Plaque Location
The County of Renfrew
The Township of Killaloe, Hagarty and Richards
In a picnic area on the south side of Highway 60 about 1
km east of Wilno
Plaque Text
The first group of Polish immigrants
to Canada, some 300 in number, established a settlement
in this area in 1864. Adverse social conditions and
political unrest in their partitioned homeland had
encouraged them to leave. They cleared the land and
rapidly established a thriving agricultural community.
During the 1880's the village founded here was called
Wilno after the birthplace of the Reverend Ludwik
Dembski one of their spiritual leaders. In 1875 the
parish of Wilno was organized and a chapel dedicated to
the polish saint Stanislaus Kostka, was built. The
Canadian Atlantic Railway linked Wilno with Ottawa in
1894. This district, which received a new wave of Polish
immigrants in the early 1900's, retains much of its
cultural heritage.
