Samuel Bricker

Samuel Bricker was one of several German speaking Mennonites who came with their families to Waterloo Township from Pennsylvania in 1802. He purchased land north of the present Freeport, on the east bank of the Grand River. In 1803 these settlers learned that the mortgage on their lands was going to be foreclosed. An appeal for funds was made to relatives in Pennsylvania and a fictionalized account of Bricker’s efforts to raise this money is contained in The Trail of the Conestoga by B. Mabel Dunham.

The German Land Company was formed in 1805, paid off the mortgage of approximately $10,000 and obtained clear title to 60,000 acres of land. The German Company Tract was settled by the stockholders and their children during the years 1805-1825.