Our Purpose
The PGFSO serves to research and record the contribution of the early settler families from Pennsylvania who began arriving in Upper Canada beginning in 1786. Many of these families were of the Mennonite faith. These families, settled in three areas: The Twenty (Vineland/Jordan), Waterloo and York Counties.
“It was given to one generation in Canada to migrate and pioneer, another to build and expand, another to purify and develop.” – Dr. Arthur Graeff
The present day generation is surveying the past and preserving it.
The PGFSO logo was created by Paul Burkholder, Markham, and depicts the early migrations of our ancestors from Pennsylvania to Upper Canada in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. The Pennsylvania German woman and her child, on a horse, led by her husband, with the Conestoga wagon and a cow and calf bringing up the rear, is typical of the mode of travel over 800 kilometers, through forests, swamps, mountains and rivers. The Logo was approved at the Society’s Annual Meeting, 1970.