John Rudolphus Booth

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John Rudolphus Booth
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Resting placeBeechwood Cemetery, Ottawa
SpouseRosalinda Cook

John Rudolphus Booth (April 5, 1827 – December 8, 1925) was a Canadian

railroad baron. He controlled logging rights for large tracts of forest land in central Ontario, and built the Canada Atlantic Railway (from Georgian Bay via Ottawa to Vermont) to extract his logs and to export lumber and grain to the United States and Europe. In 1892, his lumber complex was the largest operation of its kind in the world.[1]

He arrived in Bytown (later renamed Ottawa) at the same time as many other future lumber entrepreneurs such as Henry Bronson, W.G. Perley, John Harris[a] and E.B. Eddy. Even so, by 1890 Booth had overtaken them all to become the largest lumber producer in the world.[2] It was said that at one point the timberlands under his control occupied an area larger than France.[2]

He was familiar with all aspects of his industry, and one observer noted:

[He] knew the forest as a sailor knows the sea, and his success was largely due to the fact that he never overestimated its potentialities.[1]

Early life

J. R. Booth was born on a farm at Lowes near Waterloo (Shefford County) in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. His parents, John and Eleanor Booth (née Rowley) were Irish immigrants, had a number of children (variously reported as 5, 6 and 8); his paternal grandparents were John Booth and Elizabeth Hill; his patrilineal grandfather, Robert Booth who married Eleanor Taylor, was the son of Peter Booth,[3] whose father, James Booth, a Freeman of Dublin, was 4th son of the Revd Humphrey Booth and Letitia Jones.[4]

John Booth left the family farm at the age of 21 and got a job as a

Central Vermont Railroad.[5]
In 1852, he married Rosalinda Cooke and moved to the
longshoremen from Montreal.[8]

Building a lumber and railway empire

See also: Ottawa River timber trade

Lumber

Panoramic view of Booth mills in Ottawa (1912)

Booth harvested timber from the upper Ottawa River and its tributaries,

Nosbonsing & Nipissing Railway (length 5.5 miles (8.9 km)) in 1884[9][10] to carry sawlogs over the portage from Lake Nipissing to the headwaters of the Mattawa. It was subsequently incorporated as a separate company by Act of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1886.[11]

Booth's vision and boldness were qualities that made him a success. In 1867, he purchased, for $40,000,

Algonquin Park. Five years later, he refused an offer of more than $1 million to sell those rights.[8]

During the latter half of the 19th Century, he amassed timber rights approaching 7,000 square miles (18,000 km2) in Central and Northern Ontario which he would harvest for his mills.[7] He often went to his Algonquin timber limits in his own private railway car, working beside his men during the day and on business affairs most of the night, seldom sleeping for more than a few hours.[7] He was always on the lookout for opportunities to reduce costs, and in 1894 he began investing in tugboats in order to accelerate the delivery of log booms to the Chaudière mill.[12]

In 1891, Booth installed 13

band saws at his Ottawa mill, which was said to be more than anywhere else in the world.[13] The next year, that mill produced 140 million board feet (about 25,000 cubic feet (710 m3)) of lumber.[1] It required the supply of 2 million logs annually in order to run at capacity,[12] and some of his timber limits were so remote that it took up to two years for logs to reach the mill.[12] Booth was so dominant in the industry that he assumed the role of price leader, where all competitors met the prices he set for his product.[14] His leading status would continue until 1919, when William Cameron Edwards
and others would achieve greater outputs.

Half of the mills' output was shipped to England; the rest to the United States and throughout Canada.

pulp and paper business, thus being able to use softwood that he had been previously forced to sell. He expanded into the United States through the establishment of docks and a distribution centre at Rouses Point, New York, a planing mill and box factory at Burlington, Vermont, and a sales office in Boston
.

The mills' output was so large that its Fraserfield

railyard, acquired in 1870, extended along Bronson Avenue as far south as Carling Avenue, backing onto The Glebe.[17][18]

The Chaudière Island mills were so extensive that Booth issued tokens for use there, which were in circulation from 1893 until the 1940s.[19]

Fire was a constant threat to his mills, and they burnt down in 1893, 1886, 1900 and 1903. In 1900 alone, 100 million feet of lumber was lost to fire, and Booth also lost his home located at Wellington and Preston Street.[20] The extent of the fire led to a controversial proposal to restrict the amount of lumber being held in the yards, but intensive lobbying by Booth and other lumbermen effectively killed that measure as well as a later one in 1903.[21] Much of Booth's personal and business records were lost in these fires. It was also of concern within the timber limits as well, and Booth once said, "If fires are kept out of the forests, there will be more pine in this country 100 years from now than there was fifty years ago, and we shall have lots of timber for the generation to come."[22]

Booth established a hydroelectric

log rafting there.[24]

Railways

Formation of Canada Atlantic

Booth's sawmill operations could never run at full capacity because the output could not be carried out of the lumber yards fast enough.

Swanton, Vermont on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain in 1897, thus connecting Ottawa to the United States via the Delaware and Hudson Railway, the Rutland Railroad, and the Central Vermont Railway
.

Expansion to Georgian Bay

The diamond crossing between the OA&PS and B&O was the site of several collisions over its history, a tribute to its equally stormy building.
The rough terrain of the Canadian Shield is evident in this photo of the OA&PS being built through the area of today's Algonquin Park. Note the lack of vegetation in what is today completely covered by forest.

In 1888, Booth chartered the Ottawa, Arnprior and Renfrew Railway to build a line from Ottawa to

Algonquin Park to Ottawa.[30]

When the PSCR was taken over by Booth, the original intention was to have its terminus at

Atlantic, with trains arriving and departing every twenty minutes.[8]

All three lines met "end to end". The M&OJ met the OA&PS on Booth's sawmill property in Ottawa while the C&PL met the M&OJ in Coteau, using several hundred feet of trackage rights of the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR). In 1899, the OA&PS amalgamated with the CAR.[32][33] As a result, Booth ruled the largest railway empire built in North America by any one man.

It was said that the first phase of the CAR's construction was undertaken without any government assistance, which was unusual at the time.[34] Booth himself was concerned with building the railways as well as marketing the service to build and maintain tonnage on the new lines.[35] He was open to cooperation with other railways in eastern and western Canada, as well as to sale or amalgamation with a larger railway system, and was contemplating such a sale by 1901.[36] Whether it was because Booth at age 74 was tired, or because he realized that competition from other transcontinental lines would soon cause serious problems for the CAR, he did everything possible in the early years of the 20th century to make every aspect of the railway profitable, and therefore attractive to potential buyers.[37]

Booth also operated grain elevators at Depot Harbour, Coteau, Duluth and Milwaukee, and steamships on the Great Lakes, and formed the Canada Atlantic Transit Company, which operated five large lake freighters on the Upper Great Lakes.

  • Depot Harbour elevators in 1910
    Depot Harbour elevators in 1910
  • OA&PS engine #701 2-8-0 built by Baldwin Locomotive Works. The engine is shown in Depot Harbour, the western end of the line.
    OA&PS engine #701 2-8-0 built by Baldwin Locomotive Works. The engine is shown in Depot Harbour, the western end of the line.

Sale to Grand Trunk

Prompted by the federal government, the

Canadian National Railways in 1923.[40]

Other interests

International Portland Cement Company, Hull, Quebec (1904), a predecessor of Canada Cement Company, and one in which J.R. Booth was a significant investor.

At the creation of the Lady Stanley Institute for Trained Nurses in 1890 in Ottawa, he was a member of the Provisional Committee. Later in 1892, he became Life Governor of that same Institute by paying at least the amount of $500.[41]

Booth was a significant investor in the Canada Cement Company formed by

Max Aitken, which is now part of Lafarge.[42] He was also a director of Foster-Cobalt Mining which took part in the Cobalt silver rush,[1] whose origin took place on one of Booth's timber limits.[43]

Together with

British Commonwealth.[47][48] After Inco drove British American into bankruptcy in 1924 by aggressively cutting the price of nickel,[49] it later acquired British American's assets.[50]

Later years

J. R. Booth continued to run his business empire well into his nineties. Only in 1921 did he convert it from a sole proprietorship into a corporation (known as J.R. Booth Limited).[51] He died in 1925 at the age of 98 after being ill for several months and was survived by his sons Jackson, John Frederick, daughter Helen Gertrude Fleck and several grandchildren and great grandchildren.

In 1943, J.R. Booth Limited, with the exception of its lumber division, was sold to George Weston Limited to become part of the E. B. Eddy Company.[52] The lumber mill was later sold to E. B. Eddy in 1946.

Other influences

Britannia Bay Boating Club, 1896

Booth's impact was significant on Ottawa:

In Algonquin Provincial Park, Booth Lake[56] is named after him. However, most other traces of Booth's interests in the Park (including a summer retreat at the Barclay Estate[57][58] on Rock Lake)[59] were razed by the Province of Ontario[60] as their leases on crown land ran out.[61]

Two

Les Lacs-du-Témiscamingue in the Témiscamingue Regional County Municipality. In Ontario, Booth Township[64] was surveyed and established in 1962.[65] It is located immediately north of Nipigon in Thunder Bay District
.

In 1892, Booth rented a cottage at

cure for several years. Booth brought a pair of skis with him, thus introducing the sport of skiing to the area.[66]

One of Booth's descendants noted in 2016 that the manner in which his predecessor had gathered his wealth was exceptional in comparison to "really old-school wealthy families" in Canada, "as most of them came from the booze business, which was illegal. So they didn’t pay taxes; it was all cash. So what J.R. did was that much more impressive."[53]

Death, descendants and legacy

Booth died in December 1925. On his passing,

Michael Grattan O'Leary of the Ottawa Journal
noted that what people should remember about him was that he was:

not the great magnate whose wealth is the envy of many and the wonder of more; but the great pioneer, the man whose genius and imagination tamed the wilderness . . . and, above all, did more than any man of his time to build up this Ottawa Valley.

Also at that time, William Lyon Mackenzie King observed:

Mr. Booth was indeed one of the Fathers of Canada; it is not too much to say that it is to men of such sterling worth and indomitable will as he possessed, more than aught else, that we owe the development of our Dominion.[67]

Booth's fortune was a subject of much speculative commentary during the latter years of his life, with estimates ranging up to $100 million. At his death his estate was officially valued at almost $7.7 million; the property was later re-evaluated upwards to $23 million.[68] Although succession duties of $4.28 million were paid in 1927,[69] in 1937 Ontario Premier Mitchell Hepburn subsequently claimed more and had the Legislative Assembly of Ontario pass the necessary legislation to overcome the legal obstacles.[70] J.R's heirs eventually paid another $3 million in 1939.[71]

His son John Frederick Booth, who lived in Canada, married and had a daughter Lois Frances Booth (born Ottawa, Ontario, 2 August 1897; died Copenhagen, 26 February 1941), who was married in Ottawa, Ontario, on 11 February 1924 to

Count Erik of Rosenborg, whom she divorced in 1937; they had two children. At the time of the marriage, it was rumoured that Booth contributed half of her $4-million dowry. J.R. issued a formal denial.[72]
She later remarried Thorkild Juelsberg, without issue.

Siblings and descendants

J.R. Booth and sons, c. 1900
Arms of Lois, Countess of Rosenborg
  • John Booth (1802–1877), m. (1st) Eleanor Rowley (1804–1834) (2nd) Lydia Bickford (1808–1861) (3rd) Suzannah Bickford (1814–1888)
    • James Rowley Booth (1825–1906)
    • John Rudolphus Booth (1827–1925), m. Rosalinda Cooke (1829–1886)
      • Frances Gertrude Booth (1854–1856)
      • Helen Gertrude Booth (~1855–1940), m. Andrew Walker Fleck (1848–1924)
      • Lila Booth (1858–1918), m. J. Arthur Seybold (1859–1928)
      • Augusta Adella Booth (1860–1866)
      • Charles Jackson Booth (1863–1947),[73][74] m. Jessie Louise Gibson (1876–1939)
        • John Frederick Booth (d. in infancy)
        • Charles Rowley Booth (1915–1960),[75] m. Marjorie Annette McKinnon(1920–2003)[76]
          • John Rowley Booth (1944–)[53]
          • William Jackson Booth
      • John Frederick Booth (1865–1930), m. Frances Alberta Hunsiker (1866–1964)
        • John Rudolphus Booth (1895–1941),[77] m. (1st) Ida Evelyn Woods (1900–) (2nd) Elizabeth Jane Smith (1909–)
        • Frederick Hunsiker Booth (1895–1941),[80] m. (1st) Louise Taylor (1898–)[81] (2nd) Cornelia Ann Vanderhoef (1911–1995)
          • Elizabeth Ann Booth[82] (1934-)
        • Lois Frances Booth (1897–1941), m. (1st)
          Count Erik of Rosenborg
          (1890–1950) (2nd) Gunnar Thorkil Juelsberg (1904–1966)
          • Alexandra Dagmar Frances Marie Margrethe, Countess of Rosenborg (1927–1992)
          • Christian Edward Valdemar Jean Frederik Peter, Count of Rosenborg (1932–1997)
      • Frank Booth (1867–1869)
      • May Belle Booth (1876–1899)
    • William Booth (1829–1913)
    • Eliza Booth (1831)
    • Robert Rowley Booth (1832–1899)
    • Louis Elijah Booth (1835–1915)
    • Eleanor Booth (1839–1842)
    • Charlotte Booth (1841–1912)
    • Lucinda Booth (1842–1933)
    • Samuel Armstrong Booth (1844–1920)
    • Isaiah (Isaac) Booth (1845–1928)
    • Edward J. Booth (1846–1849)
    • Edward Judson Booth (1852–1943)

See also

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ^ Bronson's partner

References

  1. ^ a b c d Benidickson 2005.
  2. ^ a b Deachman, Bruce (July 17, 2017). "The Capital Builders: J.R. Booth, 'monarch of the Upper Ottawa'". Ottawa Citizen.
  3. ^ "www.darvercastle.ie". Archived from the original on 2018-11-12. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  4. ^ Burke's Peerage, Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, qv. BOOTH, Bt
  5. ^ Bell 1991, p. 3
  6. ^ a b "Biography – BOOTH, JOHN RUDOLPHUS – Volume XV (1921-1930) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography".
  7. ^ a b c Bell 1991, p. 5.
  8. ^ a b c d Brown 1994, p. 191.
  9. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4251-5342-7
    .
  10. ^ Westhouse, Brian. "History of Logging and Lumber Railways in Ontario". Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  11. ^ An Act to incorporate the Nosbonsing and Nipissing Railway Company, S.O. 1886, c. 74
  12. ^ a b c Barrett & Coons 2010, p. 97.
  13. ^ Lee 2006, p. 128.
  14. ^ Lee 2006, p. 211.
  15. ^ a b Bell 1991, p. 8.
  16. ^ Lee 2006, p. 61.
  17. ^ John Leaning. "The Story of The Glebe". Glebe Historical Society. Archived from the original on 2012-09-12. Retrieved 2014-12-07.
  18. ^ Bruce Scrivens (October 1, 2004). "Life in the J.R. Booth Lumber Yard". Scrivens.
  19. ^ P.S. Berry. "Trade and Other Tokens of the Gatineau Region" (PDF). Bank of Canada Museum. p. 9.
  20. ISSN 1918-5138
    ., at pp. 41-43
  21. ^ Fear 1979, pp. 56–65.
  22. ^ Nelles 2005, p. 195.
  23. ^ Lee 2006, p. 129.
  24. ^ Lee 2006, p. 88.
  25. ^ An Act to amend the Acts incorporating the 'Coteau and Province Line Railway and Bridge Company' and the 'Montreal and City of Ottawa Junction Railway Company,' and amending Acts, and to amalgamate the said Companies, S.C. 1879, c. 57
  26. ^ Bell 1991, pp. 38–40
  27. ^ An Act to incorporate the Ottawa, Arnprior and Renfrew Railway Company, S.O. 1888, c. 71
  28. ^ An Act to incorporate the Ottawa and Parry Sound Railway Company, S.C. 1888, c. 65
  29. ISBN 1-896219-91-8
    .
  30. ^ An Act to amend the Act to incorporate the Ottawa, Arnprior and Renfrew Railway Company, S.O. 1891, c. 91 , An Act to amend the Act to incorporate the Parry Sound Colonization Railway Company, S.O. 1891, c. 92 and An Act amalgamating the Ottawa and Parry Sound Railway Company, and the Ottawa, Arnprior and Renfrew Railway Company, under the name of 'The Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway Company', S.C. 1891, c. 93
  31. ^ a b c Brown 1994, p. 201.
  32. ^ An Act to amalgamate the Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway Company and the Canada Atlantic Railway Company under the name of the Canada Atlantic Railway Company, S.C. 1899, c. 81
  33. ^ Bell 1991, p. 158
  34. ^ Lee 2006, p. 103.
  35. ^ Bell 1991, p. 137
  36. ^ Bell 1991, p. 139
  37. ^ Bell 1991, p. 142
  38. ^ Bell 1991, pp. 143–144
  39. ^ The Grand Trunk and Canada Atlantic Amalgamation Act, 1914, S.C. 1914, c. 89
  40. ^ Bell 1991, p. 160
  41. ^ The Lady Stanley Institute for Trained Nurses, incorporated 1890. Ottawa: Free Press Office, Cor. Queen and Elgin Street, 1892. Scanned reproduction of original artifacts. Scholar Select.
  42. ^ "About Lafarge North America - History". Lafarge North America. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  43. ^ Davis, Harold Palmer (1910). "Cobalt, 1903". The Davis Handbook of The Cobalt Silver District. Toronto: Canadian Mining Journal. pp. 8–9.
  44. ^ Nelles 2005, p. 329.
  45. ^ Martin 2005, pp. 7–8.
  46. ^ The British America Nickel Corporation Limited and others v M. J. O'Brien Limited [1927] UKPC 7, [1927] AC 369 (18 January 1927), P.C. (on appeal from Ontario)
  47. ^ Craig Barrett (November 7, 2012). "English courts uphold rights of minority bondholders". Chadbourne & Parke LLP.
  48. ^ Saugata Mukherjee; James Yao (October 2013). "Look Beyond the Contract: Restructuring Infrastructure Debt" (PDF). Stephenson Harwood LLP. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-04-12.
  49. ^ "Inco Limited". Reference for Business.
  50. ^ Martin 2005, p. 10.
  51. ^ "J.R. Booth, Limited, incorporated". Pulp and Paper Magazine of Canada. Vol. XIX, no. 4. 27 January 1921. p. 98.
  52. Montreal Gazette
    . August 12, 1943. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  53. ^ a b c Deachman, Bruce (February 19, 2016). "The Booths: A famous name (and nose) mostly a blessing, sometimes a curse". Ottawa Citizen.
  54. ^ Ottawa Journal "Britannia United Church" 2 October 1976
  55. ^ "John Rudulphous Booth summer home". waymarking.com. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  56. ^ 45°39′27″N 78°11′15″W / 45.6574999°N 78.1874999°W / 45.6574999; -78.1874999
  57. ^ Brown 1994, p. 196.
  58. ^ "Barclay Estate - Rock Lake". Ontario Abandoned Places.
  59. ^ 45°31′34″N 78°24′36″W / 45.526070°N 78.409959°W / 45.526070; -78.409959
  60. ^ Brown 1994, p. 192.
  61. ^ Brown 1994, p. 197.
  62. ^ 46°45′N 78°40′W / 46.750°N 78.667°W / 46.750; -78.667
  63. Ministère des Ressources naturelles, Faune et Parcs. 2004. p. 5. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2016-04-02. Retrieved 2017-01-22.
  64. ^ 49°5′42″N 88°21′0″W / 49.09500°N 88.35000°W / 49.09500; -88.35000
  65. ^ "Booth". rncan.gc.ca. Geographical Names Board of Canada. 2016.
  66. ^ "John R. Booth". Historic Saranac Lake. Archived from the original on April 16, 2013. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  67. ^ "Booth's Funeral". Trinity Western University. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved August 20, 2013.
  68. ^ Doug Mackey (October 27, 2000). "A closer look at lumber baron J.R. Booth". Community Voices.
  69. ^ "Claims Booth Duties Paid". Regina Leader-Post. September 18, 1937. Retrieved September 24, 2013.
  70. Montreal Gazette
    . December 3, 1937. Retrieved September 24, 2013.
  71. ^ "Ottawa Estates Pay Additional Duties to Govt". Ottawa Citizen. September 23, 1939. Retrieved September 24, 2013.
  72. OL 5235688M
    .
  73. ^ "C.J. Booth Leaves $7,594,000: Son Is Only Heir to Large Estate". Ottawa Citizen. 31 July 1947. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
  74. ^ Smythe, Robert (May 22, 2014). "Jackson Booth's Bigger Building". urbsite.blogspot.ca. Urbsite.
  75. ^ The Ashburian. Vol. XLIV. Ottawa: Ashbury College. 1960. p. 16.
  76. ^ "Marjorie Annette MCKINNON". Ottawa Citizen. 30 September 2003. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
  77. ^ "Canada Won't Permit Heir To Wed His Wife Over Again" (PDF). New York Post. 21 January 1938. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
  78. ^ "Miss Pamela Evelyn Booth Becomes Bride of Douglas L. Breithaupt". Ottawa Citizen. 7 October 1946. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  79. ^ "Pamela Evelyn Booth Breithaupt, "Michigan, Detroit Manifests of Arrivals at the Port of Detroit, 1906-1954"". familysearch.org.
  80. ^ "F.H.Booth Dies in California Aged 46 Years". Ottawa Citizen. August 13, 1941. p. 3.
  81. ^ "Louise Taylor, 'Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1920'". familysearch.org.
  82. ^ "Elizabeth Ann Booth, "California, Birth Index, 1905-1995"". familysearch.org.

Further reading

External links
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