158-628: Kitchener is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario , about 100 km (62 mi) west of Toronto . It is one of three cities that make up the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and is the regional seat . Kitchener was known as Berlin until a 1916 referendum changed its name. The city covers an area of 136.86 km, and had a population of 256,885 at the time of the 2021 Canadian census . The Regional Municipality of Waterloo has 673,910 people as of year-end 2023, making it
316-479: A Northwest Passage . Though this expedition was unsuccessful, it established the name " New France " for northeastern North America. After a few expeditions, France mostly abandoned North America for 50 years because of its financial crisis; France was involved in the Italian Wars and there were religious wars between Protestants and Catholics . Around 1580 however, the rise of the fur trade (particularly
474-680: A United Empire Loyalist family. He was educated in the Doon and Hespeler public schools. In 1911 he became a farmer on Manitoulin Island . Bowman was a member of the Ontario Legislature from 1918 to 1926, and was Ontario Minister of Lands and Forests from 1919 to 1923. Hilda Ranscombe (1913–1998) was born in Doon, and became a star ice hockey player on the Preston Rivulettes . The population of Doon dropped sharply after
632-471: A hamlet . Friedrich Gaukel , another prominent early local figure, purchased the Varnum tavern site in the early 1830s, along with other lands around the growing village. In a November 1833 transaction, he purchased lands located along the village's main street (later known as King Street) from Joseph Schneider. The deeds of sale for this transaction are the earliest recorded use of the name Berlin to refer to
790-422: A building "bee" to help newcomers erect a log home. Immigration from Lancaster County continued heavily in the 1820s because of a severe agricultural depression there. Joseph Schneider, from that area, built a frame house in 1820 on the south side of the future Queen Street after clearing a farm and creating a rough road; a small settlement formed around "Schneider's Road", which became the nucleus of Berlin. The home
948-509: A desire by Berlin-turned-Kitchener's ethnically German business class, in the wake of the city's turmoil over its German identity during the First World War, to distance themselves from its 19th century past and the downtown area associated with it in favour of a built environment similar to wealthy Anglo-Canadians in other Canadian cities, such as Montreal and Winnipeg. The fortunes of Rieder and other rubber industrialists were linked to
1106-423: A group of Mennonites from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania . The tract included most of Block 2 of the previous Grand River Indian lands. Many of the first farms were least 400 acres in size. The German Company, represented by Daniel Erb and Samuel Bricker, had acquired the land from previous owner Richard Beasley; he had gotten into financial difficulties after buying the land in 1796 from Joseph Brant, who represented
1264-725: A hotbed for the illegal smuggling of liquor and the biggest supplier into the United States, which was under complete prohibition . Prohibition in Ontario came to an end in 1927 with the establishment of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario under the government of Howard Ferguson . The sale and consumption of liquor, wine, and beer are still controlled by some of the most extreme laws in North America to ensure strict community standards and revenue generation from
1422-447: A land area of 892,411.76 km (344,562.11 sq mi), it had a population density of 15.9/km (41.3/sq mi) in 2021. The largest population centres in Ontario are Toronto , Ottawa , Hamilton , Kitchener , London and Oshawa , which all have more than 300,000 inhabitants. The percentages given below add to more than 100 per cent because of dual responses (e.g., "French and Canadian" response generates an entry both in
1580-524: A large farmhouse there in 1856 at what became the corner of Maurice and Ottawa Streets. Samuel Eby settled on the northwest part of Lot 1 and soon became a close associate of the Mississaugas who lived in the area, selling whisky to them. Later named the founder of Berlin, Benjamin Eby (made Mennonite preacher in 1809, and bishop in 1812) arrived from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1806, and purchased
1738-623: A large monument, with a bronze bust of Kaiser Wilhelm I, in Victoria Park. The monument was destroyed by townspeople just after the start of World War I. A statue of Queen Victoria was erected in the park in 1911. By 1871, Berlin, Ontario, was a bilingual town with German being the dominant language spoken. More than one visitor commented on the necessity of speaking German in Berlin. Immigration from continental Germany slowed by 1880. First and second-generation descendants now comprised most of
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#17328015458791896-631: A large tract of land consisting of much of what would become the village of Berlin, so named in 1833). The settlement was initially called Ebytown, and was at the south-east side of what later became Queen Street. Eby was also responsible for the growth of the Mennonite church in Waterloo County. By 1811, Eby had built a log Mennonite meeting house first used as a school house, but later also housing religious services. A new meeting house, known as Eby's Versammlungshaus, near Stirling Avenue, replaced
2054-566: A profound impact on local citizens during the war years. During the first few months of the war, services and activities at Lutheran churches in Waterloo County continued. As anti-German sentiment increased throughout Waterloo County, many of the churches decided to stop holding services in German. The governor general of Canada, the Duke of Connaught , while visiting Berlin, Ontario, in May 1914, discussed
2212-626: A result, for the first time, the English-speaking population of Canada West surpassed the French-speaking population of Canada East , tilting the representative balance of power. In 1849, the districts of southern Ontario were abolished by the Province of Canada , and county governments took over certain municipal responsibilities. The Province of Canada also began creating districts in sparsely populated Northern Ontario with
2370-458: A sawmill in the area. Most of the early settlers were German Mennonite farmers from Pennsylvania. In the 1830s the Ferrie family moved to the area, where they established several businesses in what is now Lower Doon including a distillery, tavern, general store, saw mill, cooperage, blacksmith shop and kiln. They also built workers' houses. Adam Ferrie Jr. gave Doon its name after Loch Doon and
2528-418: A second thought. But it is important to remember that Canada was a society in transition – the country had absorbed massive numbers of immigrants between 1896 and the First World War, proportionately more than at any other time in our history. So there were these latent fears about foreigners ... It becomes very easy to stoke these racist, nativist fires and convince people there really is a threat. War propaganda
2686-397: A significant part of advertising for the subdivision. Kitchener's economic heritage is rooted in manufacturing. Industrial artifacts are in public places throughout the city as a celebration of its manufacturing history. While the local economy's reliance on manufacturing has decreased, in 2012, 20.36% of the labour force was employed in the manufacturing sector. Ontario Ontario
2844-531: A site at Fischer-Hallman Road was found to include artifacts from a "Late Woodland Iroquois village" that was inhabited circa 1300 to 1600. Archeologists found some 35,000 objects including stone tools and a 4,000 year old arrowhead. To date, there are more than 18 Late-Woodland Period village sites documented in the Waterloo Region. Kitchener stands on a part of the Haldimand Tract , lands in
3002-437: A small parcel of land he owned (at the current Queen and Weber Streets ), this sealed the deal for Berlin, which was still a small community compared to Galt. The courthouse at the corner of the later Queen Street North and Weber Street and the gaol were built within a few months. The first county council meeting was held in the new facility on 24 January 1853, as the county officially began operations. The Waterloo County Gaol
3160-540: A very large so-called poorhouse with an attached farm, the House of Industry and Refuge that accommodated some 3,200 people before being closed in 1951; the building was later demolished. It was on Frederick St. in Kitchener, behind the now Frederick Street Mall, and was intended to minimize the number of people begging, living on the streets, or being incarcerated at a time before social-welfare programmes. A 2009 report by
3318-538: Is English, although there exists a number of French-speaking communities across Ontario . French-language services are made available for communities with a sizeable French-speaking population; a service that is ensured under the French Language Services Act of 1989. In the 2021 census , Ontario had a population of 14,223,942 living in 5,491,201 of its 5,929,250 total dwellings, a 5.8 percent change from its 2016 population of 13,448,494. With
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#17328015458793476-480: Is a Lutheran meeting house. Post Office, post twice a-week. Professions and Trades.—One physician and surgeon, one lawyer, three stores, one brewery, one printing office, two taverns, one pump maker, two blacksmiths." The Township of Waterloo (smaller than Waterloo County) consisted primarily of Pennsylvanian Mennonites and immigrants directly from Germany who had brought money with them. At the time, many did not speak English. There were eight grist and twenty saw mills in
3634-458: Is a huge population growth force in Ontario, as it has been over the last two centuries. More recent sources of immigrants with large or growing communities in Ontario include East Asians , South Asians , Caribbeans, Latin Americans, Europeans, and Africans. Most populations have settled in the larger urban centres. Doon, Ontario Doon is a suburban community and former village which
3792-762: Is at the entrance to the village. The former house of Peter McArthur was transported to the village from its original location on land owned by the McArthur family near Appin, Ontario in Ekfrid Township. Hugh C. Elliott (1899-1995), who had served in 1918–19 with the Canadian Engineers in Vladivostok , Siberia, was a charter director of the Doon Pioneer Village. Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning
3950-429: Is classified as humid continental. Ontario has three main climatic regions: In the northeastern parts of Ontario, extending south as far as Kirkland Lake , the cold waters of Hudson Bay depress summer temperatures, making it cooler than other locations at similar latitudes. The same is true on the northern shore of Lake Superior , which cools hot, humid air from the south, leading to cooler summer temperatures. Along
4108-473: Is home to the nation's capital, Ottawa , and its most populous city, Toronto , which is Ontario's provincial capital. Ontario is bordered by the province of Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay and James Bay to the north, and Quebec to the east and northeast. To the south, it is bordered by the U.S. states of (from west to east) Minnesota , Michigan , Ohio , Pennsylvania , and New York . Almost all of Ontario's 2,700 km (1,700 mi) border with
4266-592: Is in Southern Ontario , and while agriculture remains a significant industry, the region's economy depends highly on manufacturing . In contrast, Northern Ontario is sparsely populated with cold winters and heavy forestation, with mining and forestry making up the region's major industries. Ontario is a term thought to be derived from Indigenous origins, either Ontarí:io , a Huron ( Wyandot ) word meaning "great lake", or possibly skanadario , which means "beautiful water" or "sparkling water" in
4424-499: Is less available, but the station at Doon had a stockyard and freight shed. Before its destruction by fire in 1915, the Doon twine and cordage mill was a major freight customer. Decades later, it was claimed that up to eight trains passed through the village per day. The Doon line and station became a part of the Canadian National Railways system in 1923 along with the rest of the former Grand Trunk system. In
4582-590: Is now a part of the city of Kitchener, Ontario , Canada. Doon was settled around 1800 by German Mennonites from Pennsylvania, and after 1830 by Scottish immigrants. The area is located at the confluence of Schneider Creek and the Grand River . The post office was opened in 1845. A large flour mill, oatmeal mill, distillery and sawmill were built on the Doon River over the following years. The Perine brothers established extensive linen works and flax mills near
4740-434: Is often associated with Beaux-Arts architecture in North America. Rieder's own interpretation of the movement's philosophy followed a variation of the influential landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted 's "Suburb Beautiful", with Rieder proclaiming Westmount the "Development Beautiful". It reflected an alienation from industrial cities and dense urban centres, driven by a variety of factors. These included concerns around
4898-678: Is the oldest government building in the Region of Waterloo. The Governor's House, home of the "gaoler", in a mid-Victorian Italian Villa style, was added in 1878. Both have been extensively restored and are on the Canadian Register of Historic Places . The extension of the Grand Trunk Railway from Sarnia to Toronto (and hence through Berlin) in July 1856 was a major boon to the community, helping to improve industrialization in
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5056-465: Is the southernmost province of Canada . Located in Central Canada , Ontario is the country's most populous province . As of the 2021 Canadian census , it is home to 38.5 per cent of the country's population, and is the second-largest province by total area (after Quebec ). Ontario is Canada's fourth-largest jurisdiction in total area of all the Canadian provinces and territories. It
5214-460: Is the southernmost extent of Canada's mainland. Pelee Island and Middle Island in Lake Erie extend slightly farther. All are south of 42°N – slightly farther south than the northern border of California . Ontario's climate varies by season and location. Three air sources affect it: cold, dry, arctic air from the north (dominant factor during the winter months, and for a longer part of
5372-458: Is top-down driven, but it is effective because it re-enforces tendencies that already exist. A document in the Archives of Canada makes the following comment: "Although ludicrous to modern eyes, the whole issue of a name for Berlin highlights the effects that fear, hatred and nationalism can have upon a society in the face of war." The Waterloo Pioneer Memorial Tower built in 1926 commemorates
5530-698: The Toronto Star explains, "pauperism was considered a moral failing that could be erased through order and hard work". A research project by the Laurier School of Social Work has amassed all available data about the house and its residents, digitized it, and made the archive available online. According to Sandy Hoy, a director of research projects, the "inmates" included not only the poor, but also those with disabilities, women, and children. Some were single women who had been servants and became pregnant. Since there were no social services, they were sent to
5688-559: The War Measures Act , which was passed in August 1914. Internees had their property confiscated and many of them were subjected to forced labour . Tens of thousands of others were subjected to government surveillance. In Berlin, anti-German sentiment slowly escalated throughout the war, beginning with the vandalizing of the statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I in Victoria Park in 1914. Despite pronouncements of loyalty and commitment to
5846-808: The American Revolution . The Kingdom of Great Britain granted them 200 acres (81 ha) land and other items with which to rebuild their lives. The British also set up reserves in Ontario for the Mohawks who had fought for the British and had lost their land in New York state. Other Iroquois, also displaced from New York were resettled in 1784 at the Six Nations reserve at the west end of Lake Ontario. The Mississaugas, displaced by European settlements, would later move to Six Nations also. After
6004-811: The Canadian Pacific Railway (1875–1885) through Northern Ontario and the Canadian Prairies to British Columbia , Ontario manufacturing and industry flourished. However, population increases slowed after a large recession hit the province in 1893, thus slowing growth drastically but for only a few years. Many newly arrived immigrants and others moved west along the railway to the Prairie Provinces and British Columbia, sparsely settling Northern Ontario. The northern and western boundaries of Ontario were in dispute after Canadian Confederation . Ontario's right to Northwestern Ontario
6162-656: The First World War pitted the British Empire (and by extension, Canada) against the German , Austro-Hungarian , and Ottoman empires, and led to a wave of suspicion, exclusion, and discriminatory measures against people whose ethnic origins were associated with these states. Thousands of Ukrainians , Germans, Turks , and Bulgarians were forcibly placed into internment camps by the Dominion government under
6320-571: The French Canadians . Accordingly, the two colonies were merged into the Province of Canada by the Act of Union 1840 , with the capital initially at Kingston , and Upper Canada becoming known as Canada West . Responsible government was achieved in 1848. There were heavy waves of immigration in the 1840s, and the population of Canada West more than doubled by 1851 over the previous decade. As
6478-501: The Great Lakes . Hunting and gathering remained predominant throughout the early Woodland period , and social structures and trade continued to develop. Around 500 AD , corn cultivation began, later expanding to include beans and squash around 1100 AD. Increased agriculture enabled more permanent, fortified, and significantly larger settlements. In southern Ontario during the 1400s, the population of some villages numbered in
Kitchener, Ontario - Misplaced Pages Continue
6636-532: The Iroquoian languages . Ontario has about 250,000 freshwater lakes. The first mention of the name Ontario was in 1641, when "Ontario" was used to describe the land on the north shore of the easternmost part of the Great Lakes. It was adopted as the official name of the new province at Confederation in 1867. The thinly populated Canadian Shield , which dominates the northwestern and central portions of
6794-607: The Jésuites and Supliciens , began to establish posts along the Great Lakes. The French allied with most Indigenous groups of Ontario, all for the fur trade and for defence against Iroquois attacks (which would later be called the Iroquois Wars ). The French would declare their Indigenous allies to be subjects of the King of France and would often act as mediators between different groups. The Iroquois later allied themselves with
6952-621: The Madawaska River in Renfrew County . The Carolinian forest zone covers most of the southwestern region of the province. The temperate and fertile Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence Valley in the south is part of the Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests ecoregion where the forest has now been largely replaced by agriculture, industrial and urban development. A well-known geographic feature is Niagara Falls , part of
7110-760: The Middle Ages , and who were early followers of Anabaptism . Jacob Eby, an ancestor of the Ebys who migrated to Upper Canada, was a Mennonite bishop in the Swiss canton of Zürich in 1683. The family first migrated to the Palatinate , then to Pennsylvania , settling in Lancaster County . In Lancaster County, members of the family, such as Peter Eby (1765–1843), continued to act as Mennonite religious leaders. The Ebys became involved in early land settlement of
7268-614: The Niagara Escarpment . The Saint Lawrence Seaway allows navigation to and from the Atlantic Ocean as far inland as Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario. Northern Ontario covers approximately 87% of the province's surface area; conversely, Southern Ontario contains 94% of the population. Point Pelee is a peninsula of Lake Erie in southwestern Ontario (near Windsor and Detroit, Michigan ) that
7426-663: The River Doon in Ayrshire , Scotland. From this time most of the settlers were artisans, millers and brick makers of Scottish and English background. Doon Mills, driven by water, was fully operational in 1839, grinding oatmeal, flour, and barley for the local population. The population of Doon in 1855 was 200. A population of 200 was also listed in 1869. The hamlets to the west, about a mile further up Schneider Creek, were originally called Oregon and Tow Town. They later merged and were called Upper Doon. James Watson, grandfather of
7584-526: The Sängerfest , or "Singer Festival" concert event in Berlin that attracted an estimated 10,000 people and continued for several years. Eleven years later, the more than 2000 Germans in Berlin, Ontario, started a new event, Friedensfest , commemorating Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian war . This annual celebration continued until the start of World War I. In 1897, they raised funds to erect
7742-594: The University of Waterloo . The interwar and postwar periods saw a wave of suburban development around the city. One prominent example of this was the Westmount neighbourhood. Modelled after the affluent Montreal suburb of the same name , it was developed on the forested hills to the north of the Schneider farmstead on lands that were subdivided from it. Kitchener's Westmount took a number of its street names from
7900-644: The War of 1812 invaded Upper Canada across the Niagara River and the Detroit River , but were defeated and pushed back by the British, Canadian fencibles and militias, and First Nations warriors. However, the Americans eventually gained control of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The 1813 Battle of York saw American troops defeat the garrison at the Upper Canada capital of York . The Americans looted
8058-551: The "Prussians of Ontario". The regulation was eventually repealed in 1927. Influenced by events in the United States, the government of William Hearst introduced prohibition of alcoholic drinks in 1916 with the passing of the Ontario Temperance Act . However, residents could distil and retain their own personal supply, and liquor producers could continue distillation and export for sale, allowing this already sizeable industry to strengthen further. Ontario became
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#17328015458798216-456: The 10th-largest census metropolitan area (CMA) in Canada and the fourth-largest CMA in Ontario. Kitchener and Waterloo are considered "twin cities", which are often referred to jointly as "Kitchener–Waterloo" (K–W), although they have separate municipal governments . Indigenous people have long lived in and around what is today Kitchener-Waterloo. During the retreat of the last glacial maximum,
8374-711: The 1795 Jay Treaty . In 1788, while part of the province of Quebec, southern Ontario was divided into four districts : Hesse , Lunenburg , Mecklenburg , and Nassau . In 1792, the four districts were renamed: Hesse became the Western District, Lunenburg became the Eastern District, Mecklenburg became the Midland District, and Nassau became the Home District. Counties were created within the districts. The population of Canada west of
8532-443: The 1830s to 1850s, bringing with them their language, religion, and cultural traditions. The German community became industrial and political leaders, and created a German-Canadian society unlike any other found in Canada at the time. They established German public schools and German-language churches. Both the immigrants from Germany and the Mennonites from Pennsylvania spoke German, though with different dialects such as Low German or
8690-401: The 1850s, between finely balanced political groups: conservative and reform groups from Canada West and Canada East aligned against reform and liberal groups from Canada East each group having some support from French-Canadian and English-Canadian legislators. There was also a fear of aggression from the United States during and immediately after the American Civil War . These factors led to
8848-419: The 1930s, amidst the Great Depression , passenger service ended on the line and the Doon and Blair stations were closed. Freight service continued and was dieselized in the 1950s along with the rest of the Canadian National system. One of the last uses for the line through Doon was the movement of construction materials for Highway 401 . For a short time during this period, there was a level crossing with
9006-436: The American War of Independence, the first reserves for First Nations were established. These are situated at Six Nations (1784), Tyendinaga (1793) and Akwesasne (1795). Six Nations and Tyendinaga were established by the British for those Indigenous groups who had fought on the side of the British, and were expelled from the new United States. Akwesasne was a pre-existing Mohawk community and its borders were formalized under
9164-422: The Bechtels, the Ebys, the Erbs, the Webers, the Cressmans, and the Brubachers. In 1816, the government of Upper Canada designated the settlement the Township of Waterloo. Much of the land, made up of moraines and swampland interspersed with rivers and streams, was converted to farmland and roads. Wild pigeons , which once swarmed by the tens of thousands, were driven from the area. Apple trees were introduced to
9322-425: The British Empire". In 1897, a large bronze bust of Kaiser Wilhelm I , made by Reinhold Begas and shipped from Germany, was installed at Victoria Park, Kitchener to honour the region's prominent German-Canadian population. It was removed and thrown into the lake by vandals in August 1914 at the beginning of the First World War . The bust was recovered from the lake and moved to the nearby Concordia club, but it
9480-407: The British. From 1634 to 1640, the Huron were devastated by European infectious diseases, such as measles and smallpox , to which they had no immunity. By 1700, the Iroquois had been driven out or left the area that would become Ontario and the Mississaugas of the Ojibwa had settled the north shore of Lake Ontario. The remaining Huron settled north of Quebec. During the French and Indian War ,
9638-428: The Bush Inn, all respectable establishments. A non-denominational Sunday School was founded in 1848. In 1854 the Doon Presbyterian Church was opened on land donated by Robert Ferrie and built with his financial assistance. A Methodist church was built in 1868 on a site donated by William Allen. The Bonnie Doon School was the first public school, opened in 1878 with one room, and extended to two rooms within ten years as
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#17328015458799796-428: The Canadian Shield which traverses the province from northwest to southeast and also above the Niagara Escarpment which crosses the south. The highest point is Ishpatina Ridge at 693 metres (2,274 ft) above sea level in Temagami , Northeastern Ontario. In the south, elevations of over 500 m (1,640 ft) are surpassed near Collingwood, above the Blue Mountains in the Dundalk Highlands and in hilltops near
9954-415: The Doon Twines company relocated to Berlin, now Kitchener, during World War I. There are now only a few small businesses in Doon, which has become a suburb for commuters to Kitchener and Cambridge. After Phoebe Watson died the Watson house was home to the Doon School of Fine Arts from 1948 to 1966. The house, a substantial building in Scottish Gothic Vertical style that was built in 1834 by Adam Ferrie,
10112-415: The German Company Tract, with a number arriving between 1804 and 1807 and taking up farming plots. Two brothers, George and Samuel ("Indian Sam") Eby, arrived in 1804 and settled on Lot 1 of the German Company Tract, near the area of what would become downtown Kitchener. George Eby's farmstead was located one mile southeast from the future Berlin town core. It was later owned by Jacob Yost Shantz , who built
10270-540: The Grand River valley purchased in 1784 by the British from the Mississaugas in order to grant it to the Six Nations for their allegiance during the American Revolution . Between 1796 and 1798, the Six Nations sold 38,000 hectares of this land to loyalist Colonel Richard Beasley . The portion of land that Beasley purchased was remote, but 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,
10428-406: The Great Western), which opened in 1857, provided Doon's first railway service, but it was short-lived due to the collapse of its bridge over the Grand River. Cut off from the rest of the Great Western system, the section on the west bank of the river (which passed through Doon and German Mills on the way to its junction with the Grand Trunk mainline at Berlin) was more useful to the Grand Trunk than
10586-631: The Great Western, and came under Grand Trunk ownership in 1865, becoming the Grand Trunk's Doon Branch. After campaigning from Galt town boosters, the Doon Branch was extended to Galt once again in 1873, along a new route through Blair , which bypassed Preston. The line through Doon saw a mix of freight and passenger traffic, and a particular train was known locally as the "Dutch Mail" for its mail car . In 1914, scheduled daily trains were two southbound trains to Galt and two northbound trains through Berlin to Elmira, which carried passengers, baggage, mail, and express parcels . Information on freight movement
10744-429: The H. Krug Furniture Company in the 1887. In 1912 Krug became the majority shareholder in Doon Twine and Cordage Company, which was renamed Doon Twines Ltd. The company began manufacturing cordage with jute, manila, hemp and sisal. To accommodate growth and reduce transportation costs, in 1916 the operation was moved from Doon to a larger factory in Kitchener. Beniah Bowman (1886–1941) was born in Waterloo county into
10902-419: The House of Friendship social service agency. Previously part of the United County of Waterloo, Wellington, and Grey, Waterloo became a separate entity in 1853 with Berlin as county seat . Some contentious debate had existed between Galt and Berlin as to where the seat would be located; one of the requirements for founding was the construction of a courthouse and jail. When local merchant Joseph Gaukel donated
11060-407: The House. "We saw a lot of young, single mothers in the records," said Laura Coakley, a research co-ordinator. The archives also indicate that in addition to food and shelter for "inmates", in return for labour in the house and on the attached farm, the house also donated food, clothing, and money for train tickets to enable the poor to reach family that might be able to support them. Two cemeteries for
11218-405: The Lake Superior-Hudson Bay watershed, known as the District of Keewatin ) would become part of Ontario, a victory embodied in the Canada (Ontario Boundary) Act, 1889 . He also presided over the emergence of the province into the economic powerhouse of Canada. Mowat was the creator of what is often called Empire Ontario . Beginning with Macdonald's National Policy (1879) and the construction of
11376-505: The Mennonite religion were pacifists so they could not enlist, and the few who had immigrated from Germany (not born in Canada) could not morally fight against a country that was a significant part of their heritage. The anti-German sentiment was the primary reason for the Berlin to Kitchener name change in 1916. News reports indicate that "A Lutheran minister was pulled out of his house ... he
11534-593: The Mennonites purchased all of Beasley's unsold land, creating 160 farm tracts. Many of the pioneers arriving from Pennsylvania, known as the Pennsylvania Dutch or Pennsilfaanisch-Deitsche (Deutsch; German-speaking mainly from Switzerland and the Palatinate, not modern Dutch), after November 1803 bought land in a 60,000-acre section of Block Two from the German Company, which was established by
11692-648: The North American theatre of the Seven Years' War of 1754 to 1763, the British defeated the armies of New France and its Indigenous allies. In the Treaty of Paris 1763 France ceded most of its possessions in North America to Britain. Using the Quebec Act , Britain re-organised the territory into the Province of Quebec . In 1782–1784, 5,000 United Empire Loyalists entered what is now Ontario following
11850-788: The Pays-d'en-Haut was quite large and would today include the province of Ontario, as well as, in whole or in part, the American states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. Indigenous peoples were the vast majority of the Pays d'en Haut population. As for Northern Ontario, the English explorer Henry Hudson sailed into Hudson Bay in 1611 and claimed its drainage basin for England. The area would become known as Rupert's Land . Samuel de Champlain reached Lake Huron in 1615, and French missionaries, such as
12008-807: The Petersburg station was closed in 1967, and in 1968 it was transported to the Pioneer Village. Rail service arrived in Doon in 1857 in the form of the Preston and Berlin Railway , a branch line of the Great Western Railway . It later became a part of the Grand Trunk Railway and, finally, the Canadian National Railway (CN). With the decline of large, rail-served industries in the area, CN applied to abandon
12166-593: The Six Nations. The payment to Beasley, in cash, arrived from Pennsylvania in kegs, carried in a wagon surrounded by armed guards. The first settlers in the area of what would become the village of Doon (now a suburb of Kitchener) arrived in 1800. They were two Mennonites from Franklin County, Pennsylvania who were also brothers in law, Joseph Schoerg (later called Sherk) and Samuel Betzner Jr. Joseph Schoerg and his wife settled on Lot 11, B.F. Beasley Black, S.R., on
12324-646: The St. Lawrence-Ottawa River confluence substantially increased during this period, a fact recognized by the Constitutional Act of 1791 , which split Quebec into the Canadas : Upper Canada southwest of the St. Lawrence-Ottawa River confluence, and Lower Canada east of it. John Graves Simcoe was appointed Upper Canada's first Lieutenant governor in 1793. A second wave of Americans, not all of them necessarily loyalists moved to Upper Canada after 1790 until
12482-516: The United States follows rivers and lakes: from the westerly Lake of the Woods , eastward along the major rivers and lakes of the Great Lakes / Saint Lawrence River drainage system. There is only about 1 km ( 5 ⁄ 8 mi) of actual land border, made up of portages including Height of Land Portage on the Minnesota border. The great majority of Ontario's population and arable land
12640-526: The Waterloo Region was isolated by the ice to the north, east, and west and by Lake Maumee III to the south, however once the ice retreated the landscape opened up for nomadic populations to hunt, camp, and thrive; though not many sites from the Paleo-Indian Period (13,000BC to 1000BC) have been documented in the region thus far. The Archaic Period (8,000BC to 800BC) still primarily consisted of nomadic hunter-gatherer communities spread out across
12798-443: The agencies, boards, and commissions (or ABCs), these special-purpose bodies became a characteristic element of Canadian governance. The ABCs movement in Kitchener began in the 1890s with the passage of the 1894 Public Parks Act transferring management of the town's parkland from a committee of the town council to a parks board, an initiative which ultimately led to the creation of Victoria Park . A prominent supporter of this movement
12956-555: The alcohol retail monopoly are upheld. The post- World War II period was one of exceptional prosperity and growth. Ontario has been the recipients of most immigration to Canada, largely immigrants from war-torn Europe in the 1950s and 1960s and following changes in federal immigration law , a massive influx of non-Europeans since the 1970s. From a largely ethnically British province, Ontario has rapidly become culturally very diverse. The nationalist movement in Quebec, particularly after
13114-411: The architect for the latter was Bruce Kuwabara . During the interim years, the city had occupied leased premises on Frederick Street. Kitchener was in many cases within Ontario the earliest adopter, or one of the earliest adopters, of many municipal institutions which later became commonplace. These institutions included library boards, planning boards, and conservation authorities. Known collectively as
13272-491: The area. Immigrants from Germany, mostly Lutheran and Catholic, dominated the city after 1850, and developed their own newer German celebrations and influences, such as the Turner societies , gymnastics, and band music. In 1869, Berlin had a population of 3000. In the late 1880s, the idea of a street railway connection to Waterloo was promoted, resulting in the construction of the Berlin and Waterloo Street Railway in 1888. It
13430-688: The bank of the Grand River opposite Doon, and Betzner and his wife settled on the west bank of the Grand, on a farm near the village of Blair. The homes built by the next generation of these families still stand as of March 2021, on what is now Pioneer Tower Road in Kitchener and have been listed as historically important; the John Betzner homestead (restored) and the David Schoerg farmstead (not yet restored) were erected circa 1830. By 1800,
13588-554: The campus, including a row of bus bays . With internal traffic congestion on the campus increasing, a dedicated on-campus bus station has been proposed, which would be directly accessible from Doon Valley Drive, a public roadway. In 2020, it was announced that the Ontario Ministry of Infrastructure , Infrastructure Canada , and the Region of Waterloo would be committing funds to the project, alongside nine other public transit and active transportation infrastructure projects in
13746-474: The category " French Canadian " and in the category "Canadian"). The majority of Ontarians are of English or other European descent including large Scottish, Irish and Italian communities. Slightly less than 5 per cent of the population of Ontario is Franco-Ontarian , that is those whose native tongue is French, although those with French ancestry account for 11 per cent of the population. Compared to natural increase or interprovincial migration , immigration
13904-442: The community. The 1826–1837 cholera pandemic affected Bridgeport in 1832 and Berlin in 1834. Hamilton , then a significant port of entry for immigrants to Canada, was linked to the 1832 outbreak, which also affected other nearby settlements such as Guelph and Brantford. At Bridgeport, two English families who had recently arrived from Suffolk contracted the disease after passing through Hamilton, and several died after arriving at
14062-462: The community. They also spread it to an already-settled family, the Hemblings, a number of whom also died, including adults. Orphaned children from these families were later adopted by local Mennonites. The Smith's Canadian Gazetteer of 1846 describes Berlin as: "... contains about 400 inhabitants, who are principally Germans. A newspaper is printed here, called the " German Canadian " and there
14220-560: The county. During the 2016 Oktoberfest parade, an estimated 150,000 people lined the streets along the route. Granted, some do not consider Oktoberfest to be indicative of German culture in general. "The fact is, Oktoberfest in Germany is a very localized festival. It really is a Munich festival. ... [Oktoberfest in Kitchener] celebrates only a 'tiny aspect' of German culture [Bavarian]", according to German studies professor James Skidmore of
14378-545: The creation of the Berlin Light Commission. Facing a mounting sewage problem, especially as a result of effluent from the town's industrial tanneries , local leaders in Berlin campaigned at a provincial level to be allowed to create a sewage commission, for which there was no provision in provincial legislation. Ultimately, a private bill was passed, allowing Berlin to create the first sewage commission in Canada in 1904. The Berlin and Waterloo Street Railway
14536-605: The demand for beaver pelts), reignited French interest. In 1608, Samuel de Champlain established France's first colonial settlement in New France, the Habitation de Québec (now Quebec City ), in the colony of Canada (now southern Quebec). Afterwards, French explorers continued to travel west, establishing new villages along the coasts of the Saint Lawrence River. French explorers, the first of which
14694-485: The eastern shores of Lake Superior and Lake Huron winter temperatures are slightly moderated but come with frequent heavy lake-effect snow squalls that increase seasonal snowfall totals to upwards of 3 m (10 ft) in some places. These regions have higher annual precipitation, in some places over 100 cm (39 in). Severe thunderstorms peak in summer. Windsor , in Southern (Southwestern) Ontario, has
14852-571: The election of the Parti Québécois in 1976, contributed to driving many businesses and English-speaking people out of Quebec to Ontario, and as a result, Toronto surpassed Montreal as the largest city and economic centre of Canada. Depressed economic conditions in the Maritime Provinces have also resulted in de-population of those provinces in the 20th century, with heavy migration into Ontario. Ontario's official language
15010-505: The establishment of Algoma District and Nipissing District in 1858. An economic boom in the 1850s coincided with railway expansion across the province, further increasing the economic strength of Central Canada. With the repeal of the Corn Laws and a reciprocity agreement in place with the United States, various industries such as timber, mining, farming and alcohol distilling benefited tremendously. A political stalemate developed in
15168-638: The expansion of the Neutral people to the Kitchener-Waterloo area sometime in the 1300s in what is referred to as the Woodland Period (900BC to 1650AD). A history states that at least two "aboriginal settlements from the 1500s can now be identified near Schneider and Strasburg Creeks" with some artifacts having been found under the city from a thousand years ago. The Iroquoian people grew crops such as corn, beans and squash. The finds include
15326-465: The extreme north and northeast are mainly swampy and sparsely forested. Southern Ontario , which is further sub-divided into four sub-regions: Central Ontario (although not actually the province's geographic centre), Eastern Ontario , Golden Horseshoe and Southwestern Ontario (parts of which were formerly referred to as Western Ontario). Despite the rarity of mountainous terrain in the province, there are large areas of uplands, particularly within
15484-552: The first buildings in Berlin had been built, and over the next decade, several families made the difficult trip north to what was then known as the Sandhills. One of these Mennonite families, arriving in 1807, was the Schneiders, whose restored 1816 home (the oldest building in the city) is now a National Historic Site and museum in the heart of Kitchener. Other families whose names can still be found in local place names were
15642-585: The first people to settle on the lands of Ontario, about 11,000 years ago, after crossing the Bering land bridge from Asia to North America between 25,000 to 50,000 years ago. During the Archaic period , which lasted from 8000-1000 BC , the population slowly increased, with a generally egalitarian hunter-gatherer society and a warmer climate. Trading routes also began emerging along the St. Lawrence River and around
15800-477: The formation of the Great Coalition in the elected Legislative Assembly, which initiated a series of conferences in the 1860s to effect a broader federal union of all British North American colonies. The British North America Act took effect on July 1, 1867, establishing the Dominion of Canada, initially with the four provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario. The Province of Canada
15958-475: The harsh climate difficult, and some of those with the means eventually returned home or went south. However, population growth far exceeded emigration in the following decades. It was a mostly agrarian-based society, but canal projects and a new network of plank roads spurred greater trade within the colony and with the United States, thereby improving previously damaged relations over time. Meanwhile, Ontario's numerous waterways aided travel and transportation into
16116-429: The health impact of air pollution and desire for "country air"; the ability for people to commute longer distances being enabled by motor vehicles; the availability of large, cheap plots of development land; an increasing emphasis on the "restricted residential subdivision" and restrictive covenants barring industrial and commercial development in exclusive residential neighbourhoods (an antecedent to modern zoning ); and
16274-490: The highway, which at the time had four lanes. Canadian National applied for abandonment of the line around 1956, and the rails were removed in stages: between Galt and the Doon Pioneer Village museum in 1961, then between the museum and Parkway (the former German Mills station) in 1964, the same year the museum received its former Canadian Pacific heritage steam locomotive. On the former Grand Trunk mainline,
16432-501: The historian Adam Crerar as being influenced by voter intimidation , with soldiers of the 118th Battalion keeping potential name change opponents away from the polls; the referendum passed by a narrow margin. A second referendum in June, to choose the new name, saw the name "Kitchener" chosen with only 346 votes. In September, the city of 19,000 people was renamed. Of the cities that are now part of Waterloo Region, Berlin, now Kitchener, has
16590-436: The importance of Canadians of German ethnicity (regardless of their origin) in a speech: "It is of great interest to me that many of the citizens of Berlin are of German descent. I well know the admirable qualities – the thoroughness, the tenacity, and the loyalty of the great Teutonic Race, to which I am so closely related. I am sure that these inherited qualities will go far in the making of good Canadians and loyal citizens of
16748-477: The incidents with the bust suggest, there was certainly some anti-German sentiment in Canada. Some immigrants from Germany who considered themselves Canadians but were not yet citizens, were detained in internment camps. There were some cultural sanctions on German communities in Canada, and that included Berlin. However, by 1919 most of the population of what would become Kitchener, Waterloo and Elmira were "Canadian"; over 95 percent had been born in Ontario. Those of
16906-499: The incorrectly called Pennsylvania Dutch , actually Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch (German, not modern Dutch). (This dialect is different from Standard German with a simplified grammatical structure, some differences in vocabulary and pronunciation and a greater influence of English.) The combination of various types of German-speaking groups was a notable factor in the history of Waterloo County. The two groups spoke similar dialects and were able to understand each other quite easily and there
17064-451: The interior and supplied water power for development. As the population increased, so did the industries and transportation networks, which in turn led to further development. By the end of the century, Ontario vied with Quebec as the nation's leader in terms of growth in population, industry, arts and communications. Unrest in the colony began to chafe against the aristocratic Family Compact who governed while benefiting economically from
17222-580: The lands of Ontario: the Algonquins , Mississaugas , Ojibway , Cree , Odawa , Pottowatomi , and Iroquois . In the 15th century, the Byzantine Empire fell , prompting Western Europeans to search for new sea routes to the Far East . Around 1522–1523, Giovanni da Verrazzano persuaded King Francis I of France to commission an expedition to find a western route to Cathay (China) via
17380-607: The landscape. Advancements in technologies including less portable stone tools such as axes and adzes, more intricate tools made of animal bone such as fish hooks, gorges, and harpoons, and the entrance of Indigenous copper tools into the archaeological record is characteristic of this time period. More than two dozen archaeological sites from the Archaic Period have been documented in the Waterloo Region alone including campsites, tool manufacturing sites, and cemeteries. Archaeologist Gary Warrick of Wilfrid Laurier University dates
17538-427: The late 19th century, leading to the rise of important mining centres in the northeast, such as Sudbury , Cobalt and Timmins . The province harnessed its water power to generate hydro-electric power and created the state-controlled Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, later Ontario Hydro . The availability of cheap electric power further facilitated the development of industry. The Ford Motor Company of Canada
17696-461: The local German population, and while they were proud of their German roots, most considered themselves loyal British subjects. The 1911 Census indicates that of the 15,196 residents in Berlin, Ontario, about 70% were identified as ethnic German but only 8.3% had been born in Germany. By the beginning of the First World War in 1914, Berlin and Waterloo County were still considered to be predominantly German by people across Canada. This would prove to have
17854-436: The local street railway operator. Berlin's character had been predominantly German since Waterloo Township's settlement by Pennsylvania Dutch pioneers in the early 19th century, and its urban growth and industrialization was bolstered in large part by Germans and other peoples from Central and Eastern Europe , who brought with them skills, tools, and machinery, as well as diverse religious and social customs. The outbreak of
18012-424: The log house in 1834, while a schoolhouse was built on Frederick Street about the same time. Benjamin Eby encouraged manufacturers and craftsmen to relocate to Ebytown. Jacob Hoffman came in 1829 or 1830, and started the first furniture factory. John Eby, druggist and chemist, arrived from Pennsylvania in about 1820, and opened a shop to the west of what would later be Eby Street. At the time, settlers commonly formed
18170-588: The model subdivision in Montreal, such as Belmont Avenue. It was the brainchild of a local rubber magnate, Talmon Henry Rieder, who was heavily connected to Montreal business interests and who oversaw the 1912 construction of the Dominion Tire Plant on nearby Strange Street. Rieder was inspired by the turn-of-the-century City Beautiful movement , which was focused in large part on construction of monumental civic architecture and urban beautification; it
18328-525: The most lightning strikes per year in Canada, averaging 33 days of thunderstorm activity per year. In a typical year, Ontario averages 11 confirmed tornado touchdowns. Ontario had a record 29 tornadoes in both 2006 and 2009. Tropical depression remnants occasionally bring heavy rains and winds in the south, but are rarely deadly. A notable exception was Hurricane Hazel which struck Southern Ontario centred on Toronto, in October 1954. Paleo-Indians were
18486-512: The new areas in which it was interested were rapidly growing. After the federal government asked Ontario to pay for construction in the new disputed area, the province asked for an elaboration on its limits, and its boundary was moved north to the 51st parallel north . Once constituted as a province, Ontario proceeded to assert its economic and legislative power. In 1872, the lawyer Oliver Mowat became Premier of Ontario and remained as premier until 1896. He fought for provincial rights, weakening
18644-676: The painter Homer Watson , set up a sawmill, carding and fulling mill and a pail factory in Oregon. John Tilt had a small sawmill and an enterprise for clay brick and tile manufacture, also in Oregon. In Tow Town, Moses and Joseph Perine established a sawmill and a flax mill that made rope and twine, the first in Canada of this nature. The Doon Twine and Cordage factory opened in 1856 making products from locally-grown flax and hemp . Products included tying twines, plow lines, halter ropes, clothes lines and broom twine. Farmers were later banned from growing hemp because of its cannabis content. There
18802-488: The poor also were nearby, including "inmates" of the house who had died. On 9 June 1912, Berlin was designated a city. At this time, the City Hall was in the two-story building at King and Frederick Streets that had also been used as the Berlin town hall, completed in 1869 by builder Jacob Y. Shantz . During its tenure, the structure was also used as a library, theatre, post/telegraph office, market, and jail. That building
18960-743: The power of the federal government in provincial matters, usually through well-argued appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. His battles with the federal government greatly decentralized Canada, giving the provinces far more power than John A. Macdonald had intended. He consolidated and expanded Ontario's educational and provincial institutions, created districts in Northern Ontario, and fought to ensure that those parts of Northwestern Ontario not historically part of Upper Canada (the vast areas north and west of
19118-609: The pre-war of 1812, many seeking available cheap land, and at the time, lower taxation. By 1798, there were eight districts: Eastern, Home, Johnstown , London , Midland, Newcastle , Niagara , and Western. By 1826, there were eleven districts: Bathurst , Eastern, Gore , Home, Johnstown, London, Midland, Newcastle, Niagara, Ottawa , and Western. By 1838, there were twenty districts: Bathurst, Brock, Colbourne, Dalhousie , Eastern, Gore, Home, Huron, Johnstown, London, Midland, Newcastle, Niagara, Ottawa, Prince Edward, Simcoe , Talbot, Victoria, Wellington , and Western. American troops in
19276-463: The province, comprises over half the land area of Ontario. Although this area mostly does not support agriculture, it is rich in minerals , partly covered by the Central and Midwestern Canadian Shield forests , and studded with lakes and rivers. Northern Ontario is subdivided into two sub-regions: Northwestern Ontario and Northeastern Ontario . The virtually unpopulated Hudson Bay Lowlands in
19434-524: The railway around 1956. Doon is immediately adjacent to Highway 401 , which is to its east. [REDACTED] Regional Road 28 passes through Doon, where it is known as Homer Watson Boulevard until becoming Fountain Street South within Cambridge. Conestoga College's Doon Campus is a minor hub for Grand River Transit bus service. Buses use the internal campus roadway to reach stops on
19592-541: The rebellion was quickly a failure. William Lyon Mackenzie escaped to the United States , where he declared the Republic of Canada on Navy Island on the Niagara River . Although both rebellions were put down in short order, the British government sent Lord Durham to investigate the causes. He recommended responsible government be granted, and Lower and Upper Canada be re-joined in an attempt to assimilate
19750-413: The region by John Eby in the 1830s, and several gristmills and sawmills were erected throughout the area, most notably Joseph Schneider's 1816 sawmill, John and Abraham Erb 's grist- and sawmills, Jacob Shantz's sawmill, and Eby's cider mill. Schneider built Berlin's first road, from his home to the corner of King Street and Queen Street (then known as Walper Corner). The settlers raised $ 1,000 to extend
19908-560: The region's resources, and who did not allow elected bodies power. This resentment spurred republican ideals and sowed the seeds for early Canadian nationalism . Accordingly, rebellion in favour of responsible government rose in both regions; Louis-Joseph Papineau led the Lower Canada Rebellion and William Lyon Mackenzie , first Toronto mayor , led the Upper Canada Rebellion . In Upper Canada ,
20066-601: The region. The planned bus station would include heated shelters, bicycle parking, and space for additional bus stops. Moses Springer (1824–1898) was born in Doon on 31 August 1824. In 1834 he and his ten siblings were orphaned when their parents died in a cholera epidemic. He was raised in Hespeler by the Mennonite Bishop Joseph Hagey and became a teacher and later a businessman in Waterloo. He
20224-530: The remains of a First Nations village, estimated to be 500 years old, discovered in 2010 in the Strasburg Creek area of Kitchener. The inhabitants are thought to be ancestors of the Neutral Nation ; artifacts found include the remains of longhouses, tools made of bone and of stone and arrowheads. One archaeologist stated that they discovered "artifacts going back as far as 9,000 years". In 2020,
20382-617: The rise of the automobile industry in Canada, and indirectly to the growth of automobile-linked suburbs. Lands formerly in the rural Waterloo Township were annexed to the city, ensuring suburban access to municipal services. Westmount's planners distinguished the suburb from Kitchener's urban core in fundamental ways, such as the adoption of wandering, curvilinear roads combined with a more traditionally urban grid pattern. Many streets were originally intended to be wide boulevards , with some, such as Union Boulevard, planned to be as wide as 80 feet (24 m). Winding streets and picturesque vistas were
20540-777: The road from Walper Corner to Huether Corner, where the Huether Brewery was built and the Huether Hotel now stands in the city of Waterloo; a petition to the government for $ 100 to assist in completing the project was denied. Members of the Eby family, most notably Benjamin Eby , began migrating to the German Company Tract lands in the first decade of the 19th century. The Ebys were an old Swiss Mennonite family with an association with religious non-conformist movements in Europe going back possibly as far as
20698-546: The settlement by the Pennsylvania 'Dutch' (actually Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch , or German) of the Grand River area of Waterloo County. The Kitchener–Waterloo Oktoberfest is a remembrance of the region's German heritage. The event includes beer halls and German entertainment. The second largest Oktoberfest in the world, the event is based on the original German Oktoberfest and is billed as "Canada's Greatest Bavarian Festival". It attracts an average of 700,000 people to
20856-504: The settlement. By 1870, there was a single church, Presbyterian, a variety of tradesmen and a population of 200. Although never large, at one time it was a bustling community with sawmills, a rope factory and other businesses. It is known as the lifetime home of landscape artist Homer Watson . It is now a suburb of Kitchener, Ontario , home to the Doon Heritage Village and the main campus of Conestoga College . Doon
21014-569: The strongest German heritage because of the high levels of settlement in this area by German-speaking immigrants. While those from Pennsylvania were the most numerous until about 1840, a few Germans from Europe began arriving in 1819, including Fredrick Gaukel, a hotel keeper, being one of the first. He built what later became the Walper House in Berlin. Two streets in present-day Kitchener, Frederick and Gaukel Streets, are named after him. Other German-speaking immigrants from Europe arrived during
21172-461: The student population grew. The school burned down and was replaced in 1956. The Christadelphians built a church on Old Mill Road, formerly Richmond Street, in 1880. In 1889 it was clad in red brick. The church was used until 1916. The building was closed until 1936, then used as a residence until 1971. It was torn down in 1981. Railways began being constructed in Waterloo County during the early 1850s. The Grand Trunk Railway 's east–west mainline
21330-602: The thousands, with longhouses that could house over a hundred people. Around this time, large-scale warfare began in southern Ontario, leading to the emergence of Iroquoian groups, including the Neutral Confederacy , Erie and Wendat (Huron). Groups in northern Ontario were primarily Algonquian and included the Ojibwe , who traded with the Iroquois. Many ethnocultural groups emerged and came to exist on
21488-675: The town and burned the Upper Canada Parliament Buildings during their brief occupation. The British would burn the American capital of Washington, D.C. in 1814. After the War of 1812, relative stability allowed for increasing numbers of immigrants to arrive from Europe rather than from the United States. As was the case in the previous decades, this immigration shift was encouraged by the colonial leaders. Despite affordable and often free land, many arriving newcomers, mostly from Britain and Ireland, found frontier life with
21646-401: The township. In 1841, the township population count was 4,424. The first cemetery in the city was the one next to Pioneer Tower in Doon; the first recorded burial at that location was in 1806. The cemetery at First Mennonite church is not as old, but contains the graves of some notable citizens, including Bishop Benjamin Eby, who died in 1853, Joseph Schneider, and Rev. Joseph Cramer, founder of
21804-565: The village was Watson's house from 1881 until his death in 1936. Homer's sister Phoebe Amelia Watson moved into Homer's house after his wife Roxanna died in 1918. She became curator of the Homer Watson Art Gallery in Doon, and held this post until her death on 22 October 1947. Hartman Krug (1853–1933) was born in New Dundee and followed his father's profession as a fine furniture maker. He moved to Berlin and founded
21962-489: The war effort, the city's German community was subjected to physical violence and attacks on property by soldiers of the 118th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force . In a set of referendums in 1916 , Berlin was renamed to Kitchener, after Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener , a British field marshal . The first referendum vote in May, to change the name from Berlin, was characterized by
22120-516: The year in far northern Ontario); Pacific polar air crossing in from the western Canadian Prairies/US Northern Plains ; and warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. The effects of these major air masses on temperature and precipitation depend mainly on latitude, proximity to major bodies of water and to a small extent, terrain relief. In general, most of Ontario's climate
22278-427: Was John Richard Eden , who would later become mayor of the town in 1899. The parks board was followed in 1899 by a water commission, whose creation was heavily supported by local industrialists following a devastating fire at a local factory in 1896, as well as due to the need by many industries for a reliable water supply. The town's local gas plant and electric utility was similarly municipalized in 1903, resulting in
22436-531: Was Étienne Brûlé who explored the Georgian Bay area in 1610–1612, mapped Southern Ontario and called the region the Pays d'en Haut ("Upper Country"), in reference to the region being upstream of the Saint Lawrence River. The colony of the Pays d'en Haut was formally established in 1610 as an administrative dependency of Canada, and was for defence and business rather than a settlement colony. The territory of
22594-465: Was also a decline in local production of flax, so the factory had to import both of these raw materials. New businesses served the growing population. By the early 1890s there was a post office, grocer and baker, two tailors, a cooper, blacksmith, shoemaker, wagon maker, bridge builder and scissors manufacturer. By the end of the 19th century visitors could stay in the Red Lion Inn, Doon Hotel or
22752-633: Was constructed to the north of Doon through Berlin, which by then had become the county seat. The Great Western Railway , a major competitor of the Grand Trunk, built a set of branch lines managed by a complex set of subsidiary companies northward from a point on its own mainline at Harrisburg , in what has been described as both Canada's first railway junction and its first branch line. The Great Western opened to Galt in 1854, with extensions already planned to Guelph via Preston and Hespeler (the Galt and Guelph Railway ) and Berlin via Preston. The Preston and Berlin Railway (a de facto subsidiary of
22910-453: Was demolished in 1924 and replaced by a new structure behind it, designed by architects William Schmalz and Bernal Jones, featuring a classical-revival style and a large civic square in front. Demolished in 1973, and replaced by an office tower and the Market Square shopping mall , the old City Hall's clock tower was later (1995) erected in Victoria Park. The building was not replaced by the current Kitchener City Hall on King Street until 1993;
23068-451: Was determined by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1884 and confirmed by the Canada (Ontario Boundary) Act, 1889 of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . By 1899, there were seven northern districts: Algoma, Manitoulin, Muskoka, Nipissing, Parry Sound, Rainy River, and Thunder Bay. Four more northern districts were created between 1907 and 1912: Cochrane, Kenora, Sudbury and Timiskaming. Mineral exploitation accelerated in
23226-479: Was divided into Ontario and Quebec so that each linguistic group would have its own province. Both Quebec and Ontario were required by section 93 of the British North America Act to safeguard existing educational rights and privileges of the Protestant and Catholic minorities. Thus, separate Catholic schools and school boards were permitted in Ontario. However, neither province had a constitutional requirement to protect its French- or English-speaking minority. Toronto
23384-406: Was dragged through the streets. German clubs were ransacked through the course of the war. It was just a really nasty time period." Someone stole the bust of Kaiser Wilhelm from Victoria Park; soldiers vandalized German stores and ransacked Berlin's ethnic clubs. History professor Mark Humphries summarized the situation: Before the war, most people in Ontario probably didn't give the German community
23542-404: Was electrified in 1895, making it the first electric railway in Berlin, though not the first in the county, as the Galt and Preston Street Railway had opened with electric operation in 1894. This was followed by the construction of the Preston and Berlin Street Railway in 1904, which connected Berlin to Preston (now a part of Cambridge) to the southeast. In 1869, the county government built
23700-505: Was established in 1904 and the McLaughlin Motor Car Company (later General Motors Canada ) was founded in 1907. The motor vehicle industry became the most lucrative industry for the Ontario economy during the 20th century. In July 1912, the Conservative government of James Whitney issued Regulation 17 which severely limited the availability of French-language schooling to the province's French-speaking minority. French Canadians reacted with outrage, journalist Henri Bourassa denouncing
23858-407: Was established in a forested area around Schneider Creek where it enters the Grand River from the south. Richard Beasley sold 3,600 acres (1,500 ha) of this land to John Biehn Sr. of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania , in 1800. Biehn's relatives bought portions of this land, and started to clear it for farming, His son John Biehn Jr. built a sawmill in what became Doon, and Frederic Beck also ran
24016-448: Was formally established as Ontario's provincial capital. The borders of Ontario, its new name in 1867, were provisionally expanded north and west. When the Province of Canada was formed, its borders were not entirely clear, and Ontario claimed eventually to reach all the way to the Rocky Mountains and Arctic Ocean . With Canada's acquisition of Rupert's Land, Ontario was interested in clearly defining its borders, especially since some of
24174-494: Was no apparent conflict between the Germans from Europe and those who came from Pennsylvania. Some sources estimate that roughly 50,000 Germans directly from Europe settled in and around Waterloo County, between the 1830s and 1850s. Unlike the predominantly Mennonite settlers from Pennsylvania, the majority of Germans from Europe were of other denominations: most in the first groups were Catholic and those who arrived later were primarily Lutheran. In 1862, German-speaking groups held
24332-445: Was purchased by the City of Kitchener in 1981 and opened to the public as a historic building and art gallery. The Homer Watson Memorial Park lies next to the village. Doon contains the Doon Heritage Village , which covers 60 acres (24 ha) and reconstructs a view of life in the region in 1914, on the eve of World War I. There are period buildings, farm animals and interpreters dressed in period clothes. The Waterloo Region Museum
24490-451: Was reeve of the village of Waterloo three times between 1857 and 1875, and represented the North Waterloo riding in the Ontario Legislature from 1867 to 1881. Homer Watson (1855–1936) was a self-taught painter who devoted most of his life to painting landscapes of the country of Doon in a combination of romantic and realistic styles. Oscar Wilde called Watson "the Canadian Constable". A field stone house, built in 1835, that lies south of
24648-414: Was renovated over a century later and still stands. The village centre of Ebytown was established in 1830 by Phineas Varnum, who leased land from Joseph Schneider and opened a blacksmith shop on the site where a hotel would be built many years later, the Walper House. A tavern was also established here at the same time, and a store was opened. At the time, the settlement of Ebytown was still considered to be
24806-419: Was soon also taken over and municipalized. Kitchener was the first city in Ontario to get hydroelectric power in long-distance transmission lines from Niagara Falls, on October 11, 1910. The growing roster of public utilities managed by the Light Commission led to its reorganization into the Kitchener Public Utilities Commission in 1924, which operated as the municipal gas, electric, and light utility, as well as
24964-408: Was stolen again February 15, 1916, marched through the streets by a mob, made up largely of soldiers from the 118th Battalion , and has never been seen again. The 118th Battalion is rumoured to have melted down the bust to make napkin rings given to its members. A monument with a plaque outlining the story of the original bust was erected in 1996 in the location of the original bust and its stand. As
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