Watson's Mill is a historic gristmill in Manotick, Ontario, Canada. It was built as the Long Island Flouring Mills by Moss Kent Dickinson and Joseph Merrill Currier. It was one of a series of mills constructed in the area using power from the Rideau Canal. It earned its current name when it was purchased by Harry Watson in 1946. The mill remained in operation until 1972 when it was sold to the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority. They restored the mill to its 1860 condition and turned it into a museum and gift shop. It is Manotick's most notable landmark, and the mill's image is used as a symbol for the village. The mill is also well known for stories of it being haunted by the ghost of Annie Currier, wife of Joseph, who died in an accident there in 1861. Today Watson’s Mill remains as one of the few operating industrial grist mills in North America and the only such heritage site in the City of Ottawa. In 2010, Watson’s Mill celebrated its 150th Anniversary with numerous successful special events. Each year the Mill hosts various events for members of the community and surrounding areas along with increasing programming and maintaining the site for daily operation. Watson’s Mill is open daily from 10:00am–5:00pm from May to October. Fresh stone-ground whole wheat flour is milled throughout the months of May to October.
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Watson’s Mill was originally known as the "Long Island Flouring Mill", and was constructed by Thomas Langrell, an Ottawa contractor, for two prominent Ottawa businessmen: Moss Kent Dickinson and Joseph Merrill Currier. Dickinson was a successful forwarder and steamboat owner. He was nicknamed “King of the Rideau” because of his many freight and passenger steamers that traveled up and down the Canal. Dickinson was also mayor of Ottawa from 1864 and 1866, just prior to Confederation, and lived in what is now the South African Embassy. His partner, Joseph Currier, was a lumber baron, and a partner in the Victoria Foundry located in Ottawa, where all of the Mill machinery was cast. Watson’s Mill was originally one of four milling operations built during this time. A saw mill was completed in 1859, the gristmill in 1860, and a carding mill in 1861. The Canada Bung, Plug and Spile Factory was constructed in 1875, completing the Long Island Milling Enterprise, later to be known as the "Manotick Mills".
Dickinson intended to develop a village around the Long Island Mills complex. He bought 30 acres of land and sold it as building plots. The village was named "Manotick", an Ojibwe word meaning “Island in the River.”
Watson’s Mill remained in the Dickinson family until 1928 when Elizabeth, Moss Kent Dickinson’s youngest daughter, sold it to Alec Spratt. Spratt ran it for a short period until his death. His wife continued with the business until it was sold in 1946 to Harry Watson. With the introduction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, it became cheaper to import wheat and flour from the West than to grow and mill wheat in Ontario. Spratt and Watson gradually transformed the Mill into a feed and seed operation to keep up with the changing times and to accommodate the local dairy and livestock farmers.
Watson’s Mill remained in the Watson family until 1972. On July 1, 1963, the National Capital Commission (NCC) entered into a lease agreement with Harry Watson to open the Mill as a heritage attraction. The Rideau Valley Conservation Authority (RVCA) purchased Watson’s Mill, Dickinson House and the Carriage Shed in 1971 in order to preserve this heritage landmark and the name 'Watson’s Mill' was kept. The RVCA significantly restored the Mill – reopening it as a functioning grist mill and museum. In 2008, Watson’s Mill Manotick Incorporated (WMMI) became the owner of the Watson’s Mill property. Today, it continues to run as a functioning industrial museum and community social centre.
Watson’s Mill thrives with a mandate to continue operating as a flour and feed mill, as well as a social, cultural and educational focal point for its many visitors.
Watson’s Mill is situated on the banks of the Rideau River, a world heritage site, in the village of Manotick, Ontario. It is built next to the control dam on the backchannel as the Rideau River splits around Long Island. Built across the other channel are the Long Island Locks.
Watson’s Mill is 20 km south from downtown Ottawa, Ontario, and is accessible from Ontario Highway 416, exit 57.
Watson’s Mill was built using limestone quarried from the banks of the Rideau River, as well as wood cut locally and milled at the Long Island Sawmill. The Mill's interior is highly ornamented; the partners, Dickinson and Currier, wished to make the Mill a model for industrial achievement and business entrepreneurship. Watson’s Mill was powered by six turbines constructed in Joseph Currier’s foundry. The Ottawa Citizen newspaper described Watson’s Mill as “a castle in the air” on its opening day.
Today, Watson’s Mill still has much of the original machinery in working order. The following machinery is active in milling demonstrations:
Watson’s Mill continues to run milling demonstrations on Sundays during the summer season. Whole wheat flour milled onsite is available for sale in the gift shop as well as fresh whole wheat bread made from Watson’s Mill flour.
Watson’s Mill is supposedly haunted by the ghost of Ann Crosby Currier, the second wife of Joseph Currier. Born in 1841, Ann was the daughter of a successful hotel owner and grew up along with seven siblings, in the village of Caldwell, New York. In 1861, Ann was married to Joseph Merrill Currier, at that time part owner of the Mill
On Monday, March 11, 1861, 6 weeks into the marriage, coinciding with the return from Joseph and Ann’s honeymoon, Currier and Dickinson held a small party to celebrate their first successful year of operation. While making their way through the congestion of moving equipment and machinery, tragedy struck. Ann's crinoline and dress became caught in one of the turbine shafts on the second floor of the Mill and she was flung against a pillar and killed instantly. Following this tragedy, Joseph immediately lost all interest in the Mill and eventually sold his shares to his partner Dickinson.
Since that time, there have been numerous unconfirmed sightings of Ann’s ghost in Watson’s Mill, causing the site to be often considered among Ottawa’s haunted buildings. Watson’s Mill currently runs a number of events promoting the haunted nature of the building including the Terrifying Tales at Twilight and visits by the Haunted Ottawa and Paranormal Society.[1]
Located on the opposite bank of the river, Moss Kent Dickinson and Joseph Currier built their first sawmill using their newly acquired waterpower rights to the dam. The sawmill was built sometime before 1859 and wood sawn from this mill was used in the construction of the Long Island Grist Mill (Watson’s Mill). The sawmill was small in size, measuring only 72 feet by 22 feet. Due to the expansion of the bulkhead in 1870, this first sawmill had to be removed. Construction for a new sawmill began before the old one was torn down.
The second sawmill was larger than the first, measuring 30 feet by 100 feet. By 1876, a 20-foot addition was added to accommodate the new Canadian Bung, Plug and Spile Factory. The second sawmill was destroyed by fire over the summer of 1887. Although all physical evidence of the sawmill is now gone, it played a vital role in the creation of Manotick by providing lumber for the manufacture of woodwork for wagons, carriages, sleighs, wheels, furniture and building construction.
Built in just eight months, the woolen carding mill was opened December 1, 1861. Located beside the gristmill, the carding mill completed the three buildings that made up the Long Island Milling Enterprise.
Originally the carding mill measured 32 feet by 30 feet, but by 1870 more space was needed and the mill was expanded to 60 feet by 30 feet. This mill was not only a place where farmers could have their wool carded and dressed, but also where custom cloth could be ordered. From 1874 to 1876, the carding mill was leased to R.W. Conway who ran the business. The carding mill met its fate when a fire destroyed the entire building. The exact date of the fire is not known, but it is believed to have occurred sometime between 1879 and 1885. Although useful to farming families, the carding mill was never replaced scratched out of Dickinson’s records by Moss Kent himself. Today, very little remains of the carding mill, except for remnants of its foundation buried in the riverbank.
Moss Kent Dickinson established the Canada Bung, Plug and Spile Factory in 1875. At the time, there was only one other operation in Canada. Dickinson shipped his bungs (wooden stoppers for barrels) all over the world
After the Sawmill, which originally housed the bung factory, burned in 1887, Dickinson decided that only the bung mill was worth salvaging. A new building was constructed a little ways downstream and on the opposite riverbank from the gristmill.
To power the bung mill, a sixth turbine was installed in the basement of his gristmill, and a 3 inch steel cable ran out of the basement window and across the river channel to the new mill. When power was needed, a string was pulled, which rang a bell in the gristmill, notifying the miller to start the sixth turbine. The bung factory was dismantled in 1926 and moved to become part of a residence on Long Island in Manotick.
This museum is affiliated with: Ottawa Museum Network, and the Society for the Preservation of Old Mills (SPOOM).