Item 0032 - Letter, 23 December 1889

William Cornelius van Horne was born on February 3, 1843, near Frankfort, Illinois and died on September 11, 1915, in Montreal. He was the eldest child of Cornelius Covenhoven Van Horne and Mary Minier Richards. In 1867, Van Horne married Lucy Hurd, they had three children. Van Horne began working on railroads in 1857, serving in various capacities on the Michigan Central Railway from 1858 to 1864 and then on the Chicago and Alton Railway from 1864 to 1872. He served as the general superintendent of the Chicago and Alton Railway from 1878 to 1879. In 1882 he was appointed general manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway, became vice-president in 1884, and president in 1888, overseeing the construction of the first Canadian transcontinental railroad. Van Horne later invested in the Cuba Railroad Company, which built the first trans-country railway connecting Havana with the two eastern provinces of Camaguey and Oriente in 1901. He presided over the expansion of the CPR into the luxury hotel business and participated in the design of two of the most famous hotels in the chain, the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City and Chateau Lake Louise in Alberta. Van Horne also launched the sea transport division of the CPR, inaugurating a regular service between Vancouver and Hong Kong in 1891 on the Empress luxury liners. Van Horne was a governor of McGill University from 1895 to 1915. He was made honorary Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in Queen Victoria’s 1894 Birthday Honours. The Van Horne Institute based in Calgary is affiliated with the University of Calgary, Athabasca University, and the University of Alberta, and conducts research and policy studies related to all things carriage related, including rail, air, shipping, and road transportation. Van Horne was also a painter; his surviving works now reside in museums like the Montreal Museum of Fine Art.