Old Photograph Fife Street Dufftown Scotland

Old photograph of cars, houses, shops and people on Fife Street in Dufftown, in the heart of Speyside, Scotland. George Stephen, 1st Baron Mount Stephen, was born in Dufftown on 5 June 1829. Known as Sir George Stephen, between 1886 and 1891, he was a prominent Canadian businessman. Originally from Scotland, he made his fame in Montreal and was the first Canadian to be elevated to the Peerage of the United Kingdom. He was the financial genius behind the creation of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He was the son of William Stephen, a carpenter, and Elspet, daughter of John Smith, a crofter at Knockando, Moray. His mother was a first cousin of the philanthropic Grant brothers of Manchester, England, immortalised as the Cheeryble Brothers in Charles Dickens book, Nicholas Nickleby. George Stephen's first cousin, William Stephen, had already emigrated to Montreal and established a wholesale dry goods business on St. Paul Street. At William's invitation, the Stephen family came to Montreal in 1847, and George joined them in 1850. For the next twelve years George worked for his cousin, who left him the business after his death in 1862. George made his brother, Francis, a partner and eventually sold the business to him and Andrew Robertson in 1867. By 1864, he had been elected to the Montreal Board of Trade, a clear sign of his early success, and by 1866 he was running his own successful wool importing company while also investing in other textile businesses. By the late 1860s, Stephen had become one of the foremost financiers in Montreal, forming boards and working alongside Montreal's most prominent business names. By 1873, he had become a director of the Bank of Montreal, and three years later he was elected president, in which capacity he frequently travelled to London and New York City to meet with the leading financiers there. He remained as president until 1881, resigning to turn his full attention to running the company that would build the Canadian Pacific Railway. A tireless worker, in private life Stephen was retiring with only one real passion, salmon fishing, an enthusiasm in which his first wife readily joined him. In 1873, he purchased an estate at the confluence of the Matapédia and Cascapédia rivers. He made regular trips to the lodge (today a museum) and entertained friends and the occasional Governor General there. When Mount Stephen died in 1921, after providing for his wife, step daughter and charities, he left £1,414,319 to be divided between nineteen relatives, which worked out at about £75,000 each. History Blog post of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to travel and visit one day.



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