the 30th of August, 1856, at Brigus, island of Newfoundland. He is a son
of the Rev. S. W. Sprague and Jean Manson Sprague. Thomas was educated
at Mount Allison Academy, Sackville, New Brunswick, and at the
Provincial Normal School. After leaving school he adopted the profession
of teaching, which he successfully followed for some years, and then, in
1877, moved to the city of New York, and began the study of medicine. He
entered the medical department of New York University, and successfully
graduated in the spring of 1880 from this institution. Dr. Sprague then
removed to Welsford, in New Brunswick, in April of the same year, and
began the practice of his profession. He remained in that place for two
years, and in June, 1882, went to Hartland, New Brunswick, where he
stayed until June, 1883, and then took up his abode in Woodstock, county
of Carleton, New Brunswick, where he has been successfully practising
ever since. The doctor was brought up in the faith as taught by the
Wesleyan Methodists—his father being a clergyman of that church—and he
has seen no reason to change his religious belief since growing up into
manhood. He married on the 17th of June, 1884, Loella Nourse, of Boston,
Mass.
* * * * *
=Gaynor, John Joseph=, M.D., St. John, New Brunswick, was born of Irish
parents, at Chatham, New Brunswick, on the 19th of March, 1854. They
were educated Irish Catholics, his father being a native of the county
Meath, and his mother of the county Clare, Ireland. They might well be
classed as Irish-Americans, as they were both brought by their
respective parents to this country while yet infants. Dr. Gaynor’s
father, Thomas Gaynor, was educated at the Grammar School, Chatham; and
his mother, Catharine Buckley, at a seminary for young ladies, conducted
by a Mrs. Merry at Newcastle, New Brunswick. This privilege, so
exceptional for Irish Catholics in those early days, was doubtless the
reason which determined the doctor’s parents to bestow in turn a liberal
education on their own offspring. On his father’s side Dr. Gaynor comes
of the best blood of historic Meath, being a descendant of the same
family that in the last century produced General Hand, of revolutionary
fame as adjutant-general to Washington during the war of American
Independence, and that in the present century gave birth to such eminent
churchmen as the late Father Hand, founder of All Hallows College,
Dublin, and the present patriotic Bishop of Meath, the illustrious Dr.
Nulty. According to family tradition also, one of Dr. Gaynor’s ancestors
fought under King James at the ill-fated battle of the Boyne, and was
killed while defending the “Bridge of Slane.” His name, the same
tradition says, was Thomas Gaynor. While on his father’s side Dr. Gaynor
is thus descended from a liberty-loving race, on his mother’s side he is
connected with that aristocratic class known in Ireland as “Castle
Catholics.” His mother, who was born at Ferhill Castle, Blackwater,
county Clare, was also closely allied by ties of blood to the famous
fighting “Goughs of Clare,” whose name is historical through General
Gough, of India fame. Dr. Gaynor is the eldest member of a family of
twelve, eight of whom are still living. One of his brothers, the Rev.
William C. Gaynor, is Roman Catholic pastor of Richmond, in Carleton
county, New Brunswick. Father Gaynor is a writer of great power on
theological questions, and is the author of “Papal Infallibility,”
published in 1885, and of a Commentary in Latin on the _Summa
Theologica_, of Thomas Aquinas, now in press in Paris. Another brother,
P. A. Gaynor, is a member of a large lumbering house in Pennsylvania,
and is now in the Redwood district of California, where he has
established a branch firm. Dr. Gaynor was educated partly at St.
Michael’s College, Chatham, and partly at St. Joseph’s College,
Memramcook. In the former institution he studied mathematics and the
exact sciences under the most distinguished teacher of his day in New
Brunswick, Thomas Caulfield, M.A., of Trinity College, Dublin. His
subsequent studies in logic and metaphysics were pursued at St. Joseph’s
College, Memramcook. In this institution he taught the higher
mathematics. It was here also that in 1877 he began the study of
medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. H. E. Boissy, resident physician
to St. Joseph’s, and leading medical practitioner among the Acadians of
New Brunswick. From St. Joseph’s Dr. Gaynor went in 1878 to Buffalo, New
York. There he attended the lectures in the medical department of
Buffalo University. He followed also the different courses of the newly
established College of Physicians and Surgeons in the same city.
Graduating in 1881, after a four years’ course, he carried off the
honours of his class, and was immediately offered the chair of chemistry
and toxicology in his _alma mater_. This honourable position he declined
at the insistance of his friends in New Brunswick, and immediately
returned to his native province. Shortly after his return he read by
invitation a paper on “Chloroform as an Anæsthetic,” before the Medical
Society of New Brunswick. Establishing himself at DeBec, Carleton
county, he soon acquired a lucrative practice. It was here that for the
first time in the history of medicine in New Brunswick nitro-glycerine
was employed, by Dr. Gaynor, for remedial purposes. Finding that his
sphere of labour was too circumscribed, and desirous of entering into a
larger field, Dr. Gaynor removed, in 1884, to St. John city, where he
has since resided. On February 20, 1884, he was united in the bonds of
holy wedlock to Nora Costigan, of St. John, a relative of the Hon. John
Costigan, Minister of Inland Revenue. By her he has three
children—Walter and Frederick, born February 16, 1885, and James, born
August 28, 1886. During his vacations, while yet a medical student, Dr.
Gaynor travelled extensively through the Northern, Western, and Middle
states, spending some time in the Oil regions of Pennsylvania, and at
the watering places on the Atlantic coast. In politics he is a
Liberal-Conservative, with no love, however, for toryism as it exists in
the mother country. The descendant of a family that fought and bled for
human liberty, he is naturally a liberal in sentiment and aspiration. It
is his belief, however, that so far as principles are concerned, there
is no essential difference between the Conservative party led by Sir
John Macdonald and the Liberal party led by Edward Blake. It is
tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee; and in the end the people always rule. Such
being his opinion of the two great political parties into which the
Canadian people are divided, Dr. Gaynor has pronounced views as to the
position which his Irish Catholic co-religionists should take in
dominion politics. They should, he believes, adopt Parnell’s famous
motto, _Support the party which does the most for you_. They would thus
as a body be bound to neither political party, and would gravitate from
one to the other consistently with the fair or unfair, just or unjust,
treatment they might receive from either party. Outside his native
province Dr. Gaynor is best known as a writer on _materia medica_. He
has made a specialty of the study of new drugs; and his articles in the
“Investigator”—a medical monthly of Buffalo—on this and kindred
subjects, have attracted unusual attention from the medical profession
in America. He also wrote and published in the same journal a series of
articles in explanation and defence of the Catholic doctrine on
craniotomy. In those articles he triumphantly refuted all the objections
brought forward by his adversaries, and abundantly proved, in defence of
the Catholic position, that the rational soul animates the human fœtus
from the very first moment of conception, and that consequently it is as
great a violation of divine law to destroy the living embryo as it would
be to murder the new-born child. Dr. Gaynor’s views of medical practice
are wide and comprehensive. His motto as regards remedial agents is:
“Seek the best where’er ’tis found,
On Christian earth or pagan ground.”
Yet he is not an eclectic in the narrow sense of the word, which is now
practically synonymous with homœopath. A thorough knowledge of anatomy,
a complete acquaintance with the physiological effect of every drug or
remedy, a no less complete acquaintance with pathology, and a virility
of character sufficient to elevate the mind above the crude ideas of
past generations, whether sanctioned by usage or made sacred by great
names, must in future, he contends, be characteristics of the successful
medical practitioner. A determined opponent of everything irrational or
unintelligent in medicine, Dr. Gaynor has ever raised his voice against
that hit-or-miss method, facetiously yet correctly styled “shot-gun
practice,” which combines, for example, in one prescription three, four,
or six different remedies, with the hope that if one misses some of the
others will touch the target. He is, by consequence, a strong believer
in the single remedy in every prescription. Dr. Gaynor is also a
specialist in gynecology, his practice in St. John being almost limited
to this department of his profession. He resides at number 2 Germain
street.
* * * * *
=de Martigny, Adelard Le Moyne=, Notary and Cashier of _La Banque
Jacques Cartier_, Montreal, was born at Varennes, on the 25th of
December, 1826. He is the son of Jacques Le Moyne de Martigny, seigneur
of de Martigny, St. Michel and La Trinité, and of Dame Suzanne Eléonore
Perrault, daughter of the late François Perrault, prothonotary of the
Superior Court at Quebec. Mr. de Martigny is descended from that
distinguished family of Le Moyne, who arrived in this country in 1611,
of whom were the de Longueuil, de Ste. Hélene, d’Iberville, de
Bienville, de Chateauguay, de Sévigny, and de Maricourt; one of his
ancestors, J. B. Le Moyne de Martigny, was at the capture of Fort
Bourbon by d’Iberville, and was left there as commander of that fort.
Having terminated his classical studies at the Montreal College, under
the gentlemen of the Seminary of St. Sulpice, he studied law under J. N.
A. Archambault, notary, at Varennes, and was admitted to practice in
January, 1848. In August, 1856, he was appointed registrar of the county
of Beauharnois; and in 1871 manager of the branch of the Merchants Bank
of Canada, established in the town of Beauharnois. He, however, resigned
these different positions to accept the one as manager of _Le Crédit
Foncier du Bas Canada_ in 1875; and finally he was offered the position
of cashier of _La Banque Jacques Cartier_ in Montreal in 1877, which he
accepted and still occupies. He is one of the executors of the estate of
the late Hon. Charles Wilson. Mr. de Martigny is one of the owners of a
large asbestos estate in Coleraine, Megantic county, and one of the
proprietors of a pulp and paper mill in Sorel, and was president of the
Joliette Railroad Company at the time of the sale of that road to the
government. In 1855 he married Aglaé Globensky, daughter of
Lieut.-Colonel Globensky, one of the officers under Colonel de
Salaberry, at the battle of Chateauguay. He has four sons by this
marriage, one of them, the oldest, Louis Le Moyne de Martigny, is
manager of the Jacques Cartier Bank at Salaberry de Valleyfield. He was
married again to his first cousin, Marie Malvina Le Moyne de Martigny,
daughter of Hugues Le Moyne de Martigny, seigneur of de Ramezay and
Bourgchemin.
* * * * *
=Rogers, Henry Cassady=, Postmaster, Peterboro’, Ontario, was born at
Grafton, Northumberland county, Ontario, on the 16th of July, 1839. He
is the second son of the late Lieut.-Col. James G. Rogers and his first
wife, Maria Burnham. His father died at his residence in Grafton on the
27th of November, 1874, in his seventieth year, greatly regretted by all
who knew him. He (J. G. Rogers) came to Grafton with his parents from
the village of Brighton, his birthplace, when he was only five years of
age, and his life was spent amidst a people many of whom were the
contemporaries of his youth. He was an upright magistrate and a sincere
Christian. His grandfather, David McGregor Rogers, was a U. E. loyalist,
who came to this country from New England with the first loyalists after
the termination of the revolutionary war in 1776. He settled first on
the Bay of Quinté, afterwards moving to Presqu’Isle, and finally to the
township of Haldimand (now the village of Grafton), where he opened the
first post-office between Kingston and York (now Toronto), and where
three generations of the family have been born. The homestead is now
occupied by his brother, Lieut.-Col. R. Z. Rogers, commanding the 40th
battalion. He (D. McG. Rogers) was for twenty-four years a member of the
Upper Canada legislature; and died on the 13th July, 1824, in the
fifty-third year of his age. In his political opinions he was a warm
admirer of the British constitution, and during the time he sat in the
legislature no member guarded the rights and interests of the people
more zealously than he did. His great-granduncle was the famous Col.
Rogers of “Roger’s Rangers,” who was a man of note during the last
century,—best known as Major Rogers. He first became famous as a scout
in the Indian troubles. His exploits furnished Fenimore Cooper with the
ground-work of his tales of the “Leather-stocking,” and “Horrors of the
Backwoods.” He was commissioned to raise and organize a regiment of
scouts during the French war. This corps rendered valuable service at
the taking of Canada from the French, and on its surrender Rogers was
entrusted by the commander-in-chief with the arduous duty of proceeding
west from Montreal, and taking possession in the name of the king of
Great Britain, of the country including forts Frontenac (Kingston),
Niagara, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Mackinaw, etc., as far as the Mississippi
in the west and Lake Superior north. He had therefore the honour of
commanding the first British expedition that passed through the great
chain of lakes, interesting accounts of which may be found in his
“Journal,” published in London, England, in 1765; “Heely’s Wolfe in
Canada,” “Parkman’s Conspiracy of Pontiac,” chap. vi.; and many others.
The Rangers were re-organized on the breaking out of the rebellion in
1765, by a brother of the first commanding officer Colonel James Rogers
who was the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, commanded
at St. John’s, Quebec (the key of Canada as it was then called), and
were called the “Queen’s Rangers,” but many of the leading spirits
joined the rebels, among others Putnam and Stark, who were lieutenants
in the Rangers, and who became celebrated generals in the American army.
Great inducements were offered the Rogers to join Washington, but they
remained staunch to the Crown, for which they not only lost their homes
and possessions (some 30,000 acres of land in New England), but had
their good name calumniated, being called traitors and spies by the
partisan press of the revolutionists. The mother of H. C. Rogers was
third daughter of the late Hon. Zaccheus Burnham, of Cobourg, who came
to Cobourg with his four brothers from New Hampshire at the end of the
last century, and who carved out homes and affluence from the forest,
and left a large circle of descendants who are filling many positions of
trust and honour throughout the Dominion. Henry Cassady Rogers, the
subject of our sketch, received his primary education in the public
school at Grafton; then when twelve years of age he was sent to the
Model School at Toronto, and finally to the Grammar School at Kingston
where he graduated. He then apprenticed himself to his uncle, the late
Lieut.-Colonel R. D. Rogers, of Ashburnham, who learned him how to
conduct a commercial business, and with this uncle he remained from 1855
to 1860. He then went into business in Peterboro’ with his
brother-in-law, Harry Strickland, son of Colonel Strickland, of
Lakefield, and for ten years they carried on a successful mercantile
lumbering and mining business under the name of Strickland & Rogers. In
1871 Mr. Rogers retired from the firm and was made postmaster of
Peterboro’, which office he now fills with satisfaction to the public.
Mr. Rogers has inherited from his illustrious ancestors a love of
military life, and when only sixteen years of age, on the Rifle company
being formed at Peterboro’ in 1855, he joined that corps; and in 1866,
on the promotion of Captain Poole, he was given command of the company,
and acted as its captain during the various Fenian raids of that period.
In 1867, when the 57th battalion was formed, he and his companions
became No. 1 company of the battalion. In this connection, we may here
say, that his brother, Lieut.-Colonel Robert Z. Rogers, commands the
40th (Northumberland) battalion; and his cousin, Lieut.-Colonel James Z.
Rogers, the 57th battalion Peterboro’ Rangers. In 1872 he raised and
commanded the Peterboro’ Cavalry troop, which now forms C troop of the
3rd Prince of Wales Canadian Dragoons. Mr. Rogers is an active member of
the Masonic brotherhood, and belongs to Corinthian lodge, No. 101,
Peterboro’. He crossed the Atlantic in 1862, and made himself familiar
with many cities of the old world. In politics he is a
Liberal-Conservative; and in religious matters he is an adherent of the
Episcopal church. In 1863 he was married at Smith’s Falls, to Maria,
eldest daughter of Dr. W. H. Burritt, a scion of an old U. E. loyalist
family of the Rideau, who settled at Burritt’s Rapids many years ago.
* * * * *
=Wilson, J. C.=, M.P. for Argenteuil, Manufacturer, Montreal, was born
on the 19th of July, 1841, near Rasharkin, county of Antrim, Ireland,
and came to Montreal with his parents in September, 1842, and near this
city the family settled. His father, Samuel Wilson, belonged to a
numerous family of farmers and artisans in Antrim county; and his
mother, Elizabeth Crocket, was descended from similar stock. Her
forefathers were of a roving disposition, and their descendants are
scattered all over the British colonies. Both Mr. Wilson’s parents were
religious people, and held a prominent position in the church. His
mother died at an early age from the excessive hardships she had to
endure in the vicinity of Montreal, as a pioneer settler. His father, as
a youth, received no training as an artisan, yet having a natural talent
for using tools, he adopted the trade of carpenter, and in a very few
years thereafter became an expert mechanic. He designed and made the
first railway snow-plough used in Canada, and from his model the plough
now used is still made. He entered the employ of the Grand Trunk Railway
Company, and up to the time of his death was engaged by that company in
building their cars. He was a very industrious man, and in the evenings,
after leaving his usual work, frequently spent hours in his own workshop
in his house at his lathe and bench, making furniture for himself and
his neighbours. James, the subject of this sketch, was educated by an
old-fashioned schoolmaster in the rudiments of learning, and had to work
for a living at a very early age. He was apprenticed to mechanical
engineering in 1853, and until 1856 he worked at his trade, when, having
met with an accident that injured his right arm, he had to give up the
trade of a mechanical engineer. Mr. Wilson now shows with pride some
fine machinist’s tools he made when he was an apprentice. On recovering
from his injuries, a kind friend observing the talents and perseverance
of the lad, sent him to the Model School, and from there to the McGill
Normal School in Montreal, and in July, 1859, he graduated as a teacher.
In 1859 he removed to Beauharnois, and taught the dissentient school in
that town until 1862, when he moved west to Belleville, where he clerked
until December of that year, when he moved to Toronto, and accepted the
position of clerk in the office of a wholesale news company. In 1863 he
went to New York, and from November of that year until January, 1867, he
had the management of the publishing house of T. W. Strong, of that
city, and through his perseverance and industry gained the highest rung
of the ladder of fortune in Mr. Strong’s establishment. While Mr. Wilson
resided in New York he was a great favourite among the Canadians
visiting there, and helped many of them when they were in need. A
deep-seated love for Canada, and a special inducement brought him again
back to Montreal in January, 1867, and he at once assumed the position
of cashier and bookkeeper in the office of Angus, Logan & Co., paper
manufacturers (now the Canada Paper Co.) He remained with this firm
until September, 1870, when he went into business on his own account. He
began the manufacture of paper bags by machinery, and was the first in
Canada to supply the grocers all over the Dominion with this very useful
article. This proving, by energy and ability, a prosperous business, in
1880 he built a large paper mill at Lachute, province of Quebec, and in
1885 had to double its power so as to be able to make six tons of paper
per day. In 1880 Mr. Wilson was elected an alderman for the city of
Montreal, and was again returned by acclamation in 1883. For six years
he represented St. Lawrence ward in the city council, and for four years
was chairman of the light committee. He was president of the Fish and
Game Protection Club of the province of Quebec for two years; president
of the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society for two years; and has
occupied the principal chairs in several other societies in Montreal.
Mr. Wilson is a life governor and vice-president of the Montreal
Dispensary; a governor of the Protestant Insane Asylums of the province
of Quebec; one of the board of Protestant School Commissioners of
Montreal; principal and head of the firm of J. C. Wilson & Co., paper
and paper-bag makers, Montreal; and at the general elections held
February 22, 1887, he was elected to represent the county of Argenteuil,
province of Quebec, in the House of Commons at Ottawa. Mr. Wilson is an
ardent fisherman, fond of lakes and brooks, and never hesitates to drive
thirty or forty miles over a rough road to enjoy a few hours’
trout-fishing, and thoroughly enjoys camp life. In business he is
active, pushing, hard-working, and far-seeing in his plans, and never
puts off until to-morrow what can be done to-day. With his employees he
is a favourite, and is looked upon by them as most generous and kind.
Mr. Wilson has adopted as his motto, “It pays to think.” In politics he
is a Liberal-Conservative, and in religion an adherent of the
Presbyterian form of worship. On the 6th of November, 1865, he married
Jeanie, third daughter of the late William Kilgour, of Beauharnois,
province of Quebec, and has a family of five children—three sons and
two daughters.
* * * * *
=Wedderburn, Hon. William=, Q.C., Hampton, Judge of the County Courts of
Kings and Albert counties, New Brunswick, was born at St. John, October
12, 1834. He is a son of the late Alexander Wedderburn, of Aberdeen,
Scotland. Imperial emigration agent at St. John, New Brunswick, and Jane
Heaviside, of London, England. His father was the author of several
pamphlets and letters on important public affairs. Judge Wedderburn was
educated at the St. John Grammar School, and entered as a student for
the profession of the law in the office of the Hon. John H. Gray, (now
judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia); was called to the bar
in 1858, and created a Queen’s counsel in 1873. Until he entered
political life he enjoyed a very large and leading law practice. For
several years he was intimately connected with the press as a
contributor and editor, and in both capacities, as well as on the
platform, took a very prominent and pronounced stand in favour of the
confederation of the provinces. At the general elections of 1870 he
first presented himself for parliamentary honours, and was returned for
the city of St. John to the New Brunswick legislature. In 1874 he was
re-elected by a very large vote; and again in 1878 he was honoured by
re-election. While in parliament he took a very prominent part in the
discussions before the house, and was the author and promoter of a
series of resolutions in favour of “better terms” for New Brunswick, and
was afterwards delegated on several occasions to go to Ottawa on this
subject. The result of the agitation was a very large increase to the
income of the province, secured with other advantages when the delegates
pressed the matter finally and with effect upon the settlement of the
export duty question during the discussion of the Washington treaty. Mr.
Wedderburn was also the author and mover of the famous
resolutions—known and published throughout the election as the
“Wedderburn resolutions”—on which the School bill contest in 1874 was
conducted, re-affirming the principle of the School law, and protesting
against any interference by the parliament of Canada on the subject.
Very many laws were added to the Statute Book upon his motion. On
February 18, 1876, he was elected speaker of the House of Assembly by
acclamation, and while holding this office he was requested to report a
code of laws for the government of the house during business and in
committee. The rules at this time were very few and incomplete, and
quite behind the age. At the following session he reported to the house.
Taking the practice of the Imperial and Canadian Houses of Commons, and
the rules of parliament, and of the different legislatures of the
provinces,—the report provided a full and complete course of procedure.
After full discussion during that and the following session the whole of
the rules were adopted with very little, if any, material amendment. The
committee reported a grant of five hundred dollars to the speaker for
his work—which had, of course, been prepared without charge. Mr.
Wedderburn ranked high as a parliamentary authority, and is thought not
to have been excelled in the chair. At the close of the term of the
Assembly, the leader of the opposition, in a very complimentary speech,
moved the thanks of the House to Mr. Speaker for his ability, etc., in
the government of the house. The premier (now Judge King) seconded the
motion, and highly eulogized the Speaker, and concluded by saying that
“if he (Mr. Wedderburn) had not been so good a Speaker, he (Mr. King)
would have been a better parliamentarian.” Immediately after this, Hon.
Mr. Wedderburn was appointed to the office of provincial secretary, and
this office he held until he accepted the position of judge of the
County Courts of Kings and Albert. He twice refused a seat in the
government of 1870, and the appointment of commissioner to consolidate
the provincial statutes. He has been prominently identified with the
temperance movement, and has filled various important positions in this
army of moral reform, among others that of grand worthy patriarch of the
Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance of New Brunswick. He was
president of the Mechanics’ Institute of St. John for three years
consecutively, 1869-72, as well as holding other offices in the
institute. He was first president of the Provincial Board of
Agriculture, created by a law passed by the government of which he was a
member, and the address delivered by him at the inauguration of the
board was greatly complimented, and published or largely quoted in
English and French throughout Canada and in the United states. And it
was largely through his means that the stock farm was undertaken by the
government. Hon. Mr. Wedderburn has been speaker, orator, and lecturer
on many important public and private occasions, commanding the close
attention of his auditors at all times by his eloquent, powerful and
ornate deliverances. Among his efforts in this direction may be
mentioned his address at the memorial services held in the city of St.
John for President Lincoln; his oration as provincial secretary at the
memorial services of President Garfield; at the laying the corner stone
of the Masonic Temple in St. John; at the ceremonial in celebration of
the Centennial of the introduction of Freemasonry into New Brunswick;
his great lecture on “Colin Campbell,” in the Mechanics’ Institute, on
behalf of the volunteers during the Fenian troubles; and his brilliant
oration, delivered by request of the city corporation of St. John, upon
the Centennial celebration of the landing of the loyalists in New
Brunswick. Many others might be mentioned. Judge Wedderburn has always
been prominently identified with the fraternity of Free and Accepted
Masons. He was initiated in St. John’s lodge, of St. John, June 19,
1857, and was senior warden in 1860, and worshipful master in 1862 and
1863. The capitular degrees were received in the New Brunswick Royal
Arch Chapter. He was the first of, and the most prominent among, those
who advocated the erection of an independent Grand Lodge in and for New
Brunswick; promoting the movement by his voice and pen, particularly by
the latter in the columns of the _Masonic Mirror_, the organ of the
order, and of which he was the editor. At the formation of the Grand
Lodge, October, 1867, he was unanimously elected deputy grand master, in
which position he continued up to 1870, when he was elected grand
master, and occupied the latter office for two years. Although the
removal of his residence to his villa at Hampton, Kings county, and the
prosecution of his judicial functions have drawn him away from active
participation in the work of the craft, nevertheless he continues to
retain his membership in the lodge, and to preserve a warm interest in
the prosperity of the brotherhood. The editor of the _Parliamentary
Practice_ thus refers to him when he was provincial secretary:—“Upon
the floor of the House he was a leading spirit; eloquent and
argumentative, a keen debater, and a master of sarcasm.” Judge
Wedderburn is married to Jeannie, daughter of the late C. C. Vaughan, of
St. John, New Brunswick.
* * * * *
=Steeves, James Thomas=, M.D., Superintendent of the Provincial Lunatic
Asylum, St. John, New Brunswick, was born at Hillsborough, Albert
county, N.B., on the 25th of January, 1828. He is a brother of the late
Hon. W. H. Steeves, senator, and one of the delegates or founders of
Canadian confederation; and is of German ancestry. His great-grandfather
was born in Osnaburgh, Germany, whence he removed to Philadelphia, and
his grandfather, the Rev. Henry Steeves, removed thence to Albert
county, N.B., about the beginning of the present century. Dr. Steeves is
a Baptist in religion, as all his fathers were; in fact “his fathers”
were the pioneers in disseminating Baptist doctrines over a large
portion of the province. His literary education was obtained at the
Grammar School at Hillsborough, at Sackville Academy, and finally at the
Baptist Seminary, Fredericton, under the late Dr. Spurden. After the
completion of his literary course, he entered upon the study of medicine
at the Pennsylvania Medical College,—attracted by the famous surgeon,
Valentine Mott,—the following year he matriculated at the University of
New York, and graduated in the class of 1853. From the medical faculty
of the university he received a certificate of honour for proficiency
and for having pursued a more extended course of instruction than that
required by the college curriculum. In June, 1854, the doctor
established himself in Portland, St. John, N.B., and entered upon the
practice of his profession. After the lapse of a few weeks Asiatic
cholera made its appearance there in all its terribleness, spreading
dismay and death on every hand. During the prevalence of this fearful
scourge, extending over a period upwards of four months, Dr. Steeves, by
his unswerving fidelity to his professional duties under every
circumstance, and his good measure of success, fairly placed himself
among the leading physicians of New Brunswick. In 1864 he removed to the
city of St. John and erected the fine block of four brick and stone
buildings situated on the corner of Wellington Row and Union street,
which escaped the great fire of 1877, and still stand as a monument to
his success and enterprise, and where he resided until 1875. On the
opening of the General Public Hospital in 1864, the doctor was appointed
upon the staff of visiting surgeons, and was the last of the original
staff retiring. When the late Dr. J. Waddell was about retiring from the
superintendency of the Provincial Lunatic Asylum, Dr. Steeves was
recommended by his professional brethren almost as a body, as a suitable
successor for the position. Under the management of Dr. Waddell the
asylum for the insane had attained a high position for successful work;
and since under the present administration it has not lost a whit, but
has kept fully abreast with the various modern improvements incident to
asylum treatment everywhere. Dr. Steeves is a strong advocate for
segregation, pavilion accommodation, and employment for the insane. By
means of his advocacy with pen and voice, he has induced the government
of New Brunswick to purchase a large farm, and to erect thereon a group
of pavilions for the care and employment of a suitable number and class
of the most healthy, indigent and pauper insane. The establishment is in
full working condition, and is regarded as a complete success, in that
it is far better than the old hospital system for this class of
patients, giving them more freedom and out-door work, and that it is far
more economical both in buildings and maintenance. Dr. Steeves was
elected a member of the first medical council of New Brunswick on the
introduction of the English Medical Registration Act in 1860. He has
occupied the position of vice-president of the Canada Medical
Association; he is an honorary member of the American Medical
Association; he was elected unanimously first president of the New
Brunswick Medical Society under the New Brunswick Medical Act of 1880;
and is past president of the New Brunswick Medical Council. The Dr. was
married to M. A. McMann, daughter of the late Captain L. McMann, of the
city of St. John, in May, 1856; by whom he had born nine children. The
eldest son, Frank H. Steeves, M.D., a very promising young man,
graduated in medicine at Bellevue Hospital College, N.Y., and soon after
went to St. Thomas Hospital College, London, England, in 1880, to
further pursue medical studies. There he contracted acute phthisis, to
which disease he succumbed in March, 1882. The second son, J. A. E.
Steeves, A.M., M.D., is the assistant physician in the Provincial
Lunatic Asylum, St. John, at the present time.
* * * * *
=Van Wyck, Rev. James=, Pastor of the Euclid Avenue Methodist Church,
Toronto, was born in Stamford village, in the county of Welland,
Ontario, on the 16th of May, 1846. He is descended on his father’s side
from an old Dutch family, who many centuries ago were seigniors of Wyck
in Holland, but through political intrigue lost their feudal rights. The
first Van Wyck in America emigrated from Holland in 1660, and he and his
son Theodoras took the oath of allegiance to the British government in
1681. Since then the family has multiplied considerably, and is now
scattered throughout the United States, many of them filling important
positions, both in church and state. Rev. Mr. Van Wyck’s grandfather was
the only one of this name who came to Canada, to make for himself a
home, and he settled in the Niagara peninsula, where Daniel Van Wyck,
the father of the subject of our sketch, was born, on the 7th of
October, 1812, his mother being Nancy Kilman. Daniel Van Wyck was a
farmer, a man of good judgment and sterling integrity, and was
invariably sought after in cases of arbitration. During the Mackenzie
rebellion, he stood by the “old flag.” He took a deep interest in
education—filling the position of school trustee for many years, and
was an ardent supporter of free schools. In politics he was a
Conservative. James Van Wyck, like a great many boys in their days, had
to help his father on the farm or in the workshop, and got very little
time to attend the public school after he was ten years of age, except a
few months in winter, and not even that after he was fifteen years of
age. Misfortune had befallen his father, and the son worked hard to help
him to regain his former position. When he had reached his nineteenth
year, having despaired of getting what his mind craved after, an
education, he apprenticed himself to an elder brother in the town of
Welland, to learn the carpenter trade, and having served the usual time,
he left Welland and went to Lockport, New York state, where he remained
for about eighteen months. During these years he had been improving his
mind, and had united himself with the Methodist Episcopal church. On his
return to Canada in 1869, he entered the ministry of that church, and
after preaching four years, and pursuing the required course of study,
he was ordained to the work of the ministry in 1873, by the late Bishop
Richardson. In the fall of that year he entered Albert College,
Belleville, where he remained for four years, and graduated in arts in
June, 1878. He was also valedictorian of the year, besides receiving the
silver medal. He was then invited to a church in Strathroy, where he
remained for nearly five years by special request (it being a privilege
at that time to those who were preferred). Next he went to Hamilton,
where he remained for three years, and in 1886 he was invited to take
charge of the church in Euclid avenue, in Toronto, the pastorate he now
fills, with honour to the Master and satisfaction to his people. Rev.
Mr. Van Wyck has always taken an active part in temperance work, and
from 1879 to 1882 occupied the office of president of the branch of the
Dominion Alliance, for the suppression of the liquor traffic in the
county of Middlesex. He is a member of the Independent Order of
Oddfellows, and he has also been connected with the Sons of Temperance,
and the Good Templars for a number of years. He is one of the board of
management of Alma College, St. Thomas, and also one of its board of
examiners. He occupied a seat on the board of examiners of the Albert
College, Belleville, from 1878 up to the time of the union of the
Methodist churches a few years ago. He has also been associated with the
board of examiners in the Annual Conference of the Methodist church
since 1878. Rev. Mr. Van Wyck has been repeatedly appointed a delegate
to the General Conference of the Methodist church, and when the question
of union was discussed, he supported the union with all his ability. He
has been very happy in his church relations, and in all his charges has
enjoyed great prosperity. In his earlier years, Mr. Van Wyck was
somewhat prejudiced in favour of the denomination in which he was
brought up, and thought John Wesley infallible, but Ephraim has now
somewhat modified his views. Although he is a firm Arminian, and
believes in the genuineness, authority and inspired character of the
divine revelation contained in the Bible, yet he sometimes wishes that
the creeds of the Evangelical church had more specified articles of
faith in them, and that they were more liberally interpreted. He was
married on the 24th of August, 1866, to Maria Fares, who was educated in
Toronto and Belleville, and is a daughter of Isaac Fares, of
Humberstone, Welland county, Ontario.
* * * * *
=Bronson, Erskine Henry=, M.P.P., for the city of Ottawa, was born on
the 12th of September, 1844, at Bolton, Warren county, New York state.
He is a son of Henry Franklin Bronson, and Edith E. Pierce, of Bolton,
and a member of the firm of Bronsons & Weston, lumber manufacturers,
Ottawa city. Mr. Bronson, senr., came to Canada in 1849, when Erskine
was a mere child, and visiting the Ottawa valley became greatly
impressed with the idea that the Chaudière Falls was a splendid place to
begin lumbering operations. The timber supply in the neighbourhood
seemed inexhaustible, and the water power magnificent. After a short
stay, however, he returned to his home in the state of New York, and
thought little more of the matter until 1852, when he persuaded J. J.
Harris, an extensive lumberman, with whom he was associated, to go with
him to Ottawa. Arrived at their destination, the river experts tried to
persuade them that the Ottawa river was not suitable for the safe
driving of saw logs. But Mr. Bronson thought differently, and persuaded
Mr. Harris to purchase certain water lots at the Chaudière Falls, which
he accordingly did, from the Crown, and here, under the personal
superintendence of Mr. Bronson, were erected mills, portions of which
still exist and form part of the splendid works since erected by
Bronsons & Weston. Shortly after the erection of the first mill, Mr.
Bronson removed his family to Canada, in the fall of 1853, and made his
permanent home at Ottawa. Erskine was brought up here, and received his
education in the best schools in the place, and at Sandy Hill, New York
state. After finishing his education, he took a position in the
business; and in 1864, on the retirement of Mr. Harris, he was admitted
a partner into the new firm, which was then established, and which
consisted of Henry Franklin Bronson, who with Mr. Harris originated the
business, Erskine H. Bronson and Abijah Weston, of Painted Post, New
York, and which has since traded under the name of Bronsons & Weston.
This firm owns two mills at Ottawa, running ten gates, with a capacity
of producing 60,000,000 feet of lumber during the season. They have also
close business relations with John W. Dunham, of Albany, New York, and
Herman K. Weaver, of Burlington, Vt., and have also a yard in Albany,
for the sale of lumber in the rough. Though in the building up of this
great concern, the Liberal member for Ottawa has played no
inconsiderable part, he has also done something to prove himself a good
and useful citizen. He has been a member of the School Board for the
last fourteen years, during the past four years of which he has been
chairman of the committee on school management. He was first elected to
the city council by acclamation in 1871, and served continuously until
the close of 1877. During the last year he was in the council he
prepared the act consolidating the city debt, and secured its passage in
the Ontario Legislature in the session of 1878. This act relieved the
city by the extension of the time of the payment of its bonds of a large
annual levy for a sinking fund, and fixed the maximum of taxation at one
and a half per cent., instead of two per cent. as before, under the
general municipal law. Mr. Bronson in politics is a Reformer, and in
religious matters an adherent of the Presbyterian church. He is one of
our rising men, and we feel that Ottawa in electing him as one of its
representatives in the Ontario Legislature, has done something that
shall redound to its credit. Mr. Bronson was married in 1874, to Miss
Webster, the only daughter of Professor Webster, a Southern gentleman,
at one time a resident of the capital, by whom he has two children.
* * * * *
=McPherson, R. B.=, Thorold, Ontario, was born in 1817, in Kingussie,
Inverness-shire, Scotland. His father was a merchant; and having a
family of twelve children, he considered it would be to their interest
if he emigrated to Canada. He therefore left his native country in 1822,
and located himself in Glengarry, about twenty miles east by north of
Cornwall. Here R. B. McPherson was brought up, and received the very
scant education given in the back township schools in those days, the
principal being the reading of the Bible and the committing to memory
the Shorter Catechism and the Paraphrases. At the age of thirteen he
left home, and found employment in a country store, the proprietor of
which was in the habit of purchasing timber for the Quebec market. Here
Mr. McPherson remained for some time, and frequently had to act in the
capacity of raftsman, and help bring his employer’s timber down to
Quebec. He often ran the risk of losing his life in the St. Lawrence
river rapids before the rafts were safely anchored in the timber coves
at Quebec. During the rebellion of 1837-8, Mr. McPherson took sides with
the loyalists, and had command at one time of a guard at the river
Beaudette bridge near Coteau Rapids, Province of Quebec, whose duty it
was to intercept rebels coming or going over it, more especially the
late Sir George E. Cartier, for whose head a large sum of money had been
offered, and who it was thought would endeavour to escape across the St.
Lawrence at this point. In 1840 Mr. McPherson left Lower Canada and came
to Toronto, where he remained a short time, and then crossed over to
Rochester. From this place he travelled through the Genesee country to
Buffalo and the Falls of Niagara, and when at the latter point, he saw
Mr. McLeod, of _Caroline_ steamer notoriety, a prisoner, surrounded by a
strong guard at the hotel. He again returned to Canada, and found
employment near the town of Simcoe. In this place he remained for a
short time, and then left for New York, intending to sail from that port
to Buenos Ayres, South America, and try his fortune there. On his
arrival at New York, he learned that Buenos Ayres was blockaded by a
French squadron, and being advised to abandon his southern trip, he
remained in New York until his means were exhausted, and then, in the
month of January, he left with the idea of tramping his way to New
Orleans by way of the Mississippi. On his route he passed through
Philadelphia and Baltimore. At Baltimore he took the turnpike road to
Pittsburg, but after a while got so tired and footsore with travelling
in the snow that he turned off the main road, and took the road right
across the state of Pennsylvania through the coal mines, making his way
towards Lake Erie. When he reached the Alleghany river he followed its
course for a long distance, and then struck off to Jamestown, just then
starting into existence, and then on to Buffalo. From this point he
walked across Lake Erie on the ice to Port Colborne and then on to St.
Catharines. Here he found employment as bookkeeper, paymaster, etc., in
the office of Thompson, Haggert & Burford, contractors engaged in
building the Welland canal. Frank Smith (now senator) was at this date
employed by this former firm and was in charge of a store that shipped
goods to the labourers’ employers on the works. After the completion of
this famous Welland canal contract Mr. McPherson went to Toronto, and
meeting a Mr. Logan, a then prominent merchant in that city, who
controlled about a dozen stores in various country parts north and east
of Toronto, he entered into an engagement with him to take charge of a
store at Oshawa; and while here Mr. Logan’s storekeeper in the village
of Markham was murdered (the murderer being afterwards executed in
Toronto), and Mr. McPherson was transferred to that village leaving the
employ of Mr. Logan, he went to the village of Bradford and took charge
of a store for Mr. Cameron, son of the late Colin Cameron, of
Hogshollow, Yonge street. In the spring of 1849 Mr. McPherson again got
restless and left Bradford with the intention of going to California,
but on his way, at Buffalo, he met the late Mr. Brown, who had a large
contract in the Welland canal, and abandoning his California trip, he
arranged with that gentleman to become his general manager, and once
more returned to Canada. Mr. Brown was a large contractor, and shortly
after Mr. McPherson joined him, he secured a contract amounting to about
two million dollars on the new canal; but before he had half completed
the work, he met with an accident which caused his death. Dying without
a will, Mr. Brown’s affairs were put into Chancery, and Mr. McPherson
was appointed administrator of the estate. He went to work and completed
Mr. Brown’s contracts. When the estate was wound up, it was found that
Mr. McPherson had faithfully done his duty, and that the sum of six
hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars had been realized for Mr.
Brown’s heirs. In 1869 Mr. McPherson built a grist flouring mill, and
another in 1878, to supply flour, etc., to the men building the canal,
both ventures turning out fairly. From 1856 to 1862 he was a member of
the town council, and for two years a member of the county council, and
when acting as county councillor he had the pleasure of taking part in
the reception given the Prince of Wales at Chippawa. Mr. McPherson was a
Liberal in politics ever since he knew the meaning of the term, and
always took a lively interest in political matters. In 1881, on the
death of his wife, he took a tour through the Southern States, and in
his rambles visited Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky, returning
through some of the Northern States; and came to the wise conclusion
that Ontario suited him best, and in this province he spent the
remainder of his days. Although Mr. McPherson’s parents were, in the old
country, Baptists, and in Canada attended the Presbyterian church, and
were very strict observers of Sunday and all the doctrines held by that
church, yet as a young man he began to wonder why God was so particular
about Sunday. Being of an inquiring turn of mind and not afraid to think
for himself, he began reading philosophical works, and works on the
religions of antiquity, and comparing them with the writings of the
Jews, he gradually relinquished the Christian dogmas, and became an
Agnostic. Mr. McPherson was married in 1855, to Miss Secord, whose
parents reside near St. David’s, a few miles from Queenston. Her
grandmother gained considerable renown during the war of 1812, having
walked from Queenston in the night through the enemy’s lines to give
important information to the British general stationed about twenty
miles west of that place. While on a visit to Buffalo, Mr. McPherson was
suddenly taken ill, and died on the 1st December, 1886, in that city,
aged sixty-nine years, leaving behind him an honourable record for
integrity and usefulness.
* * * * *
=Cameron, Sir Matthew=, Chief Justice of Ontario, who died at Toronto,
Ontario, on the 25th June, 1887, was a son of John McAlpine Cameron, a
descendant of the Camerons of Fassifern, Scotland, who emigrated from
Inverness-shire to Upper Canada in 1819, settling at Dundas, where he
engaged in business, and subsequently discharged the duties of deputy
postmaster under Thomas Allan Stayner, then the Imperial
Postmaster-General for Canada, at Hamilton. He also acted as deputy
clerk of the Crown for Gore district. Later, however, he was a student
at law with Sir Allan McNab, with whom he remained until he was
appointed to the first permanent clerkship of committees in the
parliament of Upper Canada, from which office he went to the Canada
Company’s office in Toronto, where he held an important position for
many years. Coming to this part of the country, as he did, when it was
yet undeveloped and sparsely settled, and engaging in active life, Mr.
Cameron became well and widely known. He died in Toronto in November,
1866, aged seventy-nine years. His mother was Nancy Foy, a native of
Northumberland, England. The deceased chief justice received his primary
education at a school in Hamilton, under a Mr. Randall, and afterwards
at the District School in Toronto, which he attended for a short time.
In 1838 he entered Upper Canada College, where he studied until 1840,
when, in consequence of an accident while out shooting, he had to
retire. Two years later he entered the office of Campbell & Boulton, of
Toronto, as a student-at-law, where he remained until Hilary term, 1849,
when he was called to the bar of the province of Ontario. He engaged in
Toronto in the practice of his profession, first with Mr. Boulton, his
former master. This firm continued until the law partnership of Cayley &
Cameron was formed, the senior member being the Hon. William Cayley, an
English barrister, and at one time inspector-general of the province,
afterwards registrar of the Surrogate Court. In 1859 Dr. McMichael
entered the firm, which then became Cayley, Cameron & McMichael. Later
Mr. Cayley retired, and E. Fitzgerald became a partner in the business,
and his name was added to the name and style of the firm, remaining so
for several years. Alfred Hoskin subsequently became a partner, and on
the retirement of Mr. Fitzgerald, the firm became Cameron, McMichael &
Hoskin, and remained so until the senior member’s elevation to the bench
in November, 1878. He was elected a Queen’s counsel in 1863, and elected
a bencher in November, 1878. He first came into public notice as a
counsel in the famous case of Anderson, the fugitive slave, the refusal
to surrender whom, on the part of the British government, nearly caused
war between that country and the United States. Mr. Cameron represented
Anderson in this case, and made a defence which for burning eloquence
and closely reasoned logic has scarcely ever been equalled at the bar in
this country. It was over the magnificence of this effort that he got
the title which he retained for some time of the silver-tongued orator
of the Ontario bar. Partly as a result of this case he obtained a very
large practice, and travelled from assize to assize, putting in an
immense amount of work, though nearly all the time enduring great
personal agony, as the result of an accident suffered some years before.
This accident occurred while he and another gentleman were shooting in
the marsh near this city. One of the guns went off prematurely, shooting
Mr. Cameron in the thigh. The wound took a bad turn, and the injured leg
had to be amputated. The stump never healed properly, and during the
remainder of his life he was almost continually in pain from this
accident. The physical suffering never prevented him from doing such a
day’s work that few men in the country would have performed in the same
time. In his early days, when he was a practising barrister, he would
work through one assize court, and then travel all night across country
roads thirty or forty miles, take up the business at another court and
after going through it travel to the next court, and so on. At the
assizes, as a judge, he would go to the bench early in the morning,
would sit there all afternoon, and would not adjourn till four or five
in the morning if necessary to get through with a case. He has worn out
three juries in a day. His legal acquirements and great talents caused
him to be looked up to with profound respect by the bar, the members of
which also entertained much personal affection for him. His summing up
of a case was a masterpiece of lucidity and force. The first public
office held by the late Sir Matthew Cameron was on a commission with
Colonel Coffin, appointed in 1852, to inquire into the causes of
accidents which had been of frequent occurrence on the Great Western
Railway. In 1859 he went into the City Council of Toronto, representing
St. James ward, and thenceforward he figured prominently in public life.
In 1861, and again a few years later, at the solicitation of many
citizens, he contested the mayoralty unsuccessfully. In 1861 he entered
the arena of national politics, and sat for North Ontario in the
Canadian Assembly from the general election of that year until the
general election in 1863, when he was defeated. But in July, 1864, he
was re-elected for the same seat, which he continued to hold until
confederation, when he was again unsuccessful. At the general Provincial
elections in 1867 he was returned to the Ontario legislature for East
Toronto, and re-elected in 1871 and 1875. He was a member of the
Executive Council in Ontario in the Sandfield Macdonald administration
from July 20, 1867, until the resignation of the ministry, December 19,
1871, and, with the exception of the last five months of this period,
when he was commissioner of Crown Lands, he held the offices of
Provincial Secretary and Registrar. He was also leader, and a very able
one, too, of the opposition, from the general elections in December,
1871, until appointed to the judgeship in the Queen’s Bench, in
November, 1878, which position he held until he rose to the chief
justiceship of the Common Pleas in 1884. He aided in forming the
Liberal-Conservative Association of Toronto, became its first president,
and held that office until his elevation to the bench. He was also
vice-president of the Liberal-Conservative convention which was
assembled in Toronto in 1874. He was a member of the Caledonian and St.
Andrew’s societies. He was created a Knight Bachelor on April 5th last,
at the same time Chief Justice Stuart, of Quebec, received a similar
honour. As a lawyer Sir Matthew had few equals either among his
predecessors or his contemporaries; and as a citizen he was generous
almost to excess. As a minister of the Crown, and as leader of the
opposition, he was a prodigious worker, an able tactician, and a most
formidable, though always courteous, enemy. As a judge he had the
confidence and respect of the bar to the utmost extent, while his
immense knowledge of law and the clearness of his decisions made him a
most valuable public servant. Chief Justice Cameron belonged to the
Episcopal denomination, and for about thirty years was a member of
Trinity Church, Toronto. In politics he was a Liberal-Conservative. On
December 1st, 1851, he was married in Toronto to Charlotte Ross,
daughter of William Wedd, who immediately prior to his death resided in
Hamilton, Ontario. Mrs. Cameron died January 14th, 1868. She was a
sister of William Wedd, first classical master at Upper Canada College,
and also of the late Mrs. Dr. McMichael, Mrs. Dr. Strathy, Toronto, and
Mrs. Scadding, of Orillia. Sir Matthew left three sons and three
daughters. His sons are, Dr. Irving H. Cameron, Ross McAlpine Cameron,
and Douglas W. Cameron. His daughters are Mrs. Darling, the widow of the
late son of the Rev. W. S. Darling, Mrs. A. Wright, and a young
unmarried daughter.
* * * * *
=Talbot, Hon. Thomas=, was born at Malahide, on the 17th July, 1771. His
father was Richard Talbot, of Malahide, and his mother, Margaret,
Baroness Talbot. The Talbots of Malahide trace their descent from the
same stock as the Talbots who have been earls of Shrewsbury, in the
peerage of Great Britain, since the middle of the fifteenth century. The
subject of our sketch spent some years at the Public Free School of
Manchester, and received a commission in the army in the year 1782, when
he was only eleven years of age. In 1787, when only sixteen, we find him
installed as _aide-de-camp_ to his relative, the Marquis of Buckingham,
who was then lord lieutenant of Ireland. His brother _aide_ was the
Arthur Wellesley, who afterwards became the illustrious Duke of
Wellington. The two boys were necessarily thrown much together, and each
of them formed a warm attachment for the other. Their future paths in
life lay far apart, but they never ceased to correspond, and to recall
the happy time they had spent together. In 1790 he joined the 24th
regiment, which was then stationed at Quebec, in the capacity of
lieutenant. Upon the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe at Quebec, at
the end of May, 1792, Lieutenant Talbot, who had nearly completed his
twenty-first year, became attached to the governor’s suite in the
capacity of private secretary. Governor Simcoe, writing in 1803, says,
“he not only conducted many details and important duties incidental to
the original establishment of a colony, in matters of internal
regulation, to my entire satisfaction, but was employed in the most
confidential measures necessary to preserve the country in peace,
without violating, on the one hand, the relations of amity with the
United States, and on the other, alienating the affections of the Indian
nations, at that period in open war with them. In this very critical
situation, I principally made use of Mr. Talbot for the most
confidential intercourse with the several Indian tribes, and
occasionally with his Majesty’s minister at Philadelphia, and these
duties, without any salary or emolument, he executed to my perfect
satisfaction.” It seems to have been during his tenure of office as
secretary that the idea of embracing a pioneer’s life in Canada first
took possession of young Talbot’s mind. On the 4th of February, 1793, an
expedition which was destined to have an important bearing upon the
future life of Lieutenant Talbot, as well as upon the future history of
the province, set out from Newark, now Niagara village, to explore the
pathless wilds of Upper Canada. It consisted of Governor Simcoe himself
and several of his officers, and the subject of our present sketch. The
expedition occupied five weeks, and extended as far as Detroit. The
route was through Mohawk village, on the Grand River, where the party
were entertained by Joseph Brant; then westward to where Woodstock now
stands; and so on by a somewhat devious course to Detroit. On the return
journey the party camped on the present site of London, which Governor
Simcoe then pronounced to be an admirable position for the future
capital of the province. One important result of this long and toilsome
journey was the construction of Dundas Street, or as it is frequently
called, “the governor’s road.” Lieutenant Talbot was delighted with the
wild and primitive aspect of the country through which they passed, and
expressed a strong desire to explore the land farther to the south,
bordering on lake Erie. His desire was gratified in the course of the
following autumn, when Governor Simcoe indulged himself, and several
members of his suite, with another western excursion. During this
journey the party encamped on the present site of Port Talbot, which the
young lieutenant declared to be the loveliest situation for a dwelling
he had ever seen. “Here,” said he, “will I roost, and will soon make the
forest tremble under the wings of the flock I will invite, by my
warblings, around me.” Whether he was serious in this declaration at the
time may be doubted; but, as will presently be seen, he ultimately kept
his word. In 1793 young Talbot received his majority. In 1796 he became
lieutenant-colonel of the fifth regiment of foot. He returned to Europe
and joined his regiment, which was dispatched on active service to the
continent. He himself was busily employed during this period, and was
for some time in command of two battalions. Upon the conclusion of the
peace of Amiens, on the 27th March, 1802, he sold his commission,
retired from the service, and prepared to carry out the intention
expressed by him to Governor Simcoe nine years before, of pitching his
tent in the wilds of Canada. Why he adopted this course it is impossible
to do more than conjecture. He never married, but remained a bachelor to
the end of his days. The work of settlement cannot be said to have
commenced in earnest until 1809. It was no light thing in those days for
a man with a family dependent upon him to bury himself in the remote
wilderness of Western Canada. There was no flouring mill, for instance,
within sixty miles of his abode, which was known as Castle Malahide.
During the American invasion of 1812-13-14, Colonel Talbot commanded the
militia of the district, and was present at the battles of Lundy’s Lane
and Fort Erie. Marauding parties sometimes found their way to Castle
Malahide during this troubled period, and what few people there were in
the settlement suffered a good deal of annoyance. Within a day or two
after the battle of the Thames, where the brave Tecumseh met his doom, a
party of these marauders, consisting of Indians and scouts from the
American army, presented themselves at Fort Talbot, and summoned the
garrison to surrender. The place was not fortified, and the garrison
consisted merely of a few farmers, who had enrolled themselves in the
militia under the temporary command of a Captain Patterson. A successful
defence was out of the question, and Colonel Talbot, who would probably
have been deemed an important capture, quietly walked out of the back
door as the invaders entered at the front. Some of the Indians saw the
colonel, who was dressed in homely, everyday garb, walking off through
the woods, and were about to fire on him, when they were restrained by
Captain Patterson, who begged them not to hurt the poor old fellow, who,
he said, was the person who tended the sheep. The marauders rifled the
place, and carried off everything they could lay hands on, including
some valuable horses and cattle. Colonel Talbot’s gold, consisting of
about two quart pots full, and some valuable plate, concealed under the
front wing of the house, escaped notice. The invaders set fire to the
grist-mill that the colonel had built in the township of Dunwick, which
was totally consumed, and this was a serious loss to the settlement
generally. Mrs. Jameson, who travelled in Upper Canada in 1837-38, has
left us the following description of her visit to Port Talbot. Speaking
of the colonel, she says, “this remarkable man is now about sixty-five,
perhaps more, but he does not look so much. In spite of his rustic
dress, his good-humoured, jovial, weather-beaten face, and the primitive
simplicity, not to say rudeness, of his dwelling, he has in his
features, air, deportment, that _something_ which stamps him gentleman.
And that _something_, which thirty-four years of solitude has not
effaced, he derives, I suppose, from blood and birth, things of more
consequence, when philosophically and philanthropically considered, than
we are apt to allow. I had always heard and read of him as the
‘eccentric’ Colonel Talbot. Of his eccentricity I heard much more than
of his benevolence, his invincible courage, his enthusiasm, his
perseverance; but, perhaps, according to the worldly nomenclature, these
qualities come under the general head of ‘eccentricity’ when devotion to
a favourite object cannot possibly be referred to self-interest. Of the
life he led for the first sixteen years, and the difficulties and
obstacles he encountered, he drew, in his discourse with me, a strong, I
might say a _terrible_, picture; and observe that it was not a life of
wild, wandering freedom—the life of an Indian hunter, which is said to
be so fascinating that ‘no man who has ever followed it for any length
of time, ever voluntarily returns to civilized society!’ Colonel
Talbot’s life has been one of persevering, heroic self-devotion to the
completion of a magnificent plan, laid down in the first instance, and
followed up with unflinching tenacity of purpose. For sixteen years he
saw scarce a human being, except the few boors and blacks employed in
clearing and logging his land; he himself assumed the blanket coat and
axe, slept upon the bare earth, cooked three meals a day for twenty
woodsmen, cleaned his own boots, washed his own linen, milked his own
cows, churned the butter, and made and baked the bread. In this latter
branch of household economy he became very expert, and still piques
himself on it. To all these heterogenous functions of sowing and
reaping, felling and planting, frying, boiling, washing and wringing,
brewing and baking, he added another, even more extraordinary—for many
years he solemnized all the marriages in his district. Besides natural
obstacles, he met with others far more trying to his temper and
patience. ‘He had continual quarrels,’ says Dr. Dunlop, ‘with the
successive governors, who were jealous of the independent power he
exercised in his own territory, and every means were used to annoy him
here, and misrepresent his proceedings at home; but he stood firm, and
by an occasional visit to the colonial office in England, he opened the
eyes of ministers to the proceedings of both parties, and for a while
averted the danger. At length, some five years ago, finding the enemy
was getting too strong for him, he repaired once more to England, and
returned in triumph with an order from the colonial office, that nobody
was in any way to interfere with his proceedings; and he has now the
pleasure of contemplating some hundreds of miles of the best roads in
the province, closely settled on each side by the most prosperous
families within its bounds, who owe all they possess to his judgment,
enthusiasm, and perseverance, and who are grateful to him in proportion
to the benefits he has bestowed upon them, though in many instances
sorely against their will at the time.’ The original grant must have
been much extended; for the territory now under Colonel Talbot’s
management, and bearing the general name of the Talbot country,
contains, according to the list I have in his own hand-writing,
twenty-eight townships, and about 650,000 acres of land, of which 98,700
are cleared and cultivated. The inhabitants, including the population of
the towns, amounted to about 50,000. ‘You see,’ said he, gaily, ‘I may
boast, like the Irishman in the farce, of having peopled a whole country
with my own hands.’ He has built his tower, like the eagle his eyry, on
a bold cliff overhanging the lake. It is a long wooden building, chiefly
of rough logs, with a covered porch running along the south side. Here I
found suspended, among sundry implements of husbandry, one of those
ferocious animals of the feline kind, called here the cat-a-mountain,
and by some the American tiger, or panther, which it more resembles.
This one, which had been killed in its attack on the fold or
poultry-yard, was at least four feet in length, and glared at me from
the rafters above ghastly and horrible. The farm consists of six hundred
acres. He has sixteen acres of orchard-ground, and has a garden of more
than two acres, very neatly laid out and enclosed, and in which he
evidently took exceeding pride and pleasure. He described the appearance
of the spot when he first came here as contrasted with its present
appearance. I told him of the surmises of the people relative to his
early life and his motives for emigrating, at which he laughed.
‘Charlevoix,’ said he, ‘was, I believe, the true cause of my coming to
this place. You know he calls this the “Paradise of the Hurons.” Now I
was resolved to get to paradise by hook or by crook, and so I came
here.’ He added more seriously, ‘I have accomplished what I resolved to
do—it is done; but I would not, if any one was to offer me the
universe, go through again the _horrors_ I have undergone in forming
this settlement. But do not imagine I repent it; I like my retirement.’”
He lived long enough to see the prosperity of his settlement fully
assured. For many years prior to his death it appears to have been his
cherished desire to bequeath his large estate to one of the male
descendants of the Talbot family, and with this view he invited one of
his sister’s sons, Julius Airey, to come over from England and reside
with him at Port Talbot, which he did, but rusticating without
companions or equals in either birth or education did not suit him, so
he returned to England. Some years later a younger brother of Julius’,
Colonel Airey, military secretary at the Horse Guards, came out with his
family to reside at Port Talbot. The uncle and nephew could not get on
together, so the uncle determined to leave Canada, and to end his days
in the old world. He transferred the Port Talbot estate, valued at
£10,000, together with 13,000 acres of land in the adjoining township of
Aldborough, to Colonel Airey. Acting on his determination to leave
Canada, he started, in his eightieth year, for Europe. He was
accompanied on the voyage by George McBeth. Colonel Talbot remained in
London somewhat more than a year, but finding London life somewhat
distasteful to him, he once more bade adieu to society, and repaired to
Canada, where he died on the 6th, and was buried on the 9th of February,
1853, leaving his estate, valued at £50,000, to George McBeth, and an
annuity of £20 to Jeffrey Hunter’s widow. He was interred in the
churchyard at Tyrconnel. A plate on the oaken coffin bore the simple
inscription:
THOMAS TALBOT,
FOUNDER OF THE TALBOT SETTLEMENT,
_Died 6th February, 1853_.
We take leave of our worthy hero, in the words of an English
song-writer:—
“God speed the stalwart pioneer!
Give strength to thy strong right hand!
And aid thee in thy brave intent
To clear and till the land.
’Tis men like thee that make us proud
Of the stubborn Saxon race:
And while old England bears such fruit
We’ll pluck up heart of grace.”
* * * * *
=Barrett, M.=, B.A., M.D.—The late Dr. Barrett, who died on the 26th
February, 1887, at Toronto, was the son of an English barrister, and was
born in London, England, on 16th May, 1816. He was educated at Caen,
Normandy, France. Coming to Canada in 1833 he engaged in the fishery
business in the Georgian Bay, where he owned a fishing station and a
vessel. In the spring of 1837 he accepted a position in a school at
Newmarket. On the breaking out of the rebellion he joined the Queen’s
Rangers, in which he filled the post of quartermaster of the regiment.
Shortly after this he was married to Ellen McCallum, a sister of C.
McCallum, of London. When the Queen’s Rangers disbanded he went to the
Southern States, where he remained for three years. Returning to Toronto
he was offered and accepted the position of second English master in the
Upper Canada College, and was afterwards promoted to the position of
first English master in the same institution. While pursuing his
important duties in connection with the college, Dr. Barrett took a
double course in the University of Toronto, and succeeding in obtaining
the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Medicine. He was after
this added to the professoriate of Rolph’s Medical School, which was
subsequently merged into the Toronto School of Medicine. After being
connected with the college for over thirty years, he was pensioned by
the government. Up to the time of his death he was a lecturer in the
Toronto School of Medicine, the Veterinary College, and the Women’s
Medical School. His name is prominently connected with the latter school
as one of the principal promoters of its institution and most ardent and
active workers for its success. Dr. Barrett was a man of exceptional
intellectual attainments and occupied an eminent and enviable position
in his profession. He was highly esteemed by the members of the medical
profession, and loved and respected by many friends.
* * * * *
=Nettleton, John=, Mayor of Collingwood, Simcoe county, Ontario, was
born at Lofthouse, Yorkshire, England, on the 12th of November, 1832,
his father, William Nettleton, and grandfather before him, carrying on
the business of merchant tailors in that village. After learning the
business with his father, Mr. Nettleton, jr., worked at the trade in the
following places, viz.: Leeds, London, Manchester and Liverpool, and at
the latter place he was married to Elizabeth Boardman Womersley, on the
9th May, 1853, in St. Peter’s Church. On the 4th of April, 1857, he and
his wife and one child emigrated to Canada, arriving in Toronto on the
23rd of the same month. After staying there and at Markham village for a
short time, he finally settled down in Collingwood, then a town only in
its infancy. In 1859 he commenced business for himself, and has lived
there continuously ever since. In 1867 he was elected by acclamation as
town councillor for the Centre ward, and for sixteen years he has held
the position of either councillor or deputy reeve. He was elected to the
mayoralty in 1886, and re-elected in 1887. He has been connected with
and has taken an active part in almost everything that has been advanced
for the improvement of the town since the time he took up his abode in
it. In February, 1862, he was initiated into Free Masonry, in Manitou
lodge, No. 90, G.R.C., and after having passed through all the
subordinate offices, he was elected Master in 1867, which position he
held for two years. After being out for a short time, he subsequently
was re-elected, and held the office for three years more. In 1870 he was
appointed by the Grand Lodge of Canada a grand steward; in 1873 he was
elected grand registrar, and in 1879 district deputy grand master for
the Georgian district, which position he held for two years. He was also
the means of instituting Caledonia lodge, No. 249, Angus, and Granite
lodge, No. 352, Parry Sound. In both instances he was elected their
first master, and now holds the position of honorary member in each
lodge. He was also presented by these lodges with a full set of Grand
Lodge regalia, in recognition of his services. In Royal Arch masonry he
has taken the same interest as in the Blue lodge, having been elected
first principal Z in Manitou chapter, No. 27, which office he has held
for several years. He is also past eminent commander of Hurontario
Encampment of Knights Templars, and was elected honorary member of Mount
Calvary Preceptory, No. 12, G.R.C., Barrie. He has also taken an active
part in other benevolent societies as well as Masonic, and was mainly
instrumental in organizing the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the
Select Knights, and also the Sons of England Benevolent Society, in all
of which he was their first master. Mr. Nettleton has also taken an
active part in every political movement that has taken place in the
county during his residence in Collingwood, and has always worked for
and voted with the Liberal-Conservative party. He is a member of the
Church of England and has held the position of church warden in All
Saints’ Church. His family consists of eight children, six boys and two
girls, the former all being grown up and established in business.
* * * * *
=Fowler, Rev. Robert.=—Rev. Mr. Fowler was born in Chester, England, in
1823, and died in London, Ontario, on the 4th March, 1887. He first
acquired the training of an apothecary and then studied medicine,
graduating with the degree of M.R.C.S. Subsequently he became a
Methodist minister, and began to preach in 1853, filling many posts in
the Toronto Conference. Afterwards he was appointed to the Ingersoll
circuit in the London Conference, thence going to Clinton, Listowel, and
lastly to London West. Three years before his death he was superannuated
on account of ill-health, and took up his residence in London. Rev. Dr.
Fowler was a man of ability and originality, with a strong sense of duty
which he faithfully laboured to fulfil, and was highly respected by all
who had the pleasure of his acquaintance.
* * * * *
=McEachran, Professor Duncan McNab=, F.R.C.V.S., Principal of Montreal
Veterinary College, chief inspector of stock, &c., was born at
Campbeltown, Argyleshire, Scotland, on the 27th of October, 1841. He is
the oldest son of the late David McEachran, who for many years was a
member of the town council, and for five years preceding his death was
senior bailie of Campbeltown. The family is one of the oldest in
Kintyre, descended from McEachran of Killellan and Penygowan. The Ionic
cross of Campbeltown, one of the oldest in Scotland, bears the names of
Edward and Malcolm McEachran, and the family tombstones, which are found
within the ruins of the old church of St. Kiarian, date back as far as
the fourteenth century. David McEachran is also buried here. Duncan
received his earlier education in the schools of his native place, and
at the age of seventeen entered in his professional studies at
Edinburgh, under the late Professor Dick. In the autumn of 1862, he came
to Canada, and took up his abode in Woodstock, Ontario, where he
practised his profession for nearly three years with marked success, at
the same time being engaged during part of the winter in giving lectures
at Toronto, and by this means rendered valuable service in the
establishment of the Veterinary College in that city. During his
residence in Woodstock, he contributed in various ways to the
advancement of his profession, by lectures at farmers’ meetings, by
contributions to the agricultural press, and by the publication of a
manual of veterinary science. The work on the “Canadian Horse and his
Diseases,” under the joint editorship of himself and his friend,
Professor Andrew Smith, of the Toronto Veterinary College, soon ran
through two editions, and although a third edition is now called for,
Professor McEachran will not consent to its issue, as he fondly hopes to
find time in the near future, to publish a larger work on the same
subject. In 1866, he left Ontario and settled in Montreal, but before he
left for that city, the Board of Agriculture for Upper Canada passed a
very complimentary resolution, expressing regret at his departure, and
he was entertained by a large number of his friends at a public dinner
at Woodstock. On his arrival in Montreal, thanks to his good reputation
which had preceded him, and the influence of his numerous friends, his
success was speedily assured. Through the influence of the late Major
Campbell, president of the Board of Agriculture, aided by principal (now
Sir) J. W. Dawson, and the late G. W. Campbell, dean of the medical
faculty of McGill University, an arrangement was made for Professor
McEachran to deliver a course of lectures on veterinary science, in
connection with the medical school, which was the commencement of the
now widely-known Montreal Veterinary College. In 1875, the present
commodious college buildings were erected on Union Avenue, at the
expense of the founder and principal, the government guaranteeing $1,800
per annum toward its expenses for ten years, with the privilege of
sending to it thirteen French and seven English students annually free.
This college is now considered the first of its kind in America, and
justly ranks high, even when compared with many of the schools in
Europe, owing to the appreciation of its head for thorough education.
While the veterinary schools at Toronto and New York admitted students
without matriculation, and graduated them in two sessions, here a
matriculation is required, and the course extends over three sessions of
six months each. This plan was adopted by the Montreal College before
the English schools; even the Royal Veterinary College of England was
led by the Montreal school in this very important matter. Professor
McEachran has associated with him in teaching the learned Principal and
Professors of McGill University, whose classes his students attend for
collateral studies. Year by year since the establishment of this
college, its progress has been most marked in the number and educational
standing of the pupils, and students have been attracted to it from all
parts of the United States and Canada. A veterinary medical association
has been established in connection with the college, for the reading of
papers and the discussion of professional and kindred subjects, and a
well-furnished library, containing most of the old works, and all the
new ones, embraced in veterinary literature, has been added to the
college, mainly through the efforts of its energetic principal.
Professor McEachran, during the past few years, has contributed many
valuable articles to professional journals and the agricultural press as
well as by public lectures, on his favourite theme. In 1875, he
earnestly pressed upon the attention of the Dominion government, the
necessity for the establishment of a quarantine system, to prevent the
importation of certain cattle diseases from Europe, where they were then
prevailing to a deplorable extent. Acting on his advice, the government
created, in April, 1876, a quarantine station at Point Levis, Quebec,
and made the professor chief inspector for the Dominion, and this
position he still continues to occupy. In January, 1879, he was sent by
the Dominion government to the United States, to investigate the
lung-plague—pleuro-pneumonia—and visited New York, Long Island, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and the district of Columbia;
and on his return he reported the prevalence of this serious disease in
all the states he had visited. The result was that shortly afterwards an
embargo was placed on the importation of cattle from the United States
to Canada and Great Britain, requiring that they should be slaughtered
at the port of debarkation, within fourteen days after landing. This
action of the British government entailed a heavy loss on cattle
exported from the United States, but Canada, owing to her freedom from
the diseases, and the perfect condition of her quarantine system, became
a gainer in proportion to a large amount. Professor McEachran’s name
will ever be associated with the early history of the export cattle
trade of Canada, as one, who at the proper moment gave sound advice to
the government, which, being promptly acted upon, helped in these early
days to assist a trade that has since grown to vast proportions. The
efficiency of the quarantine for cattle under his management has been
thoroughly tested on two occasions, viz., 1885, when the contagious
disease, “foot and mouth,” or vessicular epizootic, was twice brought
into the quarantine from Great Britain, so thorough was the quarantine
that not only did it not extend beyond, but it did not even affect any
other cattle, of which there were several hundreds within the enclosure.
The prompt and effective manner in which pleuro-pneumonia was dealt with
in 1886, when that fell destroyer was imported in a herd of Galloways,
proved beyond doubt the efficiency of the quarantine, and the ability of
the inspectors to deal with contagious diseases. If Canada to-day is
free from contagious disease, it is due in a great measure to his energy
and knowledge of disease. In acknowledgment of his professional
attainments he was elected one of the original Fellows of the Royal
College of Veterinary Surgeons, on that body being raised to the rank of
a university in 1875, being the only one in Canada on whom that honour
was conferred. He has been intimately connected with the cattle ranching
business in the district of Alberta, Senator Cochrane and he being the
pioneers in that business on a large scale in Canada. Together they
visited Alberta in 1881, going _via_ the Missouri river to Fort Benton,
thence driving across the plains to where Calgary is now built. On his
return he published a series of interesting letters, being a narrative
of his trip, and description of the country. He was vice-president of
the Cochrane Ranche Co. till 1883, when he became general manager of the
Walrond Cattle Ranche Co., of which Sir John Walrond, Bart., is
president, and which is now the largest and one of the most successful
ranches in Canada. Professor McEachran was married on the 9th of June,
1868, to Esther, youngest daughter of the late Timothy Plaskett, Esq.,
St. Croix, West Indian Islands, to whom two children were born, viz.,
Evelyn Victoria, born 24th May, 1869, who died May, 1874, and Jeanie
Blackney, born 19th September, 1871. In politics, Professor McEachran is
a Conservative, but in consequence of his devotion to professional work
he has never taken a very active part in politics. He served in the
militia force for ten years as Veterinary Surgeon to the Montreal Field
Battery of Artillery. He became a justice of the peace in 1886, with
jurisdiction over the entire Province of Quebec.
* * * * *
=Holmes, Hon. Simon H.=, Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Nova
Scotia, Halifax, was born near Springville, East River township, Pictou
county, N.S., on the 30th July, 1831. His father, Hon. John Holmes, came
from Ross-shire, Scotland, where he was born in 1783, to Nova Scotia,
and settled in the province in 1803, and represented Pictou county in
the Nova Scotia legislature, from 1839 to 1847, and from 1851 to 1855,
and was called to the Legislative Council in 1858. At the time of
Confederation in 1867 he was made a member of the Senate of the Dominion
of Canada. His mother, Catherine Fraser, was a native of Nova Scotia.
Simon H. Holmes received his educational training at the New Glasgow
Grammar School and at the Pictou Academy. He adopted law as a
profession, and studied in the office of the Hon. James McDonald, now
chief justice of Nova Scotia, and was called to the bar of Nova Scotia
in August, 1864. He practised for a number of years as a barrister in
Pictou, and during that time acquired the honourable distinction of
being a logical and able speaker, and one who always made a favourable
impression on a jury. Mr. Holmes entered political life in 1867, and yet
though he failed to carry Pictou county at the general election of that
year, he was successful in 1871; and in 1874 he was re-elected by
acclamation, and chosen leader of the opposition. After the contest in
1878, he was called upon to form an administration, of which he became
premier and provincial secretary, which position he occupied during the
four years following, when he accepted the office of prothonotary of the
Supreme Court for Halifax, which office he now holds. Hon. Mr. Holmes
was for twenty-four years editor and proprietor of the _Colonial
Standard_, Pictou, an outspoken Liberal-Conservative paper, which he
conducted with marked ability, and which exercised a great influence in
shaping the politics of the province. When quite a young man he took an
active interest in the volunteer movement, and rose to the rank of
captain; subsequently he held the same rank in the militia, and was,
before severing his connection with the corps on entering public life,
promoted to the rank of major.
* * * * *
=Archibald, Hon. Sir Adams Geo.=, K.C.M.G., D.C.L., P.C., Q.C.,
ex-Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. This illustrious statesman was
born at Truro, Nova Scotia, on the 18th May, 1814. His father was Samuel
Archibald, grandson of one of two brothers who came from the North of
Ireland, though of Scottish descent, settled at Truro, Colchester
county, N.S., in 1761, and both of whom married and had families, and
from these brothers sprung most of the families of that name now
scattered over the Maritime and other provinces of the Dominion, some of
whom honoured the liberal professions, and filled nearly every position
of responsibility and trust in the legislature and government of Nova
Scotia. His grandfather, James Archibald, was, on the 23rd June, 1796,
appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Colchester, Nova
Scotia, and held this position till his death. The mother of Sir Adams
Archibald was Elizabeth, daughter of Matthew Archibald, who was
appointed coroner of Colchester in 1776, and represented Truro in the
local parliament for many years. Adams George Archibald was educated at
Pictou College under the late Dr. McCulloch, who had at that time the
training of many young men who now fill various high positions in public
life. He studied law in Halifax in the office of the late William
Sutherland, afterwards recorder of the city; was admitted in Nova Scotia
and Prince Edward Island as an attorney in 1838, and as barrister to the
bar of Nova Scotia in 1839; and for many years practised his profession
successfully both at Truro and Halifax, during which time he filled some
very important positions. In 1851 he entered public life, and was
elected to represent the county of Colchester in the Nova Scotia
assembly, and sat as such until 1859, when the county was divided, and
he was returned for South Colchester, which constituency he continued to
represent until Confederation in 1867. During three years he occupied
prominent positions in the government of Nova Scotia. In 1856 he was
appointed solicitor-general of his native province, and in 1857 was sent
as a delegate, in company with the late Hon. J. W. Johnstone, to England
to arrange the terms of settlement with the British government and the
General Mining Association, in regard to the mines of the province, and
to ascertain the views of that government on the question of the union
of the provinces. And one of the happy results of their labours was to
effect a settlement of a long standing dispute between the province and
the company, whereby certain collieries were allotted to the company on
their surrendering all other collieries and all mines and minerals to
the province, except the coal in the areas so allotted. In 1860 he was
made attorney-general, and the following year (1861), he was a delegate
to the Quebec Conference to discuss the question of an Intercolonial
Railway. In 1862 he was appointed advocate-general of the Vice-Admiralty
Court. Mr. Archibald being one of the foremost among the advocates of
Confederation, he attended as a delegate the Charlottetown Union
Conference in June, 1864; the Quebec Conference, held a few months later
in the same year, and the final conference held in London (England),
during the winter of 1866-7 to complete the terms of confederation. In
1867 he was made secretary of state for the provinces in the Dominion
government. In 1869 he was elected to a seat in the Dominion parliament
at Ottawa, by the county of Colchester, but resigned the next year
(1870), on his being appointed lieutenant-governor of Manitoba and the
North-West Territories. In 1872 he was created a companion of the Order
of St. Michael and St. George by her Majesty the Queen for his services
in Manitoba, and in 1886 was advanced a step in the order, being created
K.C.M.G. On his return from the North-West he was appointed, on the 24th
June, 1873, judge in equity for Nova Scotia; but only held the office
until the 4th of the next month, when, on the death of the late
lieutenant-governor, Joseph Howe, he was appointed lieutenant-governor
of Nova Scotia, and this high office he filled with great dignity and
satisfaction to all concerned from the 4th July, 1873, to 4th July,
1883, when he was succeeded by Mr. Matthew Henry Richey. Governor
Archibald was one of the directors of the Canadian Pacific Railway in
1873; and in 1884 he was chosen chairman of the Board of Governors of
Dalhousie College; and in 1885 he was elected president of the Nova
Scotia Historical Society, of which he has been an active member from
the time of its formation in 1878 to the present. In conclusion, we may
add that the Hon. Mr. Archibald is a man of broad views and generous
impulses, and a statesman whom the country is pleased to honour. In
religious matters he has followed in the footsteps of his ancestors, and
is a staunch Presbyterian. He was married on the 1st June, 1840, to
Elizabeth Archibald, daughter of the Rev. John Burnyeat, an able and
accomplished Anglican divine, the first clergyman of the Church of
England, in the parish of St. John, Colchester, whose wife was Livinia,
daughter of Charles Dickson, and sister of Elizabeth, wife of the late
Hon. S. G. W. Archibald, and mother of the late Sir Thomas and Sir
Edward Archibald.
* * * * *
=McCaul, Rev. John=, D.D., late President of University College,
Toronto, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1807, and died at Toronto, on
the 16th of April, 1887, in the eighty-first year of his age. He was
educated at Trinity College in his native city, and after a very
successful university career, graduated with the highest honours in
classics. At the request of the authorities of Trinity College, he for
some time filled the post of classical tutor and examiner in that
institution. While occupying this position, he devoted himself
passionately to the pursuit of classical literature, and edited several
editions of recognized value of various Greek and Latin texts. In 1838,
Dr. Harley, then archbishop of Canterbury, hearing of his repute as a
scholar, offered him the principalship of Upper Canada College, in
Toronto, and Mr. McCaul having accepted the office, entered upon its
duties the following year. In 1843, he became the president and
professor of classics, logic, rhetoric and belles-lettres in King’s
College, which by the Act of 1849, became the University of Toronto, and
was freed forever from sectarian control. From that time up to the date
of his retirement, some years ago, from all literary work, Dr. McCaul
uninterruptedly filled the chair of classics in the university, of which
for some years he was also the president. While zealously maintaining
the pre-eminence of his own department, he actively assisted in
introducing into the university curriculum the subjects of modern
languages and natural sciences. His individual work is seen on every
hand in the distinguished men who are to be found in every part of the
province, and who cheerfully acknowledge their indebtedness to the late
lamented president of University College, for the accuracy and
thoroughness of their academic training. Among the works which have been
issued from Dr. McCaul’s pen are exhaustive treatises on the Greek
Tragic Metres and the Horatian Metres; on the Scansion of the Hecuba and
Medea of Euripides; lectures on Homer and Virgil; an edition of
Longinus, of selections from Lucian and Thucydides. His edition of the
Satires and Epistles of Horace has long been looked upon as a standard
one of this favourite author. His researches in Greek and Roman
Epigraphy, and his work on “Britanno-Roman Inscriptions,” and “The
Christian Epitaphs of the First Six Centuries,” entitle him to take high
rank among the greatest classical scholars which the century has
produced. Dr. McCaul married in 1840, Emily, the second daughter of the
late Hon. Justice Jones. His wife, three sons and three daughters
survive him.
* * * * *
=Cross, Hon. Alexander=, Judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench, Montreal,
was born on a farm situated on the banks of the Clyde, in Lanarkshire,
Scotland, on the 22nd of March, 1821, and came to Montreal with his
parents when only a boy of five years of age. His father, Robert Cross,
was a gentleman farmer, and was a scion of the Cross family who for many
generations lived in Old Monklands, and were among the well-to-do
farmers in that part of Scotland. His mother, Janet Selkirk, was from an
adjoining parish. Mr. Cross, sr., died about a year after his arrival in
Canada, and this sad event rendered it necessary for the family to
remove to a farm on the Chateauguay river, the land on which the
celebrated battle of that name was fought between a handful of Canadian
militia and a strong force of United States troops—the Canadians coming
off victorious—during the war of 1812-14. Alexander, who was the
youngest son of the family, as he grew up to manhood, showed a strong
leaning towards literary pursuits instead of towards agriculture; and in
his laudable desire for knowledge he was encouraged by his elder
brother, who had been educated for the Scottish bar, and who, while he
lived, helped him in every way possible to gratify his literary
aspirations. In 1837, at the age of sixteen, he left the farm and went
to Montreal to study. Here he entered the Montreal College as a pupil,
but after being a short time in this institution he found the classes
did not progress fast enough to suit his restless craving for knowledge,
when he left and put himself under private tutors. He also entered the
office of John J. Day, of Montreal, to study law; and the rebellion at
this time breaking out, he enlisted as a volunteer in Colonel Maitland’s
battalion, and served in this corps until the close of the rebellion in
1838, retiring with the rank of sergeant. When the rebels were defeated
at Beauharnois, Sergeant Cross was among the first to enter the village.
And in this connection we may say that while a law student he was chosen
clerk of the first municipal council of the county of Beauharnois, then
embracing three or four times its present area, and so well did he
perform his duties at the first meeting of the council that he was
highly complimented for the ability he displayed, by such gentlemen as
Lord Selkirk and Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who were guests at the
Seigniory house, staying there to observe the working of the new
institution. Mr. Cross was called to the bar in 1844, and practised his
profession in Montreal more than thirty years, at first with the late
Duncan Fisher, Q.C., and subsequently with Attorney-General Smith (who
afterwards became the Hon. Judge Smith). During this long period Mr.
Cross had an extensive and remunerative practice, and on several
occasions he represented the Crown while connected with the
distinguished gentlemen mentioned above. During the administration of
Viscount Monck, in 1864, he was created a Queen’s counsel. On the 30th
of August, 1877, he was appointed one of the judges of the Queen’s Bench
for the province of Quebec, and took his seat the first of the following
month, at a session of the court held in the city of Quebec. Judge
Cross, while in practice at the bar, held a foremost position among the
legal fraternity. On the bench he has met the expectations of his many
admirers, and his judicial opinions have been received by the Supreme
Court and the Privy Council with marked consideration. He has been
identified with Montreal since his boyhood days, and has seen the great
progress that city has made since he first entered it at his mother’s
side. In 1837-8, as we have seen, he helped to quell the rebellion, and
in 1849 he was present at the burning of the parliament houses incident
on the passing of the Rebellion Losses Bill, and assisted the late Sir
Louis H. Lafontaine and some others of the notable politicians of that
day in making their escape from the burning building, escorting them
unmolested through the turbulent crowd of rioters, among whom he
exercised a certain amount of influence. Judge Cross seems always to
have had an aversion to public life, and even in his younger days when
he was offered political positions of honour, he always declined them.
In 1863 he was offered by the Liberal government then in power the
position of secretary to the commission for the codification of the laws
of Canada, and at a later date the office of attorney-general in the de
Boucherville administration, but he refused to accept either of these
important offices. He has, nevertheless, suggested and assisted in
framing legislative measures of general utility, among which may be
mentioned the first statute passed in Canada for the abolition of the
Usury laws. He is also the inventor of a new and ingenious method of
rotation of numbers. In politics the judge leans to the Liberal side,
and his ideas, as well on the subject of finance as on the theory of the
popular principle in the election of representatives, are noted for
their originality and depth of thought. In religion he is a member of
St. Andrew’s (Presbyterian) Church, and has been an office bearer in
that church. He is a man of good impulses, and is very generous to the
poor. In 1848 he married Julia, daughter of the late William Lunn, in
his day a prominent citizen of Montreal, and they have five sons and one
daughter living, and have buried three children, the last, an
exceedingly promising youth, in his sixteenth year.
* * * * *
=Baillairgé, Chevalier Chas. P. F.=, M.S., Quebec. The subject of this
who is a Chevalier of the Order of St. Sauveur de Monte Reale, Italy,
was born in September, 1827, and for the past forty years has been
practising his profession as an engineer, architect and surveyor, in the
city of Quebec. Since 1856 he has been a member of the Board of
Examiners of Land Surveyors for the province, and since 1875 its
chairman; he is an honorary member of the Society for the Generalization
of Education in France; and has been the recipient of thirteen medals of
honour and of seventeen diplomas, etc., from learned societies and
public bodies in France, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Japan, etc. Mr.
Baillairgé’s father, who died in 1865, at the age of sixty-eight, was
born in Quebec, and for over thirty years was road surveyor of that
city. His mother, Charlotte Janverin Horsley, who is still living, was
born in the Isle of Wight, England, and was a daughter of Lieutenant
Horsley, R.N. His grandfather on the paternal side, P. Florent
Baillairgé, is of French descent, and was connected, now nearly a
century ago, with the restoration of the Basilica, Quebec. The wife of
the latter was Cureux de St. Germain, also of French descent. Our
subject married, in 1845, Euphémie, daughter of Mr. Jean Duval, and
step-daughter of the Hon. John Duval, for many years chief justice of
Lower Canada, by whom he had eleven children, four of whom only survive.
His wife dying in February, 1878, he, in April of the following year,
married Anne, eldest daughter of Captain Benjamin Wilson, of the British
navy, by whom he has two sons and a daughter. Mr. Baillairgé was
educated at the Seminary of Quebec, but, finding the curriculum of
studies too lengthy, he left that institution some time before the
termination of the full course of ten years, and entered into a joint
apprenticeship as architect, engineer and surveyor. During this
apprenticeship he devoted himself to mathematical and natural science
studies, and received diplomas for his proficiency in 1848, when only
twenty-one years of age. At that period he entered upon his profession,
and for the last twenty years has filled the post of city engineer of
Quebec, manager of its water works, engineer of its new water works
under the Beemer contract of 1883; engineer, on the part of the city, in
and over the North Shore, Piles and Lake St. John railways during their
construction. Mr. Baillairgé has held successive commissions in the
militia, as ensign, lieutenant, and captain; and in 1860, and for
several years thereafter, was hydrographic surveyor to the Quebec Board
of Harbour Commissioners. In 1861 he was elected vice-president of the
Association of Architects and Civil Engineers of Canada. In 1858 he was
elected, and again in 1861 unanimously re-elected, to represent the St.
Louis ward in the City Council, Quebec. In 1863 he was called for two
years to Ottawa, to act as joint architect of the Parliament and
Departmental buildings then in course of erection. Interests of
considerable magnitude were then at stake between the government and the
contractors, claims amounting to nearly half a million of money having
to be adjusted. In connection with his employment by the government, Mr.
Baillairgé found that to continue his services he must be a party to
some sacrifice of principle, which, rather than consent to, he was
indiscreet enough to tell the authorities of the time. This excess of
virtue was too moral for the appointing power and more than it was
disposed to brook in an employé of the government. The difficulty was,
therefore, got over by giving Mr. Baillairgé his _feuille de route_, a
compliment to his integrity of which he has ever since been justly
proud. He shortly afterwards returned to Quebec. During his professional
career, Mr. Baillairgé designed and erected numerous private residences
in and around Quebec, as well as many public buildings, including the
Asylum and the Church of the Sisters of Charity, the Laval University
building, the new Gaol, Music Hall, several churches, both in the city
and in the adjoining parishes—that of Ste. Marie, Beauce, being much
admired on account of the beauty and regularity of its interior. The
“Monument des Braves de 1760” was erected in 1860, on the Ste. Foye
road, after a design by him and under his superintendence. The
government, the clergy and others have often availed themselves of his
services in arbitration on knotty questions of technology, disputed
boundaries, builders’ claims, surveys and reports on various subjects.
In 1872, Mr. Baillairgé suggested, and in 1878 designed and carried out
what is now known as the Dufferin Terrace, Quebec, a structure some
1,500 feet in length, overlooking the St. Lawrence from a height of 182
feet, and built along the face of the cliff under the Citadel. This
terrace was inaugurated in 1878 by their Excellencies the Marquis of
Lorne and H.R.H. the Princess Louise, who pronounced it a splendid
achievement. In 1873 Mr. Baillairgé designed and built the aqueduct
bridge over the St. Charles river, the peculiarity about which is that
the structure forms an arch as does the aqueduct pipe it encloses,
whereby, in case of the destruction of the surrounding wood-work by
fire, the pipe being self-supporting, the city may not be deprived of
water while re-constructing the frost-protecting tunnel enclosure. At
the age of seventeen the subject of our sketch built a double cylindered
steam carriage for traffic on ordinary roads. From 1848 to 1865 he
delivered a series of lectures, in the old Parliament buildings and
elsewhere, on astronomy, light, steam and the steam engine, pneumatics,
acoustics, geometry, the atmosphere, and other kindred subjects, under
the patronage of the Canadian and other institutes; and in 1872, in the
rooms of the Literary and Historical Society, Quebec, under the auspices
of that institution, he delivered an exhaustive lecture on geometry,
mensuration, and the stereometricon (a mode of cubing all solids by one
and the same rule, thus reducing the study and labour of a year to that
of a day or an hour), which he had then but recently invented, and for
which he was made honorary member of several learned societies, and
received the numerous medals and diplomas already alluded to. The
following letter from the Ministry of Public Instruction, Russia, is
worthy of insertion as explanatory of the advantages of the
stereometricon:
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION,
St. Petersburg, Feb. 14th, 1877.
To M. BAILLAIRGÉ, architect, Quebec,
SIR,—The Committee on Science of the Department of Public
Instruction (of Russia) recognizing the unquestionable
usefulness of your “Tableau Stéréométrique,” for the teaching of
geometry in general, as well as its practical application to
other sciences, is particularly pleased to add its unrestricted
approbation to the testimony of the _savants_ of Europe and
America, by informing you that the above “Tableau,” with all its
appliances, will be recommended in the primary and middle
schools, in order to complete the cabinets and mathematical
collections, and inscribed in the catalogues of works approved
of by the Department of Public Instruction. Accept, sir, the
assurance of my high consideration.
E. DE BRADKER,
Chief of the Department of Public Instruction.
And the _Quebec Mercury_ of the 10th July, 1878, has the following in
relation to a second letter from the same source: “It will be remembered
that in February, 1877, Mr. Baillairgé received an official letter from
the Minister of Public Instruction, of St. Petersburg, Russia, informing
him that his new system of mensuration had been adopted in all the
primary and medium schools of that vast empire. After a lapse of
eighteen months, the system having been found to work well, Mr.
Baillairgé has received an additional testimonial from the same source,
informing him that the system is to be applied in all the polytechnic
schools of the Russian empire.” Mr. Baillairgé has since that time given
occasional lectures in both languages on industrial art and design, and
on other interesting and instructive topics, and is now engaged on a
dictionary or dictionaries of the consonances of both the French and
English languages. In 1866 he wrote his treatise on geometry and
trigonometry, plane and spherical, with mathematical tables—a volume of
some 900 pages octavo, and has since edited several works and pamphlets
on like subjects. In his work on geometry, which, by the way, is written
in the French language, Mr. Baillairgé has, by a process explained in
the preface, reduced to fully half their number the two hundred and odd
propositions of the first six books of Euclid, while deducing and
retaining all the conclusions arrived at by the great geometer. Mr.
Baillairgé, moreover, shows the practical use and adaptation of problems
and theorems which might otherwise appear to be of doubtful utility, as
of the ratio between the tangent, whole secant, and part of the secant
without the circle, in the laying out of railroad and other curves
running through given points, and numerous other examples. His treatment
of spherics and of the affections of the sides and angles is, in many
respects, novel, and more easy of apprehension by the general student.
In a note at foot of page 330, Mr. Baillairgé shows the fallacy of
Thorpe’s pretended solution of the trisection of an angle, at which the
poor man had laboured for thirty-four years, and takes the then
government to task for granting Mr. Thorpe a patent for the discovery.
In February, 1874, he visited Europe, and it was on the 15th of March of
that year that he received his first laurels at the “Grand Conservatoire
National des Arts et Métiers,” Paris. Some of Mr. Baillairgé’s annual
reports on civic affairs are very interesting and instructive; that of
1878, on “The Municipal Situation,” is particularly worthy of perusal.
His report of 1872 was more especially sought after by almost every city
engineer in Canada and the United States, on account of the varied
information it conveyed. It may also be remembered, as illustrative of
the versatility of his talent and of his humouristic turn of mind, that
a comedy, “Le Diable Devenu Cuisinier,” written by him in the French
language, was, in 1873, played in the Music Hall, Quebec, and again in
the Salle Jacques Cartier, Quebec, by the Maugard Company, then in the
city, to the great merriment of all present. Nor will the members of “Le
Club des 21,” composed as it is of the _literati_, scientists and
artists of Quebec, under the presidency of the Count of Premio Real,
consul-general of Spain for Canada, soon forget how, in March, 1879, Mr.
Baillairgé, in a paper read at one of the sittings of the club, around a
well-spread board, successively portrayed and hit off the peculiarities
of each and every member of the club, and of the count himself, while at
the same time doing full justice to the abilities of all. Mr. Baillairgé
is a close and industrious worker, devoting fourteen hours out of the
twenty-four to his professional calling, and again robbing the night for
the time to pursue his literary and scientific pursuits. In politics, if
he may be said to have any, he is inclined to liberalism, but he is of
too independent a character to be tied to a party, preferring to treat
each question on its merits, irrespective of its promoters. The subject
of this sketch is brother to G. F. Baillairgé, deputy minister of Public
Works of the Dominion, and grand nephew to François Baillairgé, an
eminent painter and sculptor “de l’Académie Royale de Peinture et
Sculpture, France,” who carved some of the statues in the Basilica, and
whose studio in St. Louis street, Quebec (the quaint old one-story
building, now Campbell’s livery stable), was at that time so often
visited by Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria, during
his sojourn in Quebec. A portrait of Mr. Baillairgé, accompanied by a
brief biographical notice, appeared in “L’Opinion Publique,” of the 25th
April, 1878. The “Rivista Universale,” of Italy, also published his
portrait and a biographical sketch of Mr. Baillairgé’s career in
February of 1878. Since 1879 Mr. Baillairgé has been the recipient of
the following additional testimonials:
ROYAL CANADIAN ACADEMY OF ARTS,
Grenville St., Toronto, Jan. 7th, 1880.
DEAR SIR,—I am commanded by His Excellency the Governor-General
(Marquis of Lorne), to inform you that he has been pleased to
nominate you as an associate of the New Canadian Academy.
(Signed), L. N. O’BRIEN,
President.
* * * * *
ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA,
Montreal, March 7th, 1882.
SIR,—I have the honour to intimate to you by request of the
Governor-General (Marquis of Lorne), that His Excellency hopes
you will allow yourself to be named by him as one of the twenty
original members of the Mathematical, Physical, and Chemical
Section of the New Literary and Scientific Society of Canada,
the first meeting of which will be held at Ottawa on the 25th of
May. Should you accept be good enough to state what work you
wish associated with your name. I have the honour to be, sir,
your most obedient,
T. STERRY HUNT,
President of the Mathematical, Physical, and Chemical Section.