The Founding of Ancaster
In 1791 James Wilson in partnership with Richard Beasley built a sawmill and a grist-mill on the site of this community. The mills were sold to Jean Baptiste Rousseaux (known as St. John) in 1794 and developed into a thriving pioneer enterprise. The settlement which grew around these mills became an important trading community known by about 1800 as "Ancaster". In 1805 Samuel and Richard Hatt, who had built the "Red Mill" nearby in 1799, acquired extensive holdings in the vicinity, part of which they subdivided. The combined settlement grew rapidly and became a centre for water-powered industries until the end of the nineteenth century.
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Ontario Plaques. Full page here.