History of The Brewhouse

Groves Mill
The building in which Groves Mill Brew House & Inn is situated was originally built as the home of Thomas Watson, the proprietor of the Webster Tannery. Watson had come from Scotland in the 1840’s and bought several properties in Fergus, beginning his work at the tannery in 1851.

Unfortunately, Watson was forced to claim bankruptcy at which time
Dr. Abraham Grove purchased the tannery and converted it into a flour mill. Later it became his electrical generating plant when Dr. Groves installed two generators & steam boilers. One provided direct current that was used for the arc lights on Main St. & the Doctor’s hospital. The other gave 60-cycle alternating current to drive electric motors around town. The News – Record was one of the early customers, when the presses were ready to roll, a member of staff had to go to the power house & tell them to turn on the alternating current. Dr. Groves extended the electric system to Elora in February 1900. As far as is known, he was the first man to transmit electricity between two towns in Ontario.

Dr. Groves’ brother, Gideon Groves, moved to Fergus in 1886 to maintain Groves Mill. The hydro plant was established in 1890 and continued in use until 1910 when it was taken over by Ontario hydro.The old mill later became Jack Tweddle’s chick hatchery & then the house of Broughman in 1973. The Groves Mill at one time even housed the Fergus Police Department, and was later divided into several smaller businesses and residential units. In 2000 the building was purchased by Carlos & Sidonia Madruga. Then leased & renovated by Mike Mackay into the Groves Mill Brew House & Inn…. Which is where you now sit enjoying this history brief.

Dr. Groves
In 1871 Dr. Groves opened his office & attained considerable fame as a surgeon who performed many daring surgeries. He is given credit for performing the first appendectomy; he also introduced antiseptic surgery many years before the great Lister’s theory. As early as 1874 he was demanding that everything to be used in an operation be boiled, including sheets, towels, gauze, instruments, etc.. He scrubbed his own hands & arms for twenty minutes before surgery and assured his nurses did the same. This technique had not previously been used in Canada.

His practice included many notable surgical firsts; all which were undertaken with primitive, makeshift equipment, usually in pioneer kitchens, often without the help of nurses or other skilled assistants. In 1875, he performed a vaginal hysterectomy, the first to be done in Canada. In 1878, he undertook a supra pubic liyhotomy(gall stones). This surgery took place in the Bullfrog Hotel in Guelph, and is written in medical literature as being the first to be performed successfully. In 1883, he performed an appendectomy on a 12-year-old boy in a log cabin not far from the Shand Dam. This was credited as the first appendectomy ever performed in history. Yet another first was a blood transfusion, using the simple technique of gravity. What an amazing part of Canada’s medical history right here in Fergus!!

~Sources Byerly, AE Elora Express, 1934…. Hutchinson, Jean The History of Well. County…Templin Hugh. Fergus