[1] Beginning in the sixteenth century, Mennonites as well as other Anabaptists in various European regions faced persecution for their religious beliefs and practices.

[4] Included in this wave of migration were the Brubachers, Mennonites from Switzerland who moved to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in the early eighteenth century.

[5] In the early 1800s, members of the Brubacher family and many other Mennonites living in the United States relocated to Upper Canada in pursuit of farmland.

[8] Waterloo Region is situated on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron, Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee Peoples and is located on Haldimand Tract.

[9] In 1798, Six Nations leader Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) surrendered six blocks of land from the Haldimand Tract to the British Crown.

[11] In 1798, businessman Richard Beasley acquired Block Two of the Haldimand Tract, which consisted of 60,000 acres of land that was referred to as Waterloo Township.

[13] A group of Mennonites from Lancaster County established the German Company in the early 1800s to jointly purchase Block Two from Richard Beasley.

[12] Mennonite land purchases and settlement in the Grand River Valley contributed to settler-colonialism in Canada, which causes ongoing harm to Indigenous Peoples.

After the University of Waterloo agreed to take on the project, the inspections of the farmhouses revealed that Brubacher House was best suited for restoration.

[1][14] When John E. Brubacher and his family resided in the farmhouse, the farmstead included a walled orchard and a four-square kitchen garden.

In recent years, Brubacher House has recreated a traditional, nineteenth century four-square garden on the museum premises.