Ghost Communities in Woolwich

Colbornesburg, established about 1830 near today’s Winterbourne, was the first black settlement in what would become Woolwich Township. These black settlers, mostly from Ohio, had fled from the threat or actuality of being enslaved in the United States.

After two unsuccessful petitions for land to the Executive Council of Upper Canada, the Ohio group, led by Paola Brown and Charles Jackson, arrived at Crook’s Tract, near Winterbourne. After some difficulty, they managed to buy some undeveloped land. By 1832 Colbornesburg was a 34-person community in nine households.

Within two years, most of the settlement from Colbornesburg, including Paola Brown, left for other areas in the province. Several families moved to the Queen’s Bush, the southern periphery of unclaimed government land that lay 29 km north of the village of Waterloo and south of Lake Huron. Over time, settlers spread along a 13 by 21 km area on the boundary of modern-day Wellesley and Peel Townships, and established centres in Hawksville and Wallenstein.

(Colbornesburg was east of the Grand, near Crook’s Tract and north of Cox Creek, but that is the closest I can get to where it was located). 

Located on the township line between Woolwich and Waterloo Townships, Crowsfoot Corners sat on a main north-south road though Breslau and Bloomingdale to Elora in Wellington County. At the township line, another road forked off north-west toward the village of Conestogo. This intersection was Crowsfoot Corners, mainly known as the site of Ebenezer Chapel, one of the earliest United Brethren churches in the county. The church was later relocated to Bloomingdale. The settlement boundary is still recognized on many township and regional maps to this day.

Latitude: 43.532035
Longitude: -80.475117

A crossroads hamlet just west of New Germany (Maryhill) in the former Waterloo Township, Freiburg (“free hill” in German) was at the junction of present-day St. Charles Street West and Shantz Station Road. Established around 1840, it was originally called Rumbach Corners after the first entrepreneur in the area, Ferdinand Rumbach. For a couple of years he carried stock of mercantile effects (needles, pins, and other odds and ends) in a large box strapped over his shoulders. He later owned a two-storey brown log hotel called the Temperance House, a store and an assembly hall on the north side of St. Charles St. W. A post office operated here from about 1847-1852 when it moved to New Germany. Freiburg gradually declined as New Germany grew larger.

Main Industries: A hotel, store, assembly hall, post office, blacksmith shop, wagon-making shop, weaving mill, brewery and sawmill made up the commercial complement of the community. A brickyard and cider mill were also established on a farming operation near the settlement.

Notable Settlers: Ferdinand Rumbach (peddler; hotel, store, assembly hall owner), Andrew Hauss (blacksmith), Joseph Hummel (farmer and brickyard owner), Ignatius Weiler (wagon-maker), Andrew Weiler (owner of weaving mill, brewery and sawmill), Jacob Weiler (cider mill operator).

Latitude: 43.529654
Longitude: -80.403968

The settlement of Kossuth in Woolwich Township is usually said to have been named after Louis Kossuth, a nineteenth century Hungarian patriot who was widely acclaimed as a champion of liberty in Europe and abroad. However, Tremaine's 1861 map of Waterloo County indicates that a Mrs. Kossuth owned two properties in the settlement, suggesting a more immediate source. Located a little to the north of Hespeler, along the road from Preston to Guelph, Kossuth sat at the present-day junction of Kossuth Road and Shantz Station Road. Its crossroads function was most important during the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway in the mid-1850s. Its hotel served teamsters hauling loads of limestone from the Speed River and other construction supplies. When railway building concluded, Kossuth lost significance but remained to serve the needs of a large rural population. A distinctive industry was the manufacture of sulphur matches by the Zyrd family. The town also boasted a tavern, two grocers, a pottery, a post office, a hotel, a shoemaker, a saddler and a blacksmith.

The post office closed in 1921 and by then the only remaining business was the shoemaker. A log school was established in 1842, replaced with a stone structure in the 1870s (also known as Reist's School and Waterloo Township S.S. No.16). Somewhat fittingly, the Kossuth school was purchased by the Hungarian Canadian Club when the school was closed in the 1960s.

Main Industries: potter, farming, hotel, grocery, construction, blacksmithing, harnessmaker, shoemaker, cooperage, weaving

Latitude: 43.45912678395767
Longitude: -80.35354836025054

Located at the junction of present-day Arthur Street North and Sandy Hills Road in Woolwich Township, North Woolwich was the location of a short-lived post office, secured for that area by William Lyon Mackenzie King, the Member of Parliament for Waterloo North in 1908; the post office closed in 1913. A Mennonite meetinghouse, a Baptist church and an Evangelical Association church (later United Church of Canada) were in the area from the 1850s. Nearby Sandytown, also a short-lived hamlet, supplied some amenities to residents of the North Woolwich area.

Latitude: 43.648749,
Longitude: -80.547012

Waterloo Township S.S. No. 16, Reist's School, Kossuth, Ontario.

One of the earliest schools in Waterloo County, Riverbank School was established in 1832 at the present-day junction of Riverbank Road and Fountain Street. In its early years, it was called the High Banks School, and later, Waterloo Township S.S. No. 15 school. A log structure was replaced by a frame building, and later by a stone schoolhouse around 1870. The school closed amid some controversy in 1960, and for a brief time was used as the headquarters of the Waterloo County Library.

Latitude: 43.448809
Longitude: -80.390581
Waterloo Township S.S. No. 15 Riverbank School, ca. 1970. DHC X.961.034.001 

Located in present-day Woolwich Township on Shantz Station Road near the intersection with Victoria Street North, Shantz was on the farm of Samuel Y. Shantz. Samuel, his wife Esther and their twelve children lived on the farm between 1846 and 1867. Shantz was laid out in 1855. The Grand Trunk Railway was built through the Shantz farm in 1856 but hopes for a railway station did not materialize. Also, plans for a village to be built alongside a proposed railway station (Shantz Station) never materialized. An early post office there was operated from 1859-1863. There was a hotel for a few years, a Lutheran church, and two stores, including Schilling’s, which lasted many years. Three schoolhouses were successively in use, starting with log buildings in 1843 and 1853. A stone building followed in 1894, with a second room added in 1955. The schoolhouse closed in 1965 for general education classrooms, but it held special education classes until 1968 when the building was closed.

Latitude: 43.502796220286285
Longitude: -80.38079843245966

Established in about 1875, Weissenburg (“white hill” in German) was located at the present-day crossroads of Line 86 and Sideroad 16. The population of Weissenburg was about 100 in 1910, and it had daily stage-coach service. Pioneer farmers and wagon drivers travelling between Woolwich Township and Guelph would stop at Weissenburg to water their horses and refresh themselves (“wet their whistles”) at one of the two hotels, or to visit the blacksmith shop. Weissenburg’s Main Industries included the tavern, blacksmith shop, grocery store, two hotels and a school. A post office operated from 1875-1913.

Latitude: 43.574088
Longitude: -80.399088

Established in about 1870, Zuber Corners was located slightly to the east of West Montrose at the intersection of present-day Line 86 and Zuber Road (Road 23) in Woolwich Township. The Zuber family was one of the founders of New Germany in the 1830s. Zuber Corners and areas to its east was settled by Roman Catholics. It was the location of an inn/general store and a stone school built in 1874 to replace the one at West Montrose which was subjected to yearly flooding. The school remained open until 1967.

Latitude: 43.586870
Longitude: -80.466570