Supplemental Posts

Monday, November 14, 2016

Founding of Almonte Plaque

In Almonte just south of the Mississippi River and west of Bridge Street stands the plaque about the founding of Almonte.

THE FOUNDING OF ALMONTE
The sawmill and grist-mill completed here on the Mississippi
River in 1823 by Daniel Shipman provided the nucleus around
which a community known as Shipman's Mills had developed by
1824. About 1850 two town plots were laid out here-"Victoria"
by Edward Mitcheson and "Ramsayville" by Daniel Shipman.
They were combined in 1853 as "Waterford", which in 1855
was renamed "Almonte", probably after Juan N. Almonte, a famous
Mexican general and diplomat. The opening of several woollen
mills and the completion of a railway to Brockville fostered
the growth of Almonte, which by 1870 was one of Ontario's
leading woollen cloth manufacturing centres. Incorporated as a
village in 1871, with a population of about 2000, Almonte
was proclaimed a town in 1880.

Erected by the Archaeological and Historic Sites Board,
Department of Public Records and Archives of Ontario