Head-Quarters 1st Brigade2nd Div. 2nd Army Corps,Army of the Potomac, near Petersburg, Va.Nov. 3, 1864.Capt. Edson Fitch,Brig. In. 2nd Brig. 2nd Div., 2nd A.C.,Captain,—Having learned that you are about to retire from the military service of the United States government, I avail myself of what may be the only opportunity I shall have of communicating to you an expression of the high regard I entertain for you as a brave, competent, efficient and gentlemanly officer, and of the regret that you are to be even temporarily lost to the service which you have honored on so many occasions by your gallant conduct. As chief of staff of the brigade which I had the honor to command at the late battle at Hatcher’s Run, you in no small degree contributed to that success which won for our brave troops the encomiums of the generals commanding. To the consciousness of having faithfully discharged your whole duty, which you will carry with you to private life, I desire to add the assurance that you also have the confidence and kindest regards of your old comrades in arms, who still hope, at no very distant period, to welcome you again to the tented field.I am, Captain, very truly yours,Jas. M. Willet,Col. 8th N. Y. H. Art’y,Comdg. 1st Brigade.
Head-Quarters 1st Brigade
2nd Div. 2nd Army Corps,
Army of the Potomac, near Petersburg, Va.
Nov. 3, 1864.
Capt. Edson Fitch,
Brig. In. 2nd Brig. 2nd Div., 2nd A.C.,
Captain,—Having learned that you are about to retire from the military service of the United States government, I avail myself of what may be the only opportunity I shall have of communicating to you an expression of the high regard I entertain for you as a brave, competent, efficient and gentlemanly officer, and of the regret that you are to be even temporarily lost to the service which you have honored on so many occasions by your gallant conduct. As chief of staff of the brigade which I had the honor to command at the late battle at Hatcher’s Run, you in no small degree contributed to that success which won for our brave troops the encomiums of the generals commanding. To the consciousness of having faithfully discharged your whole duty, which you will carry with you to private life, I desire to add the assurance that you also have the confidence and kindest regards of your old comrades in arms, who still hope, at no very distant period, to welcome you again to the tented field.
I am, Captain, very truly yours,
Jas. M. Willet,
Col. 8th N. Y. H. Art’y,
Comdg. 1st Brigade.
In 1867, Captain Fitch came to Canada with the intention of organizing the business he is now engaged in, that of manufacturing match splints, and settled at Montmorency, Quebec, but was burnt out there. He then removed to Etchemin, county of Levis, where he established his business, and has had a most successful career. Twice he has seen his factory destroyed by fire, but his indomitable pluck and perseverance have carried him through. The business of manufacturing match splints is one the magnitude of which few outsiders can realize. The factory owned by Mr. Fitch is the largest of its kind in the world, making nearly ninety millions of matches in a single day To reach this almost inconceivable result, five hundred hands are employed, and no less than twenty millions of feet of timber are cut up in the course of a single year. Early in life Mr. Fitch connected himself with Masonry, having, in 1861, been initiated in Senate lodge, No. 456, G.R. of N.Y., held at Glen’s Falls. In 1868, desiring further knowledge in Masonry, he applied for the Royal Arch degrees to Stadacona Chapter, No. 2, G.R.Q., and was exalted in that chapter on 22nd October, 1868. In 1873, he affiliated with Tuscan lodge, No. 28, G.R.Q., held at Levis, and occupied the worshipful master’s chair in that lodge in 1876 and 1877. In 1877 he was elected grand senior warden of the Grand Lodge of Quebec, and in 1880 was appointed D.D.G. Master for Quebec and Three Rivers district, and held that office two years and a half. In 1882 he was unanimously elected deputy grand master of the Grand Lodge. In 1884, the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons chose him as their grand third principal; in 1885 and again in 1886 as grand second principal, and at the last meeting of the Grand Chapter, held in the city of Montreal, in January, 1887, he was placed, by the voice of the companions assembled, in the exalted position of grand first principal. He was one of the charter members of William de la More, the Martyr Preceptory of Knights Templars at Quebec, with which body he is still connected. He has been chairman of the Committee of Benevolence and Charity of the Grand Lodge since 1882. He is representative in Quebec of the Grand Lodge of California and Grand Chapter of Indiana. And he has always taken an active part in all matters pertaining to the craft in his district and province, and is an ardent supporter of the principle of Grand Lodge sovereignty. In politics Mr. Fitch is a Liberal; and in religion is an adherent of the Baptist church. He was married to Mary A., second daughter of the late James Bowen, of Quebec.
Badgley, Rev. Prof. E. I., M.A., B.D., LL.D., Victoria University, Cobourg.—Professor Badgley, of United Empire loyalist descent, was born in Prince Edward county, which county was also the birth place of his father and mother. At the time of the American revolution his great-grandfather owned a large landed property in the state of New Jersey, but having espoused the royalists’ cause, his property was confiscated. Preferring citizenship under the British Crown rather than in the Republic, he determined to find a home in the then wilderness of Canada. Pursued as an enemy and a fugitive, he suffered many hair-breadth escapes. For several days he lay concealed in his hayloft, where more than once the enemy searched for him, repeatedly walking over him as he lay buried beneath the hay. From this place of concealment he escaped to find refuge for three days in a potato pit. After many adventures scarcely less perilous, he finally was enabled to reach Canada, whither his family in due time followed him. They settled about six miles from Belleville, in what is now the township of Thurlow. Dr. Canniff, in his work on the “Settlement of Upper Canada,” mentions him and his sons as among the first settlers north of the village of Cannifton. His wife’s name was Lawrence, whom he married in England, and through that connection repeated efforts have been made to secure for the heirs a supposed fortune lying to their credit, so far, however, without any success. One of the sons, Professor Badgley’s grandfather, finally settled in Prince Edward county, from which place he went to Kingston to do service for his country, in 1812. By an exchange of property the family removed to Thurlow, where his mother, whose maiden name was Howard, still lives. With an ardent desire for a better training than the public school could furnish, Professor Badgley left the farm when seventeen years of age, and entered as a student at Belleville Seminary, afterwards Albert University. He graduated with the second-class in 1868, and immediately entered upon the work of the ministry, in connection with the late Methodist Episcopal church. After three years of successful labor, he returned to Albert College as an adjunct professor in metaphysics and mathematics. Three years later, on the election of Dr. Carman, president of the university, to the episcopacy, Professor Badgley was appointed to the chair of mental and moral philosophy, which he satisfactorily filled for a period of ten years. While in the ministry, and during the period he served as adjunct professor, he pursued a definite line of reading, and regularly graduated in both theology and law. As a result of Methodist union, Albert University was consolidated with Victoria, in 1884, since which date he has held the chair of mental philosophy and logic in the latter university. For several years Professor Badgley was a regular contributor to the editorial columns of theCanada Christian Advocate, and has frequently written for the “Canadian Methodist Magazine.” He was a delegate to the Ecumenical Methodist Conference, in London, in 1881, where he read an important paper on ministerial education. At different times and places he has delivered several addresses on metaphysical and philosophical subjects, the publication of which has been frequently requested. In May, 1887, he delivered the tenth annual lecture before the Theological Union of Victoria University, on “Faith,vs.Knowledge.” In 1870 he was married to Emma Bell, daughter of John S. Bell, Napanee, whose father was an officer in the British army, and on whose confiscated property a part of the city of Albany now stands. They have three children, two sons and a daughter.
McConnell, John, M.D., M.C.P.S.O., Toronto, Lieutenant 12th Battalion York Rangers, was born in the township of Scarboro’, on the 4th March, 1846. His father, John McConnell, served under Mr. Howard, of High Park, in the defence of Little York (Toronto), during the time of the William Lyon McKenzie rebellion. He was an adherent of the Methodist church, and acted in the capacity of local preacher for about forty years; he was also a justice of the peace, and a man greatly respected in his day. His mother, Elizabeth McGaw, was a daughter of the late Andrew McGaw, of Port Hope. Both families first settled in Scarboro’ about 1836. Dr. McConnell’s father, after a residence of about ten years there, bought the farm, lot twenty-three, second concession, of Markham, and removed there in 1849. The subject of our sketch was the fourth son of the above union, born in the old homestead in Scarboro’, and accompanied his parents to their new home. He received his primary education in the public schools of Markham, where he remained until 1859. Then he began to entertain ideas of supporting himself, and hired out to a farmer at $10 a month, for the summer season. This engagement completed, he returned home, and his father sent him to the Grammar School, Richmond Hill, then under the charge of the late Rev. John Boyd, B.A. Soon after he entered this school, Mr. Boyd resigned, and was succeeded by L. H. Evans, B.A., of Trinity College, under whose able tuition young McConnell remained for three years. Early in 1863 he underwent an examination, and succeeded in gaining a second-class A. certificate, which gave him great satisfaction. He then applied for a situation as teacher in a number of school sections, but owing to his youth, he did not succeed until December of that year, when he obtained a school in York township, with a salary of £67 10s. per annum, when he began his real battle with the world. During the following year he undertook the somewhat difficult task of preparing himself for a matriculation examination in the Toronto University, and also to prepare for a first-class certificate as a teacher. He succeeded in both, and moreover, secured an advance of £10 to his salary for the next year, which was of great use to him. During 1864 he commenced the study of medicine. In 1866 he left York township and removed to Scarboro’, where he secured a school at £90 a year. From here he was in the habit of driving thirteen miles four days a week to prosecute his medical studies in Toronto, and the following spring he matriculated in medicine. He continued teaching until October, when he relinquished his school and became a student in the Toronto School of Medicine. In the spring of 1867 he passed his primary examination at the University of Toronto, and was admitted as an undergraduate in the Toronto Hospital, and also placed in charge of the Burnside Lying-in Hospital, Sheppard street. Notwithstanding these somewhat onerous duties, he attached himself to the military school in connection with the 13th Hussars, a British regiment of cavalry then stationed at the New Fort, Toronto, under the command of the late Colonel Jennings, one of the heroes of the Light Brigade, and from whom he received many evidences of respect and kindness. He was attached as an officer of the Oak Ridge troop of cavalry, to which he had belonged from 1860, when, on the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales, it was stationed in Toronto, and was with this troop, under arms, at Richmond Hill (headquarters) during the Fenian troubles, in 1866. Before leaving the Military School, in the autumn of 1868, he received from Colonel Jennings a first-class certificate, which he is proud still to possess. He then returned to his lectures in the university—still retaining his position in the hospital—and worked hard both in and out of school, so that when the examination came on in the spring, he passed a most critical examination, and succeeded in securing the degree of M.B. He received his diploma on the 11th June, 1869, and commenced to practise his profession at Thornhill, township of Vaughan, York county, where he practised for fifteen years, when he removed to Brockton, in 1882, then a suburb of, and now part of, the city of Toronto. Shortly after taking up his residence in Brockton, he was elected reeve of the village by acclamation; and in 1884, when it was annexed to Toronto as St. Mark’s ward, the doctor represented it in the city council. He is coroner for the county of York, and has held the position of president of the West York Reform Association, and also of the Reform Association of Vaughan. In June, 1886, Dr. McConnell was gazetted second lieutenant of the 12th Battalion York Rangers, and in June, 1887, was attached to “C.” Royal School of Infantry, New Fort Barracks, Toronto, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Otter, and was awarded a second-class certificate, and received his commission as first lieutenant of the York Rangers. As a professional man, he is endowed with a kindly disposition, and is never slow to help any poor person-visiting his office for medical advice or medicine. Dr. McConnell has been for four years attendant physician to the Protestant Orphans’ Home, of Toronto, where two hundred orphan children are supported by the charitable people of the city and neighborhood, and his watchful care has not only been gratuitous, but productive of the most gratifying results. Besides practising his profession, he has interested himself in real estate, and is now one of the largest property owners in the ward of St. Mark. His career points a moral which our young men would do well to study, showing as it does that perseverance and attention to duty is a greater requisite to success in life than to be born to affluence. He was married previous to his beginning his practice, to Miss Powell, of York township, and during their residence at Thornhill, eight children were born to them, five daughters and three sons, and of these, three daughters and one son survive.
Roberts, Charles George Douglas, M.A., Professor of Modern Literature, King’s College, Windsor, Nova Scotia, was born at Douglas, near Fredericton, New Brunswick, on the 10th of January, 1860. His father, the Rev. G. Goodridge Roberts, M.A., rector of Fredericton, was the eldest son of the late George Roberts, Ph.D., a gentleman of English descent, formerly headmaster of Fredericton Collegiate School, and professor of classics in the University of New Brunswick. Our poet comes of a line of ancestors more or less conspicuous as scholars, upon both maternal and paternal sides. His mother, Emma Wetmore Bliss Roberts, daughter of the late Judge Bliss, also of Fredericton, comes of an old loyalist family, of which Emerson’s mother was a member. Mr. Roberts, the subject of this sketch, was educated at Fredericton Collegiate School, where he took the Douglas medal for classics. In 1877, while at the University of New Brunswick, he took a classical scholarship, with honors in Greek and Latin; in 1878, the alumni gold medal for an essay in Latin; and in 1879 graduating with honors in metaphysics and ethics. In this year he was appointed head-master of Chatham, New Brunswick, Grammar School. In 1880 his first volume of verse, entitled “Orion and other Poems,” was published by J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia; and in 1881 he took his degree of M.A., and according to the ordinary acceptation of the term, “finished his education,” though a man’s education may never truly be said to be finished while he is an inhabitant of this mortal sphere, and retains his faculties. Yet the foregoing statements prove that Mr. Roberts had acquired much knowledge at a very early age, and at a very early age was inspired by the soul of song. No one can doubt this who has read the following extract, which we take from his lines entitled “To the Spirit of Song”:
Surely I have seen the majesty and wonder,Beauty, might, and splendor, of the soul of song;Surely I have felt the spell that lifts asunderSoul from body, when lips faint and thought is strong.
Surely I have seen the majesty and wonder,Beauty, might, and splendor, of the soul of song;Surely I have felt the spell that lifts asunderSoul from body, when lips faint and thought is strong.
Surely I have seen the majesty and wonder,Beauty, might, and splendor, of the soul of song;Surely I have felt the spell that lifts asunderSoul from body, when lips faint and thought is strong.
Surely I have seen the majesty and wonder,Beauty, might, and splendor, of the soul of song;Surely I have felt the spell that lifts asunderSoul from body, when lips faint and thought is strong.
Surely I have seen the majesty and wonder,
Beauty, might, and splendor, of the soul of song;
Surely I have felt the spell that lifts asunder
Soul from body, when lips faint and thought is strong.
These lines are to be found on the first page of his volume, entitled “Orion, and other Poems,” and unquestionably show genius in the boy under twenty years of age, for it would have been impossible for any one not possessed of the soul of song to have conceived them. Had the first, third, fourth, eleventh, and thirteenth lines been equal to those we have quoted, the concluding line —
Lowly I wait the song upon my lips conferred
Lowly I wait the song upon my lips conferred
Lowly I wait the song upon my lips conferred
Lowly I wait the song upon my lips conferred
Lowly I wait the song upon my lips conferred
—would have made the picture of the dark-eyed, dark-haired aspirant for immortality, kneeling before the white-robed angel, a simply perfect creation. The poem “Orion” is an outcome of his early love for classical literature, and when we consider that it was written by a boy standing on the threshold of life, it is wonderful; and shows distinctly what he may attain in coming years, when at the zenith of his power. This poem contains many lines of unsurpassed beauty. We quote the following couplet, which is taken from that part of the poem which describes Orion lying upon the seashore in his utter wretchedness, when the drug administered by the king is beginning to affect him. The scene is described as, at the setting of the sun —
The deep-eyed Night drew down to comfort him,And lifted her great lids, and mourned for him.
The deep-eyed Night drew down to comfort him,And lifted her great lids, and mourned for him.
The deep-eyed Night drew down to comfort him,And lifted her great lids, and mourned for him.
The deep-eyed Night drew down to comfort him,And lifted her great lids, and mourned for him.
The deep-eyed Night drew down to comfort him,
And lifted her great lids, and mourned for him.
And again, later in the night, a slave comes with the king bearing a cup containing the juice with which he puts out Orion’s eyes, and a servitor bearing a torch, before whose light —
All the darkness shuddered and fled back.
All the darkness shuddered and fled back.
All the darkness shuddered and fled back.
All the darkness shuddered and fled back.
All the darkness shuddered and fled back.
And how beautiful are the lines sung by the weeping sea-nymphs —
We all are made heavy of heart, we weep with thee, sore with thy sorrow;The sea to its utmost part, the night from the dusk to the morrow.
We all are made heavy of heart, we weep with thee, sore with thy sorrow;The sea to its utmost part, the night from the dusk to the morrow.
We all are made heavy of heart, we weep with thee, sore with thy sorrow;The sea to its utmost part, the night from the dusk to the morrow.
We all are made heavy of heart, we weep with thee, sore with thy sorrow;The sea to its utmost part, the night from the dusk to the morrow.
We all are made heavy of heart, we weep with thee, sore with thy sorrow;
The sea to its utmost part, the night from the dusk to the morrow.
And again, when he regains his sight —
All the morning’s majestyAnd mystery of loveliness lay bareBefore him; all the limitless blue seaBrightening with laughter many a league around.Wind wrinkled, etc.
All the morning’s majestyAnd mystery of loveliness lay bareBefore him; all the limitless blue seaBrightening with laughter many a league around.Wind wrinkled, etc.
All the morning’s majestyAnd mystery of loveliness lay bareBefore him; all the limitless blue seaBrightening with laughter many a league around.Wind wrinkled, etc.
All the morning’s majestyAnd mystery of loveliness lay bareBefore him; all the limitless blue seaBrightening with laughter many a league around.Wind wrinkled, etc.
All the morning’s majesty
And mystery of loveliness lay bare
Before him; all the limitless blue sea
Brightening with laughter many a league around.
Wind wrinkled, etc.
But it may be that the genius of Mr. Roberts is nowhere so apparent as in a short poem of his that we have seen somewhere, entitled, “Off Pelorus,” the first stanza of which is an exquisite piece of word-painting, combined with the very soul of song. We quote from memory —
Crimson swims the sun-set over far Pelorus,Burning crimson tops its frowning crest of pine;Purple sleeps the shore, and floats the wave before us,Eachwhere from the oar-stroke eddying warm like wine.
Crimson swims the sun-set over far Pelorus,Burning crimson tops its frowning crest of pine;Purple sleeps the shore, and floats the wave before us,Eachwhere from the oar-stroke eddying warm like wine.
Crimson swims the sun-set over far Pelorus,Burning crimson tops its frowning crest of pine;Purple sleeps the shore, and floats the wave before us,Eachwhere from the oar-stroke eddying warm like wine.
Crimson swims the sun-set over far Pelorus,Burning crimson tops its frowning crest of pine;Purple sleeps the shore, and floats the wave before us,Eachwhere from the oar-stroke eddying warm like wine.
Crimson swims the sun-set over far Pelorus,
Burning crimson tops its frowning crest of pine;
Purple sleeps the shore, and floats the wave before us,
Eachwhere from the oar-stroke eddying warm like wine.
It is impossible to separate true poetry from its sister, painting, and here the two walk hand in hand. The rich coloring of the painter, the subtle thought and music of the poet, and all developed strongly, so as to come within the immediate grasp of ordinary intelligence. We have not seen Mr. Roberts’ prose writing, but we are informed that he has written much that is masterly in thought and style; can do good battle in a political discussion, and has peculiar and abundant gifts in the field of criticism. In 1882 he was appointed head-master of York Street School, Fredericton. In 1883 he accepted the position of editor ofThe Week, a Toronto weekly, from which he, finding his tastes did not harmonize with the director’s, retired in four months, when he returned to New Brunswick, and was there engaged with several literary undertakings, till his call, in 1885, to the University of King’s College, Windsor, Nova Scotia, as professor of English and French literature and political economy. In 1887 he published his most important work, “In Divers Tones” (Montreal: Dawson Bros.; Boston: D. Lothrop & Co.), which has been very favorably received. Professor Roberts is a contributor to most of the notable publications printed in the English language; among these may be mentioned “Longman’s,” “The Century,” “Wide Awake,” and “Outing.” Mr. Roberts is a member of the Church of England, and was married December 29th, 1880, to Mary Isabel Fenety, daughter of George E. Fenety, Queen’s printer, of Fredericton, New Brunswick. By this marriage he has three children.
Chicoyne, Jerome Adolphe, Advocate, Sherbrooke, was born on the 22nd August, 1844, at St. Pie, county of Bagot, province of Quebec. His paternal ancestors came over from France at the time Mr. de Maisonneuve was recruiting settlers for the colony of Ville-Marie. His name was Pierre Chicoyne, and his place in France was and is still called Channay, in the old Province of Anjou. He became proprietor of the fief Bellevue, in the parish of Verchères, which fief still belongs to his descendants. Members of the family continue to reside in the same place and vicinity in France, and intercourse is regularly kept up between them from both sides of the ocean. A new settlement, started in the township of Woburn, at the head of Lake Megantic, in the county of Beauce (where the subject of our sketch felled the first tree on the 8th December, 1880), is named Channay, as a reminiscence of the place wherefrom his ancestor came. Mr. Chicoyne was educated at the Seminary of St. Hyacinthe, and followed the usual course—eight years. He was admitted to the bar of Lower Canada on the 17th September, 1868, at Montreal; and after practising at St. Hyacinthe until 1872, was compelled to quit it in consequence of ill-health. He then became attached to the department of agriculture of the province of Quebec, as colonization agent, and has ever since been connected with the colonization movement in the Eastern Townships. In 1875 he left St. Hyacinthe with his family, and settled at La Patrie, one of the new settlements organized by him in his capacity of government agent. In 1880, he started a colonization scheme (under the patronage of both the Provincial and Federal governments) in France, which resulted in the influx of considerable French capital and immigrants to these townships. Some of the results may now be seen in the great progress achieved by the village of Megantic, in the county of Compton, and in the above mentioned settlement of Channay. In January, 1886, he took the direction ofLe Pionnier, the oldest French paper in the Eastern Townships, which paper has largely contributed to, and still helps, the settlement of that comparatively new section of the country. He took part for the first time in politics during the elections of 1867, in the Conservative interest, and is still, and has ever been a most devoted and faithful worker in the Conservative ranks. Mr. Chicoyne has made four trips to Europe, and has visited England, France, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy, and while in these countries studied the political economy and social questions of the age. In religion he is a member of the Roman Catholic church. On the 7th January, 1868, he was married at St. Hyacinthe, to Dame Caroline Perreault.
Elliott, Edward, Barrister, Perth, Ontario, was born in the township of Elmsley, county of Lanark, Ontario, on the 29th June, 1884. He is of Irish descent, his father, John Elliot, and mother, Rebecca Taylor, both having been born in Ireland. The family came to Canada in 1818, and shortly afterwards settled in Lanark. The subject of this sketch received his education at the Grammar School of Perth. In 1863 he began the study of the law with the late William Oscar Buell, barrister, in Perth. Mr. Elliott was admitted as a solicitor in Michaelmas term 1868, and called to the bar in Hilary term 1869. Though devoted to his profession, he has yet found time to serve his fellow-citizens in various capacities. For ten years he has been a member of the town council, during two of which he served as mayor, namely, in 1879 and 1880. He has been for some time a member of the Board of Education of Perth. In politics, he has taken an active interest, and was a candidate for parliamentary honors, on the Conservative side, in South Lanark, in 1879, but was defeated by only fifty-three of a majority. Again he contested the same riding, in 1883, but again suffered defeat; this time, however, by only twenty-nine of majority. He has resided in Perth since he commenced the study of the law, and is the senior member of the firm of Elliott & Rogers, solicitors, etc., doing a good law business. In 1882 Mr. Elliott was called to the bar of Manitoba. In 1880 he joined the True Britons’ lodge, No. 14, A. F. and A. M., and has taken an interest in the order ever since. He has travelled through the United States, and the greater part of Canada. In politics, he is a Liberal-Conservative; and in religion, is a member of the Church of England. He has held the office of warden, and is also a lay delegate to the Diocesan Synod. He was married on the 5th July, 1870, to Harriet, youngest daughter of the late John Rudd, merchant, Perth, and has a family of four girls.
La Rue, Thomas George, Quebec, Notary Public and Collector of Inland Revenue for the Dominion of Canada, in the division of Quebec, is descended from one of the most ancient French families in New France, represented by Jean de La Rue, who settled at Quebec in 1636, and married Jaqueline Pin, in 1663, one of the first pupils of the Ursuline nuns of Quebec. Thomas George La Rue was born at St. Jean, Orleans Island, on the 21st December, 1834, and is the second son of Nazaire La Rue, who was a lieutenant-colonel in the militia, and a notary public. His mother was Adelaide Roy. He was educated at the Laval University, and was admitted to practice his profession on the 4th February, 1856. Mr. La Rue is noted for the lively interest he, in common with the late Dr. Hubert La Rue, and his brother, a professor at the Laval University, has taken in agricultural pursuits in the province of Quebec. In 1867 he published, in theEvénementnewspaper, several essays, under the title of “Causeries Agricoles,” bearing on the experiments he had made on his farm on the Island of Orleans, and these were, in 1872, collected and issued in book shape by theJournal d’Agriculture de St. Hyacinthe, and distributed all over the province. He was a member of the Notarial Board for the province of Quebec, from 1862 to 1879, and was elected vice-president of it in 1876. In 1869, jointly with the Hon. Louis Archambault and Emery Papineau, his colleagues, he prepared the constitution which governs the Board of Notaries for the province of Quebec. For twenty-five years he was an active worker in the ranks of the Liberal party, and in 1862 acquired by purchase, assisted by the Hon. Ulric J. Tessier, now a judge in the Court of Appeal; Francis Evanturel, ex-minister of agriculture; the late G. Joly, seignior of Lotbinière, father of the present Hon. H. G. Joly; and J. G. Barthe, barrister, the journal known asLe Canadien. And this newspaper originated in its columns such a fierce opposition to the government of the day—the Cartier-McDonald—on the Militia Bill, that it compelled it to resign and give way for the formation of the McDonald-Sicotte administration. Mr. La Rue was mainly instrumental in securing for the Liberal party the parliamentary division of Quebec East, which, ever since the warmly-contested election of the Hon. Senator Pantaléon Peltier, in 1871, has remained until this day, a fortress to the party. In 1872 he came forward on the Liberal ticket, in the county of Montmorency, but was beaten at the polls by the late Jean Langlois, Q.C. In 1874 the McKenzie administration entrusted him, as a notary, with the settlement of the claims arising from seignorial dues in the province of Quebec. In 1878, Mr. La Rue finally withdrew from politics, and accepted the important appointment of collector of inland revenue for the division of Quebec, the duties of which he has continued to fill ever since. In 1857, he was married to Helen Marie Louise, eldest daughter of the late Pierre Guénette, a merchant in Quebec city.
Baynes, William Craig, B.A., was born in Quebec in 1809. He was educated in England for the service of the East India Company, but on the death of his father gave up the appointment, and later entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of B.A. in 1836. In 1839 he was summoned to receive his M.A., but had scruples of conscience as to taking the oath of conformity, and the higher honor was refused. Mr. Baynes came of a military family. His father saw service in Africa, where he assisted in the capture of the Cape in 1795, and in India, and was adjutant-general of the army in Canada and colonel of the Glengarry Fencibles in the war of 1812. Three of his sons also entered the army. Mr. Baynes married in 1841, and in 1843 returned to Canada, and settled in the neighborhood of Kingsey, where his father had purchased land. Here he carried on farming for twelve years, giving it up in 1856, when he received the secretaryship of the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning (McGill College, Montreal), which post he held continuously until his death, which took place on Sunday, 9th October, 1887. He leaves four sons. He was for many years the leading member of the Plymouth Brethren in Montreal, and generally conducted their services.
Strachan, John, LL.D., D.D., Bishop of Toronto.—The late Bishop Strachan was born at Aberdeen, Scotland, on the 12th of April, 1778, and received his early education at the Grammar School of that city, and finished his term at King’s College in 1796, when he got his Master’s degree. His father was a poor man, straitened in circumstances; yet, with the characteristic ambition of a Scotchman, he had determined that his son should be well equipped for future conflict with the world. He was only nineteen years of age when he was declared the successful candidate for the parochial schoolmastership of Kettle. There were nearly one hundred and fifty pupils in this school, among them Sir David Wilkie, the artist, and Commodore Robert Barclay, doomed to misfortune on Lake Erie, from no fault of his own. He remained at Kettle three years, when an invitation to Canada came to change the current of his life. It was towards the close of the eighteenth century that some liberal friends of education anxiously contemplating the establishment of a high school and university, bethought themselves of applying to Scotland for a teacher to whom they could confide the training of their sons, and, amongst those, the most directly interested was the Hon. Richard Cartwright, grandfather of the present Sir Richard Cartwright, a man of enterprise and far-sighted views. Mr. Strachan having been engaged for the purpose, towards the end of 1799 he sailed from Greenock, by way of New York, and arrived in Kingston on the last day of the year. His first experience of Upper Canada took the form of disappointment. Governor Simcoe, with that statesmanlike prescience that characterised him, had from the first made the establishment of a university his first and chief desideratum. But unfortunately the first governor had been removed before his patriotic scheme was carried into effect, and just when Mr. Strachan arrived at Kingston there seemed to be no prospect that either the university or grammar school system would be attempted for the present. Mr. Cartwright recognised the trying position of the young teacher, and generously set himself to work on his behalf. He had four sons himself, and his friends could add to the number of pupils, and so provide the young Scot with an honorable and fairly remunerative living until the plans of the government were matured. Mr. Strachan was a Presbyterian, but his father was an Episcopal non-juror—a champion of the lost cause of the Stuarts, and his earliest recollections of church services were those he attended with his father at Aberdeen, presided over by Bishop Skinner. Subsequently he habitually accompanied his widowed mother to the Relief Church, of which she was a member. He was only a Presbyterian by accident. When he arrived at Kingston, and was thrown in contact with the Rev. Dr. Stuart, who, although an Anglican, was the son of a Presbyterian, he was naturally attracted to the church of his father, so that when Mr. Cartwright and Dr. Stuart advised him to study divinity, the change was easily made, and the result was that the future bishop received deacon’s orders in 1803. The bishop of Niagara, who was afterwards one of his pupils at Toronto, has given a graphic description of Mr. Strachan’s methods, and of his remarkable success as a teacher. His great care was to interest the boys in their studies, and to draw out their latent capabilities by attractive means. To him education meant what its etymology implies, not cramming, but development. Perhaps no instructor could boast of a larger number of pupils who obtained eminence in after life. Chief Justice Robinson, and his brother, the Hon. W. B. Robinson, Chief Justices Macaulay and McLean, Judge Jonas Jones, Dean Bethune, of Montreal, and his brother, Bishop Strachan’s successor in the See of Toronto, the Hon. H. J. and G. S. Boulton, Col. Vankoughnet, father of the chancellor, Donald Æneas Macdonell, and others, sat at the feet of the ex-dominie of Kettle. Dr. Strachan removed to York, at theinsistance of General Brock, and, in 1812, became rector of York. For the first time he now entered the political sphere, by taking the initiative in forming a loyal and patriotic society. The times were out of joint; war was imminent, and with characteristic vigor the new rector came to the fore. There was a strong heart beating beneath the ecclesiastical vestments, and he had an opportunity soon of showing his mettle. When the long expected shock of war came on, there never was a busier or more useful man than Dr. Strachan. It has been remarked that when York was taken, he was “priest, soldier, and diplomatist,” all in one. At the capture of York, he was incessantly active. After the explosion by which General Pike was killed at the old fort, the Americans threatened vengeance upon the defenceless town which had been evacuated by General Sheaffe and his forces. The rector, however, was equal to the occasion; and, as a contemporary writer puts it, “by his great firmness of character, saved the town of York in 1813 from sharing the same fate as the town of Niagara met with some months afterwards.” The sturdy clergyman at once visited General Dearborn, and threatened that if he carried out his threat of sacking the town, Buffalo, Lewiston, Sackett’s Harbor, and Oswego, should be destroyed as soon as troops arrived from England. His earnestness and determination moved the American, and he spared the little Yorkers from any systematic burning and plunder. But all the danger was not over; marauding parties wandered about the town seeking for plunder, and not unfrequently were confronted by the sturdy little rector. On one occasion two American soldiers visited the house of Colonel Givens, who was an officer in the retreating army. The inmates were absolutely helpless, and the marauders made off with the family plate. Dr. Strachan at once went after them, and demanded back the stolen property. Under the circumstances this was a singularly courageous thing to do, and apparently a hopeless one. But the rector was a man of unwavering resolution, and managed at last, without any other weapon than that which nature had placed in his mouth, to secure the return of the goods to their rightful owner. The pluck and bravery displayed by him throughout that trying time showed sufficiently the real “grit” of the man, and the boldness and strength of will shewn then, characterized his life. In resolution and determined perseverance, he was every inch a Scot. In 1818 began Dr. Strachan’s public life in the ordinary sense of the term; for he was then nominated an executive councillor and took his seat in the Legislative Council. He remained a member of the government until 1836, and of the Upper House up to the union of the provinces in 1841. About the time of Dr. Strachan’s appointment as councillor, began the politico-ecclesiastical conflict which was only brought to a close within the memory of the existing generation. By the Imperial Act of 1774, which conceded to the Gallican clergy the right to collect tithes, provision was made for the support of “a Protestant clergy;” and in 1791, one-seventh of the lands was set apart for that purpose in Upper Canada under the name of Clergy Reserves. In 1819, the Presbyterians of Niagara petitioned the lieutenant-governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland, for a grant of £100 for the support of a Scottish Church minister, and boldly hinted that the grant should come from the funds arising from the Clergy Reserves. This memorial was forwarded in due course to Earl Bathurst, the colonial secretary, who replied that the reserves were intended for the established churches of England and Scotland, and not for “denominations” referred to by the governor. This despatch at once aroused Dr. Strachan, who in 1823 forwarded a memorial protesting against the attempt to distribute funds intended for the Anglican church. His somewhat narrow creed, political no less than ecclesiastical, to be rightly understood, must be viewed from his own standpoint, and it may be readily condoned when one contemplates his vigor and patriotic impulse. The law officers of the Crown decided that the Clergy Reserves were not intended exclusively for the Anglican church. As there were two established churches, each equipped with “a Protestant clergy,” they were of opinion that the Church of Scotland had an equal right with the sister communion to a share in the land endowment. They went still further and vindicated the claims of other Protestant denominations. No sooner was this conceded by parliament than the entire ground was cut from beneath the feet of those who advocated a monopoly in state support for religion. Before the Union of 1841, no less than sixteen measures which had passed the Legislative Assembly for the secularization of the Reserves were rejected by the Legislative Council. It was only after a bitter struggle, lasting over more than thirty years, it was finally set at rest by the Act of 1854. During the whole period Dr. Strachan was faithful to his principles, and could brook no compromise. In 1836 he resigned his place as executive councillor, and in 1839 became the first bishop of Toronto. The following year he ceased to be a member of the Legislative Council, and abstained thenceforth from taking any part in public affairs, save in that department which may be termed church politics. The other subject of intense interest with him was the Provincial University. Twenty-eight years elapsed before any attempt was made to carry out the project of Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe. In 1827 a Royal charter was granted in favor of King’s College. It was to be essentially an Anglican university. In the four faculties, all the professors were to be “members of the Established United Church of England and Ireland,” and were required “to severally sign and subscribe the Thirty-nine articles.” The only liberal provision in it was an exemption from any religious test on the part of students and graduates in faculties other than that of divinity. King’s College was not opened until 1843, and in 1850 all that made it valuable in the bishop’s eyes were eliminated. All that was distinctly Anglican disappeared. The faculty of divinity was abolished and, as far as education was concerned, “all semblance of connection between church and state,” proclaimed afterwards in the preamble to the Clergy Reserve Act, was done away. The venerable bishop was equal to the emergency, and started on a mission to Britain to raise funds, and in little more than six months he returned with the first fruits,—some sixteen thousand pounds sterling. In the spring of 1857 the corner stone of Trinity College was laid, and in the beginning of the following year the building was so far completed as to be fit for occupation. The Royal charter was secured in 1853. Thus, by the inextinguishable ardor and energy of one zealous prelate was the purpose of his life at last secured. In other directions, the memorable prelate certainly effected work of unquestionable value. So soon as the severance between church and state had been formally proclaimed, his administrative and legislative tact was employed in placing the Anglican church upon a sound governmental basis. To him the laity of that communion owe it that they are represented in the synods of the church as substantially as with the Presbyterians. The bishop’s later years were spent in efforts to extend the usefulness of the church to which he was so ardently attached, and during the evening of his long and eventful life he was universally respected by men of all creeds and political parties. He had lived in the province and been a conspicuous actor in its affairs from the days of Governor Simcoe to the opening year of confederation, and died on the 2nd of November, 1867, in the eighty-ninth year of his age, manful, energetic and courageous to the last. The last tribute of respect was paid to Bishop Strachan by the attendance at his funeral of the two universities, with whose early fortunes his name was indissolubly associated. The national societies, the clergy of all churches, Protestant and Catholic, all the civic dignitaries and institutions, were fully represented on the occasion, and it was not without significance that the troops, regular and other, lined the streets, and that the strains of martial music were heard at the burial of one who was first a churchman of the military type, and next a patriotic citizen.
Wallbridge, Hon. Lewis, Chief Justice of Manitoba, born in Belleville, Ontario, 27th November, 1816, and died at Winnipeg, on the 20th October, 1887, was a grandson of Elijah Wallbridge, a United Empire loyalist, who settled in Canada shortly after the American war of independence. His father was a lumber merchant of Belleville. The family emigrated from Dorsetshire, England, on account of having taken part in the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion against King James. Mr. Wallbridge received his education under the late Dr. Benjamin Workman in Montreal, and at Upper Canada College, Toronto. He studied law in Robert Baldwin’s office, Toronto; was called to the bar in 1839, and created a Queen’s counsel in 1856. In 1858 he was elected to the parliament of Canada, subsequently becoming solicitor-general, and a member of the Macdonald-Dorion government. In 1863, whilst holding the office of solicitor-general, he was elected speaker of the House of Commons, which position he occupied for a little more than four years, and presided over the debate on confederation at Quebec. After retiring from political life he practised law in Belleville, and on the death, in 1882, of Hon. E. B. Wood, chief justice of Manitoba, was appointed to succeed him. Hon. Mr. Wallbridge was one of the last survivors of a long line of prominent Canadian politicians whose records as such are, for the most part, now known only in history. It is almost fifty years since he first began the practice of his profession, and almost the lifetime of a generation since he first entered parliament. He was a moderate Reformer in politics. He was of a kindly genial disposition, and had many personal friends. He was buried at Belleville, Ontario.
Brodie, Robert, Merchant, Quebec, was born in Montreal on the 11th May, 1835. His parents, Charles Brodie and Elizabeth Kerr, emigrated from Innerleithen, Peeblesshire, Scotland, in 1831, and settled in Montreal. Robert, the subject of our sketch, received a common school education in his native city, and in 1850, when but a lad of fifteen years of age, entered the dry goods establishment of Henry Morgan & Co., the then leading retail store in Montreal, and continued in this business until 1855, when he removed to Quebec city. Here he entered the employment of his brother, Charles Brodie, who was at that time carrying on an extensive flour and provision business. In 1859 Charles Brodie died, when Robert, with his brother William, succeeded to the business, and continued to carry it on on a more extensive scale, under the firm name of W. & R. Brodie. In 1868, Thomas Brodie, another brother, was admitted a partner, the firm name remaining unchanged. The operations of the firm then further extended, and the three brothers are now doing the largest business in their line in the ancient capital. Besides an extensive local trade, they send to the Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia annually large quantities of flour and provisions. Outside of business hours, Mr. Brodie has taken an active part in whatever movement happened to be on foot calculated to improve the social condition of the people among whom he resided. He has been a total abstainer all his life, and was one of the first to join the Rechabites, when this temperance order was first introduced into Canada. When it was superseded by the order of the Sons of Temperance at a later date, he joined the new order, and for many years was one of its most active members. He is one of those who firmly believe in the doctrine that the liquor traffic must be ultimately suppressed by law. Apart from social reform, he has also been connected with most of the local enterprises originated in Quebec city during the past fifteen or twenty years, either as an assistant or promoter. He is a shareholder in the Quebec Steamship Company; the Quebec and Levis Ferry Company; the Quebec Fire Insurance Company; the Quebec Bank, etc. He, with others, originated the Quebec Worsted Company and is one of its directors. Mr. Brodie has been a member of the Protestant Board of School Commissioners for a number of years. This board is composed of six members—three being appointed by the city council and three by the local government, and he is the appointee of the city council. He has not had time to extend his travels beyond Canada, but he has visited nearly every point of interest in the Dominion. In religion, he is a Presbyterian. For a number of years he has been an elder in Chalmer’s Church, and was a commissioner from the presbytery of Quebec to the general assembly held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in June, 1887. He has always been a Liberal in politics, and gives a generous support to the Liberal party. In 1865 he was married to Jane, daughter of David Blair, of Lotbinière, Province of Quebec, who emigrated from Scotland in 1831.
Rourke, James, Manufacturer, St. Martin’s, New Brunswick, was born at Musquash, St. John county, N.B., on the 27th of June, 1838. His father was William Henry Rourke, a descendant of O’Rourke, one of the kings of Ireland. His mother, Phœbe Ann Cronk, born in Digby, Nova Scotia, came of a Lancaster, England, family. Mr. Rourke received his education in the schools of his native parish. He removed from Musquash in 1858, to Hopewell, Albert county, N.B., and in 1863 left Albert county and took up his permanent abode at St. Martin’s, where he now resides. Early in life he devoted himself to business pursuits, and is now extensively engaged in the manufacture and shipping of lumber at St. Martin’s. He is connected with the St. Martin’s Manufacturing Company; the Upham Railway Company; the North-Eastern Railway Company, and the Bell Telephone Company. He takes an interest in military affairs, and is captain of the St. Martin’s Rifles Company of Volunteers. He is a past master of the Masonic brotherhood, and is also a member of the order of Oddfellows. In politics he is a Liberal-Conservative, and is vice-president of St. Martin’s Liberal-Conservative Club. At the last general election he was nominated for a seat in the New Brunswick legislature for St. John city and county, but failed to carry his election, although he received a large vote. He was a member of the municipal council of St. John city and county from 1876 to 1886, but on his being appointed a valuator he resigned. However, he was again elected in 1887 to a seat in the council, as representative of his parish. He is an adherent of the Episcopal church. On the 16th March, 1871, he was married to Charlotte Wishart, daughter of Captain B. Wishart, a native of Scotland.
Ure, Rev. Robert, D.D., Minister of the Presbyterian Church, Goderich, Ontario, though a long resident of Canada,—having come to the country in 1842—is a Scotchman by birth. He was born in the parish of Shotts, Lanarkshire, on the 23rd January, 1823. His father, John Ure, was an iron founder in Dumbarton, Scotland, and, like many other enterprising men of his day, helped to develop the iron industries of his native country, and are now held in grateful remembrance by the toiling thousands in the south-west of Scotland. His mother was Barbara Dalziel. The Ure family, from which the subject of our sketch is descended, came originally from France, being Huguenots, and settled in Scotland. Robert received his primary education in his native parish, and when only nineteen years of age emigrated to Canada, and settled in Hamilton, Ontario. Having resolved to devote himself to the ministry, he for a time studied privately with the late Rev. Alexander Gale, M.A., Presbyterian minister, and then, in 1845, entered Knox College, Toronto, and completed his theological course in 1850. The same year he received a call to the Presbyterian Church in Streetsville, where he remained for twelve years. In 1862 he removed to Goderich, and here he has since labored with great acceptance, and is greatly beloved by his flock. Dr. Ure’s scholastic attainments are of a high order, and in recognition of this, Queen’s College, Kingston, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in May, 1876. For two years he lectured in Knox College, Toronto, on apologetics, still attending to his pastoral duties, but in consequence of ill-health he had to give up this lectureship. During the years 1879-80 he gave lectures on homiletics in Queen’s College, Kingston, and when the Knox College Alumni Association was formed, the doctor was chosen its first president. Dr. Ure took a conspicuous part in bringing about the union of the Presbyterian churches in Canada; first with the United Presbyterian Church, and secondly with that connected with the Kirk of Scotland. During the negotiations for the former union he was convenor of one committee, and the late Rev. Dr. William Taylor, of Montreal, of the other. When the scheme had been consummated, Dr. Taylor, being the senior, was honored by being chosen first moderator of the General Assembly of the united churches, and Dr. Ure had a similar honor conferred upon him by being its second moderator after the union. In the subject of education the doctor takes the deepest interest, and for a long period he served as grammar school trustee. He has a large parish, with two country stations attached, and has the advantage of an assistant. He is an eloquent preacher, and his sermons are noted for their earnestness and originality. He has been twice married. He was married to his first wife, Margaret Gale, sister of the late Rev. Alexander Gale, M.A., first Presbyterian minister of Hamilton. This estimable lady died in December, 1869. His present wife is Mary Fraser, widow of the late Sheriff Macdonald, of Goderich.
Taché, Eugene Etienne, Quebec, Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Province of Quebec, Provincial Land Surveyor for Upper and Lower Canada, and Architect, was born at St. Thomas, Montmagny county, on the 24th of October, 1836. His father was the Hon. Sir Etienne Paschal Taché, one of the fathers of confederation, and his mother, Sophie Morency. Mr. Taché, the subject of our sketch, was educated at the Seminary of Quebec, and at the Upper Canada College, Toronto. In 1862 he held a captain’s commission in the Chasseurs Canadiens in Quebec, and after his temporary removal to Ottawa, held for a time the position of lieutenant in the Civil Service Rifle Corps. He is also a captain in the sedentary militia of Quebec. In 1869 he received the appointment of assistant commissioner of Crown Lands for the province of Quebec, and this position he occupies now. As a surveyor, he has had considerable experience. For eighteen months, while studying this branch of his profession under Walter Shanley, C.E., he was engaged on the survey of the Ottawa Ship Canal. As an architect, too, he has done a good deal, having acted in this capacity in the erection of the Quebec parliamentary buildings, and the Quebec drill hall. He was also the designer of the handsome façades on the new court house, in Quebec. In the midst of his various duties he has devoted some time to travel, and in 1867 visited Britain, France, and Italy. He is the author of “Maps of the Province of Quebec,” of which he issued two editions, the first in 1870, and the second in 1880. In religion, Mr. Taché is a Roman Catholic. He has been twice married; first, in July, 1859, to O. Eleonore Bender, who died without issue; second, to Clara J. Duchesnay, daughter of the late Hon. Antoine Juchereau Duchesnay, senator. Five children have been born of this union.
Adams, Aaron A., Coaticook, province of Quebec.—Mr. Adams, who was born at Henniker, New Hampshire, United States, on the 2nd September, 1806, and died at Coaticook, on the 13th of August, 1887, at the ripe age of eighty-one years, came to Canada when only sixteen years of age, and made his home in the Eastern Townships. He went into trade in 1832, at Georgeville, then an important place, and removed to Barnston in 1837, where he continued to trade with the late M. W. Copp, and others until 1853. Then he took up his abode in Coaticook, then a straggling village of about a dozen houses. He traded here for some years in company with John Thornton, and was subsequently largely interested in mining operations, at the time it was very active in the townships. Of late years Mr. Adams’ private business was principally confined to farming. For the past fifty years scarcely any public enterprise, affecting the interests of this part of the townships, has been carried through without Mr. Adams’ active and cordial support. He was for many years a leader in municipal matters, and in perfecting Coaticook’s present municipal organization. He was a member of the first district council, and under the new order a member of Barnston Council, of which he was mayor for several years, and at different times warden of the county. He was a member of the first council of Coaticook and mayor, which office he held for several years of this first council, elected twenty-three years ago, only one member, A. K. Fox, now survives. Mr. Adams was an active promoter of the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railway, now operated by the Grand Trunk and connecting Montreal and Portland. He was also actively engaged in the Massawippi Valley road, now operated by the Passumpsic Company. The establishment of the Eastern Townships’ Bank was actively promoted by him. He was one of the first directors, and from 1880 to 1885 was vice-president of the institution. He was also for many years a director of the S. and S. Mutual Insurance Company. All local enterprises received active and substantial support from him. He was, from its foundation, a director of the flourishing industry, the Coaticook Knitting Company, of which he was vice-president at the time of his death. In religion, Mr. Adams was a Methodist, and most zealous and consistent in his belief and practice; he joined this church at an early age, and for many years was a class leader and Sunday school teacher in its service. Few men led a more active and useful life, and his death was greatly regretted by his numerous friends. He left a widow, two daughters, and two sons, namely: Mrs. Pomroy, of Compton; Mrs. Baker, of Haverhill, Mass.; A. F. Adams, of Coaticook; and George E. Adams, of Boston, United States.
Cimon, Hon. Marie Honorius Ernest, Fraserville, Rivière du Loup (en bas), a Puisne Judge of the Superior Court for the province of Quebec, was born at Murray Bay, province of Quebec, on the 30th March, 1848. He is a son of Cléophe Cimon, notary public of Murray Bay, who represented Charlevoix county in the Canadian Assembly from 1858 to 1861. His mother, Marie Caroline Langlois, was a sister of the late Jean Langlois, Q.C., a distinguished member of the bar of Quebec, who represented, for several years, the county of Montmorency in the House of Commons. Cléophe Cimon, the father of our sketch, was born at Murray Bay, January 30th, 1822, from the marriage of Hubert Cimon, by Angèle SimardditLombrette. Hubert Cimon, his grandfather, was born at l’Isle-Verte, province of Quebec, April 22nd, 1789, from the marriage of Jean Baptiste Cimon, by Marie Angélique Salomée MivilleditDechéne, and died in Bay St. Paul, county of Charlevoix, August 27th, 1854. Jean Baptiste Cimon, his great-grandfather, was born July 20th, 1751, at Rivière Ouelle, province of Quebec, from the marriage of Jean François Cimon, by Marie Dorothée Gagnon. This Jean François Cimon (whose name was then written Simon) was his first ancestor who came alone from France to settle in Canada, about the year 1744, leaving his father, Joseph Simon, with Jeanne Lefeuvre, his mother, in the parish of St. Pée, Evêché de Coutance, province de Rouen, en Normandie, France, where they were living. Judge Cimon was educated at Ste. Anne de Lapocatière’s College, Seminary of Quebec, and Laval University, where he became a licentiate of law (LL.L.) in June, 1871. He was called to the bar of Lower Canada on the 12th July, 1871, and took up his residence in Chicoutimi (Saguenay), where he practised from July 16th, 1871, to July, 1882. He acted as Crown prosecutor in Chicoutimi from 1873 to 1882, and from 1871 to 1882 his services were retained in all the important cases brought before the courts of that district. He sat in the House of Commons for the united counties of Chicoutimi and Saguenay from 1874 to 1882 as a Conservative member. For eleven years he was an active promoter of all the public enterprises in the Saguenay and Lake St. John country; and to his efforts and energy are due the telegraphic line to Chicoutimi, the Marine Hospital, the deepening of the river Saguenay. Members of the then House of Commons well remember how strongly he advocated the Federal subsidy, granted in the session of 1882 to the Quebec and Lake St. John Railway, and the other important public works obtained by his influence for the Chicoutimi and Saguenay counties. He was mayor of the town of Chicoutimi from 1881 to 1882, and also president of the St. Jean Baptiste Society of Chicoutimi. He was appointed a Queen’s counsel in January, 1882, and elevated to the Bench on the 20th July, 1882, with residence at Perce, Gaspé county; but soon afterwards, in June, 1883, was transferred to Joliette, province of Quebec. He received the commission of revising officer for the county of Joliette in October, 1885, and resigned this situation in May, 1886. He resided in Joliette for three years; but since April, 1886, he has administered justice in the district of Kamouraska. The Hon. Mr. Cimon was the recipient of congratulatory addresses, when appointed a judge, from the citizens of Chicoutimi, the bar of Perce, and from the bar of Joliette and l’Assomption on his arrival. He also received a farewell and complimentary address on leaving Joliette, soon followed by a welcome address from the bar of Kamouraska. In religion, he is a Roman Catholic, as his ancestors were. He married, January 27, 1880, Marie Delphine, only daughter of the late Pierre Antoine Doucet, judge of the Sessions of the Peace, Quebec, by Marie Thérèse Delphine, eldest daughter of the late Hon. Judge Bruneau, of the Superior Court, her godfather, and niece and goddaughter of Olivette Doucet, the wife of the well-known historian, Robert Christie, of Quebec, who for over thirty years represented the county of Gaspé in the old Canadian Assembly.
de Cazes, Paul, Secretary of the Department of Public Instruction of the Province of Quebec, was born in Britanny, France, on the 17th June, 1841, and came to Canada in February, 1858. He is the son of Charles de Cazes, who arrived in Canada in 1855, and settled in the Eastern Townships, where he purchased considerable property near Danville. This gentleman was elected member for the counties of Richmond and Wolfe in 1861, and died in 1867, being the only Frenchman by birth who has been a member of the Canadian parliament. Paul de Cazes studied at Paris atL’Institution Loriol, a preparatory or training school for the navy, and at the Polytechnic School. He obtained a certificate from the Military School at Quebec in 1865. He editedLe Messager de Joliette, andLe Courier de St. Hyacinthefor some time. He also owned and editedLa Nation, published at St. Hyacinthe; and was for five years a contributor toLe Monde, of Paris. He was admitted to the bar of Quebec in October, 1869, and practised law from that date until 1874 at St. Hyacinthe, in partnership with the Hon. H. Mercier, the present premier of the province of Quebec. In January, 1874, he was sent to Paris as agent for the Dominion, took part in the Paris Exposition of 1878, and was recalled in April, 1879. He was appointed an officer of the department of Public Instruction in April, 1880, and secretary of the same department in April, 1886. He was appointed a member of the Geographical Society of France in 1875, and member of the Royal Society of Canada at its formation. He was vice-president of the first section of the said Society from May, 1884, to May, 1886, and president of the same from May, 1886, to May, 1887, and he is a member of several other learned societies. He is the author of “Notes sur le Canada,” of which four editions have been printed, and of several essays and studies, published at various times in France and Canada. The papers contributed by him to the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada are the following:—“Deux Points d’Histoire”; “La Frontière Nord de la Province de Quebec”; “La Langue que nous parlons.” In religion he is a member of the Roman Catholic church. He married, on the 3rd November, 1869, Hermine St. Denis, sister-in-law of the Hon. H. Mercier, premier of the province of Quebec.
Ratcliffe, Rev. John Hepburn, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, St. Catharines, Ontario, was born in the township of East Whitby, county of Ontario, province of Ontario, on the 15th November, 1849. His parents, John Ratcliffe and Margaret Hepburn, were both born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, emigrated to Canada in the year 1833, and were among the pioneers of East Whitby. They belonged to that branch of the Presbyterian church known as the United Presbyterian church, which in 1861 united with the Free church, and formed the Canada Presbyterian church. At the age of fourteen, Hepburn Ratcliffe, their second son, the subject of our sketch, left the farm to engage in mercantile pursuits, but in the course of a few years was led to devote his life to the ministry of the Word. He entered Knox College in the autumn of 1869, and pursued his studies, first under the Rev. George Paxton Young, now the learned professor of metaphysics and ethics in Toronto University, and afterwards in the divinity classes, graduating in the spring of 1876. In October of the same year he was called to the pastoral charge of Ancaster and Alberton, and was ordained and inducted by the Presbytery of Hamilton on the 1st November. Here he continued to labor until May, 1883, when he became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, St. Catharines, where he is now laboring, and is very much respected by his people. He was married on the 11th January, 1887, to Margaret Fletcher, of Toronto.
Saint-Cyr, Dominique Napoleon Deshayes, Conservator of the Museum of National Instruction, Quebec, was born on the 4th of August, 1826, in the parish of St. Jean Baptiste de Nicolet, district of Three Rivers, province of Quebec. His father, Jean Baptiste Deshayes Saint-Cyr, was an honest farmer, and his mother, Josephte Lefebvre Descôteaux. They were both descended from old French families, having numerous representatives all over the province, and more particularly in the district of Three Rivers. After undergoing a successful course of classical studies at the College of Nicolet, Mr. Saint-Cyr proceeded to Sherbrooke, Quebec, at that time settled almost entirely by people of English descent, for the purpose of mastering a knowledge of the English language, teaching French meanwhile at the Lennoxville Grammar School from 1846 to 1848. He then founded the first French Catholic school ever established in Sherbrooke, teaching until 1850. (This school still exists in the town of Sherbrooke, in the same building in which it was started.) In August, 1850, he removed to St. Anne de la Pérade, and lived in that beautiful village until 1876, devoting twenty-six years of his life to the noble work of educating the youth of the country. In 1851, he received his diploma as model school teacher, and in 1859 that of academy teacher. In 1855, he was elected secretary-treasurer of the municipal council of Ste. Anne, and filled the duties of that office until 1863. During that period, the handsome bridge, 1,400 feet long, which crosses the river Ste. Anne, was built, and the same structure is still standing. In 1867 he was admitted a notary public. He attended the Quebec Military School in 1863, and received a first class certificate, and went into camp at Laprairie in 1864. In 1875 the subject of our sketch was induced to enter public life, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly for the county of Champlain by a majority of 122, at the general election which took place on the 7th July of that year. The constituents of his county elected him once more to represent them in the Assembly at the general elections held on the 1st May, 1878, by the handsome majority of 566. The favorite study of Mr. Saint-Cyr had been natural history, and, to have more freedom, he resolved, in 1881, to abandon public life, and to devote his time to the formation of a museum of specimens of natural history of the province of Quebec, with the result of forming the museum of public instruction, which is composed of large collections of plants, insects, fossils, minerals, etc., and for which he was awarded at the last provincial exhibition eleven diplomas, four medals, and two first prizes in cash, and this he considered sufficient reward for his untiring efforts. His appointment as conservator of the Museum of Public Instruction was confirmed by order-in-council on the 6th of April, 1886. In 1882, Mr. Saint-Cyr started on a scientific expedition to the Labrador coast and the islands, returning on the 20th September of the same year. He brought back with him a large number of plants, insects, shells (living and fossil), minerals, etc., to enrich his embryo museum. He made another voyage to the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1885, a report of which was published by order of the Legislative Assembly in April, 1886. A second edition of the same work, ordered, at the last session of parliament, to be printed, was issued in November, 1887. He also wrote for several years inLe Naturaliste Canadienon Canadian zoology, etc. At the present time he devotes all his energies to the enlargement and management of the museum entrusted to his care. On the 12th September, 1854, Mr. Saint-Cyr married Marie Rose Anne Amanda, a daughter, of Antoine Deshayes Saint-Cyr and Marguerite Emilie Ricard, by whom he had issue fifteen children, eight of whom still survive, five sons and three daughters. His residence is Ste. Anne de la Pérade.
Thomas, Benjamin Daniel, D.D., Pastor of the Jarvis Street Baptist Church, Toronto.—This popular divine is a Welshman by birth, having been born near Narberth, Pembrokeshire, on the 23rd January, 1843. He comes of a good stock. His parents were Benjamin and Jane Thomas. His father, the Rev. Benjamin Thomas, was pastor of the Baptist Church in Narberth for the long period of forty years. Dr. Thomas received his primary education in Graig House Academy at Swansea, where he spent four years, and then entered Haverford-West, the denominational college of South Wales, where he pursued a regular course of study, and graduated. Immediately on leaving college he was chosen pastor of the Baptist Church at Neath, Glamorganshire, where he successfully labored for six years. In the fall of 1868 he came to the United States, and soon after his arrival entered upon the pastorate of the Baptist Church in Pittston, Pennsylvania, where he remained nearly three years. In October, 1871, became pastor of the Fifth Church, one of the largest in Philadelphia, where he labored with great acceptance until he removed to Canada. In 1882 he was chosen as successor to Rev. Dr. John Castle, who had become principal of McMaster Hall (Baptist College), Toronto, and in October of the same year he settled as pastor of Jarvis Street Baptist Church. Here a large congregation attends his ministrations, to whom he has greatly endeared himself. As a preacher he is popular, and never fails to bring forth things new and old from Bible treasures, and presents them to his hearers in “thoughts that breathe and words that burn.” He contributes occasionally to religious papers and magazines; and a few years ago he published a small volume of great merit, entitled, “Popular Excuses of the Unconverted.” He favors all social movements having in view the elevation of the race, and labors earnestly to extend Christ’s kingdom on the earth. He was married in Wales, in 1864, to Mary Jones, but this estimable lady died in 1886, leaving six children behind, with their father, to mourn her early demise.
Richey, Hon. Matthew H., Q.C., D.C.L., Government House, Halifax, Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Nova Scotia, was born on the 10th June, 1828, at Windsor, N.S. He is the third son of the Rev. Matthew Richey, D.D., by his marriage with Louisa Matilda Nichols, a native of New York, but of English parentage, her grandfather having been one of John Wesley’s assistants, and of a Cornish family. Lieutenant-Governor Richey received his education at the Windsor Collegiate School, the Upper Canada Academy (Cobourg), of which his father was the first principal, the Upper Canada College (Toronto), and Queen’s College (Kingston), where he went through the usual course of study in the English branches and classics. He adopted law as a profession, and began its study in Windsor, N.S., in the office of the Hon. Lewis M. Wilkins, afterwards one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. He was called to the bar of Nova Scotia in 1850, and practised his profession in Halifax. In 1873 he was created a Queen’s counsel. He occupied a prominent position among his fellow-citizens of Halifax; sat as alderman in the city council during the years 1858-1864, inclusive; and was mayor of the city for six years, namely, from 1864 to 1867, and from 1875 to 1878. His attention to the duties of his office won general approbation. At the general elections held in September, 1878, he was first elected to represent Halifax in the House of Commons at Ottawa, and occupied a place in that house until his appointment to the position of lieutenant-governor on the 4th July, 1883, and this office he has since held with dignity and satisfaction to the people of Nova Scotia. While in political life he was a member of the Liberal-Conservative party. For some years he was president of the Halifax School Association, a society originated for the purpose of working reforms in the school system of his province; and in 1865, when the law establishing free schools came into operation, he was chosen one of the school commissioners, and served in that capacity for several years. When the University of Halifax was established he was appointed by the government one of the members of the senate of the university, and was also one of its examiners in jurisprudence and Roman law. Mount Allison Wesleyan College, Sackville, New Brunswick, conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.C.L. in 1884. Lieut.-Governor Richey has always manifested a strong inclination towards the promotion of social science, and formerly gave much time to literary and charitable institutions, which, in Halifax, are numerous and well conducted. Mr. Richey was for some years the president of the Halifax Society for the Prevention of Cruelty, and when a member of the parliament of Canada, was active in promoting remedial legislation in furtherance of the objects of such societies. His honor is an adherent of the Methodist Church of Canada. For six years, from 1854 to 1860, he conducted with marked success the denominational organ of that church in the Maritime provinces. While in the Dominion Parliament he did not often speak, but when he did so, was listened to attentively. During the session of 1879 he spoke on the then all-absorbing question—the tariff. In 1880 he was selected by the premier to move the answer to the Speech from the throne; and he led in the adjourned debate on the question of the fishery award, in a speech which covered a large field of constitutional law, and the relations of the provinces to the Dominion under the Act of Confederation. He was married on the 22nd June, 1854, to Sarah Lavinia, daughter of the late Hon. John Hawkins Anderson, for some time member of the Legislative Council, and receiver-general of the province of Nova Scotia, and called by Royal proclamation to the Senate of Canada, 1st July, 1867. Three children have been the fruit of their union. Hon. Mr. Anderson died in 1870.