A HistoryHAYHOE MILLS LIMITED.
A History
Harold Hayhoe on June 1st, 1935 bought Hicks Flour Mills and renamed it Hayhoe Bros.. He became the seventh owner of the mill dating back to 1828 and he paid more for the land that came with the business than the mill itself.
Freshly graduated from the University of Toronto, Engineering, he took the advice of his father in the middle of the Depression and "got in the food business". Harold's brother Edwin joined him shortly after and a third brother Boyce came in 1939. For years the Hayhoe Bros. operated the mill in Pine Grove, Ontario and built it into a efficient wheat milling business. Harold's son, John Hayhoe joined the company in 1964, one year after graduating from the University of Western Ontario with his MBA . In 1964 Harold Hayhoe bought out his two brothers Edwin and Boyce. In May 1968, Hayhoe Bros. became Hayhoe Mills Ltd., an Ontario Limited Corporation.
Harold Hayhoe John Hayhoe
Don Hayhoe, another son of Harold's also joined the company in 1965 and together Harold and his two sons operated the business until 1985 when Harold Hayhoe retired. Harold Hayhoe passed away December 30, 1987. Don Hayhoe sold his shares in the business in 1994 and John Hayhoe owned the business until 1998 when ownership succeeded to the third generation. Mark, Greg and Dean Hayhoe continued to own and operate Hayhoe Mills Limited until March 2007 when the mill was sold to New Life Mills, a division of Parrish and Heimbecker Limited..
Today, Hayhoe Mills Limited processes predominantly Soft Winter Wheat which is grown in the bountiful farmlands of Ontario. Hard Red Spring wheat from Ontario and the prairies makes up the balance of the grist. At one time over eighty mills operated on the Humber River, which drains into Lake Ontario; today there is one.
We only know wheat, but we know it well. A mill history written in 1946