The following is a re-print of a past column by former Advertiser columnist Stephen Thorning, who passed away on Feb. 23, 2015.
Some text has been updated to reflect changes since the original publication and any images used may not be the same as those that accompanied the original publication.
The city of Guelph 100 years ago was a small compact municipality of about 11,000 people.
The late 19th century had not been a particularly good period for the city. Guelph stagnated while other nearby towns overtook it in population and industry. In the 1890s, its leaders developed a determination to build a diverse industrial centre. Dominating this group were five men: William Bell, Charles Raymond, James Goldie, J.W. Lyon and Christian Kloepfer.
The first two are well known to anyone interested in Wellington County collectibles. Bell’s Piano and Organs and Raymond’s sewing machines are among the best known of local antiques. Goldie’s flour and Lyon’s publishing and land development activities are familiar to anyone interested in Guelph history. Both have had parks named for them.
The fifth of the group, Christian Kloepfer, is very much a mystery, but, in terms of his influence on the growth of Guelph, is more important than any of them.
He is perhaps best remembered for a coal business, but this was only a minor enterprise for him. Except for an article by Bonnie Durtnall published in Historic Guelph in 1993, nothing has been written about him in years.
Kloepfer dominated a half dozen Guelph firms, and another handful based in Toronto. In his own lifetime he never sought centre stage, preferring to work quietly with others to accomplish his goals. He is remarkable as well for being the first Roman Catholic in Wellington County to become a major business figure, and the first to be elected to Parliament.
As far as I am aware, he left no papers or business records, and there is not even a good photograph of him in any public collection.
Christian Kloepfer was a local boy. He was born in 1847, and grew up on a farm near Maryhill (then called New Germany), west of Guelph. His parents had immigrated a few years before from Baden, then one of the German Free States. He came from a large family; Christian had seven brothers and two sisters.
He attended the local school and, at 20, left the farm to seek employment in Guelph. His friend James C. Keleher, who also had roots in the New Germany area, helped him secure a position as a clerk with John Horsman, who ran a major wholesale and retail hardware business on Wyndham Street in Guelph. Jim Keleher would remain a close and trusted friend during Kloepfer’s rising business career.
While with Horsman, Kloepfer showed a particular interest in the coal business that operated from the back of the hardware store. At this date only a few people used coal for heating or steam generation. Blacksmiths bought most of the supply.
Kloepfer could see that wood supplies were diminishing, and that coal would eventually become the dominant fuel. In the mid-1870s, he purchased the coal department from Horsman, and set up on his own as the Guelph Coal Depot, with a coal yard on rented land at the corner of Quebec and Yarmouth streets.
The coal business boomed during the 1880s. He generated sufficient income to branch out into the wholesale carriage hardware business, capitalizing on contacts he had made while working for John Horsman.
In partnership with Charles Walker, who previously had owned the Guelph Advertiser newspaper, Kloepfer spun the hardware business off into a separate enterprise, with premises on Woolwich Street across from the Wellington County buildings.
Living frugally, Kloepfer invested his profits in land. He married Bessie Murphy of Guelph in 1880, but the couple did not acquire a permanent home until 1887, when he purchased the stone house that still stands at 199 Woolwich Street.
The 1880s were the key years in Kloepfer’s career. Other Guelph businessmen recognized his natural affinity for financial matters, and they felt secure in dealing with him because of his tight-lipped confidentiality. Kloepfer had an uncanny ability to sniff out money available for investment, and to guide others in new enterprises, with or without his participation.
William Bell, the piano maker, was among the first to recognize Kloepfer’s financial abilities. Bell was one of the organizers and first directors (and later vice-president) of the Toronto-based Traders Bank, which was organized in 1888 to help finance industry in smaller centres such as Guelph.
Bell drew Kloepfer into the inner circle of directors in 1893, when Kloepfer was only 36 years old. This placed him in direct contact with the financial elite of Toronto, and assured his involvement in major enterprises in the years ahead.
Meanwhile, Kloepfer commenced his political career with his election as a city alderman in 1888. He served seven years on council, and several times was touted as a potential candidate for mayor.
His wide popularity, not only among the business elite, but among all residents, would have assured his victory had he sought the mayor’s chair. His success and profile made him a popular hero among Guelph’s Roman Catholics, who at that time were almost all working class people.
On council, Kloepfer became a tireless advocate for improved city services, particularly water.
Guelph had a very poor water system in the 1890s that served only part of the downtown. Much of the city relied on water from shallow wells that were hopelessly contaminated.
He wanted electric streetlights across the city, and later, along with J.W. Lyon, he was a pioneering advocate of a municipally-owned electrical system.
In 1896, Kloepfer accepted the nomination of the Conservative Party for Wellington South in the federal election held that June. The sitting member, James Innes, the humourless and earnest publisher of the Guelph Mercury, had held the seat since 1882.
In many respects, this was a surprising choice for local Conservative leaders such as William Bell, Charles Raymond and James Goldie, most of whom had been allies of Innes in schemes such as the Guelph Junction Railway.
As well, the Conservative party was then regarded as the haven for Orangemen. Their nomination of Guelph’s most prominent Catholic no doubt raised many eyebrows.
The campaign was a spirited one, with both Liberal leader Wilfrid Laurier and Conservative Prime Minister Sir Charles Tupper visiting Guelph. Both leaders packed the old Guelph rink with more than 5,000 people.
Kloepfer pulled some strings and managed to have a half-day holiday declared in the city’s factory and schools to allow the people to hear Tupper, and to see him in a huge parade that featured floats and marchers from Guelph’s major factories.
In his speeches, Kloepfer emphasized the need of the National Policy’s protective tariff to build a solid Canadian manufacturing sector. This was a surprising position for a man involved in the wholesale hardware business. Most wholesalers wanted the cheaper prices they could secure on worldwide markets under free trade policies.
When the votes were counted, Tupper’s Conservative government went down to defeat. Locally, things were not clear for several days, due to some electoral irregularities. Some poling divisions did not return properly completed returns.
There were a large number of spoiled ballots, and in several cases there were more marked ballots in the boxes than voters marked off on the voters list. No evidence emerged, though, that there was any kind of organized fraud by either party.
The Wellington South vote surprised many. Kloepfer unseated Innes with a vote of 2,577 to 2,439.
In the city of Guelph, Kloepfer rolled up a huge majority, capturing 17 of the 19 polls, and 64% of the vote. In the Catholic-dominated St. Patrick’s Ward, whose voters traditionally preferred Liberals, he claimed 71%.
In the townships of Puslinch, Eramosa and Erin, Innes was the victor. Only in Guelph Township, where Kloepfer and his family were well known, did he capture a majority.
With hired managers running the carriage hardware business, and his brother in charge of the coal company, Kloepfer was off to Ottawa for the fall 1896 session of parliament.
Next week: Kloepfer as an opposition MP, two more elections, and a business career in high gear.
*This column was originally published in the Wellington Advertiser on Aug. 25, 2000.
