Puslinch, Ontario

Puslinch

Puslinch township includes the communities of Aberfoyle, Aikensville, Arkell, Badenoch, Crieff, Glen Christie, Killean, Paddock's Corners, Morriston, Corwhin, Downey, Puslinch, and Puslinch Lake.[4] The offices of the township are located at 7404 Wellington Road 34, Puslinch (village of Aberfoyle).

Aberfoyle

Aberfoyle house

Aberfoyle is the administrative centre for Puslinch Township and is home to the municipality's administrative offices, and fire station. It is located at the headwaters of Mill Creek, which was important for early settlers to power their mills.[5] The community is approximately three kilometres south of Guelph city limits on Brock Road, formerly a portion of old Hwy 6. Aberfoyle was first settled in the 1840s and is named for Aberfoyle, Scotland. In 1869, the population was only 100.[6]

It is known for its spring water Aberfoyle Spring Water, which is bottled at the well in Aberfoyle. Nestlé bought the company in 2002, through its subsidiary Nestlé Waters North America and changed the name. In 2020, the company announced that it was selling the business to Ice River Springs of Shelburne, Ontario.

Other features include the Aberfoyle Antique Market,[7] Aberfoyle Public School[8] and the Aberfoyle Mill, a restaurant.[9]

Thomas Ridout survey of 1821, designating the present area of Puslinch as a "Clergy Reserve for the County of Lincoln".

Before colonization, the area was a "neutral" zone and was inhabited by the Neutral Nation, in a village of 4,000 in what is now the Badenoch area of Puslinch, near Morriston.[14] Other First Nations settlements were at Puslinch Lake, Arkell Springs and Morriston Pond.[15]

The township was named after Puslinch House in Devon, England, where Elizabeth Yonge, the wife of Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada Sir John Colborne, was born. The name was given by Lady Seaton after her birthplace in Devon, England. Sir John would later be the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario from 1828 to 1836.[16] An historical plaque indicates that the township was surveyed in 1828-1832 by David Gibson and was originally known as the Church Lands.[17] Many people arrived in the 1830s via Stone Road from Dundas to Galt toward Killean in Puslinch.[18] A settler, Edward Ellis who arrived in 1839, donated land for the construction of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, also known as Ellis Chapel, in 1861.[19][20][21] Records from 1846 indicate a population in the township of 1500, most of whom were "Highland Scotch".[22]

The township was an important source of granite used in the construction of homes as well as of limestone and sandstone provided by quarries.[23]

The Arkell area was named after John Arkell (from an originally Dutch family) who emigrated from Kempsford, South Gloucestershire, arriving to the township in May 1831. He established the small community, but returned to England three years later. His first cousin Thomas Arkell remained, built a home, bred sheep and cattle, and was a Magistrate for three decades.[24][25] Henry Arkell, a breeder of sheep was heavily involved with the Puslinch Agricultural Society and was a Director of the Guelph Central Exhibition and the Fat Stock Show.[25]

The settlement of Aberfoyle was named by John McFarlane from Aberfoyle, Perthshire, Scotland who arrived in 1841 and ran the first general store. A small mill had been built earlier, in 1831, by George Schatz who built a sawmill and also laid out lots of land at a time when the area was called Schatzville, inhabited mostly by German families. Schatz also operated a foundry and brickyard over the years in the Aberfoyle area. The post office did not open until 1854 with Samuel Falconbridge the first postmaster. The first church, Mount Carmel, was built in 1877.[26]

Many of the Germans lived around Morriston, also part of Puslinch.[27] By 1857, Morriston had established the “Victoria Fire Company of the United Village of Morriston and Elgin” with a single fire wagon.[28] In that year, Morriston had a "daily male population of about 400".[29]

Private dwellings occupied by usual residents: 2,705 (total dwellings: 2,793).[1]

The main thoroughfares in the area include:

• Highway 401
• Highway 6.

Aberfoyle Mill Restaurant

• Starkey Hill Hiking Trail
• Puslinch Lake
• Antique Market
• Aberfoyle Mill Restaurant
• Aberfoyle Farmers Market
• Ellis Chapel

• Justin Bieber, singer-songwriter[32]
• Alex Bulmer, playwright
• John Cullen, NHL centre
• Ryan Ellis, NHL defenseman
• Tommy Hunter, singer
• John Idington, Supreme Court of Canada Justice
• John Bayne Maclean, publisher and founder of Maclean's magazine
• Colleen McEdwards, CNN International anchor

In December 2017, the township considered renaming Swastika Trail, a private road on the western edge of the township.[33] The road was initially named in the 1920s,[33] before the rise of Nazi Germany in 1933 (although Adolf Hitler's party adopted the swastika as the Nazi party symbol in 1920).[34] Residents on the street were divided by the name change, while the Jewish group B'nai Brith Canada supported it. The township ultimately decided not to rename the road, citing the previous decision of the cottager's association to leave the name in place.[35]

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31. "From Badenoch to Badenoch" History Scotland, Vol16, No 4, July/Aug 2016

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Puslinch, Ontario.

• Township of Puslinch
• Wellington Guelph Community Portal
• Ontario Plaques - The Settlement of Puslinch
• Puslinch Lake Conservation Association
• Puslinch Today - Local News & Events