Joseph Keeler

Joseph Keeler (May 24, 1824 – January 21, 1881) was an Ontario businessman and political figure. He represented Northumberland East in the House of Commons of Canada as a Liberal-Conservative member from 1867 to 1874 and from 1879 to 1881.[1]

For the university teacher and administrator, see Joseph B. Keeler.
Joseph Keeler
Source: Library and Archives Canada

He was born in Cramahe Township, Upper Canada in 1814[1] and educated at Upper Canada College. Keeler was a grain and lumber merchant and also owned a wharf, warehouses and a flour mill at Colborne. He was also the owner of a schooner. He was postmaster there and also served as a major in the local militia.[2] Keeler operated a printing business which produced one of the first newspapers in the region, the Colborne Transcript. He helped establish a branch of the Bank of Toronto at Colborne and also helped promote the development of the Trent-Severn Waterway.[3]

On October 12, 1848,[4] he married Octavia Phillips.[2] Keeler died in office in Ottawa at the age of 56.[5]

His father, Joseph Abbott Keeler, was credited with being the founder of Colborne[3] and his grandfather, a United Empire Loyalist from Vermont also named Joseph Keeler, was one of the first settlers in the township.[2]

References
  2. The Canadian parliamentary companion and annual register, 1879, CH Mackintosh
  3. The History of Cramahe Township ... (1988)
  4. William D. Reid, Reid's Marriage Notices of Ontario 1813 - 1854, (Hunterdon House, Lambertville, New Jersey: 1980), p. 322, Globe, Toronto. "Marriage Notices of Ontario" by William D. Reid, Hunterdon House, Lambertville, NJ 1980.
  5. Johnson, J.K. (1968). The Canadian Directory of Parliament 1867-1967. Public Archives of Canada.


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