The Napanee Mills

In 1785 the Canadian government commissioned Robert Clark, a Loyalist millwright from New York, to build mills on this site. A sawmill was completed in March, 1786, and a grist-mill toward the end of that year or early in 1787. The latter was the first to be erected between Kingston and the Niagara peninsula. The mills were operated for a time by a government agent, James Clarke. In 1799 they were purchased by a prominent Kingston merchant, Richard Cartwright. They served settlers as far west as the Trent and formed the nucleus of the thriving community of Napanee.