William Caldwell Pollock was more than a familiar name in Almonte—he was one of those people whose life became woven into the very fabric of the community. Born in Lanark Village in August 1865, the eldest child of Robert and Mary Ann Pollock, William came to Almonte with his family in 1880. Over the decades that followed, he built a remarkable life of work, service, friendship and family. He…

The Ottawa Citizen Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • Sat, Jul 30, 1927Page 2 The Pakenham Gold Rush That Wasn’t In 1808, Pakenham apparently had everything a respectable little community could ask for: a river, hardworking settlers, beautiful countryside—and, if the rumours were true, gold. The Almonte Gazette later reported that some very determined Pakenham residents were busy searching for the…

There are businesses that sell you a product, and then there are businesses that sell you a summer — lindaseccaspina has been writing about the second kind. This episode follows one of those places: Peterson’s Ice Cream in Almonte, Ontario, a family operation that turned a train stop into a decades-long institution and left an entire valley full of people with very specific cone-related memories.…

There once was a time when summer evenings belonged to frogs. Before video games, cell phones, and before children whined for a charging cable; there were the glorious months of July and August.  Each day some neighbourhoof kid would knock on the door and ask, “Want to go pollywogging?” Within minutes there would be a scramble for rubber boots, and an old flashlight that worked only if you…

Appleton may look like a peaceful little village today, but according to the memories of Mrs. John Reid, there was a time when living there required equal parts courage, patience and a reasonably good pair of walking shoes.Writing in the early 1950s, Mrs. Reid looked back on Appleton and Ramsay Township as they had been when her family settled there in the 1840s. She was 84 years old, which meant…

In 1857, James Rosamond looked at the Mississippi River and apparently saw something more useful than a pretty view. He built a woollen mill—and Almonte’s industrial future began to hum, quite literally. The Irish-born entrepreneur had already established a woollen factory in Carleton Place in 1846, but Almonte offered bigger possibilities. His sons Bennett and William later expanded the…

Mississippi River, Appleton, photo by Malak Karsh-1945-1946 Appleton, Town of Mississippi Mills, Ontario, Canada Credits: North Lanark Regional Museum (2012.79.12.26)Photographer: Malak Karsh Donated by Eleanor Wright & Irene Dunn Thompson Appleton: Where the Teskeys Put the River to Work Long before Appleton became the peaceful little Mississippi River community we know today, it had a…

The Great Sunday Milk Scandal of Almonte Imagine causing a courtroom commotion over… a bottle of milk. That was exactly what happened in Almonte in the late 1890s when five milk vendors found themselves standing before Squire Robert Smith, accused of the shocking crime of selling milk on a Sunday. By today’s standards it sounds almost laughable, but under Ontario’s strict Lord’s Day laws, even…