Duncrief

History

Duncrief started out as a small milling centre way back in 1835. It all began when Jeremiah Robson built a sawmill on land that owned by the Charlton brothers, Robert and Joseph Charlton. The mill attracted other businesses and settlers to the area. In 1862 James Barnes opened a post office which gave Duncrief official status.

Initially things looked quite promising for Duncrief. Joseph Stonehouse opened a general store, Robert Scott, a wagon shop and Sims Baker, a blacksmith shop. By 1869 gazetteers were describing Duncrief as a village “in the centre of a good farming district and on a never-failing stream distant 16 miles from London.” The reference to the ‘never-failing stream’ would prove to be eerily prophetic. From the 1870s until around 1900, Duncrief’s population hovered somewhere between 75 and 100.

By the mid-1880s Duncrief added a Methodist Church, school and a general store, run by Arthur Barclay. The post office moved to Barclay’s busy store in 1880, with mail coming in and going out daily. Joseph and Thomas Charlton were both running flour mills and Thomas Oliver owned the blacksmith shop.

Unfortunately Duncrief was one of those communities where growth and prosperity had a devastating effect. A forest surrounded the nearby creek. That forest also absorbed the annual spring rains and run-offs. After the settlers removed the forest, the land surrounding the creek dried up to the point where it was no longer able to absorb the excess spring moisture. The result was frequent spring floods.

Consequently those floods resulted in frequent mill washouts. There were at least two between 1865 and 95. Fire finally consumed the mill in 1895. After they learned that owner J. B. Pethram had no money to rebuild the mill, Duncrief’s residents valiantly raised the money themselves to rebuild it for yet a third time. Although they may have been eternal optimists, their efforts were completely in vain. Duncrief was a dying community.

Duncrief was never able to escape the consequences of its sad history of ecological damage. The community’s struggles finally ended in 1908 with one final mill washout. It was the end of the line for Duncrief. By 1910, Arthur Barclay, who had operated the general store and post office for 30 years, closed his doors forever. By that time the population had dropped to a mere 25. The post office officially shut down in 1913. Shortly after that Duncrief became a page in history.