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===History of the Village of Blair=== [[File:Blair GTR station crowd 1898.jpg|thumb|Crowd gathered in front of the Blair [[Grand Trunk Railway]] station in 1898]] The land (west of what is now Preston), including [[Carolinian forest]], that would eventually become Blair was purchased from the Six Nations, through land speculator Richard Beasley. It was settled in 1800 by Samuel D. Betzner, one of the Mennonites from Pennsylvania. The group later discovered that Beasley had gotten into financial trouble and that a lien was placed on the lands. To solve the problem, the group created the German Company that bought an additional 60,000 acres of land from Beasley, who used the proceeds to pay off the debt on the previous lands. This ensured a clear title for the Mennonite group. The first school in what later became [[Waterloo County]] opened in 1802 near Blair, then known as Shinglebridge. The first teacher's name was Mr. Rittenhaus.<ref>{{cite book |date=1895 |title=A Biographical History of Waterloo Township and Other Townships of the County |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=htMOAAAAYAAJ&dq=1802+Blair+Waterloo+school+Rittenhaus++teacher&pg=PA25 |page=25 |publisher= Éditeur non identifié|isbn= |author-link= }}</ref><ref name="visitcambridgeontario.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.visitcambridgeontario.com/About-Cambridge-Blair.htm|title=The History of Blair, originally known as Shinglebridge|access-date=29 March 2021}}</ref> By 1804, the first cemetery in Waterloo County had been founded. Also located in Blair, it is often referred to as the Old Blair Cemetery or the Old Blair Memorial Cemetery.<ref name="visitcambridgeontario.com"/> The first recorded burial was of an infant, the son of Mennonite settler John Bricker,<ref>{{cite web |title=Item 1989-1 48 - First death (1804) and burial in the Mennonite |url=https://archives.mhsc.ca/first-death-1804-and-burial-in-mennonite |publisher=Mennonite Archival Image Database |access-date=11 November 2018}}</ref> who died on March 10 of that year.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Thompson |first1=Catherine |title=Mennonite cemetery offers glimpse into Kitchener's earliest days |url=https://www.therecord.com/news-story/6257126-mennonite-cemetery-offers-glimpse-into-kitchener-s-earliest-days/ |access-date=11 November 2018 |publisher=Metroland Media Group Ltd. |date=31 January 2016}}</ref> Joseph Bowman, a man called Wismer and John Bechtel were responsible for the early development of the community in an area laid out by Benjamin B. Bowman. They built a dam, then a sawmill and grist mill. In 1846, a large flour mill opened, which was called the Bowman Mill, Blair Mill and also the Carlisle Mill.<ref name="collectionscanada.gc.ca"/> In about 1876, a 15-horsepower hydroelectric system, the Sheave Tower, was built on Bowman Creek by Allan Bowman to help power the flour mill using a series of shafts and gears. This was a significant achievement in that era.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://waterlooinsider.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/sheave-tower-blair-ontario/ |title=Sheave Tower, Blair |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2011 |website=Waterloo Insider |access-date=10 March 2017}}</ref> Although the name Carlisle (or New Carlisle) was commonly used then, the name Blair was chosen for the first post office in 1858 because a village of Carlisle had already been established in Halton County. The new name honoured [[Adam Johnston Fergusson Blair]], the first judge of Wellington District and a militia colonel in the area. In addition to Carlisle, earlier names for the village had included Shinglebridge, because a bridge with a shingle roof crossed the Grand River in this area from 1853 to 1857.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cambridge.ca/en/learn-about/Local-History.aspx |title=History of Blair |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2011 |website=Cambridge |publisher=City of Cambridge |access-date=10 March 2017}}</ref> It was also called Durham (or Durhamville) and Lambs' Bridge. By 1864, the settlement was receiving mail daily, had a large school, a Mennonite meeting house, a large brick church and a population of 200. Railway service arrived in Blair in 1873<ref>{{cite book | title = County of Waterloo Gazetteer and General Business Directory, For 1864 | publisher = Mitchell & Co. | year = 1864 | url = http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/001075/f2/e010780571_p2.pdf}}</ref> when the [[Grand Trunk Railway]], having acquired the [[Great Western Railway]]'s defunct [[Preston and Berlin Railway]], rerouted it through Blair on its way to Galt, bypassing Preston, the railway's original destination.<ref name=RR> {{cite news |url= https://s3.amazonaws.com/content.sitezoogle.com/u/131959/5263e2486948fd1bf8132ac2e369bf2cd6416429/original/preston-berlin-ry-ucrs-rail-transit-march-1996-art-clowes.pdf?response-content-type=application/pdf&scheme=&X-Amz-Expires=7200&X-Amz-Date=20170315T035010Z&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAJUKM2ICUMTYS6ISA/20170315/us-east-1/s3/aws4_request&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=de088c8fc33d1f0e4f9afb48fec555ec8fef703d6d608e5bf6d8fc8f6b078a99 |first= Art |last= Clowes |title= Just A. Ferronut's Railway Archeology |publisher= [[Upper Canada Railway Society]] |newspaper= Rail & Transit |date= March 1996 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170316032643/https://s3.amazonaws.com/content.sitezoogle.com/u/131959/5263e2486948fd1bf8132ac2e369bf2cd6416429/original/preston-berlin-ry-ucrs-rail-transit-march-1996-art-clowes.pdf |archive-date= 16 March 2017 |access-date= 5 October 2020 |url-status= dead}}</ref> Blair became part of Preston in 1969. Many historic buildings still stand in the village, including some from the early 1820s. This includes the Sheave Tower (restored in 1999) and the John Bechtel residence.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cambridge.ca/en/learn-about/resources/Blair-Village-HCDP.pdf |title=Official Plan, Blair Village |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=1999 |website=Cambridge |publisher=City of Cambridge |access-date=10 March 2017}}</ref>
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