Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (formerly Waterloo County). Waterloo is situated about west-southwest of Toronto. Due to the close proximity of the city of Kitchener to Waterloo, the two together are often referred to as "Kitchener–Waterloo", "K-W", or "The Twin Cities".
While several unsuccessful attempts to combine the municipalities of Kitchener and Waterloo have been made, following the 1973 establishment of the Region of Waterloo, less motivation to do so existed, and as a result, Waterloo remains an independent city. At the time of the 2021 census, the population of Waterloo was 121,436.
History
Indigenous peoples and settlement
Indigenous peoples such as the Iroquois, Anishinaabe and Chonnonton lived in the area.
After the end of the American Revolution, Joseph Brant, a Mohawk war chief, wanted Frederick Haldimand to give the Mohawk and Six Nations a tract of land surrounding the Grand River, in return for their loyalty to the British in the war. Haldimand's 1784 Haldimand Proclamation granted the land "six miles deep from either side of the [Grand River] beginning at Lake Erie and extending in that proportion to the very head of the said river." Haldimand, who had previously ordered for potential mill sites to be identified in the region, decreed in 1788 that mill sites would be included in the grant (which would not have been included otherwise). In 1796, Richard Beasley purchased Block Number 2 of the grant from Joseph Brant (on behalf of the Six Nations) with a mortgage held by the Six Nations. Block 2, 94,012 acres in size, was situated in the District of Gore. To meet his mortgage obligations, Beasley had to sell portions of the land to settlers. This was counter to the original mortgage agreement, but subsequent changes to the agreement were made to permit land sales.
Mennonites from Pennsylvania counties Lancaster and Montgomery were the first wave of immigrants to the area. In the year 1800 alone, Beasley sold over 14,000 acres to Mennonite settlers. A group of 26 Mennonites from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, pooled their resources into the German Company of Pennsylvania, which was then represented by Daniel Erb and Samuel Bricker. The company purchased all the unsold land from Beasley in 1803, resulting in a discharge of the mortgage held by the Six Nations. This discharge allowed Beasley to clear his obligation with the Six Nations, and allowed the settlers to have deeds to their purchased land. The payment to Beasley, in cash, arrived from Pennsylvania in kegs, carried in a wagon surrounded by armed guards.
Many of the pioneers who arrived from Pennsylvania after November 1803 bought land in a 60,000-acre tract of Block 2 from the German Company of Pennsylvania. The tract included almost two-thirds of Block 2. Many of the first farms were least 400 acres in size.
Development (19th century) The Mennonites divided the land into smaller lots; two lots owned by Abraham Erb—who is often called the founder of the Village of Waterloo—became the central core of Waterloo. Erb had come to the area in 1806 from Pennsylvania. He had bought from the German Company Tract and settled where there was enough water power to operate mills. He founded a sawmill in 1808 and grist mill in 1816; they saw business flourish. Other early settlers of what would become Waterloo included Samuel and Elia Schneider, who arrived in 1816. Until about 1820, settlements such as this were quite small. Erb also built what is now known as the Erb-Kumpf House in c. 1812, making it likely one of the oldest homes in Waterloo.
The first school in what is now the City of Waterloo was built on land donated by Erb; the log building was constructed in 1820. A larger school house of stone was built in 1842 and was replaced with a brick school building in 1852. Over the decades, the log building was moved, eventually to Waterloo Park, where it still stands. The German spoken in Waterloo County is based upon the 18th century Pennsylvania Dutch dialect. In turn, the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect is based upon the dialect of German spoken in southwestern Germany.