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a Pennsylvania Quaker, came to the tiny colony of Upper Canada in 1812 where he began to build mills on the Holland River
In 1826 he obtained 60 acres of land in King Township where he built a grist mill on Lot 31, West Half of Concession 9, the pond being on the east half of Lot 31, concession 10.
Lloyd was an enterprising man and he began to subdivide and sell his land to settlers who were attracted to a thriving community with a busy mill as its heart.
Farmers from as far away as Holland Landing and Bolton would trudge on the rutted roads through the primeval forest, carrying their sacks of grain on their backs. The mill was a natural meeting place.
More on Jesse Lloyd
Sometime in the early 1830's, Lloyd, a socially concerned man, like all Quakers, became friends with the fiery journalist and charismatic Reform politician, William Lyon MacKenzie, member for York in the legislative assembly. The Lloyd mill inevitably became the rallying point for settlers disaffected by the abuses of the colonial government and a series of insensitive and autocratic Lieutenant-Governors.
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