Abraham Erb Biography

Born: 1772, Died: 1830
Married: Magdalena (Mollie) Erb

This early Pennsylvania Mennonite immigrant is regarded as the first permanent resident in what later became Waterloo. Abraham Erb’s great-great grandfather, Nicolaus Erb, was born in Switzerland in 1679 where his family wanted him to become a Catholic priest but instead Nicolaus joined the new Mennonite sect. Because of unrest and persecution of the newly formed Mennonite group, Nicolaus decided to move to North American in 1722. He settled on a farm he purchased on Hammer Creek in Warwick Township, Pennsylvania. For the next three generations the Erbs prospered on land surrounding this homestead.

By the early 1800s land in the area was becoming expensive and scarce. In 1805 when the German Company was formed by Mennonites to buy 60,000 acres of the Beasley Tract in Upper Canada, Abraham decided he would invest in the new venture. He purchased 4 shares in the company which entitled him to 4 lots of 448 acres each. Erb had recently married his cousin Magdalena (Molly) Erb and in 1806, at the age of 34, he decided to join a group (mainly relatives by marriage) that was moving to the new lands in Canada. This band of 48 persons made its way north in Conestoga wagons and, after a decidedly strenuous trek, reached John Erb’s mill (Preston). These prospective settlers used this spot to rest and organize plans to reach the lands that most of them had previously purchased, sign unseen. Abraham decided that, of the four lots he owned, he would settle somewhere on Lot 14 and 15 in the Tract. Although discouraged by brother John Erb from settling so far north where settlement would be slow to develop, Erb had different ideas. Whether he had come earlier to spy out the area or had someone else do it for him, he knew that his intended settlement area was the best site in the whole northern area of the tract for a sawmill or grist mill. He wasn’t going to be a farmer all his life but aspired to become an entrepreneur. So Erb made his way north following a trail that had been earlier marked out (King St.) After negotiating through swamps and over sandhills, he came to a site in Lot 14 on which he chose to build his first home – a log cabin.

Just down the slope ahead was a creek that he intended to use for his business ventures. In 1807, with the help of other early settlers, he erected an early sawmill on the creek down in the valley (later called Beaver Creek, then Laurel Creek). The settlers appreciated being able to get sawn lumber to build larger homes and outbuildings. Erb, himself in 1812 replaced his log cabin with a two storey frame structure.

The year 1816 was a memorable time for settlers in the Tract. It became known as “the Cold Summer” because frost and cold weather lasted right into the month of July adversely affecting the growth of crops and thereby creating a scarcity of food. Whether it was because nearby farmers would have had much spare time or whether they needed extra money, Erb decided it was time to build a gristmill in the community. Erb hired a carpenter and stone mason named Dennis Devitt, newly arrived from New Jersey, to be his foreman and with a crew of local helpers, erected a small grist mill beside the sawmill on Beaver Creek. The beaver pond on the heights above was used to create a millpond that created a head of water that flowed down a mill race to the 18’ millwheel that produced the power to grind the wheat. One of the benefits of these mills was the beginning of Erb’s Road (later Erb St) which was created to help farmers transport their wheat to be ground into flour – a very necessary staple in pioneer times. Also the presence of these mill facilities gave reason for other stores and businesses to be built nearby, thus beginning a settlement which was named Waterloo in 1816.

Abram and Mollie Erb’s only son Benjamin died in 1814 at the age of seven years. In 1818 when Dennis Devitt’s family broke up, the Erbs “adopted” one of Devitt’s sons, named Barnabas. Later, they adopted a daughter, Rachel Winsom. Abraham Erb, it appears, had health problems in later years. In 1829, he sold the mills and surrounding lands to Jacob C. Schneider, a nephew by marriage. Erb passed away on Sept. 6, 1830. His widow, Mollie, in 1835, married Bishop Benjamin Eby.

Sources:

Marg Rowell et al. Welcome to Waterloo
Ezra E. Eby, A Biographical Sketch of Early Settlers and their descendants in Waterloo Township, Eldon D. Weber Editor, 1971.
Waterloo County Hall of Fame
Ellis little, "Silver Lake, Waterloo Ontario", Waterloo Historical Society, Volume 84, 1996.
Grassroots Government: Biographies of Waterloo Township Councillors, Elizabeth Bloomfield and Linda Foster, Caribou Imprints 1995.
Waterloo Historical Society, "the Growth of a Grist Mill", 1979 Volume 69.
The Town of Waterloo J. P Jaffray.