The Ottawa Government has at last come to a determination which enables it to accept the resignation of Mr. Justice Berthelot. Nearly a year has elapsed since it was generally understood that Mr. Justice Berthelot desired to obtain that relaxation from judicial duties to which twenty years service had fairly entitled him, but as our readers are aware, ministers were seriously embarrassed in the disposal of this piece of patronage, and the learned judge was requested to defer his proposed relinquishment of official duties. Before reference is made to his successor, it is but justice to say a word or two respecting Hon. Judge Berthelot. If the hon. judge has not obtained the first rank of judicial fame, no one will venture to deny that he has occupied a most honourable position on the bench of this province, or that his services have been of a highly beneficial character. It were scant justice to say that his character has been constantly honourable, his impartiality unchallenged, and his intelligence of the most vigorous type. Laborious without complaining, diligent without ostentation, Mr. Justice Berthelot has never proved unequal to the arduous demands of his position. His knowledge of real estate and insurance law, extensive and profound, and his decisions upon these, as well as many other branches of the law, were received with the utmost respect and confidence. In determination of cases in which juries are more or less liable to be influenced by sympathy for the sufferers, he did not hesitate to adhere to those leading principles which have been consecrated by time and experience, in preference to yielding to impulses which might create a dangerous precedent. In fine, Mr. Justice Berthelot’s judicial career has been conscientious, able and upright, and entitles him to the gratitude of his countrymen.
The Ottawa Government has at last come to a determination which enables it to accept the resignation of Mr. Justice Berthelot. Nearly a year has elapsed since it was generally understood that Mr. Justice Berthelot desired to obtain that relaxation from judicial duties to which twenty years service had fairly entitled him, but as our readers are aware, ministers were seriously embarrassed in the disposal of this piece of patronage, and the learned judge was requested to defer his proposed relinquishment of official duties. Before reference is made to his successor, it is but justice to say a word or two respecting Hon. Judge Berthelot. If the hon. judge has not obtained the first rank of judicial fame, no one will venture to deny that he has occupied a most honourable position on the bench of this province, or that his services have been of a highly beneficial character. It were scant justice to say that his character has been constantly honourable, his impartiality unchallenged, and his intelligence of the most vigorous type. Laborious without complaining, diligent without ostentation, Mr. Justice Berthelot has never proved unequal to the arduous demands of his position. His knowledge of real estate and insurance law, extensive and profound, and his decisions upon these, as well as many other branches of the law, were received with the utmost respect and confidence. In determination of cases in which juries are more or less liable to be influenced by sympathy for the sufferers, he did not hesitate to adhere to those leading principles which have been consecrated by time and experience, in preference to yielding to impulses which might create a dangerous precedent. In fine, Mr. Justice Berthelot’s judicial career has been conscientious, able and upright, and entitles him to the gratitude of his countrymen.
Le Nouveau-Monde, on 29th of August, 1876, reprinting the above article from theGazette, accompanied it with the following remarks:
This testimony is corroborated by all those who had occasion to appreciate personally the talents, the carefulness, the integrity, and the knowledge displayed by this hon. judge in the exercise of his judicial duties. Some of his decisions in cases of the highest importance fully demonstrated the fact, that he was imbued with a sound judgment and a knowledge of jurisprudence and statutory laws sufficient to make his reputation and authority cope with that of the most distinguished judges who have illustrated our Canadian bench. Liberated from the toils and fatigues of the important position which he has just vacated, Judge Berthelot, we hope, will not withdraw entirely from public life, and the population of this province could still benefit by his great experience, his serious studies, and his deep knowledge of men and things, which he has acquired during more than twenty years on the bench.
This testimony is corroborated by all those who had occasion to appreciate personally the talents, the carefulness, the integrity, and the knowledge displayed by this hon. judge in the exercise of his judicial duties. Some of his decisions in cases of the highest importance fully demonstrated the fact, that he was imbued with a sound judgment and a knowledge of jurisprudence and statutory laws sufficient to make his reputation and authority cope with that of the most distinguished judges who have illustrated our Canadian bench. Liberated from the toils and fatigues of the important position which he has just vacated, Judge Berthelot, we hope, will not withdraw entirely from public life, and the population of this province could still benefit by his great experience, his serious studies, and his deep knowledge of men and things, which he has acquired during more than twenty years on the bench.
Judge Berthelot has since remained in private life, without an occasion to make himself useful to his country. Whilst he was practising at the bar, he had been often requested to enter parliament by several counties of the district of Montreal, and in 1858, when the division of Alma was to elect its first representative in the Legislative Council, he had been requested to be a candidate by a great number of the citizens of the division, one of the two candidates at that time being willing to withdraw in his favour if he accepted the candidature. But Mr. Berthelot had always refused, in order that his partners and friends, Sir L. H. Lafontaine and Sir George E. Cartier, be not deprived of the services he was rendering them, while these statesmen were engaged in political life, with so much credit to themselves and satisfaction for the country. Mr. Berthelot since that time has travelled several times in England, France and Italy, where he has made several friends, with whom he still keeps an active correspondence. In conclusion, we may say that during the second rebellion, in November, 1838, Mr. Berthelot was arrested and sent to gaol without cause or warrant, with many of the best citizens of Montreal, viz., Messieurs Lafontaine, the two Messieurs Viger, M. Papineau, a brother of the speaker, Dr. Lusignan, Mr. Fabre, Mr. DeBoucherville, sr., Amable Badeaux, his cousin, and his young friend Dr. Perreault. The latter was soon let free to attend his young wife. Mr. Berthelot, having inquired, by a letter addressed to Colonel Goldie, secretary of his Excellency the Governor, Sir John Colborne, for the cause of his arrest, expressing by his letter his readiness to be brought to trial, received no written answer, but a few days after was invited to leave the gaol and go to his home. At the same time he had also written to the late Andrew Stuart, solicitor-general, residing at Montreal, with whom he was well acquainted, representing in proper terms against his unjust detention, and always thought that he owed much to the interest of Mr. Stuart for his immediate release. Of Mr. Stuart, the solicitor-general, much can be said; that he was at least equal, if not superior to his brother, the late Sir James Stuart, chief justice of Quebec.
MacLeod, Rev. John M., Presbyterian minister of Zion church, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. This greatly respected divine was born at the West River of Pictou, in the province of Nova Scotia, on the 25th of August, 1827. His father, Ebenezer MacLeod, was also a native of the West River of Pictou. He was a man of fair education, of sound judgment, of extensive information, and of deep and fervent piety. He was for many years an elder in the congregation of Salem, Green Hill, and was secretary of what is claimed to have been the first temperance society in this Dominion. His parents were from Scotland. He was married to Barbara Benvie, daughter of James Benvie, of Musquodoboit, and died in the 82nd year of his age. The subject of this brief sketch, having received a good English education in the common schools of the country, entered a printing office in the town of Pictou, and served a regular apprenticeship to the printing business. He, however, in compliance with the earnest wish of his parents, resumed his studies with a view to the ministry. He entered the Pictou Academy, where for two years he studied Latin, Greek, natural philosophy, and mathematics, under Professors Bell and Hay. About this time the Presbyterian church of Nova Scotia, for the purpose of training a native ministry, opened what was known as the West River Seminary, the head teacher of which was the Rev. James Ross, D.D., afterwards principal of Dalhousie College, Halifax. Mr. MacLeod was one of twelve students who entered the first year this institution was opened. Here he took the regular arts course of four years, and studied theology three years under Rev. John Keir, D.D., and Rev. James Smith, D.D. He was licensed in the spring of 1853, was called to the congregation of Richmond Bay during the following summer, and after taking another term in the Theological Hall, was ordained and inducted into the pastoral charge of the above named congregation on the 9th Nov., 1854, where he laboured with much success for nearly seven years. During the fourth year of his ministry he was married to Amelia Parker, daughter of Francis R. Parker, of Nova Scotia, who for many years was a member of the Provincial legislature. He was married to his present wife, Mrs. L. G. Taylor, in 1879. In 1860 Rev. Mr. MacLeod accepted a call to Newport, Hants county, Nova Scotia, where he continued to labour with acceptance and success for ten years. While in Newport he declined a call to Boston, Massachusetts, and in 1870 accepted one to New Glasgow, Pictou, Nova Scotia. But there being at this time four Presbyterian congregations in the small town of New Glasgow, and Rev. Mr. MacLeod, believing that his labours were more required elsewhere, accepted a call to his present charge, into which he was inducted on the 19th of July, 1871. His labours in this field have been crowned with a fair measure of success. On two different occasions additions of over one hundred and twenty, mostly young persons, were made to the communion roll. Mr. MacLeod is at present clerk of the presbytery. He has held that position for twenty-one years in the Presbytery of Prince Edward Island, and for seven years in the Presbytery of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Sifton, Hon. John Wright, Brandon, Manitoba, was born in the township of London, county of Middlesex, Ontario, on the 10th August, 1833. He is the youngest son of Bamlet and Mary Sifton, who came from the county of Tipperary, Ireland, in 1832, and settled in London township. His ancestors on both sides were English. He received his education in the public and grammar schools of London. Up until 1860 he devoted his time to farming and other business, when he removed to Oil Springs, in Lambton county, and engaged in the oil business as producer and refiner. Here he purchased a large tract of oil lands immediately surrounding the famous gum beds, and afterwards sold them to an American company. This was the first foreign company that invested in Canadian oil property, and they continued to develop the resources of their territory until the enormous yield of oil at Petrolia made it impossible for them to successfully compete with this more productive locality. In 1870, Mr. Sifton removed to Paris, Brant county, with the object of having his children educated at the grammar school there; and in 1872, in company with his brother, contracted for and built forty miles of the track of the Canada Southern Railway. In 1873, he moved to London, and was appointed secretary of the Oil Association, and this office he held until the association ceased operations. In 1874, in company with two other gentlemen, whose interests he soon after bought out, he was awarded the contract for building and maintaining for five years a telegraph line from the city of Winnipeg to Fort Pelley, and clearing the track a hundred feet wide, for a distance of about three hundred miles, for the then contemplated Canadian Pacific Railway. Although this contract, when it was entered into, appeared to be one likely to give a fair profit, yet it afterwards turned out the opposite way. The fearful wet seasons of 1876, ’77, and ’78, flooded the country for forty miles east of Lake Manitoba, and sixty miles west along the line to, in some places, a depth of six feet, making it impossible to keep the line up, and as the Government refused to make any allowance for this, the loss was very great. Some idea may be formed of the difficulty of performing work in this country at that time, when we state that, one winter, provisions having ran out at one of Mr. Sifton’s camps, he had to send supplies by dog-trains 160 miles, and then have it carried on men’s backs, 60 miles further, making it to cost twelve cents per pound freight from Winnipeg to the camp, and at no time during the best part of the season could he deliver the same goods at their destination for less than five cents per pound freight. In 1875, the firm of Sifton, Ward & Co. were awarded the contracts for sections thirteen and fourteen of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and Mr. Sifton, the senior member of the firm, undertook charge of section fourteen, which commenced at Red River, and extended a distance of seventy-seven miles to Cross Lake. During this time he removed to Manitoba, settling at Selkirk, and here he remained until the completion of his telegraph and railroad contracts. The money involved in these two operations amounted to about a million and a half dollars. In 1879, he took up his abode in Winnipeg, where he purchased some real estate outside the city limits, and erected for himself a fine residence. Taking advantage of the “boom of 1881,” he sold out this property and moved to Brandon, where he now resides. Here he has invested a considerable sum of money in farming lands, and for four years succeeded in raising in each year from 10,000 to 18,000 bushels of grain. But the years of frost (1883, ’84, ’85) having made the raising of wheat or grain in large quantities a risky business, and the collapse in values of all kinds of property, especially real estate, have forced Mr. Sifton to suspend business operations in this direction for the present. However, from his experience of over twelve years in the North-West country, and a thorough practical knowledge of farming, he thinks that although extensive farming has been in the past, and may prove in the future from certain causes, a failure, when compared with Ontario, yet he is impressed with the idea that it cannot be equalled on this continent for fertility; always providing, however, that the present hindrances to its prosperity be removed. What Mr. Sifton wants for his country is fair competition in freights; the abolition of all monopoly; readjustment of our present tariff, so that it may have the same chance as Ontario; a reasonable homestead law that will not be changed every year, and pre-emptions at such a price that the settler can meet it in a reasonable time. If these concessions were made, he thinks the North-West would make such strides onward that the most sanguine of us would fail to realize. Mr. Sifton, during his busy life, has devoted time to other things besides purely business matters. In 1852, he became a member of the Order of the Sons of Temperance, and in 1854, he also joined the Good Templars, and has kept up his connection with these active temperance organizations to the present time. In 1867, he became one of the United Templars, and from 1876 to 1883 he acted in the capacity of president of their Grand Lodge in Manitoba. He was grand worthy chief templar of the Grand Lodge of Manitoba of the Independent Order of Good Templars in 1884, and is at present president of the Manitoban Branch of the Dominion Alliance for the suppression of the liquor traffic, and has been since its formation in 1879. He took the leading part in the contest for the Scott Act, when it was passed in the counties of Lisgar and Marquette. These counties extend over about three quarters of the old province of Manitoba. The act was carried by very large majorities,—more than two to one voting in its favour; but on account of the vagueness of the meaning of some of its provisions in reference to counties in Manitoba, and the impossibility of getting it amended, it still remains a dead letter. In politics, Mr. Sifton is a Liberal. In 1878, he received the unanimous nomination of the Liberal party for the Commons for the county of Lisgar, and organized and carried on the campaign up to the memorable day, the 17th of September, 1878. The 18th being nomination day in Manitoba, and the news reaching there of the defeat of the Mackenzie government, his committee had a hurried meeting on the morning before nomination, and decided that it would be better for the county if he would withdraw, and allow a supporter of the Macdonald government to be elected by acclamation, and this he consented to do. In the fall of the same year he received the nomination for the Local House for the electoral division of St. Clemens, and was elected by a large majority, and on the assembling of the house he was elected speaker. During the sitting of this parliament a redistribution bill was passed, giving the new settlers something like fair representation, which they had not hitherto enjoyed. At the next general election he ran for one of the new electoral divisions, and was defeated. In 1881, when the province was enlarged, he ran for the division of Brandon and was elected. In the general election of 1883 he was defeated; and again at the last general election for the division of West Brandon he met the same fate by a small majority. Mr. Sifton was reeve of Oil Springs and a member of the County council of Lambton during the years 1867, ’68 and ’69. He was chairman of the school board of same place in 1868-69, and was reeve of the municipality of Cornwallis for 1885-86, but declined the nomination in 1887. He has been a justice of the peace for the province since 1875. He has travelled over the whole of the Dominion of Canada, and is familiar with all parts of the United States north and south, and as far west as Omaha. Mr. Sifton is a member of the Methodist church from choice. Before the union he was a Wesleyan Methodist, and since then his opinions have not changed much on religious subjects, except that he has more confidence in those who differ from him in church affairs than he had in his younger days, and now has a greater love for and confidence in the teachings and doctrines of the church of his choice. He was a member of the General conference of 1882, and a member of the committee appointed by that conference to confer with committees appointed by other branches of the Methodist church on union. He was strongly in favour of union, and was a member of the conference held in Belleville when the union was consummated. At the conference in 1882, he took the leading part in having Manitoba and the North-West set apart as a separate annual conference, which was agreed to at that conference. He was also a member of the General conference held in Toronto in 1886. He is now a member of the general board of missions of the Methodist church, and has been a member of the local board of missions in the Manitoba and the North-West conference since its formation. He has also been a member of Manitoba and North-West annual conference since the admission of laymen, and is president of the Brandon branch of the Upper Canada Bible Society. He has always been actively engaged in Sabbath school and church work, and is superintendent of the Brandon Sabbath-school. And as for temperance work, he has spent much time and labour in this direction, and has spoken in almost every section of the country on the subject. He was married 1st October, 1853, to Kate, third daughter of James and Sarah Watkins, of Parsonstown, King’s county, Ireland, and has three children living. His oldest and only daughter, Sophia, was educated at Hamilton Female College, and is married to A. N. Molesworth, civil engineer, now construction engineer for the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba Railway Co. His oldest son, Arthur Lewis, graduated from Cobourg University in arts, studied law in Manitoba, was called to the bar in 1882, and is now practising law in Prince Albert. His youngest son, Clifford, graduated from Cobourg, and is a gold medallist; he studied law in Manitoba, was called to the bar in 1882 in his twenty-second year, and is now practising law at Brandon.
Armstrong, Rev. W. D., M.A., Ph. D., Pastor of St. Paul’s (Presbyterian) Church, Ottawa, Ontario, was born at Cavan, Durham county, Ontario, on the 28th of July, 1845, and is the son of John D. Armstrong, yeoman, of that place. After a preliminary education in the schools of his native place, he entered Upper Canada College, and soon attained to a front place in his classes. At the close of his term he carried off the Governor-General’s prize, and the classical, the mathematical, and modern language prizes. He then entered the Toronto University, and graduated from that institution in 1870, the silver medallist in metaphysics and ethics, and prizeman in Hebrew, Chaldee and Syriac. During his course in the university he also obtained a number of scholarships and prizes in various departments. After leaving Toronto University he took a course in theology in Knox (Presbyterian) College, Toronto, where he likewise distinguished himself. On the 14th of May, 1874, he was ordained pastor of his present charge, and has continued ever since (with one short break, when he was sent to Great Britain in 1883 for a few months, in the interest of the French Canadian missions), as the faithful exponent of Christ’s message of love to the world, greatly appreciated and esteemed by his congregation. In 1886, the Boston University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Rev. Dr. Armstrong has a strong liking for literature, and amidst his various arduous parish cares and duties, has found time to contribute a good many articles to the newspaper press, and publish several sermons. On the 29th of September, 1886, he married Jean W., daughter of Henry J. Johnston, of Montreal, a very accomplished lady, and one who has proved a true helper to him as minister of a large congregation.
Guthrie, Donald, Q.C., M.P.P. for South Wellington, Guelph, Ontario, was born on the 8th May, 1840, in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father was Hugh Guthrie, and his mother, Catharine Macgregor, sister of Patrick Macgregor, M.A., barrister-at-law, Toronto, a distinguished Gaelic and general scholar. Mr. Guthrie received his early education in his native city, and, when about fourteen years of age, he left his fatherland. He reached Toronto in August, 1854. Here he entered the office of the Hon. Oliver Mowat, as a junior clerk; and afterwards became managing clerk for John Helliwell, barrister. In 1859 he left Toronto and settled in Guelph as managing clerk for Fergusson & Kingsmill, barristers. The Hon. Fergusson-Blair, one of the partners of the firm, having retired in December, 1863, Mr. Guthrie was admitted into partnership, and the name of the firm was changed to Kingsmill and Guthrie. Under this style the business was carried on until Mr. Kingsmill was appointed judge of the County Court of Bruce, in January, 1867, when Mr. Guthrie became head of the firm, and has continued such ever since, the firm now being known as Guthrie and Watt. Mr. Guthrie was admitted an attorney in 1863; barrister in 1866, passing his examinations with distinction; and, in March, 1876, was created a Queen’s counsel by the Lieut.-Governor of Ontario, and by the Governor-General of Canada, October, 1885. In December, 1882, he was elected a bencher of the Law Society, and was re-elected for five years in April, 1886. Since 1863 he has been solicitor for the county of Wellington, and also for the same period he has been solicitor for the city of Guelph, and acts in this capacity for several other municipalities, banks, etc. He has been president of the Guelph Gas Company since its incorporation in 1870; is a director of the Guelph Junction Railway Company, and of the Wellington Hotel Company. He occupied the position of treasurer of the St. Andrew’s Society of Guelph, from 1862 to 1869, and in 1870 was chosen its president. Mr. Guthrie was elected a member of the House of Commons in 1876, as representative for South Wellington, and served until the general election in 1878, when he presented himself for re-election, and was returned by 303 majority. He continued in the House of Commons until the general election of 1882, when he voluntarily retired from active political life, with the view of devoting his whole attention for some years to his professional duties. However, in 1886, he once more sought parliamentary honours, and the sturdy Liberals of South Wellington sent him to the Ontario legislature as their representative on the 28th of December in the same year, by the handsome majority of 671. Mr. Guthrie was selected in February, 1877, to move the reply to the speech from the throne in the House of Commons; and on the 2nd March, 1887, he moved the reply to the Lieut.-Governor’s address in the Ontario legislature. While in the House of Commons—1876-78—Mr. Guthrie was a supporter of Mr. Mackenzie’s government, and was an active member of the special committee appointed to inquire into the affairs of the Northern Railway Company. This committee sat for several weeks, took an immense mass of evidence, and made an exhaustive report, which enabled the government to secure from the railway company a large sum in place of moneys improperly expended in elections, etc. Mr. Guthrie was also an active member of the Committee of Privileges and Elections at the time when it investigated the charges against Mr. Speaker Anglin, and other members, for alleged breaches of the Independence of Parliament Act. After the defeat of Mr. Mackenzie’s government in 1878, Mr. Guthrie, with his political friends, went into opposition. He actively opposed the new government on the tariff, the Letellier matter, the Canadian Pacific Railway contract, the disallowance of the Streams Bill, the Gerrymander Act, etc. Mr. Guthrie is a member of the Presbyterian church. On the 17th of December, 1863, he was married in Montreal to Eliza Margaret MacVicar, youngest daughter of John MacVicar, formerly of Dunglass, Argyleshire, Scotland, and latterly of Chatham, Ontario. Mrs. Guthrie is a sister of the Rev. D. H. MacVicar, D.D., LL.D., principal of the Presbyterian College, Montreal, and of the Rev. Dr. Malcolm MacVicar, professor of theology in the Toronto Baptist College (McMaster Hall), Toronto.
Hinson, Rev. Walter, Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Moncton, New Brunswick, was born at Chesham, England, on the 14th of May, 1858, and came to Canada in 1879. His father, Thomas Hinson, and mother, Mary Benwell, are both alive, and are residing in Hertfordshire, Eng.; he has a brother and sister in London. Rev. Mr. Hinson was educated at Hulme Cliff College in Derbyshire, and Harley House, East London, England. He studied for the ministry, and was ordained in 1880. He is a member of the Eastern New Brunswick Baptist Association, and the church of which he is pastor is one of the most important centres of religious activity in the district. It has a membership of between six and seven hundred, and over four hundred scholars in its Sunday-school. For general benevolence and Christian aggressiveness its record is good. Rev. Mr. Hinson has always been a total abstainer, and from early youth connected with temperance societies. He is at present a member of the Moncton Division, Sons of Temperance, and is considered one of the most aggressive of the temperance army in New Brunswick. Mr. Hinson was brought up among the Baptists, and very naturally feels greatly at home in, and is one of the leading lights of, the denomination. In the pulpit he possesses a peculiar power, his manner and matter being forcible and original, and we have no doubt there is a great future of usefulness before this young and rising divine. He was married in July, 1886, to Jennie A. Austin, of Herts, England.
Allison, Charles F.—The late Charles F. Allison, of Sackville, New Brunswick, who was born on the 25th of January, 1795, and died the 20th of November, 1858, at the age of sixty-three years, was the second son of James Allison, whose father, Joseph Allison, of Newton Limavady, county of Londonderry, Ireland, emigrated to Nova Scotia in 1769, and settled at Horton, Kings county, where he continued to reside until his death in 1794. James Allison married and settled at Cornwallis, where he lived and died at the ripe age of ninety years. Here Charles F. was born, and received his education at the Grammar school, and in 1812 moved to Parrsboro’, where he found employment as a clerk in the establishment of James Ratchford until 1817, when he went to Sackville, New Brunswick, and entered into partnership with the late Hon. William Crane, in a general mercantile business, and in this he continued until 1840. On the 4th of January, 1839, Mr. Allison addressed a letter to the chairman of the New Brunswick district of Wesleyan ministers, in which he proposed “to purchase an eligible site and erect suitable buildings in Sackville, in the county of Westmoreland, for the establishment of a school, in which not only the elementary, but thehigherbranches of education may be taught, and to be altogether under the management and control of the British conference in connection with the Wesleyan missionaries in these provinces;” and he proposed to give £100 ($400) per annum for ten years towards the support of the school. This generous offer having been accepted, he made arrangements to proceed with the erection of a suitable edifice for the academy—the corner-stone of which was laid on the 9th of July, 1840, and from that time to the close of his life in 1858, he devoted a large share of his time and business talent to watching over and promoting the financial interests of the educational enterprise which, under his fostering care, developed wonderfully. In addition to the $20,000 which he had given to establish the older branch of the institution, he gave $4,000 to aid in the erection of the ladies’ branch, which was opened in 1854; and in his will he left $2,000 for the academies, and $1,000 for the college whenever it should be organized. So that of the moderate fortune which he had accumulated before retiring from mercantile life in 1840, at least $30,000 were employed in founding and establishing the educational institutions which bear his name, and which stand as the enduring monument of the far-seeing wisdom and liberality of this unselfish Christian patriot. Mr. Allison was married to Milcah, daughter of John and Anne Trueman, on June 23rd, 1840. Mrs. Allison survived him, but died on the 14th of June, 1884. Mary, their only child, was born 1st Sept., 1847, and died 1st Jan., 1871. At the date of Mr. Allison’s demise,The Borderer, a local weekly paper, thus kindly alluded to him:
“Our sheet this week appears in mourning, because we are called to record the death of one whose removal is indeed a public loss, and one, too, of no ordinary magnitude. Almost every individual in our community feels the death of Charles F. Allison as a public bereavement. But far beyond the circle of personal acquaintanceship, everywhere throughout the lower British American colonies, Mr. Allison’s name has been known and his influence felt, as the most munificent public benefactor who has yet arisen in these provinces, to bless his country and benefit the world. Mr. Allison was a native of Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, but came to this place when a young man, and here carried on, in connection with his partner, the late Hon. Wm. Crane, an extensive business until 1840. In all his business transactions he was remarkable for diligence, promptitude, punctuality, and rigid honesty. He did not make haste to be rich by embarking in any rash speculation, being, doubtlessly, more inclined to thesafethan to therapidmode of acquiring wealth. He was, however, quite successful, so that when he was led, many years since, to the more earnest consideration of the fundamental doctrine of the Christian system of practical ethics, ‘Ye are not your own, but bought with a price,’ etc., he found himself in possession of a considerable amount of property, of which he evidently, thenceforward to the end of his life, considered himself but the steward; and as such he was eminently wise and faithful, so that, we doubt not, he has been greeted by his Divine Master with the commendation, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ A large portion of the last eighteen or twenty years of his life was most unostentatiously employed in various works altogether unselfish. The noble educational institutions which he founded, and which he has so largely helped to build up to their present state of pre-eminent usefulness, have occupied a great deal of his time and attention, for he not only cheerfully paid six thousand pounds and upwards to ensure their establishment, but without fee or reward discharged the onerous duty of treasurer, and watched and labored with parental kindness, solicitude and devotion, to promote their prosperity. These, we believe, will long stand, monuments of the wisdom as well as of the benevolence of the Christian patriot and philanthropist. We have not room to enlarge upon the modesty, gentleness, affability, and other traits of character which so endeared him to all who had the privilege of his personal acquaintance. Nor yet can we speak of the many ways in which his quiet influence will be so much missed in our neighborhood. ‘He rests from his labors, and his works do follow him.’”
“Our sheet this week appears in mourning, because we are called to record the death of one whose removal is indeed a public loss, and one, too, of no ordinary magnitude. Almost every individual in our community feels the death of Charles F. Allison as a public bereavement. But far beyond the circle of personal acquaintanceship, everywhere throughout the lower British American colonies, Mr. Allison’s name has been known and his influence felt, as the most munificent public benefactor who has yet arisen in these provinces, to bless his country and benefit the world. Mr. Allison was a native of Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, but came to this place when a young man, and here carried on, in connection with his partner, the late Hon. Wm. Crane, an extensive business until 1840. In all his business transactions he was remarkable for diligence, promptitude, punctuality, and rigid honesty. He did not make haste to be rich by embarking in any rash speculation, being, doubtlessly, more inclined to thesafethan to therapidmode of acquiring wealth. He was, however, quite successful, so that when he was led, many years since, to the more earnest consideration of the fundamental doctrine of the Christian system of practical ethics, ‘Ye are not your own, but bought with a price,’ etc., he found himself in possession of a considerable amount of property, of which he evidently, thenceforward to the end of his life, considered himself but the steward; and as such he was eminently wise and faithful, so that, we doubt not, he has been greeted by his Divine Master with the commendation, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ A large portion of the last eighteen or twenty years of his life was most unostentatiously employed in various works altogether unselfish. The noble educational institutions which he founded, and which he has so largely helped to build up to their present state of pre-eminent usefulness, have occupied a great deal of his time and attention, for he not only cheerfully paid six thousand pounds and upwards to ensure their establishment, but without fee or reward discharged the onerous duty of treasurer, and watched and labored with parental kindness, solicitude and devotion, to promote their prosperity. These, we believe, will long stand, monuments of the wisdom as well as of the benevolence of the Christian patriot and philanthropist. We have not room to enlarge upon the modesty, gentleness, affability, and other traits of character which so endeared him to all who had the privilege of his personal acquaintance. Nor yet can we speak of the many ways in which his quiet influence will be so much missed in our neighborhood. ‘He rests from his labors, and his works do follow him.’”
InThe Provincial Wesleyan, of the same week, published at Halifax, Nova Scotia, a similar notice of Mr. Allison’s death appeared, in which the writer said:
“He was a benefactor to his race, a blessing to his country, an ornament to the age in which he lived. He lived not for himself, but for his generation and for generations yet unborn. Fortune, this world’s wealth, he sought and won; but lavished it not on personal pleasures or selfish aggrandizement. His time and his means were freely given to the noble cause of securing to the youth of these provinces a sound, liberal, and religious education. His humility equalled his munificence. He thirsted not for fame. But he has left a monument for himself more noble than sculptured stone in the institutions he has reared, and with which his worthy name must be forever associated.”
“He was a benefactor to his race, a blessing to his country, an ornament to the age in which he lived. He lived not for himself, but for his generation and for generations yet unborn. Fortune, this world’s wealth, he sought and won; but lavished it not on personal pleasures or selfish aggrandizement. His time and his means were freely given to the noble cause of securing to the youth of these provinces a sound, liberal, and religious education. His humility equalled his munificence. He thirsted not for fame. But he has left a monument for himself more noble than sculptured stone in the institutions he has reared, and with which his worthy name must be forever associated.”
The Mount AllisonAcademic Gazette, in its first issue after the death of Mr. Allison, said:
“The relation which Mr. Allison sustained to the institution, and to all who were connected with it, was such as no other individual can ever sustain. His removal is, therefore, to it and to them an irreparable loss. The feeling of sadness and anxiety induced by this event must, therefore, with those who understand the matter, be altogether other than an evanescent one. But although we are sure that we shall find everywhere many to sympathise with us in our abiding sorrow as we think of the deep affliction which befell us and the institution when its father was taken from us, we think it more becoming for us to ask them to rejoice with us in gratefully acknowledging how much he was allowed to accomplish for it whilst he yet lived. Nearly nineteen years were added to his life after he had formed the noble design of founding such an institution, and during all these years he labored and studied and prayed for its prosperity, as its father only could do. The value of the services which he rendered to the institution, ‘not grudgingly, as of necessity,’ but ever most cheerfully, and, be it remembered, entirely gratuitously, cannot be estimated. Probably if an accurate account had been kept of them, charging for each item its fair business value, they would be found to amount to scarcely less than the sum of his princely money benefactions to the founding and establishing this institution. Certainly it may well be questioned whether the devotion of twice the six or seven thousand pounds, which he gave, would without such personal attention and services, have secured the establishment of such an institution as he has left to perpetuate the blessed memory of his name.”
“The relation which Mr. Allison sustained to the institution, and to all who were connected with it, was such as no other individual can ever sustain. His removal is, therefore, to it and to them an irreparable loss. The feeling of sadness and anxiety induced by this event must, therefore, with those who understand the matter, be altogether other than an evanescent one. But although we are sure that we shall find everywhere many to sympathise with us in our abiding sorrow as we think of the deep affliction which befell us and the institution when its father was taken from us, we think it more becoming for us to ask them to rejoice with us in gratefully acknowledging how much he was allowed to accomplish for it whilst he yet lived. Nearly nineteen years were added to his life after he had formed the noble design of founding such an institution, and during all these years he labored and studied and prayed for its prosperity, as its father only could do. The value of the services which he rendered to the institution, ‘not grudgingly, as of necessity,’ but ever most cheerfully, and, be it remembered, entirely gratuitously, cannot be estimated. Probably if an accurate account had been kept of them, charging for each item its fair business value, they would be found to amount to scarcely less than the sum of his princely money benefactions to the founding and establishing this institution. Certainly it may well be questioned whether the devotion of twice the six or seven thousand pounds, which he gave, would without such personal attention and services, have secured the establishment of such an institution as he has left to perpetuate the blessed memory of his name.”
The board of trustees of the institution, at a special meeting held on 6th Jan., 1859, passed the following resolutions, among others:
“1. That although we are deeply conscious that the academy has sustained an irreparable loss in the decease of Charles F. Allison, Esq., and although the remembrance that his work on earth is done, that the invaluable services which, as treasurer, chairman of building, furnishing, and executive committees of the institution, he has ever been wont so ungrudgingly to render, have now ceased, and that the board can no more hope to be aided in its deliberations by his eminently sage counsels, induces a feeling of sadness almost overwhelming; yet the board would recognize as ground for profound gratitude to Him without whom ‘nothing is wise, nothing good,’ the magnitude of the work which our departed brother was enabled and allowed so wisely to undertake and successfully to accomplish in founding, and so essentially helping to build up to its present eminently prosperous condition, the Mount Allison Wesleyan Academy in its two affiliated branches.“2. That in the judgment of this board, Mr. Allison, in devoting so large a portion of his time and wealth to the establishment of an educational institution which is of such wide-spread influence and usefulness, acted as a truly wise Christian steward, and fairly entitled himself to the pre-eminently honourable position which has been assigned to him as ‘the noblest public benefactor which has yet arisen in these provinces to benefit his country and bless the world;’ and believing that so long as this institution may continue in operation true to his design and worthy of its past history, it will stand the monument of the distinguished Christian patriot and philanthropist, perpetuating the memory alike of his wisdom and his benevolence, this board will, as performing a sacred duty, earnestly endeavour to maintain in ever increasing efficiency.”
“1. That although we are deeply conscious that the academy has sustained an irreparable loss in the decease of Charles F. Allison, Esq., and although the remembrance that his work on earth is done, that the invaluable services which, as treasurer, chairman of building, furnishing, and executive committees of the institution, he has ever been wont so ungrudgingly to render, have now ceased, and that the board can no more hope to be aided in its deliberations by his eminently sage counsels, induces a feeling of sadness almost overwhelming; yet the board would recognize as ground for profound gratitude to Him without whom ‘nothing is wise, nothing good,’ the magnitude of the work which our departed brother was enabled and allowed so wisely to undertake and successfully to accomplish in founding, and so essentially helping to build up to its present eminently prosperous condition, the Mount Allison Wesleyan Academy in its two affiliated branches.
“2. That in the judgment of this board, Mr. Allison, in devoting so large a portion of his time and wealth to the establishment of an educational institution which is of such wide-spread influence and usefulness, acted as a truly wise Christian steward, and fairly entitled himself to the pre-eminently honourable position which has been assigned to him as ‘the noblest public benefactor which has yet arisen in these provinces to benefit his country and bless the world;’ and believing that so long as this institution may continue in operation true to his design and worthy of its past history, it will stand the monument of the distinguished Christian patriot and philanthropist, perpetuating the memory alike of his wisdom and his benevolence, this board will, as performing a sacred duty, earnestly endeavour to maintain in ever increasing efficiency.”
Resolutions of a similar character were passed by the Wesleyan Methodist Conference of Eastern British America at its next ensuing annual session. See published minutes for the year 1859, pp. 21-22.
Senkler, William Stevens, Judge of the County Court of the County of Lanark, Perth, is an Englishman by birth, having been born at Docking, Norfolk county, England, on the 15th of January, 1838. His father was the Rev. Edmund John Senkler, M.A., of Cains College, Cambridge, a clergyman of the Church of England; and his mother was Eleanor Elizabeth Stevens, daughter of the Rev. William Stevens, M.A., Oxon, of Sedberg, Yorkshire, England. The parents of Judge Senkler, with their family of nine children, came to Canada in May, 1843, and resided in the city of Quebec, where the Rev. Mr. Senkler occupied for some time the position of rector of the High School. He then moved to Sorel, and in September, 1847, to Brockville, at which place he died on the 28th of October, 1872, Mrs. Senkler following him to the grave on the 16th of March, 1873. Judge Senkler was educated by his father, and commenced life in mercantile pursuits; but afterwards studied law with the Hon. A. N. Richards, late lieutenant-governor of British Columbia, and also with the Hon. Edward Blake. During the Michaelmas term of 1860, he was admitted as solicitor; and was called to the bar in Trinity term, 1861. He then began the practice of the law in Brockville, first, with J. D. Buell, then with Hon. A. N. Richards, and lastly, with his brother, Edmund John Senkler (now county judge of Lincoln), down to December, 1873, when he was appointed by the Mackenzie government, judge of the County Court of the county of Lanark. On the 15th of October, 1875, he was appointed master in chancery at Perth, by the judges of that court. On the 10th of October, 1877, referee of titles by the judges of the Court of Chancery. On the 14th of March, 1882, he was made local judge of the High Court of Justice for Ontario; and on the 26th of October, 1885, he was appointed to the position of revising officer for the south riding of Lanark by the Macdonald government. Judge Senkler has taken an active interest in military matters, and helped to organize the Brockville Light Infantry Company, which now forms part of the 42nd battalion. He held the rank of ensign in his company. True to the traditions of his house, the judge is a member of the Church of England, and served as church warden in St. Peter’s Church, Brockville, and St. James’ Church, Perth, for several years. He has also acted in the capacity of lay delegate to the Synod of the diocese of Ontario from St. James’ Church, Perth. Judge Senkler was married on the 21st of May, 1862, by the late Rev. Dr. Adamson, in the Episcopal Cathedral, Quebec, to Honor Tett, daughter of the late Benjamin Tett, of Newboro’, Ontario, who at that time represented South Leeds in the parliament of Canada, and who sat for the same riding in the first parliament of Ontario. The issue of this marriage has been two daughters and one son. Judge Senkler is a hale and hearty man, and we predict for him a long life of usefulness.
Hill, Andrew Gregory, Police Magistrate, Niagara Falls, was born on the 23rd of September, 1834, in the township of Clinton, county of Lincoln, Ontario. His ancestors were among the pioneers of the province. They came to this country immediately after the revolutionary war of 1776, and took up land as U. E. loyalists. The township of Clinton was then an unbroken wilderness, without a habitation, and without a road, save the track of the red man. Newark, now Niagara, about twenty-five miles distant, was the nearest village, and the only practicable means of reaching it was by boat down the lake. It is difficult for us now to realize the privations that the early settlers had to undergo, especially when we consider the severity of the winters, the proximity of the Indian bands, and the inaccessible condition of the country. Even in later years when small plots of land were reduced to a state of cultivation, they were compelled to manufacture their own meal by the most primitive methods. Solomon Hill was one of the second generation after these pioneers, and in 1833 he married Eleanor Gregory, also the descendant of a U. E. loyalist family. Andrew Gregory Hill was the eldest child of this marriage. Both his grandsires bore arms in the war of 1812, and were both severely wounded. Solomon Hill, his father, served with the militia in the rebellion of 1837, but privately sympathized with the patriot cause, and in later years became a great admirer of William Lyon MacKenzie, the patriot leader. Andrew was brought up to farm life, attending the public school in winter, and assisting his father in summer. At the age of eighteen he was sent to Victoria College, Cobourg, where he subsequently graduated in arts and in law, having in the meantime taught school for nearly two years in order to provide funds with which to prosecute his studies. He subsequently studied law in Cobourg, and afterwards in St. Catharines, and lastly with the late Adam Crooks, at one time minister of education for the province of Ontario, in Toronto. Mr. Hill was admitted to practice in 1862, and called to the bar in 1864. He commenced practice in St. Catharines, but only continued there a few months, when he entered into partnership with Warren Rock, late of London, and removed to Welland. Here he practised for more than ten years. He took an active interest in all local matters, being for many years in succession a member of the school board, the village council, the county council, and the county board of education. In 1864, Mr. Hill became identified with the local press, and shortly afterwards startedThe Welland Tribune, which paper at once became, and has since continued to be, the organ of the Reform party in the county. In 1872 Mr. Hill, being an active politician, was nominated by the Reform party of the county of Welland for the House of Commons, in opposition to the late Mr. Street, a tory, who had held the county for many years, but was defeated. In 1874 he was appointed police magistrate for the town of Niagara Falls, under the special “Act to provide for the better government of that part of Ontario situate in the vicinity of the Falls of Niagara,” which position he has held since that time. His administration in that capacity has been prompt and vigorous—some of his judgments being regarded by many as severe—but in consequence of the bold stand he took as a magistrate, he soon brought about a beneficial change in the locality, and drove away large numbers of the criminal class who formerly infested the neighbourhood. Notwithstanding his appointment as police magistrate, he still continued to practise his profession, and in 1886 was appointed solicitor for the town of Niagara Falls, for the Imperial bank of Canada at Niagara Falls, and for the Niagara Falls Street Railway Company. In 1865 Mr. Hill married Isabel Thompson, daughter of Archibald Thompson, of Stamford, who was for many years treasurer of the county of Welland, and whose ancestors were among the earliest settlers of this county.
Anderson, Alexander, Principal of the Prince of Wales College, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, was born at Aberdeen, Scotland, 30th September, 1836. His father, Alexander Anderson, and his mother, Margaret Imray, belonged to families residing in the adjacent parishes of Banchory Ternan and Midmar. Until 1854, he attended school in the town of Aberdeen. The six or seven years prior to that date were passed under the tuition of William Rattray, an educationist of considerable repute in the north of Scotland. Government grants and inspection were then in their infancy, and Mr. Rattray was one of the first in that quarter to hail the advent of a system which, sooner or later, was bound to develop into a national scheme of education. From Aberdeen, Mr. Anderson proceeded to Edinburgh to the Training College at Moray House, having gained the first scholarship at the annual competition held in that city. At this institution he remained two years. Moray House was then under the able rectorship of James Sime, one of the best scholars and most enthusiastic teachers of whom Scotland could then boast, and was, during his incumbency, several times reported as the best college of its kind in Great Britain. When Mr. Anderson finished his course at the Training College, he was selected as an assistant master in the public school in connection with it. He held this position for more than two years, and only resigned it to complete his studies at the university. At the University of Edinburgh, whose classes he attended for four years, his career was distinguished. In the classes of mathematics and natural philosophy he took the first place, and in both was bracketed with another for the Straton gold medals, at that time the highest mathematical honours conferred by the university. In the spring of 1862, the proposal was made, through the rector of the Training College, that he should take the second professorship in the Prince of Wales College. This appointment he accepted, and proceeded to Prince Edward Island in November of that year. In 1868 he was appointed principal, and on the amalgamation of the Prince of Wales College and Normal School, principal of the united institutions, and a member of the Board of Education. On the schools of Prince Edward Island, Mr. Anderson has made a marked and lasting impress, which is every year deepening. His remarkable accuracy of information, his thorough scholarship, and his enthusiastic devotion to the cause of education, have had a most astonishing effect in arousing an interest in the public schools throughout the province. In addition to this, his integrity of purpose, his high sense of honour, and his love of truth, have been instilled into the minds of his pupils, and made effective through that extraordinary force of character which has rendered all his teaching so impressive. He has a wonderful tact in finding out and developing talent in his pupils, and many a young man has been started by him in a career of usefulness and distinction, who might otherwise have remained unknown. Two of Mr. Anderson’s pupils won, successively, the Gilchrist scholarship. The highest honours in the Maritime provinces are generally gained by students from his classes. During the twenty-four years Mr. Anderson has been in the province, he may be said to have taken the leading part in every forward movement in the cause of education.
Reddin, James Henry, Barrister, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, was born at Kew, Surrey, England, on the 9th January, 1852. He is the eldest son of James Reddin, formerly a merchant in Charlottetown, but now holding the position of Government inspector of weights and measures for Prince Edward Island. His mother, Louisa Anna Matthews, was a daughter of John Matthews, a retired London merchant, and a freeman of that city, related through his marriage with the widow of Henry Monk, a scion of the family of Monk, of Albemarle, to the Kershaws, Millers, Chadwicks, and other well known commercial families of Liverpool and Manchester. James Reddin’s father, Dennis Reddin, was the son of a manufacturer in Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary county, Ireland, by his marriage with Miss O’Meara, a daughter of an old established family in the south of Ireland. Dennis Reddin emigrated to Prince Edward Island during the latter portion of the eighteenth century, and having been possessed of a better education than most Irish settlers of his day, he taught school for some time on the island. He afterwards became engaged in mercantile pursuits, notably in the building of ships, in which he was very successful until the year 1847, when a great fall took place in this class of property, and he, like many other shipbuilders, became involved in the common ruin that ensued. The Reddin family have been for nearly a century the leading Irish Catholic family of Prince Edward Island, and one of the sons of the late Dennis Reddin has successively held the position of solicitor-general and attorney-general of the province, and is at present a county court judge,—he being the first Roman Catholic in Prince Edward Island appointed to a judicial office. James Henry Reddin, the subject of this sketch, was educated at a private school, and then at the Prince of Wales and St. Dunstan’s Colleges. After leaving school he occupied for some time the position of clerk in his father’s office, and when that gentleman gave up business, he commenced the study of law with his uncle, Richard Reddin, and continued it in the office of the Hon. Neil McLeod. In July, 1885, he was admitted an attorney of the supreme court, and a barrister the following year. Mr. Reddin has been connected with several literary societies, has written on various occasions for the press, and delivered before the public lectures on literary and other subjects. Mr. Reddin’s father is a Roman Catholic, and he has followed in his footsteps; his mother, however, was a member of the Episcopal church. In politics he is a Liberal-Conservative. In conclusion, we may add that Mr. Reddin’s father for many years filled the position of president of the Benevolent Irish Society, established by Lieut.-Governor Ready in 1825, and on his retirement from office was elected patron of the society in the room of the deceased Hon. Daniel Brenan.
Galbraith, Rev. William, B.C.L., LL.B., Pastor of the Methodist church, Orillia, was born in the township of North Monaghan, three miles from Peterboro’, on 13th of July, 1842. His parents, William Galbraith and Mary MacGlennon, were both natives of Ireland. His mother is a woman of strong mind and great force of character, and her son has inherited from her those qualities which have made him a power in the church. The subject of this sketch was converted at the age of eleven years, and united himself with the Wesleyan Methodist church, and has continued connected with that body of Christians ever since. He received his education for the ministry at Victoria College, Cobourg, and when only seventeen years of age was licensed as a local preacher. In June, 1861, before he was nineteen years old, he entered the ministry, and was ordained in June, 1865. While doing the work of a heavy city appointment, he took up the law course in McGill College, Montreal, and in 1875 received the degree of B.C.L. In 1881 he received the degree of LL.B. from Victoria College. Rev. Mr. Galbraith has been delegate at four general conferences; chairman of a district for seven years; was the last president of the Montreal Conference of the Methodist church of Canada, and the first president of the Montreal Conference of the Methodist church after the union in 1884. Apart from his pulpit duties, the Rev. Mr. Galbraith has taken a deep interest in the educational work of the church, and has contributed liberally to the support of Victoria College, Stanstead Wesleyan College, and the Wesleyan Theological College, Montreal. He has been twice married. His first wife was Hettie Howell, the only child of Isaac Reid and Nancy Howell, of Jerseyville, Ontario. She died when only thirty years of age, leaving three children. His second wife is Kate Breden, daughter of John Breden, Kingston, Ontario.
Craig, James, B.A., Barrister, Renfrew, Ontario, was born at Inveraray, Scotland, on the 31st of July, 1851. He is son of George Craig, of Arnprior, Ontario. This gentleman was born at Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and his wife, Annie Clark, was born at Daviot in the same county, and Mrs. Craig, sen., is sister of the Rev. Professor William Clark, of Trinity College, Toronto. Mr. Craig, sen., came to Canada in 1854, and after residing in Ottawa city for about three years, settled in Arnprior in 1857, where he has since resided. For many years he has been a prominent justice of the peace there. James Craig studied in McGill College, Montreal, and graduated in arts in 1874. In the same year he was articled to W. A. Ross, then barrister in Ottawa, and now county court judge for the county of Carleton, and was called to the bar and sworn in as solicitor in May 1878. In this year he began to practise his profession in Pembroke, but shortly afterwards moved to Renfrew, where he has since resided and practised with considerable success. Mr. Craig has always taken an active interest in public affairs, and was for over four years president of the Mechanics’ Institute, and occupied a similar position in the Curling Club. He is now master of Renfrew Masonic lodge. Mr. Craig is a Presbyterian, and in politics a Reformer, and is likely some day to sit in one of our legislative assemblies. He was married in New York city on the 22nd of May, 1879, to Lizzie Olivier, daughter of the late Judge E. S. Macpherson, and Elizabeth Balmer Penton, who was a daughter of William Penton, of Pentonville, England. Mr. Penton, the grandfather of Mrs. Craig, was a man owning considerable property in England, and occupied a good social position, but having taken a strange dislike to the monarchical form of government that the people of Great Britain are so proud of, he embarked in 1835 with all his family, servants, and effects to the United States of America. After residing there for some time he was induced by Lord Gosford, then governor-general of Canada, and an old friend of his, to come and settle in Her Majesty’s possessions. To this he consented, and took up his abode in Port Hope, on Lake Ontario; but feeling dissatisfied, he again returned to his favourite republic, and fixed his home at Utica, New York State, where he died. His descendants are very numerous, and during the late war many of them were found fighting on opposite sides. His grandson, a Federal officer, on one occasion chased his uncle, a Confederate colonel, with a view of taking him prisoner.
Smith, John H., Manager of the Mercantile Agency of R. G. Dun & Co., Buffalo; though a resident of that city, may be fairly claimed as a Canadian, and one who has done honour to his country. Born in Portsmouth, England, June, 1840, when but five years of age he came with his parents to Canada, and the family settled in Kingston on their arrival. Scarcely had ten summers passed over his head, when both parents died, leaving behind them very little means. Until he was seventeen years of age he resided in the Limestone City, in the meantime attending the public school, which he left when he had attained his thirteenth year, and then made a living by acting in the capacity of clerk in various stores and in a law office. In 1857 he came to Toronto, and having resolved to learn a trade of some kind, he decided on becoming a printer, and apprenticed himself to theGlobeoffice. In this establishment he acted in the capacity of compositor and proofreader until 1863, when he gave up printing, and accepted a position in the mercantile agency of R. G. Dun & Co. (now Dun, Wiman & Co.). At this time Erastus Wiman was the manager of the Toronto branch of the firm, and Mr. Smith first met Mr. Wiman in theGlobeoffice, where, like himself, he had been an employee, and since then the warmest friendship has continued to exist between them. Mr. Smith, through strict attention to his duties, soon won the respect of his employers, and in 1866 he was sent to the city of Buffalo to open a branch office there. Since then he has managed the business so well that it has grown to large proportions, and not only does he continue to take charge of the Buffalo office, but he has nine other branches under his superintendence. Mr. Smith, having a large capacity for work, and realizing the great truth that the world had claims upon him outside the narrow walls of his office, took an active interest in the welfare of his adopted city, and we now find him greatly interested in several public projects. Among others in two land companies that have for their object the development and settlement of several hundred acres of land in the northern part of Buffalo, just adjoining the beautiful park the citizens of Buffalo are so justly proud of. This piece of land is now being laid out in villa park lots, under the supervision of Frederick Law Olmsted, the celebrated Boston landscape architect and surveyor, and it is expected that in a very few years this section of the city will be taken up and built upon by the more wealthy of the inhabitants. Mr. Smith is also interested with Mr. Wiman in his Staten Island enterprises, and his movement for bringing the Baltimore and Ohio Railway into the city of New York. Through his business ability and tact, Mr. Smith has acquired a large amount of wealth, and is now reckoned as one of the rich men of Buffalo; yet he does not forget the land in which his early days were spent, and where he struggled so hard to get on. We, therefore, find him spending a month with his family each summer among the islands and lakes of the Muskoka district, or at Gananoque and the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence, where he enjoys the sports that those regions so abundantly supply. Mr. Smith is still a favourite among his Canadian friends, and whenever he finds time to pay a visit to Toronto or other city where he is well known he is always heartily welcomed by them. He is a member of several clubs in Buffalo, among others the “Idlewood” and the “Oakfield,” and is also an honorary member of several of our Canadian clubs. Mr. Smith has been an industrious and hence a successful man, and his example cannot fail to prove an incentive to many a young Canadian now setting out to battle with the world. He married, in 1863, Jane Reeves, of Toronto, and has now a family of eight children.
Cairns, Thomas, Postmaster, Perth, county of Lanark, Ontario, is an Irishman by birth, having been born on the 4th of May, 1828, in the county of Fermanagh. He was educated in a private school in his native place, and in 1851 he came to Canada, and settled in Perth. Shortly after his arrival he took a position in theBritish Standardnewspaper office, in which place he remained for some time. In 1861 he established thePerth Expositor. This paper he managed for about five years, when as a reward for his industry as a public man, he was appointed postmaster of Perth in January, 1866. Mr. Cairns is a member of the Board of Education of Perth, and is a member of the Methodist church. It is almost needless to add that Mr. Cairns is highly respected by the people among whom he has lived for over thirty-five years, and is a faithful public servant.
Cairns, George Frederick, Barrister and Solicitor, Smith’s Falls, county of Lanark, Ontario, was born in Perth, county of Lanark, on the 27th October, 1857, and is a son of Thomas Cairns, postmaster of Perth, his mother being Jane Meuary. He received his education in the High School of Perth, his native place. After leaving school he decided to make law his profession, and with this object in view he entered, in 1879, the office of F. A. Hall, barrister, Perth, where he spent a few years. Then in 1882 he went to Toronto, and entering the office of Watson, Thorne & Smellie, barristers, of that city, he finished his legal education with them, and was called to the bar in February, 1884. The same year he went to Smith’s Falls, where he now successfully practises his profession. Mr. Cairns is a rising man, and we have no doubt he will soon reflect great credit on his country. He is a member of the Methodist church.
Wright, Aaron A., of the firm of Barr & Wright, General Merchants, Renfrew, Ontario. This gentleman, who is one of the bulwarks of the Reform party in Central Ontario, was born near Farmersville, county of Leeds, June 6th, 1840. He comes of U. E. loyalist stock, his grandfather and grandmother on both sides being U. E. loyalists. His father, Israel Wright, was a native of Leeds county, and his mother as well, her maiden name being Stevens, a daughter of Abel Stevens. Our subject was educated in a public school of his native country, and also in a select school under John B. Holmes. In 1864 Mr. Wright entered the Normal School, Toronto, and obtained a first-class certificate there. After this he became head master of the Gananoque Public School. In 1866 he entered the Military College at Montreal, and obtained a first-class military certificate of the highest grade. Soon afterwards he succeeded in obtaining a first-class Model School certificate for French and English for Lower Canada. Late in the same year he was appointed principal of the Model School at Lachine, and the Fenian troubles of that time impelled him to organize the Lachine company of light infantry, of which he was gazetted captain. These positions he held until his removal to Renfrew, in 1870, where he entered mercantile pursuits, which still engage his attention. Mr. Wright, ever since his settlement in Renfrew, has always taken an active interest in all matters relating to the welfare of the village and county. When he first came the place was entirely without railway communication, and he soon became prominent in an agitation to extend the line of the Canada Central to that point; the terminus at that time being at Sand Point, some sixteen miles distant. Mr. Wright addressed meetings, organized deputations, &c., until the point was carried and Renfrew was made the terminus of the road. Since that time, however, the Canada Central has become merged in the vast system of the Canadian Pacific. This was not by any means all of Mr. Wright’s railroad experience, for when the Kingston and Pembroke line was mooted, he took a lively interest in the scheme, which is now completed from Kingston to Renfrew. In politics, Mr. Wright is an ardent supporter of the Mowat government and of Mr. Blake. When the Reform Association for the south riding of Renfrew was organized, in 1875 or 1876, Mr. Wright was elected first vice-president, which position he holds to this day. He has often been urged to allow his name to be used for parliamentary honours, but, unfortunately, has persistently refused, business men of his calibre being sadly lacking in our legislative halls. Mr. Wright is the president of the County of Renfrew Horticultural Society, and has held that office since its inception four years ago; he is also director for division No. 2 of the Fruit Growers’ Association of the province of Ontario. For the past twelve years he has been chairman of the High School Board of Renfrew, his earlier experiences eminently fitting him for the position. His partner in business is David Barr, and it needs scarcely be said it is the most important and wealthy firm in this locality. They have recently built what is probably the finest brick block for business purposes in Central Ontario, which they occupy exclusively for the carrying on of their extensive trade. To facilitate their extensive and largely increasing grain trade, they have also erected the finest and best equipped grain elevator in the Ottawa valley. And in addition to all this, they were not only the first to introduce gas into the town, but were also the first to put it out, and introduce the system of lighting by electricity, being the proprietors of the electric light plant, with which they light their own building, besides furnishing it to other private firms, as well as to the corporation for lighting the streets of the town. Mr. Wright’s busy life has precluded the possibility of extensive travel, save that connected with business. In this regard, however, he has on many occasions visited the markets of Europe and this continent. In religion Mr. Wright is a Baptist, and as might be expected, believes in water as opposed to whisky in the warfare now being waged against the latter, in fact, was an ardent supporter of the Canada Temperance Act, and favours the still more radical measure, viz., total prohibition. In 1871 he married Jane, a daughter of Theophilus Harvey, of Lachine, by whom he has issue five boys and one girl.
Stratford, John H., Brantford, Ontario, is a native of New York state, having been born in Oswego, on the 30th May, 1840, came over with his parents and settled in Brantford in 1844, where he has since resided. Mr. Stratford’s father, who died in 1884, was born at Sheerness, Kent, England, and was a gentleman of the old school. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Dublin, and was highly respected by the citizens of Brantford, for his charity and the strict sense of honour he had practised from the day he first took up his residence among them to the day of his death. When he retired from business in 1875, he divided his large fortune among his three sons, retaining a life annuity. His mother, who died in 1875, was also greatly respected and beloved for her charitable deeds. She belonged to an Irish family, and was niece of the late Colonel George Hamilton, for many years manager of the Canada Company at Toronto. John H. Stratford’s grandfather, Dr. John Stratford, and his uncle, Dr. Samuel John Stratford, both members of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, England, were known as eminent physicians in Canada. The latter, who was assistant surgeon in the 72nd Highlanders, sold his commission, and with a number of other British officers, settled at Woodstock, Ontario, where they received grants of land from Sir John Colborne, the then military governor of Upper Canada. In this town he successfully practised his profession for many years, and subsequently left this country, having received the appointment of emigration agent for the British government in New Zealand, where he died. Another member of the family, Elizabeth Stratford, his sister, married in 1839 Mr. Davidson, a celebrated lawyer in New York, who was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, but died just before being sworn into office. Joseph and Charles, brothers of John H. Stratford, still reside in Brantford, Joseph being a wealthy merchant, and owner of “Stratford’s Opera House,” one of the handsomest in the province. John, the subject of this sketch, received his education in Brantford; and after leaving school, for a number of years up to 1871 he managed first the retail and afterwards the wholesale drug business of his father. In 1865, he formed with the late C. Gilbert a partnership, the object of which was the carrying on of a wholesale oil business; and this firm was the first to introduce on our Canadian railways the use of natural petroleum as a lubricant for car wheels. In 1868, Henry Yates was admitted into the partnership, and it then operated under the style of John H. Stratford & Co. The following year Mr. Gilbert withdrew, and since then the firm has been known as Yates & Stratford, wholesale oil and lumber merchants. In 1870, Mr. Stratford formed, with Donald Nicholson, since deceased, and Robert Chisholm, of Hamilton, a special partnership for the construction of that section of the Great Western Railway, from Glencoe to Simcoe, a distance of seventy-five miles. This piece of work, a very difficult one, owing to the Canada Southern Railway being in course of construction at the same time, almost parallel, was completed in 1872, to the entire satisfaction of the Great Western Railway authorities. In 1884, Mr. Stratford purchased seven acres of land, beautifully situated, overlooking and within the limits of the city of Brantford, on which he erected, under his own superintendence, an hospital capable of accommodating fifty patients and a regular staff of nurses, etc., at a cost of over $20,000. And on the 10th February, 1885, it was formally opened by His Honour, John Beverley Robinson, lieutenant-governor of Ontario, and Mrs. Robinson, in the presence of a large assembly of citizens, when Mr. Stratford handed it over as a free gift to the city of Brantford. Mrs. John H. Stratford and Mrs. Arthur S. Hardy also took a deep interest in the hospital, and through their united exertions, collected from friends $4,000, wherewith to equip it with suitable furniture, instruments, etc. It is called “The John H. Stratford Hospital,” and is without doubt,—being perfect as to heating, light, ventilation, laundry, stables, and other modern improvements—one of the finest institutions of its kind in the Dominion. When of age Mr. Stratford joined the Masonic body, and has continued to keep up his connection with it ever since. He is a member of the St. James Club, Montreal. He married in 1868, Sara Juson Harris, fifth daughter of the late T. D. Harris, at one time a prominent wholesale hardware merchant in Toronto. Mr. Stratford is a member of the Episcopal church; a thorough business man of strict integrity, and has been eminently successful in all his undertakings.
Benson, Rev. Manly, Pastor of the Central Methodist Church, Bloor street, Toronto, was born in Prince Edward county, Ontario, in 1842. His parents, Matthew R. and Nancy Ruttan, were of U. E. loyalist stock, and were among the early founders of Canadian nationality on the beautiful shores of the Bay of Quinté. To this, doubtless, may be attributed the sturdy mental and moral, as well as physical fibre, which characterizes the so worthy a son of so worthy parents—the subject of our sketch. His parents removed to the town of Newburgh, and here Manly received a good education at the academy, and prepared himself for the work of a teacher. At the age of ten years he was converted to God at a special service held by the late Rev. Joseph Reynolds, the superintendent of the Demorestville circuit, and he grew up under the fostering influence of the Sunday-school and the class-meeting, both of which had a marked influence on his young life, and spared him from the many bad influences that are apt to surround young men. For a few years Mr. Benson applied himself as a teacher, at the same time continuing his studies with the principal of the Newburgh Academy. The piety and cultivated talent of the young teacher attracted the attention of the members of the Methodist church of the town in which he lived; and having undergone the preliminary training in Christian work as a local preacher, he was recommended by the official board of the Newburgh circuit for the ministry. He was received on trial in 1863, and made his first acquaintance with the activities of the work in the western extremity of the province. For four years he travelled successively as junior preacher on the Romney, Chatham, Windsor, and Sarnia circuits; and having given full proof of his ministry, passing with credit all the prescribed examinations, he was received into full connexion, and ordained at the Hamilton conference in 1867. He then travelled, as superintendent, the Ridgetown, Newbury, and Cooksville circuits. After one year on the latter circuit, he was invited to the Centenary Church, Hamilton, as colleague of the Rev. W. J. Hunter, D.D. At the end of his first year in this charge, which date also completed the full pastoral term of the superintendent of the circuit, he was invited by the official board to take Dr. Hunter’s place as superintendent of the church and circuit; but instead of accepting, suggested the name of the Rev. Hugh Johnston, M.A., who was appointed superintendent, and with whom he was associated for the balance of his pastoral term of two years. The closing year of his three years’ term in this city was signalized by the building of the elegant and commodious Zion Tabernacle. From Hamilton he went to Stratford and St. Thomas, and spent three years in each of these places. When closing his pastoral term at St. Thomas, in 1881, he was invited to the pastorate of the Central Methodist Church (Bloor Street), Toronto. No transfers were made that year, and, on this fact becoming known, he was immediately and unanimously invited to the Brant Avenue Church, Brantford. On the closing of his three years’ pastoral term in that city he was again invited by the same church in Toronto, and entered upon his duties in the Central Methodist Church, Toronto, in June, 1855. Since he took charge of the Central Church it has greatly prospered under his care, both spiritually and financially. Its membership has increased from two hundred and seventy to four hundred and fifteen, and the congregation has also doubled in attendance. By special collections taken on the first Sabbath of each of the three years of his pastorate, $6,000 was contributed, being $2,000 at each collection, and, with other moneys in hand, $7,000 has been paid off the church debt, and the regular Sunday collections and pew rents also show a very large increase. In recognition of Rev. Mr. Benson’s services as pastor, the official board raised his salary from $1,500 to $2,000, and in addition to this have furnished and provided him with a comfortable parsonage free. It is almost needless to say that Rev. Mr. Benson is not only a favourite with the people of his own church, but with others of the same denomination in the city, in proof of which he has been unanimously invited, at the close of his term in the Central Church, to take charge of the large congregation worshipping in Berkeley Street Methodist Church. Rev. Mr. Benson has largely enjoyed the advantages of travel, both throughout the Dominion of Canada and in foreign countries. In 1871, in company with the late illustrious Rev. Dr. Punshon, he crossed the continent, and beheld the wonders of the Rocky mountains, and the Sierra Nevadas, the Geyser springs, the Yosemite Valley, and Salt Lake City. He also enjoyed the pleasure, or perhaps, endured the pain, of a sea voyage, and visited Victoria, New Westminster, Fort Yale, and places on the Pacific coast. In 1879 he crossed the Atlantic and made a still more extended tour through France, Italy, Switzerland, South-eastern Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, and Ireland; and during his stay in London was the guest of Rev. Dr. Punshon, who kindly helped him to see London in all its phases. After his return to Canada, Rev. Mr. Benson communicated the many spirit-stirring scenes he had witnessed in distant lands to appreciative audiences throughout Ontario, by eloquent lectures on “The Wonders of the Yosemite,” “Across the Continent,” “British Columbia,” and more recently, on “Memories of Rome,” “Switzerland,” “In Rhineland,” and on London, Paris, and some of the Italian cities he had visited. He is an earnest worker in the Sunday-school, and is always ready to labor for the Master. As a teetotaller he is most pronounced, and is strongly impressed with the idea that nothing short of the total prohibition of the liquor traffic will save this Canada of ours from becoming like many of the places he has visited in Europe—slaves to the intoxicating cup. Rev. Mr. Benson is one of the directors of the Grimsby Park Company, and has been director of services for the past four years. Under his able management this park has been an extraordinary success, and year after year it is becoming one of the most favourite resorts for those who seek quiet, with a moderate amount of physical and intellectual excitement, during the summer months. On the 9th of July, 1867, he was united in marriage to Julia, third daughter of the Hon. Walter McCrea, judge of Algoma county, Ontario, and has had a family consisting of nine children, seven of whom are now living, five daughters and two sons.
Tilley, Sir Samuel Leonard, K.C.M.G., Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of New Brunswick, Fredericton, one of the most prominent of our Canadian statesmen, is the son of Thomas M. Tilley, of Queen’s county, New Brunswick, and great-grandson of Samuel Tilley, of Brooklyn, New York, a U. E. loyalist, who, at the termination of the American revolutionary war, came to New Brunswick, and became a grantee of the now city of St. John in that province. Sir Leonard was born at Georgetown, Queen’s county, on the 8th May, 1818, and received his education at the Grammar school of his native village, and when he had attained his thirteenth year, went to St. John, and became apprenticed to an apothecary. Before beginning business for himself, Mr. Tilley was for a time in the employ of William O. Smith, druggist, a gentleman of superior intellectual parts, and who took an active interest in all the political movements of the day. It was probably from him that the future lieutenant-governor of the province derived his first lessons in political economy, and which served him so well when he was minister of finance for the Dominion of Canada, and we say, without being far astray, that Mr. Smith plainly saw that his lessons were not likely to be wasted on this clear-headed and enthusiastic young man. Young Tilley too, being sprung from loyalist stock, it is only fair to assume that whenever, if ever he should bring himself before the public, he would find a prepossession in his favour. He became a prominent member of a debating society when seventeen, and took a leading part in political discussions, and shortly afterwards became an able advocate of the cause of temperance. It may be said here that from that far-past day to this Mr. Tilley has always been loyal to his temperance principles, has always seized the opportunity to forward the movement, and upon all occasions has shown the sincerity of his character by the practice of his precepts. In recognition of his distinguished services in the cause, the National Division of the Sons of Temperance of America, in 1854, elected him to the highest office in the order, namely, that of Most Worthy Patriarch, and which position he held for two years. In enlarged politics the first heard of Mr. Tilley was in 1849, when he was the seconder on the paper of B. Ansley, who was returned by a good majority. He was one of the foremost promoters of the Railway League, organized to secure the construction of a railway from St. John to Shediac. In 1850 he was elected to the New Brunswick legislature for the city of St. John. Mr. Tilley was at this time a Liberal. The following year the Tory manipulators began to undermine the foundations of their opponents, and they seduced from allegiance the Hon. J. H. Gray and the Hon. R. D. Wilmot [Mr. Gray was afterwards appointed a judge, and Mr. Wilmot a lieutenant-governor], and these two leading gentlemen entered the government. On the day that their secession became known, the Liberal party was naturally shocked and pained at the treachery, but closed up their ranks and resolved still to fight the enemy. Messrs. Tilley, Simonds, Ritchie and Needham thereupon published a card to the people, declaring that if Mr. Wilmot, who had accepted office, was re-elected, they would resign their seats in the house, as they could not, in that case, represent their views. The electors, however, returned Mr. Wilmot, and all the parties on the card, except W. H. Needham, resigned their seats. Mr. Tilley then returned to private life. But he was not long to remain “a mute, inglorious Milton.” In 1854 the Liberals were triumphant, and Mr. Tilley obtained a portfolio in the new administration. From that time up to 1885, when he resigned his seat in the House of Commons at Ottawa, with the exception of a couple of breaks, he had enjoyed a remarkable lease of power, having been a member of the New Brunswick and Dominion governments during many long years, except the session of 1851, and part of the extra session of 1854. In 1856 he was beaten on the liquor question, but in 1857 regained power, and became leader of the administration in 1860, which position he retained till March, 1865. He attended the conference held in Prince Edward Island to discuss maritime union, and subsequently appeared at the Quebec conference, where he made a telling speech on the importance of the province he represented. The proceedings of the Quebec conference were kept from the public with the most zealous care, but one member belonging to a sea province told his wife one day that “it was no use,” he was unable “to keep it any longer.” He unburthened himself to a newspaper editor, when with the speed of the wind intelligence of the affair was spread through the British North American provinces. At once in the lower provinces a storm of opposition was raised to the scheme, and presses rolled out tons of pamphlets, placards, circulars and open letters, denouncing the scheme, and calling upon the people to rise and thwart Tilley and other enemies of his country. The ministry fell. The Irish were all the time rampant and unappeasable. They all remembered how Ireland had once been sold, and their representative newspaper became so bitter as to eventually overreach its aim. To help along the scheme and defeat the great booming of the Irish, fate brought along the Fenian scare. The government resigned, and Mr. Tilley was sent for to form an administration. A new election took place in 1866, and theantisgot a still worse drubbing than had fallen to the lot of the supporters of confederation. A short time afterwards Mr. Tilley attended the conference in England, formed to procure a Chart of Union, and he was, in July, 1867, made a C.B. (civil), in recognition of his distinguished services. He resigned his seat in the New Brunswick legislature and government to become minister of customs in the new Canadian cabinet. From November, 1868, to April, 1869, he acted as minister of public works, and on the 22nd of February, 1873, he was made minister of finance. This office he held until the downfall of the administration on the 5th of November of the same year. He then became lieutenant-governor of his native province, which office he held till 1878, when he took the field again, with the triumphant result so well known. In the new Conservative administration he became once again finance minister, and shortly afterwards framed the legislation with which his name will be connected so long as the history of Canada is read, namely the National Policy. On May 24th, 1879, he was created a Knight of the Order of St. Michael and St. George by the Governor-General, acting for the Queen. During the session of 1885, at Ottawa, Sir Leonard’s health having given way, he was compelled to relinquish his parliamentary duties, and seek comparative rest and recreation by a visit to London, England, where he gave attention to some matters relating to the finances of the dominion, and also considerably improved his health. On his return to Ottawa in the fall, he however suffered a relapse, and it became very evident to his friends, that he could no longer successfully cope with his departmental duties, and if he would prolong his usefulness, he must abandon parliamentary life. He accordingly sent in his resignation, which was accepted at a meeting of the Cabinet held on the 31st October, at which meeting Sir Leonard was appointed lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick for a second time, the term of lieutenant-governor Wilmot having expired several months before. On his return to his native province, he was accorded a hearty reception by the people among whom he had grown up who gladly welcomed him back to the position he had so worthily filled from 1873 to 1878. He was sworn into office in the legislative council chamber at Fredericton, on the 13th November, by the chief justice of the province, in the presence of a large number of prominent persons, who had assembled to witness the ceremony. It may here be stated that in December following, the Liberal-Conservative Club of St. John, N.B., was presented by Mr. Rogerson, with a bust of Sir Leonard, on which occasion C. A. Everett, then M.P. for the city, who had known him from boyhood, delivered an address in which he sketched his career, and spoke in the most complimentary terms of his great public services. It may also be stated that before Sir Leonard entered upon his duties as lieutenant-governor, he sent the following farewell letter to his constituents, addressed to the Hon. T. R. Jones, M.L.C., chairman of the Conservative Election Committee, in St. John, in the following kindly tones: —