Location
The County of Elgin - Malahide
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Photographer
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More Information
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Posted
August 28, 2004
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Text from the Plaque
About 1850, some ten years after this area was settled, a school and Methodist meeting house were erected here on the townline between the townships of South Dorchester and Malahide. Shortly afterwards a post-office named Clunas was opened with Archibald Clunas as postmaster. Although a village plot called Springfield was surveyed in 1857, its growth was slow until the Canada Southern Railway, completed in 1873, selected Springfield as a station site. The community quickly became the commercial centre for the surrounding fertile agricultural area and attracted a number of industries, including a flax-mill and several grist-mills. The population numbered about 800 in 1877 when Elgin County council passed the by-law incorporating Springfield as a Village.
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