Teeswater is a community in the municipality of South Bruce, Bruce County, Ontario, Canada. It is located 12 kilometers west of Mildmay, 16 kilometers north of Wingham on County Road 4, and 25 kilometers southeast of Ripley on Bruce Road 6. The population in 2006 was about 1200.
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Teeswater is located on the Teeswater River, a tributary of the Saugeen River. Surveyors named the river after the River Tees in England and the settlement was named for the river. The first settlers, mainly English and Scottish, arrived in 1856. Teeswater was incorporated as a village in 1875 and remained a separate municipality until it was amalgamated with Culross Township to form the Township of Teeswater-Culross in 1998. In 1999, Teeswater-Culross was itself amalgamated with the Township of Mildmay-Carrick to form the new municipality of South Bruce. Teeswater is the administrative centre of South Bruce and the largest community in the municipality.
A weekly newspaper, The Teeswater News was published from 1871 until 1996. The building where the weekly newspaper was published burned down. Now in its place is The Kinsman Memorial park. The park was finished October 2008.
Like many other Ontario villages, Teeswater nurtured a musical tradition as it grew, supporting first a string orchestra and a later a flourishing concert band. It is home to the prize-winning Teeswater Highlanders Pipes and Drums (established in 1961), which regularly presents concerts on the lawn beside the Town Hall.
Knox Presbyterian Church was built in the 1870s, and is now a continuing congregation of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Another church of the same denomination, Westminster Presbyterian Church, burnt to the ground in the 1970s. Teeswater United Church was built in 1879 as the Wesleyan Methodist Church. It became the Teeswater Methodist Church in 1884, and since 1925 has been affiliated with the United Church of Canada. Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church was built around the same time as the two Protestant churches, and is located next to the school of the same name. In the past, Teeswater has been home to churches of the Anglican, Baptist, Pentecostal, Free Presbyterian, Episcopal Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist faiths. Now there are only three churches: the Roman Catholic, United, and Presbyterian.
The village is currently home to two schools, Hillcrest Central Public School (Bluewater District School Board), and Sacred Heart Catholic School (Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board).
Teeswater has the Teeswater public library. It is a Carnegie Library.
Teeswater is becoming a Ghost Town, a fact self evident by the many abandoned shops on the main street. Property values in Teeswater have been dropping since most people prefer to shop in nearby Wingham, Walkerton, Lucknow, Formosa or Mildmay.
The population of Teeswater has stagnated over the last 100 years. In 1900 the town's population was 1100 people (people had bigger families back then). A few of the farming families have also gone bankrupt in recent years, forcing them to sell their farms. The biggest exodus was during the 1980s when high interest rates on mortgages caused many farmers to "lose their shirts".
Currently there are very few farmers left. The McKague, Rehorst and Gowland families operate the few cash crop farms that have managed to grow. The exception to this rule is the growing Mennonite presence in the community as many Mennonites buy farms put up for sale and move into the region. Many of these Mennonites are from the Lucknow or Mildmay area.
The future of Teeswater seems to be that of either becoming a Ghost Town or a Mennonite community.
Teeswater once had a Home Hardware on the village's main street. This Home Hardware closed years ago, but the sign on the side of the building remains.
Teeswater was a site of 2 commercial grist mills, Littles mill , and the Teeswater & district Co-op grist mill. Littles mill is still standing and is now a house, with the mill pond and river dam still in place. The co-op mill burnt down in 1976, and the dam taken out in about 1991. The pond location and dam bed can still be seen today. For many years before and after the mill burned down, children would go and play ice hockey on the frozen mill pond. The site of the co-op mill building is located near the teeswater creamery "stink tank". This is slang for a holding tank for spoiled milk.
The Teeswater-Culross Fire Hall occupies the former British Petroleum Canada (BP) service station. Alex Casagrande began operating at the location in 1954 when it was a Cities Service station. In 1959, the service station was destroyed by fire. The lot was purchased by Mr. Casagrande and a new garage was erected under the BP banner. In 1976, Mr. Casagrande retired and the garage was sold to the Teeswater-Culross Fire Department.