KAISER, Thomas Erlin

Thomas Erlin Kaiser

1863 – 1940

Born: 1863-01-01
Edgely, York County, Ontario
Died: 1940-02-29
Oshawa, Ontario
Role: Mayor of Oshawa 1907–1908; Member of Provincial Parliament for Ontario riding 1925–1930; physician; author of Historic Sketches of Oshawa (1921)

Edgely-born schoolteacher turned physician who built a medical practice in Oshawa in 1890, served two terms as mayor of the town in 1907–1908, won the Ontario County seat for the Conservatives in 1925, and wrote the first scholarly local history of Oshawa, published in 1921.

Thomas Erlin Kaiser was a physician and a two-term mayor of Oshawa at the turn of the twentieth century, a Conservative backbencher in the Ontario Legislature in the late 1920s, and the author of Historic Sketches of Oshawa, the first substantial local history of the town, published in 1921.

Early life

Kaiser was born in 1863 at Edgely, a farm community in York County near Weston. His first occupation was schoolteaching; he taught in Etobicoke Township from 1883 to 1886. He then entered the medical faculty at the University of Toronto and held a militia commission with the 12th York Rangers during his student years.

Oshawa medical practice

On completion of his degree, Kaiser set up his medical practice in Oshawa in 1890. The town was then still small — around four thousand people — but in rapid industrial growth driven by the McLaughlin Carriage Works, which in 1907 would evolve into McLaughlin Motor Car Company (and in 1918, into General Motors of Canada). Kaiser’s practice covered both sides of that transition.

Oshawa municipal politics

Kaiser held a seat as an Ontario County councillor from 1902 to 1906. He served as Mayor of Oshawa for the 1907 and 1908 terms.

Orange Order

Kaiser held his Orange affiliation through Riverdale L.O.L. No. 2097 — a Toronto lodge, reflecting that his lodge ties remained with his birth region even after two decades’ residence in Oshawa.

Historic Sketches of Oshawa

Kaiser wrote Historic Sketches of Oshawa and published it in 1921 through the Reformer printing house in Oshawa. The book is a compilation of material drawn from municipal records, personal reminiscence, and interviews with long-time residents. It remains in use as a primary source in Oshawa genealogical and local-history research; copies are held in most Ontario public-library local-history collections.

Provincial politics

In the 1925 Ontario general election Kaiser stood in the provincial riding of Ontario (distinct from the federal riding of the same name) as the Conservative candidate and unseated the Liberal incumbent, taking the riding into the Conservative column at Queen’s Park. He was returned again in 1926. The 1929 election removed him, and he did not contest another seat.

Death

Kaiser died at Oshawa on 29 February 1940, at the age of seventy-six. (1940 was a leap year.)

Sources

Legislative Assembly of Ontario — Members' roster — Record of Kaiser's MPP service for Ontario riding, 1925–1930.
Kaiser, T. E. Historic Sketches of Oshawa. Oshawa: Reformer Printing, 1921. — Kaiser's own book on the town; a primary-source local history and a contemporary account of his civic milieu.
Oshawa Public Library — Local History Collection — Holds Kaiser family materials, Reformer newspaper archives, and council minutes from his mayoralty.
Canadian Parliamentary Guide, 1926–1930 editions