The Founding of Almonte
Text from the plaque
The sawmill and grist-mill completed here on the Mississippi River in 1823 by Daniel Shipman provided a 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 2,000, Almonte was proclaimed a town in 1880.
Transcribed from the marker, not summarised.
Find the place
The County of Lanark
The Town of Mississippi Mills
In Almonte, on the south bank of the Mississippi River at a parking lot on Bridge Street across from Water Street
Also recorded for this place: The County of Lanark
N 45 13.587 W 76 11.654
Recorded May 2017. Check current access before visiting.
More information
More views
Where it stands
