longer needed, so they and the 133 cycle AC plant from the Lower Mill were sold to Morrison and Milligan in Northam to provide electricity for PEI’s first lighted horse race track.20 (Morrison and Milligan were one of the Islands largest livestock breeders and had 285 fox pens alone.)21

The North Tryon Electric Company continued to expand as did several other similar enterprises throughout PEI. Harry Leard, Crapaud, had installed a water driven AC generator at his mill about the same time as Charles Ives had installed his first AC generator in 1913. The Leards supplied power to the Crapaud and Victoria areas. Harry’s son, Jack, recalls that the Ives and Leards were always visiting back and forth, sharing information and spare parts. Demand was increasing in both Crapaud and Victoria to the point that, when the new rink was built in Victoria in 1933, Jack Leard arranged for Charles Ives to supgl; the power for the Victoria line, andJack supplied the Crapaud line. Eric Robinson remembers when the post holes were dug for the new transmission line which was run down the Lower Tryon Road to carry power from North Tryon to Victoria. The hole diggers were paid 40 cents for each hole they dug. Jack Leard sold the entire system to Charles Ives the next year.

The North Tryon Electric Co. was sold to the Maritime Electric Company in April 1943. An entry in Sterling Lord’s diary notes that Sterling drove the 74 year old Charles Ives to Charlottetown on April 19, 1943 to sign the agreement with Maritime Electric. Four and one half years later Sterling wrote: November 26, 194 7: fine, colder, got line connected to town, shut down old mill, sure is quiet here tonight. (Apparently the diesel engines that had driven the generators twenty four hours a day in the rural electric power plants made quite a racket!) North Tryon was now supplied with power from Charlottetown. The old mill which had experienced so many interesting and varied changes during the years was destroyed by fire in May 1952. Sterling Lord purchased the site and the pond from Maritime Electric on February 18, 1954. Sterling sold part of the property in 1959 to Vernon and Lorne Inman who built a potato warehouse on the old mill foundation.23 Sterling’s grandson, Myles Lord, now owns the pond and the remaining property.

The Upper Mills

The Ives’ Upper Mills were located about half a mile up the stream from the Gouldrup’s Lower Mills. These mills were built, according to a newspaper clipping, by Richard Dawson, son of Colonel Thomas Dawson; however, no record has been found verifying this information. The saw mill is marked on the Cundall Map of 18512 and the grist mill and saw mill are shown in the 1880 Atlas as being owned by Thomas Ives. Thomas leased the saw mill to his son, George, on December 29,

1879.

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