The Founding of Markham
The earliest settlers in this part of Markham Township, including several "Pennsylvania Dutch", arrived on the Rouge River shortly after 1800. Within ten years Nicholas Miller had erected mills around which a community known as Markham Mills had developed by about 1820. A village plot (Reesorville) was laid out north of the mills in 1826 by Joseph Reesor. Two years later a post office named Markham was opened. By 1850 the village had a population of 650 and contained such industries as a woollen mill, a foundry and a distillery. Markham was incorporated as a village under a by-law of November 20, 1872, some eighteen months after the arrival of the Toronto and Nipissing Railway.
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Ontario Plaques. Full page here.