Ontario, Oregon
Ontario was founded on June 11, 1883, by developers William Morfitt, Mary Richardson, Daniel Smith, and James Virtue. In March 1884, Richard Welch started a post office for the quarter of Ontario, so named by James Virtue after Ontario, Canada. Two months later Joseph Morton applied for a Morton post office at an island about one mile south of town, with Oscar Scott as postmaster. Unfortunately for Morton and Scott, merchants Morfitt and Richardson of Malheur City, gold miner Virtue, and lumberman Smith of Baker City acquired more land and were better financed. More importantly, Morfitt had negotiated a train depot for Ontario. All the settlers and speculators knew the railroad was coming and how important that would be to Ontario's future so Scott closed his Morton post office and built a hotel at present-day Ontario. By December, Scott was Ontario's postmaster.
Mennonite Church Canada
The first Mennonites in Canada arrived from Pennsylvania in 1786. The majority of the Mennonites that migrated to Canada over the next 150 years came directly from Europe. The first annual meeting of Mennonite ministers was held in 1810, which eventually led to founding the "Mennonite Conference of Ontario" (later the "Mennonite Conference of Ontario and Quebec"). The "Conference of Mennonites in Central Canada" was formed in 1903. When other bodies arriving in Canada began to settle outside this "central" base, the name was changed to the "General Conference of Mennonites in Canada" in 1932 (later the "Conference of Mennonites in Canada"). The "Ontario Amish Mennonite Conference" (later "Western Ontario Mennonite Conference") was founded in 1923, and the "Conference of United Mennonite Churches in Ontario" in 1945. In 1988, the "Western Ontario Mennonite Conference", the "Conference of United Mennonite Churches in Ontario" and the "Mennonite Conference of Ontario and Quebec" united to form the "Mennonite Conference of Eastern Canada".