Casimir Gzowski
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The Honourable Sir Casimir Gzowski KCMG |
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| (Acting) Lieutenant Governor of Ontario | |
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In office November 7, 1896 – November 18, 1897 |
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| Monarch | Victoria |
| Governor General | The Earl of Aberdeen |
| Premier | Arthur Sturgis Hardy |
| Preceded by | Sir George Airey Kirkpatrick |
| Succeeded by | Sir Oliver Mowat |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Kazimierz Stanislaus Gzowski March 5, 1813 Saint Petersburg, Russia |
| Died | August 24, 1898 (aged 85) Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Spouse(s) | Maria Beebe |
| Relations | Peter Gzowski (great-great-grandson) |
| Occupation | engineer |
Sir Kazimierz Stanislaus Gzowski, KCMG (March 5, 1813 – August 24, 1898), was an engineer best known for his work on a wide variety of Canadian railways as well as work on the Welland Canal. He also served as acting Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1896 to 1897.
Gzowski was born in Saint Petersburg to a noble Polish father, Count Stanislaw Gzowski, who was then serving as a Captain in the Russian Imperial Guard. He emigrated with his family to the United States after the Polish November Uprising against Russia in 1830. He knew no English, but began to study law and was admitted to practice. His father was an engineer, and as this became his primary interest, Kazimierz became involved in railway construction in the United States. Eventually he was hired as an engineer to help in the construction of the New York and Erie Railway.
In 1841 he moved to Canada to work on the Welland Canal, and also helped finish the building of Yonge Street and other projects, for the Department of Public Works in southern Ontario. He settled in London.
In 1849 Gzowski was hired as a railway contractor by the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad. The new president of this reorganized company, Alexander Tilloch Galt, and other directors were dissatisfied with the work of the Montreal contractors. Accepting Galt's offer as Chief Engineer, in charge of construction, Gzowski moved his family to Sherbrooke.
The purpose of the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railway, along with its American partner, the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railway, was to provide a route for the traffic of the St. Lawrence River and Ottawa River at the port of Montreal, with the ice-free Atlantic port of Portland, Maine. By 1850, however, promoters of this project learned of plans by Boston interests to build a railway from Lake Champlain, to Ogdensburg, opposite Prescott, on the route of the projected Bytown & Prescott Railway.
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