(25 June 1854-10 Jan. 1927), railway contractor. (J. D. McArthur, John D. McArthur, Jack McArthur, “J.D.”) (date of birth 15 June also found) Born in Lancaster Township, GC. Parents: Duncan McArthur and his wife Christina McCuaig. J. D. McArthur grew up on his father’s farm and was educated locally. It has been suggested (Pereira) that like many other GC men of his time, he worked in the Michigan lumber woods in his early years. He arrived in Winnipeg in 1879, over the Dawson Trail. Aged at this time in his mid-20s, he worked at first on a “flying gang” assigned to do repairs on the Pembina branch of the CPR. Through suitable employment and trial-and-error, he taught himself the railway construction and contracting trade. He obtained many small contracts on the building of the CPR out to the west coast. In Jan. 1889, already a well-established and reasonably well known contractor, he married a fellow Glengarrian, Mary McIntosh. There were no children to the marriage.

     McArthur was one of the leading Canadian railway contractors of his time, and a major figure in western Canada, where he made his career. His work in railway building seems to have been confined wholly to Western Canada and Northern Ontario. In those regions he built, among much else, the Grand Trunk Pacific line connecting Winnipeg and Superior Junction in Northern Ontario, and part of the original Hudson Bay Railway. In his obituaries, he was described as “western Canada’s greatest railway-builder,” and it was said that he was “generally believed to have built more miles of railroad than any other man in the history of Canada,” and that his employees at times had numbered more than “the standing army of a small European kingdom.” Nevertheless, as his life in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography shows, he was also at times the subject of public criticism for his methods and quality of work. He was head of the contracting firm, J. D. McArthur Co. Ltd. Along with his involvement with railways, he also had extensive business interests in lumbering and in pulp and paper, and limited involvement also in mining, and he had large real estate interests in the Winnipeg area. Towards the end of his life, he was active in organizing the Manitoba Pulp and Paper Co. (of which he became vice-president), and at the time of his death was establishing its mills at Pine Falls, Manitoba; and one of his very last business activities was the attempt to found a pulp and paper mill at Prince George, B. C. He constructed various buildings, including the Glengarry Block in Winnipeg.

     A very wealthy man, notwithstanding a number of sharp business reverses in his career, he lived well, with his own railway carriage, called the “Alberta,” which he bought at the Chicago World’s Fair, where it had won first prize. Having fallen ill with pernicious anemia, he sought treatment in a clinic at Battle Creek, Michigan, then, accepting that his condition was incurable, he decided to return to his home in Winnipeg, and died just after the private railway car (not his own this time, but a borrowed one) in which he was travelling had reached Winnipeg. His death received widespread press attention. He was a Presbyterian. At his funeral, it was remembered that he had contributed $4000 a year to home missions. He was buried in Winnipeg. See also Dr H. H. Christie and S. H. McCuaig. He was a first cousin of D. D. McCuaig. It is said that at the time of his death McArthur was about to be appointed lieutenant-governor of Manitoba.

Life in Dictionary of Canadian Biography by Theodore D. Regehr, XV, 615-616 * Glengarry News 14 Jan. 1927, Cornwall Freeholder 20 Jan. 1927 * photocopied obituaries (undated clipping) in present author’s files, mainly from collection of the late John H. McKay, of Ottawa * information kindly supplied from his researches by Mr Joe Pereira * Joe Pereira in Gregory A. Johnson , ed., Lac La Biche Chronicles: the Early Years (1999) 209-213 (portrait) * Morgan (1912) 747 * unpublished MS sketch of McArthur’s life (20 notebook pages ) by late Ewan Ross, in present author’s files * Ross, Lancaster, 315, 344-345 * MacGillivray & Ross 130 (portrait) * Jean McCuaig MacIntosh, “J. D. McArthur, Railway Builder,” Glengarry Life No. 34 (1995), with a few personal recollections, reprod. of painted portrait * Bumsted 148 * obituary of Duncan McKay, employee of McArthur on railway building, Glengarry News 16 July 1915 (from Edmonton Bulletin), repr. Fraser Obits. 223-224 * obituary of Dr J. K. McLennan, former member of J. D. McArthur Co., Cornwall Standard 18 June 1931 * report from Winnipeg Free Press on progress of McArthur’s work, GN 13 Jan. 1905 * revisits GC, GN 18 Aug. 1905, 30 June 1911, 5 March 1915, 29 June 1917