Knoxville Notes

Submitted by: Bruce Williamson Hike references: 12.5 km Ganaraska Trail/Knoxville Rd; 13.1 km Canton/Grist Mill Rd.

(The following is an excerpt from "In and Around Canton", written & published by Ethel F. Bickle). 

Knoxville, also known as Knox’s Creek and Knox Church, was a rural community in Lots 6 and 7 on the 5th Concession road. It was centred around Knox Presbyterian Church and was never a village, but a meeting place for the farming community in the surrounding concessions.

There was a mill at Knoxville, though it must not have operated for very long. In the census for 1851, Samuel Hurlbert is listed as the millwright, but by 1861, when George Tremaine created his map of the county, no mill is shown in the area. This is strange for it seems to have been quite a large operation, one of the largest in that part of the township. It employed nine people, seven working in the mill and two cutting wood — about 4,000 feet per day! At a time when most milling operations, both flour/grist and sawmills, were water-powered, this mill was a steam mill. Besides a millwright on the payroll, there seems to have been an engineer by the name of John Baily. Perhaps these are fancy names for owner and sawyer.

Also in 1851, these people are listing as living and working in the vicinity:

William Reid – Teamster

Thomas Henry – Cooper

Lastly Hillis – Cooper

John Bedford – Tavern Keeper

John Caldwell – Carpenter

William Bowen – Shoemaker

Anthony Ingle – Carpenter

Today the mill has disappeared, no sign of it to be found. The church, too, has gone, however the churchyard and cemetery remain and are well tended.

More reading on Knoxville: Two Old Guys Walking