A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time by Rose
1873. After Confederation this office was merged in that of postmaster
5313 words | Chapter 104
at Charlottetown, although still directing the Provincial mail service,
in which many improvements were effected and the efficiency of the
service greatly increased. In 1881 he was also appointed post-office
inspector for the colony, and held these offices until his appointment
as Lieutenant-Governor, on 1st August, 1884. He was a delegate to the
International Convention held at Portland, U.S., in 1868, and has been a
governor of the Prince of Wales College, a trustee for the Provincial
Hospital for the Insane, a member of the Board of Education, a member of
the Board of Works, and a member of the City School Board. In 1875 he
was appointed by the government, arbitrator to settle difference between
them and the contractors who built the Prince Edward Island Railway. He
was also public trustee under the Land Purchase Act of 1875, and when
the value had been awarded to the proprietors by the Court of
Commissioners, but they had refused to divest themselves of their
titles, he executed conveyances of upwards of four hundred thousand
acres of their property to the government as provided in the Land
Purchase Act. While in the legislature he assisted in passing many of
the most important acts on the provincial statute book, and was one of
the earliest advocates of the construction of the Prince Edward Island
Railway as a provincial work, although it involved an expenditure of
three millions of dollars, by a province whose ordinary revenue was then
only three hundred thousand dollars, and whose population was but one
hundred thousand, but it was successfully accomplished, and the cost
borne by the province now enjoying its benefits. Lieut.-Governor
Macdonald has for many years taken an active part in the promotion of
temperance; is a member of the Dominion Temperance Alliance, and no
wines or spirituous liquors are used or offered at government house. Mr.
Macdonald, like his forefathers from time immemorial, professes the
Roman Catholic faith. He is a member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society
for the relief of the poor, and has been chief of the Prince Edward
Island Caledonian Club for several years past. He is also president of
the Arbor Society. He married, in 1863, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas
Owen, formerly postmaster-general, with issue four sons, the eldest,
Æneas Adolphe, is his private secretary and a law student in the office
of Peters & Peters; the second son, Percy, has gone into a mercantile
establishment to learn the business, and the two younger sons are still
at college.
* * * * *
=Smart, William Lynn=, Barrister, Hamilton, Ontario, was born at St.
Albans, Middlesex, England, on 16th September, 1824. He is the eldest
son of the late John Newton Smart, of Trewhitt House, Rothbury,
Northumberland, who married, in 1823, Mary Ann, co-heiress of the Rev.
Thomas Gregory, vicar of Henlow, Bedfordshire, England. He succeeded his
father to the Trewhitt and Netherton properties, in 1875. Mr. Smart
graduated at King’s College, London. He left college in 1842, and was
articled to Smart & Buller, attorneys-at-law and solicitors in Chancery,
and was admitted as attorney in 1847, and was then taken in as a partner
of the firm of Smart, Buller & Smart. He remained in this firm until
1853, when he came, to Canada on a visit to the late Colonel Light, of
Woodstock. He subsequently accepted the appointment of secretary of the
Woodstock and Lake Erie Railway Company. This company afterwards
amalgamated with the Amherstburg and St. Thomas Railway Company, under
the name Canada Southern Railroad. Mr. Smart remained as its secretary
until the year 1862. Having been admitted as an attorney-at-law by the
Law Society of Upper Canada, in 1864 he left the Canada Southern and
entered into partnership with Hector Cameron, Q.C., the new firm taking
the name of Cameron & Smart. During the time of the partnership, 1866,
he was called to the bar of Upper Canada. In 1868 the partnership was
dissolved, and he commenced business in Toronto on his own account. In
1873, he removed to Hamilton, where he received the appointment of
deputy judge, under the late Judge Logie and also the late Judge
Ambrose. The duties of this office he discharged with ability and care,
giving much satisfaction, an address having been presented to him,
signed by the bar of Wentworth county, until the appointment of the
present Judge Sinclair. In 1876 he retired from his judicial position,
and began business again as barrister, opening an office in the Court
House, Hamilton. Judge Smart has devoted himself more or less to civic
politics, and was during 1870 and 1871 a councillor for Yorkville, now
part of Toronto. He belongs to the order of Freemasons, and has held the
office of secretary of the Ionic lodge, No. 25, Toronto. He is likewise
a member of the Orange order. He is an Episcopalian; and in politics a
Liberal-Conservative. He was a candidate for South Oxford in 1882, but
did not succeed. He married, in 1863, Catherine McGill Crooks, daughter
of the late John Crooks, of Niagara. By this lady, who died in 1871, he
has three children. He is a man of broad views, and though not a
prohibitionist, is a sturdy advocate of temperance.
* * * * *
=Van Horne, William C.=, Vice-President and General Manager Canadian
Pacific Railway, Montreal.—Of the links that bind the old world to the
new, there is one which, whatever may betide in a future, near or far,
is not likely to give way. That link is the bond of race, and in itself
that bond is manifold. In Mexico, Central and South America, a group of
successive states perpetuates the memories of Spain’s dominion in the
continent that she helped Columbus to discover. Brazil is allied by
blood and crown to the enterprise of Portugal. North of the Gulf of
Mexico, the empire has, in the course of events, become the heritage of
men of Anglo-Saxon breed, whether the flag be the union-jack or the
stars and stripes, the men who raised it aloft were mainly from the
British Isles. Not all, however. Both in the United States and Canada
there are elements in the population—important elements—which it would
be stupidity to ignore. The foundations of the dominion were laid by the
valiant and pious sons of La Belle France, and notwithstanding the
change of rulership, the country is still, and must long continue to be,
to a large extent, administered by their descendants. In the United
States, among the first to sow the seeds of civilization in the
wilderness, were the hardy children of the land of dykes and fogs.
Hudson, though English born, was by adoption and service a Hollander,
and the commercial metropolis of the western hemisphere was founded by
Dutch pioneers. It is no wonder that in the great American republic
should have arisen the most sympathetic and popular historian of the
growth and independence of the United Netherlands. For if in that land
of constant warfare with the ocean—the well-known patronymic—which to
Platt Deutsch ears is as “Mac” to the Highlander, and “O” to the
Munsterman, has been borne by patriots like Van den Berg, Van der Does,
Van Tromp, and Van Hove, not less distinguished a place, in proportion
to their numbers, have the founders of Manhattan and their descendants
won for themselves in their new home. It is also worthy of remembrance
that, though the English, displaced the Dutch by the law of the
stronger, the Dutch won back their lost estates, and that in fact they
only submitted to the English crown, when that crown pressed the brow of
a compatriot of their own—William, Prince of Orange. Of the persons of
known Dutch origin who have since those days of struggle risen to proud
preeminence in the United States, the list is a long and honorable one.
There is no rank of life, indeed, in which they have not been and may
still be found, and as a rule, wherever the syllable “Van” is prefixed
to a name, it denotes the ancient fatherland of its possessor. It may be
almost taken for granted that he is above the average in those qualities
that win success and esteem. That this assertion is not made at random,
will be evident to any one who consults the “Biographical Directory of
the Railway Officials of America,” where the number of office bearers
bearing names beginning with “Van” is remarkable. In this list one name
is conspicuous as that of a gentleman who holds the supreme position
among the railway men of Canada—that of William C. Van Horne,
vice-president and general manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The
name is one, moreover, of high renown in both continents, and has been
borne by soldiers, sailors, divines, and scholars, as well as by men who
made their mark in the ranks of commerce and industry. It was, it will
be remembered, a Garratt Van Horne, a valorous and gigantic Dutchman,
who led that resolute band of New Netherlanders who refused to bend
their necks to the English invader. One of the race did, indeed,
afterwards suffer discomfiture, being taken by surprise, and the
students of our history will recall the repulse of Major Thomas B. Van
Horne, near Detroit, in 1812. But a namesake of that gallant officer has
amply avenged him in the spirit of returning good for evil. The
rivalries of peace are more noble than those of war, and the benefit
that the subject of this memoir has conferred on the Dominion and its
people rebounds to the honor of the benefactor, as no conquest of his
military namesake, even had he advanced unchecked, could ever have done.
Mr. W. C. Van Horne is in career a type, not only as we have tried to
show, of the stamp of character with which Holland—trained there, too,
by long and fruitful conflict with nature—has endowed the new world,
but also of a class of men who have made North America what it is to
day. What the railway movement has done for civilization in the western,
even more than in the eastern, hemisphere, we need not pause to inquire.
Enough to suggest the inquiring; the answer lies all around us in the
network of lines which has brought the most remote and out-of-the-way
corners of the continent into communication with the great centres of
business, skilled labor, and varied culture. In effecting these splendid
results, Mr. Van Horne has had a share which, though a few dates may
indicate its general features, might be made the theme of an instructive
volume. Though he springs, as we have seen, from the old patron stock of
the Manhattan colony, he is a westerner by birth, having first seen the
light in Will county, Illinois, in February, 1843. He is therefore in
the very prime of life. His railway experience began some thirty-two
years ago, when he entered the service of the Illinois Central, as
telegraph operator, at Chicago. He afterwards served for six years more,
in various capacities, on the Joliet division of the Michigan Central.
From 1864 to 1872, he was connected with the Chicago and Alton Railway,
filling successively the positions of train-despatcher, superintendent
of telegraphs, and assistant superintendent of the railway; and in 1872,
he became general superintendent of the St. Louis, Kansas City, and
Northern Railway. From October, 1874, till October, 1878, he was general
manager of the Southern Minnesota line, being president of the company
from December, 1877, till December, 1879. From October, 1878, till
December, 1879, he was general superintendent of the Chicago and Alton
Railway. In January, 1880, he became general superintendent of the
Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul’s Railway, a position which he held for
two years. In January, 1882, he became connected with the Canadian
Pacific Railway, as general manager, and in 1884, he assumed the high
and responsible position, which he still holds, as vice-president of
that great company. This brief outline indicates a career of faithful
service and gradual promotion. From that time forward Mr. Van Horne’s
name has become a household one in Canada. His perseverance, pluck, and
skill in connection with that railway soon placed him in the fore rank
as one of the great railway managers of the present century, and the
work he performed, and the skill manifested in the construction of that
great national work, will ever link his name with the history of Canada.
The work was completed within six years of the period allowed by
contract, the last spike was driven by the Hon. (now Sir) Donald A.
Smith, at Eagle Pass, 340 miles from Port Moodie, on the 7th of
November, 1885, and the through train from Montreal passed on to the
Pacific terminus. The operation of the line since that date has
transcended the expectations even of the most sanguine.
* * * * *
=Bryson, Hon. George=, sen., Fort Coulonge, ex-Member of the Legislative
Council of the Province of Quebec, was born in Paisley, Scotland, on the
16th December, 1813. His parents were James Bryson and Jane Cochrane,
and both were born in Scotland. They came to Canada in 1821, and settled
in the township of Ramsay, Lanark county, Ontario. Hon. Mr. Bryson
received his education in the public schools of Ramsay. For about fifty
years he has been in the lumber business, and has seen the development
of this national industry from nearly its commencement. He was mayor of
the township of Mansfield, county of Pontiac, province of Quebec, for a
number of years, and for several terms served as warden of the county.
In the fall of 1857 he entered political life, and was returned to
represent Pontiac in the parliament of Canada; but parliament having
been dissolved a short time thereafter, he never took his seat in the
house. At the general election, which took place in 1858, he again
presented himself for election, but was defeated. In 1867, however, he
was called to the Legislative Council of the province of Quebec, and
occupied a seat in this branch of the legislature until the 17th of
August, 1887, when he resigned in favor of his son, George. Hon. Mr.
Bryson takes an interest in Masonry, and is a member of the Dalhousie
lodge, city of Ottawa. He is an adherent of the Presbyterian church, and
for a number of years has filled the office of elder in the same. In
politics he is a moderate Reformer. He is one of the directors of the
Bank of Ottawa. On the 4th March, 1845, he was married to Robina Cobb,
who was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on the 20th September, 1815, and the
fruit of this marriage has been seven children, four of whom are still
living.
* * * * *
=Richey, Rev. Matthew=, D.D., an eminent minister of the Wesleyan
Methodist connection, was born at Ramelton, in the north of Ireland, in
1803 or 1804, and came to America early in life. In 1820 he gave himself
to the work of the ministry among the Methodists, and labored in New
Brunswick. In 1821 his name appeared upon the minutes of conference as
that of a probationer, and his first circuit was Newport, N.S. He was
ordained and married in 1825, and was then sent to Parrsboro’, N.S., and
subsequently he was appointed to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. In
1830, on account of the impaired state of Mrs. Richey’s health, he
removed to Charleston, S.C., where the winter was spent. His popularity
there was so great that, owing to the crowded state of the church in
which he officiated, it was no uncommon thing for persons to go in the
afternoon to the church in which he was to preach at night, and to
remain supperless, for the evening service. He returned to Nova Scotia
in 1831 and spent three years in Halifax. In 1835 he was appointed to
Montreal, and here, as in his former spheres of labor, he speedily won,
and permanently held, the love and admiration of the people to whom he
ministered. In 1836, the “Upper Canada Academy,” since changed to
Victoria College, was to be opened, and Mr. Richey was proffered the
position of principal. He consequently removed to Cobourg, where he
remained until 1839; the academy, under his charge, acquiring a high and
influential character in the public estimation. While at Cobourg he
received from the Middleton (Conn.), Wesleyan University, the degree of
M.A., and it was here that he wrote “A Memoir of the late Rev. William
Black,” including an account of the rise and progress of Methodism in
Nova Scotia, etc. From Cobourg he was transferred to Toronto, remaining
there from 1839 to 1843, at which time circumstances led to the
severance of the connection between the British and Canadian sections of
Methodism, which had existed from 1834. In 1840 Mr. Richey accompanied
the Rev. Joseph Stinson, president of the Conference, to England, on a
visit rendered necessary by the new order of affairs; and in 1841 he was
again delegated to attend the British Conference, accompanied by the
Rev. E. Evans. The results of those visits were eminently satisfactory
to Wesleyans in connection with the British Conference. From 1843 to
1845, Mr. Richey was stationed at Kingston, then the seat of government.
In 1842 he was appointed chairman of the Canada West District and
general superintendent of Missions. In 1845 he was placed in Montreal as
minister of great St. James street church, and chairman of the Canada
East District. During this incumbency he received the honorary degree of
D.D. from the Middleton Wesleyan University. To the official
responsibilities of the Montreal district were added the superintendency
of Missions in the Hudson’s Bay territory. In 1846 Dr. Richey was a
Canadian delegate to the London Evangelical Alliance, and the following
year he again crossed the Atlantic to attend the British Conference. A
better understanding between the sections of British and Canadian
Methodists was being arrived at, and as the result, articles of union
were agreed upon in 1847. In 1848 he again removed to Toronto, attended
the General Conference of the M. E. Church at Pittsburg, and was
appointed president of the Canada Conference. In the autumn of 1849 he
was thrown from his carriage, and never entirely recovered from the
effects of the fall. Early in 1850 he removed to Windsor, N.S., and
enjoyed the repose of a country life until the following year, when,
after a visit to England and France, he again took up his residence at
Halifax, was appointed chairman of the Nova Scotia West District, and so
continued until 1855, when the Conference of Eastern British America,
comprising Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, the
Bermudas, and Newfoundland, was formed, with the Rev. Dr. Beechman as
president, and Dr. Richey as codelegate. That year he visited
Newfoundland on official duty, and at a later period spent a short time
in Bermuda. In 1856 he was appointed president, and held that office
until 1860, when, as the result of an aggravation of his malady, it
became necessary for him to occupy a supernumerary relation. He again
visited England, and on his return in 1861, he was appointed to St.
John, N.B. From 1864 to 1867 was spent in Charlottetown, as chairman of
the Prince Edward Island District, and in the last named year he was
again president of the Conference of E. B. America. In 1868 he attended
the General Conference of the M. E. Church in Chicago, and in July of
the same year he again visited the British Conference. But his condition
now rendered it necessary for him to retire from active labor, and he
spent the remaining years of his life under the guardianship and
affectionate solicitude of family and friends. On the 17th October,
1883, he was seized by paralysis and lingered until the following
Tuesday, Oct. 24th. Thus passed away one of the foremost divines in the
great Methodist denomination, to whose ripe scholarship, rare
theological attainments, and commanding eloquence, as well as to his
abundant and useful labors, frequent reference is found in Methodistic
records.
* * * * *
=Desjardins, Lieutenant-Colonel Louis George=, M.P.P. for Montmorency,
Levis, Quebec, was born at St. Jean Port Joli, County of L’Islet, on
12th May, 1849. He is the son of the late François Desjardins. He
received his education at Levis college, where the training was of the
very best kind to fit a young man for the active duties of life. He
became a journalist, and in that profession has held a number of
positions of influence in relation to the newspaper press. He was for
several years editor-in-chief of _Le Canadien_ (Quebec), one of the most
influential of French-Canadian papers. On the 3rd February, 1873, he
married Aurélie, daughter of the late C. Lachance, of Levis. His
interest in militia affairs was always keen. He has his title of
lieutenant-colonel as commanding officer of the 17th battalion volunteer
militia. Lieutenant-Colonel Desjardins first entered active political
life in 1881, when he was elected to represent his present constituency
in the House of Assembly of the province. He gave a strong and able
support to the Chapleau ministry, which was then in power, and
subsequently to the different administrations following, until the
defeat of the Conservatives at the last general election. In that
election Lieutenant-Colonel Desjardins was again returned. As a
journalist and public speaker, Mr. Desjardins is possessed of remarkable
power. His knowledge of political affairs is both wide and accurate, and
his writing, especially, shows that conscious power which comes of full
knowledge of the subject with which he deals.
* * * * *
=Hamilton, Hon. Charles Edward=, Q.C., Attorney-General of Manitoba, was
born at Upnor Castle, near Chatham, England, on the 25th of March, 1844.
His parents came to Canada with their family when the subject of this
sketch was but four years old; his father, the late Captain Hamilton,
being commandant at Isle-aux-noix, Quebec. They settled afterwards in
St. Catharines, where he was educated. After receiving a sound
education, he entered upon the study of the law, being articled in the
office of Hon. J. G. Currie, then speaker of the Legislative Assembly.
He was so successful in his study of the law that when only twenty-one
he was called to the bar, when he entered actively upon the practice of
his profession. Mr. Hamilton was an ardent member of the volunteer
force, and even in his early twenties held a commission as captain in
the 44th Welland battalion. During the Fenian troubles of 1871, when it
was believed that the marauders from the American side of the river
would repeat their incursion of five years before, the 44th Battalion
was among those called out, and Captain Hamilton, on that occasion, was
given charge of two companies. Mr. Hamilton went to Winnipeg in
February, 1881, and was called to the bar of that province in May of the
same year. He took part in founding the firm of Aikins, Culver &
Hamilton, which quickly took a foremost place in the ranks of the legal
profession in Winnipeg. In 1885, Mr. Hamilton was elected mayor of the
city, and in the same year was nominated as the ministerial candidate to
contest Winnipeg South for the local legislature, his opponent being Mr.
W. F. Luxton, one of the leaders of the ex-opposition. The contest was
an exceedingly keen one, and one that attracted wide attention. Mr.
Hamilton was successful. He became a member of the executive council,
holding the portfolio of attorney-general in the same year. In the last
general election Mr. Hamilton was returned for Shoal Lake. Mr. Norquay’s
government resigned on the 23rd of December, 1887, and Dr. Harrison was
called upon to form a government. Mr. Hamilton was sworn in on the 26th
of December, 1887, as attorney-general of the new government. He was one
of the two representatives of the Manitoba government at the later
provincial conference, hon. John Norquay, then premier, being the head
of the deputation. In everything pertaining to the industrial
development of the city and the province, Mr. Hamilton has taken a deep
interest. He is a director of the Commercial Bank of Manitoba, and a
director also of the Manitoba Mortgage and Investment Company. In 1884
Mr. Hamilton married Miss Alma Ashworth, daughter of Mr. John Ashworth,
cashier of the Post Office department, Ottawa. His church relations are
with the Presbyterian denomination. In his profession, Mr. Hamilton has
been most successful, the call to the high position of attorney-general
being a deserved tribute to his legal attainments. His career as a
public man has been such as to win for him not only the enthusiastic
regard of his supporters, but also the esteem and respect of his
opponents, and, though in an arena so small as the political field of
Manitoba, personal issues are too apt to be forced to the front, those
who oppose him are compelled, by the purity of his record, to do so on
public grounds.
* * * * *
=Campbell, Hon. William=, Farmer and Millowner, Park Corner, Prince
Edward Island, was born at Park Corner on 12th January, 1836. He is the
eighth son of the late James Campbell, of Park Corner, New London,
P.E.I. His mother, Elizabeth Montgomery, of Princetown, was a sister of
the Hon. Senator Montgomery. Hon. Mr. Campbell is descended from the
Breadalbane Campbells on the paternal side, and from the Camerons of
Lochiel on the maternal side. His grandfather came to Prince Edward
Island in 1773, from Breadalbane, in Perthshire, Scotland, with Governor
Paterson, a military officer. Mr. Campbell received his education in his
native parish. He has taken a very active interest in military affairs,
and has held the commissions of captain, major, and is now
lieutenant-colonel of Queen’s county militia. On entering political
life, he was elected to the House of Assembly for Queen’s First Division
in 1873, on the resignation of the sitting member; and three years
later, he was re-elected as a supporter of free schools. In 1879, he was
sworn in a member of the Executive Council, and became a member of the
Sullivan cabinet, without a portfolio. In March following, he was
appointed minister of public works, and on appealing to his constituents
was elected by acclamation. He was also commissioner of the government
stock farm. Again, at the general election held in 1882, he was
returned, and continued a member of the government, as minister of
public works, until 1st February, 1887, when he resigned this office to
run as a candidate for the House of Commons at Ottawa for Queen’s
county, but failed to secure his election. While in parliament he took
an active part in the discussion of the leading questions of the
times—notably the land question, free schools, reduction of the
provincial expenditure, etc. Hon. Mr. Campbell, in religion, belongs to
the Presbyterian church, and to the Conservative party in politics. He
was married first, in 1864, to Elizabeth McLeod, of New London, and
second, in February, 1873, to Elizabeth L. Sutherland, daughter of the
late John S. Sutherland, of Caithness-shire, Scotland.
* * * * *
=Bowser, Rev. Alexander Thomas=, B.D., Pastor of First Unitarian Church,
Toronto, was born in Sackville, New Brunswick, February 20, 1848. His
parents, Robert and Jane (Kirk) Bowser were respectively of English and
Scotch descent. Alexander was the sixth child of a family of twelve (six
boys and six girls). In 1864 he left home to enter a store in the town
of Moncton, as clerk; but wishing for the greater advantages of life in
a large city, he soon afterwards went to Boston, Massachusetts, where,
in connection with business, he was able to pursue the course of study
at the Latin High School; and in 1873 was matriculated as Freshman at
Harvard College, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts in regular
course, in 1877; and three years later (1880), on graduating from the
Divinity School, he received the degree of Bachelor of Divinity. Mr.
Bowser’s first year in the ministry was devoted to mission work in St.
Louis, Missouri. Here, on 2nd May, 1881, he was ordained to the
Christian ministry in the Church of the Messiah (Unitarian), the
venerable Chancellor of Washington University, Rev. W. G. Eliot, D.D.,
giving the charge to the young preacher and offering the prayer of
ordination, and the Rev. John Snyder, pastor of the Church of the
Messiah, giving him the right hand of fellowship. Mr. Bowser now spent
two years in Evansville, Indiana, as the representative of the American
Unitarian Association; but his influence soon extended beyond his
denominational work into public affairs, many of his Sunday evening
lectures being printed in full in the daily papers. The general
character of these lectures may be inferred from a few of the subjects
treated, such as “The need of Conscience in Public Affairs,” “Coffee
Houses versus Liquor Saloons,” “Why the Chinese should not be excluded
from the United States.” Having presented the Evansville Public Library
with a number of Unitarian publications, the trustees were so well
pleased with the books that they requested him to prepare a list of such
works as he would wish them to purchase for the library, and the result
was that nearly 300 volumes of the latest religious and scientific
thought were placed upon their shelves. In January, 1884, Mr. Bowser was
called to the pastorate of the Third Congregational (Unitarian) Church
of Hingham, Massachusetts, one of the oldest and most influential
Societies in New England, numbering among its members General Lincoln,
who was secretary of war under Washington; John Albion Andrew, who was
Governor of Massachusetts during the civil war, and ex-Governor John D.
Long, who is now (1888) member of Congress for that district. This
important position Mr. Bowser held for three years, winning the respect
and love not only of his own parish, but of the community at large; but
on receiving an invitation from the First Unitarian Congregation of
Toronto, he felt that it was a call from heaven to carry the beautiful
and soul-inspiring truths of Unitarian Christianity to his own people of
Canada, where these principles are not so well known as in
Massachusetts. Accordingly, he resigned, and on the last Sunday in
January, 1887, took charge of the church in Toronto. Mr. Bowser was
brought up in the Methodist church, and first became interested in
Unitarianism while pursuing his studies preparatory to entering Harvard
College. He was at the time an earnest worker in one of the Methodist
churches in Boston, when suddenly a charge of Unitarian heresy was
brought against him, though he had no idea himself, at the time, that he
was in sympathy with their peculiar views of religion. This, however,
awakened his interest, and he began to inquire about the principles of
this body, and was told by one of their ministers to read the New
Testament and see for himself what Jesus and the Apostles taught, and he
would find the Unitarian doctrine. This he did with earnest care for
several years, and having failed to find a single passage in which it is
distinctly stated that Jesus was God, or the Second Person in the
Trinity, but on the other hand, finding the essential principles of
Unitarianism stated in the most explicit language everywhere throughout
the Bible, he became a Unitarian, and claims that he is one simply and
only because it is the religion of Jesus Christ and the early
Christians. Mr. Bowser regards his residence in St. Louis as one of the
most important periods of his life, as it was there that he first met
Miss Adelaide Prescott Reed, to whom he was united in marriage in April,
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