being kept. By the 1840s, dairy farmers in Oxford, Norwich and Dereham townships were competing each year for top honours at agricultural fairs around the province for butter and cheese-making prizes. In the 1860s, Norwich farmers were the first in Canada to adopt the American factory system for cheese-making, with two different approaches competing for acceptance. Andes Smith took the approach of contracting with other farmers to buy their milk and haul it to a factory on his farm using a tanker wagon. Whatever profit or loss came from manufacturing cheese was his own. Harvey Farrington was a cheese factory specialist who had come to Norwich from New York state, and at his factory outside Norwichville he contracted with farmers to haul their milk to him and receive payment based on what came from cheese sales after Farrington deducted two cents per pound for his services in running the factory and making the cheese. Smith was first and was the more innovative one, gaining international recognition in 1865 for manufacturing a cheese, but he went bankrupt the following year. Farrington's co-op system became the good news story that ended up being immortalized in published histories and on historical plaques. Amalgamation In 1975, Oxford County underwent countywide municipal restructuring. The Village of Norwich and the Townships of East Oxford, North Norwich and South Norwich were amalgamated to create the Township of Norwich. The Tornado of 1979 On August 7, 1979, at around 7:00 pm, Norwich was struck by the Woodstock Tornado, one of the largest tornadoes ever to occur in Southern Ontario. The storm cut a path of destruction across Norwich Township from Blows to New Durham, leaving the community of Oxford Centre in a state of total destruction. Several homes, the General Store, Anglican church and the Community Hall were levelled. The United Church at the top of the hill had its roof taken completely off and extensive interior damage, but all seven stained glass windows were left intact. One of the homes damaged was that of the last Ingersoll family member resident in the county, and narrowly missed destroying a cherished family keepsake album, which afterwards underwent conservation work at the Oxford County Archives and is now proudly displayed at the museum in Ingersoll. Two people lost their lives that day and one senior succumbed a few months later, never returning from hospital. All that remained of Oxford Centre's