The Trail of the Black Walnut

This is a superb piece of research on the little-known Pennsylvania-German connection in the founding of Upper Canada. Starting soon after the outbreak of the American Revolution, numerous Pennsylvania-German families and so-called “Plain Folk” (i.e. Mennonites, Dunkards, Moravians, Amish, Hutterites, etc.) migrated to Canada in successive waves. Together, in cultural and religious groups and in kinship groups, they settled in five main areas: Niagara (1776), Essex (1780), Eastern Ontario (1784), York County (1793), and Waterloo (1800). In this work, the author of The Trail of the Huguenots recounts the story of this settlement of Ontario and lists the names of the first recorded settlers, giving their township and county of residence, date of settlement, nationality, and religion.