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October 31, 2008The Mattawa Timmins Family in
Perspective
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Mattawa has more than its share of
remarkable people from the past and I have written about several. Some stayed
and some moved on to make their name. The
Timmins family left Mattawa to become some of the best known mining
entrepreneurs in Canadian history amassing great fortunes. Noah Timmins Sr.
(died in 1887) is recorded as one of three originals in Mattawa along with James
Bangs and a Mr. Gorman. Noah Timmins Sr. established a store opposite the
current Mattawa Post Office on the left as you cross
the bridge. When he died his sons Noah Jr. and Henry took over.
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The Timmins’ Store on the main
street of Mattawa in its early days and now. D. Mackey |
Noah & Henry were friends with
Mattawa lawyer David A. Dunlop and they spent a lot of time together as
sportsmen and amateur geologists. They were aware of the potential of mining
and were friends with Dr. Willet Miller who later became Ontario Chief
Geologist. There is a lot of mythology about how silver was found at Cobalt by
Fred Larose in 1903 and how the Timmins’ got
involved. A 2003 Canadian Silver dollar depicts the story that Larose threw a
hammer to chase a fox away and found silver when he picked up the hammer.
One story
repeated in several sources tells of Fred Larose stopping at the Timmins’ store
in Mattawa on his way to Ottawa for a vacation. He showed Noah Timmins some
silver nuggets and the next day after a restless night Noah
contacted his brother Henry who was in Ottawa and told him to find Larose in
Hull and make a partnership deal.
After knocking on doors for several
hours Henry found Larose and became a ¼ partner for $3,500. Larose was a
blacksmith on the new Temiskaming and Northern Railway being built through
Cobalt as it would eventually be called. Larose asked his bosses the
McMartins if he could prospect a bit and they said
OK if they got half.
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The Larose Mine owners - First Silver Kings of
Cobalt and Timmins Gold Kings , Duncan
McMartin (back L) and Henry Timmins, Centre John
McMartin and front Noah Timmins (L) and David Dunlap. Submitted photo |
When there was a dispute over
Larose’s claim lawyer David Dunlap was brought in and won the case and was cut
in for 20%. This short article cannot tell the full story of the future success
of the Timmins’ and Dunlap but some highlights
can be noted.
Noah Timmins wrote and article in
1934 a year before he died in which he told about the Cobalt experience. He
went to the local bank and asked for a loan of $5,000. After a long delay he
was turned down for lack of collateral. The Larose mine did get an initial
shaft dug far enough to get a couple of boxcars of ore which they took to the
U.S. for smelting. When they came back with a
$50,000 check they went to the bank manager who said he did not have enough
money to cash the cheque. Timmins said he didn’t want to cash the cheque he
just wanted to tell the manager that the collateral he turned down cut him out
of any further business with the Timmins.
When the Larose group were sitting
around one evening they decided to come up with a name for the area. Dr. Miller
who was visiting suggested Cobalt and they agreed, made a sign and nailed it to
a tree. The Timmins’ and David Dunlap became
multi-millionaires.
An interesting extension of the story
centres on the fact that Noah and Henry’s sister married a Dr. Pare who had two
sisters that eventually married Noah and Henry. The
Timmins sister had a son named Alphonse who at 24 years of
age happened to be in Porcupine territory in the very early days of gold
discovery there. He contacted Noah and the Cobalt group and told them about a
find. All except Noah weren’t interested but Noah made a deal. He bought out
Benny Hollinger and Noah and his Cobalt partners who
later came onboard created the Hollinger mine which in the next 68 years took
out more gold by far than any other of the dozens of mines in the area.
( Mines were often named after their discoverer who
often was not involved in the mines development). Again, a group wanted a name
and chose Timmins in recognition of the Timmins’ contribution.
Noah went on to establish and finance
many other projects. He was inducted in the
Canadian Business Hall of Fame for his “innovative genius, adroitness, risk
taking and entrepreneurial spirit.”
Henry Timmins did not get as much
credit but his son Jules did. The 1901 Census for Mattawa lists 4 children for
Henry including 12 year old Jules. Jules (1889-1971) went on to get a degree in
mining engineering at McGill and became the President of Hollinger when Noah
died. He was the driving force behind iron ore development in
Quebec including a 350 mile railway to Sept
Illes and founded the highly successful Iron Ore
Company of Canada. He received the Blayloch Medal
of the Canadian Institute of Metalurgy, an OBE
(Order of the British Empire Medal), honorary doctorates from Queens & McGill
and was inducted into the
Canadin Business Hall of Fame because “he made his place as one of the
big builders of the nation”.
Next week I will look at the
Timmins contribution to the town of Mattawa after
their departure and some other footnotes to this story. I recently wrote about
David Dunlaps life in Snake Creek, Quebec 12 miles
north of Mattawa where he created a remarkable estate and was a part of the
Shahwandahgooze Club that continues today in other
hands.Our recent excursion
there,and to their former
Memewin Lodge, provided an interesting look at that
era. The Dunlap Astronomicl
Obsevatory was built in his memory.For
further information on the Timmins
Google their name on the computer.
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