Ingersoll is a town in Oxford County on the Thames River in southwestern Ontario, Canada. The nearest cities are Woodstock to the east and London to the west.Ingersoll is situated north of and near Highway 401. Oxford County Road 119 (formerly Ontario Highway 19) serves the town. The local high school is Ingersoll District Collegiate Institute.The Ingersoll area became known for home-made cheese production, beginning in the 1830s, and its County of Oxford was home to the first cheese factory in Canada in 1864. In 1866, a giant block of cheese weighing 7300lb was produced at the James Harris Cheese Factory, just south of Ingersoll, for promotion of the town's cheese industry. The "Big Cheese" was exhibited at the New York State Fair in Saratoga, NY, and then in England.Heavy manufacturing is currently Ingersoll's largest industry, including manufacturers such as CAMI Automotive, a General Motors car manufacturing plant that was originally a joint venture with Suzuki Motors of Canada.Early HistoryIngersoll’s founder, Thomas Ingersoll, was a native of England who removed to Great Barrington, Mass., and then to the Niagara District, Upper Canada in1795. In 1793 he received grant of Oxford township which became the site of the community of Ingersoll, and where he established a farm for his family and settled other families nearby. Discouraged by the slow pace of settlement, Thomas withdrew his family from Oxford in 1806, but two of his sons, Charles and James, returned to the family homestead, James in 1818 and Charles in 1821. James, born in Oxford, then was 17, his brother ten years older. Together the sons laid the foundations for the hamlet of Ingersoll.