Charles George Horetzky or Horetsky (20 July 1838 – 30 April 1900) was a Canadian

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. These points are usually on the ...

and photographer noted for his work in

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West, or Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a list of regions of Canada, Canadian region that includes the four western provinces and t ...

as a member of the

Canadian Pacific Survey The Canadian Pacific Survey or Canadian Pacific Railway Survey comprised many distinct geographical surveys conducted during the 1870s and 1880s, designed to determine the ideal route of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Although much of the survey ...

under Sir Sandford Fleming and Frank Moberly.

Early life

Horetzky was born to

Felix Horetzky Felix Horetzky (originally: Feliks Horecki) (1 January 1796 – 6 October 1870) was a Polish guitarist, teacher and composer who spent most of his life in the United Kingdom. Life Horecki was born in Horyszów Ruski, Lublin Voivodeship, Habsbur ...

and Sophia Roberton on July 20, 1838 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was the only son and child of the Horetzky family. In 1853, after his incomplete education at Blair's College and another college in Belgium, he left Scotland for the Australian gold-fields.

Early career and marriage

In 1858, he traveled to the Canadas where he was engaged by the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

to settle as a clerk at Fort William on the

Ottawa River The Ottawa River (, ) is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word "to trade", as it was the major trade route of Eastern Canada at the time. For most of its length, it defines the border betw ...

. In 1864, his position was promoted to an accountant at

Moose Factory Moose Factory is a community in the Cochrane District, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Moose Factory Island, near the mouth of the Moose River (Ontario), Moose River, which is at the southern end of James Bay. It was the first English language ...

, one of the Hudson's Bay Company's post. Shortly after, he was married to Mary Julia Ryan and went on to have two sons and a daughter. In August 1869, Horetzky was assigned the same position as an accountant at

Upper Fort Garry Fort Garry, also known as Upper Fort Garry, was a Hudson's Bay Company trading post located at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers in or near the area now known as The Forks in what is now central Winnipeg, Manitoba. Fort Garry ...

, but was short lived due to the

Red River Rebellion The Red River Rebellion (), also known as the Red River Resistance, Red River uprising, or First Riel Rebellion, was the sequence of events that led up to the 1869 establishment of a provisional government by Métis leader Louis Riel and his f ...

, so he was given permission to travel back. While in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

, He faced many difficulties from the Hudson's Bay Company with his overdrawn account and with the company's officials for his uncompromising attitude that his engagement was terminated in April, 1870. He tried an appeal to the company to reverse their decision, but was ultimately rejected.

Photographing

Following these events, Horetzky and his family turned to

Charles Tupper Sir Charles Tupper, 1st Baronet (July 2, 1821 – October 30, 1915) was a Canadian Father of Confederation who served as the sixth prime minister of Canada from May 1 to July 8, 1896. As the premier of Nova Scotia from 1864 to 1867, he led ...

, a friend of his. He constantly recommended Horetzky to

Sandford Fleming Sir Sandford Fleming (January 7, 1827 – July 22, 1915) was a Scottish Canadian engineer and inventor. Born and raised in Scotland, he immigrated to colonial Canada at the age of 18. He promoted worldwide standard time zones, a prime meridian, ...

for his abilities to which Horetzky was eventually hired as a photographer for the future surveys conducted on the lesser known parts of the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

and

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. During the fall and winter of 1871, Horetzky was assigned to, and took many decent views of the country between the Red River and

Yellowhead Pass The Yellowhead Pass is a mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Americas in the Canadian Rockies. It is on the provincial boundary between the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, and lies within Jasper Nation ...

in the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

and returned back to Ottawa. Fleming was pleased to his results and asked him to guide and accompany him through the Yellowhead pass, to which Horetzky agreed. And so they, along with Flemling's son and a two authors traveled from

Fort Edmonton Fort Edmonton (also named Edmonton House) was the name of a series of Trading post, trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) from 1795 to 1914, all of which were located on the north banks of the North Saskatchewan River in what is now ce ...

. Horetzky and one of the authors,

John Macoun John Macoun (17 April 1831 – 18 June 1920) was an Irish-born Canadian naturalist. Early life Macoun was born in Magheralin, County Down, Ireland in 1831, the third child of James Macoun and Anne Jane Nevin. In 1850, the worsening econ ...

, parted from the group to survey a more northern route through the

Peace River Country The Peace River Country (or Peace Country; ) is an aspen parkland region centring on the Peace River in Canada. It extends from northwestern Alberta to the Rocky Mountains in northeastern British Columbia, where a certain portion of the region i ...

Author and sanitary engineering

In March, 1873, Horetzky went on to publish many articles from his experiences in the northern route in the Ottawa Daily Citizen along with a short pamphlet, ''The north-west of Canada''. In his later years, Horetzky became a sanitary engineer and supervised many projects from the 1880s to the 1890s. He made way for many sewage systems such as the one at the

Ontario Agriculture College The Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) originated at the agricultural laboratories of the Toronto Normal School, and was officially founded in 1874 as an associate agricultural college of the University of Toronto. Since 1964, it has become affil ...

Works

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References

External links

1. ^ * {{DEFAULTSORT:Horetzky, Charles 1838 births 1900 deaths Canadian photographers Immigrants to pre-Confederation Quebec