Civil servant.
Born at Chatham, Ontario on 29 November 1857, he joined the federal civil service at Winnipeg in 1881, serving 45 years as Chief Inspector of Crown lands and timber. His territory extended from the then-undefined borders of Western Ontario to the Pacific coast, and north to Yukon Territory. During the Klondike Gold Rush, he was sent to Dawson City to organize timber, land and mining work there. He played a key role in selecting the sites of national parks in western Canada and assisted in the survey of Riding Mountain National Park.
On 7 September 1881, he married Alice Taylor (1857-1921) of Chatham, Ontario. They had two daughters: Mary Geraldine Stephenson (1888-1961, wife of Percival Manlius Bull, daughter-in-law of Manlius Bull), and Beatrice Stephenson (?-?). Three years before the Canadian Pacific Railway built its line to Winnipeg Beach on Lake Winnipeg, he constructed a three-storey log cottage on an 80-acre land parcel there, the site eventually becoming known as Stephenson Point (but misspelled in provincial records as Stevenson Point). He was an elder of Augustine United Church, one of the founders of the Winnipeg Canoe Club, and an enthusiastic snowshoer and skater.
He died at his summer home near Winnipeg Beach on 14 August 1948. He was buried in Maple Leaf Cemetery at Chatham, Ontario.
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Weynoke Cottage (73 Kernstead Road, Winnipeg Beach)
Ontario marriage registration, Ancestry.
1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
“Bull - Stephenson,” Manitoba Free Press, 6 June 1912, page 16.
Henderson’s Directory for Winnipeg 1912, Peel Bibliography, University of Alberta.
Death registration [Alice Stephenson], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“90th birthday, Gold Rush days recalled,” Winnipeg Free Press, 30 November 1947. [Manitoba Legislative Library, Biographical Scrapbook B9]
“E. F. Stephenson, land, timber inspector, dies,” Winnipeg Free Press, 17 August 1948, page 4.
Obituary [Geraldine Stephenson Bull], Winnipeg Free Press, 28 November 1961, page 25.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 26 December 2020
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