Samuel "Sam" Bingham was the Mayor of Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 between 1897 and 1898.

He was born in Bytown

Bytown

Bytown is the former name of Ottawa, Canada's capital city. It was founded on on September 26, 1826, incorporated as a town on January 1, 1850, and superseded by the incorporation of the City of Ottawa on January 1, 1855. The founding was marked by a sod turning, and a letter from Governor General...

's Lower Town to Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 Catholic parents in 1845. As a young man, he worked on the log drives on the Gatineau River

Gatineau River

The Gatineau River is a river in western Quebec, Canada, which rises in lakes north of the Baskatong Reservoir and flows south to join the Ottawa River at the city of Gatineau, Quebec...

. With the Gilmour and Edwards lumber companies, he formed the Gatineau Boom Company, which later became part of the Canadian International Paper Company

Canadian International Paper Company

The Canadian International Paper Company was a Montreal-based forest products company, a former subsidiary of International Paper. It was originally formed as the St. Maurice Lumber Company in 1919 but was renamed in 1925...

. He was an alderman

Alderman

An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...

 on the Ottawa City Council from 1880 to 1893. Bingham believed that English speaking

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 citizens of Ottawa should learn French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

.

In 1905, he drowned in the Gatineau River near Wakefield, Quebec

Wakefield, Quebec

Wakefield is a village on the western shore of the Gatineau River, at the confluence of the La Pêche River in the Outaouais region of Quebec. The village, named after the town of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, is now the southern edge of the municipality of La Pêche, and was founded in 1830...

 after he fell asleep while returning in a horse-drawn wagon from clearing a log jam

Log jam

A log jam is an accumulation of Large Woody Debris that can span an entire stream or river channel.-Effects on stream/river geomorphology:...

 on the river.

There is a bust of Bingham by sculptor Hamilton MacCarthy in Notre-Dame Cemetery

Notre-Dame Cemetery (Ottawa)

Notre Dame Cemetery, located at 455 Montreal Rd., in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, opened in 1872. It is the most prominent Catholic cemetery in Ottawa. The cemetery is located between residential area of Rockcliffe, Ontario and just south of Beechwood Cemetery on St. Laurent Boulevard in the east end...

. In 1893, an attempt to rename the Cummings Bridge

Cummings Bridge

The Cummings Bridge in Ottawa, constructed in 1921, connects Rideau Street to Montreal Road in Vanier.-History:The area east of the Cummings Bridge, later named Vanier was first linked to the Sandy Hill area of Ottawa with a wooden bridge erected in 1835, which went over a small island in the...

 over the Rideau River

Rideau River

thumb|Rapids on the Rideau River opposite [[Carleton University]].The Rideau River is a Southern Ontario river which flows north from Upper Rideau Lake and empties into the Ottawa River at Rideau Falls in Ottawa, Ontario. Its length is 146 km...

 after the former mayor was thwarted by residents of Sandy Hill

Sandy Hill

Sandy Hill is a bilingual neighbourhood in Ottawa, Ontario located just east of downtown. The neighbourhood is bordered on the west by the Rideau Canal and on the east by the Rideau River. To the north it stretches to Rideau Street and the Byward Market area while to the south it is bordered by...

.