History of Drummond/North Elmsley

Drummond/North Elmsley takes pride in it’s past. There are several generations of families established in the area that can trace their settlement to 1816. The anniversary of 200 years of military settlement was celebrated in 2016 with festivals, enactments and much fanfare.

The Township of Drummond was originally surveyed in 1816 and the Township of North Elmsley was proclaimed in 1838 later incorporating in 1850. The two Townships were amalgamated on January 1, 1998 and Arthur Code was the first Reeve of the newly formed municipality.

In the beginning the first surveyors arrived in March 12, 1816 followed shortly thereafter by the settlers consisting of the families of soldiers of the war of 1812 who were given land as partial payment for their services. These resilient people made their way along old rough corduroy roads from Brockville to Delta and then cut trails through the bush to Rideau Ferry, then called Oliver’s Ferry, and beyond to make their way by trail and by the Pike river, now called the Tay, to the newly established outpost called Perth.

Each family was given a ration of tools, seeds for planting and equipment to start their homestead and depending on military rank each man was allotted between 100 and 1,200 acres to farm. The agreement was upon lot assignment the settlers had to clear the immense forest, set up a farm and structure within five years. Some of these original descendents still reside in the area. In 2016, an interactive mapping system was developed to record the historic land allotments and at: lanarkcountytourism.com/tours/ancestry-geneology/

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