In the west is P. L. Naismith, who in 1900 was manager of the A. R. & I. Co., and is now manager of the important department devoted to the expansion of the country’s natural resources. Allan Cameron, now general superintendent of the Natural Resources branch, joined the company in 1883 as a clerk in the freight department at Winnipeg, and afterwards was promoted to the office of assistant general freight agent at Vancouver. After spending four years in the company’s service in China, he was transferred to London, England, and moved to New York city, holding in both places the position of general freight agent. From this position in 1903 he was transferred to Calgary where he became general superintendent of lands, department of Natural Resources. In this department is also Norman Rankin, who has been with the company for years and has high literary ability. W. H. D’Arcy has been general claims agent at Winnipeg since the memory of man, and Chas. Temple has recently been promoted to chief of motive power and rolling stock at Montreal. Frank Peters joined the C.P.R. staff in 1881 in the cashier’s office at Winnipeg. The next year he was agent at Brandon and afterwards freight agent at Port Arthur and Winnipeg and after being stationed in the Kootenay became assistant to Vice-president Whyte at Winnipeg, and is now general superintendent of the B. C. division. Alfred Price was operator and clerk in the general offices of the Credit Valley in 1879; after being superintendent on various divisions he is now general manager of eastern lines at Montreal—and a mighty good one too, for it is said of him that there is no better railroader in North America. Another expert, Charlie Murphy, fills a similar position on Western lines. Then there are general superintendent John Scully of North Bay, Horace Grout, of Toronto, Ken Savage of Montreal, H. P. Timmerman, now Industrial Commissioner with Graham Curtis as his assistant, and Jack McKay of Saskatoon.
Tom Walklate has been buying lumber and ties for the C.P.R. since 1885, and is still buying them but not at the old prices. Chris. Kyle, who was locomotive foreman in ’89 and afterwards master mechanic, is now supervisor of apprentices with headquarters at Montreal. Bob Miller started railroading in 1873 and was station agent at Windsor street station for ten years, and is now passenger train master there. No one knows when Ed. Whelan, at the Windsor Street Station started selling tickets, and his namesake Thomas at the gate has a voice like Caruso, while John Cullin, who looks after the offices, is still to the fore.
Prominent Passenger Men.
In the passenger department are such indefatigable workers as Charlie Ussher, who since 1886 has been in the fold. From a comparatively minor position he has steadily risen until now he is passenger traffic manager, and also has charge of the chain of hotels of the entire system, and spends the rest of his time either in his office or on the train. Charlie McPherson, whom his friends call Cluny, came to the C.P.R. from the Rock Island in 1886, and has been stationed at Montreal, Boston, St. John, Toronto, and is now at Winnipeg, where he is assistant passenger traffic manager. He is a Chatham, Ontario, boy, but wandered into foreign fields at an early age. Then there is Charlie Foster, assistant passenger traffic manager at Montreal. When I first met him in 1891 he was a junior clerk at St. John, N.B. He has during those thirty intervening years risen from the ranks, and he is one of that kind of fellows whose future is not behind him.
Others who have risen from the ranks are W. H. Snell and Col. Walter Maughan, of Montreal; Harry Brodie, of Vancouver; Geo. Walton, of Winnipeg; W. B. Howard, and N. R. DesBrisay, of St. John, N.B.; Dave Kennedy, of every place; Dan Steele, high muck-a-muck at Sherbrooke; Billy Fulton at Toronto; Billy Grant an old timer of the old timers at Hamilton; George McGlade, of Brockville; “Burroughs, of Belleville;” Billy McIlroy, now stationed at Detroit; J. B. Way, at the Canadian Soo; Joe Carter at Nelson; Charlie Philps, of St. John, N.B.; and the company’s representatives in the United States—Fred Perry in New York; Tommy Wall at Chicago; E. L. Sheehan, at St. Louis; Mike Malone, at Cincinnati; A. A. Polhamus at Los Angeles; Fred Nason at San Francisco; Teddy Chesbrough at Atlanta, A. G. Albertson, at Minneapolis, L. R. Hart at Boston, G. B. Burpee at Cleveland, R. C. Clayton at Philadelphia, Clarence Williams at Pittsburg, B. E. Smeed at St. Paul, Fred Sturdee at Seattle, D. C. O’Keefe at Tacoma, E. L. Cardie at Spokane, C. E. Phelps at Washington, and George Walton at Buffalo, all of whom have been with the company for years and upheld the interests of the C.P.R. in the land of the Stars and Stripes.
Geo. C. Wells, whose word is always accepted in railway conferences, began as a clerk in the passenger department in Montreal in ’92, and now he is still at work as assistant to the passenger traffic manager.