The Founding of Almonte
The sawmill and grist-mill completed here on the Mississippi River in 1823 by Daniel Shipman provided a nucleus around which a community known as Shipman's Mills had developed by 1824. About 1850 two town plots were laid out here - "Victoria" by Edward Mitcheson and "Ramsayville" by Daniel Shipman. They were combined in 1853 as "Waterford", which in 1855 was renamed "Almonte", probably after Juan N. Almonte, a famous Mexican general and diplomat. The opening of several woollen mills and the completion of a railway to Brockville, fostered the growth of Almonte, which by 1870 was one of Ontario's leading woollen cloth manufacturing centres. Incorporated as a village in 1871, with a population of about 2,000, Almonte was proclaimed a town in 1880.
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Ontario Plaques. Full page here.