(12 June 1823-22 March 1897), millwright, miller. (William C. Sylvester) Born at Fort Covington, N.Y. He had contracts on the Cornwall Canal, and was a builder of mills. William C. Sylvester, of Cornwall, is listed in Lovell’s directory of 1857 as a millwright and general draughtsman. He is remembered in GC history especially as the builder (about 1861) of the covered bridge over the Raisin River at Martintown, though by other accounts his brother was also involved. Rhodes Grant says that “The Sylvester brothers who operated Sheriff McMartin’s mill were noted for their knowledge and skill. In 1861 they took the contract of building the covered bridge across the river, which stood until 1936 as an example of their skilled work.” Rhodes Grant says “some years” after building the bridge “the Sylvesters moved out to Vankleek Hill… and they and their sons, at least William’s sons, operated a large grist mill there and a farm in Saskatchewan for good measure.”

     William C. Sylvester moved from Martintown to Vankleek Hill in 1881. He was accompanied by his wife and by his sons William (born in Cornwall) and John and Martin (both born in Martintown). At Vankleek Hill, the Syvesters built and operated a plant which had gristmill, woollen mill, and carding mill facilities. The Glengarry Times of 23 July 1881 praised the “fine new gristmill” being built by “Mr. Sylvester” at Vankleek Hill. Martin Sylvester settled in Saskatchewan in 1908. For some time, though doing so was apparently not an economically sound venture, he shipped back to the Sylvester plant at Vankleek Hill wheat grown on his 1000-acre farm. Charlie Grant, the brother of Rhodes Grant, had some association with the Sylvester farm, which was at Watson, Sask., and Charlie Grant’s brother-in-law, Duncan A. MacGillivray from Kirk Hill, father of the well-known Glengarrian Major Grant MacGillivray (see Rhodes Grant), managed the farm for Sylvester for several years.

     The Sylvester plant at Vankleek Hill went out of business in the 1920s. In July 1936, the demolition of the Martintown covered bridge was under way. (Standard Freeholder 15 July 1936, Glengarry News 17 July 1936 ) At a meeting of the Ontario Good Roads Association in 1937, Gilbert Seguin, the reeve of Lochiel, said that “In Glengarry County last year, the last of the old covered bridges was demolished.” Whatever he thought about the disappearance of this particular historic landmark, Seguin declared himself no friend to the wooden bridges in general, covered or uncovered, which still survived and which, he found, constituted “a menace to life and property.… Timber repairs to these old bridges is a false economy. With the increasing scarcity of good timbers in Eastern Ontario, reinforced concrete and steel is favoured for medium and large bridges, with corrugated steel tile for culverts.” (SFH 3 March 1937) See also Rhodes Grant for notice of Charlie Grant’s wood model replica of the covered bridge.

Grant, Martintown, i, 68, 90, 130, ii, 96-98 * MacKinnon, 212-217: biographical, with history of the mill at Vankleek Hill * Thomas 579 * Lovell 1857 574 * for Sylvester name, cf. Campbell (1990), 192 * MacGillivray & Ross 305 * wheat farm: information from Grant MacGillivray; Glengarry News 12 Aug. 1998 (Dalkeith column)