Markham is a town in the Regional Municipality of York, located in the Greater Toronto Area of Southern Ontario, Canada. Markham is the largest town in Canada, and one of its fastest growing municipalities, having doubled its population since 1990. The population of Markham according to the Canada 2006 Census is 261,573. Within the Greater Toronto Area, Markham is the fourth-most populous municipality after Toronto, Mississauga, and Brampton. Markham is home to many high-tech companies, and is also home to the Canadian head offices of various high-tech companies such as Avaya, IBM, Motorola, Toshiba, Lucent, Sun Microsystems, Apple, AMEX and ATI, which is now part of AMD.
Markham was first surveyed as a township in 1793 by William Berczy, who in 1794 led 75 German families from Upstate New York to an area of Markham now known as German Mills. Each family was granted 200 acres (0.8 km˛) of land, however due to hardships, many opted to return to York (now Toronto) and Niagara. The area was remote and the lack of roads through the region made travel difficult. German Mills soon became a ghost town. Between 1803 to 1812, another attempt at settling in the region was made. The largest group of settlers were Pennsylvania Germans, most of whom were Mennonites. These highly skilled craftsmen and knowledgeable farmers had the best chance for survival because they had already survived harsh conditions in Pennsylvania. By 1830, many Irish, Scottish and English families immigrated to Upper Canada, many settling in Markham. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.