George Sleeman
{{short description|Canadian brewer, politician, and baseball pioneer}}
{{infobox person
|name = George Sleeman
|image = Guelphmapleleafs.jpg
|caption = Guelph Maple Leafs team c. 1900
Sleeman is in the back row with hat
|birth_date = {{birth date|1841|08|01}}
|birth_place = St. David's, Canada West
|death_date = {{death date and age|1926|12|16|1841|08|01}}
|death_place = Guelph, Ontario, Canada
|occupation = Brewer
|employer = Silver Creek Brewery
|known_for = Guelph Maple Leafs
|module=
{{Infobox baseball biography
| embed=yes
| hofcolor= #EC1C40
| hoflink= Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame
| hoftype= Canadian
| hofdate= 1999
}}
}}
George Sleeman (August 1, 1841 – December 16, 1926) was a brewer, a major figure in Canadian baseball, and a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was mayor of Guelph from 1880 to 1882 and from 1905 to 1906.{{cite web |url=https://www.guelphpl.ca/archives/famous_person.cfm?id=27 |title=George Sleeman Sr. |author= |date=2013 |website=Guelph Public Library |access-date=24 January 2017 |quote=a businessman and civic leader, perhaps his greatest achievement is that of nurturing the growth of baseball in Guelph while simultaneously promoting the City.}} Sleeman was also the president of the Guelph Rifle Association for 20 years, president of the Guelph Turf Club, president of the Guelph Bicycle Club, and, for four years, president of the Ontario Brewing and Malting Association. He helped establish the Royal City Curling Club. His brewery also sponsored an amateur baseball team called the Silver Creek Club.{{cite web |url=http://michealmatchett.blogspot.ca/2012/08/sleeman-brewery-guelph.html |title=Sleeman's Silver Springs Brewery of Guelph Ontario: 19th Century Paternalism to Prohibition inspired Myth |last=Matchett |first=Micheal |date=29 August 2012 |website=Michealmatchett |publisher=Micheal Matchett |access-date=24 January 2017}}
Early years
The son of John H. Sleeman, an immigrant from England, and Ann M. Burrows, George Sleeman was born in then-Upper Canada in the village of St. David's (present day Niagara-on-the-Lake) and was educated there and in Guelph. The family moved to Guelph in 1857 and in 1859, he became general manager of his father's Silver Creek Brewery; six years later he became a partner. Sleeman fully took over the operation in 1867 when his father retired.{{cite web |url=http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/find/find-type-resource/archival-special-collections/sleeman-collection/timeline |title=Timeline: Sleeman Family History and Events |author= |date=2013 |website=McLaughlin Library |publisher=University of Guelph |access-date=24 January 2017}} In 1900, he incorporated his breweries as the Sleeman Brewing and Malting Company. The family played an important role in the establishment of beer in Canada.
In 1863, Sleeman married Sarah Hill.{{cite web |url=http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/find/find-type-resource/archival-special-collections/sleeman-collection/timeline |title=Timeline: Sleeman Family History and Events |author= |date=2013 |website=McLaughlin Library |publisher=University of Guelph |access-date=24 January 2017}} The family lived in Guelph, later in a gothic custom-built mansion that was completed in 1891 at an estimated $30,000, near what is now called Silver Creek Parkway.{{cite news |author= |title=The Manor is a monument to Guelph's history and much more |url=http://www.guelphmercury.com/news-story/2764311-the-manor-is-a-monument-to-guelph-s-history-and-much-more/ |newspaper=Guelph Mercury |location=Guelph |date=15 January 2015 |access-date=24 January 2017}}
In 1876, he was elected to Guelph town council for the first time. In 1877 he was elected Deputy Reeve and in 1880, after Guelph was transformed from a town into a city, he became the first mayor. He was elected mayor three subsequent times.{{cite web |url=http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/find/find-type-resource/archival-special-collections/sleeman-collection/timeline |title=Timeline: Sleeman Family History and Events |author= |date=2013 |website=McLaughlin Library |publisher=University of Guelph |access-date=24 January 2017}}
Prominent brewer
By 1890, his Silver Creek Brewery had 15 retail stores in two provinces (Ontario and Quebec).{{cite web |url=http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/find/find-type-resource/archival-special-collections/sleeman-collection/timeline |title=Timeline: Sleeman Family History and Events |author= |date=2013 |website=McLaughlin Library |publisher=University of Guelph |access-date=24 January 2017}} In 1894, Sleeman set up the Guelph Street Railway Company, an electric streetcar company. He invested so much of his own money in the operation that by 1902 the banks took over his house, railway and his brewery. (Sleeman's original railway was the foundation of the subsequent Radial Railway Company that expanded to serve more distant communities.){{cite web |url=https://www.guelphpl.ca/archives/famous_person.cfm?id=27 |title=George Sleeman Sr. |author= |date=2013 |website=Guelph Public Library |access-date=24 January 2017 |quote=a businessman and civic leader, perhaps his greatest achievement is that of nurturing the growth of baseball in Guelph while simultaneously promoting the City.}} Sleeman set up a rival brewery in 1903, Springbank, and the banks sold him back the original brewery a year later.{{cite web |url=http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/find/find-type-resource/archival-special-collections/sleeman-collection/timeline |title=Timeline: Sleeman Family History and Events |author= |date=2013 |website=McLaughlin Library |publisher=University of Guelph |access-date=24 January 2017 |quote=Sleeman Brewing and Malting is incorporated and a second brewery, Spring Bank Beverages, is erected on Edinburgh Street}}
Sleeman retired from the family business in 1905 and died in Guelph in 1926 at the age of 85 after undergoing an operation for an obstructed bowel.{{cite web |url=http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/find/find-type-resource/archival-special-collections/sleeman-collection/timeline |title=Timeline: Sleeman Family History and Events |author= |date=2013 |website=McLaughlin Library |publisher=University of Guelph |access-date=24 January 2017}}
After being taken over by the Jockey Club Brewery in 1933, the Sleeman brand was discontinued and the brewery ceased production six years later.{{cite web |url=http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/find/find-type-resource/archival-special-collections/sleeman-collection/timeline |title=Timeline: Sleeman Family History and Events |author= |date=2013 |website=McLaughlin Library |publisher=University of Guelph |access-date=24 January 2017 |quote=Sleeman Brewing and Malting is incorporated and a second brewery, Spring Bank Beverages, is erected on Edinburgh Street}} In 1985, Sleeman's great-grandson John Warren Sleeman reincorporated the Sleeman Breweries and began producing beers, and Sleeman’s Cream Ale, using the original recipes provided to him by an aunt.{{cite web |url=https://www.guelphpl.ca/archives/famous_person.cfm?id=33 |title=Sleeman Family |author= |date=2014 |website=Guelph Public Library |access-date=24 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170220203204/https://www.guelphpl.ca/archives/famous_person.cfm?id=33 |archive-date=20 February 2017 |url-status=dead }}
Achievements in Canadian baseball
Sleeman had been a pitcher for the Guelph Maple Leafs baseball club and later became the team's financial backer. He was the first team manager to import American players; at first, he paid them a share of the profits, but later he paid his players salaries. He encouraged other teams to do so in the new Canadian Association of Base Ball Players, of which he was president. In 1869, the Leafs squad won the Canadian championship and Sleeman was named president of the club. The Leafs also won the Canadian championship in 1870 and 1871.{{cite news |last=Sanagan |first=Chris |date=24 March 2016 |title=Guelph Maple Leafs baseball team was a hit |url=http://www.guelphmercury.com/sports-story/6404705-guelph-maple-leafs-baseball-team-was-a-hit |newspaper=Guelph Mercury |location=Guelph |access-date=24 January 2017}} In 1877, Sleeman helped establish the International Association as a competitor to the National League.
Later, when Toronto and Hamilton entered teams, Sleeman's Guelph Maple Leafs started losing money and eventually the team was disbanded, but returned in 1896. George Sleeman was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.{{cite web |url=https://baseballhalloffame.ca/inductees/george-sleeman |title=George Sleeman |author= |date=September 2016 |website=Baseball Hall of Fame |access-date=24 January 2017 |quote=He has been dubbed the father of professional Canadian baseball for his role in the early organization of the game.}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sleeman, George}}
Category:People from Niagara-on-the-Lake
Category:Canadian baseball players
Category:Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductees