213 Trafalgar Road - The Moses McCraney and Sarah Thompson McCraney House

The McCraney family were very important in the early settlement of Oakville

The McCraney family was very important in the development of Oakville. Moses was the eldest of 10 children born to William Payne McCraney and Rebecca Teeter on their farm at 4th Line and Lakeshore Road. The corners were a stop on the Radial Railway known as McCraney's Corners and the creek there bears the family name. As the eldest son, Moses, inherited the whole farm in 1852 but provided farms for his three brothers and his mother. Her farm is now part of Appleby College. Moses' grandfather, William, arrived in Canada in 1801 from Rhode Island.

As well as the farm, Moses had a general store and made buying trips to the US with Timothy Eaton. When corsets became popular, he bought three, giving one to his wife, Sarah, who apparently had a 21-inch waist and selling the other two in Oakville. He was a very strong man, said to be able to carry a bushel bag of grain on his shoulder and broadcast the seed at a dog trot all day long. He is mentioned in the book "Schooner Days" as saving a sinking ship by cutting away the rigging single-handedly. At some point before 1872 they bought this house. Sarah did almost all forms of embroidery, knitting and crocheting. She could paper a room, even after she was seventy and very lame, as well as any paperhanger. She was very fond of politics and never missed voting until some officious person removed her name from the voter's list when she was ninety-five.

In 1883, Moses' Oakville business was destroyed by a fire that threatened the entire commercial district. In 1889, Moses, his wife and two sons move to Toronto where he invested in several homes around the city. Moses died three years later, at age 61. In 1902 his son Franklin, who operated a coal business in Toronto, returned with his wife Grace and their daughter to the family farm.

The front part the house is an addition. Recently the house was restored, the porch put back and the main entrance moved back to its original location.