The Founding of Springfield

Photo by Eugenio DiMeo - June 2, 2005

Plaque Location

The County of Elgin
The Township of Malahide
In Springfield, in the main hallway inside the building at 51221 Ron McNeil Line.

Plaque Text

About 1850, some ten years after this area was settled, a school and a Methodist meeting house were erected here on the town line 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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