Item A310 - Regina - Fire Insurance Plan

Charles Edward Goad was born on March 15, 1848 in Camberwell (London), England to Charles Goad and Caroline Ann Vogel.. He immigrated to Canada in 1869 whereupn he worked as an engineer on the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway, followed by working with the company contracted to build the Montreal Nothern Coloization Railway between 1873 and 1875. In 1875, he founded the Charles E. Goad Company in Montreal principally to produce maps / plans that could be used by (fire) insurance companies to identify and estimate appropriate insurance premiums, and associated policy risk and liability exposure in the event of fire. These maps / plans would include such elements as the character of buildings (e.g. position, functions, materials, and sizes), street names and widths, location and types of water supplies, fire protection facilities, industrial and commercial sites. In addition, from May 1877 to 1878 Goad worked as chief engineer for the Halifax and Cape Breton Railway and Coal Company. He was an active member of American Society of Civil Engineers; Canadian Society of Civil Engineers; London Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Engineers' Club of New York; Statistical Society of London; and the Imperial Institute. Although Goad moved to England in 1885 and began working in Britain in his company's London office, he would frequently travel with his associates to the places they were contracted to survey around the world.

Goad was married twice, first to Margaret Brown, and then to Agnes Harriss; in both marriages he had four children. He died on June 10, 1910 in Toronto, Ontario.

Established in 1875 by Charles Edward Goad in Montreal to principally produce maps that identified the nature and size of buildings, width of streets, construction, building materials and the proximity of fire services and water supplies in order to estimate insurance premiums, liability exposure, and policy risk for fire insurance companies. The company would broaden its operations to also produce atlases and a range of maps and conduct general (civil) engineering activities. The growth of the company led to branches being established across Canada and internationally; as early as 1885 Goad went to London, England to open an office. The company's international operations included producing insurance plans for places such as England, Scotland, Ireland, Chile, Denmark, Egypt, France, Mexico, Mozambique, South Africa, Turkey, and Venezuela. By the time of Goad's death in 1910, the company is believed to have made plans for over 1300 Canadian places. The company continued after his death, partly under the control of his sons, but would cease producing fire insurance plans and atlases in 1917 and further operations in Canada came to an end in 1931 after it was purchased by Underwriter's Survey Limited.