Fonds AM1614 - Samuel S. Magoffin fonds

Samuel Shelby (Sam) Magoffin was the owner and president of S.S. Magoffin & Co. Limited Railway Contractors, an earth-moving company which he established around 1920. Between approximately 1920 and 1924, the company did filling, stabilization and clean-up work for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (Canadian National Railway) near Prince Rupert; during this time, the company’s head office was located in Prince George, British Columbia. Magoffin may also have been a sub-contractor in the building of the CNR through the Fraser Canyon. From 1925 to 1927, Magoffin’s company was in charge of levelling and filling along the waterfront of the North Vancouver harbour and, from 1925 to 1928, the company was contracted by the CNR to fill the Lyon Creek embankment.

Beginning in 1927, the location of the S.S. Magoffin & Co. Limited office is listed as the North Vancouver waterfront and in subsequent years is listed at various other addresses in that city, the last being at 1227 East 3rd Street, North Vancouver in 1958.

Sam and his wife Margaret (nee Margaret Plumer Boalt, b. 1892) first appear in Vancouver in the 1927 directory, as residents of the Devonshire Hotel at 849 West Georgia; in 1929 they are listed as residents at 855 West Georgia. Circa 1929, the Magoffins built a home “Rockhaven” at 3612 Marine Drive in West Vancouver.

Magoffin is also recognized as the founder and first president of the Golden Retriever Club of America. The Magoffins acquired their first champion golden retriever Speedwell Pluto in 1930, and established two kennels in Vancouver, “Rockhaven” and “Gilnockie”.

Sam died in Winona, MInnesota in 1959 and Margaret passed away in Colorado in 1972.