William “Boss” Easson was one of the best-liked people in town. His steam-powered sawmill with its tall stack west of the Waterloo Street bridge on the north bank of the Avon River was a landmark.

Directors of the Canada Company concerned themselves a great deal with the community named Stratford. The second man they sent to the settlement was their agent John Corry Wilson Daly, age 37. He was a short, quick-tempered Ulsterman, born in Liverpool, England, in 1796. In Stratford he was something of a little dictator and ruled for a decade. He had reached Canada by way of Cooperstown, New York, and joined the Canada Company in Hamilton.

John McDonald, the six-foot Scott called “StoutMac,” mapped the area and laid out Stratford itself with one of the most attractive plans in Upper Canada.