Henry Ketchum

In 1860, Ketchum was hired as a district engineer on construction of the Santos and São Paulo Railway in Brazil, under Scottish engineer James Brunlees. Ketchum oversaw construction of the complicated Mugi Viaduct.[lower-alpha 1] The viaduct consisted of eleven spans atop wrought iron and stone pillars as high as 150 feet (46 m), and was built with a curve radius of 30 chains.[4] Under Ketchum's supervision the project was completed in seven months.[5]

After completion of his São Paulo projects, Ketchum travelled to London, where he was granted a prize of £500 "in testimony to his ability as an engineer and his integrity and zeal as agent."[3] He was made an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1866, later becoming a full member in 1878.[3]

Ketchum returned to New Brunswick in 1865, and was hired as resident engineer with International Contracting Company, which had been contracted for an extension of the European and North American Railway from Moncton to Truro, Nova Scotia. He was assigned to construction of a line from Painsec Junction east of Moncton to the border of Nova Scotia at the Missaguash River.[3] Controversy erupted when the Premier of New Brunswick, Albert James Smith, insisted that the line follow a circuitous route to pass through his hometown of Dorchester. The resulting delays bankrupted the International Contracting Company, and construction was taken over by Clark, Punchard and Company. Ketchum contracted with the new financiers to complete the line as far as Dorchester. In 1868, a contract dispute led to a lawsuit in which Ketchum was eventually awarded a settlement of CA$95,000.[3]

In 1869, Ketchum was hired as chief engineer on construction of the New Brunswick Railway's line from Fredericton to Edmundston, a track length of 170 miles (270 km). He also worked on the Quebec and New Brunswick Railway's line between Woodstock and Rivière-du-Loup around this time.[5]

In 1875, Ketchum opened a private consulting practice in Fredericton. At this time he began work on proposals for the Chignecto Marine Transport Railway, a portage railway crossing the isthmus of Chignecto between the Bay of Fundy and the Northumberland Strait, with a steamship connection to Prince Edward Island. His first letter describing the project was published in the Daily Telegraph of Saint John in April of that year.[2][6] Ketchum's plans and blueprints for the project were destroyed in the 1877 Great Fire of Saint John.[2]

Nonetheless, in 1881 Ketchum surveyed the isthmus at his own expense, and presented his results to the new Canadian government's Minister of Railways and Canals, Charles Tupper.[5] With the government's support, Ketchum formed the Chignecto Marine Transport Railway Company with himself as managing director. Construction started in 1887, however the London banking firm providing financing for the project failed in 1890.[2] With 16 miles (26 km) of rail bed constructed over the 17-mile (27 km) route and 13 miles (21 km) of track laid, the company ran out of money and construction stopped in 1891.[3]

By 1896 the English financiers had raised the estimated CA$1.5 million needed to complete the project. However, with a deadline for the project's completion having passed, and despite Tupper's ongoing support, the Canadian government withdrew its subsidy for the project, and construction never resumed.[2]

Ketchum died unexpectedly on September 8, 1896, at Amherst. He was buried in Tidnish Bridge, Nova Scotia, on a plot overlooking a stone arch bridge constructed for the marine railway.[5] His remains were later exhumed and re-interred in Sackville, New Brunswick, to be near his widow's home.[7]