Settlement of Woolwich Township
Woolwich Township was originally an area of Grand River land included within Block Three of the Six Nations Indian grant. Woolwich Township was one of the earliest townships settled in Waterloo County. The earliest settler may have arrived as early as 1807, but the majority of settlement did not begin until the 1830s. The majority of settlers were of German-Mennonite heritage from Pennsylvania and Waterloo Township. They tended to settle west of the Grand River, while English (many of them Methodists) and Scots-Presbyterians settled to the eastIn 1807 Henry Brubacher and Benjamin Eby, returned to Lancaster County Pennsylvania to convince their fellow Mennonites to buy land in Woolwich. An English military man named Captain Thomas Smith was the first known settler. George Eby, a Mennonite from Waterloo Township followed in 1813. Others were David Cress of Waterloo Township, Simon Cress and family, Henry Martin and David Musselman. About 1819, both Peter and David Martin joined Henry Martin