John Halcro, born in the Orkney Islands north of Scotland in 1773, was a fur trader with the North West Company. He bought the farm on which this house now stands in 1818 and built the house in 1820. His son Andrew (1801-1878), who married Elizabeth Schneider on 12 March 1839, was one of the first steamboat captains on the Ottawa river. Andrew's son, William Francis, also became a steamboat captain. Captain Halcro was the master of the Princess, a ship of the Ottawa River Navigation Company, for 40 years. Descendents of his 13 children still live in the neighbourhood.