Ottawa Street Names Project

Ahearn Avenue was named after Thomas Ahearn . Born in LeBreton Flats in June 1855, Thomas Ahearn was the son of an Irish blacksmith on the Rideau Canal maintenance crew. At age 14 or 15 (reports vary), Ahearn got his first job in a branch telegraph office tucked away in the mills near his home. He worked for barter, running messages in exchange for lessons in keying. He became an operator and worked in the telegraph office at the House of Commons, sending parliamentary decisions down the wire to their relevant victims.

 

After a stint with Western Union of New York, Ahearn came back to LeBreton Flats and at age 25 became the manager of a local telephone company. Two years later, he formed an electrical equipment firm with Warren Y. Soper, the manager of a rival telephone firm and another former operator. Together, Ahearn and Soper obtained a contract to rig up telegraph equipment from ocean to ocean for the Canadian Pacific Railway. They then moved into the field of invention, with a particular interest in electricity. In 1887, Ahearn rounded up investors and started an electric company that lit the first light bulbs and street lamps in Ottawa.

Next, Ahearn tackled transportation. In 1891, he inaugurated Ottawa’s electric streetcar service. In response to winter weather, he equipped the trolleys with large rotating brushes to push away snow, and used electricity drawn from the overhead supply instead of wood stoves to heat the interiors of the cars. His company also produced streetcars for other cities.

By pursuing these varied interests, Ahearn became the first Ottawa millionaire who made his money in something other than timber. He was a utilities mogul: in addition to his electricity and urban transport enterprises, he snapped up the Ottawa Gas Company, creating the Ottawa, Light, Heat and Power Company. He was also an innovator, reputedly inventing the electric cooking range that was installed in the Windsor Hotel. And in 1899, he drove the first automobile in Ottawa-an electric model, of course.

Rich by 1900, Ahearn became a director of the Bank of Canada and other leading institutions, as well as a prominent local philanthropist. Chairman of the Ottawa Improvement Commission (later the National Capital Commission) from 1926 to 1932, he established Ottawa’s parkway system and personally financed the Champlain Bridge over the Ottawa River in 1928. That same year he was appointed to the Privy Council.

As time went on, Ahearn continued to play a role in the development and spread of new inventions. He made the first telephone call between Canada and England in 1926, as well as the first national radio broadcast a year later, establishing a continental chain of radio masts. He died on June 28, 1938.

Billings Avenue is named after either Braddish Billings, pioneer of the Billings Bridge area, or his son Charles, who had a house where the Riverside Campus of the Ottawa Hospital stands today. Opportunist, entrepreneur, profiteer: any of these could be used to describe Braddish Billings, one of Ottawa’s earliest settlers. But his rise to success was long, difficult and risky.

 

In 1810, at the age of 27, he was poor, alone and in debt. Through perseverance, hard work and astute business decisions, he eventually improved his lot in life. Fundamental to his success would be his acquisition and subsequent exploitation of land (up to 1500 acres). For Billings and other men like him, the land could provide countless economic opportunities.

As a farmer, lumberman, land prospector, money lender, employer, provider of vital services, clerk, assessor, collector, warden, pound keeper, path master, registrar, justice of the peace, Braddish Billings became a man of influence and power. His farm at Junction Gore would bring prosperity and a respected position in the community to five generations of Billings. Billings provided the surrounding community-eventually known as Billings Bridge-with roads, a bridge, a sawmill and, near the end of his life, rail. In short, Billings emerged from poverty to become the single most important economic force in his area.

Booth Street is named after John Rudolphus Booth, who ranked among Canada’s most prominent lumbermen. Born in Waterloo, Quebec on April 5, 1827, Booth came to Ottawa in the 1850s to seek his fortune with a mere nine dollars in his pocket. Although he made steady progress, building a small shingle mill at Chaudière Falls, he faced several significant setbacks until his first breakthrough in 1859, when he secured the contract to provide lumber for the construction of Canada’s new Parliament Buildings.

 

Booth made a substantial profit from this contract, which allowed him to pursue further business opportunities. In 1867, he outbid other lumbermen for the Madawaska River timber limits formerly held by the late John Egan. He turned a $45,000 investment into an enormous profit; years later, he turned down an offer of $1.5 million for those limits. Eventually, his mills produced more lumber than any other operation in the world.

While the Ottawa River watershed provided a natural highway for transporting timber rafts, its tributaries did not extend into the outer reaches of Booth’s timber limits. So he embarked on a new enterprise: building a railway system to complement his other operations. He already owned the Canada Atlantic Railway, which he used to transport sawn lumber from his Chaudière mills to his planing mill and sorting yards in Burlington, Vermont and to sales offices in Boston. The new Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway’s primary purpose was to transport timber felled in areas inaccessible by waterway.

Since the production of pine timber alone could not offset the cost of the railway, Booth diversified by adding passenger and freight cars. He also built grain elevators on the Great Lakes and formed a freighter company so that growers could use his railway to ship western grain. And they did, since the railway shortened the route between Chicago and Montreal by 1,300 km. Booth sold the railway to the Grand Trunk Railway in 1904 for $14 million.

Booth was among Ottawa’s most generous philanthropists. He made considerable donations to charitable institutions and other agencies that cared for the sick and destitute. As one of three founding members of St. Luke’s Hospital, a predecessor of the Civic Hospital, he donated $10,000 towards its establishment.

Booth eventually expanded his business ventures into pulp, paper and cardboard production, remaining active right up to a few months before his death at 98. He never recovered from a cold caught during one of his yearly trips to his Madawaska timber limits. On December 8, 1925, he passed away as one of the richest men in Canada, with an estate valued at approximately $33 million.

Bronson Avenue is named after Erskine Henry Bronson. Born in Bolton, New York on September 12, 1844, Bronson came to Ottawa in 1852 and eventually became one of Ottawa’s most prominent businessmen. His father, Henry Franklin Bronson, founded the firm of Bronson & Harris around 1852 with a partner, Captain J.J. Harris, after securing advantageous water lots at Chaudière Falls. Erskine became a partner in 1867, shortly after Captain Harris’ retirement. He and his father were joined by a new business partner, Abijah Weston, and carried on in the new firm Bronson & Weston.

Erskine later diversified the firm’s interests, expanding its lumbering operations to California, where he was a director of the Little River Redwood Company. He also capitalized on the growing demand for electricity by founding the Ottawa Electric Company. Other business interests included roles as president, vice-president or director of several electricity and power companies.

He served as a member of the Board of Public School Trustees for 18 years and on city council as an alderman from 1871 to 1877. First elected to the provincial legislature in 1886, he was re-elected in 1890, when he was sworn into the Ontario cabinet as a minister without portfolio. Erskine Henry Bronson passed away on October 19, 1920, at the age of 76.

Crerar Avenue is named after Henry Duncan Graham Crerar, one of Canada’s greatest military leaders. Crerar was born in Hamilton, Ontario on April 28, 1888. He graduated from the Royal Military College at Kingston and later took a position with the Ontario Hydro Electric Commission in Toronto.

At the outbreak of the First World War, he entered Canada’s First Division as an artillery officer; he finished the war as a lieutenant colonel. Serving in various capacities between the wars, he became commandant of the Royal Military College with the rank of colonel. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Crerar was promoted to brigadier. He became chief of the General Staff in 1940 and a lieutenant general in 1941, when he commanded the 1st Corps. He assumed command of the First Canadian Army on March 20, 1944. He became the first Canadian to gain the rank of full general while still in active service at the front.

Fleming Avenue is named after Sir Sandford Fleming. Fleming-an engineer, writer, diplomat, explorer and university chancellor-belonged to the generation of “Great Victorians” who built and organized the British Empire.

 

Born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland on January 7, 1827, Fleming studied surveying and engineering in Scotland and came to Canada in 1845 to work in the railway industry. He was appointed chief engineer of the Northern Railway in 1857. He was also the chief engineer of the International Railway during its construction and in 1871 was appointed chief engineer and surveyor for the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Fleming spent most of his life in Peterborough, Halifax and Ottawa. Author of many scientific papers on railways and other topics, he was one of the founders of the Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Scientific Knowledge. He published the first large-scale surveyor’s map in Canada, designed the first usable chart of Toronto Harbour and promoted the trans-Pacific submarine telegraph cable, doing all this in addition to handling his duties as chief engineer of the CPR and as chancellor of Queen’s University. Fleming also designed Canada’s first postage stamp, the “three-penny beaver,” in 1851.

One of the major problems Canadian travellers encountered in the late 19th century involved keeping proper time. How could one be sure of having the correct time at every stop along the way?  More importantly, how could rail connections be coordinated in a coherent, permanent system?  Traditionally, it was noon in each place when the sun was directly overhead. So if it was noon in Toronto, for example, it was 12:25 in Montreal. This system became complicated as voyages became longer. For instance, during the Halifax-Toronto rail journey, passengers had to re-set their watches in Saint John, Quebec, Montreal, Kingston, Belleville and Toronto.

In 1878, Sandford Fleming decided to do something about this situation. In a series of papers delivered to the Canadian Institute, he suggested that the planet be divided into 24 time zones, each covering 15 degrees of longitude, from an accepted meridian. The time in each zone would be the same, notwithstanding the position of any point in relation to the sun. Fleming, with his reputation and his energy, encountered little resistance to his idea. By 1883, all railways in North America were using this system. In 1884, the first International Meridian Conference was held in Washington D.C., and Fleming’s idea was officially adopted. The only objections came from some religious groups who accused him of being a communist and of proposing a system contrary to God’s will.

Sir Sandford Fleming passed away on July 22, 1915 at the age of 88.

Gilmour Street is named for Allan Gilmour (1816-1895), one of Bytown’s pioneer lumbermen. He learned the trade working for his uncle (also named Allan Gilmour), a partner in the lumber firm of Pollock, Gilmour & Company in Glasgow, Scotland. The firm had branches in Quebec, Montreal and Miramichi. The Montreal branch, William Ritchie & Company, was run by William Ritchie, another nephew of the elder Allan Gilmour.

 

The younger Allan Gilmour came to Montreal in 1832 with his cousin James Gilmour. They worked for William Ritchie & Company until 1840, when Ritchie retired. The younger cousins assumed the management of the branch and opened an agency in Bytown, where Allan would frequently travel to oversee operations. James retired from the business in 1853 and Allan decided to move permanently to Bytown.

Year after year, Gilmour supervised the sawing and shipping of millions of feet of lumber on timber rafts floated down the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers to the Gilmour timber coves in Quebec. In spite of periodic setbacks, he persevered and retired at 57 in 1873.

He was appointed to the rank of major in the local militia at the time of the Fenian Raids (1866-1867) and was later made colonel. Gilmour was also a cultivated man with a fondness for poetry and history; he was a steady friend of the Ottawa Literary and Scientific Society and other local institutions. He died in 1895.

Grant Street is named after Sir James Alexander Grant. Born in Scotland in 1831, Grant came to Canada and opened his own medical practice in Bytown in 1854.  Physician to every governor general from 1867 to 1905, he tended to all the vice-regal family’s ills. For instance, he treated Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria and wife of the Marquis of Lorne, when she was seriously injured in a sleighing accident on Sussex Street (now Sussex Drive) near Rideau Hall in 1880.

Grant sat as a member in the first Parliament of Canada, in the government of Sir John A. Macdonald. He also served as president of the Canadian Medical Association and the Royal Society of Canada, and was knighted by Queen Victoria.

He lived in a beautiful home built by Braddish Billings Jr. in 1875 at the corner of Elgin and Gloucester Streets, an establishment now known as Friday’s Roast Beef House. Its interior trim is characteristic of many Ottawa homes of the period, with heavy moldings outlined with thick round wood.

He passed away on February 6, 1920. According to legend, Grant (who was asthmatic) still haunts the halls of the restaurant with the sound of chronic coughing and an eerie presence.

Hinton Avenue was named after Robert Hinton, pioneer. Some time before 1821, his father Joseph arrived in the Richmond area. In 1849, the Ontario Municipal Act was passed, opening the door for the first assembly of the Municipal Corporation of the Village of Richmond on January 21, 1850. Joseph Hinton was named auditor and superintendent of highways. He later became reeve of Richmond and warden of the county. Joseph is also credited for advancing the status of the village by helping it obtain the first grammar school in the county, a frame building erected some time before 1864 at a cost of $600.

His son Robert established himself closer to Ottawa, founding the new suburb of Hintonburg. In December 1893, Carleton County passed a bylaw making the community a separate municipality. Many of the new town’s residents worked on the railway, but it was chiefly a farming community. Its days as a separate town were numbered; the City of Ottawa annexed Hintonburg in 1907.

Holland Avenue was named after the Holland family, who owned a land development company and joined with Thomas Ahearn to create the Ottawa Land Association. The Hollands were also active in newspaper publishing. One of the most prominent members of the family was Andrew Holland, a parliamentary and law reporter born in Ottawa on August 11, 1844. He became the official reporter of the Senate of Canada in 1876. Holland reported on the Dominion Board of Trade, on the settlement of the Intercolonial Railway and Welland Canal construction contracts, and on the royal commission appointed in 1880 to inquire into the engineering, construction and route of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He helped secure a contract and subsidy from Canada to establish the Canadian-Australian steamship line between Sydney and Vancouver. In addition, he launched a campaign to make the city of Ottawa and part of the surrounding area a federal district, similar to the District of Columbia. But all of his interests weren’t serious and sober; he and his brother George also established one of Ottawa’s first movie houses. Andrew Holland died in Ottawa on March 29, 1923.

Hopewell Avenue is named after Charles Hopewell. Born in South March, Ontario in 1864 and a contractor by trade, Hopewell served as a City of Ottawa alderman from 1900 to 1907, as controller in 1908 and, finally, as mayor from 1909 to 1912. He was also president of the Union of Canadian Municipalities in 1910. In 1912, a hospital built on Porter Island to handle smallpox victims was named the Hopewell Isolation Hospital in honour of the retiring mayor. Hopewell was appointed magistrate in 1922 and passed away on May 15, 1931.

Hurdman Road is named after the Hurdman brothers. One of Ottawa’s enduring dynasties, the Hurdman brothers were pioneers in industrial and agricultural development along the Rideau River.

 

The patriarch of the clan, Charles Hurdman, was one of the first European arrivals in the Ottawa Valley. Originally from Ireland, he joined Philemon Wright’s settlement in Hull. After six years, he left Wright’s employ to farm his property on the Aylmer Road. His first son, William H., was born in Hull in 1818.

Under the name Hurdman Brothers, William started the family lumber business in 1841 with his brothers Charles and Robert. It became one of the largest timber operations in Quebec.

In the early 1870s, William and Robert established themselves in the Junction Gore area of Gloucester Township, branching into large-scale farming. Eventually, both brothers were farming 200 to 300 acres each, using the most progressive methods of the day. William became director of two district agricultural societies. They won international awards for their horse breeding at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia. William also organized the Dominion Exhibition of 1879.

The brothers continued working in the lumber industry as well. They built their own bridge across the Rideau River to connect with their lumber and storage yards, and allowed travellers and the municipality to use it. It was the third span across the Rideau.

But when the Great Fire of 1900 wiped out the family’s lumber mills at the Chaudière, they did not rebuild and decided to concentrate their efforts on farming. William and Robert established the earliest and largest piggery in Gloucester Township. The area around their farms became known as Hurdman’s Bridge, a populous area of farmers and railway workers, including many German immigrants.

The present contracting firm of Hurdman Brothers (T. Fraser and Walter) was hired to remove the railway tracks from the downtown core of Ottawa in the late 1950s. Today, the firm specializes in moving heavy machinery and equipment.

Keefer Street was named after Thomas Coltrin Keefer. He was born in Thorold, Ontario in 1821, the son of a United Empire Loyalist and grandson of an Alsatian Huguenot.

 

Keefer, the fourth child of his father’s second marriage, married Thomas MacKay’s daughter Elizabeth in 1848. He became a distinguished civil engineer and engineering consultant in Canada and the United States. He constructed waterworks systems for Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton and Ottawa; under his guidance, water first flowed to Ottawa’s taps and hydrants on October 18, 1874. Keefer became a specialist in railway, harbour and bridge engineering, and he was among the first to advocate an all-rail route to the Pacific.

He worked on the Erie and Welland canals until 1845, when he came to Ottawa to improve the facilities of the Ottawa River for handling lumber. He also did surveys for the Grand Trunk Railway, drew up plans for the Victoria Bridge in Montreal and acted as an advisor to the Canadian government in many different civil engineering fields. He was president of the Canadian and American societies of civil engineers.

After an engineering contract in Mexico, Keefer came back to Rockcliffe Park and named several streets, such as Buena Vista, Mariposa and Acacia. He died in his Rockcliffe home on January 7, 1915, at the age of 94.

Lampman Crescent is named after Archibald Lampman. Born in 1862, Lampman began as a writer for the Trinity College magazine Rouge et Noir. He published his first poetry collection, Among the Millet, in 1888. As a poet, he was renowned for carefully crafted observations and contemplation of nature. He was one of Canada’s finest poets during the “Golden Age” of Canadian poetry.

Between 1893 and 1896, Lampman lived in the grandiose Philomène Terrace on Daly Avenue. His close friend, the poet Duncan Campbell Scott, observed that the house was cheap and damp. Nonetheless, Lampman was enthusiastic about the house, as it was the first time he’d had a room of his own in which to write. He also earned his living as a clerk in the secretarial branch of the Post Office.

Lampman has been compared to Keats. The National Film Board made a delightful film, Morning on the Lièvre, based on a Lampman poem. The imagery and the spoken verse combine to evoke the Canadian Shield country near the capital. Lampman often took to the wilderness in a canoe to get away from the stodginess of local literary societies.

He passed away on February 10, 1899, at the age of 37.

Lett Street is named after William Pittman Lett, a journalist, poet and author. Born on August 12, 1819 in Duncannon, Ireland, he came to Canada with his parents when he was about six months old.

 

His father, Captain Andrew Lett of the 66th Cameronian Regiment, was one of the first settlers of Richmond, Ontario. The family arrived in Richmond in 1820, taking Captain Lett’s land grant for military service. The family moved to Ottawa in 1849. Here William Pittman Lett left on record in historic verse his famous “Recollections of Bytown and its Old Inhabitants.”

As editor of the Ottawa Advocate newspaper, the younger Lett displayed his ability as a writer of both poetry and prose. In the winter of 1850, he organized a dramatic club that played in the first town hall, on Elgin Street, during several winter seasons.

Five years later, he was elected to the office of city clerk when the City of Ottawa was incorporated, and remained in this position until his retirement 36 years later. Lett passed away at the age of 73 on August 16, 1892.

Lewis Street is named after John Bower Lewis. Born in France, Lewis came to Canada with his parents in 1820. He studied law in Toronto and was called to the bar in 1839. While practising his profession in Bytown, he was, for a short time, solicitor for the County of Carleton. At the time of Confederation, he was one of the ablest lawyers in the country.

He was elected councillor in Bytown’s first election, in 1847, and he was chosen mayor in 1848. Soon, Bytown changed its name to Ottawa. Lewis was elected Ottawa’s first mayor in 1855 and remained in that position until 1857. In 1863, he became commissioner of Ottawa’s police force.

He signed the eloquent plea that Ottawa sent to the Queen on May 18, 1857, urging her to choose the city as capital of the United Provinces of Canada, which she did during his term as mayor. John Bower Lewis died on November 20, 1874.

Mackay Street is named after Thomas MacKay, whose name also appears in some records as “Mackay” or “McKay.” Born in Perth, Scotland in 1792, he married Anne Crichton in 1813 before moving to Canada in 1817 to earn his living as a mason and contractor. He lived first in Montreal, where he worked on various fortifications and on the Lachine Canal.

 

A contract to build the first bridge across Chaudière Falls and plans for the Rideau Canal first brought MacKay to Ottawa. With his partner, John Redpath, he was the chief contractor for the eight main locks at the entrance and also for certain other locks at the Ottawa end of the canal. During lulls in the canal construction work, he also built St. Bartholomew’s and St. Andrew’s churches.

Due to the speed and skill of his work, and to his shrewd business sense, MacKay apparently made a very substantial profit on his canal contract. According to one story, when Colonel By awarded the contract to MacKay, he assumed that the stone for the lock masonry would have to come from across the river in Hull. MacKay, however, dug down in Major’s Hill Park, close to the locks, and discovered stone that he said was as good as the stone in Hull. After some hesitation, Colonel By agreed to the use of the Major’s Hill stone. MacKay’s gain from eliminating much of his transport charges must have been considerable.

In 1832, with the canal system completed, MacKay and Redpath found themselves relatively well-to-do men. After a while, Redpath moved into sugar refining, but MacKay decided to settle in the district and to exploit the power of Rideau Falls. Between 1837 and 1855, he built a gristmill, a woolen mill, a brewery and a new sawmill at the falls. To house his workmen, he founded New Edinburgh on the eastern side of the Rideau River.

Everything he touched seemed to succeed. In 1838, he built a grand house for himself, Rideau Hall. It was sold to the Canadian government in 1868 as the official residence of the governor general. MacKay also bought a thousand acres of land around Rideau Hall. Then known as MacKay’s Bush, it became Rockcliffe Park.

In 1834, MacKay became a Tory member of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, and from 1842 he was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Canada. He also commanded the county militia and travelled widely. MacKay was an early advocate of the scheme to bring a railway to Ottawa; the railway-which conveniently passed through his land-was completed shortly before his death in 1855.

McLeod Street is named after McLeod Stewart. Born in Bytown on February 6, 1847, Stewart was educated at University College in Toronto. He was called to the Ontario bar in 1870 and became one of the country’s most distinguished lawyers. He was elected mayor of Ottawa in 1887 and 1888 and he strongly advocated the purchase and setting aside of Rockcliffe as a public park. He was a life member of the board of the Protestant Orphans’ Home and was one of the founders of the Protestant Home for the Aged. He was the first president of the Agricultural Society, a charter member of the Rideau Club, president of the St. Andrew’s Society, and chief of the Caledonian Society. In business, he was president of the Stewart Ranch Company, president of the Canadian Anthracite Coal Company, and president of the Canada Atlantic Railway. Mayor Stewart was also one of the original officers of the Governor General’s Foot Guards. He passed away on October 9, 1926.

Morrison Drive is named after G. Cecil Morrison. He was born in Low, Quebec on September 22, 1890, in the house built by his grandfather, Caleb Brooks. Brooks was a nephew of Philemon Wright, the founder of Hull. Morrison started his first bakery in Ottawa in 1911 and co-founded Morrison Lamothe Bakery in 1933. During the Second World War, he was bread administrator in the Wartime Prices and Trade Board. He founded Ottawa Low-rent Housing, now City Living, and was its president for 20 years. In 1928, he and his wife Margaret restored what is now one of Ottawa’s oldest homes, Bayne House.

Perley was named after William Goodhue Perley, born in Lebanon, New Hampshire on June 4, 1820. As a teen, he started in the lumber business as a clerk, buying land in northern New York state. In the 1850s, he moved to Bytown with his business partner, Gordon Pattee. They purchased water lots at the Chaudière, running the successful business of Perley & Pattee. He bought land in LeBreton Flats and became the area’s first rich man. His stone mansion was one out of only 25 listed in the 1853 city directory. By 1865, his mills were churning out 16 million board feet of lumber a year.

Perley augmented his fortune by ensuring a proper trade route to the United States. He started by organizing the local scene, where in 1866 he created a compromise urban transit system: horse-drawn streetcars that ran on rails.

He then moved on to the regional scene, founding the Upper Ottawa Steamboat Company in 1868. Finally, with the financial assistance of several lumber barons, he created and became president of the Canadian Atlantic Railway (1879-1888), guaranteeing Ottawa’s access to American markets. He was also a member of Parliament for Ottawa, from 1887 until his death on April 1, 1890.

Perley donated land and money to create the Perley Home for the Incurables. In 1896, his estate offered to donate a house for Ottawa’s first public library, but ratepayers rejected the project as too expensive.

Rochester Street is named after the John Rochester family. The senior John Rochester, born in Berwick on Tweed England in 1786, came to Bytown from Rouse’s Point, New York in 1827 and is referred to as one of the 27 American founders. He arrived in Bytown with a spirit of enterprise and a wagon full of sons and daughters. He got wealthy quickly, supplying the military with bread, beer and butchered meat. Coincidentally, he was also appointed inspector of pork and beef on May 17, 1837. It was after John Sr. that Rochesterville was also named, the suburb that originated from Rochester’s farm located in the Township of Nepean that was annexed to Ottawa in 1888. His four sons, John Rochester Jr., lumberman, mill owner, Mayor of Ottawa and member of parliament; James and William Rochester, brewers; and George Rochester, mill owner on the Madawaska each perpetuated the fine family name. Daughters Susanah, Elizabeth, Mary Ann, Emily and Margaret married into Ottawa families including: McLaughlin, Preston and Bunting among others.

Slater Street is named after James Dyson Slater. Slater was born in Manchester, England on September 10, 1813 and came to Canada with his parents in 1830 or 1831. They settled a few miles from Niagara Falls. He studied engineering and was appointed assistant engineer in charge of the location and construction of the Welland Canal from Port Dalhousie to Thorold (1841 to 1845). He subsequently moved to Bytown in 1845, following his appointment as assistant engineer on the Ottawa River improvement works, which included such construction projects as dams, timber slides, bridges and roads. In the spring of 1849, Slater was appointed a provincial land surveyor and carried on in this profession until 1858, when he was appointed superintendent of the Rideau Canal, a position he held until 1872.

In 1847, Slater married Esther Sparks, the youngest daughter of Nicholas and Sarah Sparks. Although this relationship may explain why such an important street was named for him, Slater’s service as chairman of the public school board from 1863 to 1870 shows that he was a civic-minded citizen deserving of such commemoration.

Soper was named after Warren Y. Soper. Not much is known about the beginnings of his life. We do know that he formed an electrical equipment company along with Thomas Ahearn, the manager of a rival telephone firm. As former telegraph operators, they knew the importance of communication.

For amusement, they worked up a parlour trick where they appeared to read each other’s minds by winking Morse code at each other.

One of the first contracts they received was to build a coast-to-coast telegraph system for the Canadian Pacific Railway. They then branched out into other innovative ways to use electricity.

As manager of the Dominion Telegraph Company, Soper opened Ottawa’s first telephone exchange in 1880. The Bell Telephone Company later acquired the exchange and appointed Soper as its Ottawa manager. Along with partner Ahearn, Soper brought electricity to Ottawa in 1885, and established the Ottawa Electric Street Railway Company in 1891.

With his fortune, he purchased a beautiful Rockcliffe property called The Berkenfels in the 1890s. In 1908, Soper built a summer cottage on the property, which he christened Lornado. After his death in on May 13, 1924 and his wife’s death in 1931, the Soper estate was divided up; Lornado became the official residence of the American ambassador to Canada.

Sweetland Avenue is named after Dr. John Sweetland. He stands out among Ottawa’s public men, although he was never elected to office. His track record compares favourably to some of Ottawa’s most community-minded citizens.

Sweetland was born in Kingston, Ontario on August 15, 1835. He graduated from Queen’s University in 1858 and practised medicine in Pakenham, Ontario, where he was also the coroner for Lanark and Renfrew counties. In 1865, he moved his practice to Ottawa. It proved to be even more successful than his practice in Pakenham. He served on the medical staff of the County of Carleton Protestant General Hospital and was appointed surgeon at the Carleton County Gaol. He was the founder and first president of the Lady Stanley Institute for Trained Nurses established in 1890.

The physician was one of the original members of the commission overseeing the construction of Ottawa’s original water distribution system in the early 1870s, and was appointed sheriff of Carleton County in 1880. Sweetland was also president of numerous organizations, including the St. George’s Society, the Beechwood Cemetery, the Rideau Club, the Ottawa Medico-Chirurgical Society, the Dominion Sanitary Association, the Ottawa Bicycle Club and the Rideau Skating Club.

He and P.D. Ross were appointed the first trustees of the Stanley Cup by the governor general, Lord Stanley of Preston. Sweetland passed away on May 5, 1907, at the age of 72.

Thompson Street is named after Philip Nairn Thompson. Born in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, in 1817, Thompson emigrated with his family to Champlain, New York. In 1838, he came to Bytown to enter the flour trade. He built the flour and sawmills known as the Thompson Mills. By 1853, Philip Thompson had a sawmill with a 40,000-log capacity with attached flour and oatmeal mills, a carding and cloth dressing mill, and a woolen factory. He operated these until 1860 and eventually sold them to local tycoons Bronson, MacKay and Booth.

Respected throughout the community, Thompson served as a local director of the Bank of Commerce, and held extensive timber limits on the Gatineau River. He passed away in 1887.