ST. JOHN'S WEST

NAME: ST. JOHN’S WEST COUNTY: ONTARIO ROADS: 2WD GRID: CLIMATE: Snow in winter BEST TIME TO VISIT: Spring summer or fall

COMMENTS: REMAINS: A few of the original buildings still stand including the one-room school house preserved as a reminder of what once was.

St. John’s West was one of the early mill towns of the Niagara Peninsula. Its beginning was in 1792 when Benjamin Canby built a sawmill on the banks of Twelve Mile Creek. Soon after, John Darling built a gristmill and later married Canby’s sister. That was the beginning of St. John’s West as a settlement. It was not long before other settlers began to arrive to form a thriving pioneer mill village. Darling added another gristmill and then a woolen mill a few years later. It is said Darling built Ontario’s first iron furnace in 1817 adding to his dominance as the town’s leading industrialist. A large foundry built by a Russell Rich followed that produced stoves, ploughs, and machinery for woolen mills. In 1850, St. John’s boasted five gristmills, three saw mills, a cloth factory and other industries. Because the canals and railroads bypassed the town, the community stagnated. By 1926, St. John’s became a ghost town. A few of the original buildings still stand including the one-room school house preserved as a reminder of what once was.

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