Rosser’s legacy up for debate

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/06/2020 (1957 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As parts of the world grapple with the necessity of monuments and statues commemorating colonialists, slavers and racists in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests, Brandon is starting to have its own conversation on the subject.

Rosser Avenue in downtown Brandon is named after Thomas Lafayette Rosser, who was the chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway as it expanded westwards, creating the city of Brandon along the way.

While he spent time as a railroad engineer in both Canada and the United States, that came after Rosser served as a major general in the American Civil War for the Confederate States of America, whose primary motivation came from the desire to prevent the abolition of slavery.

Because of his engineering work in the United States, there is also a Rosser Avenue in Bismarck, N.D., named after the former general. NBC/Fox affiliate television station KFYR posted a story on Monday stating that Bismarck Mayor Steve Bakken will not consider renaming that street.

Statues and other remembrances of other Confederate generals and officials, as well as colonialists and slavers, have been defaced, removed, destroyed or thrown in rivers in multiple countries since the protests started.

In Brandon, no concrete action has been taken, but some Brandonites have taken to social media to discuss what should be done about the street bearing Rosser’s name.

The street was named after Rosser’s role in the creation of the city and not his Confederate past, but The Brandon Sun’s archives show that he wasn’t the most upstanding citizen during his year-long stay in the country. The Sun’s archives also show that the Sun has done its share of praising Rosser over the years.

Sun staff writer Kaye Rowe had few nice words to say in a 1965 article that touched on Rosser selling many small lots in downtown Brandon, creating small roads and congestion that still lingers today.

“The legacy of the West’s history, of the greedy land-jobbers — Thomas Lafayette Rosser among the greediest — pieces the vast expanses into mean streets, minuscular 23-foot lots,” Rowe wrote. “Rosser and his kind had their eyes on the week after next, or beating it out with the fast-buck turnover in land sales before the first snowfall. The hit-and-run fortune hunters left Brandon with a tight, choked downtown. Gen. Rosser of noisome Pacific Scandal fame earned himself a dubious immortality with the stamp of his name on Brandon’s main artery.”

The Pacific Scandal was Canada’s first major post-Confederation political scandal, wherein it was discovered that John A. MacDonald and many members of his government had been paid off in the form of political donations by CPR owner Hugh Allan in exchange for the right to build the transcontinental railway. The scandal led to the demise of MacDonald’s first tenure as prime minister.

According to a 2000 article by Lyndenn Behm looking back at Rosser’s involvement in the city, the former general was apparently fired by CPR general manager William Van Horne, who also has a street in Brandon named after him, for selling privileged information to land speculators trying to find out what the route of the rail line would be.

He didn’t go quietly.

“True to his colourful past, Rosser later went looking for Van Horne in the Manitoba Club in Winnipeg, waving a pistol and spewing insults,” Behm wrote. “Only the intervention of others kept the two men from fighting a duel.”

A column in 2007 written by then-editor emeritus Fred McGuinness describes how handsome Rosser was and goes into brief detail about the exploits that earned him a commission as a major general.

Also in 2007, the Sun ran a story about Rosser’s great-grandson being invited to the city to honour his ancestor’s legacy for the 125th anniversary of the city’s founding. Thomas Rosser Cochrane Jr. and his daughter had dinner with then-mayor Dave Burgess, was given a limousine tour of the city, got a private tour of the Daly House Museum and received free lodging from a local hotel.

In 2009, Burgess proposed that the park set to be developed at First Street and Rosser Avenue should be named after Rosser in honour of his role in founding Brandon. However, the park ended up being named after former city councillor Errol Black.

Also keeping Rosser’s memory alive is a recent biography of the man written by American author Sheridan R. Barringer titled “Custer’s Gray Rival: The Life of Confederate Major General Thomas Lafayette Rosser.” “Custer” refers to George Armstrong Custer, an American general on the Union side most famous for the military defeat that claimed his life.

According to a review of the book in the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Va., Rosser advanced quickly in the ranks but frequently complained in letters to his wife that he was not being promoted as quickly as he deserved.

Also according to that review, all the money Rosser made working on railroads was lost while engaging in land speculation after returning home to Virginia.

Rosser had a long history, but the debate goes on as to whether it’s actually worth preserving and commemorating.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @ColinSlark