John Daly is widely considered to the the 'founder of Stratford'

Daly Avenue was called Daly Terrace when it first appeared on the 1872 Brosius “Bird’s-eye-view” of Stratford. It was named for John Corry Wilson Daly, widely called “the founder of Stratford.”

John Daly was born into “the better class of Irish society” and received a sound education in Ireland before serving in the Royal Navy as a surgeon’s assistant. He then emigrated to Cooperstown, N.Y. and, in 1826, went to Hamilton in Upper Canada. There, he began a 30-year association with the Canada Company. In 1831, he was its land agent in what later became the Huron District.

In 1833, John Daly moved to Stratford, where the Canada Company had already built some shanties. He built the first frame house in Stratford on land that today features the Perth County Courthouse. He became........

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