Chief
John Aisance and his band of
Chippewas (also known as Ojibwa) settled along the Coldwater River in 1830, calling the place
Gissinausebing, which means "cold water." They built a grist mill on the site in 1833, which the Native people owned until 1849. In 1835 a post office was established, and the community was called Coldwater. Coldwater was opened to European settlement in 1836, and was incorporated as a village in 1908. Three weekly newspapers have been published in the community: the
Coldwater Planet (1896 to 1928), the
Coldwater News (1895 to 1956); and the
Coldwater Canadian in 1956. At the mouth of the Severn River, another community sprang up. The residents called it Severn Mills after a sawmill was built there around 1850. Lumber from this area was sent out on ships. The village was renamed to Port Severn in 1868. In 1875, the
Georgian Bay Lumber Co. was formed, soon to become the major lumber producer in the Severn River watershed. The settlement expanded rapidly over the next 20 years. In 1896, the mill was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. Since the timber supply in the area had been greatly reduced, the mill was not rebuilt and the population of the village began to decline. With the completion of the
Trent–Severn Waterway in this area in 1915, economic activity shifted from lumber to tourism. The current township of Severn was founded on January 1, 1994, as part of the restructuring of Simcoe County, by amalgamating the village of Coldwater with the townships of Matchedash and Orillia, plus portions of the townships of Medonte and Tay. == Demographics ==