Bethesda, Whitchurch-Stouffville

Bethesda
Unincorporated community
Coordinates: 43°58′02″N 79°21′17″W
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Regional municipality	York Region
Town	Whitchurch-Stouffville
Amalgamation	(With Town of Stouffville) 1 January 1971
Government
• Type	Municipality
• Mayor	Iain Lovatt
• Councillor, Ward 3	Hugo Kroon
Elevation	269 m (883 ft)
Time zone	UTC−5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
Forward sortation area	L4A
Area codes	905 and 289

Bethesda is a hamlet in York Region, Ontario, Canada, in the town of Whitchurch-Stouffville. The hamlet is centred at the intersection of Warden Avenue and Bethesda Road in the south-eastern region of Whitchurch-Stouffville; it flourished around 1875.[1]

Mennonites settled in the area starting with Christian Steckley, who came from Pennsylvania in 1795.[2]

The community gained distinction with the formation of a private telephone company, the Bethesda and Stouffville Telephone Association in 1904, with 1188 users from Newmarket to Markham by 1930. The entire system was purchased by Bell Telephone in 1960.[3]

References

1. See the detailed 1878 map: Township of Whitchurch, Illustrated historical atlas of the county of York and the township of West Gwillimbury & town of Bradford in the county of Simcoe, Ont. (Toronto: Miles & Co., 1878).
2. Fretz, J. C. (1953). "Bethesda (York County, Ontario, Canada)". Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
3. For a brief account of Bethesda's history, cf. Jean Barkey et al., Whitchurch Township (Erin, ON: Boston Mills, 1993), 72-74.