PROCEEDINGS FOR 1915 XI 



(4) Thomas Coltrin Keeper. 



Thomas Coltrin Keefer, C.M.G., C.E., LL.D., died at his resi- 

 dence, "Rockliffe Manor House," Ottawa, January 7th, 1915, full of 

 years of past work of honour and respect. 



The subject of this sketch was born in Thorold, Ontario, Novem- 

 ber 4th, 1821, being the son of George Keefer, the first President of the 

 Welland Canal Company, a United Empire Loyalist, by his wife 

 Jane, daughter of Edward McBride, who represented the town of 

 Niagara in the Parliament of Upper Canada. His grandfather was 

 an Alsatian Huguenot from Strassburg, who emigrated to North 

 America in the latter part of the eighteenth century and settled in the 

 then British province of New Jersey. He served in the British Army 

 during the Revolutionary war and fell fighting under the command 

 of Sir William Howe. 



Mr. Keefer was a member of a large family of ten sons and five 

 daughters. He was educated at Upper Canada College, Toronto, 

 and began his career as an engineer at the early age of seventeen, being 

 first employed on the staff of the Erie Canal. The period from 1837 

 to 1845 was spent in engineering work on the Erie and Welland 

 Canals. Thence he moved to Ottawa and from 1845 to 1848 was 

 Chief Engineer of the Ottawa River works, his principal task being 

 to facilitate the transportation of the immense timber trade of that 

 river and its numerous tributaries. He was later in charge of surveys 

 for the navigation of the rapids of the St. Lawrence River. 



He contributed very materially to the preparatory work con- 

 nected with the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854. From 1849 to 1853 he 

 was in close collaboration with Mr. L D. Andrews, the American 

 Consul for New Brunswick and Canada, in the preparation of the 

 statistical and other information as to the trade relations of theBritish 

 North American colonies, particularly as to the trade carried on between 

 these colonies and the United States via the inland waterways. Most 

 of the information as to the Canadian trade contained in Andrews' 

 notable report upon the "Colonial and Lake Trade" was compiled 

 by Mr. Keefer, as is fully acknowledged throughout the report. 



In 1851 Mr. Keefer was a Commissioner of Canada to the first 

 International Exhibition held in London, England. About this time 

 also he prepared plans for the preliminary surveys of the Grand 

 Trunk Railway between Montreal and Toronto; also for the con- 

 struction of a bridge over the St. Lawrence River at Point St. Charles, 

 above Montreal, for the same railway company. In 1862 he was 

 again appointed Canadian Commissioner to the International Ex- 

 hibition held in London, England; and in 1878 he was Executive 

 Commissioner of Canada at the Paris Exposition, where he formed 



