This is a view of the front yard of Montezuma and Hannah Brothers home at Brotherston and a whole bunch of other people in the front yard. (That's a Pug that Montezuma is holding, a type of dog they used to own)

If you have the facility to enlarge this photo, some of the other people can be identified from other photos, some of which have already been posted on this forum. Probably also around the turn of the century.

File size about 1.5mb

To anyone who has tried to download the "Three Pictures of Brotherston that I posted a few days ago, These pictures have now been revised to smaller file size.

They are each now about 1.5mb, or almost 1/10th of the size I originally posted.

This should make them much faster to download

Here is a picture of a farm house located at Brotherston taken in summer of 1983. According to my father this was where W.T. Ruller lived.

Monty

Wallace Township in Perth County, Ontario began to be settled in the mid-nineteenth century. As farms were cheaper than in Waterloo County, about ten Mennonite families from Waterloo County moved there from 1864-1869. Ministers from Waterloo conducted services in homes every eight weeks from 1865-1867, and thereafter every four weeks.

Montezuma Brothers obtained the six acre triangle, then known as “The Gore” on the sixth line of Wallace from the Crown in April 1867. Soon he donated one acre of this land to the Mennonite congregation for a meeting house and cemetery. Thus this location was called Brotherston. The first burials took place before the meetinghouse was built in 1871. The first structure was a rather crude frame building with board siding.

The first resident minister for this congregation was Isaac Weber who had been ordained in 1869. Levi P. Martin was ordained deacon at the same time. Levi's wife died 25 December 1869 and was the first adult to be buried in the Brotherston Cemetery. A child had been buried there in 1867.

Early family names included Kurtz, Snyder, Bowman, Schuk, Shoemaker, Knipe, Hood, Denny, Martin, Loggins, Karges, Reichard, Shaus, and Brothers.

At the height of the community from 1869-1875 there were about fifty members. However half of the congregation began to affiliate with the "New Mennonite" movement. The more conservative faction separated from the “New” Mennonites, but shared the meetinghouse for a short time. When the New Mennonites claimed the building and installed lights and built a shed for the horses, the conservative group ceased using the building and held services in homes until another meetinghouse was built in 1882 in the neighboring village of Kurtzville.

In spring 1993 the congregation decided to demolish the deteriorating structure and to erect a new one on the same site.

Source: The Mennonite Historical Society of Canada
Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to

Another view of Montezuma's property (Brotherston) is located online at the Canadian County Atlas Digital Project,
Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to ,
if you can go to this direct link.  

On it you will find at the top left "The Gore" on the border of Wallace Township.  Directly below is a large rectangular property also owned by Montezuma that was later sold off.  Just above this rectangular property and next to "The Gore" is property owned by S. Ruller.  I believe this is Samuel Holgate Ruller.  This atlas is dated 1879.

As I understand it, I cannot attach anything but picture files to this web site.  I do have a Word Doc. I made from this online digital atlas that shows all properties mentioned above.  I downloaded several of these county atlases onto a CD (they are huge files), and then can manipulate them to show any angle or combination I want.  If anyone would like to see this Word Doc., please email me directly.

Melinda

Well then, here is the Word Doc. that may give you a little more perspective.

Melinda