Casimir Gzowski

Casimir Gzowski

Sir Casimir Stanislaus Gzowski , KCMG (born March 5, 1813 in Saint Petersburg , Russian Empire as Kazimierz Stanisław Gzowski , † August 24, 1898 in Toronto , Ontario ) was a Canadian engineer of Polish descent. After the failed November uprising of 1830, he came to North America, where he initially worked as a lawyer and later as an engineer. As an entrepreneur, he carried out numerous construction projects in Canada, including a significant section of the Grand Trunk Railway . From 1896 to 1897 he was interim lieutenant governor of the province of Ontario.

biography

He was the eldest son of Count Stanisław Gzowski, a captain of the bodyguard of Tsar Alexander I. Since he was to pursue a military career like his father, he received his education at the renowned Lyceum in Krzemieniec . Gzowski joined the Polish November uprising of 1830 and was captured by Austria . After more than two and a half years as a prisoner of war, he and 263 other inmates were deported to North America. In November 1834, Gzowski arrived in New York . He came to terms with the new situation with the help of organizations in exile, learned English and found a job in a law firm in Massachusetts .

In 1837 Gzowski took on the US citizenship. After a brief stint as a lawyer in Pennsylvania , he decided to draw on his experience as a military engineer and built a section of the Erie Railroad . In 1841 he moved to Canada to carry out government projects in southern Ontario , including the restoration of the Welland Canal , the expansion of Yonge Street and numerous roads and bridges. In 1842 he and his family settled in London (Ontario) . In 1846 he became a British citizen in order to get more orders more easily.

In 1849, the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad Railroad , founded by Alexander Tilloch Galt , employed Gzowski as the new chief engineer, as they had been dissatisfied with the previous construction work. For this purpose, Gzowski founded the company CS Gzowski & Co. in his new home in Sherbrooke . In 1852 it was awarded the contract to build the Toronto - Guelph line . A year later, the Atlantic and St. Lawrence merged with several other projects to form the Grand Trunk Railway and Gzowski continued building beyond Guelph to Sarnia . With modern planning methods, he was able to keep costs well below budget, which he and his fellow shareholders made a substantial profit. In 1855, however, the project to build a waterfront in Toronto failed when the city authorities canceled the contract because of Gzowski's conflict of interests.

From his new headquarters on Toronto's Bay Street , Gzowski built various branches of the Grand Trunk Railway in southwestern Ontario, as well as a line from Port Huron to Detroit . As the railway boom gradually subsided, he diversified into real estate trading and the construction of industrial plants. His last major project was the International Railway Bridge opened in 1873 from Fort Erie over the Niagara River to Buffalo . John Macdonald's offer to run in the general election in 1867 was firmly turned down by Gzowski, as he wanted nothing to do with politics. But he was a member of various state commissions. Queen Victoria knighted him in 1890. After the health-related resignation of George Airey Kirkpatrick , Gzowski was interim lieutenant governor from November 7, 1896 until he handed this representative office over to Oliver Mowat on November 18, 1897 .

Web links

• Casimir Gzowski . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).