The history of Waterloo is rich and varied. The story begins with a treaty between the British government and the Iroquois League of Nations. In 1794, the land containing present day waterloo, 675,000 acres, was awarded to the League of Nations. Shortly afterward, the group sold 93,000 acres of the land to Richard Beasley.

By combining their resources, group of German Mennonites from the state of Pennsylvania found a strong appeal in this land and purchased as much as they could from Beasley. After making the purchase, the Mennonites began dividing the land into sections. Two of these sections were bought by Abraham Erb, the man who is sometimes credited for founding the city. It was on his two sections of land that the town was build and the mill he had there became the focal point for the city.

In 1816 the township for the land took the name Waterloo, commemorated the location of the battle that saw Napoleon’s defeat. It is a fitting name because when that war ended, this region witnessed a huge influx of German immigrants. So many, in fact, that they eventually out-populated the
Mennonites.

There are several consequences to all of this.

• First, because so many settlers came, the city of Waterloo and twin city Kitchener exploded in population.
• Second, because so many were German, even today there is a huge Lutheran population in the community.
• Third, adding to the fact that so many Germans lived here, there were three breweries in the town by the year 1835! In fact, to this day, Oktoberfest is still regularly celebrated.

As time went on, townships and cities in the area grew. In fact, they got so big that in 1973, the municipality form of government was forced upon the county. This resulted in the formation of a new city, Cambridge, and the reduction of fifteen towns and townships to seven towns and cities.

This, of course, created a conflict. Whereas locals lost power over their community’s governments, the county itself gained power as a regional municipality. However, the status as a regional municipality will not change soon and, if anything, the region will become even more centralized and unified. In fact, 2005 saw talks of further unifying the region into one or more cities!