Woodstock

The community was first settled in 1800 after it was determined by Sir John Graves Simcoe, governor of what was then known as Upper Canada, that the area would make a good townsite. The early settlers were American immigrants from New York state. Increased immigration from Great Britain followed in the 1820s and 1830s. In 1836 there were 200 people living in Woodstock, and by 1844 the population had grown to almost 1,000 inhabitants and nearly 200 homes. Woodstock was incorporated as a town in 1851 and had its first town meeting in the Royal Pavilion Hotel. In 1902 Woodstock, with a population of nearly 9,000, petitioned the provincial legislature for city status and the "Town of Woodstock" was incorporated into the "City of Woodstock"

 Devastating tornado

On August 7, 1979, the Woodstock area was hit by three tornadoes, two of which registered at least F4 on the Fujita Scale. On the west side of town along Ingersoll Road, a Dominion Food Store was heavily damaged while the tornadoes skipped over every other home and business. Dickson's Florist was wiped out and the Fry home was moved on its foundation. Father Grondziel of the new Polish Roman Catholic Church, next to the Dominion Food Store, had just stepped into the washroom when one of the tornadoes passed by and took off the roof of the church and everything in the room he had just been in. No one on the street was injured but the cleanup took many weeks. On the south side, the buildings of the Maranatha Christian Reformed Church and the were destroyed, and the only fatality occurred when a vehicle on Highway 401 was blown off the road and the lone occupant killed.