Frederick Chase Capreol

Lady Elgin breaks the sod for the Northern Railway of Canada, Toronto, 1851

Frederick Chase Capreol (10 June 1803 – 12 October 1886) was an English-born Canadian businessman and railway promoter. He is noted for having promoted the construction of the Toronto, Simcoe and Lake Huron Union Railroad (renamed the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Union Railroad in 1852 and subsequently renamed the Northern Railway of Canada following a reorganization in 1858). The first sod for the project was turned on 15 October 1851 in Toronto, Ontario by Lady Elgin, wife of the Governor General Lord Elgin. However, Capreol had been dismissed as General Manager of the railway the previous day. By 1855 the mainline of the railway extended to Collingwood, Ontario, located in the southwest of Lake Huron's Georgian Bay.

This line was eventually incorporated into the Grand Trunk Railway, which subsequently became part of the Canadian National Railway.

The township of Capreol, in Northern Ontario was named in his honour, by the Province of Ontario. The town of Capreol, originally a Canadian Northern divisional point, was named for the township in which it is located.

[edit] References

Stevens, G.R. (1960). Canadian National Railways: Volume 1: Sixty years of trial and error (1836-1896). Toronto, Ontario: Clarke, Irwin & Company, pages 393-396.