The history of Glenwood house began in Black Torrington, England, where Mary Johns (1801-1881) the wife of Samuel Johns (1801-1873), gave birth to Samuel, the younger (1825-1861), the first of their seven children.  Three years later, their second son, Joseph (1830-1910), was born.  Over the next five more children were added to the family and in 1845, the family emigrated for Canada.   Samuel the elder had preceded the family to their new home in Stratford, Canada West (formerly Upper Canada).  After an eight week voyage from England, Mary and seven children arrived at Quebec in early September.  They landed at Montreal after touching Quebec and were taken to their future home in Canada West.  From Montreal, they travelled to Lachine and from there up the Ottawa River to Ottawa, then called Bytown.  They made their way via of the Rideau canal to Kingston, where they were taken by boat to Hamilton, at the head of Lake Ontario.   For two days, the family travelled over land by wagon from Hamilton to the village of Preston (now Cambridge) and from there to Stratford, reaching their destination on September 21st.  The first half of that trip conducted by John Mackay, wagonmaster, is recorded below:

When the Johns family arrived, Stratford was still healing from sectarian violence that had erupted in January of that year.   A township meeting had been called at the schoolhouse to elect two councilors.  Two individuals stood for election:  W.F. McCullough, an English Catholic, and James Simpson, a Scottish Protestant and supporter of the Orange Lodge.  At the meeting, John Daly, an Irish Catholic was also nominated although he was not present and had no knowledge of the nomination nor was he interested in standing for election.  Daly won a respectable number of votes but was defeated nonetheless.  The bitter Irishmen retreated to local taverns where they drowned their grievances in alcohol.  The two victorious candidates retired to the the Shakespeare Hotel, where the Irish Catholics caught up to them.  Anticipating a violent reaction, their supporters had armed themselves with two bayonets and a number of ax handles, which served as clubs.  Chairs were thrown about and tables overturned and the altercation filled the hotel, nearly demolishing its interior, before it burst through the front door and onto Ontario Street.   Daly, who was the local Justice of the Peace, had anticipated the riot and had made available 30 special constables who intervened, sparing lives but leaving many people seriously injured.   Before the dust had settled, 27 arrests had been made.   In a public speech, Daly blamed the Orange Lodge for the "Stratford Riot of 1845."   Nevertheless, Stratford was a place where prosperity awaited.  In the village of 200 there was a "post office, two doctors, grist and saw mills, various hotels, a tannery, three stores, a brewery, a distillery, a couple of taverns, two blacksmiths, a saddler, a couple of wheelwrights, three shoemakers, two tailors and an ashery for soap making."  (From Adelaide Leitch. Floodtides of Fortune. p. 41.)