North Bay’s James West was one of 137 workers who were killed on the job during construction of the Welland Ship Canal between 1913 and 1932.
West was a labourer working for the Confederation Construction Company, when the 43-year-old married father of two was struck and killed by a passenger train, less than a month into the job.
Records show he had been laying track at the storage dock when he crossed a Grand Trunk main line to get to the machine shop, unaware that a passenger train was coming down the track at a high rate of speed.
The fatality happened in May, 1915. His remains were sent to North Bay.
Like so many others who lost their lives working on the canal, West was buried in an unmarked grave.
Last November, the Welland Canal Fallen Workers Memorial which includes his name, was officially unveiled in St. Catharines.
Prior to the unveiling, a grave marker bearing his name was delivered to North Bay by a member of the Welland Canal Fallen Workers Task Force.
Its mandate was to finance, design, build and install the memorial recognizing workers who were killed while building the canal.
The task force had hoped that by making his story public, it would catch the attention of relatives, or bring someone forward with more details about James West. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
This summer, without anyone present, the marker was quietly and respectfully installed at its rightful place, at the head of West’s grave at Terrace Lawn Cemetery.
His is one of 52 individual grave markers donated by Kirkpatrick Monuments earmarked for unmarked graves in Canada and the United States belonging to workers killed while building the canal.
See: Unmarked grave of North Bay man killed building Welland Canal to be part of memorial
See: Honouring a North Bay man, one of 137 workers who lost their lives building the Welland Canal
