Dawn Mills

History

Photo of tombstone
Pioneer tombstone
©Jeri Danyleyko

Dawn Mills got its start in the 1830s when James Smith and William Taylor erected saw, woolen and grist mills along the banks of the Sydenham River.

It began in 1826 when Captain William Taylor, originally from England, received a land grant of 100 acres along Bear Creek (now Sydenham River). Before roads and railways, waterways were the principal means of transportation. Taylor was fortunate in that there was only one water route from Kent County to Detroit, specifically the Sydenham River. He established a grist mill which thrived. He quickly acquired another 1,000 acres of grants and proceeded to build a little empire that included a general store, ship yard and lumber and woolen mills.  

The mills were badly needed. Southern Ontario has a particularly rich agricultural heritage. The growing season is long and the soil particularly lush. Farming was the principal commodity as well as the primary source of income. However, with no mills in the area, farmers had to haul their grain by canoe down the river to the mills in Detroit, a trip which could take several days.

With the success of the mills, other businesses moved in. By 1837, Smith and Taylor saw another opportunity and opened a post office, which they continued to run for the next 30 years.

All of Taylor’s sons either managed or were part owners in the mills, store and other businesses. Following William’s death, his son Thomas inherited all the family’s business interests.

By the 1850s, railways were finally making inroads into Canada’s landscape. Thomas lobbied hard to have the railway pass through Dawn Mills, without success. Seeing the writing on the wall, he sold out in 1858 following the death of his mother. The one exception was the woolen mill which he moved to nearby Chatham where he and his family settled.

By the mid-1860s, Dawn Mills was still booming. Land prices averaged $20 an acre and the permanent population had soared to 100.

D and C Arnold, who likely purchased the Taylor mills, ran flour, grist and sawmills. Another member of the Arnold clan, TS Arnold was a grain and produce dealer and also a grocer and postmaster. James Smith ran carding and fulling mills and served as JP. Like Taylor, his son James Jr was part the family business, Taylor and Son, woolen manufacturers. There were three carpenters, James Pavey, James Pengelly and James Ward. William Ward was a general merchant.

The hotels were presumably also boarding houses for the overflow of millhands. There was the Commercial Hotel, owned by William Elleston. Robert Murray operated a second hotel, known as the Fullerton House. By 1871 there was a third hotel, the Union Hotel, with William Lewiston as the proprietor. Dawn Mills even boasted a physician, Dr. Thomas McInnes, later replaced by Dr. Daniel Galbraith. A Methodist Church opened in 1868. Reverend Kerr looked after the religious needs of the Methodists while Reverend Thomas Hugh was there for the Anglicans.

By the mid-1880s, there was far less milling activity. Charles Prangley, William Taylor’s son-in-law, ran both flour and sawmills. George Nelson owned a second sawmill. One carpenter, James Pavey was still hanging in there as was William Ward’s general store. One of the three hotels was still operating. Other tradesmen included Peter Kelly, a shoemaker, Milton Purdy, a wagonmaker, and a pair of blacksmiths, brothers Leonard and Charles Peters.

By the early 1890s, the mills and hotel were all gone. Replacing them was one cheese manufacturer, James Race, who operated the Dawn Mills Cheese Manufacturing Co. That business was either not successful or relocated elsewhere by the late 1890s.

Once the mills closed, the village slowly withered away. The post office closed in 1918. The United Church (formerly Methodist) lasted until 1968. Today Dawn Mills is nothing more than a small scattering of buildings, all of which remain in use.

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