Dresden, Ontario#Settlement

File:Tischwimpel 100 Jahre Dresden.jpg including the motto Vestigia nulla retrorsum]]

Dresden lies within what was, in succession, the province of

Quebec (from 1763), Upper Canada (1791), the Canada West division of United Canada (1841), and after Confederation, Ontario (1867).

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/maps/ontario-boundaries.aspx

| title=The Evolution of Ontario's Boundaries 1774-1912

| website=Archives of Ontario

| publisher=Ontario Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery

| date=2024

| access-date=22 February 2024

}}

In the late 18th century, the future site of the community lay in Kent County in the Western District. The region was covered with a largely unbroken, mainly hardwood forest. Deer, bears, wolves, foxes, and wild turkeys roamed in abundance.{{rp|3}}

{{

cite book

|last=Lauriston

|first=Victor

|date=1952

|title=Romantic Kent : The Story of a County 1626-1952

|publication-place=County of Kent and the City of Chatham

|publisher=Shepherd Printing Co.

|edition=1st

}}{{rp|379}} First Nations peoples used fire in order to make clearings for camps, improve the habitat of game animals, and prepare ground for cultivation. A network of foot and portage trails was well established, often running parallel to or between major waterways and along lake shorelines. Forest cover is estimated to have been over 80%.

{{

cite book

|last1=Butt

|first1=S.

|last2=Ramprasadi

|first2=P.

|last3=Fenech

|first3=A.

|editor-last1=Fenech|editor-first1=A. |editor-last2=MacIver |editor-first2=D |editor-last3=Auld |editor-first3=H.

|date=2005

|title=Integrated Mapping Assessment

|chapter=Changes in the landscape of Southern Ontario, Canada since 1750: impacts of European colonization

|publisher=Meteorological Service of Canada, Environment Canada

|publication-place=Toronto, Ontario

|url= https://www.islandscholar.ca/islandora/object/ir%3A4185/datastream/PDF/download/ir_4185.pdf

|pages=83–92

|via=IslandScholar

|access-date=14 January 2024

}}

In 1790, leaders of the Odawa, Potawatomi, and Chippewa First Nations,{{

refn|group=lower-alpha |Comprising the Three Fires Confederacy.

}} together with leaders of the Huron Nations of Detroit, signed a treaty with the British Crown.

{{

cite web

|url=https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1370372152585/1581293792285#ucls4

|title=McKee Treaty, No. 2 [transcript]

|website=Treaty Texts{{snd}}Upper Canada Land Surrenders

|publisher=Government of Canada

|department=Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada

|date=7 March 2016

|access-date=12 January 2024

}} Known as Treaty No. 2 or the McKee Purchase, it ceded a large tract of land lying between Lake Erie and the Thames River, including the area currently known as Chatham-Kent.{{refn|group=lower-alpha |The Lunaapeew also lived in the area. The territory of the Walpole Island (Bkejwanong) First Nation was not ceded (and remains unceded today).

}} Subsequently, Treaty No. 25, the Longwoods Treaty, was signed in 1822 between leaders of the Chippewa First Nation and the Crown.

{{

cite web

|url=https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1370372152585/1581293792285#ucls19

|title=Longwoods Treaty, No. 25 [transcript]

|website=Treaty Texts{{snd}}Upper Canada Land Surrenders

|publisher=Government of Canada

|department=Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada

|date=7 March 2016

|access-date=12 January 2024

}} It confirmed provisional agreements, reached in earlier years,

{{

cite book

|title=Canada. Indian treaties and surrenders, from 1680 to 1890. In Two Volumes.

|url=https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.91942/2

|via=Canadian Research Knowledge Network/Canadiana

|author=Government of Canada

|publication-place=Ottawa

|publisher=B. Chamberlain (Queen's Printer)

|date=1891

|doi=10.14288/1.0355812

|access-date=12 January 2024

|volume=1

|at=P. viii: see entry for Camden. P. xi, see entries 17 Oct. 1818, 5 Nov. 1818, 9 Mar. 1819, and 9 May 1820, tagged "Provisional surrender"; and 8 July 1822 "Confirmatory surrender".

}}

{{rp|xi}} for the Chippewa to cede an area to the north that adjoined much of the upper boundary of the McKee Purchase.

{{

cite web

|url=https://www.chatham-kent.ca/livingck/communities/landacknowledgment/Documents/A%20Road%20to%20Understanding%20Indigenous%20Culture.pdf#page=2

|title=Road to Understanding Indigenous Culture

|at=(p. 2, map: for Treaty No. 2 (McKee), see area coloured purple marking locations of modern Windsor, Chatham, and London; for Treaty No. 25 (Longwoods), see light blue quasi-rectangle above Treaty No. 2 area)

|website=Municipality of Chatham-Kent

|date=9 June 2021

|access-date=12 January 2024

}}

These treaty boundaries have largely not been surveyed.

{{

cite web

|url=https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1380223988016/1544125243779#:~:text=Underneath%20the%20map%20is%20a%20note%20stating%3A

|title=Disclaimer for Interactive Map of Historic Treaties and Treaty First Nations in Canada

|website=Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada

|publisher=Government of Canada

|date=3 October 2022

|access-date=12 January 2024

|quote=Note: Historic Treaty boundaries are largely un-surveyed and therefore estimated based on treaty texts.

}}

A map produced by Ontario's Ministry of Indigenous Affairs shows present-day Dresden inside the area ceded by the 1790 McKee Purchase, with the northern outskirts close to the area demarcated by the 1822 Longwoods Treaty.

{{cite map

|author=Ministry of Indigenous Affairs

|title=Map of Ontario treaties and reserves

|quote=Please note that this map has some limitations and is one of many ways to learn about treaties. Indigenous communities may have different understandings of the treaties than is represented here.

|date=23 October 2023

|orig-date=24 April 2018

|url=https://www.ontario.ca/page/map-ontario-treaties-and-reserves

|cartography=Esri

|type=Dynamic map with treaty area overlays

|publisher=Government of Ontario

|at=Enter Dresden, Chatham-Kent, ON, CAN in search field at top right of map.

|access-date=12 January 2024

}}

Today's community may lie partially in both: Camden Gore, which became part of the site of Dresden,

{{cite book |last=Carter |first=Marie |editor-last1=de B'béri|editor-first1=Boulou Ebanda |editor-last2=Reid-Maroney |editor-first2=Nina |editor-last3=Wright |editor-first3=Handel Kashope |title=The Promised Land: History and Historiography of the Black Experience in Chatham-Kent's Settlements and Beyond |publisher=University of Toronto Press |chapter=Chapter 9: Reimagining the Dawn Settlement |at=p. 184; Drew (q.v.) is cited on p. 178 |year=2014 |isbn=9781442667464 |doi=10.3138/9781442667457-010 |location=Toronto |name-list-style=amp

}}

{{

cite web

|last=Drew

|first=Benjamin

|author-link=:de:Benjamin Drew

|title=A North-Side View of Slavery. The Refugee: or the Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada. Related by Themselves, with an Account of the History and Condition of the Colored Population of Upper Canada

|publisher=John P. Jewett & Co.

|publication-place=Boston, Mass.

|edition=1st

|year=1856

|page=308

|url=https://repository.wellesley.edu/object/wellesley30695

|website=Wellesley College Digital Depository

|access-date=14 January 2024

|quote=Dresden is situated at the head of navigation on the Big Bear Creek [Sydenham], just above the bend in the river which indents the lands of the Dawn Institute. It is in the gore of Camden, being part of the township of Camden.

}}

was excluded from the scope of the 1790 treaty, while included in the 1822 one.{{rp|viii}}

Paving the way for settlement, systematic surveys along the Thames and the Sydenham began in the 1790s under Patrick McNiff and Abraham Iredell, who were deputy surveyors, successively, of the Western District.

{{

cite web

|url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/mcniff_patrick_5E.html

|last=Edwards

|first=Ron

|title=McNIFF, PATRICK

|work=Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 5

|publisher=University of Toronto/Université Laval

|date=1983

|access-date=14 January 2024

}}

{{

cite web

|url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/iredell_abraham_5E.html

|last=Brock

|first=Daniel J.

|title=IREDELL, ABRAHAM

|work=Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 5

|publisher=University of Toronto/Université Laval

|date=1983

|access-date=14 January 2024

}}

The first settler recorded on the present-day site of Dresden, in 1825, was Gerard Lindsley,{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Jared Lindsley in some records.}} who moved there from the Thames River Settlement.

{{cite web

|author=

|title=The Kent County Annual and Almanac for 1883

|publisher=James Soutar

|location=Chatham, Ontario

|date=1883

|url=https://images.ourontario.ca/Partners/CKPL/CKPL0026764821T.PDF

|website=Chatham-Kent Public Library Digital Collections

|at=Dresden section (pp. 3-9)

|access-date=12 December 2023}}

{{rp|3}}

In 1846, Daniel VanAllen,{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Daniel vanAllen, Vanallan or van Allan in some records.}} a Chatham merchant, bought the Lindsley farm and laid out a town plot.{{rp|6}} Around the same time, William Wright surveyed and settled what became the southern part of Dresden, then known as Fairport.{{rp|56 col.1}}

By 1849, a steam-powered sawmill and a grist-mill in the neighbouring Dawn Settlement were helping drive the economy of a logging-based community slowly expanding on both banks of the head of navigation of the Sydenham River.

{{cite web

|last1=Cowan

|first1=Hugh

|last2=Thaddeus S.

|first2=Arnold

|last3=Lampman

|first3=A.

|last4=Leader

|first4=Jeanette

|title=Some historical notes on the County of Kent taken from various sources of information now in the hands of the Kent Historical Society

|publisher=Kent Historical Society

|location=Chatham, Ontario

|date=1948

|url=https://images.ourontario.ca/Partners/CKPL/CKPL0026740741T.PDF

|website=Chatham-Kent Public Library Digital Collections

|at=Dresden section, compiled c. 1926 (pp. 103-106)

|access-date=12 December 2023

}}

{{rp|103}}

The Dawn Settlement was a community composed of refugees from slavery and freedmen and women, and an important end-point of the Underground Railroad's overland and maritime routes. Dawn developed around the British-American Institute, a vocational school whose principal founder, in 1842, was Josiah Henson.

The grounds of the Settlement are now the site of the Josiah Henson Museum of African-Canadian History (formerly Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site).{{cite web |last=Josiah Henson Museum of African-Canadian History |title=Reclaiming Josiah Henson |website=Ontario Heritage Trust |url=https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/properties/josiah-henson-museum/reclaiming-josiah-henson|access-date=25 November 2023}}{{cite web |url=https://globalnews.ca/news/9027029/new-name-uncle-toms-cabin/ |title=New name for Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site to reclaim legacy of Josiah Henson |last=Wang |first=Kelly |website=globalnews.ca |publisher=Corus Entertainment |date=30 July 2022|access-date=27 October 2023}} The Museum lies just outside modern Dresden's borders at the corner of Park St. and Freedom Road (formerly Uncle Tom's Road).{{cite web |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/southwestern-ontario-town-dresden-renames-road-1.6495645 |title= Southwestern Ontario council renames Uncle Tom's Road over links to anti-Black racism |last=CBC News |website=www.cbc.ca |publisher=CBC/Radio-Canada |date=21 June 2022 |access-date=10 December 2023}}

Dresden's post-office opened in 1854,

{{cite web

|author=

|title=Illustrated Historical Atlas of the Counties of Essex and Kent, 1880 1881

|publisher=H. Belden & Co.

|year=1881

|location=Toronto

|url=https://archive.org/details/IllustratedHistoricalAtlasOfTheCountiesOfEssexAndKent18801881/page/n53/mode/2up

|website=Internet Archive

|access-date=13 December 2023

}}

{{rp|56 col.1}} and the first permanent crossing over the Sydenham, a wooden swing-bridge, was erected in 1864.{{rp|11–12}} By 1865, Dresden was starting to enlarge, with an estimated population of 500;

{{

cite web

|last=Sutherland

|first=R. R.

|title=County of Kent Gazetteer, and General Business Directory, for 1864-5

|publisher=A.R. & John Sutherland

|location=Ingersoll, Ontario

|date=1864

|url=https://images.ourontario.ca/Partners/CKPL/CKPL0026720111T.PDF

|website=Chatham-Kent Public Library Digital Collections

|at=Dresden section (pp. 81-83)

|quote=Dresden contains two saw mills, one grist mill, five general stores, [sundry shops], two hotels, four churches [...], an Orange lodge, an Odd Fellows lodge, [...] also two schools [...].

|access-date=12 December 2023

}}

its principal business was the shipping of squared-up timber, staves, and cordwood.

{{

cite news

| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1005280765

| url-access=subscription

| title=A Trip from Chatham to Oil Springs : Dresden

| newspaper=The Hamilton Times

| date=3 August 1865

| at=p.2 col.4

| via=Newspapers.com

| quote=Barges, tug-boats and schooners even, come up to Dresden, and sometimes a little further, to load with staves and cordwood. The latter seems to be the great staple [...].

}} Logs were also driven or rafted downriver to other sawmills.{{rp|7}} An ashery and a tannery were in operation.{{rp|383}} 

The community's growth in the two decades after 1870 was rapid. In 1872, Dresden was incorporated as a village. The logging, lumber and cordwood industries expanded, supporting woodworking factories producing hubs, spokes, wheels and other components for carriage and wagon manufacturers and shops both local and further afield.{{rp|383,390}} The first newspaper, The Gazette, launched in 1870.{{rp|32}} It was succeeded in 1873 by the long-running Dresden Times.{{rp|9}} In 1882, Dresden was granted the status of a town,{{rp|106}} with Alexander Trerice, a lumber merchant, as the first mayor. An impression of the town's layout and locale around this time compared to modern Dresden can be gained from an interactive 1876 map of Kent County.

{{cite map

| last1=Shackleton

| first1=J.W.

| last2=McIntosh

| first2=F.J.

| name-list-style=&

| title=Shackleton & McIntosh's County of Kent in the Province of Ontario, Dominion of Canada, Compiled from the most Authentic Sources by J.W. Shackleton & F.J. McIntosh, Civil Engineers, Chatham, Ontario

| type=Dynamic historical map with modern topographic, bird's-eye view and street-map overlays

| date=9 October 2019

| orig-date=1876

| url=https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=8cc6be34f6b54992b27da17467492d2f&fbclid=IwAR210mYEkjemI_h4oELpndMw5HpDiir-yqyZr3XtrX-HPiAwDmPGrxEueHs

| cartography=OpenStreetMap contributors and Esri

| publisher=Ontario Historical County Maps Project

| via=ArcGIS

| at=To access, first close the information box. Then enter "Dresden" in search field at top left, and click the search icon.

| quote=Please note that this web mapping application is a work in progress.

| access-date=16 February 2024

}}

In the 1880s, clearing the Sydenham of hardwood logs that had sunk during their driving and rafting, together with improvements to Dresden's turning-basin, gave a boost to the shipbuilding industry and the shipping trade.{{rp|386}} Shipbuilding, which had started in the early 1870s, saw the construction of a variety of vessels, many steam-driven, for carrying freight and passengers and for pleasure-cruises.{{rp|386}}{{rp|7}}{{

cite web

| url=https://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/results?q=&st=kw&fz=1&da=&db=&dt=&dtfz=how+fuzzy%3F&lc=Dresden&grd=&mt=Ship&itype=&sort=&rows=20

| title=Beaver (1870), Hiawatha (1874), Enterprise (1874), Byron Trerice (1882), United Lumbermen (1884)

| website=Maritime History of the Great Lakes

| at=Search results using media type 'Ship' and geographic location 'Dresden'

| access-date=27 January 2024

}}

However, railways began to out-compete the Sydenham's schooners, barges, brigs and packet freighters when a spur from the extension of the Erie & Huron Railway from Chatham to Wallaceburg reached Dresden in 1883.{{rp|10–11}} A railway was also used to move logs from the northern forest tract to the banks of the Sydenham: from 1884 to 1897, a {{convert|36|in|abbr=on}} narrow-gauge line using Shay locomotives was laid by the Dawn Tramway Company for this purpose. On reaching the river, the logs were boomed and then towed downriver to sawmills.{{rp|75–76}} Using the Erie & Huron as a right-of-way for siting poles and wires, telephone service arrived in 1885.

{{

cite news

| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/503070064

|url-access=subscription

| title=When Alexander Graham Bell brought some fun to Blenheim

| last=Squire

| first=J.P.

| newspaper=Windsor Star

| page=A13

| date=31 December 1976

| access-date=27 January 2024

| via=Newspapers.com

}} The main sewer was laid in 1887.{{rp|33}} The steady expansion of the town and the farms around created a strong demand for bricks and agricultural drainage tiles, and several manufacturers were in operation from the 1870s onwards.{{rp|49}}

By 1890, an estimated population of 2,500 inhabited a town with electric street-lighting, brick-built business blocks, a town hall, a fire hall with a steam-powered fire-engine, a division (district) court, several churches, two public schools, a private bank, and two hotels. Industrial establishments included roller mills (replacing earlier grist-mills), sawmills, planing mills, a washing-machine factory, a sorghum syrup factory, a foundry, and a machine shop.

{{

cite web

| url=https://images.ourontario.ca/Partners/CKPL/CKPL0026768481T.PDF

| title=The Kent County Annual and Almanac for the Year 1890

| at=Dresden section (pp. 63-64)

| publisher=James Soutar

| location=Chatham, Ontario

| date=1890

| access-date=27 January 2024

| website=Chatham-Kent Public Library Digital Collections

}}

As the forest was clear-cut and thinned, the 1900s saw the waning of logging and lumbering, and a move into other industries. Several involved the processing of the crops, fruit, and vegetables harvested from the farms now rapidly expanding in the region: enterprises included a flax mill,{{rp|33}} two apple evaporators (to dry and preserve the cored and sliced fruit),{{rp|8,18}} and a large, though short-lived, beet sugar factory.

{{

cite news

| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/991341490/

| url-access=subscription

| title=Dresden May Lose Sugar Factory Owing to a Quarrel

| newspaper=Waterloo Region Record

| at=p.1 col.5

| date=12 November 1903

| access-date=28 January 2024

| via=Newspapers.com

}} A vegetable-canning factory was more successful: it was bought by the upcoming Canadian Canners company.{{rp|7}} After a succession of owners, in 1947 it was replaced with what eventually became today's Conagra tomato-processing plant. A factory for making an innovative type of stove-damper also prospered.{{rp|37}} In addition, from the turn of the century, a trend for using concrete blocks instead of stone and brick in foundations and many non-domestic buildings led to their manufacture in Dresden until the 1950s.{{rp|49}}

Farmers' needs were served by suppliers of agricultural implements, builders' by providers of paint, cement, and hardware, and home comforts were available from, among others, tailors, milliners, dressmakers, an optician and jeweller, suppliers of textiles and ready-to-wear clothing, grocers, a confectioner, and a piano and organ 'emporium'.

{{cite web

| url=https://images.ourontario.ca/Partners/CKPL/CKPL0026773521T.PDF

| title=The Union Publishing Co's farmers' and business directory, for the counties of Essex, Kent and Lambton, 1903

| date=1903

| at=pp. 334-339 (Dresden section)

| publisher=Union Publishing Company

| location=Ingersoll, Ontario

| edition=Vol. XIII

| website=Chatham-Kent Public Library Digital Collections

| access-date=10 February 2024

}}

A 1913 Goad fire insurance map, updated from 1889, details the physical characteristics of the town's buildings, streets and infrastructure, and notes the availability of a steam-propelled fire engine.

{{cite map

| type=zoomable map

| scale=1:6000

| title=Dresden, Ont.

| url=http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol&id=3816786&lang=eng

| date=March 1913

| orig-date=May 1889

| access-date=15 June 2024

| publisher=Charles E. Goad Company

| location=Montreal

| website=Library and Archives Canada

}} Sheets are numbered 1 to 3. The key to the map's symbols is on sheet 2.

Domestically, wood gave way to coal for cooking and heating, with coal supplanted by natural gas from the 1910s on.{{rp|37}}{{rp|7}} In 1920, a water tank was erected to maintain pressure in the mains network, which used river water. Pumped well-water was piped from 1943,{{rp|7}} to be replaced in 1958 by treated water from the Sydenham.

{{

cite news

| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/501734099

| url-access=subscription

| title=Town Gets Soft Water : Dresden Plant Pumps Away

| newspaper=Windsor Star

| page=7

| date=2 August 1958

| access-date=30 January 2024

| via=Newspapers.com

| quote=Within a few hours after it was opened, the plant was producing 250 gallons of purified water a minute.

}} St. George and North Streets were paved in 1922,{{rp|41}} and the sewer network was extended in 1931.{{rp|45}} When sewage mains were installed throughout the town in the mid-1970s, the two streets were again resurfaced.{{rp|7}} In 1933, a modern concrete bridge over the Sydenham, in use today, replaced an older iron one.

{{

cite news

| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/501135950/

| url-access=subscription

| title=Poisson [...] Opens Span At Dresden : Cement Bridge Over Sydenham River is Dedicated : Town Rejoices

| newspaper=Border Cities Star

| date=30 December 1933

| page=11

| access-date=27 January 2024

| via=Newspapers.com

}}

The 20 acre ({{circa}} 8 ha) industrial park, set up in 1964 in the southeast of the town to help diversify Dresden's economy, had a slow start;

{{

cite news

| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/505965706/

| url-access=subscription

| title=Clerk sees sewer need

| newspaper=Windsor Star

| date=14 August 1970

| at=p.25 col.5

| access-date=2 February 2024

| via=Newspapers.com

| quote=The only industry in the park, occupying three acres of land, is Dresden Ready Mix, a cement manufacturing company employing four men.

}} though by 1975,

{{

cite news

| url= https://www.newspapers.com/image/502034056/

| url-access=subscription

| title=Dresden gets boost from sanitary sewers

| newspaper=Windsor Star

| date=2 January 1975

| page=5

| access-date=2 February 2024

| via=Newspapers.com

}} after an expansion and utilities upgrade in 1974, occupiers included Dresden Produce (a turkey-meat packager), Parking Structural Foam, Canadian Canners, and National Hardware Specialities. The latter, which had moved from Wallaceburg to Dresden in 1951, became Canada's largest producer of zinc die-cast pulleys, and also made sanitary hardware and automotive castings. Employing 120 people at its peak, it closed down in 1991.{{rp|59}} Greenmelk, another Wallaceburg-based firm, expanded into Dresden in the 1940s, producing animal-feed supplements from alfalfa and other crops, only to close in the early 1960s.{{rp|81}}

{{see also|Dresden, Ontario#Memorials}}

No. 6 Company of the 24th Kent Battalion of Infantry, formed in 1866 and first based at Dawn Mills, was stationed in Dresden from 1872. The Battalion disbanded in 1892.

{{

cite web

| url=http://www.regiments.org/regiments/na-canada/volmil/on-inf/024Kent.htm

| date=8 June 2005

| title=The Kent Regiment, Ontario, Canada

| publisher=Regiments.org

| website=Land Forces of Britain, the Empire and Commonwealth

| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014172331/http://www.regiments.org/regiments/na-canada/volmil/on-inf/024Kent.htm

| archive-date=14 October 2007

| via=The Wayback Machine

| access-date=4 February 2024

}}{{rp|25}} Some local men were among the 8000 or so Canadians who fought with or alongside British forces in the South African War.{{rp|44}}

Around 110 men from Dresden served in World War I, judging by the number of maple leaves (each representing a person) on the service flag

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.warmuseum.ca/s3/supplyline/assets/swwteacherresources/AB7.1-Eng-ServiceFlag.pdf

| title=Service Flag

| website=Canadian War Museum

| date=8 August 2019

| access-date=4 February 2019

}}

made by the local chapter (formed in 1914)

{{

cite news

| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/501137323/

| url-access=subscription

| title=Sydenham Chapter Re-Elects Regent to Sixteenth Term

| date=3 March 1930

| page=9

| newspaper=Windsor Star

| access-date=4 February 2024

}}

of IODE.{{rp|42}} The Dresden Cenotaph, erected in 1923, records 24 names of those killed in action or who subsequently died of their injuries. For World War II, the Cenotaph records 14 names, and for the Korean War, two.

In 1945, the Chatham-based radio station CFCO began broadcasting a weekly program that featured a regular "Welcome Home" slot for returning servicemen and women, including those from Dresden. Numbers grew as the year wore on.

{{

cite web

| url=https://images.ourontario.ca/Partners/CKPL/CKPL0027129351T.PDF

| title=Kent County Family Almanac program : Reprints of Broadcasts : 15 February to 8 November 1945 [chapters 1 to 39]

|format=CFCO transcripts

| publisher=Canada and Dominion Sugar Company Ltd. (program sponsor)

| location=Chatham, Ontario

| via=Chatham-Kent Public Library Digital Collections

| date=1945

| access-date=16 February 2024

| at=Search for Welcome Home or Dresden

}} Dresden arranged "welcome home" meetings for returnees from overseas, giving each a gold ring in remembrance of their service. The returned men soon revived the original branch of the veterans' organization the Royal Canadian Legion, and constructed a Legion Hall near the bridge over the Sydenham.{{rp|47}} {{rp|16}}

Since the late nineteenth century, floods have frequently inundated the part of Dresden lying between a large oxbow meander of the Sydenham. Before the forest in the watershed was cleared, its trees and vegetation had reduced peak water-flows by slowing runoff into the river.

{{

cite book

| title=Sydenham Valley Conservation Report 1968 : Summary

| author=Conservation Authorities Branch of the Ontario Department of Energy and Resources Management

| publisher=Queen's Printers

| location=Toronto

| date=1969

| url=https://archive.org/details/sydenhamvalleyco0000onta/

| url-access=registration

| via=Internet Archive

| quote=Wallaceburg and Dresden are subject to frequent and severe flooding. [...] The problem is extremely serious.

| quote-page=77

}}{{rp|60,62}} Extensive tile-draining of the cleared land also contributed to higher, faster river inflows.{{rp|12}} Ice-jams in the waterway during spring thaws,{{rp|80}} exacerbated by log-jams caused by floodwater sweeping stacked logs into the river,{{rp|11}} made matters worse. A major flood in 1947, when the area alongside the Sydenham was occupied by many of Dresden's larger businesses, was devastating.

{{

cite news

| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/501185893/

| url-access=subscription

| title=Chatham Periled By Flood : Thamesville, Wallaceburg, Dresden Inundated : Rivers Run Wild To Take 5 Lives Across Province

| newspaper=Windsor Star

| pages=1–3, 5, 8–9

| date=7 April 1947

| access-date=30 January 2024

| quote=A depth of 10 feet covered Dresden, Kent County village of 1,662, where hundreds were rendered homeless Sunday by the rampaging Sydenham River.[...] Damage was extensive.

| quote-page=1

| via=Newspapers.com

}}

Another in 1968 was also very destructive.

{{

cite news

| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/734534218/

| url-access=subscription

| title=Floods Hit Dresden And Wallaceburg, Threaten Chatham

| date=5 February 1968

| access-date=3 February 2024

| newspaper=Brantford Expositer

| pages=1–2, 7

| via=Newspapers.com

| quote=The main street of Dresden is under three feet of water. Flooding has driven an estimated 150 families from their homes and cut the town of 2,800 in half.

| quote-page=7

}}

How to tackle the problem was debated in Dresden and other affected communities for several years,

{{

cite news

| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/505847062/

| url-access=subscription

| title=Wallaceburg, Dresden : Flood prevention hopes raised at SVCA meet

| first=Gary

| last=O'Flynn

| newspaper=Windsor Star

| date=14 February 1969

| page=7

| via=Newspapers.com

| access-date=3 February 2024

| location=Petrolia

}}

{{

cite news

| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/502494377/

| url-access=subscription

| title=Rezoning favoured for floodland

| newspaper=Windsor Star

| date=4 November 1975

| page=5

| via=Newspapers.com

| access-date=3 February 2024

}} and involved discussions with the Sydenham Valley (later St. Clair Region) Conservation Authority.

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.scrca.on.ca/about-us/past-chairs/

| title=Past Chairs

| publisher=St. Clair Region Conservation Authority

| date=n.d.

| access-date=3 February 2024

| quote=[...] 1961{{snd}}1970 [...] The Authority also began to grapple with options to deal with flooding in Dresden and Wallaceburg. [...] 1971{{snd}}1980 [...] [T]he Dresden Floodplain Acquisition Program was also initiated.

}} Options considered included eliminating the oxbow meander, building a dyke, and rezoning flood-prone areas. The approach chosen, the Dresden Floodplain Acquisition Program, is a buy-out scheme, initiated in the 1970s, that aims to reduce flood damage by restricting development in high-risk areas and flood-proofing vulnerable properties.

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.chatham-kent.ca/business/planning/Documents/E5%20-%20Dresden%20Flood%20Proofing%20and%20Flood%20Fringe%20Areas.pdf

| title=Dresden Flood Proofing and Flood Fringe Areas : Schedule 'E5'

| date=31 May 2018

| access-date=3 February 2024

| publisher=Municipality of Chatham-Kent

}}

After several years of landscaping and tree-planting by the Conservation Authority, the first conservation area in the town, along the bank of the Sydenham, opened as a public park in 1979.

{{

cite news

| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/503871583/

| title=Park to be officially opened Aug. 23

| newspaper=Windor Star

| url-access=subscription

| page=3

| date=9 August 1979

| access-date=31 January 2024

| quote=The authority began acquiring property for the 13-acre conservation area in 1973[...]. The Dresden Conservation Area is the first in the town and offers day-use visitor fishing, boating, playground and picnic facilities.

}} A further property acquisition and parkland development program, with a 20-year time horizon, started in the early 1980s.

{{

cite news

| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/504299815/

| url-access=subscription

| title=Conservation Group Receives Flood Grant

| newspaper=Windsor Star

| date=20 December 1980

| page=A6

| access-date=22 February 2024

| quote=Once secured, the flood plain lands will be planned and managed in conjunction with the existing Dresden Conservation area.

}}

Following the flood of 1968 and the intervention of the Conservation Authority, community organizations (including the Horticultural Society, Rotary, and IODE) worked to enhance Dresden's amenities.{{cite web |last1=Blake |first1=Jim |title=IODE continues to live in deeds |url=https://chathamvoice.com/2014/05/21/iode-continues-to-live-in-deeds/ |website=The Chatham Voice |access-date=18 November 2023 |date=21 May 2014}} The floodplain acquired additional landscaped parks, an arboretum featuring the area's Carolinian forest flora, and in 2003, a 5.8 km Trillium Trail with a historical walk section. The trailhead and interpretive centre are on St. George Street, near the bridge over the Sydenham.{{cite web |url=https://www.ontariotrails.on.ca/trail/dresden-trillium-trail |title=Dresden Trillium Trail |website=Ontario Trails Council |access-date=2 December 2023}} The historical walk has plaques describing over 50 sites connected to people and industries that shaped the town.{{cite web |url=https://dresden.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Trillium-Trail-Br-.pdf#page=2 |title=Take a Step Back in Time along the Trillium Historical Walk |date=2018 |website=Town of Dresden, Ontario |type=brochure |format=PDF |access-date=2 December 2023}} In addition, a variety of commemorative barn quilts are displayed around Dresden,

{{Google Maps |url=https://www.google.com/maps/@42.5899363,-82.1799162,3a,75y,7.59h,88.24t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sTBbRY5S-ee2Tb7LUVq9a8Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu

|SV=yes

|date=September 2023

|title=Barn quilts on Brown Street in Dresden, Ontario: (l. to r.) Wagon Wheel, Flying Geese, Maple Leaf Forever, Dresden Plate, North Star

|access-date=10 December 2023}}

forming part of a barn quilt trail covering sites in Oil Springs, Tupperville, Shetland, Croton and Bothwell.

{{

cite web

|url=https://barnquilttrails.ca/trails/into-the-dawn/

|title=Into the Dawn Barn Quilt Trail

|website=Canada Barn Quilt Trails

|date=3 March 2023

|access-date=12 January 2024

}}

As well as Josiah Henson, other prominent figures linked to the Underground Railroad once called Dresden home. Research carried out when preparing the Trillium Trail's historical walk (in conjunction with the Promised Land Project){{cite web |last=Government of Canada, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) |title=Beyond the Underground Railroad: The Promised Land Project reveals forgotten Black History |url=https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/society-societe/stories-histoires/story-histoire-eng.aspx?story_id=163 |date=28 February 2013 |access-date=25 November 2023}}

revealed that from 1853 to 1873, large sections of the town's original site were owned by William Whipper, a successful African-American businessman and leading member of William Still's Underground Railroad network.{{cite book |last=Carter |first=Marie |editor-last1=de B'béri|editor-first1=Boulou Ebanda |editor-last2=Reid-Maroney |editor-first2=Nina |editor-last3=Wright |editor-first3=Handel Kashope |title=The Promised Land: History and Historiography of the Black Experience in Chatham-Kent's Settlements and Beyond |publisher=University of Toronto Press |pages=73–90 |chapter=Chapter 4: William Whipper's Lands along the Sydenham |year=2014 |isbn=9781442667464 |doi=10.3138/9781442667457-005 |location=Toronto |name-list-style=amp}}

Several houses from this period survive.{{cite episode |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oI2WGuIxM4 |format=video |series=Discovering Dawn |number=4 |title=Josiah Henson and McInnes Family Friendship |quote=We have some wonderful old Victorian-style homes that are still very well maintained here. |minutes=0:40 |last1=Bernard |first1=Jackie |last2=Carter |first2=Marie |publisher=Ontario Heritage Trust |date=3 March 2022 |via=YouTube |access-date=3 December 2023}} Various plaques around the town, installed by the Ontario Heritage Trust, commemorate important events in the community's history.{{cite web |url=https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/online-plaque-guide?handle=plaques-form&fields%5Bkeyword%5D=dresden&fields%5Btheme%5D=&fields%5Bgeoloc%5D= |title=Heritage Trust plaques in Dresden |website=Online Plaque Guide |publisher=Ontario Heritage Trust |access-date=9 December 2023}} In 2022, the Trust produced a series of short documentaries about Dresden and the Dawn Settlement.{{cite AV media |date=29 July 2022 |title=Discovering Dawn |type=YouTube playlist |url=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaT1vsk-F4nGtepWgg2cFupp_5upvFCmE |publisher=Ontario Heritage Trust |access-date=9 December 2023}}

The North Star: Finding Black Mecca, an award-winning indie film about the history of Chatham-Kent's Black communities, including Dresden's,

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.chatham-kent.ca/visitck/doandsee/heritage/undergroundrailroad/Pages/black-history-month-in-chatham-Kent.aspx

| title=Black History Month in Chatham-Kent

| publisher=Municipality of Chatham-Kent

| date=26 January 2024

| access-date=30 January 2024

}} was broadcast in September 2021 by CBC/Radio-Canada.

{{

cite episode

| people=Blades, Torrin & Panag, Angel (directors)

| date=17 September 2021

| title=The North Star: Finding Black Mecca

| series=Absolutely Canadian

| season=21

| via=CBC Gem

| type=documentary

| url=https://gem.cbc.ca/absolutely-canadian/s21e10

| url-access=registration

| access-date=30 January 2024

| publisher=CBC/Radio-Canada

}} [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZFnSPBOISA Watch official trailer] on YouTube{{snd}}retrieved 23 March 2024.

The first recorded Old Boys' Reunion took place in 1902, when several hundred former residents attended, followed by ones in 1904{{rp|63–64}} and 1928.

{{

cite news

| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/501203586/

| url-access=subscription

| title=Spirit of Carnival Reigns for Reunion at Dresden : Week of Gaiety is Now in Progress

| last=Sclanders

| first=Ian M.

| newspaper=The Border Cities Star

| page=6

| date=3 July 1928

| access-date=22 February 2024

| quote=[col.1] Not much business is being done in the town. The reunion is taking the time of all, and residents and ex-residents returned are aglow with the spirit of carnival.

}} In 1954, Dresden celebrated

{{

cite news

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/501376982/

|url-access=subscription

|title=Crowning of Beauty Queen, Speeches and Mile-Long Parade Open Dresden Centennial

|date=2 July 1954

|newspaper=The Windsor Daily Star

|page=5

|via=Newspapers.com

|access-date=12 January 2024

|quote=A mile-long pageant of the town's first century, depicted by floats, horse-drawn and motor vehicles, and costumed paraders, the Dresden Centennial Parade was the highlight of the celebration's first day yesterday afternoon.

}} and commemorated

{{cite book

|title=A History of Dresden : Printed To Mark The Occasion of Dresden's Centennial Celebrations, June 30{{snd}}July 5, 1954

|last=Brandon

|first=Robert

|date=1954

|publisher=The Dresden Times

|location=Dresden, Ontario

|url=https://archive.org/details/history_of_dresden_ontario_brandon1954/

|via=Internet Archive

}}

the centennial of establishing its post office; in 1982, the centennial of its incorporation as a town;

{{cite news

|last=Miller

|first=Dave

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/504328044/?terms=Dresden%20kicks%20off%20100th%20birthday&match=1

|url-access=subscription

|title=Dresden on parade: A century of spirit

|date=5 July 1982

|newspaper=Windsor Star

|access-date=11 December 2023

|page=7

|via=Newspapers.com

|quote=Hundreds lined the downtown street as the [125-entry] parade left the Lambton-Kent Composite School and made its way to Kinsmen Park.

}}

{{cite book

|title=The History of Dresden Updated from 1954 to 1981 : To supplement Mr. Robert Brandon's History of Dresden, published 1954

|last1=Spearman

|first1=Don

|last2=deVries

|first2=Calvin

|last3=Brandon

|first3=Robert

|date=1982

|publisher=Dresden Centennial Committee

|location=Dresden, Ontario

|quote=This [...] edition is a compilation of 'bare-bone' facts of the happenings from 1954 to 1981[.]

|quote-page=3

}}

in 1967, the Confederation Centennial;

{{

cite news

| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/502038841/

| url-access=subscription

| title=Centennial echoes through area : 100-year fuse ends tonight : Dresden

| newspaper=Windsor Star

| date=30 June 1967

| access-date=30 January 2024

| page=7

| quote=Kinsmen Club breakfast at Czech Hall beginning at 8 a.m. [...] Street dance from 10 p.m. to midnight.

}} and in 1997, 125 years since it formally became a village.

{{

cite news

|title=Dresden... 125 Years of History

|newspaper=Wallaceburg Courier Press

|type=special edition of 32 pages

|last=Epp

|first=Peter

|display-authors=etal

|date=5 February 1997

}}

Annual, three-day "Civic Fests" in the late 1970s and early 1980s raised funds for repairing and maintaining what is now the Ken Houston Memorial Agricultural Centre.

{{

cite news

| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/503241705/

| url-access=subscription

| title=Dresden festival begins Saturday

| newspaper=Windsor Star

| date=29 July 1977

| page=3

| access-date=16 February 2024

| quote=The town's first Civic Fest begins Saturday, in an attempt to pay off a portion of a $80,000 repair bill for the Lambton-Kent Memorial Arena. [...] Throughout the three days, entertainment will be provided in the form of polka and country and western bands.

}}

{{

cite news

| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/503347036/

| url-access=subscription

| title=Dresden Civic Fest set for 5th running

| newspaper=Windsor Star

| date=30 March 1981

| page=3

| access-date=16 February 2024

}}

In 1998, when Dresden became part of the new municipality of Chatham-Kent, it lost its town status.

{{cite web

|last=Poulin

|first=Jessica

|title=Dresden

|website=The Canadian Encyclopedia

|url=https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/dresden

|date=18 May 2022

|access-date=11 December 2023

}}

In 2007, Dresden marked 125 years since it became a town.

{{

cite web

| url=https://ckpl.ca.iiivega.com/search/card?id=368ef29c-c346-5dff-8014-1b3ffef4d5f0&entityType=FormatGroup

| title=125th anniversary 1882-2007, Dresden, Ontario, Canada : DVD slide show of Town of Dresden : 390 photos with music from the 60s and 70s

| author=Community of Dresden

| via=Chatham-Kent Public Library Catalogue

| website=ckpl.ca.iiivega.com

| publisher=Chatham-Kent Public Library

| date=2007

| access-date=25 January 2024

}} The founding of Dresden is commemorated by a plaque.

{{cite sign

|title=The Founding of Dresden

|author=Ontario Heritage Trust Provincial Plaque Program

|date=n.d.

|lang=en

|url=https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/plaques/founding-of-dresden

|access-date=11 December 2023

|medium=Ontario Provincial Plaque

}}

On the south-facing wall of the Municipal Town Centre at 485 St. George Street, Dresden, Ontario.

Many of Dresden's landmark buildings are regarded as cultural heritage assets, and are legally protected to ensure their conservation.

{{cite web

|url=https://www.chatham-kent.ca/business/planning/Pages/Heritage-Conservation.aspx

|title=Heritage Conservation

|website=Chatham-Kent

|publisher=Municipality of Chatham-Kent

|date=2 June 2023

|access-date=20 December 2023

}}

Six have been entered in the official heritage register as designated properties, which means they can neither be altered nor demolished:

{{cite web

|url=https://www.chatham-kent.ca/localgovernment/governmentresources/Documents/Designated%20Properties.pdf#page=48

|title=The Chatham-Kent Municipal Heritage Register : Part I{{snd}}Designated Properties : Properties Designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act

|at=Dresden section (pp. 48-53)

|website=Chatham-Kent

|publisher=Municipality of Chatham-Kent

|date=12 September 2016

|access-date=20 December 2023

}}

• Dresden Library, housed at 187 Brown Street in an original Carnegie library building constructed in 1913 and refurbished in 2000;
• Switzer house at 220 Hughes Street, built ca. 1905;
• Watson house, 480 Hughes Street, ca. 1870;
• McVean house, 788 North Street, ca. 1901;
• Dresden Creamery Building, 303 St. George Street, ca. 1880;
• Dresden Municipal Centre, 485 St. George Street, ca. 1912.

File:Christ Church Anglican, Dresden, Ontario, 2024-08-31.jpg

Another 18 buildings are registered as listed properties. The owner of such a property cannot alter or demolish it without first giving the municipality the opportunity to designate it.{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Owners of listed buildings must give 60 days' notice of their intentions.}} Dresden's listed properties include several houses on Hughes Street and Metcalfe Avenue; St. James Presbyterian Church and Christ Church Anglican; and the entirety of the main commercial block on St. George Street.

{{cite web

|url=https://www.chatham-kent.ca/localgovernment/governmentresources/Documents/Community%20of%20Dresden.pdf

|title=The Chatham-Kent Municipal Heritage Register : Listed Properties in the Community of Dresden

|website=Chatham-Kent

|publisher=Municipality of Chatham-Kent

|date=7 June 2021

|access-date=20 December 2023

}}

Further landmarks include several churches{{rp|15{{ndash}}22}}{{snd}}St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, St. Michael's Church, Dresden Community Church, the Christian Reformed Church, the First Regular Baptist Church (the oldest in Dresden),

{{cite sign |title=First Regular Baptist Church, Dresden |author=Ontario Heritage Trust Provincial Plaque Program |date=31 July 2010 |lang=en |location=On the south side of Queen Street, east of St. George Street, in front of the First Regular Baptist Church, Dresden, Ontario. |url=https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/plaques/first-regular-baptist-church-dresden |access-date=20 December 2023 |medium=Ontario Provincial Plaque}}

and the North Dresden Baptist Church; the Dresden Cenotaph, and the war memorial and memorial field in Dresden Cemetery; Dresden Raceway; the Ken Houston Memorial Agricultural Centre; Dresden Bridge over the Sydenham River; the Dresden Water Tower;

{{cite web

|url=https://sydenhamcurrent.ca/2018/07/03/dresden-elevated-water-tower-unveiled/

|title=Dresden Elevated Water Tower being unveiled

|website=Sydenham Current

|publisher=Glassroots Media

|date=3 July 2018

|access-date=20 December 2023

}}

the Rotary Bandshell in Dresden Rotary Memorial Gardens; and, just outside Dresden, the Josiah Henson

House (a designated property) in the grounds of the Josiah Henson Museum of African-Canadian History.

{{cite web

|url=https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=8200

|title=Henson House

|website=Canada's Historic Places

|publisher=Canadian Register of Historic Places

|access-date=6 February 2025

}}

When travelling west on Highway 401 from the direction of Toronto, Dresden is a 29 km drive from Exit 109 along County Road (CR) 21 via Thamesville.

{{Google maps

|url=https://www.google.com/maps/dir/42.4852033,-81.9068531/Dresden,+ON,+Canada/@42.5143542,-82.2099246,11z/am=t/data=!3m1!4b1!4m9!4m8!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x882ff4d970138b8d:0x93291fd336e83d5f!2m2!1d-82.1833144!2d42.5895615!3e0?entry=ttu

|title= Driving directions to Dresden, Ontario from Exit 109 of King's Highway 401

|access-date=4 January 2024

}}

Travelling east from the direction of Detroit and taking Exit 101, Dresden is 25 km away on CR 15, with a short leg on CR 21.

{{Google maps

|url=https://www.google.com/maps/dir/42.4401509,-81.9736012/Dresden,+ON,+Canada/@42.5143542,-82.2223523,11z/am=t/data=!3m1!4b1!4m9!4m8!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x882ff4d970138b8d:0x93291fd336e83d5f!2m2!1d-82.1833144!2d42.5895615!3e0?entry=ttu

|title= Driving directions to Dresden, Ontario from Exit 101 of King's Highway 401

|access-date= 4 January 2024

}}

From Dresden, CR 21 continues northwards (as North Street and then St. George Street) and on into Lambton County, linking Oil Springs, Petrolia, and Wyoming. It eventually intersects King's Highway 402, which runs westwards to the Canada–USA border at Blue Water Bridge, and eastwards to London to meet King's Highway 401.

CR 15, skirting Dresden to the south, links the community to Wallaceburg in the west, and runs southeast, via Kent Bridge, to Rondeau Provincial Park on the shores of Lake Erie. CR 78 provides a connection to Wallaceburg from the northern end of Dresden. From Thamesville (reached via CR 21 from Dresden), CR 2 runs southwest to Chatham and northeast to London. Further numbered roads provide links to other population centres in Chatham-Kent and adjacent counties.

{{Google maps |url=https://www.google.com/maps/place/Chatham-Kent,+ON,+Canada/@42.4451858,-82.3382644,10z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x882ff8f7996ba99b:0xa0069610bfa50dde!8m2!3d42.4078419!4d-82.1910374!16zL20vMDE4Zjdk?entry=ttu

|title=Numbered roads in Chatham-Kent

|access-date= 4 January 2024}}

Public transit is provided by the municipality's Ride CK service.

{{cite web

|url=https://www.chatham-kent.ca/transit/Pages/default.aspx |title=Ride CK, Chatham-Kent's Public Transit Service |website=Municipality of Chatham-Kent

|date=n.d.

|access-date=4 January 2024

}}

Route A connects Dresden to Wallaceburg and Chatham.

{{cite web

|url=https://www.chatham-kent.ca/transit/Documents/Route%20A.pdf

|title=Route A

|website=Municipality of Chatham-Kent

|date=June 2021

|access-date=4 January 2024

}}

Several private companies have started operating long-distance intercity coach services since Greyhound withdrew from Canada in 2021.{{cite web

|url=https://www.chathamthisweek.com/news/local-news/expanding-flixbus-expansion-will-include-chatham-kent

|title=Expanding FlixBus expansion will include Chatham-Kent |last=Juha

|first=Jonathan

|date=3 March 2023

|access-date=4 January 2024 |website=Chatham This Week

}}

The multi-use Trans-Canada Trail, also known as the Great Trail, skirts the southwestern edge of Dresden

{{cite web

|url=https://www.chatham-kent.ca/services/gettingaround/Documents/CK%20Cycling%20Map%20April8%20FINAL%202021%20AODA.pdf#page=2

|title=Chatham-Kent Cycling Map

|at=See inset map B2 on p. 2

|date=20 April 2021

|website=Municipality of Chatham-Kent

|access-date=4 January 2024

}}

and connects to the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail at Clearville in the southeast of Chatham-Kent and, in the northwest, to the St. Clair River Trail at Whitebread. Within Dresden, the Trillium Trail provides a natural-surface and off-road connection between downtown and the Josiah Henson Museum of African-Canadian History. Dresden is also part of the Underground Railroad Bicycle Route, with a spur taking in Windsor, North Buxton, Chatham, and Dresden,

{{cite web |url=https://www.adventurecycling.org/routes-and-maps/adventure-cycling-route-network/ugrr-detroit-alternate/

|title=UGRR Detroit Alternate

|date=n.d.

|access-date=4 January 2024

|website=Adventure Cycling Association

|at=See section "DET ALT 2 - Sombra, ON to Owen Sound, ON (223.9 mi.)" and map linked from "Details".

}}

and of a barn quilt trail, "Into the Dawn".

Detroit Metropolitan Airport, often referred to as DTW, is the nearest major international airport to Dresden. There are many smaller airports in Chatham-Kent and adjacent counties.

{{Google maps

|url=https://www.google.com/maps/search/airports+in+chatham-kent/@42.4679631,-82.471607,9.4z?entry=ttu

|title=Airports in Chatham-Kent

|access-date= 4 January 2024

}}

The nearest railway station to Dresden is Chatham train station. It is served by Via Rail services running between Toronto and Windsor.

Local government is provided by the Municipality of Chatham-Kent. Its responsibilities include the provision, management or oversight of water treatment, parks, libraries, garbage collection, public transit, land-use planning, traffic signs and lights, police, paramedics, fire services, sewers, homeless shelters, childcare, and recreation centres.

{{cite web

| url = https://www.chatham-kent.ca/localgovernment/educationalresources/Pages/default.aspx

| title = Local Government : Educational Resources

| date = 23 October 2023

| publisher = Municipality of Chatham-Kent

| access-date = 28 December 2023

}}

The Municipality's governing council has 18 members: the mayor,

{{cite web

| url = https://www.chatham-kent.ca/localgovernment/mayor/Pages/Mayor-Darrin-Canniff.aspx

| title = Local Government : Mayor Darrin Canniff

| date = 10 January 2023

| publisher = Municipality of Chatham-Kent

| access-date = 28 December 2023

}} elected municipality-wide, and 17 councillors, elected across six municipal wards.

{{cite web

| url = https://www.chatham-kent.ca/localgovernment/Documents/Ward%20Map.pdf#search=map%20of%20wards

| title = Ward Boundaries

| date = 20 November 2019

| publisher = Municipality of Chatham-Kent

| access-date = 28 December 2023

}} Dresden is within the ward of North Kent (Ward 4), which has two councillors.

{{cite web

| url = https://www.chatham-kent.ca/localgovernment/elections/Documents/Ward4_PollingLocations.pdf#search=map%20of%20wards

| title = Ward 4{{snd}}North Kent : Municipal Election

| date = 27 June 2022

| publisher = Municipality of Chatham-Kent

| access-date = 28 December 2023

}} At the last election, in 2022, Jamie McGrail

{{cite web

| url = https://www.chatham-kent.ca/localgovernment/councillors/Pages/Jamie-McGrail.aspx

| title = Local Government : Jamie McGrail

| date = 15 February 2023

| publisher = Municipality of Chatham-Kent

| access-date = 28 December 2023

}} and Rhonda Jubenville

{{cite web

| url = https://www.chatham-kent.ca/localgovernment/councillors/Pages/Rhonda-Jubenville.aspx

| title = Local Government : Rhonda Jubenville

| date = 15 February 2023

| publisher = Municipality of Chatham-Kent

| access-date = 28 December 2023

}} were elected to represent North Kent for a four-year term (2022-2026).

{{cite web

| url = https://www.chatham-kent.ca/localgovernment/elections/Documents/OfficialElectionSummaryReport.pdf#page=2

| title = Election Summary Report : General Election : Municipality of Chatham-Kent : October 24, 2022 : Councillor Ward 4 (Vote for 2)

| date = 25 October 2022

| publisher = Municipality of Chatham-Kent

| access-date = 28 December 2023

}}

In Dresden, the Municipal Service Centre at 485 St. George Street provides access to all municipal services and also to services provided by the provincial government of Ontario, such as driver's licences and licence plates, Ontario Photo Cards{{refn|group=lower-alpha |A card providing government-issued identification to Ontarians who do not have a driver's licence}}, health cards, birth certificates, and other essential documents.

{{cite web

| url = https://211ontario.ca/service/71350463/

| title = Chatham-Kent (Municipality of). Municipal Services : Dresden Municipal Service Centre

| date = 13 December 2023

| publisher = 211 Ontario

| access-date = 28 December 2023

}} Ontario's responsibilities include health, education, river and road vehicle licensing, energy, human rights, natural resources, the environment, and social services.

An elementary school, Dresden Area Central School,

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.app.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/sift/schoolProfile.asp?SCH_NUMBER=148660&x=12&y=16

| title=Elementary School Profile : Dresden Area Central School (148660)

| website=School Information Finder

| publisher=Ontario Ministry of Education

| date=15 January 2024

| access-date=23 January 2024

}}

and a secondary school, Lambton-Kent Composite{{

refn|group=lower-alpha |In Canada, a secondary school offering both academic and vocational subjects and courses.}} School,

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.app.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/sift/schoolProfileSec.asp?SCH_NUMBER=921530&x=31&y=13

| title=Secondary School Profile : Lambton Kent Composite School (921530)

| website=School Information Finder

| publisher=Ontario Ministry of Education

| date=15 January 2024

| access-date=23 January 2024

}} serve Dresden and nearby communities. The Dawn-Euphemia Elementary School lies near Dresden.

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.app.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/sift/schoolProfile.asp?SCH_NUMBER=135135&x=11&y=11

| title=Elementary School Profile : Dawn-Euphemia School (135135)

| website=School Information Finder

| publisher=Ontario Ministry of Education

| date=15 January 2024

| access-date=23 January 2024

}} The Lambton-Kent District School Board is responsible for public education in Dresden and its municipality, Chatham-Kent. The Dresden Private Mennonite School serves the Mennonite community.

The Dresden Sidestreets Youth Centre offers afterschool activities for ages 11 to 17, including a homework programme, games and karaoke, and involvement in community activities, such as clean-up days.

{{

cite web

| url=https://211ontario.ca/service/71350105/dresden-sidestreets-youth-centre-dresden-sidestreets-youth-centre/

| title=Dresden Sidestreets Youth Centre : Agency Profile

| website=211 Ontario

| publisher=211 Ontario North

| date=12 January 2024

| access-date=23 January 2024

}}

{{

cite web

| url=https://patternenergy.com/a-place-for-youth-a-place-for-community/

| title=A Place for Youth, A Place for Community

| last=Oldfield

| first=Natasha

| publisher=Pattern Energy

| date=12 November 2021

| access-date=23 January 2024

}}

The Dresden Library, a branch of the Chatham-Kent Public Library, offers a collection of books, magazines, movies, music, eBooks, audiobooks, microfilm, microfiche, and local history resources, together with services such as a book club, story-time sessions, and access to settlement services for newcomers.

{{

cite web

| url=https://211ontario.ca/service/71350162/chatham-kent-public-library-chatham-kent-public-library-dresden-branch/

| title=Chatham-Kent Public Library Dresden Branch

| website=211 Ontario

| publisher=211 Ontario North

| date=8 December 2023

| access-date=23 January 2024

}} It occupies the original Carnegie library building on Brown Street.

The Dresden Community Healthcare Centre provides primary care.{{cite web |title=Dresden Community Healthcare Centre |url=https://eriestclairhealthline.ca/displayService.aspx?id=112195 |website=ErieStClairhealthline.ca |publisher=Chatham-Kent Family Health Team |date=18 September 2023 |access-date= 10 December 2023}} It is staffed by a medical team that includes family doctors, nurse practitioners, and nurses. The Centre provides access to dietitians, social workers, pharmacists, occupational therapists, and foot-care specialists, and offers a diabetes management programme for adults with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

{{

cite web

| url=https://eriestclairhealthline.ca/displayService.aspx?id=163611

| title=Diabetes Wellness Program

| website=ErieStClairhealthline.ca

| publisher=Home And Community Care Support Services

| date=18 September 2023

| access-date=24 January 2024

}} The nearest hospital to Dresden is in Wallaceburg. It provides basic hospital and healthcare services, and has emergency rooms and a 5-bed in-patient unit.

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.eriestclairhealthline.ca/displayService.aspx?id=40344

| title=Wallaceburg Site

| website=ErieStClairhealthline.ca

| publisher=Home And Community Care Support Services

| date=9 January 2023

| access-date=24 January 2024

}}

The MacTavish Pharmacy serves Dresden and the surrounding area.

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.eriestclairhealthline.ca/displayService.aspx?id=132196

| title=MacTavish Pharmacy

| website=ErieStClairhealthline.ca

| publisher=Home And Community Care Support Services

| date=23 June 2023

| access-date=24 January 2024

}} In Ontario, pharmacists are authorized to prescribe medications for 19 minor ailments.

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.cpso.on.ca/en/Public/Services/Patient-Help-Centre/FAQs-for-Patients

| title=FAQs for Patients : What kinds of issues can a pharmacist help me with?

| website=cpso.on.ca

| publisher=The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario

| date=5 January 2024

| access-date=24 January 2024

}}

In Chatham-Kent, Dresden's municipality, in-home and community-based care is coordinated by the Erie St. Clair branch of Ontario's Home and Community Care Support Services organization.{{refn|group=lower-alpha |Formerly known as the Erie St. Clair LHIN (Local Health Integration Network), and still appearing as such in some web pages and publications.}} Through its portal,

{{

cite web

|url=https://www.eriestclairhealthline.ca/index.aspx?region=ChathamKent

|title=Health Services for Chatham-Kent

|website=ErieStClairhealthline.ca

|publisher=Home and Community Care Support Services

|access-date=24 January 2024

}} it provides access and referrals to other community services. It also manages placements in Ontario's care-homes, and works together with primary care providers, hospitals, Ontario Health Teams, and other healthcare services.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) maintains a list of registered doctors,

{{

cite web

| url=https://doctors.cpso.on.ca/?search=general

| title=Doctor Search : Advanced Search

| website=cpso.on.ca

| publisher=The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario

| at=Select 'Dresden' from drop-down menu in 'City/Town' box.

| access-date=24 January 2024

}} and the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario (RCDSO) a list of registered dentists.

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.rcdso.org/find-a-dentist/search-results?Alpha=&City=dresden&MbrSpecialty=&ConstitID=&AlphaParent=&Address1=&PhoneNum=&SedationType=&SedationProviderType=&GroupCode=&DetailsCode=

| title=Dentist Search Results : Dresden

| website=rcdso.org

| publisher=Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario

| access-date=25 January 2024

}}

Regular events include a "Show & Shine" for classic cars, and weekly concerts in the summer in the Rotary Memorial Gardens. In the spring, in a ceremony organised by the Dresden & District Horticultural Society, memorial and tribute trees are planted in parkland to commemorate the lives of people from Dresden and the surrounding area. Each year, a Terry Fox Run takes place on the second Sunday after Labour Day,

{{cite web

|url=https://www.chathamdailynews.ca/news/local-news/terry-fox-run-returns-in-person-to-communities-across-chatham-kent

|title=Terry Fox Run returns in-person to communities across Chatham-Kent

|last=Shreve

|first=Ellwood

|website=chathamdailynews.ca

|publisher=Postmedia Network Inc.

|date=16 September 2022

|access-date=5 February 2025

|quote=The Dresden Terry Fox Run [...] co-ordinator Megan Robinson said [it] is "our cause, it's what we do. We always say, 'It's Terry Time' and everybody rallies around us." Robinson credits Cindy Brewer, who ran the event for 25 years, for setting the precedent [...].

}} and 1 August, Emancipation Day, is celebrated.

{{cite web

|url=https://www.chathamdailynews.ca/entertainment/local-arts/josiah-henson-museum-celebrates-emancipation-day

|title=Josiah Henson museum in Dresden celebrates Emancipation Day

|last=Terfloth

|first=Trevor

|website=chathamdailynews.ca

|publisher=Postmedia Network Inc.

|date=27 July 2024

|access-date=5 February 2025

}}

Inductions into the Dresden Sports Hall of Fame are made every two years in a ceremony at the Ken Houston Memorial Agricultural Centre.

{{cite web

|url=https://www.chathamdailynews.ca/sports/local-sports/dresden-sports-hall-of-fame-inducting-four-individuals-four-teams

|title=Dresden Sports Hall of Fame inducting four individuals, four teams

|last=Malone

|first=Mark

|website=chathamdailynews.ca

|publisher=Postmedia Network Inc.

|date=12 April 2023

|access-date=14 December 2023

}}

A Guest Worker Appreciation Day, welcoming Jamaican and other seasonal workers for the tomato-canning season, was held for the first time in August 2023.

{{cite web

|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/dresden-guest-workers-1.6939420

|title=Dresden community welcoming Jamaican workers back for canning season

|last=CBC News

|website=www.cbc.ca

|publisher=CBC/Radio-Canada

|date=18 August 2023

|access-date=12 December 2023

}}

{{cite interview

|last=Melnyk

|first=Nancy

|interviewer-last=Nanwa

|interviewer-first=Nav

|title=Worker appreciation

|work=CBC Windsor Morning

|publisher=CBC/Radio-Canada

|url=https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2255912003691

|date=17 August 2023

|access-date=12 December 2023

}}

In early fall, an "Art in the Park" arts-and-crafts show takes place in the Tony Stranak Conservation Area.

{{

cite web

| url=https://allevents.in/chatham/dresdens-7th-annual-art-in-the-park/200023286328009/

| title=Dresden's 7th Annual Art in the Park

| publisher=AllEvents

| date=2 September 2023

| access-date=16 February 2024

}}

Black History Month, a time for reflection and an opportunity to celebrate the contributions and achievements of Black Canadians, takes place in February, with events and programs in Dresden's schools and at the Josiah Henson Museum of African-Canadian History.

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/celebrate-black-history-month-with-the-josiah-henson-museum-of-african-canadian-history-858036417.html

| title=Celebrate Black History Month with the Josiah Henson Museum of African-Canadian History

| date=5 February 2024

| access-date=16 February 2024

| publisher=CNW Group Ltd.

| website=Cision

}}

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, colloquially known by its original name of Orange Shirt Day, is observed on 30 September. It recognises the impact and legacy of the Indian residential school system on First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

{{cite web

|url=https://sydenhamcurrent.ca/2024/09/30/national-day-for-truth-and-reconciliation-and-orange-shirt-day-celebrated-in-ontario/

|title=National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day celebrated in Ontario

|website=Sydenham Current

|publisher=Glassroots Media

|date=30 September 2024

|access-date=6 February 2025

}} Remembrance Day is observed on 11 November: it commemorates the war dead, military veterans, and those who continue to serve Canada during times of war, conflict, and peace.

{{cite web

|url=https://cknewstoday.ca/chatham/news/2024/11/11/remembrance-day-ceremonies-to-be-held-across-ck

|title=Remembrance Day ceremonies to be held across CK

|first=Tamara

|last=Thornton

|website=CK News Today

|publisher=Blackburn Media

|date=11 November 2024

|access-date=6 February 2025

|quote=Ceremonies in Dresden [comprise] a Service of Remembrance held at Dresden Community Church [...], Legion members [...] marching to the cenotaph, [and] a ceremony [...] including two minutes of silence, the laying of wreaths, and a fly-over.

}}

Towards Christmas, there is a "Christmas House" tour, the ceremonial illumination of a "Tree of Tribute" to honour loved ones, and a Christmas night market. A night market is also held in the summer, and shops, entertainment venues and cultural amenities open late, year-round, on "Merry & Bright Thursday Nights".{{cite web |url=https://dresden.ca/events/ |title=All Events |publisher=Town of Dresden, Ontario |access-date=9 December 2023}}

Dresden has several sports fields, a skateboard park, a lawn bowling green, and a community swimming pool. The Ken Houston Memorial Agricultural Centre is the home arena of the Dresden Jr. Kings junior ice hockey team.

{{anchor|Raceway}}

Harness races are held at the Dresden Raceway in the warmer months. The Raceway has a ½-mile oval track with a grandstand, and offers a range of betting and dining options. The track is also used to train pacer and trotter horses, and for occasional demolition derbies and truck and tractor pulls.{{cite web |url=https://dresden-raceway.ca/ |title=Dresden Raceway |website=Dresden Raceway |access-date=3 December 2023}}

The Dresden Fair, with an exhibition, a cattle show, and a midway, takes place over three successive days towards the end of July each year.{{cite web |url=https://dresdenex.com/?page_id=6266 |title=Dresden Fair |website=Dresden Agricultural Society |access-date=3 December 2023}} It has been held, in one form or another, for nearly 150 years.{{cite web |last1=Burns |first1=Helen Watson |title='Over The Years' of the Dresden Agricultural Society : A history of the Camden and Dresden Agricultural Societies from its inception in 1875 to the present day |publisher=Dresden Agricultural Society |location=Dresden, Ontario |date=1975 |url=https://images.ourontario.ca/Partners/CKPL/CKPL0027490791T.PDF |website=Chatham-Kent Public Library Digital Collections |access-date=3 December 2023}}

Dresden has many small and a few medium-sized businesses, ranging from gas stations to restaurants, specialty retail stores and service providers. The community maintains a directory of businesses, churches and local organizations.

{{

cite web

|url=https://dresden.ca/#:~:text=Dresden%20Business%20%26%20Organization%20Directory

|title=Dresden Business & Organization Directory

|access-date=7 January 2024

|website=Explore Dresden

|publisher=Downtown Dresden Business Improvement Area (B.I.A) and Dresden Community Development Association

}}

Since 1947, Dresden has hosted ConAgra Foods' tomato processing plant, a major local employer.{{cite web |last1=Hill |first1=Millar |title=Conagra celebrates 75 years of tomato processing in Dresden |url=https://cknewstoday.ca/news/2022/06/27/conagra-celebrates-75-years-tomato-processing-dresden |website=CK News Today |access-date=25 November 2023 |date=27 June 2022}} In September 2023, the parent company announced a significant upgrade and expansion of the facility.{{cite web |last1=Branthôme |first1=François-Xavier |title=Conagra Brands announces upgrades to tomato processing plant in Ontario |url=https://www.tomatonews.com/en/conagra-brands-announces-upgrades-to-tomato-processing-plant-in-ontario_2_2126.html |website=Tomato News |access-date=25 November 2023 |date=13 October 2023}} Other small-to-medium-sized firms in Dresden include

Martinrea Metallic Canada Inc., part of Martinrea International, an auto parts manufacturer; Richkote Metal Finishing Inc.; Waste Wood Disposal Ltd.; and MPT Inc., a provider of automated manufacturing systems.

The community publishes a weekly newsletter, WhatsUpDresden!

{{

cite web

|url=https://dresden.ca/subscribe/

|title=Subscribe to WhatsUp Dresden!

|publisher=Downtown Dresden Business Improvement Area (B.I.A) and Dresden Community Development Association

|website=Town of Dresden, Ontario

|access-date=7 January 2024

}} Many of Dresden's community organizations have a presence on social media, notably Facebook.

{{

cite web

|url=https://www.facebook.com/search/pages/?q=Dresden%20Ontario

|title=Search results for Dresden Ontario Pages

|website=Facebook

|access-date=7 January 2024

}}

Several local and regional newspapers and national news outlets typically cover events in Dresden:

{{columns-list|colwidth=15em|style=width: 600px|

• CBC News (and radio)
• Chatham Daily News
• Chatham-Kent This Week
• Chatham Voice
• CK News Today
• Global News Canada
• London Free Press
• Sydenham Current
• The Herald
• Wallaceburg Courier Press

}}

The trade press, such as The Grower and Tomato News, cover agribusiness.

{{anchor|Newspaper archive}}

Several weekly newspapers used to be published in Dresden: The Gazette, Dresden Times, Dresden News, North-Kent Leader, and Dresden Leader-Spirit. Chatham-Kent Public Library maintains a comprehensive (though incomplete) archive that can be consulted at the Dresden Library branch.

{{

cite web

|url=https://www.chatham-kent.ca/library/services/localhistory/Pages/Community-Newspapers.aspx#DR

|title=Dresden newspapers

|website=Chatham-Kent Public Library

|publisher=Municipality of Chatham-Kent

|date=21 April 2023

|access-date=7 January 2024

}}

A number of radio stations broadcast or stream from Chatham-Kent.

{{

cite web

|url=https://streema.com/radios/Chatham_Kent_ON

|title=Chatham-Kent ON Radio Stations

|publisher=Streema

|date=2024

|access-date=7 January 2024

}}

After military service in World War II, Hugh Burnett returned to his home town of Dresden to set up a carpentry business. He found that because he was Black, some restaurants refused to serve him. In 1948, he and other African-Canadians founded the National Unity Association (NUA) to campaign to make such discrimination illegal. Among their first acts was the circulation of a petition to 118 business owners and local politicians asking for support to end the practice in Dresden. 115 signed in favour. After sustained lobbying by the NUA, the town then held a referendum in December 1949 that asked: "Do you approve of the council passing a bylaw licensing restaurants in Dresden and restraining the owner or owners from refusing service regardless of race, colour or creed?" Out of 1250 eligible voters, 625 voted. However, only 108 votes were cast in favour, with 517 against{{snd}}the approximate ratio of Black to non-Black residents of Dresden.{{cite web |publisher=Ontario Heritage Trust |url=http://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/CorporateSite/media/oht/PDFs/Hugh-Burnett-NUA-ENG.pdf |title=Hugh Burnett and the National Unity Association |archive-date=4 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004232211/http://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/CorporateSite/media/oht/PDFs/Hugh-Burnett-NUA-ENG.pdf}}

This outcome galvanized support for an anti-discrimination law to be adopted at provincial level. The campaign culminated in March 1954, when Burnett was part of a large delegation of labour, church and civil society organizations that presented the case for legislation directly to Ontario Premier Leslie Frost and his cabinet. Soon after, the Ontario Fair Accommodation Practices Act was passed, and came into effect in June that year. It stated that: "No person shall deny to any person or class of persons the accommodation, services or facilities available in any place to which the public is customarily admitted because of the race, creed, colour, nationality, ancestry or place of origin of such person or class of persons."{{cite web |title=An Act to promote Fair Accommodation Practices in Ontario |website=Canada's Human Rights History |publisher=historyofrights.ca |at=Section 2 |type=legislative act |url=https://historyofrights.ca/wp-content/uploads/statutes/ON_Fair_Ac.pdf |date=6 April 1954 |access-date=9 December 2023}}

However, some restaurants and barbers still refused to serve African-Canadians. Justice William Schwenger investigated the complaints as a one-man commission. On the basis of his recommendations, Charles Daley, the minister of labour, declined to prosecute two Dresden restaurant owners who had refused to serve Black people. Daley said "I understand these people will in future obey the law, although I have not spoken directly to them".{{cite news |title=Won't Prosecute 2 Dresden Café Owners – Daley |newspaper=Toronto Daily Star |pages=1 |date=20 October 1954}}

To test this assertion, Hugh Burnett, Bromley Armstrong and Ruth Lor Malloy, together with a reporter, went to Kay's Café, Morley McKay's restaurant, on 29 October 1954. They were denied service.

{{

cite news

|title=Dresden's Color Bar Still Up, Rap Daley Failure To Apply Law

|date=30 October 1954

|access-date=8 February 2024

|newspaper=Toronto Daily Star

|last=McNenly

|first=Pat

|pages=1–2

|location=Dresden, Ontario

|url=https://humanrights.apps01.yorku.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/dresden-5.jpg

|type=clipping

|via=York University's 'Long Road to Justice' project

}} McKay was the first person to be charged under the Act.{{cite news |title=Amid sweeping change, a pivotal anniversary goes unremarked |newspaper=Toronto Star |date=6 July 2008 |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/2008/07/06/amid_sweeping_change_a_pivotal_anniversary_goes_unremarked.html}} A few months after the conclusion of a long legal battle,{{cite web |url=https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/pages/programs/provincial-plaque-program/provincial-plaque-background-papers/hugh-burnett-and-the-nua#:~:text=between%20them.26-,A%20new%20civil%20right,-Intense%20pressure%20was |title=Hugh Burnett and the National Unity Association : Background Papers (section 'A new civil right') |date=2010 |website=Provincial Plaque Background Papers |publisher=Ontario Heritage Trust |access-date=9 December 2023 |quote=For the first time in Canada, racial equality was declared a civil right, and racial discrimination was confirmed as illegal.}} McKay made his restaurant open to everyone.{{cite journal |last=Lambertson |first=Ross |date=2001 |title='The Dresden Story': Racism, Human Rights, and the Jewish Labour Committee of Canada |url=https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/llt/2001-v47-llt_47/llt47art02.pdf#page=38 |journal=Labour / Le Travail |volume=47 |issue=Spring, 2001 |at=p. 79 & footnote 126 |jstor=25149113|access-date=9 December 2023 |quote=On 16 November 1956, a test group from the NUA asked for service at Kay's Café, and the owner complied.}}

In 1954, the conflicting attitudes of Black and non-Black Dresden residents towards the issue were recorded in The Dresden Story, a 30-minute National Film Board (NFB) documentary.{{NFB film | id= dresden_story | title= The Dresden Story}}. In 2000, the NFB released the 47-minute documentary Journey to Justice, an examination of the fight for Black civil rights from the 1930s to the 1950s that places The Dresden Story in historical context.{{NFB film | id= journey_to_justice | title= Journey to Justice}}. Among others, it features Bromley Armstrong and Ruth Lor Malloy, who were also the subject of a 2014 CBC News report showing them revisiting Dresden 60 years on.

{{

cite AV media

| url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFIqUJlk88o

| title=How a group stood up for civil rights in an Ontario town

| date=15 November 2014

| publisher=CBC News

| series=The National

| access-date=11 February 2024

| via=YouTube

}}

To Serve: Hugh Burnett: Shaping civil rights in Canada, a 23-minute CBC Radio documentary about the Dresden story, aired in July 2013.

{{

cite AV media

| url=https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.2909673

| title=To serve: Hugh Burnett: Shaping civil rights in Canada

| date=15 July 2013

| publisher=CBC/Radio-Canada

| people=Kevin Philipupillai (producer)

| series=The Current

| access-date=16 February 2024

| type=Radio broadcast

}}

On 31 July 2010, a bilingual plaque to honour Hugh Burnett and the National Unity Association was unveiled in Dresden.

{{cite sign |title=Hugh Burnett and the National Unity Association / Hugh Burnett et la National Unity Association |author=Ontario Heritage Trust Provincial Plaque Program |date=31 July 2010 |lang=en,fr |location=On the northeast corner of the intersection of St. George Street and St. John Street, Dresden, Ontario |url=https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/plaques/hugh-burnett-and-the-nua |access-date=9 December 2023 |medium=Ontario Provincial Plaque}}

The English version reads:

{{Blockquote

|text=Hugh Burnett and the National Unity Association

Between 1948 and 1956, the National Unity Association (NUA) of Chatham, Dresden and North Buxton, under the leadership of Hugh R. Burnett, waged a campaign for racial equality and social justice. Their efforts led to the passage of Ontario's Fair Employment Practices Act (1951) and Fair Accommodation Practices Act (1954), and laid the groundwork for subsequent human rights legislation in Ontario and across Canada. Traditional Anglo-Canadian rights, such as freedom of association and freedom of commerce, had historically been interpreted to permit discrimination on grounds of race, colour or creed in providing services to the public. The NUA inspired recognition of freedom from discrimination as a fundamental principle; this led to a revolutionary change to the course of Canadian law and Canadian history. Hugh Burnett and the NUA were early pioneers in the articulation of equality rights for all Canadians, now constitutionally inscribed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.}}

In 1949, Dresden was about 17% Black.{{cite book |title=The Blacks in Canada : A History |last=Winks |first=Robin W. |author-link=Robin Winks |page=457 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |isbn=9780228007890 |edition=3rd |year=2021 |orig-date=1971}} The proportion of Black residents dropped to 11% in 2001, and reached a historic low of 5.5% in 2016.{{cite web |last1=Government of Canada |first1=Statistics Canada |title=Census Profile, 2016 Census - Dresden [Population centre], Ontario and Ontario [Province] |url=https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=POPC&Code1=0238&Geo2=PR&Code2=35&Data=Count&SearchText=dresden&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&TABID=1 |website=www12.statcan.gc.ca |date=8 February 2017}}

• In the first chapter of her memoir Brightening My Corner (2023),

{{

cite book

| last=Lor Malloy

| first=Ruth

| date=2023

| title=Brightening My Corner : a Memoir of Dreams Fulfilled

| publisher=Barclay Press

| location=Newberg, Oregon

| chapter=Chapter 1: Dresden, 1954

| pages=15–18

| isbn=9781594980329

}}

the journalist, writer and activist Ruth Lor Malloy relates how, in 1954, she took part in the sit-ins in Dresden restaurants that refused to serve Blacks.

• Dick Wright's memoir, Dresden Life Remembered (2009), describes the town he grew up in during the 1940s and early 1950s.

{{

cite book

| last=Wright

| first=Dick

| date=2009

| title=Dresden Life Remembered

| publisher=Xlibris

| isbn=9781441556233

}}

• In Welcome Home: Travels in Smalltown Canada, first published in 1992,

{{

cite book

| last=McLean

| first= Stuart

| author-link=Stuart McLean

| date=1992

| title=Welcome Home : Travels in Smalltown Canada

| location=Toronto

| publisher=Viking Penguin

| isbn=9780140157291

}}

the radio broadcaster and author Stuart McLean shared his experiences of Dresden and several other small Canadian towns. The Dresden chapter describes encounters with, among others, pharmacists, barbers, factory workers, shopkeepers, teachers, doctors, farmers, tomato processors, accountants, the chief of police, and the mayor. Welcome Home won the 1993 Canadian Authors Association Award for Best Non-Fiction Book, and was widely acclaimed.

{{

cite book

| last=McLean

| first= Stuart

| author-link=Stuart McLean

| date=1994

| title=Welcome Home : Travels in Smalltown Canada

| at=See section "Praise for Welcome Home" inside front cover

| location=Toronto

| publisher=Penguin Canada

| via=Internet Archive

| url=https://archive.org/details/welcomehometrave00mcle

| url-access=registration

| isbn=9780140231854

}}

• The later version of Josiah Henson's autobiography (1876) recounts his experiences at the Dawn Settlement, then adjacent to Dresden, including the erection of a sawmill, lumbering operations, and the establishment of the British-American Institute.{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/01286470.4806.emory.edu/page/n203/mode/2up?q=Hughes&view=theater

| title='Uncle Tom's story of his life' : an autobiography of the Rev. Josiah Henson (Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom") : from 1789 to 1876

| last=Henson

| first=Josiah

| author-link=Josiah Henson

| year=1876

| editor-last=Lobb

| editor-first=John

| website=Internet Archive

| publisher=Christian Age Office

| location=London

| pages=124–135, 163–175

| access-date=28 December 2023

}}

• Parker Theophilus Smith, carpenter, pharmacist and one-time president of the Banneker Institute in Philadelphia, lived with his family in Dresden in 1861/62. He helped build a house for Josiah Henson and establish a literary and debating society. He described his experiences in letters published in the Christian RecorderSmith, Parker T. (1861). [https://archive.org/details/christianrecorder_1861_no26_to_38/page/n21/mode/1up "Letter from Canada West"], 10 August, p.122, cols. 5 & 6; [https://archive.org/details/christianrecorder_1861_no26_to_38/page/n36/mode/1up "Letter from Canada"], 7 September, p.138, cols. 4 & 5; [https://archive.org/details/christianrecorder_1861_no_39_to_51/page/n13/mode/1up "Letter from Canada"], 26 October, p.166, cols. 5 & 6. The Christian Recorder.

Philadelphia: African Methodist Episcopal Church. Retrieved 16 March 2024{{snd}}via Internet Archive. and collected in the Black Abolitionist Papers.{{cite book |last=Reid-Maroney |first=Nina |editor-last1=de B'béri|editor-first1=Boulou Ebanda |editor-last2=Reid-Maroney |editor-first2=Nina |editor-last3=Wright |editor-first3=Handel Kashope |title=The Promised Land: History and Historiography of the Black Experience in Chatham-Kent's Settlements and Beyond |publisher=University of Toronto Press |pages=106–128 |chapter=Chapter 6: 'A Contented Mind is a Continual Feast': Tracing Intellectual Migrations through the Promised Land |year=2014 |isbn=9781442667464 |doi=10.3138/9781442667457-007 |location=Toronto |name-list-style=amp}}

• Rev. Lewis Champion Chambers, a freedman, was engaged by the American Missionary Association (AMA) in 1858 to minister to small groups of rural Blacks in the hinterland of Dresden, where he farmed. His letters to AMA's secretary record the people to whom he ministered, the services and meetings he held, the prejudices he encountered, and the conditions faced by Black newcomers to Canada West.

{{cite book

|title=A Black American Missionary in Canada : The Life and Letters of Lewis Champion Chambers

|first=Lewis Champion

|last=Chambers

|editor-first=Hilary Bates

|editor-last=Neary

|date=2022

|orig-date=letters composed 1859–1860

|publisher=McGill–Queen's University Press

|location=Montreal & Kingston

|at=pp. 19–32 & 40–41 (context), 44–94 (letters)

|doi=10.1515/9780228015536

|isbn=978-0-2280-1447-8

|oclc=1334604525

}}

• Rev. Thomas Hughes, who moved to Dresden in 1859 to establish a school and church (now Christ Church Anglican), wrote a letter each year to his employer, the Colonial Church and School Society (CCSS). The letters were published in the CCSS's annual reports.

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.huronresearch.ca/findingchristchurch/primary-source-archive/

| title=Finding Christ Church : Primary Source Archive : CCSS reports

| date=18 May 2019

| publisher=Huron University College

| location=London, Ontario

| at=See: "Dresden" or "Rev. Hughes" sections in reports for 1860-1865, 1867, 1869.

| access-date=22 January 2024

}}

He also kept a diary of his doings and reflections from 1861 to 1873.

{{

cite web

|url=https://www.huronresearch.ca/phantomsofthepast/diary-of-thomas-hughes/

|title=The Diary of Thomas Hughes

|website=Phantoms of the Past: Slavery, Resistance, and Memory in the Atlantic World

|publisher=Huron University College

|location=London, Ontario

|date=c. 2011

|access-date=21 January 2024

|quote=

}}

• In the 1850s, the American abolitionist and author Benjamin Drew [de] travelled throughout Canada West interviewing former slaves. His A North-side View of Slavery (1856) has a chapter on Dresden and the neighbouring Dawn Settlement that contains first-hand testimonies by Black residents.{{rp|308–320}}

• The Commemorative Biographical Record of the County of Kent (1904) declares, in its preface, that "[...] the history of any country resolves itself into the biographies of its stout, earnest and representative citizens". The nearly 200 instances of "Dresden" in the text lead to biographies and family genealogies ranging in length from passing references to a page or more. Indexed by family name, it includes many people prominent in the settlement, founding and early development of the community.

{{

Cite book

|url=https://images.ourontario.ca/Partners/CKPL/CKPL0027161831T.PDF

|title=Commemorative biographical record of the County of Kent, Ontario : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and many of the early settled families : Illustrated

|at=Search for "Dresden"

|date=1904

|publisher=J. H. Beers

|place=Toronto

|via=Chatham-Kent Public Library Digital Collections

|isbn=9780659094865

|access-date=10 January 2024

}}

• Dresden is one of three small southern Ontario towns forming the case-studies for Rebecca Beausaert's Pursuing Play: Women's Leisure in Small-Town Ontario, 1870{{ndash}}1914 (2024), which examines women's recreational activities, both public and private, and their shaping by gender, class, and ethnicity.

{{

cite book

|title=Pursuing Play: Women's Leisure in Small-Town Ontario, 1870{{ndash}}1914

|first=Rebecca

|last=Beausaert

|publisher=University of Manitoba Press

|location=Winnipeg

|date=2024

|isbn=978-1-772-84077-3

|oclc=1456024091

}}

• The intertwined strands of evangelical and abolitionist culture in mid-nineteenth century Dresden are described in Nina Reid-Maroney's The Reverend Jennie Johnson and African-Canadian History, 1868-1967 (2013).

{{cite book

|title=The Reverend Jennie Johnson and African-Canadian History, 1868-1967

|last=Reid-Maroney |first=Nina

|publisher=University of Rochester Press

|location=Rochester, NY

|date=2013

|isbn=9781580464475

|jstor=10.7722/j.ctt2jbm4t.7

|id={{Project MUSE|73659|type=book}}

|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_ZGJN8qkqpwC&pg=PA34

|chapter=Chapter 2: 'As Lively Stones' : Abolitionist Culture in Johnson's Dresden

|via =Google Books}}

• Written for children in grades 6 to 9, Season of Rage: Hugh Burnett and the Struggle for Civil Rights (2005), by John Cooper, dramatises how Dresden became a centre of Canada's civil rights struggle in the 1950s.

{{

cite book

| last=Cooper

| first=John

| date=2005

| title=Season of Rage: Hugh Burnett and the Struggle for Civil Rights

| location=Dresden, Ontario

| publisher=Tundra Books

| isbn=9780887767005

}}

• Don Spearman's 1991 Landmarks From The Past : A pictorial history of Dresden and area, is a large-format, thematically organised collection of photographs, short biographies and reminiscences accumulated by the author during his more than 50 years as a journalist in the town.

{{

cite book

| last=Spearman

| first=Don

| date=1991

| title=Landmarks From The Past : A pictorial history of Dresden and area

| location=Dresden, Ontario

| publisher=Stephen Lane Enterprises

| isbn=096906313X

}}

• Published in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the Dresden Fair and its accompanying exhibition, Helen Watson Burns's Over The Years (1975) is a detailed history of the Camden and Dresden Agricultural Societies, covering the evolution of the Fair and including the development of the Dresden Raceway.
• Alda L. Hyatt's The Story of Dresden 1825{{snd}}1967 (1967)

{{

cite book

| last=Hyatt

| first=Alice L.

| title=The Story of Dresden 1825{{ndash}}1967

| date=June 1967

| publisher=The Dresden Times

| url=https://archive.org/details/hyatt_202501

| access-date=25 January 2025

| via=Internet Archive

}} was published to commemorate Canada's Confederation Centennial. In this large-format, illustrated work, a short narrative history starting with the 1790 McKee Treaty is followed by thematic chapters on churches (in detail), military history, businesses, industry, entertainment, community organizations, the professions, and sports. Many pages include advertisements for businesses operating in and around Dresden in the 1960s, and The Story concludes with the programme for Dresden's own centennial celebration on 1 July 1967.

• The comprehensive A History of Dresden by Robert Brandon, published in 1954 to commemorate the centennial of the establishment of Dresden's post-office, was supplemented in 1982 by an update, The History of Dresden, to mark Dresden's 100th year since its incorporation as a town. Both works give detailed accounts of the development of the community from its earliest days.
• Also appearing in 1954 was Helen Watson Burns's Dresden Fire Department, which explored its history from the 1870s onwards.

{{

cite book

| last=Burns

| first=Helen Watson

| date=1954

| title=Dresden Fire Department

| url=https://images.ourontario.ca/Partners/CKPL/CKPL0027110821T.PDF

| via=Chatham-Kent Public Library Digital Collections

|access-date=21 January 2024

}}

• Victor Lauriston's Romantic Kent : The Story of a County 1626–1952, published in 1952, has a chapter on Dresden, with photographs, that has a particular focus on changes in transportation, infrastructure and industry over the years.{{rp|379–390}}

Under Ontario's scheme of ecological land classification,{{rp|1}} Dresden is in the St. Thomas ecodistrict,{{cite report

|last1=Wester

|first1=M.C.

|last2=Henson

|first2=B.L.

|last3=Crins

|first3=W.J.

|last4=Uhlig

|first4=P.W.C.

|last5=Gray

|first5=P.A.

|name-list-style=&

| date=2018

| title=The Ecosystems of Ontario, Part 2: Ecodistricts

| url=https://files.ontario.ca/ecosystems-ontario-part2-03262019.pdf

| publisher=Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, Science and Research Branch

| publication-place=Peterborough

| series=Science and Research Technical Report TR-26

| chapter=Ecodistrict 7E-2 : St. Thomas Ecodistrict

| pages=408–413

| access-date=5 January 2024

}}{{rp|412}} near the border with the neighbouring ecodistrict of Essex.{{rp|406}} The town's hinterland lies in both.

An ecodistrict{{refn|group=lower-alpha |Ecodistricts are nested in an ecoregion that, in turn, is nested in an ecozone. The St. Thomas and Essex ecodistricts are part of the Lake Erie-Lake Ontario ecoregion (roughly corresponding with the Lake Erie Lowland ecoregion under the federal classification scheme) within the overarching Mixedwood Plains ecozone.{{rp|3}}}} is characterized by a distinctive assemblage of terrain, landforms, geology, soil, vegetation, water bodies, and fauna.

{{

cite web

|url=https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/subjects/standard/environment/elc/2017-1#a51

|title=Introduction to the Ecological Land Classification (ELC) 2017 : Conceptual framework and definitions

|at=Table 1: Ecological framework levels (definition of ecodistrict)

|website=Statistics Canada

|date=2017

|access-date=5 January 2024

}}

Dresden and its locale are under the jurisdiction of the St. Clair Region Conservation Authority, which covers the Sydenham River watershed and smaller watersheds draining into southern Lake Huron, the St. Clair River, and northeastern Lake St. Clair.

{{

cite web

|url=https://www.scrca.on.ca/about-us/location-map/

|title=Location Map : Area of Jurisdiction

|website=St. Clair Region Conservation Authority

|access-date=5 January 2024

}} The Authority is responsible for reducing risks to life and property from flooding and erosion; water and land stewardship; forestry; wildlife habitat creation; and outdoor recreation.

Dresden also sits within the Thames-Sydenham & Region Source Protection Region,

{{

cite web

|url=https://www.sourcewaterprotection.on.ca/about-us/

|title=Thames-Sydenham Source Protection Region

|website=Thames-Sydenham and Region Source Water Protection

|access-date=5 January 2024

}}

where a committee oversees the implementation of a plan to protect current and future sources of drinking-water.

The movement of glaciers and the influence of glacial lakes shaped the geology of the area around Dresden. Some 13 000 years ago, glacial Lake Whittlesey, followed by Lake Warren, covered most of the ecodistrict.{{rp|413}} Lake sediment settled in depressions, smoothing contours. This gently rolling landscape is now dominated by

morainal deposits{{snd}}rocky material of varying sizes carried (or pushed) and deposited by glacier ice{{snd}}overlying carbonate-rich Palaeozoic bedrock. Glaciofluvial and alluvial deposits are found in the larger river valleys, including those of the Sydenham.

Fertile, grey-brown luvisolic soils dominate the area. These developed under the original forest cover from glacial deposits, and are favoured for agricultural and horticultural crops. Regosols are associated

with alluvial deposits, such as along the Sydenham, whereas clayey gleysols are common in areas with poor drainage.{{rp|409}} Gleysols dominate to the west, in the Essex ecodistrict.{{rp|403}}

Over 80% of the landscape around Dresden is cropland or pasture, while 15% is deciduous forest (there is little coniferous), found mainly in parks, stewardship lands,{{refn|group=lower-alpha |Typically, managed under various provincial tax incentive or grant schemes.}} and natural heritage{{refn|group=lower-alpha |Such as Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest.}} areas.{{rp|410}} Mature forest is characterized by sugar maple (hard maple), American beech, white and Northern red oak, shagbark hickory, black walnut, and white walnut (butternut). Fresh, moist sites favour species including American elm, eastern cottonwood, balsam poplar, Manitoba maple, and silver maple (soft maple), with tulip tree, sycamore, and bitternut hickory preferring slopes. Dry, warm sites best suit black and chinquapin oak.

{{cite web

|url=http://www.ecozones.ca/english/region/135.html

|title=Ecoregions of Canada: Lake Erie Lowlands

|website=The Ecological Framework of Canada

|date=c. 2014

|access-date=5 January 2024

}}{{rp|410–411}} Many more species{{snd}}common, less common and rare{{snd}}inhabit the area:

{{

cite web

|url=https://fgca.net/map_pdf/7E-2.pdf

|title=Ontario Woody Species Diversity : Ecodistrict 7E-2 (St. Thomas)

|website=Forest Gene Conservation Association

|date=5 April 2017

|access-date=5 January 2024

}} some in the Sydenham River watershed are at risk.

{{

cite web

|url=https://www.scrca.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Pub-Trees-SAR-Flyer.pdf

|title=Tree Species at Risk : Carolinian Forest Zone, St. Clair Region

|format=flyer

|date=26 March 2008

|access-date=5 January 2024

|website=St. Clair Region Conservation Authority

}} Dresden's arboretum has examples of many native species.

Characteristic wildlife species include white-tailed deer, grey and red squirrel, racoon, and chipmunk. Bird species include the cardinal, wood thrush, screech-owl, great horned owl, mourning dove, green heron, pileated and red-bellied woodpecker, red-tailed hawk, northern harrier, and wild turkey.

{{

cite web

|url=https://www.birdadvisors.com/category/ontario

|title=Ontario

|website=Bird Advisors

|access-date=5 January 2024

}}

The Sydenham River is populated by many species of fish and mussels, and, in its watershed, a range of amphibians, turtles, snakes, and dragonflies. However, a number of these species are at risk.{{cite web |url=https://www.sydenhamriver.on.ca/sydenham-sar/ |title=Species at Risk in the Sydenham |website=St. Clair Region Conservation Authority{{snd}}The Sydenham River Watershed |access-date=2 December 2023}}

The climate is mild, and classified as humid continental (Köppen climate classification Dfb), which closely borders on the Dfa type.

Summer days can be hot and humid, with a July high of {{convert|27.1|C|1}} and a low of {{convert|15.7|C|1}}. In an average summer, temperatures reach or exceed {{convert|30|C|1}} on 16 days a year.

Winters are cold, with a January high of {{convert|-2.3|C|1}} and a low of {{convert|-9.0|C|1}}. Mild spells of weather occasionally lead to temperatures in excess of {{convert|10|C|1}} for one or two days, while arctic air masses can bring temperatures below {{convert|-20|C|1}} for one to three days. As Dresden is outside the snowbelt, which begins near London, Ontario, winter precipitation is usually low and snow-cover intermittent throughout the season, with an average annual snowfall of only {{convert|84.6|cm|in|1}}.

{{Weather box

|location = Dresden, Ontario (1981–2010)

|metric first = yes

|single line = yes

|Jan record high C = 15.5

|Feb record high C = 15.0

|Mar record high C = 24.4

|Apr record high C = 30.0

|May record high C = 35.5

|Jun record high C = 38.0

|Jul record high C = 36.5

|Aug record high C = 36.5

|Sep record high C = 34.4

|Oct record high C = 30.6

|Nov record high C = 22.8

|Dec record high C = 17.8

|year record high C = 38.0

|Jan high C = -2.2

|Feb high C = -0.9

|Mar high C = 4.8

|Apr high C = 12.2

|May high C = 19.6

|Jun high C = 24.7

|Jul high C = 27.1

|Aug high C = 25.9

|Sep high C = 21.4

|Oct high C = 14.6

|Nov high C = 6.9

|Dec high C = 1.1

|year high C = 12.9

|Jan mean C = −5.5

|Feb mean C = −4.4

|Mar mean C = 0.7

|Apr mean C = 7.3

|May mean C = 13.9

|Jun mean C = 19.1

|Jul mean C = 21.4

|Aug mean C = 20.3

|Sep mean C = 16.0

|Oct mean C = 10.0

|Nov mean C = 3.5

|Dec mean C = −1.7

|year mean C = 8.4

|Jan low C = -8.8

|Feb low C = -7.9

|Mar low C = -3.4

|Apr low C = 2.4

|May low C = 8.1

|Jun low C = 13.4

|Jul low C = 15.8

|Aug low C = 14.7

|Sep low C = 10.6

|Oct low C = 5.3

|Nov low C = 0.2

|Dec low C = -4.5

|year low C = 3.8

|Jan record low C = -30.0

|Feb record low C = -25.6

|Mar record low C = -22.2

|Apr record low C = -13.0

|May record low C = -3.5

|Jun record low C = 0.0

|Jul record low C = 5.5

|Aug record low C = 0.0

|Sep record low C = -3.0

|Oct record low C = -8.0

|Nov record low C = -12.0

|Dec record low C = -25.0

|year record low C = -30.0

|precipitation colour = green

|Jan precipitation mm = 51.5

|Feb precipitation mm = 48.5

|Mar precipitation mm = 55.4

|Apr precipitation mm = 79.5

|May precipitation mm = 76.5

|Jun precipitation mm = 90.2

|Jul precipitation mm = 80.4

|Aug precipitation mm = 80.2

|Sep precipitation mm = 107.5

|Oct precipitation mm = 68.7

|Nov precipitation mm = 84.8

|Dec precipitation mm = 65.6

|year precipitation mm = 888.9

|rain colour = green

|Jan rain mm = 25.1

|Feb rain mm = 25.2

|Mar rain mm = 41.0

|Apr rain mm = 74.4

|May rain mm = 76.5

|Jun rain mm = 90.2

|Jul rain mm = 80.4

|Aug rain mm = 80.2

|Sep rain mm = 107.5

|Oct rain mm = 68.5

|Nov rain mm = 81.5

|Dec rain mm = 45.4

|year rain mm = 796.0

|snow colour = green

|Jan snow cm = 26.5

|Feb snow cm = 23.3

|Mar snow cm = 14.3

|Apr snow cm = 5.2

|May snow cm = 0.0

|Jun snow cm = 0.0

|Jul snow cm = 0.0

|Aug snow cm = 0.0

|Sep snow cm = 0.0

|Oct snow cm = 0.2

|Nov snow cm = 3.3

|Dec snow cm = 20.2

|year snow cm = 93.0

|unit precipitation days = 0.2 mm

|Jan precipitation days = 11.5

|Feb precipitation days = 9.8

|Mar precipitation days = 11.2

|Apr precipitation days = 13.7

|May precipitation days = 10.8

|Jun precipitation days = 9.5

|Jul precipitation days = 10.1

|Aug precipitation days = 10.2

|Sep precipitation days = 11.5

|Oct precipitation days = 11.1

|Nov precipitation days = 12.1

|Dec precipitation days = 13.4

|year precipitation days = 134.7

|unit rain days = 0.2 mm

|Jan rain days = 4.4

|Feb rain days = 4.4

|Mar rain days = 8.1

|Apr rain days = 12.9

|May rain days = 10.8

|Jun rain days = 9.5

|Jul rain days = 10.1

|Aug rain days = 10.2

|Sep rain days = 11.5

|Oct rain days = 11.1

|Nov rain days = 11.0

|Dec rain days = 7.9

|year rain days = 111.8

|unit snow days = 0.2 cm

|Jan snow days = 7.5

|Feb snow days = 5.9

|Mar snow days = 3.9

|Apr snow days = 1.3

|May snow days = 0.0

|Jun snow days = 0.0

|Jul snow days = 0.0

|Aug snow days = 0.0

|Sep snow days = 0.0

|Oct snow days = 0.06

|Nov snow days = 1.2

|Dec snow days = 7.2

|year snow days = 27.0

|source 1 = Environment Canada{{cite web| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190828185832/http://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_normals/results_1981_2010_e.html?searchType=stnProv&lstProvince=ON&txtCentralLatMin=0&txtCentralLatSec=0&txtCentralLongMin=0&txtCentralLongSec=0&stnID=4625&dispBack=0| archive-date = August 28, 2019 |url=http://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_normals/results_1981_2010_e.html?searchType=stnProv&lstProvince=ON&txtCentralLatMin=0&txtCentralLatSec=0&txtCentralLongMin=0&txtCentralLongSec=0&stnID=4625&dispBack=0 |title=Dresden, Ontario |work=Canadian Climate Normals 1981–2010 |date=25 September 2013 |publisher=Environment Canada| access-date = August 28, 2019}}

|date=August 2010

}}

• Josiah Henson (1789–1883) was an author, abolitionist, and minister. Born a slave, he escaped to Upper Canada (now Ontario), and, near Dresden, founded the British-American Institute, a vocational school associated with the Dawn Settlement, a community comprising refugees from slavery and freedmen and women. His autobiography is believed to have inspired the titular character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.
• William Whipper (1804–1876), an African-American businessman and abolitionist, made substantial foundational investments in land, property and businesses in Dresden.
• Samuel H. Davis (1810–1907), an American pastor and abolitionist, became a headmaster at the British-American Institute. An experienced mason, he oversaw the construction of the First Regular Baptist Church in Dresden, donating 100 cords of wood to pay for the sawing of the lumber used, and succeeded William P. Newman as lead pastor.
• William P. Newman (1810/15–1866), a fugitive slave who became a Baptist minister, made numerous mission trips to Canada, founding schools and writing on abolitionist themes. A headmaster at the British-American Institute, he raised much of the funding for the construction of the First Regular Baptist Church in Dresden, and was its first pastor.
• Thomas Hughes (1818–1876), an English Anglican minister and abolitionist, moved to Dresden in 1859 at the request of Black leaders and under the aegis of the Colonial Church and School Society to establish a mission school and mission church{{refn|group=lower-alpha|A church that does not have full status as a parish church, and is supported by a parish, diocese, or other organization.}} (now Christ Church Anglican) within the newly established Diocese of Huron.
• Thomas Robert McInnes (1840–1904), a Canadian physician, Member of Parliament, Senator, and a lieutenant-governor of British Columbia, was Dresden's first doctor.
• Anna Maria Weems (c. 1840–after 1863), born a slave in Rockville, Maryland, escaped at the age of 15, disguised as a coachman, to her aunt and uncle's home in Dresden. Abolitionists and Underground Railroad station-masters and conductors, including William Still, planned and oversaw her journey via Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Brooklyn, New York.
• Asa Ribble (1841–1911), a sailor who attained the rank of captain, served eight terms as mayor of Dresden. During his first term, in 1889, he oversaw the construction of a new bridge over the Sydenham River, replacing the 1864 original. He was also superintendent of agriculture for the short-lived Dresden Sugar Refining Company, which processed sugar beet. In addition, he was instrumental in establishing Dresden's first vegetable-canning factory.
• Lucretia Newman Coleman (1856–1948), born in Dresden, was the youngest daughter of William P. Newman. She became an African-American writer and journalist, publishing articles on scientific and philosophical themes that were well received by her contemporaries. Her poems, and her novelised biography of Benjamin Arnett, Poor Ben: A Story of Real Life, were critically acclaimed.
• Tom MacInnes (né Thomas Robert Edward McInnes) (1867–1951), son of Thomas Robert McInnes, was a Canadian poet and writer whose works include Lonesome Bar (1909; recollections of the Yukon gold rush), The Teaching of the Old Boy (1927; a translation of and commentary on Lao-tzu's philosophy), and three collections of poems.
• William Wallace Burns McInnes (1871–1954), son of Thomas Robert McInnes, was a Canadian politician, lawyer, and commissioner of Yukon in 1905-06.
• George Tackaberry (1874–1937) was a Canadian boot-maker who invented a long-lived brand of ice hockey skate sold by CCM, known as the "Tack".
• Eustace Haydon (1880–1975), a Canadian historian of religion and leading light in the humanist movement in the USA, was a Baptist minister in Dresden in 1903-04.
• Mildred Valley Thornton {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSA|date=1954}} (née Stinson) (1890–1967), a Canadian artist, is known for her portraits of First Nations people and advocacy for First Nations' and women's rights. She has works in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada and several other galleries.
• Goldwin Corlett Elgie (1896–1975) was a lawyer and politician in Ontario. He represented Woodbine in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1934 to 1943, and from 1945 to 1948 as a Conservative and then Progressive Conservative member.
• Abraham Feinberg (1899–1986), an American rabbi, singer and activist who lived much of his life in Canada, took part in the campaign to promote equal rights for African-Canadians, visiting Dresden.
• Hugh Burnett (1918–1991), a carpenter in Dresden and Canadian civil rights leader, co-founded the anti-discrimination National Unity Association, whose efforts led to the passage of Ontario's Fair Employment Practices Act (1951) and Fair Accommodation Practices Act (1954). This paved the way for subsequent anti-discrimination legislation in Ontario and across Canada.{{anchor|Spearman}}
• Bromley Armstrong {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|CM|OOnt}} (1926–2018), Canadian civil rights leader, promoted equal rights for African-Canadians and took part, in 1954, in sit-ins in Dresden restaurants that refused to serve Blacks.{{anchor|Stranak}}
• Ruth Lor Malloy (née Lor) (born 1932), Canadian journalist, writer, and activist, was a key figure in the fight against discrimination in Ontario in the 1950s, and participated, with Bromley Armstrong and Hugh Burnett, in the 1954 sit-ins in Dresden restaurants that refused to serve Blacks. Her memoir Brightening My Corner: a Memoir of Dreams Fulfilled was published in 2023.
• Ken Houston (1953–2018), a Canadian ice hockey player in the Canadian National Hockey League (NHL) between 1975 and 1984, helped the Calgary Flames reach the NHL playoff semifinals in 1981.The ice hockey arena in Dresden, the Ken Houston Memorial Agricultural Centre, is named in his honour, and the Ken Houston Memorial Pace, an annual harness horse race at Dresden Raceway, is dedicated to him.
• Jeff Jackson (born 1965) is CEO of hockey operations for the Edmonton Oilers and a former professional ice hockey winger, playing in 263 games in the Canadian National Hockey League. He played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, Quebec Nordiques, and Chicago Blackhawks.
• Thomas James Brodie (born 1990), raised on a farm near Dresden, is a Canadian professional ice hockey player for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Canadian National Hockey League.

File:World War I Memorial, Dresden, Ontario, 2024-08-31.jpg

The Dresden Cenotaph, sited at the corner of St. George Street and Queen Street, displays the names of the dead of World War I, World War II, and the Korean War.

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/tinhutjohn/albums/72157603720999200/

| title=Dresden Ontario Cenotaph

| type=Photo album

| last=Sargeant

| first=John P.

| date=14 January 2008

| website=Flickr

| publisher=SmugMug+Flickr

| access-date=17 December 2023

}}

{{Google Maps |url=https://www.google.com/maps/place/Dresden+Cenotaph/@42.5909331,-82.1797338,3a,75y,352.41h,86.46t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sMqEGHM_S6SQ1BlK9hZvpBw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m14!1m7!3m6!1s0x882ff56945df122d:0xa346259e8f549ad8!2sDresden+Cenotaph!8m2!3d42.5908431!4d-82.1794971!16s%2Fg%2F11qndwtkd1!3m5!1s0x882ff56945df122d:0xa346259e8f549ad8!8m2!3d42.5908431!4d-82.1794971!16s%2Fg%2F11qndwtkd1?entry=ttu

|SV=yes

|date=September 2023

|title=Dresden Cenotaph

|access-date=17 December 2023}}

It is complemented by information about the dead held by the Canadian Virtual War Memorial

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial

| title=The Canadian Virtual War Memorial (CVWM)

| department=Veterans Affairs Canada

| publisher=Government of Canada

| date=n.d.

| access-date=17 December 2023

}}

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/results?surname=&forenames=&initials=&keyword=Dresden&submit=Search®iment=&cemetery=&war=100&book=100&fmonth_of_death=&fday_of_death=&fyear_of_death=&umonth_of_death=&uday_of_death=&uyear_of_death=

| title=The Canadian Virtual War Memorial{{snd}}Search Results{{snd}}Displaying 28 results for your search term(s): Dresden

| department=Veterans Affairs Canada

| publisher=Government of Canada

| date=n.d.

| access-date=17 December 2023

}}

and Library and Archives Canada.

{{

cite web

| url=https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/help/kia

| title=Second World War Service Files{{snd}}War Dead, 1939 to 1947

| department=Library and Archives Canada

| publisher=Government of Canada

| date=n.d.

| access-date=17 December 2023

}}

{{

cite web

| url=https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Home/Search?DataSource=Genealogy%7CMilitary%7CKia&q=dresden&

| title=Collection Search{{snd}}Second World War Service Files{{snd}}War Dead, 1939 to 1947{{snd}}keyword Dresden

| department=Library and Archives Canada

| publisher=Government of Canada

| date=n.d.

| access-date=17 December 2023

}}

In Dresden Cemetery, a war memorial is dedicated to those who were killed in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. A surrounding memorial field contains crosses commemorating each of the dead.

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/national-inventory-canadian-memorials/details/5000

| title=Dresden Cemetery War Memorial

| department=Veterans Affairs Canada

| publisher=Government of Canada

| last=Deacon

| first=Rhonda

| date=28 June 2021

| access-date=17 December 2023

}}

The cemetery, which has over 7000 memorials, also displays a memorial plaque marking the movement, between 2004 and 2006, of nearly 1000 erosion-threatened gravesites: these include those of several church founders, church leaders, abolitionists, Underground Railroad conductors, and town founders. A public park, the Rotary Memorial Gardens, contains memorial stones.

In Dresden, two honour rolls inside St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church list the names of parishioners who served in the military in World Wars I and II.

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/national-inventory-canadian-memorials/details/3010

| title=Dresden Presbyterian Church Honour Rolls

| department=Veterans Affairs Canada

| publisher=Government of Canada

| last=Deacon

| first=Rhonda

| date=28 June 2021

| access-date=17 December 2023

}}

Honour rolls are also displayed inside the First Regular Baptist Church{{snd}}for parishioners who served in World War II;

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/national-inventory-canadian-memorials/details/3014

| title=Queen Street Baptist Church Second World War Roll of Honour

| department=Veterans Affairs Canada

| publisher=Government of Canada

| last=Deacon

| first=Rhonda

| date=28 June 2021

| access-date=17 December 2023

}}

inside the North Dresden Baptist Church{{snd}}for those who served or were killed in World War II;

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/national-inventory-canadian-memorials/details/3012

| title=North Dresden Baptist Church Second World War Roll of Honour

| department=Veterans Affairs Canada

| publisher=Government of Canada

| last=Deacon

| first=Rhonda

| date=28 June 2021

| access-date=17 December 2023

}}

and inside Christ Church Anglican{{snd}}for those who served in World Wars I and II.

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/national-inventory-canadian-memorials/details/3011

| title=Christ Church Roll of Honour

| department=Veterans Affairs Canada

| publisher=Government of Canada

| last=Deacon

| first=Rhonda

| date=28 June 2021

| access-date=17 December 2023

}}

As an act of remembrance, the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 113 Dresden displays a poster of a particular veteran each week in the Legion Hall.

The Gathering Our Heroes C-K project is compiling a database of all veterans of both World Wars with a connection to Chatham-Kent. Starting in 2013 with the digitization of books of remembrance, by the end of 2023 it had accumulated entries for over 10,000 people, drawing on military records, newspaper reports, and submissions by members of the public. Besides names and service details, many entries include biographical information.

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.gatheringourheroes.ca

| title=Gathering Our Heroes

| publisher=Chatham-Kent Museum

| access-date=15 February 2024

}}

A plaque on the bank of the River Sydenham

{{

cite sign

|title=Actual Site of Dresden Cave In : August 14, 1957 : In Loving Memory of Those Who Died : Wiebrand Hovius, Enne Hovius, Hendrik Drenth, Jan Bremer, Jan Oldewening, Dirk Ryksen : In His Wisdom We Trust

|author=

|date=14 August 2002

|location=On the south bank of the River Sydenham, off Sydenham Street, Dresden, Ontario

|type=Metal plaque mounted on boulder

}}

commemorates six men killed on 14 August 1957 at a cave-in

{{

cite news

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/501540404/

|url-access=subscription

|title=6 Die, Probe Cave-in : Cement Traps 3 Bodies in Dresden Excavation

|date=15 August 1957

|pages=1, 3, 6, 8, 16, 17

|newspaper=The Windsor Daily Star

|quote=The dead [are] all Dutch immigrants[.]

|last1=Douglas

|first1=Ted

|last2=McKinnon

|first2=Blair

|last3=Shields

|first3=Bill

|access-date=10 January 2024

|via=Newspapers.com

}}

during excavations for the building of a water-treatment plant.

{{

cite news

|newspaper=The Herald

|title=Memorial to a tragedy: Dresden and Aylmer forever linked by cave-in

|last=Carter

|first=Marie

|date=21 August 2019

|at=pp. 9 & 12, & see editorial on p. 4

}} A documentary has been in development since 2023.

{{cite news

|newspaper=London Free Press

|url=https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/documentary-to-shed-light-on-1950s-dresden-workplace-tragedy/

|title='Urgency': Filmmaker racing a clock to retell 1957 Dresden disaster

|date=6 April 2024

|last=Terfloth

|first=Trevor

|publisher=Postmedia

|access-date=4 May 2024

}}

{{cite AV media

|people=Philpott, Eric (director)

|date=27 June 2024

|title=Dresden 1957{{snd}}In Their Words (Families of the Victims Speak)

|type=6-minute video of interview highlights

|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaTqGy8PSzQ

|access-date=5 September 2024

|location=Dresden, Ontario

|via=YouTube

}}

Inside the Ken Houston Memorial Agricultural Centre, two plaques record the dedication of both the old municipal arena building and its replacement, the current Centre,{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Known as the Lambton-Kent Memorial Agricultural Centre until December 2018.

{{

cite news

| url=https://www.chathamthisweek.com/news/local-news/dresden-arenas-new-name-honours-ken-houston

| title=Dresden arena's new name honours Ken Houston

| last=Terfloth

| first=Trevor

| website=Chatham-Kent This Week

| publisher=Postmedia

| date=11 September 2018

| access-date=17 December 2023

}}}}

as a memorial to those who served in the military or were killed.

{{

cite web

| url=https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/national-inventory-canadian-memorials/details/3013

| title=Lambton-Kent Memorial Agricultural Centre Memorial Plaques

| department=Veterans Affairs Canada

| publisher=Government of Canada

| last=Deacon

| first=Rhonda

| date=28 June 2021

| access-date=17 December 2023

}}

Ken Houston is himself commemorated by a statue outside the Centre.

{{

cite web

| url=https://cknewstoday.ca/chatham/sports/2022/4/26/ken-houston-statue-unveiled-dresden

| title=Ken Houston statue unveiled in Dresden

| last=Hill

| first=Millar

| website=Chatham-Kent This Week

| publisher=Postmedia

| date=27 April 2022

| access-date=17 December 2023

}} The Tony Stranak Conservation Area commemorates a long-serving former mayor of Dresden, while all Dresden's mayors, from 1882 to 1997, are memorialised on a plaque in the Municipal Centre.

{{

cite sign

| url=https://sydenhamcurrent.ca/2022/03/10/tbt-list-of-dresdens-mayors-from-1882-to-1997/

| title=Mayors

| author=Corporation of the Town of Dresden

| date=c. 1997

| journal=Sydenham Current

| publication-date=10 March 2022

| series=List of Dresden's Mayors from 1882 to 1997

| format=inside the Dresden Municipal Centre at 485 St. George Street, Dresden, Ontario

}}

{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

• {{cite book |title=The Blacks in Canada: A History |last=Winks |first=Robin W. |author-link=Robin Winks |chapter=Chapter 7. The Canadian Canaan, 1842–1870|pages=178-232 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |location=Montreal & Kingston|isbn=978-0-228-00789-0 |oclc=1202439639 |edition=3rd |year=2021 |orig-date=1971}} An overview of church missionary activities and Black communitarian efforts in Canada West during Dresden's settlement and growth.
• {{cite web |url=https://www.huronresearch.ca/findingchristchurch/primary-source-archive/1900s/#:~:text=1954%20Newspaper%20Clippings |title=Civil rights in Chatham-Kent: newspaper clippings |date=May 2019 |orig-date=1954{{ndash}}1956 |website=Finding Christ Church |access-date=10 September 2024}} Clippings from the Dresden Times and Chatham Daily News about the struggle for human rights in Dresden in the mid-1950s.

• [http://www.dresden.ca Dresden website]

{{authority control}}

Category:Black Canadian settlements

Category:Communities in Chatham-Kent

Category:Underground Railroad locations in Canada

Category:Black Canadian culture in Ontario