The Goldie Family and the Village of Greenfield

Photo by Alan L Brown - March 28, 2004

Plaque Location

The Region of Waterloo
The Township of North Dumfries
On the south side of Greenfield Road, .6 kilometres west of Northumberland Street (Regional Road 58)

Plaque Text

From 1817 to 1819, Scottish botanist John Goldie (1793-1886) visited Canada and the northern U.S. to collect plant specimens. He returned with his family in 1844 to settle here on a farm they named "Greenfield". By 1850 the Goldies were operating a grist and oatmeal mill. In 1865 they opened a larger mill to refine local wheat for international markets. Many features of the village that grew up around it are evident today. In addition to the mill, the mill pond, dam, sluice gates and mill race can still be seen. Along this road stand former Goldie family homes and a row of "salt box" cottages that were built in the 1860s for mill workers and their families.