Hanover City Map Poster

About Hanover

The town is named after the German city of Hanover. The area was first settled in 1832 by John and William Hespeler, who came from Baden-Württemberg, Germany. They were soon joined by other settlers from Germany and England. In 1837 a group of Mennonites arrived to settle on land east of the village; they formed the nucleus for what would become one of Ontario's largest Mennonite communities at nearby Steinbach (founded as "Neu-Stettin" in 1840). In 1842 George Brouse established a post office which he called "Hanover"; it operated until 1914 when mail service was transferred to Walkerton under that name due to confusion with another Hanover located near Waterloo County (now part of Cambridge). A second post office opened in 1850 under the name "Hespeler", but closed two years later because there were too few residents living within its boundaries; it reopened again briefly between 1863–1864 before closing permanently around 1865.