GVTA > resources > history > take-a-hike 12
From Five Maples to Doon one wanders through a transition zone. Kames and eskers give way to sand hills and names change gradually from Scottish to German. Reichert is the first German name of a very early arrival. From the road of this name we arrive at New Dundee and soon Doon. Scottish from Logh Done. The Ferrie brothers built Doon Mills around 1838. Not without some setbacks. One day they were going for lunch when Adam noticed a small squirt of water coming from underneath the dam at the millpond. When they came back from lunch the dam had been "slipped" several meters downstream courtesy of that sand of the sandhills that revealed its quicksand properties here.No millpond water left; no power for the mill. But Scottish willpower prevailed and soon they were back in operation.
Hike on - past the treatment plant and view that memorial tower (City of Kitchener website - scroll to bottom of page for Pioneer Tower picture + Pioneer Tower) on the opposite shore. It's worth a trip to the other side and a footbridge across would be wonderful. There is so much history here. The graveyard contains the remains of one of the two earliest arrivals: Joseph Shoerg (Sherk) . A quick survey reveals a great variety of ages as well as blanks with footstones so close to the headstones that only very small bodies would fit. Life could be very difficult here in spite of the rich farmlands that attracted Joseph and his partner Samuel Betzner. He bought his 200 acres for a horse and figured he'd have enough money left to buy a team of oxen and plough. Till he found out that ,maybe, he should have saved the money. For it was soon revealed that the seller, one Richard Beasley of Hamilton still had not paid up the mortgage. Many of the followers had also bought and became aware of their predicament. It took the help of their Pennsylvanian brethern to "smuggle" $ 40 000 from "Penn" to Canada in barrels and sacks to pay anew for the 60 000 acres the "German" Land Company came to own (which is like moving 400? million in to-days terms). The joy of this success was too soon followed by the heart break of yet another war situation that tested their faith in pacifism and their patience for needed new arrivals. The year 1815 ended all this discomfort but now the climate stepped in to thwart celebrations. The summer of 1816 became the summer that never arrived. Snow in June and ice thick enough to drive an oxecart across. No crop that year at all.
Was it because of all these hard ships that so many of their descendants became outstanding community leaders and entrepreneurs? Perhaps!! Colin Ferrie, the miller's son from Doon became the first mayor of Hamilton and is still frequently mentioned as one of the best in that league. Consider the selections below as you.....
Hike on!, from the panoramic views of Doon to Woolner's flats at the "bottom" of Zeller's Drive. Aha!, you have already recognized a household word in Ontario and the rest of Canada. Walter P. Zeller is the famous son of this Swiss family. He first became well-known as - surprise !? - a member of the band "Hungry Seven", forerunners and role models of none other than the Rolling Stones, the Barenaked Ladies and other coolcats of the music industry.That was Walter in 1905. By 1972 his "dry goods" enterprise operated 137 stores across Canada with total sales of $ 201 444 766, -. Other members of the family may have been less well-known but are as happily remembered. For here in Mount Breeze Survey of Mount Hamilton I'm writing in the comfort of an un - airconditioned house in the hot summer of 2002. Zeller's construction built it with real two by fours on lots 50' x 150' or 50' x 200' . Basements here were made of thick solid concrete walls and have never flooded in the 40 years we've lived here. It all goes back to being "a people of property "(the little tract sold at Doon states "Ein Volk des Eigentums") and a love of the land.
Hike on! More flats where the river meanders and inspired a member of another well-known family. William Henry Breithaupt, son of famous Mayor Louis and engineer. Also President of the Historical Society in Kitchener. He combined his interest, knowledge and skills in the building of that Pioneer Memorial Tower at the little Sherk-Betzner cemetery. But perhaps more importantly he pioneered the "harnassing" of the Grand.
Does a river need "harnassing"? Well, maybe not every river, but the Grand showed signs that alarmed William B. and caused him to speak out after flood (Galt 1912) or again drought when the Grand was totally waterless between Dundalk and Fergus. Or when the river became an open sewer. This within a hundred years after significant settlement of the "wilderness". Because of Breithaupt's insights and advocacy conservation measures were soon initiated. The formation of Grand River Conservation Authority was on its way.
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Updated 2007 OCTOBER 03
