Description
Aylmer is a town in Elgin County in southern Ontario, Canada, just north of Lake Erie, on Catfish Creek. It is south of Highway 401. The mayor is Gregg Currie.Aylmer is surrounded by Malahide Township.HistoryIn October 1817, John Van Patter, an emigrant from New York State, obtained 80 ha of land and became the first settler on the site of Aylmer. During the 1830s a general store was opened and village lots sold. Originally called Troy, in 1835 it was renamed Aylmer after Lord Aylmer, then Governor-in-Chief of British North America. By 1851 local enterprises included sawmills and flour-mills powered by water from Catfish Creek. Aided by easy access to Lake Erie, Aylmer became by the mid-1860s the marketing centre for a rich agricultural and timber producing area. Benefiting greatly from the construction of the 230 km Canada Air Line Railway from Glencoe to Fort Erie, Aylmer became an incorporated village in 1872.A Royal Canadian Air Force Training Facility, RCAF Station Aylmer was located just north of Aylmer in Malahide Township from 1941 to 1961. This station is now home to the Ontario Police College and The Aylmer Wildlife Management Area.
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