Alexander Miller

1775 - Yes, date unknown

• Name	Alexander Miller
  Born	CA 1775	of, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  Gender	Male
  Occupation	Bef 1816	Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  	fur trapper - miller
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-177875
  Died	Yes, date unknown
  Person ID	I177875	Generations
  Last Modified	12 May 2025

  
  

• Notes

  Galt. In 1816, the future town site of Galt was surveyed for William Dickson (1769-1846), a prosperous lawyer from Niagara who had acquired Block 1 from a Niagara merchant named Thomas Clark. Dickson engaged Absalom Shade, "a young shrewd, energetic and pushing Pennsylvanian" as his agent for the new settlement. Shade, who was a carpenter by trade, set up a rough log dwelling where he set up the first store in the future village site. A decayed grist mill, said to have been built here for Alexander Miller by a squatter named Nathaniel Dodge in 1802, was repaired by Shade and set into operation (Dilse, Paul. 1981 A Remarkable Heritage: Programmes and Policies for Heritage Conservation in Cambridge, Ontario. Cambridge: Heritage Cambridge. 1981: 19) Other scholars state that Shade "built" this mill in 1818 (Mika, Nick and Helma. 1977 Places in Ontario. Their Name Origins and History Part I: A-E. Belleville: Mika Publishing Co.: 332). "When it became fully known that he could give good titles, settlements commenced pretty rapidly in the Township of Dumfries. The first settlers were Scotch from New York, but after some years settlers came direct from Scotland" (Sherry, Lee and Gordon A. Ambrose (ed). 1997 Mennonite Immigration to Waterloo County. The Moyer Journal Attributed to Samuel S. Moyer 1849-1941. Waterloo-Wellington Branch OGS.: 23). HERITAGE MASTER PLAN, The Corporation of the City of Cambridge 15 Sep 2008 _________________________________ Where Galt now stands was then a forest solitude. Huge pines, cedars, and elms, intermingled freely with oaks, and occasionally with beeches and maples, studded the valley and surrounding hills. Close to the river's banks, cedar predominated. This was particularly the case where the waters of Mill-creek join the river, the cedar being very dense and the ground swampy for a considerable distance up the former stream. When the travellers reached this point they dismounted, tied their horses, and Mr. Shade proceeded to examine the creek, sufficient water-power for a grist mill being always borne in mind as a necessity to the embryo vil-lage. Near where Mr. James Scott's planing mill now stands, he encountered a small, dilapidated frame build-ing, the only semblance of civilization to be found. This ruin has sometimes been spoken of mysteriously, and apochryphal stories of an old grey-haired trapper, his mysterious disappearance, and the aversion of the Indians to visit the ruin, especially at the full of the moon, have at times had a fitful and misty currency. Careful investigation, however, has taken the romance out of this promising legend. There is no longer reason to doubt that, years before, one Alexander Miller, of the Niagara district, had bargained with the Indians for several hundred acres of their land, composed of the site of Galt and its immediate neighbourhood. He erected the little frame building, the remains of which were found by Mr. Shade, with a view to do rough gristing, and part of a shaft which remained adjoining the structure, indicated that a rude saw mill was either in operation a short time, or had been contemplated.* The weight of evidence favours the idea that neither of them were ever completed, and that Miller, finding out that his Indian title was worthless, abandoned the enterprise shortly after it was begun. * It was currently rumoured when the first settlers came in, that the In-dians had, whilst fishing with torch lights on the river, either wilfully or negligently set fire to the woods near the mouth of Mill-creek, and that the proposed or actual saw-mill, and some timber, were in consequence des-troyed. There is no reason to doubt that a fire occurred, and in all proba-bility it originated in the manner stated. Reminiscences of the Early History of Galt and the Settlement of Dumfries in the Province of Ontario, by James Young, 1880 Toronto: Hunter, Rose

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - CA 1775 - of, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Occupation - fur trapper - miller - Bef 1816 - Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth