Wilhelm Hespeler
| William Hespeler | |
|---|---|
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| Member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba | |
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In office 1900–1903 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 29, 1830 Baden-Baden, Grand Duchy of Baden |
| Died | April 18, 1921 (aged 90) Vancouver, British Columbia |
William Hespeler (December 29, 1830 – April 18, 1921) was a German - Canadian businessman and immigration agent and a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. He served as Speaker of the Legislature and as honorary consul of Germany to Winnipeg and the Northwest Territories. He was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle for his services to Germany.
Hespeler was born as Wilhelm Hespeler in Baden-Baden, Grand Duchy of Baden, the son of Georg Johann and Anna Barbara (Wick) Hespeler. His mother was a granddaughter of Count Károly Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka (1723–1795), a Hungarian nobleman, and his father was a businessman with the house of Mayer Amschel Rothschild. Hespeler was educated at the Polytechnic Institute at Karlsruhe. He left school at the age of nineteen and emigrated to Canada with his mother in 1850, his father having died in 1840.
Hespeler worked for his older brother Jacob Hespeler before becoming a partner in the firm of Hespeler and Randall, which ran both a distillery (which later became Seagram's) and a grain mill. He married a Canadian woman and became a naturalized British subject at some time before 1867, adopting the first name of "William". In 1870 he returned to Baden-Baden, serving briefly as a stretcher-bearer during the Franco-Prussian War before being hired by the Government of Canada as an immigration agent in 1871. While he was in Baden he heard that a number of Mennonite families in Russia were intending to immigrate to the United States. He reported back to his superiors in Canada, who sent him to Russia to persuade the Mennonites to choose Canada instead. Despite considerable opposition both from British and Russian authorities, he was able to arrange for thousands of Mennonites to immigrate. Most settled in the area around Winnipeg.
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