C.P.R. Manitoba District 8 July 1879 Marcus Smith Letter to his wife
Lot 35 in our auction Saturday 7th August 2021
#marcussmith #bcsurveyor #canadianrailways #bchistory
Canadian Pacific Railway,
Manitoba District, Paymaster’s Office,
Winnipeg July 8th 1879
My dear Wife
I received your letter of June 27th and was glad to learn that you were all well. We have had hot close weather and fearfull thunder storms with tornadoes tearing up the side walks- The country is delayed and roads impassable so I have chartered a steamer to take men, horses, cattle, carts and everything up the River Assiniboine to Fort Ellis about 240 miles from this by land- Steamers have never gone up so far before this season but the river is now very high- we leave to-day- and expect to get up in 6 days O’Keefe’s party with Tom went up the same way. O’Keefe was drunk all the time he was here- and Tom had to do all the business but Brophy says they were pretty well provided for except pemican which O’Keefe would not take- so they will be on salt bacon all the time and probably get scurry- I have been far from will and in low spirits I have no heart for my work as much of it will be useless and knowing this before hand it goes against the grain. There is a great splurge to create a sensation and an enormous amount of useless expenditure- The contract works between Lake Superior and Red River which I refused to take charge of are progressing very slowly- the contractors and engineers at Loggershead- as I expected- so I am well out of it- I forgot to write to the Imperial bank to make the cheque for the half years dividend payable to you- so it will have to wait till I return- unless you send it on to me and I will endorse it in your favour- I don’t think I can buy the part of D.Granlo land he has here- as I feel there must be a great change on the C.P.R. before another session and I have a presentiment that I will be forced to leave the service- Love and kisses to all
Yours ever
M. Smith
P.S. Address C.P.R. Winnipeg and it will be forwarded M.S.
