The Founding of Brussels

Photo by Alan L Brown - October 31, 2004

Plaque Location

The County of Huron
The Municipality of Huron East
In Brussels, on the SW corner of Turnberry Road (County Road 12) and Orchard Street (County Road 16)

Plaque Text

In 1854 William Ainley purchased 80 ha of land here on the Middle Branch of the Maitland River. The following year he laid out a village plot which he named Ainleyville. A post office named Dingle was opened in 1856. The community flourished and by 1863 contained a sawmill, a grist-mill, blacksmith shops, a woollen mill and several other small industries. In anticipation of the rapid growth that the expected construction of a branch of the Wellington, Grey and Bruce Railway would bring, Ainleyville, with a population of 780, was incorporated as a village and renamed Brussels on December 24, 1872. Within a decade the population had increased to about 1800.

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