as he travelled from Mount Stewart to St. Andrew’s. Apart from the fact that it belonged to the Bourke family, very little is known of the starch factory. It may have been a short— lived industry, as the prohibitive Ameri— can tariff and a depression in the cotton trade in ChEngland were Ioat that time ope a,, woollen ---- . = .. - ._ - - -- .. » 1880 atlas, they were located at the mill darn above the road. As early as 1874, Mr. Taylor had declared himself prepared to receive cloth to be dyed and finished and to pay particular attention to “dyeing all colors in woollen goods”. His list of authorized agents was impressive, ranging from McKenzie & Stumbles in Charlottetown to J. G. Sterns of Souris and James MacDonald of Hickey’s Wharf. At the turn of the century these mills, together with a saw mill, were owned and operated by Alfred J. Grant. Ill health subsequently forced Mr. Grant to dispose of his milling interests and engage in a less strenuous form of work. At some point between 1901 and 1908, he opened a general store on Main Street.

In 1926 it was rumoured that the property formerly known as Grant’s Mills and then owned by Montague Pigot was to be sold to Fred Leard who intended to build an electric plant on the site. Mr. Leard, as mentioned above, actually built his plant at Pisquid. The Mount Stewart mill property was sold to Canadian National Railways, and the dam sub- sequently backed water for use in an hydraulic filling station. Later on, a pipeline was run underground from the water tower to supply a fire hydrant on Main Street. The hydrant presently stands in front of the Fire Hall as a monument to the enterprise of firemen of a bygone day.

According to the Patriot for November 30, 1878, a Mount Stewart steam mill owned by William Doyle was equipped with a rotary saw cap- able of cutting 10,000 feet of boards per day. This piece of equipment shared the first floor with a shingle mill, trenail machine, planer and band saw, while the second storey housed a furniture factory and block shop. Built, no doubt, to cater, in part, to the demands of the village’s thriving shipbuilding industry, this was an enterprise of impressive dimensions and would still be such today. Despite the lack of corroborative evidence, it is tempting to associate the industry with the Mount Stewart Steam Mills which flourished during the eighties and nineties under the successive management of Messrs. Wallace Clark and David Egan. The business was located on the site of the service station presently owned by Hamilton Douglas.

The Examiner for August 25, 1909 reported that a steam mill owned by Mr. Bruce Jay “is doing a rushing business and the sound of the saw can at all times be heard.” Originally located in Cherry Hill, the mill was hauled to Mount Stewart and set up near the present home of Elmer MacIntyre. After Mr. Jay moved to British Columbia, the business was owned by Russell Clark and operated by George Clark. It was eventually destroyed by fire. Destruction by fire was also the fate of Ira Clark’s sawmill. Built in 1931, the mill and a quantity of logs and sawn lumber were destroyed on September 9, 1937. This business was re—established and sold to Harry Crane after World War II. Mr. Crane, whose home was nearby, operated the mill until the time of his death in 1962. On October 19, 1939 and on August 18, 1961 the mills of Mr. Roy Leard and the Con- sumers’ Co—operative Association Ltd., respectively, were added to the ter- rible toll of businesses in the Mount Stewart area which, over the years, have been consumed by fire.

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