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and was born in Ballyvourney, County Cork, Ireland on the 5th May 1848. His parents were reverend Richard Kirchhoffer, and Isabella Fairtough.  
 
He was educated at Marlborough College, Wiltshire, England. He came to Canada in 1864, and studied law in his uncle’s office.  
 
He took part in the Fenian raid in 1866 as an Ensign, becoming Captain in the Port Hope (46th) Battalion. He was called to the Bar in Ontario in 1871, practising in Port Hope.  
 
In 1883 he moved to Manitoba. He founded the Plum Creek settlement, which today is known as the town of Souris, Manitoba. He was Reeve of the Rural Municipality of Glenwood from 1883 to 1886, and later Mayor of the Town of Souris.  
 
He served as Chairperson of the Western Judicial District Board, President of the Glenwood Agricultural Society, and of the Agricultural Society of Brandon.  
 
He practised law in Brandon, and became the member from West Brandon in the Legislature of Manitoba, from 1886 to 1888, being defeated by Herbert Clement Graham.  
 
He was appointed to the Senate on 16th December 1892 on the recomendation of John Sparrow David Thompson representing the Senatorial Division of Selkirk, Manitoba, and served for 22 years.  
 
A Conservative, he was Chairman of the Senate Divorce Committee in 1895 and 1896, and of the Senate Contingent Committee in 1897.  
 
Senator Kirchhoffer, was a friend of Thomas George Shaughnessy an Official with the C.P. Railway, and was aware of the desire of the C.P.R. to acquire agricultural land in British Columbia.  
 
Kirchhoffer was a strong believer in the potential for sale of small land holdings to immigrants. As early as 1890, he had written to 1st Baron Shaughnessy about the potential for creating, and then selling small parcels of land.  
 
In July 1897, Kirchhoffer offered his assistance to Shaughnessy if he was planning to create town-sites. He was already active in land development in the Okanagan, and was one of the major shareholders of the ‘Peachland Townsite Company’.  
 
This land company was incorporated on November 20th 1899. Other shareholders with Senator Kirchhoffer included J. M. Robinson (President), Dr. C. J. Jamieson (vice-president), W. J. Robinson (secretary-treasurer), D. H. Watson, R. C. Lipsett, W. E. Huston, G. H. V. Bulyea, F. Chaplin, J. Giles, D. H. Scott, G. A. Henderson, T. Anderson and Rev. A. T. Robinson.  
 
He married twice, the first in 1871 to Ada Smith, and the second time to Clara Howard the sister to the wife of the Senior Judge of Toronto and York County, Ontario,  
 
namely his Honour Judge Joseph Easton McDougall, son of the Right Honourable William McDougall, C. B., Father of Confederation, first designate Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba, and the Governor of Rupert’s Land, and Northwest Territories.  
 
At the time of his death in Ottawa on the 22nd of December 1914 his Brandon home was at 247 Russell Street, Brandon.  
 
Senator Kirchhoffer suffered a long ailing before his death, and his remains had to wait till spring to be returned to Brandon for burial.  
 
On Monday April 12th 1915 thousands of citizens gathered outside a crowded St. Matthews’s Church to pay their final respects.  
 
Inside the Church the last rights were performed by Bishops McAdam Harding of Qu’Appelle and A. U. de Poncier of New Westminster who had been former Rectors.  
 
Mayor William Harry Cater, and council attended as a body with army officials, and institutional representatives among the congregation.  
 
His second wife, Clara was born in 1848, and died at age 85 years on 1st February 1933.  
 
They are interned together in the Brandon Municipal Cemetery, but on the Monument above Clara is not mentioned. The Epitaph reads, “I fear no evil.”  
 
Note: The Hamlet south of Brandon named Nesbitt commemorates Senator Kirchhoffer.  
 
 
 
Source: http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/kirchhoffer_jn.shtml  
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian_raids