Hespeler History: The Authorized Winfield Brewster Collection

By Paul Langan

The definitive history on the early history of Bergeytown, New Hope, and Hespeler, Ontario by Winfield Brewster. Featuring the following booklets:
J. Hespeler, New Hope C.W. - 1951
The Floodgate: Random Writings of Our Ain Folk - 1952
Hespeler Yarns - 1953
La Rue de Commerce; Queen St. Hespeler, Ontario, - 1954
plus
The Short History of Hespeler Public School
and rare Maps and Photos
Compiled by Paul Langan

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul Langan
• Release date: Nov 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201711726

Book preview

Hespeler Town Hall - Hustling Hespeler,

The Town with a Future, November 1922

Introduction

I am very proud of my latest history book, Hespeler History - The Authorized Winfield Brewster Collection. It has taken a long time to get this book out but it was worth the effort.

When we first moved to the community in 1994, I experienced the strong loyalty from residents to the former town of Hespeler that had been swallowed up by amalgamation in 1973 to create the City of Cambridge.

Over time I have collected and been given local Hespeler history publications. One part of my collection was the Winfield Brewster small historical books that were written in the 1950s to educate people on the creation of Hespeler.

The booklets included sections on the Indigenous peoples, the birth of Bergeytown, New Hope and Hespeler, and the early settlers, workers and industries. They focused mainly on the 1800s and early 1900s.

Winfield Brewster was uniquely qualified on the topic of the history of Hespeler. His father A. J. Brewster arrived in New Hope in 1854. He was a leader in the community first as the Principle of Hespeler Public School, then as the Clerk of the Municipality. He also had a conveyancing and insurance business in Hespeler.

Winfield continued in his father’s path by continuing on in the conveyancing, insurance business, and becoming the town clerk. Winfield’s wealth of knowledge of the community was gained through his father passing on his historical knowledge to him and Winfield’s own experience.

The Brewster books related to Hespeler included in this book are:

1951 - J. Hespeler, New Hope C.W.

1952 - The Floodgate: Random Writings of Our Ain Folk

1953 - Hespeler Yarns

1954 - La Rue de Commerce; Queen St. Hespeler, Ontario

I felt it was important to get permission from the Brewster estate before I moved forward in putting out the book. This process took over a decade. I am very grateful to the full support I have been given by Earle Waghorne and Richard Begley to reproduce these books.

Why is releasing this compilation book of the Brewster writings important?

There are several factors that lead to the release of this book.

These books were no longer in the library and had largely disappeared from the public collective history.

The recent tearing down of the 2-10 Queen Street W. heritage block in downtown Hespeler showed just how low heritage conservation and local history preservation was in the minds of the politicians and developers. Hopefully this book will be a resource for people and help to preserve our heritage buildings now under threat of destruction.

There is no book capturing the early history of Bergeytown, New Hope, and Hespeler. This book can be used by future generations to understand the community's rich early history.

Putting the Brewster Books in Today’s Perspective

The Brewster books were never written with the intent to be an exhaustive history of Hespeler. The books varied in content, from an in-depth investigation into Hespeler’s textile past Hespeler Yarns to the random writings expressed in The Floodgate.

J. Hespeler, New Hope C.W. includes a section on the Indigenous people who lived on the land first. It follows with a history of Jacob Hespeler and the buildings he had built. It also has a few other sections including one on the hotels of Hespeler.

La Rue de Commerce; Queen St. Hespeler, Ontario includes a more detailed look into the Indigenous people of the area. It includes a section on the important early settlers Joseph Oberholtzer and Michael Bergey. It goes into great detail identifying many people who worked in the early trades and professional people. The last sections on the downtown Queen street area are probably of most interest.

I did not change or remove any parts of the books. They are exactly as printed.

What I did do to enhance an appreciation of the books was to use comparative photos to illustrate what certain buildings looked like then and now (if they are still standing). In this way, I believe people can appreciate the books more.

I also used historical maps and ads to help make this book more interesting.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my wife Debra for her support of my hobby, which is writing books.

I was fortunate to have access to the largest private collection of Hespeler memorabilia owned by Bob Falle. Bob also was there to help answer questions I had. I would like to thank the staff at: the Kitchener Public Library Grace Schmidt Room, University of Waterloo Library, Special Collections & Archives, University of Waterloo Geospatial Centre and the City of Cambridge Archives.

Enjoy this important piece of our local history.

Paul Langan

Hespeler, Ontario

October 3rd, 2021

A.J Brewster and family at Cottage in Williamsford, Ontario 1890 - Earle Waghorne collection

Who was

A.J. Brewster?

Andrew Jackson Brewster - Brewster family collection

NOTE: The following article is taken mainly from Andrew Brewster’s City of Cambridge Hall of Fame profile and also the 1966 Hespeler Reunion Book on him.

Andrew Jackson Brewster was born in Jefferson County in New York state in 1836. He came to Hespeler in 1854.

He came to Hespeler when eighteen years of age, at a time when Jacob Hespeler's flour mill and distillery were the only industries of the place, and from a small settlement named New Hope he saw the settlement grow into a lively and thriving incorporated town.

He was first employed for about 4 years as a foreman in the construction of the Great Western Railway branch line that was built between Galt and Guelph.

In 1859 he accepted a teaching position at SS No.19, Waterloo Township, known as the Groh School, and in 1865 he was appointed the principal of Hespeler Public School. He held the position for 11 years, resigning in 1876.

Mr Brewster remained connected with education in the village, serving as a member of the local school board beginning in 1877. He took on further duties as the Secretary-Treasurer of the board in 1889.

In 1877, Mr Brewster opened an office for conveyancing and insurance in Hespeler, a business he operated until his death in 1903. His son, Winfield Brewster, succeeded him in this business as in so many other things.

One of the most important offices in connection with the administration of municipal government is that of clerk of the municipality. A. J. Brewster who resided in Hespeler for nearly half a century and is so widely known throughout this section of the country, was clerk of Hespeler for 27 years and treasurer for 9 years, truly a remarkable record.

He was also, for many years, an auditor of both the Guelph and Ontario Investment Co. and the Mutual Life Assurance Co. and acted as auditor in investigations into the workings of the Waterloo Registry Office held in 1891 and 1896.

It was A. J. Brewster who read the proclamation incorporating the settlement of New Hope as the Village of Hespeler in 1858.  He prevailed upon his son (only 21 years of age at that time) to read the proclamation which incorporated Hespeler as a Town, in 1900.

He died 4 Mar 1903 and is buried in New Hope Cemetery.

A news item of August 1935 links up the early Brewsters and education. It must be a source of great satisfaction to those who bear the name of Brewster to look back through the past 70 years at the great contribution made to the progress of the municipality by two generations of Brewsters to Andrew J. Brewster, who served from 1865 until until he died in 1903, partly as principal of the school, then as a School Board member, then as Secretary-Treasurer of the Board - to Violet Brewster, his daughter, who from January 1st, 1892 taught in Hespeler for an overall period of 36 years until she retired in 1935 - to Winfield Brewster, who, when his father died in. 1903, took over his duties as Secretary-Treasurer and carried them out for 17 years. Winfield Brewster also carried on his father's duties as Town Clerk from 1903 until 1912.

Truly impressive was the impact of these two generations of Brewsters on the town, and Winfield then was to carry on further for the second generation.

Who was

Winfield Brewster?

Winfield Brewster - Brewster family collection

NOTE: The following article is taken mainly from Winfield Brewster’s City of Cambridge Hall of Fame profile and also the 1966 Hespeler Reunion Book on him.

Winfield Brewster entered into the political life of Hespeler when, in 1900, he was asked to read the proclamation which incorporated Hespeler as a town. In doing so he followed in the footsteps of his father, Andrew Jackson Brewster, who performed this duty in 1858 when Hespeler was incorporated as a village.

Winfield followed his father in many endeavours. In 1898, he entered the conveyancing and insurance business started by his father in 1877.

It may have been within his occupation as a Conveyancer, dealing with deeds and wills, and other legal transactions, that his service to the community was at its greatest, in his interested and satisfactory advice, and in his help above and beyond the call of duty. The nature of his work brought him into very close contact with so many people, particularly among the farm community.

Always a leader, the Town turned to him again, particularly in the First War, in asking people to subscribe to war loans, in building up what turned out to be an outstanding Patriotic Fund, in Red Cross donations, and generally in so many other welfare projects.

He was his father's successor as Hespeler Town Clerk and Treasurer of the Hespeler Public School Board when the elder Mr Brewster died in 1903.

Around 1900, Hespeler had a Drill Hall and a Rifle Range, and he, at that time, was a Captain in the 29th Militia Regiment. In 1902 he joined New Hope Masonic Lodge, being 60 years in membership and there, again, he took over from his father as treasurer. It must have been then that he also joined the I.0.0.F. for there is a record of his installing electric light in their lodge rooms in the early 1900s.

In 1906 two friends and Winfield each had what he called an undivided third share in the first automobile in Hespeler, a steam runabout bought in Brooklyn.

Mr Brewster was the primary organizer of both the 1906 and the 1926 Old Boys Reunion and was consulted frequently by the organizers of the 1947 Homecoming.

Mr Brewster was the Honorary President of the Hespeler Horticultural Society. He had prize-winning displays at the Annual Flower Shows.

He operated the Hespeler Fuel Company, and, at one time, headed the Universal Lightning Rod Company.

From the 1966 Hespeler Reunion Book. His leisure hours in the 1950s were employed in writing books of Hespeler and district, and vividly bringing to us for our information, appreciation and education, the peoples, events and places of our early days. This must have been a labour of love, for he was writing of his countless friends, and remembering them, and he gave us a sense of history in identifying present generations as fifth or sixth generations of those of whom he wrote. He is one with them, and in business, it is a proud record that Brewsters have been in the insurance business since 1867. He was a wonderful man. Thinking of him enriches us.

The six small books on the history of Hespeler and area he had written were:

1950 - Lot Six in the Third of Waterloo

1951 - J. Hespeler, New Hope C.W.

1952 - The Floodgate: Random Writings of Our Ain Folk

1953 - Hespeler Yarns

1954 - La Rue de Commerce: Queen St. Hespeler, Ontario

1961 - Pine-Bush Genealogy

Preserving the legacy of these books was the goal of this Hespeler History compilation book.

Winfield Brewster died Nov. 2nd, 1962 and is buried in New Hope Cemetery.

Offices of W. Brewster and Town of Hespeler

- City of Cambridge Archives

Jacob Hespeler - P000433 -

Courtesy of the Waterloo Historical Society

J. Hespeler

New Hope, C.W.

Winfield Brewster

Copyright 1951

To My Friends:

When The Historical Society asked for something on the history of our Town I passed it up because so much good stuff already had been written by such able men as D. N. Panabaker, Oscar Eby, Tommy Arntfield, James D. Ramsay and others; Stuff that will live forever.

Then in a moment of weakness I said that I would try and work up something of the man the Town was named for, with perhaps a word on some of his associates and of the enterprises in which they were concerned.

Some people hold, in times like these one's eyes should be upon the future rather than the past.

Yet, Indians crossing the great Lakes in war Canoes were wont to look back to the shore from whence they came and by landmarks there make sure of their course to land beyond and not yet come in sight.

And so, if anything that here is written may one day help guide someone on his course through life the effort is not wasted.

And to all who helped me poke and prod and delve among the dusty records of the past where so much of the color and sparkle of life lies prisoned like gold beneath the hills, my thanks; Yes, thanks a lot.

Winfield Brewster, Hespeler 1951

In The Beginning

God Created the Heavens and the earth and. . . . man, in his own image; And He said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it. . . . and Labor diligently with care and skill to preserve it.

Back in the night of time came hordes from Asia, wave upon wave to people this Continent and Europe.

Centuries later Europeans came here and subdued the Native Americans we now call Indians who on their going left behind them traces of the sojourn here.

At the Hespeler Public School they have a show case like one sees in a candy store, but instead of candies it contains a lot of stones of different kinds and shapes and sizes which we call Indian Relics because they belonged one day to the Indian who made their home in this Country long before there were any white men here.

By far the largest number of pieces in this collection are made of flint and it is about these I want especially to speak because I was myself present when a great many of them were found.

The Collection of flints consists principally of arrowheads with some spear heads, skinning knives, drills and scrapers as well as other pieces. When I was a young man it was quite a common thing on a Sunday in the spring to see three or four men, walking slowly in line with their heads down, backwards and forwards across a plowed field in the country and if you did not know you would wonder what in the world they were doing because every now and again one of the party would let out a yell and the others would immediately join him.

The answer is of course that they were looking for Indian relics and it was the rule that when one of the men found anything he was to yell so the others could join him and see what he had found.

We always had the best luck early in the spring and on fields that had been plowed in the fall before because the pieces lay on top of the ground, washed clean and showed up white against the darker soil.

And we found more pieces around Puslinch Lake than up the river or anywhere else, and more arrow heads on the west, south and east sides of the lake while on the north side, in the field to your right as you go down the big hill on the Road from the Town Line to Barber's Beach we found more skinning knives, scrapers, drills, axes, pieces of flint, flint chips, beads and bits of pottery which seemed to indicate that the Indians lived on the north shore towards the westerly end of the lake while they hunted more on the other sides, of the big lake and around the little Lake.

The arrow heads in the case are of various sizes from quite large to very small and were no doubt used in hunting various kinds of game, the larger ones for deer and bear and wolves and the small ones for mink and other small fur bearing animals (whose pelts would be damaged by the larger ones) and for ducks, partridge and other birds.

The large flint spear heads were weapons of offence.

The Flint knives were used in skinning animals and the scrapers for removing hair from the outside and surplus flesh from the inside of deer and other skins which were afterwards treated by the squaws to make and keep them soft, likely by rubbing oils or other materials into the skins.

The drills were used among other things for making holes in amulets, beads and other items of personal adornment and the axes and hatchets (made of stone) were used ordinarily in times of peace for about the same purposes for which we would use an axe or a hatchet and as weapons in time of war.

Flint is not native to this district but is to be found along the north shore of Lake Erie perhaps fifty miles from here, which means of course that it had to be transported to this country either in its finished form or in chunks to be made up afterwards.

The making of an arrow head was undoubtedly a job for an expert experienced mechanic because it had to be so perfectly shaped and balanced that when fitted to the wooden shaft it would carry straight and true.

There have been innumerable discussions among local collectors of Indian Relics as to how arrowheads were made; one view being that the flint was heated red hot and water dropped on it causing it to flake and chip. This theory was discarded when it was found that this flint when heated red hot is inclined to calcine into a sort of lime.

The then assistant curator of the Indian Relics Division of the Ontario museum a Mr. Clark told me years ago that the Indian started with a chunk of flint and flaked it with a hardened piece of bone: that the flint has a grain and can be worked all right and that in fact he had himself made several arrow heads as good as any Indian Made ones; adding however, that it took him two or three days to make one.

And the view is held that these expert mechanics in the art of working flint travelled from Indian Village to Indian Village with their stocks of raw materials and there made up to order whatever pieces were required.

This view seems to be borne out by a find of the late John Limpert and I made one Sunday afternoon about 1900 in Puslinch Township north of the lake. We were walking through a plowed field near the outlet looking for arrowheads and ran across around a dozen chunks of raw flint about the size of a man's fist, scattered about on top of the ground near the rotted stump of what had once been a very big tree; and upon closer examination we found under a crotch in the root of the tree about a pail full of flint pieces, some just chunks of flint, some partly wrought into shape and some finished skinning knives.

They were in a neat compact pile just as if they had been contained in a pack or parcel and the ones first discovered were just a few the plow had dislodged in passing by the stump.

We concluded we had happened upon the stock in trade of a travelling flint worker who had cached it there and never returned to get it.

And we regarded the find as of such historic importance that instead of dividing it as would normally have been done, we decided that Mr.Limpert was to retain it intact in the meantime and one day give it to the Public.

Gordon Kribs, then a very small boy, was wading bare foot just above Rife Avenue in the stream which flows through Forbes Park and one of his toes struck something sharp and when he bent down and picked it up he found it was a flint skinning knife. He dug around some more and recovered about two dozen fine pieces which had been cached there in the remote past; and when John Limpert learned of the find he took a look and secured a few more that Gordon had missed and these he put in with his collection.

So the olden days may have seen considerable canoe traffic on our river past where we live and some at least of the travellers paused here for a time or may even have lived here permanently.

The territories of the ATTIWANDARONK Indians extended from the north shore of Lake Erie about as far north as a line drawn from Goderich to Toronto and from the Detroit River to the Niagara and beyond to embrace the westerly end of the north shore of Lake Ontario, with villages strung along the rivers and their tributaries and the shores of the lake which were their highways.

There were numerous routes from the habitations on Lake Ontario to those on Lake Erie, and I will speak only of three.

The Front road, so to speak, by way of the Niagara River was not generally used because the tremendously difficult portage to pass Niagara Falls entailed lugging canoes and their loads up (or down) the escarpment and because of the ever present danger of attack en route by hostile Iroquois whose homes lay along the South shore of Lake Ontario.

A low level route from Dundas to the Grand River was seldom used in times of peace- and its existence was in fact kept a closely guarded secret against a time of emergency when it might be urgently needed.

A third route which one might call the back way was up one of the streams which flows into Lake Ontario from the North and from its upper reaches overland to Puslinch Lake, then down the to the Speed and the Grand to Lake Erie, or its alternative down the Mill creek to the Grand at Galt this route was probably widely used because it was easier and safer.

In order to guard this important line of communication, fortified villages were located along its route, one of the largest of which was near Westover in the Township of Beverly not far distant from the stream which flows into Dundas and perhaps ten miles from Puslinch Lake.

Legend has it that the name of this village was TEOTONDIATON and that it was here Reverend Fathers Brebeuf and Chaumonet of the Society of Jesus spent the winter of 1641 as related by the latter in his own handwriting; and that the Village and its defences were totally destroyed by the Iroquois in 1650 and its inhabitants erased.

It may be safe enough to assume that the settlement at Puslinch lake was an outpost of TEOTONDIATON; possibly a guarded parking place for canoes between journeys and that when TEOTONDIATON fell the residents of this outpost would immediately retreat by way of the Speed to the Villages on the Grand and beyond.

These two Missionaries carried with them two men whose business it was to set up trade with the Indians visited.

Numerous iron Tomahawks bearing three marks resembling the Fleur de Lis were found by B. H. Kopeman, John Stark, Walter Johnstone, M. E. Jardine and John Limpert and no doubt by other Hespeler collectors at the Westover site.

And it is safe to assume that if the French supplied iron tomahawks to these Indians they would also supply knives, pots, pans and other utensils made of metal, and probably also arrow heads; and that if an Indian could procure better axes, knives and arrowheads for a lesser cost he would use them instead of the stone ones; and to conclude therefore that the specimens found near the lake belonged one day to the Attiwandaronks and antedate 1650 perhaps by many centuries.

__________

Because they adhered to the lost Cause of England in the revolutionary war the Five Nation Indians lost much of their territories which lay south of lake Ontario and east to lake Champlain.

To compensate them the English King granted them a strip of land six miles in width on each side of the Grand River from Lake Erie to the forks at Elora.

And so once again we find Indians along the Grand.

In due course they sold out and moved down stream to Brantford and beyond. Hespeler is built wholly on these Indian lands whose easterly limit at this point was the Town Line between Waterloo and Puslinch Townships.

One, Abram Clemens owned much of the land now within the Town limits and Michael Bergey and his brother-in-law Oberholtzer had in all, three sawmills in the early days, two downstream near the D.W.&W. Plant, the third by the upper dam, later owned by Hespeler.

In the days of my youth it was a common thing after school to see a game of shinny going on, fifty to a side the full width of the Dam and from the stumps to the falls, the sticks being maple shinnies cut in the woods and the puck the end off a wagon spoke.

Then came hockey and it may be recorded that in the 1950-51 season the Hespeler hockey team won the Junior Championship of Ontario.

In 1858 the railway was completed through Hespeler. Early photo of the Hespeler station and steam engine - Coombe Series author’s collection

Jacob Hespeler

Jacob Hespeler - One Hundred Years in Canadian Industry, Cornelius Panabaker - KPL Grace Schmidt Room

The ancient Castle of the great Hungarian Family, Andrassy, stands on a high hill overlooking the vast estate and its numerous villages and is now maintained with its old furnishings as a public museum.

In Budapest the famous Andrassy Street takes its name from this illustrious family whose members through the centuries have done the state great service.

From Mrs. Georgina Cameron, Granddaughter of Hon. William Hespeler and F.E.Chapman of Winnipeg and his sister Irene Benson, grandchildren of Hon. William’s  sister we have these particulars regarding the Hespeler family.

Anna Barbara, daughter of Count Andrassy, married a man named Wick. Their daughter Anna Barbara Wick married one Hespeler and their children were:

1. Jacob Hespeler, the founder of the Town that bears his name; who married Elise Diehl of Kurhessen, Germany and to whom were born:

(a) Lizzie married Ward Hamilton Bowlby, K.C. and their daughter married Sir George Perley.

(b) Mina, married Cutler.

c) Laura married Walker.

(d) Anna who married Herbert M. Farr.

(e) Lieut. Col. George Hespeler. Ex Reeve, etc.

(f) Jacob, Manager for years of the Molsons Bank, Waterloo.

(g) Charles, Father of Willomine.

2. William Hespeler ex speaker of the Manitoba Legislature and member of that body upwards of twenty years. Married Mary Keachie.

(a) Alfred.

(b) Georgina married Sir Augustus Nanton; their daughter Georgina married Lorne Cameron and they have one child Elspeth.

3. Ferdinanda married John Chapman; Ex Reeve. Postmaster, etc.

(a) Alfred Chapman.

(b) Mina Chapman.

c) George E. Chapman, Postmaster of Hespeler many years; married Margaret M. Wemyss, distantly related to Earl Wemyss who was First Lord of the Admiralty during the first great war.

Their children Ferdinand E. Chapman and Irene Benson reside in Winnipeg.

4. Stephanie married Adam Warnock of Galt and there were two children Charlo and James.

5. Louise married a Mr. Eggart and they had two daughters Josephine and Louise.

6. Marie married Mr. Erb and their daughter Stephanie married Joseph E.

Seagram.

7. Wilhelmina was the second wife of John Chapman.

8. Countess Boscari married in France had two sons, Doge, Charlo; who were officers in the French Army and one daughter Adine who married Baron de Cologne, of Chateau de Cologne, Veaucluse, France and the latter had one daughter who became a Nun and was Mother Superior at a Sacred Heart Convent in Paris.

9. Charlotte married Jacob Beck. Their son, Sir Adam Beck, married a sister of General Crerar. Other children Fritz and Lulu.

Jacob Hespeler came to Preston about 1835. He was born at Ehningen in Wuertemburg in 1809 and educated at Nancy France; of an adventurous and enterprising spirit he left home at an early age and spent a number of years in the United States in various occupations, amongst others that of fur trading in what was then western territory, the state of Illinois where he was active at Chicago then just beginning in importance.