Alsace who came in 1828. By 1831, Waterloo had a small post office in the King and Erb Street area, operated by Daniel Snyder, some 11 years before one would open in neighbouring Berlin. The Smith's Canadian Gazetteer of 1846 states that the Township of Waterloo (smaller than Waterloo County) consisted primarily of Pennsylvanian Mennonites and immigrants directly from Germany who had brought money with them. At the time, many did not speak English. There were eight grist and twenty sawmills in the township. In 1841, the population count was 4424. In 1846 the village of Waterloo had a population of 200, "mostly Germans". There was a grist mill and a sawmill and some tradesmen. By comparison, Berlin (Kitchener) had a population of about 400, also "mostly German", and more tradesmen than the village of Waterloo. Berlin was chosen as the site of the seat for the County of Waterloo in 1853. By 1869, the population was 2000. Waterloo was incorporated as a village in 1857 and became the Town of Waterloo in 1876. The Kitchener Public Utilities Commission began providing streetcar service in the region in 1888. 20th and 21st centuries The Galt, Preston and Hespeler electric railway (later called the Grand River Railway) connected to Waterloo in 1911 and ended service in 1931. The Kitchener Public Utilities Commission stopped providing streetcar service in 1947, and were replaced by electric trolley coaches. Waterloo was incorporated as the City of Waterloo in 1948. The trolley coaches ended service in 1973. The presence of the University of Waterloo in the city caused technological and innovative companies to base in Waterloo, especially companies specializing in computing and software. For example, Research in Motion (now BlackBerry Limited), which developed BlackBerry, was started by Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin in 1984. A 1994 issue of the Financial Post mentioned Waterloo-based companies MKS, WATCOM, and Open Text in a list of the top 100 independent software companies in Canada. In June 2011, the Waterloo Region council approved the Ion: a light rail transit line connecting Conestoga Mall in north Waterloo and Fairview Park Mall in south Kitchener. Construction on the Ion began in August 2014. In 2016, two sections of a corduroy road were unearthed. One was in the King Street area of the business district and the second was discovered near the Conestoga Mall. The road was probably built by Mennonites using technology acquired