Canada's First Commune

Photo by Alan L Brown - September 19, 2004

Plaque Location

The County of Lambton
The City of Sarnia
At the back fence behind Bright's Grove Public School on Hamilton Road across from Wildwood Drive, 1 block north of Lakeshore Road (County Road 7)

Plaque Text

In 1829 Henry Jones of Devon, England, a retired purser in the Royal Navy, brought a group of more than 50 emigrants from the United Kingdom to this area where he established a settlement on a 400 ha tract of land on Lake Huron. An early supporter and dedicated follower of Robert Owen, the well-known British social reformer, Jones named the settlement "Maxwell" and organized the community on the basis of common ownership and collective living. The settlers built a large log house with the community kitchen, and dining room but separate rooms for each family. A school and storehouse were added. Within a few years, however, disappointing harvests and the burning of the log house led the colonists gradually to abandon the enterprise.