Rieder and Anthes family fonds

Rieder and Anthes family fonds. - [ca. 1860], 1905-[200-], predominant 1905-1929.

35 cm of textual records and graphic material.

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Talmon Henry Rieder (1878-1922) was an industrialist and rubber company executive in Berlin (now Kitchener) and Montreal. He was born in New Hamburg, Ontario, to Peter and Emeline (Merner) Rieder. In 1899, he became the bookkeeper and a minor shareholder in the newly formed Berlin Rubber Company and was soon appointed as a director. In 1903, he and Jacob Kaufman organized the Merchants Rubber Company, and Rieder managed this Berlin factory until it was merged with several other footwear companies to become the Canadian Consolidated Rubber Company in 1907. Rieder was vice-president and managing director of this company, responsible for all of its Canadian rubber factories, and in 1908 he became president. He also directed the operations of the Canadian Consolidated Felt Company. In 1912-1913, Rieder formed the Dominion Tire Company in Berlin (later Uniroyal). In 1919, he resigned from his positions in the Consolidated Rubber and Felt companies to assume the position of president and managing director of the Ames Holden McCready Company of Montreal, and began building up a large leather and rubber footwear system that included the construction of a second tire plant in Kitchener (later the B.F. Goodrich Company).

In addition to his work in the rubber industry, Rieder also had an interest in urban planning. When he became president of the Canadian Consolidated Rubber Company in 1908, he and his family moved to Montreal's developing Westmount area; however, he maintained his home in Berlin and an interest in his land holdings there. In 1911, he purchased several farms in the German Company Tract Lot 22, on the west side of Berlin, and had the lands surveyed and divided into lots. With three other partners he formed the Westmount Improvement Company to carry out his vision to develop this area on the border of Berlin and Waterloo into a contemporary garden suburb.

Talmon Henry Rieder married Martha Melvina Anthes (1878-1971), daughter of John Schmitt Anthes (1844-1915) and Lydia Catherine Herlan (1849-1935), and they had four children (Paul, Edward Anthes, Margaret Catherine, and Helen Elizabeth). Martha Anthes' sister Ella Almina Anthes (1882-1971) married H. Milton Cook, who was involved in Rieder's Westmount Improvement Company. Ella spent some time travelling in Europe in 1910. Martha's sister Lydia Louise Anthes (1877-1942) married Albert Liborius Breithaupt (1870-1955).

(Source: content of the fonds, genealogical documents, and "Westmount, 'the tie that binds the twin city' : a neighbourhood nears the century mark" by Susan Mavor from _Waterloo Historical Society_ volume 96, 2008, p. 110-122)

Fonds consists of material collected by members of the Rieder and Anthes families. Material is mainly related to Ella Anthes' travels in Europe, the Rieder family tree, and Talmon Henry Rieder's career and plans for the Westmount area in Berlin/Waterloo. Includes souvenir guide books, postcards, and other ephemera; family trees; a letter and a plan regarding the Westmount suburb; and other material.

Title from content of the fonds.

Includes 1 photograph.

The extent is measured in linear metres of shelf space occupied by the fonds.

Donated in 2009.

Files arranged in chronological order.

Detailed finding aid available.

Records related to Ella (Anthes) Cook can be found at the Kitchener Public Library. These records are related to the involvement of Ella and her sisters and mother as musicians and singers in concerts by many musical clubs and societies in Kitchener-Waterloo.

Records relating to Lydia Louise Anthes and John Schmitt Anthes can be found in the Breithaupt Hewetson Clark Family fonds, especially in the series relating to Albert Liborius Breithaupt.

There has been one accrual to this fonds, and more information about the Rieder and Anthes families can be found in the finding aid for this accrual (see GA 200).

Call number: GA197

Special Collections

Rieder and Anthes family fonds