Crooks’ Hollow

History

Crooks’ Hollow was founded by Scottish born James Crooks who immigrated to Upper Canada while still in his early teens. When James first arrived he joined his older brother Francis, who had been operating a store in Fort Niagara. Crooks established his own store by 1807. Newly married, it was now time to settle down and raise a family.

It was war and politics that forced Crooks to relocate his centre of operations to Flamborough Township. After Francis passed away in 1797, the Crooks brothers, James and William, purchased several parcels of land along Spencer Creek. They intended to build a grist mill.

The mill’s construction began in 1811. Unfortunately the War of 1812 intervened. Crooks returned to the Niagara area to fight against the Americans. After being captured by the US Navy, he escaped only to find his Niagara home destroyed. If that weren’t enough, the Americans also captured the schooner, which James and his brother purchased several years earlier to transport supplies. It sank during a violent storm on Lake Ontario in 1813. With nothing left to hold him in Niagara, Crooks and his family returned to Flamborough to start a new life.

The Crooks’ Hollow area had its industrial beginnings in 1801. That’s when Jonathon Morden, a sawyer by trade, built a sawmill on Spencer Creek. Crooks constructed a new dam and sluice, south of the Morden property. He then completed a grist mill, known as Darnley Mill after Lord Darnley, in 1813.

To emphasize, Crooks was first and foremost an industrialist. As a result, he went on to build an empire that was massive for its time and astounding, even by today’s standards. In 1825 he built his second storehouse on Spencer Creek. A paper mill, the first in Canada, followed in 1826.

By 1829, the settlement expanded well beyond the original mills. Additional mills included a paper mill, woollen mill and linseed oil mill. Factories and industries included a card clothing factory, agricultural implement factory and a foundry. Other trades included a distillery, cooperage and tannery. Besides the trades, there were also commercial services in the form of a general store and inn. In addition, a 100-man workforce and their families lived in the log cabins within the community that aligned Spencer’s Creek for half a century.

James Crooks died in 1860 at the age of 82. James Stutt and Robert Sanderson purchased the original grist mill after Crooks died. They enlarged the structure and converted it to a paper mill. A massive boiler explosion, which tragically killed two men, struck the mill in 1885. Following reconstruction, it was back in operation. Fire gutted the mill in 1943 leading to its permanent closure.

Unfortunately, during the mid-19th century, the railways bypassed the busy little community. Gradually the remaining industries closed.

Although the city of Dundas, slightly north east, has grown to encompass Crooks’ Hollow, the area has been under the protection of the Hamilton Region Conservation Authority since 1969. Although little remains of the early structures, visitors to the site can view maps and take a walking tour through one of Ontario’s earliest industrial empires.

Thanks to Ron Barrons for the additional background information on Crooks’ Hollow.