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Gilmour, Allan, Sr., City of Ottawa, was born on the
23rd of August, 1816, in the parish of Shotts, Lanarkshire, Scotland. His
father was a fanner, and. the family consisted of five children, Allan
being an only son. Of the sisters one is dead, and the others still live
near the place where they were born. The father died at the ripe age of
ninety-three, and the mother in her sixty-fifth year. Allan received a
common country school education, taking one year at Glasgow, with which to
conclude his course. Allan Gilmour had an uncle named Allan Gilmour, after
whom our subject was named, and it is meet that we should have something
to say about his career. This uncle was brought up to the trade of a house
carpenter, but the occupation did not fit itself to his taste or his
ambition, and he formed a partnership with two young men of his
neighbour-hood, John and Arthur Pollack, by name. These possessed some
capital, and together they commenced business as lumber merchants, in
Glasgow, under the firm name of
" Pollock, Gilmour & Co." They soon added to
their lumber operations the shipping business connected with that trade,
establishing branches of their house in Quebec, Montreal, Miramichi and
other points. They built many ships at Quebec, and gradually added to
their fleet till they became one of the largest sailing-ship owners in the
world. The Miramichi business was cornmenced about 1820, under the
conjoint management of James Gilmour, (an uncle also of our subject, and a
brother to Mr. Gilmour of the Glasgow house), and Alexander Rankin, the
firm being known as Gilmour, Rankin & Co. Both of these gentlemen have
been long since dead. The Quebec business was commenced in 1828, and was
known as that of "Allan Gilmour & Co."
under the management of Allan Gilmour, nephew of Mr Gilmour of the Glasgow
firm, and cousin of the subject of this sketch. In 1830 the manager was
joined by his two brothers, John and David, as assistants; and these two
gentlemen afterwards, in 1840, became partners in the business when their
elder brother, Allan, left to take the place of his and our subject’s
uncle, in the Glasgow firm. This uncle retired in order to become a landed
proprietor in Renfrewshire. He died not long afterwards, leaving his
estate of "Eaglesham" to a nephew of. the same name, he having elected,
like the subject of this sketch, to live a bachelor’s life. The Montreal
firm, we may say, was established at the same time as that of Quebec,
under the management of William Ritchie, a nephew of Mr. Gilmour of the
Glasgow firm. This house was known as "William Ritchie & Co.," and it
carried on for many years a wholesale dry goods and grocery business,
besides supplying parties engaged in the manufacture of square timber on
the Ottawa river and its tributaries. To this firm was Allan Gilmour, the
subject of this memoir, sent out with his cousin James, in 1832 the first
year of the dread cholera period. The two young men entered the house as
clerks, and remained in such capacity with it till 1840, when Mr. Ritchie
retired from the business, and they assumed the management, the firm
changing its name to that of
" Gilmour & Co." An agency was
then established at Bytown (the present city of Ottawa), that place being
the centre of lumber operations in the Ottawa region, the object being to
procure timber and sawn lumber from that region for the Quebec market The
particular duty of Allan Gilmour was to personally superintend the
operations; and to this end he paid occasional visits from Montreal to
Bytown, and to the forests where the business was being carried on. In
1853 he took up a permanent residence in Bytown, the Montreal business
having subsequently been reduced to the position of an agency upon the
retirement of James Gilmour, and so continued for a number of years, when
it was closed. Besides the square-timber business carried on by the firm
at Ottawa, there were the large saw mill establishments of the Gatineau
water-mills, and the Trenton steam mills; and both of these are still
operated by the sons of the late John Gilmour of the Quebec firm. The firm
of "Gilmour & Co. ," under the management of Allan Gilmour, also
established and worked for a number of years saw mills on the North Nation
and Blanche rivers, tributaries of the Ottawa, retiring altogether from
the business at the close of 1873. For a long period it may be stated that
the lumbar trade of Canada was so troublesome, fluctuating and
unprofitable, and made such constant demands upon the attention of the
subject of our memoir, that for a long period of years he was not
permitted to be absent upon personal recreation save for the briefest
time. But the tide turned at last, and with more prosperous times he had
more leisure to devote to his tastes. And finding much enjoyment in
shooting, fishing, and steam-yachting, he has indulged himself in these
recreations for a number of years. He has visited the prairies of the
western States and our Canadian lakes and marshes for the sport that they
afford. Mr. Gilmour has also been, for many years, a member of the
widely-known Long Point Shooting Company, but for the past two or three
years he has had his. shooting in the companionship of this most enjoyable
association, done for him by willing proxies. Although hale and active, he
is not so devoted now as in other years to quick tramping and the
rough-and-tumble that fall to the lot of the professional sports-man. He
has spent no fewer than twenty-one seasons salmon-fishing on the river
Godbout, north shore of the St. Lawrence, near Point des Monte, head of
the Gulf, missing only
one year in the
consecutive series. But Mr. Gilmour has not confined his travels to Canada
and the United States. He has been all over Scotland, through parts of
England, and in 1874-75 visited France, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, and
parts of Germany and Austria. He has also travelled in Egypt as far up as
the island of Philoe at the head of the first cataract, over which he ran
in a row boat of about 16 x 5 feet. None of his own party would join him
in the dangerous experiment, so, accompanied by five Nubians, he dared the
rapids and had a splendid run over them. He describes them as somewhat
resembling the St Lawrence rapids at Lachine and Long Sault. The old
tombs, temples and pyramids, most of which he visited, he found the most
interesting of all the remains of an ancient civilization that he had ever
looked upon; and "Wilkinson's Ancient Egypt" he says will be found to
contain the best accounts and. illustrations of these wonderful and most
interesting structures. Nothing, he declares, but a persona! examination
will convey an adequate idea of these monuments of the thought and the
civilization of that wonderful land. After spending about six weeks in
Egypt, he started away with six of his companions of the Nile trip for
Palestine, visiting the greater part of that hallowed land on horseback.
The route of travel commenced at Beirout and lay along the Mediterranean
shore to what remains of the cities of Sidon, Tyre, Acre, with Mount
Carmel; from this point he proceeded to Jaffa, thence to Solomon’s
Pools, Hebron, Bethlehem, along the Dead Sea, the Jordan, to Jericho
and the Fountains of Elisha. In Jerusalem and its neighbourhood the party
spent a week and thence returned to Jaffa, taking ship at that port for
Naples, the point from which they had started. The weather was propitious,
and the passage was marked by no mishap. Mr. Gilmour holds the rank of
major in the militia, though one frequently hears him named "Colonel
Gilrnour." He obtained his rank while drill and organization were
proceeding to
repel the threatened Fenian invasion. Mr. Gilmour was born and brought up
in the Presbyterian faith, Church of Scotland, but for a long time he has
been very much broad church,
thinking well of all denominations and creeds who exercise an influence
for good over the lives of their membership. Mr. Gilmour has always been a
lover of everything beautiful and grand in nature, and to this fact we
trace his admiration for art. For years he has purchased pictures that
attracted his taste, and he now has in his residence, overlooking the
Ottawa river, at the Capital, one of the best private collections of
pictorial art in Canada. Many of the pictures are the products of
first-class artists; and all classes of subjects are represented, from the
bare, majestic walls of Scandinavian fjords, with chill, clear water
rippling at their feet, to the soft, sensuous blue of Italian skies. Our
own scenery, that alternates so swiftly from gorgeousness to gloom, is not
neglected either; and there is hardly a picture in the collection that
will not delight whomsoever has the true instinct and the gift to
appreciate. In his handsome residence, so beautified with art, Mr. Gilmour
spends his most enjoyable hours, devoting himself to reading, and the
recreations of a cultured retirement. Those who have the pleasure of
enjoying the personal friendship of the subject of this sketch could not
say enough to you of the generosity of his heart, and of his fine and
manly character. |
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Canadian Scottish History
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