DEAR DR. ROSS—As you look back over your fifty years, what a
comfort to you must be the reflection that you have saved so
many from the horrors of slavery.
During the small-pox epidemic in Montreal in 1885 Dr. Ross was a
prominent opponent of vaccination, declaring that it was not only
useless as a preventive of small-pox, but that it propagated the disease
when practised during the existence of an epidemic. In place of
vaccination, he strongly advocates the strict enforcement of sanitation
and isolation. He maintains that personal and municipal cleanliness is
the only scientific safeguard against zymotic diseases. When the
authorities attempted to enforce vaccination by fines and imprisonment,
Dr. Ross organized the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League, and
successfully resisted what he considered an outrage on human rights. Dr.
Ross is a radical reformer in religion, medicine, politics, sociology
and dietetics, and a total abstainer from intoxicants and tobacco. He is
a graduate of the allopathic, hydropathic, eclectic and botanic systems
of medicine, and a member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of
the provinces of Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba.
* * * * *
=Ellis, William=, Superintendent of the Welland Canal, St. Catharines,
Ontario, was born near London, England, on the 31st August, 1826, and
came to Canada in 1853, to take charge of the construction of an
eighty-two mile section of the Grand Trunk Railway. His father and
mother, Thomas and Margaret Ellis, were members of two old Yorkshire
families. William Ellis received his education in Cheshunt, Herts, and
London, England. Before coming to Canada, he acted in England as
engineer and contractor’s agent on various railway works, and in Canada
on the Grand Trunk Railway; and during the last seven years he has been
superintendent of the Welland canal. While a resident of Prescott in
1861, he was elected town councillor; and in 1864, he was chosen mayor.
For three years in succession he was president of the Prescott
Mechanics’ Institute, the Grenville County Agricultural Society, the
Prescott Board of School Trustees, and the Prescott Choral Society. At
present he is and has been for the past three years president of the St.
Catharines Philharmonic Society. Mr. Ellis belongs to the Episcopal
church, and occupies a prominent position in the denomination. He was
for three years churchwarden while in Prescott, and for twenty-one years
lay delegate for that parish. For St. Catharines, he has been lay
delegate for six years, and is also churchwarden of St. George’s Church,
and warden of St. George’s Guild. During the Fenian troubles in 1866,
Mr. Ellis served as lieutenant in the Garrison Artillery in Prescott,
and retired from military service on the disbandment of his company. He
has travelled a good deal, and has twice visited France. He has been
married twice. First, in October, 1855, to M. E. A. Jessup, of Prescott,
daughter of Edward Jessup, formerly M.P., for the Johnstown district.
This lady died, leaving a family of two children. The son has graduated
M.D. in McGill University. He married the second time in May, 1886, to
M. A. A. Bryant, daughter of Shettelworth Bryant, of Blackheath (Eng.),
and cousin of Colonel Bryant, St. Leonards, England.
* * * * *
=Call, Robert Randolph=, Newcastle, New Brunswick, was born in
Newcastle, Miramichi, N.B., September 12, 1837. His father, Obadiah
Call, was a native of the state of Maine, having been born in the
village of Dresden, August 1, 1800, and is still alive. Margaret Burke,
his mother, was born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1810, and came to
Miramichi with her father, who was a house-carpenter, shortly after the
great fire in 1825. She died on the 10th of May, 1877. Robert, the
subject of this sketch, was educated at the Grammar School of Newcastle,
and soon after leaving this institution developed an aptitude for
business. In 1871, in company with John C. Miller, he built the
side-wheel steamer _New Era_, and established the first line of
passenger steamers that ran on the Miramichi river. During the past
twenty-five years he has been interested in the steamboat business, and
occupied the position of agent for the Quebec and Gulf Ports Steamship
Company, and for other lines of steamers that have called at the port of
Newcastle. On November 26, 1866, he received the appointment of United
States Consular Agent at Newcastle. In June, 1867, was elected chairman
of the Northumberland County Almshouse Commissioners; and in January,
1874, was made a member of the board of Pilotage Commissioners for the
Miramichi district of New Brunswick, under the Pilotage Act, which then
came into force, and was chosen its secretary-treasurer. Mr. Call is
owner of the gas works in his native town, and they are operated under
his own immediate direction. On the 9th September, 1865, he was
appointed a lieutenant in the 2nd battalion Northumberland County
Militia; and on October 1st, 1868, at a public meeting held in the town
of Newcastle for the purpose of organizing a battery, was chosen captain
of the Newcastle Field Battery of Artillery, and was gazetted as such on
the 18th December of the same year. On the 18th December, 1873, he was
made major, and lieutenant-colonel on the 4th February, 1885. He still
retains the command of this battery, which he was mainly instrumental in
raising. In 1875 this corps was called into active service during the
school riots in Caraquet, Gloucester county. Lieutenant-Colonel Call,
with Lieutenant Mitchell second in command, and part of the battery, in
all forty-six persons, with horses, sleds, two nine-pounder guns,
ammunition, etc., left Newcastle on the afternoon of the 28th January
for Bathurst, the shire town of Gloucester county, and had to traverse a
distance of fifty-five miles through a comparatively desolate country.
The weather was very unsettled, and more severe than it had been for
years. The snow was fully four feet deep on the level, while in many
places it was drifted so badly that the men had to shovel for hours
before the teams could pass. They, however, after experiencing great
fatigue, and with hard labour, succeeded in reaching their destination
on the evening of the 29th, having accomplished the journey in
twenty-eight hours, without resting, except while the horses were being
fed on the road, the men in the meantime keeping their seats on the
sleds, and eating the provisions they had brought from home with them.
On their arrival in Bathurst they found that twenty-six of the leading
rioters had been safely lodged in the jail there. The infantry that
followed them proceeded to Caraquet. Here the battery remained for about
six weeks, making the court house their barracks, until the excitement
was calmed down and quiet was restored. Mr. Call became a member of
Northumberland lodge, A. F. and A. Masons, in 1863, and in the years
1866 and 1867 was master of the lodge. In 1873 he was appointed
representative to the Grand Lodge of New Jersey. He is also a member of
the Northumberland Highland Society, and one of its vice-presidents. He
has travelled a good deal, having visited England for his health in
1863, going over and returning in a sailing vessel. In 1881 he went,
_via_ Lake Superior, to Rainy River, Lake of the Woods, Winnipeg, etc.,
to Portage la Prairie, then the extreme end of the Canadian Pacific
Railway, for the purpose of having a look at this wonderful country, and
has taken an occasional trip to the United States. Mr. Call is a
Presbyterian, is one of the Trustees of St. James’ Church, and has been
its secretary and treasurer since 1874. He was married, May 21st, 1862,
to Annie Rankin Nevin, who was born in Stonehaven, Kincardineshire,
Scotland, on 5th December, 1836.
* * * * *
=Dowdall, James.=—The deceased, James Dowdall, who for many years
practised as a Barrister-at-Law in the town of Almonte, Ontario, was
born at Perth, county of Lanark, on the 31st December, 1853, and died on
the 27th October, 1885. His father, Edward Dowdall, was a son of the
deceased Patrick Dowdall, a reputable and well-educated magistrate of
the township of Drummond, in the county of Lanark; and his mother, Mary
O’Connor, was a daughter of an equally respected and literary farmer of
Drummond township,—Denis O’Connor, who was successful in life, and died
February, 1887. James Dowdall received his education at the Public and
High schools of Almonte, to which town his parents removed when he was
four years of age. In 1872 he commenced his law course with Joseph
Jamieson, M.P., Almonte, and concluded his studies in the office of Hon.
Edward Blake, at Toronto, and was called to the bar in 1877. He then
formed a partnership with D. G. Macdonell, and the firm in a very short
time attained to a high position in the legal fraternity, and secured a
large share of public support. He was president of several literary,
debating, benevolent and other societies, from his seventeenth year
continuously until his death in 1885. He also occupied the position of
president of the local Reform Association; was founder and president of
the Almonte branch of the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association; chairman
of the Separate School Board; had a seat on the High School Board; and
for years sat in the town council. He had a very large law practice, and
for years previous and up to his demise was Crown counsel for the
counties of Lanark and Renfrew. Mr. Dowdall was a public spirited man,
and took an active part in everything that went to improve his native
place and the surrounding district. He was a staunch Reformer, and took
an intelligent interest in politics. As a speaker, he was eloquent and
argumentative, and travelled through Lanark and other counties in
Ontario during several local and federal election campaigns, and did
good work for his party. In 1879 he married Onogh T. Nogle, daughter of
the late William Nogle, and left a family of children. The _Almonte
Gazette_ thus alludes to his death:—“Mr. Dowdall was an able antagonist
in court, quick to see the weak points in an opponent’s case, and no
less expert in concealing his own. These qualities, as well as his
careful study of the law in each case, made him a generally successful
lawyer in court, while his knowledge of human nature gave him great
advantage in cross-examination. Had his life been spared there is no
doubt he would have risen to the highest point in his profession. His
many good qualities more particularly demand our grateful recognition.
Many a battler with the world can tell of a hand stretched out and aid
given just at a time when a friend in need was a friend indeed. Many a
struggling tradesman can tell how often he has mounted the office stairs
to ask for help to meet a note or some other similar emergency, and that
he did not ask in vain. Many a poor and perplexed one took up his time
by recounting some act of another’s from which they were or had been
suffering, and from him obtained as much attention and as carefully
considered advice as though they had carried a large fee in their hands.
The blank caused by the death of Mr. Dowdall will be a wide one: not all
at once will it be discovered how much he is missed, but as the days and
weeks glide by there will be many occasions when parties will long for
the sound of a voice that is still, and it is safe to say in his case
that take him for all and all it will be long before we look upon his
like again. Mr. Dowdall was a Roman Catholic, and the Roman Catholic
church of this town will miss his counsel and assistance greatly, but it
can be said to his credit that though himself a devoted Catholic he was
as broad-minded and liberal as he was zealous in religious matters.
Throughout his career he always showed a warm feeling for his
co-religionists, while nothing ever prevented his doing justice to those
who differed from him. The Reform party, too, will greatly miss him.”
The _Central Canadian_, of Carleton Place, also spoke of him in this
kindly manner:—“As a member of the corporation of Almonte, he
contributed of his judgment, knowledge, energy, and life to make
everybody happy and everything prosperous. Mr. Dowdall’s prominent play
in politics and his long sphere of operations as a lawyer of much
discretion and accuracy brought out his innermost self in a way few
other professions do, and showed what manner of man he was. Yet though
thus so fiercely exposed to hostile criticism, he made iron-bound
friends where-ever he went. He had a personality so attractive, a
character so disarming in its tenderness and self-abnegation; he was so
clear and candid that he broke down all barriers of prejudice. Moreover,
among his intimates he possessed that mysterious gift of attraction
which in colloquial symbolism is called magnetism. On the 28th
September, Mr. Dowdall first complained and was advised by his physician
to take rest, which he did, but contrary to advice he went out on
Tuesday and drove up to the Reform meeting, and died on the 27th
October, 1885.” Richard J. Dowdall, barrister, has succeeded to the
practice of the late James Dowdall. He had just completed his law course
at the time of his brother’s death, and at once commenced practice in
the old offices at Almonte.
* * * * *
=Crocket, William=, A.M., Chief Superintendent of Education for New
Brunswick, Fredericton, was born in Brechin, in the north of Scotland,
on the 17th of May, 1832. His parents were James Crocket and Martha
Procter. William received his elementary education at the High School of
his native parish, and then went to King’s College, Aberdeen, where he
took the university course. His professional training he received at the
Established Church Normal School in Glasgow. He came to New Brunswick in
1856, and from this date to 1861, filled the position of principal of
the Superior School at Campbellton, New Brunswick. In 1861, he was
appointed rector of the Presbyterian Academy, at Chatham, New Brunswick,
and acted as such until 1870, when he was appointed principal of the
Normal School of New Brunswick, and this office he held until 1883. On
the 13th November of that year, he was appointed by the government of
New Brunswick, its chief superintendent of education for the province,
and this office he now holds, and is greatly respected by all with whom
his official position brings him in contact. Mr. Crocket has been
faithful to his profession; has laboured zealously to improve the method
of teaching in the Public schools of the province, and has the
satisfaction of knowing that his efforts have not been barren of
results. He has also taken a deep interest in the higher education of
the province, and has been for over ten years one of the examiners for
degrees in the University of New Brunswick, and is likewise a member of
the University Senate. He belongs to the church of his fathers, the
Presbyterian; and was married to Marion, daughter of William M.
Caldwell, of Campbellton, New Brunswick, on the 13th of April, 1858.
* * * * *
=Barclay, Rev. James=, M.A., Pastor of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church,
Montreal, is a native of Paisley, Scotland, having been born in that
town on the 19th June, 1844. His parents were James Barclay and Margaret
Cochrane Brown. He received his primary education in Paisley Grammar
School, and Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh, and then went to the
University of Glasgow, where he graduated with high honours. He was then
called to St. Michael’s Church, Dumfries. On the occasion of his
ordination, the Rev. Dr. Lees, of St. Giles, Edinburgh, who was present,
spoke in the most kindly manner of the young minister, and said that
during Mr. Barclay’s college course the presbytery of Paisley had great
cause to be proud of him; he had carried off one prize after another—in
fact, his name was seen on every list of honours published by the
university. Rev. Mr. Barclay’s next charge was Canobie, Dumfriesshire;
then he preached for some time in Linlithgow, and was afterwards induced
to seek a wider field for his talents, and was chosen colleague of the
Rev. Dr. McGregor in St. Cuthbert’s Church, Edinburgh. Here he soon won
for himself a name, and became one of the most popular preachers in the
Scotch metropolis. St. Paul’s Church, Montreal, being without a pastor,
it extended a unanimous call to Mr. Barclay, asking him to come to
Canada and take charge of this church, which he consented to do, and was
inducted as its minister on the 11th of October, 1883. Since then his
ministry in Montreal has been eminently successful, and his influence
among the young men of that city is greatly marked, so much so that they
flock to his church in great numbers, and regard him in a special sense
as their friend. The Rev. Mr. Barclay has great mental qualities, is an
independent thinker, and never hesitates to enunciate the scientific and
theological thoughts of the times we live in. His sermons are prepared
with great care, and are delivered with earnestness and force. He is a
good reader, an impressive platform speaker, and his prayers are solemn,
reverential and spiritual, leading man up from self and earth and sin
into the presence of God, the Father of all. Physically the Rev. Mr.
Barclay is tall and muscular, giving one an idea of strength and power.
He belongs to the Charles Kingsley school, and is a lover of outdoor
pastimes and sports, a champion cricketer and golf player, and a great
admirer of the “roaring game”—curling. The Edinburgh _Scotsman_ has
spoken of him as being the best all round cricketer in Scotland, and a
terrifically fast bowler who has won victory after victory for the west
of Scotland. He was captain of the Glasgow University cricket and
football clubs for some years, and also captain of the “Gentlemen of
Scotland.” We are glad that in this matter of out-door recreation, and
also in some other matters, he has shown the courage of his convictions,
and we do not think he has lost anything by it. There is such a thing as
being too professional and too priestly, and there can be little doubt
but that this has done its full share in creating the somewhat general
prejudice that exists among young men against religion. This popular
divine has been honoured by being called on to preach before Queen
Victoria on several occasions, and he stands high in her Majesty’s
estimation as an expounder of the gospel of Christ. The congregation of
St. Paul’s Church is large and influential. Its ministers have always
been men of commanding intellect and gentlemanly bearing, and who held
their several pastorates for a considerable number of years. Their names
and good deeds are kindly remembered by the citizens and the members of
the church and congregation. The regular communicants of the church
number about six hundred, and the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is
administered three times a year. The several organizations of the church
are doing good work for humanity, and there is a large and flourishing
Sunday school. The Victoria mission, at Point St. Charles, is supported
and carried on by this church; and it also supports a missionary in
Central India. Its annual revenue amounts to about $22,000.00, and the
pastor’s salary is $7,300.00, the largest paid to any minister in the
dominion.
* * * * *
=Watson, George=, Collector of Customs, Collingwood, Ontario, was born
on the 2nd of December, 1828, in the parish of Strathdon, near Aberdeen,
Scotland, on a farm that had been occupied by his forefathers for over
two hundred years, and which one of the family still occupies. The first
of the Watson family, an aunt of the subject of our sketch, came to
York, Upper Canada, in 1816, at the solicitation of Bishop Strachan, who
came to Canada in 1812 from the same parish. His uncle-in-law, William
Arthurs (father of the late Colonel Arthurs), was one of the first city
councillors of Toronto, William Lyon Mackenzie, mayor. His father,
Alexander Watson, emigrated to Upper Canada in 1832, and settled on a
farm in the township of Chinguacousy, about twenty miles from Toronto,
and died at Collingwood on the 30th of November, 1877, at the ripe old
age of eighty-four years and six months. His mother was named Annie
Watt, and died at the family homestead in Scotland when only twenty-nine
years and nine months old. George received his early education in the
parish school of Strathdon, and coming to Canada in 1843, finished his
course of studies in the Grammar School at Toronto. He went on his
father’s farm and continued there until 1855, when he took the position
of passenger conductor on the Northern Railway, and continued as such
for nearly twelve years. In October, 1866, in consequence of ill health,
he gave up railroading, and in November of the same year received the
government appointment of sub-collector at the port of Collingwood. In
1873, when the port was made an independent one, he was made collector,
and this position he still holds. He has now resided in Collingwood over
thirty-two years, and occupied the position of government officer of
customs over twenty years. In 1867 Mr. Watson was elected mayor of
Collingwood, and held the office for five consecutive years, and at the
end of this time he declined to serve any longer; but in 1877, however,
he was again induced to accept the office, and served another term. He
is a justice of the peace; and has been chairman of the board of license
commissioners for West Simcoe since the passing of the Ontario License
Law in 1876. He is an enthusiastic Scot, and has filled the office of
president of the Collingwood St. Andrew’s Society since its organization
in 1880. Mr. Watson is also surveyor and registrar of shipping for the
Collingwood district. He is an adherent of the Presbyterian church, and
in politics a Reformer, as were his forefathers. In June, 1865, Mr.
Watson was married to Joanna, daughter of the late John Watson, of
Chinguacousy, and has a family of three sons, George, aged twenty years,
Lorne Mackenzie, aged four years, and Norman, aged four months. Mr.
Watson is one of Nature’s noblemen, and has through life manifested a
thoroughly independent spirit, and one well worthy of imitation by any
young man starting out in life. He has earned for himself a competency
“for the glorious privilege of being independent.”
* * * * *
=Crisp, Rev. Robert S.=, Pastor of the Methodist Church, Moncton, New
Brunswick, is one of two brothers (Robert S. and James Crisp), who came
to the Maritime provinces during the years 1871 and 1872, for the
purpose of entering the Methodist ministry. Robert S., the elder of the
two brothers and subject of this sketch, was born near Norwich, England,
July 1st, 1848. He is the eldest son of James and Sarah Crisp, and is
descended on his mother’s side from a junior branch of the Walpole
family, some members of which occupied important positions in English
politics during the reigns of George I. and George II. Many interesting
traditions and relics, as well as valuable estates in Norfolk, still
remain in this branch of the family. After receiving a general education
in the public schools and in a private school of his native place, Mr.
Crisp took theological studies under the direction of the Rev. Thomas G.
Keeling, M.A., well known in certain divinity circles in the old
country, purposing to offer himself for the Methodist ministry in
connection with the English conference. A letter from the late Rev. Dr.
Geo. Scott, urging him to go to America, decided him, however, in an
early purpose he had formed of some time offering himself for the work
under the control of the (then) Eastern British American conference,
which he accordingly did in October, 1871, and on arriving in this
country was appointed assistant to the Rev. F. W. Harrison, in a large
country charge on the banks of the St. John river, in New Brunswick.
Among other charges held by Mr. Crisp, have been Charlottetown, P.E.I.,
Chatham, Portland, and Moncton, N.B. Mr. Crisp’s especial aim has been
to adapt himself as far as possible to the actual needs and tastes of
the people among whom he has laboured in word and doctrine. As a result
of this he has been successful in his work, and the church to which he
belongs has been extended and consolidated in his various charges. He is
also well known as a lecturer and enthusiastic temperance worker. In the
latter capacity he has sometimes aroused much opposition. He was chosen
to deliver an address of welcome at the annual meeting of the Sons of
Temperance in Moncton in 1886, and as a result of remarks he made
regarding the appointment of a man who was transacting business in
liquor, to the office of justice of the peace in a town in which the
Scott Act had been adopted, he was sued for libel with damages laid at
$10,000. Rev. Mr. Crisp, however, kept on steadily in his course, and
soon after the local government appointed a commission to enquire into
the charges preferred. Mr. Crisp is still a young man (1887), and hopes
to have very many years of labour before him in various departments of
Christian work.
* * * * *
=Harris, Joseph A.=, Barrister-at-law, Moncton, New Brunswick, is the
fifth son of Michael S. Harris, and was born at Moncton, New Brunswick,
on the 23rd of August, 1847. He received his educational training at the
Mount Allison Academy, New Brunswick, and in the Liverpool Collegiate
Institution, England. After leaving school he followed mercantile
pursuits until 1872, when he began the study of law in the office of the
late Albert J. Hickman, barrister, Dorchester, New Brunswick, and
continued here until September of 1873, when he entered Harvard
University, Massachusetts. In this university he remained for over two
years. He then returned to his native province, and entered the office
of the Hon. John J. Fraser, Q.C., J.S.C., at Fredericton, New Brunswick,
as a student, and continuing there until October, 1876, when he was
admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick. In 1877 Mr.
Harris became a member of the Suffolk bar in Massachusetts, and
practised his profession in Boston until 1885, when he returned to
Moncton, was re-sworn in a barrister, and is now in active practice in
that town being counsel for several leading corporations. On the 29th of
April, 1879, Mr. Harris was married at Warren, Rhode Island, U.S., to
Isabel F. E. Brown, daughter of the late Hon. Charles Frederick Brown,
of Rhode Island.
* * * * *
=Hunt, Henry George=, St. Catharines, Ontario, was born on the 16th of
June, 1846, at Sheerness, Kent, England. He is the eldest son of Harvey
Hunt, of Poole, Dorsetshire, England, and Sarah Tucker, of Horne, in the
same county, daughter of W. Tucker, the Swedish and Danish consul at
Poole. Henry George Hunt, the subject of this sketch, spent the first
six years of his life in Sheerness, and in 1852, his father having
received an appointment in her Majesty’s dockyards at Portsmouth, the
family removed to that place. Here Henry received his education at the
Grammar School of that town, and at the age of fourteen years he went
before the Civil Service commission and passed a most creditable
examination, being first out of one hundred and thirteen for a
scholarship in the Royal College of Naval Architecture at Portsmouth. At
the end of a three years’ course in this institution he was in 1863
promoted from the lower to the upper college. Two years later he was
appointed by the Imperial government to the Peninsular and Oriental
Company’s service in the East Indies, and left England on the 29th of
September, 1865, in H.M.S. _Octavia_, fifty-one-gun frigate, commanded
by Rear-Admiral Sir James Hilyar, K.C.B., for India. This ship on her
way out called at Madeira, Sierra Leone, Ascension, St. Helena, and
remained some weeks at each of these ports, arriving at the Cape of Good
Hope in the early part of 1866, and remained there about a month,
visiting Port Natal, Simonstown, and other places. He afterwards visited
Zanzibar, the island of Madagascar, etc. In 1867 he sailed for Bombay,
and entered upon his duties with the Peninsular and Oriental Company.
During the years 1867-8-9 he visited every stores depot owned by this
company in the east, among them being Suez, Aden in the Red Sea; Muscat
in the Persian Gulf; Kurachee, Bombay, Goa, Pondicherry, Madras,
Calcutta, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Canton in China; and Yokahama in Japan.
In the summer of 1869 he was taken down with the jungle fever, having
caught a severe cold when out shooting with some brother officers in
Ceylon, and when it was discovered to be a very serious case, he was
conveyed to the Madras Hospital, where, after a hard fight, he pulled
through. He then resigned his appointment and started for home by the
long sea-route round the Cape of Good Hope, having taken passage in
H.M.S. _Lyra_. On his arrival in England he was appointed landing waiter
in her Majesty’s customs, and was stationed at Portsmouth. He remained
in this service until the fall of 1871, when the Hon. Mr. Gladstone’s
“free breakfast-table policy” caused a great reduction in the staff of
customs officers at the out-ports, and Mr. Hunt, with many other
officers around the coast of Great Britain, received a few hundred
pounds cash as compensation for the loss of their commissions, and left
the service. In the spring of 1872 Mr. Hunt was married to Eleanor
Fanny, eldest daughter of Arthur Charles Lansley, of Andover, Hants; and
in the fall of the same year he sailed for America to visit a wealthy
uncle who lived in Alabama. Having taken his passage _via_ Quebec, on
his westward journey, he was induced to stay over at St. Thomas,
Ontario, and take a position in the Canada Southern Railway Company. Not
having realized his expectations, he abandoned this service, and for the
next two or three years he was engaged in various pursuits, such as
bookkeeper for Rich & Mitchell, wholesale druggists, St. Thomas, and for
Messrs. Kain, of the same place. In 1877 he bought out a jobbing
business, and in the following year sold this out and removed to St.
Catharines, to take charge in that city of the extensive piano-forte
business of A. & S. Nordheimer, of Toronto. On this branch being closed,
Mr. Hunt received the appointment of city ticket agent for the Great
Western Railway Company in St. Catharines; and since he has extended his
business of ticket-selling so that he now represents every railway and
steamboat line in Canada and the United States, and the extensive
tourist system of Thomas Cook & Sons, of New York and London, England.
Mr. Hunt has been prominently identified with the Masonic order for many
years. In 1866, while at the Cape of Good Hope, on his way to India, he
was initiated in Royal Alfred lodge of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, a
very aristocratic lodge, Prince Alfred, after whom it was named, with
many officers of the military and civil service, being members. While in
St. Thomas he was instrumental in forming a company that built one of
the finest Masonic halls in Canada. He established Elgin lodge, and was
its first worshipful master; was also first principal of De Warrene
chapter of Royal Arch Masons, and assisted in establishing Nineveh
Council of Royal and Select Masters, and was one of its Illustrious
masters. Since his residence in St. Catharines he has taken an active
part in city improvements, and helped in getting an electric light
company established, and is now the manager and secretary-treasurer of
this company. Mr. Hunt has also been for the past five years manager of
the Grand Opera House; and is manager of Hendrie & Co’s. cartage agency
for the collection and delivery of freight for the Grand Trunk Railway.
He represents the Baltimore & Ohio Telegraph Company, the Commercial
(Mackay-Bennett) Cable Company, and all the transatlantic steamboat
companies, as well as the Canadian Pacific Telegraph Company, and
Dominion Express Company. Mr. Hunt is a strong supporter of the
Episcopal church. He has been twice married, his first wife having died
a few years after his arrival in Canada, leaving two children. Six years
afterwards he married the second daughter of the late Charles Norton, of
St. Catharines, and by this marriage he has had two sons and two
daughters.
* * * * *
=Cooke, Thomas Vincent=, Moncton, New Brunswick, General Storekeeper of
the Intercolonial Railway of Canada, was born at Pictou, Nova Scotia,
August 6th, 1848. He is a son of Dr. William Edward Cooke and Euphemia
Turnbull. Dr. Cooke was a son of Thomas Cooke, of Garryhill, county of
Carlow, Ireland, and Mary Mallow. Miss Mallow was a daughter of John
Mallow, mayor of Dublin, in the stirring days of ’98. Mr. Cooke, sen.,
came to Halifax when a boy, and studied medicine under the late Dr. Head
of that city, and graduated at Jefferson College, Philadelphia. He
married Miss Turnbull, a daughter of William Turnbull, ex-M.P. for the
county of Richmond, Cape Breton, and shortly afterwards moved to Pictou
and practised his profession in that town until his death in 1879. He
was a man of the most kindly and genial disposition, and was widely
known and universally beloved throughout the county of Pictou. His son,
Thomas Vincent Cooke, the subject of this sketch, was educated at Pictou
Academy and the Normal School, Truro, and studied medicine for a time
under the late Dr. Samuel Muir, of Truro, but having a dislike for the
medical profession, entered the service of the Nova Scotia Railway
Company as clerk in the freight department at Richmond, Halifax, in
January, 1865. On the opening of the line to Pictou in 1867, he was
appointed agent at Pictou Landing. Was appointed agent at Truro in 1870,
and reappointed at Pictou Landing in 1872. On the reorganization of the
service in 1879, he was appointed assistant auditor of the Intercolonial
Railway Company, and removed to Moncton, where he was appointed general
storekeeper in October, 1880. Mr. Cooke has always taken a deep interest
in Masonic matters. He joined the order in Truro in 1871, and is a past
master of Cobuquid lodge, No. 37, Truro, and past high priest of Keith
Chapter, Truro, and of St. John’s Chapter, Pictou, Royal Arch Masons.
Holds past rank as past grand king of the Grand Chapter of Nova Scotia,
and is representative of the Grand Chapter of Nevada in that body. Is
eminent preceptor of Malta Preceptory of Knights Templar, Truro, under
the Great Priory of Canada. He was married in 1867 to Annie Curry,
daughter of Captain John Curry, of Pictou, N.S., and has one son and
three daughters. He is a member of the Church of England.
* * * * *
=Rottot, Jean Philippe=, M.D., Montreal, was born at L’Assomption,
county of L’Assomption, July 3rd, 1825. His grandfather, Pierre Rottot,
who had been gazetted captain of the Canadian _Voltigeurs_ in 1812, was
killed at the battle of St. Régis, on the 20th October of the same year.
After his death, his son, Pierre Rottot, the doctor’s father, was
appointed lieutenant to the “Chasseurs Canadiens,” commanded by
Lieutenant-Colonel de Courci, and was present at the different
engagements which took place between the English and American troops
during the war of 1812, among others at the expedition to the Salmon
river, and at the battles of Plattsburg and Chrysler’s Farm. Dr. Rottot
received his education at the College of Montreal. He studied medicine
at the School of Medicine and Surgery of Montreal, and was admitted to
practice on the 16th November, 1847. After practising a few years in the
country, he took up his residence in Montreal. In 1856 he was elected,
without opposition, a member of the City council of Montreal. At the
expiration of his term of office he declined re-nomination, in order to
devote himself wholly to his profession. About 1860 he was appointed
physician to the Hôtel-Dieu, and professor of the School of Medicine and
Surgery of Montreal, where he occupied successively the chairs of
botany, toxicology, medical jurisprudence, and internal pathology. In
1872 he became editor-in-chief of _L’Union Médicale du Canada_, which
was just being founded. He was president of the St. Jean Baptiste
Society of Montreal in 1877 and 1878. About the same time he was elected
president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the province of
Quebec. In 1878 he resigned his chair at the School of Medicine and
Surgery, and was appointed professor of internal pathology and dean of
the faculty of medicine of Laval University at Montreal. Dr. Rottot was
one of the founders of the Notre Dame Hospital. During his medical
career he has been the physician of the greater number of the charitable
institutions of Montreal, and is at present physician to the reverend
gentlemen of the Seminary of Saint Sulpice, and the reverend ladies of
the General Hospital. Dr. Rottot was twice married; the first time to S.
O’Leary, daughter of Dr. O’Leary, and the second time to the widow of N.
Migneault, in his lifetime registrar of Chambly county. Mrs. Migneault
is a sister of P. B. Benoit, ex-member of the House of Commons. By his
first wife he had three children, the eldest of whom belongs to the
order of the Reverend Jesuit Fathers, and is professor of philosophy in
St. Mary’s College, Montreal.
* * * * *
=Wanless, John=, M.D., Montreal.—This famed homœopathic physician is a
Scotchman by birth, having been born at Perth road, Dundee, near St.
Peter’s parish church, where the celebrated Rev. R. M. McCheyne was
pastor, on May 26th, 1813. He is the second son of the late James
Wanless, a man who was in his day very much respected by his fellow
townspeople, and who for many years carried on business as a
manufacturer of green cloth in Dundee. His mother, Agnes Sim, is still
alive (August, 1887) at the age of ninety-six years, in full possession
of her mental faculties, and can see to read without spectacles. Dr.
Wanless much resembles this wonderful woman in many respects. Dr.
Wanless’s father intended that his two sons should succeed him in his
own business, but after his death, which took place when the doctor was
only ten years old, the executors of the estate, when he had reached his
thirteenth year, apprenticed him to Dr. James Johnston, one of
themselves, a leading physician in Dundee. This gentleman having died
shortly afterwards, James Hay, merchant and ship-owner, another of the
executors, and one of the governors of the Dundee Royal Infirmary,
discovering the boy’s aptitude for medical study, was induced to secure
for him the position of dresser and clinical clerk in the above
hospital, which for three years he filled to the entire satisfaction of
the governors and medical men of the institution. While he was here he
was a great favourite with the celebrated lithotomist, Dr. John
Creighton, of Dundee, and this gentleman often asked young Wanless to
assist him in his private operations, as well as in the hospital, and on
the eve of his leaving to prosecute his studies in Edinburgh, he bore
high testimony to his ability and diligence as a student, and as to his
practical knowledge of his profession. It may be as well to mention here
that young Wanless, like all other boys on the Scotch sea-board, was
very fond of paddling in the water, and on several occasions narrowly
escaped drowning. When about ten years of age he and some other boys
were amusing themselves on some logs that had got adrift from the ship
_Horton_, of Dundee, just arrived from America, and had floated up the
river into a small bay, which at its mouth had a sort of pier with
arches on it. While astride a piece of this timber it capsized, and our
young hero was soon at the bottom of the river. On coming to the
surface, he found himself immediatetly below a raft, and considering
that his time had not yet come to be drowned, he struck out boldly from
under, and gasping for breath, he was hauled on the raft by his
terrified comrades. On getting ashore he dried his clothes and made for
home; but his father nevertheless discovered that he had had a ducking,
and gave him a sound thrashing and confined him in doors for some time
for his boyish escapade. The doctor now thinks that if his father—who
was a very loving man—had not been imbued with the idea that “he that
spareth the rod hateth the child,” he would have done better had he
given him some dry clothes, or sent him for a time to a warm bed. In
1831 John Wanless left Dundee and went to Edinburgh, as a student in the
Royal College of Surgeons, under the then celebrated professors
McIntosh, Liston, Lizars, Ferguson, and others, fellows of the college,
all of whom are now gone to their final rest. During the college session
of 1831, his friend, Mr. Hay, offered him the position of surgeon on
board the whaling ship _Thomas_, which office he cheerfully accepted,
although he was then only seventeen years of age. This good ship sailed
from Dundee in March, 1832, and returned with a full cargo in time to
permit the young surgeon to attend the opening of the college session of
1832-3. Subsequently during college vacation he went three times to
Davis Straits in the same ship, and thereby greatly invigorated his
previously rather slender physical frame. While on one of his whaling
voyages he one day was out in a boat shooting loons, which are very
numerous in Davis Straits, and a good many can be killed by one
discharge from a gun. In the act of gathering the killed he espied a
wounded bird at a short distance, and in his endeavour to reach it he
leaned too far over the gunwale, lost his balance, and went head first
into the Arctic sea. His shipmates were alarmed, and waited in dread
suspense for some time, but at length he came up, holding on to the loon
by one of its legs. The mate afterwards remarked “that the doctor should
always be taken with the shooting parties, for he could dive for the
wounded fellows.” It may be here mentioned that the doctor was a good
swimmer, and as a youth practised swimming in the Tay at Dundee, and was
in the habit, sometimes, of carrying younger boys on his back out into
the stream, and then throwing them off; but before doing this, however,
he always gave them instructions how to swim on their “own hook.” He has
been known to swim for three miles on a stretch, resting occasionally on
his back. At Pond’s Bay he one time fell out of a boat, while steering
with a long oar, amongst a lot of whales. There were about fifty ships’
boats and their crews in a crack in the land ice, which extended about
twenty miles from the shore, and in some places the rent was about one
hundred yards wide. In this opening the whales were so numerous that the
harpooners only selected the largest fish for capture. During the
excitement, and when passing another boat, the blade of one of their
side oars unshipped the doctor’s steering oar while he was pushing it
from him, and, losing his balance, he fell into the water. He however
did not feel the least alarmed, but at once struck out for the ice, and,
drying his clothes as well as he could, walked to his ship, which was
anchored about two miles away, in the field ice, and soon found himself
on deck, not much the worse for his ducking. In the spring of 1835,
having passed his examination before the Faculty of Physicians and
Surgeons of Glasgow, he returned to Dundee and married Margaret
McDonald, the only daughter of Duncan McDonald, a well-known
manufacturer of that town, and Margaret Rose, his wife. To Miss McDonald
he had been betrothed for several years. He then became house surgeon in
the Dundee Royal Infirmary, and having filled this position for about
two years, gave it up, and entered into private practice, his office
being in the same house in which he was born and married. In 1843 Dr.
Wanless, accompanied by his wife, mother, brother, and sisters, with
their husbands, emigrated to Canada, and ultimately settled in London,
Ontario. While in this city the doctor built up a good practice, and as
coroner for the city of London and county of Middlesex he was highly
spoken of by the press for the luminous and logical way in which he
presented evidence to his jurors. In 1849 he received his license from
the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Lower Canada. One day, in
1859, as he was walking along a street in London to visit a patient, he
observed Dr. Bull, a homœopathist, give some pellets to a man who had
fallen out of a two-story window. Having a prejudice against homœopathy,
he accosted Dr. Bull in these words, “Don’t you think shame of yourself
in giving that useless trash to a man in that condition?” Dr. Bull rose
up, in a defensive attitude, and said, “I have always taken you for a
sensible man, and instead of acting as you have done in your
persecutions of us, why don’t you try to test our remedies according to
the law of cure? I will give you some of our books to read, and also
some of our medicines for that purpose.” Dr. Wanless accepted the offer,
and took the books and medicines, thinking that he would be able to
expose what he then thought was a humbug. After studying the principle
of homœopathy for some time he gave the medicines to some of his
patients, strictly according to the principles of homœopathy, beginning
with some cases which had resisted the allopathic treatment under his
own care, and that of some of the ablest men in the country, keeping a
strict account of the symptoms and disease, and the symptoms and
pathogenesy of what the medicine would produce on the healthy body, and
after carefully testing this method of practice for nearly two years, he
found that, instead of persecuting the homœopathists, he would have to
become a homœopathist himself. After thorough conviction of its benefits
to his patients, like Paul with the Christians, and in order to carry
out the practice of homœopathy with more efficiency, he ceased from
practice in London, and devoted himself to renewed study at the age of
fifty years, and obtained the degree of Bachelor of Medicine from the
University of Toronto in 1861, and the degree of Doctor in Medicine from
the same University in the following year, 1862. He then, in order to
have a wider field to labour in, went to Montreal (but before leaving
having been complimented by the press of London upon his previous
professional attainments), where he now resides, enjoying a good
practice. In politics, as in medicine, Dr. Wanless has sought to
conserve the good, and set aside the effete and worthless. Both in
London and Montreal, by his spirited and able contributions to the
press, he has done much to popularize homœopathy, and establish its
prime tenets. He was instrumental in procuring an act of the Provincial
parliament of Quebec, in favour of homœopathic education, and with power
to grant licenses to those who had studied according to the curriculum
specified by the act, and who had passed a satisfactory examination
before the appointed board of examiners, as he always upheld that
homœopaths, as well as allopaths, should be able to show that they
possessed a thorough medical education and training. Dr. Wanless is
nominal dean of the Faculty of the College of Homœopathic Physicians and
Surgeons of Montreal, and professor of the practice of physic and one of
the examiners of the college. He attained the license of the Faculty of
Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow in 1835; College of Physicians and
Surgeons of Lower Canada in 1849; M.B. of the University of Toronto,
1861; M.D. of the University of Toronto in 1862, and is a member of the
Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and Quebec. He has a son,
Dr. John R. Wanless, who now practises in Dunedin, New Zealand. This
gentleman is a graduate M.D.,C.M. of McGill University, Montreal, and,
like his father, has adopted the homœopathic principle from conviction.
In religion, as in politics and medicine, the doctor is thoroughly
liberal, and belongs to the Congregational body of worshippers. He is
broad in his views, giving liberty of opinion to all, and exhibits no
desire to scold and burn those who differ from him, except to show them
their error by fair reasoning.
* * * * *
=Boswell, George Morss Jukes=, Q.C., Judge of the County Court of the
United Counties of Northumberland and Durham, Cobourg, Ontario, was born
at Gosport, England, in June, 1804. His father, John Boswell, of London,
England, solicitor, was the youngest son of James Boswell, an officer in
the Royal Navy, whose four elder brothers were also officers in the same
service, and a descendant of the Boswells of Balmuto, Scotland, the
elder branch of the family of the celebrated biographer. Judge Boswell,
the subject of our sketch, was educated at the Grammar School,
Buntingford, Herts, England, came to Canada in 1822, and was one of the
earliest settlers in Cobourg. He was called to the bar in Michaelmas
term, 1827, and is the premier Queen’s counsel in Canada, being the
first created by commission in August, 1841. He was an unsuccessful
candidate for the Upper Canada Assembly in 1836, but was returned at the
first election after the union of Upper and Lower Canada, and sat from
1841 to 1844, in the then Parliament of Canada. While in parliament he
took a prominent part in constitutional debate, was a staunch advocate
of responsible government, and although a Conservative in principle,
worked with the Reform party until constitutional government was
conceded. During the discussion on this question, he forced Mr. Draper,
then attorney-general, to admit the principle, “That if the government
cannot command the majority of the house, so that its measures may be
carried on harmoniously, if they do not find by the whole proceedings of
the house that they have the confidence of a majority of its members,
then that a dissolution of the house shall follow, or that the
government resign.” This then settled this important question of
responsible government, though dragged out of Attorney-General Draper
against his will (see _Cobourg Star_, June 11th, 1841). Before accepting
a judgeship, Mr. Boswell was one of the leading lawyers in Canada, and
as such was specially retained to defend Hunter, Morrison, Montgomery,
and others, who were tried for high treason in connection with the
rebellion in 1837. The two former were acquitted. In 1845, he was
appointed Judge of the County Court of the United Counties of
Northumberland and Durham, and accepted superannuation in 1882. In 1837,
he served under Colonel Ham as brigade major with the volunteers in
suppressing the rebellion, and was on the frontier at Chippawa, at the
time the rebels under McKenzie took possession of Navy Island. Judge
Boswell was married first in 1829, to Susannah, daughter of James
Radcliffe, by whom he had a numerous family; and last to Mary, daughter
of the late Rev. Thomas Wrench, rector of St. Michael’s Church,
Cornhill, London.
* * * * *
=Ogilvie, Hon. Alexander Walker=, Montreal, Lieutenant-Colonel, member
of the Senate of Canada for Alma division, was born at St. Michael, near
the city of Montreal, on the 7th of May, 1829. The Ogilvie family is
descended from a younger brother of Gilchrist, Earl of Angus, a valiant
soldier who in the thirteenth century was rewarded with the land of
Ogilvie, in Banffshire, Scotland, and assumed the name of the estate.
The family is celebrated in history for having long preserved the Crown
and sceptre of Scotland from the hands of Oliver Cromwell. The parents
of Senator Ogilvie came from Stirlingshire, Scotland, to Canada in 1800,
and Mr. Ogilvie, sr., served his adopted country as a volunteer cavalry
officer during the war of 1812-14 against the Americans; and took up
arms against the so-called patriots during the Canadian rebellion of
1837-8. To this couple were born a large family of sons and daughters,
and all have made their mark in the country. In 1854 Alexander and his
brothers, John and William, founded the firm of A. W. Ogilvie & Co., as
millers and dealers in grain, and built extensive mills on the banks of
the canal at Montreal, now known as the Glenora mills. Since that time
the business has grown to such dimensions that the firm’s mills and
business operations are carried on at Montreal, Goderich, Seaforth,
Winnipeg and other parts of the North-West, and they are now the most
extensive millers in the Dominion. In 1874 Alexander retired from the
business. In 1867 he first entered political life, and at the general
election of that year he was chosen by acclamation to represent Montreal
West in the Quebec legislature, when on the dissolution of the house in
1871 he declined re-nomination. He, however, was induced again to enter
the political field in 1875, and was elected for his old seat. This he
occupied until the legislature was dissolved in 1878, when he retired
from local politics. On December 24, 1881, he was called to the Senate
to represent the Alma division in that body. Senator Ogilvie has been an
alderman for the city of Montreal, president of the Workingmen’s, Widows
and Orphans’ Benefit Society, and of the St. Andrew’s Society, and a
lieutenant-colonel of the Montreal Cavalry (now on the retired list). He
is president of the St. Michael Road Company, chairman of the Montreal
Turnpike Trust, and of the Montreal Board of Directors of the London
(England) Guarantee Company, a director of the Sun Life Insurance
Company, the Edwardsburg Starch Company, the Montreal Loan and Mortgage
Company, and the Montreal Investment Company. He is also a justice of
the peace. Senator Ogilvie is a Conservative in politics, and in
religion is a Presbyterian. He is married to a daughter of the late
William Leney, of Montreal, and has a family of four children, one son
and three daughters.
* * * * *
=Campbell, Rev. Robert=, M.A., D.D., Pastor of St. Gabriel Presbyterian
Church, Montreal, was born on a farm near the town of Perth, Lanark
county, Ontario, on the 21st June, 1835. Peter Campbell, father of the
subject of this sketch, was born at Rein-a-Chullaig, Loch Tayside,
Breadalbane, Perthshire, Scotland, and belonged to the Lochnell branch
of the Campbell clan. One of his ancestors having taken part in the
Jacobite rising in 1715, and thus having incurred the displeasure of
Argyll, who was at the head of the Hanoverian forces, did not return to
his native district, but placed himself under the protection of his
other great kinsman, Breadalbane, who was neutral in that contest, and
who assigned him the property called Rein-a-Chullaig. Peter Campbell was
a man of high character and intelligence. He had for a time been a
teacher in Scotland, and this gave him much influence with his Highland
countrymen who accompanied him to Canada in 1817, and settled in the
Bathurst district. He brought some money with him to Canada, and owned
the first yoke of oxen in the settlement; although during the first
season he had to carry a bag of flour on his back through the woods from
Brockville, a distance of about fifty miles, having no road to follow
but guided only by the blazes on the trees. He was chosen an elder of
the first Presbyterian church, which was under the ministry of Rev.
William Bell, shortly after his arrival in the country. But as he was
born and bred in the Church of Scotland, he united with that branch of
the Presbyterian communion as soon as it was established in Perth under
the ministry of the late Rev. T. C. Wilson, of Dunkeld, Scotland, and
was installed an elder in it too, which office he retained till his
death in 1848. Margaret Campbell, Rev. Dr. Campbell’s mother, was of the
Gleno and Inverliver branch of the clan Campbell. She was born in
Glenlyon, Scotland, her mother being a MacDiarmid, one of the oldest
families in Scotland. Mrs. Campbell ably seconded her husband in all his
aims and efforts; and one of the results of their joint influence and
instruction was that three of their sons became ministers of the
Presbyterian Church of Canada in connection with the Church of Scotland,
and a fourth studied for the ministry of the Baptist church, but his
health broke down before he was able to complete his course of
preparation. Robert was the seventh son, and eleventh child of the
family, his youngest brother being Rev. Alexander Campbell, B.A., of
Prince Albert, North-West Territory. He was educated at the common
school, near his birth place; but as it happened that the school was
taught by a succession of able masters, one of them being an admirable
scholar in both classics and mathematics, he enjoyed considerable
advantages, and he, with his youngest brother, made very rapid progress
in study. He himself became a common school teacher at the age of
sixteen; and the desire he had to perfect himself in the subjects which
he had to teach was the best master he was ever under, and he learned
more always while teaching than while avowedly only a student under the
direction of others. In 1853 he entered as a student at Queen’s
University, taking the only open scholarship for the year. This
scholarship he retained by competition every year all through his
course. In 1855 he obtained the first medal ever offered in Queen’s
College for a special examination in English history and ancient
geography. In 1856 he graduated B.A., and in 1858 M.A., in the same
university. He taught the public school near Appleton in 1852, and the
next year the school at Leckie’s Corners, near Almonte. In 1856 he was
appointed headmaster of the Queen’s College Preparatory School, where he
had under his care, at a time when High schools were few and inefficient
throughout the country, students from all parts of Canada, and even from
Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, who had it in view to matriculate
in Queen’s University. A great many of the youth of Kingston also took
advantage of the educational facilities afforded by the school. This
position he held till 1st October, 1860, when he quitted it with a view
to entering the ministry of the Presbyterian Church of Canada in
connection with the Church of Scotland. In the autumn of 1860, after
having received license as a preacher in Canada, he went abroad with a
view to seeing a little of the world, and becoming familiar with men and
things in the older civilized communities, and he remained thirteen
months in Great Britain and the Continent, taking advantage of access to
the museums, art galleries, and learned societies of Edinburgh
particularly, where he spent most of the winter, as well as giving
occasional attendance at lectures in the university. He returned to
Canada late in the autumn of 1861, and accepted a call in April, 1862,
to St. Andrew’s Church, Galt, Ontario, having declined overtures from
Melbourne, Beckwith, and one or two other charges. He remained in Galt
till 1st December, 1866, when called to his present sphere of labour as
minister of the oldest Presbyterian church in the inland provinces. The
centennial celebration of the founding of the congregation that built
this church was held on the 9th of March, 1886, and was an occasion of
great interest to the entire community. The University of Queen’s
College conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity upon him at the
convocation in April, 1887. Rev. Dr. Campbell is chairman of the Board
of Management of the Widows’ and Orphans’ Fund of the Presbyterian
Church of Canada in connection with the Church of Scotland; a member of
the Executive Committee of the Temporalities Board of the same church; a
trustee of Queen’s University, and a member of the Senate of the
Presbyterian College, Montreal. He held the office of lecturer in
Ecclesiastical History for two sessions in Queen’s University, Kingston,
and was a vice-president of the Natural History Society of Montreal. He
has maintained steadfastly his early religious convictions. But while
orthodox himself, he has always exercised toleration towards those that
could not see exactly as he did. Rev. Dr. Campbell won the prize for the
best essay on Presbyterian Union offered by a committee of gentlemen in
Quebec and Montreal in the year 1866, which was afterwards published,
and greatly helped to leaven public opinion on that question. He is now
engaged on a history of the St. Gabriel St. Church, Montreal, which will
shortly be published, and cannot fail to prove of great interest to
every Presbyterian in Canada. Rev. Dr. Campbell was married on the 29th
of December, 1863, to Margaret, eldest child and only daughter of Rev.
George Macdonnell, minister of St. Andrew’s Church, Fergus, a faithful,
useful, and highly respected minister of the Presbyterian Church of
Canada in connection with the Church of Scotland. Rev. D. J. Macdonnell,
B.D., of Toronto, and G. M. Macdonnell, Q.C., of Kingston, are her
brothers. Her mother was Elizabeth Milnes, of the same stock as Moncton
Milnes, Lord Houghton.
* * * * *
=Inches, Peter Robertson=, M.D., M.R.C.S., England, St. John, New
Brunswick, was born on the 19th of February, 1835, at St. John, New
Brunswick. He is a son of James Inches, of Dunkeld, and Janet Small, of
Dirnanean, Perthshire, Scotland, who emigrated to America in 1832, and
settled in St. John. Dr. Inches received his early education in the
Grammar School of his native city, and studied medicine in New York
city, at the University College, and from this institution he graduated
in 1866. He then went to Great Britain and further prosecuted his
studies at the University of Edinburgh, and at King’s College, London.
In 1868 he was elected a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of
England, and then returned to St. John, New Brunswick, and commenced the
practice of his profession, and here he has ever since resided. Dr.
Inches was brought up in the faith as taught by the Presbyterian church,
and has continued his connection with that body of Christians. In 1876
he was married to Mary Dorothea, daughter of Dr. C. K. Fiske, from
Massachusetts, who for many years practised his profession in St. John.
The doctor has had five children born to him, four of whom survive.
* * * * *
=Leach, The Ven. Archdeacon.=—The late William Turnbull Leach, D.C.L.,
LL.D., Archdeacon of Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal, was born in
Berwick-on-Tweed, Scotland, on the 1st of March, 1805, and died at
Montreal, on the 13th of October, 1886. He was of English descent, his
grandfather having removed to Berwick from the previous home of the
family in Lincolnshire, England. Archdeacon Leach was educated in
Edinburgh, and took the degree of M.A. in the university of that city in
1827. In 1831, he was ordained a minister of the Presbyterian church,
but shortly afterwards came to Canada, and was appointed to the charge
of St. Andrew’s Church, Toronto, and was also chaplain to the 93rd
Highlanders, stationed in that city, about the time of the rebellion in
1837-8. He subsequently entered the Church of England, to which he was
ordained by Bishop Mountain in 1841, and was appointed to the incumbency
of St. George’s Church, Montreal, which position he retained for nearly
twenty years. He took the warmest interest in educational matters, was
one of the founders of Queen’s College, Kingston, and was for many years
an honoured member of the Council of Public Institution for Lower
Canada, afterwards the province of Quebec. He was one of the little band
who brought McGill University to its present position. His connection
with McGill dates from 1845, and he may be said to have been the last
survivor of the original staff. From the earliest years of the college,
he was one of the professors of the Faculty of Arts, and as the work of
the university extended, he relinquished his ministerial duties to
devote himself exclusively to college work. During his active connection
with the college, he held the Molson chair of English language and
literature, was professor of logic and of mental and moral philosophy,
dean of the Faculty of Arts, and vice-principal of the University. He
was created D.C.L. of McGill in 1849, and LL.D. of McGill in 1857, and
in 1867, the University of Lennoxville conferred upon him the degree of
D.C.L. The Venerable Archdeacon Leach married three times. Shortly after
his arrival in Canada, he returned for a short visit to Scotland, where
he married Miss Skirving, daughter of Mr. Skirving, of Haddington, and
granddaughter of Adam Skirving, author of “Johnnie Cope,” and other
songs very popular at the time in Scotland. Of this marriage there were
four children, two of whom are living, viz.: David S. Leach, of
Montreal, and Mrs. Howell, of London, England. He afterwards married
Miss Easton, daughter of the Rev. Robert Easton, a lady well known and
much beloved, who previous to her marriage had conducted one of the
principal establishments in Canada for the education of young ladies.
His widow (daughter of the late Francis Gwilt), with her young unmarried
daughter, reside in Montreal.
* * * * *
=St. George, Percival Walter=, Civil Engineer, Montreal, was born at
Forres, Morayshire, Scotland, on the 22nd October, 1849. He is a son of
Lieutenant-Colonel James D. N. St. George, who was a lieutenant-colonel
in her Majesty’s Ordnance Staff Corps, and had charge for many years of
the clothing establishment of the British army in London, England.
Walter was sent to France by his parents to be educated, and spent seven
years of his boyhood days in that country, and then finished his
educational course in Edinburgh University, where he took honours in
mathematics. He came to Canada in 1866, and began the practice of his
profession. From 1866 to 1868, two years, he was the pupil of Alexander
McNab, chief engineer for the province of Nova Scotia; from 1868 to
1872, four years, he acted as assistant engineer on construction and
survey of the Intercolonial Railway of Canada; in 1872-73 he was
engineer on survey of the North Shore Railway of Canada; in 1873-74,
engineer maintenance of way on the Intercolonial Railway, in charge of
one hundred and eight miles; in 1874-75 engineer on survey of the
Northern Colonization Railway, from Ottawa to the Mattawan; in 1875-76
he was assistant engineer of Montreal; and from 1876 to 1883, eight
years, deputy city surveyor of the same city; from July to December, in
1883, he was engineer in charge of three hundred miles of line on the
Norfolk and Western Railway in Virginia; and in December of 1883 he was
appointed city surveyor of Montreal, and this position he has occupied
ever since. He was also one of the members of the Royal Flood Commission
of Montreal, appointed in 1886. Mr. St. George has been an associate
member of the Institute of Civil Engineers of England since 1877; and is
now a member of the Council of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers.
He is a master Mason, and a member of the Royal Arch Chapter. He has
travelled a good deal, and his profession has made him familiar with the
greater part of Canada. He is a member of the Church of England. On the
11th July, 1872, he was married to Flora Stewart, daughter of the Rev.
Canon Geo. Townshend, rector of Amherst, Nova Scotia, and Elizabeth
Stewart, daughter of the Hon. Alexander Stewart, C.B., master of the
Rolls, and judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court, and has issue five
children.
* * * * *
=Palmer, Caleb Read=, Justice of the Peace, Moncton, was born at
Dorchester, Westmoreland county, New Brunswick, on the 13th February,
1834. His father, John Palmer, grandson of Gideon Palmer, a U. E.
loyalist, who came to New Brunswick from Staten Island, New York, is a
veteran of 1812, and is now (1887) in his ninety-ninth year, and
regularly draws his pension for services during the war. His mother,
Elizabeth Cole, was a daughter of Ebenezer Cole. Caleb received his
education at the Wesleyan Academy, in Sackville, N.B., taking a course
in the higher mathematics and languages, and then for some time adopted
teaching as his profession. From 1859 to 1870 he taught the Superior
School in Sussex, Kings county, and from January, 1870, to September,
1882, he acted in the capacity of station master at Dorchester for the
Intercolonial Railway Company. In July, 1883, he became manager of the
Moncton Publishing Company, and this position he occupied until
February, 1885, since which time he has confined himself to the duties
of justice of the peace, and secretary to the Board of School Trustees
of the town of Moncton. Mr. Palmer is interested in shipping, and is
also a stockholder in the Moncton Cotton Factory. He is a member of the
Royal Arcanum, and in politics is a Liberal. Although brought up in the
Episcopal church, he found it more congenial to his taste to attend the
Methodist church, and is now a member of that denomination. He was
married on the 21st of December, 1865, to Agnes Murray, daughter of John
Murray, of Studholm, Kings county, N.B.
* * * * *
=Ferguson, Hon. Donald=, M.P.P., Provincial Secretary and Commissioner
of Crown Lands of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, was born at East
River, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on the 7th of March, 1839.
His father, John Ferguson, and mother, Isabella Stewart, were
descendants of thrifty Scotch farmers, who emigrated from Blair Athol,
in Perthshire, Scotland, in 1807, and settled near Charlottetown, Prince
Edward Island. Donald was reared on the farm and received the rudiments
of education in the Public school of his native parish, and subsequently
pursued his studies in English and mathematics by private tuition. He
became interested in politics when quite a young man, and was a strong
advocate of the confederation of the provinces. He was a contributor to
the press, and in 1867, wrote a series of letters over the signature of
“A Farmer,” which attracted considerable attention, and was replied to
by the Hon. David Laird, one of the leading politicians of the island,
and subsequently lieutenant-governor of the North-West Territories. At a
later date, he engaged, over his own signature, in a discussion with the
Hon. George Beer, on the union question, and became at once known as one
of the champions on the island for a Canadian nationality. He was also a
strong supporter of the interests of the tenantry, an advocate of
railway construction, and was the mover of the resolutions in favour of
the railway which were adopted at the mass meeting of the electors of
Queens county, held at Charlottetown, in the winter of 1871. In 1872,
Mr. Ferguson was appointed a justice of the peace, and he held the
position of collector of inland revenue for Charlottetown for a short
time in 1873. In 1873, the great question of confederation, for which
Mr. Ferguson had for years contended, having been settled, he offered
himself as a candidate for the Legislative Council of Prince Edward
Island, for the second district of Queens county, where the Hon. Edward
Palmer had been returned in 1872, to the Council, as an anti-railway and
an anti-confederate, by a majority of nearly eight hundred votes—and he
succeeded, after a spirited canvass and good fight against great odds in
reducing the anti-railway majority to two hundred and fifty votes. A
vacancy occurring next year in the same constituency, Mr. Ferguson was
again brought out by his friends, and this time succeeded in reducing
the anti-railway majority to seventy. In 1876, the question of
denominational education came prominently before the electors, and Mr.
Ferguson and other leading politicians pronounced in favour of a system
of payment by results, by which the state would recognize and pay for
secular education in schools in towns, in which religious education
might also be imparted at the expense of parents. Religious bitterness
was introduced, the Protestants became alarmed, the people decided
largely according to their creeds, and the “payment by results”
candidates were defeated in all except Roman Catholic constituencies.
Believing that almost any settlement of this vexed question was better
than a prolonged political-religious agitation, he accepted the
situation. In 1874, Mr. Ferguson was appointed secretary of the Board of
Railway Appraisers, which office he held until 1876. In 1878, he was
invited by the leading electors of the Cardigan district, in Kings
county, to offer himself for parliamentary honours; he consented and was
returned by acclamation. In March, 1879, on the meeting of the
legislature, the government, under the leadership of the Hon. L. H.
Davis, was defeated, and the Hon. W. W. Sullivan, who had been entrusted
with the formation of a new administration, offered Mr. Ferguson a seat
in his cabinet, with the portfolio of public works, which office he
accepted. A dissolution of the house having immediately followed, Mr.
Ferguson was returned by acclamation. In 1880, he resigned his position
as head of the Public Works department, and became provincial secretary
and commissioner of Crown Lands, and this position he occupies to-day.
In 1882, Mr. Ferguson was elected to represent Fort Augustus, and again
in 1886, he had the same honour conferred upon him. Hon. Mr. Ferguson is
a member of the Board of Commissioners for the management of the
Government Poor-House; a commissioner for the management of the
Government Stock Farm, and a trustee for the Hospital for the Insane, at
Falconwood. He was a delegate to Ottawa, on the Wharf and Pier question
in 1883, in conjunction with the Hon. Messrs. Sullivan and Prowse, and
also a delegate to England, with Hon. Mr. Sullivan, on the question of
the communication between the island and the mainland. Mr. Ferguson is
an enthusiastic agriculturist, and has a farm in a high state of
cultivation, four miles from Charlottetown. Besides having published
several useful official reports, Mr. Ferguson gave to his
fellow-citizens in 1884, an excellent paper on “Agricultural Education,”
and another in 1885, on “Love of Country.” He has been a lifelong total
abstainer, and became connected with the Good Templars in 1863, and held
the office of grand secretary for two years, 1863-5, and that of grand
worthy chief templar the following two years, 1865-7. He is a
Conservative in politics, and in religion a member of the Baptist
denomination. In 1873, he was married to Elizabeth Jane, daughter of
John Scott, Charlottetown, and has a family consisting of three sons and
two daughters.
* * * * *
=Ross, James Duncan=, M.D., Moncton, New Brunswick, was born at Pictou,
Nova Scotia, in October, 1839, and is a son of the Rev. James Ross,
D.D., principal of Dalhousie College, and grandson of the late Rev.
Duncan Ross, one of the first Presbyterian ministers who came to Nova
Scotia from Scotland. His mother was Isabella Matheson, a daughter of
William Matheson, who through industry and perseverance accumulated a
fortune at farming, lumbering, and trading, sufficient to enable him to
leave the handsome sum of $35,000 to the institutions of the church in
the province, and $35,000 to the British and Foreign Bible Society.
James Duncan Ross received his elementary training in the public schools
in his native town, and then took the arts course in the West River
Seminary. He then spent three years in the office of the late Dr. Muir,
of Truro, N.S., and afterwards studied medicine and surgery in
Philadelphia and Harvard, graduating from Harvard University in 1861,
when he moved to Londonderry, in Nova Scotia, and began the practice of
his profession, and continued here until 1865; then he went over to
Britain and took a course of medicine and surgery in the University and
in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Edinburgh, and while in
that city he was for a time a student in the office of Sir J. Y.
Simpson. He then went to London, and became for a time a dresser in St.
Bartholomew’s Hospital; and afterwards, returning to Nova Scotia, he
resumed his practice. Dr. Ross occupied the position for some time of
assistant surgeon to the 2nd battalion of the Colchester Militia, and
also surgeon of the Caledonian (Highland) Society of Nova Scotia. He has
been since 1863 a coroner for the county of Westmoreland. He took a deep
interest in the establishment of the Medical School in Halifax, and was
demonstrator of anatomy in it for the first two years of its existence.
The doctor has now practised medicine and surgery continuously for
twenty-five years, the first eleven years of his medical career having
been spent in Nova Scotia, and the remaining fourteen in Moncton, N.B.
His work has been continuous and laborious, and very varied, and he
stands high in the profession, especially for surgery. In him the poor
always find a kind and sympathizing friend, who dispenses medicine to
them gratuitously as well as his best skill. In religion the doctor
holds all the doctrines of the second reformation, and believes the
Presbyterian form of church government scriptural. He has experienced no
change in his views since his youth, except a deeper conviction of the
duty which nations owe to Christ, and a more scriptural constitution for
nations. He married, in 1870, Ruth, daughter of the late R. N. B.
McLellan, merchant, of Londonderry, N.S. The McLellan family are north
of Ireland Scotch, and have been closely connected with the political
and mercantile interests of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick for many
years. Issue, one son, who died in infancy.
* * * * *
=McLeod, Rev. Joseph=, D.D., Fredericton, was born in St. John, New
Brunswick, June 27, 1844. His father, the Rev. Ezekiel McLeod,—born in
Sussex, New Brunswick, Sept. 17, 1815, died in Fredericton, New
Brunswick, March 17th, 1867,—was the leading minister in the Free
Baptist denomination of Canada, and the founder and, till his death, the
editor of _The Religious Intelligencer_. He was an earnest and
influential advocate of the confederation of the British American
provinces; a strong advocate of prohibition; and widely known and highly
regarded both for intellectual qualities and godly character. His mother
was Amelia Emery, born in Boston, Massachusetts, and survived her
husband till June, 1887. Joseph McLeod was educated in the public
schools, and in the Baptist Institution in Fredericton, New Brunswick,
and in July, 1868, was ordained to the ministry. In the same month he
was called to the pastorate of the Free Baptist Church in Fredericton,
which he has held ever since. In 1875 the Rev. Mr. McLeod was chosen
chaplain to the New Brunswick legislature, and still holds the office.
He is a very active worker in the temperance army, and has held the
office of grand worthy chief of the British Templars; president of the
National lodge of the United Temperance Association of Canada, and is
now, and has for several years been president of the New Brunswick
Prohibitory Alliance. He is an ardent advocate of the prohibition of the
liquor traffic, and has for years been a leader in this cause in New
Brunswick, and has had much to do with introducing the Canada Temperance
Act into New Brunswick. In addition to his strong advocacy of temperance
measures, he has been an earnest advocate of the establishment of the
free, unsectarian school system in his native province. In the Free
Baptist denomination he also stands high as a leader in all progressive
movements. He is an advocate of the union of the Baptist denominations
in Canada, and by voice and pen has done much to promote the union
feeling. He is a member and vice-chairman of the joint committee of the
Baptist and Free Baptist bodies which now (1887) have the question of
union under consideration, and are authorized to arrange a basis of
union. He was secretary and a director of the Free Baptist Education
Society for many years, till, in 1883, the Baptist and Free Baptist
Education Societies were united by act of the legislature; since then he
has been a director of the united Education Society. He has also been
corresponding secretary of the Free Baptist Foreign Mission Society of
New Brunswick for fifteen years; was for three years president of the
American Foreign Mission Society, which includes representatives of all
the free communion Baptist bodies in the United States and Canada, and
is now a member of the managing board of the society. Has been moderator
of the New Brunswick Free Baptist Conference twice within ten years.
Since 1867 Dr. McLeod has owned and edited the _Religious_
_Intelligencer_. In May, 1886, Acadia College conferred the well-earned
degree of D.D. on Mr. McLeod. He is active in all matters pertaining to
the welfare of the public, and is frequently called upon to do pulpit
and platform service outside his own charge. He has not found time for a
European tour, but has made two trips to the western states; spent the
winter of 1882-3 in Florida for the benefit of his health; and in the
summer of 1886 made the trip across the continent _via_ the Canada
Pacific Railway, spending several weeks in British Columbia, the
North-West, and in Manitoba. Dr. McLeod’s parents were Free Baptists,
and in this faith he was brought up. He at a very early age became a
communicant in that church, and is now one of the most respected of its
clergy. In December, 1868, he was married to Jane Fulton Squires, and is
blessed with a family of five children.
* * * * *
=Chesley, John Alexander=, Manufacturer, Portland, New Brunswick, was
born in Portland, N.B., in May, 1839. He is the eldest son of William
Ambrose and Mary Ann Chesley, of U. E. loyalist descent. He received his
educational training in the Public school in Portland, and at the
Grammar School in Albert county, N.B. Mr. Chesley began his business
career in Portland, N.B., in 1862, as a manufacturer of ships’ iron
knees, and conducted the business on his own account until 1869, when he
took his brother, W. A. Chesley, into partnership, and thus formed the
firm of “J. A. & W. A. Chesley,” of which he is the head and senior
partner. Since then the firm has had a very successful career, and is
very well and favourably known throughout the Maritime provinces for its
locomotive frames, piston and connecting rods, truck, engine and car
axles, shafting, ships’ iron knees, etc., and all kinds of heavy
forgings. The firm has also a large interest in shipping. In 1876 Mr.
Chesley was elected alderman for No. 1 Ward in Portland city, and
occupied a seat in the city council continuously until April, 1885,—a
period of nine years,—when he was elected mayor of the city. He also
sat as one of the representatives of the city of Portland in the
municipal council of the city and county of St. John from 1880 to 1886,
a period of five years. In 1881 he was appointed a commissioner for
taking the census in the county of St. John; and was a liquor license
commissioner for St. John county in 1883 under the Dominion Liquor
License Act. At the general elections of 1882 and 1886 Mr. Chesley was
an unsuccessful candidate for the representation of the city and county
of St. John in the legislature of New Brunswick, but received such
support that we think he will be justified in running again for
parliamentary honours when the occasion offers. In 1872 he was made a
Mason, and now holds the rank of past master in the Blue lodge, and also
that of past principal in the Royal Arch chapter. He is a member of the
Encampment of St. John Knights Templars, and a member of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish rite of Masonry; also a member of the Royal Order of
Scotland. He is an active politician, and is a member of the Young Men’s
Liberal Conservative Club of the city and county of St. John, and at the
present time is the vice-president of the Club for the city of Portland.
Mr. Chesley was a supporter of confederation, and worked hard to carry
the measure, and has ever since taken an interest in all public
questions—Dominion, provincial, and municipal—brought before the
people of the city and county of St. John. He also took an active
interest in, and laboured very hard in the election held to decide the
free school system in New Brunswick, and had the satisfaction of seeing
his party win in the contest, and secure for his province a school law
that every lover of his country should be proud of. He is a
Liberal-Conservative in politics, and a strong supporter of the national
policy. He was married, first in December, 1860, to Mary Frances, eldest
daughter of Albert Small, of Portland, Maine; and some time after her
death he was again married in September, 1872, to Annie, eldest daughter
of James S. May, of St. John, N.B.
* * * * *
=MacCallum, Duncan Campbell=, M.D., M.R.C.S., Eng., Fellow of the
Obstetrical Society, London, Foundation Fellow of the British
Gynecological Society, and Professor Emeritus, McGill University,
Montreal, was born in the province of Quebec, on the 12th November,
1825. By descent Dr. MacCallum is a pure Celt, being the son of John
MacCallum and Mary Campbell. His maternal grandfather, Malcolm Campbell,
of Killin, during his lifetime widely known and highly esteemed through
the Perthshire Highlands, was a near kinsman and relative, through the
Lochiel Camerons, of the Earl of Breadalbane. Dr. MacCallum received his
medical education at McGill University, at which institution he
graduated as M.D. in the year 1850. Immediately on receiving his degree,
he proceeded to Great Britain, and continued his studies in London,
Edinburgh and Dublin. After examination he was admitted a member of the
Royal College of Surgeons, England, February, 1851. Returning to Canada,
he entered on the practice of his profession in the city of Montreal,
and was appointed demonstrator of anatomy in the medical faculty of
McGill University, September, 1854. From that time to the present he has
been connected with the university, occupying various positions in the
faculty of medicine. In August, 1856, he was preferred to the chair of
clinical surgery. In November, 1860, he was transferred to the chair of
clinical medicine and medical jurisprudence, and in April, 1868,
received the appointment of professor of midwifery and the diseases of
women and children, which position he held until his resignation in
1883, on which occasion the governors of the university appointed him
professor emeritus, retaining his precedence in the university. For a
period of twenty-nine years he has been actively engaged in the teaching
of his profession. Elected visiting physician to the Montreal General
Hospital in February, 1856, he discharged the duties of that position
until the year 1877, when he resigned, and was placed by the vote of the
governors of that institution on the consulting staff. From 1868 till
1883 he had charge of the university lying-in hospital, to which he is
now attached as consulting physician, and for a period of fourteen years
he was physician to the Hervey Institute for children, to which charity
also he is now consulting physician. He has always taken a warm interest
in the literature of his profession, and articles from his pen have
appeared in the _British American Medical and Surgical Journal_, the
_Canada Medical Journal_, and the “Transactions of the Obstetrical
Society of London, Eng.” In the year 1854 he, in conjunction with Dr.
Wm. Wright, established and edited the _Medical Chronicle_ which had an
existence of six years. He was vice-president for Canada of the section
of Obstetrics in the ninth International Medical Congress, which was
held at Washington during the week commencing September 5th, 1887. Dr.
MacCallum married in October, 1867, Mary Josephine Guy, second daughter
of the late Hon. Hippolyte Guy, judge of the Superior Court of Lower
Canada. The Guy family, of ancient and noble origin, supposed to be a
branch of the Guy de Montfort family, has been distinguished for the
valuable services, military and civil, which its members have rendered
to the province of Quebec, both under the old and new _régimes_. Pierre
Guy, the first of the name to settle in Canada, joined the French army
under M. de Vaudreuil, in which he rose rapidly to the rank of captain.
He took an active part in the engagements which were then so frequent
between the French in Quebec and the English in Massachusetts and New
York. He died at the early age of forty-eight. His son Pierre, who was
sent to France and received a thorough and careful education, also
joined the French army and distinguished himself under General Montcalm
at the battle of Carillon, and in the following year at Montmorency. The
battle of the Plains of Abraham having annihilated the power of France
in Canada, young Guy with others left for France after the capitulation
of the country, where he remained till 1764. Returning to Canada, he
accepted the situation, entered into business at Montreal, and became a
loyal subject of Great Britain. Shortly after, when General Montgomery
invaded Canada, he took up arms for the defence of the country, and this
so exasperated the Americans that they sacked his stores after the
capitulation of Montreal. In 1776 he received from the Crown the
appointment of judge, which at that time was considered a signal mark of
favour; and in 1802 he was promoted to the rank of colonel of militia. A
man of great attainments and scholarly parts, he was an ardent promoter
of all educational projects. He was one of the most active in the
foundation of the College St. Raphae, under the control of the gentlemen
of the Seminary of the Sulpician order, and which still exists and
flourishes under the name of the “College of Montreal.” He died in 1812
and left several sons and daughters. Louis, who by the death of his
brother became the eldest of the family, was an intimate friend and
adviser of Sir James Kempt, and subsequently of Lord Aylmer. He was made
a councillor by King William in February, 1831. He died in 1840. Of his
family, Judge Hippolyte Guy was the second son. The eldest son, named
Louis, received a commission as lieutenant in the British army through
the influence of the Duke of Wellington, in consideration of the bravery
he had displayed at the battle of Chateauguay, where he gallantly led
the advanced guard of the Voltigeurs. Several years before entering the
British army he served as a member of the body guard of Charles X. of
France, into which no one was admitted who was not of proved noble
origin. Judge Guy married the adopted daughter of Chief Justice
Vallières, and had four children, a son who died in youth, and three
daughters. The eldest of the latter is married to Chief Justice Austin,
of Nassau, Bahamas, and the youngest to Gustave Fabre, brother to
Archbishop Fabre, Montreal. Dr. MacCallum’s family consists of five
children,—four daughters and one son.
* * * * *
=Williams, Thomas=, Accountant and Treasurer of the Intercolonial
Railway, Moncton, New Brunswick, was born at Handsworth, near
Birmingham, England, on the 3rd of June, 1846. He is the youngest son of
Joseph and Hannah Williams. His father’s ancestors can be traced back
several centuries as farmers and occupiers of land in the adjoining
parish of Perry Barr. His mother’s ancestors, the Coulburns of Tipton,
in South Staffordshire, have been connected with the development of the
iron industries there for several generations past. Thomas Williams was
educated at the parish schools, and subsequently at the Bridge Trust
School—a grammar school founded from the proceeds of a legacy for
repairs of bridges in the parish, for which after the organisation of
the Highway Board, its existence for its original purposes was not
necessary, and the accumulated funds were devoted to the erection and
endowment of a superior school. In 1868, he entered the service of the
London and North-Western Railway of England as freight clerk, and was
subsequently appointed freight agent at Sutton Coldfield, near
Birmingham, and station master at Marton, near Rugby. He resigned in
June, 1870, to come to Canada, and in December, 1870, entered the
service of the New Brunswick and Canada Railway, at St. Andrews, New
Brunswick, as clerk to the general manager. Mr. Williams left the
service of that railway in August, 1873, to enter upon duties of clerk
in accountant’s office of the Intercolonial (Government) Railway, at
Moncton, New Brunswick, and was subsequently appointed chief clerk in
mechanical department of the same railway. In November, 1875, he was
sent to Charlottetown, to organise the system of accounts of the Prince
Edward Island Railway, and was appointed accountant and auditor of that
railway. And on the 1st of July, 1882, he was appointed chief accountant
and treasurer of the Intercolonial Railway at Moncton, which position he
at present holds. Mr. Williams was a member of the Church of England
until December, 1873, but in consequence of Ritualistic practices having
been introduced into the church he was in the habit of attending, he
left it, and was among the first to join the then newly organized
Reformed Episcopal Church, St. Paul’s, in Moncton. He has held the
office of vestryman and warden in this church, almost continuously
since. On the 12th of January, 1875, he married Analena, daughter of the
late John Rourke, merchant, St. John, New Brunswick, and has a family of
seven children.
* * * * *
=Pickard, Rev. Humphrey=, D.D., Methodist Minister, Sackville, New
Brunswick, was born at Fredericton, New Brunswick, June 10th, 1813. His
parents, Thomas Pickard, was the son of Deacon Humphrey Pickard, and was
born at Sheffield in 1783, and Mary Pickard, daughter of David Burpee.
Mrs. Pickard was also born at Sheffield in 1783. Both Deacon Pickard and
Squire Burpee, came, while yet mere youths, from Massachusetts, New
England, with a party of the earliest English settlers on the Saint John
river, about the year 1762. The subject of this sketch, after receiving
a fair English education in Fredericton, was sent to the Wesleyan
Academy, North Wilbenham, Massachusetts, United States, in 1829, where
he commenced a classical course of study, and having prepared for
matriculation, he entered the Freshman class in the University at
Middletown, Conn., in 1831. He, having completed the Freshman course of
study, retired from the university in 1832, and spent the following
three years in mercantile pursuits. In 1835, he entered the Methodist
ministry, as an assistant to the Rev. A. Des Brisay, in the Sheffield
circuit. In 1836, he was received on trial as a Wesleyan missionary, by
the British Methodist Conference, and laboured for a year as such on the
Miramichi mission and Fredericton circuit. In 1837, he resumed his
course of university study at Middletown; in 1839, he graduated,
receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and re-entered the work of the
Methodist ministry, being stationed at Richibucto, until 1841, when he
was appointed to St. John. In 1842, he was ordained and received into
full connection with the English Conference as a Methodist minister, and
appointed editor of the _British North American Methodist Magazine_,
which was published at St. John. In November of the same year, he was
elected principal of the Mount Allison Academy, and removed with his
family to Sackville at the close of the year. The academy was opened on
the 19th of January, 1843, with a very few students, but under his
skilful management, it rapidly rose into importance in public
estimation, and attracting students from all parts of the Maritime
provinces, soon took position in the very front rank of the educational
institutions of Eastern British America. The catalogue for the term from
January to June, 1855, contains 250 names of students in actual
attendance, viz.: of 134 in the male branch, and 116 in the female. In
1862, the Mount Allison College was organized at Sackville, by the
authority of an Act of the Legislature of New Brunswick, and Mr. Pickard
was appointed its president, and he continued to act as president of the
college and principal of the academy until 1869. At the annual meeting
of the Board of Governors of the united institutions, held May 26, 1869,
the following resolution was unanimously adopted: “That the board,
having received intimation from Rev. Dr. Pickard, that in consequence of
the action of the conference in assigning to him another portion of
connexional service, his resignation of the office of president of the
institution is deemed necessary, though reluctantly accepting that
resignation, would express in strongest terms its regret at the removal
of Dr. Pickard from the field of usefulness for which he has special
qualifications, and at which for upwards of a quarter of a century, he
has with fidelity and honour served the church and his generation. The
board is also assured that the great work of education in connection
with the Wesleyan Conference of Eastern British America is greatly
indebted to the retiring president of the institution, and that its
success is largely to be attributed to the indomitable application and
perseverance—the high business ability, and the earnest Christian aim
by which Dr. Pickard has been animated during the whole period of his
service in the government of the institution.” The _Provincial
Wesleyan_, in a notice of the Mount Allison Academy, June 15, 1870,
says: “The college established in 1862, under a charter from the
Legislature of New Brunswick, mainly through the exertions of the Rev.
Dr. Pickard, is the latest of the foundations at Sackville. * * * The
first president of the college was the Rev. H. Pickard, D.D., president
also of the Wesleyan Conference. Dr. Pickard’s name is so intimately
associated with the Sackville institutions as almost to rival that of
its benevolent founder. To them he gave the flower of his life. And
although retired from the responsible office of president, and engaged
in another sphere of usefulness, the doctor is still one of its ablest
friends and supporters. His address at the recent celebration was
received with the warmest demonstrations.” Dr. Pickard, having been
elected to the office of editor of _The Wesleyan_ and book steward,
became resident in Halifax, from 1869 to 1873, but in this latter year
he returned with his family to Sackville. From 1873 to 1875, he acted as
agent for the college, and was largely instrumental in securing the
first endowment fund; and in 1876 he was superintendent of the Sackville
district. In 1877, he became a supernumerary, and has since so remained
resident at Sackville, except during the years 1879-80, when, at the
call of the General Conference of the Methodist Church of Canada, he
acted as book steward at Halifax. He was elected secretary of the
Wesleyan Methodist Conference of Eastern British America in 1857, 1858,
1859 and 1860, and co-delegate of the same conference in 1861, and
president in 1862 and 1870. He was appointed representative of the
conference of Eastern British America to the Canada Conference, which
met in the city of Kingston, June, 1860; and again to the conference
which met in the city of Hamilton, June, 1867. He was appointed
representative of his conference to the British Conference, first, in
1857, secondly in 1862, and thirdly in 1873. He was a member of the
joint committee on the Federal union of the Wesleyan Methodist church in
British America, which met in Montreal, October, 1872; and of the joint
committee which met in Toronto in 1882, and formulated the basis of
union by which the four separate Methodist bodies in Canada united to
form the one Methodist church. Rev. Mr. Pickard was a member of the
first and second general conferences of the Methodist Church of Canada,
and served in both as chairman of the committee on discipline. He was
also a member of the second general conference of the Methodist church,
which met in Toronto, in September, 1886, and was appointed a member of
the court of appeal and of the book committee for the quadrennium,
1886-1890. Mr. Pickard received the degree of Master of Arts in 1842,
from the University at Middletown, and had the honorary degree of Doctor
of Divinity conferred on him by his _alma mater_ in 1857. At the late
session of the annual conference of New Brunswick and Prince Edward
Island of the Methodist church, the following address, beautifully
engrossed and elegantly framed, was presented to Dr. Pickard:—
_To the Reverend H. Pickard, D.D._:
DEAR BROTHER,—The members of the New Brunswick and Prince
Edward Island Conference, assembled in annual session, desire to
express to you their hearty congratulations upon the completion
of FIFTY YEARS in the honourable work of your ministry. We also
express our gratitude to GOD, that he has so long spared you to
see the growth, prosperity, and influence of the church to whose
interests you have given such rich qualities of learning,
wisdom, and piety.
We rejoice that through all these years your moral and
ministerial character has been preserved without a stain. We are
profoundly conscious of the far-reaching influence of your life
in our ACADEMIC AND COLLEGE WORK. The ministry of this and other
churches, as well as the business and professional life of our
provinces, have been enriched by the ripe scholarship and godly
zeal of those who owe much to you for their culture and their
ability in their callings. We are not unmindful that other
departments of our church work have been benefited by your
consecrated zeal and wisdom. As early life directs and tinges
the thoughts of advanced age, we fail not to discern in you the
earnestness of purpose, the singleness of aim that mark the
years of the early itinerant. Your company has almost gone
before, and while with the few venerable men whom we lovingly
call FATHERS, you wait the summons of the Master, you say—
“In peace and cheerful hope I wait,
On life’s last verge quite free from fears,
And watch the opening of the gate,
Which leads to the eternal years.”
We desire that your day, as it draws to its close, may be
brightened by the glory of the sunset, full of the golden
promise of the eternity of light.
Signed by order of the Conference,
C. H. PAISLEY, ROBERT WILSON,
_Secretary_. _President_.
Marysville, N.B., June, 1887.
Mr. Pickard was twice married, first at Boston, on October 2nd, 1841, to
the daughter of Ebenezer and Hannah M. Thompson, by whom he had two
children—Edward Dwight and Charles F. Allison, who died in early
childhood and infancy. Mrs. Pickard died at Sackville, the 11th of
March, 1844. She was a lady of superior ability, and much literary
talent, her memoirs and selections from her writings were published at
Boston, by the Rev. Edward Otheman, A.M., in a duodecimo volume of
upwards of 300 pages, in 1845, which is now out of print. He was married
again on the 5th of September, 1846, to Mary Rowe Carr, who was born at
Portland, Maine, United States, the daughter of John and Avis Preble
Carr. This second wife bore him two daughters, the first, Mary Emarancy,
is the wife of Andrew M. Bell, hardware merchant in Halifax, Nova
Scotia, and the mother of two boys, Winthrop P. and Ralph P. The second,
Amelia Elizabeth, is the wife of A. A. Stockton, D.C.L., M.P.P., of St.
John, New Brunswick, and mother of six living children, three daughters
and three sons. The second Mrs. Pickard died on the 24th of January,
1887, in the 77th year of her age.
* * * * *
=Kennedy, George=, M.A., LL.D., Barrister, Toronto, was born on 1st
March, 1838, at Bytown, now the city of Ottawa, Ontario. His father,
Donald Kennedy, was born near Blairathol, in Scotland, and came with his
father to Canada in 1818, the family settling in the township of
Beckwith. About the time of the building of the Rideau canal the father
of the subject of this sketch removed to Bytown, engaged in business as
a contractor and builder, was employed for some time as surveyor for the
district of Dalhousie, now the county of Carleton, and for many years
carried on, in partnership with John Blyth, an extensive cabinet-making
business. An ancestor of his took part in the battle of Culloden, on the
side of Bonny Prince Charlie, by some called the “Pretender,” and the
dirk he used on the occasion is still in the possession of the family.
Dr. Kennedy’s mother, Janet Buckham, was born in 1807, in Dunblane,
Scotland, and came, with her father, to this country in 1828. This
family settled in the township of Torbolton, and Mr. Buckham went into
farming on a large scale at the head of Sand Bay, where he planted one
of the finest orchards in that part of the country. The Buckhams were
descended from an old Border family that have resided in Jedburgh from
the time of Queen Mary, of Scotland. Mrs. Kennedy died in 1856; but Mr.
Kennedy is still alive, and resides about three miles from Ottawa city,
on a picturesque spot overlooking the Rideau river. George received his
education at the Carleton county Grammar School (now the Ottawa
Collegiate Institute), and at University College, Toronto, where he
matriculated in 1853, taking the first-class scholarship in classics,
and in his subsequent course held first-class honors also in
mathematics, metaphysics and ethics, natural sciences, modern languages,
logic, rhetoric and history. In 1857 he graduated B.A. with gold medal
in metaphysics and ethics; took M.A. in 1860; LL.B. in 1864, and LL.D.,
in 1877. In 1859 Dr. Kennedy occupied the position of master of the
Grammar School of Prescott; and during the years 1860-1 he was second
master in the Ottawa Grammar School, and had charge of the branch
Meteorological Observatory at Ottawa. In 1862 he began the study of the
law in the offices of Crooks, Kingsmill and Cattanach, Toronto, and was
admitted as an attorney and solicitor, and was called to the bar of
Ontario in Hilary term, 1865. He then began the practice of his
profession in Ottawa, and for six years carried on his business in his
native place. In February, 1872, he received the appointment of law
clerk to the Crown Lands Department of Ontario, and moved to Toronto,
where he has ever since resided. During the years 1878-9-80 the doctor
was examiner in law at the University of Toronto. He was one of the
founders of the Ottawa Literary and Scientific Society, formed by the
amalgamation of the Mechanics’ Institute and Natural History Society,
and was secretary for some years, and as a recognition of his labours in
connection therewith was made a life member. He was also one of the
original members of the University College Literary and Scientific
Society, and is a member of the Canadian Institute, of which he was for
three years a vice-president, and is now editor of “The Proceedings.”
For some time he has been secretary to the Toronto St. Andrew’s Society,
and as such prepared a history of the Society as a memorial for its
jubilee year, 1886. Dr. Kennedy is an omnivorous reader, and as a
consequence has a large and well-selected library—indeed he considers a
library the most important part of any home—and few men are better
posted in book-lore than he. He, too, has seen a good deal of Canada and
the United States, and is familiar with the principal places in North
America, ranging from the Southern states, the Western states, the
Maritime provinces, the Muskoka district, and the regions beyond Ottawa.
As might be expected, Dr. Kennedy was brought up a Presbyterian, but
when quite young he began to entertain doubts as to the correctness of
the Calvinistic faith of his church. For several years he was greatly
troubled about this matter, and finding he could no longer stifle his
convictions, he broke away from the church, and became almost an
Agnostic. After a while, however, he joined the Unitarian church, and no
one has now a firmer faith than he in the Divine Fatherhood, and the
infinite possibilities of human progress. On the 6th June, 1883, he
married Sarah, daughter of the late Henry Jackson, a well-known
jeweller, and once resident of Toronto.
* * * * *
=Turnbull, William Wallace=, Merchant, of the firm of Turnbull & Co.,
Flour Dealers, Commission Merchants, and Importers of West India Goods,
St. John, New Brunswick, was born on the 23rd of May, 1828, at Bear
River, Annapolis county, Nova Scotia. His father was William Baxter
Turnbull, and his mother, Relief Ann Tucker. His father’s grandparents
emigrated from Edinburgh, Scotland, in the last century, and settled at
a small place now known as Bay View, about three miles distant from the
town of Digby, N.S., and here the father of the subject of our sketch
was born. His mother’s grandparents were U. E. loyalists, and came to
Nova Scotia from the United States shortly after, or during, the
revolutionary war between Great Britain and that country. Mr. Turnbull,
sen., was characterized by his keen sense of humour, his cheerfulness,
and his affectionate nature, his sympathy for the weak and suffering,
his strong religious convictions, and by his fealty to whatever he
believed to be just and right. He died at the comparatively early age of
forty-five years, and was buried at Bear River, greatly respected and
beloved by all who knew him. William’s education was confined to the
English branches, and was obtained at the Grammar School at Bear River,
and also by attendance, for a short time, at the Grammar School at
Albion Vale, a place about one mile distant from Annapolis, N.S. The
school at Albion Vale was taught by the late Andrew Henderson, and it
was at the time a somewhat celebrated place of instruction. Mr.
Turnbull, sen., died, in July, 1845, leaving a widow and nine children
(two sons and seven daughters), William being the younger of the two
brothers. On the winding up of his estate, and the payment of all just
debts, what remained for the family did not much exceed $1,000. For some
time previous to this event William’s health was in such a precarious
condition that it created a good deal of anxiety to the family, and it
may be readily supposed he could do little towards the support of his
mother and sisters, and to add to their troubles one of the younger
sisters, eight years old, died. In the following spring (1846) all of
the family except the brother removed to St. John, and shortly after
their arrival in that city William obtained a situation as clerk with W.
D. W. Hubbard, auctioneer. In this office he remained for about eighteen
months, when he became book-keeper for G. & J. Salter, a firm then
largely engaged in the West India trade, and as shipbuilders and
shipowners. On the 1st May, 1851, he left their employ and struck out
for himself as a wholesale flour, provision, and grocery merchant,
adding thereto a few years afterwards shipowning and sailing, and in
this business he is engaged at this time. When he started business he
had a capital of about $200.00, very small indeed, but he had himself
earned this money, and therefore knew its value. Owing, perhaps, to his
youth and inexperience, for many years his progress was very slow, he
having made a good number of bad debts and unwise ventures, yet
notwithstanding these drawbacks he managed to meet all his liabilities
as they matured, and now the reflection that throughout his business
career he has been able to meet every honourable obligation, affords him
the greatest satisfaction. Since his removal from Bear River he has
always lived in St. John. The changes or experiences that he has had are
perhaps such as are common to men engaged in business for so long a
period as thirty-six years, particularly during a time when railroads,
steamships and telegraphs have wrought such great changes in the methods
of business, and to which we may add the change resulting from the
confederation of the provinces into the Dominion of Canada. When Mr.
Turnbull was about twenty-four years of age he became a member of the
order of Sons of Temperance, but after a few years he withdrew, not
because he had ceased to believe in the soundness of total abstinence
principles, but because he became so immersed in business that his mind
seemed to be wholly absorbed by it, and he felt, owing perhaps to the
limitation of his capacity, unable to keep up his interest in the
organization. He has always been, and still is, a total abstainer, but
is not at present associated with any society having for its object the
dissemination of temperance principles. During his connection with the
Sons of Temperance he held a number of offices in the division, and
afterwards became its presiding officer; and still later a member of the
Grand Division of the province of New Brunswick. In May, 1884, Mr.
Turnbull was elected president of the St. John Protestant Orphan Asylum,
and also a director of the Bank of New Brunswick, which positions he
still holds. He, with about a dozen other persons, built a railway from
Gibson (opposite Fredericton) to Edmundston, a distance of about one
hundred and sixty miles, with branches in addition to Woodstock, N.B.,
and Fort Fairfield, Maine, and he continued to be connected with this
enterprise until the road was sold in 1880 to a number of capitalists in
Montreal. He is a member of the Board of Trade of the city of St. John.
In 1883 he took a trip to the Old World, and spent some time abroad,
visiting Britain, Germany, and Switzerland. Mr. Turnbull’s father was a
Presbyterian of the old school, and of course the son was brought up in
the same faith; but he now attends the Episcopal church with his family.
He, however, is not a member of this or any other church, not that he
objects to churches, but simply that his mind is unsettled as to what is
really the orthodox doctrine of faith and practice. One thing is
certain, however, Mr. Turnbull finds great pleasure in relieving the
wants of the deserving poor, and in doing all the good he can to his
fellow-men. He does not consider himself in any sense a politician, yet
nevertheless he holds decided opinions on most of the political
questions that now agitate the country. He is strongly opposed to what
is known as the national policy, for he believes it wrings large sums in
taxes from the pockets of the people, without its being able to give
them in return any compensating advantages. He is also strongly opposed
to the expenditure of large sums of money on public works of an
unremunerative character, and on public works which exist, as he is
satisfied many in Canada do, only by reason of sentiment or false pride.
While he recognizes that free trade, in its entirety, owing to the
enormous debt of the Dominion, is not now practicable, he holds that it
is thoroughly sound in principle, and being so would work the greatest
good to the greatest number of our people, he would therefore favour its
adoption to as large an extent as might seem to be practicable. He
believes in the fullest individual liberty and freedom, consistent with
a just regard for the rights of others, and is in favour of all measures
having for their object the elevation of the masses. He is, in its true
sense, a Liberal, but with enough conservatism in his composition to
cause him to oppose any change in the laws of our country that he did
not feel firmly convinced would be for the better. Mr. Turnbull was
married at Maugerville, Sunbury county, on June 6, 1854, to Julia
Caroline, daughter of the late Calvin L. Hatheway, of that place. Mr.
Hatheway was of loyalist stock, his father having taken a somewhat
prominent part in the revolutionary war between Great Britain and the
United States. Mr. Turnbull’s wife’s mother was a daughter of Lieutenant
James Harrison, who was also a loyalist, and who came to this province
from the United States. He has a family consisting of five children
living, namely, three daughters and two sons.
* * * * *