Essex County, Ontario

• Windsor (north)
• Across Lake St. Clair lies Macomb County, Michigan, US (north)
• Chatham-Kent (east)
• Wayne County, Michigan, US (west and northwest)
• Monroe County, Michigan, US (southwest)
• Across Lake Erie lie Lucas (southwest), Ottawa (south), and Erie (southeast) counties, Ohio, US

Thames River Lighthouse, in Essex County, Ontario, built in 1818.

The area that has come to be known as Essex was one of the first counties to be settled by non-indigenous people in Upper Canada, later to become Ontario. The settlements were mostly established by French settlers in the mid-18th century. Around 1749, the first permanent settlements began to appear on what is now the south or Canadian side of the Detroit River, across from the French Fort Detroit. They cultivated long, narrow plots of land along the river. Despite the name, this is not a river as such but rather a strait connecting Lake Huron and the smaller Lake Saint Clair in the north to Lake Erie in the south, as part of the Great Lakes.

Lower down the river, lands were occupied by native people known as Wyandot or Huron, around the Jesuit Catholic Mission of Bois Blanc (French for White Wood), opposite the island of the same name. The Mission was eventually abandoned and re-established closer to what became Sandwich Township after the British took over the French territory following the Seven Years' War. It was closer to the safety of the British-fortified Fort Detroit. When farmers arrived, they encountered difficulty in trying to clear the extremely thick forests that covered Essex County. The farmers grew to "hate" the trees, and chopped them down, starved them from nourishment by cutting deep gashes in the bark, and burned them to clear the way to get to the fertile soils underneath. The fires were so intense, that the reddish glow could be seen from Fort Chicago, 300 miles (500 km) away, as millions of cords of wood burned.

Historical map that includes Essex County (1875)

Settlement continued southward along the river and was known as Petite Côte (Small Coast), which was a reference to the shorter length of river frontage compared to the Detroit/American side. Landmarks were named for settler LaSalle and the local Ojibway, which continue to be in use. The first road in Ontario was laid out to connect the settlements, which is now over 200 years old and is known as Former King's Highway 18 (now County Road 20).

When river frontage along the Petite Côte was occupied, settlement began to extend toward Lake St. Clair, which became known as the "Assumption Settlement", for the name of its Catholic church. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the French ventured east along the south shore of Lake Saint Clair and settled in the present-day areas of Belle River (Belle-Rivière), Rochester, Tecumseh, Saint-Joachim and Stoney Point (Pointe-aux-Roches). These communities still have a large francophone population.

Amherstburg and Sandwich were the first towns established in Essex County, both in 1796 after the British finally ceded and evacuated Fort Detroit along the Detroit River under the terms of the "Jay Treaty". This was negotiated by John Jay, and signed in 1794 following the American Revolutionary War. It was intended to settle the US northern boundary with Canada. It upheld the original boundary lines along the Great Lakes between the US and Upper Canada by the Treaty of Paris of 1783 and the wider set of treaties known as the Peace of Paris, which ended the American Revolution (1775-1783) and overseas European and multi-continental wars. Britain ceded the territory of eastern North America to be the United States.

The British built Fort Malden near Amherstburg, opposite Bois Blanc Island, separating the British military presence from the more heavily populated area of Sandwich upstream, and positioned strategically to control the entrance of the river from Lake Erie and Lake Huron to the north. The populations of both towns were augmented by people immigrating from the southern United States after the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), including from the new City of Detroit, who chose to remain British subjects, known as "Loyalists" or "United Empire Loyalists".

After the American Revolution, and the War of 1812 (1812-1815), which also was a confrontation over the northern border, some people continued to migrate north to the area. Settlers also arrived from the east seeking land, traveling by Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River of Lower Canada. Settlers began to move eastward along the north shore of Lake Erie.

The colonial government purchased land for development from the Indigenous in the southern half of the current county, located in the four townships formerly known as Gosfield North and South, and Colchester North and South. The British Court made land available for settlement, provided that the colonist complete certain improvements within a year and that it not be used for speculation. This area became known as the "New Settlement" (as compared to the "Old Settlement" of the towns of Amherstburg and Sandwich. Settlers in this area included Hessians who fought for the British against the American rebels, (especially known in history at the Battle of Trenton in New Jersey on the morning of December 26, 1776) and Pennsylvania Dutch pacifists (ethnic German Mennonites, many from Pennsylvania).

In 1791, the province of Upper Canada was formed. In 1792, Upper Canada was divided into nineteen counties, of which Essex was the eighteenth and part of the Western District. At that time, the eastern boundary of Essex County extended further east into what is now Kent County. Settlement continued: on January 1, 1800 an Act for the Better Division of the Province established the Townships of Rochester, Mersea, Gosfield, Maidstone, Sandwich and Malden.

A number of settlements of Black slaves in Essex County are identified on this 1898 map of "Underground" Routes to Canada.[4]

Longer roads began to appear in the County after the War of 1812, the first of which followed Indian trails. Colonel Thomas Talbot contributed to road development, and Talbot Road was named for him. Talbot Road followed a natural ridge of glacial moraine which stretched from Windsor to Point Pelee.

The establishment of good roads led to further settlement along the 'Middle Road' and in the area of what is now Leamington. Settlers of this era were often emigrants from Britain and Ireland; in the 1840s the Great Famine led to significant immigration. The village of Maidstone was the centre of the Irish community, and an area known as the "Scotch Colony" appeared along the shore of Lake St. Clair to the north.

In 1854 the Great Western Railway connected the Detroit frontier with the east, crossing Essex County. The Canadian terminal was in Windsor, which consequently forged ahead of the other towns of the county. Other railway lines were built that connected settlements in Kingsville, Harrow, Essex and Leamington.

Essex County was also a destination of the Underground Railroad. In the 19th-century Black Americans came to Essex county by way of Pelee's Point, Gosfield (now Kingsville), Colchester, Sandwich, and Windsor.[5] Those who stayed in the area settled in the communities of Fort Malden, Sandwich, New Canaan, Mersea, and nearby Dawn Settlement (now Dresden), Buxton (now North Buxton and South Buxton), Chatham, and Elgin. The major settlement areas were Amherstburg and Windsor.[6][5][4] The John Freeman Walls Historic Site in Maidstone (Lakeshore) is testament to this period. Many of the descendants of the fugitives moved back to the United States to support the Northerners (Union Army) in the American Civil War, (1861-1865), or to reconnect with family after emancipation. Many families stayed.[7]

Map showing the townships of Essex County in 1881. From the Illustrated atlas of the Dominion of Canada.

By the late 19th century Essex County had seen fur trading and logging, land clearing and farming, road building and railway development, saw mills and gristmills, railway stations and water ports. By this time the forests were being removed to make way for farmland.

Also noticeable in some farmers' fields are oil pumps, particularly near Belle River and Leamington, in the northern and eastern parts of the county, respectively. This is from oil shale within the bedrock of the Marcellus Formation.

Flag of Essex County, in use until 2014.

In 1992, discussions began to take place to reduce the number of individual municipalities, which at the time numbered 21 in the county. This culminated on January 1, 1999 when a Minister's Order by the Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing was implemented, putting in place the new municipal structure for the County of Essex.

Townships:

• Anderdon - Now part of Amherstburg
• Colchester North - Now part of Essex
• Colchester South - Now part of Essex
• Gosfield North - Now part of Kingsville
• Gosfield South - Now part of Kingsville
• Maidstone - Now part of Lakeshore
• Malden - Now part of Amherstburg
• Mersea - Now part of Leamington
• Rochester - Now part of Lakeshore
• Sandwich East - Parts in Windsor and in Tecumseh
• Sandwich South - Now in Tecumseh
• Sandwich West - Parts in LaSalle and in Windsor
• Tilbury North - Now in Lakeshore
• Tilbury West - Now in Lakeshore

Towns:

• Amherstburg, Ontario (former town of, now merged with Anderdon Twp. and Malden Twp.)
• Belle River, Ontario
• Essex, Ontario (former town of, merged with Colchester N. Twp. and Colchester S. Twp.)
• Harrow, Ontario
• Kingsville, Ontario (former town of, merged with Gosfield N. Twp. and Gosfield S. Twp.)
• Lasalle, Ontario (former part of Sandwich Town)
• Leamington, Ontario (former town of, merged with Mersea Twp.)
• St. Clair Beach, Ontario
• Tecumseh, Ontario (former town of, merged with Sandwich S. Twp)

Essex-Windsor Emergency Medical Services (EMS) provides pre-hospital treatment and transportation to over 45,000 patients per year. The service operates out of 12 bases, and employs over 260 Primary Care Paramedics. Essex-Windsor EMS covers all of Essex County, Windsor, and Pelee Island.[10]

Wind turbines in Essex County, Ontario, Canada.

Essex County is home to Canada's largest wind farm as of June 2012. This is due to both its ideal wind conditions and abundance of available farmland.[11]