JOHN TOD
It is sometimes said that the make of a man is the sum of his experience. If that is true, then John Tod was made of truly extraordinary stuff!
At the tender age of 16, he escaped the monotony of a Glasgow cotton warehouse to join the "Company of Merchant Adventurers Trading into Hudson's Bay". (Hudson's Bay Company) The year was 1811 when John Tod sailed with other apprentices from Stornoway Scotland to the remote wilderness of York Factory on the shores of Hudson's Bay (Manitoba)
During the remainder his long life, John Tod would encounter the most dynamic changes in the cultural development of Western Canada. He would witness first hand the West's transformation from pristine wilderness to fir trade region, to a Colony of Britain and eventually, to a province in the Dominion of Canada.