Item 80 - Oasis in the Centre, Wilmot Twp.

Close up view of plaque which reads "Wilmot Township, 1791 to 1850 --- a brief history. Wilmot Township was designated a Crown Reserve following the Canada Act of 1791 which created Upper and Lower Canada. Following the government survey of Bleam's, Snyder's, and Erb's Roads in 1824, Mennonites from Waterloo Township and Amish from Europe claimed lost along these roads and began clearing roadways and farms. The Canada Land Company opened the Huron Road through thesouthern part of the township in 1828. Soon after, Roman Catholics and Lutherans from Alsace and Germany, Anglicans from the British Isles, and others joined the initial settlers in clearing land and building roads, mills, shops, churches, schools, and villages. In 1842 Wilmot Township sent representatives to council meetings of the newly-formed Wellington district. They adopted the Common School Act and divided the township into school districts. The Baldwin Act, passed in May 1849, established a new framework for municipal government. Townships and incorporated villages were recognized as rural units of government. They gained power to elect their own local officials and to tax land owners for local improvements. On January 21, 1850, in Wilmot Centre, the first elected council of the Township of Wilmot met. The sitting wall at this Oasis in the Centre represents both the foundati[ons] of the 1850 Wilmot Township Hall and the strong community foundation built by those early settlers."