Christian Kumpf (22 August 1838 [1] – 9 January 1905) was a German-born politician in Ontario, Canada. He served as mayor of Waterloo from 1879 to 1880 and from 1888 to 1889. [2]
He was born in Beerfelden, Hesse. He immigrated to Canada in 1846. By 1852, he was living in Preston. [1] Kumpf worked for Daniel Snyder in his store and post office, eventually becoming assistant postmaster. He was working as a printer by around 1855. [1] In 1860, with John Bowman, he purchased the Berlin Chronicle and Provincial Reformers' Gazette, renaming it the Waterloo County Chronicle. On Snyder's retirement, Kumpf became postmaster in 1862. He purchased the Erb-Kumpf House from Elias Snider in 1869. [1] In 1885, he became the local agent for the Bell Telephone Company and, in 1889, helped establish the Dominion Life Assurance Company and served as one its first vice-presidents. Kumpf was first president of the Waterloo Board of Trade, first chair of the Board of Park Management and a member of the first board for the Berlin-Waterloo Hospital. [3]
Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. Waterloo is situated about 94 km (58 mi) west-southwest of Toronto, but it is not considered to be part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Due to the close proximity of the city of Kitchener to Waterloo, the two together are often referred to as "Kitchener–Waterloo", "K-W", or "The Twin Cities".
The Grand River Railway was an interurban electric railway in what is now the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, in Southwestern Ontario, Canada.
Joseph Emm Seagram was a Canadian distillery founder, politician, philanthropist, and major owner of thoroughbred racehorses.
Moses Springer was an Ontario businessman and political figure who became the first mayor of Waterloo, Ontario. He also represented Waterloo North in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Liberal member from 1867 to 1881.
The Kitchener and Waterloo Street Railway was a street railway in Berlin and Waterloo in Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada. Horsecar service began in 1888 under the original Berlin and Waterloo Street Railway name and continued until the system was electrified in 1895, when the existing horsecars were converted for electric service. This proved ineffective, and the company suffered from under-investment. In 1896, a local consortium bought out the company and purchased a new fleet of purpose-built electric trams. The system was municipalized in 1907 and was run by the Town of Berlin/Kitchener until the end of service. The railway was renamed in 1919 to reflect the name change of the City of Kitchener, which had occurred in 1916. In 1927, it was reorganized under the Kitchener Public Utilities Commission, which continued operations until 1946, when streetcar service was discontinued and replaced with trolleybus service.
Louis Jacob Breithaupt was an Ontario manufacturer and politician. He represented Waterloo North in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1899 to 1902 as a Liberal member.
Jacob Yost Shantz was a Mennonite farmer, businessman, and industrialist from Ontario, Canada. He played a significant role in the urban development of Berlin, Ontario, where he held a succession of civic roles over a period of almost three decades, culminating in a term as mayor in 1882. Over the span of his life, Berlin was transformed from a rural agricultural settlement known as Ebytown into a bustling manufacturing centre; this was a change mirrored by Shantz, who began his adult life as a farmer and sawmiller, and ended it as a prominent local industrialist.
Edward Frowde Seagram was an entrepreneur, philanthropist and politician in Ontario, Canada. He served as mayor of Waterloo from 1906 to 1907.
George Randall was an American-born business owner and politician in Ontario, Canada. He served as reeve of Waterloo from 1870 to 1872 and as mayor in 1878.
William Snider was a businessman and politician. He served as mayor of Waterloo from 1885 to 1886 and from 1891 to 1892.
George Moore was a business owner and mayor in Ontario, Canada. He served as mayor of Waterloo in 1884 and in 1890.
Simon Snyder was a business owner and politician in Ontario, Canada. He served as mayor of Waterloo from 1895 to 1897.
William Jaffray was an English-born publisher and politician in Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada. He served as the mayor of Berlin, Ontario from 1882 to 1883.
George Herbert BowlbyMDCM was a Canadian physician and surgeon, municipal politician, and military officer. He was born in the town of Berlin, Ontario, where he later practiced medicine and served in a succession of elected municipal positions, culminating in a term as mayor in 1901. Bowlby was the first person born in Berlin to become its mayor. In 1915, following the outbreak of the First World War, he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force and travelled to England. There, he served in the Canadian Army Medical Corps and achieved the rank of Major. In November 1916, at the age of 51, he died in an accidental fall from a cliff near the military hospital in Sussex where he was assigned.
Kumpf is a German surname with the same etymological roots as the English word "combe". Notable people with the surname include:
The Waterloo Pioneer Memorial Tower was built in 1926 in Kitchener to commemorate the arrival of the Pennsylvania Dutch to Southwestern Ontario. It was conceived by William Henry Breithaupt, who wanted to heal wounds of nationalism fomented in the city during World War I. This led to increasing anti-German sentiment and an eventual change in the name of the city from Berlin to Kitchener.
The Erb-Kumpf House is a two-storey house located on 172 King Street South in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The oldest portion of the house was constructed circa 1812 by Abraham Erb, the founder of Waterloo, likely making it the oldest home or one of the oldest homes in the city. In 1979, the Erb-Kumpf House was designated as a heritage home under the Ontario Heritage Act by the City of Waterloo.
John Motz was a Canadian politician, German-language newspaper proprietor, sheriff and tailor. Born near Mühlhausen in the Province of Saxony, Prussia, he immigrated to Berlin, Canada West in 1848. In 1859, he and fellow immigrant Friedrich Rittinger founded the Berliner Journal, a German-language newspaper based in Berlin. Motz served as its editor for the next forty years before retiring in 1899, becoming the honorary sheriff of Waterloo County, a position he held until his death in 1911.
The Dominion Life Assurance Company was a Canadian life insurance company that existed from 1889 to 1987. The company was founded by a group of businessmen in Waterloo, Ontario and was built over the ensuing decades by managing director Thomas Hilliard. At the end of World War II, Dominion was Canada's ninth-largest life insurance company.