The Township of Perth East is a municipality in Perth County, Ontario, Canada and situated north of Stratford. It was created in 1998 when the Ontario government amalgamated the village of Milverton with the surrounding former townships of Ellice, Mornington, North Easthope and South Easthope. Milverton is the largest community of the township, where the municipal administration is based. The mayor is Rhonda Ehgoetz. The population in 2016 was 12,595, with 4,266 occupied private dwellings, in a land area of 711.93 km². History Ellice Township In 1829, the first concession in the Township of Ellice was surveyed and opened for settlement. A cairn still stands marking the site of the first home, at Lot 31, Concession 1, owned by Andrew Seebach from Bavaria. (A cairn has been erected to mark the location.) The township was named after Edward Ellice, a director of the Canada Company. The local municipal history began in 1842 when John Sebring was appointed to the position of District Councillor (later classified as a Reeve). The first separate school in the township was opened at Millbrook in 1857 and closed in 1907 when it merged with another local school. In 1908 the Ellice Council purchased the abandoned school and moved it to a site on the County Road where it served as the seat of municipal government until 1960. The building was replaced by the present hall which was built in 1961. Village of Milverton The first settler was Andrew West, a shoemaker who settled on a farm and opened a hotel in 1851. Other businesses soon followed and the hamlet of West's Corners in Mornington Township began to expand. The first Post Office was established in 1854 and the first schoolhouse in 1856. By 1864, the settlement contained a sawmill, a tannery, two churches and some 200 residents. In about 1871 the name of the village was changed to Milverton, named after Milverton, Somerset in England. The Stratford and Huron Railway reached this area in 1877, making it easy to market the area's agricultural products; the population increased afterwards. Effective January 1, 1881, Milverton was incorporated into a village; its population at the time was 550. Village of Shakespeare According to Stratford Heritage, Perth County's first settler was Sebastian Fryfogel from Bavaria, Germany. He first built a log shelter in 1827 while the Canada Company's Huron Road was being surveyed. Still standing, it is part of