Joseph Keeler (May 24, 1824 – January 21, 1881) was an

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

businessman and political figure. He represented Northumberland East in the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

as a

Liberal-Conservative Liberal conservatism is a political ideology combining conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic issues but also on social and ethical matters, representing a brand of political conservatism strongly influenced by libe ...

member from 1867 to 1874 and from 1879 to 1881.* He was born in Cramahe Township,

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada () was a Province, part of The Canadas, British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Queb ...

in 1814 and educated at

Upper Canada College Upper Canada College (UCC) is an independent day and boarding school for boys in Toronto, Ontario, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. The college is widely described as Canada's most prestigious preparatory school, and ha ...

. Keeler was a grain and lumber merchant and also owned a wharf, warehouses and a

flour mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

at Colborne. He was also the owner of a

schooner A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...

. 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 The Bank of Toronto was a Canadian bank that was founded in 1855 by a group of grain dealers and flour millers. On February 1, 1955, it merged with the Dominion Bank to form the Toronto-Dominion Bank. Its first president was James Grant Chewett, ...

at Colborne and also helped promote the development of the Trent-Severn Waterway. In April 1879, Keeler introduced a bill to parliament to abolish the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

and the

Exchequer Court The Exchequer of Pleas, or Court of Exchequer, was a court that dealt with matters of equity, a set of legal principles based on natural law and common law in England and Wales. Originally part of the , or King's Council, the Exchequer of Plea ...

, the bill did not succeed, but demonstrated the rural animosity towards the growing lawyer-centered character of Canada. After Keeler's death, the cause of abolishing the Supreme Court in Parliament was taken up by

Auguste Charles Philippe Robert Landry Auguste Charles Philippe Robert Landry (15 January 1846 – 20 December 1919) was a Canadian parliamentarian who served as Speaker of the Senate of Canada from 1911 to 1916. Biography Landry was born Charles-Philippe-Auguste-Robert Landry in ...

. On October 12, 1848,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. he married Octavia Phillips. Keeler died in office in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

at the age of 56. His father, Joseph Abbott Keeler, was credited with being the founder of Colborne and his grandfather, a

United Empire Loyalist United Empire Loyalist (UEL; or simply Loyalist) is an honorific title which was first given by the 1st Lord Dorchester, the governor of Quebec and governor general of the Canadas, to American Loyalists who resettled in British North Ameri ...

from

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

also named Joseph Keeler, was one of the first settlers in the township.

Election results

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External links

* 1824 births 1881 deaths Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942) MPs Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario 19th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada {{HistoricalConservative-Ontario-MP-stub