The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1921-12-02
PIONEER CANADIAN
RAIL BUILDER dies
Lord Mount Stephen Last
Night Passed Away
WAS BORN IN SCOTLAND
First President Canadian Pacific
System; Early Struggles
Against Poverty
Associated Press Dispatch.l


London. November 30.-Lord Mount
Stephen, pioneer railroad constructor
in Canada and first president OF the
Canadian Pacific railway company,
died last night at his country resi-
dence, Brocket Hall, Hatfield. Hert-
Yorkshire. He was ninety two years
old. X
Born In Scotland.
Lord Mount Stephen, George
Stephen,) First Baron Mount stephen,
was born on June 5, 1879 at Forces III
Banffshire, Scotland, the son OF VIII
liam stephen, carpenter.
The life story of Lord Stephen was
a romance OF early struggles against
poverty of a rapid rise TO eminence
after he came TO Canada in 1850, OF
pioneer work in railroad construction
which eliminated in the connecting
Of the Atlantic and the Pacific by the
Canadian Pacific Railway, of the ac
QUESTION OF $6,000,000 fortune, much
of which he gave away to relatives,
and finally of an old age spent as a
peer in a historic home known as
Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, in Eng
land, which had at times been occu-
pied by two prime ministers of Eng
land, Lord Melbourne and Lord Pal
merston.
AS a boy, Stephen played barefoot
ed in the streets of his native village
was a shepherd on the nearby bleak
moors and then a diapers clerk
Coming. to Canada, he entered the
store of an uncle in Montreal, cloth
merchant, whom he ultimately bought
out. He invested his savings in Bank
Of Montreal stock, becoming one OF
its largest share holders and finally
its president.
About this time Stephen came into
business relations with Donald Smith
cousin, who afterwards became
Lord Strathcona, Smith interested
him in the construction of a railway
to the Canadian west, which he knew
through his association with it as
resident governor of the Hudson's
Smith and Stephen joined forces
with the late ]. ]. Hill, and the trio
acquired the st. Paul and Pacific
Railroad, which had failed and fallen
into the hands Of it's Dutch bondhold-
ers. The line was built through from
st. Paul to Winnipeg.
Developed Canadian Pacific.
The importance of this early ven
ture. on the subsequent development
that it made the building of the Cana
dian Pacific possible, as supplies for
the construction gangs operating in
the otherwise inaccessible prairie sec
ton passed over it. Acknowledgement
-uoo pue uoIleuLSIIo sql W lied STU 10
summation Of the Canadian Pacific
came from the shareholders who elect
ed Stephen the first president of the
company, and from the king, who ,on
recommendation of the government OF
Canada, conferred a baronetcy on him
in 1886 and peerage in 1891. He
retired from the presidency in 1888
and soon afterwards went to live in
England. Before leaving Canada Lord
Mount Stephen divided his fortune
among relatives in Montreal, retaining
enough to support him for the rest of
his life Previously he had contrib
uted $1,000,000 to the founding of the
Royal Victoria Hospital of Montreal
Lord Mount Stephen, whose title
becomes extinct at his death, mar
ried in 1853 Annie Charlotte, daugh
ter of Benjamin Kane of Montreal.
She died in 1895. In 1897, he married
Clan, daughter of Captain R. G. TUT
nell, r. NJ, of London.