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The
German Company Tract
The Mennonites of Pennsylvania originally arrived in America seeking religious freedom and the opportunity to farm alongside like-minded brethren. They prospered and needed new farmland for their growing families but found land prices going through the roof. Forced to look further afield, Mennonites showed little interest in the division that separated British Canada from the new United States. They bought land in Virginia, the mid-West, and Upper Canada. One thing made Canada uniquely appealing: the government had recently passed the Militia Act exempting Quakers, Mennonites and Trunkers from military service as pacifists. The first Pennsylvania Mennonites arrived in Upper Canada in 1786, settling in the Niagara Peninsula (around Beamsville). The second group was enticed to settle along the Grand River and a third group occupied lands north of Toronto (Markham). The British had recently purchased land along the Grand River for their Six Nations allies. Joseph Brant, acting as the latter's representative, decided to sell half for funds to be invested in other enterprises beyond farming. Despite squabbles about their right to sell, four blocks of land were surveyed and sold to speculators. Of these, Block 2 became the basis of Waterloo Township and it was here that the German Company Tract was located. Joseph Brant arranged the sale of Block 2 to 3 Toronto area merchants, Richard Beaseley, James Wilson, and Jean-Baptiste Rousseaux in November 1796. Beaseley could not raise the down-payment. Instead, he agreed to pay 6% interest on the £8,887 sale price of the Beaseley Tract. At this time, official approval of the Six Nations' right to sell land had not arrived and everyone was satisfied with the deal. When in February 1798 official endorsement finally arrived, it had a catch: no deeds could be issued to buyers until full payment was received. Further, the definition of Block 2 differed from what had been sold to Beasley. The result was that Beasely could not sub-divide his land making it almost impossible to sell except to another speculator. Since he couldn't sell the land, he couldn't make his interest payments. Anyone who did purchase or had purchased land from him would find they too were encumbered with the mortgage (the 6%) until the all of Block 2 was sold. Beaseley's first effort to clear the debt was to create smaller tracts which were surveyed by Richard Cockerell as Upper, Middle and Lower tracts. He gave part of the Upper tract on the east side of the Grand to his creditors, J. Horning and James Wilson and began selling lots on the Lower Block without telling his buyers that they did not have clear title to the land. In 1800 Beaseley sold 6750 acres of land to Pennsylvania Mennonites for $3000. He sold another 14,200 acres in 1802 to a variety of families. One assumes he was hoping to sell everything quickly so he could clear the debt and give everyone their deeds. Instead in 1803 Joseph Brant petitioned the Legislative Council because the Six Nations had not received payment. They claimed that the government had made it almost impossible for Beaseley to complete his sale and discharge his debt. As a result, settlement of Block 2 was suspended. In reply Brant petitioned the government to give Beaseley a one-year extension on his loan to extricate himself and find a buyer for the rest of the Tract. Fortunately there was a potential buyer at hand but to understand the how and why, we need to step back a bit to an earlier purchase that was endangered by the title mixup. In 1799 Jacob Bechtel traveled with some Mennonites from Bucks County, Penn., to Niagara, but on hearing of Beaseley's Tract he contacted Beaseley and asked to be shown around. He was guided to the Grand River by an Indian guide and surveyor and spent 2 months looking over the area before deciding it was an excellent place to settle. He then went back to Montgomery County to organize settlers. On his way he me Samuel Betzner and told him about the land. Further along he ran into the Schorgs, Reicherts and Jacob Bock. Schorg and Betzner then traveled to the Grand River to reconnoiter and they too decided to settle, bringing their families up from Niagara. In 1800, Beaseley sold George Bechtel 3150 acres of land. He sold 3600 acres to John Bieln. Both men traveled to Upper Canada with their families in conestoga wagons taking on average 2 months to complete the journey. Only afterwards did the learn that Beasely could not give them clear title. Their only choice was to find buyers for the rest of the property so that all the deeds could be cleared. Local tradition says that Samuel Bricker traveled all the way back to Pennsylvania to find backers to buy two more large grants of land, and it was only through the intercession of his in-laws the Eby's and Erb's that an agreement was reached. Back in Waterloo County with Daniel Erb he studied the land and began negotiations. In late 1803 a formal agreement was made between Beasely, Bricker and Erb. For £10,000 the Mennonites would gain clear title to 60,000 acres. The agreement had to be approved by the Executive Council who, on May 18 1804, accepted the deal if the Mennonites paid £5000 now with £5000 due with 6% interest on May 23, 1805. All legal costs were to be paid by Beasely and Erb. There are different stories about how the money was transferred from Pennsylvania to Upper Canada. There were of course no banking systems in place to simplify the process. The story one hears most often is that the Mennonites of Pennsylvania were reluctant to buy the land until John Eby persuaded a few families in Lancaster County that it was their duty to dig their brethren to the north out of the hole Beaseley had dug. One story says that the Mennonites sewed 5000 silver dollars into quilts to carry them across the 800 mile wilderness trail in 1804. The currency exchange converted that to £4692. The balance was delivered in July 1805. This is when the second story kicks in: Sam and John Bricker along with Daniel, Jacob and John Erb packed silver coins in a cask for transport. At night, 4 of them slept, each in one corner, while one sat on the keg, gun in hand to protect it. The total payment made by the Mennonites was £10795. In return they received all of Block 2 north of the Block Line except for a few tracts on the east river that had been sold earlier. To make up the difference, they also received 2656 acres south of the Block Line and west of Bechtel's Tract. The Pennsylvania Mennonites divided the land into 64 shares and each person was allowed to buy between one and eight shares. Each share was then divided into two farms and they cast lots as to who would get each farm. Once arrived a certain amount of swapping consolidated farms. The purchase of a large tract of land by what was essentially, an extended family was unusual in Upper Canada. The lack of Clergy and Crown reserves was also uncommon and the way the land was divided meant that the usual clearances for roads along lot lines were neglected. Instead, road building was an informal affair. For example, Joseph Schneider built a road from his front door north to what became the centre of town (later Queen St.).
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