In view of the fact already stated, that Canada was new to the railway-building business, it is surprising to find that Mr. Van Horne brought very few assistants from the States. Besides Egan, who did most excellent work in construction days out of Winnipeg, Kelson of the Milwaukee road was brought to be general storekeeper at Winnipeg. There was urgent need of a key man in Montreal to be the general purchasing agent for the whole road. And as everything had to be purchased for a new undertaking an altogether unusual man was required. Besides other supplies, the man who came as purchasing agent would have to be a sort of quarter-master-general to feed an industrial army spread out in a long line from East to West and with practically no line of communication along which to transport the necessaries of life. For that position Mr. Van Horne had his eye on a young man named Thomas G. Shaughnessy, who had been on his staff in Milwaukee. Mr. Van Horne had opened up offices over the Bank of Montreal on Main Street in Winnipeg. “One day,” says Mr. E. A. James, who was then Mr. Van Horne’s private telegraph operator, “there came into the outer office a fashionably-dressed, alert young man, sporting a cane and giving general evidence of being what we call a live wire. He asked for Mr. Van Horne and gave his name as Shaughnessy. I looked up Mr. Van Horne in another office and gave him the message. He said to the gentleman to whom he was speaking, ‘I am glad Tom has come; he is the man I want for general purchasing agent.’” And thus another notable star swung into the orbit of the new company. But beyond these just mentioned to take hold at the beginning, Mr. Van Horne said no one else was needed from outside, as the new General Manager found Canadians so full of initiative and energy that he had no difficulty in getting men of calibre and zeal without going beyond the Dominion. Incidentally it may be mentioned that a fire took place in the building during that winter of 1882, and the offices of the railway and the Bank had to be moved to temporary quarters in the old Knox Church building. There Mr. Van Horne occupied the vestry and Mr. I. G. Ogden, who became famous as auditor and finance minister for the road, held office space in the library of the Sunday school, while the bank itself did business in what had been the main auditorium of the church. The quarters were unusual and not very convenient, but the atmosphere would be good.