included the building of the Credit Valley Railway in 1878-79
and upon its completion he was appointed general manager of the
road and also filled the position of consulting engineer of the
Ontario and Quebec Railway. In the spring of 1883 as general
manager of construction, Mr. Ross began at Swift Current the
building of the Canadian Pacific Railway over the Rockies,
the Selkirks and the Gold Range, and early in November, 1885,
this stretch of six hundred and twenty-three miles ending at
Craig Ellachie, was completed more than a year ahead of time,
creating a record for fast railway building on this continent
and evoking from Sir William Van Horne the statement that such
a record meant millions to the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was
during the building of the road over the mountains that Mr. Ross
might be said to have discovered and subsequently came into
close touch with William Mackenzie, Donald Mann (both since
knighted), Herbert S. Holt and several others who later on took a
front place among the railway magnates and financial leaders of
Canada. In 1886 Mr. Ross brought about the settlement of location
of the Canadian Pacific east of Montreal and the legislative
difficulties attending the entry of the road into the state of
Maine. Upon completing his arduous and complex task he took the
contract for the construction of the remaining portion of their
line not already provided for. The extensions and improvements of
the Canadian Pacific created difficult tasks of civil engineering
which were ably performed by Mr. Ross who at the same time
considered the question of railway construction in South America
for which he had options. The railways of the southern continent
were to be built in Argentine and Chile and the options in those
two republics alone amounted to over twenty million dollars. Mr.
Ross was also interested in important contracts in Chicago and
elsewhere.
He established his home permanently in Montreal in 1888 and
from this point supported his active professional interests,
contracting and building the Regina and Long Lake Railways some
two hundred and fifty miles in length. In 1889 he supervised the
construction of the Calgary & Edmonton Railway, three hundred
miles in length.
Having proven his capability in the field of steam railway
construction Mr. Ross, in 1892, largely concentrated his energies
upon problems of street railway building and in connection with
Sir William Mackenzie purchased the Toronto Railway from the
city of Toronto. He afterward rebuilt the tracks and installed
electric power in the operation of the road. In 1892 he undertook
the reorganization of the Montreal Street Railway, changing
it from horse car to electric service. He was at the head of
the syndicate that purchased the franchise from the old City
Passenger Railway Company. In the same way he converted the
street railways of Winnipeg and St. John, New Brunswick, into
electric lines and in 1896 he joined Sir William Mackenzie in
the purchase of the tramway systems of Birmingham, England,
and organized the City of Birmingham Tramways Company for the
operation of the road under an electric system. In the following
year he secured a charter and franchise from the government of
Jamaica to build electric tramways on the island.
The energy and enterprise of Mr. Ross seemed limitless. No matter
how many and how important were the enterprises with which he was
actively connected it seemed possible for him to take on others
and become a factor in their successful control. He was one of
the promoters of the Lake of the Woods Milling Company in 1887,
chief promoter of the Columbia River Lumber Company in 1889 and
of the Canadian Land and Investment Company in 1891. His opinions
carried weight in the councils of various companies with which he
was connected as a member of the board of directors, including
the Bank of Montreal; Calgary and Edmonton Land Company, Limited;
Canada Life Insurance Company; Canada Sugar Refining Company,
Limited; Canadian General Electric Company, Limited; Laurentide
Paper Company, Limited; Royal Trust Company; and Dominion Bridge
Company and St. John Railway Company, of which two last named he
was president.
Writing of his business career a local paper said: “One of the
most interesting periods of Mr. Ross’s life was that of his
prominent connection with the Dominion Coal and the Dominion
Iron and Steel Companies, lasting for a period of upwards of ten
years. At a comparatively early stage of the development of the
coal and iron industries on the island of Cape Breton, Mr. Ross
with his customary business astuteness, foresaw the possibilities
of great development, and decided to invest a considerable amount
of his capital there. He became the owner of a large block of
shares in the coal company, and after the promotion of the
Dominion Iron and Steel Company in 1901 he became a director.
As it was obvious that the interests of the two concerns would,
if steel turned out a success, be very much bound up, Mr. Ross
increased his holdings in coal until, in the same year, the Steel
Company was launched, his interest became paramount, and he was
placed in the position of being able to dictate the policy of
the company. Having retired from active participation in many
of the interests which made his earlier career such a busy one,
he determined to give his personal attention to the development
of his Cape Breton interests and with that object in view he
accepted the office of vice president of the Dominion Coal
Company and managing director of the Dominion Iron and Steel
Company in 1901.
“The succeeding years were destined to be full of business
anxieties and lively contendings but his keen business ability
and foresight brought him to the end of his active connection
with the companies a much richer man than when he went in,
despite the loss of the fight in the courts over the dispute
about the terms of the contract for the supply of coal to the
Steel Company, 1907-08.
“Besides this fight Mr. Ross conducted the affairs of the Coal
Company through disastrous fires which seriously affected the
output of the mines, and labor troubles one of which was of
a protracted and costly nature. Throughout all the various
negotiations which were almost continuously carried on between
the two companies for years, Mr. Ross found his paramount
interest was in the Coal Company although he was financially
and executively interested in both, so that eventually he
withdrew from the steel board and gave his whole time to the
Coal Company, becoming its president, a post he retained until
December, 1909. In March, 1909, at the annual meeting of the
Dominion Coal Company, Mr. Ross made an exhaustive statement
concerning the relations of the two companies following the
decision of the Privy Council in the preceding month, in which he
justified the course taken by his company. He explained from the
coal point of view, how the company had saved the Steel Company
from bankruptcy at a critical time following the termination of
the lease of the Coal Company to Steel in 1903 and the subsequent
dispute which became acute in 1906 and reached the courts
the following year. The final settlement of the terms of the
judgment between the two companies and the eventual purchase of
Mr. Ross’ interest in coal for four million, seven hundred and
fifty thousand dollars, which took place late in 1909 when he
retired from the presidency and Coal was amalgamated with Steel,
concluded the most interesting and strenuous period of his career.
“Although Mr. Ross had strong likes and dislikes he never
hesitated to proclaim openly ability he saw in the make-up of
a business opponent. A conversation during the progress of
the Steel and Coal litigation brought out this characteristic
to a marked degree. During that memorable conflict Mr. J. H.
Plummer and Sir William Van Horne were perhaps more prominently
in the firing line on the Steel side than any one else, while
Mr. Ross for the Coal Company was the inner and outer defenses
and commander-in-chief combined. He was asked one day while
discussing the possibilities of Canadian Pacific Railway stock
what would take place supposing anything happened to Sir Thomas
Shaughnessy, whereupon Mr. Ross said: ‘This statement will
surprise you, but Van Horne would have to go back,’ thus paying
a high compliment to his chief adversary in the Steel-Coal
conflict. The manner in which Mr. Ross came to the rescue of
a very important brokerage firm, the head of which is now
dead, the day following President Cleveland’s message on the
Venezuelan situation was another indication, not only of his
good heart, but general interest in the financial community. The
market was in a bad way generally when the message to congress
accentuated to such an extent the unrest and lack of confidence,
that gilt-edged securities were without buyers, even at ruinous
prices. The financier in question was desperately in need of
funds and although his securities were of the best, the then
general manager of the Bank of Montreal, who has also passed
away, did not consider himself justified in making the advance.
When James Ross heard of the affair he came forward and said:
‘We cannot afford to allow this man to go to the wall, for if he
goes half of St. François Xavier Street will tumble with him.
Give him a million, take his securities and charge the amount to
my account.’ Another public-spirited director assumed half the
responsibility and a very grave financial smash was averted.
“Mr. Ross was first president of the Mexican Light, Heat and
Power Company and during his several visits to the Mexican
capital was brought in contact with the then ruling spirits of
the republic. He at once formed a very high opinion of the then
president with whom Mr. Ross had several interesting interviews,
touching the trade relations of Canada and Mexico, and with
that never erring foresight he also stated to a friend on his
return from the Mexican capital that if ever Diaz was forced
to relinquish the helm of state, trouble would follow in the
southern republic as it did not appear to the Montreal financier
that there were enough of trained men around the then president
to carry on successfully the affairs of that country, and the
words of the former appear to have been prophetic.
“Although having a commanding interest in many other
establishments and industries Mr. Ross used to say that the Bank
of Montreal, the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Dominion Coal
Company were nearest his heart. He was a director in the first
named institution since 1899, the largest individual shareholder
in the great national railway system and up to a few years ago
the president and the holder of five million dollars stock
in the last named corporation. Mr. James Ross succeeded the
late Mr. Hugh McLennan and had been in consequence director of
the Bank of Montreal for fourteen years. Speaking of the loss
that institution sustained in the death of Mr. Ross, its vice
president and general manager, Mr. H. V. Meredith, said: ‘We have
lost an eminently strong man and a sound adviser,’ while Mr. R.
B. Angus, the president, spoke of him as a very able director of
the bank and a warm personal friend.”
About the time that Mr. Ross arrived in Canada the country
was deeply engrossed in the discussion of free trade versus
protection, and having seen the neighboring republic grow from
an agricultural to a manufacturing community, and realizing
what the same fiscal policy would do for Canada, he at once
espoused the cause then championed by Sir John Macdonald and
Sir Charles Tupper, both as regards the fiscal policy of the
Dominion and their railway program as well. Mr. Ross was a
moderate protectionist, believing that such a policy was
mutually beneficial both to the manufacturer and consumer. He
had seen such states as Illinois, Ohio, Minnesota and other
agricultural sections of the Union vote for protection and often
when apprehension was expressed over the probable outcome of a
moderately protective tariff for the western provinces of Canada,
Mr. Ross would reply that the establishment of eastern industries
all over the west would soon convert the farmers of Alberta,
Manitoba and Saskatchewan to protectionist ideas.
In 1872 Mr. Ross was united in marriage to Miss Annie Kerr, a
daughter of the late John Kerr of Kingston, New York, and sheriff
of Ulster county. They had one son, John Kenneth Levison Ross,
who married Ethel A. Matthews, a daughter of W. D. Matthews of
Toronto, and they have two children, James Kenneth and Hylda
Annie. Mrs. James Ross is deeply interested in organizations for
promoting aesthetic tastes and is active in support of benevolent
and charitable projects. She is a director of the Society of
Decorative Art, vice president of the English section of the
woman’s branch of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society and is
president of the Maternity Hospital of Montreal.
Flags at half mast on the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Trust
Company, on September 20, 1913, gave official announcement to the
financial and business community that Mr. James Ross, director of
the institutions, had passed away. It is fitting in a review of
his life that one take cognizance of his many good deeds. Aside
from his prominent activity in railway and financial circles,
he was a man of marked public spirit and benevolence. In 1902
he gave to Lindsay, Ontario, and the county of Victoria, the
Ross Memorial Hospital as a memorial to his parents. Two years
later Alexandra Hospital of Montreal received from him a gift of
twenty-five thousand dollars and in 1910 he gave an equal amount
to the Montreal Art Association of which he had long been a
member and of which he was at that time the president. His total
benefactions to the Art Association amounted to over a quarter
of a million. In his will he made the following public bequests:
to the Royal Victoria Hospital, the General Hospital and the
Maternity Hospital each fifty thousand dollars; to Alexandra
Hospital twenty-five thousand dollars; to the Montreal Art
Association and to McGill University each one hundred thousand
dollars and to the Ross Memorial Hospital at Lindsay, Ontario,
twenty-five thousand dollars. He also remembered many of his old
friends and took special care that his servants and employes
should be provided for.
Mr. Ross was identified with many public interests and ranked
with loyal Canadians whose efforts have been effective forces in
promoting general progress.
He was a governor of McGill University, of the Royal Victoria
Hospital, of the Alexandra Hospital and of the Protestant
Hospital for the Insane at Montreal. He was likewise a trustee
of Bishop’s College at Lennoxville, P. Q., and in 1900 he was
appointed honorary lieutenant colonel of the Duke of York’s Royal
Canadian Hussars. He took an active interest in yachting and was
the owner of the Glencairn, which won the Seawanhaka-Corinthian
cup for half raters in American waters in 1896. He subsequently
bought the late Joseph Pulitzer’s large steam yacht, Liberty,
of one thousand six hundred fifty tons, which he renamed the
Glencairn, and in which he spent much of his vacation time in the
Mediterranean. It might be interesting to note here that both the
small half rater and the large steam yacht were named in memory
of the large full-rigged ship Glencairn, which was owned and
commanded by his late father, Captain John Ross, of Cromarty. Mr.
James Ross was for many years commodore of the Royal St. Lawrence
Yacht Club, and was honorary commodore for life, and was a member
of the Royal Yacht Squadron.
Mr. Ross was well known in club circles, holding membership
in the Mount Royal, St. James, Forest and Stream, Canada,
Montreal Hunt, Montreal Jockey, Montreal Racquet and Montreal
Curling Clubs of Montreal; Rideau Club of Ottawa; Manitoba Club
of Winnipeg; Toronto Royal Canadian Yacht and York Clubs of
Toronto; Union Club of St. John, New Brunswick; Halifax Club of
Halifax, Nova Scotia; New York Yacht and Manhattan Clubs of New
York; Royal C. B. Yacht Club of Sydney, Nova Scotia; and the
Constitutional Club of London, England.
Following the demise of Mr. Ross the Gazette of September 22,
1913, said editorially: “The history of James Ross is to some
extent the history of the financial and creative progress
of Canada. He has been associated with many of our greatest
enterprises and always in positions of prominence and leadership.
In any list of citizens whose financial power must be reckoned
with in predicting the course of supreme events in this country,
the name of James Ross would have stood near the top. Many of his
fellow citizens will think of him, however, as a generous and
discriminating collector and exhibitor of art. At a time when
Montreal had not many men who both appreciated and possessed the
financial ability to purchase splendid specimens of the best art
which the old world has produced, James Ross entered that field,
and soon made his private collection one of the things of which
Montrealers were proud. The public generally have had a chance to
admire some of his treasures at Loan Exhibitions; and, in this
fashion, the pleasure and benefit of his collection have been
widely shared.”
Tributes of respect and regard were paid to Mr. Ross by people
in every station in life. The high and the low, the rich and the
poor did him honor. The following letter was received by his son,
Mr. James K. L. Ross:
“The engineers on the S. and L. were much surprised and deeply
grieved when we heard that your father had passed away. Our
deepest sympathy goes out to you in your sad bereavement. We all
feel that we have lost a good and true friend. No other man we
have worked for gave our men the feeling of security in their
position that he did. We always were satisfied that if we did
what was right no other influence could hurt us or our families.
When some of us were unfortunate enough to err in judgment and
our error cost the company quite a lot, in the usual course of
railways the officials had nothing to do but severely discipline
us. Your father used his own position not to discipline our men
but to give them a good man’s advice, which has helped our men
and also the company which he then presided over. Acts like these
are never forgotten by railway men and there were many sincere
expressions of sorrow heard when the news of his death flashed
over our road. They have also instructed us to convey to your
sorrowing mother our deepest sympathy in her trying hour.
“On behalf of the S. and L. engineers, we are sincerely yours
(Signed) D. W. Macdonald, chairman; Parker Holmes, secretary and
treasurer; Hugh MacPherson, chief engineer.
“Glace Bay, Cape Breton, Canada, September 20, 1913.”
Another well merited tribute being from Principal Peterson of
McGill University, who said:
“The other day we were greatly gratified to learn that a member
of the board of governors, the late James Ross, had remembered
McGill University in his will to the extent of one hundred
thousand dollars. Mr. Ross was one of our friends. His connection
with the administration of the university had given him many
opportunities of appreciating the difficulty of carrying on an
institution whose needs in the very nature of things, are always
outrunning its resources; and his kindly thought of us has
touched a chord in our hearts that vibrates with gratitude and
appreciation.
“It is a melancholy pleasure to record also our indebtedness
to Mr. Ross for much help and advice given as a member of the
governing body of the university, especially in the department
of mechanical engineering. Besides being a great and experienced
engineer, he was a patron also of the arts and sciences. He took
an active interest also in the well-being of our hospitals, and
as they are in a sense university institutions, his bequests to
the Royal Victoria and Maternity Hospitals may be cited here as
additional reasons for gratitude. He was a man of high artistic
culture, one who ‘loved that beauty should go beautifully.’
Mere splendor without taste would always have been repellent
to him. Perhaps his best memorial, apart from the magnificent
collection of pictures which he got together with such care and
discrimination, and which was the joy and pride of his wide
circle of friends, will be the beautiful building on Sherbrooke
Street to which he has contributed so largely as the permanent
home of the Art Association. Such men lend valuable aid in the
way of enabling a community to realize some aspects of its higher
self.”
WALTER R. L. SHANKS.
Among the younger members of the well known and distinguished law
firm of Brown, Montgomery & McMichael, advocates and barristers,
is Walter R. L. Shanks. He was born March 20, 1886, at Millers
Falls, Massachusetts. In 1908 he received from McGill University
the Bachelor of Arts degree and in 1911 that of Bachelor of
Civil Law. In July of that year he was admitted to the bar and
has since been a member of the above firm. Mr. Shanks is a young
lawyer of promise, and it may be said that his ability--or
such ability as his opportunities have permitted him to
demonstrate--entitles him to be included among those young men to
whom the future holds out rich fields along professional lines.
Mr. Shanks is socially popular and is a member of the University
Club of Montreal and the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.
GEORGE ALEXANDER BROWN, M. D.
George Alexander Brown, M. D., one of the best known physicians
of Montreal, his powers developing through the exercise of
effort, was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on
the 28th of June, 1866. The Browns are one of the old families
on that island and representatives of the name in different
generations have been prominently identified with professional
interests. The paternal grandfather of Dr. Brown was president
of the Prince of Wales College, while the maternal grandfather
was the leader of the government in Charlottetown for twenty-one
years.
Reared in the place of his nativity, Dr. Brown pursued his early
education in St. Peters Boys’ School and subsequently continued
his studies in Kings College University at Windsor, Nova Scotia.
The classical course which he there pursued constituted the
foundation upon which he built the superstructure of professional
learning. Entering McGill University, he won the degrees of M.
D. and C. M. from that institution where he graduated with the
class of 1889. During the succeeding year and a half he was
resident physician of the Montreal General Hospital, thus putting
his theoretical knowledge to the practical test and gaining
that broad and valuable experience which only hospital practice
can give. For more than twenty years Dr. Brown has successfully
followed his profession in Montreal and in addition to an
extensive private practice is acting as physician to the Montreal
Dispensary and is in charge of the tubercular clinic. He has
been a close and constant student of his profession, interested
in all that tends to bring to man the key to the complex mystery
which we call life and his own investigations and research have
resulted in bringing to light some valuable truths.
In February, 1906, he submitted to the Montreal
Medico-Chirurgical Society, a new treatment for consumption which
he has used in his practice with great success. This consists of
the injection into the human system of a solution principally
of iodine and in April, 1912, he read before the International
Tubercular Congress at Rome, Italy, a paper upon this treatment.
He is a member of the Montreal Medical Society and keeps in close
touch with the advanced work that is being done by fellow members
of the profession through the perusal of medical journals and the
latest contributions to medical literature as well as through his
connection with medical societies.
Dr. Brown was united in marriage to Mrs. Elizabeth (Conroy)
Muldoon of Watertown, who by her former marriage had two
children, William and Ella. Dr. and Mrs. Brown have become the
parents of two children, Elsie and Basil. They have a wide
acquaintance socially and are connected with the Unitarian
Society, while Dr. Brown is also a member of the University Club.
Year by year has marked his steady progress in his profession,
and today his position of prominence is accorded him by the
consensus of opinion on the part of colleagues and contemporaries.
SIR EDWARD SEABORNE CLOUSTON.