Joseph Schneider^{[1, 2, 3, 4]}

1772 - 1843  (71 years)

• Name	Joseph Schneider
  Born	24 May 1772	, Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania   [1, 5]
  Gender	Male
  FindAGrave	https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27232276
  Historic Building	466 Queen st., S., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [6]
  	Joseph Schneider's house is the oldest surviving in Kitchener dating from 1820 and has been made into the Joseph Schneider Haus Muesum.
  		Joseph Schneider's House and Land 1875 1875 Map of Berlin, Ontario showing Joseph Schndeider Haus Museum site. Look at the bridge in front the creek has been covered over.
  Historic Building	1807	393 Queen Street South, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [7]
  	Site of first log cabin
  	Now on this site is Barra Castle a 15 unit apartment building, due to be renovated for other purposes (2009).
  Historic Business	1816	113 David Street, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  	Sawmill
  	Joseph Schneider's Saw-Mill The pioneers had then begun to replace their log-houses with frame homes. To meet a demand for lumber Joseph Schneider built a saw-mill in 1816 on Schneider's Creek. It rested on the easterly side of David Street, opposite Victoria Park. The mill dam was above the railway, and the mill-race crossed David Street between Schneider Avenue and Roland Street. The up-and-down or "muley" saw was run by an overshot waterwheel.1a 1aA History of Kitchener, W. V. (Ben) Uttley, Kitchener, Ontario 1937 pg 17
  Land	Bef 1831	Waterloo Township - German Company Tract Lot 017W, Waterloo County, Ontario   [8]
  Land	Bef 1831	Waterloo Township - German Company Tract Lot 023W, Waterloo County, Ontario   [8]
  Historical Event	29 Aug 1839	Evangelical Association Church, Waterloo, Ontario
  	church founding
  	A Sunday School was established in Berlin in 1837, meeting in Jacob Hailer's carpenter shop which was located at the southeast corner of what is now King and Scott Streets. A mission was begun by Rev. Christian Holl shortly after his arrival in Berlin on May 9, 1839, and a class (or congregation) was organized several months later on August 29, 1839 by Bishop John Seybert of the Evangelical Association during a camp meeting held at David Erb's farm near Lexington. John Hoffman was the Berlin class leader; his brother, Jacob , was class leader for the Waterloo-Lexington congregation. The Berlin congregation met in the old Town Hall until their first church was built in 1841 on Queen Street South across from Church Street on land purchased as of August 24, 1841 from Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Schneider.1a 1aAmbrose, Rosemary. Waterloo County Churches A Research Guide to Churches Established Before 1900. Kitchener, Ontario, Canada: Waterloo-Wellington Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society, 1993. [used the kind permission of Rosemary Ambrose 2011]
  Interesting	religion, pioneer, story
  Eby ID Number	00106-6346
  Died	27 Oct 1843	Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1, 5]
  Buried	First Mennonite Cemetery, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  Person ID	I2477	Generations
  Last Modified	30 Sep 2024

  
  

  Father	Jacob Schneider,   b. 1727, Pfalz, Bayern, Germany ,   d. Yes, date unknown
  Mother	Maria Herschi,   b. Abt 1732, Of, Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania ,   d. Yes, date unknown
  Married	1 Apr 1755	, Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania   [9]
  Family ID	F2837	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Barbara Eby,   b. 29 Apr 1774, , Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania ,   d. 13 Mar 1843, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 68 years)
  Married	21 Feb 1798	, Pennsylvania, USA   [1, 5]
  Children	1. Catharine Schneider,   b. 12 Feb 1799, , Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania ,   d. 15 Sep 1881, , Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 82 years)   2. Jacob E. Schneider,   b. 2 Sep 1800, , Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania ,   d. 2 Oct 1884, East Of Berlin, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 84 years)   3. Elizabeth Schneider,   b. 2 Jan 1802, , Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania ,   d. 26 Nov 1876, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 74 years)   4. Veronica Schneider,   b. 25 Jul 1803, , Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania ,   d. 13 Jul 1872, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 68 years)   5. Mary Schneider,   b. 1 Apr 1808, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 22 Mar 1887, New Hamburg, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 78 years)   6. Deacon Joseph E. Schneider,   b. 23 Nov 1810, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 16 Feb 1880, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 69 years)   7. Moses E. Schneider,   b. 24 Nov 1810, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 24 Nov 1896  (Age 86 years)
  Last Modified	1 Oct 2024
  Family ID	F798	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Joseph Schneider, "was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, May 24th, 1772. On February 21st, 1798, he was married to Barbara, daughter of Christian and Catharine (Bricker) Eby. She was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, April 29th, 1774, and died in Berlin, Ontario, March 13th, 1843. On May 8th, 1807, Mr. Schneider with wife and family and a large company of others (See Vol. 1 pages 39, 40 and 41 for particulars) moved to Canada and settled where now is the town of Berlin, Ontario. Here he was engaged in farming. His first buildings were erected where now his grandson, Samuel B. Schneider, lives, a little west of the Walper Block, Berlin. Here he died October 27th, 1843, leaving a family of seven children". Eby, Ezra E. (1895). A biographical history of Waterloo township and other townships of the county: being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin: as also much other unpublished historical information chiefly of a local character. Berlin [Kitchener, Ont.]: [s.n.]. __________________________ Zion United Church A Sunday School was established in Berlin in 1837, meeting in Jacob Hailer's carpenter shop which was located at the southeast corner of what is now King and Scott Streets. A mission was begun by Rev. Christian Holl shortly after his arrival in Berlin on May 9, 1839, and a class (or congregation) was organized several months later on August 29, 1839 by Bishop John Seybert of the Evangelical Association during a camp meeting held at David Erb's farm near Lexington. John Hoffman was the Berlin class leader; his brother, Jacob, was class leader for the Waterloo-Lexington congregation. The Berlin congregation met in the old Town Hall until their first church was built in 1841 on Queen Street South across from Church Street on land purchased as of August 24, 1841 from Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Schneider. The church was dedicated on September 25th of that year, with Rev. Christian Hummel of Buffalo, New York, officiating. Rev. Joseph Harlacher was pastor from 1840-1842. In 1842 the Waterloo Mission became a Circuit of the East Pennsylvania Conference. Two years later it was part of the New York Conference. The second church building was built of brick on the same site in 1866, and dedicated in 1867; Rev. C.A. Spies was pastor at the time. The old frame church was sold and moved to Elgin Street where it was used as a dwelling. In the same year Berlin became a station. The present church building was built in 1893 on Weber Street; dedication services were held on June 15, 16 and 17, 1894. This building was heavily damaged by fires in 1942 and 1965 but was renovated and restored each time. The union of the Evangelical Church and the United Brethren in Christ Church on November 16, 1946 created the Evangelical United Brethren Church. The name of the church was to change again, to Zion United Church when the Evangelical United Brethren Church joined the United Church of Canada on January 1, 1968. Of interest: some maps of early Berlin show this church as a German Methodist church. Waterloo County Churches A Research Guide To Churches Established Before 1900 By Rosemary Ambrose ___________________________ SCHNEIDER, JOSEPH, settler and sawmill owner; b. 24 May 1772 in Lancaster County, Pa, son of Jacob B. Schneider and Maria Herschi; m. 21 Feb. 1798 Barbara Eby, sister of Benjamin Eby*, and they had seven children; d. 27 Oct. 1843 in Berlin (Kitchener), Upper Canada. Joseph Schneider's father immigrated with his parents to Pennsylvania from the Palatinate (Federal Republic of Germany) in 1736. In 1806, three years after Jacob's death, two of his sons, Christian and Jacob, settled in block 2 (Waterloo Township), in the vicinity of present-day Kitchener. Joseph and a group of other Mennonites followed them, making the month-long journey in horse-drawn wagons. Schneider purchased and settled on lot 17 of the German Company Tract of block 2. It was the attraction of inexpensive land, as well as the desire to remain under British rule in the years after the American revolution, that brought many Mennonites to the area, among them Benjamin Eby and Samuel D. Betzner*. Geographical isolation allowed them to practise their religion and language freely, although at first it forced them to travel to such centres as Dundas for supplies and services. Schneider was an active figure among the Mennonite settlers and, with Eby, is often regarded as a founder of Kitchener. He helped open the first local road, which ran from his farmstead to the Dundas road and was known as Schneider's road until the 1870s. In 1808-9 he and four other heads of families hired a teacher to open the first school in the area. He was involved four years later in the building of the first Mennonite meeting-house, headed by Eby; in 1834 Schneider participated in the construction of a new church. Perhaps as early as 1816 he had built a sawmill on what is still known as Schneider's Creek, and in the 1820s a blacksmith shop and tavern were erected by Phineas Varnum on land leased from Schneider. Together these enterprises formed the commercial nucleus of the developing village, known variously as Sand Hills, Ebytown, and, later, Berlin. In 1835 Schneider strongly supported the establishment of its first newspaper, Heinrich Wilhelm Peterson*'s Canada Museum, und Allgemeine Zeitung, of which he was a stockholder. Schneider died on 27 Oct. 1843. Among the possessions he left to his family were traditional objects valued by Pennsylvania Germans, including a tall case clock, the works for which he had brought with him in 1807. The clock still stands in the house he built about 1820, Kitchener's oldest structure and now a museum. In other local collections are two family bibles: one, in the Mennonite Archives of Ontario, a rare edition published in Zurich in 1560 by Christoph Froschauer and brought to Upper Canada by Schneider; the other, in the possession of a descendant, printed in Lancaster County in 1805 and containing striking examples of fraktur (ornamental writing), executed by teacher-artist Jacob Schumacher in 1821. Schneider's farming and milling operations were continued by his youngest son, Joseph E., who in 1849 had the family's history printed in Berlin in a small booklet, possibly the earliest published genealogy in Canada. In 1874 he was a charter member of the Reforming/Reformed Mennonites (later the Missionary Church) . E. Reginald Good and Paul Tiessen Toronto and York Land Registry Office (Toronto), "Old York County," deeds, 5, no.1839 (mfm. at AO). Waterloo South Land Registry Office (Kitchener, Ont.), Waterloo Township, abstract index to deeds, German Company Tract, lot 17 (mfm. at AO). E. E. Eby and J. B. Snyder, A biographical history of early settlers and their descendants in Waterloo Township, with Supplement, ed. E. D. Weber (Kitchener, 1971), 136. John English and Kenneth McLaughlin, Kitchener: an illustrated history (Waterloo, Ont., 1983). Hannes Schneider and his wife Catharine Haus Schneider, their descendants and times, 1534-1939, ed. J. M. Snyder (Kitchener, [1940]). Herkommen und Geschlechts Register der Schneider Familie (Berlin [Kitchener], 1849). P. G. Klassen, "A history of Mennonite education in Canada, 1786-1960" (d.ed. thesis, Univ. of Toronto, 1970), 73-74. W. V. Uttley, A history of Kitchener, Ontario (Kitchener, 1937; repr. [Waterloo, 1975]), 17. M. [H.] Snyder Sokvitne, "The Joseph Schneider house, 1820," Waterloo Hist. Soc., [Annual report] (Kitchener), 1966: 20-27. W. V. Uttley, "Joseph Schneider: founder of the city," Waterloo Hist. Soc., Annual report (Waterloo), 1929: 111-19. G. K. Waite, "Joseph Schneider sawmill operations, 1848-1859," Waterloo Hist. Soc., [Annual report], 1985: 57-65. Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online 2000 University of Toronto/Université Laval ____________________ JOSEPH SCHNEIDER Founder of the City The first stones in the city's foundation were laid in South Queen Street, in 1807, by Joseph Schneider. He was born in Lancaster County, Pa, in 1798, and married Barbara, sister of the Rev. Benjamin Eby. On Lot No. 17, Pioneer Schneider built a log cabin. It stood on the east side of Queen Street, where John McKay's former home rests. Next he cut a roadway from the house to the Walper House corner and easterly to No. 57 East King Street, where he built a barn. South Queen Street was the first thoroughfare in the city and until the eighteen-eighties was called Schneider's Road. A History of Kitchener, W. V. (Ben) Uttley, Kitchener, Ontario 1937 pg 16

  
  

• Sources

  [S3] Book - Vol I A Biographical History of Waterloo Township and other townships of the county : being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin..., 549. [S10] Book - Vol II A Biographical History of Waterloo Township and other townships of the county : being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin..., 28. [S10] Book - Vol II A Biographical History of Waterloo Township and other townships of the county : being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin..., 422. [S10] Book - Vol II A Biographical History of Waterloo Township and other townships of the county : being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin..., 139. [S3] Book - Vol I A Biographical History of Waterloo Township and other townships of the county : being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin..., 341. [S872] Book - Historic Building Inventory - Kitchener. [S552] Book - A History of Kitchener, Ontario, pg 16. [S1322] Land - Founding Families of Waterloo Township 1800-1830, 47. [S3] Book - Vol I A Biographical History of Waterloo Township and other townships of the county : being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin..., 266.

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 24 May 1772 - , Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania Historic Building - - 466 Queen st., S., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Married - 21 Feb 1798 - , Pennsylvania, USA Historic Building - Site of first log cabin - 1807 - 393 Queen Street South, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Historic Business - Sawmill - 1816 - 113 David Street, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Historical Event - church founding - 29 Aug 1839 - Evangelical Association Church, Waterloo, Ontario Died - 27 Oct 1843 - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Buried - - First Mennonite Cemetery, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth