Daniel McLachlin 1810-72

Photo by Alan L Brown - July 25, 2005

Plaque Location

The County of Renfrew
The Town of Arnprior
In the park, at the foot of John Street

Plaque Text

One of the Ottawa Valley's most enterprising lumbermen, McLachlin was born in Rigaud Township, Lower Canada, and by 1837 had built a sawmill and grist-mill at Bytown (Ottawa). In 1851, influenced by the timber potential of the Madawaska watershed, he purchased some 160 ha at the deserted hamlet of Arnprior and in 1854 laid out a town plot. The large sawmills which he built here greatly stimulated the community's growth. In the legislature of the Province of Canada, McLachlin represented Bytown, 1851-54, and Renfrew County, 1861-63. On Arnprior's incorporation in 1862 he was elected to the first village council, and he represented South Renfrew in the first Dominion parliament, 1867-69.