Explore the Hills of Headwaters

The Village of Erin
Heritage Sites

The poet Alexander McLachlan has credited his good friend Daniel McMillan with the founding of Erin Village, though the first sawmill on the West Credit River had been built by the Trout family in 1826, and then passed quickly to Wm Chisholm before McMillan borrowed $700, bought and upgraded the mill in 1829.

The original name of Erin Village was MacMillan's Mill. The name Erinsville was adopted in 1851 and eventually shortened.

In 1879 a branch of the Credit Valley Railway was completed from Toronto through Brampton, Cheltenham, Inglewood and Cataract to Erin. That same year, by virtue of a by-law of Wellington County, the Village of Erin was incorporated as a refuge for some 700 souls. The Cromaboo Mail Carrier: A Canadian Love Story by Mary Leslie (aka James Thomas Jones) offers an unflattering fictionalized depiction of Erin Village as it was in 1878. Today, one can read a more modern account of the town online -- A Brief History of Erin Village -- and even a history of McMillan's Mills.

Special Activities

Porcupine’s Quill – Erin

• Throughout the day maps will be available at The Porcupine’s Quill (68 Main Street) which will enable visitors to take self-guided walking tours of the downtown.
• Print a one page map of the town with numbered sites
• The Porcupine's Quill will also feature book signings by authors:
  10:00 to 12:00 - Richard Nevitt (A Caledon Sketchbook)
  12:00 to 2:00 - Shane Neilson (Complete Physical)
  2:00 to 4:00 - Jane Lind (Joyce Wieland)
• The garden by the millpond (a branch of the West Credit River) features an industrious pair of muskrats who are building a nest at the base of the remnants of a hundred-year-old Black Willow.

Downtown Erin – Walking tours depart from Porcupine’s Quill, 68 Main Street, Erin

• At 10:30am Bill Dinwoody will lead a walking tour, accompanied by Lisa Brusse of Credit Valley Conservation and local historian Steve Revell, from 68 Main Street (the Porcupine's Quill), past Mundell Lumber, up Mill Street to Woollen Mill Lane and then through the Conservation area to the site of the Woollen Mill (1840). An ample exemplar of the species Castor Canadensis has been sighted in the vicinity and dubbed ‘Danny’ in memory of Erin's first master builder of dams, Daniel McMillan. A (smaller) muskrat may also entertain on the Lower Pond (north of Charles Street dam).

• Throughout the day maps will be available at The Porcupine’s Quill (68 Main Street) which will enable visitors to take self-guided walking tours of the downtown.
• At 2:00pm Steve Revell will lead a more challenging walking tour from 68 Main Street, past the Charles Street dam and Devonshire House to March Street and then up the switchback to the water tower and across the top of the moraine for an overview of the village and the edge of the Escarpment in the distance.

Both of the guided walking tours (10:30am and 2:00pm) will assemble at The Porcupine’s Quill, 68 Main Street (opposite the Esso gas station).

All Saints Anglican Church - Erin

• All Saints Anglican (81 Main Street) will feature Kersti Finnie on the pipe organ built in 1947 by Casavant Freres of Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec — a historic firm that first came to international prominence in 1891 when they installed the organ in the Basilica of Notre-Dame in Montreal.
• All Saints will also feature Anna Marie Holtom and John Wright screening ‘Stars of the Town’, one of a collection of 85 black and white films depicting day-to-day life in small town Southwestern Ontario captured by the late Rev. Leroy (Roy) Massecar (1918-1986) between 1947 to 1949. To supplement his modest Church stipend, the Rev. Massecar filmed people from various small towns, including Erin, and returned to screen the films at town halls and community centres, invited the ‘stars’ to attend, and charged an admission fee.
• ‘Stars of the Town’ will be screened at All Saints throughout the day. Admission is (now) free.
• In celebration of the 140th anniversary of the Church in 2007, a garden was created outside the Lower Hall. The Garden is available to everyone, for prayer, contemplation, and to enjoy the beauty of nature.

Century Church Theatre

• Actors from Century Church Theatre in period costume will promenade the Main Street of Erin Village. Throughout the day.

Charles Street Dam – Erin

• Looking north (upsteam) from the bridge at Charles Street, it is not uncommon to see kingfishers trolling the millpond for chub.

Mundell Mill

• Download a PDF A Brief History of McMillan’s Mills
• Woodworker Brian Oates will offer instructive tours of Mundell Mill throughout the day ~ 10:00am to 4:00pm

Pioneer Cemetery – between Erin & Hillsburgh

• Join Alan Kirkwood (whose ancestry dates back to the 1820s in Erin) as he presents photos and geneological information about the headstones in the Pioneer Cemetery.  Throughout the day.

Village of Erin
Main Street,
Erin, Ontario
www.villageoferin.ca

The Village of Erin
Incorporated: 1879

40 Main Street
As early as 1857 this was the site of the livery and drive shed for the Clark House Hotel across the street. The upper floor once housed the Township Council and Judge's Chambers, in which a man is rumoured to have been hung. In later years the storefront was operated as a garage by Roy Ferguson who specialized in Marathon gasoline, Firestone tires and Red Indian Motor Oils.

48 Main Street
The `Leslie Block' was completed in 1895 to replace an older frame structure destroyed by fire. The first tenant in the new building was A.J. Thompson who operated a furniture and undertaking business. Sometime after 1913 the building was split into two residences: the Leslie family lived in the south half, the Marshall Thompson family in the north.

58 Main Street
In 1913 F.W. Wood purchased Overlands Furniture and Undertaking business which had been located in the south half of this building. Wood sold to Stan Russell in 1921 who later sold to W.L. Brown who sold, in turn, to Calvin Weddell who shared the premises with T.C. Foster's China Shop and Grocery until Foster's death in 1937.

60 Main Street - Renaissance
G.F. Sutton sold his hardware business to J.P. Bush in 1912, at which time the local Masonic Lodge Branch 271 met regularly in the rooms upstairs. The hardware at the time specialized in Martin-Senour paints and varnishes. J.P. Bush had two sons, Tom and Bill, who managed the business as a partnership until Tom's death in 1955. Bill Bush finally retired himself in 1973.

64 Main Street: Delights
The Overland Brothers operated a grocery store at this location from 1896 to 1910. Already by 1922 the boardwalk on the west side of Main Street was replaced with a concrete sidewalk, and in that same year John Gingrick and Son purchased the building and re-opened a grocery. In 1952 Ted Heath started the drug store whichwas later sold to Tibb Miller, and later still to Rick Perrin.

68 Main Street: Porcupine's Quill
Originally the northern half of the Overland Brothers' grocery, James Murray opened a tailor shop in this storefront in 1922 with the assistance of Mrs Earl Scott as an apprentice. The tailoring business did not fare well and was replaced by the Post Office before 1930. Mrs Noble Sutherland sold jewellery from the premises in the late 1950s.

72 Main Street
Roy Grundy established a bakery and ice cream parlour in this building as early as 1924. It was not until the fall of 1970 that Roy's widow closed what little remained of her grocery store. The horse stables out back were demolished shortly thereafter, at about the time the two-holer outhouse was replaced with interiorplumbing. Joe Colucci restored the faCade of the building in 1992.

74 Main Street: The Weathervane
Carberry's General Store traded in dry goods, crockery, provisions and marriage licences. Thomas Carberry sold the business to William Ramesbottom in 1913. Ritchie and Ramesbottom advertised themselves as Main Street General Merchants until 1915 when W.A. Ramesbottom took over. Larry Smiley's 5cent to $1 store, established in the 30s, was eventually sold to James and Ferne Dunn.

76 Main Street: Steen's Dairy
This address was the northerly third of Ritchie and Ramesbottom's General Store until they sold to W.A. Ramesbottom in 1915 and possibly until Ramesbotto sold to George Cook in the 20s. Subsequently a barber shop, the building was eventually purchased by Fred Steen in 1944 at which time he also bought the Erin Dairy from Auburn Wright and moved the business to its present location.

78 Main Street: Holtom's Bakery
The Queen's Hotel burned on 2 August 1913, taking with it half a dozen adjacent businesses. The lot remained vacant until the 40s when Dave Mundell built two adjoining stores, one of which was rented by Ed Holtom to house the bakery he had purchased from Russell Grundy. The northerly half of the building was occupied by Wallace Longstreet's butcher shop from 1946 to 1972.

82 Main Street: Bistro Riviere
The building immediately to the north of the Queen's Hotel was owned by Dr Gear and rented to A.J. Stephen's Shoe Store when it was destroyed with a loss of $4,500 in stock in the fire of 2 August, 1913. Stephen was actually fortunate, inasmuch as the Overland building to the north also burned in the same fire, taking with it Steel and Foster's General Store and four times as much stock.

88 Main Street
Robert M. Bell built the present building on the site of what may once have been a livery stable for the Queen's Hotel before the fire of 2 August, 1913. Robert Bell subsequently served as the CPR telegraph operator and also sold jewellery at the same location. In 1935 he expanded into the hardware business, and three years later was joined in partnership by his son Donald.

92 Main Street
Steel and Foster, General Merchants, suffered quite possibly the largest stock loss of any business touched by the Queen's Hotel fire. They were not, however, bankrupt, but temporarily relocated while their landlord, Matthew Overland, rebuilt. Steel and Foster later returned to this building which eventually became Gordon Garner's Dry Goods, and later still, Walt Keeler's Electrical.

98 Main Street
Jim McKeg's barber shop and Tom Scott's flour and feed store both were spared the conflagration of the Queen's Hotel, and continued to share this building until 1921 when Herbert Lyons took over first the barber shop, and then later the whole premises when Scott moved north to 104 Main Street. Lyons' Grocery was the last family-owned grocery in the village when it closed in the early 70s.

100 Main Street
This is one of three single-storey frame buildings built over the raceway from the Upper Pond to McMillan's Grist Mill, behind what was once the Globe Hotel. Ron Leitch was the first to establish a butcher shop here and ran it until 1929. He was succeeded (over the next thirty years) by butchers Wellington Homer, Roy Tinney, Borden Wheeler and Jack Yoksima.

102 Main Street
One of the three single-storey frame buildings built over the raceway from the Upper Pond to McMillan's Grist Mill, behind what was once the Globe Hotel. Peter Sinclair relocated his flour and feed store to this location sometime shortly after 1921 when Herbert Lyons took control of 98 Main Street. Sinclair's Feed Store remained in business on this site until the late 60s.

104 Main Street
One of three single-storey frame buildings built over the raceway from the Upper Pond to McMillan's Grist Mill, behind what was once the Globe Hotel on the east side of Main Street. This building housed Arscott's Meat Market from 1920 to 1945. Cliff Bradley was the butcher here for two years and Lloyd Davidson ran the meat market until 1971.

110 Main Street
The layout of the upper floor with its long hall and interior transoms suggest this building may have been built as a small hotel or boarding house. John Homer ran a butcher shop on the site until he sold to Johnny Hamilton who operated a grocery. Bert Weeks was the first to open a billiards hall which was sold, in turn, to Ted Glitz, Lorne McGowan and Jeff Robertson.

116 Main Street: Hannah's
An earlier frame building once housed T.J. Hamilton's Millinery and Fancy Goods, then Blackwood's Farm Implements and Pianos, until it was replaced in 1906 by the current structure built by William Graham and Ben Mundell. Hamilton's Superior Store was operated by Joe Musgrove in the 40s and 50s until it was taken over by Harry Gear.

120 Main Street: Village Green
R. Hamilton operated a grocery store here as early as 1900. In 1911 Jimmy Small added an ice-cream parlour which he supplied with a horse-driven ice cream mixer. Small enlisted in World War I, which he must have survived, because his name does not appear on the village cenotaph. Russ Elgie ran a general store in this building for thirty years, followed by Bill Barbour in the 1950s.

122 Main Street
Humphrey Matthews, the village saddler, supplied essential tack and harnesses for many years either side of the turn of the century. Matthews' innovative and effective marketing skills often led him to parade the village streets with his latest saddle on prominent display. Years later, the Roxy Dairy and Tea Room was bought by Bill and Hilda Haberman who renamed it Erin Lunch in the early 50s.

128 Main Street
Wellington Hull bought the local newspaper, the Erin Advocate, in 1894 and set up a printing office on the upper floor where he also sold farm implements and issued marriage licences. The lower floor was occupied by the Union Bank, and then later by the Royal Bank of Canada. The Hull family eventually built a new printing office a few doors to the north and moved the Advocate in 1914.

132 Main Street: Beaver Mills
G. Ramsden operated a hardware in this building as early as 1920. The Hardware was later sold to Bill Magill, who later still sold to Calvin Weddell who relocated his Funeral Home from 58 Main Street in 1945. Recently renovated, the moulded tin ceiling is a reproduction of a decorating style that was common in shops on Main Street in the early 1900s.

51 Main Street: Mundell Lumber
Benjamin Mundell bought the planing mill in 1896 from the widow of Dr Henry McNaughton. This mill was originally built, in 1838, by Daniel McMillan as an oat mill, then bonded to William Cornock who, in turn, sold it to McNaughton in 1889. The planing mill, with its distinctive three lightning rods, is one of the few remaining water-powered belt-driven mills in the province.

67 Main Street
Jim Gibson bought Luther Overland's Harness Shop and opened a smithy on this site shortly after 1900. More recently the building has been used to effect as a showroom for Ford automobiles of the models `T' and `A' vintages. A lift at the
back facilitated the levitation of wagons and democrats to the paint room on the second floor. Gordon Wright continued the GM dealership until 1963.

119 Main Street
The imposing residence of Dr Harry Gear was built in 1905 by Ben Mundell and William Graham who also collaborated on the Gear drugstore at 116 Main Street the following year. The Gear home incorporated Erin's first private intercom by which means the sick and ailing could address the doctor directly in the master
bedroom with the aid of an audio tube from the front porch.

156 Main Street: The Busholme Inn
The Busholme Inn was originally intended to be a hospital when it was built sometime around 1886. It never did become one, but Doctors Martin, Hamilton, McCullock and Reynolds all practiced medicine in the building before it was converted to a hotel by A.J. Horton in 1924. J.P. Bush became owner of the property in1926, then sold it to Mrs. H. Mackenzie in the early 30s.

81 Main Street: All Saints' Anglican
All Saints Anglican Church was erected on this site in 1867, the year of Confederation, on land which had belonged to William Cornock, a prominent local businessman. The bell tower was added in 1910. In the early years, the bell was used not only to announce services, but also to sound the village fire alarm. All Saints is one of the oldest original church buildings in the area.

95 Main Street
Daniel McMillan built a home for his family on this site in 1846. William Chisholm bought the property twenty years later and opened the Globe Hotel. J.P. Bush lived in the building at the turn of the century and operated the hotel as a partnership with William Willis. A.J. Horton bought the building in 1915 and managed it for thirty years until the hotel burned in January 1945.

103 Main Street
Erin Full Gospel Fellowship was built in 1873, originally as a Church of Christ Disciples. The congregation included many of the pioneers of the village who had met in the hall over the Clark House Drive Shed (40 Main Street) before the present Church was built. Annie Cook, a grand-daughter of Daniel McMillan's sister Janet, was a life member of the Church of Christ Disciples.

115 Main Street: Erin United Church
The congregation of the United Church, then Wesleyans and the New Connexionist, met at a Union Church for many denominations until 1858. At that time an octagonal church was built by the Wesleyans on the site of the present United Church. It was destroyed by fire in 1870. After church union, the former Methodist Church became the United Church in 1925.

155 Main Street: Burns' Presbyterian
Reverend Dr Burns of Knox Church, Toronto and formerly secretary of the North American Missionary Society of the Associate Church of Scotland played an important part in securing a permanent Presbyterian Church for Erin Village. A frame church was built in 1848 on the northeast corner of Church and Main Streets and replaced in 1881 by the current brick building.

Grist Mill
Daniel McMillan, eldest son of Donald McMillan who had emigrated from Argyleshire, Scotland in 1819, is widely credited with the founding of Erin Village. In 1838 he built an oat mill which became Mundell's Planing Mill. In 1840 he built a first grist mill, now in ruins, and replaced it nine years later with the six-storey limestone structure you see before you.

35 Main Street: Mcenery Agencies Limited
The McEnery family has farmed in the area since 1837. Robert McEnery moved to the village in 1921 and opened an automobile dealership specializing in Grey Dorts. Robert's son, W.F. McEnery, started the family insurance business in 1925 on the west side of Main Street across from its current location. Fred McEnery and his wife Ethel Gingrick moved to the current building in 1933.

57 Main Street: Mundell Kitchen & Bath
William Cornock built a distillery at the back of this property as early as 1838. The building abutting Main Street was originally a grain storage shed for the liquor manufacturer whose product was offered for 25 cents a jug. A hundred years later Charlie Overland's Caledon Electric Co. offered power from Cataract and later still Larry MacKenzie operated a plumbing and heating firm on this site.

41 Main Street: LCBO
John Clark operated the Clark House Hotel on this site as early as 1857. Prior to that the building was known as the Town Hall Inn. Part of the Clark House was incorporated into a creamery that changed hands frequently during the Depression. Joe Wasserman, Stan Leitch, the Gardiner Brothers, Bob Lang and Auburn Wright each owned it before Fred Steen bought the dairy portion in 1944.

61 Main Street: Esso Station
Ramesbottom's Blacksmith Shop occupied this site about 1926. The business was later sold to Dick Matson who continued the smithy as well as opened a Supertest service station. Matson sold to Bill Pinkney who sold in turn to Lorne Smith who leased to Wallace Leitch who eventually bought the property in 1963 and subsequently opened a Studebaker dealership.

77 Main Street: Chow On Main
Erin shoppers and the parishioners of All Saints' Anglican still used the Queen's Hotel Drive Shed as a shelter for their buggies and teams as late as 1923, a full decade after the hotel itself burned in 1913. Gordon Campbell purchased the property from Ted Denny in 1968 and opened a law practice which continued uninterrupted for over twenty-five years.