Томас Эйхарн: Канадтық ойлап табушы және кәсіпкер

Canadian inventor and businessman (1855–1938)
the Canadian inventor

Thomas Ahearn, PC (June 24, 1855 – June 28, 1938) was a Canadian inventor and businessman. Ahearn, a native of Ottawa, Canada West, was instrumental in the success of a vast streetcar system that was once in Ottawa, the Ottawa Electric Railway, and was the first chairman of Canada's Federal District Commission in 1927. He held several patents related to electrical items and headed companies which competed for decades with Ottawa Hydro as providers for electricity in Ottawa. Ahearn co founded the Ottawa Car Company, a manufacturer of streetcars for Canadian markets.

Ahearn & Soper is an Ottawa company formed as an electrical engineering and contracting business in 1881 by Thomas Ahearn and Warren Young Soper, former manager of Dominion Telegraph Company's local office. Both men were working for Montreal Telegraph in Ottawa on March 13, 1873. The two founders were responsible for the creation of many companies in the fields of communications, heat, light and power, including the Ottawa Electric Railway Company and early electricity providers in Ottawa. Their principal contracts have been with the Canadian Pacific Railway, Bell Telephone Company, Mackay Bennett Cable Company of New York, and the North American Telegraph Company. In the mid 1890s, they moved to 56 Sparks Street from 70 Sparks Street. In 1926, they built the Ottawa Electric Building (Albert Ewan, Architect) which still stands on 56 Sparks.

Thomas Ahearn's first marriage was to Lilias Mackay Fleck. In 1892, in his second marriage, he married Margaret Howitt (likely Margaret Howit Fleck). Margaret was the daughter of Alexander Fleck, President of the Vulcan Iron Works Co., Ottawa, and his wife, Lilias Walker. Margaret was born in Montreal, and was educated at the McGill Model School and at Bute House. The couple travelled in foreign countries with their family. She served as the President of the Victorian Order of Nurses. She was identified with the Local Council of Women, and the Woman's Canadian Historical Society. The couple lived at Buena Vista, 584 Maria Street, Ottawa. Thomas Ahearn's son Frank would become the owner of the Ottawa Auditorium and the Ottawa Senators professional ice hockey team. Ahearn's other child, Lilias Ahearn Southam(1888 1962) married Harry Southam in 1909. Harry Southam, publisher of the Ottawa Citizen, was part of the Southam newspaper empire.

Ahearn Avenue, a street in the Britannia Heights neighbourhood of Ottawa, is named for Ahearn. In 1949, a monument to Ahearn was erected in Lansdowne Park, consisting of a square limestone pillar with two low walls of unequal length extending perpendicularly from the pillar, four drinking fountains attached to the shorter of the two walls, and a bench extending along the back side of the longer wall. A bronze plaque on the side of the pillar facing the fountains bears a relief of Ahearn, sculpted by Felix De Weldon, with his name and the years of his birth and death. The pillar was also inscribed on the two sides of the pillar adjoining the side with the plaque; one side reads "Hon. Thomas Ahearn, P. C./Of Ottawa/Pioneer in the field/Of electric lighting/And transportation./Presented with/Central Canada/Exhibition Association/Gold Medal, 1892"; the other side reads "This/Drinking fountain/Erected/In memory of/Hon. Thomas Ahearn/In the year 1949 by/Mr. & Mrs. T. F. Ahearn". In 1967, the Ahearn Monument was moved from near the Bank St. entrance gate to Lansdowne Park to further into the park, at the rear of the Coliseum. During the redevelopment of Lansdowne Park in 2012, the monument was moved to a small plaza at the corner of Bank St. and Holmwood Ave., at the former site of Sylvia Holden Park. The monument was also altered at that time; the drinking fountains were removed, and the longer wall was lowered to the level of the bench.