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                                                    Aberfoyle Mill (see village of Aberfoyle)

 

Cober Carriage Works

    The Trail of the Black Walnut also by G.Elmore Reaman which includes a more extensive history of the Cober and Fisher migrations.

    Cober Family compiled by Cober, Alvin Alonzo, 1861- The Cober genealogy of Pennsylvania, Iowa and Canada. Berlin, Pa. : The Berlin Press, 1933, 289 p. ; CS71.C63 1933  

    Peter Cober (Cover), his wife and 19 other families, emigrated from Germany and landed in Baltimore, Maryland, sometime after the middle of the 18th century. Later they moved to Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

   His son Nicholas (1763-1842), and his wife Eve Fisher (1779-1859), emigrated to Canada in 1796 along with Eve's parents. They came by horseback taking 2 weeks and stopping in Niagara Falls before going to Vaughan Township. (also see Holm's Mill )

   Their tombstone in the Cober Burying Ground reads "Of the first settlers on Yonge Street, they were the fifth family".11 children were born to Nicholas and Eve.

   From La Rue de Commerce by Winfield Brewster

   In the year 1833 the Cober family, originally  Pennsylvania folks, came from Vaughan Township and purchased 1000 acres in Puslinch Township comprising lots 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 front and rear in the 3rd concession.

   For several years prior to 1860, John Cober had been carrying on business as a wagon and buggy maker on part of this property and among his apprentices were his younger brother Jacob Norman Cober, Enoch Eaton, Aaron Pannabecker and Henry Warner...(Wanner)

   In 1860, John ( moving Ethel, Ontario) sold to Jacob Norman Cober, who erected a wagon shop and a smithy on the Tabbert property ( part of the above mentioned 1000 acres) under the name "Cober Carriage Works) Among his apprentices was John Heuther son of Ludwig. At one time 6 men in his employ boarded in his home. After Jacob Norman Cober moved to Hespeler, Samuel Pannabecker continued blacksmithing on the property.

Taken from the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada - MG

Cober, Peter

(7 May 1853-23 March 1941). Peter Cober was the son of Nicholas and Nancy (Holm) Cober. He was born on May 7, 1853, in Puslinch Twp., Wellington Co., ON. On Sept. 28, 1875, he married Martha Steinacher, and together they had eight children, two of whom died in infancy.

 A few years later Cober moved to Michigan, and in 1881 he began preaching at Brown City as the first pastor of the church there. He also served for a few years in the Indiana-Ohio Conference (at Bethel), being ordained by that conference in 1884. Soon afterward this ordination he returned to Ontario, where he spent most of his 42 years in the active ministry, serving pastorates at Markham, Kitchener, Kilsyth, New Dundee, Shrigley, Breslau, Maryboro, and Hespeler.

Cober was presiding elder of the Ontario conference for 10 years, 1895-1901 and 1903-7, and chairperson of six conferences, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1905, and 1906. He also served at various times as conference evangelist and as a member of the several boards of the Ontario conference. He was a delegate to general conferences and chairperson of one (Coopersburg, PA, 1896).

In a few respects Peter Cober's record was unique. He was the first subscriber to the Gospel Banner, opened the first city mission of the Ontario Conference (Collingwood, Sept. 17, 1897), and attended 60 consecutive annual conferences (1881 to 1940 inclusive).

In 1923 he retired from pastoral work, residing at Kitchener, ON, from then until his death March 23, 1941. Interment was made in Woodlawn cemetery.

 

Elizabeth (Mager) Keffer - As a small child she lived on the third concession of Puslinch on the Jacob Cober farm for about four years and recalls that at the age of seven years she used to walk to the farm of Tobias Wanner, uncle of David Pauabaker, proprietor of The Valley Store, through thick woods with only a yellow collie dog called Beaver as a companion. She came back to the third concession again in 1860 to the farm now owned by John Chester...

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Holm's Mill

(a.k.a. Krib's, Cole's and A. J. Shants' Mill)

From A History of Vaughan Township by G. Elmore Reaman

    Neihls Peterson Holm was a Dunkard and a sailor. Born in Copenhagen, Denmark in Oct.19, 1774, he came to Canada ( Waterloo County ) with the Mennonites from Pennsylvania. He was a sailor in his younger days, and when Admiral Parker, assisted by Nelson, bombarded Copenhagen in 1801, had a narrow escape with his life. After the fall of Copenhagen, he and others like him, took to the open seas, where, for a few years, they led a piratical life. Having eventually landed on the east coast of America, and wishing to avoid punishment for his crimes, Neihls made his escape to Little York (Toronto) under the cover of night. He there married Anna Catharine Phillips of Hamburg, Germany. The couple resided in Markham Township, York County where their children were born.

    Although the Eby book states that they came to Puslinch in 1839, it is recorded by others that they were here 10 years prior, when the first small dam was constructed( lot 1- 3rd concession ), on the outlet from Puslinch Lake, used to power a small saw mill . In 1850, a new dam powered the larger saw mill erected at the same time. No longer able to tolerate his land legs, and having built a suitable vessel, Neihls first sailed the waters of Puslinch Lake in 1845. What a joyous occasion that must have been, for Neihls and for all the "sailors" since!

    Early assessment rolls of Waterloo County indicate that  among his neighbours there, were the Pannabeckers Clemens, Baer, Bergey and Ellis families, other surnames common to Puslinch history.

    By 1856 a grist mill had been added which was operated by his son Peter Niles Holm ( born March 16, 1811). His wife, Susannah Cober, ( born June 4, 1813 ) was the daughter of Nicholas Cober of Vaughan Township. Peter's son Daniel married Esther Pannabecker and Anna Pannabecker, and farmed lot 6 in the 3rd concession. At about age 35 Peter was ordained as a minister of the River Brethren church, and it is said that his friends and admirers were of all denominations and that possibly when Peter died on Dec.13,1880, he did so without a single enemy.           

                                                        Linderman's Saw Mills

 

John Linderman       married       Ezilpha (surname unknown)

ca 1791 - 10 March 1853              8 Aug. 1797 - 10 Nov. 1855

  John Linderman, born about 1791,  of Dutch descent, came about 1830 from Orange County, New York State to Guelph where he owned and operated the Royal Hotel.

  When the first settlers came to Badenoch settlement in 1833, John Linderman  bought 600 acres of land here - lots 32, 33, 34, 35 and 36, west halves (front) of concession 10, and lot 34, east half (rear) of the same concession.   Along the creeks that ran through these properties he built sawmills, known as “Linderman ‘s Sawmills” which were among the first in this part of the country.  As well as farming, he operated these mills until his death on 10 March 1853.

  Robert Forbes       married        Ann Duthie

2 July 1814 - 6 May 1895            22 Dec. 1825 - 25 Nov.1911  

After John Linderman’s death, the sawmills and 400 acres of property were purchased in 1859 by Robert Forbes, a native of Berwickshire, Scotland who came to Badenoch in 1839-40.

  In the Badenoch settlement he carried on the lumbering business on lot 35 making barrel headings and shingles  until 1877 when he and a partner purchased what later became known as “The R. Forbes Co. Ltd. Woollen Mills” in Hespeler.  There he was assisted by his sons, James Hyde Forbes and George Duthie Forbes.

In 1871 he moved with his wife and family from Badenoch to “Summerhill”, 9 Dundas Road, Guelph, a property of about 30 acres.  Later an east to west street was constructed along the front of their home and named “Forbes Avenue” for this family.  

John MacFarlane       married       1st Margaret Hanning

28 Sept. 1841 - 24 Nov. 1908               25 Feb.1840 - 27 Feb. 1879

                                                       2nd Annie MacEdward

                                                            6 Apr. 1854-5 Aug. 1927  

After Robert Forbes sold the last of his Badenoch properties in the late 1870's, the barrel heading and shingle mills were owned and operated by John MacFarlane.  He and  his wife, the former Annie MacEdward, and his five children from his first marriage to Margaret Hanning moved to a farm at Northcote, Hampden Township, Kittson County, Minnesota, U. S. A. in late 1880 or early 1881.

  James S. Laking       married       Annie McPherson

28 Aug. 1860 - 10 Oct. 1944           14 Aug. 1868 - 18 Oct. 1941  

After 1880 James S. Laking had the barrel heading and shingle mills until he and his wife and daughter, Edna Katherine (24 Jan. 1892 - 28 Mar. 1975) moved to 126 Queen Street in Guelph in November 1910.

  Over the years these mills employed a number of men.  In early years, houses were built for those men and their families, who were not landowners, beside the mills on lot 35 and across the side road in a field on lot 36.

  Local farmers were hired to transport the finished products by team and wagon or sleigh down to the front - Burlington or Bronte to be shipped.  They would load up and leave in the morning and return in late afternoon.

  On lot 36 front of concession 10 on the east side of the small creek that crossed the sideroad there was for many years a high lime kiln that was operated by Dugald Lamb.  Although not used for years, it was still standing in the late 1930's.

Marjorie Clark