The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 9

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2017 OTTAWA CITIZEN A9 To mark the 150th anniversary of Confederation, we'd like to introduce you to some of the people who have shaped and built the National Capital. Today, we feature the last profile in our weekly John By l-t: ft n. sysis rrr- 4 a 1 a I Mystery of the age(s) Notmuch is known ofJohn By's personal life. Even the precise year of his birth is the subject of some debate. Records indicate that his parents, George and Mary, baptized a son, John, in Lambeth, England on Aug.

10, 1779. The Royal Engineers, meanwhile, listed By's year of birth as 1781, while the memorial inscription authorized by his second wife, Esther, indicates he was born in 1782 or '83. Biographer Mark Andrews argued in favour of the date promoted by By's wife, suggesting that the 1779 baptism record may have been for an earlier sibling, also named John, who died in infancy; it was not uncommon to reuse given names, and an affidavit prepared in the 1850s by aneighbour of the Bys states that five By chil dren died in infancy. Records from Lambeth also show a John By being buried there in 1775. Most sources including The Canadian Encyclopedia, the Dictionary of Canadian Biography andhistorian Robert Legget, use the 1779 date.

Grant Vogl.collections and exhibitions manager at the Bytown Mu scum, agrees, suggesting that Esther didn 't know his exact age. A cruiser navigates between boats and cruisers moored along the Rideau Canal, built at great human and financial THE CAPITAL BUILDERS SPENDING SCAPEGOAT Rideau Canal builder John By deserved better ife St lr Mil cost, john major don wrote a memorandum, or minute, following a meeting of the Lord Commissioners of the British Treasury, noting By's supposedly unauthorized cost overruns anddeman ding his recall and dismissal. By received his recall on Aug. 11, 1832, un aware that Parliament had asked for hi removal, or that a parliamentary committee had already heard testimony on cost overruns. He was never afforded the chance to defend himself to Parliament Notably, at every hearinghel over the six years he was in charge, By had been repeatedly exonerated of any wrongdoing.

Nonetheless, on Sept. 1, 1832, he handed command of the canal over to Maj. Bolton and soon set sail for England. Efforts to clear his name were futile. In 1833, By wrote to Gen.

Robert Pilkington, Inspector General of Fortifications, asking that he be honoured with "some public distinction as will show that my character as a soldier is without stain, and that I have not lost the confidence or good opinion of my Government." There is no record of Pilkington acting on By's request In early 1836, By suffered a stroke and, three days later, resigned his soul to his maker. His wife resigned hers two years after that, while their daughters followedin 1842 andl848. Both of By's gran ddaughtcrs died as youngsters. Within two decades of the canal's completion, By's branch of his family tree was extinguished. With no one championing his legacy, recognition for his accomplishments was slow in coming.

In 1915, two blocks from the demolished Sappers Bridge, the cornerstone of which was laid by Byin 1827, were erected in Major's Hill Parkin his honour, and in 1925 the Rideau Canal was designated a National Historic Site. In 1954, Colonel By Drive was named, and By was designated a National Historic Person by Can a-da's Historic Sites andMonuments Board. The dedicated to By owl ocated in Confederation Park was unveiled. Buildings, a school and the local civic holiday in August have subsequently been namedforhim, and a postage stamp bearing his likeness was issued in 1979. In 1971, 135 years after his death, a statue of John By, located in Major's Hill Park, was finally erected, while UNESCO in 2007 designated the canal aworldheri-tage site, noting that it meets the organization's first criteria: "to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius." Slowly, by increments, the capital i reel ai ming on of i ts greatest builders.

bdeachmanpostmedia.com We're doing a book! In partnership with Ottawa photographer John Mc-Quarrie, the Citizen's weekly Capital Builders series will be available as an attractive coffee-table book later this fall. Watch for more details in the coming weeks. TSh' concern that the estimate was inadequate, and his own first detailed estimate, in 1827, was close to 475,000. By was meticulous and transparent in his accounting and estimates as the project eventually reached 822,000, but the initial figure forever haunted By as the marker by which costs were measured. By, meanwhile, worked for, and answered to, the Ordnance Department, the enginceringandfortifica-tionsbranch of the British military.

Ordnance made annual requests to Parliament for project fun ding, but it was decided to source the canal work by contract, rather than have it done by Ordnance itself. According to historian Ken W. Watson, this improved efficiency and costs, but as contracts were typically awarded for an entire project and not on a ycar-by-year basis, By was instructed by Ordnance to simply plow ahead without concern for the annual parliamentary grants. Yet when By was later recalled to England to face charges that he had wilfully deceived Parli amen Ordnance remained largely silent on the matter, lest blame fall its way. By's reputation had already suffered a major blow when, in 1830, Henry Howard Burgess, a clerk in the canal's engineering office whom By had fired for repeated instances of insubordination and drunkenness, accused By of misuse of public funds.

A Court of Inquiry fully exonerated By, but the charge left an indelible mark. A perfect political storm was brewing. In 1830, a new government was elected in Britain, ending almost a quarter-century of Tory rule. While historians agree that construction of the canal would likely never have been approved by any government had its actual costs been known at the start, the newly elected Whigs decided to make By the whippingboy for what they saw as the problems of previous governments. On Friday, May 25, 1832, his canal completed, Lt-Col.

John By.his wife, Esther, and their two daughters, were aboard the 24-metrc steamboat Pumper renamed Rideau for the occasion enjoying an inaugural cruise on the canal from Kingston to Ottawa At locks alonghisjourney, crowds gathered to cheer as cannons thundered. That same day, a clerk in Lon BRUCE DEACHMAN LI. -Col. John By's death in England in 1836 was an ignoble end to a life unfairly stripped of its due recognition. Four years earlier, By had completed work on the Rideau Canal, among North America's most impressive feats of civil engineering.

He had also founded and laid out a town Bytown that would become the nation's capital. Yctinsteadof retiringwith the knighthoodheperhapshoped for, By endured his final days under a do ud of impropriety shapedbyu n-founded accusations and political expedience. Had he lived longer, By would have witnesscda further erosion of his legacy: Colonel's Hill, where his house overlooked the canal, was ren amed Maj or's Hill Park for By 's replacement, Maj. Daniel Bolton. In 1855, Bytown was renamed Ottawa.

In 1926, a small granite base for a statue of By was unveiled, but it would be 45 years before any statue appeared. The 202-kilometre Rideau Canal was built between 1826 and 1832 in the tense aftermath of the War of 1812 as an alternate military supply route between Upper and Lower Canada, should American forces blockade the St. Lawrence River between Kingston and Montreal. Its almost 50 locks (some ow combined) raise watercraft 83 metres from the Ottawa River to Newboro, then lower them 50 metres to Lake Ontario an Kingston. "By's greatest contribution to the Canal," wrote Mark Andrews in For King and Country, his 1998 biography of By, "and the reason for which he should be highly regarded, comes from his ability to mobilize, direct, andinstill a desire to succeed in all those who were involved.

Under his direction and guidance, the officers, contractors and workers overcame almost insurmountable obstacles in a wilderness environment and managed to complete the work in five short construction seasons." In September 1826, as he stood at Entrance Valley on the south side of the Ottawa River where the first lock was to be buil By faced a task every bit as daunting as the high cliffs thatsurrounded him. Theun-forgivingbedrock and clay soaring Zealous and distinguished in his profession, tender and affectionate as a husband and a father, charitable and pious as a Christian, beloved by his family and lamented by the poor, he resigned his soul to his Maker, in a full reliance on the merits of his blessed Redeemer, on the 1st February 1836, aged 53 years, after a long and painful illness brought on by his indefatigable zeal and devotion in the service of his King and Country, in Upper Canada. Inscription on a memorial to By, erected by his wife, Esther, in the Church of St Alban in Frant, England. in front of him gave way to miles and miles of precambrian rock, mosquito-infested swampland and thick forests, all wrapped in extreme climates that alternately baked and froze workers. The task itself was extremely dangerous.

An estimated 1,000 men died during construction of the canal, most from disease, including about 500 of malaria During the worst months of 1830, for example, from August through mid-September, almost 800 of the 1,300 men employed in the southern portion of the canal contracted malaria. Twenty-seven of them died, as did 13 women and 15 children. Additionally, many workers died in blasting explosions or were crushed by falling rocks or trees. John MacTaggart, then clerk of works for the canal, wrote, '1 have seen heads, arms, and legs, blown in all directions; and it is vain for overseers to warn them of their danger, for they will pay no attention." A half-acre parcel of land in what is now down town Ottawabe-came acemetcry for canal workers, as did other sites alongits route. As daunting as these challenges were, By's troubles began even before his 1826 appointment as superintending engineer for the canal.

One year earlier, the Smyth Commission's estimate for the canal's construction 169,000 after adjustments for larger locks was approvedby Britain. By expressed JOHN BY Circa 1779 Born in Lambeth, England to George and Mary By. 1799 Graduates from the Royal Military Academy and is transferred to the Royal Engineers. 1801 Marries Elizabeth Johnson Baines. 1802 Posted to Quebec City, and the following year begins reconstruction of the Cascades Canal on the St.

Lawrence River. 1811 Takes part in the Peninsular War in Portugal. 1812 Posted to the gunpowder works at Waltham Abbey, near London. 1814 Elizabeth By dies. 1818 Marries Esther March.

The couple has two daughters. 1826 Construction of the Rideau Canal is approved. By, appointed Commanding Royal Engineer, moves to Canada. Construction begins in the fall. 1828 The Kempt Commission approves By's expanded plan for the canal.

1831-32 A parliamentary committee in London investigates cost overruns for the canal. Meanwhile, a Bytown court hears and dismisses charges of misappropriation against By. 1832 The Rideau Canal is completed. By is ordered back to Britain. 1836 By dies, Feb.

1, in Frant, after suffering a stroke. Read more Canada 150 coverage atottawacitizen.comtagcanada-150.