Waterloo is a small community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in western Lunenburg County. The community extends approximately 10 kilometers from Route 210 to the Queens County line and is 20 kilometers from the commercial hub of Bridgewater. The Waterloo Road runs through the community providing a picturesque alternative to Route 210 when travelling between Newcombville and Greenfield.
History
First Peoples and the newcomers
Western Lunenburg County was shared by aboriginal Mi'kmaq people before the first European settlers arrived. In an 1894 interview, George Michael Wile (1809–1895) and his wife Lucinda Hirtle Wile, the first European settlers in the Waterloo area, spoke about the early days of the settlement when "Indians" camped on a brook in the area, "catching otter, mink, and other animals for fur" (DesBrisay, 1895). Some time before 1870, when early deeds show transfers of land in the community, the first settlers received large land grants of 50 to 150-acre parcels from Great Britain before and around the time of Canadian Confederation.
Historical perspectives
The European roots of the community are predominantly from small German states which are comprised by the Germany of today and from the region known as Montbéliard in eastern France. Waterloo Settlement's first settlers were sons and daughters of second and third-generation German and Montbéliardian immigrants brought to Nova Scotia as loyal citizens to the British crown in 1750–52. The French-speaking Montbéliardians were considered good candidates to emigrate since they were known to be "very frugal, as well as strong independent laborers" (Withrow, 2002). As for the Germans (and likely the Swiss), Judge Debrisay quotes a number of stereotypes and impressions that developed and existed of the first German immigrants up to 1895, at least 140 years after their arrival. "They are a big, square-shouldered, deep-chested race. They do not talk much, but look as though they thought—easy going, and good tempered... they are hearty eaters, but they are not fussy and finikin over their food... so long as the dish is wholesome, and there is sufficient of it, they are satisfied... in the sensuous arts of painting and sculpture, the Germans are poor. In the ennobling arts of literature and music they are great, and this fact provides a key to their character. They are simple, earnest, homely, genuine people. They do not laugh much, but when they do they laugh deep down. They are slow, but so is a deep river... . The Germans believe in themselves, and respect themselves".Desbrisay, 1895
Historical significance of the region
These German, Swiss, and French settlers arrived just prior to the tumultuous years when Nouvelle France was being defeated by the British, resulting in the first Treaty of Paris (1763). Many Acadians were expelled in 1755 and these German Protestant immigrants initially were the new population sought to outbalance the French and Mi'kmaq influence in the region—both of which were Catholic (Withrow, 2002). There was at least another connection between these Acadians and the Germans. Because there was a food shortage in the Lunenburg area where the German settlers were granted their first land, the British encouraged them to travel to the Acadians' newly seized and vacated land in what is now the Annapolis Valley and herd their abandoned livestock back to Lunenburg. Between July 30 and September 3, 1756, 282 of the settlers were involved in the drive by either retrieving the animals or tending to the chores of those who went.Lunenburg Cattle Drive Three of those surnames involved were later to be prominent Waterloo names: Krause, Vienot, and Weil. The community was also settled by a Black Loyalist by the surname of Lavender. L & E Lavender received a grant of land south of Matthew Lake and farmed it as did the other settlers.Grant map
German and Montbéliardian community roots: Wile, Hirtle, Crouse, and Veinot
The first European inhabitant of the community was George "Michael" Wile (grandson of Frederick "Weil", who arrived in 1750 on the ship AnnShip listList of passengers on the ship Ann and his wife, Lucinda Salome Hirtle (great granddaughter of Hans Michael Hirtle who came in 1751 on the ship Pearl), Michael Hirtle's daughter from nearby Newcombville. Michael Wile's grant of included the highest drumlin in the area, overlooking Mack Lake (later renamed "Matthew Lake"), which he cleared to build his home and break up for cropland.
Michael was soon followed by George Hirtle (DesBrisay, 1895), who eventually was granted in total in the Long Lake area.NS Government, 1996 According to an 1892 deed, the most westerly portion of the community around Long Lake was called "Montreal Settlement."Deed, 1892 The third man to arrive was his brother, James Hirtle, who was granted a total of south of Long Lake and north of the Waterloo Road, also in the Montreal Settlement area. Michael's nephews Absalom (1831–1892) and Henry Wile (1817–1889) soon were granted land in the same area, and respectively. In one example, Charles Tupper, later to become the sixth Prime Minister of Canada, in his role as the provincial secretary granted Absalom Wile of his final 735 in 1858 while Nova Scotia was still a colony.
Michael's brothers joined him in the settlement area. George (1804–1880) was granted in the most eastern part of the settlement around Fire Lake and St. George Lake; William (1813–1900) and Isaac (1825–1914) were granted land in the Mack Lake area gaining 194 and respectively and sharing a 200 grant. Grant map Mack Wile (the lake's namesake) was the grandson of William.
Through intermarriage with the first settlers, other surnames became prominent in the community such as the Montbéliardian Veinot (from Leopold Vienot who arrived on the ship "Betty" in 1752Ship ListPhotographs of the Montbeliard monument, Lunenburg and Crouse (Hans George Krause, arrived in 1752 on the 1752 ship Gale or John Jacob Krause, Ship Pearl, 1752).Mission, 1995c. Absalom's daughter Lois married William Roxway Crouse. Absalom's granddaughter Sadie Wile married Albert St. Clair Veinot.
Earliest marked grave: Susannah E. Fiendel Wile
The most broken-down gravestone in the Waterloo Cemetery is that of Susanna E. Fiendel Wile (1786–1878). She was the wife of Andrew Wile, Sr. (1758–1832). Her gravestone shows a recorded age of 92 years, 8 months. The presence of her grave is a significant link to the 18th century when the town of Lunenburg was a fledgling community and Bridgewater was only an idea. Susanna was the second wife of Andrew Wile Sr., who was the first of two sons born to Johann (John) Friederich [Frederick] Weil [Wile], the progenitor of the Wiles of Nova Scotia. This Johann Friederich Weil came from Lützellinden, Germany, today a suburb of Gießen, a city in North Hesse. Andrew's oldest son (from his first wife Regina Gertzen, today "Getson") John Frederick, built the second house built in Bridgewater along with his brother Garrett, and framed by John Vienot (DesBrisay, 1895). With the passing of Regina Getson, Andrew Sr. at 46, married Susanna E. Fiendel who was 19. She became the stepmother of the 6 of Andrew's 11 previous children who were still living, two of whom were older than Susannah. Susanna had ten more children of her own (research seems to indicate 11 children). It was her step-grandsons, Absalom and Henry who were granted the land in Montreal Settlement. It was her sons Michael, William, and Isaac who settled near Waterloo calling the area Waterloo Settlement, likely closely associated with their brother George's nearby location of Waterloo, today where the junction of the Waterloo Rd and the Trunk 201 are located. Her grandson Dean Wile started the Wile Carding Mill in Bridgewater and also donated the land for Brookside Cemetery in Bridgewater. The presence of Susannah Fiendel Wile's grave in the Waterloo Cemetery indicates that she may have spent her last years with her sons and their families in Waterloo Settlement instead of in Wileville where her husband Andrew Sr. and she had lived together. Church records and headstones show that Susannah was buried in the same Waterloo Cemetery as her step-son Philip, and her sons, George, Michael, William, David, and Isaac.
Eight Hirtles marry eight Wiles
John "Michael" Hirtle (1786–1840) and his wife Anna Maria Rhuland lived in the nearby community of Newcombville and ran a saw mill with George Hirtle in the early 19th century (Desbrisay, 1895). Michael and Anna Maria's seven daughters all married Wiles—even one of their sons, George Benjamin Hirtle (b. 1814) married one of the boys' sisters, Sophia Dorothea Wile, and was quite likely the second person to come to Waterloo Settlement (Desbrisay, 1895). Michael's firstborn, a daughter Mary Ann (b. 1810) married Andrew and Susanna Fiendel Wile's oldest boy, John George. George's brother, George "Michael", Waterloo Settlement's first settler of European descent, married Mary Ann's sister Louise Salome (b. 1813). William, another brother of George's married Catherine (b. 1819), another Hirtle sister. David, a nephew of George (from George's older brother Johannes) married Marie Elizabeth (b. 1816), yet another sister.
These brothers' oldest half-brother, John Frederick Wile (oldest son of Andrew and his first wife, Regina Getson), had seven sons, three of whom married the rest of Michael Hirtle's daughters: Henry, John, and James. Henry Wile married Sophia Amelia (b. 1822); John married Sarah Ann (b. 1824); and finally James married Barbara Caroline (b. 1826), the last of the seven sisters.Hirtle Genealogy
Most of these Hirtle–Wile marriages constituted the first of Waterloo Settlement families. George farmed at the junction of the Waterloo Rd and Chelsea Rd; George "Michael" on the highest hill overlooking Matthew Lake (called "Mack Lake" in the 1880s AF Church map); William's farm overlooked Frederick Lake; Sophia and George farmed in the Montreal Settlement-Long Lake area; and Henry and Sophia were granted land overlooking Long Lake, but likely did not farm there, selling the land to his brother Absalom.
Education
George "Michael" Wile spoke to the beginnings of education in Waterloo Settlement. A Mr. James Dowling's father taught school in Michael's house for a couple of winters, periodically walking the 70-kilometre round trip from his home in Lunenburg. The need to have a real school building for the few students that lived in the settlement was solved with quick action; a new 18 × school building was erected in eight days and on the ninth "the teacher and scholars met in it and commenced the school". (Desbrisay, 1895) The project was entirely community built from the sawing of the lumber to the framing and interior preparations.