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Kitchener-Waterloo has a combination of city
comforts and country flare spiced up with unique
festivities and a distinct culture.
Kitchener-Waterloo is located in southern Ontario,
only 105 km from Toronto. Embedded in the twin
cities' fabric is the Old Order Mennonite group, a
community of residents who eschew modern technology,
thereby combining modern upbeat city life alongside
that of the slower and simpler 19th century. In
fact, in Kitchener-Waterloo, a horse and buggy rig
in the midst of a whir of traffic is not uncommon.
The region has two prestigious universities, the
University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier
University. For a taste of history, visitors can
explore the Woodside National Historic Site, the
celebrated boyhood home of prominent former Prime
Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King. Lucky
visitors who arrive in Kitchener-Waterloo in the
fall might take in the celebrated Oktoberfest, which
features lively music and entertainment, as well as
plenty of libations.
History - Kitchener
In 1784, the land that Kitchener was built upon was
an area given to the Six Nations by the British as a
gift for their allegiance during the American
Revolution; 240,000 hectares of land to be exact.
From 1796 and 1798, the Six Nations sold 38,000
hectares of this land to a Loyalist by the name of
Colonel Richard Beasley. The portion of land that
Beasley had purchased was remote but it was of great
interest to German Mennonite farming families from
Pennsylvania. They wanted to live in an area that
would allow them to practice their beliefs without
persecution.
Eventually, the Mennonites purchased all of
Beasley’s unsold land creating 160 farm tracts. By
1800, the first buildings were built, and over the
next decade several families made the difficult trip
north to what was then known as the Sand Hills. One
of these Mennonite families, arriving in 1807, was
the Schneiders, whose restored 1816 home (the oldest
building in the city) is now a museum located in the
heart of Kitchener. Other families whose names can
still be found in local place names were the
Bechtels, the Ebys, the Erbs, the Weavers (better
known today as the Webers) the Cressmans and the
Brubachers. In 1816 the Government of Upper Canada
designated the settlement the Township of Waterloo.
History - Waterloo
Waterloo was built on land that was part of a parcel
of 675,000 acres assigned in 1784 to the Iroquois
alliance that made up the League of Six Nations.
Almost immediately—and with much controversy—the
native groups began to sell some of the land.
Between 1796 and 1798, 93,000 acres were sold
through a Crown Grant to Richard Beasley, with the
Six Nations Indians continuing to hold the mortgage
on the lands.
The first wave of immigrants to the area were
Mennonites from Pennsylvania. They bought deeds to
land parcels from Beasley and began moving into the
area in 1804. The following year, a group of 26
Mennonites pooled resources to purchase all of the
unsold land from Beasley and discharge the mortgage
held by the Six Nations Indians.
The Mennonites divided the land into smaller lots;
two lots initially owned by Abraham Erb became the
central core of Waterloo. Erb is often called the
founder of Waterloo, as it was his sawmill (1808)
and grist mill (1816) that became the focal point of
the area
In 1816, the new township was named after Waterloo,
Belgium, the site of the Battle of Waterloo, which
had ended the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. After that
war, the area became a popular destination for
German immigrants. By the 1840s, German settlers had
overtaken the Mennonites as the dominant segment of
the population. Many Germans settled in the small
hamlet to the southeast of Waterloo. In their honour,
the village was named Berlin in 1833 (renamed to
Kitchener in 1916). Berlin was chosen as the site of
the seat for the County of Waterloo in 1853.
Waterloo was incorporated as a village in 1857 and
became the Town of Waterloo in 1876 and the City of
Waterloo in 1948.
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