Madoc is a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

Hastings County Hastings County is a county and census division of the Canadian province of Ontario. Geographically, it is located on the border of Eastern Ontario and Central Ontario. Hastings County is the second-largest county in Ontario, after Renfrew C ...

Eastern Ontario Eastern Ontario (census population 1,892,332 in 2021) () is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies a wedge-shaped area bounded by the Ottawa River and Quebec to the northeast and east, the St. Lawr ...

, Canada. The township was named after

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, of or about Wales * Welsh language, spoken in Wales * Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales Places * Welsh, Arkansas, U.S. * Welsh, Louisiana, U.S. * Welsh, Ohio, U.S. * Welsh Basin, during t ...

prince Madoc ap Owain Gwynedd, credited by some with discovering

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

in 1170. There exists an alternative explanation, for which no evidence exists, that the name comes from a small Welsh village, Llanmadoc, on the

Gower Peninsula The Gower Peninsula (), or simply Gower (), is a peninsula in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan, and is now within the City and County of Swansea. It projects towards th ...

of Wales, not far from the city of

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

. Its post office dates from 1836.

Communities

The township of Madoc comprises several villages and hamlets, including communities such as Allen, Bannockburn, Cooper, Eldorado, Fox Corners, Hazzards Corners, Keller Bridge, Rimington, and Empey. File:Bannockburn ON.JPG, Bannockburn File:Eldorado ON.JPG, Eldorado

History

Settlement of the township began around 1830, and it was incorporated on January 1, 1850.

Mills Mills is the plural form of mill, but may also refer to: As a name * Mills (surname), a common family name of English or Gaelic origin * Mills (given name) *Mills, a fictional British secret agent in a trilogy by writer Manning O'Brine Places U ...

and

ironworks An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloome ...

gave initial stimulus to the community of Madoc. Following the discovery of gold-bearing quartz in 1866, the community prospered as an industrial centre. In 1877, the community separated from the township and became an incorporated village municipality. Eldorado, north of Madoc village, was the site of Ontario's first

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, ...

on 18 August 1866 by Marcus Powell and William Berryman (or Nicholas Snider). They opened up a

limestone cave A solutional cave, solution cave, or karst cave is a cave usually formed in a soluble rock like limestone (Calcium carbonate, with chemical formula ''CaCO3''). It is the most frequently occurring type of cave. It can also form in other rocks, inc ...

, 12 feet long, 6 feet wide and 6 feet high. The resultant mine was named the

Richardson Mine The Richardson Mine was Ontario's first gold mine, opened by Marcus Herbert Powell in 1867. The mine's opening caused Ontario's first gold rush, prompting the founding of Eldorado, Ontario the same year. After only 100 ounces of gold was extracte ...

, after John Richardson, owner of the farm where it was located. People soon came from all over North America to this area.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Madoc had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Notable people

* Charles Wilson Cross – Canadian politician. First Attorney-General of Alberta (1912–1918)

References

External links