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Title Correspondence Regarding the Appointment of Alexander Begg as Customs Collector at fort Garry, Manitoba, 1869-1870
Date 28 Sep 1869 - 5 Feb 1870
Document Type Correspondence
Reference M-74-17
Library / Archive Glenbow Museum
Collection Name Alexander Begg Fonds
Description Alexander Beggs is selected to go to the new Red River Settlement to organise the Inland Revenue Service.
Series Description From Series 1 – Textual records, (1843-1914). The series is broken down into 53 sections and consists of biographical information, letters written by and to Alexander Begg, Dunbow Ranche records, letters from his son Magnus Begg, correspondence of his wife Emily, and miscellaneous personal papers.
Biographical Note / History Alexander Begg (1825-1905), was born in Scotland, where he received a teaching diploma. In 1846, he emigrated to Ontario where he resumed teaching. In 1854, he turned to journalism and established a number of newspapers. He married Emily Maria Luke (d. 1930) in 1858 and they had 11 children. One of their sons, Magnus, became agent at the Blackfoot (Siksika) Indian Agency in Alberta. For a number of years Alexander was employed by the Department of Internal Revenue and was Collector of Customs for the North-West Territories in 1869. In 1872 he was appointed Emigration Commissioner in Scotland for the Province of Ontario and persuaded thousands of crofters to settle in Canada. He later attempted to promote a similar scheme as Commissioner for the British Columbia government but this was abandoned as impractical. In the 1870s he established a temperance colony at Parry Sound and Beggsboro. In 1881, he visited the West as a Toronto Mail correspondent. He then acquired the Dunbow Ranche near Davisburg and High River, Alberta in 1883. In 1887 he moved to Victoria where he and three of his sons later formed the Stickeen and Teslin Railway, Navigation and Colonization Co. The following year he was employed by the Dominion Government to assist in defining the Canada-Alaska border. He retired to New York City in 1903.
Theme(s) Politics, Legislation and Governance
Places Manitoba, Canada
People Begg, Alexander
Keywords settlement, government
Additional Information Selections of this series are included in this project. This document is part 17. Please note: Some of the metadata for this document has been taken from the Glenbow Museum catalogue.
Language English
Document(s) linked to Letters from Alexander Begg at the Hudson's Bay Company Post at Pembina to his Wife, 1869
Copyright Glenbow Museum