COLUMN: Carillon Flashback May 15, 2004 – Niverville selected as site for William Hespeler plaque

Hespeler Park in Niverville has been selected as the national site to recognize the historic significance of William Hespeler, an immigration official who helped settle the first Mennonites in Western Canada.

In his role as the Commissioner of Immigration and Agriculture in Winnipeg and German Counsel for Manitoba and the Northwest Territories, Hespeler recruited thousands of Mennonites and others of German origin to settle on the Canadian prairies.

The plaque commemorating his role helps to solidify Hespeler’s historical ties with Mennonite migrations to Canada and Manitoba.

It also solidifies the role the area played in providing temporary immigration sheds for the 7,000 Mennonite settlers who disembarked at the junction of the Red and Rat Rivers between 1874 and 1880, a site officially designated as the Mennonite Landing Memorial Site.

The first circular silo-style design grain elevator was built in Niverville in 1878, the first elevator in Western Canada.

Other Manitoba sites considered for the plaque included the rural community of Gretna and The Forks in Winnipeg.

Another possible site was Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, where Hespeler helped establish the well-known Seagram Distillery in 1857.

In 1850, he immigrated to Waterloo, Ontario, where he joined his brother in business. He became Commissioner of Immigration and Agriculture in Winnipeg in 1873, and later acted as Consul of the German Empire for Manitoba and the northwest Mennonites, a decade later.

While visiting in Germany in 1872, Hespeler learned that large numbers of Mennonites living in southern Russia were considering immigration to North America. Soon after he had reported this to Canadian officials, he was authorized as a Special Emigration Agent to proceed to Russia to assure the Mennonites of a welcome in Canada.

A biography on the Mennonite Historical Society website states that after visiting some of the Mennonite settlements, his purposes were considered suspect by the Russian Government and he was forced to leave the country.

At this point, at a meeting in November, 1873 at Odessa, with the Bergthal and Molotschna representatives, Hespeler suggested they appoint a delegation of competent men to investigate the lands in Canada.

The advice was followed the next year, and Hespeler was the representative of the Canadian government in all affairs connected with the immigration of the Russian Mennonites to Canada and their settlement.

The Public Archives of Canada has a large number of reports, letters and telegrams by Hespeler concerning the Mennonite immigration.

The Seagram Distillery in Waterloo began as the Granite Mills and Waterloo Distillery, established in 1857 by William Hespeler, a merchant from Berlin (Kitchener), and George Randall, a contractor for the Grand Trunk Railway.

By 1864, the distillery had expanded to a capacity of 50,000 gallons of proof spirit per year and Hespeler asked Joseph Seagram to look after his interests in the business while he went travelling abroad. Shortly after returning, Hespeler decided to sell his share of the business to Seagram.

The Seagram Distillery in Waterloo closed in 1992.

– with files from Glady Terichow