Settlement of Woolwich Township
Woolwich
Township was originally an area of Grand River land included
within Block Three of the Six Nations Indian grant. Woolwich
Township was one of the earliest townships settled in
Waterloo County. The earliest settler may have arrived
as early as 1807, but the majority of settlement did not
begin until the 1830s. The majority of settlers were of
German-Mennonite heritage from Pennsylvania and Waterloo
Township. They tended to settle west of the Grand River,
while English (many of them Methodists) and Scots-Presbyterians
settled to the east
In
1807 Henry Brubacher and Benjamin Eby, returned to Lancaster
County Pennsylvania to convince their fellow Mennonites
to buy land in Woolwich. An English military man named
Captain Thomas Smith was the first known settler. George
Eby, a Mennonite from Waterloo Township followed in 1813.
Others were David Cress of Waterloo Township, Simon Cress
and family, Henry Martin and David Musselman. About 1819,
both Peter and David Martin joined Henry Martin
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