September 28, 2024

The first European in the area of Blair was a German Mennonite that took up a homestead in 1800 and owned most of the land that would later become the community. In 1817 Joseph Bowman bought the property and in 1830 he built a dam on Bowman (now Blair) creek to power a saw mill he had built. His son Samuel W. Bowman added a four-story grist mill near the saw mill. The map below from the 1877 County Atlas shows the location of the grist mill circled in green and just on the edge of the hamlet of Blair. This community had expanded to about 140 people by 1855 and boasted a school built in 1802 as well as a general store and a hotel. The post office was opened in 1858. In 1973 Blair, Preston, Helspler and Galt amalgamated to form Cambridge.

There is an interpretive sign at the site which shows the original four-story grist mill which was known as Carlisle Mill. In 1851 this mill was able to produce 7,000 barrels of flour per year. The mill was sold to Peter Sherk in 1866.

The mill was able to generate 25 horsepower from waterpower on it’s water wheel. It was decided in 1876 to supplement the power with an additional 15 horsepower that would be generated downstream. Samuel’s son, Allan, built a 31 foot (9 metre) wooden tower about 240 feet (70 metres) away on the other side of Old Mill Road. This allowed them to tap into the power of the creek twice.

Known as a sheave tower it had a pulley and cable mechanism that connected it to the grist mill and transferred the power across the road.

Water was diverted from the creek to the turbine that was set in the sluice at the entrance to the sheave tower.

It turned a gear on a shaft that was connected to the sheave, which is a grooved wheel. This sheave turned and moved the pulley which bore a cable that ran across the road to the mill. This transferred the water power from the turbine to the grinding stones in the grist mill. There are grooves worn on the beams at the top of the tower although none of the original machinery remains inside the sheave tower.

Blair Creek has a smaller water flow now than it did in earlier times before the water table was effected by the cutting of the local forests. After the days of water power were finished in 1954 the sheave tower was abandoned and fell into a state of disrepair. In 1998-1999 the tower was restored and is now a provincially designated heritage structure.

In 1888 Jacob Hilborn bought the mill and his son John took over in 1902. He ran the mill until 1925. The grist mill mechanisms overheated in 1928 and a fire started that destroyed the original mill. A new one-story mill was built on the old foundations and it operated for many decades. The mill was still in operation in 2000 and was declared to be the oldest independently operating corn mill in Ontario. Sadly, it only lasted another three years before it was shut down.

A old sign on the side of the mill still announces its purpose as a corn mill but there is no longer any corn being ground here.

A few feet behind the new mill stands the original brick chimney which shows the height of the earlier mill.

There is an information board on the side of Blair creek which provides some basic information about the sheave tower. It is said to be the last remaining sheave tower in Ontario.

If you go to Blair to see the Sheave Tower, it’s worth a drive through town to see the historic buildings that still survive untouched as Cambridge expands around the old town. On the edge of town stands an old mansion that has been renovated into an inn.

The story begins in 1858 when Matthew Wilks, of New York, decided to buy a summer property in Upper Canada. He bought up 1000 acres and built Cruikston Park. His youngest son Eugene Langdon Wilks bought the 29 acres in the north west portion of the estate. He added another 76 acres and set about building Langdon Hall as his 32 room, 25,000 square foot mansion. Construction was completed in 1902 and after Eugene passed away in 1934 the mansion served two more generations of the Wilks family. In 1987 it was bought to be turned into the existing hotel and spa property.

There is a lot of history preserved in Blair and perhaps one day we will revisit it and look at some of the historic buildings.

Google Maps Link: Blair Sheave Tower

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