b. 1836 d. 1930
Married - Christine Seys, Catherine Briemer
Karl (Charles) Mueller came from Baden-Baden Germany to Waterloo in 1853. He had been apprenticed as a cooper and he soon was employed with the Granite Mills (later Seagrams) owned by George Randall and William Hespeler and William Roos. About 1873 he decided that he could profitably establish his own cooperage. He purchased land on Queen St S and started the business in a small way. As the company received more and more orders, it was necessary to expand the Queen St plant. Several additions were made until there was no longer room to expand. Mueller’s son, J. Charles, began helping in the plant and he learned the intricacies of cooperage so well, that in 1898, the son became manager. Since 1873, most of the work in barrel-making was done by hand. The Muellers could see that mechanization of the cooperage industry was on the horizon. To this end the Muellers bought land on Shantz Ave out on Erb St W and began construction of a new facility which was opened in 1906. In 1914 Charles assigned the ownership to his son and retired from the business. But the son, J. Charles, died suddenly in 1918 and the Mueller Cooperage was sold in 1920 to the Seagram Distillery across Erb St. The factory was renamed the Canada Barrels and Kegs and Frowde Seagram became its President.
Sources:
1. Marg Rowell et al, Welcome to Waterloo
2. Waterloo Mt Hope Cemetery Records
3. The Twin City, Berlin and Waterloo
4. Fred Shinn, Mar 20, 1968, Waterloo Chronicle
Charles Mueller Biography
Description
- Creator
- Little, Ellis, Author
- Media Type
- Text
- Item Type
- Articles
- Description
- This is a handwritten biography of Charles Mueller from the Ellis Little Papers. This biography has been transcribed exactly as written. Ellis Little was a local historian, who was the principal of Elizabeth Ziegler Public School.On his retirement, he invested much of his time in researching and writing about Waterloo's history. The Ellis Little Papers consist of extensive notes, papers and historical works.
- Notes
- Please scroll to the bottom of the page to see the transcribed text. To see the original document, please visit the Ellis Little Local History Room at the Main Branch of the Waterloo Public Library
- Date Of Event
- 1836-1930
- Subject(s)
- Personal Name(s)
- Mueller, Charles ; Seys, Christine ; Mueller, Christine ; Briemer, Catherine ; Mueller, Catherine ; Randall, George ; Hespeler, William ; Mueller, Charles J. ; Seagram, Frowde
- Corporate Name(s)
- Granite Mills ; Seagram's Distillery ; Mueller Cooperage
- Local identifier
- ELP 51.141
- Collection
- Ellis Little Papers: Men and Women of Our Past
- Language of Item
- English
- Copyright Statement
- Copyright status unknown. Responsibility for determining the copyright status and any use rests exclusively with the user.
- Location of Original
- Ellis Little Papers
- Contact
- Waterloo Public LibraryEmail:askus@wpl.ca
Website:
Agency street/mail address:35 Albert Street, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 5E2
- Full Text
