"GILLIES BROS. LUMBERING FIRM" - Braeside
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Posted by: 
elyob
N 45° 27.460 W 076° 23.200
18T E 391583 N 5034728
Usborne Street connects Braeside and Arnprior.
Waymark Code: WMKWQA
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 06/04/2014
Views: 5
John Gillies (1811-1888) and wife Mary Cullen Bain (1818-1900) left a lumbering business to the oldest sons: James (1840-1909), William (1841-1913), John (1846-1914) and David (1849-1926).
The provincial plaque is on the east side of Usborne Street in McNab township, Renfrew county, between Arnprior and Braeside. Text follows.
This firm was begun in 1873 when James, William, John and David Gillies purchased a steam sawmill here on the Ottawa River at Braeside. Building on the experience acquired by their father, John Gillies, who had begun lumbering in Lanark County in 1842, they had established themselves by the mid-1880's as one of the Ottawa Valley's large lumber producers. This position was maintained partly by the involvement of succeeding generations in the management of the firm and by careful acquisition and exploitation of timber limits. In the twentieth century, despite the exhaustion of stands of virgin pine and pressures to diversify, Gillies continued almost exclusively to manufacture pine. In 1963 the firm was sold to the Consolidated Paper Corporation, ending 90 years of family ownership.
Ontario Provincial Plaques
Address or location of plaque: 446 Usborne Street, Braeside
Physical location of plaque: Village
"Ontario Plaques" Website for this "Plaque": (
visit link)
A web-site for more details.: (
visit link)
Description of any physical remains at site of "Historical Plaque": Remains are no longer obvious.
This 'Plaque' describes: Other
Condition of sign: Leaning
Is this a bilingual sign?: No !
What is the second/third language?: Not listed