The settlement at Mudge's Mill was laid out by James Jackson, the first settler, with J. R. Andrews, and Robert Wyllie in 1839. A post office opened in 1836, called Ayr after a town in Scotland. The other two settlements were not a part of Ayr but received their mail at the single post office. The "Smith's Canadian Gazetteer" of 1846 describes Ayr, population 230, as containing two churches, a post office receiving mail once a week and businesses such as a grist mill, fulling mill and carding machine, a tannery, two stores, a blacksmith, two shoemakers, two tailors, one cooper and two carpenters.