The Founding of Arkona
By 1836 the earliest settlers on the site of Arkona, notably Henry Utter, Nial Eastman, and John Smith, had located in the vicinity. Within three years Utter, the first to arrive, had constructed a grist-mill around which a small community, the Eastman Settlement, gradually developed. About 1851 a post office was opened, a village plot laid out and the village became known as "Smithfield". Situated at an important road junction and serving a fertile region, the settlement grew rapidly during the 1850's. By 1860 the village, now called Arkona, reportedly after a lighthouse point in Germany, contained a foundry, tannery, and woollen factory among its many industries. Arkona, with over 700 inhabitants, became an incorporated Village by a County By-law of June 10, 1876.
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Ontario Plaques. Full page here.