The Haggarts
John Haggart, a Scottish stone mason, came to Canada in the 1820s and worked on the Welland and Rideau Canals. In 1832 he purchased this property which included the Perth settlements first mill and established a milling complex. He built this house in 1837, an early hip-roofed Regency design in stone. In 1854 the property passed to his son John Graham Haggart. A vigorous politician, the younger Haggart was mayor of Perth before serving some forty years as Member of Parliament for South Lanark. He was Postmaster-General, 1888-92, Minister of Railways and Canals, 1892-96, leader of the Ontario Conservatives in the House, and a top contender for the party leadership in 1895. He died in Ottawa in 1913.
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Ontario Plaques. Full page here.