[2] German Mills was part of Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe's plan to establish a bulwark against a possible American invasion.

Simcoe favoured settlements where military township grants allowed soldiers to act as consumers for local markets and town centres.

In 1793, German Mills was an agricultural settlement, supplying food for its citizens and the military when Toronto was little more than an outpost in the wilderness.

When William Moll Berczy led a group of 64 families (182 people) to old York County in the summer of 1794, German Mills became the first significant industrial complex in Markham Township.

His group consisted of bakers, blacksmiths, carpenters, shoemakers, weavers, a preacher, a school teacher, a brewer, a cartwright, a locksmith, a miller, a potter, a tanner, stonemasons and farmers.

At the time, both Toronto and Markham were surrounded by a thick, mature forest of pine, oak, maple and butternut trees, which were ideal for lumber.

In the fall of 1794, William Berczy hired men to erect a large house and a sawmill at what is now German Mills.

The sawmill produced shingles and lumber for the buildings in the German Mills area and for the first houses in Toronto, notably Russell Abbey, the home of the Hon.

The few parks in the neighbourhood bear the names of settlers and of settlements: The German Mills Community Centre is a former schoolhouse (S.S. No.

The Scadding Bridge, named after Simcoe's Estate Administrator, was the first structure of any kind to span the Don River and served to link York with the Kingston Road.