William Fleming was born around 1786 in Scotland, where he probably married Janet Miller in a Presbyterian church. The Flemings had seven children. Two of them died before the age of six.
It was a family that seemed very united. First-born son John was the one who took over from his father and who is pictured here.
In 1838, Jane married Archibald Ogilvie, one of the members of the famous family of millers. The witnesses present at the time of signing the marriage contract were none other than Alexandre Ogilvie and James Goudie, the two brothers-in-law who would team up in 1852 in the parent company of the Ogilvie mills that would dominate the flour industry in Montréal and all of Canada. Jane and Margaret died in 1840 without our knowing the cause.
William Fleming passed away in 1860. In fact, only Elizabeth and John lived longer than their parents. However, that branch of the Fleming family left no descendants.
John Fleming perpetuated the memory of his father by looking after turning the mill, whose structure still stands today. During his lifetime, John cultivated his plot of land around the mill. In 1861, he harvested carrots, pears and prunes, in addition to producing butter and honey. He employed a young man to help him with the flour production and paid him $3200 a year to do so. He remained a miller until sometime near the end of the 1880s.
