Fonds glen-719 - James Kennedy Cornwall fonds

James Kennedy Cornwall, 1869-1955, was born in Brantford, Ontario. He came to Alberta in 1896 and spent two years in railway construction in the Crowsnest Pass. He was briefly lured to the Yukon during the gold rush, and returned via the Peace River country. He settled in the area, trapped, and later opened a string of fur trading posts in partnership with W.F. Bredin. When these were sold to the Revillon Freres in 1906, he formed the Northern Transportation Company, which ran steamships on the Athabasca and Slave Rivers and Lesser Slave Lake. From 1908 to 1912 he sat in the Alberta Legislature as the Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Peace River. He recognized the agricultural possibilities of Peace River and actively promoted the region. In 1910 he invited and escorted a group of prominent writers and agriculturalists through the as yet unsettled district. He was known as "Peace River Jim". He was officer commanding of the 8th Battalion, Canadian Railway Troops, CEF during First World War. During the 1920s and 1930s he was also president of the Athabasca Shipping Company which ran steamships on the Mackenzie River and adjoining lakes. During his travels he collected original records from Fort Resolution, a Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) fur trading post on the south shore of Great Slave Lake, NWT. He married Evelyn Beatrice Tierney in 1908, and they had three children James Anthony, 1922-1944, Catherine Peace (Hudson), 1911-?, and Norah (Pollard), 1913- . The family was based in Victoria although Jim spent most of his time in the north.