A History of Elmsdale, Elmsdale West, and Brockton, Prince Edward Island

sawmill and did a lot of sawing for peo-

ple in Elmsdale as the S ummerside Jour-

nal December 4, 1947 stated: “Mr.

George Clark of Brooklyn has been in

the village for several days with his port-

Pioneer, September”, 1929 able rotary saw carriage doing custom sawing for the public.”

Howard Adams had a rotary sawmill, which was used to saw lumber for build- ing homes and barns. He and his father George built many homes in the Elmsdale area. He also had a shingle mill with which he sawed cedar shin— gles, and a shook mill with which he made material to build potato and oys- ter crates. He provided packages of hex- agonal ends and packages of rectangu— lar slats to the potato warehouses, where

the boxes were eventually assembled.

Bery1<Costain)M°mb€rgC°“' By 1891 Rennie & Matthews from Douglas Rix and George Gallant blocking logs at Rix’s mill EldealC had established a first-class

saw and shingle mill at Portage railway siding. The mill also sawed lumber, framework and barrel staves. William Matthews took over the operation of the mill himself, after a devastating fire in 1893, and rebuilt it completely. It was still operating in 1907. The Rennie involved was Louis Rennie, storekeeper.

When one looks at how shallow Huntley Creek now is, it is hard to imagine mills operated by waterpoWer along its banks in the early days of Elmsdale.

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