John Stoughton Dennis

John Stoughton Dennis, CMG (* October 19, 1820 in Kingston, Upper Canada, † July 7, 1885 in Kingsmere, Quebec ) was a Canadian surveyor, officer and senior officials. An expedition led by him to the remeasurement of the Red River colony in 1869 was the trigger of the Red River Rebellion, led to the creation of the province of Manitoba in the following year.

Biography

Dennis was educated at Victoria College in Cobourg and adopted in 1842 working as a surveyor on. He was involved in the planning of numerous villages, mainly in Bruce County, Haliburton County, Muskoka District, in the Parry Sound District and Nipissing District. He also planned to Indian reservations on Lake Huron and Lake Superior. Dennis was active in the militia and rose to become lieutenant colonel of cavalry. In 1866 he had to defend the command, Fort Erie against a raid by the Fenian Brotherhood, but had to withdraw his unit suffered heavy losses.

William McDougall, Minister of Public Works, sent Dennis and other surveyor in 1869 in the Red River colony to measure plots for new settlers. A group led by Louis Riel Métis held the surveyor on October 11, and forced them to stop their work. In vain called Dennis to Governor William Mactavish punishing troublemakers. McDougall, however, gave him permission to recruit a contingent of armed men to end the rebellion, but the call was largely ignored.

After the proclamation of the provisional government on December 8, returned Dennis returned to Ontario and worked first as private secretary to the Lieutenant-Governor William Pearce Howland. 1871 he was appointed the Federal Government to the top surveyor ( surveyor - general) of Canada, in 1878 as Vice - Minister of the Interior. In 1880, he traveled with a delegation to London to raise funds for the financing of the Canadian Pacific Railway. End of the same year he retired.