Village Squire, 1977-08, Page 4FRYFOGEL'S INN
This Inn only provides
food for thought
BY DEBBIE RANNEY
People sometimes phone Tim and Madeleine Whelan and
ask for reservations to the Fryfogel Inn. They don't realize
they are asking for reservations to a museum, not a
restaurant.
The Fryfogel Inn which is located about a mile outside of
Shakespeare and which is operated by the Perth County
Historical Board was first built in about 1844 or 1845 by
Sebastian Fryfogel. It replaced a log structure that was
probably erected around 1829.
Fryfogel came in December of 1828 to get a place ready for
the incoming settlers and travellers while the Canada
Company was preparing to lay out the Huron Road to
Goderich. As a result of this, Sebastian Fryfogel became the
first settler in the eastern part of the Huron Tract which later
became Perth County.
Settlers were coming to this area as the result of an idea of
John Galt's to move the dispossessed people of Britain and
Europe to America as a business venture. so the Canada
Company was conceived.
The Canada Company was granted 1.100.000 acres of land
in a huge triangle. roughly from New Hamburg. to 10 miles
north of Goderich to Grand Bend on Lake Huron and became
known as the Huron Tract. The company assisted new settlers
Three graves can be seen on the site of the Fryfogel Inn. The graves which were moved there from the
family farm in 1928 are of Sebastian Fryfogel, his father and one of Sebastian's sons.
PG. 2. VILLAGE SQUIRE/AUGUST 1977.