Joseph Keeler

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

He was born in Cramahe Township, Upper Canada in 1814 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. 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.

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

External links

* [http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/key/bio.asp?Language=E&query=15219&s=M Synopsis of federal political experience from the Library of Parliament]
* [http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/mtq?doc=32945 "The Canadian parliamentary companion", HJ Morgan (1871)]
* [http://www.ourroots.ca/e/toc.aspx?id=4357 "The History of Cramahe Township ..." (1988)]