John Rudolphus Booth (April 5, 1827 – December 8, 1925) was a Canadian lumber and railway baron. He controlled logging rights for large tracts of forest land in central Ontario, and built a railway (the Canada Atlantic Railway from Ottawa through to Georgian Bay) to extract his logs; and from Ottawa through to Vermont to export lumber and grain to the United States and Europe.
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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 Rowley Booth, Irish immigrants, had a number of children (variously reported as 5, 6 and 8). J. R. Booth left the family farm at the age of 21 and got a job as a carpenter with the Central Vermont Railroad.[1]
In 1852 he married Rosalinda Cook and moved to the Ottawa valley. His first business venture was a machine shop in Hull, Quebec which later burned down. He then opened a successful shingle factory. Later he accumulated enough money to lease (then buy) 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.[2]
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 (650 km2) of pine on the Madawaska River in what is now Algonquin Park. For the next 50 years Booth harvested this land as well as other extensive tracts in northern and central Ontario. Often going there in his own private Railcar, and working beside his men during the day and on business affairs most of the night, seldom sleeping for more than a few hours.[2]
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 planing mill and offices in the United States. Fire was a constant threat to his mills, and they burnt down in 1893, 1886, 1900 and 1903. (Much of Booth's personal and business records were lost at these times.) Half of the mills'output was shipped to England; the rest to the United States and throughout Canada.[3] White pine from Booth's lumber yards was used to build the decks on the ocean liners of the Cunard Line.
In 1879 he established the Canada Atlantic Railway (an amalgamation of the Montreal and City of Ottawa Junction Railway[4] and the Coteau and Province Line Railway and Bridge Company)[5] to carry his logs from Central Ontario to Ottawa, and his lumber from Ottawa to the States. In 1890, he completed the Canada Atlantic Railway connecting Ottawa to the United States. He even built a railway bridge across the St. Lawrence River at Coteau Landing (1888–1890) to move his lumber faster than crossing the river on barges.[6] By 1896, his Ottawa, Arnprior & Parry Sound Railway (later amalgamated into the Canada Atlantic Railway) ran from Depot Harbour on Georgian Bay through southern Algonquin Park to Ottawa.
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 (later incorporated into the Canadian National Railways.[7]
J. R. Booth continued to run his business empire well into his nineties. 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.
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. She later remarried Thorkild Juelsberg, without issue. 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 the time of the marriage in 1924 of his granddaughter Lois Frances Booth to Prince Erik Christian Frederik Alexander of Denmark, it was rumoured that Booth contributed half of her $4-million dowry. J.R. issued a formal denial. At his death his estate was officially valued at almost $7.7 million; the property was later re-evaluated upwards. Although succession duties exceeding $4 million were paid in 1927, Ontario Premier Mitchell Frederick Hepburn subsequently claimed more and invoked the legislature to overcome the legal obstacles. J.R's heirs eventually paid another $3 million.[8]
J. R. Booth also had a grandson named after him, J. R. Booth, Jr. J. R. Booth's Jr. children included Asa Booth, a parliamentary guard at Canada's Parliament Building in Ottawa. Asa had one child, a daughter Rita Carmel Mary. Rita married Kenneth George Lough and had 4 children. Thomas Asa, Florence Ella (Suzie), Lorrie Roseann, Kenneth George Jr. Thomas married Sherren Darlene Wasiewicz (Magill) and had four children - Sheana Anne Maureen, Daniel Sean Patrick, Sheelin Carmel Mary and Shannon Loretta Marie. Florence married Ronald Joseph Hector Beaudoin had two sons, Philip Ronald Joseph and Steven Michael Todd. Lorrie married Wayne Joseph Lazar and had three daughters, Tancy Reanne, Chelsey and Casey-Jo. Kenneth George Jr. married Ella Hendrica Bakala. George, was killed in a trucking accident and had no children at the time of his death.