A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time by Rose
1881. He is also the author of a paper entitled, “Vinland,” an account
5044 words | Chapter 113
of the Norse discovery of America, read before the Nova Scotia
Historical Society in the winter of 1887. Mr. Power drafted the charter
of the University of Halifax, established by statute in 1876, and from
that time until the practical extinction of the institution, owing to
the withdrawal of the provincial grant by the Holmes government, in
1879, was an active and prominent member of the senate of the
University, and an examiner in the Faculty of Law. Owing, in a great
measure, to the numerical weakness of the Liberal party in the Senate of
Canada, the subject of this sketch has, since his appointment, taken a
very active part in the business of the House and its committees. While
called upon to speak on subjects of every kind, he has given special
attention to constitutional questions, railways, and the fisheries.
Among his most important speeches may be mentioned one made in the
session of 1879, in which were pointed out, for the first time in
parliament, the many advantages of the Sault Ste. Marie route for a
railway to the North-West; one in 1880 against the Deceased Wife’s
Sister Bill; one in 1884 on the disproportion between the expenditure on
the Intercolonial Railway and the receipts from that work; one on the
question of Prohibition, and another on the route of the proposed “short
line” railway from Montreal to the Lower Provinces, in 1885; one made
during the discussion arising out of the proposal to take Senator
O’Donohoe into the Cabinet, in 1886; and one made in the session of 1887
on a resolution introduced by Mr. Power, and unanimously adopted by the
Senate, to the effect that in any negotiations for the admission of
United States fishermen to the territorial waters of Canada, care should
be taken that when admitted they should be subject to the laws and
regulations governing our own fishermen. Amongst other parliamentary
work done by the subject of this notice during recent years may be
mentioned the drafting of the Nova Scotia Married Woman’s Property Act,
which became law in 1884. Outside of politics, he has taken an active
interest in various local matters of a public character, and is now a
commissioner of schools for his native city; a commissioner of the
Provincial Library, a director of the Victoria School of Art; a director
of the Halifax Visiting Dispensary; one of the executive committee of
the Halifax Ratepayers’ Association; and a member of the Nova Scotia
Historical Society and of the Wanderers’ Athletic Association, as well
as of certain associations connected with the Roman Catholic church.
Although not a man of extreme views, but rather a conservative Liberal,
Mr. Power has been consistent and resolute in his loyalty to the Reform
party, and in his opposition to Liberal-Conservatism. His theory of
government is that each individual, each family, each hamlet, village,
town, city, county and province, should have the greatest liberty and
self-government consistent with the safety of the common country, and
that the business of government should be carried on according to the
same principles which are adopted by prudent men in managing their own
affairs. He thinks that the powers of the central government in Canada
are greater than they should be, and that the machinery of that
government is complicated, cumbrous, ineffective and expensive, to a
lamentable degree. If these defects and abuses were removed, and the
tariff framed in the interests of the mass of the population instead of
as now in the interests of a very small minority, he thinks that the
natural advantages of our country would ere long have the effect of
largely increasing our wealth, population, and our importance in the
eyes of the outside world. Mr. Power was married on the 23rd of June,
1880, to Susan, daughter of Mr. M. O’Leary, of Noodiquoddy, Halifax
county.
* * * * *
=McDonald, Rev. Clinton Donald=, B.A., B.L., B.D., M.A., Ph.B., B.Sc.,
Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Thorold, Ontario, was born in
the city of Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, on the 17th June, 1842. His
father, Angus McDonald, and his mother, Mary McDonald, both belonged to
the Clan McDonald, of Glencoe, Inverness-shire, and had moved to Glasgow
shortly before the birth of their only son. In Glasgow, Angus McDonald,
a stalwart Highlander, over six feet in height, served for several years
in the city police force, and afterwards removed to the village of
Dalmuir, in Dumbartonshire, where he was employed in Tennant’s chemical
works, and here he died. Both his parents died before Clinton had seen
his tenth birthday, and thus the orphan boy, with his only sister, were
thrown upon the world to push their way the best they could. For five or
six years Clinton spent his time among the farmers in the parishes of
Old Kilpatrick, Cardross, and Row; and having saved a little money he
emigrated to Canada. Shortly after his arrival he found employment as a
farm hand in the county of Huron, and worked there for about three years
as such. Being addicted to no vices, steady, moral, and frugal in his
habits, he had in these few years acquired sufficient money to enable
him to obtain that which of all things he had long desired, namely, a
better education. With this object in view, he gathered together his
worldly possessions, and started from the backwoods of the township of
Hullett, and took up his abode in the town of Clinton. Here he entered
the public school, then taught by John McFaul, where he continued for a
year, and then spent another year in the High school taught by George
Argo, B.A. When he first entered school he had but the slightest
knowledge of geography and grammar, and only the most elementary rules
in arithmetic, yet at the end of these two years he had made such rapid
progress that, at the examination for teachers in the county of Huron,
he obtained a first class teachers’ certificate. He then took up
teaching as a profession, and for about two years successfully
prosecuted this work. But the desire for a still higher education had
taken such possession of his mind that he determined to still further
prosecute his studies. He entered Knox College, Toronto, and having
passed its full literary and classical courses, entered Toronto
University, and passed the first three of its five examinations in the
Arts course. Before completing the Arts course in the university he
entered the divinity hall of Knox College to study Theology, and on the
completion of this course he entered the ministry. During his college
course, which lasted about six years, the Rev. Mr. McDonald gained
marked distinction, and at the competitive examinations carried off so
many of the cash prizes that he was able thereby to pay all the costs of
his college career. In 1877, the congregation of the First Presbyterian
church of Thorold called the Rev. Mr. McDonald, who at that time had
charge of the Presbyterian church at Point Edward, near Sarnia, to
become its pastor, and since then the church has had a very successful
career. The population of Thorold, through the completion of certain
public works in its vicinity, is now about one thousand less than it was
when Rev. Mr. McDonald went there, yet though the number of people in
the town is much less, the number of members in the Presbyterian church
is much greater; that is, while the population has fallen from about
three thousand down to two thousand, yet the number of members in the
church has risen from ninety-nine up to one hundred and eighty. Looking
at the facts above stated, we may fairly conclude that Rev. Mr. McDonald
is evidently a man of push and perseverance, and we predict for him a
highly honourable career, such an one as must fall to the lot of a man
who has thus steadily worked himself up to his present position in the
church.
* * * * *
=Coldwell, Albert Edward=, M.A., Professor of Natural Science, Acadia
College, Wolfville, N.S., was born at Gaspereau, Kings county, N.S.,
September 18th, 1841. The Coldwell family is of English origin, the
family name in its present form having been handed down for some
centuries. Mr. Coldwell’s great-great-grandfather came to Nova Scotia
from New England and took up lands in the beautiful valley of the
Gaspereau. Many of his descendants are now living in the immediate
vicinity. Our subject’s father was Ebenezer Coldwell and his mother Mary
Stevens, also a well known family in Nova Scotia. Mr. Coldwell’s
maternal uncle, Rev. James Stevens, was widely known and respected, not
only in Nova Scotia but outside of it, as a prominent member of the
Baptist ministry, up to the time of his death which occurred at a ripe
old age. Mr. Coldwell was educated at Horton Collegiate Academy and
Acadia College. He pursued the general classical course, graduating B.A.
(with honours) in 1869. At the end of Sophomore year he won the monthly
essay prize and in his senior year the Alumni essay prize of $40 open to
all undergraduates. Obtained his M.A. degree in 1872. In 1877, Mr.
Coldwell won the Vaughan prize of £20 sterling for the best essay on the
History of Acadia College. This history is published in the memorial
volume issued by the college in 1881, and apart from its historical
value is a gem of literary excellence. Prof. Coldwell has not been
satisfied with education derived from books alone, but has travelled
somewhat extensively and thereby came into immediate contact with the
scholars of other countries. For a short time he resided in London,
making the most of his opportunities, and he is also familiar with the
centres of thought in the eastern and middle States. It is scarcely
necessary to add that he is a Baptist. He also married into a well known
family of that denomination, his wife being Jessie, a daughter of W. J.
Higgins, and niece of Professor Higgins, of Acadia College, and also of
Rev. Dr. Higgins, pastor of the Wolfville Baptist Church. In January,
1871, Mr. Coldwell was appointed instructor in mathematics in Horton
Collegiate Academy, which post he filled until 1882, when he was
appointed instructor in Natural Science in Acadia College. In June,
1884, he was appointed professor in that department, which position he
still holds. Prof. Coldwell’s reputation does not rest alone upon his
connection with Acadia, but in consequence of the special attention he
has given to science studies since graduating he is rapidly gaining a
name for himself in the scientific world.
* * * * *
=Spencer, Charles Worthington=, Montreal, general superintendent eastern
division Canadian Pacific Railway, was born on the 31st October, 1857,
at Kemptville, Ont. He would confer no small service on mankind, and
especially on that portion of it which constitutes the business world of
our modern civilization, who would set forth, in the form of “brief
biographies,” the stages by which men attain success in the various
walks of active life. Soldiers, statesmen, _litterateurs_, men of
science, scholars, and churchmen, who have achieved distinction, rarely
lack pens to celebrate their courage, their genius, their learning and
their discoveries. Their names become household words in the professions
or occupations by which they have risen to fame, so that those who
succeed them in the same path of effort are at no loss for examples by
which to shape their own careers. In the vast range of multifarious
activity—the world of commerce and skilled industry, the world of
railroads and steamships, to which our age is mainly indebted for its
practical progress—it is unfortunately otherwise. Hundreds of the men
who have blessed their kind while advancing their own interest—who have
opened up new fields of human labor, who have broadened the realm of
trade, and, by inventions, adaptations and administrative talent, have
brought communities, severed by thousands of miles, into friendly
contiguity, and given facility, safety and comfort to the intercourse
between nation and nation—have been allowed to pass away with hardly a
record of their existence, and still oftener without any worthy memorial
of their services to their fellowmen. To the young man just beginning
life; such a biographical collection, based on the careers of men who by
the faithful and conscientious use of natural and acquired advantages
had won for themselves a name and position in their chosen path of
endeavors, would be of untold value. He would learn what qualities to
accentuate, what dangers to avoid, how best to avail himself of
opportunities as they offered, and, in time, how, by serving faithfully,
to fit himself eventually for the task of supervision and command. When
such a work, or series of works (as this), is given to the public, there
is one name which it is sure to include in its list of examples, that
which stands at the head of this memoir. Charles Worthington Spencer,
general superintendent of the eastern division of the Canadian Pacific
Railway, has the peculiar distinction of being the youngest man in his
profession who fills so high and responsible a position. To what gifts
and energies he owes his promotion those who have the pleasure of his
acquaintance need not be informed. Able, courteous, with a mental grasp
that can take in wide surveys, without at the same time neglecting
details, he has risen step by step to the exalted place which he
occupies with a rapidity rarely, if ever, paralleled on any of our great
American lines. Mr. Spencer, at the present time, 1888, is only in his
thirty-first year. He entered the railway service on the 7th day of May,
1871, and was operator and clerk at the Ottawa station until May, 1874,
when he became assistant agent. He then passed successively through the
stages of assistant train despatcher, chief train despatcher, traffic
superintendent, assistant superintendent, and assistant general
superintendent. From 1st August, 1884, to 30th April, 1885, he was
assistant general superintendent of the eastern division; from the
latter date to 27th September, 1886, he was assistant general
superintendent of the eastern and Ontario divisions. From the latter
date to 25th September, 1887, he was acting general superintendent of
the same division. On the date last mentioned he received the important
appointment which he still holds, that of general superintendent of the
eastern division. The whole of Mr. Spencer’s experience was gained in
Canada, and in connection with the great enterprise to which he is still
so honorably attached. If Canada has reason to be proud of her industry
and commerce, which of late have so grand a development, she owes her
progress in those respects to her great public works and improvements,
her chain of canals and net-work of railways, which same have made
inter-communication possible. Of these, the C. P. R. takes the
acknowledged lead, and of the men to whom that great route is indebted
for that perfection of equipment and administration which have won it
the public confidence at home and the admiration of foreigners, not the
least worthy of grateful recognition is Charles Worthington Spencer.
* * * * *
=Tetreau, Rev. F.=, was born at St. Hyacinthe, on October 11th, 1819.
His parents were honest farmers. Left an orphan when very young, his
grandparents carefully watched over his earliest education. At the age
of twelve years, under the kind and generous protection of the curé of
his parish, he entered and commenced his classical studies at the St.
Hyacinthe College, and there terminated them with great success in 1838,
in the midst of such distinguished men as the present
Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario and the Archbishop of St. Boniface. After
mature reflection, this young philosopher became a priest, and
consecrated his life to the care and instruction of the young of that
institution, which so deservedly merited all his gratitude and devotion.
One day his bishop remarked to him, “Be a pillar of the seminary.” This
remark became an order, accepted and carried out in its fullest extent.
For more than half a century the “pillar” has been in its place, and has
only bowed to the inevitable march of time, and Providence has blessed
him, and crowned his ripe years with success. The aged priest has the
energy and ardor of his younger days, leading a uniform life, and
filling all the necessary duties of a college professor. He has
practised in his deportment the ascetic maxim, “_Ama nesciri et pro
nihilo reputari_.” This maxim did not prevent him keeping up kindly
relations with his brothers in religion or his old pupils, all deeply
attached to the cradle of their intellectual life. He was also much
interested in the young writers of St. Hyacinthe, as well as elsewhere,
Oscar Dunn being one of those of whom he retains an intimate and
indelible remembrance. Who knows but that the old priest, in the
exuberance of his youth, was guilty of many press delinquencies? Whether
he was on the side of the press or not, it is certain he has written a
great deal. Since 1849 he has chronicled, collected and made note of
every event of importance which has taken place in the world,
particularly in Canada, but more especially at St. Hyacinthe and the
college. As every change occurs, it has been carefully committed to
writing day by day, and these memoirs in the future will serve as a
foundation for local history. Those who have had the privilege of seeing
the manuscript agree that it is most valuable. After this short and
condensed notice, it will easily be understood that the Rev. F. Tetreau
has been one of the useful workers of this earth, and his life a general
benefit to his fellow-creatures, always practising the maxim, “_Ama
nesciri et pro nihilo reputari_.”
* * * * *
=Fry, Edward Carey= (Henry Fry & Co., of Quebec) was born in Bristol,
the commercial capital of the west of England, on the 24th June, 1842.
Although, like many others of our prominent men in the various walks of
life, the subject of our sketch was not born in Canada, he is,
nevertheless, by commercial training, more than thirty years’ residence
in the country, and also by marriage, a typical Anglo-Canadian. He is
one of the leading members of Quebec commercial society. His parents
were of the middle class in life, but still possessed of sufficient
means to give their numerous family the elements of a good sound English
commercial education. His surname at once suggests some connection with
the Society of Friends commonly known as “Quakers,” and with good
reason, for his immediate ancestors were certainly of that denomination,
while there is little doubt that those more remote were of the band who
left England for these shores to avoid religious persecution, and who
appear to have settled in New Brunswick, as the name is well known
around St. Stephen’s to this day. In fact, when Mr. Fry’s elder brother,
Henry, first landed there in 1853, the first person to address him bore
exactly the same name as himself, and with little difficulty they traced
their descent to a common ancestor. A Peter Fry left New Brunswick and
settled in the county of Somerset, England, where he became the founder
of that branch of the family, and numerous are the mural tablets in the
picturesque village churches of that county to the memory of different
members of this family, who seem to have been held in the highest
respect, as was its founder, of whom the following is recorded in marble
in the parish church of Axbridge, Somerset:—
“To the Memory of
PETER FRY,
Who resigned his spirit
into the hands of his
Redeemer, 21st September, 1787,
Aged 52 years.
That his example may be
a light to others
Let this stone record his
virtues.
In transacting business
he showed great ability
and clear understanding
and a sound judgment.
He was much trusted and
never betrayed a trust;
yet his inviolable integrity
was tempered with the
gentlest humanity.
In social life, he was
benevolent, friendly
and charitable.
In his domestic connexions,
prudent, affectionate,
and tender.
In his commerce with God,
in whom he placed a
truly Christian confidence,
humble, pious and resigned.
Reader,
‘Go and do thou likewise.’”
George Fry, the father of our subject, though not a member of the
Society of Friends, was educated in one of their schools, and a certain
amount of quiet reserve, sedateness, and plainness of speech descended
from the father to several of his sons, who are still apt to call a
spade a “spade” and not an “agricultural implement.” Mr. Edward Carey
Fry received his education at the grammar school of Bristol, a city
famous for its schools, and by the time he had received all that his
friends could give him in that respect, his elder brother Henry had
become a Canadian ship-owner, while several of his other brothers were
at sea. It was decided that the boy, Edward, should follow their example
and he was accordingly apprenticed to Henry and served some time in one
of his ships, the well known old _Lotus_. Although by this means he
acquired a knowledge of the sea and of ships, which has since been very
valuable to him in his capacity of Lloyd’s Agent, life in a timber ship
was necessarily distasteful to a lad of his stamp and, as it was seen,
that by education and a certain amount of refinement he was more fitted
for his brother’s office in Quebec than for the forecastle of a timber
ship, the change was made. There the business portion of his education
commenced, progressed, and was completed under his brother’s fostering
care, so that for experience of Canadian timber and shipping matters and
especially of all that concerns the port of Quebec and its trade, he is
probably excelled by none. He was finally taken into partnership by Mr.
Henry Fry, a connection only to be dissolved by the lamented break-down
of the latter gentleman’s health owing to overwork very largely
honorary, philanthropic, and for the welfare of his fellow citizens of
Quebec, by whom no one was more highly respected or deservedly
regretted. The business has since been carried on by Mr. Edward Carey
Fry, under the old and honoured name. After becoming a citizen of
Quebec, Mr. Edward Fry added to his previous ties by marrying Elizabeth,
the daughter of the Revd. David Marsh, the well-known and esteemed
Baptist minister of Quebec, who, like her young husband, was born in
England, though transplanted to this country at a very early age. They
have a large family of bright, intelligent boys and girls, undoubtedly
showing in their physique their Anglo-Saxon origin, but Canadian born
and with all the advantages of education that an excellent school system
can supply. Mr. Fry has been associated from infancy with the Baptist
church. In fact he was named after the great Baptist missionary, Edward
Carey, and, as a child, attended Broadmead Baptist chapel, Bristol, well
known to the religious world as having been the scene of the labours of
Drs. Robert Hall, Foster, and Evans, whose names are historical. In
politics, like his elder brother, it is understood that he declines to
be tied to any party, his motto being “measures, not men,” and that he
will support either side when he believes they are acting honestly for
the welfare of his adopted country. If he has a bias, it is believed to
be in favour of perfect liberty and equality in religion, politics and
commerce, which is only what might be expected from one not very
remotely connected with the freedom-loving Society of Friends. At one
time his firm was largely interested in the timber business, but this
branch has been abandoned by it for some years and its time and
attention are now wholly devoted to shipping and commission. Mr. Fry’s
position as Lloyd’s Agent and agent for other British and continental
underwriters at Quebec, and representing, as he does, several large
ship-owning houses, both sail and steam, have given him an extensive and
unique experience in getting vessels and cargoes out of difficulties at
the least possible cost to all concerned. Like most Quebecers, who have
commercial relations with England, he takes periodical trips to his
native land. In fact, he has crossed the Atlantic at least fifty times,
and it must be said to the credit of his filial affection and sense of
patriotism that he never allows his business on such occasions to
prevent him, when in England, from paying a visit of love and reverence
to the home of his ancestors in Somersetshire, and especially to his
father’s native place, the pretty village of Winscombe, where,
notwithstanding the march of modern improvement, all is still rustic
simplicity. The beautiful old church, with its wealth of historic
associations from the days of the Crusaders downwards, and its
picturesque churchyard, which commands a series of views of a lovely
country and contains one of the finest yew trees in England, are still
just as his father knew them in his youth. Time has not perceptibly
changed them; but the spot, more than all others, which always interests
the son, is that immediately in front of the font in the sacred edifice,
on which his father was held for baptism over a hundred years ago. On
one of his visits to Winscombe church, Mr. Fry had the pleasure of
examining its old register and has now in his possession a certified
copy of his father’s baptismal record—a quaint interesting memorial of
the past in the old English way of writing. It shows that the old man
was born as far back as 1783, or seventeen years before the beginning of
the present century, and it can be readily imagined that many notable
events in the world’s history were embraced within the recollection of
one whose span of existence was prolonged down to our own times in 1868.
Mr. Fry still vividly recalls listening at his father’s knee to his
stories of his long life, how he could just remember hearing in his
boyhood the startling news of the execution of Louis XVI. and his queen
Marie Antoinette, and how, as his memory became more vigorous with his
growth, he retained more vivid impressions with regard to the battles of
the Nile, St. Vincent, and Trafalgar, the nation’s mourning for Nelson,
and the times of privateering in which Bristol took a very prominent
part, and when wheat was nevertheless a guinea a bushel in the midst of
all the ill-gotten wealth of that day. “Fine times those were for the
landlords and farmers”—used the old man to say—“but the common people
were reduced to the verge of starvation.” And he often added that,
though he had probably outlived all the leading spirits of those
privateering days, he could not remember any case in which the money so
acquired appeared to have done any real good, and that he hoped to see
the day when, in time of war, the rights of inoffensive private property
would be respected and privateers receive the only rights to which, in
his opinion, they were entitled—a good rope at the yard-arm as pirates.
Other milestones in his memory, on which he frequently loved to descant
for the benefit of his children, were the days of the Regency, the
battle of Waterloo, the death of Napoleon, the trial of Queen Caroline,
whose husband he thought a sensual brute, though he was styled “the
first gentleman in Europe;” the passing of the Reform Bill, the
opposition to which by the member for Bristol, Sir Charles Wetherall,
contrary to the wishes of his constituents, caused fearful riots and
loss of life in that city, the second and even the third French
revolution, the abolition of slavery under the British flag in 1834, the
accession and marriage of Queen Victoria, the abolition of the corn
laws, and the abandonment by Great Britain of protection for the
benefits of a vigorous free trade policy. It is scarcely necessary to
say that these stirring reminiscences made a deep impression on young
Fry’s mind and that, while as a man to-day his preference is for his
adopted country and his faith strong in the greatness of its future, he
still yields to none either in love for Old England or in unswerving
adherence in public and private to the sturdy principles of rectitude
which seem to have been so marked a characteristic of his worthy father.
Ability and uprightness in business and straightforwardness in all
things have won for him the respect of his fellow-citizens of Quebec,
and few are held in higher or more deserved estimation by all classes of
the population. Mr. Fry is a member of the Quebec Board of Trade, and,
though adverse to accepting any prominent position in that or any other
public body, because, owing to the demands of his business, he cannot
give to them all the requisite time and attention, he nevertheless ever
takes a deep and watchful interest in all that concerns the public good,
whether in a commercial, municipal, political or religious sense, and
can always be counted on to do his duty intelligently and as a good
citizen when necessary.
* * * * *
=Ogden, Charles Kinnis=, Three Rivers, Province of Quebec, was born at
Three Rivers, on the 11th of February, 1829. He is a son of Isaac
Governeur Ogden, who was for forty years sheriff of the district of
Three Rivers, and also served as captain in H.M. 56th Regiment, and in
another regiment with Colonel De Salaberry. His grandfather was the Hon.
Isaac Ogden, judge of the Superior Court, Montreal, and a U. E.
loyalist, who was driven out of his possessions in New Jersey by Gen.
George Washington, in 1775, his lands being all confiscated on account
of his loyalty to the British Crown. The city of New Jersey is now
situated in the centre of his farm, but from which the Ogden family
receive no income. Mr. Ogden is a nephew of the late Charles Richard
Ogden, attorney-general under Sir John Colborne’s administration, in
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