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Part 6: D'Arcy Boulton's
Dream
by Colin Caldwell
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Part
7 |
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The idea of a railway had already fallen through once, and by 1850 -
in a terrible foreboding for the future even the apparently fool-proof
Plank Road had practically disintegrated because of the ice and snow.
Cobourg residents must have been at their wits end.
Now, however, the economic climate came to Cobourg's aid. The long
depression that began in the late 1830s was over. Further, the new Canadian
government had passed two significant laws: the Guarantee Act and the
Municipal Fund Act.
The first allowed municipalities to spend money freely on railroads
using government backing to protect them against losses. The second act
provided money to municipalities for local public improvement programs.
Even better, the new Municipal Act, which created a new municipal structure
for town and city governments also allowed town governments to act on
behalf of their citizens as investors in private schemes for local improvement.
Under this new municipal restructuring, Cobourg got its first elected
Mayor, Ebeneezer Perry.
So too, immigration reached unprecedented levels and the repeal of the
old Navigation Acts, which had governed the colonies' economic relations
with Britain for centuries, opened the United States to unrestricted
trade. It was boom times indeed: Or so it seemed.
In the fall of 1850 a certain Andrew Jeffrey was appointed head of
a committee to begin studying a Cobourg-Peterborough railway link. The
immediate cause was the possibility of connecting Cobourg to a proposed
railway running from Prescott on the St. Lawrence through Peterborough
and over to Lake Huron. |
Zirmmerman's tactics are described
by J.K. Johnson in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography:
"His talismanic wand so operated on the minds of men, whether members of the Legislature,
speculating engineers, or railway contractors, that they could only
revel in golden dreams, or swim in a sea of champagne; and in this
mesmerized state, Zimmerman did what he pleased with them." |
Zimmerman was originally
from the States and had made his first money working on the Welland Canal,
where he gained a reputation as a superb contractor.
While working on
the Great Western Railway in 1853, Zimmerman was promised a bonus of
17,500 pounds if the work was finished on time. It wasn't; but he got
11,250 pounds anyway, even though the line was so unfinished that the
engine carrying a group of dignitaries fell off
the track due to the rails being loose. |
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Zimmerman
More
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| He also profited greatly from the fact that
the contract allowed him to charge extra for difficulties encountered during
construction, which difficulties were agreed upon by the Chief Engineer
- who happened to be his personal friend R.G. Benedict (who was later dismissed
for grossly overestimating the cost of the project). |
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1851 the project had found its great booster in D'Arcy P. Boulton
(right), whom we last met riding with his uncle Peter Robinson
to scout out the site for Robinson's new settlement at Peterborough
in 1824. Boulton was now a well established lawyer in Cobourg,
with his beautiful house, The Lawn, at the corner of Queen and
D'Arcy Streets. |
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Zimmerman had the habit of promising delegate/guests to his suite
in Quebec that if he got the contract, he could ensure that their
charter was guaranteed and that their municipalities could borrow
with impunity as the government would certainly back them. On Nov.
10, 1852 the charter of the Cobourg and Peterborough Rail Road
Company was given Royal Assent and the delegates returned to Cobourg.
There they opened negotiations with contractors to begin building
the line. They first engaged Samuel Keefer who estimated the cost
at 125,000 pounds, but indicated that he was not at liberty to
accept the job. Next Ira Spaulding, an engineer who later worked
with Zimmerman on the Great Western, submitted a new, upwardly
revised, estimate - taking principally into account a new estimate
of the cost of the Rice Lake bridge.
The committee then tendered the project to various contractors,
though, in the end oddly enough, Zimmerman came away with the contract
on Jan. 15, 1853, after a certain "in camera" discussion
with the board. He kept Spaulding as chief engineer. He
agreed to build the railway to Peterborough with the bridge over
Rice Lake, in running order with depots, sheds, watering utilities,
and a full complement of cars and locomotives. All this for 151,000
pounds, and Zimmerman threw 1,000 pounds of his own as good will. But
he was also to be reimbursed for any deviations necessary in the
route, at a set rate for earth to be moved etc. Except in
case of a really serious deviation, in which case he would get
more than the set rate. The person to evaluate the necessity
for any deviation was to be his old pal Spaulding.
Finally, the railway seemed launched and three weeks later the
first sod was turned. |
D'Arcy began his
campaign for the new railroad with a boosterish piece in the Cobourg
Star, proclaiming that he was ready to go to the capital (Quebec,
at this point) and press for a charter for the new Cobourg and
Peterborough Railway. He followed this up with more letters to
the Star in which he explained the advantages to be derived
from such a road, and ended by declaring that though this was not
the time to go into details, he would eventually explain all and
that he had no doubt that "in less than three years, we shall
ride on the rail car to the music of the whistle, from hence through
Baltimore and Keene to Peterborough."
Public meetings through 1852 resulted in agreement on the part of the townspeople
that it was appropriate for the town council to invest public money in the scheme,
and the town subsequently subscribed for 25,000 pounds worth of stock.
Meanwhile, D'Arcy and the others on the committee set out for Quebec to begin
the process of petitioning the government for their charter. There they encountered
the formidable Samuel Zimmerman, the biggest Canadian railroad booster of the
day. [See footnote.] |
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Part 5 - The Plank Road |
Part 7 - Turning the sod |
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Footnote
Short Bio of Samuel Zimmerman (from Bank
of Canada Publications and Research)
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There is a touch of irony in
this [bank] note. The trains shown on the note not only refer to the
business of the bank's president and principal shareholder, Samuel
Zimmerman, but they also indicate the manner of his death. |
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Samuel Zimmerman was one of the richest men in the province of Canada during
the 1850s. An American, he immigrated to Canada in 1842 and within
a short time had amassed a fortune as a railway contractor, building
for the Great Western, the Woodstock and Lake Erie, and the Erie
and Ontario lines. He also built lake steamers, owned a hotel, and
founded his own bank, appropriately named the Zimmerman Bank. On
the night of 12 March 1857, Zimmerman was killed when the train on
which he was travelling from Toronto to Hamilton derailed and fell
into the Desjardins Canal. At his funeral, he was lauded for his
accomplishments and connections, but it has been suggested that he
used less than ethical means to achieve his goals. |
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Fraudulent Five Dollar note issued by Zimmerman bank.
Click photo for larger version |
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This view is supported by what we know of the Zimmerman Bank. Less
than half of its capital of $1,000,000 was ever paid up, and the
Receiver General of the day used public funds to prop up the bank.
As it turned out, both the bank and Zimmerman were in debt to the
Bank of Upper Canada for more than $500,000. The bank continued to
operate after Zimmerman's death, but eventually its charter was sold
to an entrepreneur from Chicago who renamed the bank and used it
to issue notes that he had no intention of redeeming.
This note is part of the third and last issue of the Zimmerman Bank.
No notes of this group are known to have been issued legitimately.
Many of these notes bear fraudulent dates and signatures, as does
this one.
This note is part of the National Currency Collection, Bank of Canada.
Photography by James Zagon.
More on Zimmerman. |
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