Lord Strathcona: A Biography Of Donald Alexander Smith

617 Pages·1996·41.9 MB·English

by  Donna McDonald

ILorb ii>tratf)cona
A BIOGRAPHY OF
DONALD ALEXANDER SMITH
DONNA MCDONALD
Dundurn Press
Toronto • Oxford
Copyright © Donna McDonald 1996, 2002
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Editor: Rae Fleming
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National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data
McDonald, Donna, 1942-
Lord Strathcona : a biography of Donald Alexander Smith / Donna McDonald.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-55002-266-0 (bound).—ISBN 1-55002-397-7 (pbk.)
1. Strathcona and Mount Royal, Donald Alexander Smith, Baron, 1820-1914.
2. Capitalists and financiers—Canada—Biography. 3. Hudson's Bay Company—Biography.
4. Canadian Pacific Railway Company—Biography. 5. Canada—History—1841-. I. Title.
FC506.S9M28 1996 971.05'092 C96-990074-0 F1033.S9M28 1996
Canada
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A BIOGRAPHY OF
DONALD ALEXANDER SMITH
Walter William Ouless, R.A., Sir Donald Smith, 1890
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword 7
1. The Early Years 1820-1838 13
2. The Little Emperor and the King's Posts 1838-1847 25
3. Esquimaux Bay 1847-1852 57
4. Chief Trader 1852-1861 83
5. Chief Factor 1862-1869 .. Ill
6. Louis Riel and the Northwest 1869-1870 137
7. A Representative Man 1870-1871 173
8. Chief Commissioner 1871-1873 195
9. The Pacific Scandal 1873 209
10. Land Commissioner 1874-1879 225
11. The Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway 1870-1880 . . 255
12. The Canadian Pacific Railway 1880-1885 291
13. The Canadian Sub-committee 1880-1889 329
14. A Man of Substance 1886-1896 349
15. The Great Northern 1885-1901 369
16. Parliament and Manitoba Schools 1886-1896 383
17. High Commissioner 1896-1899 403
18. The Boer War 1900 429
19 A Marvel of a Man 1900-1907 445
20. The Grand Old Man 1908-1914 465
21. Postscript 503
Appendix I: Donations and Bequests 507
Appendix II: Shares and Investments 527
Appendix III: Equivalence: The Value of the Pound and the Dollar
in the Nineteenth Century 535
Appendix IV: Genealogical Charts 537
Notes 543
Illustration Credits 573
Bibliography 575
Index 585
For my mother and father
FORWORD
0
he nineteenth century in Europe and North America saw more changes
than any of its predecessors and, it may be argued, more than the twenti-
eth century which has been remarkable less for the number of changes
than for the speed with which they have happened.
Donald Smith was a nineteenth century man and his life mirrors the develop-
ments of his era. He saw the change from stage coach to railway transport, from
sail driven transatlantic crossings to steam powered liners; horses and shoe leather
gave way to the automobile. The typewriter, the telephone and the telegram
became important tools for the businessman in his lifetime, bringing with them a
commercial etiquette which is only now, a hundred years later, being replaced by
a new code of manners dictated by the computer, the answering machine and the
fax.
But Donald Smith's life does more than reflect his century. It closely mirrors
Canada's passage to nationhood. He spent a quarter of a century in the inhos-
pitable territory of uninhabited Quebec and Labrador, emerging from this cold
cocoon in time for Confederation, and in time to play a significant and sometimes
decisive role in the progress from colonial dependency to full nationhood. He was
a principal figure in the peaceful resolution of the first Riel uprising, a major
player in the handing over of Hudson's Bay territories to the Canadian govern-
ment, a powerful force in the creation of the Canadian Pacific Railway and a sem-
inal influence in the establishment of both the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
and Canada's independent military. He also made a major contribution to the
establishment of both medical science and women's education in Canada. On the
international scene, he was involved in the first steps towards the creation of the
British Commonwealth, in the development of a world wide cable network and in
the British navy's transition from steam to the internal combustion engine and the
consequent creation of British Petroleum.
It could be assumed that a subject with such a pedigree would have fathered
numerous biographies. In fact, he has elicited numerous attempts and to my pre-
decessors, both successful and otherwise, I owe many thanks. The task, as they all
knew, is not an easy one. Beckles Willson published the first study in 1902 with-
out the cooperation of Lord Strathcona, his family and friends (though he knew
many of them, including "the old Lord") and it is flawed as a result. Indeed, it and
the two subsequent biographies are flawed in the way such books usually are
when the author knows his subject. W.T.R. Preston had a venomous streak and
reserved much of his spite for Lord Strathcona, giving his malice free rein in his
1914 biography which also contains numerous factual errors. Beckles Willson's
7
Foreword
two volume account, published in 1915 and sometimes inaccurately described as
the authorized version, is a huge improvement on his earlier study but Sir William
Van Home and John Sterling, Lord Strathcona's American lawyer, exercised edi-
torial control which they doubtless felt entitled to do since they were also provid-
ing financial support. Willson did, however, have access to some of the early cor-
respondence and he did know the principal players. As a result, his book provides
an invaluable reference, even if it is one with which to disagree on the basis of
new information or a different perspective. It is doubly important since much of
the material which he was able to read has since been destroyed.
It has been argued, especially by Lord Strathcona's family (though not by
the present generation of descendants) that he did not want a biography. This
cannot be true. His granddaughter, Frances Kitson, and her husband helped to
remove pile upon pile of correspondence, all neatly tied with blue ribbon, from
the attic of Lord Strathcona's last house in London. Not only were there letters,
there were Hudson's Bay Company journals, accounts, maps and plans, books
and reports. These spanned a lifetime, from his earliest letters to his mother to
his last communications with his solicitors. These documents travelled from the
King's Posts on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River to Labrador, to
Montreal and to London. In both cities they were moved more than once.
Following Lord Strathcona's death, papers were shipped from Montreal to
London, including copies of all letters written up to 1892, a series of daily jour-
nals covering most years from 1869 to 1891 and ten boxes of personal and busi-
ness letters and other papers. Donald Smith did not keep what others may regard
as ephemera because he wanted to be encumbered by paper. He kept the evi-
dence of his activities initially because he hoped to play an important part on the
world's stage and latterly because he knew he had done so. In short, he knew his
life merited a biography, knew his papers reflected many important aspects of
nineteenth century history, and valued them accordingly. Unfortunately, some of
his heirs did not do so.
The present Lord Strathcona has been exceedingly courteous and cooperative
as have been many other members of the family, particularly his sister, Diana
Faber, and her husband, and his brother, Barnaby Howard, and to all of them I am
very grateful. Others before them, however, have not recognized the value of the
documents in their possession and much has been destroyed. The early correspon-
dence, which Beckles Willson saw, seems to have been among the material which
was burned, together with documents such as bills which would have provided
wonderful clues to a personality which was coincidentally both proud and
modest. This intentional conflagration and an accidental one at the Board of Trade
Building in Montreal in 1901 have done much to impede the biographer and it is
hardly surprising that my predecessors have fallen by the wayside. The late W.L.
Morton's manuscript and research notes in the Provincial Archives of Manitoba
reveal how barren the territory is and how desperately one must grasp for clues. I
am grateful to Mrs. Morton for encouraging me to read this material and to
pursue my own research. The archives staff in Winnipeg were consistently helpful
and friendly.
Another major source of information on Lord Strathcona can be found in the
dusty trunks of his Scottish solicitors, Skene Edwards and Garson. Not only have
they retained the meticulous Scottish solicitors' accounts of most of their dealings
8
Foreword
with his lordship, they have also kept many of his other papers, including
Hudson's Bay Company documents, papers on his Canadian investments and
details of his financial dealings in the latter years of his life. The richness of the
information on the Persian Oil Company, however, is matched by the poverty of
personal correspondence. I am nonetheless grateful to Messrs Skene Edwards and
Garson for permission to consult this material and to the Scottish Record Office
for providing it and the facilities in which to read it.
The National Archives of Canada has a hodgepodge of material in its
Strathcona files but, more importantly, it houses as originals or on microfilm most
of the major collections with relevant material. All the Canadian prime ministers
from Macdonald to Borden and all the senior politicians from Confederation to
the first world war had dealings with Lord Strathcona, whether in his capacity as
Government Commissioner, Hudson's Bay Company executive, CPR director,
Canadian High Commissioner or patron of the arts and of many Canadian educa-
tional and charitable institutions. The National Archives is one of the easiest
national depositories in the world in which to work and the unfailing courtesy and
helpfulness of the staff, coupled with the understanding that researchers do not
live nine to five lives, has made it a pleasure to work there. Both Bruce Wilson
and Bill Russell, during their periods on the Archives staff in London, went out of
their way to assist me, as did Timothy Dube in Ottawa.
The Hudson's Bay Company Archives, of course, provide a wealth of materi-
al on Lord Strathcona and microfilm copies have meant that I have been able to
fight with Donald Smith's appalling handwriting at the Public Record Office in
London as well as at the company's archival headquarters in Winnipeg. To Meryl
Foster and the staff at the Public Record Office and to Judith Hudson Beattie and
the staff at the HBC Archives, I am especially grateful. Both women have been
outstandingly helpful. During my research, the Hudson's Bay Company gave its
collection of papers and artifacts to the provincial archives and museum in
Manitoba, a gesture which will ensure that a rich source of information about
many aspects of Canadian life will be secured for generations to come.
Thanks also are due to W. Thomas White, curator at the James J. Hill Library
in Saint Paul where Hill's papers have been preserved for the benefit of scholars
and historians. I am grateful to Dr. White for his unfailing courtesy and helpful-
ness and to the library's grants programme for an award to enable me to tease out
the threads of Donald Smith's involvement with the Saint Paul, Minneapolis and
Manitoba Railway.
Bequests from my aunt, Elizabeth Griffith, and from John and Lotte Hecht
have been used to support the research for this book. Though they did not leave
money to me for that specific purpose, their unanticipated generosity helped bring
this volume closer to completion.
The Hardisty family papers which have been given to the Glenbow Museum
and Archives in Calgary have helped me to piece together Lady Strathcona's own
background and to discover much about her life with Donald Smith in Labrador.
Staff at the Glenbow were generous with their time and advice and their kindness
is much appreciated.
Cleophas Belvin kindly lent me a copy of his thesis on Lord Strathcona's
early career and Nora Hague at the McCord Museum went out of her way to be
helpful when I was researching photographs for this volume.
9