The Last Spike: The Great Railway, 1881-1885 by Pierre Berton Page B
Authors: Pierre Berton
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instance, the tale of one elderly man who owned a parcel of fifty-four acres of land on the outskirts of the city. In 1880 he had tried, unsuccessfully, to sell it for seven hundred dollars. He moved to Toronto and tried to sell it there, again without success. In 1881 he returned to Winnipeg, intending to pack up and leave the country. Soon after his arrival two strangers knocked on his door and asked if he wanted to sell his land. The old man was afraid to ask for seven hundred dollars for fear of driving them away. Seeing him hesitate the visitors jumped in with an offer of forty thousand dollars. The old man, concluding that he was in the presence of lunatics, shooed them off his property and then went to his lawyer with tears in his eyes and told him that a couple of scamps had been poking fun at him. It was some time before he could be convinced that the offer was genuine. By the time he had been persuaded to sell, the price had risen by another five thousand dollars.
A newspaperman from St. Catharines purchased several lots on Portage Avenue well before the boom. In September, 1881, a friend dropped in and offered him twenty-five hundred dollars for one lot. When the reporter hesitated the friend increased the offer to three thousand. The news of the available property travelled swiftly. The following morning, as the St. Catharines man walked down the street he was besieged with offers that seemed to increase block by block. An acquaintance rushed up to him and offered to buy all his lots at three thousand apiece. A few hundred yards farther along, a man popped his head out of the window and raised the price to thirty-five hundred. Another few hundred yards and he wasstopped by a stranger who offered four thousand dollars per lot. He had scarcely moved another block before the figure had reached six thousand.
Harry Armstrong, who had helped survey the government line between Thunder Bay and Red River and who was working in the CPR’S engineering department in Winnipeg early in 1882, managed to buy a lot on Portage Avenue for fifteen hundred dollars before the boom began. He sold it late in 1881 for ten thousand dollars. A short time later it was resold for forty thousand.
Such tales crowded the world news out of the papers. Even the exploits of Billy the Kid and the revelations of Robert Ford, the man who killed Jesse James, were overshadowed by more piquant items:
“W. J. Ovens used to sell nails for a cent in a hardware store in Yorkville four years ago but he can draw his check for $100,000 to-day.”
“A man who worked on the street here last spring, wore a curly dog-skin coat this spring, smokes 25 cent cigars and talks with contempt about thousands.”
“Mr. Wm. J. Twigg, of Thompson, Twigg & Co., Real Estate, has retired from business after making one hundred thousand dollars.…”
It puts matters in perspective to realize that twelve hundred dollars a year was considered, in 1882, to be a very good income. A hundred-thousand-dollar profit then could keep a man and his family in luxury for life. No wonder John A. McDougall, the pioneer Edmonton trader, wrote to his brother from Manitoba that he intended to invest every dollar he could spare in land: “Any person with experience, good judgment and a few thousand dollars can make his fortune.…”
But many of these fortunes were paper ones. George Ham, one of the great raconteurs of the West, who later went to work for the CPR , was staying that winter in the Queen’s Hotel along with La Touche Tupper, a government employee who was deeply involved in land speculation. “He was a fairly good barometer of the daily land values,” Ham recalled. “Some days when he claimed to have made $10,000 or $15,000 everything was lovely. The next day, when he could only credit himself with $3,000 or $4,000 to the good, things were not as well, and when the profits dropped, and some days they did, to a paltry $500 or $600, the country was going to the dogs. We
A newspaperman from St. Catharines purchased several lots on Portage Avenue well before the boom. In September, 1881, a friend dropped in and offered him twenty-five hundred dollars for one lot. When the reporter hesitated the friend increased the offer to three thousand. The news of the available property travelled swiftly. The following morning, as the St. Catharines man walked down the street he was besieged with offers that seemed to increase block by block. An acquaintance rushed up to him and offered to buy all his lots at three thousand apiece. A few hundred yards farther along, a man popped his head out of the window and raised the price to thirty-five hundred. Another few hundred yards and he wasstopped by a stranger who offered four thousand dollars per lot. He had scarcely moved another block before the figure had reached six thousand.
Harry Armstrong, who had helped survey the government line between Thunder Bay and Red River and who was working in the CPR’S engineering department in Winnipeg early in 1882, managed to buy a lot on Portage Avenue for fifteen hundred dollars before the boom began. He sold it late in 1881 for ten thousand dollars. A short time later it was resold for forty thousand.
Such tales crowded the world news out of the papers. Even the exploits of Billy the Kid and the revelations of Robert Ford, the man who killed Jesse James, were overshadowed by more piquant items:
“W. J. Ovens used to sell nails for a cent in a hardware store in Yorkville four years ago but he can draw his check for $100,000 to-day.”
“A man who worked on the street here last spring, wore a curly dog-skin coat this spring, smokes 25 cent cigars and talks with contempt about thousands.”
“Mr. Wm. J. Twigg, of Thompson, Twigg & Co., Real Estate, has retired from business after making one hundred thousand dollars.…”
It puts matters in perspective to realize that twelve hundred dollars a year was considered, in 1882, to be a very good income. A hundred-thousand-dollar profit then could keep a man and his family in luxury for life. No wonder John A. McDougall, the pioneer Edmonton trader, wrote to his brother from Manitoba that he intended to invest every dollar he could spare in land: “Any person with experience, good judgment and a few thousand dollars can make his fortune.…”
But many of these fortunes were paper ones. George Ham, one of the great raconteurs of the West, who later went to work for the CPR , was staying that winter in the Queen’s Hotel along with La Touche Tupper, a government employee who was deeply involved in land speculation. “He was a fairly good barometer of the daily land values,” Ham recalled. “Some days when he claimed to have made $10,000 or $15,000 everything was lovely. The next day, when he could only credit himself with $3,000 or $4,000 to the good, things were not as well, and when the profits dropped, and some days they did, to a paltry $500 or $600, the country was going to the dogs. We
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