The Founding of Renfrew
Text from the plaque
Attracted by the development of the lumbering industry in the Upper Ottawa valley, a few settlers had located in this region by 1830. Six years later Xavier Plaunt acquired land here, near the second chute of the Bonnechere River and by 1848 was selling village lots and had provided land for the community's first church. In that year a post office, Renfrew, was opened and in 1851 the settlement contained a sawmill, grist-mill, tannery and foundry. The movement into Renfrew of settlers from neighbouring townships, and the opening in 1854 of the Opeongo Road from Farrell's Landing on the Ottawa River, stimulated the community's growth, and four years later it was incorporated as a Village. In 1895 it became a Town.
Transcribed from the marker, not summarised.
Find the place
The County of Renfrew
The Town of Renfrew
On the north side of Railway Avenue between
Raglan Street South (Highway 60) and Plaunt Street South
Also recorded for this place: The Town of Renfrew
N 45 28.386 W 76 41.075
Recorded July 2005. Check current access before visiting.
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Visitors' notes
November 23, 2014
My Ancestor, Sgt Henry Airth, Sr. was one of the first families settling in Renfrew, circa 1829. He came with the Scottish land settlement people from Rutherglen, Lanarkshire, Scotland, to McNabb, but moved during the winter months to the area of what was to become Renfrew.