The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-07-09
"LORD GLENCOE" THE TITLE SIR
DONALD SMITH NOW
WEARS.
FROM CABIN TO PARLIAMENT
TIES OF AMERICA FOR ADJ
TANCEMENT.
STORY OF A FRONTIERsMAN's LIFE.
Trader for the Hudson Bay Company
In the Early Days of
Manitoba.

Manitoba.
From pelt trader to peer from a log
cabin in Hudson bay territory to seat
in the house of lord-this is the history,
in a nutshell, of Sir Donald A. Smith,
who was honored by Queen Victoria
with a peerage on the occasion of her
diamond jubilee. Donald Alexander
Smith left Scotland fifty years ago as
an apprentice clerk of the Hudson Bay
company He was poor in pocket, but
mad a good education, plenty of grit,
perseverance and an indomitable spirit
JUST before he was elevated to the peer
age he was Sir Donald A. Smith
knight, d. c. L., K. C. M. c., and high
commissioner of Canada in London
lie is the second Canadian raised to
the peerage by Queen Victoria The
first was Sir George Stephen, who be-
came Lord Mount Stephen. Mount
Stephen is peak in the Rockies and
was named after Sir George.
Not for from Mount Stephen is the
grandest of all the peaks of the Sell
Kinks. 1t is an acute pyramid of naked
rock shooting up nearly 5000 feet and
is called "Sir Donald" In the valley
below is the glacier-fed river, IllicilI-
Waet. Lord Sir Donald would be an
impossible title for peer. Lord
1lllcilliWaet' is too long and incompre-
hensible. So the new peer has solved
the problem by avoiding both, and has
selected Lord Glencoe as mis- title.
Canadians in Chicago are particular
ly pleased with the selection of Sir Dom
aid as recipient Of diamond jubilee
honors. Sir Donald is known, not as
politician, but as financier and phi
lanthroplSt-a man who has devoted all
his time to the industrial and agrcul-
tural advancement Of the northwest,
and who has opened his purse to all
movements for higher education and to
the care Of the suffering in Canadian
hospitals. He is the president of the
Bank of Montreal, which has ramifi-
cations everywhere. There is one big
branch in Chicago. of which William
Munro is the manager. And Mr. Mum
70 is specially delighted at the honors
awarded his chief, who is one of those
men who make every other man a per-
sonal friend by his manner.
The new peer from Canada is very
wealthy man. His salary as high COM
missioner to London is $4,000 a year,
but this is only a drop in the bucket in
the expenditures of Sir Donald, who
has maintained the standard of the
Dominion with a magnIiicence hitherto
unknown. Adventurous and ambitious
youths in Great Britain used to look to
the Hudson Bay company and the East
INDIA company as rich fields fer en-
deaVor almost up to the days when these
great trading corporations were dis
solved. Poor youths, who had no in
huential relatives, dreamed of the rich
es to be won in the midst of danger.
and imagined themselves returning to
their native land in after years as
wealthy fur traders or nabobs with vel
low faces and bad livers, and a burn
ing ambition to go into parliament.
Donald A. Smith was one of those
youths whose dream was turned into
reality, and whose highest ambition
has been reached by his elevation to
the peerage
he was born in Morayshire Scot
land, In 1921 He was a sturdy lad
win a strong desire for learning. He
tfudged many miles to school, read his
Horace over his oatmeal and studied
by the light of torch or a tallow dip
he acquired all the classical knoWl-
edge the dominic could teach him. and
was we'll equipped with book learning
when he turned his thoughts to what
became his life work. Early in the
Tor Canada. He wanted to join the
hudson Bay company. Brother Scots
had spent years in Canada, had be-
come chief factors and came home rich
They told stories of the wealth to be
Obtained in buying furs from the In
dams, and round the fire at night re-
lated tales of wild adventures that
stirred the blood of young Smith. So
ne sought and obtained a job as ap-
prentice clerk for the Hudson Bay
company. He was not to get any sal
airy, but that did not deter him. Pro-
motion was rapid those days, and there
was always an opportunity for young
man who worked faithfully. Donald
Smith quickly passed the apprentice
stage. He was promoted from one
pest to another. He became known
as one of the best bargainers of furs in
the company. He was smooth and d D.
lcmat1c. He set himself out to learn
some of the Indian dialects and made
better trades than many who worked
through interpreters. From under fac
tor he was made chief factor at one of
the big trading posts of the company
He married Isabelle, daughter of Rich
ard Hardisty, once an officer in the
English army, and afterward employed
by the Hudson Bay company.
Then came the desire of Canada for
an extension of territory and protests
against the monopoly of the Hudson
Bay company Donald Smith was
made the resident governor and chief
commissioner of the company, but ne
proved to be the last governor. The
company was dissolved in 1867, and
Hudson Bay territory became part and
parcel of Canada. He turned his at
tention to the colonizing Of Manitoba
and the Northwest territory, and
everything he did was successful. He
became associated with James j. Hill,
of st. Paul, in building railroad from
that city to Winnipeg. He became
known speedily as a man of great en-
terprise and resource. He did not min
gle in politics. Politics was to some
extent thrust upon him. He was sent
as a special commissioners to inquire
into the cause of, nature and extent of
the Riel insurrection in the Northwest
in 1869-70. For the tact care and COM
prehensiveness of his work he received
the special thanks of the governor gen.
eral in council.