The only forge operating in the whole area now is Allison MacDonald's in Bridgetown. Mr. MacDonald started up in partnership with his brother, Sterling, about 1945 and has done a thriving business ever since.

Those were the days of carriages and sleighs, and thus arose the need for carriage shops. John W. Campbell opened one such shop in Poplar Point and he specialized in welding axles and making wagon wheels. The MacKay Brothers managed a carriage shop in Bridgetown. Meacham’s 1880 Atlas shows it as being run by Lauchlin (Lockie) McKay and through time his three sons, Dan, John, and Stanley took it over. They built, upholstered, and painted the entire carriage. They were well known for their “slope back” sleigh which was considered quite dressy. They also built farm carts and wagons. The business was later moved to Souris and then to Nova Scotia where they made cars known as the “McKay Car".

Saw mills and grist mills were thriving in this area a few score years ago. They were powered by the flow of the Boughton River. One of those mills is Ross’ Mill in Bridgetown. In 1880, Lewis Gay Ross bought the saw and grist mill from a lawyer named Morrison, who had bought it from the Clay family. Evidently the mill catered to cutting ship plank in earlier years and then shifted over to include sawing lumber when ship building started to phase out. A grist mill was added to the business in 1898 and later laths were sawed for fishermen. The mill burned in June, 1918 and was rebuilt. This mill is still operated today by Kenneth and Lyman Ross, grandsons of Lewis, and is one of very few mills still powered by water on the Island. Kenneth Ross told us the wheat was ground on a “burr” stone sometimes called a ”mill stone”. One of those burr stones rests against the Montague Museum.

William Robertson, Sr., operated a saw and shingle mill in Poplar Point on what is known as Hudson’s Brook. This mill was called Robertson’s mill and was situated on the brook that runs between the Milford Robertson and Merrill Robert- son property. Harold and Mary Robertson told us that the studding, beams, and rafters in their house were hewn at this mill.

John Glover came from England in the early 1800's and started a grist and saw mill known as Glover’s Mill. It was situated on what was called Blackett’s Creek and is now known as Rand Jenkin’s Dam. Glover managed it and a farm fora number of years and in his senior years, two of his grandchildren, sons of William Cooper, managed it for him. After the death of Glover and his wife, the property was sold to Mrs. Joseph Dingwell of Durell. Mrs. Dingwell hired four men and managed the farm and the mill quite profitably for a few years. She later married John Nichols who came from England to help his uncle, John Frost, in Annandale.

Local legend has it that there is a story behind this marriage. Three men, C.E. Pratt, John Nichols, and John Robert Swallow Sr., were stumping in the Widow Dingwell’s field one day. It was terribly hot and they were working hard. Nichols apparently spoke up and said, “it’s time we made a change in our lives. This kind of work is no good —— I think I’ll marry the Widow” and he did. He became owner and boss of the mill. The name was changed to Nichols Mill.

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