1846 – The first telegraph wire in Canada is strung between Hamilton and Toronto in December 1846. 1846 – The Hamilton Spectator newspaper is born. (still going strong today). 1847 – Colin Campbell Ferrie becomes Hamilton's first mayor. 1847 – Hugh Cossart Baker Sr. establishes the first life insurance company in Canada (21 August 1847); the Canada Life Assurance Company, with Baker as its president, manager and actuary. (Father of Hamilton telephone pioneer; Hugh Cossart Baker Jr.) 1848 – King and James Streets macadamized. 1849 – 92 deaths recorded from cholera. 1849 – Sir William Osler, "Father of Modern Medicine" (born: July 12, 1849). Raised largely in Dundas, Ontario. 1850–1859 1850 – First lighting of streets by gas. 1851 – First land bought by the Board of Education. 1852 – First orphanage asylum. Population now at 10,300. 1853 – First union-journeymen carpenters formed a union and went on strike. First street numbers on buildings. 1854 – the newly renamed Great Western Railway (Ontario) became Hamilton's first functioning railway in 1854. Completion of this railway and the Niagara Suspension Bridge transforms Hamilton into a major centre and part of the American immigration route from New York City or Boston to Chicago or Milwaukee. 1854 – September 11, Sir Allan Napier MacNab becomes the Premier of Canada West, the only Prime Minister of Canada that Hamilton has ever produced. (The Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada, who were the heads of government of the Province of Canada from the 1841 unification of Upper Canada and Lower Canada until Confederation in 1867. Each administration was led by two men, one from Canada West (now Ontario) and one from Canada East (now Quebec). Officially, one of them at any given time had the title of Premier while the other had the title of deputy. 1854 – Cholera epidemic – more than 600 deaths. 1855 – Hamilton's core boasted a sewer system, graded streets and planked sidewalks. Stumps, boulders, and rocks were finally removed from the streets, animals were banned from wandering freely on the new thoroughfares. 1855 – Grand Lodge of Canada is formed in Hamilton, Ontario (10 November 1855). The National Office of the Supreme Council 33° of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry of Canada whose Grand Orient is in Hamilton, Ontario, is located adjacent to this historic Scottish Rite building. 1856 – First use of chloroform in Hamilton.