A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time by Rose
1823. In Nova Scotia, since confederation, the legal affairs of the
1061 words | Chapter 167
local administration have been attended to by the attorney-general
exclusively; but in New Brunswick they still keep up the office of
solicitor-general as well. The talented premier, Hon. A. G. Blair, took
the position of attorney-general when he formed his cabinet on the 3rd
March, 1883, and another lawyer of excellent standing being wanted to
complete the _personnel_ of the cabinet, the gentleman who forms the
subject of this sketch was fitly selected as the best man for the
position of solicitor-general. His appointment to the executive council
necessitated his again going to the country and he was re-elected by
acclamation. As a member of the government, he has taken an active part
in all the measures which have been presented to the house, and has well
sustained his prominent position. In addition to his duties, as an
active and leading politician, Hon. Mr. Ritchie is connected with
several of the local corporations of St. John, and his influence is felt
in social and professional circles. Although, having suffered great
losses by fire, the people of St. John have a spirit of business
enterprise which has risen superior to their reverses. The shipping and
lumbering business through which the money of her merchants was chiefly
accumulated have languished of late years, and no compensating trade has
sprung up to take their place. But the manufacturing activity of the
inhabitants has proved successful, and the population of the city has
not declined. The yield of the fisheries, as elsewhere down in the
maritime provinces during the summer of 1887, was enormous. If St. John
is favored by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company as regards making it
a winter port, the outlook for the city’s future is good. The bar of St.
John is rich in forensic talent. The head-quarters of the legal
fraternity centres in Ritchie’s and Palmer’s blocks. The nearness of the
lawyers’ quarters to one another enables the members of the bar to
obtain counsel and intercommunication which is very advantageous and
helpful. When the whirligig of politics brings the Liberals into power
again in Dominion affairs there is probably no man in the opposition
camp whose prospects of succeeding to a position on the bench are better
than those of Hon. R. J. Ritchie. His talents peculiarly fit him for the
position of one of Her Majesty’s judges.
* * * * *
=McLelan, Hon. Archibald Woodbury=, Postmaster-General for the Dominion
of Canada, M.P. for Colchester, Nova Scotia, was born at Londonderry,
N.S., on the 24th December, 1824. He is descended from a family that
emigrated from Londonderry, Ireland, during the last century, and
settled in the province of Nova Scotia. His father, the late G. W.
McLelan, during his lifetime sat for a long period of years in the Nova
Scotia legislature. The future postmaster-general received his primary
education in the schools of his native parish, and finished his
classical course at Mount Allison Wesleyan Academy. In early life, he
engaged in a mercantile line of life, and continued in it for a
considerable term, but in later years became an extensive ship-builder
and ship-owner. He began to take an interest in politics when
comparatively a young man, and represented Colchester in the Legislative
Assembly of Nova Scotia from 1858 to 1863; then North Colchester in the
same legislature from the latter year up to confederation; and
Colchester, in the House of Commons, at Ottawa, until called to the
Senate of Canada on the 21st June, 1869. In 1881, he resigned his seat
in the Senate, and on an appeal to his old friends in Colchester, they
returned him again as their representative in the House of Commons. On
his return to Ottawa, he was sworn in a member of the Privy Council, and
made president of the council on the 20th May of the same year. On the
10th July, 1882, he was appointed minister of marine and fisheries; on
the 10th December, 1885, minister of finance; and on the 27th January,
1887, postmaster-general, the office he now so ably fills. Hon. Mr.
McLelan is a director of the Cobequid Marine Insurance Company. In 1869
he was appointed one of the commissioners for the construction of the
Intercolonial Railway; and in 1883, was a commissioner from Canada to
the Intercolonial Fisheries Exhibition held in London. As a recognition
of his valuable services on this occasion, he was presented with a
diploma of honor. He is a Conservative in politics. In 1854 he was
married to Caroline Metzler, of Halifax.
* * * * *
=Reesor, Hon. David=, Rosedale, Toronto, Senator of the Dominion of
Canada, is a descendant of a German family. His great-grandfather,
Christian Reesor, who was a Mennonite minister, emigrated from Mannheim
to Pennsylvania about 1737, having under his charge a small colony, and
settled in Lancaster county, where some of the family still reside. The
original homestead, a splendid farm of three hundred acres, is still in
their possession. The first settlement of this family in the township of
Markham took place as early in its history as 1801, when Christian
Reesor, the grandfather of the senator, his father, Abraham Reesor,
together with three uncles, located in that section of the country. Here
David Reesor was born on the 18th January, 1823. His, mother Anna
Dettiwiler, was also from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. She died in
Markham in 1857, her husband having died in 1832. The early education of
Senator Reesor was obtained in the common school of the township, but
previous to his being put to any work he received three years private
tuition from a competent instructor, which helped him considerably. His
father’s farm was the first stage on which he enacted his part in the
drama of life; then he became a merchant and manufacturer, and continued
business in these lines for five years. In 1856 he published the first
copy of the _Markham Economist_, a journal of strong Reform
proclivities, which he edited and conducted with considerable skill for
several years, and sold the business out about 1868. He has been a
magistrate since 1848, a notary public since 1862, and for a long time
was secretary and treasurer of the Markham Agricultural Society. When
the counties of York, Ontario and Peel were united in 1850, he became a
member of the county council and served several years, being warden in
Reading Tips
Use arrow keys to navigate
Press 'N' for next chapter
Press 'P' for previous chapter