Yesterday's Print

Showing 8 posts tagged canadian pacific railway

A collection of old photographs, historic newspaper clippings and assorted excerpts highlighting the parallels of past and present. Featuring weird, funny and baffling headlines, articles and advertisements! Visit www.yesterdays-print.com 

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Eva Onderdonk, Ottawa, Ontario, ca. 1893

The second picture shows Eva in the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader in December 1891, in an article titled Fair Chicago Maidens, an article that ran in many different newspapers across the country.

The third picture shows Eva in the Inter Ocean, a Chicago newspaper, in 1894, shortly before her wedding.

The fourth picture shows a clipping from the The Decatur Herald on February 11, 1892, in an article describing Chicago debutantes who were interested in charity work, another girl showcased was Florence Pullman, heiress of George M Pullman.

The fifth picture, again from the the Inter Ocean, shows Eva after her marriage, published on June 3, 1894.

The sixth photo, taken around 1885, shows a private passenger train car named after Eva, used to show visiting dignitaries and other VIPs the railroad while it was being constructed.

Eva was a daughter of Andrew Onderdonk, an American contractor who had a hand in building the seawall in San Francisco and the Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia. His role in the construction of the CPR is rather controversial, he “imported” thousands of Chinese workers from China and California for work on the railroad, giving them substandard shelter, pay and medical care while they did highly dangerous work, and then left them without help to either settle in Canada or move home, some living in caves with little food or water, when the railroad was complete.

Eva, at 19, married Percy Leroy Fearn on May 29, 1894, in Chicago, where her family had settled soon after the completion of the CPR railroad in BC. Her society debut took place in 1893, amid much fanfare. At the time of their marriage, Fearn’s father was a judge on the International Commission in Cairo. As far as I can tell, Eva and Percy had no children. He died in Texas in 1916.

Buyers lined up around the block to purchase Shaughnessy Heights lots from the Canadian Pacific Railway, Vancouver, 1909 (Named after CPR president Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, with its main streets bearing the names of the CPR’s board of directors; the...   High-res

Buyers lined up around the block to purchase Shaughnessy Heights lots from the Canadian Pacific Railway, Vancouver, 1909

(Named after CPR president Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, with its main streets bearing the names of the CPR’s board of directors; the CPR spent over a million dollars developing the Shaughnessy Heights land before the lots were even put up for sale. In order to purchase a lot, you had to agree that the house you built would be worth at least $6000, six times the price of an average home, and even then, the CPR had the right to reject any designs they didn’t like. Despite all this, look at that line!)

Buyers lined up around the block to purchase Shaughnessy Heights lots from the Canadian Pacific Railway, Vancouver, 1909 (Named after CPR president Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, with its main streets bearing the names of the CPR’s board of directors; the...   High-res

Buyers lined up around the block to purchase Shaughnessy Heights lots from the Canadian Pacific Railway, Vancouver, 1909

(Named after CPR president Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, with its main streets bearing the names of the CPR’s board of directors; the CPR spent over a million dollars developing the Shaughnessy Heights land before the lots were even put up for sale. In order to purchase a lot, you had to agree that the house you built would be worth at least $6000, six times the price of an average home, and even then, the CPR had the right to reject any designs they didn’t like. Despite all this, look at that line!)