The Sherbrooke, Eastern Townships and Kennebec Railroad touched only a corner of Compton County, leaving a rival group the opportunity to follow a more easterly route. The organizers were the British American Land Company and Compton's Conservative M.P., John Henry Pope, shown here in his fiftieth year in 1869. Pope and the land company were particularly interested in constructing a railroad through Compton in order to raise the value of their extensive holdings in the northern and eastern parts of the county. In order to make up for the lack of a provincial subsidy, Pope displayed the ruthless determination that would eventually make him Sir John A. Macdonald's most trusted adviser in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Through manipulation of local township councils, he was able to cajole the Compton County municipal council into supplying much of the initial capital for his St. Francis and Megantic International Railroad. Soon after the line had been extended across the county to Lake Megantic in 1879, the C.P.R. purchased it and extended it through Maine to Saint John, New Brunswick.
Though he began his career as a poorly-educated farmer, Pope was in every Conservative cabinet after 1871 until his death in 1889. From his first election in 1857, he held undisputed political control in Compton County where he played an important behind-the-scenes role in many colonization projects.
