Bechtel Burial Ground

Title: Society for the Preservation of the Samuel Bechtel Burial Ground fonds

Dates of creation: 2011-2017

Physical description: 3 cm of textual records ; 13 photographs

Administrative history: In 1829, a site on the farm of Samuel Bechtel was chosen to create a burial ground and construct a building that served as a union meetinghouse and later a school. In 1830, Samuel Bechtel donated the land. Mennonite and Tunker (Brethren in Christ) groups used the meetinghouse, and it is considered the starting place of the Wanner and Hagey (Preston) Mennonite churches. The Waterloo Historical Society placed a plaque on the property in 1929.

The site, approminately one half acres in size, is located on Stager Place (Lot 6, Part 1) within the city of Cambridge, Ontario and near the intersection of highways 401 and 24. The site was owned by the Wanner Mennonite Church. In 2011, the congregation agreed to hand it over to a non-profit responsibility for its preservation. The Society for the Preservation of the Samuel Bechtel Burial Ground was incorporated in 2011 to preserve the cemetery.

Custodial history: Donated to the Archives in 2023 by Grace Bechtel

Scope and content: Minutes, correspondence, maps, news clippings and photographs of the Society

Notes: Original archival description created 2023 by Laureen Harder-Gissing

File list:

1. By-law
2. Minutes and correspondence
3. Maps and surveys
4. News clippings
5. Photographs