Almonte is a former mill town located in Lanark County, in the eastern portion of Ontario, Canada. Formerly a separate municipality, Almonte is now a ward of the town of Mississippi Mills, which was created on January 1, 1998 by the merging of Almonte with Ramsay and Pakenham townships. Almonte is located 46km south-west of downtown Ottawa. Its population as of 2013 is about 5,000.HistoryFirst settlersAlmonte's first European-bred settler was David Shepherd, who in 1818 was given 200acre by the Crown to build and operate a mill. The site became known as Shepherd's Falls. That name was never official however, and Shepherd sold his patent after his mill burned down. The buyer of the patent, Daniel Shipman, rebuilt the mill and the settlement became known as Shipman's Mills by about 1821.The majority of Shipman's Mills' early settlers were Scottish and later Irish. A textile town almost from the start, by 1850 it was the home of seven busy woolen mills of Messrs B & W Rosamond. It was one of the leading centres in Ontario for the manufacture of woollen cloth. The construction of a railway line to Brockville stimulated the economic growth of Almonte.In 1869, Almonte was a village with a population of 2000 situated on the Mississippi river in the Township of Ramsay, County of Lanark. It was a station of the Brockville and Ottawa Railroad. By the 1870 the town could boast thirty stores and forty other businesses.
