New Dundee is a small community of 1,119 people at the time of the 2016 Census, in the township of Wilmot,

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. It is located southwest of Kitchener.

History

The land grants to New Dundee's early settlers were largely in Concessions 2 and 3, Block A, Wilmot Township. The township was opened to settlement in 1824 and was not part of the German Company Tract purchased out of

Haldimand Tract The Haldimand Proclamation was a decree that granted land to the Mohawk (or Kanien'kehà:ka) (Mohawk nation) who had served on the British side during the American Revolution. The decree was issued by the Governor of the Province of Quebec (1763� ...

land, but lay to the west of it. Wilmot was divided into three blocks arranged latitudinally: Block A in the south, Block B in the north, and the German Block in the centre. While the German Block was largely settled by Germans, Blocks A and B were acquired by the Canada Land Company, and were settled by a mix of German, Irish, Scottish, and English people, along with others. One of the Company's goals was to promote English, Scottish, and Irish settlement in the township; however, only a small number of these peoples ever did settle in the area, and they were largely concentrated within Block A. While the German Block was connected to Waterloo Township by three major

thoroughfare A thoroughfare is a primary passage or way of transport, whether by road on dry land or, by extension, via watercraft or aircraft. Originally, the word referred to a main road or open street which was frequented thoroughly. Different terms *Roa ...

s (Erb's Road, Snyder's Road, and Bleam's Road), each leading to an established mill, Block A only had one: the Huron Road, which unlike the others, was a long-distance route connecting as far west as Goderich and as far east as

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as The Royal City, it is roughly east of Kitchener, Ontario, Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Ontario Highway 6, ...

. It became the dominant roadway in the Waterloo County area until the arrival of the railways in the 1850s lessened its importance, and was a major transportation corridor within

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as a whole for many years. Section: History of Wilmot Township New Dundee itself was founded by the Millar pioneer family. The Millars emigrated from

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

around 1825, and originally settled in the Niagara area. Arriving in Waterloo Township, several of them at first moved to the Sand Hills area which would later become Berlin and finally, Kitchener, where they established the first

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

in that community. John Millar was the first member of the family to settle in the New Dundee area; in 1826 he dammed Alder Creek and built the first

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

and general store there. John named the community New Dundee after his home town of

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

, Scotland. The settlement was located off the Huron Road, at the far southeast corner of Block A, requiring settlers to construct a connecting road in order to access the outside world conveniently. Frederick Gourlay Millar later bought John's sawmill, house, and store, and also constructed a

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

. The Millars were soon joined by other pioneer families: the Reichard family in 1829, who opened their own sawmill on the creek on land granted to them in lieu of payment for their work on the Huron Road, and the Bettschen family, who cleared the dense forest on the southern half of Lot 5, Concession 3 and built a farm and

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

shop. Another early settler was a

squatter Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not Land ownership and tenure, own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estima ...

, Dan Schafer, who lived alone in a trapper's cabin on the northern half of Lot 5, Concession 3. Frederick Millar, who was civic-minded and had played a role in the early growth of Berlin, had a village plan drawn up in the 1850s. The planned-for village never truly materialized as shortly after, New Dundee, already located a distance from the Huron Road, was bypassed by the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; ) was a Rail transport, railway system that operated in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the List of states and territories of the United States, American sta ...

, which passed through the German Block communities of Petersburg,

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...

, and New Hamburg instead. The Post Office was opened in 1852. By 1870, there were two churches, two hotels, a school, the sawmill and the flour mill, and factories that produced shingles, rakes and flax, as well as two stores and two hotels. The population was 250. In 1904, Ezra H. Thamer opened New Dundee's first Bell Telephone exchange, the New Dundee Rural Telephone Company, and started a small home-based creamery. By 1908, other investors joined the group, and the creamery became a larger operation, initially as the New Dundee Farmer’s Cooperative Creamery Company Ltd.; it was later renamed to the New Dundee Co-Operative Creamery Ltd. The operation became the community's largest industry, processing 140 million pounds of milk in 1964, for example. The business closed in 1998 and the factory was dismantled in 2005. The current New Dundee Public School was built in 1928, with additions in 2008 and 2013. The Dundee Country Club golf course opened in 1970. Many small businesses are located within the community on Alder Lake and some historic buildings are still standing. William J. Wintemberg, called by some the "Father of Canadian Archaeology", and an expert on Iroquioan prehistory, was born in the village.

Geography

New Dundee is situated along the Grand River watershed. The local stream is called Alder Creek. Alder Creek flows into the Nith River a few kilometres downstream. The original settlers built the town because of its creek.

Notable people

* Randolph Mank (1954 – ), founder of MankGlobal Inc. consultancy in 2015 * Dilman Kinsey Erb (1857 – 1936), member of the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

from 1896 – 1904

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

New Dundee
at Geographical Names of Canada {{authority control Communities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo Wilmot, Ontario