The Sons and Daughters of Chesterville

Nestled along the banks of the Nation River in Dundas County, Ontario, Canada is a small rural community of Chesterville. It was originally named after a miller, Thomas Armstrong, and called Armstrong Mills. By 1876, years after the Buist family first settled here, it was renamed Chesterville after a merchant and telegraph operator named Chester Casselman. Robert and Helen Buist were two of the early settlers to the area having established themselves here from Scotland by 1857. They first purchased a farm in Winchester Township where some of their eight children were born, before relocating to Chesterville in 1868 where Robert began working as a furniture and cabinet maker and had a confectionary business for nearly the rest of his life. The favorite business sites of Chesterville were on Mill Street. Grant Brothers was a general merchants store where most likely the young children of Robert and Helen Buist would purchase items including candy. The grain warehouses were at this time replaced by cheese factories and dairying was the cash crop. As devout Presbyterians, the Buist family would attend Sunday services in various homes, schools and later in the old town hall built in 1867. The present Presbyterian Church named St. Andrews Presbyterian church was not erected until the year 1888 and thusly was attended by the family. The Buist children of Chesterville attended school which was first made of brick with two stories, providing two classrooms. This then is a compilation of the individual histories and stories of the Buist children of Chesterville.