The Founding of Springfield
Text from the plaque
About 1850, some ten years after this area was settled, a school and a Methodist meeting house were erected here on the town line between the Townships of South Dorchester and Malahide. Shortly afterwards a post-office named Clunas was opened, with Archibald Clunas as postmaster. Although a village plot called Springfield was surveyed in 1857, its growth was slow until the Canada Southern Railway, completed in 1873, selected Springfield as a station site. The community quickly became the commercial centre for the surrounding fertile agricultural area and attracted a number of industries, including a flax-mill and several grist-mills. The population numbered about 800 in 1877 when Elgin County Council passed the by-law incorporating Springfield as a Village.
Transcribed from the marker, not summarised.
Find the place
The County of Elgin
The Township of Malahide
In Springfield, in a park at 51137 Ron McNeil Line (Road 52)
a block west of Whittaker Road
N 42 49.760 W 80 56.204
Recorded May 2013. Check current access before visiting.
More information
More views
Where it stands
