Text from the Plaque
In 1794-5 Isaiah and Aaron Skinner built a sawmill and grist-mill near this site. A third share in the mill property was held, 1799-1805, by their brother-in-law, Parshall Terry, a member of the first Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, who had moved to this area by 1798. Terry lived nearby until his death in 1808. Later the mills were jointly owned by Colin Skinner and John Eastwood. By 1823 Thomas Helliwell had built a brewery and a distillery in the immediate vicinity and within four years Eastwood and Skinner had constructed the second paper mill in Upper Canada. A village called "Todmorden" after the English home of the Helliwells grew up to the north-east of the mills.
|