Mennonite Country
From Galt to St Jacobs through Wellington and Waterloo Counties
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This is a fairly short trip lasting about 55 kilometres. It starts in the former city of Galt, now part of the larger city of Cambridge. Named after the Scottish novelist, lobbyist, and founder of the Canada Company, John Galt, the city was started in 1817 by another Scotsman, William Dickson. From Galt, the trip takes you to the small community of Blair, founded by Mennonites even earlier. Here you will visit an amazing invention, the Sheave Tower, and several old establishments. From Blair, you will go to the former city of Preston, now also part of Cambridge. Here you will see a flour mill, notable for being in operation for about 200 years under different names and owners. From Preston, you go through the small villages of Breslau, Bloomingdale, Winterbourne, and West Montrose until you reach Elmira. Founded by an Englishman, it developed into a Mennonite community. From Elmira, you go to another community well-known for its Mennonite connections, St Jacobs. Starting the trip-Galt in Cambridge Start the trip at the Cambridge Civic Square on Dickson Street. The imposing former Galt City Hall is a provincial historic site. It was built in 1857, replacing the former Township Hall, which was moved to 56-58 Cambridge Street and became two residences. The former City Hall now houses the archives for the City of Cambridge.
Turn right onto Dickson Street and drive to the T-junction at Water Street. Facing you across Water Street is the imposing former library built in 1903. Turn left onto Water Street and drive to the traffic lights at Main Street. Facing you on the southwest corner is a CIBC Bank. This was the site of Absalom Shade's Red Store. The building was raised in 1850 as the Commercial Building and has housed the Bank of Commerce and its successors since the 1860s. The entrance is at the corner but that wasn't always the case. The original entrance was on the north side close to the bridge. Originally the building had a second floor, where, in 1852, a ball was held to celebrate the start of construction of Galt's first railway.
Turn right and drive across the Main Street Bridge. The first bridge across the river here was built by Absalom Shade in 1819. In what was to become a frequent occurrence, the bridge was washed away in 1832 and replaced. The bridge was washed away in 1834, 1840, 1854, and 1857. A new bridge was built in 1867 but that was washed away in 1878. Finally they got it right in 1878. The bridge built in that year survived until it looked so bad that it was replaced by the present bridge in 1931.
On the other side of the bridge, the first set of traffic lights marks Queens Square. Very little remains of the original square, which was given to the town by William Dickson. The old buildings on the left comprise the Hume Block built in 1837 by James Fraser for Gavin Hume. Hume, born in the same town as William Gilkison, was the man who broke Absalom Shade's stranglehold on business here.
Continue through Queens Square until you reach the traffic lights at George Street. Turn right. As you pass through the intersection at Park Hill Road, look right. On the far side of the former Queen Street Bridge is the impressive Dickson Mill, which had, in fact, little to do with the Dicksons. This old gristmill was built in 1842 by James Ewart and is now a restaurant. The Dickson connection is through William Dickson's son Robert, who developed the idea of a mill race similar to that of St Catharines, where it provided water power for industry.
Continue across the intersection at Park Hill Road. As you drive along George Street, you are driving along the banks of the Grand River, which you can see on the right as you drive out of the built-up area. There are paths that lead from the street to parks on the banks of the river. Further on, George Street merges seamlessly with the Blair Road on its way to the old community of Blair. After George Street joins the Blair Road, the first building on the right is an old barn. The curious things about this barn are the slits in its walls. These are typical of Scottish barns and have nothing to do with defence but everything to do with ventilation.
Past the barn on the right are fields. In one of these fields once stood the log home of Nathaniel Dodge. former carpenter and millwright. It was Dodge who about 1802 built a mill for Alexander Miller in what is now Galt but was then forest. In 1816, when William Dickson and Absalom Shade took a look at the area with the idea of setting up a town, they spent a night in old Dodge's house here. Shade later repaired the old Miller mill, which had fallen into disuse after John Erb built his better mill in Preston. The repaired mill was then used for a few years until Shade built the Dumfries Mill in Galt. Further along you pass Langdon Drive on the left. A lane off this narrow road leads to Langdon Hall, a large Georgian country house built about 1900 by Langdon Weeks, great-grandson of John Jacob Astor. It is now a fine hotel. Directly opposite Langdon Drive is the oldest house in Wellington County. Ignore the yellow-brick addition on the right side; the old part is the stone section on the left. This house is the Jacob Bechtel House and was built by Jacob Bechtel in 1817. Jacob Bechtel was an ordained minister and one of the early Mennonite leaders in the Preston area. The early name for the Preston Mennonite congregation, the oldest in Waterloo County, was the Bechtel congregation. It was later known as the Hagey congregation for Jacob and Joseph Hagey, later Bishop.
You have now left Dickson's Dumfries Township (Block 1) and have entered Block 2 and the territory of the First German Company. Continue along the Blair Road to the Old Mill Road. Just before you reach the road, you will see a sign on the right for the Blair Trail. Behind the sign and to the right are the remains of the former iron bridge across the Grand River. The bridge that preceeded this bridge was the old Shingle Bridge, a wooden bridge with a shingle-covered roof, that gave Blair one of its names. The Shingle Bridge lasted from about 1835 to 1857 and was replaced by the iron bridge that lasted to 1957. Behind the sign is the John Renshaw House built in 1847 right at the end of the old wooden bridge. On the left just after the sign is the former Nicholson's Tavern built in 1837. This was a coach stop on the old Huron Road, which crossed the river on the Shingle Bridge.
You cannot pass through Blair without seeing the Sheave Tower, so turn left onto the Old Mill Road. On the right, just after you turn, is a small house at 4 Old Mill Road. The house dates from 1851 and was built by Henry Bechtel, the son of Jacob Bechtel. Henry travelled here as a baby in 1802 from Pennsylvania with his grandparents, parents, brother, and four sisters. Henry was a miller. His sawmill, much changed, is just around the corner on Blair Road.
On the right, at 66 Old Mill Road is Cedarbrook Farm. The farmhouse was built by Samuel B. Bowman, son of early settler Rev. Joseph Baumann (Bowman), about 1832. The house is on the original Joseph Baumann farm, settled by the Baumanns when they immigrated from Pennsylvania in 1816. In addition to the farm, Miller Sam operated a gristmill called the Carlisle Mill, which gave the village its first name. This mill is located at 91 Old Mill Road. At least, the ground floor is located there. That is all that remains of the Bowman mill built in 1840. The mill is still working and is now called Blair Mills.
In the trees on the other side of Old Mill Road is the Sheave Tower. This is an example of the frugality and ingenuity of the Mennonite settlers. Bowman Creek, after driving the old Carlisle Mill, then flowed to the Grand River. This did not suit Allan Bowman, the mill owner, who thought he could use the water again. So in 1876 he built this tower, which uses a sheave wheel in the roof. The stream drives a turbine blade at the bottom of the tower. Through gears and drive shafts, the turbine in turn drives the sheave wheel, which has a groove around the rim like a pulley. A rope loops around the sheave wheel and a drive shaft in the mill so that, as the sheave wheel turns, it turns the drive shaft in the mill: a smart way to get twice as much work from the power of the creek.
Turn around and drive back to the Blair Road. Turn left. On the right at 1688 Blair Road is the old Tilt House, built in 1840 for a schoolteacher named William Tilt. Previously there had been a schoolhouse on the site.
At 1740 Blair Road, beyond the Tilt House and down the hill a little, is the hardly-recognisable Henry Bechtel Sawmill, dating from 1854.
Turn right onto Fountains Road and drive to Preston.
Past Shantz
Hill Road, in the distance on the right is a modern mill
building. This is on the site of the Cambridge Mills built in
1806 by the founder of Preston, John Erb. There has been a mill
on this site ever since. The mills gave the name to the City of
Cambridge.
At the traffic lights at the junction with King Street, continue
straight across and up the hill.
The large building on the left at the intersection was the
Preston Springs Gardens Hotel. The area around here was noted
for its mineral springs, which were discovered accidentally in
1837 when one of the Erbs was drilling for salt. The sulphurous
water, rightly or wrongly, became famous as a treatment for
several ailments such as rheumatism and arthritis. At one time,
three large hotels were located at this intersection, the North
American, the Del Monte, and the Sulphur Springs, built in 1890. Only the last
survived as the Preston Springs Gardens until fairly recently.
It is no longer a hotel.
On the left, at the top of the hill just after Jacob Street is house built by Jacob Erb, son of the founder of Preston and owner of the Cambridge Mills, John Erb. This magnificent old house dates from 1845.
The next road on the left is Kitchener Road. Before Shantz Hill
Road was built, this was the road to Kitchener and was a major
highway. On this road is the home of Deacon Jacob Hagey, brother
of Bishop Joseph Hagey, successor to Bishop Benjamin Eby.
Continue along Fountains Road across Highway 401.
On the other side of the highway is the small community of
Hagey's Crossing. Here was once a stop on the electric railway
line between Preston and Berlin (Kitchener). Riders could
connect in Preston to the Galt, Preston, and Hespeler Street
Railway, which ran down King Street to the Canadian Pacific
Railway station in Galt.
Continue to Breslau past the industrial development that has grown around the Toyota car factory. After the sign for Breslau, continue on CR 17 by turning left onto Woolwich Street.
Mennonites of German origin from Pennsylvania settled in
Breslau in the 1800s. Joseph Erb started a sawmill and a flourmill
in 1850 and laid out the town seven years later. Breslau is named after
a city once in eastern Germany but now in Poland (Wroclaw). At one time, because it was located where the Grand Trunk Railway crossed the main road to Elora and Fergus,
Breslau had two hotels, two blacksmith's shops, a cheese factory, a cider
mill, a cooper's shop, a harness-maker's shop, a shoemaker, a wagon shop,
a tailor, a brickyard, a carpet factory, and Schiedel's general store. Now it's a mostly industrial suburb of Kitchener.
At the traffic lights at Highway 7, drive straight across, following CR 17.
You are now driving through a largely farming region. Where CR 20 joins CR17 is the small community of Rosendale, noted for its creamery.
Continue along CR 17
to Bloomingdale.
Originally known as Snyder Flats after early settler Jacob
"Yoch" Schneider (Snyder), Bloomingdale grew because of a ford that gave
farmers on the east side of the Grand River a way to get to Abraham Erb's
sawmill in Waterloo. On the left, just past the Mennonite church is the road to Snyder Flats, where the future bishop, Benjamin Eby, travelling with his
cousin George Eby and Henry Brubacher, saw Yoch Snyder shouting at his oxen in May 1806.
Continue along CR 17 toward Conestogo.
Elisha Hewitt settled at the Y junction where the road
to Winterbourne splits from the road to Conestogo. He arrived with a half
dollar and a pair of socks. He sold his socks to buy an axe. From this humble
beginning, he built up a farm of several hundred acres.
Take the right fork along CR23, Katherine Street, toward Winterbourne.
You are still following the old road to Elora and Fergus.
The first settlers, James Davidson and Andrew Geddes settled
across the road from each other in 1834. Davidson's daughter Isabella married
Absalom Shade of Galt. In 1854, William Lanphier built
a dam on Cox Creek, and then built a sawmill and a flourmill. The next year, he had his property surveyed into building lots. The village then grew around the mills, and, in 1859, the post office was named Winterbourne after the Lanphier ancestral home in England. Soon that became the name of the village. Continue along Katherine Street toward the intersection with CR89, the main road to Elmira. Just before the intersection, a place called Zuber Corners, turn left into a narrow lane. Follow this twisty lane to the bridge at West Montrose. West Montrose is famous for having the last covered bridge in Ontario. It is popularly called the Kissing Bridge and is about 60 metres long. It was built in 1881 to replace an earlier bridge that may have been built in 1843.
Jacob Benner was a blacksmith in Berlin until 1839 when he came to West Montrose. He built a sawmill and a woollen factory, and became a considerable industrialist. His daughter, Victoria, married Andrew L. Anderson, who bought land here in 1851. It was Anderson who named the community after Montrose, his native town on the east coast of Scotland. It was originally named Montrose but the West was added to avoid confusion with a settlement near Niagara. At one time, West Montrose had, in addition to Benner's mill and factory, a lumber yard, a carpenter, a hotel, a post office, and a general store. There was a school here but it was subject to spring flooding so it was replaced with a stone building at Zuber Corners. That school lasted until 1967. Drive across the bridge and continue until you reach the main road. Turn left and drive to Elmira. As you drive into Elmira, notice the fine blue house on the left. This is the Caspar Ruppel House and is the oldest brick house in Elmira. Next door is a lighter-coloured house with a balcony over the front door. This house is about the same age. Both are very attractive.
At the traffic lights at Arthur Street, turn left. Driving up Arthur Street, look for an old beat-up building on the right at 52 Arthur Street South. This was the Steddick Hotel, or Ontario House, or Mogk's Hotel (named after the proprietor Casper Mogk). It was built in the 1860s and needs a lot of TLC.
Further along is a bandstand in the little park on the right. This was built for a hotel and was moved here when the hotel burned down in 1896.
On the right at 70 Arthur Street is a fine white house built in 1875 for John Ruppel, the first clerk of Elmira. Then at 80 Arthur Street is the house once occupied by Elmira's first mayor, Peter Stumpf, and now a bread-and-breakfast inn. This house was built as a farmhouse in the 1860s and may have replaced the farmhouse of Edward Bristow, the founder of Elmira. Stumpf House Across the street. at 103 Arthur Street is the last log house in Elmira. It doesn't look like a log house because the logs have been covered by clapboard. This house was built before 1861, when the first reference to it was found.
Continue driving until you come to the traffic lights at Sawmill Road (Picard's Peanuts), then turn right toward St Jacobs. Drive to King Street and turn left. As you drive down King Street toward the town, you are driving down a new road. The original road was further west and swung left to go over the bridge at the bottom. On the right at the top of the hill is an old Victorian house where Darryl Sittler of the Maple Leafs grew up.
Across the bridge on the right is an old mill. This was the Snider flour mill.
Just past the mill, on the left, is a hotel, Benjamin's Hotel. This was called the Farmer's Inn when it was opened by Joseph Eby in 1853.
You have now come to the end of the trip. |
Galt City Hall
CIBC Bank
Main Street Bridge
Hume Block
Dickson's Mill
Old Barn
Jacob Bechtel House
Nicholson's Tavern or Lamb Inn
Henry Bechtel House
Cedarbrook
Sheave Tower
Tilt House
Henry Bechtel Sawmill
Dover Mills on the site of the Cambridge Mills
Preston Springs Hotel
Erb House
Bloomingdale
Covered Bridge at West Montrose
Caspar Ruppel House
Steddick Hotel
Jacob Esch House
Sittler House
Old Snider Mill
Old Farmer's Inn