J.D. McArthur
Winnipeg Evening Tribune, 10 January 1927.
Veteran Builder of West, Dead Passes Away in Private Car
on Reaching City From Battle Creek Sanitarium
J.D. McArthur, president of the J.D. McArthur Co., Ltd., and
vice-president of the Manitoba Paper Co., pioneer railway builder
of Western Canada, died this morning in Winnipeg.
He had just returned in a special car on the Great Northern train from
Battle Creek, Michigan, where he had been undergoing treatment for the
past few weeks. Death overtook him in the special coach half an hour
after the train pulled into the city, the scene of his activities for
the past 47 years. He was in his 74th year.
For some time Mr. McArthur had been suffering from acute anemia. A few
weeks ago he left for the sanitarium at Battle Creek. After a period
of treatment there, hope for his recovery was given up. On Saturday
morning, accompanied by Mrs. McArthur and a special nurse, he was placed
on board a private car, provided by the Michigan Central Railway, to
return to Winnipeg. At Chicago the car was transferred to the Great
Northern train, which arrived here at 9.05 o'clock this morning.
When he left the sanitarium at Battle Creek it was with the understanding
that everything possible had been done for him there. The body is now
at Thomson's Funeral Home. Arrangements have been made for the funeral
Wednesday afternoon. A private service will be held at the family residence,
159 Mayfair Avenue. At 2.30 o'clock a public service will be held at
St. Augustine Church. Burial will be in St. John's Cemetery.
His Life Work
John Duncan McArthur is generally believed to have built more miles
of railroad than any other man in the history of Canada. Besides building
about 250 miles of the then Grand Trunk Pacific between Winnipeg and
Lake Superior Junction, some of his other large contracts included about
500 miles for the Canadian Pacific Railway and a long stretch of the
then Canadian Northern Railway between Portage la Prairie and Edmonton.
He alone was responsible for putting the entire Edmonton, Dunvegan and
British Columbia Railway system on the map, an enterprise which entailed
laying over 900 miles of trackage. He also built the Alberta and Great
Waterways Railway and all but the last section of the Hudson Bay Railway.
Many Interests
He was interested in many business enterprises, being, besides president
of the company which bears his name, vice-president of the Manitoba
Paper Co., president of the Northwest Lumber Co., president of the McArthur
Land Co., director of the Western Trust Co., president of the McArthur
Lumber ad Fuel Co., and director of the Beaver Lumber Co.
Although most of his contracts were for railroad work he also erected
some very fine buildings, the biggest being the McArthur building here,
which he built in 1909-1910 at a cost of $750,000. Other buildings in
Winnipeg which he put up are a wholesale warehouse on McDermot ave.,
1898; the Breadalbane Apts., 1909; and the Glengarry Block, 1911.
Far Seeing
Mr. McArthur was a big man, not only physically, but in his mental outlook.
Where others saw only flat, uninteresting prairie, he saw the future
home of countless happy settlers; where others saw forests and streams
simply as possible fishing haunts or vacation grounds, he saw thousands
of uncut railroad ties, millions of feet of lumber which might be used
in the building of a nation. He was a man of vision, an empire builder
who loved the country he was born in and spent his life developing its
natural resources, bringing vast areas of it within the borders of civilization,
and trying by every means within his power to make it great and prosperous.
He was a man of unbounded energy and unswerving purpose, he never once
failed to fulfill a contract, he never started anything without carrying
it through. So great was the confidence he inspired in others, that
it is said that he could go into a bank and borrow a million dollars
quicker than any other man in Canada.
He was, what he himself termed, "a one-man plunger," he never
had any partners on his big enterprises, he never asked or allowed other
people to invest money in his development scheme. Consequently if they
failed, as they sometimes did, no one lost a cent except J.D. McArthur,
and he was the last man to worry about such a trifle as losing money.
His heart was just as large as his vision, and he gave away hundreds
of thousands for charitable purposes on the distinct understanding that
his name was not to be mentioned in any way. He was a great admirer
of Sir William MacKenzie, and his one ambition in life was to develop
the natural resources of Canada.
He made millions of dollars during the course of his lifetime, but money
was merely incidental with him, it came as a result of his tremendous
labors, and was at once put back into some development project. He did
not put it safely away or convert it into gilt-edged securities. As
he himself said, "Some one had to take a chance," when it
came to opening up new and untried commercial projects.
He gambled thousands of dollars in schemes and never grumbled when he
lost. His friends never tired of telling of his unflinching cheerfulness
and courage in the face of adversity.
Was Poor Boy
Born in July 1853, at Lancaster, Ont., J.D. McArthur spent his boyhood
on his father's farm at that place, and was educated in the local school.
He came west in 1879 as a young man of 25, and was soon started in the
contracting business getting out ties for the old Manitoba and North-Western
Railroad.
His first serious financial reverse came in the late '80's when he was
working on a tie contract for the Canadian Pacific Railway. He had by
this time acquired the ownership of a saw mill at Birtle, Man., and
was counting on sawing his ties and floating them to market down the
Birdtail Creek. For some reason or other the creek dried up and young
McArthur was left with the ties on his hands.
When he did eventually manage to get them to Brandon, the railway could
not use them and he had to sell them to the citizens of Brandon as cordwood.
However, he managed to get enough money to pay his debts and then he
started in again.
How well he succeeded in getting another nest-egg may be judged from
the fact that in Jan., 1889, he returned East and married his boyhood
sweetheart, Mary McIntosh, of Lancaster.
Well Established
By this time he was pretty well established as a railroad contractor,
and in 1901 he started a saw mill and a brick factory at Lac du Bonnet.
The former operated until 1918 and the latter until 1920.
It was at the beginning of the 20th century that he commenced going
into the railroad contracting business on a large scale. In 1904 he
built 500 miles of the C.N. main line between Portage la Prairie and
Edmonton, he also built part of the Manitoba and North-Western, and
the CPR Crow's Nest branch.
In 1906 he built 20 miles of the CPR Teulon branch, 36 miles on the
M. & N.W., and did other work for the CPR which included bringing
the railroad from Saskatoon to Asquith, the completion of the Kirkella
branch and the Wolseley branch, and extending the Winnipeg Beach line
as far as Gimli.
Took on Big Job
It was in this year that he commenced work on 250 miles of the Grand
Trunk Pacific Railway from Winnipeg east to Superior Junction. This
was considered one of the most difficult and costly sections of the
whole line, running, as it does, through the most rugged and forbidding
part of the Laurentian rock formation. He secured the contract in open
bidding against strong opposition, and capable management, coupled with
favorable circumstances, enabled him to complete it with a substantial
profit.
In this year he opened a sawmill at Atikokan, which he ran for seven
years, and then dismantled and sent the machinery to his mill in Edmonton.
He also bought the Moyie Lumber Company's interests at Moyie, B.C. but
later sold them.
Having emerged successfully from the G.T.P. contract in 1910, he embarked
on another venture which eventually nearly wiped out his entire personal
fortune, this being the building of the Edmonton, Dunvegan and British
Columbia Railway. He had found himself with an immense and costly
construction equipment on his hands, for which there was no work in
sight. It was a period of rapid expansion, and money was available in
large amounts for development purposes.
Given Charter
Some years before, a charter had been granted by the Dominion Parliament
for a railway from the Pacific coast to Edmonton by way of Peace River.
The name was the Pacific Northern and Ominica, and the usual
cash subsidy had been voted for the first 100 miles, but no construction
work had been done. After some negotiations a charter was given to Mr.
McArthur under the name of the Edmonton, Dunvegan and B.C. Railway,
and he commenced operations.
Notwithstanding the outbreak of the war, the rails reached Spirit River
in the fall of 1915. Owing to the financial depression which began in
1913 and which was accentuated by the outbreak of the war, Mr. McArthur
did not press his claim for the cash subsidy to which he was entitled
as the builder of a colonization railway.
Subsidies were voted and paid to other railways in that period, but
not to the E.D. & B.C. Even the subsidy that had been voted for
the first 100 miles of the Ominica Railway, to which he was entitled
by his agreement, was never paid.
Difficult Times
It was decided that if the district was to be served adequately by the
railway it must be extended across the Peace River. The cost of the
bridge was nearly a million dollars. The bridge was finished in 1918,
and a large part of the grading from the plateau to the west end of
the bridge was completed the same year. This was the only piece of railroad
construction in America in actual progress during the latter part of
the war. ....
The Peace River crop of 1915 was a good one, but that of 1916 was a
failure, yielding little traffic and discouraging development. The war
had been in progress for two years, and the pioneers of the district
had volunteered in such numbers that production was checked. Immigration,
of course, stood still. The result to earnings was disastrous in the
case of the E.D. & B.C., as with other railroads. Interest had to
be paid, and the earnings were not sufficient to pay it. To meet these
liabilities, Mr. McArthur made provision from time to time out of his
private means, always expecting that the cash subsidy to which he was
entitled would eventually be paid. But this was never done.
No Improvement
Through meeting the losses of successive years nearly all of his personal
income was absorbed by the railroad. The condition of the road gradually
deteriorated and there came to be a question as to the advisability
of operating it any longer. While matters were nearing a crisis, Hon.
Sir George Foster, acting premier, in response to an appeal from Mr.
McArthur, wrote saying the government was prepared to buy the road.
Mr. McArthur at once started negotiations for the sale of it, but without
result. At last came a time when the condition of the road was such
that a complete breakdown was imminent.
Source: The Winnipeg Evening Tribune, vol. 3 no. 8, 10 January 1927.
