GaltGalt, Ont, Unincorporated Place. Galt is located on the GRAND RIVER. It was established in 1816 by William Dickson, a lawyer and merchant from Niagara-on-the-Lake. He engaged Absalom Shade, a Pennsylvanian carpenter of German origins, to build the townsite and mill, and so it became known as Shade's Mills.
In 1827 it was renamed Galt after John GALT, the Scottish novelist and colonizer who founded the CANADA CO. It was a centre of Scottish settlement in Upper Canada. The first macadamized road in Upper Canada linked it to Hamilton in 1837. The Grand River provided abundant water power and during the 19th century Galt was a significant manufacturing centre. In 1915 Galt was incorporated as a city but by then its economic influence was being overshadowed by neighbouring KITCHENER.