John Kean was an Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 businessman and political figure. He represented Simcoe East

Simcoe East

Simcoe East was a federal electoral district in the province of Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1882 to 1968...

 in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario

Legislative Assembly of Ontario

The Legislative Assembly of Ontario , is the legislature of the Canadian province of Ontario, and is the second largest provincial legislature of Canada...

 as a Conservative

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario

The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario , is a right-of-centre political party in Ontario, Canada. The party was known for many years as "Ontario's natural governing party." It has ruled the province for 80 of the years since Confederation, including an uninterrupted run from 1943 to 1985...

 from 1875 to 1879.

He was born in Bushmills

Bushmills

Bushmills is a village on the north coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Bushmills had 1,319 inhabitants in the 2001 Census. It is located 95 km from Belfast, 10 km from Ballycastle and 15 km from Coleraine...

, County Antrim

County Antrim

County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 in 1820 and, in 1832, came to Halton County

Halton County, Ontario

Halton County is a historic county in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is also one of the oldest counties in Canada.-History:Halton County is named after Major William Mathew Halton who was appointed in 1805 as Secretary to the Upper Canada provincial Lieutenant-Governor Sir Francis...

 in Upper Canada

Upper Canada

The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...

, where his parents had settled in 1824. He settled at Brantford

Brantford, Ontario

Brantford is a city located on the Grand River in Southern Ontario, Canada. While geographically surrounded by the County of Brant, the city is politically independent...

, where he worked as a millwright, building sawmill

Sawmill

A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....

s and gristmill

Gristmill

The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...

s in the region. In 1850, he married Mary Jordan and the couple moved to Orillia

Orillia, Ontario

Orillia, pronounced ōrĭl'ēə, is a city located in Simcoe County in Southern Ontario, Canada, between Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe, 135 kilometres north of Toronto.Originally incorporated as a village in 1867, the history of...

 in 1852. Kean served as reeve for the townships of Orillia and Matchedash from 1862 to 1869 and was warden of Simcoe County

Simcoe County, Ontario

Simcoe County is located in central portion of Southern Ontario. The County is situated just north of the Greater Toronto Area stretching from the shores of Lake Simcoe in the east to Georgian Bay in the west...

 in 1868. In 1869, with partners, he built a large sawmill at the outlet of the Hogg River at Victoria Harbour.

In 1880, he was sent by the Canadian government to the Fort Macleod

Fort Macleod, Alberta

Fort Macleod is a town in the southwest corner of the province of Alberta, Canada. It was founded as a North-West Mounted Police barracks, and is named in honour of the North-West Mounted Police Colonel James Macleod. The town's current mayor is Shawn Patience.- History and heritage preservation...

 area where he built a number of sawmills, including one on Pincher Creek

Pincher Creek, Alberta

Pincher Creek is a town in the southwest of Alberta, Canada. It is located immediately east of the Canadian Rockies in the centre of ranching country, north of Waterton Lakes National Park.The town's mayor is Ernie Olsen.- History :...

. He later worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...

. In 1883, Kean settled at Lethbridge, where he built a lumber mill and operated a number of businesses. He died there in 1892.

External links

• Member's parliamentary history for the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
• http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/mtq?doc=32953The Canadian parliamentary companion, 1879 CH Mackintosh
  Charles H. Mackintosh
  Charles Herbert Mackintosh was a journalist, mayor of Ottawa from 1879–1881, represented Ottawa City as a Liberal-Conservative in the Canadian House of Commons from 1882 to 1887, and from 1890 to 1893, and served as Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories from 1893 to 1898.-Parentage and...
  
  
• A History of Simcoe County, AF Hunter (1909)
• Pioneer Families of Southern Alberta