Waterloo Pioneers
In the spring of 1800, Joseph Schoerg and Samuel Betzner, Jr., brothers-in-law, Mennonites, from Franklin County, Pennsylvania, began the first two farms in the County of Waterloo; Schoerg on land adjoining this farm, Betzner on the west bank of the river, 5 km downstream. In the same year came Samuel Betzner, Sr., who took up a farm including this site. Other settlers followed and in 1805 a company formed in Pennsylvania purchased 24,000 ha, the German Company Tract, comprising the greater part of Block 2, Grand River Indian Lands, now Waterloo Township. This constituted the first larger settlement in the then far interior of Upper Canada.
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Ontario Plaques. Full page here.