Origin of the German Settlers of Crediton, Ontario
Although settlement in Stephen Township, Huron County, began as early as 1830 or 1831, very few settlers had located in what has become known as Crediton and vicinity by 1850. About this time a group of German settlers of the robust and hard working peasantry of Wurttemberg began to move into this area.
There were no roads for them to follow, not even a path. The census taker visiting these families in the winter of 1851 - 52 records: "Snow nee (sic) deep, no track, no roads but blaze on a tree, settlers very far apart". The census taker enumerated the following families of German origin who had settled in the area: the Andrew Weiner family, the Tobias Fahrner (Sr.) family, the Matthew Haist family, the John Shinkey family, Michael Schinkey, the Jacob Finkbeiner (Sr.) family, the Jacob Rau family, John Braun, the Henry Wolf family, Bernard Faist, David Haist, the John Preszcator's, Mrs. Margaretha Preszcator, the George Weiss family, the Michael Hirtzel (Sr.) family, the Jacob Motz family and the Theobold Stahl family............
Interestingly enough the German population that settled in what was to become Crediton and its vicinity came from the same town in Germany. The town was Baiersbronn, located in the former German State of Wurttemberg in southwestern Germany. Baiersbronn itself is nestled in the Black Forest area, the Schwarzwald, and is situated on the small Forbach River near its confluence with the Murg River. This region is generally hilly with mountainous and wooded areas: the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) extends along the western border of the state and the Swabian Jura, a mountain range, runs diagonally across the state from the southwest. The inhabitants are traditionally known as Swabians.
Hence it was that the German people in the Crediton vicinity succeeded in maintaining for a long time to some extent the ways and manner of speech characteristic of the Swabians in old Germany. The Crediton area came to be known among the German-speaking people as "Schwabeland" - The Land of the Swabians, as Wurttemberg itself was called. Only a few German families came to the Crediton area from other parts of Germany - from Hesse, Prussia, Bavaria.
These German immigrants did not all come direct to Stephen Township. "The Twenty", now Campden, in Clinton Township, Lincoln County, was the first stopping place on their way from New York to Stephen Township. The Braun, Haist, Treitz and Schwartz families came here after a short sojourn at "The Twenty."
Others pressed on to Morriston, the second stopping place, in Puslinch Township, Wellington County. This was such a good German settlement that many of these immigrants stayed for a couple of years before moving on to Stephen, eighty miles farther. The following families came here after spending a few years at Morriston: Stahl, Preszcator, Haist, Weiss, Fahrner, Finkbeiner, Weiner, Morlock, Beaver, and Calfass.
Some actually got as far as Wilmot Township in Waterloo County, The Ratz, Schweitzer, Krein, Holtzmann, Wind and Witzel families came here after a brief stay in Wilmot..........
The other families coming to the vicinity of Crediton came direct from Germany.
The above is an exercept from "Songs of Zion - The Story of the Zion Church, Crediton, Ontario" written by the church minister. Date of writing unknown but estimated to be about 1969.