Joseph E. Seagram
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Joseph Emm Seagram (April 15, 1841 - August 18, 1919) was a Canadian distillery founder, politician, and major owner of thoroughbred racehorses.
Born at Fisher's Mills, now part of Cambridge, Ontario, his parents died when he was in his teens and for several years, Joseph Seagram lived at William Tassie's boarding school (now Galt Collegiate Institute and Vocational School) in the city of Galt (also now part of Cambridge). He studied for a year at a business college in Buffalo, New York then returned home where he worked for a time as a bookkeeper at a grist mill. Offered the opportunity to manage a flour mill in Waterloo, Ontario, he learned about the distilling process, a small aside to the company's flour business using extra grain stocks to make alcoholic beverages. In 1869, five years after joining the company, Seagram bought out one of the firm's three partners then in 1883 became its one hundred percent owner. Making whisky became the most important part of the business and Joseph Seagram built it into one of the country's most successful of its kind. His 1907 creation, Seagram's VO whisky, became the largest-selling Canadian whisky in the world.
A lover of racehorses, he founded Seagram Stables in 1888, building its bloodlines by importing mares in foal from English sires. Between 1891 and 1898, his stables won eight consecutive Queen's Plates, Canada's most prestigious horse racing event and North America's oldest thoroughbred horse race. In total, during his lifetime Joseph Seagram won the race fifteen times plus his heirs who took over the stable won it another five times. Joseph Seagram also served as president of the Ontario Jockey Club from 1906 to 1917 and in 1908 helped found the Canadian Racing Association.
Joseph Seagram served as a Waterloo town councilor from 1879 to 1886. In the Canadian federal election, 1896, he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons as the Conservative Party member for Waterloo North. In the 1900 election he was acclaimed and was reelected in 1904, serving until September of 1908 when he chose not to seek another term.
Joseph Emm Seagram died in Waterloo in 1919. His heirs sold the company to Samuel Bronfman in 1928.
Categories: 1841 births | 1919 deaths | Canadian businesspeople | Beverage magnates | Members of the Canadian House of Commons from Ontario | Ontario sportspeople | Canadian racehorse owners and breeders | Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame | People from Waterloo Region, Ontario | Pre-Confederation Ontario people | Waterloo, Ontario
