Nipissing Pioneers

Duncan McIntyre fashioned an exceptional business career that earned him the distinction of being “one of the great Scots barons of Montreal”. On his death in 1894, he was recognized as “one of the five richest men in Canada”.
McIntyre emigrated to the Ottawa valley with his parents in 1849 from Callander, Scotland. McIntyre pere operated a country store in Renfrew where son Duncan received his early business training serving as an apprentice. Ten years later, he joined his uncle Robert McIntyre a dry goods merchant and wholesale importer in Montreal. The youthful Duncan who began as a stock clerk and bookkeeper quickly rose to the position of junior partner. He was a strict and resolute businessman who “typified the Montreal Scots merchant of the day”. In 1865, the 30-year-old Duncan succeeded his uncle as president of the prosperous Stuart, McIntyre and Company.

The thrifty and prudent Duncan McIntyre began to invest in railways in 1860, and by 1880 was president in full control of Canada Central Railway. The railway operated a line that included Renfrew, Pembroke and plans to extend along the Ottawa River to Mattawa with a final leg towards Lake Nipissing.
The CCR reached Pembroke in 1875 and in June 1878, the government awarded it a contract subsidy of $1,440,000 to push on from “Pembroke up to South-East Bay of Lake Nipissing” a distance of 130 miles. The Central Canada Extension was under the direction of lead contractor James Worthington.
McIntyre had more ambitious plans. He joined a small syndicate that raised the capital to build a Pacific railway to connect British Columbia with eastern Canada. In 1880, he made the historic offer on behalf of the business syndicate to build the transcontinental railway for the government of Canada. The Canadian Pacific Railway was incorporated February 15, 1881 and began operations May 1 that year. Duncan McIntyre became vice-president of the new company.
McIntyre successfully amalgamated the CCR with the CPR June 9, 1881. With Worthington continuing as construction manager to complete the extension, McIntyre assumed a wider role in the financing and overall CPR strategy.
Construction on the Canada Central extension progressed slowly after amalgamation. By Dec 31, 1881, railhead reached Eau Claire. The extension was completed in April 1882 when rail arrived in Callender.
The original CCR charter included a plan to take the railroad to the South-East Bay of Lake Nipissing to the present location of Callender. Sir Sandford Fleming had urged rail planners to aim for the “North shores of Nipissing”. Fleming left the railroad in 1879-1880 but returned in a few years as an officer of the CPR. When the construction crews reached the shores of Lake Nosbonsing, engineering advice was to head in a northerly course to a point where the Chippewa Creek emptied into Lake Nipissing. The decision to extend the rail line north of Lake Nipissing stemmed from Hector Langevin's authorization July 24, 1879. To comply with the CCR charter, the end point where rail skirted the shores of Lake Nosbonsing was named Callender. That was the western terminal of the CCR extension. At that precise place, the CPR commenced even though the two companies had now amalgamated under the CPR banner. The first spike on the CPR was driven into a railway tie at Callender (Bonfield). To clear up the confusing name duplication, ‘Nosbonsing Callender’ later changed its name to Bonfield.


Duncan McIntyre’s career is reviewed in Dictionary of Canadian Biography. The references to Canada Central Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway can be found in Van Horne’s road, author Omer Lavallee.

Before the railroad construction crews reached Nipissing, the Pacific railway promise made to British Columbia underwent the vicissitudes of political machinations directed mostly towards the financial viability of the vast enterprise. The ensuing drama threatened to uncouple the engine of progress from the boxcar deliverables that conveyed the aspirations of a unified country. The general reader is familiar enough with the main events in this narrative and only the key elements require mention. The desirability of connecting a major section of the world’s northern land mass began with Confederation. The Macdonald government sealed British Columbia’s entry in 1871 with a pledge of a Pacific railway within 10 years. Unscrupulous financial transactions produced the Pacific Scandal that overthrew the Macdonald government and installed the Mackenzie administration in 1874. The Mackenzie regime deliberated slowly on the railroad file and lacked the appetite for moving the project forward with anywhere near the alacrity displayed by Sir John A Macdonald. After 4 years in opposition, Macdonald returned to office and immediately turned his attention to reopening the railway file.
The groundwork for a Pacific railway had been prepared by government surveyors whose reports mapped the route from the Ottawa valley and west to Lake Superior. The plans to proceed with this mammoth enterprise were available. The missing ingredients were the driving force to engage a private consortium and the will to commence construction. The impediments are well documented.
Mackenzie shied away from making the bold moves necessary to propel the massive railway construction project. Instead, his administration offered “piecemeal policies” that belied the scale of the incipient transportation revolution that failed to grasp the strategic value of a continental rail network. One option was to connect British Columbia and the west by means of a combined rail and water system – “…a trans-continental wagon road, or a series of short, light railways linking stretches of navigable water”. It was a scheme with one foot in the past and a reluctant step into the future. This plan foresaw a rail line proceeding from Ottawa to Pembroke, along the Ottawa River to Mattawa veering towards Lake Nipissing and following a southerly route along the French River to Lake Huron. On reaching Georgian Bay, the train cargo would transfer to lake steamers for the water voyage to Sault Ste Marie and then northwest across Lake Superior to debark at Prince Arthur’s Landing. This route was encouraging news for pioneer settlers who formed part of a growing community on the banks of the South River leading to Lake Nipissing. The Georgian Bay branch south of the French River was part of a transportation plan that relied on a land and water route to reach Northwest Territories. It lost its allure when the government contracted to proceed with an overland rail line to British Columbia. There was good reason for abandoning the earlier scheme. A rail line through the southern part of Lake Nipissing would have to cross the French River at some point and the price tag to span this waterway rendered this route unfeasible. Mr Cockburn, member for Muskoka and promoter of the southern line, questioned the government on its decision (Commons Debates 1880, p167). His posture assuaged constituent opposition yet underlied an effort to protect personal property investments and steamboat operations on Lake Nipissing. The village of Nipissing was the northern terminal for the Nipissing- Rosseau colonization road that connected with Muskoka and southern destinations. Nipissing village served as a navigational link for settlers and traders interested in accessing the mouth of the Sturgeon River and western portions of the lake. A railroad penetrating this part of northern Parry Sound District meant economic benefits - an outlet for the growing lumber trade and agriculture farm products.