Wellesley Township Heritage & Historical Society
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Hawkesville

In 1837, Johann Phillip Schweitzer squatted at the junction of the Conestogo River and Donald and Boomer Creeks. Soon there were other families as well, including some Black squatters who remained there after the survey. The American Civil War reversed the trend and many Blacks returned to the United States to fight in the war and remained there. The names Mallott, Posey, Sloman and Lawson, names of the original Black families, now identify four roads in the township.

John Hawke brought his family from Simcoe County and bought Schweitzer’s property along with two other properties to build a gristmill and saw mill. Samuel Lount, John Hawkes’ uncle and brother to his mother, Mary (Lount) Hawke, had been hanged for treason for his part in the Rebellion of 1837.  

Along with Michael Peter Empey, Hawke took the Census of 1851 for Wellesley Township. Hawke served as the first Reeve of the Township and sat on the first Waterloo County Council. He was involved in a bitter dispute between Berlin (now Kitchener) and Galt (now Cambridge) as these centres vied for the location of the County Seat. When the battle settled between Berlin and Galt, Hawke cast the deciding vote in favour of Berlin .

George Ballard, a cohort of Hawke and Empey, surveyed and laid out lots for Hawke’s village. He served as Clerk and Treasurer on Wellesley Township Council, taught school and wrote wills, bonds, letters and contracts.  He left many letters about everyday happenings in the Hawkesville area. At one time, Hawkesville was the location of the Township Hall and many businesses, including general stores, George Diefenbacher’s carriage shop, a brass band, a school, and a post office. 

“Emancipation Day” celebrations were held at Hawkesville in support of the abolition of Slavery in the U.S. prior to the American Civil War. At one celebration, in 1863, about 2,500 people attended and almost 1000 people sat down to eat at a picnic on Temperance Island in the Conestogo River. The island got its name as a result of the many meetings and picnics held there by the Hawkesville Sons of Temperance formed in 1854.

There remain no known descendants of the early settlers. Gone are the Hawkes, Ballards, Empeys, Sims and Lackners.

Very few Pennsylvania Mennonite families, settled among the predominately Anglo-Saxon families in the eastern section of the township near Hawkesville. However as development took place on the Mennonite farm land in Waterloo and Woolwich Townships, near the turn of the century, descendants of the early Pennsylvania pioneers, moved onto farmland in Wellesley Township.  Today, close to half the farmland in the Township is owned by Mennonites, some of whom generate their own electric power, and still use horse drawn vehicles and implements.