Calgary Alberta - I felt privileged when Doug Cass the director of library and archives at the Glenbow Museum, allowed me to hold a significant document with close ties to one of the key events in Canadian history, the Pacific Scandal.
 
Cass has repatriated a large amount of printed material and photographs in his 40 years of service to the Glenbow, but this one is a gem that dates back to the pre-building of the transcontinental railway and caused the fall of the government.
 
The document, held by the family of George W. McMullen since it was written in 1871, came to the attention of Cameron Treleaven, proprietor of Aquila antiquarian bookstore on 16th Avenue N.W. in Calgary.
 
Treleaven was alerted to its whereabouts by an American book dealer friend who had been asked to appraise it.
 
Not being an expert on Canadian history he suggested the family contact Treleaven.
 
Realizing its significance, he was determined to bring it back to Canada.
 
Although approached by a private collector, he felt it had to belong to the Glenbow's archives and was able to negotiate the sale.
 
McMullen was a businessman born in Picton, Ontario, who moved with his brothers to Chicago and became closely aligned with a group of powerful American entrepreneurs behind the Northern Pacific Railroad.
 
Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, who had promised a railway to British Columbia, had aligned himself with Montreal business tycoon Sir Hugh Allan.
 
Allan collaborated with McMullen and his U.S. partners and schemed to control the railway.
 
They formed a syndicate to pledge the funds but also provided a sum of $300,000 to support Macdonald's election campaign.
 
The prime minister made promises he couldn't keep and after the decision was made to give the railway contract to a Canadian group the Americans made their support public and the government fell to the Pacific Scandal.
 
The 1871 syndicate prospectus is an eight-page document signed by all of the shareholders, Allan is listed with $1,450,000, and it was offered to the Canadian National Archives in 1936 for $1,000.
 
The family was told they would accept it as a donation but could not afford to buy it.
 
It has remained in the family ever since and research by Cass with the families of other signatories could not unearth another copy.
 
Treleaven delivered the document plus photos and other memorabilia and the McMullen family bible to the Glenbow.
 
Its vast collection of CPR material in Library and Archives includes records of the sales of homesteads and urban lands, development of natural resources, group settlement of ethnic communities across the prairies, and other ancillary operations of the railway.
 
Treleaven is respected in the world of antiquarian booksellers as a knowledgeable dealer and through his contacts and tenacity has been able to bring other notable treasures back to this country.
 
David Parker.
 
Editor's Note:  Article abridged - non-railway related data removed.