In spite of the fact that Lord Mount Stephen has not resided in Canada
for a number of years, he must be included in any group of important
workers in the Dominion. He played a leading part in the upbuilding of
the Canadian commonwealth. The vital importance of his work for the
Canadian Pacific Railway cannot be overlooked. Lord Mount Stephen and
Lord Strathcona were the two great personalities which carried the
project of the transcontinental line through a dark period of financial
storm and stress. Lord Mount Stephen reorganized or built several
other railroads in Canada, and was very closely identified with many of
the Dominion’s most important commercial movements.
Like so many other men who have achieved remarkable success in Canada,
Lord Mount Stephen is a Scotchman, having been born in that country
in 1829. In his childhood he was a herdboy on the Highlands, and
served as an apprentice in Aberdeen. He afterward obtained employment
in London, and in 1850 migrated to Canada, where his uncle, William
Stephen, was engaged in the woolen business. The young man was taken
into partnership, and upon his uncle’s death bought his interest in
the firm, which steadily grew in importance in the manufacture of
woolen goods. Lord Mount Stephen’s financial standing at this time is
indicated by the fact that he became a director in Canada’s leading
banking institution, the Bank of Montreal, of which he was afterward
vice-president. It was owing to this financial eminence, as well as to
his great ability, that he was able to build a magnificent structure
of success out of what appeared at that time to be the wreck of the
project for the Canadian Pacific Railroad. In recognition of his
services for her domain across the ocean, Queen Victoria knighted him
in 1886, and a few years afterwards raised him to the peerage with
the title of Lord Mount Stephen, a title suggested by the peak in the
Rockies called Mount Stephen, which itself had been named after the
able Scotchman. Lord Mount Stephen retired from the presidency of the
Canadian Pacific Railroad in 1888, and has spent most of his time since
then in England. He has, however, retained some of his interests in
Canada, and has remembered numerous hospitals and other institutions
with generous contributions.