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.

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.

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:—

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.”

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

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.

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. RobinsonAss’t. Mch’l. Sup’t.
Geo. ForsythGen. Foreman Shops
Wm. McMillanFuel Purc’g. Agent
Samuel SharpMechanical Sup’t.
John RobertsonLocomotive Eng’eer.
William PaineLoco. Fireman
Dick FurnessConductor
Aaron PennyMess’r. official car
Lower row, reading left to right—
Geo. L. ReidCivil Engineer
Wm. WallaceTraffic Agent
G. Harry HowardBooking Agent
William OrrDist. Freight Agent
Geo. B. SpriggsThrough Fr’t Agt.
James HowardGen. Purch’g. Agent
Thomas SwinyardGeneral Manager
Brackstone BakerEnglish Secretary
Thomas BellTreasurer
John HallForeman Run’g. Dep.
John WeatherstonTrack Superin’dent.
John A. WardMech. Accountant
Peter NeilsonStation Agent
William WilsonTrack Foreman
James FawcettCall Boy

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 WraggeChief Engineer.
J. C. FitchMerchant.
George LaidlawGeneral Merchant.
Joseph GouldMerchant and Farmer.
Hon. John Beverley RobinsonFormer Solicitor-General, Legislative Council,
Province of Canada.
Robert ElliottMerchant.
Hon. John Sandfield MacdonaldPremier of Ontario.
James E. SmithMerchant.
John LeysBarrister.
Hon. Geo. W. AllanSenator before Confederation.
S. B. HarmanBarrister, Mayor of Toronto.
W. McMasterMerchant.
R. BrethourFarmer.
James GrahamSecretary of T. & N. Railway.