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The County of Halton is a compact little county, bounded on the north by Wellington County, on the south by Lake Ontario, on the east by Peel county, and on the west by Wentworth County. It is made up of four townships: Esquesing, Nassagaweya, Nelson and Trafalgar. Our particular area of interest is Esquesing.

The Esquesing Historical Society was founded on January 1, 1975, and is named after the geographical township called Esquesing, most of which encompasses the Corporation of the now Town of Halton Hills.

The word Esquesing has popularly been known through the years as "the land of the tall pines", but in later years it has become known that the word translates from the native as "last creek out."

The township was surveyed in 1818 by Charles Kennedy and Richard Bristol, into 11 concessions, each containing 32 lots. The first settlers are thought to have been James Hume and Ronald MacDonald

The village of Stewarttown was known as the capital of Esquesing Township for 140 years, and in fact, the village itself was actually called Esquesing for many years.

Many small hamlets made up, and still make up the Township of Esquesing. One of the best known was the Scotch Block, which included the villages of Mansewood, Peru and Speyside. Norval was founded by Alexander and James McNabb, and until 1840, was known as McNabsville. The village of Limehouse was once a busy industrial area, and was known as Fountain Green, the first settler there being Adam Stull, in 1820. Georgetown, early on known fondly as Hungry Hollow, was founded by George Kennedy in 1823, and incorporated as the Village of Georgetown in 1864. Ashgrove was first known as Leonard’s Corners, after Edward Leonard who built an early hotel there, although Samuel Watkins owned property there as early as 1817. Terra Cotta was first recorded under the name of Tuckers Mills, after Henry Tucker, but when the post office opened in 1866, it was called Salmonville, after the abundance of salmon in the Credit River there. In 1825, Benajah Williams and his wife Elizabeth Kennedy brought their large family to Williamsburg, which it was called until 1852, when it was changed to Glen Williams. Bear and wolves were a bother to the first settlers in Ballinafad in 1820. Dansville later became Adamsville, named for members of the Adams family, who settled early Acton, Acton being the name chosen in 1844 by the local postmaster. Other small settlements that still make up a part of Esquesing Township include some nearly forgotten hamlets: Milton Heights; Dublin; Churchill; Glen Lawson; Dolly Varden; Silver Creek; Hornby, east and west; Whaley’s Corners; and Farlton.

It is the mandate of the Esquesing Historical Society to educate the public about the history of this area, and we try to do that by holding our meetings at various places around the township, as they might pertain to the meeting subject.

The Historical Society maintain an ever increasing collection of archival material and photographs, housed in the Georgetown Branch of Halton Hills Public Libraries. These are all indexed, filed, and preserved in archival acid free containers in an extremely professional manner. The collection is available to the public on a request basis, and information on the collection can be found at the library, in the reference department, or searched by subject on the society’s excellent website.