Part 2

“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.”

WILLIAM H. BIGGAR Vice-President and General Counsel of G.T.R. and G.T.P. Railways

Some Recollections and An Appreciation

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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”

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

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.

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.