Jonathan Doan (1765-1847), a member of the Society of Friends, came to Upper Canada from Pennsylvania about 1789. He settled first in the Niagara peninsula, and then purchased 80 ha of wilderness here in South Yarmouth Township in 1813. A few years later Doan became a land agent for the Honourable James Baby. He acquired 1215 ha for settlement and revisited Niagara and Pennsylvania to recruit fellow Quakers. A community known as the Quaker Settlement, or Yarmouth Corners developed around Doan's farm, grist-mill and tannery. In 1820 he donated the land for a meeting house and this burying ground. The name Sparta was adopted by the settlement in 1832.