Maple Hill is an dispersed rural community in the township municipality of Brockton,

Bruce County Bruce County is a county in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It has eight lower-tier municipalities with a total 2021 population of 73,396. It is named for James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine, the sixth Governor General of t ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. The settlement is located on Grey/Bruce Road 4, between Walkerton and

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

. The

Saugeen River The Saugeen River is located in southern Ontario, Canada. The river begins in the Osprey Wetland Conservation Lands and flows generally north-west about before exiting into Lake Huron. The river is navigable for some distance, and was once an im ...

flows south of Maple Hill, and Ruhl Creek, a tributary of the Saugeen, flows east of the community. Maple Hill flourished during the mid and late 1800s.

History

The area was known to early travelers as "Maple Hill" because a large strand of maple trees grew there on an elevated piece of the land. The first settlers were all British, and included Captain and Mrs. John J. James, who established a homestead called "Maple Hill". Peter Bartleman, who became a furniture and cabinet maker, settled in Maple Hill in the 1850s. The Maple Hill School was operating in 1854 with 41 students, and by 1860, Maple Hill had a population of 70. There was a general store, as well Good's Hotel and tavern, which operated from 1860 to 1910, and was used as a stopover for stage coaches. A

mill race A mill race, millrace or millrun, mill lade (Scotland) or mill leat (Southwest England) is the current of water that turns a water wheel, or the channel ( sluice) conducting water to or from a water wheel. Compared with the broad waters of a m ...

and saw mill was built on the

by William Halls in 1862, and was called "Maple Hill Race and Sawmill", and also "Hall's Mill". The mill later became a flour and grist mill. A post office operated from 1866 to 1923. In the late 1890s, an electric generator with three waterwheels was installed at a dam on the Saugeen River. Electricity from the dam was used to power nearby communities, as well as the printing press of ''The Hanover Post''. The Walkerton and Lucknow Railway was completed in 1904, passing through the north of Maple Hill. The line was abandoned in 1984. Maple Hill declined as nearby Walkerton and Hanover prospered. In 1906, one author wrote that while the early settlement showed promise of developing, "being so near both Walkerton and Hanover, it has given up the struggle".

References

{{authority control Communities in Bruce County