Foley, Welch and Stewart
In 1897, Peter Larson, Patrick Welch, John (Jack) William Stewart, and the Foley Brothers formed an earthmoving alliance which performed grading during railroad construction.
[2] In 1898, Julius Bloedel and John Joseph Donovan partnered with him in establishing the Lake Whatcom Logging Co.[3] In 1905, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP) began building westward from Fort William, Ontario.
Anticipating that Prince Rupert, British Columbia, would become the terminus, Larson and Ed J. Matthews secured options on most of this land.
[5] In due course, the partners of Foley, Welch and Stewart received the contracts to build the Edmonton–Prince Rupert leg of the GTP.
Working westward, he reached Vancouver in 1885, where he felled trees during the layout of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) townsite.
[1] In the early 1870s, the brothers established a logging and sawmill operation in Benton County, Minnesota, which provided lumber for the westward extension of the Great Northern Railway (GN).
Stewart & Co partnership was awarded the Grand Forks–Phoenix branch line of the Vancouver, Victoria and Eastern Railway (VV&E), owned by GN.
[26] When the VV&E track reached Cannor in September 1916, the junction with the CNoR, GN acquired running rights on the Cannor–Hope leg.
[29] That month, a joint venture between P. Welch & Co and Northern Construction (NorCon) was awarded the 262-kilometre (163 mi) Hope–Kamloops leg of the CNoR in BC.
[37][38] Stewart took extended medical leave August 1912–August 1913, an extremely busy period for FW&S, when Welch divided his supervisory time between multiple major projects.
[44] Although construction began in October 1912, the first cost estimate was not prepared until late 1913, which revealed a $10 million projected funding shortfall.
[47] The announcement of an extension into the Peace Country was intended to soften the news of huge cost over-runs to date.
[48] Welch underwent a major operation and took medical leave November 1913–November 1915, while Stewart shouldered the daily responsibilities.
[49] Rather than reducing or suspending operations, which could have preserved almost 70 per cent of the bond money, the government continued releasing funds.
To avoid lengthy and expensive legal proceedings, FW&S agreed in February 1918 to hand over PGE assets and a cash payment of $750,000.
[57] Although released from all obligations and the dropping of government litigation, FW&S was allowed to retain ownership of the PGE Land Development Company.
[58] Although Welch had promised at the hearings to provide information on land sale profits, he instead relocated to Seattle with the corporate records.
[60] As second premier of the following Liberal administration, John Oliver engaged NorCon to extend the line northward to Quesnel.
[65] In July 1913, FW&S was awarded the CP Connaught Tunnel construction and connecting trackage by offering the lowest bid and earliest completion projection.
During this period, Stewart primarily operated as sole proprietor on a series of smaller railway upgrade projects.
[67] That year, Stewart and MacDonnell Ltd was established in the UK for the $17 million upgrade of harbour and railway infrastructure at Takoradi in the Gold Coast (later renamed Ghana).
[71] Experiencing delays before and after site work commenced in 1923,[72] the company was replaced in September 1924 by Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd, which completed the contract.
[76] That year, a former worker on the PGE project, who held Stewart at gunpoint demanding an $18,000 payment for an injury claim, was subsequently arrested for attempted robbery and carrying a concealed weapon.
