Peter McKellar

Peter McKellar
Occupation	Geologist, prospector, businessman
Father	Duncan McKellar
Mother	Margaret Brodie
Partner	Carlotta Spence
Siblings	Archie McKellar Donald McKellar John McKellar Kate McKellar Robert Watson Brodie

Peter McKellar, F.G.S., was a geologist, prospector, and businessman of Fort William, one of the earliest mineral prospectors on the north shore of Lake Superior, and the founding president of the Thunder Bay Historical Society.

Family

McKellar was a son of Captain Duncan McKellar and Margaret Brodie, and a brother of John McKellar, the first mayor of Fort William, and of Donald McKellar. He married Carlotta Spence, a teacher at Central School, Fort William. He was listed in the 1894 directory as an agent residing at 189 Front Street, Fort William.

Mining and exploration

In May 1865, with his brother Donald McKellar, McKellar discovered an important vein of galena near Black Bay — the deposit they developed and sold as the Enterprise Mine. In 1868 he discovered Mount Garnet, some twenty-five miles up the Current River. He set out the early history of mineral discovery in the district in his pamphlet Mining on the North Shore of Lake Superior (1874), and was a fellow of the Geological Society (F.G.S.).

Thunder Bay Historical Society

McKellar was a founding member and the first president of the Thunder Bay Historical Society in 1908, and continued as president through much of the following decade. He originated the Hudson Bay memorial tablet at Fort William, marking the 1821 amalgamation of the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company; the granite obelisk was unveiled in 1916 by Sir George E. Foster after three years of his effort.

He contributed numerous papers to the Society's Annuals, among them "The Fort William Ice Jam and Port Arthur Ice Shove", "The Thunder Bay Harbor", "The Otter Head Tin Swindle", "Early Mining", "Prehistoric Relics", and "Fort William's Early Newspapers". He also donated historical documents to the Society, including an 1847 pamphlet arguing the advantages of Thunder Bay over Nipigon Bay as the Lake Superior railway terminus.

Public life

In the 1870s McKellar was one of the health officers for Prince Arthur's Landing and Neebing, and took an active part in the campaign to secure the Lake Superior terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway for Thunder Bay.

In the Papers of the Thunder Bay Historical Society

Peter McKellar figures prominently across multiple volumes of the Papers of the Thunder Bay Historical Society. A biographical sketch by Florence N. Sherk records that he was born in Middlesex County, Ontario on 27 April 1838.

Mining explorations

As early as 1864, McKellar was engaged by a company comprising Messrs. Walbridge, Herrick, and John McIntyre (Hudson's Bay Company officer) to conduct mining explorations in the Thunder Bay district; he was to receive one third of the profits and took his brothers John McKellar and Donald McKellar into partnership. The mine-place register compiled by M. J. L. Black credits McKellar and Donald McKellar with the discovery of the Enterprise Mine on Black Bay in 1865. In 1866 he discovered the Thunder Bay Mine, situated approximately two and a half miles northeast of the mouth of the Current River; the mine was developed to the point that a small village formed around it, but the settlement was destroyed by fire in 1873 and again in 1881. In 1872 he discovered the Huronian Mine at Jack Fish Lake near Shebandowan, identified by Black as the first gold mine in that part of the country. A later account in the same volume describes the Huronian discovery as the first important vein of gold found in Ontario and dates it to 1870.

In 1869 McKellar was placed in charge of the second party for the survey of Lake Nipigon, appointed by Dr. Bell, F.R.G.S., who was second in command of the Geological Survey of Canada; the following year Dr. Bell engaged him to lead the survey of Black Bay, White River, Whitefish Lake, the Little Pic River, and the Slate River. He served as superintendent of the Huronian Gold Mine from 1882 to 1884, and as superintendent of exploration and development for the Toronto and Western Mines Development Company in the Seine River and Lake of the Woods district from 1897 to 1898.

Geological and scientific work

McKellar provided M. J. L. Black with the Anishinaabe name for Mount McKay, which he gave as Anamikiewakchu, meaning Thunder Mountain. His literary output included several brochures on mining and geology presented before scientific societies; one of these, The Framework of the Earth, was read before the annual meeting of the American Geological Society at Chicago in 1920. He also devised a rock breaker and pulveriser and a rotary engine.

Thunder Bay Historical Society

McKellar was the organizer and first president of the Thunder Bay Historical Society. The society held meetings at his home; the 1923 volume records that on 11 July of that year members were guests of Mr. and Mrs. Peter McKellar, where they met L. J. Burpee. He also presented a paper to the society titled "The Little Pic Silver Mine", delivered across two meetings on 27 October and 29 December. By the 1924–1925 volume he is described as past president and honorary president of the society.

Historic cairn unveilings, 1927

At the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation ceremonies in 1927, McKellar — described as the pioneer citizen who was residing in Thunder Bay at the time Confederation took place — was accorded an honoured role in the city's demonstration. He and his sister Mrs. Deacon officiated at the unveiling of two historic cairns erected by the Department of the Interior on the recommendation of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. At one ceremony he rose to address the assembly and recounted personal experiences travelling the same routes as the early traders and explorers. At the second ceremony he and Mrs. Deacon pulled the cord unveiling a tablet on a cairn as the gathering sang "God Save the King". J. H. Coyne, representing the Historic Sites and Monuments Board, offered "special felicitations" to McKellar as founder and long-serving president of the Thunder Bay Historical Society, noting that he had known him since a first visit to Fort William in 1871.

Other mentions

Annie E. McIntyre records that the first newspaper at Fort William, the Perambulator, was edited by the first public school teacher, Miss Groom, "with the help and co-operation of Mr. Peter McKellar, who printed it all by hand." McIntyre also notes that the McKellar brothers — Peter, John, Archibald, and Donald — were among the early settlers clearing lands along the river for agricultural purposes, on lands that later fell within the limits of the City of Fort William. He served as chairman of the committee that chose the site for the First Presbyterian Church in Fort William in 1873, and was a member of the church's first board of management alongside A. McKellar and J. McKellar. }}