About

Welcome to my latest project — the Prussian Hills Blog!  I am Mark Woermke, a fifth-generation resident of Renfrew County.  This is a photo of me portraying the character of the CNR Section Foreman George Woermke (my grandpa) in the play Meet Me at the Station: Railroaders’ Tour of Barry’s Bay. The play was perfomed Friday August 11, 2017.

Prussian Hills Blog has three functions: sharing my musings on local issues; promoting the history of Renfrew County (especially, but not exclusively the history of German-Canadians); and encouraging genealogical research among the German families in the County.

My blog title requires some explanation. I chose the Prussian Hills Blog  for three reasons: because I am a proud resident of Barry’s Bay along the Opeongo Line in Sherwood Township; because I am the descendant of Prussian nationals (but ethnic Germans) who started arriving in Renfrew County in the 1860s; and because I hope to highlight the experience of Renfrew County Germans in it.

Starting in 1857 groups of immigrants from the Kingdom of Prussia began arriving in the Ottawa Valley.  While they were Prussian subjects, these settlers were Germans, Wends and Kashubs. All three ethnic groups (and there had already been some intermarriage between them) began arriving in Canada and Renfrew County at the same time.  They made the trans-Atlantic journey from Hamburg on the same ships. To the Canadian authorities, they were all considered Prussians.

In the early 1860s a provincial surveyor referred to the rugged area along the Opeongo Line west of Brudenell in Sherwood and Radcliffe townships as the “Prussian Hills” because many of the settlers there were from Prussia. The fact that they were Kashubs from Prussia and not ethnic Prussians, was a distinction that was lost on the Upper Canadian surveyor.

Copy of municipal minutes from 1885 which refer to “the Prussian Mountains.” The council meeting was held at the house of Martin Daly, my great-great grandfather. Photo from David Shulist’s book Discovering Kashubia Europe: The Fatherland of My Kashubian Ancestors  (2018) page 12.

So, with apologies to my friends Johnny Kashub (David Shulist) and the Wilno Historical Society, who might accuse me of perpetuating an error, I am happy to introduce you to
the Prussian Hills Blog.