Fonds GA 197 - Rieder and Anthes Family fonds

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).