When the railroad from Port Hope to Millbrook opened in 1856, extending to Lindsay and Peterborough shortly afterwards, our region was transformed from a rural backwater to a transportation hub.
Enjoy the MCHS 2026 Newsletter: Connections
When the railroad from Port Hope to Millbrook opened in 1856, extending to Lindsay and Peterborough shortly afterwards, our region was transformed from a rural backwater to a transportation hub.
Maintaining a record of our local history and encouraging people to be interested in various aspects of the past is a lot of what we do as MCHS, but now and then we just have to make a little history ourselves. Our Blocks & Blooms…
On the sports scene, Millbrook and the surrounding area hit the mark early with championship lacrosse teams from 1867 right through to at least the end of the 1920s. A jersey from the 1929 team hangs today in the Peterborough Sports Hall of Fame.…
By the 1840s, Cavan’s population had grown to several hundred and a rudimentary civic administration with elected councillors and an appointed clerk was in place. In the mid 1840s, a wood frame municipal structure was constructed in Millbrook (the largest community) at the site of…
There is a plaque along the west wall of St Thomas Anglican church in Millbrook “In loving memory of William Henry Bateson…. killed at Passchendaele Nov 6th, 1917”. His name is not on our local cenotaph and I have wondered about this over the years.
John Deyell assisted Samuel G. Wilmot in the first survey of this area in 1817 and is credited with naming Cavan and Monaghan Townships in honour of his Irish birthplace. An extraordinary entrepreneur, John Deyell lived to age 103 and is credited with significant…
John Deyell is generally acknowledged to be Cavan Township’s first settler, arriving in 1816. He and his family were certainly among the first to put down roots. He had a long and remarkable life, and he left his mark.
Enjoy the MCHS 2025 Newsletter: Recollect Spring