Milling and Distilling: by Deborah Lerech

It was often the practice to build the sawmill first as it required a smaller expenditure than the accompanying grist mill ⁴ and this was the case in Oakville as well. However, unlike other towns in Upper Canada, Oakville's gristmill was built hard upon the completion of the sawmill. The building itself consisted of stone from the bed of the river, which was easy enough; other aspects of construction were more complicated. Part of the reason the gristmill's construction was often delayed was the cost. The gristmill's production revolved around complex machinery and the "services of expert millwrights, at wages ranging from 7s6d to 10s a day". ⁵ Materials such as iron, millstones, and machine parts "that could not be made on the spot had to be brought in by vessel". ⁶ When this was accomplished the mill was completed and looked much the same as any other Upper Canadian mill. Its water-wheel was approximately twenty-four feet in height, revolving by the weight of the water falling upon it from above. Inside the process was also very similar:

Geared to the wheel was a revolving shaft which extended to the top of the building. All the machinery in the three-storey mill was run by attaching it by leather belts to this shaft. Upon its arrival at the mill grain was dumped into a hopper and hoisted by an endless chain equipped with buckets to the top storey, where it went through a cleaning process. By means of another hopper it then descended to the millstones in the second storey. Placed one above the other, the stones were not close enough to touch...the grain was admitted through a funnel into the hole or 'eye' in the centre of the upper stone... after being pulverised the flour was forced out on all sides through shallow V-shaped furrows cut in the faces of the stones...the flour fell through an opening in the floor into a bin on the first floor of the building.

The gristmill was completed just in time to compensate for a low point in British wheat production. In 1828 the "British wheat crop proved to be the poorest in a decade. Although price were stabilised by a good English harvest the following year, poor crops in 1830 and 1831 kept wheat prices at 70-75s [a quarter]". ⁷ Local milled flour from Oakville was now more necessary than ever, moreover, it was vastly less expensive than imported wheat from Europe which was expensive due to shipping costs across the Atlantic.

Travellers in the 1830s were impressed by the production of the local mills. "The gristmills in the vicinity of York...are after the American model," one observer noted, "and are certainly the most simple, effective and expeditious in their operation". ⁸ In addition to the direct production of the gristmill, there were businesses attached to it. Associated with the gristmill, "a distillery was established by Mssrs. Hopkirk and Watson, called the Oakville Brewing and Distilling Co. It used the poorer grades of grain as well as the surplus of the better grains. In addition there were many carding machines and fulling mills". ⁹

The British Parliament abolished their protectionist Corn Laws in 1846 allowing the colonies to trade more their wheat (or corn) more freely. Oakville's gristmill had been in production for fifteen years by this time. Though the laws had been changed, Oakville was not seriously affected since most of its grain was shipped across the lake to the United States. ¹⁰ The gristmill's business continued to mount steadily in the years after 1846. After a harvest "a continual stream of grain-loaded vehicles passed down the 7th Line from the north". ¹¹ The prosperity seemed endless and grain continued to be the lifeblood of both the mills and the harbour throughout the 1840s and into the 1850s.

Sometime in the 1850s, the sawmill closed down because of a drop in the water levels of the Sixteen. The gristmill, run by two of William Chisholm's sons, now ran alone. It underwent extensive alterations which "substantially expanded its output". ¹² A new dam was built, along with a mill-race by means of a tunnel through the hog back at the curve of the river. The buildings were enlarged, four extra millstones were installed, and a brick house was build for James Crozier, the miller. ¹³ In 1855 the Oakville Sentinel announced that a new mill at Oakville would be opened April 2, 1856. In the year of its opening Sir Frederick Verner painted the restored mill as viewed from the top of the east bank of the Sixteen on Dundas Street south of the 6th Line.¹⁴

With the decline of wheat agriculture in the 1870s and 1880s, the mill became less and less prosperous. In 1870 the mill had been bought by Isaac Warcup from the Chisholm brothers and, again, a new dam was built to keep the mill running. ¹⁵ By 1890 it had once again been sold to Mr. Foulds and Mr. Shaw with the intention of creating a large mill elsewhere. The stone building was demolished in 1903 and many of the materials were "shipped away by water to St. Catharines" to be used in a larger mill there. Flour milling at Oakville had finally ended; the milling of wheat was never considered for Oakville at any other point in the twentieth century. The era of agriculture in Trafalgar Township was indeed over.

Bibliography
Acheson, T.W., "The Nature and Structure of York Commerce in the 1820s", in Historical Essays on Upper Canada, ed. J.K. Johnson, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 1975
Bouchette, Joseph, British Dominions in North America, London: H. Colburn & R. Bentley, 1831
Brimacombe, Philip, The Story of Oakville Harbour, Cheltenham Ont.: Boston Mills Press, 1975
Canadian Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery, Chicago/Toronto, American Biographical Publishing Co., 1880
Henry, George, The Emigrants Guide to Upper Canada..., Quebec, 1835
Mathews, Hazel C., Oakville and the Sixteen: The History of an Ontario Port, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1953

Footnotes

1. Hazel C. Mathews, Oakville and the Sixteen: The History of an Ontario Port, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1953) p. 23
2. Ibid., p. 25
3. Canadian Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery, (Chicago/Toronto, American Biographical Publishing Co., 1880) p. 649, Joseph Bouchette, British Dominions in North America, (London: H. Colburn & R. Bentley, 1831) p. 118
4. Philip Brimacombe, The Story of Oakville Harbour
5. Hazel C. Mathews, Oakville and the Sixteen: The History of an Ontario Port, p. 24
6. Hazel C. Mathews, Oakville and the Sixteen: The History of an Ontario Port, p. 24
7. T.W. Acheson, "The Nature and Structure of York Commerce in the 1820s",(in Historical Essays on Upper Canada, ed. J.K. Johnson, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 1975) p. 181
8. George Henry, The Emigrants Guide to Upper Canada..., (Quebec, 1835) p. 106
9. Philip Brimacombe, The Story of Oakville Harbour
10. Hazel C. Mathews, Oakville and the Sixteen: The History of an Ontario Port, pp. 191-192
11. Ibid., p. 195
12. Ibid., p. 207
13. Ibid., pp. 207-208
14. Ibid., pp. 208-209
15. Ibid., p. 335