Thomas Ahearn

Who was Thomas Ahearn?

Thomas Ahearn, PC was a Canadian inventor and businessman. Ahearn, a native of Ottawa, was instrumental in the success of a vast streetcar system that was once in Ottawa, the Ottawa Electric Railway, and was the first chairman of Canada's Federal District Commission in 1927. He held several patents related to electrical items and headed companies which competed for decades with Ottawa Hydro as providers for electricity in Ottawa. Ahearn co-founded the Ottawa Car Company, a manufacturer of streetcars for Canadian markets.

He was born in the Lebreton Flats area of Ottawa in 1855. He started as a messenger in the Chaudière office of the Montreal Telegraph Company. Within the year he was promoted to the company's Sparks Street office. At 19, he went to New York City and worked for two years at Western Union Telegraph Company. He returned to Ottawa and became chief operator for Montreal Telegraph Company. He became a manager of the Bell Telephone Company office in Ottawa in 1880.

In 1881, he founded the firm of Ahearn and Soper, electrical contractors, with Warren Soper, former manager of Dominion Telegraph Company's local office.