the British Crown by an Act of Parliament in 1825.  The company's purpose had been to resolve two colonial grievances: the matter of  Crown and Clergy Reserves, which had impeded settlement, and the need to raise funds to pay reparations for colonial losses during the War of 1812.   From the natives, the Crown purchased more than one million acres of land in the lee of Lake Huron and turned it over to the Canada Company for development and sale.  The "Huron Tract" was reported to be "as fine a piece of land as could be wished for, rich of soil, well endowed with water and, save for a squatter or two, immediately available for settlement and ripe for development at a handsome profit."    Like so many seStratford Ontario bed and breakfastttlers, young Samuel Johns was bitten by the land speculation bug.  On March 21, 1855, he purchased property at the junction of present-day John and Huron Streets. For the sum of $300, he purchased Lot 79, Plan 20, Canada Company survey - the land on which Glenwood House now stands - and Lot 380, on Norman Street.  That same year, his brother Joseph met Ann Vanstone, who had come from the same neighourhood in England.  Joe and Ann married on December 6th of that year, and the December 21st edition of the Beacon made the announcement:
MARRIED
At Stratford, on the 6th instant, by the Rev. E. Patterson, Mr. Joseph Johns to Miss Anne Vanstone, both of Stratford

In1856, Ann bore a daughter, Mary Elizabeth (d. 1942).  The following year, Samuel and Joseph were successful inkeepers in Stratford.  With the two brothers seemingly settled into their lives in Stratford, Samuel the elder, Mary and their five remaining children - Elizabeth (1827-1913) John, Ann (b.1832), James (1841-1920) and Charlotte - moved onward in search of new opportunity.  They settled at Southampton on the shore of Lake Huron, less than ten years after that little village had taken form as a permanent settlement. On April 14, 1858, in Stratford, Joe and Ann had a son, Edwin John.  In the spring of 1861, on lot 49, Samuel the younger built a barn valued at $100 but only five months later, on August 22, 1861, he died.   His obituary appeared in the Beacon on August 23, 1861:
DIED
At his residence in Stratford the 22nd inst., after a brief illness MR SAMUEL JOHNS, Junr, Hotel-keeper, aged 36 years.  The funeral is to take place on Saturday next, the 24th at 3 o'clock.  Friends and acquaintances are respectfully requested to attend

On Saturday, August 24 1861 at 3 o'clock, a service was held in memory of Samuel and he was laid to rest in the churchyard on the south side of St. James' church, overlooking the Avon River.  His place is marked by a simple stone, one of the few remaining in the churchyard.                                                    

Stratford  

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Samuel's will was dictated to John Vanstone, his brother Joseph and James Redford.  It was memorialized and registered on September 4, 1861.  In his will, Samuel bequeathed lot 79 to his three-year-old nephew, Edwin John Johns, and lot 380 was to be severed, the easterly third to his nephew William Wood Turner; the mid-third to his nephew Samuel Russell and the westerly third to his niece Mary Elizabeth Wood Turner.  In 1863, ownership of the land was transferred to Joseph  and in the summer of 1865, he built Glenwood House for the sum of $1,000.   He leased it to William Richardson, a thirty-six year old.
bank clerk.  The following year, its tenancy changed hands to a Scottish immigrant, James Hogg, a banking agent for the Bank of Montreal.  On July 11, 1866, Barbara gave birth to their first child, Mary Jane. On August 6, 1868, Glenwood witnessed the birth of a second child, William.  Less than two years later, on May 20, 1870, David was born and a fourth child, a son, was born on Jan 10, 1973. In all, the Hoggs had eight children, including two more daughters, Laure and Grace.  Over the years, Glenwood resonated with the sounds of children.  In 1899, Edwin John transferred the title of lot 79 to his own father, Samuel's brother, Joseph (Joe) Johns.
Joseph and his family prospered in Stratford and Joseph became one of the wealthiest men in town.  From 1880 until 1910,  Joe served as the tax collector in Stratford. 
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in Stratford, like most towns in Ontario, there was a rivalry between the Anglicans and the Roman Catholics.  St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church stood loftily at the corner of Huron Street and Mornington Avenue, across which St James' Anglican Church stood in defiance, majestically overlooking the Avon River and the bridge leading out of the small village.  Each day, the noon-hour clock strike from St Joseph's "Michael", a 2,100 lb. bell,  would fill the air sounding a tenor "E" note, competing with the clock strike at St. James' across the street.  To  confer an advantage to the Anglican presence, Joseph Johns donated  a little over $900, a substantial sum in 1909, for the purchase of a bell weighing 2,100 lbs. Dubbed "Big Joe" in honour of its donor, it sounds the note "E" below middle C, and is described as "the only bell in the chime fully mounted and capable of being swung, having no fewer than four hammers and clappers!"   The inscription on the bell reads:
"Big Joe"
Donated by
Joseph Johns and Ann, his wife
1845-1909
Big_Joe
"Big Joe"
Glenwood bed and breakfast Joseph Johns lived to enjoy the pealing of his bell for less than a year. He died on the afternoon of July 7th, 1910.   His obituary in the Stratford Beacon-Herald described him as "a living epitome of the many changes which Stratford has seen and of its evolution from a rude hamlet to a full grown city."    He was laid to rest in Avondale Cemetery on John Street, a few blocks south of his home.  Joseph died intestate and his daughter Mary Elizabeth Tune purchased the property for a sum of $1,450.  Joseph's wife, Ann, survived him by a decade and a half, passing on at the age of 92, in 1925.   Their only son, Edwin John, passed away in 1929 unmarried and is buried beside his parents. Stratford B and B
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