Following the American Revolution, Marysburgh Township was established for the settlement of Loyalists and discharged soldiers of regular regiments. Surveyed in 1784 by the Honourable John Collins, Deputy Surveyor-General, the township was named in honour of Princess Mary, a daughter of King George III. Among its earliest settlers was a small group of disbanded German mercenaries under Baron von Reitzenstein. By October, 1784, this party, numbering about 40 persons, had settled in this vicinity and begun to clear and cultivate the land. Shortly after, they erected a log chapel just west of here, and were ministered to by Lutheran missionaries. This was one of the earliest German-speaking groups to settle in Ontario.