Publisher's Synopsis
ElmiraElmira is the largest community within the Township of Woolwich in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and is located 15 kilometres (9 miles) to the north of the city of Waterloo.The land comprising Woolwich Township originally belonged to the Huron and then the Mohawk Indians. The first settlers arrived in Woolwich Township in the late eighteenth century. In 1798, William Wallace, one of the first settlers in the area, was deeded 86,078 acres of land on the Grand River for a cost of $16,364.In 1806, Wallace sold the major portion of his tract to Mennonites. Benjamin Eby, the secretary of the Germany Company came to the area with his friend Henry Brubacher. The young men liked Wallace's Woolwich. Eby returned to Pennsylvania where he formed a land company. The following year, he returned with a barrel of silver dollars, and the Musselmans, Martins, Hoffmans, and Gingerichs to settle in the area. Wallace sold the Germany Company 45,185 acres of land at $1.00 an acre.In 1834, Edward Bristow became one of Elmira's first settlers when he purchased 53 acres of land here for 50 cents per acre. A community by the name of Bristow's Corners was in existence in 1839 when a post office was assigned there. In 1853 the community was renamed Elmira. In the 1850s, German settlers moved into the community, including Oswald, Esche, Steffen and Tresinger. Like most of the township, the primary settlers in the Elmira area were Mennonites who still form a significant proportion of the population today. The town still retains much of its traditional Pennsylvania Dutch character.HawkesvilleThe Township of Wellesley is the rural, north-western township of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. The township comprises the communities of Bamberg, Crosshill, Hawkesville, Heidelberg, Kingwood, Knight's Corners, Linwood, Macton, St. Clements, Wallenstein and Wellesley.Hawkesville never got the railroad. On a hill itself, ringed by the flat of the Conestogo River, itself inside a ring of tall hills, it was deemed too difficult a task to bring the trains through town. Hawkesville has maintained the charm of the surrounding sugar maple woods and the quiet river banks.Wellesley Township was surveyed in 1842, but settlers were in this area long before. In 1837, John Philip Schweitzer from Germany squatted at what is now Hawkesville, and had 40 acres of land cleared over the following nine years. Then, John Hawke received government permission to buy the clearing for $700.00 on the condition that he build a grist mill for flour and a sawmill within two years. When the Waterloo County boundaries were established in 1852 to include the townships of Waterloo, Wellesley, Wilmot, Woolwich, and North Dumfries, John Hawke was named the first reeve of Wellesley and the first township hall was built in Hawkesville. When the decision was being made for the location of a county seat, Hawkesville originally anticipated being chosen over Berlin and Galt. However, John Hawke had the deciding vote, and he cast it in favour of Berlin. With the railroad and the county seat, Berlin began to grow rapidly and kept on growing; Hawkesville flourished until the end of the century before diminishing.Before the dawning of the 20th century, the area was home to doctors, blacksmiths, and merchants, as well as a tannery, hotels, and churches. Into the early 1900s, the village carriage and wagon maker, George Diefenbacker entertained his grandson, John Diefenbaker, each summer.
