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Peter Grant's Career as a Railway Engineer in Canada |
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Peter Grant's Career as a Railway Engineer in Canada |
Peter Grant, father of Father James Andrew Grant, emigrated to Nova Scotia in 1869 and was hired to work as a resident engineer on the construction of the Intercolonial Railway. He was included in the list of the staff of the Intercolonial Railway as of January 1, 1870: Section 19: Peter Grant, engineer ($1800 + $200), John Gellett [should be Jellett], rodman ($600). The $200 was an allowance for the hire of horses to be paid in addition to an $1800 annual salary. —Fleming's Army —The civil engineers who built Canada's Intercolonial Railway by Jay Underwood (Railfare DC Books 2011), Appendix Three, page 203.
Peter Grant's employment by the Canadian Government began in 1869 after which he spent eight years years as a division engineer "most of the time at Matapedia on Sections 19, 18, and 17"; i.e., the Matapedia Valley. He was employed on the Intercolonial at at the beginning of construction, and "he was the last man to leave the work" in September, 1876. In 1872, Peter Grant assumed the additional responsibility of resident engineer of Section 18 of the railway, and in 1875, of Section 17. The narrow width, steep hills, and rocky sides of the Matapedia Valley, made the work in section 19 the most difficult of the entire railway.
In early 1872, Peter Grant took a two month leave of absence from his job in Canada and returned to Scotland to bring back to Canada his wife and four sons. This information is based on Peter Grant's testimony in Murray v. The Queen, which is discussed in three sections of this article. Here are excerpts of his testimony extracted from from Return to Address: Papers Relating to the Claims of Murray & Co., Contractors, Intercolonial ... (1879)
Q. (by Mr. Mitchell) You remember the cattle-guard?
— Yes.
Q. Do you remember we had timber left after the building of that cattle-guard that was not required, and that cattle-guard is not as deep as the rest by eighteen inches or two feet?
— I cannot say it is; I remember the cattle-guard is not as deep as the others, because it is in rock; I do not know when that bottom could have been taken out unless it was when I went to Scotland for a couple of months. (page 53). ...
Q. (by Mr. O'Doherty) At Stations 520 to 509, where the gravel is, you will not for the same reason, I suppose, swear that the contractors did not grade down to that new line?
— I submitted yesterday that they made the catch-water drains.
Q. But we stated positively that we did not take out that bottom?
— I will not undertake to swear that they did not do it; but if it was done it was entirely without my consent. I went to Scotland for two months, and it might have been done then; I will not swear that it was not done. (page 69)
On his brief return to Scotland, Peter Grant sailed aboard the RMS Nestorian (misspelled Nestonian on the internet) from Halifax to Liverpool on or shortly before February 14, 1872, according to the Halifax Evening Reporter of February 14, 1872, quoted in Halifax, Nova Scotia Ship arrivals and departures 1851–1872 on the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild.
Peter Grant was originally hired as the resident engineer of Section No. 19 of the railway, which was a 10 mile stretch that started in the Province of Quebec at the easterly edge of Section 18, extended westward down the Matapedia Valley to its mouth, across the Restigouche River, and about 3 miles toward Campbellton in the Province of New Brunswick along the south side of the Restigouche River. Fleming's Report says, at page 163, that "about two-thirds of this Division is located in the Valley of the Metapedia (sic)." The project included a bridge over the Restigouche River within Section 19. The bridge was to be at a forty-five degree angle to the river. The construction was to be performed by a privately owned contractor under the supervision of the resident engineer who was a government employee. The Restigouche River forms the boundary between the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick.
The railway was completed July 1, 1876. The first through passenger train between Halifax and Quebec City ran on July 6, 1876. Peter Grant left work for the Intercolonial Railway in September, 1876, after which he was "employed on and off" as an engineer or surveyor for several other railways, both as a contractor and as an employee. In 1880, Peter Grant received small salary payments from the Canadian Pacific Railway. Peter Grant was promised re-employment by the Intercontinental Railway in the summer of 1884. He was working for the Intercolonial in Moncton in 1886. The 1891 census of Grand Narrows, Nova Scotia, listed him as a civil engineer employed by the government.
Sometime before his death in 1900, Peter Grant traveled to Scotland without his family. Peter Grant, who was born on June 16, 1834, at Minmore, Glenlivet, Banffshire, Scotland, died on August 2, 1900, while residing at Glendullan Cottage, Dufftown, Banffshire, Scotland. Libindx NM090094. The place was probably Glendullan Distillery Cottages at Keith on the east of River Fiddich. across the River to the east of Dufftown. His funeral service was probably at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Dufftown. Peter Grant's father, James Grant (1810–1900), had died four months before Peter, on April 2, 1900, at the age of 89 while a resident of Glendullan Cottage. Libindx NM066745 (where his age at death is estimated as 93). Peter Grant may have made what he expected to be a temporary trip to Scotland because of the illness or death of his father.
The funeral service on May 11 (onze mai), 1903, of Helen Gordon Grant is recorded (in French) at page 285, records of Basilique Notre-Dame, Montreal, Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621–1967. The name is recorded as Helen Gordon, widow of Peter Grant, civil engineer. Her parish was Saint Anthony's. Witnesses (Temoins) are Reverend James A. Grant, priest, and Alexander Joseph Grant, civil engineer. The signatures of James A. Grant, Alex J. Gant, and Gordon Grant are in the left margin. The record is indexed by ancestry. com under the name: Vve Grant Helen Gordon. (Entering into the search box Helen Gordon and the date and place of death as 1903 in Montreal should bring up the document.)
Several Grants from Speyside immigrated from Scotland to Eastern Canada beginning as early as the 1750s. As far as I have been able to determine, none of these Grants was closely related to Peter Grant, although those from Blairfindy (spelled Blairfindie below) were from the area where peter Grant was born. . Here are excerpts from Strathspey in the Canadian Fur-Trade by W. S. Wallace from Essays in Canadian History, edited by Ralph Flenby, Toronto, 1939.
IN THE north-west corner of Scotland, some distance to the east of Inverness, is a Highland valley named Strathspey. On the banks of the River Spey and its tributaries has been from early times the chief home of Clan Grant: here, near the comparatively modern village of Grantown, is Castle Grant, and here too is the rugged mountain of Craigellachie, from which the Clan Grant has derived its war-cry “Stand Fast Craigellachie”. Here too the Scottish national dance known as the Strathspey had its origin as well as the reel of Tullochgorum.
From Strathspey and its neighbouring glens there came to Canada after the British conquest a veritable emigration. Into the Canadian fur-trade, for instance, there flocked so many Grants from Strathspey that their identities and relationships have been a sort of Chinese puzzle. ...
But it would seem that he had at least one relative who was concerned in the western fur-trade. This was William Grant of Montreal and Three Rivers who was born in the parish of Kirkmichael in Scotland in 1743, the son of John Grant and Genevieve Forbes,17 and died at or near Sorel, Lower Canada, on November 20, 1810,18 after a long career in the fur-trade. That William Grant of Three Rivers was a Grant of Blairfindie is rendered practically certain from the evidence of his son, Richard Grant of Fort Hall, who always asserted that he was descended from “the chieftain of Blairfindie”, and by the fact that when Richard Grant was christened in 1794 his godmother was the Baroness de Longueuil.19 It is worthy of note that, moreover, that Blairfindie is in the parish of Kirkmichael. William Grant of Three Rivers may have been a cousin of William Grant of St. Roch, or he may have belonged to a cadet branch known as the Grants of Laggan (or Logan) of Blairfindie. When the father of William Grant of St. Roch died in 1762, he appointed as his executor “Alexander Grant in Laggan of Blairfindie”; and we know that Alexander Grant, Logan of Blairfindie, who was “out in the ‘45” with the laird of Blairfindie, had a younger brother James who is said to have emigrated to Canada.20 On the other hand, the laird of Blairfindie had in 1745 a son named John who was a “lieutenant in the Jacobite Army but deserted”; and this may have been the father of William Grant of Three Rivers. Admittedly the evidence is fragmentary; but there seems to be no doubt that William Grant of Three Rivers belonged to the same family as William Grant of St. Roch.
William Grant of Three Rivers seems to have played a part of some importance in the western fur-trade. He first appears in the fur-trade licenses in 1777, when he went security for five canoes sent to Lake Nipigon; and he continued to send canoes to the West for nearly twenty years thereafter. About 1795 the firm of Grant, Campion and Company, in which he was the senior partner, acquired one share in the North West Company; but the firm appears to have dissolved shortly afterwards. I used to suspect that Grant, Campion and Company had been the backers of David and Peter Grant, who set up an opposition to the North West Company in the West in 1793-5; but recent evidence proves this not to have been the case.21 Soon after his retirement from the North West Company, William Grant retired to Three Rivers, and in his later years was engaged in small businesses in Nicolet and Sorel. ...
There are several other members of the Clan Grant in Canada who challenge enquiry: ... James Grant of Quebec, who died in Quebec in 1788 was a merchant and distiller, and may possibly have been a native of Glenlivat where distilling is still a profitable industry; and the various Grants mentioned in the letters of William Grant of London, written from Canada in 1764. ...There are several other members of the Clan Grant in Canada who challenge enquiry: John Grant of Lachine who was an agent of the North West Company, engaged in the forwarding of supplies from Montreal, was a Grant of Glenmoriston: James Grant of Quebec, who died in Quebec in 1788 was a merchant and distiller, and may possibly have been a native of Glenlivat where distilling is still a profitable industry; and the various Grants mentioned in the letters of William Grant of London, written from Canada in 1764. ...
In 1793, a Peter Grant opened the first school in the town of Pictou. See: A History of the County of Pictou, Nova Scotia, by George Patterson. Montreal 1877 (a free Google eBook), page 157:..
We may add, that the first teacher in town , so far as we have been able to ascertain, was Peter Grant. When his father, Alpin Grant, settled in Pictou in 1784, he remained with a friend in Halifax, where he was educated; and on coming to Pictou, about the year 1793, he opened a school and continued to teach for six years. In the year 1800 he took up land at Scotch Hill and removed thither the following season, where he resided till his death.
Here is an entry from the Grant DNA Project that includes Peter Grant of Pictou:
Kit 80123: b. 1938; in Port of Spain, Trinidad
Sons of: Willard Geddes Grant b. Feb 1903 Trinidad d. Sept. 1979 Toronto, ON, Canada
Son of: Thomas Geddes Grant b. May 1866, Merigomish, NS, d. Sept. 1934, Trinidad
Son of: Rev. Dr. Kenneth James Grant, b. Feb. 1839; d. Jan. 1931, Halifax, NS
Son of George Grant, b. December 1799, d. Nov 1892 Pictou County, NS
Son of Peter Grant: b. ca. 1767 Glen Urquhart, Scotland; d. October 1859, Scotch Hill, NS
Son of: Alpin Grant b. March 1740, Glen Urquhart, Scotland; d. date unknown, place probably Pictou County, N.S.
Son of: John Grant (also called John Roy Grant, MacAllanvain) born ca. 1700, Scotland died: date and place unknown, likely in Strathspey, Scotland.
Son of: Allan Grant (known as Allan Bain)
George Monro Grant, Presbyterian minister, author, and educator, was born on December 22, 1835 in Albion Mines (Stellarton), Pictou County, N.S., third child of James Grant and Mary Monro:
Pictou County, when George was growing up, reflected in microcosm a combination of the cultural, religious, and political tensions which prevailed in Scotland. Most of the settlers, like the Grants, were Gaelic-speaking Highlanders with strong loyalties to the established Church of Scotland ...
He attended the University of Glasgow from 1853 to 1860 and performed brilliantly...
In 1872 Grant went to Victoria with another member of his congregation, Sandford Fleming*, the chief engineer for the railway to British Columbia promised to that province when it entered confederation the previous year. As secretary of the expedition, Grant travelled some 5,000 miles between 1 July and 11 October. The result was Ocean to ocean (1873)*, based on diaries he kept. —Dictionary of Canadian Biography, page 147..
*Ocean to Ocean—Sandford Fleming's Expedition through Canada in 1872, Toronto 1879.
See also: Grant, The Rev George Monro (1835-1902)
On January 9, 1841 William Murray Jr., Carpenter of Barneys River and wife Margaret sold their 50 acre parcel on Barneys River to Peter Grant of Merigomish. There was an earlier Peter Grant in Merigomish—born in 1739, whose daughter was Elizabeth Grant who was bon in 1758 in Little Harbor, Nova Scotia; married Angus MacDonald; and died on April 18, 1825, in Merigomish.
In 1773, James Grant, born in the Highlands of Scotland in about 1725, emigrated to the part of Halifax county that became Pictou county in 1835.
James Grant, one of the passengers on the Hector* settled first in King's Co., N. S. He came from Glen Urquhart, Scotland. He was married and some of his children were born in the old country. He moved from King's Co. to Cariboo, Pictou Co., and lived there for some years. Before coming to this country he gained some knowledge of milling. By this time the Upper Settlement people began to raise considerable quantities of grain, especially wheat, but they had no mill to convert it into flour. So they persuaded James Grant to leave Cariboo and move to the East River. This he did, and settled at Mill stream in 1790. He erected a mill on a stream issuing from Grant's Lake, on a site some twenty rods further down than the one now occupied by Grant's Mill. This was the first regular gristmill on the East River.
*The Hector reached Pictou on September 15, 1773. James Grant, settled first in King's County but returned to upper East River
James Grant died in February, 1822, age ninety-seven. He is described as a quiet, peaceful man. He lived for some years before his death on a farm subsequently owned by Duncan McPhie. When James Grant died, there were twelve families in Millstream and Lime Brook: Duncan Grant, James Grant, dyer, Alexander Grant, miller, Robert Grant, elder, John Fraser, James Fraser, David. McLean, Donald Fraser, Duncan McPhie, Donald Mor Fraser, David McIntosh, and Donald Cameron.
James Grant had four sons and two or three daughters. One of his sons, Duncan, died in 1847 and was buried at Springville Bridge, and was either the first or one of the first buried there. He once owned the farm on which the Rev. Angus McGillivray lived and died.
His sons, Alexander and Robert were men of influence and note and had much to do with the making of the life and the growth of the community. They succeeded their father in the milling business and were leaders in the Church and the State. Alexander Grant was married to Nellie McKay. The Rev. Robert Grant, the historian of the East River was their son. James, eldest son of Alexander Grant and Nellie McKay, was known as the Dyer. He owned woolen mills near Springville. His sons Alexander, John Walter, Hugh and Robert succeeded him.
Robert Grant was married to Mary, daughter of James Robertson. He had three sons; James, who owned a saw mill at the head of Grant's Lake and was for many years an elder under the Rev. Mr. McGillivray; Alexander Robert, who owned a gristmill on Millstream; and Dr. William R. Grant, a distinguished professor in Pennsylvania Medical College. One of his daughters, married John Fraser, Basin. Another was the wife of Colin Robertson, Churchville. —The Early Settlers of the East River (Pictou County) on Canadian Genealogy—Pictou County.
Before 1867, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick had been British colonies separate from the Province of Canada, which was created from Upper and Lower Canada in 1840. The British North America Act, 1867, established the dominion of Canada by fusing the British colonies of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. The British North America Act of 1867, now also known as the Constitution Act, 1867, provided, in section 145:
It shall be the Duty of the Government and Parliament of Canada to provide for the commencement, within Six Months after the Union, of a Railway connecting the River St. Lawrence with the City of Halifax in Nova Scotia, and for the Construction thereof without Intermission, and the Completion thereof with all practicable Speed.
The construction of the Intercolonial Railway was to be the biggest Canadian public works project of the nineteenth century. Intercolonial Railway.
Surveys had been conducted throughout the 1830s–1850s of possible railway routes to connect the Maritimes, beginning at Halifax, to Quebec and Montreal in the Province of Canada. Report on the proposed trunk line of railway from an eastern port in Nova Scotia, through New Brunswick, to Quebec by Major William Robinson, Captain Royal Engineers, Ottawa, printed in 1868 by Hunter, Rose and Company, Ottawa. See also: British North America. Final report of the officers employed on the survey of the line for the Quebec and Halifax railway, with the subsequent correspondence thereon; and on public works in Canada. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty, February 1849 by Great Britain Colonial Office. Report on the Intercolonial railway exploratory survey: made under instructions from the Canadian Government, in the year 1864 by Sir Sandford Fleming (a free Google eBook). Of three routes considered, the most northerly route, the Chaleur Bay Route, was selected, partly because it was the the farthest from the Maine border and therefore perceived as the most secure from American attack.
Despite pressure from commercial interests in the Maritimes and New England who wanted a rail connection closer to the border, the Chaleur Bay routing was chosen, amid the backdrop of the American Civil War, as it would keep the Intercolonial far from the boundary with Maine.
For a description of the route of the Intercolonial Railway from Montreal and Quebec to Halifax, see the free Google eBook: Forest, Stream and Seashore, issued by the Intercolonial Railway and Prince Edward Island Railway of Canada, June 1908.
Built for War: Canada's Intercolonial Railway by Jay Underwood (D C. Books, February 14, 2006) tells the story of Canada's first attempt to assert its sovereignty, and how the railway, built with military and economic objectives in mind, served its purpose so well.
Anyone who has had occasion to travel on VIA Rail's oldest trans-continental train 'The Ocean' between Halifax and Montreal might wonder why the original route of the Intercolonial Railway took such a round-about course through northern New Brunswick.
The answer lies in the fear nineteenth century Canadian and British politicians had that the Americans might attempt to seize control of British North America in a winter attack. With the St. Lawrence river frozen solid, reinforcements from Britain could not reach the fortress at Quebec. Hence, the building of the defensive rail line, following 'Major Robinson's Path', a much overlooked facet of the railway's history.
Intercolonial Railway on Wikipedia reports:
The "Chaleur Bay Route"—surveyed in the 1840s by Major Robinson (Royal Engineers), running from "The Bend" (Moncton), north to Newcastle on the Miramichi River, Bathurst and Campbellton, to Canada East. It would cross the Gaspé Peninsula using the Matapédia River valley before heading up the St. Lawrence River valley to the rail connection with the GTR at Rivière-du-Loup.
Stations on the line, heading north from Moncton, in 1877 included Bathurst (on the south edge of Chaleur Bay), Dalhousie Junction, Campbellton(where the Restigouche River flows into Chaleuer Bay), Cedar Hall (Val-Brillant on Lake Matapedia); and Rimouski and Riviera du Loup, on the St. Lawrence River. See the map on Intercolonial Railway on Wikipedia.
Here are excerpts from the Wikipedia article on Val-Brillant, Quebec:
Val-Brillant is a municipality in eastern Quebec, Canada, at the base of the Gaspé peninsula. On the southern shores of the Lake Matapedia, Val-Brillant is part of the Matapédia Valley. The place was previously known by many other names: ... Cedar Hall from 1876 to 1912 (referring to the large hanger built from pieces of cedar that served as a coal shed for the railway) ...
European settlement began in 1872 during the construction of the Intercolonial Railway. Supervisor Engineer Peter Grant built for himself a house that also accommodated the railway employees for many years. In 1876, the railway was completed and on July 1 the first train passed through. In 1881, the post office opened, and two years later, the Mission of Saint-Pierre-du-Lac was established, named in honour of Pierre Brillant. In 1890, the Parish Municipality of Saint-Pierre-du-Lac was founded. By 1898, it had a population of 1600 people.
Val-Brillant is within the La Matapedia Regional County Municipality of eastern Quebec.
The railway was completed July 1, 1876. The first through passenger train between Halifax and Quebec City ran on July 6, 1876. See: Old Time Trains — Intercolonial Railway.
On July 1, 1876, Sandford Fleming submitted a detailed report to Alexander MacKenzie, Minister of Public Works and Premier of Canada: The Intercolonial. A Historical Sketch of the Inception, Location, Construction and Completion of the Line of Railway Uniting the Inland and Atlantic Provinces of the Dominion (Dawson Brothers, Publishers; London : Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1876.) The full text is available on Internet Archive and as a free Google eBook. As to contract No 18 (Division H), a 20 miles section of the project, in the Restigouche District, Sandford comments:
This Division lies in the valley of the Matapedia, but in a more contracted portion than the Division last described (section 17); the line being confined within the narrow limits of the high, abrupt boundaries, and generally following the windings of the river. The curves are numerous, and many are of short radius, but very few exceed 1,000 feet in length. (page 160) ...
The work on this Division was undertaken early in the summer of 1870, to be finished by 1st July, 1872. It was not, however, until the beginning of 1876 that the work was finally completed.
The Contractors were Robert H. McGreevy & Co., the contract $648,600. At the beginning of the season of 1875, the Government took the work into their own hands.
The length of the Division is 20 miles. The average quantity of excavation is about 45,000 cubic yards per mile, and of masonry 445 cubic yards. There is a total length of 424 feet of cast iron pipe culverts. The first Resident Engineer was Mr. W. G. Thompson. In April, 1872, he was succeeded by Mr. Peter Grant. (pages 161–2).
Peter Grant was the resident engineer of Section No. 19 (Division I) of the railway, which was a 10 mile stretch that started in the Province of Quebec at the easterly edge of Section 18, extended westward down the Matapedia Valley to its mouth, across the Restigouche River, and about 3 miles toward Campbellton in the Province of New Brunswick along the south side of the Restigouche River. Fleming's Report says, at page 163, that "about two-thirds of this Division is located in the Valley of the Metapedia (sic)." The Intercolonial: A Historical Sketch of the Inception, Location, Construction and Completion of the Line of Railway Uniting the Inland and Atlantic Provinces of the Dominion, with Maps and Numerous Illustrations, by Sir Sandford Fleming, Montreal 1876 (a free Google ebook). The project included a bridge over the Restigouche River within Section 19. The bridge was to be at a forty-five degree angle to the river. The construction was to be performed by a privately owned contractor under the supervision of the resident engineer who was a government employee. The Restigouche River forms the boundary between the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick.
Fleming's Historical Sketch, at pages 156 and 157, points out the problems of constructing a railway in the Matapedia Valley:
The Metapedia valley is generally contracted, with steep hills and rocky sides rising to the height of 600 to 800 feet, for many miles, barely affording space for the Railway, the river, and the Metapedia Road. The adjoining country, in many places deeply furrowed by streams, rises, approximately, 800 feet above the valley.
There are several lateral valleys, the principal of which are those of two rapid tributaries of the Metapedia, the Rivers Causapscal and Assametquagan, rising in the Shikshok Mountains to the east of the Railway, and those of McKinnon s Brook and other streams, on the western side. For a distance of 20 miles below the mouth of the Metapedia, the Railway follows the valley of the Restigouche, between high, steep, rocky hills. It then crosses the promontory, at the point of which lies the Harbour of Dalhousie. The Line runs about a mile from the Bay Chaleur, sometimes touching the shore, until it reaches the village of Bathurst. It then leaves the shore, in order to cross the promontory between Bathurst and Miramichi.
Fleming's Report goes into much detail about the problems in constructing the bridge across the River Restigouche, and concludes, at page 167–8:
The work (constructing the bridge) was commenced in the summer of 1870, and completed by Christmas, 1875. During the whole of that time, notwithstanding the heavy plant and material employed, not a single serious casualty occurred. Mr. Martin Murphy was the contractor. Mr. Peter Grant was in charge of the work throughout, as Resident Engineer.
Section 18 stretched the next 20 miles up the Matapedia Valley. In 1872, Peter Grant assumed the responsibilities of William Thompson as resident engineer for Section 18 in addition to Section 19.
The narrow width, steep hills, and rocky sides of the Matapedia Valley, made the work in section 19 the most difficult of the entire railway. At page 31 of his 1864 report, Sandford Fleming points that the 70 miles of the Matapedia Valley that he resurveyed were "considered the most difficult and expensive between Halifax and Quebec" by Major Robinson in his 1848 report of survey. The 70 miles included, moving from the northwest to the southeast, District 17 (20 miles), District 18 (20 miles), and District 19 (10 miles).
On June 5, 1870, a contract for the construction work, other than the bridge, was entered into with Samuel Parker Tuck.* Tuck agreed to construct and complete Section No. 19 for $395,733 in accordance with stakes and marks placed by the resident engineer and "in strict accordance with the plans and specifications thereof, and with such instructions as may be from time to time given by the Engineer and shall be under the direction and constant supervision of such District, Division and Assistant Engineers and Inspectors as may be appointed. The contractor was responsible for completing the road-bed of the railway, and for providing "all materials of every kind except the ties or sleepers, iron rails, and their fastenings, the ballasting and the laying of the track."
*Samuel Parker Tuck was also the first contractor on Section 17, a 20 mile stretch in the Matapedia Valley. He had been a member of Fleming's preliminary survey staff of the Intercolonial route in 1865. Neither of his contracts was successfully completed. Fletcher's Army by Jay Underwood, page 122.
In August of 1871, about a year after the contract was entered into, Tuck "having failed to proceed with the work" was "relieved thereof" and the contractor's obligations (except for the construction of the bridge over the River Restigouche, which was take out of the contract in exchange for a price reduction of $116,000) were taken over on August 2, 1871, by Thomas Boggs and John R. Murray, doing business as partners in Thomas Boggs and Company. Thomas Boggs died in March of 1873, and his partner, John R. Murray, became responsible for the contract. Thomas Boggs and Company had contracted to complete the work by July 1, 1872. Murray completed the work in the autumn of 1874.
On January 26, 1876, Murray made a formal petition in the Exchequer Court for $150,000 for extra work that he claimed was not included in the original schedule and specifications of the contract, some of which was caused by changes in grade and location and "by want of and delay in preparations by the said commissioners and their engineers, in acquiring right of way, locating line, laying out work, and furnishing specifications necessary to enable the contractors to proceed with and execute the said works." The government refused the petition. The government claimed a credit of $51,000 for money that was paid to Samuel Parker Tuck before Boggs and Murray took over the contract, and claimed that Boggs and Murray had agreed to complete the entire section for the balance of the agreed amount and not to demand any extras "of any kind whatever". (page 19)
In early 1876, Murray was declared insolvent, and his creditors became the beneficiaries of the suit. A principle beneficiary was the subcontractor on the job, Robert Peter Mitchell. He actively participated in both the trial and the arbitration hearing, and was allowed to question Peter Grant in both proceedings. Peter Mitchell (1824–1899), who was born in New Castle, New Brunswick, and died in Montreal, was a lawyer, businessman , politician and ship builder. He was a director of the Baie des Chaleurs Railway. He had moved from Newcastle to Montreal by 1882. "In the fight for an intercolonial railway, he was New Brunswick’s champion, attending conferences on its construction held at Quebec in 1861 and 1862." He probably wrote: The Route of the Intercolonial Railway in a National, Commercial and Economical point of view (November 22, 1867)]
The litigation and arbitration of the claims resulting from this contract are described in my section below: Lump-Sum versus Schedule-of-Prices Contracts—Murray v. The Queen, and the two following sections. The thorough reports of the Proceedings illuminate the work of Peter Grant in Canada. Peter Grant presented his testimony to the arbitrator in Murray v. The Queen on February 19, 20, 21, and 22, 1879.
At a meeting in Montreal on March 22, 1876, the Commissioners of the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway appointed Peter Grant Engineer of the fourth of its four divisions, from east of Buckingham to Aylmer. His salary was $166.66 per month plus approved traveling expenses. A letter of Peter Grant's, dated February 5, 1878, entered as evidence in the arbitration hearing in Murray v. The Queen was on stationery of the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway, Western Division, Engineering Department, datelined "Hull, 5th February, 1878." Hull, Gatineaéu, Quebec, is less that 2 miles (2.5 km) northwest of Ottawa, Ontario, via Portage Bridge across the Ottawa River. (The Railway opened between Montreal and Hull via Lachute on December 27, 1877. The Canadian Pacific Railway purchased the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa & Occidental (QMO&O) Railway from the Province of Quebec on May 17, 1882. The line linked Quebec City to Montreal to Hull, Quebec. It connected to the CCR at Ottawa via a bridge across the Ottawa River at LeBreton Flats.)
From: Ottawa Papers - Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway—articles from the Ottawa Citizen regarding the QMO&O, Chaudiere Bridge:
Wednesday 18/12/1878 — Mr. Peter Grant and staff are at work surveying and ascertaining the probable cost of the proposed railway bridge above the Chaudiere, to connect the QMO&O Railway with the Canada Central.
Saturday 03/05/1879 — Mr. Peter Grant C.E. yesterday explored the banks of the Ottawa at and above the site of the proposed railroad bridge across the Chaudiere. About three quarters of a mile further up was found to be a much better location for the said bridge, the water being shallower and the river being only 2,000 feet across against 4,000 feet at the other site. No embankments would have to be made, while at the present location it will require 133,000 yards of earth, and that will have to be brought from a distance. The grade, also to the Canada Central, on the south side of the river is also said to be much easier. Mr. Grant calculates that the government, by altering the site of the bridge would save the province of Quebec nearly $125,000.
In 1880, Peter Grant received small salary payments from the Canadian Pacific Railway. Peter Grant was re-employed by the Intercontinental Railway in the summer of 1884. The 1891 census of Grand Narrow, Nova Scotia, listed him as a civil engineer employed by the government.
In 1875, Peter Grant was given the additional responsibility of resident engineer of Section 17 of the Intercolonial, which covered an additional 20 miles up the Matapedia Valley, including the village of Causapscal. . Fleming's report described the village of Causapscal at the confluence of the Matapedia and Causapscal Rivers (along today's Quebec Route 132) as being "near the middle of the division." (page 158).
For an insight into the work Peter Grant did for the Intercolonial Railway, see Return to Address. Papers Relating to the Claims of Murray & Co., Contractors, Intercolonial Railway, and the Decision of Mr. Samuel Keefer The Sole Arbitrator Thereon (a free Google eBook), especially the testimony of Peter Grant at pages 50–73.
Jay Underwood's book, Fleming's Army —The civil engineers who built Canada's Intercolonial Railway (Railfare DC Books 2011) cover Peter Grant at pages 71-74. Underwood says in part: "Peter Grant had the misfortune to become embroiled in a scandal that had him become the scapegoat in a battle between fierce political rivals in Ottawa." He then reports on a political brouhaha arising out of a claim that George Moffat, Sr., who represented Restigouche in the Canadian House of Commons as a Conservative member from 1870 to 1877, improperly received payment for the transport of rails and other services rendered in connection with the construction of the Intercolonial Railway from 1873 through 1876. The contracts were signed by George Moffat's son, Robert Moffat (who was elected to his father's seat in parliament in 1882) whose correspondence was with Peter Grant, Civil Engineer; for example this telegram:
Dalhousie, June 2, 1875
To Peter Grant, Civil Engineer: —
Mr. Moffat wants to know what he has done wrong in connection with taking iron to Campbellton last year, that contract for doing so should be let to another. This (year?) he made no preparation for doing so, but can. At same time want to be aware of his fault before doing so.
(Signed) Robert Moffat
When the matter was brought up before the House of Commons on April 23, 1877, with a suggestion that George Moffat vacate his seat, George Moffat responded:
Mr. Speaker, I never had a contract for the Intercolonial Railway in my life, to the best of my knowledge and belief. I know nothing about this, and I deny the whole of it. I have never obtained a cent of money from that railway, either for contracts or anything else. I have never sought a contract and never got one.
Debates: Official Report, Volume 3, by Canada. Parliament. House of Commons, pages 1710-1711 (a free Google eBook).
The Independence of Parliament Act enacted in 1868 made ineligible for a seat in the parliament any person who enters into an agreement with a government agency such as the Intercontinental Railway "under which any public money of Canada is to be paid for any service or work."
On April 2, 1877, the House of Commons ordered the production of "Copies of all Letters and other Papers respecting transport of Rails, etc., from "Colonist," "Bessie Parker" and "Substadt," at Port Dalhousie, N.B. in 1875, and communications on the subject between Peter Grant and Robert Moffat, etc., 205. Presented, 283. Printed. Sess. Papers, No. 162." General Index to the Journals of the House of Commons, Dominion of Canada (1877–1890) under Moffat, Robert, page 494. The return to the order of April 2, 1877, is in the Chung Collection of the University of British Columbia.
In December of 1877, George Moffat resigned his seat in the House of Commons. Some members of the press were openly skeptical of George Moffat's continued denial that he had violated the Independence of Parliament Act. See for example The Semi-Weekly Patriot of Thursday, January 10, 1878 — Independence of Parliament, page 3. A conservative, George Haddow was elected to replace him in a by-election of January 12, 1878. George Moffat died at the age of 68 on May 13, 1878.
Parliamentary Procedure and Practice in the Dominion of Canada by Sir George Bourinot (Fourth Edition) Toronto, Canada Law Book Company, 1916 (a free Google eBook) discusses the Independence of Parliament Act in Chapter IV, pages 140–148).
In the session of 1877, attention was called in the House of Commons to the fact that a number of members appeared to have inadvertently infringed the following section of the act: — "No person, whosoever, holding or enjoying, undertaking or executing, directly or indirectly, alone or with any other, by himself or by the interposition of any trustee or third party, any contract or agreement with her Majesty, or with any public officer or department, with respect to the public service of Canada, or under which any public money of Canada is to be paid for any service or work, shall be eligible as a member of the House of Commons, nor shall he sit or vote in the same."
Some doubts arose as to the meaning of the word "contract" under the foregoing section, and all the cases in which members were supposed to have brought them selves within the intent of the statute were referred to the committee on privileges. A large number of members were involved in the controversy. Mr. Currier, a member of a firm which had supplied lumber to the department of public works and Mr. Norris, one of the owners of a line of steamers which had carried rails for the government, believing that they had unwittingly infringed the law, resigned their seats during the session. ... The result of this [1877 committed] report was the resignation, during the recess, of Mr. Anglin, Mr. Moffat and other members who had entered into such contracts. In 1878 the government of the day introduced a bill "to further secure the independence of parliament." This became law in that year. This act became a part of the Senate and House of Commons Act in the Revised Statutes of Canada of 1886 and 1906. As the law now stands "no person accepting or holding any office, commission or employment, permanent or temporary, in the service of the government of Canada, at the nomination of the Crown, or at the nomination of any of the officers of the government of Canada, to which any salary, fee, wages, allowances or emolument, or profit of any kind is attached" is eligible as a member of the House of Commons. But nothing in the section just quoted "shall render ineligible any person holding any office, commission, or employment of the nature or description" mentioned above, "as a member of the House of Commons, or shall disqualify him from sitting or voting therein, if, by his commission or other instrument of appointment, it is declared or provided that he shall hold such office, commission or employment, without any salary, fees, wages, allowances, emolument or other profit of any kind attached thereto". ... Any person disqualified under the act shall forfeit the sum of two hundred dollars for every day on which he sits and votes. Any person admitting a person to a share in a contract shall forfeit and pay the sum of two thousand dollars for every such offence. (pages 142–146)
The Annual Report of the Minister of Railways and Canals for the Fiscal Year 1880, Appendix No. 5, Unsettled Claims, Intercolonial Railway, listed a claim #17 " Moffat, late George, Receiving rails at Dalhousie and delivery at Campbellton, submitted June 21, 1880. for $6,168,54." The fiscal year 1880 was from July 1, 1879, to June 30, 1880, so the claim had been submitted nine days before the end of the fiscal year.
After contentious discussion, the House of Parliament agreed on April 28, 1882, to pay the heirs of George Moffat $4,777.25 for the transport of rails between Dalhousie and Campbellton in 1875 in accordance with an award in arbitration. The work had been performed under a contract with McDonald & Co., and they had been paid for work they did not perform "on the orders of (Peter) Grant, who was an engineer of the government." Sir Charles Tupper told the house of commons that the government intended to seek repayment from McDonald & Co. The Official Debates of the House of Commons (Fourth Session—Fourth Parliament), 45 Victoriae, 1882, volume XII (February 9, 1882 to May 17, 1882), pages 1228–1230. Here is a small part of the discussion from page 1229:
Mr. HESSON. This work was not done by Mr. McDonald, and I think it is worth while to consider whether the party ordering that money to be paid should not be responsible. I think it is quite right and proper that the Government should pay the man who did the work, and it was the duty of the Government at that time to see that the contractor was not paid, not having performed work.
Mr. MACKENZIE. He did perform the work. We had no business to interfere between the contractor and his men along the line, to see whether he had paid them. If the Moffats chose to do this work for Mr. McDonald, it was none of our business. The work was paid for according to the regular usage of the Department.
Sir CHARLES TUPPER. I have no doubt the hon. gentleman thought, when he paid Mr. McDonald this money, that he performed the work; but it is proved that Mr. McDonald did not perform the work or obtain its performance, and that the work was done by the person for whom this payment is made, upon the direction of the officer of the Government in charge, viz, the resident engineer, Mr. Peter Grant.
Mr. MACKENZIE. Mr. Grant had no more business to give the order than the hon. gentleman himself.
This affair, the litigation over the claim for extra on the construction contract for Section No. 19, and the Inch Arran House hearings in 1886, led Jay Underwood to conclude in his book:
While several engineers on the Intercolonial enhanced their reputations for their work — and many others acquired respectable reputations because of their work — Peter Grant may have been the only member of the staff to have his reputation almost ruined. In his history of Canadian National Railways, G. R. Stevens refers to several engineers who were appointed and dismissed through political machinations, but Peter Grant had the misfortune to become embroiled in a scandal that saw him become the scapegoat in a battle between fierce political rivals in Ottawa. (page 71)
Jay Underwood, author of Fleming's Army, was president of the Nova Scotia Railway Historical Society from 2003 to 2013, and died at the age of 55 on January 8, 2014. For more comment on Fleming's well-researched book see: New Book Features Canada's Pioneering Civil Engineers under Reader's Choice in Transportation Talk, Canadian Institute of Transportation Engineers Member Newsletter, volume 33, number 3 (Fall 2011), page 16; and Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due— Maritime Author Seeks To Acknowledge All Engineers Involved With Building Canada’s Intercolonial Railway in the Fall/Winter 2005–06 issue of e:ngenuity, page 24.
To find the present location of Matapedia. where the Matapedia River flows into the Restigouche River from the northwest, go to Google Maps and enter Matapedia, QC GOJ. The map shows the railway bridge crossing the Restigouche River at a 45° angle and the Quebec-New Brunswick boundary in the middle of the Restigouche River. Following the Matapedia River through Causapscal, Lac-Au-Saumon, and Amqui to Val-Brillant on the southern shore of Lake Matapedia, 91.3 km (56 miles) to the northwest, will give the viewer an idea of the rugged terrain of the Matapedia Valley.To find the Matapedia River, go to Google Maps and enter Rivière Matapedia, Quebec, Canada. A picture called An Early Morning at Matapedia shows the railway running along the east side of the river. Confessions of a Train Geek features photographs of trains in the stations at Matapedia and Causapscal and other places along the line in the Matapedia Valley.
The Motel Restigouche now occupies land very close to where the Peter Grant and his family lived in the 1870s—on the east side of the Matapedia River and north side of the Restigouche River. See: Church and Railway, Matapedia, 1896.
For some history of the area, see: Matapédia-Restigouche Heritage Trail by Dwane Wilkin on the Gaspecian Heritage WebMagazine.
The most formidable point of the line is next to be mentioned, — this is the passage up the Metapediac valley. The hills on both sides are high and steep, and come down, either on the one side or on the other, pretty close to the river's bank, and involves the necessity (in order to avoid curves of very small radius) of changing frequently from one side to the other. The lock, too, is slaty and hard. From this cause, twenty miles of this valley will prove expensive, but the grades will be very easy. About fourteen bridges of an average length of 120 to 150 yards will be required up this valley. —, page 18:
After crossing the Restigouche River, the line will follow the north bank as far as the mouth of the Metapediac River, at the 350th mile.
The section of country lying between the Restigouche and St. Lawrence Rivers is a vast tract of high land, intersected in every direction by deep valleys and vast ravines, through which the rivers flowing to the St. Lawrence and Restigouche wind their course.
The height of land from which these rivers flow respectively north and south, is full of lakes, and along them the mountain ranges rise to a great elevation.
The average distance between these two rivers is about 100 miles.
The only available valley which my knowledge of the country, or the explorations we have carried on, enable me to report upon, by which a line of railway can be carried through this mass of highlands, is that of the Metapediac River.
This valley extends from the Restigouche to the Great Metapediac Lake, a distance of between 60 and 70 miles; and as the summit level to be attained in that distance is only 763 feet above tide-water, the gradients, generally speaking, are extremely favorable. From the broken and rocky character of this section of country, some portions of this part of the line will be expensive, especially the first twenty miles of the ascent, in which the hills in many places come out boldly to the river, and will render it necessary to cross it in several places.
The rock formation is nearly all slate. There are settlements on the Metapediac River, as far as the Mill-stream.
Generally speaking, however, the greater portion of this section of country is unfit for cultivation, consisting of a gravelly rocky soil, covered with an endless forest of spruce, pine, birch, cedar, &c.
From the mouth of the river, as far as the 365th mile, the line continues upon the east bank. Above this, at the mouth of Clark's Brook, the rocky bank of the river is very unfavorable, and to obtain proper curves, it crosses to the point opposite, and then recrossed immediately above, to the more favorable ground on the east bank.
Between this and the mouth of the Ammetssquagau River, the line, to obtain good curves and avoid those places where the hills come out bold and rocky, crosses the river four times.
The position of the line for three miles above and below the Ammetssquagau River, where the hills are steep and rocky close on the river, will be the most expensive part of the line. Major Robinson's Report, Appendix No. 1, by G. W. W. Henderson, Captain, Royal Engineers, —page 46
Report on the proposed trunk line of railway from an eastern port in Nova Scotia, through New Brunswick, to Quebec by Major William Robinson, Captain Royal Engineers, Ottawa, printed in 1868 by Hunter, Rose and Company, Ottawa. Robinson's report is also available as a free Google eBook.
The 1871 census of Restigouche (Sub-District J), Bonaventure (District 169), Quebec (Province), Canada, which included the village of Matapedia, lists:
(1871) Peter Grant, age 40, born in Scotland, engineer, Catholic. (In the same residence as Anthony Clark, age 70, born in England, assistant postmaster.)
One source says that the village at the confluence of the Matapedia River and the Restigouche River was called Glenlivit. The Best Route For the Intercolonial Railway Through the Provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick by Walter M. Buck, C. E. (William M. Wright, St. John, N. B., 1867), page 3.
During contruction of the Intercolonial Railway, two deep catch-water drains were taken out at Station 520 of the work, which was within Section 19 of which Peter Grant was resident engineer. Peter Grant, while on the witness stand in Murray v. The Queen, testified that this work was done "within one hundred yards of my own house." He also testified that during his first few years on the job "we lived amongst the men."
When construction of the Intercolonial Railway had been completed, accommodations which had been built for the senior construction staff "near the shimmering rock pools of the Matapedia" were acquired by George Stephen ( Grant cousin) and sold to his wealthy friends as members of a fishing club. "Another house, originally owned by the engineer Peter Grant, was bought by Donald Smith."* (Lord Strathcona). Lord Strathcona: A Biography of Donald Alexander Smith by Donna McDonald, Dundurn (September 1, 2002), page 296. See: US Elite Secret Hideaway Paradise—The Great Restigouche River Basin... and Stolen Treasure by Peter Dube.
*Donald A. Smith, afterwards Lord Strathcona, who was not only a native of Strathspey, but was descended from Grants on both his father’s and his mother’s side. —Strathspey in the Canadian Fur-Trade by W. S. Wallace
Most notable of the officers of the first rank who have conducted the fur trade in Labrador is Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, the present Governor of the Company. Coming out at eighteen, Donald Alexander Smith, a well-educated Scottish lad, related to Peter and Cuthbert Grant, and the brothers John and James Stuart, prominent officers, whose deeds in the North-West Company are still remembered, the future Governor began his career. —The Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company, Chapter XXXVII. —Life on the Shores of Hudson Bay and Labrador on Electric Scotland.
On the preceding page of the 1871 census return for Restigouche is John Jellett, age 25, born in Nova Scotia, of Irish origin, Assistant Engineer, Church of England . John J. Jellett was Peter Grant's primary assistant. The population of the sub-district was about 575, almost half children, and mostly farmers and lumbermen.
In the 1871 census of Restigouche, Bonaventure, Quebec, Peter Grant is listed on property next to Daniel Fraser, age 49, born in Nova Scotia, Presbyterian of Scotch heritage, a mail contractor. With Daniel Fraser were his wife, Jane, age 39, born in Scotland and 3 children, ages 8 to 14, all born in Quebec. In the 1861 census of East Canada, Daniel Fraser, age 42 (indexed by ancestry.com as 44) and his family were listed in the same place, described as the township of Ristigouche (sic) in the County of Bonaventure, with a note on the return: "Ristigouche is bounded on the east by the Township of Mann. In front by the River Ristigouche. In the West by the River Matapedia and in rear by vacant Crown Land."
Sandford Fleming, in his 1864 Report on the Intercolonial Railway Exploratory Survey, reports on his resurvey of 70 miles of the Matapedia Valley, ending at the mouth of the Metapedia River. The miles were numbered from north to south.
The 70th mile ends immediately opposite the farm house of Mr. Daniel Fraser, on the flats where the Matapedia joins the Restigouche." (page 33)
In the Google map indexed as Matapedia, QC, Canada, a Fraser Island and a Jellot Island will be found in the Restigouche River immediately east of where the Matapedia River enters the Restigouche River from the northwest. Fraser Island is probably named after Daniel Fraser and my guess is that Jellot Island is named after John Jellett. Here is an excerpt from Matapedia-Restigouche Heritage Trail, which contains a helpful map of the area:
MATAPEDIA (Pop. 800)
This cozy, bilingual village at the fork of the Matapedia and Ristigouche rivers is famous for its salmon angling. Locals have earned their livelihood in luxury private fishing camps for generations, working as guides, cooks, caretakers and wardens. The largest and most famous of these, the Restigouche Salmon Club, is also Canada’s oldest fishing club.
Founded in 1880, the club’s main camp (8 rue Perron East) sits on land purchased from Matapedia pioneer Daniel Fraser, a Nova Scotia-born merchant-trader who, together with his Scottish wife Jean Ritchie, ran a farming, fishing, lumbering and trapping enterprise here in the 1830s. Grog Island camp on Riverside Drive was owned for many years by the celebrated American newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer.
The 1871 census lists the resident engineer of Section 18 of the Intercolonial in the subdistrict of Tracadieche, district of Bonaventure, Quebec:
(1871) William George Thompson, age 38, born in England, civil engineer, Episcopalian, Irish Origin
The English spelling of Tracadieche is Tracadigash. On May 7, 2005, the name was changed to Carleton-sur-Mer, and the village appears on most maps as Carleton. Carleton is on the north side of Chaleur Bay, across from and to the east of Dalhousie. Thompson and McGreevy were apparently living away from the section of the railway for which they were responsible, where there were no settlements.
In the same location in the 1871 census was the contractor for section 18:
(1871) Robert Henry McGreevy, age 45, born in Quebec, contractor, Catholic, Irish origin (indexed by ancestry.com as McGuery).
Sandford Fleming ardently proposed that the construction contracts be let on a system of a "schedule of prices, without any definite sum as the cost of the whole work in each contract,"rather than a lump-sum basis." Report of the Commissioners of the Intercolonial Railway (1870). (pages 3–6). The Commissioners of the Intercolonial Railway overruled Fleming and directed that contracts be let on a lump-sum basis. Fleming vigorously objected in a letter to Prime Minister Sir John A. McDonald of January 27, 1869. Addenda to report of the Commissioners of the Intercolonial Railway (1870). The pertinent documents are printed in the free Google eBook: Canada. Commissioners of the Intercolonial Railway Report 1870. Here are excerpts from Sandford Fleming's letter to Prime Minister John A. McDonald:
When we find that in all the cases above referred to, the lump sum contracts gave no protection against claims for large additional amounts, and that whether these claims were just or not they were allowed, it seems to follow that this system does not successfully accomplish the object for which it is intended, and that while it professes to afford the actual cost of the work the moment the contracts are let, it would be extremely unsafe to rely upon this as the limit of the public liability. The Commissioners say that with the schedule system "there could be no estimate of what each section would cost until it was completed," but I think it follows from what has already been urged, that this statement is much more applicable to the system of lump sums, with the addition that the public liability is not ascertained even on the completion of the works, and sometimes even not for years afterwards, till the amounts are settled by litigation or arbitration. While, as regards the other system, the amount of liability may be estimated sufficiently close for all practical purposes, soon after the tenders are received.
With regard to the Parliamentary Buildings at Ottawa, I should add that although commenced under stringent lump sum contracts, it was found necessary after an enormous sum of money had been expended, to pay for their erection by measurement and schedule prices.
In mv previous letters to you, I described the mode in which contracts are let in England. My object was to point out that the schedule system recommended by me was practically the same, (at least, as far as the peculiar circumstances of the case would admit), as the system commonly adopted in England, the leading principle in both being that the contractor was assured on tendering for work that he should be paid at fixed rates and according to clearly defined rules for all the work which he might be required to perform, and for that only. (page 8).
If the system proposed by the Commissioners be tried, I apprehend that the same course must," in the long run," be resorted to in the Intercolonial Hallway, but unfortunately this will involve an entire change in the contracts, as the Commissioners have expunged from my specification of works all the clauses which are necessary for clearly defining the various classes of work, and how they should be measured, as well as other conditions which I considered necessary to introduce to prevent disputes. (page 8).
In his final report of July 1, 1876, Intercolonial: a historical sketch of the inception, location, construction and completion of the lines of railway uniting the inland and Atlantic provinces of the Dominion. -- (1876), at pages 96 and 97, Fleming summed up the dispute this way:
In the memorandum furnished by the Commissioners, they insisted that the proper course to be taken was to call for tenders for the construction of each respective section of the Railway, for a bulk sum, and to hold the contractor to complete the work for the amount of his tender, without advance of price for increase of work, or any reduction for diminution of work. The Chief Engineer contended that the knowledge of the work required on any section was insufficient to admit of letting the work for a bulk sum ; that no contractor could exactly understand the extent of the obligation which he was assuming; and that contracts let on this system, as matters then were, would certainly end unsatisfactorily; and that difficulties would arise to perplex the Engineers, the Commissioners, and, finally, the Government.
He also pointed out that all contracts should only be let on known data, but that if it were deemed advisable to commence construction before the measurements were completed, and the exact quantities established, the principle of measurement and schedule price should be adopted. A contractor would then perfectly understand that he would only be paid at the prices in his tender for all the work which he per formed, and for that only.
The opinion of the Chief Engineer was, however, not sustained, and tenders were asked on the bulk sum system.
On June 5, 1870, a contract for the construction work other than the bridge was entered into with Samuel Parker Tuck.* Tuck agreed to construct and complete Section No. 19 for $395,733 in accordance with stakes and marks placed by the resident engineer and "in strict accordance with the plans and specifications thereof, and with such instructions as may be from time to time given by the Engineer and shall be under the direction and constant supervision of such District, Division and Assistant Engineers and Inspectors as may be appointed. The contractor was responsible for completing the road-bed of the railway, and for providing "all materials of every kind except the ties or sleepers, iron rails, and their fastenings, the ballasting and the laying of the track."
* Samuel Parker Tuck was also the first contractor on Section 17, a 20 mile stretch in the Matapedia Valley. He had been a member of Fleming's preliminary survey staff of the Intercolonial route in 1865. Neither of his contracts was successfully completed. Fletcher's Army by Jay Underwood, page 122.
In August of 1871, about a year after the contract was entered into, Tuck "having failed to proceed with the work" was "relieved thereof" and the contractor's obligations were taken over on August 2, 1871, by a partnership known as Thomas Boggs and Company— except for the construction of the bridge over the River Restigouche, which was taken out of the contract in exchange for a price reduction of $116,000. Thomas Boggs died in March of 1873, and his partner, John R. Murray, became responsible for the contract.
Murray completed the work in the autumn of 1874. On January 26, 1876, Murray made a formal petition in the Exchequer Court for $150,000 in extra work that he claimed was not included in the original schedule and specifications of the contract, some of which was caused by changes in grade and location and "by want of and delay in preparations by the said commissioners and their engineers, in acquiring right of way, locating line, laying out work, and furnishing specifications necessary to enable the contractors to proceed with and execute the said works." The government refused the petition, and claimed a credit of $51,000 for money that was paid to Samuel Parker Tuck before Boggs and Murray took over the contract, and claimed that Boggs and Murray had agreed to complete the entire section for the balance of the agreed amount and not to demand any extras "of any kind whatever". (page 19)
In early 1876, Murray was declared insolvent, and his creditors became the beneficiaries of the suit. A principle beneficiary was the subcontractor on the job, Robert Peter Mitchell. He actively participated in both at the trial and the arbitration hearing, and was allowed to question Peter Grant in both proceedings.
The lawsuit is known as Murray v. The Queen. Trial of Murray's claim was held in Ottawa on June, 1877, i before Judge Telesphore Fournier, who had been Minister of Justice and Attorney general of Canada in 1874 and 1875. On June 22, 1878, Judge Fournier ruled in favor of Murray on most of the legal issues arising out of interpretation of the contract. At the trial, Peter Grant testified that there were substantial changes to grade and location (for which the contract required extra compensation to be paid) that had not been precisely measured, and only estimated, mostly by his assistant John Jellett. Judge Fournier, in his finding said:
Grant, moreover, who had two sections to superintend, could only give part of his time to Section No. 19. He had, as an assistant, one, John Jellet, a rod-man, who studied under him to become an engineer, and whom Grant appointed afterwards as Assistant Engineer.
The mode of Jellet's working, as described by himself, shows that he had a desire rather than the ability of doing the work well. His calculations were not always verified, or, if they were sometimes, it would be by parties who are not responsible. Sometimes, instead of measuring the work, he is satisfied by guessing at the amount from the number of men the contractors told him they employed. 1 will cite an extract from the testimony : — " Q. How much was done that month in the place where the Heavy work was ? — There was an estimate given on it every time. " Q. How did you make that? — From the men's time that were working at it. " Q. You guessed at the amount from the number of men working at it and the time ? — Yes; that is all. " Q. And not from actual measurement ? — No."
In reference to the "New Brunswick Cut," when he is asked how he measured the heights, he answers: "I averaged it."
" Q. What do you mean by averaged ?— Some places it was rough; some places it would go eight feet, some places ten; and I took the measures. "
Q. You measured it with a tape? — In some places, and in some places with the eyes, where I could not get at it."
He admits that he often did this. The balance of his testimony proves that the grades were not regularly measured. His books could not even show what he had measured with tape; and he declared that he did not think it was his duty to keep a record of his operations, which he reported to Grant.
It may be said such reports possibly were sufficient to enable him to prepare the monthly estimates, which were based on an approximate quantity of the work done; but they cannot evidently, without injustice to the contractor, be said to contain all the information necessary to enable the Engineer-in-Chief, later on, to grant the final certificate which was to settle and satisfy all claims arising out of the contract. These reports are, however, relied upon by the defence as the basis of the alleged final settlement.
Now, these incomplete measurements made by Jellett served as a basis to Grant to make his reports to the Commissioners and to the Engineer-in-Chief, as well as to make his entries on the plans and profiles of the road and to ascertain the progress of the works. Later on these measurements and these entries which he has been unable to verify, as he admits it himself, were the means of making the reports filed in this case and having document marked A Z: " Report on item of claims of Boggs & Co., contractors for Section 19" and document marked B F: "Detailed statement of additions to and diminution from contract."
Speaking of the first report, he first says that the measurement was complete and correct to the best of his knowledge; but on being closely examined by the learned counsel of the suppliant, he admits that it is neither complete nor final."
Q. Why did you presume to send a report like this to the Government before you could ascertain whether it was accurate or not? — I knew it was accurate, but it would not be binding on the Government; I say it is accurate as far as the details that you see there, but I do not say it is a complete report."
The second report, piece marked B.P.: "Detailed statement of additions to and diminutions from contract," being partly based on the above measurement, is not of a character to give confidence as to accuracy.
Moreover, the Engineer having wrongfully made measurements in winter, at a time when there was in certain places over ten feet of snow over the works he was measuring, it is evident he could not make an accurate and complete measurement. (pages 29–30) ...
The distinction between work done under the contract and work done as extra not having been made in the monthly estimates forwarded to the Commissioners, it cannot be said that the matters in difference between the contractors and Commissioners were settled. ...
Now, if the contractors had a right in such a case to the value of the extra work, and if the Government had a right to a diminution of price, it seems perfectly clear that there exists the obligation of measuring accurately the amount of increased work and the amount of diminution in order to get at the proper amount to be allowed to each party.
Without this information the Commissioners could not give their decision on this point, which, moreover, does not seem to have been settled by them. They ordered payments to be made on the monthly estimates of Grant, made, as I have already stated, without distinguishing the extra work from that done under the contract, but they never gave a decision as to the amount due for extra. (page 31) ...
I am therefore of opinion that there is no evidence to show that the Commissioners or the Minister of Public Works ever gave their decision on this part of the defence which relates to the extra work in question. On the contrary, there is evidence that the Honorable the Minister of Public Works, before deciding the matter in difference, ordered a new measurement of these extra works. (Being persuaded, after a careful perusal of the evidence, that it is impossible to render justice to the parties without this measurement, I consider it my duty, reserving to myself the right of adjudging afterwards on the merits of the case, to order that this case be referred to the Registrar of this Court, to obtain such legal evidence as can be adduced by the parties for the purpose of getting the number and quantity of alterations of the location, and of the grade which either increased or diminished, as the case may be, the work under contract, and of ascertaining the value of such increase or diminution, and the balance which may be due to either party after these operations.) (page 32)
The parties in Murray v. The Queen then agreed that the amount owed Murray should be decided by a single arbitrator, Mr. Samuel Keefer, Civil Engineer of Brockville, Ontario. Keefer began a hearing on January 31, 1879, and on March 21, 1879, awarded Murray an additional $79,900. The testimony of Peter Grant is at pages 50 though 73 of the record of the proceedings. Here are the concluding remarks of the arbitrator:
The Government Engineers by a strict interpretation of a stringent contract found that the contractors had been overpaid the sum of $14,754 (see report of superintendent of railways, 12th May, 1876), while by the evidence adduced before the arbitrator, and the interpretation he has given to the same contract, he finds there was due to the contractors when the work was taken off their hands the sum of $79,900. This difference is accounted for mainly by the fact that the Government Engineers never made any final measurement of this Section after the work was done, and never kept any proper record of the changes that were made during its progress. The Minister of Public works depended upon the Superintendent of Railways for the proper administration of his Department. The Superintendent of Railways depended on the Engineer-in-Charge of the Intercolonial for all measurements and estimates of work performed, having the bulk sum always in view. The Engineer-in-Charge of the whole line depended on the measurements of the Resident Engineer on the Section, and the Resident Engineer on a rope of sand, and so the whole edifice fails to pieces. The defence breaks down before the Exchequer Court, and the Government has no final measurement to lay before the Arbitrator.
Deluded by the idea that a bulk sum contract covered everything, the Resident Engineer did not think it necessary to keep track of the measurements. True, in a certain way, he pretended to do so. But while he made returns showing the effect of certain changes, they were not founded on any visible data, and he admits in his evidence before the Arbitrator that he was "perfectly at sea as to the quantities." The Arbitrator could, therefore, place no reliance on his returns, except in cases where he finds other proof to confirm them. He is obliged to fall back on the better and more reliable evidence — the only reliable measurements of a competent Engineer, whose calculations, founded on actual measurement, have been verified, and since they are made on data furnished by the Engineer Department. and are sworn to, he is warranted in adopting them as the basis of his award. Without these measurements, in fact, it would have been impossible to proceed a single step. (page 197)
The Report of the Auditor General on Appropriation Accounts of the Year Ended 30 June, 1879, under Public Works—Vote—Intercolonial Railway (page 143),includes this amount expended for the year ended June 30, 1879:
| Expenditure Compared with Grant | ||||||
| Service | Supplementary Grant |
Total Grant | Expenditure | Less than Granted | More than Granted | |
| Amount of Award in favor of Messrs. Boggs & Murray, for work under Contract, Section 19, and expenses in connection therewith, in accordance with judgment of Exchequer Court. | $101,753.00 |
$101,753.00 |
$101,047.00 |
$706.00 |
||
The award of $101,753.00 to Boggs and Murray is also reported on page 23 of the report.
For more insight into Murray v. The Queen and the work Peter Grant did for the Intercolonial Railway, see Return to Address. Papers Relating to the Claims of Murray & Co., Contractors, Intercolonial Railway, and the Decision of Mr. Samuel Keefer The Sole Arbitrator Thereon, printed by order of Parliament (a free Google eBook), especially the testimony of Peter Grant at pages 50–73. Here are excerpts:
Q. (by the arbitrator) You will not undertake to swear that the contractors did not do the work?
— I am very sure that Robert Gordon took out that rock, because the foot was taken from it and it was in a sliding condition, so that it was my duty to order it to be taken down. They were never paid for it because it was a lump-sum contract that work was done, though, for sure, there is one thing I should not have said the other day about Station 520; I remember now, distinctly, how it occurred: the grade went into that cut about three hundred feet, and I denied that there was any rock taken out; I was perfectly right in saying so, but I should have added that there were two deep catch-water drains taken out there also. 1 denied that there was anything done there, but I remember it now distinctly; I was perfectly right in saying that the bottom was not taken out, but those deep catch-water drains were taken out on each side. ( page 65) ...
Q, Altogether in that cutting there were some forty-five thousands yards?
— I never measured these cuts because I thought it was a lump sum contract, and they would never be paid extra for it, so I did not keep run of the quantities; I am perfectly at sea as to the quantities. (page 66) ...
Q. (by Mr. Mitchell) In making up the progress estimates, do you remember yourself and your superior officers taking out a sum of money—from forty to sixty thousand dollars—from the lump sum, in the first place, and setting that by for what you called contingencies or unforeseen difficulties ?
—Yes; that is done in every contract, but I do not remember the amount; I think it ass twenty thousand dollars, but I am not prepared to contradict you. After extending every little item out at so much per cubic yard, there was a balance left, and that was called contingencies. (page 68)
Peter Grant was under instructions to treat the contract as a lump-sum contract:
Q. (by the Arbitrator) I want to ask you with regard to the prices you allowed for progress estimates. You have not allowed the full contract prices in any of your progress estimates at all. I want to know how you arrive at those prices, and why you adopted them?
—Those prices were arrived at by Mr. Marcus Smith and Mr. Fleming, in order to make the bulk sum under the contract price.
Q. You mean to say that, if you calculate the total quantities of the bill of works at contract schedule prices, it would overrun the bulk sum of the contract ?
— Yes.
Q. Then, you had to reduce all those items pro rata?
— Yes; in order that we should not overrun the bulk contract.
Q. Did you determine that yourself, or was it done at the head office ?
— I did it, under instructions from Mr. Fleming over his own signature.
Q. Have you got the original calculation of the original bill of works ?
— No ; I have not it was burned in the Pacific Railway office here with other papers. (page 68)
The arbitrator in his findings:
This difference is accounted for mainly by the fact that the Government engineers never made any final measurement of this Section after the work was one, and never kept any proper record of the changes that were made during its regress. The Minister of Public works depended upon the Superintendent of Railways for the proper administration of his Department. The Superintendent of railways depended on the Engineer-in-Charge of the Intercolonial for all measure- lents and estimates of work performed, having the bulk sum always in view. The Engineer-in-Charge of the whole line depended on the measurements of the Resident Engineer on the Section, and the Resident Engineer in a rope of sand, and so the 'hole edifice fails to pieces. The defence breaks down before the Exchequer Court, nd the Government has no final measurement to lay before the Arbitrator.
Deluded by the idea that a bulk sum contract covered everything, the Resident Engineer did not think it necessary to keep track of the measurements. (page 107)
Delayed payments of money to pay wages, among other things, caused significant unrest during the construction:
Q. (by the Arbitrator) The next item is No. 38: "Loss sustained in not receiving payments on warrants promptly in the years 1873 and 1874;" they claim $5,000. I want to know if there was that delay on which they base their claim ?
— There was a delay in paying the estimates. (page 67)
Q. How long did it usually take for the estimates to be paid?
— For the first two years they were very promptly paid, but towards the end it was something frightful down there. When we lived amongst the men they have been round my house by the hundreds, thinking I had something to do with the delay when they were not paid. All I could say to them was that I did not think the contractors had got their money.
Q. It was towards the end of the work that these troubles began?
— Towards the last few months.
Q. And the Commissioner had to send down the paymaster to pay the men?
— It was before that; when Mr. Stephenson came down, the work had been all finished.
Q. What was the length of time the men were out of their pay?
— Two months. They got exceedingly uproarious about it.
Q. There was a good deal of trouble in getting the work done under those circumstances ?
—Yes; that spoiled everything, because the men got to be the managers of the road. I never found out why the delay occurred; it was some misunderstanding up at Ottawa.
Q. (by Mr. Mitchell) Do you think five thousand dollars would pay us for the damages we sustained in carrying on our work, in consequence of this delay in payments ?
— It would be very difficult to tell when you had such a lot of men who were under wages and would not work.
Q. Would you have been in my place for five thousand dollars, if you were the contractor?
— No; I would not have been in your place for any consideration whatever; it was a bad state of affairs.
Q. Then, you do not think that $5,000 would be too much ?
— I would not like to give an opinion upon it.
Q. But you think the damage must have been very great?
— I am positive that the damage was very great. (page 68.)
The construction of the Intercolonial Railway lead to great inflation of prices in the affected territories.
Q. (by Mr. O'Doherty) Would you not think $1.25 per yard would be reasonable enough. bearing: in mind the high prices at those times?
— I know that prices were high then; the men were paid seven shillings a day, and it was a most extraordinary time to do work.
Q. Under those circumstances, would you not think $1.25 would be a reasonable price?
— I think it would cost that, because flour was $11 a barrel, hay $25 per ton, and oats 80 cents per bushel; it was a frightful time to do work.
Q. Everything else was in proportion, I suppose?
— No; these were the most exaggerated things.
Q. But powder, steel, and other railway supplies were higher then than they are now?
— Yes; they were more than double what they are to-day. (page 59). ...
Q. (by Mr. O'Doherty) At the time this work was done, I believe you have told us that supplies of all kinds were extremely high — somewhere about two or three times the ordinary price?
— I did.
Q. And labor and everything in proportion was from two to three times the ordinary price?
— Yes; the contractors themselves were to blame principally for the price of labor, because they stole the men from each other, and Mitchell here is as good at it as anybody else.
Q. At all events labor was very high?
— Yes; it was just about one-half more than it should be; it was double what it is today.
Q. It would cost two or three times as much to do work then as now?
— It would cost double what it would to-day. Skilled labor was at an exaggerated price altogether; stonecutters were getting from $2.50 to $3 a day. The men were not in the country, and they had to be run after. (page 70).
In what may have been an unguarded moment, Peter Grant was a little flippant toward his former boss, Sandford Fleming:
Q. (by Mr. Mitchell) Do you not consider Mr. Fleming a very honorable and straightforward man?
—I do.
Q. Do you not think Mr. Fleming would have allowed me 50 cents for that piling?
— It would have depended upon whether you were a good boy or not. (page 62).
The 1871 census of Restigouche (Sub-District J), Bonaventure (District 169), Quebec (Province), Canada, lists, on the page before Peter Grant (age 40, born in Scotland, engineer, Catholic, John Jellett, age 25, born in Quebec, of Irish origin, Assistant Engineer, Church of England, who was Peter Grant's primary assistant. He was living in a hotel run by Alexander Fraser, age 43, born in Nova Scotia, of Scotch Origin, Presbyterian, whose occupation was listed as a hotel keeper; and his wife (apparently), Elizabeth Fraser, age 39, born in Nova Scotia, of Scotch origin, Presbyterian, with no occupation listed. Including John Jellett, , and excluding Alexander and Elizabeth Fraser, there were 18 tenants in the hotel, mostly in their twenties.
Fleming's Army: the Civil Engineers Who Built Canada's Intercolonial Railway, by Jay Underwood, published in 2011, is a well-written and thoroughly researched book. He covers John J. Jellett (1841–1888) at pages 97–98, and Peter Grant at pages 71–74. Here is Jay Underwood's relatively short article on John J. Jellett without the footnotes:
Born at Belleville, Hastings County, Canada West (Ontario), John J. Jellett was the son of Morgan Jellett and Sophia Harding. His father was the county clerk, who had been born in Ireland in 1799. He joined the staff on the preliminary survey in 1867, then served as a junior assistant engineer from 1868–1871. In 1872 he became an assistant engineer an served until the end of the 1873 season. He worked in the Matapedia-Restigouche area on the Quebec and New Brunwsick border ... in the township of Mann, Bonaventure County, Quebec.
It was here October 15th 1873 that Jellett met and married Elizabeth Ann Fraser, a relative of Jellett's colleague William Mann and of Alexander Fraser who led Fleming through the Matapedia region in 1864. His wife was the second daughter of John Fraser, the local postmaster, clerk of the circuit court, mayor of the township, and later warden of the county. It was a productive marriage, they had five children, all born at Belleville where the Jellets returned upon completion of the Intercolonial Railway.
When John Fraser died in 1893, Elizabeth received his estate at Cross Point, but John Jellett did not live to enjoy the inheritance. While visiting his brother-in-law George Fraser, he died of apoplexy at Chatham, New Brunswick, January 4, 1888 and was buried in the rural cemetery at Campbellton, New Brunswick. Elizabeth Jellett died October 31st, 1931 and is buried with her husband.
A photograph of the gravestone of John J. Jellett (1818–1888) and Elizabeth A. Fraser (1850-1931), his wife, has been published on trees.ancestry.com as part of the Fraser/Quinn/Ferguson/McDonell Line family tree.
For a brief history of John Fraser, father of Elizabeth Ann Fraser Jellett, go to History of Pointe a la Croix/Cross Point, Prov. Quebec, which says in part:
John Fraser was a prominent man in the history of the Baie des Chaleurs and Ristigouche District. Mr Fraser was born at Inverness, Scotland and at an early age sought his fortune in the new country of New Brunswick. ...
He was Mayor of the Township of Mann from 1862 to 1893 and during the greater part of that time served as Warden of the County of Bonaventure as well as holding the office of Justice of the Peace for many years in the District of Gaspé. He died at Cross Point in Sept. 1893 at the advanced age of 94 years and was buried in the Athol House Cemetery. Three sons and one daughter, Mrs John J. Jellett, survived him.
The Fraser Estate passed into the hands of John J. Jellett, husband to Fraser's only daughter.* From John it went to his son, familiarly known as Herby Jellett and remained in the family until 1956, when Ronald Alexander acquired the property.
*In fact, John J. Jellet had died in 1883, and the estate passed directly to his widow.
The 1861 census of the Township of Mann, County of Bonaventure, province of Quebec, lists John Fraser, age 55, born in Scotland, Church of Scotland; his wife, Elizabeth Ferguson, age 43, born in New Brunswick, with 9 children ranging in age from 21 to 1, all single, the 5th of whom is Elizabeth Ann Fraser, age 10, born in New Brunswick.
The 1881 census of the sub-district of Mann, district of Bonaventure, province of Quebec, lists John Fraser, age 80, born in Scotland, farmer, with his wife Elizabeth, age 65, born in New Brunswick, and 6 of their children, all single, ranging in age from 41 to 16.
The 1891 census of the Mann Indian Reserve (name change to Listiguj Reserve in 1993?*) , District of Bonaventure, province of Quebec, lists John Fraser, age 91, born in Scotland, widowed, Church of Scotland, farmer with 4 employees, living with his son Ferguson Fraser, age 48, deputy postmaster, and two younger sons and a daughter, all born in New Brunswick and all single. Also living on the farm was Ann Jellett, age 41, born in Quebec, and five of her children ranging in age from 14 to 7, all born in Ontario.
*See: Listuguj—Mi'gmac Government; and The Micmac Indians of Restigouche: History and Contemporary Descriptions, by Philip K. Bock (1966); and Listuguj Mi'gmaq First Nation on Wikipedia. On YouTube, watch Incident at Restigouche 1981 and Mi'gmaq Nation Listuguj, a story of Indian fishing nets on the Restigouche River. There are some nice sized salmon! For a view from the air, see: Helicopter ride over Listuguj.
The website Quebec First Nations—Micmacs the article on the community of Micmacs on Quebec First Nations offer a history of the Mi'gmac band and a map of their territory,
Before the arrival of the Europeans, the members of the Wabanaki Confederation, the Souriquois, now called the Micmacs, occupied Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and the southern portion of the Gaspé peninsula. In 1611, Father Pierre Briard estimated their population at 3,000 in these areas.
A nomadic people, the Micmacs lived primarily from the traditional activities of hunting, trapping, fishing and the harvesting of wild berries. Because of their way of life, they built their wigwams so that they could be easily moved from one place to another. ...
Today, there are over 15,000 Micmacs in the Maritimes. In Quebec, over 4,300 Micmacs live in Listuguj (Restigouche), Gesgapegiag (Maria), and in the Gaspé region.
The Statement of Claim filed in the Federal Court of Canada on December 30, 2003, in the case of Listuguj Mi'gmac First Nation, Chief Allison Metallic, et al., Plaintiff, and Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, Defendant, offers a good history of the use of lands on the north side of the Restigouche River and nearby fisheries from 1760 and later. The Mi'gmaq claimed that they had never surrendered land on the north side of the Restigouche River upriver from Point-a-la-Croix. (paragraph 64).
Paragraphs 20 and following state that, by a petition dated August 10, 1787, Colonel Isaac Mann, a Loyalist, requested a grant of land on either the Restigouche or Bonaventure Rivers, and that on May 22, 1788, 2520 acres on the north side of of the "river Ristigouche" were set aside for the Manns. The north and west boundaries referred only to topographical features and were rather vague, and some of the land requested had not been "released by the Savages." (paragraph 32). On May 26, 1788, the Attorney General presented to the Governor "draft letters patent of a grant to Isaac Mann Senior and his son Isaac Mann Junior, John Mann, Thomas Mann, William Mann and Edward Nabb, as tenants in common." (paragraph 35)
A formal patent was never made. Nevertheless, "upon their return from Quebec, the Manns proceeded to act as if they had been granted the whole of the area comprised in Vondenvelden's survey, despite the more limited tract set out by Collins and by Monk in his draft grant." (paragraphs 36 and 37).
[A] surrender of the lands claimed by the Mi'gmac during the discussion of 1786 would indeed have been required for a valid grant of such lands to be made top the Manns or any other settle." (paragraph 39).
The Mi'gmac chief* filed a claim for some of the land occupied by the Manns on July 13, 1820. (paragraph 45). On February 10, 1821, Edward Isaac Mann filed a conflicting claim for the whole of the land surveyed by Vondenvelden in 1787. The Gaspé Land Commission "answered the Mann claim first, on November 29, 1823, granting to the locally powerful Manns, as tenants in common, the whole of the land referred to in Vondenvelden's survey." (paragraphs 45–47). "The statute establishing the Gaspé Land Commission did not confer any powers on the Commissioners to adjudicate with respect to lands never surrendered by the Mi'gmaq." (paragraph 50).
"The Listiguj Mi'gmaq have never accepted the usurpation of Mi'gmaq land by the Manns and their successors,, nor the complicit role therein played by the Crown, both actively and passively. At varying intervals over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Mi'gmag have protested repeatedly, formally and informally, within the constraints imposed upon them by the legislation and administrative system put in place by the Crown" (paragraph 54)
*See: CLAUDE (Glaude), JOSEPH, principal chief of the Restigouche Micmacs; d. 1796 in their village at Restigouche (Pointe de la Mission, Que.), Dictionary of Canadian Biography, which states in part:
In 1786 the Quebec government, anxious to placate the Indians in order that white settlement might continue uninterrupted, appointed a commission to investigate their claims and grievances. The commissioners – Nicholas Cox, lieutenant governor of Gaspé, John Collins, deputy surveyor general of Quebec, and Abbé Bourg – were at Restigouche village from 29 June to 1 July. On 30 June they interviewed Claude, who claimed for his band the hunting grounds on the north side of the Restigouche River and an exclusive right to the salmon fishery. As his authority he produced Beauharnois’s appointment of 1730.
Claude’s people took particular exception to the land claims of Edward Isaac Mann, a Massachusetts (? — should be New York) loyalist, and to the indiscriminate use of seines by Robert Adams, another settler. Cox argued, however, that the lands occupied by the Restigouche Indians did not belong to them and were in fact French seigneuries which, through the exercise of the droit de retrait, now belonged to the British crown. Consequently, the king expected his Indians to make room for “others of his Children the English & Acadians, who are to be regarded by you as brothers.”
The complaint also makes a claim regarding the Busteed estate, which lay to the west adjacent to the Mann property. Robert Ferguson, who occupied 2 of the 3 lots, filed documents in opposition to the claim of the Mi'gmaq. The complaint alleges that Robert Ferguson had been squatting on Lots 1 and 2 since the 1790s." (paragraph 61). In 1909, the claim was settled. See: Listuguj regains lost land from The Tribute of April 8, 2009.
The complaint also complains of expropriation in 1959 of land to build "on reserve land of part of the roadway leading to the Quebec site of the Interprovincial Bridge across the Restigouche River to Campbellton, New Brunswick." (paragraphs 131, et seq.)
An agreement to settle was entered into on June 13, 2012, by which Canada agreed to pay $64.5 million to the Mi'gmiac community, and set aside another $1 million "as the valuation of the Busteed land being returned to the Community, plus $1.5 million in expense recovery. "Only the Community Members through a ratification process can decide on accepting this settlement." See: Transcript from Webinar Jan 18th, 2013.
Incident at Restigouche is a 1984 documentary film by Alanis Obomsawin, chronicling a series of two raids on the Listuguj Mi'gmaq First Nation (Restigouche) by the Sûreté du Québec in June of 1981, as part of the efforts of the Quebec government to impose new restrictions on Native salmon fishermen. The 45 minute film has been made available on the Internet by the National Film Board of Canada. Here is their synopsis of the film:
In Incident at Restigouche, filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin delves into the history behind the Quebec Provincial Police (QPP) raids on the Restigouche Reserve on June 11 and 20, 1981. The Quebec government had decided to restrict fishing, resulting in anger among the Micmac Indians as salmon was traditionally an important source of food and income. Using a combination of documents, news clips, photographs and interviews, this powerful film provides an in-depth investigation into the history-making raids that put justice on trial.
There are good pictures of salmon running up the Restigouche River, spawning, and eggs hatching, as well as Eagles. Micmac is an English word, and the forceful removal nets from the estuary at the mouth of the Restigouche. The film is also available on YouTube.
For orientation, go to Listuguj Mi'gmaq First Nation, QC, Canada and examine the photos and satellite view. The settlement in the Reservation is to the left and right of the north end of the Campbellton-Pointe-a-la-Croix bridge (J. C. Van Horne Bridge) and borders the Restigouche River. Go also to: Listuguj Mi'Gmaq First Nation Gov. See also Campbellton New Brunswick, Pointe á la Croix, Listuguj Quebec and Helicopter ride over Listuguj on YouTube. See also on YouTube: C&A's Mapping of the Alienation of Gespe'gewa'gi Mi'gmaq (or "How company's get rich off of what belongs to our people.")
There is a Mann Settlement about 3 to 4 miles to the northwest and up the Matapedia River from from the village of Matapedia. In 2006, Mann Settlement is an unincorporated part of the municipality of Matapedia, which in 2011 had a population of 664 and 360 dwellings. Listuguj is 14 miles to the east of Mann Settlement. Point á la Croix (Cross Point in English) is 15 miles east. Campbellton, the largest community within a 50 mile radius of Mann Settlement, is 16 miles to the east. Causapscal is 25 miles to the north. Mann Settlement is on the northeast side of the Matapedia River, on the line of the Intercolonial Railway, and on the Boulevard Perron. A road known as Rang Saint Victor enters Boulevard Perron from the north at Mann Settlement. An historic United Baptist Church is located just south of the intersection. The satellite view on Google Maps shows only a small patch of arable land between the Boulevard Perron and the Riviere Matapedia, See: Mann Settlement, Quebec on RoadsideThoughts, which includes an interactive map.
The largest community within a 50 mile [80 km] radius is Campbellton (NB). It is located about 16 miles [25 km] to the east of Mann Settlement. Campbellton (NB) has a population of 7,400 people.
There are four photographs of Mann Settlement at Bike Ride—Summer 2004—Quebec/Bas St. Laurent/Matapedia & New Brunswick—Day Ten: Amqui to Campbellton—Monday, August 9, 2004. and several of the village of Matapedia.
Perhaps the Mann Settlement that is part of the municipality of Matapedia was first used by Isaac Mann as a stopping point on the winter route to the St. Lawrence River from the Mann land at Point á la Croix at the head of the Chaleurs Bay:
The shorter, but more difficult route was along the Matapedia river from where it joined the Restigouche to the St. Lawrence river at Metis. Anyone following this route in winter had to use snowshoes and a guide was essential because it was not marked and took several days to cross. Once the St. Lawrence was reached, horse and sleigh could be hired for the remainder of the trip to Quebec City. Charles Robin used this route In the winter of 1786 to go to Quebec City and return and later it was frequently used by a number of people including Isaac Mann of Restigouche as a winter route to and from Quebec. —Two Centuries of settlement of the Gaspé Coast by English Speaking People by David J. McDougall, Concordia University.
The first Mann settlement in Quebec was at Point á la Croix and was included in the 1861 census of Bonaventure County, Canada, in the Township of Mann. In the 1871 and 1881 censuses, it was included in the district of Bonaventure as the sub-district of Mann. In the 1891 census, it was included as Mann Indian Reservation.
Even the though researcher and knowledgeable Jay Underwood was confused by the two locations of the Mann settlement. In his book, Flemings Army: The Civil Engineers who Built the Intercolonial Railway, he includes a biography of William Mann (1835–1919) who worked on the surveying and construction of the Intercolonial Railway for 7 1/2 years, and joined Peter Grant as a resident engineer for his last year (1875–1876). In the biography of William Mann, Underwood makes this statement:
The Mann family was among the first settlers in Bonaventure County, Quebec, through which the Intercolonial Railway eventually ran, and it would be easy to assume that William Mann had been retained by Fleming for his knowledge of the region. Indeed, the railway runs besides Mann's pool* on the Matapedia River, and through what was once known as Mann's Settlement (now Cross Point).
*Here is a photograph of Mann's Pool and a postcard view. See Origins of Cold Spring Camp and Meta' 33lb Atlantis Salmon in Mann's Pool.
The Intercolonial never ran through the original Mann settlement at Cross Point. It did run through the Mann's settlement on the Matapedia River.
William Mann (1834–1919) was the son of Edward Isaac Mann (1798–1878) and Jane Lefurgy (1811–1878). William was the 2nd child and oldest son of seven children. William married Jane Lefurgy on March 20, 1833, in New Carlisle, Bonaventure County, Quebec
William's father, Edward Isaac Man (1798–1878), was born in Cross Point, Bonaventure, Quebec, to Edward Isaac Mann (1766– ), who was born in Stillwater, Saratoga, New York, and Ann Shipman (1766–1833). He was the 8th of ten children of Edward Isaac Mann and Ann Shipman. He died on November 4, 1878 in Restigouche, New Brunswick, Canada.
The line has been traced back one generation more — to William's grandfather Isaac Edward Mann (1723–1803) who was born in New York City on October 11, 1723. He married Anatje Jeffres in New York City on September 10, 1747, and died in New Carlisle, Bonaventure County, Quebec on December 25, 1803, according to the Duguay Family Tree on ancestry.com.
William Mann is listed in the 1861 census of Township de Carleton, Comte de Bonaventure, age 27, single, engaged in cultivation, the oldest of 5 children, living with his parents, Edward Mann, age 66, Officer de Donan, and his mother, Jane Mann, age 50. All the family are listed as born in B. Canada and as Episcopalian. In the 1871 census, he is listed as age 36, married, born in Quebec, Church of Scotland, a rodman, in Bathurst, New Brunswick, with his wife, Margret (Falconer) Mann, age 32, born in Scotland; with 5 children, ranging in age from 8 years to 2 months, all born in Quebec. In 1881, in Bathurst, William Mann (misindexed by ancestry.com as William Maine) is listed, with his family (wife and 6 children) as age 46, a fish merchant. They are all listed as Presbyterian. In 1891, the census lists in Napanee, District of Lennox, Ontario, William Mann, age 56, is listed as a civil engineer, with his wife and 6 children.
Both Mann settlements were founded by the same Mann family— royalists who were banished from New York at the end of the Revolutionary War.
In the 1871 census of the sub-district of Mann in the district of Bonaventure, Quebec, there is listed an Isaac Mann, age 75, born in Quebec, of Indian origin. a farmer, a Catholic, living with 5 of his children, all with the surname Mann, and a daughter-in-law Elizabeth Mann, married to his son Thomas Mann, with three young children of their own, all with the surname of Mann. I found no other Manns in the sub-district, and the majority of occupants were listed as of Indian origin and Catholic. This family probably adopted the name of the owner of the land which they used.
By 1871, most of the descendants of Colonel Isaac Mann who remained in Quebec were living either at Mann Settlement on the Matapedia River, or Carleton, which is about 30 miles east of the original Mann settlement at Point á la Croix. along the north shore of Chaleur Bay.
Alexander Irvine, born in Flat Lands New Brunswick on February 24, 1837; died in Mann Settlement, Matapedia, Quebec, on March 12, 1919; and Martha Jane Mann born on May 21, 1839, in Ristigouche (Matapedia?, Bonaventure, Quebec, and died on April 27, 1882, in Mann Settlement, Matapedia, Quebec. d. 1882. They were married on September 28, 1858, in Bonaventure County, Quebec.. Both are buried in Mann Settlement, Matapedia, Quebec. They had 11 children. See:<Barry Vautour Family Tree> and <Bennetts Family Tree> and <Bagnell Family Tree> on Public Member Family Trees on ancestry.com.
Martha was the youngest of 15 children born to Isaac "Edward" Mann and Margaret (Smith) Mann of Port Daniel, Quebec. Isaac Edward Mann is the son of John Mann & Elizabeth (Pemberton) Mann, who came to Canada as United Empire Loyalists with his father and mother, Col. Isaac Mann and Anatje (Jefres) Man, from Stillwater, Albany, New York. —Irvine & Mann Family Forest with photographs, including a picture of the Matapedia River taken in Mann Settlement in 1999.
Alexander Irvine, the son of Alexander Irvine and Jane Cheyne, was born at the Flat Land on February 24, 1837, and baptized on September 17, 1837. North side of Restigouche Presbyterian Registres on Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621–1967 on ancestry.com.
The family is found in the 1861 census of the Township of Ristigouche (sic), County of Bonaventure. The census return, on page 262, has this note at the top:
The township of Ristigouche is bounded on the east by the Township of Mann. In front by the River Ristigouche. In the West by the River Matapedia (sic), and in rear by vacant Crown Land. A. Fraser.
The the 1861 census of the township of Restigouche shows 2 families living in one log house owned by William Bennett, with another house being built. Here are the families:
(1861) William Bennett, age 50, born in England, single, farmer, Church of England.
(1861) Albert Irvine, age 24, born in Lower Canada, married, farmer, Church of Scotland.
Martha Irvine, wife, age 22, born in Lower Canada, married, Church of Scotland, could not read or write.
William Irvin, age 4, born in Lower Canada.
Daniel Irvin, age 3, born in Lower Canada.
Margret Irvin, age 1, born in Lower Canada, born in 1860.
Margret Mann, age 67, born in Lower Canada, widow. [This is Margaret Smith Mann, Martha's mother.]
Living next to this family were Andrew Mann, age 36, born in Lower Canada. married, Church of Scotland, farmer, living with his family in a one story log house; his wife Ann, age 36, and 6 children ranging in age from 10 to 1. All members were born in Lower Canada and members of the Church of Scotland.
These were the only Manns I found in the 1861 census of the Township of Restigouche.
Here is an entry from Matapedia-Restigouche Heritage Trail by Dwane Wilkin:
MANN SETTLEMENT — While the names of many settlements in the old Matapedia and Restigouche townships have been changed or forgotten -- Sillarsville, Millstream and Rustico, to name a few -- Mann Settlement still honours the memory of a prominent Gaspé pioneer clan, descendants of New York Loyalist Col. Isaac Mann. Generations of Irvine and Lyons families have lived here since the 1880s. The Mann Settlement Baptist Church is a well-known landmark standing beside a pioneer cemetery.
From: POINTE A LA CROIX—CROSS POINT—BONAVENTURE COUNTY—QUEBEC from Irene's Genealogy and History Site by Irene Doyle. Also, check out Irene Doyle's Pictures and History of Campbellton, including three pages of pictures of historic Campbellton—and a post card photograph of Matapedia village (on the east side of the Matapedia River) from about 1907.
In a committee room, chaired by Andrew Stuart, in Quebec City, 1823. The swearing in of Edward Isaac Mann Esq. of Restigouche was taking place and this question was asked of him: Did your Father and your family reside in any and if so which of the Old British Colonies in North America — when did he leave the same and for what cause?
To which he answered:
My father* and his family were natives of the State of New York: at the breaking out of the American Revolutionary War he was Colonel of Militia and held other appointments under the Crown. He was the first in the State of New York who was brought before a Rebel Committee at Albany and upon declaring his sentiments, was sent as a prisoner into the State of Connecticut with a married brother of mine named John, kept 13 months and then sent into Canada under an act of banishment.
My brother John, was liberated at the end of six months and joined Burgoyne's Army as a Lieutenant of a Provincial Corps shortly before it surrendered. In the same Army, I had two other brothers, Thomas, a Captain of Guides and Isaac a Lieutenant in a Provincial Corps. My brother, William and I did duty as volunteers in Sir John Johnson's First Battalion of the Royal Regiment of New York.
In the Autumn of 1784 and Spring of 1785 my father, two married brothers and I with their wives and families and with my two other unmarried brothers and I with their wives and families and with my two other unmarried brothers amounting altogether to about 18 persons went to Chaleur Bay and settled at New Carlisle. There was allowed to each head of family and full-grown person of the family, 200 acres and to the females and minor children 50 acres each at New Carlisle.
The Land Board was composed of Lieutenant-Governor, Mr cox, Mr. Charles Robin, Isaac Mann Jr. and one or two others. In 1786 and 1787, location tickets* were given. There were allowed from His Majesty, rations to each man and his family for three years plus other supplies and materials farming utensils, everything necessary for building and clearing lands.
*For an explanation of the use of location tickets to grant land in Gaspé to refugee loyalists from the United States, see Instructions of 1775 in the Introduction to List of Lands Granted by the Crown in the Province of Quebec from 1763–1890 (Quebec, 1891), compiled by J. C. Langelier, page 4. The location ticket provided in part:
The bearer ... is hereby authorized to settle and improve the said Lot, without delay; and being settled thereon, he shall received a patent, grant or deed of concession, at the expiration of twelve months from the date hereof, to enable him to hold an inheritable or assignable estate in said lot.
Not one of these grants or location tickets in the district of Gaspé appears in the books of the Registrar's Department, which books were only commenced in 1778 ... (and letters patents were seldom if ever issued. See Grants in the District of Gaspé in Lands Granted by the Crown—Huntingdon County and the Seigniories of Chateauguay and Beauharnois.
The list can be searched on ancestry.com under Quebec, Canada, Land Grants, 1763–1890).
Edwards Isaac Mann Esq. made a claim for lands at Restigouche before the Gaspé Land Commissioners in 1822. A lot of land on the North Side of the Restigouche River bounded on the East by lot no.1 of the lands laid out for Loyalists ... containing about 2400 acres.
In 1787, Edward Isaac Mann, occupied the prairies just east of Indian village even before receiving the concession which he demanded from the government. In October 1787, Lieutenant Governor Cox ordered the surveyor Vondervelden to measure a lot for Mr. Mann. After protests from the Indians, the Commissioners of Gaspé awarded Mann the larger lot. The Indians were opposed by Mann and Robert Ferguson, owner of the only saw and grist-mill in the area (At Walker Brook). In 1826 the government confirmed the decision in favor of Mann. In 1824, Archdeacon G. J. Mountain of Quebec, was a guest at the Mann's homestead. "A house painted red at one end, stood without enclosure next the river, surrounded by barns and out buildings, old and out of repair."
"Mr. Mann and his whole family speak the Micmac language with fluency — his daughters however are allowed to excel both father and brother in this accomplishment." "Mr. Mann is a brother to the Sheriff of the District and has another brother who was Judge of the Court of Common Pleas at Quebec." ...
Mr Mann had submitted early plans to the Governor at Quebec for a road (called Kempt Rd. which still exists today, road used to travel to St Fidele).
During the early 1800's, the wave of immigration continued. The Mann concession was partly divided into lots. The Mann property was sold by the Sheriff and was bought by Robert Christie after being occupied for a while by colonel Crawford. From Mrs Christie it passed to John Fraser. To consolidate his holding, Fraser got a permit from the government to build a road where the present line runs. ...
John Fraser was a prominent man in the history of the Baie des Chaleurs and Ristigouche District. Mr Fraser was born at Inverness, Scotland and at an early age sought his fortune in the new country of New Brunswick.
He settled at Bathurst, where he engaged in general business. In 1837 he married Elizabeth, daughter of the late Robert Ferguson Esq. of Athol House. ... In 1843 Mr Fraser moved to Cross Point and acquired the property of Robert Christie. He held many public offices such as Clerk of the Circuit Court from 1844 to 1860. In 1846 he received from the Colonial Office, London, his appointment as Post Master of Cross Point which office he held till 1893. He was appointed Collector of Customs at New Carlisle in 1847 and Collector of Inland Revenue in 1855, holding both offices till 1873. He was Mayor of the Township of Mann from 1862 to 1893 and during the greater part of that time served as Warden of the County of Bonaventure as well as holding the office of Justice of the Peace for many years in the District of Gaspé.
He died at Cross Point in Sept. 1893 at the advanced age of 94 years and was buried in the Athol House Cemetery. Three sons and one daughter, Mrs John J. Jellett, survived him. The Fraser Estate passed into the hands of John J. Jellett, husband to Fraser's only daughter. From John it went to his son, familiarly known as Herby Jellett and remained in the family until 1956, when Ronald Alexander acquired the property.
*Colonel Isaac Edward Mann was the father of Edward Isaac Mann. The father was born in New York on October 11, and died in New Carlisle, Quebec, on December 25, 1803. He is buried at Saint Andrews Anglican Church. Find A Grave Memorial #852343369, which reports the date of death as September 25, 1803. Before his banishment to Canada in 1778, he was a wealthy business man who owned over 2,000 acres of land at Stillwater, Albany Co., New York. See: Col Isaac Mann (b. Oct 11, 1723, d. Sep 28, 1803). See: Loyalists of Chaleur Bay—Gaspesia:
The following are profiles of some of the more influential Loyalists who came to Carlisle, Chaleur Bay. Today their countless descendants are scattered far and wide across the world: ...
Colonel Isaac MANN, U.E., b c1723 New York City; he came from Stillwater, NY. He was a Judge of Quorums at Albany, NYP. His parents owned land which is now Broad Street in New York City. He was granted land and also purchased property at Stillwater, where he operated mills. He had more than two hundred tenants on his land before the revolution. He was arrested and incarcerated for refusing to swear allegiance to the Rebels. When released from gaol, he made his way to Camp Machiche where he joined his wife Annatje "Anne" JEFFRES and two teenage children.
In 1784/85 Col. Isaac MANN received several Free Grants of town lots. Before he died, he had been granted almost 3000 acres of land on the Restigouche River. In 1787, his claims to the Land Commissioners for property losses was 4672 pounds Halifax currency. He received meagre compensation of 291 pounds Halifax currency for all his land and mills in America from the British and a lifetime pension of 30 pounds annually. He died in 1803 and is buried in St. Andrew’s Cemetery, New Carlisle.
Lt. Isaac MANN, Jr., U.E., b 1748, New York City, son of Colonel Isaac MANN. He served in KRRNY and was discharged at Montreal in 1783. He received a Free Grant of 400 acres; was a Farmer and Justice of the Peace. He married Mary Eyre Robertson, they had one son. Appointed as a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, at Quebec City, he died at Quebec City the 28th July 1790.
Ensign John MANN, U.E., was born 1752, New York City, son of Colonel Isaac MANN. He served in KRRNY under Sir John Johnson and was discharged in 1785 as Quartermaster of Supplies at St. Johns (St. Jean) Quebec. He was a trained Advocate and practiced as a Lawyer in New York and at Carlisle. He was also a Justice of the Peace and Magistrate. His wife was Elizabeth PEMBERTON. They had six children; the eldest son was named John Johnson MANN in honour of the esteemed Sir John Johnson. MANN died at Quebec City on the 8th March 1805.
Ensign Thomas MANN, U.E., was born in 1760 at Stillwater, Albany Co., NYP, son of Colonel Isaac MANN. Gaoled by the rebels, he fled and joined the Loyal Rangers, aka Jessup’s Rangers. He was seconded to other militia units. He was discharged at Quebec in 1783. In 1784 was appointed Sheriff of Gaspé, under the direction of Captain George LAWE. He married Rebecca PERRY, daughter of Samuel PERRY, U.E. Thomas and Rebecca MANN had one daughter Deborah, who died young. Thomas MANN - Sheriff of Gaspé 1784-1829 died on the 17th August 1831 at New Carlisle. ...
Abbreviated Fact Sheet for Colonel Isaac Man (addenda)
Isaac Man Sr., the son of John Mann and Lysbeth (Elizabeth) Van Deursen, was baptized in the Dutch Reformed Church in New York on October 16, 1723. In 1762 Isaac purchased land at Stillwater, New York and in the surrounding area. He erected grist and sawmills on his holdings and brought in nearly two hundred families from Ireland as well as many other families from New England as settlers.
Isaac was one of the more prominent pioneer settlers in Stillwater. He was a Justice of the Quorum and was once the Colonel of the 2nd Regiment of the Albany Militia. He was also an outspoken critic of the rebellion and this led to his first arrest in March 1776. Isaac later wrote “this was the first instance in the County of Albany of a person being compelled, by a kind of Inquisition unknown among Protestants, to avow his political sentiments.” After mounting a strong defense Isaac was released. However, he was arrested later that fall along with his sons John and Thomas, on a suspicion that they had been connected with and privy to the departure of a number of Loyalists who had departed for Canada with Ebenezer Jessup Esq.
After spending fifteen months in prison he was released in January 1778 (due to the persistent intercessions of his wife) and ordered to return to Albany for trial. On August 4, 1778, Isaac appeared before the Commission for Defeating Conspiracies and following his refusal to take the prescribed oath was banished to Canada. In mid August he left for Canada accompanied by his wife, a daughter and two youngest sons and arrived in Canada on September 1, 1778.
Colonel Isaac submitted a claim for his losses to the British Government in the amount of £4,672 but was awarded two hundred and eighty odd pounds, an amount that he described in 1803 as a trifling sum.
In August 1787 a land grant of 2,000 acres was made to Isaac Man to satisfy him, his sons and his whole family. This was later expanded to 2,520 acres located on the north side of the Restigouche River in what is now Cross Pointe, Quebec. However, due to problems with the survey, it was not until 1823 that the Mann family acquired title.
In 1798 Colonel Isaac was successful in having his Act of Banishment revoked and returned to New York where he learned that the proscription laws precluded him from recovering his former property. Colonel Isaac died in New Carlisle, Quebec on Christmas Day 1803.
C.W. Dobson UE
December 21, 2005
The article on Loyalists on Hisorica Canada points out:
In determining who was eligible for compensation for war losses, Britain used a fairly precise definition: Loyalists were those born or living in the American colonies at the outbreak of the Revolution who rendered substantial service to the royal cause during the war, and who left the US by the end of the war or soon after. Those who left substantially later, mainly to gain land and to escape growing intolerance of minorities, are often called "late" Loyalists. ...
Of about 2000 who moved to present-day Québec, some settled in the Gaspé on Chaleur Bay and others in the seigneury of Sorel at the mouth of the Richelieu River.
For background, see The United Empire Royalists: A Chronicle of the Great Migration by William Wallace, Toronto 1914, Stewart, a free Google eBook, especially Chapter IX, The Loyalists in Quebec. One of the comments, at page 95, is is:
See:
Flowers, A.D. The Loyalists of Bay Chaleur. Vancouver, 1973.
McDougall, David J, (Ph.D Concordia University). The Gaspê Loyalists.
Ruch, John E. Loyalists in Quebec:éé A Bicentennial contribution to the study of their history
Senior, Hereward. "The Loyalists in Quebec: A Study in Diversity. Canadian Historical
Senior, Hereward and John Ruch eds. The Loyalists of Quebec 1774-1825 : A Forgotten History. Montreal: Heritage Branch, U.E.L. Association, 1989.
Siebert, Wilbur Henry. "The American Loyalists in the Eastern Seignories and Townships of the Province of Quebec." Royal Society of Canada, Transactions, 7 (1913).
Siebert, Wilbur H. The Loyalists Settlements on the Gaspé Peninsula. Ottawa: Royal Society of Canada Transactions, III, 8, 399-405, 1914.
The road route from Matapedia, QC, Canada to Paspébiac, QC, Canada, is 156 km. (97 miles), a 2 hour 18 minute drive. The route runs along the north side of the Restigouche River and Chaleur Bay. A route from Matapedia to Campbellton on the south side of the Restigouche River, north across the Campbellton-Point-a-la-Croix Bridge, and then northeast along Chaleur Bay. and is 161 km (100 miles) and 2 hours and 24 minutes.
Here is Peter Grant's Report to Sandford Fleming of March 30, 1872, on the possibility of a Railway from Matapedia to Paspébiac on the Bay of Chaleur, as well as remarks on a proposed harbor at Paspébiac. From: a free Google eBook, also available on the for-fee Canadiana website: Sessional papers of the Dominion of Canada : volume 7, fifth session of the first Parliament, session 1872, Ottawa : I.B. Taylor, [1872], 35 Victoria Sessional Papers (No. 43) A.1872), pages 3–5 (page 589 on the Google eBook):
(No. 22,291.)
INTERCOLONIAL RAILWAY, ENGINEER'S OFFICE
RESTIGOUCHE DISTRICT, SECTION NO. 19
Metapedia, 30th March, 1872.
Sir,—In accordance with your instructions arising from a letter written by Theodore Robitaille, Esquire, M. P., bearing date 18 January, 1872, I have the honour to submit the following report to be laid before the Honorable the Commissioner of Public Works, with a view of furnishing information relative to the merits and capabilities of a winter harbour and harbour of refuge at Pasebiac on the Bay of Chaleur and the forming of a railway connection with some point of the Intercolonial, by which means a much shorter route will be obtained to Britain, than any at present existing.
In order to arrive at satisfactory conclusions, I proceeded to make a survey of reconnaissance, and left Matapediac on the 13th instant for that purpose. Arriving at Paspébiac on the 15th, was surprised to find so little ice in the bays and that only slush, notwithstanding that for the previous ten days a strong easterly wind with intense frost had prevailed. From any local information to be gathered, it would appear, that I saw it in its worst state, and that it is usually free from ice during the winter, the harbour never being blocked with ice nor does ice of any consequence (except slush) remain in the Bay of Chaleur on the north side for thirty days above Paspébiac.
I would now insert a short description of the harbour. Paspébiac Bay is situated on the north side of the Bay of Chaleurs, opposite Grand Anse, and north west of Shippegan, in Latitude 48° North, and Longitude 65 1/4° West. It is bounded on the east by a sandy beach, (gradually increasing) extending outwards about three-quarters of a mile, called Pasebiac Point, on the west by another sandy beach projecting about one-third of a mile, called New Carlisle Point. The bay is semi-circular about four-fifths of a mile in depth, the distance between the points is about three and a half miles with a depth of water on the line varying from six to eight fathoms over the anchorage ground inside the points. The depth of water varies from four-and-a-half to six fathoms. The tide rises to a height of about four feet. Vessels of war anchor here almost every summer. The coast presents a cliff of red sandstone about forty feet in height. The Bay of Chaleur at this point is an open sheet of water fourteen miles across, unimpeded by islands, reefs, shoals or any other obstructions whatever. Ice formed in the bay, or drifted in by easterly gales, is kept on the south side by the prevalent land breeze, which renders the climate more temperate than Quebec or Montreal.
Paspébiac is the place of shelter resorted to in easterly storms by all vessels navigating the Bay of Chaleur and the entrance of the Gulf. The following table (copied from Mr. Fleming's Report, 1864, on Shippegan Harbour, the position of which is almost identical with Paspébiac and via Halifax:—
1. Distance from Liverpool to Cape Race Cape Race to Paspébiac Paspébiac to Quebec (by land) 2. Liverpool to Belle Isle Belle Isle to Quebec 3. Liverpool to Belle Isle Belle Isle to Paspébiac Paspébiac to Quebec (by land) 4. Liverpool to Cape Race Cape Race to Halifax (by water) Halifax to Quebec (by land) ——— From the ample depth of water close into the shore, the admirable shelter afforded from the prevailing winds, and the freedom from ice, I have no hesitation in stating that the bay is well adapted for a winter harbor and also a harbor of refuge; by a moderate expenditure it can be made available for shipping purposes. Notwithstanding the want of pier accommodation, a large shipping business is done during the summer months with all parts of the world, which will be shewn by the Custom House returns. This would be vastly increased by proper Harbour facilities and railway connection, in addition to which would be the immense public benefit derived from the English mail and other steamers being able to use it as a winter port.
For further information, I beg to refer to the accompanying map in which I have endeavoured to show the position of the harbor, the points of shelter and the depth of water.
I have roughly examined the country between the Metapediac and Paspebia, a distance of about 100 miles to ascertain the feasibility of constructing a line of railway to connect with the Intercolonial Railway at the former point, with the exception of a few miles immediately east of Metapediac, and about one mile east of Little Cascapediac (which is somewhat more difficult) the country presents a level and uniform surface, free from all engineering obstacles, and is admirably adapted for the construction of a cheap line of railway. Only three (3) rivers of any importance will have to be crossed, viz, the Big Cascapediac, about 65 miles east from Matapediac, requiring a bridge of two spans, say 200 feet each. This is the lower crossing on the plan: the one shown about a mile further up can be accomplished at much less cost. At both crossings, the river flows from one to four feet deep over a bed of rock. Lime and sandstone is abundant on the ground. The Little Cascapediac, about five miles further east can be crossed with a bridge of one span, say 100 feet.
This river is very shallow, and also runs over a bed of rock—a quarry of good stone is being worked in the immediate vicinity. The Bonaventure River, about thirteen miles west of Paspébiac, will require a waterway of, say, 150 fee; this bridge which may be of one or two spans, will be near the head of the tide, where the depth of water is about three feet on a bed of rock. A first class quarry of red sandstone is being worked a little further up the river.
The minor rivers Escuminac, Nouvelle, Little Bonaventure and Caplin, will require small bridges, say, fifty feet spans. There are but few small streams requiring culverts, and the number of of culverts for drainage purposes, will be remarkably small comparatively with the length of railway.
The country through which the line will pass is fertile and well adapted for agriculture for many miles inland.
Along the coast it is thickly populated and in very prosperous condition. The several townships, which the proposed line of railway will intersect, possess an aggregate population of, say, 20,000, and in very township there are several large business establishments in lumbering, fishing, &c. I would particularly draw attention to the enormous business done by Messrs. Robin and Le Boutilliers, at Paspébiac, and several other stations. Their united importations of flour alone, is upwards 16,000 barrels per annum and of pork 3,000 barrels, to which add a large amount of farm produce from all part of the country. In addition to the section traversed by the line of railway a large and fertile tract of country North-east of the terminus, containing a population of about 19,000 will be materially benefited.
From the foregoing data, I have arrived at the following conclusions, viz.:
That a good winter harbor can be constructed at Paspébiac, and a very cheap and paying line of railway can be built from Matapediac on the Intercolonial to the former point. This line will open up a fine agricultural country for settlement, and not cost half the rate per mile of the Intercolonial and still be of the same substantial workmanship.
For more minute particulars, I beg to refer to the accompanying plan, on which I have shewn the proposed line of railway, by a drawn red line, terminating at the proposed winter port and and harbor refuge of Paspébiac.
In conclusion, I would strongly recommend that an instrumental survey be made in order to ascertain more minutely the facilities and cost of carrying out the proposed important work.
I have the honor to be, your most obedient servant,
(Signed,) Peter Grant
Sandford, Fleming, Esq.,
Chief Engineer,
Intercolonial Railway, Ottawa
"The Baie des Chaleurs Railway received a charter from the Quebec legislature in 1882 to build a line if rom Matepedia to New Carlisle or Paspébiac with the right to extend the line to Gaspé. After a scandal which toppled a Quebec government, the line was acquired by the Atlantic and Lake Superior Company (A&LS) in 1894. At this time the Baie des Chaleurs has managed to lay its trackage from Matapedia as far as Caplan, a total of 80 miles. ... One of the few bits of construction by the A&LS was the extension of the former Baie des Chaleurs Railway 20 miles eastward from Caplan to Paspébiac. ... The A&SL was sold to the Quebec Oriental Railway in 1910." Canadian Rail, July-August 1991, page 132. See: Royal Commission Inquiry into the Baie des Chaleurs Railway Matter—Proceedings of the Commission and Depositions of Witnesses, Quebec 1891, and Flemings Army by Jay Underwood, page 117.
It turned out that the Québec government had been bribed with its own railway subsidy, the money probably having been used to pay off election expenses. A royal commission was established by the province, and the dismissal of Honoré Mercier's government followed on 16 December 1891. —Baie des Chaleurs Scandal on Historica Canada.
A subsequent investigation could not prove that Mercier was personally involved and he was re-elected in 1892 provincial elections, but his party was soundly beaten —the Canadian Encyclopedia notes.
The Matapedia-Gaspé railway route today is on the Quebec Oriental Railway and the Atlantic Quebec & Western Railway. Stops include Cross Point/Pointe á la Croix, 12.8 miles from Matapedia, Caplan at 78.6 miles, Bonaventure at 89.3 miles, and Paspébiac at 101.7 miles. The route goes on to Gaspé, 202.3 miles from Matapedia. —Quebec Railways Passenger Stations and Stops.
The Banc de Pêche de Paspébiac is a National Historic Site of Canada. See: Sue's Travels: Mon Voyage À L'Acadie: Part 3: Paspébiac & Bonaventure, Quebec.
Jay Underwood says in Fleming's Army, at page 72:
In 1882 Grant found himself embroiled in another dispute, this time on Whitehead's contract on Section 15 of the Canadian Pacific Railway at Calgary. Grant was acting as an inspecting engineer for the government.
As far as I can determine, Grant's entire "embroilment" is described in this entry from Early Canadiana Online — Early Official Publications — Report of the Canadian Pacific Railway Royal Commission, Ottawa : [Govt. Print. Bureau], 1882 (Chatham, Ont. : S. Stephenson), Volume 1, Evidence, page 738:
Railway Construction—Contract No. 15. J. H. Rowan's examination continued:
By the chairman:—
Verification measurements made by Peter Grant. 11250. Was there a verification measurement by Peter Grant of the work on section 15?—There was, I believe.
11251. Do you know what the result was?—I do not.
11252. Do you know what the result was?—I do not. I would like to say I do not. I know it was taken, and we afforded him all the assistance in our power to take it.
The work was taken out of Mr. Whitehead's hands by Ottawa because the work was not being carried on satisfactorily.
The Inch Arran House at Dalhousie, New Brunswick, opened as a hotel in 1884. The builder and original proprietor was Mrs. Peter Grant. In 1886, she testified before the Canadian House of Commons in Ottawa about her ownership and operation of the hotel. The proceedings are reported in the Journals of the House of Commons of the Dominion of Canada, Volume 20, which are available on the Internet as a free Google eBook. Here is a photograph of the Inch Arran Hotel & Light House at the Mouth of Dalhousie Harbor.
The development of Inch Arran House was by private enterprise with the encouragement of the Intercolonial Railway of Canada.
In 1886, the House of Commons looked into the extent of support by the Railway to the development of the hotel, which included free transport of guests and servants of the hotel, and no freight charges on materials used in building the hotel. Leader of the enquiry was Sir Louis Henry Davies, premier of Prince Edward Island from 1876 to 1879, a member of the House of Commons from 1882 to 1901, who in 1901 was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada and, in 1918, was appointed the Chief Justice for Canada.
In the debate on the issue in the House of Commons in 1886, Davies pointed out:
The newspapers in the Maritime Provinces, last autumn and in the beginning of the present year, made charges to the effect that the Inch Aran Hotel, although ostensibly belonging to private individuals, was really a Government hotel. They charged that, if not owned by the Government as a Government, it was standing in the names or name of one or more government officials; they charged that the Chief Engineer of Government railways, that the Chief Superintendent of the Intercolonial Railway and other officials high in office, were directly interested in the hotel; they charged that concessions, advantages and privileges were given to tourists and servants going to that hotel for nothing. ...
They charged further, that the materials which entered into the construction of that hotel were carried to the hotel for nothing; they charged that the public and the country were defrauded in the amount of freight which ought to have been charged on these materials; they charged further that when the owner, the person who owned the hotel originally (Mrs. Peter Grant), sold his or her interest to the Government, or rather to the Chief Engineer of the Government Railways, it was made part of the consideration which she received for her interest in the hotel that her husband (Peter Grant) should be employed at the public expense; and I now propose very shortly to see whether or not these allegations have been proved by the evidence. The building of that hotel was begun in 1883 by Mrs. Grant. She states that she had reason to expect she would receive Government aid in the construction of the hotel; she stated that she had been promised by Sir Charles Tupper that she would get such aid, but he met with difficulties in obtaining the consent of the Council, and therefore she did not get it directly. Mrs. Grant proceeded during the summer of 1883 with the construction of that hotel. ...
For more information, see Commons Debates (1886), beginning at page 1533.
Here are excerpts from a letter of March 20, 1886, by D. Pottinger, Esc., Office of the Chief Superintendent of the Intercolonial Railway of Canada (beginning at page 66, Appendix No. 3, 49 Victoria A. 1886):
So great an inducement to travel are summer hotels considered to be that railways extend to them every possible assistance, and in many cases even build and own them.
In 1882 I urged the Department to authorize the Intercolonial to build a summer hotel at a spot to be selected, but the suggestion was not adopted. It has been found difficult to get private individuals to undertake such a work, as it requires considerable money, and capitalists are slow to invest in a concern which must lie idle nine months in each year.
In the spring of 1883 the erection of a summer hotel was undertaken by private enterprise. The spot selected was about one mile from the town of Dalhousie, on the south shore of the Baie des Chaleurs. It was a well designed building of about eighty rooms. The name chosen by the owners was the "Inch Arran House."
The railway authorities were glad that at last there was to be a summer hotel at one of the many beautiful places along the north shore of New Brunswick, and being assured by the owner that it would be completed and ready for the public during the summer of 1883, they inserted an advertisement of the hotel in the new guide book which was issued in the spring of that year.
The owner commenced work on the building and continued it all summer, but owing to unexpected difficulties, was unable to complete it. This unfortunate position of affairs caused some embarrassment to the railway as the house had been advertised as in existence on the faith of assurances given that it would be completed in time for the summer travel of 1883. There were during that summer numerous inquiries about it, and it was feared non-completion would have an injurious effect.
During the following winter the owner of the house endeavored to get assistance to complete it, but without success.
In the spring of 1884 Mr. Schreiber was urged by the owner to grant assistance, and knowing how important it was to the railway that the house should be completed he lent a sum of money for the purpose, taking a mortgage on the property. ...
It was thought that all difficulties had been overcome, but a new one soon arose. The owner had by great energy and perseverance got the hotel erected and furnished, but this had exhausted almost all available resources, leaving very little capital to operate the house. ...
To avoid closing the hotel and inconveniencing the customers of the Intercolonial Railway, and to protect a mortgage he held on a loan he had made Mrs. Peter Grant to build the hotel, Collingwood Schreiber, Chief Engineer and General Manager of Government Railways, decided to buy out the owner, Mrs. Peter Grant.
Mrs. Peter Grant was called as a witness before the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons in the enquiry about the Inch Arran Hotel, Her testimony begins at page 48 of Appendix (No.3.). She testified that she was the original builder and proprietor of the hotel. "I thought I was going to make a little living for myself. It was a private affair. ... Nobody helped me to build the hotel. I did it with my own private means ..."
981. Q. I wanted to ask whether you had any hope of obtaining, or any reason to hope you would obtain, any assistance from the officials in that matter?
A. I am sorry to say, Sir, that I know the people and politicians of Canada too well to found anything on their promises. ...
Later testimony was that at the time the hotel was opened, her husband, Peter Grant, was unemployed, and that when she agreed to sell her interest in the hotel to Collingwood Schrieber (Chief Engineer and General Manager of Intercolonial Railway), she was given a letter, on July 28, 1884, stating that it was the intention of the Railway Department to employ her husband "at once temporarily, to be followed as soon as practicable, with permanent employment at a suitable remuneration." (page 52) The letter as signed by L. R. Harrison, and Collingworth Schreiber testified he had no knowledge of the letter and that Mr. Harrison had no authority to make such a promise on his behalf. (page 55)
Schreiber testified that Peter Grant was one of four engineers employed by the Intercolonial:
Q. (by Mr. Davies) He is a good engineer and understands his business having been on the Intercolonial before?
A. He understand his business very well. (page 56)
As part of her feisty testimony, Helen Grant made these remarks:
I protest against the Government or the representatives of the Government having to apologize to the people of Canada or the House of Commons, for the Railway Department employing Peter Grant as engineer. My husband, I am prepared to say, may have equals as an engineer, but he certainly has few superiors in Canada. Mr. Sandford Fleming, Mr. Marcus Smith and Mr. Walter Shanly whose works stand so high in Canada will bear me out in this. I do not think it is necessary that the Government should apologize for employing my husband. (#1089 on page 53)
The record implies that Sir Charles Tupper, the first Minister of Railways and Canals of Canada (and former Premier of Nova Scotia), or others Mrs. Grant assumed were acting for him, had led Mrs. Grant to hope for more support for the hotel than he was able to deliver.
Sir Charles Tupper was quite willing, but he could not get it passed through the Council; consequently, there never was one dollar paid or promised to me in writing. I am not learned enough in your legislative laws to say what was the difficulty, but there was a difficulty. (page 48)
Dalhousie on The Canadian Encyclopedia notes:
The Inch Arran Hotel was constructed in 1884 to take advantage of the excellent beaches and sheltered location. Guests such as ... Sir Charles TUPPER ... took advantage of the hotel's features, including long verandas, billiards rooms and bowling alleys, before it burned down in 1921.
Mrs. Grant testified that Peter Grant's employment by the Government began in 1869 after which he spent eight years years as a division engineer "most of the time at Matapedia on Sections 19, 18, and 17; i.e., the Matapedia Valley. "My husband was on the Intercolonial at its commencement, and he was the last man to leave the work." He left work in September, 1876, after which he was "employed on and off." He had no full time employment until he was hired by the Government on August 1, 1886, when he began working out of the office at Moncton with a regular staff. (page 54)
By Mr. McLelan:
953. A number of the bills have been paid by some person or other: the whole of the bills contracted by Mrs. Grant are not unpaid? I have heard of Mr. Labillois* being paid. I think he had Mr. Grant in prison, and he was paid in order that he might get out. (page 46)
*Probably Charles Henry LaBillois (1856–1928), a Dalhousie merchant who represented Restigouche County in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick from 1883 to 1899, and who was appointed Chief Commissioner of Public Works in June, 1900. In 1891, he was made a director of the Restigouche and Victoria Colonization Railway Company. See: Who's who and why (vol. 5, 1914, page 513). Possibly, Charles' father, Joseph H. LaBillois, merchant and Postmaster of Dalhousie.
A letter of May 12, 1886, from J. G. Forbes, barrister of St. John, who represented Mrs. Grant, to Charles H. Tupper, denies that Forbes had told a meeting of Mrs. Grant's creditors that Sir Charles Tupper had promised that the Government would pay for construction of the Inch Arran House. Here are excerpts of Forbes' letter:
What I did say was that if they discharged Mr. Grant from custody where he then was I would use my influence to get Grant appointed to some position on the railroad, and in connection with this I pointed out to creditors the folly of keeping him in gaol in Dalhousie. (pages 47-48)
Peter Grant was re-employed by the Intercontinental Railway in the summer of 1884. D. Pottinger, General Superintendent of the Intercolonial Railway, testified that Peter Grant's immediate employment previous to his being rehired was on the Baie des Chaleurs Branch "but I think not by the company" (page 34, 37) and that he was then employed at $100 a month (page 36).
The Report of the Auditor General to the House of Commons (for the fiscal year ended 30 June 1880). in the account of sums expended on account of the Canadian Pacific Railway for the year ended June 30, 1880, reports, at page 126, salary to Peter Grant of $720 and $783.80 , and other disbursement to P. Grant of $100.
The Report of the Auditor-General on Appropriation Accounts for the Year Ended 30th June, 1885, published the payment of salaries of the Inside Civil Service, permanent and temporary. Well over half of the reserves in the Capital account of the Intercolonial Railway was for "Contractor's claims—$338,439." (page 84). Charged as part of the expenses of the St. Charles Branch and Ferry—Western Section was: "Peter Grant, salary as Engineer $284.00." (page 224). Central Section $200 (page 225). Eastern Section was: "Peter Grant, salary and expenses as Engineer $218.34." (page 226).
Expenses of the Paspébiac Branch (at page 229) included:
Peter Grant , C. E. salary, board and horse hire removing centre stakes tape line
Also included on page 229 is a payment to J. A. Grant for services as a Tapeman: $31.25. He may have been Peter Grant's 17 year old son, James Andrew Grant.
The Financial Inspector's Annual Report on Government Railway of October 2, 1885, begins on page 549. The report includes the cost of operating 840 miles of the Intercolonial Railway system, which amounted to $2,441,477.91, in the year ending June 30, 1885.
The 1881 census of Wellington Ward, Ottawa City, Ontario, lists this family:
(1881) Peter Grant, age 48 (misindexed by ancestry.com as 28), born in Scotland, Catholic, engineer.
Ellen Grant (should be Helen), age 45, born in Scotland, Catholic.
Alexander Grant, age 18, born in Scotland, Catholic, going to school.
Patrick Grant, age 16, born in Scotland, Catholic, going to school. [Gordon Grant]
James Grant, age 14, born in Scotland, Catholic, going to school.
John Grant, age 12, born in Scotland, Catholic, going to school.
Jessie Kelman, age 50, born in Scotland, Catholic, widow. [Jessie Kelman died in Iona, Cape Breton, Victoria County, Nova Scotia, on November 15, 1889, and is probably buried there at St. Columba Catholic Church. — Posting of December 11, 2006, by Doris M. Grant. Iona is to the west of Grand Narrows, immediately across the Barra Strait. Here is a view of Iona in the early 1900s, with St .Columba Church to the left and the Grand Narrows Bridge over the Barra Strait in the background. See: Church of St. Columba, Iona, NS, Canada.]
Margrat Green, age 18, born in Nova Scotia, W. Meth. (Wesleyan Methodist), servant.
The Ottawa City Directory for 1883 lists at page151: Grant Peter, civil engineer, C P Ry 150 Stewart.
The 1891 census of Victoria, sub-district of Grand Narrows, Nova Scotia, lists:
(1891) Peter Grant, age 57, born in Scotland, civil engineer, Roman Catholic, employed by the government. [The names below are reported in a mysterious way, with the middle name or initial first, and the primary given name second; for example, G. Helen Grant on the census return should be Helen G. Grant; A. James Grant should be James A. Grant.]
G. Helen Grant, age 59, born in Scotland, Roman Catholic. [Should be listed as Helen G. Grant. According to the public family tree of George Minty1 on ancestry.com, Helen Gordon (daughter of Alexander Gordon (1781-1863) and Marjory Cowie (1800-1844), who was born on January 10, 1828, in Tullochallum, Mortlach, Banff, Scotland, and died in Montreal in about 1903.]
G. Gordon Grant, age 24, born in Scotland, civil engineer, Roman Catholic, born in Scotland, bank clerk, Roman Catholic. [Should be Gordon G. Grant. According to the public family tree of George Minty1 on ancestry.com, Patrick Gordon Grant who was born on January 2, 1865, in Dufftown, Mortlach, Banff, Scotland. The 1901 census of Winnipeg, Manitoba, lists Gordon Grant, a lodger, age 35, born on January 2, 1866, in Scotland, immigrated in 1872, civil engineer, Roman Catholic.]
A. James Grant, age 22, born in Scotland, student, Roman Catholic. [Should be James A. Grant. According to the public family tree of George Minty1 on ancestry.com, Andrew James Grant was born to Peter Grant and Helen Gordon on July 13, 1867, in Dufftown, Mortlach, Banff, Scotland.]
John Grant, age 20, born in Scotland, bank clerk, Roman Catholic. [According to the public family tree of George Minty1 on ancestry.com, John Forbes Grant was born to Peter Grant and Helen Gordon on April 10, 1869, in Dufftown, Mortlach, Banff, Scotland. The 1921 census of Montreal City (St. Lawrence-St. George) lists as a lodger in an apartment house John Forbes Grant, age 54, single, born in Scotland to parents both born in Scotland, born in 1873, a Roman Catholic, whose occupation was Inspector, and whose total earnings in the past 12 months were $6000.]
Catherine Neil Mac, age 14, domestic, born in Nova Scotia, general housework, Roman Catholic. [Should be Catherine MacNeil.]
The Return of Accidents of the Intercolonial Railway from 1st July, 1878, to 30th June, 1879, reports an accident of April 29, 1879, at Grand Lake, in which a Peter Grant, a passenger, was seriously injured in a fall while attempting to jump off a train while it was in motion. Sessional Papers, Volume 4, Second Session of the Fourth Parliament of Dominion of Canada (1880, page 93). Grand Lake Station is about two miles west of the Halifax Stanfield International Airport on Shubenacadie Grand Lake. Major Robinson's report describes Grand Lake in Appendix No. 1 (by Captain G. W. W. Henderson, which describes a possible route for the Intercolonial not ultimately chosen.)
Between the north end of Fletcher's Lake and the point where the line will strike the Grand Shubenacadie Lake, are three ridges projecting into the lake, which will require to be cut through; the two next the Grand Lake being about thirty feet deep. Thence it follows the shore of the Grand Lake for about three-quarters of a mile. The high land comes out close on the lake, but the water is shallow.
Leaving the Lake shore at the 17 1/2 mile it crosses to the west shore of the Gasperean (sic) Lake. There is a low ridge between the two which will require cutting.
It will be necessary to carry the line along the shallow water on the west shore of the Gasperean Lake, leaving which it again strikes the shores of the Grand Lake at Sandy Cove, and follows it for half a mile to the outlet of the Shubenacadie River, which flows into the Bay of Fundy.
After leaving the Grand Lake, the line for nineteen miles follows the general course of the Valley of the Shubenacadie River, as far as the mouth of the Stewiacke River.
About two miles from the Grand Lake, it crosses the Shubenacadie River, and then follows the western side of the valley, which comes in with an easy slope to the river, and offers no obstruction.
At this place, Black Rock Point, the land runs out high upon the river at both sides. A cutting will be necessary on the eastern side, about thirty feet deep, and a quarter of a mile long.
—Report on the proposed trunk line of railway from an eastern port in Nova Scotia, through New Brunswick, to Quebec by Major William Robinson, Captain Royal Engineers, Ottawa, printed in 1868 by Hunter, Rose and Company, Ottawa, pages 42–43.
There was a Mr. Grant who was a surveyor of the proposed Halifax to Quebec railway in 1847. He worked for Major William Robinson, Royal Engineers, on the Railway Exploration Survey.
In a letter of an earlier date he (Major Robinson) made mention of the difficulties attending the survey, and he spoke of the dangers and hardships which those engaged in the survey had experienced.*
* He writes that one of his chief surveyors and draughtsmen, Mr. Grant, in some burnt land, having left the line for a short time to make a sketch from some rising ground, could not again find the track, and after being lost for five days without a morsel of food, was found on the morning of the sixth day lying exhausted, and at the last extremity, by some lumbermen passing most providentially up the stream to which he had wandered, and when unable to move farther he had laid down on the top of the bank for two days. This solitary boat was, in all probability, the only one passing that way for a twelvemonth together. Mr. Grant's hands and feet were frost-bitten, and though this happened early in November, he has not yet (17th Dec, 1847) fully regained the use of them." —The Intercolonial: A Historical Sketch ... by Sandford Fleming, Montreal 1876, page 48 (a free Google eBook)..
Report on the proposed trunk line of railway from an eastern port in Nova Scotia, through New Brunswick, to Quebec by Major William Robinson, Captain Royal Engineers, Ottawa, printed in 1868 by Hunter, Rose and Company, Ottawa. Robinson's report is also available as a free Google eBook. See also: British North America. Final report of the officers employed on the survey of the line for the Quebec and Halifax railway, with the subsequent correspondence thereon; and on public works in Canada. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty, February 1849 by Great Britain Colonial Office.
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