* * * * *
=Gilpin, Rev. Edwin=, D.D., Senior Canon of St. Luke’s Cathedral and
Archdeacon of Nova Scotia, Halifax. This learned divine was born in
Aylesford, Nova Scotia, on the 10th of June, 1821. His parents were
Edwin and Eliza Gilpin. On his father’s side he is descended from a long
line of illustrious ancestors, among others Richard De Guylpyn, to whom
in 1206 the Baron of Kendal gave the manor of Kentmore, in Westmoreland,
England. There fourteen generations of the family lived, and there was
born, in 1517, Bernard Gilpin, well known as the “Apostle of the North.”
The manor was lost in consequence of the loyalty of the family to King
Charles the First. The Rev. Edwin Gilpin, the subject of our sketch, was
educated at King’s College, Windsor, N.S., and in 1847 received the
degree of B.A., in 1850 the degree of M.A., in 1853 that of B.D., and in
1863 the degree of D.D. was conferred upon him. In 1848 he received the
appointment of master of the Halifax Grammar School; then he was made
master of the Halifax High School, and then followed his promotion to
the principalship of the Halifax Academy. In 1864 he was inducted as
canon of St. Luke’s Cathedral (Episcopal); and in 1874 he was made
archdeacon. He has taken an active interest in education, and done a
good deal to place the public schools of his native province on a
satisfactory footing. Rev. Mr. Gilpin is a firm adherent of the Church
of England, and belongs to the so-called High Church party. He is
married to Amelia, daughter of the late Hon. Justice Haliburton, of
Windsor, N.S., who is well known as an author under the _nom de plume_
of “Sam Slick.” Rev. Mr. Gilpin’s eldest son is a gentleman of
considerable literary ability, and has prepared for and read before the
North British Society of Engineers and the Royal Society of Canada,
papers on the mining industries of the Dominion.
* * * * *
=Lambly, William Harwood=, Registrar of the County of Megantic,
Inverness, Province of Quebec, was born on the 1st December, 1839, at
Halifax, Megantic county, Quebec, and has resided in the same county
ever since. His parents were John Robert Lambly and Anne Mackie. Mr.
Lambly, senr., was for nearly twenty years registrar of deeds for the
county of Megantic, and his father, the grandfather of the subject of
our sketch, was for more than a quarter of a century harbour master of
the port of Quebec, and in his day published a complete guide, with
descriptive charts, of the river St. Lawrence, from Quebec to the Gulf.
The family removed, when William was a child, to Leeds, in which place
he lived until 1861, when the _chef-lieu_ of the county was established
at Inverness, whither he removed. He commenced his education in the
village school, then attended the seminary at Newport, Vermont, and
afterwards took a special course at Victoria College, Cobourg, Ontario,
including some branches of the higher mathematics, French, and the
classics. In 1862 he was appointed registrar of the county of Megantic
by the Hon. Charles Stanley, Viscount Monck, then governor-general of
Canada, and has held the office ever since. He has been returning
officer at every election in the county, local and federal, since that
time, and although many of the elections have been contested, no
complaint has ever been made of partiality or irregularity. He was
appointed a justice of the peace in 1863, and has held the appointment
ever since. Since that time he has tried over two hundred cases, many of
them being for infractions of the license law, and no judgment of his
has ever been set aside on certiorari or appeal. He is also a
commissioner of the Superior Court, and a commissioner _per dedimus
potestatem_. He was elected a municipal councillor for Inverness on an
anti-license ticket, in 1866, by a large majority, and was appointed
mayor of the township at the first meeting of the council thereafter,
and continued in the office of mayor during his term of office as
councillor. In 1868 he declined re-election, and was appointed
secretary-treasurer of the council, and also of the school commissioners
of Inverness, and has held these offices ever since. Under the Dominion
License Act of 1863, he was appointed first commissioner of the county
of Megantic, and then president of the license board and by his vote and
influence not a single license was issued in the county from the time he
became president of the board until the law was declared _ultra vires_,
and was abandoned. He is a member of the Association of Registrars of
the Province of Quebec, and in 1866 was unanimously elected president of
the association, and has been re-elected unanimously in 1887. He joined
the Sons of Temperance in 1855, and has held various offices in his
division, and the Good Templars in 1869, and was rapidly promoted in his
lodge. In 1878 he first attended the Grand Lodge of the Province of
Quebec, and was unanimously elected grand worthy councillor. In the
following year he was unanimously elected grand worthy chief templar of
the province, and held that office by unanimous elections for seven
consecutive years, declining the election for the eighth term. In 1879
he was elected representative to the Right Worthy Grand Lodge, and has
since attended every session of that body. In the Right Worthy Grand
Lodge he was appointed right worthy grand marshal in 1881, and again in
1882; right worthy grand messenger in 1883, and right worthy grand
councillor, being the second highest position in the body, in 1885, and
again in 1886, and which office he still holds, and he has this year
(1887) been appointed deputy right worthy grand templar for the Province
of Quebec. He was one of the representatives of the R. W. G. Lodge in
Boston, in 1886, at the conference on union of all Good Templars in the
world, and was one of the signers of the original basis of union. He has
organised a number of Good Templar lodges in the Provinces of Quebec and
Nova Scotia, and has given many lectures and addresses on temperance and
prohibition in various parts of the Dominion, and in New York,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Va.; Charlestown, S.C.,
Chicago and other places. He is a vice-president of the Quebec branch of
the Dominion Alliance for the total suppression of the liquor traffic,
and has successfully fought and stamped out every grog shop in
Inverness, although there were nearly a score of them in the place when
he came there to live in 1861. He is not a politician, and never takes
part in any political discussions. He has travelled considerably in
Canada, having visited the chief cities from Halifax, N.S., to Sarnia,
Ont., besides many of the great cities in the United States. He is a
Methodist with broad Armenian views, but claims every man as a brother,
no matter what church he belongs to, if he loves the Lord Jesus Christ.
It will be seen that Mr. Lambly is an enthusiastic temperance man. He
totally abstains from all intoxicants and narcotics, and has never
tasted any kind of spirituous liquors, wine, or cider. Consequently he
is an out and out prohibitionist, will never consent to license, in any
shape or form, for the sale of liquors. He has an undying hate to what
he calls the thrice accursed traffic in strong drink, and deals it
deadly blows on every opportune occasion. He hopes to see the bright and
glorious day dawn on this fair Dominion when we shall have prohibition
pure and simple from the Atlantic to the Pacific. On the 25th June,
1863, he was married at Lachute, P.Q., to Isabella D. Brown, daughter of
the Rev. W. D. Brown, a Methodist minister now in his 79th year, yet
actively engaged preaching the gospel. The fruit of this marriage has
been four sons and three daughters, one of whom died in infancy, and the
two eldest sons are now studying for the ministry of the Methodist
church.
* * * * *
=Jarvis, Frederick William=, late Sheriff of the county of York,
Ontario, was born at Oakville, on the 10th February, 1818. His
grandfather was a devoted U. E. loyalist, and after the American
revolution, left the state of Connecticut for New Brunswick, from which
province he afterwards moved with his family, then including as boys,
the late Sheriff W. B. Jarvis of Toronto, the late Judge Jarvis of
Cornwall, and the late Frederick Starr Jarvis, father of the sheriff now
deceased, to Toronto, in 1808. Frederick Starr Jarvis afterwards settled
at Oakville, then a wilderness, with no road through the bush, and with
few of the modern appliances for the ordinary pursuits of forest life.
Here William Frederick, the eldest of a family of eight sons and four
daughters, was born, and here he remained on the paternal farm until
1849, when he removed to Toronto to take charge of his uncle’s business
as deputy sheriff. In 1856, on the death of his uncle, he was appointed
sheriff of the counties of York and Peel, and when the sheriffdom was
divided he was made sheriff of York, and this office he held until his
death, in Toronto, on 16th of April, 1887. During the rebellion of 1837,
Sheriff Jarvis served in the Queen’s Rangers. Before coming to Toronto
he married a daughter of Captain John Skynner, R.N., who, with three
sons and one daughter, survive him. He was a much respected citizen, and
as highly esteemed as he was well known. He filled the position of
Sheriff of York—the richest shrievalty at the disposal of the Ontario
government—with dignity and ability. He was a member of St. Peter’s
Episcopal Church, Carlton street, in whose welfare he always took a deep
interest, as well as of the Industrial School at Mimico, and of a number
of city charities.
* * * * *
=Church, Hon. Charles Edward=, Commissioner of Public Works and Mines,
of Nova Scotia, Halifax, was born on Tancook Island, Lunenburg county,
Nova Scotia, on the 3rd of January, 1835. He is a son of Charles Lot
Anthony Church, whose ancestors came to America with the Pilgrim Fathers
in 1625. His great grandfather, Charles Church, was a United Empire
loyalist, who left New England on the breaking out of the rebellion, and
settled at Shelburne, Nova Scotia. His grandfather, Charles Lot Church,
who was only five years of age when he came to Nova Scotia with his
parents, on growing up into manhood, settled in Chester, Lunenburg
county, Nova Scotia, and afterwards represented that county for ten
years in the House of Assembly. This gentleman was one of the early
Reformers of the province. His mother, Sarah Hiltz, is of German
descent, her ancestors having emigrated from Germany to Lunenburg in
1753, and was amongst its first settlers. Their descendants are noted
for their mechanical skill, especially in shipbuilding. Charles Edward
Church, the subject of this sketch, received a fair English education at
the schools in Chester and Truro, and afterwards followed for about ten
years the profession of teacher. He then went into mercantile pursuits
at La Have River, and for several years was interested in the fisheries.
In 1871, Mr. Church was appointed a justice of the peace. He was, in
1872, elected to represent Lunenburg in the Liberal interest, in the
House of Commons, at Ottawa; and again at the general election in 1874,
he was returned by acclamation, and sat in the Dominion parliament until
1878. In 1882, Mr. Church was elected a member of the Nova Scotia
legislature, and again in 1886, he was returned to the same position by
a large majority. He was appointed provincial secretary in 1882, and
held the office until 1884, when he was appointed Commissioner of Public
Works and Mines, and this office he still holds. Mr. Church is a Liberal
in politics, and for the past twenty years, has taken an active interest
in both federal and provincial questions, and stands high as a
progressive statesman. He also takes an interest in all moral reforms,
and was formerly a member of the order of Sons of Temperance and of the
Good Templars, and held office in the Grand Division of Sons of
Temperance, of Nova Scotia, and also in the Grand Lodge of British
Templars of the same province. Though not taking as warm an interest in
the temperance movement as formerly, he is still a strict total
abstainer. Mr. Church has travelled over a considerable portion of the
Dominion of Canada, and through parts of the United States. He is a
Protestant, holding broad and liberal views respecting religion as well
as politics. On the 24th of June, 1884, he was married to Henrietta A.
Pugsley, of Halifax. Her father, Henry Pugsley, was a native of England,
and her mother a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
* * * * *
=Buller, Frank=, M.D., Professor of Ophthalmology and Otology in McGill
University, Montreal, was born near Cobourg, Ontario, on the 4th May,
1844. He is the fourth son of Charles G. Buller, of Campbellford,
Ontario, who was educated for the Church of England ministry, but,
declining holy orders, came to Canada in 1831, and settled near the town
of Cobourg, preferring agricultural life to any other means of earning a
livelihood. His mother, Frances Elizabeth Boucher, is the second
daughter of the late R. P. Boucher, of Campbellford; both his parents
are still living, and have attained an advanced age. We may say that the
Buller family has for centuries occupied a prominent position in the
south of England, and it is a well-known fact that many of its members
have distinguished themselves by their energy and ability in the service
of their country. Dr. Buller received the foundation of a liberal
education under the paternal roof, and subsequently continued his
studies in the High School at Peterborough. Having chosen medicine as a
profession, he entered the Victoria School of Medicine, of Toronto, and
graduated from that institution in 1869. Shortly afterwards he went to
England to perfect himself in his profession, where he soon won the
diploma of membership of the Royal College of Surgeons. While in London
he spent considerable time in the further study of general medicine and
surgery in St. Thomas’s Hospital, and satisfied himself that there was
no such thing possible as the attainment of perfection in all the
branches of a science so far-reaching as that of medicine. He resolved
to devote himself to the study of a specialty, having reason to believe
that the medical profession in Canada would be willing to sustain any
specialist who could bring evidence of having received a sufficiently
thorough training to merit public confidence. Keeping this idea steadily
in view, he spared no pains to become thoroughly proficient in the
specialty he had chosen. At that time the renowned Von Gräfe was still
living, and shedding the lustre of his great fame over the University of
Berlin; Helmholtze, too, the discoverer of the ophthalmoscope, honoured
the chair of physical science in the same place of learning. To receive
instruction from two such men was to drink from the very source of the
fountain of knowledge; and to Berlin Dr. Buller went in 1870; nor was he
disappointed in his anticipations of the benefit to be derived from the
instructions of these illustrious preceptors. About this time the
Franco-German war broke out, and the services of every available medical
man having been called for, Dr. Buller, like many other foreigners,
volunteered his services; and during eight months he acted as
assistant-surgeon in the military hospitals of North Germany. After the
termination of the war he continued his studies in Berlin, and served
for one year as assistant in the Gräfe-Ewers Ophthalmic Hospital of that
city. Early in 1872 he returned to England, and was appointed clinical
assistant to the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, from which position
he was promoted to the office of junior, and soon afterwards to that of
senior house surgeon, a situation which he held with credit to himself
and to the entire satisfaction of the governors and staff of that
institution for nearly three years. Having thus acquired, in a few
years, an amount of special knowledge and experience that under less
favourable circumstances could not have been gained in a lifetime, he
was prepared to take advantage of the first opportunity that offered for
establishing himself in the practice of his profession. He then returned
to Canada, and chose the city of Montreal as the field of his future
operations. Early in 1876 he commenced practice there, and, owing to the
cordial goodwill of his professional _confrères_, obtained a lucrative
practice from the very outset. In the month of May of the same year he
was appointed ophthalmic and aural surgeon to the Montreal General
Hospital, and lecturer on diseases of the eye and ear in McGill
University—positions which he still holds; and, judging from the past,
we anticipate for him a long career of honour and great usefulness to
suffering humanity. To his credit it should be said, that Dr. Buller has
been the arbitrator of his own fortune, he having in a great degree bore
his own expenses while securing his education. He is a good example to
our Canadian youth, and shews plainly what a young man can accomplish
though starting with a capital consisting only of determination and
pluck. Dr. Buller, in religious matters, is an adherent of the Episcopal
church, and in politics may be classed among the liberals. He married
Lillie Langlois, daughter of the late Peter Langlois, of Quebec, and has
a family of two children.
* * * * *
=Willmott, James Branston=, M.D.S., D.D.S., Toronto, is a native of the
province of Ontario, having been born in the county of Halton, on 15th
June, 1837. His parents, William and Ann Willmott, were both natives of
England, but came to this country when children. After a few years’
sojourn in Little York, now Toronto, they removed with their parents to
the very verge of settlement in the central part of Halton county, where
they did faithfully and well their part in converting the wilderness
into a fruitful field. Dr. Willmott’s early life was spent on the farm,
and his education was obtained mainly at the common school in the
neighbourhood. In 1854-5 he was a student in Victoria College, Cobourg,
intending to take a university course in arts, but was prevented by
failing health. Having determined to devote himself to the practice of
dentistry, he entered the office of W. C. Adams as a student in 1858. On
completing his pupilage in 1860, he commenced practice in the town of
Milton, near his birthplace. Allying himself with the Liberal party,
from a profound conviction that the principles advocated by it were best
calculated to advance the material and moral interests of the country,
he took an active interest in the affairs of the town, and was soon
called upon to occupy positions of trust. In 1863 he was appointed a
justice of the peace, and for several years had considerable experience
in that capacity. Besides minor offices, he served his fellow-townsmen
for three years in the municipal council, and for two years of that time
was chairman of the finance committee. In 1870 he entered the
Philadelphia Dental College, graduating doctor of dental surgery in
March, 1871. Although a foreigner, he was chosen by his classmates to
deliver the valedictory on commencement day. Desiring a wider field for
practice, he removed in July, 1871, to the city of Toronto, where by
diligence and skill he has built up an extensive and lucrative practice.
In the year 1866, Dr. Willmott was actively engaged in the movement to
place the dental profession of Ontario on a better footing, which
resulted in the incorporation of the profession as the Royal College of
Dental Surgeons by the legislature of the province in its first session,
the act being assented to March 3rd, 1868. From that date the doctor has
been very closely identified with the development of dentistry. In the
year 1870 he was elected by his fellow practitioners a member of the
Board of Examiners constituted under the provisions of the Dental Act,
and on the organization of the board he was chosen secretary. At each
succeeding biennial election he has been re-elected, and has also
continuously filled the position of secretary of the board. In 1875 the
dental practitioners of the province assembled in convention, adopted a
resolution requesting the board of examiners to establish a dental
college in Toronto. Acting upon this resolution the board requested Dr.
Willmott to undertake the organization of the college, associating with
him L. Teskey, M.D., M.R.C.S. The first session of the college opened in
November, 1875, with Dr. Willmot as senior professor occupying the chair
of operative and mechanical dentistry. This position he has continued to
hold to the present time. During the twelve years which have elapsed he
has been largely instrumental, in his capacity of teacher, in developing
the very creditable degree of skill which distinguishes the dental
profession of Ontario. Since his removal to Toronto the pressure of
practice and his duties in the college have prevented him from giving
much attention to public matters. What leisure he has been able to
command has been devoted mainly to church work. Born of Methodist
parents, in early youth he became a member of the Methodist church, and
has filled nearly every office open to a layman. Soon after settling in
Toronto he connected himself with the Metropolitan Church, and has been
deeply interested in its prosperity. He now discharges the duties of
Bible-class teacher, leader, trustee, and treasurer of the Trust Board,
besides being local treasurer of several important connexional funds. He
was a member of the Toronto Methodist Conferences of 1885 and 1886 and
of the General Conference of the Methodist church which met in Toronto
in September, 1886. Dr. Willmott married in September, 1864, Margaret
Taylor Bowes, niece of the late J. G. Bowes, ex-mayor of the city of
Toronto, a lady estimable in every relation of life, and his zealous
helpmate in every good work.
* * * * *
=Patton, Hon. James=, Q.C., LL.D., Collector H.M. Customs, Toronto, was
born at Prescott, Ontario, on the 10th of June, 1824. He is the fourth
son of the late Andrew Patton, of St. Andrews, Fifeshire, Scotland, and
formerly major of her Majesty’s 45th regiment of the line. Mr. Patton’s
eldest brother (for some years rector of Cornwall and Belleville and
archdeacon of the diocese of Ontario) died in Belleville in 1874. The
family having removed from Prescott to Toronto in 1830, James was sent
to Upper Canada College, where he received the rudiments of a sound
education; and in 1840, having resolved to follow the legal profession,
he entered the office of the late Hon. John Hillyard Cameron, who then
carried on business with the late Chancellor Spragge, to study law. In
1843, on the opening of King’s College (now the University of Toronto),
he matriculated in arts, and graduated in law, and in 1858 took the
degree of LL.D. In 1845 he was called to the bar, and took up his abode
in the town of Barrie, Simcoe county, where in a very few years he
acquired an extensive practice. At an early period of his career Mr.
Patton took a deep interest in politics. The agitation consequent upon
the passage of the Rebellion Losses Bill, and the burning of the
Parliament buildings in the city of Montreal, seem to have acted as a
stimulus to his conservative instincts. Therefore, in 1852, he started
the _Barrie Herald_ as the mouth-piece of his party, and conducted it
with great energy for several years. At this time there was only one
other paper published north of Toronto, whereas now there are nearly
forty. In the meanwhile he was also engaged in legal literature,—having
published the “Constable’s Assistant”—and in 1855 aided in the
establishment and publication of the “Upper Canada Law Journal.” In 1859
he was elected a bencher of the Law Society, and having afterwards been
a solicitor-general, is now a life bencher by statute. In 1862 he was
created a Queen’s counsel. In 1853 Mr. Patton took into partnership
Hewitt Bernard, and the year following the late Sidney Cosens, and in
1857 William D. Ardagh, the Barrie firm changing to Patton & Ardagh on
Mr. Bernard being appointed deputy Minister of Justice. In 1860 he
opened a branch office in Toronto, and the year following was joined by
a former pupil, Featherston Osler, now one of the hon. justices of the
Court of Appeal, and subsequently by the late Chief Justice Moss, the
firm being known as Patton, Osler & Moss, and soon obtained a prominent
position. In 1864 Mr. Patton having been invited by Sir John A.
Macdonald to take charge of his large business, left for Kingston, but
returned again to Toronto in 1872, on the removal of the Trust and Loan
Company’s office to that city, Macdonald and Patton being the company’s
solicitors. This partnership continued until 1878, when Mr. Patton
retired from the active practice of his profession, in which he had been
engaged for thirty-three years, and took charge of the English and
Scottish Investment Company of Canada. This important position he held
until 1881, when the Dominion government appointed him Collector of
Customs for Toronto. Since that period he has faithfully performed the
duties of this responsible trust, and has done a great deal to improve
and simplify this branch of the civil service. Although in his younger
days Mr. Patton was an active politician, yet he did not seem to aspire
to parliamentary honours though often asked to become a candidate.
However, when in 1856 the Legislative Council (now the Senate) was made
an elective body and Upper and Lower Canada were mapped out into
forty-eight electoral divisions, with twelve members to be elected every
two years, he presented himself as a candidate, and was one of the six
returned that year for what is now Ontario, for the group of counties
consisting of Grey, Bruce and North Simcoe, known as the Saugeen
Division. As a member of the Legislative Council Mr. Patton was a
staunch Conservative, and he, without consulting the government, moved
(seconded by the late Sir E. P. Taché) in 1858 in that body the
resolution condemning the Brown-Dorion government—the same being taken
up by Sir Hector Langevin, seconded by Hon. John Beverly Robinson, the
next day in the Legislative Assembly—and carried it by sixteen to
eight. In 1862 he became a member of the Cartier-Macdonald ministry,
with a seat in the Executive Council (now the Privy Council) as
solicitor-general for Upper Canada—Sir John A. Macdonald being
attorney-general—but was defeated when seeking re-election, and with
the fall of the government a few weeks later, he retired from public
life. While in parliament the Hon. Mr. Patton carried through among
other measures the Debentures Registration Act, and the act that has
elevated the _status_ of attorneys, by requiring the passage of
examinations in addition to the mere service under articles; also
amendments to the Grand Jury law, but was unsuccessful in his attempt to
introduce the Scotch system of doing away with the required unanimity of
twelve petit jurors—the bill, though passed by large majorities in the
Council in four consecutive sessions, was invariably thrown out by the
Legislative Assembly. The Hon. Mr. Patton assisted at the formation of
the University Association, and was its president for several years,
holding the office until his election as vice-chancellor of the
University of Toronto. This latter office he held from 1860 to 1864,
when he was succeeded by the late Hon. Adam Crooks, Minister of
Education. In 1861-2 he was chairman of the University Commission issued
by the Crown. In 1886 he occupied a seat in the council of the Board of
Trade of Toronto, and did good service as such in helping to prepare the
laws that govern that important and influential body. In 1853 he was
married to Martha Marietta, the eldest daughter of the late Alfred
Hooker, of Prescott.
* * * * *
=Harrison, Hon. Archibald=, Member of the Executive Council of New
Brunswick, Maugerville, New Brunswick, was born at Cambridge, Queens
County, New Brunswick, on the 27th May, 1834. He is a son of the Hon. C.
Harrison, at one time member of the Legislative Council of New
Brunswick, and Mary, daughter of Jeremiah Burpee, of Sheffield, one of
the first English inhabitants of the province. His grandfather, James
Harrison, was a United Empire loyalist. Archibald removed with his
parents from Cambridge to Maugerville, Sunbury county, in 1847, and here
the family has continued to reside ever since. He received his education
at Cambridge and Maugerville, and after leaving school adopted farming
as a profession. In 1868 he was elected a member of the Provincial Board
of Agriculture, and for the two following years occupied the same
position. At the bye-election in 1868, he contested Sunbury for a seat
in the legislature, but failed to secure a majority vote. In 1870 he was
chosen warden of his county, and at the general election held during
this year was elected to represent Sunbury county in the Legislative
Assembly of New Brunswick, and on the 8th April, 1874, he was called to
the Legislative Council; on the 3rd of March, 1883, he was made a member
of the Executive Council, and shortly afterwards was appointed a member
of the Lunatic Asylum Commission. In 1886 he was appointed a member of
the board of works. In 1873 he was made a member of the senate of the
University of New Brunswick, and on the expiry of his term of office, in
1885, he was re-appointed to the same position. Politically, Hon. Mr.
Harrison sides with the Liberals; while religiously he belongs to the
Congregational body of Christians. On the 5th November, 1862, he was
married to Amy, daughter of W. S. Barker, who at one time represented
Sunbury county in the New Brunswick legislature.
* * * * *
=Gilmour, John Taylor=, M.D., M.P.P. for West York, residence West
Toronto Junction, was born in the township of Clarke, county of Durham,
Ontario, on the 3rd March, 1855. His father was a farmer and
manufacturer of lumber, and his mother, was descended from the United
Empire loyalists. He received his education at Port Hope High School,
and after leaving this institution he practised the profession of
teaching for two years. Tiring of this, he resolved to adopt the medical
profession, and entered Trinity Medical College, Toronto, from which
college he graduated in 1878. He then opened an office in Durham county,
and continued his practice here until 1884, when he removed to West
Toronto Junction, county of York, and here he has since resided, and has
met with a fair measure of success. Early in 1886 Dr. Gilmour was chosen
by the Reformers of West York to become their candidate, and when the
general elections came on in December of that year he succeeded, with
the aid of his friends, in redeeming the riding for the Liberals. In
politics he is strongly democratic, and is destined to make his mark in
the political arena. He is an adherent of the Methodist church. He was
married on the 18th March, 1878, to Emma Hawkins, of Canton, Ontario;
but death claimed this estimable lady on the 18th March, 1886.
* * * * *
=Williams, Rev. William=, D.D., Pastor of the Division Street Methodist
Church Cobourg. The Rev. Mr. Williams is the eldest son of William and
Margaret P. Williams, and was born in Stonehouse, Devon, England,
January 23rd, 1836. His mother was a daughter of Robert Pearse, of
Camelford, Cornwall, England. In 1842 the subject of this notice removed
with his parents to Toronto. During the four years of his residence in
that city he attended school, and the latter part of the time he was
engaged in preparing to enter Upper Canada College. Before he had
completed his preparatory studies he removed with his parents to Weston,
and some time later to the township of Holland, where his father settled
upon a farm. Though removed from school at a comparatively early age, he
steadily pursued a carefully prepared course of reading and study, and
in his nineteenth year he entered the ministry of the Methodist New
Connexion church. His record in that community was that of a successful
minister of the gospel. Before the union he was during four years
chairman of a district; was one year president of the Methodist New
Connexion Conference, and was acting president during the greater part
of the following year, filling the place left vacant by the lamented
death of the president, the Rev. Samuel P. Gundy. The Rev. W. Williams
took an active part in promoting the union of the New Connexion and
Wesleyan Methodist churches in this country, being on both committees;
and in 1874 he was sent by his conference, with the late Robert Wilkes,
M.P. of Toronto, as a deputation to the New Connexion Conference of
England to obtain the consent of that body to the contemplated union in
Canada. In this he and his companion were completely successful. Not
only was the requested consent given, but Mr. Wilkes and Mr. Williams
were heartily thanked for the manner in which they had presented the
matter before the conference. In 1875, after this union had been
consummated, and while he was in charge of the church in Simcoe, Rev.
Mr. Williams was sent with W. H. Gibbs, of Oshawa, by the Central Board
of Missions as a deputation to attend the missionary services in the
leading Methodist Churches in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince
Edward Island. In 1876, in response to the special request of the
Centenary Church, Hamilton, Rev. Mr. Williams was sent to that charge,
then the largest and most influential in the London conference. He
remained there for the full term of three years. A leading member of
that church speaks of his ministry in that place:—“His discourses
showed him to be a man of culture, of extensive reading, of careful
thought, and of sound judgment. The Centenary Church never, I believe,
had a better expounder of the Word of God, or a more faithful preacher
of the gospel. Conscientious in the discharge of his duty, whatsoever he
seemed to feel should be said he spoke boldly whether it was likely to
please or displease. At the same time he evinced such qualities of
heart, such sympathy, such desire to do his people good, as secured for
him their affection, and made him very influential. As a man, Mr.
Williams was liked by all who knew him. He was pleasant and unassuming,
easy to approach, and was ready to lend a helping hand.” In 1879 Rev.
Mr. Williams became pastor of Norfolk Street Church, Guelph. He remained
there during the full term of three years, was acceptable and useful,
and during his ministry there the membership of the church and
congregation was largely increased; the debt upon the building in which
they worshipped reduced by several thousand dollars; and the financial
condition of the church greatly improved in other respects. He was also
chairman of the Guelph district during the three years of his pastorate
in that city. The following three years were spent by him in Woodstock,
where he ministered to a very large congregation in one of the finest
church edifices in the province. The first year of his pastorate in
Woodstock was marked by his elevation to the presidency of the London
Conference. This position he filled with acceptance and ability. He was
chairman of the Woodstock district during the full term of his ministry
in that rapidly rising town. At the request of the Cobourg (Division
street) Church Rev. Mr. Williams was, in 1885, transferred to the Bay of
Quinté conference, and appointed to Cobourg. There he preaches to a
large and intelligent congregation, comprising, in addition to the
general hearers, the principal, professors and students of Victoria
University. Mr. Williams is also chairman of the Cobourg district. In
May, 1887, the senate of Victoria University conferred upon him the
honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
* * * * *
=Glackmeyer, Charles=, City Clerk, Montreal, was born in Montreal on the
22nd June, 1820. He is of German extraction, and belongs to a family
noted for its longevity, his father, Frederick Glackmeyer, having died
in 1875, aged eighty-four years. His mother was Sophie Roy Portelance, a
French-Canadian lady, who died about 1854. His grandfather came to
Canada as bandmaster with one of the British regiments, and settled in
the city of Quebec, where he was a professor of and taught music for
many years, and died at an advanced age. Charles was educated at the
Montreal College, taking a full course, and afterwards studied law with
Peltier and Bourret. In 1843 he was admitted to the bar, and after
practising his profession for three years, entered the service of the
City Corporation as assistant city clerk. This position he held until
1859, when he was elected city clerk, and this office he still holds.
Mr. Glackmeyer is a model official, is rarely absent from his post, and
one in whom the citizens have the fullest confidence, and whom they
delight to honor. He is a member of the Roman Catholic church, and
people who know him best speak most highly of his moral and religious
character and the purity of the life he leads. On the 30th May, 1848, he
was married to M. R. Josephine Duvernay, of Montreal, eldest daughter of
Ludger Duvernay, founder of the _Minerve_ newspaper, and of the St. Jean
Baptiste Society of Montreal. The fruits of this marriage has been ten
children, only three of whom now survive.
* * * * *
=Gilpin, Edwin, jr.=, Deputy Commissioner of Public Works and Mines, and
Chief Inspector of Mines for the Province of Nova Scotia, Halifax, was
born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the 28th of October, 1850. His father,
the Rev. Edwin Gilpin, D.D., is the senior canon of St. Luke’s
Cathedral, and archdeacon of Nova Scotia (see sketch of Archdeacon
Gilpin in another part of this volume), and his mother is Amelia McKay,
daughter of the late Hon. Justice Haliburton. Edwin Gilpin received the
rudiments of his education at the Halifax Grammar School, and then
entered King’s College, Windsor, where he graduated A.B., in 1871. He
then took the arts course, with special courses in mining, geology, and
chemistry, and received the degree of A.M., in 1873, and at the same
time won the “Welsford,” “General Williams,” and “Alumni” prizes. After
leaving college he began the practical study of mining-engineering in
Nova Scotia, and especially in the Albion collieries of the General
Mining Association in Pictou county, and extended his observations in
the leading mining districts in Great Britain. On the 1st of March,
1874, he was elected a fellow of the Geological Society of London,
England; and in April, 1873, a member of the Nova Scotia Institute of
Natural History. On the 21st of April, 1879, he was appointed by the
government of Nova Scotia, inspector of mines for the province, which
position he now occupies. In September, 1881, he was appointed a member
and made secretary of the Board of Examiners of Colliery Officials; and
in September, 1885, was elected a member of the American Institute of
Mining Engineers. In October, 1886, he received the appointment of
deputy commissioner of Public Works and Mines for the province. Mr.
Gilpin is one of the original members of the Royal Society of Canada.
For a number of years he has acted in the capacity of consulting
engineer in the Maritime provinces, and has done good service to his
county in this direction. He is the author of a popular work on the
“Mines and Mineral Lands of Nova Scotia,” published in Halifax in 1883;
and has also contributed valuable papers on the “Sub-marine Coal Fields
of Cape Breton;” “Nova Scotia Iron Ores;” “The Manganese of Nova
Scotia;” “The Carboniferous and Gold Fields of Nova Scotia;” “The
Geology of Cape Breton;” and various other papers on the geology and
economic mineralogy of Nova Scotia, which have been published in the
Transactions of the following societies: The North of England Institute
of Mining Engineers; The Geological Society of London; The Nova Scotia
Natural History Institute; The Royal Society of Canada; and The American
Institute of Mining Engineers. He has also written several annual
reports to the government of Nova Scotia, on the progress and
development of the Crown minerals of the province. Mr. Gilpin takes no
particular part in politics; but in religious matters, he is a staunch
adherent of the Church of England. He was married on June 29th, 1875, to
Florence Ellen, daughter of Lewis Johnstone, surgeon, Albion Mines, Nova
Scotia. Mrs. Gilpin’s father is a nephew of the late Equity Judge
Johnstone, and provincial grand master of the Masonic order. Three
children have been born of this union.
* * * * *
=Bégin, Rev. Louis Nazaire=, D.D., Principal of the Laval Normal School,
Quebec, member of the Academy of the Arcades of Rome, and of the Royal
Society of Canada, was born at Levis, on the 10th January, 1840. His
father, Charles Bégin, farmer, died in August last, 1887, in his
ninety-first year; his mother, Luce Paradis, died about eighteen months
ago, in her eighty-second year. After attending the Levis Model School,
then under the direction of M. N. Lacasse, at present a professor at the
Laval Normal School, Rev. Abbé Bégin followed, for one year, the
mathematical course of the Commercial College of St. Michel
(Bellechasse). That course was ably given by Professor F. X. Toussaint.
His parents sent him, in 1857, to the Little Seminary of Quebec, to
follow the classical course of that institution. As he had already
commenced to study Latin with M. Lacasse, he was enabled to terminate
his course in five years, in 1862. He then obtained the degree of
Bachelor of Arts at Laval University, and was the first to carry off the
Prince of Wales prize. He resolved to adopt a religious life, and
entered the Grand Seminary of Quebec, in September, 1862, where he
studied theology, while teaching the class of syntax at the Little
Seminary. The Seminary of Quebec was at that time thinking seriously
about organizing a faculty of theology in connection with Laval
University, and it was the earnest desire of the authorities that all
the professors of that faculty should be educated in Rome itself. In
May, 1863, his Eminence Cardinal Taschereau, then superior of the
Seminary of Quebec, and rector of Laval University, proposed to Abbé
Bégin to go and pass a few years in Rome, in order to study theology,
take his degree, and then return to Quebec as professor of its
university. This proposition was accepted, and on the 4th September of
the same year, Abbé Bégin left Quebec to take his passage at Boston. He
had as travelling companions Abbés Louis Pâquet and Benjamin Pâquet (now
Domestic Prelate to his Holiness Leo XIII.), who were also sent to Rome
to study the sacred science. Abbé Bégin was absent five years and
returned to Quebec only in July, 1868. He followed the course of the
Gregorian University of the Roman College, including dogmatic and moral
theology, sacred scriptures, history of the church, canonic law, sacred
oratory, and the Hebraic language. His professors were the Rev. Fathers
Ballerini, Cardella, Sanguinetti, Patrizi, Angellini, Armellini,
Tarquini and Franzelin; the two last named became, a short time
afterwards, cardinals of the holy Roman Church, and died a short time
ago. He received all the minor and major orders in Rome, and was
ordained a priest in the Major Basilica of St. John de Latran on the
10th of June, 1865, by His Eminence Cardinal Vicar Patrizi. In the
following year (1866), he succeeded in obtaining the degree of Doctor in
Theology at the Gregorian University. The Seminary of Quebec granted the
request of Abbé Bégin, and gave him permission to remain some time
longer in Rome to make a special study of ecclesiastical history and
Oriental languages: the Hebrew, the Chaldean, the Syriac, and the
Arabic. The scholastic year 1866-67 was given to these interesting
occupations. While at Rome he resided at the French Seminary, _via Santa
Chiara_. After the great Roman festival in connection with the centenary
of the death of St. Peter and the canonization of the saints, in 1867,
he went to Innsbruck, in the Austrian Tyrol. During the summer holidays
of the preceding years he had visited Italy, Savoy, Switzerland,
Prussia, Belgium, and chiefly France, but he spent the summer of 1867 in
studying the German language, so rich in scientific works on history and
holy scripture. On the 30th September of the same year he started for
Palestine, in order to get thoroughly acquainted,—as he had long
desired,—with certain biblical and historical facts. He spent more than
five months in this trip through Austria, Hungary, Roumania, Servia,
Bulgaria, the two Turkeys, the islands of Tenedos, Lesbos, Rhodes and
Cyprus, Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, Phœnicia, Palestine, Egypt, and
Sicily. He then returned to Innsbruck to continue his studies in history
and languages at the Catholic University, under the celebrated
Professors Wenig, Jungmann, Hurter, Kobler, Nilles. He left Tyrol on the
2nd July, 1868, crossed France and England, and arrived at Quebec on the
27th of the same month, by the steamer _Moravian_, of the Allan line. He
brought with him several Egyptian mummies and archæological curiosities
he had acquired for the museum of the Catholic University of Quebec. In
September he commenced to teach a portion of dogmatic theology and
ecclesiastical history, as professor of the Faculty of Theology of Laval
University. He taught from 1868 until 1884, having also, during the last
seven or eight years, charge of the pupils of the University, or of
those of the Little or Grand Seminary; he was also prefect of studies of
the Little Seminary. During four or five winters he gave numerous public
lectures at Laval University on the most controverted and interesting
questions of the history of the Church. A select gathering filled the
hall to hear these lectures given every week from the Christmas vacation
till Easter. The first year (1870) he spoke about the prerogatives of
Papacy, and refuted the objections raised, at the time of the Council of
the Vatican, against the infallibility of the Pope, considered from an
historical standpoint. These lectures were published in a volume of over
400 pages, entitled, “La Primauté et l’Infaillibilité des Souverains
Pontifes.” In 1874 he published a second work entitled “La Sainte
Ecriture et la Règle de Foi.” This work was translated into English:
“The Bible and the Rule of Faith,” in 1875, and printed in London by
Burns & Oates. In the same year (1874) an eulogy of Saint Thomas Aquinas
was published. Abbé Bégin had delivered it at Saint Hyacinthe, in the
church of the Rev. Dominican fathers, on the occasion of the sixth
centennial anniversary of the death of Dr. Angélique. In 1875 he
published another work entitled “Le Culte Catholique.” After passing six
months (October, 1883, to April, 1884) at Pont Rouge, Portneuf county,
to recruit his health, Abbé Bégin accompanied to Rome the Archbishop of
Quebec, who was going to sustain the rights of Laval University and the
division of the diocese of Three Rivers, before the Holy See. The voyage
was prosperous, and lasted over seven months. On his return from Rome,
on the first of Dec., 1884, he found his friend, Abbé Lagacé,
dangerously ill. Death carried away, five days later, this distinguished
priest, who had consecrated the best part of his sacerdotal career to
the education of youth. Abbé Bégin was chosen by the Catholic Committee
of the Council of Public Instruction to occupy the important post of
principal of the Normal School, hitherto filled by Abbé Lagacé, and this
choice was ratified by an order-in-council on the 22nd January, 1885.
Since that time Abbé Bégin has fulfilled the functions of principal of
the Normal School, comprising the department of male and female pupil
teachers. Last year (1886) he published a small “Aide-Mémoire,” or
“Chronologie de l’Histoire du Canada,” designed, as indicated by its
name, to help the memory of pupils and facilitate their preparations to
the examinations on the history of our country.
* * * * *
=Anderson, Capt. Edward Brown=, Sarnia, was born at Oakville, in the
county of Halton, Ontario, on the 24th January, 1838. His father, Edward
Anderson, was born at a farm known as “Stenrie’s Hill,” near the town of
Moffat, in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, and died at Oakville, in December,
1840. His mother, Sarah Ann Williams, was born at Port Dover, Lake Erie
shore, and died at Barrie, in January, 1878. Captain Anderson’s father
having died before his son had reached his third year, very little
schooling fell to his lot, as he was in consequence obliged to face the
world at a very early age. When only about ten years old he commenced
sailing on the lakes, and from that time to this he has steadily risen
in his profession, and has now the proud satisfaction of knowing that he
is considered second to none as an inland sea navigator and is in
command of one of the finest steamers—the _Alberta_—of the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company, on Lake Superior. Previous to his taking charge
of the _Alberta_ he commanded for seven years the steamer _Quebec_, of
the Beatty Sarnia & Lake Superior line, and for two years was captain of
the _Campana_, of the Collingwood line, and for the last four years he
has sailed the _Alberta_. Captain Anderson left Oakville in 1875, and
took up his residence in Sarnia, where he has made his home ever since.
In 1867 he joined the Freemasons, and since then has taken a deep
interest in that ancient organization. He crossed the Atlantic and spent
the winter of 1885-6 seeing the sights in Europe. The captain is a
Presbyterian, and is a firm supporter of his church; but in politics he
takes very little interest. In August, 1885 he was married to Lucretia
Waggoner, whose parents at that time resided in Oakville, but in 1860
they removed to Ballard, Kentucky, where they both died.
* * * * *
=Robb, Alexander=, Iron Founder, Amherst, Nova Scotia, was born at
Leicester, Cumberland county, Nova Scotia, on the 4th of March, 1827.
His parents, Alexander Robb and Annie Brown, were natives of Bangor,
Ireland, and settled in Nova Scotia a great many years ago. Alexander
was only about eight years of age when he came to Amherst, and received
his education in the public schools of the place. After leaving school
he acquired a knowledge of the tin and sheet metal business. In 1848 he
commenced business on his own account, and was among the first to
introduce cast-iron stoves into the country. In 1866 he built a foundry
and machine shops, and his business has grown steadily ever since, until
his works, including salesroom and offices, now cover a space of about
two acres. In outside industries, Mr. Robb has taken a great interest,
having assisted in the development of the Boot and Shoe Tanning Company,
which is now the most extensive manufactory of its kind in the province;
and previous to his health breaking down in 1872, he was an active
promoter of the Spring Hill collieries. Mr. Robb has always been a
strong advocate of total abstinence, and has the honour of being one of
the original members of the Amherst Division of the Sons of Temperance,
the pioneer temperance organization in Nova Scotia. He took an active
interest in the passage of the Free School Act for Nova Scotia, and was
also an advocate of the confederation of the provinces. He had strong
faith in the benefits to be derived from these measures for some years
previous to their enactment, arising from a conversation he had had with
the late Hon. Joseph Howe. Mr. Robb is a Presbyterian, and for the past
twenty-five years has been a consistent member of that church. In 1855
he married Emeline Logan, daughter of David D. Logan, of Amherst Point,
whose father, Hugh Logan, originally came from the North of Ireland, and
was one of the first settlers of the county. His surviving children
are:—David W. and Frederick B., who have managed the business of the
firm of A. Robb & Sons since the failure of their father’s health in
1872; Walter R., who is associated with his father in farming and other
private business; Maggie A. and Aubrey G., who are both at home, the
latter still pursuing his studies. Mr. Robb has won for himself the
character of being a man of perseverance and strict integrity, and is
greatly respected by all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance.
* * * * *
=McNeill, John Sears=, Barton, M.P.P. for Digby, Nova Scotia, was born
at St. Mary’s Bay (now called Barton), in the county of Digby, N.S., on
the 15th June, 1829. His parents were John McNeill and Freelove Sabean.
His great grandfather, Neil McNeill, emigrated from the north of Ireland
to New York, where he married a Miss Sears, an American lady, and
engaged in mercantile business. After the close of the revolutionary war
he and his family came, with other U. E. loyalists, and settled in Long
Island, then in the county of Annapolis, now in the county of Digby.
John Sears McNeill attended the public school in his native place, but
only at intervals, where he learned the rudiments of reading, writing,
arithmetic, and English grammar. He spent his youthful days on a farm,
and had, when a mere lad, to work in the fields with the farm labourers
and do his share of hard work. On his sixteenth birthday he gave up
farming, and entered the store of George Bragg, of Digby, as a clerk,
and in this situation he continued for three years, when he returned to
Barton, and commenced business on his own account. His capital was very
small, but he determined to succeed, and consequently worked hard to
increase his means. After a few years, having succeeded remarkably well,
he resolved to extend his operations, and in the fall of 1867 opened
another store at Maitland, Yarmouth county, in connection with Cyrus
Perry, to whom he sold out his share in the business a few years
afterwards. In 1871, in connection with several other gentlemen, he
engaged extensively in the tanning business, but this venture not
proving a success, in a few years it was abandoned. In 1875, in company
with some others, he engaged in the manufacture of shingles and lumber
at Berwick and Factorydale, in the county of King, N.S., but this, from
lack of personal oversight, proved unremunerative, and was given up. In
the fall of 1878 he handed over his business at home to his eldest son,
and since that time has devoted all his energies to public affairs. Mr.
McNeill was appointed a justice of the peace in May, 1864, and a
commissioner of schools in 1867. On the 17th January, 1873, he was made
a member of the Board of Health. He was clerk and treasurer of Poor
District No. 2, Weymouth, from its creation into a separate district in
1851 until 1865, and re-appointed in 1868, and still holds the position
(1887); and he has also been county treasurer for the years 1881, 1883,
and 1884. He took the temperance pledge in 1842, when he was only
thirteen years of age, and became a member of the Total Abstinence
Society. On the introduction of the order of the Sons of Temperance into
Nova Scotia, he joined Union Division, No. 6, Digby, on the 30th
January, 1848, and continued in this division several years, when he
transferred his membership to General Inglis Division, on its
institution at Barton, in March, 1859. He has held nearly all the
offices in the gift of his division. In 1860 he was initiated into the
Grand Division of Nova Scotia, at its session held at Yarmouth, in 1860,
and ever since then has been a faithful member of the order. Mr.
McNeill’s father was a staunch Conservative, and his son received his
political training in that school of politics. During the election
contests held in 1851 and 1855 he worked and voted with that party; but
in 1859 he gave his vote to the Liberals. He was opposed to the
confederation of the provinces, and disapproved of the manner in which
Nova Scotia was forced into the union, contending that a vote of the
people should have been taken before the compact was entered into. In
1867 he was urged to allow himself to be nominated as a candidate for
the Nova Scotia legislature, but declined the honour. He, however,
presented himself for parliamentary honours at the general election in
June, 1882, and was elected to a seat in the legislature of his native
province, and was again returned to the same house in 1886. Mr. McNeill
was brought up in the Episcopal church, and adhered to that church until
1862, when he united with the Methodist church, and has remained in that
communion ever since. In politics Mr. McNeill is a Liberal and a
Repealer, but, above both, a lover of his country, and a gentleman who
has done a good deal to foster its industries and improve the social
condition of its people. He was married, first at Barton, on 25th
December, 1852, to Ann Eliza, daughter of William Thomas. This estimable
lady died 1st October, 1869. His second marriage was solemnised at
Bloomfield, Digby county, 24th January, 1870, when he united with Alice
Maria, second daughter of Edwin Jones. His family consists of two sons
and two daughters living, all of whom are married, except the youngest
son, who is attending college at Sackville, New Brunswick.
* * * * *
=DesBrisay, Theophilus=, Q.C., Bathurst, New Brunswick. The subject of
this sketch is a son of the late Theophilus DesBrisay, naval officer of
Miramichi and the eastern ports of New Brunswick, and grandson of the
Rev. Theophilus DesBrisay, graduate of Magdalen College, Oxford, and the
first rector of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, who died in 1824.
He is of Huguenot descent, his ancestors having fled from France to
Ireland at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes; the
pioneer in the Dominion of Canada being Thomas DesBrisay, captain Royal
Artillery, who, was sent out as lieutenant-governor of Prince Edward
Island, in 1777. The mother of our subject, before her first marriage,
was Lucy Wright, daughter of the Hon. Thomas Wright, first
surveyor-general of Prince Edward Island, and was the widow of Captain
and Adjutant Colledge, who died in the first decade of this century
while in the service of the king at the fortress of Quebec. Mr.
DesBrisay was born at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on the 13th
of December, 1816, educated at the Grammar School, Miramichi, studied
law with the late Hon. John Ambrose Street, at Newcastle; was admitted
an attorney in 1839, and to the Charlottetown bar at Hilary term, 1841,
and has ever since been in practice in all the courts in New Brunswick
and also as barrister of the Supreme Court of Prince Edward Island. He
was appointed clerk of the peace for the county of Gloucester, N.B., in
1850; and is also clerk of the County Court and clerk of the Circuits.
He was created a Queen’s counsel by the Dominion government in 1881, and
appointed Judge of Probates for the county of Gloucester in 1883. Mr.
DesBrisay is a past master of St. John’s lodge of Freemasons, Bathurst.
He is a member of the Church of England, and has served as warden of St.
George’s Church, Bathurst, for many years, and also as delegate to the
Diocesan Synod. He is a lawyer of excellent moral character as well as
legal standing. He married, in 1851, Jemima Swayne, daughter of David
Swayne, of Dysart, Scotland, and has five children—four sons and one
daughter. Lestock, the eldest, is a clergyman and rector of Strathroy,
Ontario; Andrew Normand, is in mercantile business in Minneapolis; T.
Swayne, is an attorney and barrister practising with his father; Charles
Albert is a graduate of the Royal Military College, Kingston (class
1880, the first that graduated), and a civil engineer now practising his
profession in Minnesota, and Lucy Isabella is at home.
* * * * *
=Simcoe, John Graves=, Lieutenant-General, the first Governor of Upper
Canada, was born in the town of Cotterstock, Northamptonshire, England,
in 1752, and was the eldest son of Captain John Simcoe, commander of
H.M.S. _Pembroke_, who was killed at Quebec, in the execution of his
duty, in the year 1759, while assisting Wolfe in his siege of that city.
On young Simcoe first going to school, at Exeter, at a comparatively
early age, he attracted considerable notice from all with whom he came
in contact for his proficiency in everything that the school taught; and
he was, undoubtedly, the _dux_ of the school. At the age of fourteen he
was removed to Eton, where he acquired new honours. After remaining at
Eton a short time, he was removed to Mereton College, Oxford. From
college, in his nineteenth year, he entered the army, either he or his
guardians having selected that profession for him. He was appointed to
an ensigncy in the 35th regiment of the line; and as hostilities had
already commenced with the United States of America, he was despatched
to the seat of war to join his regiment. He arrived at Boston on the day
of the battle of Bunker Hill, and took an active part afterwards, as may
be seen, in the great American war, when the American colonists threw
off their allegiance to Great Britain, and declared themselves
independent. Ensign Simcoe, having served some time as adjutant to his
own regiment, purchased the command of a company in the 48th, with which
he fought at the battle of Brandywine, and where he displayed (although
very young) his courage and professional attainments by the active part
he took in the day’s proceedings. Unfortunately he was severely wounded
at this engagement. Captain Simcoe was always a soldier in his heart,
and attentive to every part of his duty. He already saw that regularity
in the interior economy of a soldier’s life contributed to his health,
and he estimated the attention of the inferior officers by the strength
of a company or a regiment in the field. His ambition invariably led him
to aspire to command; and even, when the army first landed at Staten
Island, he went to New York to request the command of the Queen’s
Rangers (a provincial corps then newly raised), though he did not obtain
his desire till after the battle of Brandywine, in October, 1777. The
Queen’s Rangers, under command of Simcoe, acquired new laurels, and were
justly celebrated, as was their leader, for their several gallant deeds
and exploits. During the rest of the American war, or until their
disbandment, they bore part in nearly every engagement which took place;
but, unfortunately, being situated at Gloucester Point, opposite
Yorktown, when the latter place was besieged by the allied French and
American army, the Rangers, as well as the other portions of the British
army under Lord Cornwallis’s command, were surrendered by that nobleman
to the victorious insurgents. With the surrender of Gloucester Point the
active existence of the Rangers terminated. The officers were afterwards
put upon half-pay, and their provincial rank retained to them in the
standing British army. The war for independence virtually ceased with
the capture of Yorktown, and Colonel Simcoe returned to England, greatly
fatigued by his late arduous duties, and greatly impaired in his
constitution. The king received him in a manner which plainly shewed how
grateful his Majesty was for the great services he had rendered; and all
classes of society received him with the most affectionate regard, and
shewed him every demonstration of their attachment. Not long after his
return he entered into the marriage state with Miss Guillim, a near
relation to Admiral Graves, a distinguished officer engaged in the
American war. He was elected to represent, in 1790, the borough of St.
Maw’s, Cornwall, in the House of Commons, which place he continued to
represent, with equal honour to himself and his county, until the
passing of the bill dividing the province of Quebec into two provinces,
to be called Upper and Lower Canada, when he was selected as the first
governor of Upper Canada, whither he proceeded, in 1791, with his wife
and family, and took up his quarters at Niagara, then called Newark,
where he held his first parliament in September, 1792. Upper Canada was
then in a comparative state of wilderness. We cannot picture to
ourselves a more dismal or a more thoroughly dejected colony than was
the province at the time of which we speak. Governor Simcoe, however,
entered upon his duty with a resolute heart. Newark, now Niagara, was
made the seat of government, which consisted of a Legislative Assembly
and Council, the former containing sixteen members only, while the
latter was still smaller; and a parliament was convened so early as the
17th September of the same year. He also appointed an Executive Council,
composed of gentlemen who had accompanied him out, and some who already
resided in the province. He had the whole country surveyed and laid out
into districts, and invited as much immigration as possible, in order to
swell the population. For this purpose, those parties who so nobly
adhered to the cause of Britain in the revolted colonies, and which are
chiefly known by the sobriquet of United Empire loyalists, removed to
Canada, and received a certain portion of land free. Also, discharged
officers and soldiers of the line received a certain portion of land
gratuitously; and all possible means were employed to further the
projects of the governor. A provincial corps was raised, by command of
the king, and Colonel Simcoe was appointed colonel of it. This corps he
called the “Queen’s Rangers,” after his old regiment. Becoming
dissatisfied with the position of Newark as the provincial capital, he
travelled westward as far as Detroit, and back, without having come to
any fixed conclusion. He resolved to inspect the northern shore of Lake
Ontario, and for that purpose set sail from Newark on Thursday, the 2nd
May, 1793, and on the morning of Saturday, the 4th, entered the harbour
of Toronto. A short distance from the entrance to the harbour were
several wigwams, inhabited by Mississaga Indians. This was the “town” of
Toronto, which Governor Simcoe determined was to be the future capital
of Upper Canada. He quartered a number of the Queen’s Rangers there, and
improved the site and vicinity of the projected city to a great extent.
Roads were constructed, so that a proper communication could be kept up
between town and country. A schooner ran weekly between Newark and York,
and couriers were sent, overland, monthly to Lower Canada. Of course the
population increased, and the young province began to consider itself
wealthy. In 1794, Simcoe was promoted to the rank of major-general; and
in 1796 he was appointed to be commandant and governor of the important
island of St. Domingo. Thither he, with his family, proceeded, and there
he held the local rank of lieutenant-general. Though he remained only a
few months, he greatly endeared himself by his kind and considerate
government of the island, not only to all the residents, but to the
natives themselves; and a contemporary justly remarks that, “short as
was his stay, he did more than any former general to conciliate the
native inhabitants to the British government.” In 1798 he was created a
lieutenant-general; and in 1801, when an invasion of England was
expected by the French, the command of the town of Plymouth was
entrusted to him. We do not hear of him again until 1806, when the last
scene in this great man’s life was to come to a close. France had long
been suspected of a design to invade Portugal, and, the affair being
apparent to England, public attention was called to the critical
situation of that country; and as Portugal was the only surviving ally
of Britain upon the continent, means must necessarily be employed to
assist her. In this critical juncture, Lieutenant-General Simcoe and the
Earl of Rosselyn, with a large staff, were immediately sent out to join
the Earl of St. Vincent, who, with his fleet, was in the Tagus; and they
were instructed to open, in concert with him, a communication with the
court, so that they would ascertain whether danger was very imminent,
and, if so, employ means to guard against it. But, alas, in such a
glorious undertaking, which probably would have crowned him with fame
and honours, Simcoe was never destined to participate to any extent. On
the voyage thither he was taken suddenly ill, and had to return to
England, where he had only landed when his eventful life was brought to
a close. He breathed his last at Torbay, in Devonshire, at the
comparatively early age of fifty-four, after having honourably served
his country during many years in a variety of occupations—regretted by
all, from the simple soldier whom he had commanded to the friend of his
heart and his boon companion.
* * * * *
=Robb, David W.=, Manager of the Foundry and Machine Shops of A. Robb
and Sons, Amherst, Nova Scotia, was born at Amherst on the 9th May,
1856. His father, Alexander Robb, the founder of the works he manages,
is a gentleman very much respected by his fellow citizens. His mother is
Emmeline Logan, daughter of David D. Logan, of Amherst Point. David
received his educational training at the County Academy at Amherst, and
had begun the study of mechanical engineering when his father’s health
gave way in 1872, in consequence of which he had to assume business
responsibilities, and since that time has been actively employed in the
foundry and machine business, which has now grown to large proportions
under his careful management. Mr. Robb is a member of the order of
Freemasons, having joined this organisation in 1882. In 1881 he
reorganized the fire department in his native town, and has been its
chief engineer ever since. He is a member of the Liberal-Conservative
Association of Amherst, and an active supporter of Sir Charles Tupper,
minister of finance, who represents the county in the Dominion
parliament. Mr. Robb, like his father, is a member of the Presbyterian
church, and, like him, a public spirited gentleman. He was married on
the 15th June, 1872, to Ida S., daughter of Dr. Nathan Tupper, and niece
of Sir Charles Tupper. The fruit of this marriage is three children—two
boys and a girl. Frederick B., second son of Alexander, we may add, is
the financial manager of the firm of A. Robb and Sons.
* * * * *
=Fraser, Hon. Judge John James=, Q.C., Fredericton, New Brunswick, was
born in Nelson, Northumberland county, N.B., on the 1st of August, 1829.
His father, John Fraser, was a native of Inverness, Scotland, who
emigrated to New Brunswick in 1803. He first settled in Halifax, Nova
Scotia, and remained there until 1812, when he moved to Miramichi, New
Brunswick, where he went into business as a lumber merchant and
shipbuilder on Beanbear’s Island, and carried on these branches of trade
for a number of years. He was also extensively engaged in the
exportation of salmon, which at that time was a very profitable
enterprise. John James Fraser received his early educational training at
the Newcastle Grammar School, and adopted law as his profession. In
October, 1845, he entered the office of the late Hon. John Ambroise
Street, and in 1850 passed his examination as an attorney. In January,
1851, on the appointment of the Hon. Mr. Street to the office of
attorney-general, Mr. Fraser removed to Fredericton, and remained with
that gentleman until 1854. He was admitted to the bar in 1852, and made
a Queen’s counsel in 1873. Mr. Fraser devoted his attention closely to
his profession until 1865, when he entered the political arena, and was
returned to the Provincial parliament as representative for York county,
in conjunction with Messrs. Allen, Hatheway, and Needham, as champions
of the anti-confederation movement, confederation being the then burning
question of the day. In 1866, the Smith government having been compelled
to resign, a general election ensued, and on Mr. Fraser presenting
himself for re-election, a strong feeling was manifested against him,
and at the close of the poll he found that his opponent had carried the
day. In June, 1871, he was appointed a member of the Legislative Council
and president of the Executive Council in the Hatheway-King
administration, and held both positions until the death of the Hon. Mr.
Hatheway in 1872, when he resigned. He was afterwards offered the
position of provincial secretary to the government led by the Hon. Mr.
King, and this he accepted. He then again appeared before his
constituents, and was re-elected by acclamation, and the county of York
he continued to represent until May, 1878, when the Hon. Mr. King
retired from provincial politics. Hon. Mr. Fraser then became
attorney-general and leader of the government, and this position he held
until the 24th May, 1882, when he resigned, and offered himself as a
candidate for the representation of York in the House of Commons, but
was defeated. In December, 1882, he was, on the decease of Mr. Justice
Duff, appointed a judge of the Supreme Court. He was married in
September, 1867, to Martha, eldest daughter of the late Alexander
Cumming, a merchant of Fredericton, and had by her two children, both of
whom are dead. Mrs. Fraser died in March, 1871. In May, 1884, he was
married to Jane M. P., daughter of the late Mr. Justice Fisher, of
Fredericton.
* * * * *
=Green, Harry Compton=, Postmaster, Summerside, Prince Edward Island,
was born at North Street, Eleanor, P.E.I., on the 30th April, 1817. He
is the second son of the Hon. Samuel Green, and Elizabeth, his wife, who
emigrated to Prince Edward Island from London, England, in 1808. Henry
received his first educational training in the village school, and
afterwards studied in the Charlottetown Academy, under Professor Brow
Waddle. After leaving school he devoted himself to farming, and from
1839 to 1856 he farmed extensively on his freehold estate on North
Street, Eleanor. In 1841 Mr. Green was appointed road commissioner and
commissioner of small debts, and in 1842 he was created a justice of the
peace. In 1851 he was appointed high sheriff of Prince county. In 1857
he went into mercantile business, and continued in this line until 1866,
when he was appointed collector of customs for the port of Summerside.
From 1858 to 1868 he occupied the honourable position of mayor of
Summerside; and in 1871 he was appointed postmaster, which position he
still holds. He joined the ancient and honourable order of Freemasons in
1858, and has been treasurer of his lodge, King Hiram, for nearly seven
years. He was brought up and has always continued to be an Episcopalian
in his religious views, and has frequently held the office of
churchwarden, both in St. John’s Church, Eleanor, and St. Mary’s Church,
Summerside. In March, 1850, he was married to Elizabeth C. Ellis,
daughter of Robert Ellis, formerly of Bideford, Devon, England.
* * * * *
=Fogo, Hon. James=, Pictou, Nova Scotia, Judge of Probate for the county
of Pictou, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on the 30th June, 1811. His
father, James Fogo, senior, came to Pictou in 1817, and died there in
1868, aged eighty-one years. His mother was Elizabeth McClure, who was
born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and died in Pictou, in 1879, aged
eighty-nine years. Judge Fogo received his education at the Pictou
Academy, under the tuition of that celebrated teacher and educator, the
Rev. Thomas McCulloch, D.D., and was the classmate of Governor
Archibald, Sir William Ritchie, now chief justice of the Dominion of
Canada, and other gentlemen who have attained celebrity in different
walks of life. He studied law in the office of Jotham Blanchard, then
one of the most eminent practitioners at the bar in eastern Nova Scotia,
and was admitted as an attorney of the Supreme Court in May, 1837, along
with Charles Young, now the Hon. Dr. Young, LL.D., judge of the
Surrogate Court for the province of Prince Edward Island, both of whom
obtained _optimes_ on their examinations. This, therefore, is the year
of Judge Fogo’s professional jubilee. In 1838, according to the practice
then existing, he was admitted as a barrister of the Supreme Court.
Judge Fogo obtained the judicial appointment which he now holds on the
30th December, 1850, and has ever since, with the exception of a short
interregnum which took place on a change of government in 1864,
discharged the duties of his office with marked ability and satisfaction
to the public. He is well read in the learning of his profession, and
his judgments have almost invariably been sustained by the Supreme Court
in cases of appeals from his decisions. In 1851 he was offered the
solicitor-generalship of an adjoining colony, but an indisposition to
sever his connection with Nova Scotia induced him to decline the
acceptance of the offer. In his early years, before accepting his
judicial position, Judge Fogo was an active politician in the Liberal
interests, and on several occasions was urged by his friends to accept a
nomination as a candidate for the representative branch of the
legislature, but a regard to his personal interests prompted otherwise,
as he preferred the active duties of his profession to the turmoil and
uncertainty of political life. He was at one time connected with the
provincial militia, and on the 23rd July, 1864, obtained the commission
of major, having previously held the commission of first and second
lieutenants in the service. He was created a Queen’s counsel by the
Local government in 1878, his commission giving him precedence as such
in all courts of the province over all other Queen’s counsels appointed
after 23rd October, 1833. He was also, on the 27th July, 1879, appointed
a master in Chancery, now called a master in the Supreme Court. On the
11th October, 1880, he obtained the appointment of Queen’s counsel from
the Dominion government, when such appointments were ruled _ultra vires_
of the Provincial government, and since the date of his commission he
has been appointed by the presiding judge to conduct the criminal
business at each and every sitting of the Supreme Court at Pictou. Judge
Fogo was first married in December, 1846, to Jane, daughter of the late
Rev. John McKinlay, A.M., of Prince Street Presbyterian Church, Pictou,
who died in 1848, leaving one daughter, Charlotte Jane, who, on the 27th
of April, 1870, was united in marriage to the Hon. John F. Stairs, then
of Dartmouth, now of Halifax, and ex-M.P. of the House of Commons, and
who, to the great grief of her family and friends, died of that dreadful
malady, diphtheria, on the 28th May, 1886, leaving five children, her
son Walter, of the age of two and a half years, or thereabouts, having,
two days previously, fallen a victim to the same disease. This
dispensation of Providence naturally inflicted much mental suffering to
the subject of our sketch, as his daughter was an only child, gifted
with superior abilities, of a joyous and happy disposition, and
consequently a great favourite in the social circle wherever she moved,
and though the healing salve of time may cicatrize the wound occasioned
by her early and unexpected death, the scar will still remain. The judge
was married the second time to Elizabeth Ives, daughter of the late
James Ives, of the city of Halifax, architect. The judge has the
comforts of life in a liberal measure, and the mind and heart to enjoy
them. He is said by his friends to be a pleasant and effective speaker.
His mode of address is full of life and animation, and being gifted with
a luxuriant imagination and playful fancy, his public exhibitions afford
gratification to his auditors. He is a member of the Presbyterian
church. Though advanced in life, his age rests lightly upon him, and
none, to look at him and mark his quick and agile step, would dream that
he is now in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He has a delightful
residence at Belleville, opposite the railway station on the Pictou side
of the harbour, and which is thus described in “Meacham’s Illustrated
and Historical Atlas of the County of Pictou”:—“The building
represented to our view is a classical villa, after the Tuscan manner,
and was built by its proprietor in 1854. It is very beautifully
situated, and affords a most commanding view of the surrounding country.
The scene which is presented to the spectator on a summer day, when
shipping in the harbour is brisk, and vessels of all descriptions are
plying to and fro upon its waters, is one of an exceedingly pleasing and
animated character, and presents a panorama which is rarely equalled,
and difficult to surpass. The property is noted for the valuable free
stone in which it abounds, and which is now commanding an extensive sale
beyond the limits of the county, many thousands of tons having been
disposed of to rebuild the bridges on the Intercolonial Railway, by a
gentleman to whom the owner sold a few acres some years ago, leaving
untouched, however, extensive areas of superior stone for building
purposes, which brisker times would soon call into requisition.”
* * * * *
=Fothergill, Rev. Matthew Monkhouse=, Rector of St. Peter’s Church,
Quebec city, was born in Cefnrhychdir, Monmouthshire, Wales, England, on
the 11th November, 1834. His father was a leading agriculturist in South
Wales, and frequently carried off valuable prizes at Lord Tredegar’s
agricultural show for short-horns, thorough-bred horses, and mountain
sheep. Rev. M. Fothergill received his education at Ottery St. Mary,
Devonshire, King Edward’s Grammar School, Ely, and at St. Augustine’s
College, Canterbury, England. In 1857 he came to Canada, and made Quebec
his home, and here he was ordained by the late Bishop Mountain. He was
then appointed travelling missionary, and did good service for the cause
of the Master in this capacity. For twelve years he was a rural dean,
and was the first incumbent of the new mission of Danville. After having
built St. Augustine’s Church at Danville, he was called to Quebec city,
and made rector of St. Peter’s Church, which position he now occupies.
Rev. M. Fothergill is an active man, and outside his ministerial duties
he has found time to help in other directions. For fourteen years he has
held the position of secretary to the Church Society, is chaplain to the
Marine and Emigrant Hospital, and Government inspector of public
schools.
* * * * *
=Longley, Hon. James Wilberforce=, M.P.P., M.E.C., Attorney-General of
Nova Scotia, Halifax, was born on the 4th January, 1849, at Paradise,
Annapolis county, Nova Scotia. His father, Israel Longley, who was of
English descent, was grandson of James Longley, a United Empire
loyalist, who settled in Annapolis county at the end of the American
revolutionary war. This gentleman took an active part in all the
political questions of his day, and was twice a candidate in Annapolis
for parliamentary honours in the Liberal interest, but failed on both
occasions to secure his election. His mother, Frances Manning, was the
youngest daughter of the Rev. James Manning, a pioneer Baptist minister,
who came from the north of Ireland, and settled in Annapolis county, and
laboured there in the cause of his divine Master until his death.
Attorney-General Longley was educated at Acadia College, where, in June,
1871, he received the degree of B.A., and in 1875 the degree of M.A. In
1871 he began the study of law in Halifax, finished his law studies at
Osgoode Hall, Toronto, Ontario, and was admitted to the bar of Nova
Scotia 10th September, 1875. In 1875 he was appointed a commissioner of
the Supreme Court, and a notary public, and in 1878 he was chosen law
clerk of the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia. On the 20th June, 1882,
he was elected to represent Annapolis county in the House of Assembly of
Nova Scotia, and in October of the same year he was made a commissioner
for revising and consolidating the statutes of the province. In July,
1884, Mr. Longley was sworn in as a member of the Executive Council, and
on the 25th June, 1886, was appointed attorney-general for his native
province. On the 15th June, 1886, he again contested Annapolis county
for a seat in the legislature, and was re-elected. Attorney-General
Longley is a member of the Alumni of Acadia College, and an
ex-president; has been an active member of all the liberal organizations
in the province for the past fifteen years, and is ex-president of the
Young Men’s Liberal Club of Halifax. He takes a great interest in
literary matters, and since 1872 has been a regular contributor to the
editorial columns of the _Acadian Recorder_, a regular daily Halifax
paper, and also writes on political subjects in various magazines. In
politics he is an ardent Liberal, and an uncompromising opponent of the
government led by Sir John A. Macdonald. He believes in unrestricted
trade relations with the United States as a substitute for the national
policy; is opposed to Imperial federation for the reason that the
interests of Canada are more closely identified with this continent, and
is in favour of the complete abolition of the Senate and all second
chambers whatever. In religious matters, though brought up in the
Baptist faith, he prefers to give his adhesion to the Episcopal church,
with no very high denominational preference. He was married on the 3rd
September, 1877, to Annie Brown, of Paradise, and has issue four
children, two boys and two girls.
* * * * *
=Humphrey, John Albert=, M.P.P. for Westmoreland, New Brunswick,
Moncton, was born at Southampton, Nova Scotia, in 1823, and is the
second son of William and Mary Trueman Humphrey. The father and mother
of William Humphrey, the grandparents of the subject of this sketch,
came from Yorkshire, England, in 1775, to Halifax, and purchased a farm
at Falmouth, near Windsor, Nova Scotia, and remained there until 1797,
when William Humphrey died. Three years afterwards his widow and five
children removed to Sackville, New Brunswick, where William, her second
surviving son, married in 1821, Mary, daughter of William Trueman, who
emigrated from Yorkshire, England, in 1775, and settled at Pointe du
Bute. The young couple resided at Sackville after their marriage until
1822, when they removed to Southampton, Nova Scotia, and here John
Albert first saw the light. Here, and subsequently at Amherst, and at
the Mount Allison Wesleyan Academy, Sackville, he received his
education. After leaving school he went into business, and from 1845 to
1849 conducted a general milling business for his father, when he
purchased what is now known as the Humphrey’s Mills, at Moncton, and
removed there. In 1872 he was elected to represent Westmoreland county
in the legislature of New Brunswick, and again in 1874 he was returned
by the same constituency, but in 1878 he was defeated. He, however,
again presented himself for parliamentary honours in 1882, and was
elected, and at the general election in 1886 he was honoured once more
by being made a member of the Provincial parliament. Mr. Humphrey is
now, and from the inception has been, a director in and one of the
largest stockholders of the Moncton Gas Light and Water Company,
organized in 1878; is a director in and one of the largest stockholders
of the Moncton Sugar Refining Company, organized in 1880, and a director
and large shareholder in the Moncton Cotton Manufacturing Company,
organized in 1883. Mr. Humphrey is also the chief owner of the Moncton
woollen manufactory, at Humphrey’s Mills, started in 1884. In religion,
he is an adherent of the Methodist church, as nearly all his father’s
family have been for the past three generations. In politics he is a
Liberal-Conservative, and a strong supporter of the school system, of
the union of the provinces, and of the national policy. In 1855, Mr.
Humphrey married Sarah Jane, eldest daughter of Michael S. Harris,
shipbuilder and merchant, of Moncton.
* * * * *
=Garneau, Hon. Pierre=, Quebec, Member of the Executive Council, and
Commissioner of Crown Lands for the province of Quebec, was born at Cap
Santé, Quebec province, on the 8th May, 1823. His ancestors came from
France in 1636, and were a family held in high estimation. Hon. Mr.
Garneau received his education in his native parish, and shortly after
leaving school removed to Quebec city, where he entered into business,
and after some years became a leading merchant and public spirited
citizen. In 1870 he was elected mayor of the city, and performed the
high and important duties of the office so faithfully that on the
expiration of his two years’ term he was unanimously re-elected for
another two years. He was chief promoter, and became president, of the
Quebec and Gulf Ports Steamship Company (now the Quebec Steamship
Company); was president of the Quebec Street Railway for fifteen years,
when he resigned in 1878; was a government director of the North Shore
Railway for many years; and a member of the Canal Commission in 1870. He
is a director of the Quebec and Lake St. John Lumber and Trading
Company; of the Deléry Gold Mining Company; of La Banque Nationale; of
the Quebec Fire Assurance Company; vice-president of the Quebec and
Levis Electric Light Co.; and a member of the Quebec Board of Trade. In
September, 1874, Hon. Mr. Garneau was appointed a member of the
Executive Council, and became commissioner of Agriculture and Public
Works for Quebec province; and shortly afterwards held the portfolio of
Crown Lands. In March, 1878, the de Boucherville government, of which he
was a member, having been defeated, he resigned with his colleagues. He
was first elected to the Quebec legislature on the 11th March, 1873, for
the county of Quebec, on the resignation of the sitting member; and was
re-elected at the general election in 1875. He was an unsuccessful
candidate at the general election of 1878, and remained out until 1881,
when he was again returned by acclamation. At the general election, held
in 1886, he was again forced to retire; but in January, 1887, he was
appointed a member of the Legislative Council for De la Durantaye, and
became commissioner of Crown Lands in the Mercier administration. Hon.
Mr. Garneau was the head and only surviving partner of the well-known
wholesale dry goods firm of P. Garneau et Frère, a firm that has been
held in the highest repute for years throughout Canada and Europe, and
is now senior partner of the firm of P. Garneau, Fils & Cie. In politics
he is a Conservative, and in religion a member of the Roman Catholic
church. In September, 1857, he was married to Cecilia Burroughs,
daughter of the late Edward Burroughs, a well-known and highly respected
prothonotary of Quebec. Two sons have been the issue of this marriage.
* * * * *
=Beaton, Alexander H.=, Medical Superintendent of the Asylum for Idiots,
Orillia. The province of Ontario makes generous provision for the part
of its population that are unable to provide for themselves. The
provincial asylums for idiots, for the insane, the deaf, the dumb, and
the blind, are a credit to this young country. The proper management of
these institutions entails heavy responsibilities, not only upon the
government but upon the public servants who have them in charge. The
subject of this sketch, Dr. Alexander H. Beaton, has for ten years
occupied the position of superintendent of the Asylum for Idiots, at
Orillia, and deserves a full share of the credit due to our asylum
officials for the manner in which they discharge duties that are always
responsible and often trying and difficult. He was born on the 20th of
April, 1838, in the township of Pickering, county of Ontario, on the
farm on which the village of Whitevale now stands. His father, Colin
Beaton, emigrated from the Island of Mull, Scotland, in 1832, and was
one of the pioneer settlers of what is now the splendid county of
Ontario. His mother, Christina McKinnon, came from the same part of
Scotland in 1820. In those early days Canadian boys usually worked on
the farm during summer, and attended school in winter. Alexander H.
Beaton was no exception to this rule. His parents, like many of the
early settlers, could not afford to give their family a better education
than that which could be obtained in their own school section.
Fortunately for the Beaton family, the teacher in their section was
generally one of the best in the township. Alexander and his younger
brother, Donald, were among the best scholars in the school, and were
usually found in a prominent place when the teacher wished to “put his
best foot forward” on examination days. Both boys had resolved that
farming was not to be their life work. At the age of eighteen Alexander
obtained a second-class certificate and proceeded to take a place on
that “stepping stone” about which so much used to be said by those who
complained that many who are now among the most useful and prominent men
in the province, merely taught school as a way into some other vocation.
His first school was in the township of Vaughan, near Thornhill. In 1857
he taught at Duffin’s Creek, and in the following year entered the
office of Ross, Crawford & Crombie, barristers, Toronto, with the
intention of studying law. The way to the legal profession was, however,
soon blocked. He had not sufficient means to maintain himself in Toronto
for five years, and his father had suffered severely in the financial
storm which swept over the country at that time. It became necessary to
leave Toronto, mount the “stepping stone” again and earn more money. In
1860 and 1861 he taught in Claremont, in the township of Pickering, and
in the following year in Ashburn, township of Whitby. During these years
the intention of entering the legal profession was abandoned, and he
prepared himself for the study of medicine. In the session of 1862 and
1863 he entered the Toronto School of Medicine, and attended the Rolph
School in the summer of 1863, there being no summer session in the
Toronto School. Continuing his studies in the Rolph School, he was
graduated by that institution in April, 1864. Soon after graduation he
began the practice of his profession, and continued in practice for
twelve years. Nine years of the twelve were spent in Stayner, county of
Simcoe, where he enjoyed a large and lucrative practice, when appointed
by the Ontario government to his present position. By birth and choice
Dr. Beaton is a Presbyterian. Though in favour of wise progress in all
proper directions, he is at the same time wisely conservative in
ecclesiastical matters, and would readily be classed among the many
“solid men” of the Presbyterian family communion. He has for many years
been an office-bearer of his church, and takes a deep interest in all
matters affecting the welfare of Canadian Presbyterianism. He is liberal
in his support of the educational and other institutions of his church,
his contributions always ranking with the highest given in his locality.
In all his church relations Dr. Beaton is vigorously assisted by Mrs.
Beaton, who, along with the family to which she belongs, is devotedly
attached to Presbyterianism. Previous to his appointment to his present
position, Dr. Beaton took an active part in politics. By birth, training
and conviction he is a Liberal. Having a natural aptitude for public
speaking and no special dislike to the “roar around the hustings,” as
the late D’Arcy McGee once happily put it, his services were always in
demand at election times, and were freely given. He took an active part
in the exciting contests of 1872 and 1874, and whilst in political life
was always ready to do his full share of work and take his full share of
responsibility. In January, 1877, he was appointed to his present
position, the duties of which have been quietly but faithfully and
efficiently discharged. For the proper discharge of these duties Dr.
Beaton has many excellent qualifications. He is firm yet kind-hearted,
and has the faculty of seeing and appreciating honest worth and real
ability in his assistants. The success of an asylum superintendent often
depends as much on his tact in dealing with his assistants as on his
ability to care for the unfortunates placed under his charge. He readily
recognizes real worth, however humble the position of the employee who
manifests it, and nothing affords him more pleasure than to see
faithfulness and efficiency in his subordinates. In his dealings with
the patients under his care he is uniformly kind, his intercourse with
them savouring more of the paternal than of the official. He holds the
theory that almost any idiot can be educated, at least, to a certain
extent, and that it is the duty of the government, which in Ontario
simply means the people, to give the idiot population all the education
they are capable of receiving. It is assumed, Dr. Beaton argues, that
the province should provide a free education for the children that have
the proper use of their faculties of mind and body. How much more urgent
and binding is the duty of educating those who have impaired bodily
powers and the mere germ of an intellect? It is expected that in the new
asylum buildings now in course of erection at Orillia, ample provision
will be made not only for the care, but also for the training of the
patients. The superintendent will then have ample facilities for
carrying out his theory, and the unfortunates under his care will, in
addition to the comforts of a well-managed home, receive such an
education as their faculties permit. In 1870 Dr. Beaton was united in
marriage with Margaret Ann McNiven, daughter of Donald McNiven, then a
resident of Bradford, county of Simcoe, but at present residing in
Harriston, county of Wellington.
* * * * *
=Ross, Hon. William=, Collector of Customs, Halifax, was born at
Boulardarie, Victoria county, Cape Breton, on the 27th December, 1825.
His parents, John Ross and Robina Mackenzie, emigrated from
Sutherlandshire, Scotland, in 1816, and settled in Pictou, Nova Scotia,
and after remaining there five years removed to Boulardarie, Cape
Breton. William received his primary education in the public school of
his native place, and afterwards was sent to Halifax, where he completed
his studies in the Normal School of that city. In 1848 he began business
as a merchant in Englishtown, Cape Breton, and in this he continued
until 1874. During this period he was extensively engaged in prosecuting
the mackarel, herring, cod, and salmon fisheries, and also did a large
business in the cattle trade between Cape Breton and Newfoundland. For
several years he was postmaster of Englishtown. In 1861 he passed his
military examination, and was appointed colonel of the 30th regiment
Victoria Militia of Nova Scotia, and retired from active service in
1874. In 1859 Mr. Ross entered politics as a Liberal, and was returned,
under universal suffrage law, as a member of the Nova Scotian
legislature by a majority of 516. Again, in 1863, when the property
qualification law came into force, he was elected by a large majority,
and conscientiously opposed the Johnstone-Tupper government from that
time up to 1867, when he retired from local politics, and was elected by
acclamation for the county of Victoria, Cape Breton, to the House of
Commons at Ottawa, after having sat for eight years in the Nova Scotian
legislature. In 1872, on the occasion of a general election, he was
again returned by acclamation by his native county; and on the downfall
of the Sir John A. Macdonald administration in November, 1873, and on
the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie assuming the government, Mr. Ross was made
Minister of Militia. After his acceptance of this responsible office,
and on his presenting himself for re-election, he was stoutly opposed by
the Conservatives in his county, but, nevertheless, he was returned for
the third time, in February, 1874, to the Dominion parliament by
acclamation. Shortly afterwards the Hon. Mr. Ross retired from active
political life, and was appointed collector of customs for the port of
Halifax, and this important and responsible position he still continues
to fill. In 1852 he joined the Masonic fraternity, and for two years was
worshipful master of Virgin lodge, No. 3, Halifax; and was also twice in
succession elected high priest of Royal Union Chapter of Halifax. He is
now past deputy grand master of the Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia; and
although he has been repeatedly nominated as grand master, he has
refused the honour. He has occupied the position of vice-president and
president of the North British Society. He has travelled through
Newfoundland, part of the United States, and has visited every important
point in Canada as far west as Lake Harno. Hon. Mr. Ross is an adherent
of the Presbyterian church, and in politics is a Liberal. In March,
1855, he was married to Eliza H. Moore, daughter of P. H. Moore, of the
firm of Gammell and Moore, of North Sydney. The fruit of this marriage
was eight children, six of whom now survive.
* * * * *
=Labelle, Captain Jean Baptiste=, Montreal, M.P. for the county of
Richelieu, was born at Sorel, province of Quebec, on 27th May, 1836. He
is descended on the paternal side from a very old French-Canadian
family, the first of whom came from France as a soldier, and after
getting his discharge settled in the country. On the maternal side the
family also came from France, and has been many years in the country.
His father, Toussaint Labelle, was a navigator, and his mother was named
Marguerite Genton Dauphine. Captain Labelle received his education in
the parish school at Sorel; and as he grew up took to sailing craft on
the St. Lawrence river. He soon became an expert navigator, and for over
twenty-five years commanded one of the finest of the Richelieu and
Ontario Navigation Company’s passenger steamers, sailing between
Montreal and Quebec. In 1880 Captain Labelle gave up sailing, and
received the appointment of passenger agent at Montreal, of the Quebec,
Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway Company; and in 1883 he was made
general manager of the Richelieu and Ontario Navigation Company, which
position he still holds. In 1868, at the general election then held, Mr.
Labelle presented himself as a candidate for the Quebec Legislature for
Richelieu county, but was defeated by the small majority of nine against
him. At the general election held in 1887, he again presented himself to
the same constituency, and was returned as a member of the House of
Commons at Ottawa. As a commander, Mr. Labelle was one of the most
popular who ever sailed the St. Lawrence. He was noted for his courtesy
and forbearance; his ability, and his coolness and intrepidity, which he
exhibited on several occasions, especially during the inundation of the
Island of Sorel in 1865, and on the occasion of the burning of the
steamer _Montreal_, in 1857. In politics, Captain Labelle is a
Conservative; and in religion, a member of the Roman Catholic church. In
1856, he was married to Delphine Crébassa, daughter of Narcisse
Crébassa, notary, of Sorel, a remote descendant of a Spanish family that
at first emigrated to Holland, and from thence came and settled in
Canada.
* * * * *