Perhaps you have heard of Crooks’ Hollow, a small community near Greensville that has virtually disappeared. But, most likely you have not. If you take a walk today into Crooks’ Hollow, you may still see evidence of a thriving industrial empire – one of the earliest in Upper Canada and the industrial centre of West Flamborough Township for most of the 19th and early 20th century. Crooks’ Hollow was at one time the site of more than 12 mills and factories, and provided jobs for over 100 men – its development coming about through the foresight and ambition of a young entrepreneur named James Crooks.
Crooks was born on April 15, 1778 in Kilmarnock, Scotland. At the age of 13, he and his older brother William left Scotland to join a half-brother in America. They sailed to New York, and settled near Niagara Falls where they were employed as storekeepers. The two brothers enjoyed modest success, and petitioned for land in Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake), Upper Canada, and moved there in 1979. They quickly became successful merchants, being the first to ship flour from Upper Canada to Montréal. In 1808, in Newark, James Crooks married Jane Cummings of Chippawa, and raised a family of 9 sons and 4 daughters.
Crooks was an ambitious man and while living in Niagara in 1811, he and his wife bought 400 acres of land in West Flamborough Township. At the time, the township had few settlers, but Crooks saw the area’s potential as a milling site, and had visions of an industrial empire. He may have also anticipated the developing hostilities between Upper Canada and the United States and the need for mills to be away from the border.
These 400 acres of land would eventually be part of over 6000 acres that James Crooks owned, both in West Flamborough and east of Toronto. He bought land along the Trent River, and developed a small community there known as Crooks’ Rapids, which was later re-named Hastings. He built a house in Crooks’ Hollow and planted one of the first orchards in the township. Two years later in 1813, he built a grist mill along Spencer Creek, then known as the Flamboro’ Stream. This mill, which he named the Darnley Mill, was the first of many to be built in the settlement, soon to be known as Crooks’ Hollow. It had four run of stone, and was unusually large for an early mill being powered by an overshot wheel. Ever an astute business man, James Crooks used the mill to produce the flour needed by the British army, fighting in the War of 1812. During these hostilities, Crooks’ house in Niagara was burnt and his ship, “Lord Nelson” was seized by American troops. He later joined the militia and served as Captain of the 1st Regiment of the Lincoln Militia stationed at Queenston, before returning home to West Flamborough.
During the next ten years, Crooks added a saw mill, general store, cooperage, blacksmith shop, carding mill and distillery close to the creek. A small village began to develop as more and more people came to the Hollow to work in Crooks’ mills and factories, and he is credited with building the first industrial housing for his workers.
In 1826, a prize was offered to the first producer of paper in Upper Canada. In a mill specially constructed for the purpose of using linen rags, Crooks was the first to succeed and was awarded the prize of £125. This mill in crooks’ Hollow was the first paper mill in Upper Canada, and winning the competition resulted in instant fame for his industrial empire.
Besides his involvement in his many businesses, James Crooks was also at the forefront of community politics. Between 1827 and 1831, he was instrumental in the planning and building of the road from Guelph to Dundas, which was an enormous improvement for trade and travel between communities north of the escarpment. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada in 1821, and held the position until 1831, when he was appointed Legislative Councillor for the United Canadas, a position that granted him the title ‘Honourable’.
He helped finance the erection of the first school in Crooks’ Hollow, and for many years was a member of the West Flamborough Township Council.
About 1850, water power in the creek began to decline, and the arrival of the railway in Hamilton impacted on the milling industry in surrounding communities. Mills in Crooks’ Hollow continued to operate but saw little further expansion. In 1851, Crooks anticipated the changes and sold most of his businesses. The paper mill, at one time so successful, continued to run under various ownerships until 1922. The Darnley Mill was sold to James Stutt and converted to become another paper mill. Mills and factory shops closed one by one, except the distillery which continued in operation – at one time, being the largest in Ontario, feeding 2700 livestock animals just from the waste. Nonetheless, like the other mills, it too fell to urban competition.
James Crooks died in 1860 and is buried in the Grove Cemetery in Dundas, Ontario. At the time of his death, his community was in decline, residents left to search for work in Hamilton and Dundas. By the 1930s every industry had closed and today the only remaining traces of Crooks’ empire are the walls of the Darnley Grist Mill. How strange that the first mill to be erected is the only one remaining to honour Crooks’ industrial empire.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 2001, 2023.
