The pioneer settlement of Waterdown and the wilderness that was East Flamborough during the 1830s was, according to an article printed in 1855 by the “Hamilton Herald Evening Times”, greatly changed, as an extract from that account shows.
“Waterdown is approached from the city of Hamilton, five miles distant, by a new gravelled road, one of the most serpentine and romantic in the province. From the high table-land on which it is situated may be seen the wooded knolls of Burlington Heights, now attired in their gorgeous foliage; the bay and enchanting district towards Niagara; eastwards, the extensive and fertile tract of the country, studded with handsome farm-houses, stretching on the north of Lake Ontario, in the direction of Toronto.”
By 1861, Waterdown is prospering, and industry is growing. In the Census for that year, William Robson, an Englishman, is listed as a miller. His business was a flouring, stave and barrel factory. The enumerator wrote, “this establishment is new and first class. The main building is 5 stories high. The propelling power is a 30 foot water wheel and steam providing more than 35 hp.”
Within another four years, The Hamilton Spectator reported that:
“in 1865 the water power of the creek propelled the machinery of three flour mills, a rake factory, a chair factory and two saw mills. The Waterdown Flour Mills were owned by the Hon. W. P. Howland of Toronto, the second lieutenant-governor of Ontario, and were erected in 1860 of stone, four stories high, capacity 150 barrels per day. There was a stave factory in connection with the mill.”
Further to this mill, Sutherland’s City of Hamilton and County of Wentworth Directory for 1865-66 describes the mill complex in even greater detail. Besides the flour mill, there was a large stone grain storehouse, a stave factory
“where about a half a million staves are cut per annum; twelve hands are kept employed; and in addition to the water power, a steam engine of forty horse is also used …… the whole costing about thirteen thousand dollars.”
A very different view of the village of Waterdown is recorded by James Croil in his Church Agent’s Diary 1866-1867. The author of the manuscript was a journalist and historian. He was not very impressed, as on Thursday, 19th April 1866, he wrote:
“Waterdown is a dull straggly village with a number of churches all better looking than ours.” (St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church on Main Street North) “Most of them bear marks of recent additions to their size.”
By the end of the decade, Waterdown was regarded as the most important village in the Flamborough area. The Great Western Railway was located only two miles from the village core on the Waterdown Road. In the City of Hamilton and County of Wentworth 1869 Directory, the village was noted for “some excellent manufacturing establishments”. Among the mills listed, L. A. Cummer, owner of the Upper mills, was manufacturing flour, Indian mill and feed, Read Baker’s Rake and Cradle Factory was producing over 50,000 rakes and 3,000 grain cradles a year, John Creen was cutting two and a half million feet of lumber annually, and 20,000 shingles daily. There was also mention of a woollen works, wagon shop owned by Edward Burns, and a brass foundry under Hiram Broadbent. Several notable private and public buildings receive mention, including the two storey stone Grammar and Common School, the town hall, in which the Mechanics Institute meets and keeps its library and the churches, “five in number, and very creditable for the place, four being built of cut and hammered stone, and the other a well finished frame”.
Prosperity was at a high in the township and the village in the 1880s. An example of this is shown in a description of one of the mills on the Grindstone Creek in Waterdown, given in the “Toronto Globe” of 1885.
“The mills belonging to W. P. Howland, of Toronto, and the Robson Bros., of Waterdown”,consisted of“the large flouring mill, stone, five stories high; a long range building used as a storehouse for flour of which it contained about 1,000 bbls., and coarse grain; a shed containing a large quantity of cut staves; several small sheds; the office, a stone building; a large drive barn with stone stabling; a considerable quantity of cord wood and stave bolts ……. About fourteen families have been kept in employment, and the farmers of the vicinity have a ready market for their grain.”
The “Hamilton Evening Times” of the same date went on to say that:
“The mills were the largest and most complete in the Province. The machinery was nearly all new, and of the most approved kind. The capacity of the mill was 175 barrels every 24 hours.”
These accounts selected from a variety of sources give some idea of the enormous changes that occurred in the township, as it was transformed from a rugged forest wilderness to a comfortable farming community and prosperous village in less than 100 years.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 1992, 2022.
