r, succeeded in building in twenty years a
road from ocean to ocean, and in keeping it in their own hands through
all difficulties and vicissitudes.

Yet it is not exactly correct to say that they began in 1895. A long
apprenticeship had been served before that time. William Mackenzie and
Donald Mann, the leaders in this group, had both been trained in
railway construction. Both were Canadian-born; and had fared forth as
youths to make their way in the world. William Mackenzie, born at
Kirkfield, Ontario, in 1849, had been in turn school-teacher,
country-store keeper, and lumberman before a contract on the Victoria
Railway--part of the Midland--revealed his destiny. Donald Mann, born
four years later at Acton, Ontario, near James J. Hill's old home, had
been brought up for the Christian ministry, but by {184} twenty-one he
was foreman in a lumber camp. At twenty-five he joined in the first
rush to Winnipeg, and next year he undertook the first of many
contracts on the Canadian Pacific. William Mackenzie had also carried
through much work for this company. In 1886 the notable partnership of
Mackenzie and Mann was formed. The firm built the Calgary and
Edmonton, the Qu'Appelle, Long Lake and Saskatchewan, the Canadian
Pacific short line through Maine, and many minor railways. They
developed capacities which made each the complement of the
other--Mackenzie a master of finance, and Mann as successful in
extracting a subsidy from a politician as in driving ahead the work of
construction. Later Z. A. Lash, a shrewd and experienced corporation
lawyer, joined them, and the three, with able lieutenants, carried
through their ambitious plans without more than momentary pause, until
within sight of the goal.

It was in 1895 that William Mackenzie and Donald Mann, along with two
fellow-contractors, James Ross and H. S. Holt--it is noteworthy how
many Canadians eminent in finance and industry found their start in the
building of the Canadian Pacific--decided to buy some of the charters
of projected western {185} roads then going a-begging, and to build on
their own account. They secured the charter of the Lake Manitoba
Railroad and Canal Company, carrying a Dominion subsidy of 6000 acres a
mile for a line from Portage la Prairie to Lake Manitoba and Lake
Winnipegosis, and induced the Manitoba government to add a valuable
guarantee of bonds and exemption from taxes. In 1896 running rights
were secured over the track of