Fonds AFC131 - Ermatinger Family fonds

Charles Oakes Ermatinger (variously written Charles O.Z. Ermatinger and Charles Oaks Ermatinger) was born on February 5, 1851 in St. Thomas, Ontario. The youngest child of Edward and Achsah (née Burnham) Ermatinger, Charles was educated in St. Thomas and at Galt Grammar School. After articling with H.F. Ellis and D.B. Read, Charles Ermatinger was called to the bar in 1873. He practiced law in St. Thomas, and from 1883 to 1886 represented East Elgin as a Member of Provincial Parliament. A member of the Conservative Party, Ermatinger ran unsuccessfully in the riding of East Elgin during the 1887 federal election.

Charles Ermatinger was named Queen's Counsel in 1885, and appointed Junior Judge for Elgin County in January, 1890. Borrowing from his father's earlier history of the Talbot Settlement, Charles wrote The Talbot regime: or, the first half-century of the Talbot Settlement, published in 1904. He also served as Elgin County Historical Society president and wrote many short articles on Canadian history.

In 1873, Charles Oakes Ermatinger married Charlotte (née Richardson) Dickson, daughter of Judge Hugh Richardson, justice of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories. Charles and Charlotte had two children:
Blanche Muriel Ermatinger (b. 1875)
Charles Percy Ermatinger (b. 1879)

Charles Oakes Ermatinger died on December 16, 1921; his wife Charlotte died in January, 1916. Charles and Charlotte Ermatinger are buried at the Old St. Thomas Church (Anglican) in St. Thomas, Ontario.

Edward Ermatinger was born on the island of Elba, just off the coast of Italy, in February, 1797. The eldest son of Lawrence Edward Ermatinger, an assistant commissary general in the British army, Edward was raised in England along with his brother Francis (born 1798). According to Edward's autobiography, his father was often absent; Edward and Francis were well-educated, if sometimes ill treated by their caregivers.

Edward's grandfather, Lawrence Ermatinger, had immigrated to Montreal from Switzerland in the mid-1760s, and much of the family still resided in North America. Edward's uncle Frederick Ermatinger was Sheriff of Montreal, and his other uncle Charles Oakes Ermatinger was a prominent fur trader with the Hudson's Bay Company. Lawrence Edward Ermatinger arranged for his sons' employment as clerks with the Hudson's Bay Company, and Edward and Francis sailed from London in 1818 aboard the ship Prince of Wales.

Edward and Francis arrived at York Factory on August 14, 1818. Although Edward had initially signed a five year contract, he remained in the Hudson's Bay Company's employ until 1828. He worked at various sites in present-day Manitoba, including York Factory, Island Lake, Oxford House, and Red River; his travels took him as far west as Fort Vancouver, in the present-day state of Oregon. In 1828, Edward Ermatinger went back to England, returning to Canada the following year. He lived in Montreal for one year before choosing to settle in St. Thomas, Ontario in 1830.

In St. Thomas, Ermatinger opened a general store and managed the Bank of Upper Canada, the Commercial Bank, and the Bank of Montreal successively. Afterwards, he helped establish the Bank of the County of Elgin, where he was its president. He also served at St. Thomas' postmaster from 1842 to 1876. In 1844, Edward Ermatinger was elected a Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly for the County of Middlesex, which at the time also included the County of Elgin. He was defeated in the election of 1847.

Edward Ermatinger established the St. Thomas Standard, the first newspaper in the community, in 1844. He also wrote numerous letters to the editors of other local newspapers on religious and political topics, and was a weekly columnist for the Hamilton Spectator newspaper. Ermatinger produced short stories, poems, diaries, and a book entitled The Life of Colonel Talbot and the Talbot Settlement, originally published in 1859.

Edward Ermatinger was a devout member of the Church of England, and choir director of the St. Thomas Church choir. He married Achsah Burnham (born 1809), daughter of judge Zaccheus Burnham of Cobourg, Ontario. Edward and Achsah had seven children:
Frances Elizabeth Ermatinger (1834-1857)
Lawrence Edward Ermatinger (1836-1837)
Maria Ermatinger Baldwin (1840-1863)
Annie Jemima Ermatinger (1843-1917)
Frederick William Ermatinger (1845-1845)
Francis Edward Ermatinger (1847-1892)
Charles Oakes Ermatinger (1851-1921)

Edward Ermatinger died on October 29, 1876. Achsah died on March 1, 1881. Edward and Achsah Ermatinger are buried in the churchyard of the Old St. Thomas Church (Anglican) in St. Thomas, Ontario.

The Ermatinger family is well-known in the history of pre-Confederation Canada; members of several generations of the Ermatinger family were involved with the fur trade, and others achieved notoriety as politicians, lawyers, and public servants.

The first Ermatinger known to have settled in North America was Lawrence Ermatinger (b. ca. 1736 in Schaffhausen, Switzerland), a merchant who settled in Montreal in the early 1760s. Ermatinger supplied goods to North American and British buyers, including fur traders and the British army. Lawrence Ermatinger married Jemima Oakes and had eight children.

Two of the Ermatinger sons were particularly prominent in North America. Frederick William Ermatinger (1769-1827) served as Sheriff of Montreal and was one of the Bank of Montreal's first directors. Charles Oakes Ermatinger (1776-1833) was a fur trader, initially working for the North West Company and then independently. Another Ermatinger son, Lawrence Edward Ermatinger, moved from Montreal to Italy, Spain, and England. Lawrence Edward Ermatinger is the father of Edward and Francis Ermatinger, brothers who came to North America as clerks for the Hudson's Bay Company.

Records from many members of the Ermatinger family survive in libraries and archives throughout Canada. The Ermatinger Old Stone House in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (built 1814) and the Francis Ermatinger House in Oregon City, Oregon (built 1845) are today museums dedicated to providing insight into North American pioneer life.