Pioneer Industry
 Pioneer Industry Information Station is located in Old Mill Parkette, near the corner of Trafalgar Road and Cornwall Street. The theme of these panels is the story of industries like gristmills, sawmills and foundries that prospered in the nineteenth century as well as the tanneries and wooden box plants that lasted as long as the second half the twentieth century.
Industrial Change, 1827 to 1877
Water power from the Sixteen enabled the first industries to be established in Oakville. The first sawmill on the Sixteen was built near Upper Middle Road around 1810. William Chisholm built the first gristmill near the Speers Road bridge in 1833. Steam power came to Oakville in 1851 when Thompson Smith established a steam-driven sawmill and John Doty built a foundry on the west side of the harbour. In 1856 Thompson Smith built a steam-powered tannery on the west bank at Walker Street.
Agriculture, particularly wheat, was very important in the early years. When wheat prices fell in 1857, local farmers took advantage of their sandy soils to grow fruit, particularly strawberries. By 1870, strawberry production from over 300 acres created a local basket manufacturing industry. The focus on this research was the 19th century, although many of the early industries like boat building, basket manufacture and tanning continued well into the 20th century.
Sawmills on the Sixteen
Water powered our first industries. By 1851 there were 15 sawmills on Trafalgar Township streams. Five were on the Sixteen between Dundas Street and Lake Ontario. They were:
- Phillip Trille's mill above Upper Middle Road (c. 1810)
- George Chalmer's mill at Dundas Street (1827)
- William Chisholm's mill at Speers Road (1830)
- Hiram McCraney's mill above the QEW (1835)
- Thompson Smith's mill below Upper Middle Road (1838)
Thompson Smith also built the first steam- powered mill on the west bank of the Sixteen below the harbour bridge in 1851. Later owned by the McCraneys and the Dotys, in the 1870s it became "one of the largest mills in the country" producing boards, shingles and railway ties.
Read Deborah Lerech's essay "Sawmills on the Sixteen"
Milling & Distilling
One of Oakville's first industries was William Chisholm's gristmill. Three stories high, built of river stone on the west bank of Sixteen Mile Creek, it was upgraded in 1855 with a flume and tunnel that led under the railroad tracks from a curve in the river below the cemetery. It continued to mill flour until 1930 when it burned down. Whisky and beer are by-products of the grain business. The Oakville Brewing and Distilling Company began operating in 1836. One of Oakville's leading industries during its short existence, it distilled sixty gallons of whisky a day. Thompson Smith purchased the distillery in 1854 to house his new tannery. Another brewery soon started up on the banks of the Sixteen close to the gristmill. In 1874, it became the Chisholms' new basket factory.
Read Deborah Lerech's essay "Milling and Distilling"
Oakville's First Industrial Era
Industry prospered in Oakville during the 1840s to 1860s, with the establishment of foundries, tanneries and carriage works. In 1851 machinists John Doty and Ashley Hibberd built a foundry to manufacture sawmill equipment and steam engines. After a fire in 1854, a rebuilt foundry offered a new product: a carriage axle, invented and patented by Doty. The area's hardwoods provided raw material for horse drawn vehicles. By the 1850s, a half-dozen factories were turning out carriages, sleighs and wagons.
Thompson Smith opened a tannery in 1856 to manufacture leather boots, shoes and parts for carriages. Later, as the Marlatt and Armstrong Leather Company, the tannery was for many years Oakville's largest employer. It operated until 1925.
Read Deborah Lerech's essay "Oakville's First Industrial Era"
From Wheat to Strawberries
This region's first farmers, mainly of British descent, established themselves on lots of 200 acres after the Mississauga purchase of 1805. As they cleared their land, their first products for sale were timber and potash (from the burning of trees and stumps). By the 1840s most area farms had been cleared, and wheat became the principal crop.
After 1857, the price of wheat dropped dramatically. Farmers in the Oakville area responded by diversifying into small fruit production, particularly strawberries. Strawberries were native to the Oakville area but became a commercial crop through improvements by farmers such as John Cross who farmed on land between the railroad and Lower Middle Road (QEW). By 1870 the Oakville area had over 300 acres of strawberries.
Read Deborah Lerech's essay "From Wheat to Strawberries"
The Oakville Basket Company
The manufacture of baskets, Oakville's longest lived industry, grew out of the area's flourishing fruit industry. Pioneer strawberry grower John Cross manufactured the first wooden berry baskets of his own design in the 1860s. John A. Chisholm soon followed suit, setting up a basket factory that used a wood paring device developed by his son Charles. By 1877 nearly 750,000 baskets were being manufactured in Oakville each year. In 1889, Pharis Doty & Son took over the Chisholm factory and three years later founded the Oakville Basket Company. The company operated until 1984.
Read Deborah Lerech's essay "The Oakville Basket Company"
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