Complex sentence: James Gray Bethune, a businessman in the port town of Coburg with a steamship company working Lake Ontario, was skeptical that the Trent connection would ever be built, but he felt that the inland sections north of Peterborough still offered considerable commercial prospects.
Split into simpler sentences: James Gray Bethune was a businessman in the port town of Coburg with a steamship company working Lake Ontario. He was skeptical that the Trent connection would ever be built, but he felt that the inland sections north of Peterborough still offered considerable commercial prospects.