HISTORY OF THE ASA WOLVERTON HOUSE

The village of Wolverton in Blenheim Township, Oxford County is named after its founder, Enos Wolverton (1810-1893), who built a successful milling enterprise there on the Nith River Enos came to Upper Canada with his parents from Cayuga County, New York state in 1826. By 1829 Enos’ brother, Asa also came and in 1832 he moved to the new village of Paris with his wife Juliet, who was a niece of Hiram Capron. He was given permission to build a sawmill along West River Street (later, site of Penmans No 1 Mill) The couple lived across the street from the mill in a commodious cottage until 1854

Asa’s sawmill became a thriving business with logs coming in by the wagon load and by being floated down Smith’s Creek (later, named the Nith). Many of the workers, farm labourers and squatters, lived in “slab houses” built from free slabs of wood that were discarded by the mill. Wolverton established both a water-powered sawmill and a steam-powered sawmill, which produced a total of 24,000 board feet of lumber that year for buildings and houses in the Paris area

On Jan 1, 1850, more that 200 male ratepayers packed the old village hall to elect the first village council. After all the votes were counted, Wolverton was elected to serve as one of the five councillors. The 1854, Paris Census stated that Patrick Logan was a partner with Wolverton on West River Street, where the mill office was located Another mill close by on Creek Street was also owned by them

Because the lumber business was so successful, the time had come for him to think of building a larger house on Grand River Street South, which became the earliest residential area in Paris consisting of Asa‘s home, a labourer’s home, the Newly immigrated Minister’s Home and a small cottage for Asa‘s staff, a family of four who immigrated from Ireland, was built behind the Church On Feb 5, 1851, he purchased the property from Hiram Capron and obtained a 500-pound mortgage which was held by Rev. William Morse, who was the first minister of St. James Anglican Church. Wolverton's decision was to construct an outstanding Greek revival house that took three years to build and the couple sold their cottage in 1854 and moved to

Wolverton House. The Wolvertons were childless, and this could be one of the reasons this home was originally built with just one bedroom. The house was part of the underground railroad, serving as a destination for former slaves

The exterior walls of the 2-1/2 storey house were constructed of hand split lath with a heavy coat of stucco followed by a thin smooth coat of local plaster giving the house a smooth, light feeling. The large triangular pediment containing a round segmental window was supported by four Doric columns which were actual tree trunks. A second storey verandah allowed for cool evening relaxing

Below the main floor facing the Grand River is the kitchen area that was the servants' domain It had a working fireplace and a work area and larder where burn marks from candles are visible along the edges of the shelves. There was also a cold room where meat from the smoke house was stored and a servant's room on this level.