Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is enclosed in _underscores_.
[Illustration:
The TRAIL
_of the_
SWINGING
LANTERNS
A RACY, RAILROADING REVIEW
OF
TRANSPORTATION MATTERS, METHODS AND MEN
_By John Morison Copeland_
]
For additional copies of this book, or duplicate prints of the
illustrations for office, den or mailing communicate with
J. M. COPELAND
5 Dalton Road, Toronto
Telephone, College 185
TORONTO, CANADA
ADDISON & MAINPRICE
1918
FOREWORD
In compiling the miscellaneous array of facts embodied in the pen
sketches arranged within the covers of this book, the principal object
striven for has been to seek out, set down and thereby rescue from
forgetfulness and the danger of extinction, a grist of information
pertaining to local railway life in Canada and to men identified with
international railway affairs.
The data is necessarily incomplete, owing to the embarrassment of
available material clamoring for place and because the railways’
numerous departments harbor scores of brilliant officials and a host of
yet undecorated aides, but the biographies, particularly, have revived
some interesting early history which was the parent and foundation of
present-day conditions.
The concentrated effort and predominant characteristics which
eventually won prominence for the gentlemen herein featured may be an
incentive and safeguard to young men and the journal is deferentially
submitted for perusal to all readers who appreciate how paramount among
vital essentials to progress and comfort are the railroads, but it is
especially dedicated to those cosmopolitans whose duties are so closely
interwoven with the daily transport of people and their natural and
manufactured products.
In no other fields of endeavor does the spirit of genuine _cameraderie_
and the bonds of unconventional fraternity exist more generally than
among railway men in all branches--among allies and competitors
alike--and it is hoped the work will prove to this irregular army of
“thoroughbreds” a book of reference, a reminder later on of former
devotees of the magnetic game and also perpetuate those splendid
standards, enjoyable gatherings and ever changing activities of their
day.
For the courtesy of reprinting privileges, where my earlier articles
are concerned, I am indebted to “Busy Man’s Magazine,” “Canadian
Century,” “McLean’s Magazine,” “Canada Monthly,” etc., etc., and
gratefully acknowledge the voluntary kindness of friends who unlocked
the storehouses of memory or cheerfully furnished desired photographs
and engravings.
The indulgence of the reader is requested should he observe a
discrepancy affecting the title, employer or location of any
individual, resulting from change or promotion between the time of
preparation and publication of these papers.
J. M. C.
TO MY BROTHER,
WHOSE ENCOURAGEMENT AND CONFIDENCE MADE LIGHTER THE TASK
OF WRITING THESE MANUSCRIPTS AND PREPARING
THE ILLUSTRATIONS HEREIN.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Navigators of the Blue 6
A Deceased Canadian Railroad 7
Ontario’s Twin Sister--Grand Trunk Railway 12
William H. Biggar 16
Sir Thomas Dakin’s Locomotive 19
Toronto and Nipissing Railway 20
An Old Campaigner’s Career 21
Knights of the Swinging Lanterns 25
Credit Valley Railway--Milton Celebration 26
Crusade of “U.S.A.” Railway Interests in Canada 28
Thomas A. Edison 47
A Gigantic Human Hive--C.P.R. 52
William B. Lanigan 54
James Charlton 56
Uncle Sam’s Adopted Sons 61
Samuel R. Callaway 74
Thomas N. Jarvis 77
Geo. J. Charlton 79
A Reveler’s Dream 83
Andrew J. Taylor 87
Business Getter’s Competition 90
Lines to Queen Quinte 94
The Canadian Northern Railway System 95
A Tenderfoot in Temiskaming 99
William P. Duperow 106
Those Undignified Box Cars 112
Frederic P. Nelson 123
A Pilfered Pot Pourri 126
The Trail of the Serpent 129
A Haphazard Chronology 136
Ballad to the Brotherhood 145
[Illustration]
NAVIGATORS OF THE BLUE
Carrier pigeons--pioneers in aerial transportation
Decoration by ALBERTA L. TORY
Aloft in the frigid lanes they soar,
High over dormant farm and city’s roar:
Their tireless pinions wrestle with the breeze
That wails athwart the solemn, leafless trees.
Above the brooks asleep ’neath crystal shrouds,
And o’er white winter’s mantle from the clouds,
Swift pigeons wheel and spiral t’wards the sun,
Exultant in new triumphs daily won.
Atoms these--of pulsating life on wing,
Each flouts the sordid earth and ether’s sting:
Unconsciously, they realize a Plan
Which mortals match with faulty ships of Man.
A DECEASED CANADIAN RAILWAY
The Sheriff Runs Away From His Spoils
[Illustration: S. E. MACKECHNIE
Mayor of Cobourg, 1853.]
When Sir John Franklin, arctic navigator, with canoe crews of Indians
and voyageurs, eastbound after exploring the Great Lakes, pitched
wigwams in the summer of 1839 at the confluence of stream and lake
where the nucleus of present Cobourg, Canada, was taking root, little
did these adventurous and actual forerunners of easy steam locomotion
think that from a point where they camped a railroad would thirteen
years later bisect the unbroken forest. Yet, it is so, and the
whirligig of time has, likewise, seen recorded the obituary of that
railway--has witnessed the effacement of the name of those early laid
metal ribbons from the time tables of a young country which still
hungers and lobbies for more and more tracks and trams.
Cobourg and thereabouts, is ancient territory as settlements go
nowadays. In 1796 the district was surveyed. Eluid Nickerson, who
espoused the United Empire Loyalist cause, took out the first patent
in 1802 during the reign of King George III., but in spite of its
monarchial predilections, the locality has long been of interest to
our cousins of high and low degree living south of Lake Ontario, and a
few years after the construction of Cobourg and Peterborough Railway,
of which I speak, several iron masters and capitalists from Pittsburg
acquired the property, altering somewhat its original mission.
The prospectus of this pioneer Canadian line was mooted in 1851 by
local promoters: it took definite form in 1852 and on February 7th,
1853, Lady Mayoress, Mrs. S. E. MacKechnie, officiated in the ceremony
of turning the first sod amidst tremendous public enthusiasm. As early
as 1844 a daily stage ran in winter from Peterborough to Cobourg and
Port Hope, and in summer the steamboat “Forrester” plied to Harwood and
connected with the stage coaches. Close in the wake of this propitious
beginning construction advanced, while feathered and furry prowlers
of the virgin woods had their curiosity piqued by strange sights
and sounds. Under the supervision of chief engineer Ira Spaulding,
contractors Zimmerman and Balch pushed the line through valley and
glade to Rice Lake’s fertile, sloping shores at Harwood where,
later, sawmills sawed the stately pines that arrived in drives from
Otonabee. During the following year Mr. Zimmerman collaborated in the
extension as far as Peterborough, his tragic death in the des Jardins
Canal disaster at Hamilton, March, 1857, terminating a useful life.
Steel rails were an experimental luxury, iron scarce and expensive
and timber often replaced them. Antique locomotives with impossible
superstructures coughed and squeaked along, meanwhile eating a mighty
hole in the wood pile, for coal and oil burners were not contrived,
and what a risk it was to venture between the oscillating cars. Though
crudely equipped, the road was nevertheless, a startling and welcome
innovation for abbreviating space. The Grand Trunk Railway had not yet
been built and the saddle horse and coach were the only substitutes
for pedestrianism. Picture, if you can, a journey inside a two teamed
springless stage, tediously winding westward past bear haunt, swamp
and river; for instance, over the historic, old military road from
Kingston. It must have been a hunter’s paradise.
The bridging of Rice Lake was a large undertaking at the period and
proved a burden from which the management never recovered. This
structure became notorious later for several reasons. From Harwood
to Tick Island, some distance off shore, a filling was made and the
bridge trestles were projected two miles across the westerly loop of
the lake to where Hiawatha Indian settlement still harbors the fishing
and rice gathering sons and daughters of sires long since passed to
the happy hunting grounds. You may see them any summer day vieing with
“Alderville” redskins from near Roseneath, in deftly wielding the
paddle, as of yore when their forebears fought fiercely all around that
favored camping place.
In winter of 1857, when the frost and ice heaved the bridge, four-horse
sleighs transported passengers inland between Harwood, the Indian
village and station at Ashburnham, seven miles north. To take charge
of this old depot, which afterwards became a canoe factory, Donald
Sutherland was the first appointed and Mr. Roe Buck became the Cobourg
representative. William Von Ingen, now collector of His Majesty’s
Customs levy at Woodstock, Ont., collected tickets covering the run of
about twenty-five miles which cost $1.00 per capital and entitled one
to all privileges save the compartment sleeper and electric fans, which
had not yet been adopted.
It is said that John Fowler, charter corporation member and first
manager, whose regime did not fill the company’s coffers, made
towards the close of his term, a financial _coup d’etat_ with the
Midland, Port Perry, Lindsay & Beaverton Railway. He was succeeded
by Lieut.-Colonel D’Arcy E. Boulton, a Cobourg aristocrat who rented
the “C. & P.” property in 1857 and battled valiantly against odds
in an endeavor to place the road on a paying basis. This railway’s
legitimate traffic--forest products and lumber--were hauled for several
years from the interior to the docks at Cobourg, thence by schooner to
various lake ports, but time wrought changes and debt became the most
formidable obstacle to progress.
[Illustration: LADY DUFFERIN.
A distinguished passenger who rode over the C.P. & M. Ry., 1874.]
It is recounted that one forenoon long ago the sheriff unexpectedly
boarded a northbound “C. & P.” train on which the superintendent was
also travelling. Although the latter was not a mind reader he had a
presentment that the sheriff’s presence might not auger well for his
particular department. Everything was as placid as the lake itself
until the train approached the height of land at Summit, nine miles
up from Cobourg, when the brakes controlling rear car in which the
court official sat in tranquil state, were locked and the coupling pin
withdrawn. A retrograde movement quickly followed and the sheriff was
powerless to stem the progress of his unwilling hurry. As though the
evil one was after him, down grade rolled the flustered occupant of
the flying carriage to where it started. Nothing daunting, the sheriff
procured a team and drove thirteen miles back to Harwood, but found on
arrival that everything not nailed down, including attachable railway
equipment, etc., had forsaken Northumberland and was transferred across
the bridge to the next county.
Early in the day of September 7th, 1860, a “special” moved over the
“C. & P.” conveying Edward, Prince of Wales and suite from Cobourg to
Harwood en route Peterborough. As the old bridge was considered unsafe
for this precious young patron and entourage, they were much interested
in being ferried across Rice Lake to the Mississauga Indian settlement
near the mouth of the winding Otonabee River, from which point the late
Robert White, highly respected for leagues around, enjoyed the honor
and privilege of driving Royalty and his retinue to Peterborough.
After the Civil War the road came into possession of a genial
Virgianian, Colonel William Chambliss and his confreres, Messrs.
Schoenburg and Fitzhugh from the South, with interests in Pennsylvania.
Colonel Chambliss was elected managing director, the title was changed
to Cobourg, Peterborough & Marmora Railway & Mining Company, and its
new purpose was hauling iron ore destined Cleveland from Marmora mines
to vessels at Cobourg. This ore was moved on scows from Blairton to
Harwood.
The old Parliament of Upper Canada had incorporated the earlier
organization and in 1869 an Act was passed legalizing the amalgamation
of railway and mining company.
During the summer of 1874 the Vice-Regal couple, Lord and Lady
Dufferin, participated in an eleven hour outing from Cobourg via C.P.
& M.R. & M. Co., Harwood, Rice Lake steamer and Hastings, and extracts
from the Countess’ description of their ore mine inspection and
experiences, as set down in Her Ladyship’s diary at the time, reads as
follows:--
“I did not expect to care the least about it as we had seen
so many untidy, stoney, barren places called mines, but this
one was really an interesting sight. We found ourselves at the
top of an enormous hole or cavern, 140 feet deep, large in
proportion, perfectly open and light as day. The men looked
like imps as they worked below and it was the sort of thing one
sees represented, in miniature, in a fairy play. The sides were
walls of iron: but, alas, coal is found only in the States....
“When we returned to the steamer we found a barge tied to its
side covered in with green--a floating arbor--in which lunch
was laid: and very glad we were of it, as we had breakfasted at
7.30 a.m. and it was now 2.00 p.m. The managers of the mines,
the steamers, etc., are Americans, and we were their guests.
Colonel Chambliss and General Fitzhugh, with their wives (two
sisters), were our hosts. They lived in the hotel at which we
stayed and are charming Southerners.”
It would appear that the bridging of Rice Lake was costly, but on
account of engineering difficulties, not permanent. The alternate
rigors of winter and spring reaction upset calculations as well as the
bridge’s equilibrium. Those piles which had no foundation in fact--in
the lake bottom, to be more exact--dangled from the upper work, an
encumbrance instead of a support and many of the bolts disappeared,
some claim by design of wrongly disposed persons. One autumn night,
after a southbound train from Peterborough had passed over, the
shivering spans succumbed to a gale and disappeared. To-day they remain
the abode of lunge, bass and other amphibious denizens of the waters.
When the G.T.R. failed to popularize the line to Harwood for
excursions, several rearrangements of the railway’s name and financial
status subsequently occurred. Acts were passed by the Ontario
Legislature and in 1887, after the sale of the Company’s bonds under
an order of the Chancery Court the Federal Parliament incorporated
the Cobourg, Blairton & Marmora Railway & Mining Co. to take over the
property. The Municipality of Cobourg became at one time a guarantor in
further reorganization. Presently, operation of the miniature system
ceased altogether and protracted litigation was the precursor of
dissolution. Thus did a budding nation in a constructive age behold a
once famous railway rust into oblivion.
* * * * *
[Illustration: EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CHIEF PASSENGER DEPARTMENT
REPRESENTATIVES OF THE GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY’S NUMEROUS AND SCATTERED
FAMILY.
JANUARY, 1916
J. E. DALRYMPLE, GEO. T. BELL,
Vice-President. Passenger Traffic Manager.
Top rows--W. J. MOFFATT, C.P.A., Toronto; L. L. GRABILL, Asst.
Gen. Bge. Agt., Toronto; M. O. DAFOE, C.P. & T.A., Montreal;
J. E. QUICK, Gen’l Baggage Agent; F. P. WALSH, G. M., CROSBY
Tpn. Co., Milwaukee; C. P. ORTTENBURGER, C.P.A., Chicago; J. P.
SHEA, T.P.A., Boston; A. A. GARDINER, G.C., Montreal.
Centre Row--O. C. BRYANT, T.P.A., Chicago; S. R. JOYCE,
T.P.A., Toronto; F. W. HOPPER, G.A.P.D., San Francisco; R. L.
FRADD, Montreal, Sec’y to G.P.A.; E. C. ELLIOTT, C.C., P.T.D.,
Montreal; W. S. MILLER, T.P.A., Montreal; C. W. JOHNSTON,
A.G.P.A., Montreal; D. B. SMITH, C.P. & T.A., Portland, Ore.;
A. B. CHOWN, T.P.A., Pittsburg; J. H. BURGESS, G.A.P.D.,
Seattle; E. H. BOYNTON, N.E.P.A., Boston; C. S. PROCTOR,
T.P.A., Toronto; J. E. REILLY, C.C., Chicago; J. D. MCDONALD,
A.G.P.A., Chicago; F. P. DWYER, G.A.P.D., New York; E. W.
SMITH, Supt., D. & P.C. Service; A. KIRK, Ex-C., Montreal; R.
E. RUSE, C.P. & T.A., London; J. QUINLAN, D.P.A., Montreal, and
W. J. GILKERSON, G.A.P.D., St. Paul.
Lower Row--J. ANDERSON, C.P. & T.A., Hamilton; G. W. NORMAN,
T.P.A., Chicago; D. P. DREWERY, T.P.A., Buffalo; R. MCC. SMITH,
C.P. & T.A., Detroit; J. E. CROSSLEY, T.P.A., Montreal; C. E.
HORNING, D.P.A., Toronto; F. W. WHERRETT, T.P.A., Detroit; W.
S. COOKSON, Gen’ Pass’r Agent, Montreal; G. N. WILSON, T.P.A.,
Kansas City; J. H. CORCORAN, T.P.A., Moncton, N.B.; C. E.
JENNEY, G.A.P.D., Vancouver, B.C., and H. R. CHARLTON, Gen’l
Advertising Agent.
]
[Illustration: Type of Grand Trunk Locomotive in use 1853]
ONTARIO’S TWIN SISTER IS THE GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY
If a vivisectionist, adroit with scalpel and scissors, should dissect
and remove the bone framework from the torso of any man, that man
would collapse, and likewise, did Atlas or Sampson but lift the Grand
Trunk Railway System from out the ballasted roadbed in the Provinces
of Ontario and Quebec and contiguous territory, the extensive and
most densely populated area of Older Canada would immediately become
paralyzed and inert. Mankind in thousands would be without occupations,
communication and the written word from the world outside would cease
in three-quarters of the affected zone: again the over night journey
to grist mills would resume, cattle be herded to market, the fruits
of the earth would wither on the vine and the travelling public--wont
to thoughtlessly grumble at imagined discrepancies in the time
table--would submissively fall back on the tri-weekly stage.
How few of us reflect upon and appreciate the amount of planning and
experiment, figuring and re-adjustment involved in the preparation of a
“Grand Trunk” folder, where a maze of branch line trains that gridiron
the country like a spider’s web, must be dispatched to dovetail with
innumerable main line connections rolling to every point of the compass.
Before the first of her sixty-six birthdays was registered in the
family bible at Headquarters in Old London, the nucleii of the “G.T.R.”
were conceived and the infant projects inaugurated in that expectant
era of active railway promotion which followed George Stephenson’s
practical application of steam for motive power in England in
1815–25–45. Although the earliest railroads constructed in Quebec did
not bear its name, these pioneer highways were merged, ere long, into
the Grand Trunk Railway which spread its lengthening branches in all
directions like the gnarled arms of the famous green bay tree.
[Illustration: CHARLES E. DEWEY
Freight Traffic Manager, Grand Trunk Railway System, Montreal, Que.]
The Grand Trunk Railway early became a definite medium in realizing
the New World ambitions, spurring on hundreds of young English, Irish
and Scotch men. Their methods of substantial construction and numerous
ideas of system are yet extant with this great Canadian institution. It
has also been a school of diverse experience and thorough training for
thousands of graduates who gravitated to newer properties and to-day
play their part in determining the policy or lubricating the clerical
machinery of railroads in all regions enjoying the benefits of modern
transportation.
On the eve of these happenings and during the period when the “Right of
way” lands were being purchased under the discriminating supervision
of the late John Bell--first and life-long General Counsel of the
“G.T.R.”--the voyageur who did not travel by stage coach over corduroy
roadways hewn out of the wilderness, was confined to desultory sailings
on lake and bay or river. The daily stage coach, which ran both
ways between Kingston and Toronto at that time, charged per person,
Belleville to Kingston, Ten shillings; and Belleville to Cobourg,
Twelve Shillings, Six Pence.
[Illustration: JOHN PULLEN
President, Canadian Express Co.]
Clear to the retentive memory of thousands of early settlers is that
nine days’ wonder, and since enduring boon, synchronizing in the
arrival of the first railway train of the “G.T.R.” at their peaceful
hamlet, grain elevator or river mouth. That was an event of superlative
importance not fully understood. Like them, the “Old Reliable” was a
budding enterprise, she was Ontario’s Twin Sister growing confident
and expanding step by step, surmounting difficulties, each depending
on the other, until now the great and comprehensive public utility we
know so well and vitally need, together with her subsidiary properties,
is a far-reaching international system comprising 8,000 miles of well
equipped railway, embodying an immense investment. That investment,
based on a long, discerning and steady look into the future--surely
made by optimistic, adventurous men--began when the Canadas truly
deserved the petite designation of colonies and the manner in which
the expansion of the Grand Trunk Railway kept pace with the unfolding
of our young nation’s wonderful possibilities is lucidly outlined in a
meritorious editorial of January 12th, 1918, which the Montreal “Daily
Star” has readily permitted me to reproduce below:--
[Illustration: W. P. HINTON,
Vice-President and General Manager, Grand Trunk Pacific Ry., Winnipeg,
Manitoba.]
THE GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY.
“Last year the Dominion of Canada observed its fiftieth
birthday. This year one of the great railway systems of the
Dominion will celebrate its sixty-sixth anniversary. Both of
these are historic events, proving that this young country
is growing up, perhaps not getting on in years, but at least
approaching adolesence.
“The Grand Trunk Railway is practically, if not actually,
the pioneer railroad of Canada. Before its advent there were
several small lines, now part of the Grand Trunk system, but it
remained for the Grand Trunk to originate and carry through the
first comprehensive transportation plan for serving the Canada
of the fifties. It was a bold scheme, almost a reckless one,
in that pioneer age, to link up Sarnia, Ont., with Portland,
Me., via Toronto and Montreal, and to do so with a roadbed of
such permanence that its standards have never been appreciably
changed since. The railroad builders of those early days had
faith in Canada, a faith that might shame some of those living
in a more modern era.
“As a pioneer road the Grand Trunk is entitled to--even if it
has not always received--the fullest measure of sympathy and
encouragement from the Canadian people. It is impossible to
estimate the importance of the part played by the Grand Trunk
in the development of this country when it was practically
the only trunk line carrying goods to the Atlantic seaboard
through Canada. During its sixty-six years of history it has
continued adding to its system, and to-day when the railroads
of the entire continent are laboring under immense handicaps,
congestion, lack of fuel and labor, expense and scarcity of
materials, the “old Grand Trunk” is holding up its end, and
winning praise for its success. That recognition, so far
as the people of Canada are concerned, does not seem to be
commensurate with the deserts of the company.
“The Grand Trunk exercises an influence in Eastern Canada
more extensive than is generally realized. The present system
includes no less than 125 companies which were originally
separate in legal identity. It boasts a double tracked line
practically all the way from Montreal to Chicago. It has been
responsible for some of the greatest public structures in the
Dominion, the Victoria Bridge, the Sarnia Tunnel and others.
For more than half a century it has been closely identified
with the growth and business development of Canada, doing
its part without ostentation, but none the less effectively.
Those who invested their money in the enterprise have had
to be content with meagre returns financially, and a large
consciousness of public service, if that was of comfort to them.
“It is well that the Canadian people should not forget the
factors that have helped them along towards nationhood. The
sixty-sixth anniversary of the Grand Trunk should be an
occasion for a little thought as to the deserts of that fine
old railroad system, an honorable patriotic corporation that
has been the victim of one-half the railway legislation not
only of the Federal House but of most of the Provinces.”
[Illustration: Grand Trunk Standard Passenger Train 1918]
WILLIAM H. BIGGAR Vice-President and General Counsel of G.T.R. and
G.T.P. Railways
Some Recollections and An Appreciation
[Illustration: W. H. BIGGAR,
Vice-President and General Counsel, Grand Trunk Railway System,
Montreal, Que.]
During that turbulent period in Britain’s history when Sir Francis
Drake’s buccaneering exploits had Spain by the ears and intrepid
Champlain was spying out the boundaries of Bay of Quinte, there
flourished under the checkered reign of the first James in bonny
Scotland, Herbert Biggar, and it is a coincidence that centuries
after his descendents settled on the rim of the bay where the great
explorer had camped. This Scottish gentleman was Laird of Barbine and
Nethergloly and espoused Janet Maxwell, Balterson, in the Parish of
Holyrood, who survived, dying in 1689, and their children were the
ancestors of the subject of this sketch.
William Hodgins Biggar, called to the Bar in 1880, twice Mayor of
Belleville, and in 1890 elected M.P.P. for West Hastings, Ontario, now
director of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, and vice-president and
General Counsel of the Grand Trunk Railway, was born in September,
1852, at the Carrying Place, an historic portage where no doubt, Samuel
de Champlain and his Indian allies carried from Quinte Bay to Lake
Ontario their supplies and canoes.
Late in the autumn, two thirds of a century ago when older units of the
family were sailing westward with equipment and settlers’ impedimenta
enroute their original location near Brantford, Canada, the voyageurs
were frozen in and stalled by winter’s rigors and thus fate or fortune,
unsolicited, determined a new world habitation, giving point to the
proverb, “There is a destiny which shapes our ends rough hew them as we
may”. From here it was that James Lyons Biggar, general merchant, often
journeyed in the interests of East Northumberland to parliament in far
off Quebec before Confederation and this sturdy trader of pioneering
days was wont to accompany goods shipments from tidewater by wagon,
coach and vessel to their western destination.
“There is luck in odd numbers”, said Rory O’More and as young Biggar
was but one of nine lusty children--all of whom later attained
individual prominence--he was not featured as a favorite. Who can tell
to what influence his Celtic mother from the city of Dublin, whose
surname and temperament he inherited, attributed the success of her
son, perchance the good fairies or to the “Luck in odd numbers”. The
acquisition of knowledge was easy for him because he gave the task
his attention and his inclinations developed system in study. His
preliminary education in the village and at Trenton Grammar School,
culminated with the gilt lettered honor of Head Boy at Upper Canada
College, Toronto, and that distinction has since been bestowed on one
of his four children, Winchester, on the eve of his entry to McGill
University and gravitation to the army. The mother of the interesting
trio and the curley-headed dictator of the family, was Miss Marie
Louise Ballou of New York.
A cardinal qualification, noticeable in the majority of leaders in
Law and Commerce, is the ability to cast aside the superfluous, bare
a proposition and promptly discern the gist of the matter; this
qualification W. H. Biggar possesses, combined with a clear, well
ordered mind and a splendid memory for facts and precedent. It won him
the confidence of the late John Bell of Belleville, former General
Counsel of the Grand Trunk Railway and his legal acumen soon became
exact and expanded by contact with the ripe experiences in railway
jurisprudence of his senior who took the young lawyer into partnership
giving him charge of their civil practice. His penchant for deductions
explains his skill as a billiardist and one time enthusiastic lawn
bowler at home and on the greens at Niagara-on-the-lake, when he
was President of the Ontario Bowling Association. He is decidedly
deliberate towards all appeals for his opinion on any topic, does not
make snap decisions and would never be caught in the fix of the man who
jumped at the conclusion of a departing ferry boat and fell into the
harbor.
In the capacity of General Counsel for G.T.R.-G.T.P.R., he has dealt
with many weighty railway corporation matters and affairs of national
import and--no doubt, participated prominently with Sir Wilfrid Laurier
and his cabinet in governmental and financial endorsation of the Grand
Trunk Pacific Railway past and present.
Not long ago his interpretations of the intentions of certain clauses
respecting the Government’s attitude towards the sale of bonds of the
western section of the N.T.R., were sustained by the Privy Council
at London and that body’s vindication of Mr. Biggar’s insight was
equivalent to an immense saving in favor of the “G.T.R.”
With the strain of business he intersperses a lively participation in
golf, always evinces a keen interest in good sport and when a younger
man in Belleville owned and raced his yacht “Iolanthe” on Lake Ontario
and across the bay beside his birthplace. He was also a bit of an
angler and could pink the bull’s eye at rifle ranges. Many a time,
when a boy, have I seen him galloping past in the saddle accompanied by
(Justice) R. C. Clute, the late U. E. Thompson, then City Ticket Agent
of the G.T.R., Thomas Ritchie, T. S. Carman, publisher of the “Ontario”
and the late Senator Harry Corby. A gentleman of the old school, Will
Biggar was as prompt to perceive the charwoman’s courtesy as he would
be to acknowledge the gracious inclination of the city’s first lady.
Like some men in public life, he is reserved, almost shy of the lime
light, but an interesting companion among his intimates and a favorite
with little children and generally popular, so much so, that he proved
a _rara avis_ in local politics when he carried the Liberal standard
to victory in “Tory” West Hastings in 1890 with the untrumpeted aid of
many Conservative friends, it has been said. He was always a “man’s
man” but now gives the Mount Royal and other Clubs only such a share of
his limited leisure as domesticity will permit.
QUINTE BAY
Ensconced in a setting of green and gold,
She is ever young to young and old;
Could her waters speak as they flow along,
“Forget me not” would be their song.
[Illustration]
[Illustration:
_Photograph--Courtesy I. Wilson._
]
Reproduction of an early type of steam locomotive used by the Great
Western Railway of Canada and photographed on the area then known as
“Kent’s Paradise”, below Dundurn Park, Hamilton, Ont., in 1864. This
locomotive was the first mogul built in Hamilton shops.
The occasion was the visit to Canada of Sir Thomas Dakin, English
Chairman of the Great Western Railway, whose name appears on the
engine. A key to the interesting headquarters group beside it is given
below and some of the gentlemen in the picture still survive.
Top row reading from headlight to tender--
W. A. ROBINSON Ass’t. Mch’l. Sup’t.
GEO. FORSYTH Gen. Foreman Shops
WM. MCMILLAN Fuel Purc’g. Agent
SAMUEL SHARP Mechanical Sup’t.
JOHN ROBERTSON Locomotive Eng’eer.
WILLIAM PAINE Loco. Fireman
DICK FURNESS Conductor
AARON PENNY Mess’r. official car
Lower row, reading left to right--
GEO. L. REID Civil Engineer
WM. WALLACE Traffic Agent
G. HARRY HOWARD Booking Agent
WILLIAM ORR Dist. Freight Agent
GEO. B. SPRIGGS Through Fr’t Agt.
JAMES HOWARD Gen. Purch’g. Agent
THOMAS SWINYARD General Manager
BRACKSTONE BAKER English Secretary
THOMAS BELL Treasurer
JOHN HALL Foreman Run’g. Dep.
JOHN WEATHERSTON Track Superin’dent.
JOHN A. WARD Mech. Accountant
PETER NEILSON Station Agent
WILLIAM WILSON Track Foreman
JAMES FAWCETT Call Boy
[Illustration: Turning the first sod, Toronto, Canada, 1869, Toronto
and Nipissing Railway
_Photograph courtesy of Gooderham Estate._
]
The Toronto & Nipissing Railway, traversing the territory between
Toronto, Ont., and Coboconk, now a “G.T.R.” branch serving Markham,
Stouffville and Blackwater, was inaugurated in 1869 and built by Chief
Engineer Edmund Wragge for the promoters.
The line was opened to Uxbridge, September 14th, 1871, amid great
rejoicing and enthusiasm and an oil painting from the brush of B.
Armstrong, commemorating the scene, with the elaborate decorations of
that thriving agricultural centre, was presented by the President, the
late John Shedden, to William Gooderham, Junior, Vice-President and
Managing Director of the Toronto & Nipissing Railway Company.
The personnel of the prominent men of a past generation who were
present at the turning of the first sod in 1869 at Toronto, as they
appear in the accompanying photograph, is as follows:--
Reading from left to right--
EDMUND WRAGGE Chief Engineer.
J. C. FITCH Merchant.
GEORGE LAIDLAW General Merchant.
JOSEPH GOULD Merchant and Farmer.
HON. JOHN BEVERLEY ROBINSON Former Solicitor-General, Legislative
Council, Province of Canada.
ROBERT ELLIOTT Merchant.
HON. JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD Premier of Ontario.
JAMES E. SMITH Merchant.
JOHN LEYS Barrister.
HON. GEO. W. ALLAN Senator before Confederation.
S. B. HARMAN Barrister, Mayor of Toronto.
W. MCMASTER Merchant.
R. BRETHOUR Farmer.
JAMES GRAHAM Secretary of T. & N. Railway.
AN OLD CAMPAIGNER’S CAREER
[Illustration: JOHN QUIRK
Wingham’s Veteran Conductor, Retired.]
How many amongst you wide-a-wake and well-informed commercial men and
transportation people, who read these lines, can explain where was and
what became of the Erie & Niagara Railway, Canada. A gentleman born in
1833 at Lungar, Ireland, not a great distance from Ballykilbeg, known
as John Quirk, Esq., Wingham, Ont., would, if interrogated, inform you
that the railroad referred to originated at Lake Erie’s shore at Fort
Erie, Ont., and terminated at historical old Niagara-on-the-Lake, where
Lake Ontario’s blue waters lave the sloping shore.
The nucleus of that highway--now a “Michigan Central” branch line
serving the fruit belt--was surveyed and laid with wooden rails by
Gilbert McMicken between 1835–1841 and cost 19,000 pounds. Its motive
power was an old grey horse and traffic crossing from England in
ships via Montreal, around and over the different rapids and river to
Toronto, was transported by Mr. McMicken and his dapple equine engine
the nine miles from Queenstown, a grain depot on the Lake Ontario
level, to Chippawa, beside Lake Erie, where it was again entrusted to
vessels bound to the rim of civilization then at Sault Ste. Marie. The
passenger fare from Queenstown to Chippawa was 2s–6d. Gilbert McMicken
was a patriarch in the forwarding business, he also built the first
suspension bridge at Queenstown where a horse ferry plied and there,
in 1846, his heir “Ham.” G. McMicken, later European Traffic Agent
of Great Northern Railway, London, England, set foot on terra firma.
Permit me to add here, that the latter’s son, E. G. McMicken, is
General Passenger Agent, Pacific Steamships Company, San Francisco.
Mr. Quirk would explain also, that he first started railroading on
that line as baggageman in 1867, and in three months’ time accepted a
conductorship of a regular train running between these points. In the
absence of the present Buffalo-Bridgeburg international steam highway,
built in 1873–74 by G.T.R. and G.W.R., jointly, United States traffic
crossed from the foot of Main Street, Buffalo, by boats which old
timers will remember as “Florence”, “Grace Dormer” and “Ivanhoe”. From
Niagara-on-the-Lake passengers made the trip to Toronto in the “Rothsay
Castle”, “City of Toronto” &c., &c., forerunners of the splendid craft
which now transport their children and grandchildren on business or
pleasure bent. William A. Thompson secured the first charter for Erie &
Niagara Railway and the Great Western Railway surrendered their lease
of it in 1870. This road underwent changes in fortune, emerging as
a link in the Canada Southern Railway but to-day survives under the
domination of Michigan Central Railway.
[Illustration: RAIL COURTESY
Guard: “Now then, Missis, are you first-class?”
Passenger: “Purty middlin’ thank ye. How’s yourself?”]
From this embryo period imagine the perspective offered the retentive
and vigorous memory of an eighty-four year young veteran like genial
John. He has seen a lot of Ontario in the making and a host of
travelers and transients have seen him in Great Western and Grand Trunk
trains. It has been declared that the travelling man of other days,
with fourteen years’ experience on the rail--devoted seven years to his
business and other seven to waiting for trains at Harrisburg. From this
staid burg Mr. Quirk watched the Wellington, Grey & Bruce Ry. extend
northward while he officiated as conductor over each section when
laid down. Elora and Fergus were reached in July, 1870, Palmerston,
1871, and Southampton in 1873. They considered themselves fortunate
if the trains did not leave the tracks more than three times a week
as the new portion was used without delay and formality as a means of
accomplishing a further leg of the journey. Prior to that time the
tedious and lumbering stage coach was the only long distance substitute
for shank’s mare in reaching a hundred towns and villages which the
Grand Trunk serves to-day, thus aiding a battalion of drummers in the
vital matter of earning a living. John Quirk was long a respected
citizen of Kincardine and covered the run from there to Brantford
and Hamilton for twenty years. He punched the tickets of thousands
of travelers using the London, Huron & Bruce R’y, who remember his
brusque but cheerful manner and woe betide the luckless bride and
bridegroom who happened to entrust themselves to his care when making
the initial trip in double harness. He never did possess a voice as
soft as a sighing zephyr and he was ever an incorrigible tease.
Our subject was the contemporary of such men as W. R. Callaway, widely
known General Passenger Agent, Soo Line, Minneapolis, when he was agent
at Paisley “in them days”, of Adam Brown, Hamilton’s postmaster, after
whom a “Great Western” locomotive was named, W. K. Muir, W. J. Spicer,
John Labatt and scores of others.
He was in his prime when a dozen United States railways competed
vigorously for the traffic moving via Chicago and St. Paul during
Manitoba’s first boom before the C.P.R.’s entry into Winnipeg in 1885.
[Illustration: Michigan Central
“THE NIAGARA FALLS ROUTE”]
Mr. Quirk voluntarily resigned from G.T.R. service in 1905, enjoying
the respect and favor of the Company’s officials as well as the
friendship of the rank and file. He keeps in touch with the railway
world, the trains and former associates by occasional jaunts around
about, and he will wager his bonnet, his best jack-knife and even
his boots, any day, that his watch regulates the sun’s movements. He
is a collector of pictures, walking sticks and clocks, and must be
a “freetrader” for at one time he was notorious as a bargainer and
“unsight and unseen” artist.
If he likes you he will procure anything one desires from a dozen fresh
eggs, a Latin recipe for rheumatic gout to a flagon of nut brown ale,
and “Here’s the old spite to you all”.
The history of the Emerald Isle is in his book-case, her map is on his
desk, and the Irishman’s ready answer still springs quick from the
tongue of this lively, eighty-four year old colt, ex-conductor John
Quirk.
❦ ❦ ❦
THE LUCK OF A LIGHT-HEARTED “LANDLUBBER”
[Illustration: Avast, my hearties, port your helm. The sun is over the
yard-arm.]
C. & N.W.R. Conductor Cornelius O’Konor, from Oconomawoc, a dry land
pilot, visited under pressure, a Chicago departmental store recently
with his wife. In her dauntless quest for the elusive bargain she led
him here and marched him there: into the basement and up the stairs
until fatigue made him hanker for home. Refusing her coaxing to make
one last trip to the roof before the store closed, O’Konor dropped on a
nearby chair while his wife made the ascent for a little “burnt onion”
dream of a hat.
Her spouse relaxed, tilted back his chair, cupped his “Christie” on his
knees and unexpectedly slept the sleep of the just conductors. When
Madam O’K---- returned in the wake of a stream of charitable departing
shoppers and awakened her lord, she found in his hat $3.49. Now he
wants her to spend their vacation there.
SATURDAY NIGHT
KNIGHTS OF THE SWINGING LANTERN
[Illustration: “GRAND TRUNK” CONDUCTORS
DAVID J. DINAN; HUGH O’DONNELL; ALEXANDER MUIR; ALLAN EBY; WILLIAM
FROST; JAMES GUTHRIE; WELLAND STRONG]
O we are merry men from Mars,
An active squad of light hussars,
Schooled in tact and the three big R’s
And how to steer by moon and stars.
Some think we haunt the gay bazaars,
And likewise smoke long black cigars,
But in our brood no Lochinvars
Toast yonder moon and strum guitars.
Our task is a life of jolts and jars
And each one bears his grist of scars--
The brand of couplings, beams and bars.
Knights of the punch--our home the cars,
We know the brig from the keel to spars,
And there we reign like blooming Czars.
Pilots, moguls, airship tars,
We guide you safely to planet Mars
O’er the trail of the swinging lanterns.
THE CREDIT VALLEY RAILWAY
Toronto to St. Thomas via Woodstock
Inauguration of Toronto-Milton sections, September 19th, 1879
The Marquis of Lorne graced the ceremonies with his presence and
traveled from Toronto to Milton and return by special train.
[Illustration]
Lord Lorne can be recognized standing in the centre of the official
group and the party about him include George Laidlaw, Toronto, promoter
and President of the line, John C. Bailey, Toronto, an outstanding
figure at the time, who mapped the route of a dozen Canadian railways
and made the survey--“Bailey Route”--of the T. & N.O.R. He was the
engineer of the Credit Valley Railway and Harry Crewe, Toronto, was his
chief assistant. To the right can be discerned the late James Ross, a
young Scotch surveyor and engineer from Kingston, New York, in charge
of construction, who afterwards became the Montreal millionaire.
Among others in this photograph are--Honorable Geo. W. Allan, Senator,
Honorable John McMurrich, M.L. C., Toronto, James Beatty, K.C., Mayor
of Toronto, Ross McKenzie, accountant with the Credit Valley Railway,
who probably was Canada’s most famous lacrosse player, and Wm. Taylor,
secretary for James Ross.
STREETSVILLE JUNCTION, SEPTEMBER 19th, 1879
Train sheet and entries thereon the day of the Governor General’s
Special.
Down trains going east. Up trains going west.
========+========+========+=======+============+=======+=====++=================+========+=======+=====+=======+=======+=====+========
Ballast | Ballast| Ballast| Pilot | Special |Ballast|No. 1|| Trains |Special |Ballast|Pilot|Ballast|Ballast|No. 4|Engineer
--------+--------+--------+-------+------------+-------+-----++-----------------+--------+-------+-----+-------+-------+-----+--------
Lovelock| | Martin | |Flanagan | | ||Conductor |Flanagan| | | | | |
| | | | | | || | | | | | | |
Kean | | Monro |Spragge|Greenshields| | ||Engineer |Spragge | | | | | |
| | | | | | || | | | | | | |
Webster | | Yates |Phipps |Cameron | | ||Fireman |Phipps | | | | | |
| | | | | | || | | | | | | |
| | | |Ryan | | ||Baggageman |Ryan | | | | | |
| | | | | | || | | | | | | |
McGillis| | Ragan | | | | ||Brakesman | | | | | | |
| | | | | | || | | | | | | |
341 | | 338 | No. 8 | No. 2 | | ||Engine |No. 8 | | | | | |
| | | | | | || | | | | | | |
Off | | Off | Red | | | || | | | | | | |
Branch | | Branch |Signal | | | || | | | | | | |
--------+--------+--------+-+-----+--+---------+----+--+-----++-----------------+--------+-------+-----+-------+-------+-----+--------
A.D. | A.D. | A.D. | A.D. | A.D. | Miles || Stations | A.D. | A.D. | | | | |
--------+--------+----------+--------+--------------+--------++-----------------+--------+-------+-----+-------+-------+-----+--------
| | | | 1.35 | 0 ||Toronto | | 10.30 | | | | |
| | | | | || | | | | | | |
| | | | psd. 1.12 | 4¼ ||Lambton | | | | | | |
| | | | | || | | | | | | |
| | | | | 12 ||Cooksville | 10.55 | 10.58 | | | | |
| | | | | || | | | | | | |
| | | | | 17⅞ ||Streetsville | | | | | | |
| | | | | || | | | | | | |
| | | | psd. 12.51 | 19⅛ ||Streetsville Jct.| 11.25 | 11.25 | | | | |
| | | | | || | | | | | | |
| | | | 12.26 | 29¾ ||Milton | 11.46 | | | | | |
| | | | | || | | | | | | |
| | | | | 35½ ||Campbellsville | | | | | | |
========+========+==========+========+==============+========++=================+========+=======+=====+=======+=======+=====+========
[Illustration:
_Courtesy Hamilton Spectator._
]
THE CRUSADE OF UNITED STATES RAILWAY INTERESTS IN CANADA
John Bull’s eldest daughter, Canada--recently eulogized as his fairest
by the Honorable William H. Taft--is no laggard in recognizing
opportunity as it ebbs and flows in the great, scientific game of
trade. Like our wide-awake neighbor to the south, she inherits from
commercial and speculative England the bartering instinct, and is
willing enough to emulate, in a modified way, cousin Columbia’s
obeisances to the goddess of commerce. The goddess, aforesaid, has been
an active dame and most aggressive throughout North America during the
past half century. To further her aims, enthusiastic disciples have
achieved such marvellous feats, especially in railroad construction and
transportation methods, during the period mentioned that comparisons,
invidious or otherwise, are well-nigh compulsory.
The prairie schooner has made a squeaky exit from the drama of
locomotion into museums and the tortuous, blazed trails of the gold
seekers of ’49, minus kinks and humps, are now the routes of many lines
with trackage contributing to an aggregate of 256,547 miles of railway
which 2105 roads have under operation to-day in United States alone. In
1860 the Union possessed only 30,626 miles of steel.
Fifty years ago the fruits of opportunity in the middle and golden
west appeared to the denizens east of the “Missouri” to ripen and
require plucking all at once, and the termination of the Civil War
signalled the inauguration of extravagant railroad ventures. Ambition
fired the mind of the restless native and that big, swelling, polyglot
immigration pouring into the “Land of Liberty,” needed space and
breezy fumigation. Afterwards, they had to be fed and equipped, which,
pursuant to the laws of demand and supply, materially increased
consumption. Responding to the goads of progress, the railroads
extended, paralleled and criss-crossed the “other fellow” in the
dignified scramble for a slice of the melon of prosperity. The slogan
was and has ever been, “More Passengers,” “Increased Tonnage”: import,
export, interline and local business all comprised grist for the
mills. About the time mercantile houses were becoming inoculated with
the “commercial traveller” idea, a small squad of travelling railroad
representatives, in open formation, were training observing optics
on prospective traffic. In this, the eastern group of railroads were
slightly in advance of their newer, western connections.