UHI Thesis - pdf download summary The significance of Highlanders in the development of the Canadian West De Lima Hutchinson, Cathal Stewart DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (AWARDED BY OU/ABERDEEN) Award date: 2008 Awarding institution: The University of Edinburgh Link URL to thesis in UHI Research Database General rights and useage policy Copyright,IP and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the UHI Research Database are retained by the author, users must recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement, or without prior permission from the author. 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Oct. 2021 Chapter I Introduction The significance of Highlanders in the development of the Canadian West When Alexander Mackenzie, a 28-year-old fur trader from the Highlands of Scotland, inscribed his initials on a rock in Bella Coola in 1793, in what is now Pacific Coast British Columbia (BC), it signalled the beginning of a new transcontinental era in the Canadian fur trade. Ninety-three years later, Donald Alexander Smith, a descendant of Clan Grant, drove the final spike into the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) at Craigellachie, British Columbia, and completed the line which made the West accessible to settlement, securing its place in the Confederation of Canada. Scottish Highlanders were a distinct and influential group throughout the progress of Canada from a colony to a nation, and nowhere was their involvement more pronounced than in the exploration and development of the West. They featured prominently amongst the ranks of Canadian fur traders and explorers, rail contractors and politicians. This dissertation examines the effect that an origin in the Highlands had on the experiences of seven successful entrepreneurs, who were active from the late eighteenth century through to the early twentieth century. Men of Highland origin helped spearhead the fur trade’s penetration into the Canadian West. Many of Canada’s most celebrated explorers emerged from the Highlands and five of the seven entrepreneurs considered in this study were active in the fur trade. Alexander Mackenzie was a North West Company (NWC) trader who led the first overland expedition across the North American continent, utilising a canoe to negotiate the waterways to reach the Pacific. Robert Campbell was another Highland explorer and he conducted extensive explorations in the Yukon, in the 1 capacity of a chief factor in the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). These men traversed unexplored regions and enabled their fellow fur traders to follow after them to establish trading posts and exploit the region’s fauna for furs. George Simpson, born and brought up in the Highlands, was, perhaps, the pre-eminent fur trading administrator of the nineteenth century. Feared and respected in equal measure by his contemporaries, he oversaw some of the industry’s most prosperous years, and during his tenure an increasing number of Highlanders entered the Company’s employ. Another fur trader examined in this dissertation is Archibald MacDonald, a contemporary of Simpson’s, who was one of the HBC’s pioneering chief factors in British Columbia. Although he did not achieve the same level of influence in the industry as Simpson, he exemplified the model of the hard working and practical fur trader, who was able to carve out a foothold in the western frontier lands. If George Simpson was the most significant man in the Canadian fur trade during the first half of the nineteenth century, then Donald Alexander Smith was undoubtedly the most influential fur trader of the second half of the century. Smith spent long years rising through the HBC’s ranks to achieve the position of governor. However, his business interests expanded in the intervening years beyond the scope of the fur trade. He was a founding member of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and became a long-serving Canadian politician, reaching the position of Canadian High Commissioner to Britain. Born in the Moray town of Forres, his long life bridged the gap between the pre-Confederation Canadian West, which was sparsely populated and dominated by the fur trader, and post-Confederation Canada, which was linked by the CPR and experiencing rapid settlement and development. The latter years of the nineteenth century constituted a transitional period between the two eras, and there 2 were some significant crossovers, including personnel, from the fur industry to the CPR. Men of Highland origin remained influential in this ‘new era,’ as is evidenced by their appearance at all levels of operation in the CPR hierarchy. George Stephen, Smith’s first cousin, and the CPR’s first president, was responsible for raising the railway’s finances. James Ross, the final entrepreneur of Highland extraction highlighted, managed the CPR’s construction through the mountain sections in the western provinces. Ross accumulated great wealth from his railway and iron and coal interests, and was the only entrepreneur amongst the seven who entered Canada after Confederation. Historiography While there has been extensive research undertaken on the role Scots played in the exploration, settlement and development of Canada, the bulk of the literature analyses the issue from a Canadian perspective. Highlanders are often referred to as a distinctive group who originated from Scotland, but few details are generally given of the influences that Highland entrepreneurs experienced from their origins in the north of Scotland. Texts which give general overviews, such as Jenni Calder’s Scots in Canada ,1 provide a useful outline of the general emigration patterns and influence of Scots over an extended period. However, as is common with general texts, there is little focus on many specific aspects and little attempt to explain why Scottish entrepreneurs were so successful in eighteenth and nineteenth century Canada, or remark specifically on the Highland element. G. M. Adam’s The Canadian North- 1 Jenni Calder, 2003. The Scots in Canada: A Concise History . Edinburgh: Luath Press. 3 West: Its History and Its Troubles 2 gives details on the history of the Highland- dominated NWC, but does not analyze in detail the origins and ethnic interactions of those involved with the Company. The historian J. M. Bumsted, in his essay entitled ‘The Curious Tale of the Scots and the Fur Trade: An Historiographical Account,’ comments that ‘the origins of the NWC partners…were, of course, almost without exception from Scotland, mainly from the northern regions.’ 3 Despite this comment, the essay only gives an overview of Highland and Scottish influence within the fur trade, and does not offer an extensive analysis of the traders’ origins in the Highlands and Scotland. In ‘Sojourners in Snow? The Scots in Business in Nineteenth Century Canada,’ Douglas McCalla does go further and comments on the prevalence and origins of Scots who were active in the fur trade. However, his essay discusses Scots in general, rather than Highlanders specifically. McCalla does make an important observation on the role of successful family members in encouraging and facilitating entry into the fur trade, and he mentions that family and business were very interconnected. He also makes some useful comparisons between Scotsmen entering Canada to pursue economic gain, and those who had migrated to Virginia and Jamaica to seek wealth in the plantations. 4 The essay does not delve deeply into the backgrounds of the entrepreneurs, however, and offers a general overview, rather than focusing on specific entrepreneurs. 2 G. M. Adam, 1885. The Canadian North-West Its History and Its Troubles, from the Early Days of the Fur-Trade to the Era of the Railway and the Settler; with Incidents of Travel in the Region, and the Narrative of Three Insurrections . Toronto Whitby: Rose Pub. Co. J.S. Robertson & Bros. 3 J. M. Bumsted, 2006. ‘The curious tale of the Scots and the Fur Trade: An Historiographical Account.’ In: Peter E. Rider and Heather McNabb, eds., A Kingdom of the Mind: How the Scots helped make Canada . London: McGill-Queens University Press. p. 63. 4 Douglas McCalla, 2006. ‘Sojourners in the Snow? The Scots In Business in Nineteenth Century Canada.’ In: Peter E. Rider and Heather McNabb, eds., A Kingdom of the Mind: How the Scots helped make Canada . London: McGill-Queens University Press. pp. 77-78, 85-87, 95. 4 There has been less research carried out on the influence that Highlanders, and Scots in general, had on the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Popular historians, such as Pierre Berton, do make reference to the Highland background of syndicate members Donald Smith and George Stephen, and remark on some of the fur trading elements which were incorporated into the Company. 5 In a similar vein, David Cruise and Allison Griffith, in Lords of the Line ,6 emphasise the centrality of Smith and Stephen in the CPR syndicate, and their interaction and co-operation with other CPR men of Scottish descent.