Thomas Underwood (May 6, 1863 – May 10, 1948) was a building developer and the 13th mayor of

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

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. Born in Asfordby,

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in 1863, Underwood emigrated to

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when he was 20. A carpenter by trade, he arrived in

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in 1883. At first, he worked as a farm hand. Two years later, he joined a

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

construction gang and was working in Craigellachie, British Columbia at the time of the last spike was driven to complete the

transcontinental railroad A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous rail transport, railroad trackage that crosses a continent, continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks may be via the Ra ...

. After the railroad was completed, he settled in Calgary. Underwood spent the first two and a half years working for Jarrett- Cushing Lumber Company. Then he went into business for himself as a builder and contractor. Underwood was involved in the construction of many of the larger buildings in early Calgary. This includes the

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building and Burns Manor for

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Pat Burns. Underwood was elected to the

Calgary City Council The Calgary City Council is the legislative governing body that represents the citizens of Calgary. The council consists of 15 members: the chief elected official, titled the mayor, and 14 councillors. Jyoti Gondek was elected mayor in October 202 ...

in 1894. He spent eight years on City Council including two years as mayor from 1902-1904. In 1887, Underwood married Catherine Graves. Together they had nine children, three of whom died in infancy. He was deacon of First Baptist Church for over 30 years, director of the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

for 25 years, and a member of the board of directors of Brandon College for ten years. His wife died in 1934 and he died on May 10, 1948, both in Calgary.

References

External links

1937 newspaper clipping
about Underwood from the

Calgary Herald The ''Calgary Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Publication began in 1883 as ''The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate, and General Advertiser''. It is owned by the Postmedia Network. History ''The C ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Underwood, Thomas 1863 births 1948 deaths Mayors of Calgary People from the Borough of Melton English emigrants to Canada YMCA leaders 19th-century Canadian municipal councillors 20th-century mayors of places in Alberta