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Native Settlement

By 1650, Iroquois raids from the east pushed the various nations in southern Ontario out, killing many and forcing many to flee or be captured. After fifty years, the Ojibwa (Chippewa) moved into southern Ontario in small numbers from Michigan and northern Ontario, to fill the void, once the Iroquois five Nations signed a peace treaty with the French. Between 1825-1836, two treaties between the Chippewa and the Upper Canada government allowed the opening of the Huron Tract, and the Queen’s Bush to the north, for settlement. The Canada Company surveyed the million acres of the Huron Tract, all of which opened for settlement by 1840.

Early Settlement

The Canada Company was incorporated in 1824 and the Huron Road was surveyed and built by 1828-1829. This allowed access to the Huron Tract which extended from Goderich to Guelph. Three taverns were placed 20 miles apart between New Hamburg and Goderich. The first settlers came to Stratford along the Huron Road in 1832. A tavern named the Shakespeare Inn was the first building erected at Stratford.

A campaign to attract immigrants from Germany, Ireland and Scotland resulted in early settlers arriving from those areas to the townships of Ellice, North and South Easthopes and Hibbert. Perth County has the second highest German population in Ontario, following the Kitchener-Waterloo area, and many of the cemetery stones in Ellice and other townships are in German script.
The townships were named after directors of the Canada Company. Thomas Mercer Jones is responsible for naming most of the area municipalities, including St. Marys (after his wife) and Stratford (after Stratford-on-Avon).

Between 1848-1856 the northern part of the county which was part of the Queen’s Bush was opened for settlement. The townships in this area included Mornington, Elma and Wallace. In 1853, Perth County separated from Huron County when its new courthouse and jail were completed in Stratford.

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