Winnipeg 6 June 1880 Marcus Smith 4 page letter to his wife
Lot 23 in our auction Saturday 28th August 2021
#marcussmith #bcsurveyor #canadianrailways
Winnipeg June 6th, 1880
My dear Wife
I have received yours of May 29th. You will have received a letter from me long before this from which you will see that matters are far from satisfactory as regards my position on the works. However I have received a letter from Brophy and from all he can gather this appointment of Schreiber’s will be only temporary. It is the first move to get me rid of Fleming and it was necessary to have some one appointed Chief to make the actions of the Govt. in any payments legal. There will be a commission to investigate all matters relating to the Pacific Railway- after which Fleming will probably be dismissed altogether and new appointments made. There will also probably be changes in the Departments. Tupper taking Sir John’s place and Langevin or Pope the Railways. You will have seen D. Schultz long before you get this who will tell you some thing about what is going on-
Meantime I am going on independent of Schreiber- unless I get a telegram from Ottawa ordering me to do so or recalling me. I am glad you knew something about the mortgage at last but fear you will have difficulty in getting the payments regularly and one of them at least may have to be foreclosed.
I am afraid you have punished yourself in sending $1000. I have talked the matter over with Jeffrey and we think it better not to invest just now as I may see some good speculation during the summer and it will only be the loss of a few months interest- I have $500 for disbursements in surveys which I have not to account for till the fall and shall not want it all till then so I have placed $100 of it in the Bank of Montreal here and sent you a cheque for the amount which you will use if you require it if you don’t use it write me after you return home in the fall to say whether you have used it or not. Mind and don’t forget the premium on my Life insurance-
Two of the parties are off and I expect to go with the last on Tuesday 8th inst- and shall be glad of it as I cannot get rid of my cold here though the weather has been fine for a week past and the cough is dreadfully distressing. A mail leaves tomorrow for the Northwest- and every three weeks after that. I shall find out the points to address to before I close this Love and kisses to all.
Yours ever
M. Smith
P.S. Of course you cannot leave before you get the cheque for this month’s pay. I suppose about the 20th or later. I hope you will all enjoy yourselves thoroughly-
P.S. 2nd. Just received yours with baby’s likeness- who looks very fierce- below are the dates of mail leaving this and my address for each
will reach me at P.O. at
