A search of title concerning the Sheffield Farm, purchased by the Research Branch, Canada Department of Agriculture, in 1956, and located at Upper Canard, uncovered in several early transfers references to Stephen Chase and Company Mills.  Enough was learned to fix the location of this enterprise at what is now known as Sheffield Mills, two miles away from the Research Station purchase, in another school section, and linked only by the common surname of a family, well known and widely dispersed.

Personal enquiry among the senior members of the Chase family now (1965) living added no other information concerning the Chase and Company Mills, nor were any of them aware of its existence.  A family genealogy, prepared by Millicent Chase, like most studies of the sort, was concerned more with people than with places.

Many persons have mentioned the name of Knight as an owner of the mill before Sheffield.  It is generally known that Benjamin Eaton, blacksmith and maker of fine axes, followed Sheffield, and that he drained the meadow, converting the pond into valuable hay land.  But there was an obvious gap in the story which this study attempts to fill.

As the sight of a corn mill, a saw mill, a fulling mill and later an axe factory, powered by the largest head of water yet harnessed in the county, the development must have been highly important to the early economy of the Valley.

Much early history may be gleaned from the patient search of the dusty pages of the early books in the Registry of Deeds for Cornwallis Township.  They proved to be a fruitful source in this instance.  The frequent references to "the road leading to the Stephen Chase and Company Mill" or to the mill itself, indicated that it must have been a well known centre in the early years of the English settlement.  Mention of a French bridge and French roads are evidence of previous French activities.  In 1772 a deed mentions "The Mills Montique, otherwise called Chase's Mills, on the River little Habuntunque at the branches thereof", supporting other evidence that the French had mills on the same location.  A deed in 1771 spells the name "River Hatatung".  However the present spelling "Habitant" appears in most documents.  All refer to the stream which flows through Sheffield Mills and empties into Minas Basin near Kingsport.

Just how many partners or share holders there were in the Chase enterprise is not known, but there were at least three, Stephen Chase, Joseph Chase and John Newcombe.  Joseph may or may not have been one of the original participants.  Stephen Chase and John Newcombe were joint owners and almost certainly were the original grantees.

It should be pointed out that the mill property was not a part of the farm lots of these men.  Joseph was granted a farm lot in partnership with his brother Jethro at Lower Canard, Stephen one at Upper Canard, and John Newcombe one at Upper Church Street, each of 44 acres, in 1760.  The mill property seemingly was a part or in lieu of additional timber land.  The records are silent as to why the partnership was disolved.

Joseph Chase apparently was the first to withdraw for on March 6, 1771 Joseph and Stephen made an even swap.  In exchange for Joseph's "half of the corn mill and one half of the saw mill, with the half of the mill lands and mill privileges as the streams, dams and the like" Stephen gave Joseph the 44 acre farm lot at Upper Canard, on part of which Leverett Webster now resides, but which at that time extended from Hillston Street southward to the Canard Dyke, and also a 40-acre wood lot "adjoining the mill land near the old french bridge over the west branch of the River Habutung, bounded on the east partly on a highway or old French Road, and partly by land laid out to Stephen Chase Junior".  The details of the exchange may be found in Book 1, page 224.

A year later the other two owners, Stephen Chase and John Newcombe, sold their share to Colonel Jonathan Shearman. A new man in the county, Shearman had bought the James Mather farm in Habitant, east of the present village of Canning, in 1770.  In 1773 he bought the farm at Upper Canard where William B. Eaton now lives.  The gambrel roof house, still on the property, was started by Shearman in 1773 and finished in 1774.

The mill property was sold to Shearman in two lots.  The Stephen Chase sale to Shearman was made on January 3, 1772.  The price was £32.l.9, an odd figure for which there is no explanation.  This three-quarter share is described as being "in partnership with John Newcombe" and also details the 20 acres bounded "on the east by the north river", Book I, page 117.

Shearman bought the remaining one-fourth from John Newcombe for £18, on March 30, 1772, Book I, page 351, and it is in this deed that the name "Mills Montique" appears.  The desciption proceeds, "one-quarter part of the corn mill with one quarter part of all the utentals thereto belonging --- one quarter part of all the irons of all kinds that belonged to the saw mill, streams, dams and logway with land below the dam 4 rods wide --- privilege to dig gravel on both sides of the mill and river --- lands flowed by dams . --- etc."

Severance of John Newcombe from the Chase partnership; seems to have become complete since he had already sold to Stephen Chase on January 12, 1772, for £6, Book 1, page 115, a one-fourth part in an 80 acre tract.  This apparently was not a part of the mill property, but somewhere near, since it mentions "land I had in company with Stephen Chase on the banks of the river Habitant where we had built a corn mill and dam and where the saw mill did stand".  Two phrases in this document link them as the original grantees of the land, "as our lands was laid out unto us" and laid out to "the said Stephen Chase, John Newcombe and Company".

Whether or not Colonel Jonathan Shearman made any money operating the mills, he seems to have either improved the property or found a hopeful purchaser or both.  In any case a carefully written deed from Shearman to Christoper Knight on August 7, 1780 for £250, appears in Book I, page 369.  Omiting the legal terms the description is as follows "containing 20 acres--- bounded on the east by the north branch of Habitant river, on the north by land laid out on the right of David Eaton, Timothy Hatch and Jahiel Rust, and on the west by the road or highway that leads to Jethro Chase from the grist mill, on the south by the mill pond and river.  And also a lot or tract of land situated on the south side of Habitant river, containing two acres more or less, bounded on the east by the highway that leads from the little dam to and over the river aforesaid, on the north by said river and mill pond, on the west and south by said pond, together with the grist or corn mill thereon standing, the dam and all the lands flowed by the waters of said dams:" --- " my own property right, to wit, that tract of land of 20 acres, and three-quarters of that land of 2 acres " --- " by deed of Stephen Chase bearing date the 3rd day of January in the year of our Lord 1772, and the remaining fourth part of the last mentioned tract of land" --- " by a deed of John Newcombe bearing the date of the 30th day of March 1772".  Just before this sale, April 8th 1780, Shearman secured a release of mortgage on the property from Shephen Chase, Book II, page 263.

Sale of the property from Knight to Stephen Sheffield on June 12th 1797, for £200 is recorded in Book IV, page 6. The bounds are the same "except one acre at the east of where the house now stands and one acre where the fulling mill now is" which Knight seems to have retained.

The mill property remained in the Sheffield family long enough to fix the name not only in common usage but also on Church's Map of Kings County which appeared in 1864.  Next year, however, April 1st 1865 Amos Sheffield sold the property to Benjamin Eaton and John Sheffield for £840, Book 27 page 179.  This deed gives the pond area as an estimated 150 acres.  On September 15, 1865, John Sheffield sold his share to Benjamin Eaton for £450, Book 49, page 30.  It would seem from these two prices that Sheffield and Eaton had been equal partners and Eaton merely bought out Sheffield.

Benjamin Eaton eventually drained the pond and converted it to a hay meadow.  This was done prior to 1884 for on January 28, 1884, Eaton sold eight and one half acres to David E. Ells for $275.00, Book 48, page 237. "situated on or in what is known as the Sheffield Mills Pond" On February 17, 1885, Benjamin Eaton sold 22 acres of meadow, the axe factory site of one-quarter acre east of the road, and half of a one hundred acre mountain lot to his son James Everett for $1700.00, Book 49, page 543.  Also 12 acres "a part of what is known as the Sheffield Mills pond" to his son William Edwin Eaton for $1200.00.  Lorne Kinsman and Wilbur Ells are the present occupants of the two Eaton homes.

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