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| 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 |
