John Rudolphus Booth
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Source: Library and Archives Canada, C-046480
John Rudolphus Booth (April 5, 1827 – December 8, 1925) was a Canadian lumber and railway baron. There is no definitive biography on Booth, partly because he did not leave much of a paper trail, and many of his records were burned on his death at his request.
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[edit] Early life
J. R. Booth was born in 1827 on a farm in Quebec's Eastern Townships near Waterloo, Quebec. His parents were Irish immigrants. He left the family farm at the age of 21 and got a job as a carpenter with the Central Vermont Railroad.
He married Rosalinda Cook in 1852 and moved to the Ottawa valley in 1854. His first business venture was the building of a shingle factory which burned down shortly after its opening. He then accumulated enough money to lease a small sawmill near the Chaudière Falls. He established his own lumber company and won the contract to supply wood for the Parliament buildings at the new Canadian capital in Ottawa, Ontario, selected by Queen Victoria in 1858.
Harvesting timber from the upper Ottawa River and its tributaries, Booth expanded his timber limits into the Lake Nipissing region in 1881. In order to reach his Ottawa mills, Booth constructed a five and a half mile railway to carry sawlogs over the portage from Lake Nipissing to the headwaters of the Mattawa.
In 1867, he purchased, at a very reasonable price, the timber rights of John Egan's 250 square miles of pine in what is now Algonquin Park. For the next 50 years Boothe harvested this land. Often going there in his own private Railcar, and working beside his men during the day and on business afairs most of the night, seldom sleeping for more than a few hours.
[edit] Building an empire
Booth's vision and boldness were qualities that made him a success. By 1892, he was the largest lumber producer in the world. He built Canada's largest sawmill in Ottawa, and very early on established a planning mill and offices in the United States. White pine from Booth's lumber yards was used to build the decks on the ocean liners of the Cunard Line. In 1890 he established the Canada Atlantic Railway to carry his lumber from Ottawa to the States, and at one point built a railway bridge across the St. Lawrence River to move his lumber faster than crossing the river on barges. By 1896, his Ottawa, Arnprior & Parry Sound Railway ran from Depot Harbour on Georgian Bay through southern Algonquin Park to Ottawa.
In 1890, he completed the Canada Atlantic Railway connecting Ottawa to the United States. Booth also operated grain elevators and steamships on the Great Lakes, a cement company and a pulp and paper mill. In 1904, he sold his railway to the Grand Trunk Railway. He continued to run his business empire well into his nineties.
He died in 1925 after being ill for several months.
