Editing Pennsylvania Dutch (section)

==Canadian Pennsylvania Dutch==
[[Image:Conestoga Wagon 1883.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Many Pennsylvania Dutch Mennonites arrived in [[Waterloo County, Ontario]], in [[Conestoga wagon]]s.]]
An early group, mainly from the [[Roxborough, Philadelphia|Roxborough]]-Germantown area of Pennsylvania, emigrated to then colonial Nova Scotia in 1766 and founded the [[Township of Monckton]], site of present-day [[Moncton, New Brunswick]]. The extensive [[Steeves]] clan descends from this group.<ref>Bowser, Les (2016). ''The Settlers of Monckton Township'', Omemee ON: 250th Publications.</ref>

After the American Revolution, [[John Graves Simcoe]], lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, invited Americans, including Mennonites and German Baptist Brethren, to settle in British North American territory and offered tracts of land to immigrant groups.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/simcoe_john_graves_5E.html|title=Biography – Simcoe, John Graves – Volume V (1801–1820) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography|website=Biographi.ca|access-date=August 28, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://wampumkeeper.com/mennonites.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050328004233/http://www.wampumkeeper.com/mennonites.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=March 28, 2005 |title=Ontario's Mennonite Heritage |publisher=Wampumkeeper.com |access-date=May 10, 2013}}</ref> This resulted in communities of Pennsylvania Dutch speakers emigrating to Canada, many to the area called the German Company Tract, a subset of land within the [[Haldimand Tract]], in the Township of Waterloo, which later became [[Waterloo County, Ontario]].<ref name="TransCanadaHighway.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.transcanadahighway.com/ontario/kitchener-waterloo/kitchener-waterloo-history/|title=Kitchener-Waterloo Ontario History – To Confederation|website=TransCanadaHighway.com|access-date=October 26, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Walter Bean Grand River Trail – Waterloo County: The Beginning |url=http://www.walterbeantrail.ca/wloobeginning.htm |website=www.walterbeantrail.ca |access-date=September 30, 2018 }}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Some still live in the area around [[Markham, Ontario]],<ref name="guidingstar.ca">{{cite web|url=http://www.guidingstar.ca/Markham_Ontario_History.htm|title=History of Markham, Ontario, Canada|website=Guidingstar.ca|access-date=August 28, 2017|archive-date=January 15, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115075638/http://guidingstar.ca/Markham_Ontario_History.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d5Pz7TRQllwC&q=german+mennonites+toronto+markham+berczy&pg=PA164|title=Toronto's Many Faces|first=Tony|last=Ruprecht|date=December 14, 2010|publisher=Dundurn|isbn=9781459718043|access-date=August 28, 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref> and particularly in the northern areas of the current [[Waterloo Region, Ontario|Waterloo Region]]. Some members of the two communities formed the [[Markham-Waterloo Mennonite Conference]]. Today, the Pennsylvania Dutch language is mostly spoken by [[Old Order Mennonites]].<ref name="auto">{{cite web |url=http://www.whs.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/1930.pdf |title=History |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=1930 |website=Waterloo Historical Society 1930 Annual Meeting |publisher=Waterloo Historical Society |access-date=March 13, 2017}}</ref><ref name="TransCanadaHighway.com"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mhso.org/sites/default/files/publications/Ontmennohistory15-2.pdf|title=Building Community on the Frontier: the Mennonite contribution to shaping the Waterloo settlement to 1861|author=Elizabeth Bloomfield|website=Mhso.org|access-date=August 28, 2017}}</ref>

From 1800 to the 1830s, some Mennonites in [[Upstate New York]] and Pennsylvania moved north to Canada, primarily to the area that would become [[Cambridge, Ontario|Cambridge]], [[Kitchener, Ontario|Kitchener]]/[[Waterloo, Ontario|Waterloo]] and [[St. Jacobs, Ontario|St. Jacobs]]/[[Elmira, Ontario|Elmira]] in Waterloo County, Ontario, plus the [[Listowel, Ontario|Listowel]] area adjacent to the northwest. Settlement started in 1800 by Joseph Schoerg and Samuel Betzner, Jr. (brothers-in-law), Mennonites, from [[Franklin County, Pennsylvania]]. Other settlers followed mostly from Pennsylvania typically by [[Conestoga wagon]]s. Many of the pioneers arriving from Pennsylvania after November 1803 bought land in a sixty thousand-acre section established by a group of Mennonites from Lancaster County Pennsylvania, called the German Company Lands.<ref name="auto"/><ref name="foundlocally.com">{{cite web|url=http://kitchener.foundlocally.com/Local/Info-CityHistoryToConfederation.htm|title=Kitchener-Waterloo Ontario History – To Confederation|website=Kitchener.foundlocally.com|access-date=August 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525125004/http://kitchener.foundlocally.com/Local/Info-CityHistoryToConfederation.htm|archive-date=May 25, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Fewer of the Pennsylvania Dutch settled in what would later become the [[Greater Toronto Area]] in areas that would later be the towns of [[Altona, Ontario]], [[Pickering, Ontario]], and especially [[Markham Village, Ontario]], and [[Stouffville, Ontario]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gameo.org/index.php?title=York_County_(Ontario,_Canada)|title=York County (Ontario, Canada) |website=Gameo.org|access-date=August 28, 2017}}</ref> [[Peter Reesor]] and brother-in-law [[Abraham Stouffer]] were higher profile settlers in Markham and Stouffville.

[[William Berczy]], a German entrepreneur and artist, had settled in upstate New York and in May 1794, he was able to obtain sixty-four acres in Markham Township, near the current city of [[Toronto]]. Berczy arrived with approximately one hundred and ninety German families from Pennsylvania and settled here. Others later moved to other locations in the general area, including a hamlet they founded, [[German Mills, Ontario]], named for its grist mill; that community is now called [[Thornhill, Ontario]], in the township that is now part of [[York Region]].<ref name="guidingstar.ca"/><ref name="auto1"/>

===Canadian Black Mennonites===
In [[Canada]], an 1851 census shows many Black people and Mennonites lived near each other in a number of places and exchanged labor; the Dutch would also hire Black laborers. There were also accounts of Black families providing childcare assistance for their Pennsylvania Dutch neighbors. These Pennsylvania Dutch were usually Plain Dutch Mennonites or Fancy Dutch Lutherans.<ref name="samueljsteiner">{{cite book |title=In Search of Promised Lands: A Religious History of Mennonites in Ontario|author=Samuel J. Steiner|year=2015|publisher=MennoMedia, Inc.|pages=14}}</ref> The Black-Mennonite relationship in Canada soon evolved to the level of church membership.<ref name="samueljsteiner" />