Founding Families of Ottawa

John Burrows

John Burrows was born in Plymouth, Devon, England on May 1, 1789 the son of Christopher Honey and Elizabeth Burrows. John Burrows was a Whig and a Methodist, making him an outcast in his homeland. Seeking peace and freedom from persecution he arrived in 1817. Using a 200 acre land grant he was able to build the first cabin on the actual site of the city, situated in the vicinity of Wellington and Lyon Streets. In 1826 Burrows sold his property to Nicholas Sparks for the sum of $400 and shortly afterwards applied to Col. John By for employment on his staff.

Burrows became very popular among those in the troops that shared his religious convictions. He became the local leader of the Methodist movement and built the first church in Bytown, on Rideau Street. Traveling down the canal during its construction, Burrows sketched along the way in his diary. The original sketches and diary are now in the National Archives of Canada. For more than twenty years until his death July 27, 1848, he remained on the staff of the Royal Engineers. Burrows was buried in Hull but in 1882 his remains were transferred to Beechwood Cemetery.

Many of John Burrows descendants over the years have occupied prominent positions in political and social life, including a granddaughter, Mrs. Sifton, wife of Sir Clifford Sifton and a grandson who became Lt. Gov. of Manitoba.

Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Sparks was born in Darragh County, Wexford, Ireland in 1792, son of a farmer and a horse breeder. With 100 pounds from his family, Nicholas Sparks set out for Canada and in 1816 began working as a farmhand for Philemon Wright. In 1826 Sparks married Sarah Olmstead, widow of Philemon Wright Jr. and for 95 pounds bought 200 acres of land on the south shore of the Ottawa River from John Burrows. This property was situated on what is now Wellington St. on the North to Laurier Ave. on the South and from Bronson Ave. on the West to Cumberland on the East.

Originally intending the land to be put to use for farming, he found that it would be worth a considerable fortune when Col. John By arrived to build the Rideau Canal. Surveying the land into small lots, he gave Col. John By some land for the route of the Canal, but in 1827, Col. By, representing the Imperial Government, expropriated more land in order that fortifications could be built at the mouth of the canal. These fortifications were never erected and in 1848 the land was returned to Sparks.

Nicholas Sparks was a major contributor to the development of Bytown and the incorporation of the City of Ottawa. Generous in his gifts to the city, he donated the land for the sites of the first church, located on Rideau at Chapel Streets, the first fire station, courthouse, police station, city hall,marketplace and in 1832 the land at Sparks and Bronson Streets where Christ Church Cathedral is now located. Active in local affairs, he became Justice of The Peace, was a member of the first municipal council from 1827-1854, then an alderman until 1860. Nicholas Sparks died February 27, 1862 and is buried in St. James Anglican Cemetery on the Aylmer Rd. just West of Hull, Quebec. Here in Ottawa, Sparks and Nicholas Streets are named for him and plaques in Christ Church Cathedral honour Sparks and his descendants.

Philemon Wright

Philemon Wright was born on September 3, 1760, in Woburn Mass., the fifth child and youngest son of Thomas Wright, a farmer, and Elizabeth Chandler.

On May 16 1782, Philemon Wright married Abigail Wyman and in 1796 he set off to Montreal to look into an offer of free land and settlement in Canada. In 1800, with the intention of finding a site to build a self-sufficient community, Wright arrived with 37 men, 5 women and 21 children along with horses, oxen and provisions to an area by the Chaudiere Falls and named it Wrightsville, now Hull.

Wright and his settlers arrived in Hull to clear the land and harvest a crop of potatoes before the end of the first year. In 1801, as part of an agreement Philemon had with his workers, he brought them back to Woburn and paid them their wages. Most of them decided they liked the farmlands of Hull much more and by agreement took some land for themselves and came back the next winter.

By 1804, Wright decided to end the long trip to Montreal for necessities by establishing a blacksmith shop, a tailor and shoemaker shop, a leather tannery and a large bakehouse providing employment to a great number of workers. Philemon Wright made use of the clearing of his land by cutting his timber and taking it to open markets of Montreal and Quebec City.

In June of 1806, the first raft of square timber was taken down the river by Wright, beginning the lumber industry of the Ottawa Valley. Establishing a small sawmill at the Chaudiere Falls, Wright's settlement survived, kept alive by the timber trade.

Extolling the virtues of agriculture, by 1814 he had 800 acres of land divided for different crops and animals. He had numerous workers on the land as well as for the roads while others cleared new parcels of land. The community grew, and by 1820, over half the male population in the township was an employee of the Wrights.

When Colonel John By arrived in 1826 to build the Rideau Canal, the entrance way to the canal was to be opposite Wright's settlement. Wright was an early advocate of the canal and using his knowledge of the region, gave advice and assistance to Colonel By and his Royal Engineers.

Philemon Wright had a great deal of influence and initiative, involving himself in every aspect of development in Hull, shaping the region to match his own ideas and interests. Wright died on June 3, 1839 and his remains lie in St. James Cemetery on the Aylmer Road. The Wright name is still prominent in Quebec today and a High School bears his name.

J.R. Booth

John Rudolphus Booth was born on a remote farm in Shefford County of Waterloo, Quebec on April 5, 1827. Booth was the second oldest of five children born to John Booth and Eleanor Rawley Booth, who were farmers who had immigrated from Ireland.

At the age of 21, Booth decided that farming was not for him and struck out on his own and struck out on his own. His first job, which lasted three years, was working as a carpenter building bridges for the Central Vermont Railway. During those years, Booth met Rosalinda Cook, whom he married on January 7, 1852. Traveling along the Ottawa River later that same year they arrived in Bytown and moved into a stone house on Queen Street. Booth found work as a machinist across the river in Hull and walked the three miles to work each day to get there.

Although he worked his way up to manager, Booth decided he wanted to be his own boss. His first enterprise was to open a machine shop which was demolished by fire in less than eight months. Far from giving up, his next venture in 1858 was a shingle mill but when his rent was doubled he bought an abandoned sawmill which could use the waterpower from the Chaudiere Falls.

By 1859, the market for lumber was rapidly expanding due to shipbuilding in the United States and Great Britain. That same year the J.R. Booth Lumber Company was awarded the contract to supply lumber for the Parliament Buildings. Although Booth made a huge profit, he was determined to keep expanding.

When the timber limits of John Egan came up for auction, Booth was resolved in obtaining possession of the 250 square miles of virgin pine timber at any price. Booth had a solid reputation, which was enough to gain credit from the manager of the Bank of British North America in Ottawa. At the auction, Booth bought the limits for $45,000 and many of the lumber barons felt it was foolish to pay so much. Years later, when offered $1,500,000 for them he turned them down.

As markets for lumber steadily improved, Booth found it essential to expand his milling capacity. By 1904, he moved into the production of pulp and paper. Within the next two years he had built a paper mill with the newsprint being sold in Canada, United States and Great Britain. To transport his lumber products to their markets he worked to complete the Canada Atlantic Railway. This railway was completed in 1896 after 17 years of work due to slow and labour intensive construction methods which proved extremely costly especially during the winter freeze. In 1904, Booth sold the Canada Atlantic Railway to Grand Trunk for $ 14,000, 000.

J.R. Booth was a hard working man who accomplished his goals despite numerous setbacks and became a legend in the lumber and railway industries. Booth involved himself in all aspects of his business and did not believe in retirement; he gave his employees easier jobs to perform as they got older.

Unfortunately, there are not really any Booth personal papers due to his propensity for verbal agreements and numerous fires that destroyed many sawmills and his beautiful mansion on Richmond Road. J.R. Booth died at the age of 99 years on December 8, 1925 and is buried in St. James Cemetery on Aylmer Road.

Joseph Coombs

Not much information is available pertaining to Joseph Coombs. He was a member of Col. John By's Royal Sappers and Miners although it's not known which he was - a Sapper or a Miner. Following the completion of the Rideau Canal he chose to take his discharge in England but apparently he had second thoughts and returned to Canada with his wife Ann.

Sgt. Coombs was a religious man who with John Burrows was a founder of the first church in Bytown, the Methodist Chapel on Rideau St. Coombs then went on to become lay preacher at the chapel.

The first frame house in Bytown was built by Coombs on the north east corner of Nelson and Rideau St. This house was torn down in the 1900's.

Coombs primary occupation was as the town's first druggist but in 1837 when Bytown bought the fire engine Alliance the first fire fighters were organized under the captaincy of Coombs.

In the 1840's, a hotel on the corner of George and Sussex Dr. had a newsroom named The Bytown Athenaeum and Coombs served on the committee of management.

James Fitzgibbon

James Fitzgibbon was born at Clonakilty, Cork County, Ireland in 1789 and immigrated to Canada in 1820 with his wife Elizabeth.

In 1827 Fitzgibbon was employed by Col. John By and the Royal Engineers as Master Carpenter. During this time Fitzgerald's wife died and he married one of Col. By's servants, Maria. When Col. By departed for England following the completion of the Rideau Canal, Fitzgibbon was made Paymaster for the forces.

Fitzgibbon and his brother-in-law John Black entered many business partnerships together, including the construction in 1828 of a frame house at the corner of Rideau and Sussex Dr. for the purpose of installing tenants and in 1829 they obtained the rights to a government built steamboat landing on the bank of the Rideau River and operated a wharf there as a private enterprise. Fitzgibbon was well respected in his community and in 1850 he was appointed as a Justice of The Peace.

Fitzgibbon died in 1868 at his home on Richmond Road.

Thomas Mckay

Thomas McKay was born in September 1, 1772 in Perth, Scotland. During his early years McKay learned the trade of mason from working as a stonemason apprentice. On June 20, 1813 he married Ann Crichton in Perth and in September 1817 the couple immigrated to Canada, settling in Montreal. McKay perfected his craft and entered into a partnership with another Scot, John Redpath. In 1882 they received the contract for the Lachine Canal and their reputation grew.

In 1826 Col. John By arrived in Ottawa with orders to build the Rideau Canal. Thomas McKay was given the contract to build the two stone arches of the Union Bridge and the Commissariat building beside the locks leading up from the entrance bay to house supplies, workshops for carpenters, masons and smiths as well as administration offices. When the Commissary was completed, McKay began work on Col. By's residence. By, liking his work, gave him the contract for the first eight locks of the canal and later the two Hartwell locks near Hogs Back. Using surplus stones from the excavation of the locks he built the first stone church at Kent and Wellington Streets, constructed by volunteer Scottish stonemasons in 1828, which is the present site of St. Andrews Church. As a tribute to their skill and craftsmanship Thomas McKay and John Redpath were honoured with one of four silver cups presented by Col. By to the contractors who worked on the canal.

In the early 1830's McKay began to build his own settlement on the Eastern side of the Rideau Falls, urging other Scots to do the same. McKay named this village New Edinburgh and developed it into a flourishing community with an industrial complex that included two sawmills, a distillery, a grist factory, a cloth factory which wove blankets of such quality that they won a gold medal in international competition and many fine stone buildings that he would lease to commercial establishments.

In 1837 McKay purchased 1100 acres of bush land that was originally known as McKay's Bush and later as Rockcliffe. Near the Western edge he built his residence, an eleven room stone mansion on the right bank of the Rideau River. Shortly before his death in 1855 he named it Rideau Hall. Ten years later the government of Canada leased Rideau Hall from his estate to be used as the official residence of the Governor General. Three years later the government bought the mansion for $82 000. Another stone mansion, built by McKay for his daughter and son-in-law, John McKinnon, was Earnscliffe which became residence for Sir John A. MacDonald and is now the site of the British High Commission.

McKay had an active public life and was a major contributor to the improvement and expansion of Ottawa and it's prosperity. McKay provided a stone building which was once housing for workers and turned it into Ottawa's first schoolhouse in 1838. Now Ottawa's oldest standing schoolhouse is used by the National Capital Commission for the Rockcliffe landscape division. McKay built the first courthouse and jail on Nicholas St. which were later destroyed by fire. He was a promoter of the Prescott and Bytown Railway which was completed in 1854 and he served on Bytown's first municipal council, sitting for Russell County in the Upper Canada House of Assembly from 1834-41 and was then appointed to the Legislative Council of Canada, serving until 1855.

Thomas McKay died of stomach cancer on October 9, 1855 and is buried in the family vault in Beechwood Cemetery. Although none of his four sons lived to carry on the family name, many streets in New Edinburgh are named after his wife and their sixteen children.

Braddish Billings

Braddish Billings was born in 1783 in Boston, Massachusetts. Billings' father, Dr. Billings, a Continental Army surgeon, was a well known agitator for revolution in and about Boston, where his family had lived since 1640. Dr. Billings came to Canada in response to an offer of free land. Braddish was a child of nine when his family crossed the border in 1792, settling at Brockville.

Billings was one of the first men to recognize the possibilities of the Ottawa timber trade after Philemon Wright sent the first raft up the Ottawa River in 1806. Billings entered into a partnership with William Marr and the two of them went up the Ottawa River and cut their first timbers along its shores in 1809. In 1810 Billings took a raft of timber and sold it to Philemon Wright. Wright hired him and after a few years experience in his lumbering operations, he decided to go into business for himself. In 1812 Billings built a log cabin on apiece of land five miles from the mouth of the Rideau River; land that was to become Gloucester Township. In the spring of 1813 Billings went down the Ottawa River to Merrickville, where he met the schoolteacher Lamira Dow, daughter of a prosperous New York Quaker family. Billings and Dow were married on October 18, 1813, returning to Gloucester where they began to accumulate property, including building the first frame house in the township, in 1814.

By the late 1820's, when he moved into large scale farming and left lumbering, he owned some 600 acres of property including tenant houses. In November 1829, Billings, together with other prominent landowners, offered to sell Col. John By portions of his estate where the Rideau Canal was to be built.

In 1829 Billings and other area farmers built a bridge at the South end of Bank St. across the Rideau River, known for a time as Farmers Bridge but later as Billings Bridge. Braddish Billings served at various times as a Justice of The Peace, town warden and militia captain. Billings died on April 8, 1864 and is buried at the family estate where the house still stands, at 2100 Cabot St. That particular area of Ottawa's South end is known as Billings Bridge.

Henry Franklin Bronson

Henry Franklin Bronson was born on February 24, 1817 in Moreau Township, Saratoga County, New York. Bronson was the son of Alvah Bronson and Sarah Tinker, a well known family in the northeastern United States. Educated in Vermont, Bronson studied agricultural science and general forestry. After graduation he was hired by an area lumberman named John J. Harris of Washington, N.Y.

In 1840 Bronson was made a junior partner in Harris' company and on November 5, 1840 he married Editha Eliza Pierce, with whom he had three sons and one daughter. Although the lumber company had strong markets in Boston and New York, their timber supplies were decreasing. Bronson was sent up to the Ottawa Valley to assess the timber and water resources. He was impressed by the area and recommended a transfer north. In 1852, the company moved to Bytown and Bronson became a full partner.

Late in 1852, James Coleman joined the company as a partner and by 1853 the company was expanding rapidly and large timber limits were purchased. Bronson's company owned the timber limits along the Gatineau River and almost 700 square miles of new limits along the Dumoine River. In 1864, the Canadian Land and Emigration Company allowed them to cut timber from their pine groves along the Madawaska River. Despite occasional periods of stagnation in the U.S. markets, their production continued to increase until 1870.

In 1866, Harris retired and Abijah Weston of Painted Post New York and Bronson's eldest son Erskine Henry, joined together to form Bronson and Weston Co. In 1871 large areas of redwood timber were purchased in California and later developed by E.H. Bronson.

Henry Franklin Bronson and his family were prominent and well respected and although he never gave up his American citizenship he moved easily into community affairs. He was active in politics, at first favoring the Reform Party and later a staunch supporter of the federal and provincial Liberals in Eastern Ontario using his company as a political machine. Influential in St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, he and his wife were charter members of the Protestant Orphans Home in Ottawa and in 1869, Bronson founded the Ottawa Ladies College.

Bronson died December 7, 1889 in Ottawa, leaving behind an impressive empire that generated over a million dollars business a year. His holdings spanned from Mattawa Ontario to New York City. Leaving a legacy of helping establish the lumber industry which changed the economic structure of Ottawa, his name graces a city street today.

John Egan

John Egan was born on November 11, 1811, in the town of Lissavahaun, Galway County, Ireland. Egan immigrated to Canada in 1830, settling in Clarendon Township where he became a clerk for Thomas Durrell, selling supplies for the shanties. In 1838, after years of experience in the square timber trade, purchasing supplies and gaining many friends in the timber industry, he decided to go into business for himself. He formed John Egan and Company and bought the farm of James Wadsworth on the Bonnechere River which was later to become the village of Eganville.

Egan's primary market was in the production of red pine, which was scarcer but much more profitable than white pine. To get this lumber out, he built his own dams and timber slides, spending a considerable amount of money in both Upper and Lower Canada.

In the late 1840's he began to diversify his business interests by entering into commercial ventures. His sawmills were all state-of-the art, with 14 saws. He also built two smaller mills along with a grist mill and a carding and filling mill. Chats Falls was the focal point of Egan's transportation, and to compete with a line of Jason Gould's steamboats, Egan and Ruggles Wright launched their own steamboat. It was called the "Emerald" and it served between Aylmer and Chats Falls. In 1846, Egan along with Wright and Joseph Aumond formed the Union Forwarding Company to transport goods and passengers by a horse drawn tramway, the Union Railroad.

In the early 1850's, Egan was at his financial peak. His timber limits were unmatched and he was an employer to thousands of workers in the Ottawa Valley. Despite his massive operations, a downturn in the lumber market hit him hard financially. The decline in the red pine market along with decreasing demand for exports caused Egan to declare for bankruptcy in 1854.

John Egan was an active participant in the civic life of Aylmer and the surrounding communities. He was the first warden of Sydenham District, served as Justice of the Peace and in 1847 became the first mayor of Aylmer. He helped found Aylmer's Christ Church in 1843 and was a committee member of the Bytown Emigration Society. Egan used his political office as a way of promoting the welfare of the Ottawa Valley lumberman. He ran successfully in the general election 1847-48 and was re-elected to the Legislative Assembly by acclamation in 1851. He held his seat in the constituency of Pontiac from 1845 until his death. Egan was an early supporter of the Bytown and Prescott Railway and a founder of the Bytown and Pembroke Railway.

Egan died on July 11, 1857, at Quebec and is buried in Aylmer. John Egan was leader in the early history of Ottawa . In 1867 his timber limits on the Madawaska River were sold by his estate to J.R. Booth for $45,000. These limits later turned out to be worth millions. Egan was instrumental in establishing the village of Eganville, which still bears his name and to a lesser extent, the town of Aumond.

Ezra Butler Eddy

E.B. Eddy was born in Bristol, Vermont in 1827 and came to Hull at the age of twenty-four. He arrived with his wife and with very little money. Eddy rented the upper floor of Ruggle Wright's old smithy. Using the "buttings" from discarded pine stubs from the Chaudiere Mills, Eddy and his wife worked through the night manufacturing and hand dipping the wood to make matches. Eddy began selling his matches door to door but soon his reputation boosted his sales to places as far away as Toronto. Using the profits from these early sales, Eddy purchased machinery to automate the manufacturing process.

In 1855, Eddy expanded his operations to the manufacturing of lumber, and two years later, the production of wooden pails, clothes pegs and corrugated washboards. Eddy bought timber limits on the Upper Ottawa River to use in his mill. In 1870, a match factory was built on an island owned by the Wrights at the Chaudiere. The factory produced nearly a million matches a day.

Five years later, Eddy was the largest match manufacturer in the British Empire until a fire destroyed his mills. Far from giving up, he built a pulp mill in 1888 and converted from the huge grinders that cut the logs to using a chemical process in the production of the pulp. The pulp he produced was of excellent quality and was sold to customers in the United States. Later, he branched out into the production of fine paper.

By 1900, Eddy was free of debt and all his enterprises were making money. Due to high insurance costs, he decided to cancel his premiums in 1899. Within a year a fire ravaged everything he owned and he suffered damages in the range of three million dollars. Immediately after the fire, Eddy attained loans that enabled him to rebuild. He managed to repay most of the loans by the time of his death.

E.B. Eddy died on 1906. The E.B. Eddy Company continued to prosper after his death. In 1927, the match factory was sold to a British corporation and in 1943, Williard Garfield Weston, a Canadian, bought the control interest of E.B. Eddy from Viscount Bennett. The E.B. Eddy Company acquired J.R. Booth's fine paper mill after World War II and in 1959 Weston bought out the shares of the company creating George Weston Limited. The sulphate mill and fourty-four acres of nearby property were bought by the National Capital Commission in 1972 to be used as public parkland. The Commission also purchased the Portage Bridge.

E.B. Eddy Company was one of the largest employers in Hull and Ottawa for over one hundred years. Eddy was influential in the area and served six terms as mayor of Hull as well as ten years as an alderman. Today the E.B. Eddy name can be seen on products from fine papers to White Swan toilet tissue.