Robert J. Chalmers (1833-1908): A Canadian Geologist in Eastern Townships
At the beginning of 2019, the Town of Sherbrooke opened Chalmers Street in the housing development Carré Belvédère undertaken by the promoters Gestion Luc Élias and Entreprises Bimon. It was the first street in a toponymic system on mining. The street is named after the geologist Robert Chalmers (1833-1908). In the 19th and early 20th centuries The Eastern Townships were considered the principal mining region in Canada especially for copper and asbestos as well as for the gold rush between 1860 and 1910. Several geologists explored and mapped the region beginning in the mid-1800s:
-Sir William Logan (1798-1875), the first Director of the Geological Survey of Canada then in Montreal;
-Robert Chalmers (1833-1908) mapped placer gold locations in 1898;
-Robert Wheelock Ells (1845-1911) produced the first detailed geological map of the Sherbrooke area in 1886;
-Joseph Obalski (1852-1915) produced an inventory of the mineral resources between 1883 and 1889 and of the mines in Ascot County in 1908;
-Pierre St-julien (1934-2000) produced a detailed map of Sherbrooke geology in 1962 and a compilation map for the Eastern Townships geology in 1985;
-Robert Lamarche (1939-2017) produced more detailed maps of the Sherbrooke geology from 1965 to 1967.
Robert J. Chalmers was among the first geologists to map the glacial and post glacial deposits in Québec. He was born at Belledune in Glouster County, New Brunswick on 31 December 1833. He was the only boy of the two children of Jean Macallister and Robert Chalmers. After grade school Robert studied teaching. He taught botany and mathematics at Saint John and Campbellton for a dozen years. Then in 1860, he moved to California and became the principal of Oakland Grammar School. Towards 1880, he returned to New Brunswick and became the principal of the schools in Campbellton and took up journalism. At this point he was an active member of the Natural History Society of New Brunswick and was the librarian in the town’s library. He married Elisabeth (family name unknown) in 1882, and the couple proceeded to have four children.
In 1882 and 1883, Chalmers assisted Wallace Board and Loring Bailey, the two geologists who produced the geological maps of southwest New Brunswick for the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC). His first work for the Survey was in 1884, to map the surficial deposits, especially the complex of glacial deposits in the western area of New Brunswick. He later mapped the area to the north in 1886.
Beginning in 1888, he had a residence in Ottawa, while maintaining his principal residence in New Brunswick till 1895. It was at this time, in 1895 that he continued his mapping on eastern New Brunswick and parts of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Following three years of field studies, his principal contributions of his work in Québec were the first maps of gold placers in Québec, including the Eastern Townships and the Sherbrooke area, and the first general map of the surficial deposits of the region in 1903. It was in 1902 that the University of New Brunswick awarded him a Doctorate honoris causa. As well as some thirty geological reports for the GSC, Chalmers published some twenty scientific articles primarily on the glacial history of Eastern Canada. Chalmers died of cardiac arrest at his residence the 9th of April 1908.