History of Kitchener

In 1784, the land on which the City of Kitchener would be established was part of a large tract of more than 240,000 hectares of land, set aside by the British Crown as a grant to the Six Nations Indians for their loyalty to the Crown during the American War of Independence. Between 1796 and 1798, the Six Nations Indians led by Joseph Brant, sold off 38,000 hectares of land to Colonel Richard Beasley, a United Empire Loyalist. While located far inland and isolated from centers of commerce, the land owned by Beasley appealed to a particular group of Pennsylvania German Mennonite farmers.

Fuelled by the fear that their religious freedoms and exemption from military service under British rule would not be guaranteed following the American Revolutionary War, Pennsylvania German Mennonites began to search for new areas of settlement. In the 1790s Mennonites responded to advertisements for Upper Canada promising inexpensive land and the guarantee of freedom of worship and beliefs. It is reported that a small group of Mennonites, members of the Betzner and Sherk families, learned of Richard Beasley's tract of land, and by the end of 1800 the first permanent non-native settlement was established in what is now the City of Kitchener.

Soon afterward, a group of Mennonites pooled resources to purchase all of the unsold land from Beasley, forming the German Company Tract and dividing the lands into 128 farms of 181 hectares and 32 farms of 1.2 hectares each for distribution. At the time of the pioneer settlement, Kitchener was a land abundant with dense bush, swamps and sand hills. Streams found throughout the area would become very important in supplying the power for saw and grist mills, in what was still however a farm based economy.

In 1816, the Government of Upper Canada elevated the German Company Tract to the Township of Waterloo. The establishment of the Township also marked the beginning of a steady migration of German speaking Europeans to the area. The German language of the Mennonites and their tolerance for other religions and cultures attracted many German speaking immigrants from Europe particularly from the 1820s to 1870s. Population growth and improvements made to roads helped establish the beginnings of a true urban centre that would become a hamlet named Berlin in 1833, in honor of the settlers' German heritage.

In 1853 Berlin would become the County Seat of the newly created County of Waterloo and with that so came the status of Village. Three years later in 1856 the Grand Trunk Railway was extended to Berlin, opening up the area completely to Upper Canada society and to future industrialization. The increase of German speaking immigrants from Europe also contributed greatly to Berlin's industrialization. Their skilled trades and industrial knowledge would help lead to a period of rapid growth and prosperity. By the end of the 19th century, Berlin had established itself as a major industrial centre within the Dominion of Canada, boasting furniture factories, tanneries, a foundry and button factories.

On June 9, 1912, Berlin officially became a City and was considered to be Canada's German Capital. However, with the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 came anti-German sentiment and an internal conflict ensued as the City was forced to confront its cultural distinctiveness. There was pressure for the City to change its name from Berlin, and in 1916 following much debate and controversy, the name of the City was changed to Kitchener, after the British General Horatio Herbert Kitchener who won fame during the Boer War. The extensive industrialization of Berlin in the 19th century had a significant impact on the urban landscape. Large factories and the homes of industrialists and laborers replaced many of the buildings from Berlin's pioneer era.

Kitchener's rapid growth led to a need to plan for the orderly development of the City, and in 1925 the first City Plan was approved. The Adams-Seymour Plan was characterized by a comprehensive zoning by-law establishing distinct residential districts and locating commercial and industrial areas along primary arterial roads. It also contemplated the growth of Kitchener beyond the established 19th century form of Berlin, and significantly influenced how the City would develop in the 20th century.

While Kitchener suffered during the great depression, the diversification of industry enabled the city to weather the worst years of the depression era and return to a period of growth as early as 1936. The tension that had marked the City in the First World War did not reappear during World War Two. Kitchener rallied as enthusiastically as its neighbors to the Canadian cause and shared fully in the years of great economic growth in Ontario in the post war years. By 1965, Kitchener had become Canada's fastest growing City and one of the Country's leading industrial, financial and distribution centers.

Today, with a population nearing 200,000, Kitchener is a vibrant, confident and cosmopolitan community that continues to maintain a strong industrial and business base. It is a City firmly rooted in its German heritage but also keenly aware of the many streams of culture and country that blend together to produce the multicultural community it is today. The Oktoberfest and the Christmas market in Kitchener are strong expressions of German culture.

Source: http://www.kitchener.ca/visiting_kitchener/history.html