(below) Former site of the community of Khiva; also referred to in some references, as “Holt’s Corner”. Today it is the intersection of Crediton Road and Bronson Line.

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(below) Map of a portion of Stephen Township; around Khiva, from H. Belden & Co., 1879 Historical Atlas of Huron County. North is up on the map. Note the presence of the Ratz family holdings, west of Khiva on the south side of Crediton Road, where a mill was operated by future Canadian Senator Valentine Ratz and his brother. The mill’s location is indicated by an asterisk. Also take note of the symbol on the north side of Crediton Road, just east of Khiva which represents the Khiva School House. The small black square symbols visible on the south west corner of the Khiva intersection, in all likelihood indicate the remaining presence in 1879 of the “small log tavern” built by William Holt in circa 1867. The establishment is referred to as “The One Horse Inn” in a reference from 1875. The hotel business was moved to a larger building on the north west corner by the spring of 1883. Click on map for larger version.

“We now […] come to the intersection with the Crediton Road, once a hamlet known as Khiva. Because this crossroads was at the junction of the Grand Bend to Crediton road and the Dashwood to Mount Carmel road it received considerable traffic. There is little reminder of its former life now. For years it was still called Khiva on maps, but even that memory has now been erased.

In 1867, William Holt moved from Lot 22, Con. 10 to Lot 10, Con. 13 [Stephen Township]. He built a small log tavern on the southwest corner which became known as Holt’s Corner. The tavern was licensed in 1869. With Ratz’s mills a little to the west and Crediton’s brick and tile yards less than four miles east, there was plenty of traffic past Holt’s front door: farmers taking logs and grain to the mills, teams taking lumber and farm produce to market or delivering new brick or tile from Crediton. Holt’s business soon outgrew its original premises. A substantial frame building was erected on the north side of the road, and, by the spring of 1883, the hotel business had been moved to the new building and was being operated by William Holt Jr. The Khiva post office, granted in 1878, was located in a room at the rear of the hotel’s side veranda.[Ed. note: Susan Muriel Mack’s book states on pg. 185, that Valentine Ratz acted as postmaster at this location from October 1, 1878 to the office’s closure on March 1, 1894.]

Between 1878 and 1879, Joseph Lorentz, a blacksmith, purchased half an acre of land on the north side of the road on Lot 11. Lorentz built a shop and a house and practised his trade for two years before selling his property to William Holt. Holt had four sons, William Junior, James, Charles and Alonzo. One of them had apparently trained as a blacksmith and took over the Lorentz business. In 1886, he made the seats for the Stephen Township hall at Crediton.

The local polling booth for municipal elections, held for many years on New Years Day, was located in the Khiva Hotel. Some older residents can remember their parents leaving home by cutter to vote. Sometimes voters were offered $2 to vote for one of the nominees. There was a story that the polling booth was placed beneath a stovepipe hole so that someone on the floor above could see how each voter marked his ballot!

On June 1, 1898, Bernard Barnes Cunningham took over the operation of the Khiva Hotel. As methods of transportation became more sophisticated, the hotel’s business declined. Eventually the hotel was closed. The vacant building deteriorated badly and had to be demolished. No evidence of the part it played in the development of the township remains today. Continuing west on the Crediton Road, we soon arrive at Ratz’s Mills on the south side of the road. Here John Ratz and his brother Valentine developed a flourishing business after buying the saw mill from William Fulton in 1874. The mill and workman’s houses were located between the spacious homes of the two brothers. A grist mill was operated for a number of years but the Ratz’s main business was lumber. Valentine Ratz served as Reeve, then Member of Parliament and Senator.”

(below) An image of the Khiva Hotel taken sometime after June 1, 1898, when the business was purchased by Bernard Barnes Cunningham.

extracted from “The History of Stephen Township”, by Susan Muriel Mack, 1992; pgs 231-233.