page_title: Regional Municipality of Waterloo
section_title: 1800 to 1820
hierarchical_section_title: Regional Municipality of Waterloo / History / Kitchener-Waterloo area / 1800 to 1820
caption_attribution_description: English&#x3a;&#32; Joseph Schneider Haus National Historic Site, Kitchener, OntarioFrançais&#x202f;&#x3a;&#32; La maison Joseph-Schneider est une maison de Kitchener en Ontario construite en 1816.
context_page_description: The Regional Municipality of Waterloo, commonly known as Waterloo Region or Region of Waterloo, is a regional municipality and metropolitan area located in Southern Ontario, Canada. It consists of the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo, and the townships of North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich. The region is 1,369 square kilometres in size and its seat of government is in Kitchener, the region's largest city.
  The region's population was 535,154 at the 2016 census. As of 2019, the estimated population is 617,870. In 2016, the Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo area was the third
  best place in Canada to find full-time employment based on data from StatsCan.
  The region was preceded by Waterloo County, Ontario, created in 1853 and dissolved in 1973. That entity consisted of five townships: Woolwich, Wellesley, Wilmot, Waterloo, and North Dumfries, including the cities and towns in each area.
context_section_description: Among the first settlers, Joseph Schoerg and Samuel Betzner, Jr. (brothers-in-law), Mennonites, arrived from Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Other settlers followed mostly from Pennsylvania typically by Conestoga wagons. The early group purchased land from Richard Beasley who had acquired it from the Six Nations. The first school was begun in 1802 near the village of Blair.
  Many of the pioneers immigrating from Pennsylvania after November 1803 bought land in a 60,000-acre section of Block Two from the German Company established by 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 majority of the settlers before about 1830 were Mennonites from Pennsylvania, who had roots in Germany or Switzerland. They were often called Pennsylvania Dutch although they were actually Deutsch, German.
  Later declared the founder of the City of Waterloo, Abraham Erb, from Franklin County, Pennsylvania, bought 900 acres (360 ha) of bush land in 1806 from the German Company (later to be part of Waterloo Township). He built a sawmill in 1808 and a gristmill in 1816; the latter operated continuously for 111 years. 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.
  In 1807, 45,195 acres (182.9 km²) of Block 3 (Woolwich) was purchased by Pennsylvanians John Erb, Jacob Erb and others.
  Later named the founder of Kitchener, Benjamin Eby (made Mennonite preacher 1809, and bishop in 1812) was also from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He arrived in 1806 and purchased a very large tract of land consisting of much of what would become the village of Berlin (named about 1830). The settlement was initially called Ebytown and was at the south-east side of what would later become Queen Street. (Eby was also responsible for the growth of the Mennonite church in Waterloo County; he built the first church in 1813.) Abram Weber settled on the corner of what would become King and Wilmot Streets and David Weber in the area of the much later Grand Trunk Railway station. Benjamin Eby encouraged manufacturers to move to the village. Jacob Hoffman came in 1829 or 1830 and started the first furniture factory.
  Almost as important as Benjamin Eby in the history of Kitchener, Joseph Schneider of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (son of immigrants from southern Germany) bought lot 17 of the German Company Tract of block 2 in 1806. While farming, he helped to build what became "Schneider's Road" and by 1816 built a sawmill. Years later, Schneider and Phineas Varnum would help form the commercial centre of Ebytown.
  The War of 1812 interrupted settlement. The Mennonite settlers refused to carry arms so were employed in camps and hospital and as teamsters in transport service during the war.
caption: The extant Joseph Schneider Haus, circa 1816, was built by one of the early settlers in Berlin
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