Tallest Man in the Photograph

The tallest man in the photograph: How a railway made the Happy Jacksons

A story of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Last Spike, and the making of a family – written to honour the friendship between Canada and the United States on the occasion of America’s 250th anniversary.

– Published in Lögberg-Heimskringla August 1, 2026 – Link to the story PDF – LH_ArdenJackson_TheTallestMan_01_08_2026

Dear Friends,

To mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, the 150th anniversary of New Iceland in Manitoba, — and the long friendship between our two countries — I’ve written the story of how the Canadian Pacific Railway formed and transformed our family: “L’Heureuse Jacksons — The Happy Jacksons.” It’s attached, with photographs.

The story begins with Alexander Jackson and Isabella Gunness of Longford, Ireland, who settled in (Perth, Drummond, Lanark County) then (MacDonald’s Corners, Dalhousie, Lanark County) Ontario. Their son, Alexander Gunness Jackson, born in 1854 months after his father’s death, went west in 1877 with his brother Christopher and spent eight years building the CPR — from the muskeg east of Selkirk toward Winnipeg, all the way to Port Moody, some 1,859 kilometres of track in all. Both brothers were at Craigellachie on November 7, 1885, for the driving of the Last Spike, and Alexander can be seen in the famous photograph — the tallest figure in the dark hat at the back of the crowd, above William Van Horne. A family tintype of the brothers, in the very same hat, confirms it. Christopher later settled in Grafton, North Dakota, so the family has grown on both sides of the border ever since.

Alexander bought 850 acres at Union Point on the Red River, near Ste. Agathe, married Alice McVeitty (Richmond, Ontario) in 1888, helped build the Union Point Presbyterian Church, and served as a municipal councillor and school trustee. Their French-speaking neighbours gave the family its name — les Jacksons L’Heureux, The Happy Ones — for the sleigh-loads of friends who came for winter dances and card parties. The story carries on through his son George Alexander Jackson, who became Canadian Manager of the CNR Telegraph and married Susie Crandon, and their son George Crandon Jackson, who met Margret Sigvaldason — an Icelandic Canadian from Riverton, granddaughter of the 1876 settlers of New Iceland — at Minaki Lodge in 1953. Along the way there’s a Model T parked forever in a chicken coop after a single drive, and a heart-stopping escape from a runaway Great Northern train in 1918.

It’s a story about how a railway built a country — with no small amount of American help, from Van Horne of Illinois on down — and, almost as an afterthought, built us. To go the story please Click on the link or the photos below to go to the Lögberg-Heimskringla August 1, 2026 Edition Page 11 where the story is published.

I hope you enjoy it,

All the best now and always, with love,

Arden Jackson

Link to PDF – LH_ArdenJackson_TheTallestMan_01_08_2026