Heritage

To call to attention and recognize the Indigenous contributions and assistance to the early settlers, which in part enabled the developments recognized in the Heritage Register; in 2021 Council adopted a recognition statement to accompany the formal list of properties with historical significance within the Township. Below is the recognition statement included in the Register.

“We recognize that when the first Euro‐Canadian settlers arrived in what is now Puslinch Township, the Anishinaabe ancestors of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation had long established hunt camps in the area. Through written and verbal accounts we understand that the Anishinaabe interacted with the settlers in a friendly and cooperative manner. It is acknowledged that the development of the Township encroached upon their traditional way of life resulting in their displacement.”

View the Township of Puslinch Heritage Register to see what properties are included.

Add Property to Heritage Register

If you would like to add your property to the Heritage Register, please click the button below to have it considered for addition.

Add Listed Property to Digital Archive and/or Online Tour

If your property is included on the Township of Puslinch’s Heritage Register you may request to have it featured on the upcoming Township’s Digital Archive and/or Online Tour. Please click the button below to complete the Digital Archive/Online Tour consent form.

The Digital Archive and Online Tour are set to launch in the early fall of 2022.

The Digital Archive is an initiative developed by the Township of Puslinch regarding its heritage properties. A number of owners have consented to include their heritage property on this digital archive however; it is not comprehensive of all the listed heritage properties in Puslinch.

Through the Digital Archive and complementary Interactive Heritage Register Map available on the Township’s Engage Puslinch website, the Township of Puslinch aims to both raise public awareness and spark interest in the protection and preservation of its heritage.

To call to attention and recognize the Indigenous contributions and assistance to the early settlers, which in part enabled the developments recognized in the Heritage Register; in 2021 Council adopted a recognition statement to accompany the formal list of properties with historical significance within the Township. Below is the recognition statement included in the Register.

We recognize that when the first Euro‐Canadian settlers arrived in what is now Puslinch Township, the Anishinaabe ancestors of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation had long established hunt camps in the area. Through written and verbal accounts we understand that the Anishinaabe interacted with the settlers in a friendly and cooperative manner. It is acknowledged that the development of the Township encroached upon their traditional way of life resulting in their displacement.

If you are an owner of a listed heritage property and are interested in being included in this Interactive Heritage Register Map, please fill out the consent form here. Any other inquiries can be sent to the Administration Department.

Thank you for your continued interest in the heritage of the Township of Puslinch.

Note: All properties on the Township’s Heritage Register including those on the Interactive Heritage Register Map and Digital Archives are private properties. Anyone entering private property without legal authority or permission from the occupier is trespassing.

What is currently known as Brock Road/Highway 6 South was once the main artery leading from Dundas to John Galt’s new settlement of Guelph established in 1827. Land surveyor David Gibson did two separate surveys from 1828 to 1832. Concessions I to VI on the west side of the Township run from east to west, parallel with the Gore to Wentworth County. Concessions VII to XI run northwest to southeast. 

Natural heritage features in Puslinch played a role in settlement with the First Nations people who lived in this area, and later with the European settlers. As farmsteads filled in, the settlers built grist mills and sawmills from the dams they created along the natural waterways.

A large majority of the early settlers in the Township were Highland Scottish. Other groups included settlements of Germans in Morriston, English in Arkell and Irish Catholics in the Downey Road and Brock Road areas. The Township was not always recognized by the name we know today. Throughout history, Puslinch was identified by many different names such as Puselynch, Posselinch, and Puzzlewitch.

In the last century, many noteworthy organizations have been founded in the Township. Some of these organizations are the Aberfoyle Agricultural Society, Farmers’ Institute, Plowman’s Association, Women’s Institute, Red Cross, Mutual Fire Insurance, Patrons of Industry, Ancient Order of United Workmen, Sons of Scotland, Independent Order of Foresters, Board of Health, Aberfoyle Athletic Club, Progressive Club, Horticulture Society, Morriston Public Library, and Aberfoyle Literary Society.

As in the rest of Upper Canada, the first buildings here were constructed of logs. Once sawmills were in place, a second stage of building followed. Frame structures became common as villages expanded, and early log barns were replaced on farms with larger Swiss-style barns. Waterloo County, to the west of Puslinch, had been settled 30 years earlier and Puslinch farmers contracted to have barns built in the style of their Pennsylvania-German neighbours.

Tradesmen and merchants arrived with the European settlers, and a number of stonemasons were among those who settled in Puslinch. The Township was part of a ridge of igneous rock (granite) running from Eramosa through Puslinch to Waterloo County that provided the fieldstones for masons to construct the fine examples of Scottish, German, Irish and English masonry found here. They also used Southwestern Ontario layered limestone and sandstone from local quarries like that of John Howitt in northwest Puslinch. A dramatic rise in wheat prices during the Crimean War in the 1850s provided the capital for farm families in Canada West to build these next stages of architecture.

See more examples of Architectural Heritage Features in the Township.

In the year 2000, 100 plaques to mark sites of historical significance were cast for the millennium celebrations in the Township of Puslinch. All plaques were awarded by the year 2009 and 25 more have been cast since that time.

Pictorial inventory of the sites was initiated by Marilynn Crow, the Puslinch Heritage Committee Secretary in the year 2000. Each site owner received a copy of their entry in the Township’s heritage inventory of plaqued sites. A circulating copy of this inventory is also available in the Puslinch branch of Wellington County Library System, and a reference copy can be viewed in the Wellington County Museum’s Archives.

The following historical maps illustrate the geographical changes that Puslinch has experienced over the years.

• 1861 Puslinch Township Map – WCMA, MAP 588
• 1877 Historical Atlas Map of the Township of Puslinch
• 1906 Historical Atlas Map of Wellington County, WCMA, Puslinch Twp. Map 

Local histories document that the First-Nations people had settlements at Puslinch Lake, Arkell Springs and Morriston Pond. Due to early traffic between these three sites, arrowheads, scrapers, flint shards and other artefacts have been found on Township farms, especially in the early days of pioneers walking behind the plough. Occasional pieces can still be found.

Water was important to the next settlers in Puslinch too. Their grist mills, lumber mills and woolen mills relied on water to power the operations. The mill pond was created at Aberfoyle when Mill Creek was dammed. A dam on Irish Creek, a tributary of the Speed River in the northwest corner of the Township, created water power for Holm’s Mill. In Arkell, the Caulfield woolen mill and later lumber mill relied on water from the Arkell Spring grounds.

The Aberfoyle Mill has been repurposed as a fine dining establishment, but early mills like the Caulfield/Cook’s Mill burned to the ground. The waterways that supported these early mills are still of importance today. The Arkell Spring grounds are a major water source for the City of Guelph. Puslinch Lake, a kettle lake, is a popular recreational site with a restaurant on the old marina grounds drawing visitors to the area. Mill Creek that runs from Aberfoyle across the southern part of the Township is stocked with fish by the Grand River Conservation Authority. A program called the “Mill Creek Rangers” offers young people the opportunity to broaden their knowledge of ecology and the biodiversity of our environment.

At the suggestion to Puslinch Council by local historian Marjorie Clark, signage was posted by the Heritage Committee throughout the Township in 2013 to mark these natural heritage features.

• Halligan’s Pond
• Irish Creek
• Loch Buie
• Morriston Pond
• Natural Man-Made Waterways
• Puslinch Lake