Division of the Sons of Temperance of the Province of Quebec, was one of
the most energetic and enthusiastic temperance advocates in that section
of our country. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 1st May, 1801, he
received his education there, and after leaving school was apprenticed
to the baking business. Having faithfully served the prescribed term, he
worked for a short period as a journeyman, and wishing to see the world,
enlisted in His Majesty’s 70th regiment of foot, and soon attained the
position of colour-sergeant. Seeing the evil effects of drink on his
comrades, he soon became convinced that a life of total abstinence was
the safest and best for him to secure success in his profession, and
accordingly adopted the principle. At that time very few had abandoned
the entire use of intoxicating liquors as a drink, and those who had
were looked upon with suspicion by the “moderate drinkers,” but his
example soon began to tell upon his comrades, and many of them were
induced to abandon liquor-drinking. In due course of time, with the
permission of his commanding officer, he established a total abstinence
society in the regiment. He soon afterwards attained to the rank of
quarter-master-sergeant, and still continued to use his influence to
further the good work he had begun. In the year 1842, having served his
country for twenty-one years in Gibraltar, Malta, West Indies and
Canada—proving the practicability of the principles of total abstinence
in all these varied climes—he was discharged with a pension, and at the
same time received a situation in the Commissariat department as keeper
of the government woodyard in Quebec. This gave him greater
opportunities to work in the temperance cause, and shortly afterward he
and several other citizens started the first total abstinence society in
that city, and it proved a great blessing to many. In October, 1850,
having heard of the order of the Sons of Temperance, which was then
making rapid strides in enrolling men in the total abstinence ranks, he
and other members of the society secured a charter from the National
Division, and Gough Division, No. 3, of Canada East, was organized. This
division continued to prosper, and the order to increase in the
province, when in January, 1852, the Grand Division of Canada East (now
Quebec) was organized, Mr. Mathison being one of the charter members,
and in October, 1854, he was elected its Grand Worthy Patriarch. In
February, 1852, St. Lawrence Division was organized under very
favourable auspices, and in the following year he left Gough Division
and joined St. Lawrence, in the hope of extending his usefulness among
the military men who had joined in large numbers the younger division.
In June, 1867, he was initiated into the National Division of North
America, at the session held at Providence, Rhode Island, and continued
to attend the meetings of that body as opportunity offered, the last
time being at the session held in Halifax, N.S., in 1884. In 1859 he was
removed to Halifax to fill another position in the Commissariat
department, and later on to Prince Edward Island. In each place he was
well known as an enthusiastic worker in the cause of temperance, and
other good works. In the year 1866, after serving twenty-four years in
Her Majesty’s service, he was superannuated, with another pension, and
took up his residence in the city of Quebec, and again associated
himself with St. Lawrence Division, and continued to work persistently
in the cause he had so much at heart up to the last month of his life,
not only in connection with the order of the Sons of Temperance, but in
the formation of Cadets of Temperance, Bands of Hope, and other kindred
societies. He was ever ready to help, and very few of the youth of the
city of Quebec have failed in being influenced to a certain extent by
his efforts. He was a consistent member of the Methodist church for over
fifty years, and for several years superintendent of the Sabbath school.
The class meetings and prayer meetings were always faithfully attended
by him and highly appreciated. He passed away after a few days’ illness
on the 30th October, 1886, in the eighty-sixth year of his age and the
sixtieth of his temperance work, deeply regretted by all his co-laborers
in the church, as well as in the cause of total abstinence. George
Mathison earned the benediction: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
* * * * *
=Flewelling, William Pentreath=, Accountant and Lumber Agent, Crown
Lands department, Fredericton, New Brunswick, was born at Clifton, Kings
county, New Brunswick, on the 31st of May, 1850. His father, William
Puddington Flewelling, was a native of New Brunswick, and resided most
of his life-time in Kings county, where for a long time he carried on a
large ship-building business. He also represented Kings county in the
New Brunswick legislature for a number of years, and part of the time he
was a member of the government, and held the office of surveyor-general.
His mother, Esther Ann Merritt, was a native of Marlborough, Ulster
county, New York state. William received his early education in the
public school of his native place, and at a later period attended the
superior school at Studholm, Kings county. While preparing for a
collegiate course, ill health overtook him, and he was obliged to give
up further study and betake himself to out-door pursuits. He having
become as a boy familiar with the use of tools in his father’s
ship-yard, he betook himself to the lumber regions of New Brunswick, and
joined a lumbering party; and after a winter spent in the forest he
became restored to his usual ruggedness, and returned to civilization.
In the spring of 1869 he removed from Clifton to Fredericton and entered
the service of the government as a clerk in the Crown Lands department.
In 1873, some changes occurring in the staff, he was promoted to the
position of accountant; and in 1881, in addition to this office, he was
made lumber agent. This dual office he has since held—the first having
put him in charge of all the financial matters in connection with the
Land department, and the second the general supervision of the lumbering
on the Crown lands throughout the province, and the collection of the
revenue therefrom. As a young man, Mr. Flewelling took an active
interest in military matters. Having joined a local militia corps as
private he gradually rose in the ranks, and when he retired from the
service in 1874 he held the rank of paymaster of the 74th battalion,
Kings county militia. He has been an active member of various societies,
especially temperance societies, in all of which he has held offices.
For about fifteen years he has belonged to the Independent Order of
Oddfellows, and is a past-grand master of Victoria lodge, No. 13, of
Fredericton. He has always been connected with the Episcopal church, but
is, nevertheless, a strong believer in freedom of opinion, especially in
religion. On the 17th of January, 1874, he was married to Harriet E.
Lugrin, daughter of the late Charles S. Lugrin, editor of _The Colonial
Farmer_, and for a number of years secretary of the Board of Agriculture
for New Brunswick, and grand-daughter of the late George K. Lugrin, for
many years Queen’s printer in New Brunswick.
* * * * *
=Le Pan, Frederick Nicholas D’Orr=, Owen Sound, Ontario, is the son of
Louis Noailles Le Pan and Mary Anne Brown, of Belfast, Ireland, and was
born in the year 1819. His father was a native of Paris, France, and was
a professor of French in the Royal Academy of Belfast, and other
colleges in that city. Mr. Le Pan emigrated to the United States at the
age of nineteen, and was for some time employed in a large flouring mill
as head book-keeper in St. Louis, Missouri. Being anxious to get on and
push for himself, he bought a farm in the state of Illinois, and lived
there until his health failed him. He then sold out his property and
moved to Canada and settled in Picton, Prince Edward county. After
living here for some time he went to Owen Sound, in the county of Grey,
where he opened a general store, and succeeded well. He occupied the
position of treasurer for the county of Grey for over twenty years, and
on his resignation was presented with a handsome present by the county
in recognition of his services. He was local director for the Molsons
bank in Owen Sound, and is a justice of the peace for the county. Though
now well up in years, Mr. Le Pan is still hale and hearty, and living a
retired life.
* * * * *
=Shaw, Lieutenant-Colonel James.= The late Senator Shaw was born in New
Ross, county Wexford, Ireland, in the year 1798, so famous in Irish
history. He was descended from two ancient and honourable families, and
took pride in tracing his lineage back many generations to persons of
distinction, being Scotch on his father’s side, and on his mother’s he
was of French extraction, her family, the d’Ouselys, being Huguenots,
who fled to Ireland, the name being corrupted to Dowsley in the course
of years. In the year 1820, after completing his education in Dublin,
Mr. Shaw, in the twenty-second year of his age, came to Canada with
letters of introduction to Lord Dalhousie, who attached him to his
household, with an officer’s pay and rations for the following six
months, where he was treated with great kindness by Lord and Lady
Dalhousie, and in after days often referred to this pleasant portion of
his life. Subsequently the government appointed him first clerk in the
Lanark military settlement of Upper Canada, under the late Colonel
William Marshall, the superintendent, and this situation Mr. Shaw filled
for nine years. At the commencement of the work on the Rideau Canal,
through Lord Dalhousie’s influence, he was appointed overseer of the
works under the late Colonel John By, from Smith’s Falls to Bytown, now
the city of Ottawa. After the completion of the canal, Mr. Shaw married
Ellen Forgie, daughter of Mr. Forgie, of Glasgow, and carried on at
Smith’s Falls a successful and extensive mercantile business up to the
time of his entering parliament. He was one of the first promoters and
directors of the Brockville and Ottawa Railway. During the Canadian
rebellion of 1837 and 1838 he was stationed at Brockville as major of
the third Leeds Light Infantry, and in later years he was made
lieutenant-colonel of the militia of Canada. In his early days he was a
member of what was known as the Johnstown District Council, and when the
municipal system was adopted he filled the position of reeve of the
municipality, which office he held until higher duties obliged him to
resign. He was also a justice of the peace, but did not often act in
that capacity. Mr. Shaw was a Free Mason, having joined the order as a
young man in Ireland. He was a member of the Church of England—not
extreme in his views, but unswerving in his support and allegiance to
his church. In 1851 he was elected to represent the united counties of
Lanark and Renfrew in the Legislature of Canada in the Conservative
interest, and was again returned for the South Riding of Lanark in 1854.
In 1860 he was elected for the Bathurst division by a large majority to
a seat in the upper house, which he held until the confederation of the
several provinces, when he was called by Royal proclamation to the
Senate of the Dominion of Canada, which position he filled with honour
to himself and credit to his country until his death. Mr. Shaw was a
gentleman of fine physique and commanding appearance, of sterling
principle, unswerving integrity, and by his genial disposition and
urbanity of manner, endeared himself to all with whom he became
acquainted. He died suddenly at his residence in Smith’s Falls, on the
6th of February, 1878, regretted and revered by all who knew him. His
funeral was attended by a large deputation from both branches of the
legislature.
“In social haunts the ever welcome guest,
So generous, noble, and of portly mien;
‘One of a thousand’ has been well expressed—
No finer type of gentleman was seen.”
* * * * *
=Saint-Pierre, Henri C.=, Advocate, Montreal, was born in the parish of
Rigaud, county of Vaudreuil, province of Quebec, on the 13th of
September, 1844, but was brought up at Isle-Bizard, in Jacques-Cartier
county. He is the last child but one of a family of nine, composed of
seven girls and two boys. His father, Joseph Saint-Pierre, a farmer of
Isle-Bizard, died, when his son Henri was only two years old. His
mother, Domithilde Denis, is still living. His first ancestor on his
father’s side in Canada was Pierre Breillé-Saint-Pierre, who was usually
called Pierre Saint-Pierre. He had emigrated from Normandy, and on his
arrival in Canada settled at Isle-Bizard. In 1741 he was married to
Françoise Thibault, by whom he had a large family. He was killed at the
battle of Carillon in 1758. His eldest son, bearing the same name, was
married to Marie Josephte Tayon, and from that marriage was born, on the
23rd of August, 1772, Guillaume, the father of Joseph, and the
grandfather of the gentleman who is the subject of this sketch.
Domithilde Denis, the mother of Mr. Saint-Pierre, belonged to a family
of farmers from La Pointe Claire, which traces its origin in Canada as
far back as the days of the first French settlements, the first colonist
of that name, Jacques Denis, having settled at Lachine in 1689. After
the death of his father, Mr. Saint-Pierre was adopted by a near
relative, C. Raymond, a merchant at Isle-Bizard, who took charge of his
education. At twelve years of age he entered the Montreal College, where
he went through a brilliant classical course of study. He was the
college mate of the unfortunate patriot, Louis Riel. From his childhood
Mr. Saint-Pierre had always exhibited a strong liking for military life;
but as he grew older, this liking ripened into an uncontrollable
passion; so much so, that on leaving college one of the first things he
did was to solicit from his mother and his adopted father the permission
to enlist in the United States army. At this time the war between the
North and South was raging at its highest pitch. It is almost needless
to say that his request was unhesitatingly and peremptorily refused.
With no small degree of disappointment and reluctance, he at last chose
the study of the law, and was sent to Kingston in Ontario, in order that
he might improve his knowledge of the English language. At Kingston he
was articled to James Agnew, one of the leading lawyers of that city. He
soon got tired of the law, however, and on the very day when he was to
undergo his preliminary examination at Osgoode Hall, in Toronto,
yielding to his passion for military life, he crossed over to Niagara
Falls, and thence took the first train to New York. On his arrival there
he enlisted in the 76th New York volunteers, which was then forming part
of the first corps in the Potomac army. To his honour be it said, it was
only after considerable hesitation that General Johnson, the chief
recruiting officer, consented to enlist the runaway school-boy. Mr.
Saint-Pierre of course entered the service as a private, but in less
than two months he rose to the rank of sergeant. During General Meade’s
retreat towards Centreville, in the fall of 1863, he was wounded at the
crossing of the Rapahannock, and had only recently resumed duty when in
the fight at Mine Run, near Fredericksburg, he was again wounded. He was
picked up by a detachment of General Stewart’s rebel cavalry on the
field of battle, and was brought to Gordonsville during the night, and
on the following day sent to Richmond as a prisoner of war. In his
regiment he had been reported as dead, and some time afterwards his name
was published in the list of those who had been killed in that fight.
The result of this information was that funeral services were held both
in the Montreal College and in his native parish, and prayer asked for
the salvation of his soul. To give a detailed and circumstantial account
of the suffering which Mr. Saint-Pierre had to endure, and all the
adventures he had to go through in his numerous attempts to escape from
starvation and death in the southern stockades, would require a
narrative which could hardly be comprised within the compass of a whole
volume; but one may form some idea of it, however, when the names of the
following prisons wherein he was successively detained are mentioned:
Bell Island and Parmenton building at Richmond, Andersonville in
Georgia, and Charleston’s race ground and Florence in South Carolina.
After thirteen months of indescribable sufferings, he at last found
himself free at Charleston on the day when the city was evacuated by the
Southern troops in the spring of 1865. After the war was over, Mr.
Saint-Pierre returned to his native country, where he was greeted as one
who had risen from the dead. In March, 1866, he resumed his legal
studies, and was first articled to the late Sir George Etienne Cartier,
but a year afterwards he became a student in the office of the Hon. J.
J. C. Abbott, where he remained up to the time of his admission to the
bar on the 12th of July, 1870. In 1871 Mr. Saint-Pierre entered in
partnership with the Hon. Gédéon Ouimet, then attorney-general, and some
time afterwards prime minister for the province of Quebec; and on that
gentleman’s appointment as superintendent of education, after his having
resigned his office as prime minister, Mr. Saint-Pierre found himself at
the head of his law office and the sole possessor of his large
_clientèle_. Mr. Saint-Pierre soon reached the foremost rank in his
profession, and to-day the firm of Saint-Pierre, Globensky & Poirier, is
one of the leading firms in the district of Montreal. But it is more
particularly as a criminalist that Mr. Saint-Pierre has distinguished
himself. Few lawyers have been so successful in the practice of that
branch of the law; and whether it be in the often arduous task of
bringing conviction to the minds of juries, or in that no less difficult
one of unravelling a knotty point of law, he has few equals and no
superior in his native province. He has frequently acted as Crown
attorney and as substitute of the attorney-general for the province of
Quebec, both in Montreal and in the adjoining districts. In politics Mr.
Saint-Pierre is a Liberal. He was selected to run as the Liberal
candidate in Jacques-Cartier, in 1878, for the local house, but was
defeated by the former member, L. N. Lecavalier, who succeeded in
securing his re-election by a small majority. Since that date Mr.
Saint-Pierre has taken very little part in active politics. At the
general elections for the federal house in 1887 he was selected as the
_Candidat National_, first in the county of Laprairie, in opposition to
Mr. Tassé, the Conservative nominee, and afterwards in the county of
Jacques-Cartier, in opposition to Mr. Girouard, but declined in both
instances. Mr. Saint-Pierre was married in 1874 to Adeline Albina
Lesieur, eldest daughter of Adolphe Lesieur, merchant, of Terrebonne.
She is a niece of the late Hon. Thos. Jean-Jacques Loranger, of the Hon.
L. O. Loranger, a judge of the Superior Court, and of J. M. Loranger,
Q.C. Mrs. Saint-Pierre is a handsome and accomplished lady and an
excellent musician. She is often seen at charity concerts, contributing,
by her distinguished talent as a pianist, to the enjoyment of the
evening; whilst her husband, Mr. Saint-Pierre, who is the possessor of a
splendid bass voice, and a cultured singer, varies the entertainment by
his singing. Mr. and Mrs. Saint-Pierre were both born and brought up
Roman catholics, and they have a family of five children, the eldest of
whom, Master Henri, is only nine years old. In 1856 Mrs. Saint-Pierre,
the elder, was married to John Wilson, a wealthy farmer of Isle-Bizard.
He was a widower and the father of several boys. Two of those boys were
married to two of Mrs. Saint-Pierre’s daughters. The youngest of those
gentlemen was recently elected deputy-reeve of the county of Prescott,
in Ontario. Mrs. Saint-Pierre has survived her second husband, who died
in 1858. She has now reached the ripe old age of seventy-nine. She is
yet strong and hearty, and lately was invited to the christening of an
infant (a girl) who was the grand-daughter of her own grand-daughter.
She was thereby given an opportunity seldom offered, even to very aged
grand-mothers, that of seeing her fourth generation.
* * * * *
=Hemming, Edward John=, D.C.L., ex-M.P.P., Advocate, etc.,
Drummondville, province of Quebec, is the third son of the late Henry
Keene Hemming, estate agent, and for many years lessee of extensive
brick-fields at Gray’s, Essex on the Thames; and Sophia Wirgman,
daughter of Thomas Wirgman, from Stockholm, Sweden, and aunt to
Lieut.-Colonel Wirgman, late of the 10th Hussars, in their lifetime of
London, England, and Lismore, Ireland (in connection with the Duke of
Devonshire estates), and latterly (where they died and were buried), of
Great Marlow, Bucks, having previously lived farming near Drummondville,
P.Q., for a few years, when they returned to England. There is every
reason to believe that his father was directly descended from John
Hemming, Shakespeare’s associate and literary executor. An uncle of his
father, the Rev. Samuel Hemming, D.D., was chaplain to the Royal Lodge
of Free and Accepted Masons, and as such intimate with all the then
royal dukes, the Duke of Sussex standing godfather to two of his
children. His father was also uncle to the late Hon. Judge Dunkin,
member of the Privy Council of Canada, etc., etc. (his sister being the
judge’s mother), and also cousin to the late Charles F. Smithers,
president of the Bank of Montreal. After the lapse of about a hundred
years, the two families of Hemming and Smithers have intermarried again,
Walter G. A. Hemming, of Toronto, a nephew of the subject of this
sketch, having lately married a daughter of Charles F. Smithers. Edward
John Hemming was born on the 30th August, 1823, in London, England, that
is to say Clapham, Surrey, and was educated at the Clapham Grammar
School, under the Rev. Charles Pritchard, M.A., a Cambridge wrangler.
Among his schoolmates who have since achieved distinction may be
mentioned the Rev. Dr. Bradley, dean of Westminster Abbey; Sir George
Groves, of Sydenham Palace fame; and his brother, George Wirgman
Hemming, of Lincoln’s Inn, Q.C., lately of Hyde Park, now of South
Kensington, London, late fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge, senior
wrangler of the university—one of the commissioners named by the
Imperial Parliament for revising the statutes of Cambridge
University;—editor of the “Equity Law Reports” under the council of the
English bar, etc., who married his second cousin, a grand niece of Sir
David Baird, the hero of Seringapatam and Corunna. To show the heredity
of genius we may mention that one of his sons, now in the Royal
Engineers, not only came out first at the final examination at the Royal
Military College, Woolwich, but surpassed the one next to him by more
than a thousand marks. On leaving school in 1839, Mr. Hemming went to
sea as a midshipman, making his two last trips to India in the old East
Indiaman, _Herefordshire_, commanded by Captain Richardson, a cousin. He
left her at Bombay in 1843, to join the _Seyd Khan_, opium clipper
trading to China with a Lascar crew, as second officer, under Captain
Horsburgh, a nephew of the famous Captain Horsburgh of East India
Directory fame. During his voyages, he visited the Cape of Good Hope,
Isle of France, Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Batavia, Hong Kong, Canton,
Amoy, Chusan, Woosing and St. Helena, this latter before the removal of
the great Bonaparte. After remaining in China a couple of years, he
returned home to his father in Ireland in 1845, where he remained
studying farming till 1851. During his residence at Lismore, the Smith
O’Brien rebellion broke out, and he then made acquaintance with Nicholas
O’Gorman, once secretary to the Catholic Emancipation League, under
O’Connell, but then a loyal subject; also of Richard O’Gorman, his
nephew, one of the Young Irelanders; who had to flee the country in
order to escape prosecution for his action in that rebellion. Richard
O’Gorman is now a judge in New York. Liebig’s work on agricultural
chemistry, then lately published, having caused a great sensation, he
turned his attention to the subject, and the Royal Agricultural Society
of England having offered a prize open to all the world on the occasion
of the International Exhibition of 1851, for the best essay on chemistry
applied to agriculture, Mr. Hemming entered the competition and carried
off the prize. This essay may be found in the Parliamentary library at
Ottawa. While attending the International Exhibition in 1851, he met his
cousin, afterwards Judge Dunkin, who prevailed upon him to enter his
office in Montreal as a law student, and he commenced his legal studies
in the office of Bethune & Dunkin in the fall of that year. Among his
fellow students were the Judges Ramsay, and Papineau, and Julius
Scriver, the M.P. for Huntingdon; and he also entered the law course of
McGill College, and in 1855, took his degree of B.C.L., being first in
honours; and in 1871, took his degree of D.C.L. in course. While he was
a law student he was elected president of the Law Students’ Society,
succeeding the late Judge Ramsay of the Court of Queen’s Bench; Judge
Baby, now of the same court, being elected secretary-treasurer. Shortly
after, in May, 1855, he was admitted to the bar, and immediately
returned to England, where, on the 19th July, 1855, he was married to
Sophia Louisa Robinson (a cousin), eldest daughter of the late Thomas
Robinson, of London and Norwood, merchant, and returned to Montreal the
same year, and commenced practising law in partnership with A. H. Lunn.
He was employed by G. W. Wickstead, Q.C., law clerk of the Legislative
Assembly of Canada, on behalf of the government, to compile a digested
index of all the statute law in force from the conquest to that date,
preparatory to a consolidation of the statutes, which work he
accomplished to his satisfaction. In 1851, he entered the active militia
force by joining the Montreal Light Infantry Battalion as second
lieutenant, and served therein for seven years, until he was gazetted
out on leaving limits as unattached, retaining his rank of captain. In
1858, at the suggestion of Judge Dunkin, who, at that time, was member
for Drummond and Arthabaska, and who intended residing in Drummond
county (and his father having just arrived from England and purchased a
farm in the neighbourhood of Drummondville), he left his practice in
Montreal and came to Drummondville, which was then nothing but a
deserted village in the middle of the woods and out of the world,
although practically the _chef-lieu_ of the then newly constituted
district of Arthabaska, the only resident lawyers living there; now,
thanks to the railroad, Drummondville is a thriving village of two
thousand inhabitants, with flourishing manufactures and magnificent
water powers, but has lost its pre-eminence in law since the erection of
a court house at the _chef-lieu_, and the formation of a resident bar at
Arthabaskaville. Mr. Dunkin, however, being defeated afterwards by J. B.
E. Dorion, _l’Enfant Terrible_, obtained a seat in Brome county and
permanently settled in that county at Knowlton. In 1867, on the death of
_l’Enfant Terrible_ (the then member for Drummond and Arthabaska),
shortly before confederation, Mr. Hemming was invited by a large number
of the electors to become a candidate for the Quebec legislature under
confederation, and although he was opposed by the late Judge Dorion (a
brother of _l’Enfant Terrible_), on the Liberal side, and by N. Hébert,
as a French Conservative, he had a majority over both candidates
combined, and stood at the head of the poll with nearly two hundred
majority, and this, notwithstanding that the constituency was
five-sixths French. During that parliament he took a prominent part in
inaugurating the railway fever of that time and the government policy of
subsidizing the railways consequent thereon. He obtained a charter for
what is now the northern branch of the South Eastern Railway, under the
then name of the Richelieu, Drummond and Arthabaska River Railway, one
hundred miles in length; successfully (for every one but himself)
promoted the scheme and constructed the road, was elected president of
the company and gave to L. A. Sénécal the first railway contract he ever
had, and finally transferred the road to the South Eastern Company on
certain conditions which, we regret to say, were never fully carried
out. He also greatly developed the two counties by opening up
colonization roads; and took an active part in revising the municipal
code. During this time he was elected president of the Agricultural
Society of the county of Drummond, No. 1, and held the office until the
society was constituted for the whole county. In 1870, a vacancy
occuring in the lucrative office of prothonotary for the district of
Arthabaska, the Hon. M. Chauveau, the then premier, nominated him to the
same, but a difficulty arising in connection with the Hon. G. Irvine,
who was then solicitor-general in the Chauveau administration, and who
represented a portion of the district, in order to oblige Hon. M.
Chauveau, he finally consented to decline the nomination, and to present
himself once more in 1871 for re-election against the Hon. W. Laurier,
the Liberal candidate, but was defeated by a large majority, principally
on the ground of nationality and railway difficulties. Shortly
afterwards, Mr. Hemming was elected warden of the county of Drummond,
which office he resigned, when two years afterwards, he was appointed
district magistrate (the equivalent of county judge in the other
provinces) for the districts of Arthabaska and St. Francis, in
conjunction with G. E. Rioux, but practically the two districts were
divided, Mr. Hemming taking the former, and Mr. Rioux the latter. About
the same time it was commonly reported in the press and elsewhere, that
he was to be the new Superior Court judge, for the district, as the
representative of the Protestant element among the six new judges, but
at the end the Protestant element was eliminated altogether. While
holding the office of district magistrate he was named sole commissioner
by the Quebec government to investigate and report on the management and
working of the prothonotary’s and other offices in the Montreal
court-house, including the police office. Mr. Bréhaut (a Protestant)
having resigned his office of police magistrate, and received another
appointment in consequence of this report, it was again positively
reported that Mr. Hemming was to be appointed police magistrate in his
stead, but at the very last moment Judge Desnoyers was substituted. In
1878, during Mr. Joly’s short _régime_, when great efforts were made to
introduce the American system, “to the victors belong the spoils,” Mr.
Hemming and thirteen other district magistrates had their commissions
revoked, on the ground of economy, without receiving any indemnity
whatever for the loss of their office, and Mr. Rioux, being a Liberal,
was awarded Mr. Hemming’s district in addition to his own, thus
eliminating the only Protestant on the police bench in the whole
province of Quebec. Strange to say, the succeeding Conservative
administration in Quebec never took any steps either to reinstate or
indemnify Mr. Hemming for the loss of his office, although nearly all
his French colleagues were provided for one way or the other. As he had
to commence his practice anew he retired from public life for some
years; but in 1881, at the urgent request of the local government,
consented to run against the Hon. George Irvine in the Conservative
interest in Megantic, but was again defeated, not having received the
support promised him, and having entered into the contest only a week
before the polling. In this year he was named census commissioner for
the county of Drummond by the Dominion government; and in 1885 revising
officer for the same county under the Franchise Act. Having a short time
previously consented to take a part in municipal matters again, he was
elected mayor of Drummondville and warden of the county for the second
time. He was also elected syndic of the Bar of Arthabaska, which office
he held until his recent appointment as joint prothonotary and Clerk of
the Crown for that district. Mr. Hemming has for some years past been an
associate member of the Protestant Committee of the Council of Public
Instruction for the province of Quebec, where he has been working for
some time past to procure the introduction of religious teaching in the
Protestant public schools, and has so far succeeded as to have the Bible
placed upon the list of authorized text books. In religious matters Mr.
Hemming is a member of the Church of England, and has acted for many
years past as lay reader whenever his services have been required. And
on one occasion in the absence of a clergyman after the church at
Drummondville was destroyed by fire, conducted the services for nearly a
year, and thereby kept the congregation together. He was churchwarden of
St. George’s Church, Drummondville, for eighteen years, and has been
elected a delegate to the Diocesan Synod of Quebec and to the Provincial
Synod since 1862 without any intermission, and during these 25 years has
never failed attending a single session of either of these synods. Mr.
Hemming is old-fashioned enough to believe in the Bible, and
consequently has no faith in Darwinism, secular education or
prohibition. With regard to the latter, he says he cannot bring himself
to believe that the Saviour was a criminal when he made and drank wine
at the marriage feast, nor when he commanded his disciples to drink wine
in his memory at the Lord’s Supper. In politics, he is and has always
been a Conservative, and does not believe in the principles of the
French or American revolutions, nor in the divine right of the people,
and he believes that authority ought to come from above and not from
below. Mr. Hemming cannot understand the theory of allowing the fools to
elect the wise men, nor why a majority should have the right to utterly
crush out the minority, and still less why a small minority that happens
to hold the balance of power under our constitution, should have the
power of controlling the overwhelming majority of the nation. Neither
does he believe in Adam Smith. He has been a protectionist ever since
the times of Sir Robert Peel, D’Israeli and Lord George Bentinck, and
has never seen any occasion to change his opinion, notwithstanding it
was considered rank heresy to say so. After a lifetime he begins to see
signs that the British are beginning to discover that our social system
is founded on the family, each with its own interest (the nation being
merely an extension of that idea), and that until the whole world
becomes one family, the theory of free trade which is based on that idea
must be inapplicable. It will be seen by the foregoing that Mr. Hemming
has led a pretty active life, which may be considered as decidedly
professional, having been a sailor, soldier, farmer, lawyer, legislator,
judge, doctor (in law) and (lay) parson. His sons are taking different
branches of the professions. His eldest son being a law student, another
is in the Canadian army, being a lieutenant in the Infantry School
corps, and a third in the Canadian marine, being second officer on board
of one of the government cruisers for the protection of the fisheries.
* * * * *
=McCosh, John=, Barrister, Orillia, Ontario, was born in Paris, Brant
county, Ontario, on the 6th September, 1844. His father, Robert McCosh,
M.D., was a native of Beith, Ayrshire, Scotland, who graduated at the
University of Edinburgh, and came to Canada in 1834. Shortly after his
arrival he located in Paris, and in a very few years gained a large
medical practice in the county of Brant. He died in 1862. His mother was
a Miss Irwin, of Welland. She was from the north of Ireland, and
emigrated with her mother and brothers about the year 1836. Her brothers
became merchants, and carried on a large business, one in Paris, and the
other in Galt. John McCosh received his education in the Paris High
School, and subsequently studied law in the office of Clark Gamble,
Q.C., Toronto, and afterwards in the office of the present Chief Justice
Cameron. He was enrolled as a solicitor in 1868, and called to the bar
in 1874. Mr. McCosh then opened a law office in Paris, where he
continued to practise his profession for about two years, and in 1871
removed to Orillia, where he has since resided, and has succeeded in
building up a lucrative business. Apart from his professional duties,
Mr. McCosh has found time to devote a good deal of his time to the
public good, and in appreciation of his disinterested services, his
fellow-townsmen elected him, on different occasions, to the highest
office in their gift, and he accordingly filled the office of mayor in
the years 1881, 1882, and in 1886. He was also, in 1886, nominated for
the Ontario legislature by the Liberal-Conservatives of East Simcoe, but
afterwards withdrew from the canvass, he having failed to agree with the
party on the “Protestant” and “Prohibition” cries. Mr. McCosh is a
rising man, and we hope to see him some day in the legislature of his
country. He is married to Mary Stanton, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel
Stanton, postmaster of Paris.
* * * * *
=Norman, Rev. Richard Whitmore=, M.A., D.C.L., Christ Church Cathedral,
Montreal, was born at Southborough, Kent, England, on 24th April, 1829.
His father was Richard Norman, merchant, of London, son of George
Norman, a large landed proprietor of Bromley, Kent, England; and his
mother, Emma Stone, was a daughter of George Stone, of Chiselhurst,
Kent, head of the oldest private banking house in London, now Martin &
Co., 68 Lombard street. The subject of our sketch, Rev. Dr. Norman, was
educated at King’s College, London, and afterwards at Exeter College,
Oxford; and was, in 1852, ordained deacon, and priest in 1853. He was
curate of St. Thomas, Oxford, in 1852; fellow of Radley College, 1853;
fellow and head master of St. Michael’s College, Tenbury, 1857; and
warden of Radley College, 1861 to 1866. In consequence of hard work his
health became impaired, and he left England in 1866, in the hope that a
short sojourn in Canada would do him good. He had not been long on this
side the Atlantic when his health began to improve, and family
circumstances prompted him to make Canada his future home. Previous to
his coming here he had but slight experience in strictly ministerial
work, his principal labours in England having been connected with higher
education; but since then he has heartily thrown himself into pastoral
work, without having entirely abandoned education. In 1868 he was
appointed assistant at St. John the Evangelist’s Church, Montreal;
assistant at St. James the Apostle’s Church, 1872; rector of St.
Matthias Church, 1883; and is now (1887) canon assistant of Christ
Church Cathedral. Rev. Dr. Norman was, in 1878, a member of the council
and vice-chancellor of the University of Bishop’s College; a member of
the Protestant School Board in 1879, and chairman of the same in 1880;
vice-president of the Montreal Art Association in 1882, and president in
1887; vice-president of the Montreal Philharmonic Society in 1879;
member of the Protestant Committee of Public Instruction in 1883; hon.
clerical secretary of the Anglican Provincial Synod in 1880; and in 1882
was elected a fellow of McGill College, Montreal. Rev. Dr. Norman
belongs to the Masonic fraternity, and occupied the position of
worshipful master of Apollo University lodge, Oxford, in 1861-1863, and
the same office in Abingdon lodge in 1864. He was also eminent commander
of encampment Cœur-de-Lion, Oxford, 1858. Rev. Dr. Norman has published
several volumes of sermons, and various pamphlets, which have been well
received by the public. He is still in the prime of life, and we hope
has many years of usefulness still before him. He has always been a
member of the Anglican communion, and is unmarried.
* * * * *
=Rice, Charles=, Registrar of the High Court of Justice, etc., Perth,
Ontario, was born on the 7th of November, 1822, in the township of
Drummond, in the county of Lanark, about two miles from the town of
Perth, which then contained but a few log buildings used chiefly for
government stores, the settlement being composed of discharged soldiers
and their families located by the government at the close of the
American war of 1812. His father, John Rice, was born in the county
Down, Ireland, at or near Newry, and was descended from a collateral
branch of the Monteagle family. Returning home from school one afternoon
when about sixteen years old, he was kidnapped by the press-gang and
forced on board a British man-of-war bound on a cruise for the coast of
Newfoundland and Gulf of St. Lawrence. He continued on board ship doing
duty as a sailor, until the American war broke out, when he left the
vessel and enlisted as a private soldier in the Newfoundland Fencibles
and took part in the battles of Chrysler’s Farm, Stoney Creek,
Burlington Heights, and other engagements. He was promoted to the rank
of sergeant, was wounded at Burlington Heights, and at the close of the
war got his discharge with a pension and a grant of land. He had married
Hannah Van Boeler, then the widow of John Woodlands, who had been killed
in battle. She was born at Annapolis, Nova Scotia, of Dutch parents who
had emigrated from the Netherlands and settled at Annapolis. They were
descended from those sturdy and brave Dutchmen who had battled for their
liberty for forty years against the colossal power of Spain under
Phillip II. John Rice, through hard work, had effected a considerable
clearance on his lot, and was prospering apace, when one summer, at the
latter end of August, the barn in which all the produce of the farm had
been stored, took fire and was burned down with all its contents, and he
had to run in debt to the late Hon. R. Matheson for supplies to support
the family for an entire year. This debt accumulated in Matheson’s books
at compound interest at ten per cent., and in a few years Matheson got a
deed of the farm, with a verbal understanding to re-convey when the debt
should be paid off, which was never done in the lifetime of John Rice.
Born and brought up in a log shanty, in what was then the backwoods, the
subject of this sketch, Charles Rice, had but a poor chance of getting
any education. There were no public schools, no free schools, in those
days; and at intervals he was sent to a private school kept in Perth by
the late Mr. Hudson, and afterwards to another kept by the late Dawson
Kerr. On arriving at the age of fourteen Mr. Rice had been at school for
about two years in all, and had only acquired some knowledge of reading,
writing, and arithmetic. When about twelve years old, in the month of
November, he hired out at six dollars a month to burn coal to earn money
to buy himself a pair of boots for the winter. The following year, in
the beginning of December, he hired as bookkeeper with Aaron Chambers,
who had a lumber shanty, taking out oak timber near Peter McArthur’s, in
the township of Beckwith. He started on foot and walked to Franktown,
fifteen miles, and arrived there at dark only to find that he had five
miles farther to go to reach the shanty, through a section of country
and bush roads that he knew nothing about; but by following closely the
directions given him, he succeeded in finding the place some two or
three hours after dark. This was Saturday night. Chambers had hired him
to keep his books, and on Sunday informed him that besides keeping the
books he would have to cook for the men and chop the fire-wood. This he
refused to do, and on Monday morning left the shanty and footed it home.
He continued to work on the farm until about sixteen years old, when he
was apprenticed to James Thompson (the present sheriff), to learn the
printing business in the old _Bathurst Courier_ office (now the _Perth
Courier_). This was in May, 1839. About two years and a half after this,
in the beginning of winter, he left the _Courier_ office, took the stage
to Brockville, thence by stage to Kingston (there were no railroads in
those days), and arrived there at night penniless but not despairing.
The Kingston _News_ had just been started by S. and J. Rowlands, and he
got work on this newspaper. The following summer he returned home, his
father having died in the meantime, and worked for about two years
longer in the _Courier_ office. Ere he had been a year in the _Courier_,
for the first time, he became convinced that if he was to succeed in the
printing business, he must acquire a better education than he then had.
A young lawyer in town, Henry Sache, who was sometimes hard up through
nobody’s fault but his own, offered to sell him a Latin dictionary
cheap. He closed the bargain and bought it, and at once determined to
study Latin. The reader will no doubt smile when informed that he
commenced his studies by committing the Latin dictionary to memory! A
few evenings afterwards Mr. Sache, coming in and finding him intent at
the dictionary, asked what he was doing. He replied that he had
commenced to study Latin, and was learning the dictionary off by heart.
His visitor smiled, and informed him that he would never learn the
language that way—that he must get a Latin grammar, study that, and
then commence to translate. But where was he to get a Latin grammar?
Sache had sold his, and there was none for sale in Perth. The nearest
place was Brockville; and so he got the stage-driver on his next trip to
buy him one and bring it out, and how he exulted over the possession of
that book! Every spare moment was thenceforth devoted to study, and with
some assistance that he got from Ephraim Patterson, who was then
studying for the church, he made pretty rapid progress. This intercourse
with Patterson had induced in him a desire to study for the Church of
England ministry. He talked the matter over with the late Rev. Michael
Harris, and on a confirmation visit to Perth, he had an interview with
Bishop Strachan on the subject. They both approved his decision, and
while offering words of encouragement, pointed out the great
difficulties that would have to be overcome, the subjects that would
require to be studied and mastered before he could take a college degree
and qualify for holy orders. Nothing daunted, the young man determined
to persevere—what others had done he could do—it was only a question
of time. He now reduced his course of studies to a system. He had to
work ten hours a day in the printing office to support himself; so he
rose at four o’clock in the morning, winter and summer, and studied
Greek till six, when work commenced at type-setting. Of the breakfast
hour and dinner hour he devoted forty minutes of each to the study of
Euclid. From seven till ten p.m. was devoted to the study of Latin. Of
course, his health occasionally broke down under this severe strain and
compelled a short cessation, but only to be resumed again. Kingston was
the seat of government when young Rice went there the second time and
got work in the _News_ office. Parliament opened in the fall, and Dr.
Barker, of the _British Whig_, secured the contract for the government
printing; and as he offered higher wages than the _News_ was paying,
young Rice entered the _Whig_ office on the parliamentary work. Lord
Metcalfe was governor at the time, and quarrelled with his ministers
(Baldwin, Lafontaine, Rolph, etc.), on the question of responsible
government. The ministry resigned, parliament was dissolved, the work in
the _Whig_ office stopped, and a lot of journeyman printers, young Rice
among the rest, were thrown out of work, and he concluded to return to
Perth, which at that time and at that season of the year was no easy
matter. A small steamer, the last of the season, was advertised to leave
Kingston for Brockville, and on this steamer he took passage and left in
the afternoon, arriving in Brockville about four o’clock the next
morning; the steamer’s paddle-wheels having got so coated with ice as to
render progress difficult and slow. From Brockville he took the stage to
Perth, a two-wheeled cart drawn by two horses, and the journey to Perth
in that cart over rough and hard frozen roads, on a cold December day,
was one not soon to be forgotten. Once more in Perth, he engaged with
Mr. Thompson to work on the _Courier_ half time, an arrangement which
just suited him, as it gave him means enough to live on, and afforded
ample time to pursue his studies. And here it may be as well to mention
that while living in Kingston, a Frenchman from Paris, who was giving
private lessons in French in the city, came to board in the same house.
This was an opportunity not to be lost, and young Rice at once entered
on the study of the French language, and worked at it diligently every
evening after tea; and when he left Kingston six months after, he could
read, write, and speak French with tolerable fluency. The arrangement
with Mr. Thompson was only temporary, as Mr. Thompson entered upon the
study of law in the office of the late W. O. Buell, and took Mr. Rice
into partnership to manage and conduct the _Courier_ business, as Mr.
Thompson’s name had to be dropped from the paper on signing articles as
a law student. At this time Mr. Rice entered upon his career as a
journalist, his political articles, however, being revised by Mr.
Thompson. The partnership continued until the first of January, 1852,
when Mr. Thompson, having been appointed sheriff of the county of
Lanark, sold out the _Courier_ printing office to Mr. Rice, who
continued to publish and edit the paper, having changed the name to the
_Perth Courier_, until the first of January, 1863, when he sold out to
the late G. L. Walker, brother of the present publisher and editor, Jas.
M. Walker, and thenceforth ceased all connection with political
journalism. In May, 1862, the Canadian parliament was in session in
Quebec, and Sir John A. Macdonald’s ministry was defeated by a small
majority, and the late John Sanfield Macdonald was called upon to found
a new ministry, which he succeeded in doing. At this time the office of
County Court clerk, deputy-clerk of the Crown, and registrar of
Surrogate Court was vacant by the death of the late C. H. Sache. On the
change of government, and the reform party coming into power, Mr. Rice
at once applied for the office, and on the 10th of June was appointed to
fill the vacancy, and which office he still holds (May, 1886). In 1864
Mr. Rice was appointed by the Hon. John Sanfield Macdonald to the
commission of the peace. In 1856 he bought out the book and stationery
store of Wm. Allan, but after continuing the business for two years, and
finding it did not succeed to his satisfaction, wound it up and again
confined his attention exclusively to the newspaper business. During his
connection with the press, Mr. Rice was a strong and pronounced advocate
of reform principles and responsible government, his political
editorials on the questions of the day being often copied into other
journals. The legislative union between Upper and Lower Canada did not
work well, owing to differences in sectional interests, race and
religion. Among the many schemes proposed to make the machinery of
government work more smoothly, and allay sectional jealousies, was the
one known as the “double majority” principle, advocated by John Sanfield
Macdonald, and opposed by George Brown and the _Globe_. Mr. Macdonald’s
scheme was that all measures purely local to Lower Canada should be
dealt with by Lower Canadian members exclusively; and those purely local
to Upper Canada, by Upper Canada members exclusively; while general
measures affecting the whole province should be dealt with by the united
parliament as a whole. Mr. Rice, in the editorial columns of the
_Courier_, supported Mr. Macdonald’s scheme. Confederation came shortly
after, and partly solved the problem. During his connection with the
press, Mr. Rice took an active part in all the election contests and
political movements in the county of Lanark. He gave the influence of
the paper in supporting the Brockville and Ottawa Railway scheme, which
has since developed into the great Canadian Pacific Railway. He was the
first to advocate the construction of plank roads in the county of
Lanark, resulting in the formation of a company, and making the plank
road from Perth to Lanark, which has since become macadamised. He was
ever foremost in advocating schemes of public enterprise and
improvement. Since his retirement from journalism, Mr. Rice has
contributed several articles on various subjects of a non-political
nature to the public press, which have appeared in the _Liberal_, the
_National_, the _Week_, the _Globe_, _Canadian Monthly_, and local
papers. Probably those that have attracted most attention are his
articles against prohibitory liquor laws, and notably, the Scott Act.
Mr. Rice was brought up in the Church of England faith, was baptized by
the Rev. M. Harris, and confirmed by Bishop Strachan. He was a constant
attendant at that church, but his outspoken advocacy of reform
principles in his newspaper exasperated some of the more hot-headed
tories; and one Sunday morning, on going to church, he was confronted
with a placard stuck up on the church door denouncing and libelling him
on account of his political opinions. He never entered the church again,
and joined the Presbyterian Free church. While pursuing his studies for
the ministry he had access to the theological library of the Rev. M.
Harris, and read the best standard works on church history and Christian
evidences, as well as the doctrinal standards of the church. The
evidence and arguments contained in these works, however, did not
satisfy him—he felt that there was a weakness and a want running
through them—something ignored that ought to have appeared; and he
determined to see and know the other side and sift the matter to the
bottom. With this view, he purchased and read the latest modern works on
Christian evidences and Biblical criticism—Strauss, Renan, the Jubingen
school, Dr. Davidson, Mackay, Kimberly, Greig, and many others; and the
scientific works of Darwin, Spencer, Huxly, Lyell, Tyndall, Buchner,
Heckel, Combe, Lubbick, Fiske, and many others, and finally, after many
years of study and research, settled down into a confirmed Agnostic. The
knowledge he had acquired of the Latin, Greek, and French languages was
of great service to him in his reading and studies. On the 18th of
April, 1848, he married Grace Murray, daughter of the late James Murray,
a native of Paisley, Scotland, who had emigrated to this country and
settled in the township of Lanark. Brought up in the backwoods like
himself, her educational acquirements were not much, and, like himself,
she was chiefly self-taught; but she naturally possessed more than an
average share of strong, sound, practical common sense—invaluable
qualities in a woman; and her sound, sensible advice prudently given and
judiciously acted upon many times proved of great value to her husband
in surmounting business difficulties. Five children were born of the
marriage, two sons and three daughters. The oldest son, John Albert,
grew up to be a young man of promise. At the age of eighteen he was
attending the Military School at Toronto, when the Fenian raid occurred,
and accompanied the volunteers to Ridgeway. On their return to Toronto
he was presented by the volunteers with a silver-headed cane, with
suitable inscription, as a token of their appreciation of the services
he had rendered. He afterwards published and edited the _Paris
Transcript_, in the county of Brant, for about two years, but failing
health compelled him to abandon it, and shortly after his return home he
died. One daughter, Jeanetta, died at the age of fourteen of heart
disease. The oldest daughter, Carrie Elizabeth, married Joseph Lamont,
proprietor of the Headquarters hotel in the city of Fargo, Dakota, where
the youngest daughter, Ida, in November, 1883, died from accidental
poisoning, on the eve of her marriage to Charles Scott, now mayor of the
city of Fargo. The youngest son, James M., is working at the printing
business in Chicago. So that all Mr. Rice’s posterity seem destined to
be citizens of the United States. Unaided and unassisted from any person
or any quarter, by indomitable perseverance and a determination to
succeed, Mr. Rice worked his way up from a log shanty in the woods to
his present position of local registrar of the High Court of Justice. He
never wholly failed in anything he undertook to do. If he had to cross a
mountain and could not climb it, he would go around. Although it is
twenty-three years since he retired from journalism, Mr. Rice’s name is
still retained on the books of the Canadian Press Association.
* * * * *
=Taylor, Henry=, Hardware Merchant, Perth, Ontario, one of our young and
pushing business men, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 9th of
June, 1845. His father was Robert Taylor, merchant, Edinburgh; and his
mother, Margaret, eldest daughter of William Darling, also a merchant in
Edinburgh. Mr. Taylor, jr., was educated at private schools in his
native city, and received a sound mercantile education. His father died
when he was about ten years of age, and on the death of his mother in
the spring of 1863 he, along with his brother William (now a merchant in
Toronto), arrived in Montreal. Until 1872 he held positions in several
of the leading hardware houses there, when he purchased the hardware
business in Perth, county of Lanark, which he is now successfully
carrying on. Mr. Taylor, for six years, belonged to the Victoria Rifles,
Montreal, and served with his corps at Huntingdon, Quebec province,
during the Fenian troubles of 1866. In politics Mr. Taylor is a
Reformer; and in religion an adherent of the Presbyterian church. He was
married, in Montreal, on the 5th November, 1868, to Sarah A., eldest
daughter of Rev. Samuel Massey, and has a family of seven children, five
daughters and two sons.
* * * * *
=Milligan, Rev. George Macbeth=, B.A., Pastor of Old St. Andrew’s
Presbyterian Church, Toronto. This rising and popular divine was born at
Wick, Caithnessshire, Scotland, on the 11th of August, 1841, and when a
mere lad came to Canada, and shortly after his arrival the family made
Kingston their home. His parents were William Milligan and Catharine
Macbeth. George received the first rudiments of his education at
Pulteney Academy, Wick, and for some time after his arrival in this
country he devoted himself to mechanical pursuits, but finding his
inclinations lay in another direction, resolved to educate himself for
the ministry, and with this object in view he entered Queen’s College,
Kingston, and from this seat of learning he graduated in 1862, taking
the first place in all his classes, and highest honours as a B.A. On the
4th of February, 1868, he was ordained to the ministry, and his first
charge was at English Settlement, about fourteen miles distant from
London, Ontario, and in this charge he remained until July, 1869, when
he was called to Detroit. Here he laboured until the fall of 1876, doing
good work for the Master, and making for himself many friends in the
church, which in a great degree was built up under his pastorate. In
1876 Old St. Andrew’s Church, Toronto, was without a pastor, and the
members invited the young preacher to cast in his lot with them. He
therefore left Detroit and came to Toronto, and in October of that year
he took charge of the congregation. At this time Old St. Andrew’s Church
was in a weak condition, the greater part of its members having left the
old building and gone with the Rev. Mr. Macdonnell, who for several
years had preached in it, to the new St. Andrew’s Church, erected on the
corner of King and Simcoe streets. Therefore Mr. Milligan had a hard
task before him but he resolved to do his best to keep together the
members that remained in the old church edifice, which was situated on
the corner of Church and Adelaide streets. At this time the membership
only numbered forty-eight persons, but he went to work, and in a very
short time enthused his people to such an extent—the membership and
congregation having considerably increased in the meantime—that they
resolved to abandon the old building and erect a more handsome one on
the corner of Jarvis and Carlton streets, which was soon done, and the
Rev. Mr. Milligan had the satisfaction of taking possession of the new
pulpit in March, 1878. Since then everything has progressed most
satisfactorily, and he can now boast of having one of the largest and
most influential congregations in the city. Its present membership is
500, and last year the congregation raised, for all purposes, $15,000.
But Rev. Mr. Milligan did not confine himself entirely to his duties as
pastor. He found the Ministerial Association in a very languid
condition, and he resolved to raise it to more vigorous action. He was
elected its president during the second year of its existence, and under
his presidency it began to be recognised as a power for good in the
community, and to-day it exerts an influence far beyond its narrow city
bounds. He has also been connected in Toronto with various other public
associations, such as temperance, and that for the suppression of crime.
He was for years one of the examiners in connection with the
intermediate examinations; has been invited by the trustees of Queen’s
College, Kingston, to become lecturer on Church history; and for a long
time has occupied a position in the Senate of Knox College, and taken a
prominent part as an examiner in the same institution. During the
election campaign in Ontario, in 1886, he took a prominent part in the
discussion then raging with regard to Roman Catholic interference in the
Central prison, and in educational matters in our public schools, and
helped to clear the atmosphere, to a considerable degree, of the fog
some of our politicians attempted to introduce into the controversy.
Rev. Mr. Milligan, though a busy man, often finds time to communicate
his thoughts through the columns of the newspapers and magazines, and a
short time ago the Executive committee of the Foreign Mission Board of
his church induced him to write a series of letters to the _Globe_ on
the foreign mission work of the Presbyterian Church, which attracted
considerable attention at the time. Several of his sermons have been
published, and have been well received, and his articles on scientific
and ecclesiastical subjects in the magazines always find readers. During
his summer vacations he frequently visits Britain. In 1881 he made an
extensive tour through Europe, first visiting Britain, and penetrating
as far north as John o’ Groat’s, which, by the way, is not very far from
where he was born, and then travelled through France from Dieppe to
Marseilles, along the shores of the Mediterranean through Cannes to
Geneva, where he remained some time, and afterwards visited Paris, Pisa,
Florence, Venice and Milan. While on this trip he took copious notes of
what he saw, and afterwards embodied them in a course of lectures which
he delivered in Toronto, and other places in Ontario, to large and
appreciative audiences. He is also familiar with the greater portion of
the Dominion from Prince Edward Island to Calgary in the North-West
Territory. Rev. Mr. Milligan, it is needless to say, has been from his
youth up a Presbyterian, and is conservative in some of his views on
theology; yet he is in deep sympathy with many of the other branches of
the Christian church. On the 19th November, 1867, he was married to
Harriet Eunice Rowse, of Bath, Ontario. This lady is descended from the
U. E. loyalists, who settled on the Bay of Quinté, and her grandfather
was one of the elders of the Rev. Mr. McDowell, the founder of
Presbyterianism in Western Canada. The fruit of the union is one son and
three daughters.
* * * * *
=Wilson, Rev. Robert=, St. John, New Brunswick, was born on the 18th of
February, 1833, in Fort George, Scotland. His father, Peter Wilson, was
a sergeant in the 93rd Highlanders, and saw service during the reigns of
Kings George IV., William IV., and Queen Victoria. He came to Canada
with his regiment previous to the rebellion of 1837-38, and helped as a
true British soldier to suppress it. At Toronto, in 1841, he got his
discharge, and then went to Prince Edward Island, where he resided until
his death. He was for many years a Methodist local preacher, and died on
the 24th of April, 1883. Robert received his educational training at the
public school, New Glasgow Road, and at the Central Academy,
Charlottetown (now the Prince of Wales College). After leaving school he
adopted the profession of teacher, and taught a district school for some
years. During this time, and since, he has taken an active part in
everything that has a tendency to elevate his fellow man—politics,
temperance, and religion. He was foremost in the advocacy of the
confederation of the provinces, using the platform and the press in its
advocacy; of temperance, in divisions and the lodge-room, having held
the position of W. P. in the Sons of Temperance, and W. C. and chaplain
in the Order of Good Templars; and of religion by his pulpit
ministrations and practical Christian life. Rev. Mr. Wilson is a warm
advocate of Imperial federation, having been one of the first, if not
the very first, in the Maritime provinces to press it upon the public
attention. As a writer and lecturer on secular subjects he occupies a
front position. His lectures rank high as thoughtful literary efforts,
and his sermons are generally admired. In short, there is no minister of
any denomination down by the sea who has more friends within and beyond
his own church, or who so frequently and cheerfully responds to the
calls of lecture committees. In politics, Mr. Wilson is a
Liberal-Conservative, and had editorial charge of _The New Brunswick
Reporter_, of _The Albert County Advocate_, and _The Maple Leaf_. He has
also for years been a regular contributor to several newspapers. He has
written and published several books, among others, “Tried but True,” 300
pages; and “Never Give Up,” 300 pages (works well spoken of by the
provincial press), besides, “Judea and the Jews,” “British North
America,” and “Britain among the Nations,” in pamphlet form. He has
travelled extensively through Canada, New England, and as a Dominion
immigration agent in Great Britain. Mr. Wilson was brought up in the
faith of the Kirk of Scotland, but since 1851 he has been connected with
the Methodist church. He entered the ministry in 1853, and has been
chairman of the Sackville and St. John districts of the New Brunswick
Conference, Secretary of the conference for five sessions, and first
delegate in the General conference held in Toronto in 1886. He was
strongly opposed to the basis of union by which the various Methodist
bodies were made one, especially to the general superintendency, because
of its tendencies to Prelacy, and its curtailment of the privileges of
the Annual conference. He believed in the unification of the
non-Episcopal Methodist churches, but thought it wiser to allow the
Episcopal to work out their destiny in their own way, than to grant the
concession demanded, which meant the complete revolutionizing of the
Wesleyan economy. Rev. Mr. Wilson was married on the 7th of February,
1856, to Mary Anne Lane, daughter of William Ford, Prince Edward Island,
formerly of Ring’s Ash, Devonshire, England. The fruit of this marriage
is five daughters and one son. The latter, Albert Edward, is an officer
in the postal service at Fredericton, New Brunswick. We may add that the
Rev. Mr. Wilson was elected president of the New Brunswick and Prince
Edward Island Conference in June, 1887.
* * * * *
=Wallis, Herbert=, Montreal, Mechanical Superintendent of the Grand
Trunk Railway of Canada, was born at Derby, England, on March 10th,
1844, and comes of a family long resident in Derby, whose head was for
several generations engaged in the business of stage-coaching. His
father, William Wallace Wallis, abandoned the business on the advent of
railways, and became one of the carriers or cartage agents of the
Midland Railway, from which he retired, in favour of one of his sons,
some years prior to his death. Herbert Wallis was educated at the
Commercial College, near Halifax, England, and here he was specially
trained in that branch of the engineering profession which he now
follows. On the completion of his education he entered the service of
the Midland Railway Company as a pupil of Matthew Kirtley, then
locomotive superintendent, and was engaged in the drawing office and
workshops of that railway at Derby till August, 1866, at which date he
was appointed foreman of the locomotive and carriage departments at
Bradford, Yorkshire. In March, 1871, he accepted the position offered to
him by Mr. Richard Potter (the then president), of assistant mechanical
superintendent of the Grand Trunk Railway Company, and sailed for
Montreal on May 4th of that year; and in January, 1873, he was appointed
chief mechanical superintendent. Mr. Wallis is a member of the
Institution of Civil Engineers, and of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers of England, and one of the council of the Canadian Society of
Civil Engineers. He is a staunch supporter of the Church of England. He
married Mary Ellen, eldest daughter of the late Thomas Walklate,
formerly goods manager of the Midland Railway Company, in August, 1870.
* * * * *
=Long, Thomas=, Merchant, Collingwood, county of Simcoe, Ontario, was
born in the county of Limerick, Ireland, on the 7th of April, 1836, and
is the son of Thomas and Margaret Long. After procuring such education
as he was able at the national school of his native village, he
emigrated to this country when he was fourteen years old, arriving in
the year 1850, and apprenticed himself to the general mercantile
business with P. O’Shea, of Mono Centre, for a term of three years,
during which he acquired such further educational advantages as could be
obtained from time to time by attendance at the public school and by
private study. On the expiration of his engagement with Mr. O’Shea, in
the spring of 1853, Mr. Long came to Nottawasaga, and worked on the
Northern Railway, then under construction, for about twelve months,
after which he obtained another situation in a general store, which he
held up to the 1st of December, 1858, when he embarked on his own
account as a general merchant and buyer of grain and produce. In 1865 he
was joined by his brother, John Joseph Long, and the firm thus formed
traded under the style of T. Long & Brother. In 1868 a branch store was
opened at Stayner, Simcoe county, and the business was carried on in
this place under the name of Long Brothers & Gartlan, and in 1870
another branch was opened at Thornbury, Grey county. This enterprising
firm, of which Thomas Long is now the senior partner, soon developed a
wholesale trade, and they became large direct importers, which has since
necessitated frequent visits of Mr. Long and his partners to the markets
of Europe. In 1871 they erected fine new premises at Collingwood, which
were unfortunately destroyed by fire in September, 1881, only, however,
to be replaced by more commodious premises, in which the firm now
carries on its principal business. In 1874 the firm erected, in
connection with their business operations at Stayner, a flour mill,
which proved a successful venture. Mr. Long has always taken the lead in
all local enterprises carried on with the view of developing the
business of the town and port of Collingwood. He was associated as
stockholder and director with the late F. W. Cumberland, W. E. Sandford,
and others in the establishment of the Lake Superior Navigation Company,
which built the first steamer—_The Cumberland_—which traded with the
Lake Superior ports. He was also one of the leading promoters of the
Georgian Bay Transportation Company, and has otherwise greatly helped to
promote the lake trade of his adopted country. Mr. Long served seven
years in the town council, and eight years as a member of the Ontario
legislature, in the Conservative interest, and is at present president
of the North Simcoe Conservative Association. In addition to his
business connection with the firm of T. Long & Bro., he has also the
honours and responsibilities of the following public offices:
vice-president and managing director of the Merritton Cotton Mill
Company, Merritton; director of the Bank of London in Canada;
secretary-treasurer of the Great Northern Transit Company; president of
the Farmers’ North-West Land and Colonization Company; and president of
the Great Northern Exhibition Company. Mr. Long is a member of the Roman
Catholic church. He was married on the 13th of May, 1861, to Ann Patton,
daughter of the late Charles Patton, builder, of Collingwood, by whom he
has had fourteen children, of whom six are now living—three sons and
three daughters.
* * * * *
=Hall, Francis Alexander=, Barrister, Perth, Ontario, was born in the
town of Perth, county of Lanark, Ontario, on 9th August, 1843. His
father, Francis Hall, was a native of Clackmannanshire, Scotland, who
came to Canada in 1831, and settled in Lanark. His mother, Mary
McDonnell, was also a native of Scotland, having been born in Greenock.
Francis Alexander Hall received his education at the Perth Public and
Grammar schools. After leaving school he spent about a year and a-half
as a clerk with a general merchant, but disliking the business he
resolved to make law his profession, and with this object in view
entered, in 1860, the law office of the late W. M. Shaw, of Perth. Here
he prosecuted his studies, and in August, 1866, was admitted as an
attorney, and in May, 1868, was called to the bar. In November, 1867, he
entered into partnership with Mr. Shaw, but this gentleman having died
in December 30, 1868, Mr. Hall continued the business. In October, 1875,
he formed a partnership with Edward Elliott, under the name of Hall and
Elliott; but this arrangement only continued until October, 1878, when
Mr. Elliott retired. In April, 1885, he took J. W. Berryman into
partnership, but this partner dying in November, 1885, he once more
conducts the business on his own account. Mr. Hall was made a Mason in
True Britains’ lodge, No. 12, A. F. and A. M., in April, 1872. He is one
of the charter members of Perth lodge, No. 190, A.O.U.W., and was
elected master this year (1887). Mr. Hall has taken a deep interest in
educational matters, and was elected a High School trustee in 1870. He
has been a member of the Board of Education of Perth since 1870, and is
now chairman of that board. He has also taken an interest in municipal
matters, and occupied a seat in the town council in 1873, 1874, 1875 and
1876, and was mayor of Perth in 1881 and 1882. Mr. Hall has always been
a Conservative in politics; and in religion he belongs to the Episcopal
denomination. He is married to Harriet Frances, daughter of Lewis
Dunham, a descendant of a U. E. loyalist who settled near Maitland.
* * * * *
=Wild, Rev. Joseph=, M.A., D.D., Pastor of Bond street Congregational
Church, Toronto, was born at Summit, Littleborough, Lancashire, England,
on the 16th of November, 1834. He was the youngest of five children. His
father, Joseph Wild, was one of the best of men—a thorough practical
Christian, who was respected by all classes of the community in which he
lived. It was a notable fact that no one passed from time to eternity
without the prayers of Joseph Wild first being sought, and no funeral
was considered complete without his being present at the ceremony. He
dressed plainly, following the style of Bourne and Clowes, and other
noted founders of the Primitive Methodist church. In manner he was
simple, easily approached, kind, sympathetic, generous, and
affectionate. His greatest concern seemed to be for children and aged
people, and on all occasions he had a kind word to say to them as he
passed through the streets or from his home to the chapel. As a preacher
he was plain and conversational, his object seeming to be to show the
best and nearest way to Heaven without the interposition of too many
stiles. When he died his funeral was the largest ever seen in the
village, and to this day his memory is revered. Rev. Dr. Wild’s mother
was a kind and quiet woman, and lived to do her duty to God and her
household, set her children a good example, and died in the favour and
affection of her neighbours and kinsfolk. Coming from such a stock, we
need not wonder that the doctor should now possess such a power in the
pulpit and among the people. At an early age he began to earn a
livelihood, and was apprenticed to the business of iron moulder and
machinist. It is perhaps in consequence of the knowledge acquired in the
workshop that he is now enabled to give occasionally such plain and
practical illustrations, as the following will show: While he resided in
Belleville, a fire having broken out, the fire engine would not work,
and every one in the neighbourhood got alarmed and feared an explosion
of steam—even the engineer deserted his post, and left the machine to
its fate. The doctor, however, felt no alarm, and going to the engine
made an examination and found that the piston rod had stuck, and at once
put it to rights amidst the applause of the multitude, and for this the
mayor and corporation passed him a hearty vote of thanks. Rev. Dr. Wild,
although he had not all the educational advantages the young people of
this country have, yet he was always considered sharp and intelligent,
and when first licensed as a local preacher, was able to give the people
something worth listening to. He was possessed of indomitable
perseverance, and early adopted the motto, “What man has done, man can
do again.” Possessed of an active brain, quick perception, a strong
physical constitution, and a warm heart, England became too contracted
for him, and he felt that Canada alone would be sufficient to satisfy
his wishes and desires for thorough usefulness in the cause of God and
humanity. Therefore, in 1855 he left fatherland, and made his home among
strangers. Few men have landed in America under more unfavourable
circumstances. He had no friends to meet him, and very little money in
his pocket when he landed in New York. Shortly after his arrival he
started on a tramp through some of the western and southern states, and
having satisfied his curiosity with regard to those places, he resolved
to see what Canada was like, and visit some friends who had lately
arrived from the old country. With this desire he started, and soon
reached the country of his successes and his triumphs. Here he became
the subject of impressions convincing in their tendency, that it was his
duty to thoroughly consecrate himself to the work of the ministry, and
from that time he resolved to devote himself to the preaching of the
gospel. He was denominationally connected with the Methodist Episcopal
Church in Canada, and received from it his first station in the city of
Hamilton. After having served about a year in this place, he began to
feel the great importance of the “high calling”—wished to be a minister
of power, “rightly dividing the word of truth,” and believed that God’s
work was a grand work calling for good, holy, and educated men. Being
poor, he had not the means at his disposal to enable him to carry out
his aspirations, but a friend kindly aided with money. He then made all
the necessary arrangements, and went to the Boston Theological
Institute, where he remained several years, and completed his course of
literary, classical, and theological studies, graduating from that
institution. On leaving college, he made arrangements to enter the
Methodist church, South, but in consequence of the breaking out of the
southern rebellion he was forced to abandon the idea. He then returned
to Canada, and after having preached at Goderich for a year, he sailed
for Europe, determined to gather up information from the various learned
institutes of the eastern continent, and thereby prepare himself for a
wider sphere of usefulness. In England, after his return there, he
lectured and preached on many occasions, and was a wonder to the friends
who had known him before he went to America. On his return from Europe,
he received a station at Orono, where he preached for two years, and
from this place he moved to Belleville, the seat of Albert University,
where he remained about eight years. At this time the Genesee College
conferred upon him the degree of M.A., and the Ohio Wesleyan University
that of D.D. While stationed at Belleville, Rev. Dr. Wild did double
work, acting as pastor of the Methodist Church and professor of Oriental
languages in the university. At the time he went to Belleville the
university was greatly embarrassed for want of funds, but he undertook
the position of treasurer, and through preaching and lecturing succeeded
in raising $20,000, and put the institution on a firm footing. During
the years he was engaged at this work he refused to take one cent as
remuneration for his services as professor or treasurer. Belleville to
this day remembers him with pride, and the poor of the place with
gratitude for the many kindnesses he showed them while he went in and
out among them. Too close application to his many duties, and the loss
of his valuable library and manuscripts by fire, wrought heavily on his
mind, and he resolved to leave Belleville and re-visit Europe. In 1872,
while preparing to leave, he was appointed a delegate from the Church in
Canada to the conference of the Methodist church of the United States,
which was to be held in the city of Brooklyn the same year. While
attending this conference the doctor was invited to preach in the
Seventh avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, and having done so, the
congregation decided on giving him a call, which he accepted. Having
served them three years, he then accepted a call from the Union
Congregational Church, remaining with them for nearly six years. During
the years he occupied the Brooklyn pulpit he was honoured with
overflowing congregations. In 1880 he was invited to take charge of the
Congregational Church, Bond street, Toronto, and decided once more on
making Canada his home. When the Rev. Dr. Wild took charge of this work
the congregation was small, an immense debt was on the handsome edifice
which graces the corner of Bond street and Wilton avenue, and things
generally wore a very discouraging aspect, but he had no sooner put
himself at the head of affairs than a new impulse was given, and to-day
it is one of the most thriving churches in Toronto—having a membership
of nearly eight hundred, about a thousand seat-holders, the Sunday night
congregations numbering often three thousand souls, and the debt on the
sacred edifice reduced to a minimum. Without doubt the Rev. Dr. Wild is
the most popular preacher at this moment in the Queen City of the West,
and it is wonderful how he succeeds in holding the attention of the
great numbers of people who come to hear him. The grand secret, however,
is that the doctor never enters his pulpit unprepared. He honours his
audience by refusing to foist on them a subject at hap-hazard. His very
tread indicates confidence in his preparations, and his voice and
gesture indicate the force of his own convictions upon himself. Rev. Dr.
Wild is a little above the medium height, is very strongly built, has an
erect and dignified carriage. His face is a remarkable one, and his
features easily play to the run of his thoughts. He has a large brain,
and a high and prominent forehead, and with his hair worn long and his
flowing whiskers, he presents the picture of a man of careful thought
and great physical endurance. He loves his friends, and is most kind,
free and open to all, and, it may be added, he is the friend of all and
enemy of none.
* * * * *
=Kelly, Thomas=, Judge of the County Court of Prince county, Summerside,
Prince Edward Island. His Honour Judge Kelly is of Irish parentage, and
was born at Covehead, in Queens county, Prince Edward Island, in 1833.
His parents were Thomas Kelly and Mary Grace, who emigrated from the
county of Kilkenny, Ireland, about the year 1824. Judge Kelly received
his education in the old Central Academy of his native place, and at St.
Dunstan’s College, Charlottetown, and pursued his law studies with His
Honour Judge Watters, in St. John. He was called to the New Brunswick
bar in Trinity term, 1865, and to that of Prince Edward Island the same
year, and immediately thereafter began the practice of his profession as
barrister and notary public at Summerside, where he has since resided.
While a law student, he was for two years president of the Irish
Friendly Society of St. John, N.B. Before accepting a position on the
bench, Judge Kelly for many years took an active interest in the
politics of his native province, especially in connection with the party
controversies arising out of the education, railway, and confederation
questions, as they existed in Prince Edward Island. He was twice elected
a representative from Prince county to the Island legislature. In 1870
he was appointed a master in Chancery, and in 1871, a Railway
commissioner, to which office he was again elected in 1872, but resigned
it a few weeks subsequent to the overthrow of the Pope administration.
In 1873 he was offered the chairmanship of the Railway board, and in
1874 the speakership of the House of Assembly, both of which positions
he declined in consequence of a misunderstanding on the school question.
In 1876 he retired temporarily from public life; but in a couple of
years thereafter he again entered it, and in 1879 was an unsuccessful
candidate for the legislature, at the general election of that year. For
several years Judge Kelly was a director of the Summerside Bank, and
afterwards became solicitor for that institution. He was elected license
commissioner in 1877, and the same year was chosen recorder for the town
of Summerside. He is a commissioner for Quebec, Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, for taking affidavits for use in
those provinces, and is also commissioner _dedimus_ to administer oaths
of office to Dominion appointees. He was appointed to the bench, as
successor to the late Judge Pope, on the 24th October, 1879, and
revising officer under the Electoral Franchise Act on the 26th October,
1886. Judge Kelly is a Roman Catholic, and was married, first, in
September, 1867, to Mary Emeline, daughter of Henry Eskildson, of New
York (she died October, 1868); and, secondly, in November, 1871, to
Marianne H., daughter of the late William A. Campbell, barrister,
Toronto, Ontario. Judge Kelly’s family consists of four children—one
boy and three girls.
* * * * *
=Reddy, John=, M.D.—This distinguished medical man, who successfully
practised his profession in Montreal for over thirty years, was born on
the 31st of March, 1822, at Athlone, county of Roscommon, Ireland, and
died on the 23rd of January, 1884. In accordance with the custom of that
day, he was apprenticed to a local surgeon in the year 1839, and
remained with him until 1842. In April, 1847, he appeared before the
Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, and received their license in
April of that year. Owing to some demands which he considered
unreasonable, he would not go up for the degree in Dublin, but preferred
crossing to Glasgow, at which university he received the degree of M.D.
in 1848. It was now the intention of Dr. Reddy to enter upon the career
of an army surgeon, and he was actually gazetted to a commission in the
line. His regiment was just at this time, however, ordered to the Gold
Coast for service; and the young surgeon believing that he had not been
born only to fill a premature grave in that most unhealthy station, at
once resigned. He then for a short time held some dispensary
appointments in Ireland, and came to Canada in 1851. Through the
influence of some friends in Montreal he had been appointed house
surgeon of the Montreal General Hospital, and immediately entered upon
the duties of that office. He remained in the hospital for three years,
fulfilling the responsibilities of this position to the great
satisfaction of the then medical officers, Drs. Crawford, Arnoldi,
Jones, and others, and on leaving the hospital, he began private
practice in the city. The year 1854 will be remembered as the last
during which a severe epidemic of Asiatic cholera swept over this
country. Dr. Reddy at once devoted himself with unremitting attention to
the care of the many sufferers who were falling on every hand. His
unvarying kindness to his patients, his cheerful, warm-hearted Irish
manners, his already considerable skill and experience soon led to his
finding himself surrounded by a large and daily increasing _clientèle_.
During Dr. Reddy’s thirty years’ practice of his profession in Montreal,
his perseverance and assiduity knew no rest; he was constantly and
busily employed from morning till night, and very often from night till
morning, until 1883, when to the regret of his many friends, it was
observed that his health was beginning to fail. He went to Europe for
change of air, and the much needed rest, but unfortunately no return to
health was to come to him, and he died in Dublin on the 23rd of January,
1884. Dr. Reddy held many offices of the highest trust and honour in
this community. In 1856 he was appointed one of the attending physicians
of the Montreal General Hospital, which post he held until he retired
upon the consulting board. In 1856 he received the degree of M.D. _ad
eundem_ from McGill College, and for many years served as representative
fellow in medicine in the corporation of that university. He was a
constant attendant at the meetings of the Medico-Chirurgical Society and
was elected president, and he was a long-service officer in the
volunteer militia, having been surgeon of the Montreal Garrison
Artillery. His was a quiet, unostentatious, busy, blameless life. His
high moral character and strict professional integrity, his broad
benevolence and universal goodness of heart, with kind and obliging
manners, procured for Dr. Reddy the respect and esteem of all his
professional friends and _confrères_, his numerous patients, and the
general community. His memory will long be cherished and his character
and good deeds held in warm remembrance. He was married on the 1st July,
1851, to Jane Fleming, daughter of William Fleming, of Cloondra, county
Longford, Ireland, and when he died he left six children, three sons and
three daughters, the eldest of whom, H. L. Reddy, B.A., M.D.C.M.,
L.R.C.P., London; L.S.A., London; L.R.C.S., Edinburgh; professor of
obstetrics in the medical faculty, Bishop’s College University,
physician accoucheur to the Western Hospital, Montreal, succeeds him in
his practice. His second son, William B. S. Reddy, B.C.L., is a notary
public practising in Montreal.
* * * * *
=Harris, Christopher Prince=, Merchant, Moncton, New Brunswick, was born
at Moncton, county of Westmoreland, New Brunswick, on the 29th of May,
1837. He is the third son of Michael Spurr Harris and Sarah Ann Troop.
Mr. Harris, jr., received his education in his native town, and for the
past thirty years has been a member of the firm of J. & C. Harris,
general merchants. In 1877 he took an active part with his brother and
partner, J. L. Harris, and others, in organizing the Moncton Gaslight
and Water Company, and also in the construction of the works. He has
held the position of a director and also treasurer of the company until
the present time. In 1880 he took a similar part in the organization and
erection of the works of the Moncton Sugar Refining Company, and has
been its treasurer ever since. In 1882 he helped to promote the Moncton
Cotton Manufacturing Company, and the construction of its works, and is
now one of its leading directors. Although a busy mercantile man, he has
found time to devote some of his leisure to Masonry, and has been
connected with the order for over twenty-one years. He is a past-master
and honorary member of Keith lodge; past-principal Z of Botsford Royal
Arch Chapter; a member of the Union De Molay Commandery, of St. John,
New Brunswick, and also of other Masonic orders. In religion Mr. Harris
is an adherent of the Reformed Episcopal church; and in politics a
Liberal-Conservative. He was married on the 8th of October, 1867, to
Mary Landon Cowling, eldest daughter of Eben Landon Cowling, justice of
the peace. Mr. Harris is a live business man, and has a bright future
before him.
* * * * *
=Beckwith, Adolphus George=, Civil Engineer, Fredericton, New Brunswick,
was born at Fredericton, on December 28th, 1839. His parents were the
late Hon. John A. Beckwith, M.L.C., and Maria A. Beckwith. (See sketch
life of Hon. Mr. Beckwith, in another part of this volume.) Mr. Beckwith
was educated at the Collegiate School, Fredericton, and took a partial
course at King’s College (now University of New Brunswick), where he
studied civil engineering, and received his diploma from Professor
Thomas Cregan. He joined the volunteers as a private on their first
formation in Fredericton, in 1858, was gazetted ensign in 1st York
Battalion, under Lieut.-Colonel Minchin, in 1861, was lieutenant in
1863, and captain in 1867. He was appointed adjutant of the 71st York
Battalion in 1867, and held that position, with the rank of major, from
July, 1876, until the retirement of Capt. J. W. Smith, paymaster, in
1881, when he exchanged to the position of paymaster, which he now
holds. He holds first and second class certificates from the School of
Instruction. Mr. Beckwith is a deputy surveyor of Crown Lands, and was
draughtsman in the Crown Lands office from 1866 to 1871, when he was
appointed engineer of Public Works, which position he now holds. He
performed the duties of Provincial government engineer for two or three
years, in addition to his other works. Is at present City engineer of
Fredericton. He joined the Free Masons in 1861, in Solomon’s lodge, No.
764, E.R., was master of the lodge in 1865, and secretary of the same,
and Hiram lodge, No. 6, N.B.R., for ten years, and on retiring from that
office, was presented with a handsome piece of plate by the members. He
is also a frater of the encampment of Knights Templar of St. John; a
past grand senior deacon of the Grand Lodge of New Brunswick, A. F. & A.
M. Mr. Beckwith has travelled throughout Canada, the United States and
Europe. He is a member of the Church of England. He was married at
Brooklyn (New York), in 1865, to Mary Elizabeth, daughter of the late M.
B. Marckwald, a merchant of New York. He has only one child
living—Freeman Berton, who is in an office in New York.
* * * * *
=Sutherland, Rev. Alexander=, D.D., Toronto. No man is more widely known
throughout this Dominion as an able preacher, a keen debater, a leader
in the church courts of his own denomination, and a man of general
sympathies and influence in the community, than the subject of this
sketch. And his high position he owes to no favouritism of friends or
fortune, but, under God, to the native abilities which his strong will
and consecrated heart have guided into channels of general usefulness.
Alexander Sutherland was born in the township of Guelph, Ontario,
September 17th, 1833. His father was Captain Nicholas Sutherland, born
in Dundee, Scotland; and his mother, Mary Henderson, a native of Port
Glasgow. The family settled in the township of Guelph in 1832. Amid the
hardships of pioneer life, opportunities for scholarships were few, and
the now learned doctor’s early education was confined to a few terms in
a backwood’s school. His good Scotch parents, however, early planted
within him a love of learning, and that process of self-culture was
begun which has continued through life. As a child he was able to read
fluently before ever going to school. When he was nine years of age his
father died; and, at thirteen years of age, he was forced to leave home
and earn his own living. For seven years he was a printer, and during
those years, as indeed from earliest boyhood, he read with avidity
whatever came in his way. Thus were those stores of information
accumulated which have helped to make their possessor a ready speaker
and a formidable opponent on so many diverse subjects and occasions.
When about sixteen years old he became connected with a Methodist
Sunday-school, and also with temperance organizations, in which he was
repeatedly presiding officer. “The child” was indeed “father of the
man.” In his nineteenth year he was converted and became a member of the
Methodist church. His ability soon displayed itself in connection with
the class-meeting and other services of the church, and before long he
was licensed as an “exhorter” and then as a “local preacher.” In the
year 1855 there was urgent demand for ministers in the Methodist church,
and Alexander Sutherland was persuaded to go out “under the chairman,”
Rev. L. Warner. He was sent to Clinton, at that time an old-fashioned
circuit, thirty miles in length by perhaps eighteen in width, including
about twenty preaching services every month. Travelling such an
extensive round, preaching so frequently, and at the same time pursuing
the Conference course of study requisite before ordination, the young
preacher found written preparation for the pulpit impossible, but gained
in this hard practical school of oratory an invaluable training in
extempore utterance. The next two years were spent on the Berlin
circuit. In 1858, young Sutherland enjoyed one year of college training
at Victoria College, Cobourg. In 1859 he was received into full
connection with the Conference and ordained. In June of the same year he
was married to Mary Jane, eldest daughter of Hugh Moore, of Dundas. Of
this happy union four sons and three daughters have been the issue. Of
the sons, two died in early boyhood. After his marriage, Dr.
Sutherland’s pastoral charges were in order—Niagara, Thorold,
Drummondville, Hamilton, Yorkville, Richmond street, Toronto, and St.
James street, Montreal. During his residence in Toronto he took a very
active and efficient part in Sunday-school and temperance work. For some
time he was president of the Ontario Temperance and Prohibitory League.
His temperance sermons and other efforts in behalf of this cause will
not be soon forgotten by those who came under their influence. In 1869
he was elected secretary of Conference, and was re-elected the following
year. In 1871 he was appointed, with the Rev. Dr. Sanderson, fraternal
delegate to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in
the United States, which met in Brooklyn in 1872. On this occasion, and
on all similar occasions, Dr. Sutherland has done great credit to his
church and to his country. In 1873 he was appointed pastor of the St.
James street Church, Montreal, and at the Conference of 1874 was elected
chairman of the Montreal district. But the Montreal pastorate was brief.
At the first General Conference of the Methodist church of Canada,
September, 1874, Dr. Sutherland was elected general secretary and
clerical treasurer of the Missionary Society, as successor to the Rev.
Lachlin Taylor, D.D. This is one of the highest honours in the gift of
the Methodist church; the office is one of arduous toil, but affords
scope for high abilities. Since that day, Dr. Sutherland has travelled
from Newfoundland and the Bermudas to British Columbia, superintending
the missionary work and stimulating the missionary zeal of the Methodist
church; has for several years published that admirable missionary
journal _The Missionary Outlook_, and has succeeded in increasing the
annual income of the society from $118,000 to nearly $200,000. The
increased labours of his office have not prevented the missionary
secretary from taking an active interest in all the enterprises of the
church, and his voice has rung out clear and loud on every great
question that has recently agitated the Methodist community. To him more
than to any other man does the church owe the success of that mighty
movement which culminated in 1883 in the union of all branches of
Methodism in this dominion. With tongue and pen he eloquently, earnestly
and constantly pleaded for consolidation; and, when all seemed hanging
in the balance, his admirable generalship and eloquence in the memorable
Union debate in the Toronto Conference, Peterborough, June, 1883,
constrained victory to the union side. To have played such a part at
such a crisis is no mean claim to grateful and unfading memory. In 1882
Dr. Sutherland was elected president of the Toronto Conference, and
again in 1884. In 1881 he was one of the Canadian representatives at the
great Methodist Œcumenical Conference, London, England, and was made one
of the joint secretaries of that august body. In 1886 he was appointed
fraternal delegate to the British Wesleyan Conference, in place of Rev.
Dr. Rice, general superintendent, deceased. Dr. Sutherland’s literary
activity has been, so far, confined to newspaper and magazine articles
and brief pamphlets on questions of the day. His incisive style, his
permeating humour, his wide information, his keen insight, render his
writing and his speaking alike powerful. A man of immense energy, he has
done much to mould the thought and guide the work of his church already,
and bids fair to remain one of her most influential leaders for years to
come. In May, 1879, the University of Victoria College conferred upon
him the well deserved degree of Doctor in Divinity.
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=Beckwith, Hon. John Adolphus.= The late Hon. Mr. Beckwith was born at
Fredericton, New Brunswick, on December 1st, 1800, and died November
23rd, 1880. His father, Nehemiah Beckwith, was a loyalist, settled in
Fredericton, and built sloops in partnership with the celebrated
Benedict Arnold, who, at that time, also resided in Fredericton.
Nehemiah Beckwith was married at Fredericton, to Julie Louise LeBrun, a
daughter of Jean Baptiste LeBrun, barrister, and proctor at law, etc.,
of Quebec. Miss LeBrun came to Fredericton from Quebec with the family
of Sir Guy Carleton, in the capacity of companion and French governess
to Miss Carleton. About 1813, Nehemiah Beckwith purchased a large tract
of land in the suburbs of Montreal from Count du Chaillu (father of the
great explorer and historian), but his death very soon after, before the
deeds were completed, lost him the property and purchase money. This
property is now a valuable part of the City of Montreal. Mrs. Beckwith
(neé LeBrun) was cousin to Cardinal Richelieu, and aunt to L’Abbé
Ferland, professeur d’Histoire, University Laval, Quebec. Hon. John A.
Beckwith was cousin to l’Abbé Ferland. Hon. Mr. Beckwith commenced his
studies in the old Fredericton Grammar School, and completed them in
Montreal and Quebec, graduating as a surveyor and engineer. He was
connected with the militia from early manhood, and was for some years in
command of the 1st battalion York Militia. For several years he was
deputy surveyor general, before responsible government, and was
commissioner of the N.B. & N.S. Land Company, from 1860 till his death.
He served as mayor of Fredericton in 1863 and 1864, and represented York
county in the local legislature from 1866 to 1873, holding the office of
provincial secretary and receiver general from 1868 to 1873, when he was
appointed to a seat in the Legislative Council. Mr. Beckwith ever took
an active interest in the advance of agriculture, and was always one of
the committee in Provincial exhibitions. He was at one time grand master
of the Orange body of New Brunswick. In religious matters he was a
member of the Church of England. He was first married in 1822, to Ann
Jewett; and married a second time in 1837, to Maria Ann Berton, whose
father, a son of a loyalist, was the first sheriff of York county. His
second wife survived him four years.
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=Macfarlane, Thomas=, Chief Analyst, Inland Revenue Department, Ottawa,
Ontario, was born on the 5th March, 1834, at Pollokshaws, parish of
Eastwood, county of Renfrew, Scotland. His father, Thomas Macfarlane,
was a native of Pollokshaws, and his mother, Catherine, was born in the
adjoining parish of Mearns. Mr. Macfarlane, jr., was educated in
Pollokshaws, at the Andersonian University, Glasgow, and at the Royal
Mining School of Freiberg, in Saxony. In the latter school he studied
chemistry, metallurgy, mineralogy, and geology. After leaving Freiberg
in 1857, he travelled through the Erzgebirge and Bohemia, and then went
to Norway, as director of the Modum smelting works and Cobalt mines.
During his stay in Norway he visited most of the southern part of that
country, including Ringerike, Nummedal, Thelemarken and Saetersdal. In
1860 he emigrated to Canada, and took charge of the Acton, and
afterwards of the Albert mine in the Eastern Townships, province of
Quebec. In 1865-6 Mr. Macfarlane became field-geologist under the late
Sir William Logan, and helped that illustrious gentleman on the
geological survey of Canada. In the volume of geological reports
published in 1866, Mr. Macfarlane supplies reports on Hastings county
and the Lake Superior district. In 1868 he explored the Montreal Mining
Company’s locations on Lake Superior, and was the discoverer of the
celebrated Silver Islet mine. In 1871 he paid a visit to the mining
districts of Colorado, Utah, and Nevada; and in 1873 he revisited
England, and then travelled through Germany and Norway. On his return to
Canada, in 1876, he visited Nova Scotia and Cape Breton; also Ecuador
and Peru, and published a description of the latter journey under the
title of “To the Andes.” In 1879 he spent six months smelting in
Leadville, Colorado. In 1881, visited mining districts on the Lower
Colorado and in Southern Utah, travelling from Fort Yuma to Salt Lake
City. In 1884 he revisited England and Germany; and here we say, Mr.
Macfarlane speaks the German, French and Danish languages fluently. In
1886 he was appointed by the Dominion government chief analyst for
Canada, and is now settled down at Ottawa. In 1882 he was appointed a
member of the Royal Society, Canada, and elected president of the
Chemical section in 1886. In 1885 he became a member of the Imperial
Federation League, and in February, 1886, and January, 1887, contributed
articles to its “Journal.” Mr. Macfarlane has devoted nearly all his
life to science, and as a chemist, metallurgist, miner, and explorer, he
stands very high. His scientific papers are numerous, and by referring
to the pages of _The Canadian Naturalist_, will be found there on:
“Primitive Formation in Norway,” “Acton Copper Mine,” “Eruptive Rocks,”
“Copper Extraction,” “Production of Soda and Chlorine,” “Copper-beds of
Portage, Lake Michigan,” “Geological Formations of Lake Superior,”
“Silver Ore of Wood’s Location,” “Origin of Crystalline Rocks,”
“Canadian Geology.” In the pages of “Transactions of the Institute of
Mining Engineers,” papers on “Slag Densities,” “Classification of
Original Rocks,” “Silver Islet.” And some others in the “Proceedings of
the Royal Society of Canada.” Mr. Macfarlane was reared a Presbyterian
in the U. P. Church of Scotland, and while a young man adopted
materialistic views, but has since abandoned them, and is now a member
of the Anglican church. He married in September, 1858, Margaret Skelly,
niece of Dr. John Litster, Pollokshaws, Scotland, and they have nine
children, all living.
* * * * *
=Currey, Lemuel Allan=, M.A., Barrister-at-law, St. John, New Brunswick,
was born at Gagetown, Queens county, on 11th July, 1856. He belongs to a
very ancient family, and one of the founders being the Earl Currey, who
lived in the time of Cromwell, and owned large estates in Leeds and
vicinity, England. His son, John Currey, was born in Leeds in 1688, and
came to the city of New York about the year 1700, where he married, and
died young of an epidemic, leaving one son, Richard Currey, who was born
4th November, 1709. Richard married a lady of the name of Elizabeth
Jones, and removed to Peekskill, on the Hudson, New York state, where he
died on March 20, 1806. By this marriage there were three sons and seven
daughters born. The eldest son was Joshua Currey, who married Eunice
Travis at Peekskill. At the breaking out of the Revolutionary war,
Joshua Currey sided with the British, but the rest of the family
sympathised with the colonists. During these troublesome times Mr.
Currey had several narrow escapes for his life. At one time he had to
hide himself under the floor of his house to escape the fury of the
revolutionists, and his son David was nearly killed by them by being
buried in a sandpit. Joshua and his family managed to make good their
escape, and, joining a band of loyalists, reached St. John, New
Brunswick, in October 23, 1783, where he remained one year, and then
removed to Gagetown, where he died in 1802. He left large estates in New
York state, but he, however, succeeded in carrying away with him in his
flight a large sum of money. He had a family of five sons and two
daughters. His second son, David Currey, who was born at Peekskill,
April 27, 1767, died at Gagetown, August 12, 1827. This gentleman
married Dorothy Estey, by whom he had twelve children, one of whom,
James Robert Currey, who was born in 1817, was the father of the subject
of our sketch, and was by profession a barrister in Gagetown, and
registrar of probates, and clerk of the Queens county court. His mother
was Sarah Amelia, daughter of Reuben Hoben. Lemuel Allan Currey received
his literary education at the Queens County Grammar School, and at the
University of New Brunswick, where he graduated in 1876, with honours in
the first division, taking a special prize for general proficiency.
After graduating he entered as a student-at-law with his father, with
whom he studied till 1880, and during said period taught the Queens
County Grammar School for two and a-half years. In 1880 he entered
Harvard Law School, where he remained one year, taking a special course.
He then entered the office of S. Alward, D.C.L., barrister, St. John.
Mr. Currey was admitted an attorney in 1882, and a barrister the
following year. Since his enrolment he has practised law at St. John. In
1873-4 he attended the Military School at Fredericton, and took a
certificate. He is a member of the Young Men’s Liberal-Conservative
Club, of St. John, a member of St. George’s Society, and belongs to
Union lodge, of Portland, A. F. and A. M. In religion he belongs to the
Episcopal church, and in politics is a Conservative.
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