West birthplace effacing some of the boyish attempts at art that he had executed upon the walls. It is the irony of fate that at the present time the Township of Springfield does not contain a work of art done by her illustrious son.

As evidence of the tolerance and charitable nature of the early inhabitants of the township, tradition says that several families that were expelled from the ill-fated French Canadian colony of Acadia in 1758 were sheltered in Springfield Township. These victims, members of a group about whom Longfellow wrote his memorable poem "Evangeline," were made subject to the harsh persecution of the English who suspected them of treason because of their French ancestry and scattered them by the ship load all along the Atlantic seaboard where many died in misery and poverty.

Because of the ample water supply existing in the township every creek and run supported its grist mill and furnished power for the various colonial types of manufacturing. Along Darby Creek, in the vicinity of the settlement known today as Addingham, several mills devoted to the manufacture of woolen yarn were in operation about the middle of the eighteenth century. Remains of these mills may be still seen. A structure known as the Tuscarora Mills was located near the bridge connecting with Bishop Road. It was built in 1845 by a local resident, George Burnley, who later leased it to Samuel Levis, a descendant of the original Samuel Levis who, in 1686, built on the bluff overlooking the site the still-standing farmhouse with its interesting checkerboard brick construction. Levis operated the mill until 1870 when it passed into various other hands and finally was demolished. What is known presently as the Victoria Plush Mills was founded in 1778 by John Lewis. The buildings served as a saw mill in 1788 and a paper mill in 1810 and remained in operation by the Lewis family until 1897. On the upper reaches of Crum Creek, a mill furnishing the power for "Beatty's Edge Tool Manufactury" existed about the middle of the eighteenth century. At Heyville, named for the prominent Hey family, located on Darby Creek adjacent to Addingham, several yarn mills known as Keystone Mills No. 1 and No. 2 were operated almost into the twentieth century. English and Scotch weavers constituted most of the skilled workmen and some of them and their descendants still live in the general area. Parts of the local Darby Creek Valley are very reminiscent of Yorkshire with its whitewashed-stone, mill-workers' houses and rugged hillsides. The broad Yorkshire accent is still recognizable in the speech of many Springfield citizens.

An interesting development based on the plentiful water supply of Crum Creek was created by the canny Scotchinan Thomas Leiper in 1779. He opened a stone quarry from which many of the ancient farm houses in the locale were constructed. The old quarry is frequently searched today by those making mineral collections and some fine quartz crystals may be obtained by the expending of a little patience and effort. Leiper had wide vision and constructed snuff, cotton, and grist mills. The settlement was named Avondale, and among the many interesting relics still to be seen there are Leiper's old manor house with its famous classi-