Foley, Welch and Stewart was an early 20th-century American-Canadian railroad construction partnership. Earlier lumber and construction involvement In 1897, Peter Larson, Patrick Welch, John (Jack) William Stewart, and the Foley Brothers formed an earthmoving alliance which performed grading during railroad construction. Peter Larson In 1868, Larson arrived in New Orleans from Funen, Denmark, almost penniless. Working northwestward, he obtained grading subcontracts on the Northern Pacific Railway construction throughout the 1870s and early 1880s. Starting with a single scraper pulled by six mules, he greatly expanded his business. He settled in Billings, Montana, which became his headquarters. In 1898, Julius Bloedel and John Joseph Donovan partnered with him in establishing the Lake Whatcom Logging Co. In 1905, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP) began building westward from Fort William, Ontario. Anticipating that Prince Rupert, British Columbia, would become the terminus, Larson and Ed J. Matthews secured options on most of this land. Rather than immediately profit, Larson sold the options to the GTP at cost, looking to the longer term relationship. In due course, the partners of Foley, Welch and Stewart received the contracts to build the Edmonton–Prince Rupert leg of the GTP. J.W. Stewart In 1882, Stewart arrived in Canada from Sutherland, Scotland, with limited means. Working westward, he reached Vancouver in 1885, where he felled trees during the layout of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) townsite. In the 1886 Great Vancouver Fire, he stood for hours in False Creek to escape the inferno. After 1887, he moved to Montana Territory and worked for Peter Larson. In 1911, Bloedel, Stewart and Welch (BS&W) was established for lumber operations on Vancouver Island. Foley Brothers In 1830, the Foley family settled in Lanark, Upper Canada. Timothy and his three younger brothers became loggers. In the early 1870s, the brothers established a logging and sawmill operation in Benton County, Minnesota, which provided lumber for the westward extension of the Great Northern Railway (GN). Logging was in winter and railroad earthmoving in summer. In 1882, they were involved in constructing the Winnipeg–Calgary leg of the CP. In 1898, the Mann, Foley & Larson partnership built the Castlegar–Midway leg of the Columbia and Western Railway (C&W) for CP. In 1906, Foley, Locke & Larson undertook reconstruction for CP east of Winnipeg. That year, Foley, Larson & Co was awarded the Saskatoon–Edmonton leg of the GTP westward extension. Not only did the partnership handle construction equipment