Keefer, George

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: H. V. Nelles, “KEEFER (Kieffer), GEORGE,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 8, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/keefer_george_8E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Farmer, cabinetmaker, surveyor, militia officer, justice of the peace, and businessman; b. 8 Nov. 1773 near Newton, N.J., son of George Kieffer and Mary Cooke (Conke, Conck); m. first 6 Feb. 1797 Catherine Lampman, and they had nine children; m. secondly 8 June 1815 Jane Emory, née McBride, with whom he had seven children; m. thirdly 2 June 1836 Mary Swaize; m. fourthly 14 Nov. 1839 Esther Magdalen Secord; d. 27 June 1858 in Thorold, Upper Canada.
    • In about 1750 George Keefer’s father, then 10 years old, went to live near Paulins Kill, Sussex County, N.J., with his stepfather, and his mother, (widow of Samuel Kieffer, an Alsatian Huguenot). Within a few years the family operated two farms and a distillery, and was sufficiently well off to own a household slave. George Kieffer married Mary Cooke and they had four children (George, Jacob, Samuel, and Mary) before the American revolution tragically intervened. He joined the Queen’s Rangers to fight the rebels only to fall victim to army fever (probably typhus) in 1783. After the war Mary Kieffer remarried. She retained temporary possession of the family estate, but, on coming of age, her eldest son, George, faced the prospect of having it confiscated because of his father’s loyalism.
    • In 1790 Keefer, his brother Jacob, and several other lads from Sussex County in similar circumstances set out for Canada to look for land on which to make new beginnings. The Keefers located and began clearing a tract near present-day Thorold and in 1793 guided their family and a small herd of cattle overland to their rude farm. Once again the family began to prosper, assisted by a generous land grant; in 1797 George married Catherine Lampman, who had also made the trek from New Jersey, and children began to arrive at about the rate of one every 18 months. In addition to farming he worked as a cabinet-maker and about 1807 was appointed a deputy provincial land surveyor.
    • Beginning in 1818 Keefer, DeCow, and Merritt conducted preliminary surveys, petitioned the provincial assembly for incorporation as a canal company, and organized local meetings to win public approval. Merritt needed men like Keefer, whose influence among landowners along the proposed route of the canal (which required 30 acres of Keefer’s own land) would help in the negotiation of the transfer of property rights. The Welland Canal Company was chartered in January 1824; Keefer subscribed for 25 shares and that summer, he was elected its first president. 
    • Keefer nevertheless made good use of the Welland Canal. Having obtained from the company free land opposite the site of what would become lock 34, he built a mill there in 1827 and waited for the canal to be completed – a bold declaration of faith and, for a time, a source of local amusement. Eventually the canal did arrive, providing upon its completion in 1829 essential water-power for the mill and a means of transportation.
    • Like most of his contemporaries, George Keefer suffered greatly from events beyond his control. War made him a refugee and a soldier; it destroyed his patrimony and carried off his father, his first wife, and one of his sons. But in peace he prospered and his family flourished. Moreover, Keefer and his neighbours on Twelve Mile Creek possessed the vision and determination, if not the means, to improve their world with an ambitious scheme, the Welland Canal.
  • Son of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=4367
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/62765285/george-keefer