Cynthia Bunnell

Other Events:

• Name: Cynthia Varnum
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-201693
• Residence: 1860, Ionia, Ionia, Michigan, USA

Notes:

Part I. Settlement - Early Villagers and BuildingsThe first settlers in Waterloo Township had large farms, four hundred acres and over, the lot sub-divisions of the German Company Tract. Joseph Schneider settled on Queen Street South, Bishop Benjamin Eby at the south-east side , Abram Weber on the corner of King and Wilmot Streets and David Weber in the neighborhood of the later Grand Trunk Railway station. After the railway was built David Weber moved to Weber Street, named after him, to a location opposite the present Zion Church. Samuel Schneider and Elias Schneider settled in Waterloo. John Brubacher arrived from Pennsylvania in 1816 and took up his lot of the German Company Tract which was in the district of the County House of Refuge.

Throughout the county here and there little settlements consisting of a few houses, a blacksmith shop, perhaps a tavern and probably a cooper shop and weaver shop, began to appear. Only those settlements which had possible water-powers had any hope of growing to villages or towns. Preston, Galt, Bridgeport and Waterloo were in this class.

For a long time the vicinity of Berlin was known as the the sand-hills. In the locality where the hospital and Collegiate Institute now stand were hills over which loaded wagons could hardly be drawn. On a windy day the sand would form ridges. There was a troublesome sand-hill from Queen Street eastward on Church and another one at the corner of King and Frederick Streets. This latter was cut down about eight or nine feet to the level of the cellar floors, some time after the first buildings had been erected.

The easterly part of the settlement was known as Ben Eby's. Queen Street South was the Schneider road.

1830 the village centre was established by Phineas Varnum who, by permission of Joseph Schneider, started a blacksmith shop on the site of the present Walper House. A moderately sized house, 35' by 25', about 40' southwest of the blacksmith shop, was used as a tavern. In the same year the first store in the settlement was opened by William, David and Frederick Miller on the site of the present Post Office,

There were few houses in the hamlet until a number of immigrants arrived directly from Germany, after 1820. John Eby, druggist and chemist, who had his shop a little west of the present Eby Street, related that when immigrants arrived it was the custom, such was the scarcity of buildings, to form a "bee" including farmers and villagers, to erect log houses for the new-comers. A number of these primitive dwellings were in the locality of the present Post Office. It is related that after one of these bees, the company being assembled in Varnum's blacksmith shop or tavern, the proposal was made that the hamlet should be given a name and someone suggested Berlin in honor of the German immigrants. The suggestion was joyously received. Jacob Stroh's mother, adopted in 1827 by Abram Weber when she was three years old, often told Mr. Stroh of her remembrance of the day when Mr. Weber, who had assisted at the bee, came home and told how the little hamlet had that day received the name of Berlin. This occurred probably in 1833. Mr. Stroh has a document dated 1833 in which Berlin first appears as the name of the hamlet. H. W. Peterson, publisher of the "Canada Museum", the first newspaper in the county, from 1835-1840, is authority that in 1835 there were only 25 dwellings in the place.

King Street, Queen Street and Frederick Street, being the main entrances from the surrounding country, were from the beginning the principal streets of the village. These streets are not normal with points of the compass. King Street changes direction several times. At the C.N.R. crossing its direction is about northwest, at an angle with the railway of about 45 degrees. It keeps on turning and finally in the main part of Waterloo it runs due north and south. Queen Street and Frederick Street are approximately at right angles to King Street. Conventionally King Street is called east and west from Queen Street, and Queen Street north and south from King Street. Particulars of the buildings and occupants for these streets follow:



REMINISCENCES OF BERLIN (NOW KITCHENER) By JACOB STROH Contributed by Joseph M. Snyder.

Part I. Settlement - Early Villagers and Buildings, Waterloo Historical Society Annual Volume 1930

Cynthia married Phineas Varnum 16 Oct 1837, , Ionia Co., Michigan. Phineas (son of Colonel Prescott Varnum and Elizabeth "Betsy" MacAllister) was born 31 Mar 1802, Dracut, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 1887, , Michigan, USA. [Group Sheet]