Huron County History: The Old Gorrie Mill

Maguire’s Gorrie Mill c. 1950s.

The Old Gorrie Mill, built in 1856, was a vital hub in Howick Township's economic development. Gorrie grew up around the old mill located on the Maitland River and, until it was dismantled in 2021, was one of the few remaining relics of the first generation of pioneers who survived by farming the land.

In the winter of 1855-56, Edward and James Leech, enterprising Irish immigrants, “chopped their way through the bush from Molesworth to Gorrie, a distance of 15 miles” according to a 1956 article in the Wingham Times Advocate.

They purchased a mill site on the south bank of the Maitland River. Edward Leech was a millwright and immediately erected the Gorrie Mill harnessing Maitland’s waterpower to churn its great stone millwheels, which ground grain into grist and flour.

The 1879 Belden Atlas said the Leech brothers “went to work with such energy at their new enterprise” that the Gorrie Mill was “in complete running order” by the 1856 harvest.

Jim Lingerfelt and Jenny Versteeg in The Lines of Howick describe the mill as a two-storey structure built on a stone foundation measuring 56 feet by 36 feet (17 metres by 11 metres).

Its four grinding stones were quarried in Guelph and driven by a waterwheel 10 feet in diameter. At its peak operation, the mill could mill and dress 150 barrels of flour and grist a day.

In 1867, the mill was re-built to three storeys. John Hazlitt and Ted Turner in The Power of the Maitland note that most grist mills could only separate the stalk from the chaff creating grist. The Gorrie Mill, with its twin water turbines, could grind the grist into finer flour, which was both domestically and commercially convenient for local farmers.

The importance of a grist mill to a community cannot be overestimated. For pioneer families, their proximity to a local mill was “essential for economic survival and success” according to Ontario historians Helma and Nick Mika.

Indeed, “the mill sites became a focus for community enterprise and a nucleus of a village.”

By 1881, Lovell's Gazetteer of British North America listed Gorrie as having a 'large sawmill', shingle mill, two tanneries, iron foundry, carriage and cheese factories, drill shed, telegraph office two hotels and three churches with a population of 400.

Maitland Mill historian, Mary Feldskov, writes that “for a community still in the early stages of development, the establishment” of the Gorrie “Mill site was a definite asset to its growth and encouraged people to settle in the area.”

In addition, to milling, the Gorrie Mill, also served as a Methodist meeting house for the devout Leech brothers.

The Belden Atlas noted that “the great benefit accruing to the community therefrom may be judged of from the fact that during the next winter” there were “as many as sixty ox-teams were counted at one time at the Gorrie Mill, whose drivers were waiting their turns to deliver grists.”

Edward and his brothers ran the mill for 22 years before selling it to William Dane in 1879 (in 1879, local Conservatives hosted a 'political picnic' for Sir John A Macdonald on the grounds adjacent to the mill).

Dane retooled the mill so that it could run day and night. However, in April 1893, a great rainstorm flooded and broke the Gorrie Mill dam.

The East Huron Gazette estimated that “the loss to Mr. Dane will scarcely be less than $2,000 and will require several months' time to repair.”

Despite the havoc wreaked on the mill's operations, the dam was re-built and the mill was back in operation for the harvest season.

The Gorrie Mill had several owners over the decades and had acquired the name Dominion Mill when Benjamin Maguire purchased it in 1922 for the sum of $7,000.

Although the mill retained the name Dominion, it was known simply as Maguire's Mill. However, modern technology like electricity and auto and rail transportation meant that grains could be transported to larger mills farther away.

Milling at the Gorrie Mill increasingly slowed down during Maguire's ownership.

According to Helen Stephens, in an 1995 interview with Medskov, Maguire ran the mill with the help of only one other employee, Tom Short, who worked at the mill from 1907 until 1948.

Stephens recalled that Maguire was “so relaxed and the farmers all came in and they'd spend time talking to him.”

Maguire was also kind to children giving them a nickel for their birthdays. Stephens remembered that by the time Maguire closed the mill in 1962, it was still milling but “it was more a gathering place for the old fellows.”

In 1962, the mill site was purchased by the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA) because the mill dam provided flood control for the mill and surrounding parklands which were on a flood plain.

Until the 1990s, the mill was used primarily for storage by the MVCA, but its wheels and machinery were still intact.

As early as 1977, a group of Gorrie citizens studied the possibility of restoring the old mill.

In 1994, a group of heritage-minded citizens met with MVCA directors about the possibility of restoring the mill as historic and cultural resource that would attract tourists to the area; provide employment and be an educational resource for industrial, social, cultural and natural history.

The MCVA agreed in principle according to the Wingham Advance Times. It was hoped that by 2000 the mill machinery would be restored and by 2006, the mill machinery would be operational for demonstration purposes.

The Howick area held several fundraising events like outdoor concerts, barbecues, corn roasts and a cookbook despite local interest and support, the project proved too expensive.

As late as 2019, the Maitland Mills Association tried to restore the Gorrie Mill to its former glory.

Yet, without funding, the MCVA was forced to decommission the dam and dismantle the mill in December 2021.

The dismantled mill was sold to a heritage site in the U.S. where it has been reconstructed. It is ironic that an important piece of Canadian history lives on display in America.