On August 20, 1883, the management of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, left on a grand tour of the new railway then under construction in western Canada. Including various dignitaries, the party came to 66 people, plus staff to cater to their daily needs and keep the train operational from Winnipeg to the Rocky Mountains.
According to the "St. Paul, Minnesota, Sunday Globe" for August 26, 1883: "The company are accommodated in three handsome Pullman cars, three Canadian Pacific official and one baggage car making up a train of seven carriages." - plus an engine and coal car.
Among those who travelled on this major CPR Executive and Dignitaries Tour were the following:
1.Hon. Donald A. Smith (Montreal);
Alexander Staveley Hill, MP;QC London
Matthew Henry Cochrane (Senator/ Ottawa);
Hon. Adams George Archibald - Nova Scotia;(former Lieut. Gov. of North-West Territories)
5.Hon. G.A. Kirkpatrick MP, Speaker of the House of Commons;
Herman Ernest, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (nephew of Queen Victoria and brother of Count Gleichen);
Lord Castletown;
Theodore Robitaille, Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec;
Howard Potter - New York banking firm of Brown Brothers and Co.;
10.George Bliss - New York banking firm of Morton, Bliss and Co.;
Hon. St. John Brodrick, MP (William St John Freemantle Brodrick);
Professor Pierce Adolphus Simpson (University of Glasgow, Scotland);
Pascoe du P. Grenfell (London) - CPR Director/ partner of Morton, Bliss and Co.;
Colonel Egerton (London);
15.W. Donaldson (Glasgow);
A.S. McClellan (Glasgow);
J.G. Sibbald (New York);
William Armit - Secretary of the Hudson Bay Co.London
Sir William Cornelius Van Horne (Montreal) - CPR general manager;
20.Sir George Stephen Montreal) - President of CPR;
Count Gleichen (brother of Prince Hohenlohe of Prussia and nephew to Queen Victoria);
Edward Bootle Wilbraham, Earl of Lathom;
Col. C.B. Kingscote, M.P. (England);
Lord William Buller Fullerton Elphinstone;
25.Charles Francis Smithers (Montreal) - Pres. Bank of Montreal;
Duncan McIntyre - 1st VP of the CPR;
Richard B. Angus - 2nd VP of the CPR;
Thomas Edward Kenney (Halifax);
James B. Duffus (Halifax);
30.Sir John Waldron (England);
Thomas Reynolds (London);
H. McDonald;
Charles. Cassils,Montreal;
J. Jones ;
35.B. Cutt;
A. Cassils;
Rev. Canon Anson (Anglican Archbishop of Assiniboia);
Mrs. Anson;
Hon. C. Anson (Montreal);
40.J.B. Hamilton (Essex, England).
Mr. Egan - general superintendent of CPR
Mr. Palmer
Col. Needham, 1st Life Guards, London
W.P. Clirehugh, London
45.John Le Sage, editor, London Daily Telegraph
W.W. Hardman, editor, Morning Post
Baron Albert Salvador, editor, Paris Figaro
Professor Paul Passie, Paris
Dr. Oskar Berggexuen, Vienna Free Press
50.Hartland McDougall, Montreal
According to the "Regina Leader" for August 30, 1883, p. 4, the CPR dignitaries tour left Winnipeg on Sunday, August 26 at 9:00 a.m. and passed through Regina a little before 9:00 p.m. For this part of the journey, they travelled in six palace cars. The Leader also reported that "On Sunday evening last the party composed of members of the syndicate arrived here at 10 minutes to 9 having made the trip from Broadview (92 miles) in two hours and forty minutes. This is fast time considering that the road is not yet ballasted" Due to the speed at which the train travelled from Broadview to Regina, it would appear that the dignitaries did not stop at the Bell Farm that day, but did so later on during the return trip. It was reported in the "Calgary Herald" that the train arrived in Calgary on Aug. 27, at 4:45 p.m.
On Tuesday, Aug. 28 the tour left Calgary for the end of track, and then headed east again at 3:30 p.m. – (Calgary Herald, 31 Aug, 1883, p. 3) The "Regina Leader" reported on Sept 6, 1883, p. 1, that the CPR Excursionists stopped at the Bell Farm on Wed. Aug. 29 for an hour or two, then rode back to Winnipeg. The trip from Winnipeg to Calgary took 33 hours; while the return trip took 34 hours. The extra time was likely due to the stop at the Bell Farm.
On Sept. 14, 1883, the "Colonies and India" provided the following report on the CPR Tour: "The party of dignitaries left Montreal on Aug. 20 and arrived in Calgary on August 28 1883. . . . . . The return trip averaged 36 miles per hour. The party visited the Bell Farm where the average corn yield this season will be 27 bushels per acre"
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1883 - Grand CPR Tour to Western Canada, including the Bell Farm
In August 1883, the Canadian Pacific Railway Company initiated a tour of its senior management across Western Canada to see how progress was proceeding on the railway's construction to the Pacific Ocean. According to the St. Paul Sunday Glove, sixty-six CPR officials and other dignitaries visited the Bell Farm after their trip from Montreal to the Rocky Mountains, including the following: • Angus, Richard B., 2nd VP of the CPR • Anson, Rev. Canon • Anson, Hon. C., Montreal • Archibald, Hon. A.G., Nova Scotia • Armit, W., Secretary, HBC • Bliss, George, New York • Bottle-Wilbraham, Edward, Earl of Lathom • Brodrick, Hon St. John, England - MP • Cassils, A. • Cassils, C. • Castletown, Lord • Cochrane, Senator Matthew Henry, Ottawa • Cutt, B. • Donaldson, W., Glasgow, Scotland • Dufus, James B., Halifax • Egerton, Col., London, England • Elphinstone, Fullerton, William Buller, Lord Elphinstone (director of the Northwest Land Company) • Gleichen, Count • Grenfell, Pascoe du P., London, England, CPR Director • Hamilton, J.B., Essex, England • Hill, Staveley Hill, QC - MP • Hohenlohe, Prince - of Prussia • Jones, J. • Kenney, Thomas Edward, Halifax • Kingscote, Col., C.B. - MP • Kirkpatrick, Hon. G.A. - MP • McClellan, A., Glasgow, Scotland • McDonald, H. • McIntyre, Duncan, 1st VP of the CPR • Potter, Howard, New York • Reynolds, T., London, England • Robitaille, Hon. , Lieut. Gov. - of Quebec • Simpson, Professor P.A. , Glasgow University, Scotland • Sibbald, J.G., New York • Smith, Donald A., Lord Strathcona, Montreal, CPR Director • Smithers, Charles Francis, Pres. Bank of Montreal • Stephen, Sir George , Montreal, CPR president • Van Horne, Sir William Cornelius, Montreal, CPR General Manager • Walrond, Sir John, Baronet, Devon, England:
Sources:
"St. Paul Sunday Globe", p. 1, 26 Aug. 1883) Train Drawing - 28 Sept. 1883 - Shareholder and Insurance Gazette, p. 12
RESEARCH BY:
Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Saskatchewan -
Anson, Canon Adelbert (later: Bishop of Qu'Appelle)
Visited the Bell Farm in late August 1883 on the Grand CPR Tour with 65 others, and again on August 8, 1884. Anglican Bishop Adelbert Anson, first Bishop of Qu'Appelle (1884-94). He was also the first person to sign the Bell Farm Visitors' Register. Rev. Adelbert Anson was also among this group of CPR Officials and other dignitaries, but apparently for a different purpose. He was en route to the West to report on the area’s potential for future Anglican ministry, and subsequently, in 1884, was appointed the region’s first Anglican Bishop of Assiniboia. Incidentally, Anson became the first person to sign the Bell Farm Visitors Register the following year (August 8, 1884), and the first of three Anson signatures in the Register. The other two were in 1885 and 1887. Canon Adelbert Anson’s mixing with some of Canada’s financial and political elite during that 1883 trip might have become useful to him in some of his future deliberations on behalf of the Church of England (today’s Anglican Church). How he came to be invited to this trip might be an interesting matter to discover.
SOURCES:
"Llving Faith: A pictorial history of the Diocese of Qu'Appelle from 1884 to 1984", by Trevor Powell, p. 2.
RESEARCH BY:
Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Sask. -
ROBITAILLE, Theodore, Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, 1883
Visited the Bell Farm with the Group of 66 in late August 1883. Dr. Theodore Robitaille (1834-1897) was a physician and provincial and federal politician who served as the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec from 1879 until 1884. A newspaper "The American Settler" Sept 29, 1883 reports: "The Lieutenant Governor of Quebec has been on a trip to the Canadian northwest and says: "The Country between Winnipeg and Moose Jaw or a little beyond it, is the richest I ever saw. The crops looked admirably. We went over the Bell Farm on our way back. They had 2300 acres under crop this year. The day we were there, they cut 300 acres with their 21 self binders. It was a wonderful sight. Major Bell and other good judges estimate the crop at 22 bushels to the acre. Next year,if the season is favourable they will do better as much of this year's crop was sown on the up-turned sod without back-setting."
SOURCES:
Photo Source: The Canadian Portrait Gallery (Vol 3) href="http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/robitaille_theodore_12E.html" target="_blank"Dictionary of Canadian Biography: Robitaille, Theodore
RESEARCH BY:
Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Sask, and Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Sask. -
SMITH, Donald A. (later: Lord Strathcona)
Visited the Bell Farm with the Group of 66 in late August 1883. Donald Alexander Smith (later: Lord Strathcona) (1820-1914) is a key Canadian business and political figure. Born in Scotland, he moved to Canada in 1838, where he joined the Hudson’s Bay Company and climbed through the ranks to various senior positions, becoming Governor of the Company in 1889. Smith ventured into the West in 1869 and was one of the key players in the Red River Rebellion of 1869-70. He became an extremely successful businessman and eventually was very involved with many different companies, banks, railways and shipping firms. In 1887 Smith became president of the Bank of Montreal. Donald Smith was elected seven times to the House of Commons throughout most of the 1870s, '80s and '90s, and was appointed Canada’s High Commissioner in London in 1896, a position he held until his death in 1914. In 1897 he became a peer in the British House of Lords and took on the name Lord Strathcona. He became a major sponsor of McGill University in Montreal, and various other universities. When he died in 1914, he was worth over $28 million. Donald Smith gravitated to key events and key people in mid 19th and early 20th century Canadian history, and eventually became one of those people himself.
SOURCES:
LAC = Library and Archives Canada: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/smith_donald_alexander_14E.html - Dictionary of Canadian Biography, article by Alexander Reford. http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/smith_da.shtml - Memorable Manitobans, article by Gordon Goldsborough Photo Source: - LAC photo - w200_943
RESEARCH BY:
Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and Frank Korvemaker, Regina, Sask.