[3] As a result of the worldwide depression that followed the Napoleonic Wars and the rapidly encroaching Industrial Revolution, Scottish weavers found themselves out of work and destitute.
[5] In 1839, John married Mary Cullen Bain and then he began cutting timber in 1842 on the river Clyde using a sawmill that he had crafted with his own hands.
[7] In 1866, John Gillies and Peter McLaren, now business partners, pooled resources to purchase Gilmour Mills in Carleton Place which was expanded to have the capacity to produce 100,000 feet of lumber a day and employing over 100 men.
Gilmour Mills being no exception, they held the timber rights to over 300 square miles in the hills of the Upper Mississippi region of Frontenac County.
Over time, James, the eldest Gillies brother became the senior partner and president of the new company, in charge of sales, finances and general policy.
[5] Throughout the 20th Century, the Gillies family continued to work exclusively with pine, in spite of dwindling natural resources and pressures to diversify.
[8] Ed Weaver purchased the house and property in early 2006 when no one in the family of the previous owner, Ms. Mary Storie, chose to inherit it.