“Welton, William Porter
Merrickville, Grenville Co., Ontario
Mount Forest, Wellington Co., Ontario
William Porter Welton (20/11/1812 – 26/2/1867 Mount Forest, Ont.) was married 18/3/1840 to Sarah Lisson (25/12/1820 Ireland – 5/3/1889 Mount Forest, Ont.) and they (with other members of the Welton family) were in the Merrickville area by 1841. Porter Welton’s earlier history has not been established, but Porter Welton, aged 17, and Sidney Welton, aged 16, were members of Captain Alexander Morris’s company, 1st Regiment Leeds militia, in 1829. Porter operated an axe factory at Merrickville in the 1840s and until at least 1861. His first location was a stone building on the northeast corner of the island, rented from Stephen Merrick and built about 1844-47. Welton moved his factory about 1859 to a site on Main Street just east of the Anglican Church. In 1851, Welton’s employees were Thomas Free and Osmond Dyer, both of whom resided in his household. In 1861 he had an investment of $2,000 and used 1 1/2 tons of iron and steel and employed one man at a monthly salary of $20. In the census of that year, the two households that followed the Welton family in the list contained the names of blacksmiths John Loyal, William Whitmore, John Devor and Welton’s nephew Francis Lisson, all of whom were probably employed by Welton.
At some date between 1861 and 1865, Welton moved his business to Mount Forest, where he operated an axe factory attached to Yeomen’s Mills, but he died within a few years. At the time of her death, his widow still owned the axe factory site in Merrickville.
Sarah Lisson Welton was a daughter of Christopher Lisson and Sarah Good of Wolford, Grenville, County, who immigrated about 1826. William P Welton may have been a son or relative of Harvey Welton (2/11/1782 Waterbury, Ct. – 1/2/1814 Oneida, NY) and Lydia Harris (4/11/1790 Battleboro, Vermont – 1877 Gouverneur, NY).”
– Taken from “Axe Making in Ontario in the Settlement Period” b Gary E French, 2010