Quinlan Road took its name from the Quinlan family and the Quinlan farm
Quinlan farm stone wall and gates, in about 1920
Quinlan Road took its name from the Quinlan family farm. The cobblestone farm gates built by the Quinlans in 1920 are still partially standing on the south side of the road.
John Quinlan (1828-1908) was one of the earliest settlers to take up land in Perth County. Official Canada Company records show that he took out a contract on Lot 4, Concession 2 in Ellice Township in 1842, though it is thought he had by then spent two years clearing the land. Coming from Cork, in Ireland, John Quinlan was one of the first settlers on what became known as The Irish Concession of Ellice.
John’s grandson, Peter Quinlan (1876-1946) became a highly respected member of the Stratford medical community. He was the medical officer of health for Ellice Township, and his brother Joseph was reeve in 1927.
After establishing his practice in Stratford, Dr. Quinlan set up a private telephone line between his office at 98 Ontario St. and his parents’ house on the Quinlan family farm. Rural telephone service was extremely limited in those days and, when people along Mornington Street saw Dr. Quinlan’s telephone poles going up, they wanted to get added to the line. By popular demand in the Quinlan neighbourhood, the Quinlan telephone system was born in 1908. When Dr. Quinlan finally sold out to the Bell Telephone Co., in 1926, he had 116 telephones tied into his private system. Source: Streets of Stratford 2004
Quinland Family Stratford-Perth Archives