CambridgeToday received the following letter to the editor about our article "City seeks heritage designation for Riverbank Drive farmhouse."
I am pleased by the city staff decision to pursue a Heritage designation for 555 Riverbank Drive. But was disappointed in today's CambridgeToday article as it fails to mention the more important historical ramifications of this property. I wish to point them out in case readers are not aware.
The article talks only about how Richard Gehl came to Canada from Prussia (Germany) in the mid 1800s. The article also mentions other events that happened in the mid-1800s, such as the building of the stone farm house at 555 Riverbank and the establishment of the settlement of Freeport/Bridgeville and its post office.
But the article is missing the most important facts. It mentions that Richard Gehl married Rebecca Toman, but it fails to mention that she was the granddaughter of the original settlers of that land in 1801, Sam and Becky Bricker.
Sam and Becky Bricker were the very first non-native people to live on land that is now within the City of Cambridge limits. They were the original non-native settlers of 800 acres of land along what is now known as Riverbank Drive, arriving in 1801. Their first child, Mary Bricker, was probably the first non-native baby born on land that is now within the City of Cambridge city limits. She grew up and married Abraham Tohman and had children. The first daughter of Mary Bricker and Abraham Tohman was Rebecca Tohman, and it is she who married Richard Gehl to whom this land was eventually transferred.
In the 1800s women did own property so it was normal in those archaic times that the land would have passed from Rebecca's grandfather to her husband.
It is believed that after his granddaugher and her husband built the big stone farmhouse, Sam Bricker continued living in the smaller stone 'cook house' and that he died there. His obituary lists his place of death as 'Chicopee'. And what is not mentioned in today's article is that the land east of the Grand River was part of the area known as Chicopee prior to being called Freeport. It is also believed that the stone 'cook house' is older than the stone farm house and was occupied by Sam Bricker before his death.
I encourage readers to review the Waterloo Region's official record of the earliest settlers in Waterloo region. Here is the link to Sam Bricker's information. He and his wife Rebecca Eby (Becky) were the first non-native settlers to live on land in what is now the City of Cambridge. Their farm, later transferred to Richard Gehl was at 555 Riverbank Drive. https://generations.regionofwaterloo.ca/getperson.php?personID=I12685&tree=generations
Also, if readers have not already read 'the Trail of the Conestoga' by Mabel Durham, Sam and Becky's great-granddaughter and the first certified librarian in Ontario, I encourage them to do so. It tells the story of their trek from Pennsylvania to their land on what is now Riverbank Drive. It also tells of how and why Sam Bricker was instrumental in forming
The German Company to pay the mortgage to the Iroquois. It was required reading in Kitchener schools when my father attended in the 1940s. And I read it myself as a child.
Linda Farley
Cambridge
