Village Squire, 1977-08, Page 7with travelling expenses, places to stay and sites for schools
and churches.
Sebastian Fryfogel first came from Switzerland to the
U.S.A. and later to Waterloo County where he met his wife
whose maiden name was Eby. They had a large family and as
a result many of the people in the Perth County area are his
descendants.
Three graves are on the site of the Fryfogel Inn property.
These are of Sebastian Fryfogel, his father and one of
Sebastian's sons. The graves were moved from the family
farm to their present location in 1928.
The Canada Company used to pay men to operate such
wayside resting places as Fryfogel Inn and paid them 40
pounds a year. After 16 years Fryfogel managed to buy 600
acres surrounding his building. After 1847 the proprietors of
such hotels were no longer allowed to live in them and had to
move out in order to make room for more visitors. After this
rulitig Sebastian Fryfogel lived across the road from his hotel.
By 1856 the Grand Trunk railway was running through the
fields behind the Inn and as a result stage coaches no longer
went to the hotel to bring visitors, so the hotel business
diminished.
In 1860, the hotel was converted into a residence for the
Fryfogels. Sebastian Fryfogel died in 1873 with a will that
stipulated an auction sale so that only one piece of original
furniture still exists in the museum. After this the building
became a duplex with the addition of some new walls and
doorways. In 1932, when Peter Fryfogel, Sebastian's
grandson died. the building ceased to function as a residence
but went on to serve other uses. It was once used as a cheese
storage building and in 1938 the Rankin sisters from Stratford
rented it and converted it into a restaurant at their own
expense.
In 1971, members of the original Fryfogel family (originally
spelled Freyvogel) on a business trip to Canada noticed the'
name on the Fryfogel building. They discovered that
Sebastian Fryfogel was a missing relative with whom all
contact had previously been lost and as a result all his
descendants in North America are their 42nd cousins.
There have been some alterations made to the building
since its beginning but there's a lot of history there yet to be
seen. The rooms of the lower floor of the museum consist of
what was once the proprietor's office, a diningroom and a
parlor. There is also the basement where all the cooking was
done. Upstairs there are the bedrooms of the hotel guests and
the ballroom.
It was in the Proprietor's office that Perth County was
formed and Sebastian Fryfogel was the first Reeve. In the
proprietor's office is a collection of many old bottles, 26 of
which were discovered on the actual site as the result of two
years of archaelogical digging.
In what was once the parlor there are pieces of furniture
which date from the Victorian age all of which have been
donated by people. In this room, there's even an old melodion
which dates back to 1890.
In the hallway of the museum there are pictures which have
been donated by the European branch of the Fryfogel family.
There is a family crest and a print of the place where
Sebastian Fryfogel came from.
In the diningroom there is the one piece of original
furniture that's still left and that is the original liquor cabinet.
The ballroom upstairs was originally the men's dormitory
except on nights when parties were being held. A card
outside the door of this room explains its history: "After 1870
the room was divided into two bedrooms. The partition has
since been removed. In building the partition, workmen
hacked off the right-hand side of the mantel and mural frame
and buried part of it behind a joist. In so doing, they
preserved some of the original wood graining and also some
of the original imitation marble design on the mantel."
In the main bedroom there is a painted mural of Niagara
Falls that's painted right on the Wall and not only that but
somebody painted a wooden frame around it as well.
Some of the facts known about the original architecture of
the building itself as given out on a historical sheet that the
Perth County Historical Board puts out are: "The rear wall
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