Wellesley, Ontario that much of the land had been "Queen's Rush, crown land, where fifty acre lots were given away to actual settlers". The Population of the entire township in 1841, was only 254. The area now the village of Wellesley on the Nith River was first settled in 1847, by John Smith and was originally called "Schmidtsville". The post office opened in 1851 and the village was renamed "Wellesley" after Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, the eldest brother of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. The community quickly grew to be the largest economic centre in rural Waterloo County, with a
Wellesley, Ontario Wellesley, Ontario The Township of Wellesley is the rural, north-western township of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. It encompasses 277.79 km and had a population of 11,260 in the Canada 2016 Census. By 1805, many Mennonites from Pennsylvania had settled nearby in Berlin but Wellesley Township itself was not surveyed until 1842, and the area around Crosshill was settled in 1846 by M. Hastings and Hugh Hutchinson. In 1837, John Philip Schweitzer from Germany squatted at what is now Hawkesville, and had of land cleared over the following nine years. Then, John Hawke received government permission to