The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

the tribune stouffville 18771977 3 5 these words struck the deal and stouffville village was on the way written by david stouffer for the tribune 1927 it is generally well known that after the war and declaration of in dependence of the united states of america from the british empire there were a goodly number of citizens who remained loyal to the british crown and preferred to live under british rule these united empire loyalists as they were called refused for conscience sake to take ibe oath of allegiance to the newly established government and of course as they ex pectedtheir properties were confiscated and they themselves were driven out of the country many of them were in good financial cir cumstances and of high social standing but they willingly left their fine properties and pleasant surroundings for the wild forest life which con fronted them in their new canadian homes rather than violate their con sciences five thousand of these expatriated colonists betook them selves to new brunswick twelve thousand to nova scotia and ten thousand to upper canada quite a number of the new immigrants were men of good business ability and soon found their way into important official and business positions while those preferring rural life spread themselves with other immigrants from england scotland ireland wales ger many france swit zerland and other european countries along the frontier of our new provinces this looks very much like a providential arrange ment for in many instances they became the pioneers of community centres and important villages towns and cities these new immigrants at this particular time were certainly a godsend to our new country for they were generally an in dustrious thrifty and conscientious people they along with those in whom we are particularly interested and who arrived shortly af terward entered heartily into the work of trans forming this wooded country into cleared up farms and fruitful fields these were times of hard work and many privations but they were as a rule a healthy hardy hopeful honest people who after a few years had the satisfaction of seeing their faith and labors amply rewarded and as their young families grew up around them became not only contended but en thusiastic citizens of this new country pr lr british rule the reason why i have stressed the character and work of these early settlers especially the uel section is because about this time and for the same reason abraham stouffer our pioneer resolved to change the place of his habitation from pennsylvania to upper canada because he also preferred to live under british rule here i would ask your in dulgence while i give a short sketch of family history the stouffers can presumably trace their history back as far as ad 937 but actually and consecutively to the year 1630 when daniel stouffer was born in the town of thun swit zerland we trace the record down from daniel to hans the son of daniel and to henry the third son of hans and from henry to abraham who with his family settled near the city of chambersburg pa and built a flouring mill in 1793 which was operated for 90 years by his direct descendants this abraham was the father cf our pioneer abraham stouffer who was born 1780 he learned the milling business in his fathers mill which was a great help to him in after years and emigrated to canada in 1804 now this makes six abraham stouffers in direct succession the last five of whom were and are still continuous owners and occupants of the east half of lot no 2 whitchurch and almost continuously of the west half also this is the lot our pioneer grandfather received from the crown the other four hundred acres are comprised in the present village of stouffville this is an interesting and rather unique item of history and i sincerely hope that the grand succession may continue for many years after this in troduction we come to the story of removal from pennsylvania and set tlement in upper canada of our pioneers in that pennsylvania neigh borhood lived a goodly number of stouffers and reesors one branch of the stouffer family going to the county of waterloo of which the late rev byron h stouffer was a member the other branch coming to the county of york spying out the land our pioneer abraham stouffer married elizabeth reesor a sister of peter reesor who became a prominent figure in this history in 1802 it was continued on pg 4 s i i i