| The Holtorfs | Christopher Holtorf came to Canada in 1850 as a 30 year-old
shoe maker. He had come from Germany, though where exactly we are not sure.
Sometime near 1859 Christopher married Elizabeth Sandford.
It has been difficult to track the enigmatic Holtorfs through the records kept for each census. Perhaps Christopher was an itinerant shoe peddler, travelling from town to town and farm to farm. Though they rarely appear in the records, when they do it is in what is today called the Region of Peel. They had a family of two boys: Ruben born in 1859, and Henry born in 1861. The family does appear in the 1871 census living in Caledon Village, Ontario. Henry and his brother had left home by the 1881census. Ruben was a clerk living in Middleton's Hotel, and Henry was a clerk living with store owner John Brown and his family in Orangeville. Henry met and married
May Hulse |
| Christopher Holtorf dies
1904 |
Chirstopher appears finally as an old widower in the 1901 census in Chinguacousy Township, and he died in 1904 in the House Refuge in Brampton, possibly from Bright's disease. |
