HAZLEWOOD, SAMUEL, civil engineer and surveyor; b. in 1822 at Newtonbarry, Wexford, Ireland; d. 11 Jan. 1878, at Brockville, Ont.

Samuel Hazlewood was a land surveyor in Ireland, and had worked on the Ordnance Survey as well as on other public and private projects. This background meant that when he emigrated to Canada at the age of 29 he had little difficulty in finding employment in a country just beginning its era of railway expansion.

It is likely that Hazlewood first settled in the vicinity of Brockville, Canada West. On his arrival he worked on a survey of a projected railway from Prescott to Georgian Bay, and shortly afterwards on the proposed Grand Junction Rail-Road between Belleville and Peterborough. In 1852 Hazlewood was employed on the first survey of the Grand Trunk Railway. Various employments in his profession followed, including time spent with the private contracting firm of Peto, Brassey, and Betts.

Hazlewood again became involved in a major work in 1864. He worked on both the exploratory survey and the preliminary survey of the Intercolonial Railway, and acted as one of the four district engineers during the construction of the road between 1868 and 1874. After its completion he was appointed district engineer for a portion of the Canadian Pacific Railway route under construction between Thunder Bay and Rat Portage (now Kenora). This was to be an “amphibious route,” so named because it would use a combined water and rail system along the “Dawson Road,” which had been explored and surveyed by Simon J. Dawson* and used as a route for immigrants and soldiers. Hazlewood was specifically in charge of the Fort Frances Canal Works located at the foot of Rainy Lake. In 1878, the year of Hazlewood’s death, the route was abandoned, although the canal was almost finished, in favour of the present more northerly route.

Anne E. F. Sniderman

PAO, Historical Branch, “Historical plaque to commemorate the Fort Frances Canal.” Revised record, engineers and their assistants employed on public works, Canada, 1779 to 1890 ([Ottawa], n.d.). Dom. ann. reg., 1878.