It was quite a year, 1815. Canada’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, was born; likewise “The Father of Modern Germany,” Otto von Bismarck.
The War of 1812 between Britain/Canada and the United States ended. In Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte returned to France, raised an army, then lost to Britain’s Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley) and Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard von Blucher near a small Belgian village named Waterloo. The future roles of Macdonald and Bismarck are part of later world history.
The two final facts above had more immediate effect. In 1816, with the American threat over, the government of Britain’s Upper Canada colony got busy establishing townships and communities throughout what is now southern Ontario. One large section bordering the Grand River was labelled Waterloo Township while a nearby area was titled Wellington.
Within the new township, Abraham Erb built a grist mill along Beaver Creek beside his earlier sawmill. At that point, he earned recognition as the “Founder of Waterloo” ..
. not Waterloo, Belgium; not Waterloo Township; but Waterloo, the small community which formed around the Erb grist mill and which gradually adopted the township’s name. In 1957, that Waterloo community, which had since become a city, celebrated 100 years with a huge centennial celebration.
Readers with good arithmetic skills have already done the math: 1957 minus 1816 does not equal 100. A convertible, a flight over Niagara Falls and free dancing les.
