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Doors Open: Harpurhey Introduction HARPURHEY WAS FOUNDED by Dr. William Chalk in 1843. Dr. Chalk came to Canada in 1834, directly to Tuckersmith Township, and settled on a 100-acre farm on Lot 16 Concession 1. His fond desire was to become a farmer. He named his farm Harpurhey, after a suburb of Manchester, England, where he had practiced as an apothecary. The settlement soon became known by that name as well. Dr. Chalk had not wanted to practice medicine in Canada, but as the only doctor in the area at that time, he was soon enlist-ed to use his skills. He dispensed his own medicine, performed operations, and would go great distances to help people. 
Dr. Chalk was appointed the first collector for Tuckersmith in 1835. He was a commissioner in 1836, a Justice of the Peace in the early 1840s, Warden of the Huron District from 1847 to 1854, and the first Reeve of Tuckersmith Township in 1850.The townsite of Harpurhey was laid out on part of Dr. Chalk's farm property. Soon, surveys were also made of Lots 13, 14 and 15. Places of business and homes were built every year until there were five streets built with a tinsmith and harness shop, a flax mill and two pork packing plants, a carriage factory, cabinet maker, shoe shops, bookbinding shop, bottling works, a church, school, post office, a Mechanics' Institute, and three hotels; also, it had two practicing physicians. 
The hotel operated by Thomas Knox also served as the meeting place for Division Court. The Anglicans held their first church services here from 1855 to 1859 with Rev. William Cresswell in the pulpit. Harpurhey Agricultural Society, established in 1845 and the oldest in Huron County, held fairs at Knox Hall.By the 1840s, Harpurhey was a thriving community. Although it did not have as many industries as Egmondville did, Harpurhey had a prosperous business centre serving the settlers in Tuckersmith and McKillop Townships, as well as those passing by on the Huron Road. And, Dr. Chalk was lobbying for a railroad to locate one of its stations in Harpurhey. 
Dr. Chalk played a major role in bringing the Buffalo, Brantford and Goderich Railway to the area. When it opened for bus-iness in 1858, Harpurhey was by far the largest of the three neigh-bouring communities of Harpur-hey, Seaforth and Egmondville. The railway, however, was not convinced that any one of the three warranted a station. A flag station was built in Harpurhey, south of the railway tracks on Dr. Chalk's farm, and was in use for some time. When the founders of Seaforth donated a site for a permanent station, and when Egmondville joined in, direct rail service was sidetracked from the flourishing village of Harpurhey.The post office moved into Seaforth in 1859. In the early 1860s, the Grey Township Improvement Turnpike Road was built in a straight line from Wroxeter to the Mill Road at Egmondville, bypassing Harpur-hey as the railroad already had. In its heyday in 1862, almost 500 people lived here. After 1863, merchants gradually began to move businesses and homes to Seaforth. Harpurhey declined so fast that it was not listed in the 1876-77 Curries County of Huron Directory. Site Submissions
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