Collection search - Jacob Keefer and family fonds [textual record]

Presented in 1920, through the agency of [J.W.] Mitchell, by Clara Church Keefer, widow of the Toronto dentist Dr. Edwin Keefer (d. 1917), son of Jacob and Christina Grant Keefer. The material originally formed Part IV, 3 of what was then known as the Mitchell Collection (see MG 55/24, No. 134), but was placed in its present location when the Mitchell Collection was broken up. At that time, three letters from W.L. Mackenzie to Jacob Keefer, which have the same provenance as the material in this unit, were included with the papers of William Lyon Mackenzie (MG 24, B 18, Volume 1, pages 53-55, 60-61, and 94-95), but photocopies of these letters have now been placed in file 4 of this unit for the convenience of users. At the same time, the material relating to Jacob Keefer's father-in-law was separated from the rest and inventoried under Robert Grant's name in MG 24, I 19. This last was reunited with the Jacob Keefer material in 1986, as files 8-10 of this unit.

Jacob Keefer's journal in file 1 is also available on reel C-4499. Robert Grant's record book in file 10 is also available on reel H-1811, from reel image 295 to 343.

Keefer's journal in file 2 was microfilmed in 1970. The Marriage Licences and Customs Blotter Book in File 10 was microfilmed in 1987.

Because of his business connections with other canal promoters, Thomas and William Hamilton Merritt, material relating to George Keefer, Sr., and his sons is found in the Merritt Papers, MG 24, E 1. For material relating to his fourth and seventh sons, civil engineers Samuel Keefer (1811-1890) and Thomas Coltrin Keefer (1821-1915), is found in MG 29, A 2; MG 55é29, No. 17; and MG 29, D 106. For material relating to James Keefer's son, the Port Arthur lawyer Thomas Alexander Keefer (b. 18470), see MG 29, A 9.