Chesterville

Chesterville, Ont, urban area, population 1514 (2011c), 1528 (2006c). Chesterville is a community located 64 km southeast of OTTAWA, 30 km north of the St Lawrence River on the South Nation River. The first settler, George Hummel, a LOYALIST, arrived in 1817. The settlement was first known as Armstrong's Mills, after Thomas Armstrong, who operated a saw and grist mill at the site. When the post office opened in 1845, however, the community was renamed Winchester. The town hall, built in 1867, also served as the community's first school. When the telegraph office opened in 1875 the name of the village was changed yet again to Chesterville in honour of the office's first operator, Chester T. Casselman. Settlement expanded in the area after the arrival of the railway in the 1880s, and Chesterville was incorporated as a village in 1890. In 1998 it lost its municipal status when it and the village of Winchester and the townships of Winchester and Mountain were merged to form the township of North Dundas.

The area was, and still is, an important dairy farming area, and the main industry, Nestlé Canada Inc, manufactures beverage products.