Donald Mann

{{Short description|Canadian railway entrepreneur (1853–1934)}} {{for|the New Zealand rugby player|Don Mann}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = Sir | name = Donald Mann | image = DonaldMann.jpg | alt = | caption = Donald D. Mann (1907){{sfn|Fraser|1907|p=540}} | birth_name = Donald Daniel Mann | birth_date = {{Birth date|1853|03|23}} | birth_place = Acton, Canada West | death_date = {{Death date and age|1934|11|10|1853|03|23}} | death_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada | resting_place = Acton, Ontario, Canada | spouse = {{marriage |Jane Emily Williams|March 1887||end=}}<ref>{{cite news |author= |date= March 24, 1887|title= Personals|url= http://news.haltonhills.halinet.on.ca/84756/page/2|newspaper= The Acton Free Press|page=2 }}</ref> (1858-1945) | occupation = Entrepreneur | years_active = | known_for = Canadian Northern Railway<br/>Toronto Suburban Railway | notable_works = }} '''Sir Donald Daniel Mann''' (March 23, 1853 – November 10, 1934), who was also referred to as "Dan" or "D.D." before his knighthood,<ref name="Elstone1980"/> was a Canadian railway contractor and entrepreneur.

==Biography== Born at Acton, Canada West, Mann studied as a Methodist minister but worked in lumber camps in Parry Sound District and Michigan for eight years{{sfn|Fraser|1907|p=542}} before moving to Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1879.<ref name="FPobit"/> During the 1880s he worked as a contractor for the Canadian Pacific Railway under James Ross and Herbert Samuel Holt, building sections of rail across the prairies and through the Rocky Mountains.<ref name="FPobit"/>

Partnering with William Mackenzie in 1886,<ref name="FPobit"/> Mann built railway lines in Western Canada, Maine, and Chile. They also went to China to pursue opportunities, but found the red tape there too great an obstacle to overcome.<ref name="FPobit"/> While there, he was challenged to a duel by a Russian count, who later withdrew when Mann advised him that he would choose to use the broadaxe, claiming it to be Canada's national weapon.<ref name="FPobit"/>

By 1895, the effects of the CPR monopoly on freight rates in Western Canada, together with its refusal to build branch lines into the northern prairie, prompted Clifford Sifton to offer federal bond guarantees to any other enterprise that wished to construct railways there.<ref name="ECcnor">{{cite encyclopedia |url= http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-northern-railway-feature/|title= Canadian Northern Railway|author= |encyclopedia= The Canadian Encyclopedia}}</ref> Mackenzie and Mann took up the offer, and began the process of purchasing and building such lines.<ref name="ECcnor"/> They would later be consolidated in 1898 to become the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR), a line which would stretch from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, to Montreal,<ref>{{cite news |author= |title= Final Work on C.N.R. Before End of Year|url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=400&dat=19141106&id=DT4wAAAAIBAJ&pg=5792,3419737&hl=en|newspaper= The Journal of Commerce|location= Montreal|date= November 6, 1914 }}</ref> with other unconnected lines as far east as Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, which would form Canada's second transcontinental railway system.<ref name="ECcnor"/> The CNoR would be the first railway to reach Edmonton, Alberta, and the full line was completed in 1915, upon the driving of the last spike in Basque, British Columbia.<ref name="ECcnor"/> In recognition of their contributions to the development of Canada's railways, both Mann and Mackenzie were knighted in 1911.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue= 28469|date= 24 February 1911|page=1462}}</ref>

Financial difficulties eventually resulted in the insolvency of the CNoR. It was nationalized by the federal government on September 6, 1918,<ref>as a consequence of arbitration under {{Cite canlaw|short title =An Act providing for the acquisition by His Majesty of the capital stock of the Canadian Northern Railway Company|abbr =S.C.|year =1917|chapter = 24|link= https://archive.org/stream/actsofparl1917v01cana#page/130/mode/2up}}</ref> and became the Canadian National Railway.<ref>{{Cite canlaw|short title =An Act to incorporate Canadian National Railway Company and respecting Canadian National Railways|abbr =S.C.|year =1919|chapter = 13|link= https://archive.org/stream/actsofparl1919v01cana#page/36/mode/2up}}</ref>

Mann developed other business opportunities on his own, which included coal mines and a related railway in Inverness County, Nova Scotia, the Winnipeg Street Railway, and multiple public utilities in Monterrey, Mexico.{{sfn|Fraser|1907|p=543}}

Mann turned to oil drilling. He leased land in the Township of Vaughan, near the village of Concord, and sank a well in November 1922. In the spring of 1928, instead of oil, he found mineral water. Under the name Ontario Mineral Waters Ltd. he bottled and sold it as a health tonic named "Raysol Radium Water" effective against a variety of ailments including diabetes, angina, tuberculosis and rheumatism. $1 a bottle or $3 a gallon. The venture failed ostensibly because the water was very salty.<ref>Raysol: radium in solution, Ontario Mineral Waters, Ltd., Northern Ontario Building, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. [Oct. 24, 1929]{{nonspecific|date=February 2017}}</ref>

Mann died in 1934 at the age of 81, and was buried at Fairview Cemetery in Acton.<ref name="FPobit">{{cite news |author= |title= Sir Donald Mann Died on Saturday|url= http://news.haltonhills.halinet.on.ca/87252/page/1|newspaper= The Acton Free Press |date= November 15, 1934|page= 1}}</ref>

==Legacy== In 1969, a park was named for Sir Donald Mann in Acton, Ontario, the land of which once formed part of the farm on which he grew up.<ref>{{cite news |author= |date= March 5, 1969|title= Patricia Jordan names Sir Donald Mann Park|url= http://news.haltonhills.halinet.on.ca/89085/page/1|newspaper= The Acton Free Press|page=1 }}</ref> It is adjacent to the CNR track, and not far away from the former right of way once occupied by the Toronto Suburban Railway controlled by Mackenzie and Mann.

He, along with Mackenzie, was inducted into the Canadian Railway Hall of Fame in 2002.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.railfame.ca/sec_ind/leaders/en_2002_MannD.asp|title= Sir Donald Mann (2002)|author= |access-date= February 21, 2017|website= railfame.ca|publisher= Canadian Railway Hall of Fame|archive-date= September 14, 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150914212807/http://www.railfame.ca/sec_ind/leaders/en_2002_MannD.asp|url-status= dead}}</ref>

He is also known for the Mann Cup, the trophy awarded to the senior men's lacrosse champions of Canada.<ref name="Elstone1980">{{cite news |last= Elstone|first= Eric|date= September 17, 1980|title= Mann Cup donor just a capitalist?|url= http://news.haltonhills.halinet.on.ca/2314227/page/2|newspaper= The Acton Free Press|page=1 }}</ref> The cup is made of solid gold, and it was donated in 1910.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Glory of the Mann Cup|url=https://insidelacrosse.com//article/the-glory-of-the-mann-cup/804|access-date=2020-10-14|website=insidelacrosse.com}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}} * {{cite book| last=Fraser| first=Alexander| date=1907| title=A history of Ontario: Its Resources and Development| chapter=Donald D. Mann| chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofontario01frasuoft#page/n609/mode/2up| location=Toronto and Montreal| publisher=The Canada History Company Limited| volume=I| pages=540–544| via=Archive.org}}

==Further reading== * {{cite book |last= Regehr|first= Theodore D.|date= 1976|title= The Canadian Northern Railway: Pioneer Road of the Northern Prairies, 1895-1918 |location= Toronto|publisher= Macmillan of Canada|isbn= 0-7705-1285-2}}

==External links== * {{cite web |url= http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/mann_d.shtml|title= Donald Mann (1853-1934)|author= |publisher= Manitoba Historical Society}} * {{cite encyclopedia |url= http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/sir-donald-mann|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120922064635/http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/sir-donald-mann|url-status= dead|archive-date= September 22, 2012|title= Sir Donald Mann|author= |encyclopedia= The Canadian Encyclopedia}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mann, Donald}} Category:Canadian businesspeople Category:Canadian Knights Bachelor Category:People from Halton Hills Category:1853 births Category:1934 deaths Category:Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) Category:Canadian people in rail transport

Donald Mann

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