John Rudolphus Booth - Early Life

Early Life

J. R. Booth was born on a farm at Lowes near Waterloo (Shefford County) in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. His parents, John and Eleanor Rowley Booth, Irish immigrants, had a number of children (variously reported as 5, 6 and 8). J. R. Booth left the family farm at the age of 21 and got a job as a carpenter with the Central Vermont Railroad.

In 1852 he married Rosalinda Cook and moved to the Ottawa valley. His first business venture was a machine shop in Hull, Quebec which later burned down. He then opened a successful shingle factory. Later he accumulated enough money to lease (then buy) a small sawmill near the Chaudière Falls. He established his own lumber company and won the contract to supply wood for the Parliament buildings at the new Canadian capital in Ottawa, Ontario, selected by Queen Victoria in 1858.

Harvesting timber from the upper Ottawa River and its tributaries, Booth expanded his timber limits into the Lake Nipissing region in 1881. In order to reach his Ottawa mills, Booth constructed a five and a half mile railway to carry sawlogs over the portage from Lake Nipissing to the headwaters of the Mattawa.

In 1867, he purchased, at a very reasonable price, the timber rights of John Egan's 250 square miles (650 km2) of pine on the Madawaska River in what is now Algonquin Park. For the next 50 years Booth harvested this land as well as other extensive tracts in northern and central Ontario. Often going there in his own private Railcar, and working beside his men during the day and on business affairs most of the night, seldom sleeping for more than a few hours.