Breslau, Ontario

History

The first settlers to the area now called Breslau arrived in 1806, mostly German Mennonite families from Pennsylvania. Settlers included John Brech, Daniel Erb and John Cressman. In the 1820s, members of the Cressman Mennonite Church began congregating in the homes of the early settlers. in 1834, the first meeting house in Waterloo County (built by Benjamin Eby in 1813) was donated to the Breslau congregation and moved to the settlement. In 1850, Joseph Erb built a dam, a sawmill and a grist mill. The village was named after Breslau, the German name for the city of Wrocław, Poland. Breslau was, at the time, the capital city of the Province of Silesia in the Kingdom of Prussia.

A post office was established in 1857 and began receiving mail on a daily basis. By 1864, the settlement had several tradesmen including two blacksmiths, a cooper, wagon maker, a cabinet maker and two mills.{{cite book | title = County of Waterloo Gazetteer and General Business Directory, For 1864 | publisher = Mitchell & Co. | year = 1864 | url = http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/001075/f2/e010780571_p2.pdf}}

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Breslau had a population of 5,053 living in 1,582 of its 1,635 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 3,778. With a land area of 5.44 km2, it had a population density of in 2021.

Notable people

• Tubby Schmalz (1916–1981), Canadian ice hockey administrator, first commissioner of the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League

References

References

1. "Census Profile, 2016 Census: Breslau, Ontario". [[Statistics Canada]].
3. (March 1984). "The Breslau Mennonite Church: A Brief History". Mennonite Historical Society of Ontario.
4. (February 9, 2022). "Population and dwelling counts: Canada and designated places". [[Statistics Canada]].
5. (December 10, 1981). "Town Reeve, Widely Known In Hockey, "Tubby" Schmalz Dies". The Walkerton Herald-Times.