Railway employee, municipal official.
Born at Dublin, Ireland in 1823, he came to Canada at an early age and in 1843 entered the Toronto Normal School. He married and had eight children. He became a teacher and was later appointed school superintendent for North York. After a short career in business he came to Manitoba in 1874, entering the employ of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company as paymaster, subsequently becoming right-of-way agent, a position he held until his death. He also acted as agent for the North-West Mounted Police, purchasing and forwarding supplies. He was a participant in the December 1878 ceremony to mark the opening of the first railway to Winnipeg. He took an active part in the temperance reform movement and became a leading member of Grace Methodist Church, for years serving as Bible class teacher, local preacher, and representative layman of the West. He was elected a Winnipeg City Alderman and helped frame many of the City’s early by-laws. In politics he was a Liberal. At the time of his death, 4 January 1904, he was visiting one of his sons at Fort Dodge, Iowa. He was buried in the St. John’s Cathedral Cemetery on 6 January. He is commemorated by Nixon Street in Winnipeg.
Pioneers and Early Citizens of Manitoba, Winnipeg: Manitoba Library Association, 1971.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 19 May 2018
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