![]() ![]() Disputes among the principals led to the dismissal of Gladman the following spring and to the splitting of the organization into two autonomous divisions, one headed by Hind, the other by Dawson. George Gladman* was named director of the enterprise, and geologist Henry Youle Hind was to conduct scientific studies en route. The appointment most crucial to Simon Dawson’s career was that of surveyor to the expedition being organized by the government in 1857 to explore the country between Lake Superior and the Red River. It seems likely that his early government appointments were secured through the influence of his brother William McDonell Dawson, superintendent of the woods and forests branch of the Crown Lands Department and later a member of the Legislative Assembly, who was closely tied to the Toronto business group then urging westward expansion. His years of service with French Canadian work-crews and native boatmen gave rise to an understanding that he was to express later in regions far removed from Lower Canada. By 1851 he had entered the Department of Public Works and was stationed at Trois-Rivières. Several of his brothers found work in the Ottawa valley lumbering industry during the 1840s Simon was employed by Gilmour and Company, first in the Pembroke region and then on survey work near Peterborough. Most of the Dawson family immigrated to Nepean Township near Bytown (Ottawa) in 1836, though Simon James Dawson appears to have remained in Scotland longer. 13 June 1818 in Redhaven, near Portsoy, Scotland, tenth child and eighth son of John Dawson and Anne McDonell d. ![]() Source: Library and Archives Canada/MIKAN 3415583ĭAWSON, SIMON JAMES (baptized James Simon), surveyor, engineer, office holder, and politician b.
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