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The Good Life

by

Larry Ellis


Stamps, Mills, Stamps, Mills



Watson’s Mill celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2010:  “On February 11, 1860, Messrs. Dickinson and Currier, proprietors, in company with some fifty or sixty gentlemen of this city, attended the formal opening of their new Grist Mills, on Long Island” (now known as Watson’s Mill), ( from The Ottawa Citizen, February 14, 1860.)












January 11, 2010 is a day you must not miss stopping at the Post Office in Manotick!


That is the day that the newest stamp issue is released – “Historic Mills” – and our Watson’s Mill in Manotick is one of five mills whose picture will be the definitive issue. Not only that but if you purchase a booklet of 30 stamps the cover on the booklet be of Watson’s Mill! The photo used for the stamp was taken by Manotick resident James Watt. The other four mills in the issue are Keremeos Grist Mill in Keremeos, BC, Old Stone Mill National Historic Site in Delta, ON, Riordon Grist Mill in Caraquet, NB, and Cornell Mill in Stanbridge East QC.



























Canada Post will have new postage-paid postcards of the “Flags over Historic Mills” stamp issue. These Postcards can be mailed from anywhere in Canada to anywhere in the world!


Mills have helped shape the course of our country’s developments for more than two hundred years. Mills were the first factories, combining natural power and machinery, to do the work of many. Many of Canada’s oldest mills have been preserved and restored as memories of our rich heritage.  This year’s addition to Canada Post’s ongoing Flags over Canada series depicts these five historic sites. The suggestion for the Mill series was submitted from Manotick to Canada Post in May 2004.


Watson’s Mill was built by Moss Kent Dickinson and his partner                                                                                                    Joseph Merrill Currier in 1859-60. They purchased the water rights from the government and erected the mill that is 46’ x 64’ and built from limestone taken out of the riverbed. The walls are four feet thick at the base and narrow by 6 inches at each level. The interior finishing touches place the mill in a category by itself including – main floor plastered walls, rounded pillars with fancy caps and high worked baseboards. The grindstones, imported from France, are made from pieces of very hard quartz called buhr stone and weigh about 900 kg each. The original six power turbines were manufactured in Ottawa by Joseph Currier’s company.

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Historic Mills Stamp

Flags over Historic Mills stamp with original photo by James Watt of Manotick  shown below