A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time by Rose
1732. He was a staunch and persistent friend and advocate of political
12152 words | Chapter 28
and religious liberty. In his boyhood Dr. Ross made his way to New York
city, and after struggling with many adversities, became a compositor in
the office of the _Evening Post_, then edited and owned by William
Cullen Bryant, the poet. Mr. Bryant became much interested in young
Ross, and ever after remained his steadfast friend. It was during this
period that he became acquainted with General Garibaldi, who at that
time was a resident of New York, and employed in making candles. This
acquaintance soon ripened into a warm friendship, which continued
unbroken down to Garibaldi’s death in 1882. It was through Dr. Ross’s
efforts in 1874 that Garibaldi obtained his pension from the Italian
government. In 1851 Dr. Ross began the study of medicine, under the
direction of the eminent Dr. Valentine Mott, and subsequently under Dr.
Trall, the celebrated hygienic physician. After four years of
unremitting toil, working as compositor during the day and studying
medicine at night, he received his degree of M.D. in 1855, and shortly
after received the appointment of surgeon in the army of Nicaragua, then
commanded by General William Walker. He subsequently became actively and
earnestly engaged in the anti-slavery struggle in the United States,
which culminated in the liberation from bondage of four millions of
slaves. Dr. Ross was a personal friend and co-worker of Captain John
Brown, the martyr. Although Dr. Ross’s sphere of labour in that great
struggle for human freedom was less public than that of many other
workers in the cause, it was not less important, and required the
exercise of greater caution, courage and determination, and also
involved greater personal risks. Senator Wade, vice-president of the
United States, said, in speaking of the abolitionists:—“Never in the
history of the world did the same number of men perform so great an
amount of good for the human race and for their country as the once
despised abolitionists, and it is my duty to add that no one of their
number submitted to greater privations, perils or sacrifices, or did
more in the great and noble work than Alexander Ross.” He has received
the benediction of the philanthropist and poet, Whittier, in the
following noble words, which find their echo in the hearts of
thousands:—
DR. A. M. ROSS.
For his steadfast strength and courage
In a dark and evil time,
When the Golden Rule was treason,
And to feed the hungry, crime.
For the poor slave’s hope and refuge,
When the hound was on his track,
And saint and sinner, state and church,
Joined hands to send him back.
Blessings upon him!—What he did
For each sad, suffering one,
Chained, hunted, scourged and bleeding,
Unto our Lord was done.
JOHN G. WHITTIER,
_Secretary of the Convention in 1833,_
_which formed the American Anti-Slavery Society._
The sincere radical abolitionists, with whom Dr. Ross was labouring,
were despised, hated and ostracised by the rich, the powerful and the
so-called higher classes; but Dr. Ross always possessed the courage of
his opinions, and prefers the approval of his own conscience to the
smiles or favours of men. During the Southern rebellion he was employed
by President Lincoln as confidential correspondent in Canada, and
rendered very important services to the United States government. For
this he received the special thanks of President Lincoln and Secretary
Seward. When the war ended, with the downfall of the Confederacy, Dr.
Ross offered his services to President Juarez, of Mexico, and received
the appointment of surgeon in the Republican army. The capture of
Maximilian, and the speedy overthrow of the empire, rendered Dr. Ross’s
services unnecessary, and he returned to Canada and to the congenial and
more peaceful pursuits of a naturalist. The object of his ambition now
was to collect and classify the fauna and flora of his native country, a
labour never before attempted by a Canadian. He has collected and
classified five hundred and seventy species of birds that regularly or
occasionally visit the Dominion of Canada; two hundred and forty species
of eggs of birds that breed in Canada; two hundred and forty-seven
species of mammals, reptiles, and fresh water fish; three thousand four
hundred species of insects; and two thousand species of Canadian flora.
The _Montreal Herald_ of August 19, 1884, says:—“Dr. Ross has been a
member of the British Association of Science for the last fourteen
years, and of the French and American Associations for the past ten
years. The following brief sketch will, therefore, prove doubly
interesting in view of the approaching gathering of scientific men
(meeting of the British Association, Sept., 1884), in this city. He has
devoted special attention to the ornithology, ichthyology, botany and
entomology of Canada; has personally made large and valuable collections
of the fauna and flora of Canada; has enriched by his contributions the
natural history museums of Paris, St. Petersburg, Vienna, Rome, Athens,
Dresden, Lisbon, Teheran and Cairo, with collections of Canadian fauna
and flora. He is author of “Birds of Canada” (1872), “Butterflies and
Moths of Canada” (1873), “Flora of Canada” (1873), “Forest Trees of
Canada” (1874), “Mammals, Reptiles, and Fresh water Fishes of Canada”
(1878), “Recollections of an Abolitionist” (1867), “Ferns and Wild
Flowers of Canada” (1877), “Friendly Words to Boys and Young Men”
(1884), “Vaccination a Medical Delusion” (1885), and “Natural Diet of
Man” (1886). He received the degrees of M.D. (1855), and M.A. (1867);
and was knighted by the Emperor of Russia (1876), King of Italy (1876),
King of Greece (1876), King of Portugal (1877), King of Saxony (1876),
and received the Medal of Merit from the Shah of Persia (1884), the
decoration of honour from the Khedive of Egypt (1884), and the
decoration of the Académie Française from the government of France
(1879). He was offered (and declined) the title of baron by the King of
Bavaria, in recognition of his labours as a naturalist, and was
appointed consul to Canada by the King of Belgium and the King of
Denmark. Dr. Ross was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of
Literature and the Linnean and Zoological Societies of England; the
Royal Societies of Antiquaries of Denmark and Greece; the Imperial
Society of Naturalists of Russia; the Imperial Botanical and Zoological
Society of Austria; the Royal Academy of Science of Palermo, Italy; a
member of the Entomological Societies of Russia, Germany, Italy, France,
Switzerland, Belgium, Bohemia and Wurtemburg; member of the Hygienic
Societies of France, Germany and Switzerland; honorary member of the
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and member of the European Congress of
Ornithology. For several years past Dr. Ross has laboured with his
characteristic zeal and energy in behalf of moral and physical reform.
He is the founder (1880) of the Canadian Society for the Diffusion of
Physiological Knowledge, and enlisted the sympathy and active support of
the Archbishop of Canterbury, Earl Shaftesbury, the Archbishop of
Toronto, and two hundred and forty clergymen of different denominations,
and three hundred Canadian school-teachers in the work of distributing
his tracts on “The Evils Arising from Unphysiological Habits in Youth”;
over one million copies of these tracts were distributed among the youth
of Britain and Canada, calling forth thousands of letters expressing
gratitude from parents and friends of the young. Dr. Ross is one of the
founders of the St. Louis Hygienic College of Physicians and Surgeons,
in which he is professor of hygiene, sanitation and physiology. He is
always on the side of the poor and the oppressed, no matter how
unpopular the cause may be. He does his duty as he sees it, regardless
of consequences to himself. The philanthropic Quakeress, Lucretia Jenks,
thus speaks of Dr. Ross:—
No, friend Ross! thou art not old;
A heart so true, so kind, so bold,
As in thy bosom throbs to-day,
Never! never! will decay.
Some I know, but half thy years,
Are quite deaf to all that cheers;
They are dumb when they should speak,
And blind to all the poor and weak.
There are none I know, in sooth,
Who part so slowly with their youth,
As men like thee, who take delight
In helping others to live right.
LUCRETIA JENKS.
Rhode Island, 22, 11mo., 1885.
When Dr. Ross had attained his fiftieth birthday, he was the recipient
of many tokens of regard and congratulations from friends and
co-workers. From the poet Whittier the following:—
DEAR FRIEND—Thy fifty years have not been idle ones, but filled
with good works; I hope another half century may be added to
them.
From Wendell Phillips:—
MY DEAR ROSS—Measured by the good you have done in your fifty
years, you have already lived a century.
From Harriet Beecher Stowe:—
DEAR DR. ROSS—As you look back over your fifty years, what a
comfort to you must be the reflection that you have saved so
many from the horrors of slavery.
During the small-pox epidemic in Montreal in 1885 Dr. Ross was a
prominent opponent of vaccination, declaring that it was not only
useless as a preventive of small-pox, but that it propagated the disease
when practised during the existence of an epidemic. In place of
vaccination, he strongly advocates the strict enforcement of sanitation
and isolation. He maintains that personal and municipal cleanliness is
the only scientific safeguard against zymotic diseases. When the
authorities attempted to enforce vaccination by fines and imprisonment,
Dr. Ross organized the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League, and
successfully resisted what he considered an outrage on human rights. Dr.
Ross is a radical reformer in religion, medicine, politics, sociology
and dietetics, and a total abstainer from intoxicants and tobacco. He is
a graduate of the allopathic, hydropathic, eclectic and botanic systems
of medicine, and a member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of
the provinces of Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba.
* * * * *
=Ellis, William=, Superintendent of the Welland Canal, St. Catharines,
Ontario, was born near London, England, on the 31st August, 1826, and
came to Canada in 1853, to take charge of the construction of an
eighty-two mile section of the Grand Trunk Railway. His father and
mother, Thomas and Margaret Ellis, were members of two old Yorkshire
families. William Ellis received his education in Cheshunt, Herts, and
London, England. Before coming to Canada, he acted in England as
engineer and contractor’s agent on various railway works, and in Canada
on the Grand Trunk Railway; and during the last seven years he has been
superintendent of the Welland canal. While a resident of Prescott in
1861, he was elected town councillor; and in 1864, he was chosen mayor.
For three years in succession he was president of the Prescott
Mechanics’ Institute, the Grenville County Agricultural Society, the
Prescott Board of School Trustees, and the Prescott Choral Society. At
present he is and has been for the past three years president of the St.
Catharines Philharmonic Society. Mr. Ellis belongs to the Episcopal
church, and occupies a prominent position in the denomination. He was
for three years churchwarden while in Prescott, and for twenty-one years
lay delegate for that parish. For St. Catharines, he has been lay
delegate for six years, and is also churchwarden of St. George’s Church,
and warden of St. George’s Guild. During the Fenian troubles in 1866,
Mr. Ellis served as lieutenant in the Garrison Artillery in Prescott,
and retired from military service on the disbandment of his company. He
has travelled a good deal, and has twice visited France. He has been
married twice. First, in October, 1855, to M. E. A. Jessup, of Prescott,
daughter of Edward Jessup, formerly M.P., for the Johnstown district.
This lady died, leaving a family of two children. The son has graduated
M.D. in McGill University. He married the second time in May, 1886, to
M. A. A. Bryant, daughter of Shettelworth Bryant, of Blackheath (Eng.),
and cousin of Colonel Bryant, St. Leonards, England.
* * * * *
=Call, Robert Randolph=, Newcastle, New Brunswick, was born in
Newcastle, Miramichi, N.B., September 12, 1837. His father, Obadiah
Call, was a native of the state of Maine, having been born in the
village of Dresden, August 1, 1800, and is still alive. Margaret Burke,
his mother, was born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1810, and came to
Miramichi with her father, who was a house-carpenter, shortly after the
great fire in 1825. She died on the 10th of May, 1877. Robert, the
subject of this sketch, was educated at the Grammar School of Newcastle,
and soon after leaving this institution developed an aptitude for
business. In 1871, in company with John C. Miller, he built the
side-wheel steamer _New Era_, and established the first line of
passenger steamers that ran on the Miramichi river. During the past
twenty-five years he has been interested in the steamboat business, and
occupied the position of agent for the Quebec and Gulf Ports Steamship
Company, and for other lines of steamers that have called at the port of
Newcastle. On November 26, 1866, he received the appointment of United
States Consular Agent at Newcastle. In June, 1867, was elected chairman
of the Northumberland County Almshouse Commissioners; and in January,
1874, was made a member of the board of Pilotage Commissioners for the
Miramichi district of New Brunswick, under the Pilotage Act, which then
came into force, and was chosen its secretary-treasurer. Mr. Call is
owner of the gas works in his native town, and they are operated under
his own immediate direction. On the 9th September, 1865, he was
appointed a lieutenant in the 2nd battalion Northumberland County
Militia; and on October 1st, 1868, at a public meeting held in the town
of Newcastle for the purpose of organizing a battery, was chosen captain
of the Newcastle Field Battery of Artillery, and was gazetted as such on
the 18th December of the same year. On the 18th December, 1873, he was
made major, and lieutenant-colonel on the 4th February, 1885. He still
retains the command of this battery, which he was mainly instrumental in
raising. In 1875 this corps was called into active service during the
school riots in Caraquet, Gloucester county. Lieutenant-Colonel Call,
with Lieutenant Mitchell second in command, and part of the battery, in
all forty-six persons, with horses, sleds, two nine-pounder guns,
ammunition, etc., left Newcastle on the afternoon of the 28th January
for Bathurst, the shire town of Gloucester county, and had to traverse a
distance of fifty-five miles through a comparatively desolate country.
The weather was very unsettled, and more severe than it had been for
years. The snow was fully four feet deep on the level, while in many
places it was drifted so badly that the men had to shovel for hours
before the teams could pass. They, however, after experiencing great
fatigue, and with hard labour, succeeded in reaching their destination
on the evening of the 29th, having accomplished the journey in
twenty-eight hours, without resting, except while the horses were being
fed on the road, the men in the meantime keeping their seats on the
sleds, and eating the provisions they had brought from home with them.
On their arrival in Bathurst they found that twenty-six of the leading
rioters had been safely lodged in the jail there. The infantry that
followed them proceeded to Caraquet. Here the battery remained for about
six weeks, making the court house their barracks, until the excitement
was calmed down and quiet was restored. Mr. Call became a member of
Northumberland lodge, A. F. and A. Masons, in 1863, and in the years
1866 and 1867 was master of the lodge. In 1873 he was appointed
representative to the Grand Lodge of New Jersey. He is also a member of
the Northumberland Highland Society, and one of its vice-presidents. He
has travelled a good deal, having visited England for his health in
1863, going over and returning in a sailing vessel. In 1881 he went,
_via_ Lake Superior, to Rainy River, Lake of the Woods, Winnipeg, etc.,
to Portage la Prairie, then the extreme end of the Canadian Pacific
Railway, for the purpose of having a look at this wonderful country, and
has taken an occasional trip to the United States. Mr. Call is a
Presbyterian, is one of the Trustees of St. James’ Church, and has been
its secretary and treasurer since 1874. He was married, May 21st, 1862,
to Annie Rankin Nevin, who was born in Stonehaven, Kincardineshire,
Scotland, on 5th December, 1836.
* * * * *
=Dowdall, James.=—The deceased, James Dowdall, who for many years
practised as a Barrister-at-Law in the town of Almonte, Ontario, was
born at Perth, county of Lanark, on the 31st December, 1853, and died on
the 27th October, 1885. His father, Edward Dowdall, was a son of the
deceased Patrick Dowdall, a reputable and well-educated magistrate of
the township of Drummond, in the county of Lanark; and his mother, Mary
O’Connor, was a daughter of an equally respected and literary farmer of
Drummond township,—Denis O’Connor, who was successful in life, and died
February, 1887. James Dowdall received his education at the Public and
High schools of Almonte, to which town his parents removed when he was
four years of age. In 1872 he commenced his law course with Joseph
Jamieson, M.P., Almonte, and concluded his studies in the office of Hon.
Edward Blake, at Toronto, and was called to the bar in 1877. He then
formed a partnership with D. G. Macdonell, and the firm in a very short
time attained to a high position in the legal fraternity, and secured a
large share of public support. He was president of several literary,
debating, benevolent and other societies, from his seventeenth year
continuously until his death in 1885. He also occupied the position of
president of the local Reform Association; was founder and president of
the Almonte branch of the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association; chairman
of the Separate School Board; had a seat on the High School Board; and
for years sat in the town council. He had a very large law practice, and
for years previous and up to his demise was Crown counsel for the
counties of Lanark and Renfrew. Mr. Dowdall was a public spirited man,
and took an active part in everything that went to improve his native
place and the surrounding district. He was a staunch Reformer, and took
an intelligent interest in politics. As a speaker, he was eloquent and
argumentative, and travelled through Lanark and other counties in
Ontario during several local and federal election campaigns, and did
good work for his party. In 1879 he married Onogh T. Nogle, daughter of
the late William Nogle, and left a family of children. The _Almonte
Gazette_ thus alludes to his death:—“Mr. Dowdall was an able antagonist
in court, quick to see the weak points in an opponent’s case, and no
less expert in concealing his own. These qualities, as well as his
careful study of the law in each case, made him a generally successful
lawyer in court, while his knowledge of human nature gave him great
advantage in cross-examination. Had his life been spared there is no
doubt he would have risen to the highest point in his profession. His
many good qualities more particularly demand our grateful recognition.
Many a battler with the world can tell of a hand stretched out and aid
given just at a time when a friend in need was a friend indeed. Many a
struggling tradesman can tell how often he has mounted the office stairs
to ask for help to meet a note or some other similar emergency, and that
he did not ask in vain. Many a poor and perplexed one took up his time
by recounting some act of another’s from which they were or had been
suffering, and from him obtained as much attention and as carefully
considered advice as though they had carried a large fee in their hands.
The blank caused by the death of Mr. Dowdall will be a wide one: not all
at once will it be discovered how much he is missed, but as the days and
weeks glide by there will be many occasions when parties will long for
the sound of a voice that is still, and it is safe to say in his case
that take him for all and all it will be long before we look upon his
like again. Mr. Dowdall was a Roman Catholic, and the Roman Catholic
church of this town will miss his counsel and assistance greatly, but it
can be said to his credit that though himself a devoted Catholic he was
as broad-minded and liberal as he was zealous in religious matters.
Throughout his career he always showed a warm feeling for his
co-religionists, while nothing ever prevented his doing justice to those
who differed from him. The Reform party, too, will greatly miss him.”
The _Central Canadian_, of Carleton Place, also spoke of him in this
kindly manner:—“As a member of the corporation of Almonte, he
contributed of his judgment, knowledge, energy, and life to make
everybody happy and everything prosperous. Mr. Dowdall’s prominent play
in politics and his long sphere of operations as a lawyer of much
discretion and accuracy brought out his innermost self in a way few
other professions do, and showed what manner of man he was. Yet though
thus so fiercely exposed to hostile criticism, he made iron-bound
friends where-ever he went. He had a personality so attractive, a
character so disarming in its tenderness and self-abnegation; he was so
clear and candid that he broke down all barriers of prejudice. Moreover,
among his intimates he possessed that mysterious gift of attraction
which in colloquial symbolism is called magnetism. On the 28th
September, Mr. Dowdall first complained and was advised by his physician
to take rest, which he did, but contrary to advice he went out on
Tuesday and drove up to the Reform meeting, and died on the 27th
October, 1885.” Richard J. Dowdall, barrister, has succeeded to the
practice of the late James Dowdall. He had just completed his law course
at the time of his brother’s death, and at once commenced practice in
the old offices at Almonte.
* * * * *
=Crocket, William=, A.M., Chief Superintendent of Education for New
Brunswick, Fredericton, was born in Brechin, in the north of Scotland,
on the 17th of May, 1832. His parents were James Crocket and Martha
Procter. William received his elementary education at the High School of
his native parish, and then went to King’s College, Aberdeen, where he
took the university course. His professional training he received at the
Established Church Normal School in Glasgow. He came to New Brunswick in
1856, and from this date to 1861, filled the position of principal of
the Superior School at Campbellton, New Brunswick. In 1861, he was
appointed rector of the Presbyterian Academy, at Chatham, New Brunswick,
and acted as such until 1870, when he was appointed principal of the
Normal School of New Brunswick, and this office he held until 1883. On
the 13th November of that year, he was appointed by the government of
New Brunswick, its chief superintendent of education for the province,
and this office he now holds, and is greatly respected by all with whom
his official position brings him in contact. Mr. Crocket has been
faithful to his profession; has laboured zealously to improve the method
of teaching in the Public schools of the province, and has the
satisfaction of knowing that his efforts have not been barren of
results. He has also taken a deep interest in the higher education of
the province, and has been for over ten years one of the examiners for
degrees in the University of New Brunswick, and is likewise a member of
the University Senate. He belongs to the church of his fathers, the
Presbyterian; and was married to Marion, daughter of William M.
Caldwell, of Campbellton, New Brunswick, on the 13th of April, 1858.
* * * * *
=Barclay, Rev. James=, M.A., Pastor of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church,
Montreal, is a native of Paisley, Scotland, having been born in that
town on the 19th June, 1844. His parents were James Barclay and Margaret
Cochrane Brown. He received his primary education in Paisley Grammar
School, and Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh, and then went to the
University of Glasgow, where he graduated with high honours. He was then
called to St. Michael’s Church, Dumfries. On the occasion of his
ordination, the Rev. Dr. Lees, of St. Giles, Edinburgh, who was present,
spoke in the most kindly manner of the young minister, and said that
during Mr. Barclay’s college course the presbytery of Paisley had great
cause to be proud of him; he had carried off one prize after another—in
fact, his name was seen on every list of honours published by the
university. Rev. Mr. Barclay’s next charge was Canobie, Dumfriesshire;
then he preached for some time in Linlithgow, and was afterwards induced
to seek a wider field for his talents, and was chosen colleague of the
Rev. Dr. McGregor in St. Cuthbert’s Church, Edinburgh. Here he soon won
for himself a name, and became one of the most popular preachers in the
Scotch metropolis. St. Paul’s Church, Montreal, being without a pastor,
it extended a unanimous call to Mr. Barclay, asking him to come to
Canada and take charge of this church, which he consented to do, and was
inducted as its minister on the 11th of October, 1883. Since then his
ministry in Montreal has been eminently successful, and his influence
among the young men of that city is greatly marked, so much so that they
flock to his church in great numbers, and regard him in a special sense
as their friend. The Rev. Mr. Barclay has great mental qualities, is an
independent thinker, and never hesitates to enunciate the scientific and
theological thoughts of the times we live in. His sermons are prepared
with great care, and are delivered with earnestness and force. He is a
good reader, an impressive platform speaker, and his prayers are solemn,
reverential and spiritual, leading man up from self and earth and sin
into the presence of God, the Father of all. Physically the Rev. Mr.
Barclay is tall and muscular, giving one an idea of strength and power.
He belongs to the Charles Kingsley school, and is a lover of outdoor
pastimes and sports, a champion cricketer and golf player, and a great
admirer of the “roaring game”—curling. The Edinburgh _Scotsman_ has
spoken of him as being the best all round cricketer in Scotland, and a
terrifically fast bowler who has won victory after victory for the west
of Scotland. He was captain of the Glasgow University cricket and
football clubs for some years, and also captain of the “Gentlemen of
Scotland.” We are glad that in this matter of out-door recreation, and
also in some other matters, he has shown the courage of his convictions,
and we do not think he has lost anything by it. There is such a thing as
being too professional and too priestly, and there can be little doubt
but that this has done its full share in creating the somewhat general
prejudice that exists among young men against religion. This popular
divine has been honoured by being called on to preach before Queen
Victoria on several occasions, and he stands high in her Majesty’s
estimation as an expounder of the gospel of Christ. The congregation of
St. Paul’s Church is large and influential. Its ministers have always
been men of commanding intellect and gentlemanly bearing, and who held
their several pastorates for a considerable number of years. Their names
and good deeds are kindly remembered by the citizens and the members of
the church and congregation. The regular communicants of the church
number about six hundred, and the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is
administered three times a year. The several organizations of the church
are doing good work for humanity, and there is a large and flourishing
Sunday school. The Victoria mission, at Point St. Charles, is supported
and carried on by this church; and it also supports a missionary in
Central India. Its annual revenue amounts to about $22,000.00, and the
pastor’s salary is $7,300.00, the largest paid to any minister in the
dominion.
* * * * *
=Watson, George=, Collector of Customs, Collingwood, Ontario, was born
on the 2nd of December, 1828, in the parish of Strathdon, near Aberdeen,
Scotland, on a farm that had been occupied by his forefathers for over
two hundred years, and which one of the family still occupies. The first
of the Watson family, an aunt of the subject of our sketch, came to
York, Upper Canada, in 1816, at the solicitation of Bishop Strachan, who
came to Canada in 1812 from the same parish. His uncle-in-law, William
Arthurs (father of the late Colonel Arthurs), was one of the first city
councillors of Toronto, William Lyon Mackenzie, mayor. His father,
Alexander Watson, emigrated to Upper Canada in 1832, and settled on a
farm in the township of Chinguacousy, about twenty miles from Toronto,
and died at Collingwood on the 30th of November, 1877, at the ripe old
age of eighty-four years and six months. His mother was named Annie
Watt, and died at the family homestead in Scotland when only twenty-nine
years and nine months old. George received his early education in the
parish school of Strathdon, and coming to Canada in 1843, finished his
course of studies in the Grammar School at Toronto. He went on his
father’s farm and continued there until 1855, when he took the position
of passenger conductor on the Northern Railway, and continued as such
for nearly twelve years. In October, 1866, in consequence of ill health,
he gave up railroading, and in November of the same year received the
government appointment of sub-collector at the port of Collingwood. In
1873, when the port was made an independent one, he was made collector,
and this position he still holds. He has now resided in Collingwood over
thirty-two years, and occupied the position of government officer of
customs over twenty years. In 1867 Mr. Watson was elected mayor of
Collingwood, and held the office for five consecutive years, and at the
end of this time he declined to serve any longer; but in 1877, however,
he was again induced to accept the office, and served another term. He
is a justice of the peace; and has been chairman of the board of license
commissioners for West Simcoe since the passing of the Ontario License
Law in 1876. He is an enthusiastic Scot, and has filled the office of
president of the Collingwood St. Andrew’s Society since its organization
in 1880. Mr. Watson is also surveyor and registrar of shipping for the
Collingwood district. He is an adherent of the Presbyterian church, and
in politics a Reformer, as were his forefathers. In June, 1865, Mr.
Watson was married to Joanna, daughter of the late John Watson, of
Chinguacousy, and has a family of three sons, George, aged twenty years,
Lorne Mackenzie, aged four years, and Norman, aged four months. Mr.
Watson is one of Nature’s noblemen, and has through life manifested a
thoroughly independent spirit, and one well worthy of imitation by any
young man starting out in life. He has earned for himself a competency
“for the glorious privilege of being independent.”
* * * * *
=Crisp, Rev. Robert S.=, Pastor of the Methodist Church, Moncton, New
Brunswick, is one of two brothers (Robert S. and James Crisp), who came
to the Maritime provinces during the years 1871 and 1872, for the
purpose of entering the Methodist ministry. Robert S., the elder of the
two brothers and subject of this sketch, was born near Norwich, England,
July 1st, 1848. He is the eldest son of James and Sarah Crisp, and is
descended on his mother’s side from a junior branch of the Walpole
family, some members of which occupied important positions in English
politics during the reigns of George I. and George II. Many interesting
traditions and relics, as well as valuable estates in Norfolk, still
remain in this branch of the family. After receiving a general education
in the public schools and in a private school of his native place, Mr.
Crisp took theological studies under the direction of the Rev. Thomas G.
Keeling, M.A., well known in certain divinity circles in the old
country, purposing to offer himself for the Methodist ministry in
connection with the English conference. A letter from the late Rev. Dr.
Geo. Scott, urging him to go to America, decided him, however, in an
early purpose he had formed of some time offering himself for the work
under the control of the (then) Eastern British American conference,
which he accordingly did in October, 1871, and on arriving in this
country was appointed assistant to the Rev. F. W. Harrison, in a large
country charge on the banks of the St. John river, in New Brunswick.
Among other charges held by Mr. Crisp, have been Charlottetown, P.E.I.,
Chatham, Portland, and Moncton, N.B. Mr. Crisp’s especial aim has been
to adapt himself as far as possible to the actual needs and tastes of
the people among whom he has laboured in word and doctrine. As a result
of this he has been successful in his work, and the church to which he
belongs has been extended and consolidated in his various charges. He is
also well known as a lecturer and enthusiastic temperance worker. In the
latter capacity he has sometimes aroused much opposition. He was chosen
to deliver an address of welcome at the annual meeting of the Sons of
Temperance in Moncton in 1886, and as a result of remarks he made
regarding the appointment of a man who was transacting business in
liquor, to the office of justice of the peace in a town in which the
Scott Act had been adopted, he was sued for libel with damages laid at
$10,000. Rev. Mr. Crisp, however, kept on steadily in his course, and
soon after the local government appointed a commission to enquire into
the charges preferred. Mr. Crisp is still a young man (1887), and hopes
to have very many years of labour before him in various departments of
Christian work.
* * * * *
=Harris, Joseph A.=, Barrister-at-law, Moncton, New Brunswick, is the
fifth son of Michael S. Harris, and was born at Moncton, New Brunswick,
on the 23rd of August, 1847. He received his educational training at the
Mount Allison Academy, New Brunswick, and in the Liverpool Collegiate
Institution, England. After leaving school he followed mercantile
pursuits until 1872, when he began the study of law in the office of the
late Albert J. Hickman, barrister, Dorchester, New Brunswick, and
continued here until September of 1873, when he entered Harvard
University, Massachusetts. In this university he remained for over two
years. He then returned to his native province, and entered the office
of the Hon. John J. Fraser, Q.C., J.S.C., at Fredericton, New Brunswick,
as a student, and continuing there until October, 1876, when he was
admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick. In 1877 Mr.
Harris became a member of the Suffolk bar in Massachusetts, and
practised his profession in Boston until 1885, when he returned to
Moncton, was re-sworn in a barrister, and is now in active practice in
that town being counsel for several leading corporations. On the 29th of
April, 1879, Mr. Harris was married at Warren, Rhode Island, U.S., to
Isabel F. E. Brown, daughter of the late Hon. Charles Frederick Brown,
of Rhode Island.
* * * * *
=Hunt, Henry George=, St. Catharines, Ontario, was born on the 16th of
June, 1846, at Sheerness, Kent, England. He is the eldest son of Harvey
Hunt, of Poole, Dorsetshire, England, and Sarah Tucker, of Horne, in the
same county, daughter of W. Tucker, the Swedish and Danish consul at
Poole. Henry George Hunt, the subject of this sketch, spent the first
six years of his life in Sheerness, and in 1852, his father having
received an appointment in her Majesty’s dockyards at Portsmouth, the
family removed to that place. Here Henry received his education at the
Grammar School of that town, and at the age of fourteen years he went
before the Civil Service commission and passed a most creditable
examination, being first out of one hundred and thirteen for a
scholarship in the Royal College of Naval Architecture at Portsmouth. At
the end of a three years’ course in this institution he was in 1863
promoted from the lower to the upper college. Two years later he was
appointed by the Imperial government to the Peninsular and Oriental
Company’s service in the East Indies, and left England on the 29th of
September, 1865, in H.M.S. _Octavia_, fifty-one-gun frigate, commanded
by Rear-Admiral Sir James Hilyar, K.C.B., for India. This ship on her
way out called at Madeira, Sierra Leone, Ascension, St. Helena, and
remained some weeks at each of these ports, arriving at the Cape of Good
Hope in the early part of 1866, and remained there about a month,
visiting Port Natal, Simonstown, and other places. He afterwards visited
Zanzibar, the island of Madagascar, etc. In 1867 he sailed for Bombay,
and entered upon his duties with the Peninsular and Oriental Company.
During the years 1867-8-9 he visited every stores depot owned by this
company in the east, among them being Suez, Aden in the Red Sea; Muscat
in the Persian Gulf; Kurachee, Bombay, Goa, Pondicherry, Madras,
Calcutta, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Canton in China; and Yokahama in Japan.
In the summer of 1869 he was taken down with the jungle fever, having
caught a severe cold when out shooting with some brother officers in
Ceylon, and when it was discovered to be a very serious case, he was
conveyed to the Madras Hospital, where, after a hard fight, he pulled
through. He then resigned his appointment and started for home by the
long sea-route round the Cape of Good Hope, having taken passage in
H.M.S. _Lyra_. On his arrival in England he was appointed landing waiter
in her Majesty’s customs, and was stationed at Portsmouth. He remained
in this service until the fall of 1871, when the Hon. Mr. Gladstone’s
“free breakfast-table policy” caused a great reduction in the staff of
customs officers at the out-ports, and Mr. Hunt, with many other
officers around the coast of Great Britain, received a few hundred
pounds cash as compensation for the loss of their commissions, and left
the service. In the spring of 1872 Mr. Hunt was married to Eleanor
Fanny, eldest daughter of Arthur Charles Lansley, of Andover, Hants; and
in the fall of the same year he sailed for America to visit a wealthy
uncle who lived in Alabama. Having taken his passage _via_ Quebec, on
his westward journey, he was induced to stay over at St. Thomas,
Ontario, and take a position in the Canada Southern Railway Company. Not
having realized his expectations, he abandoned this service, and for the
next two or three years he was engaged in various pursuits, such as
bookkeeper for Rich & Mitchell, wholesale druggists, St. Thomas, and for
Messrs. Kain, of the same place. In 1877 he bought out a jobbing
business, and in the following year sold this out and removed to St.
Catharines, to take charge in that city of the extensive piano-forte
business of A. & S. Nordheimer, of Toronto. On this branch being closed,
Mr. Hunt received the appointment of city ticket agent for the Great
Western Railway Company in St. Catharines; and since he has extended his
business of ticket-selling so that he now represents every railway and
steamboat line in Canada and the United States, and the extensive
tourist system of Thomas Cook & Sons, of New York and London, England.
Mr. Hunt has been prominently identified with the Masonic order for many
years. In 1866, while at the Cape of Good Hope, on his way to India, he
was initiated in Royal Alfred lodge of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, a
very aristocratic lodge, Prince Alfred, after whom it was named, with
many officers of the military and civil service, being members. While in
St. Thomas he was instrumental in forming a company that built one of
the finest Masonic halls in Canada. He established Elgin lodge, and was
its first worshipful master; was also first principal of De Warrene
chapter of Royal Arch Masons, and assisted in establishing Nineveh
Council of Royal and Select Masters, and was one of its Illustrious
masters. Since his residence in St. Catharines he has taken an active
part in city improvements, and helped in getting an electric light
company established, and is now the manager and secretary-treasurer of
this company. Mr. Hunt has also been for the past five years manager of
the Grand Opera House; and is manager of Hendrie & Co’s. cartage agency
for the collection and delivery of freight for the Grand Trunk Railway.
He represents the Baltimore & Ohio Telegraph Company, the Commercial
(Mackay-Bennett) Cable Company, and all the transatlantic steamboat
companies, as well as the Canadian Pacific Telegraph Company, and
Dominion Express Company. Mr. Hunt is a strong supporter of the
Episcopal church. He has been twice married, his first wife having died
a few years after his arrival in Canada, leaving two children. Six years
afterwards he married the second daughter of the late Charles Norton, of
St. Catharines, and by this marriage he has had two sons and two
daughters.
* * * * *
=Cooke, Thomas Vincent=, Moncton, New Brunswick, General Storekeeper of
the Intercolonial Railway of Canada, was born at Pictou, Nova Scotia,
August 6th, 1848. He is a son of Dr. William Edward Cooke and Euphemia
Turnbull. Dr. Cooke was a son of Thomas Cooke, of Garryhill, county of
Carlow, Ireland, and Mary Mallow. Miss Mallow was a daughter of John
Mallow, mayor of Dublin, in the stirring days of ’98. Mr. Cooke, sen.,
came to Halifax when a boy, and studied medicine under the late Dr. Head
of that city, and graduated at Jefferson College, Philadelphia. He
married Miss Turnbull, a daughter of William Turnbull, ex-M.P. for the
county of Richmond, Cape Breton, and shortly afterwards moved to Pictou
and practised his profession in that town until his death in 1879. He
was a man of the most kindly and genial disposition, and was widely
known and universally beloved throughout the county of Pictou. His son,
Thomas Vincent Cooke, the subject of this sketch, was educated at Pictou
Academy and the Normal School, Truro, and studied medicine for a time
under the late Dr. Samuel Muir, of Truro, but having a dislike for the
medical profession, entered the service of the Nova Scotia Railway
Company as clerk in the freight department at Richmond, Halifax, in
January, 1865. On the opening of the line to Pictou in 1867, he was
appointed agent at Pictou Landing. Was appointed agent at Truro in 1870,
and reappointed at Pictou Landing in 1872. On the reorganization of the
service in 1879, he was appointed assistant auditor of the Intercolonial
Railway Company, and removed to Moncton, where he was appointed general
storekeeper in October, 1880. Mr. Cooke has always taken a deep interest
in Masonic matters. He joined the order in Truro in 1871, and is a past
master of Cobuquid lodge, No. 37, Truro, and past high priest of Keith
Chapter, Truro, and of St. John’s Chapter, Pictou, Royal Arch Masons.
Holds past rank as past grand king of the Grand Chapter of Nova Scotia,
and is representative of the Grand Chapter of Nevada in that body. Is
eminent preceptor of Malta Preceptory of Knights Templar, Truro, under
the Great Priory of Canada. He was married in 1867 to Annie Curry,
daughter of Captain John Curry, of Pictou, N.S., and has one son and
three daughters. He is a member of the Church of England.
* * * * *
=Rottot, Jean Philippe=, M.D., Montreal, was born at L’Assomption,
county of L’Assomption, July 3rd, 1825. His grandfather, Pierre Rottot,
who had been gazetted captain of the Canadian _Voltigeurs_ in 1812, was
killed at the battle of St. Régis, on the 20th October of the same year.
After his death, his son, Pierre Rottot, the doctor’s father, was
appointed lieutenant to the “Chasseurs Canadiens,” commanded by
Lieutenant-Colonel de Courci, and was present at the different
engagements which took place between the English and American troops
during the war of 1812, among others at the expedition to the Salmon
river, and at the battles of Plattsburg and Chrysler’s Farm. Dr. Rottot
received his education at the College of Montreal. He studied medicine
at the School of Medicine and Surgery of Montreal, and was admitted to
practice on the 16th November, 1847. After practising a few years in the
country, he took up his residence in Montreal. In 1856 he was elected,
without opposition, a member of the City council of Montreal. At the
expiration of his term of office he declined re-nomination, in order to
devote himself wholly to his profession. About 1860 he was appointed
physician to the Hôtel-Dieu, and professor of the School of Medicine and
Surgery of Montreal, where he occupied successively the chairs of
botany, toxicology, medical jurisprudence, and internal pathology. In
1872 he became editor-in-chief of _L’Union Médicale du Canada_, which
was just being founded. He was president of the St. Jean Baptiste
Society of Montreal in 1877 and 1878. About the same time he was elected
president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the province of
Quebec. In 1878 he resigned his chair at the School of Medicine and
Surgery, and was appointed professor of internal pathology and dean of
the faculty of medicine of Laval University at Montreal. Dr. Rottot was
one of the founders of the Notre Dame Hospital. During his medical
career he has been the physician of the greater number of the charitable
institutions of Montreal, and is at present physician to the reverend
gentlemen of the Seminary of Saint Sulpice, and the reverend ladies of
the General Hospital. Dr. Rottot was twice married; the first time to S.
O’Leary, daughter of Dr. O’Leary, and the second time to the widow of N.
Migneault, in his lifetime registrar of Chambly county. Mrs. Migneault
is a sister of P. B. Benoit, ex-member of the House of Commons. By his
first wife he had three children, the eldest of whom belongs to the
order of the Reverend Jesuit Fathers, and is professor of philosophy in
St. Mary’s College, Montreal.
* * * * *
=Wanless, John=, M.D., Montreal.—This famed homœopathic physician is a
Scotchman by birth, having been born at Perth road, Dundee, near St.
Peter’s parish church, where the celebrated Rev. R. M. McCheyne was
pastor, on May 26th, 1813. He is the second son of the late James
Wanless, a man who was in his day very much respected by his fellow
townspeople, and who for many years carried on business as a
manufacturer of green cloth in Dundee. His mother, Agnes Sim, is still
alive (August, 1887) at the age of ninety-six years, in full possession
of her mental faculties, and can see to read without spectacles. Dr.
Wanless much resembles this wonderful woman in many respects. Dr.
Wanless’s father intended that his two sons should succeed him in his
own business, but after his death, which took place when the doctor was
only ten years old, the executors of the estate, when he had reached his
thirteenth year, apprenticed him to Dr. James Johnston, one of
themselves, a leading physician in Dundee. This gentleman having died
shortly afterwards, James Hay, merchant and ship-owner, another of the
executors, and one of the governors of the Dundee Royal Infirmary,
discovering the boy’s aptitude for medical study, was induced to secure
for him the position of dresser and clinical clerk in the above
hospital, which for three years he filled to the entire satisfaction of
the governors and medical men of the institution. While he was here he
was a great favourite with the celebrated lithotomist, Dr. John
Creighton, of Dundee, and this gentleman often asked young Wanless to
assist him in his private operations, as well as in the hospital, and on
the eve of his leaving to prosecute his studies in Edinburgh, he bore
high testimony to his ability and diligence as a student, and as to his
practical knowledge of his profession. It may be as well to mention here
that young Wanless, like all other boys on the Scotch sea-board, was
very fond of paddling in the water, and on several occasions narrowly
escaped drowning. When about ten years of age he and some other boys
were amusing themselves on some logs that had got adrift from the ship
_Horton_, of Dundee, just arrived from America, and had floated up the
river into a small bay, which at its mouth had a sort of pier with
arches on it. While astride a piece of this timber it capsized, and our
young hero was soon at the bottom of the river. On coming to the
surface, he found himself immediatetly below a raft, and considering
that his time had not yet come to be drowned, he struck out boldly from
under, and gasping for breath, he was hauled on the raft by his
terrified comrades. On getting ashore he dried his clothes and made for
home; but his father nevertheless discovered that he had had a ducking,
and gave him a sound thrashing and confined him in doors for some time
for his boyish escapade. The doctor now thinks that if his father—who
was a very loving man—had not been imbued with the idea that “he that
spareth the rod hateth the child,” he would have done better had he
given him some dry clothes, or sent him for a time to a warm bed. In
1831 John Wanless left Dundee and went to Edinburgh, as a student in the
Royal College of Surgeons, under the then celebrated professors
McIntosh, Liston, Lizars, Ferguson, and others, fellows of the college,
all of whom are now gone to their final rest. During the college session
of 1831, his friend, Mr. Hay, offered him the position of surgeon on
board the whaling ship _Thomas_, which office he cheerfully accepted,
although he was then only seventeen years of age. This good ship sailed
from Dundee in March, 1832, and returned with a full cargo in time to
permit the young surgeon to attend the opening of the college session of
1832-3. Subsequently during college vacation he went three times to
Davis Straits in the same ship, and thereby greatly invigorated his
previously rather slender physical frame. While on one of his whaling
voyages he one day was out in a boat shooting loons, which are very
numerous in Davis Straits, and a good many can be killed by one
discharge from a gun. In the act of gathering the killed he espied a
wounded bird at a short distance, and in his endeavour to reach it he
leaned too far over the gunwale, lost his balance, and went head first
into the Arctic sea. His shipmates were alarmed, and waited in dread
suspense for some time, but at length he came up, holding on to the loon
by one of its legs. The mate afterwards remarked “that the doctor should
always be taken with the shooting parties, for he could dive for the
wounded fellows.” It may be here mentioned that the doctor was a good
swimmer, and as a youth practised swimming in the Tay at Dundee, and was
in the habit, sometimes, of carrying younger boys on his back out into
the stream, and then throwing them off; but before doing this, however,
he always gave them instructions how to swim on their “own hook.” He has
been known to swim for three miles on a stretch, resting occasionally on
his back. At Pond’s Bay he one time fell out of a boat, while steering
with a long oar, amongst a lot of whales. There were about fifty ships’
boats and their crews in a crack in the land ice, which extended about
twenty miles from the shore, and in some places the rent was about one
hundred yards wide. In this opening the whales were so numerous that the
harpooners only selected the largest fish for capture. During the
excitement, and when passing another boat, the blade of one of their
side oars unshipped the doctor’s steering oar while he was pushing it
from him, and, losing his balance, he fell into the water. He however
did not feel the least alarmed, but at once struck out for the ice, and,
drying his clothes as well as he could, walked to his ship, which was
anchored about two miles away, in the field ice, and soon found himself
on deck, not much the worse for his ducking. In the spring of 1835,
having passed his examination before the Faculty of Physicians and
Surgeons of Glasgow, he returned to Dundee and married Margaret
McDonald, the only daughter of Duncan McDonald, a well-known
manufacturer of that town, and Margaret Rose, his wife. To Miss McDonald
he had been betrothed for several years. He then became house surgeon in
the Dundee Royal Infirmary, and having filled this position for about
two years, gave it up, and entered into private practice, his office
being in the same house in which he was born and married. In 1843 Dr.
Wanless, accompanied by his wife, mother, brother, and sisters, with
their husbands, emigrated to Canada, and ultimately settled in London,
Ontario. While in this city the doctor built up a good practice, and as
coroner for the city of London and county of Middlesex he was highly
spoken of by the press for the luminous and logical way in which he
presented evidence to his jurors. In 1849 he received his license from
the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Lower Canada. One day, in
1859, as he was walking along a street in London to visit a patient, he
observed Dr. Bull, a homœopathist, give some pellets to a man who had
fallen out of a two-story window. Having a prejudice against homœopathy,
he accosted Dr. Bull in these words, “Don’t you think shame of yourself
in giving that useless trash to a man in that condition?” Dr. Bull rose
up, in a defensive attitude, and said, “I have always taken you for a
sensible man, and instead of acting as you have done in your
persecutions of us, why don’t you try to test our remedies according to
the law of cure? I will give you some of our books to read, and also
some of our medicines for that purpose.” Dr. Wanless accepted the offer,
and took the books and medicines, thinking that he would be able to
expose what he then thought was a humbug. After studying the principle
of homœopathy for some time he gave the medicines to some of his
patients, strictly according to the principles of homœopathy, beginning
with some cases which had resisted the allopathic treatment under his
own care, and that of some of the ablest men in the country, keeping a
strict account of the symptoms and disease, and the symptoms and
pathogenesy of what the medicine would produce on the healthy body, and
after carefully testing this method of practice for nearly two years, he
found that, instead of persecuting the homœopathists, he would have to
become a homœopathist himself. After thorough conviction of its benefits
to his patients, like Paul with the Christians, and in order to carry
out the practice of homœopathy with more efficiency, he ceased from
practice in London, and devoted himself to renewed study at the age of
fifty years, and obtained the degree of Bachelor of Medicine from the
University of Toronto in 1861, and the degree of Doctor in Medicine from
the same University in the following year, 1862. He then, in order to
have a wider field to labour in, went to Montreal (but before leaving
having been complimented by the press of London upon his previous
professional attainments), where he now resides, enjoying a good
practice. In politics, as in medicine, Dr. Wanless has sought to
conserve the good, and set aside the effete and worthless. Both in
London and Montreal, by his spirited and able contributions to the
press, he has done much to popularize homœopathy, and establish its
prime tenets. He was instrumental in procuring an act of the Provincial
parliament of Quebec, in favour of homœopathic education, and with power
to grant licenses to those who had studied according to the curriculum
specified by the act, and who had passed a satisfactory examination
before the appointed board of examiners, as he always upheld that
homœopaths, as well as allopaths, should be able to show that they
possessed a thorough medical education and training. Dr. Wanless is
nominal dean of the Faculty of the College of Homœopathic Physicians and
Surgeons of Montreal, and professor of the practice of physic and one of
the examiners of the college. He attained the license of the Faculty of
Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow in 1835; College of Physicians and
Surgeons of Lower Canada in 1849; M.B. of the University of Toronto,
1861; M.D. of the University of Toronto in 1862, and is a member of the
Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and Quebec. He has a son,
Dr. John R. Wanless, who now practises in Dunedin, New Zealand. This
gentleman is a graduate M.D.,C.M. of McGill University, Montreal, and,
like his father, has adopted the homœopathic principle from conviction.
In religion, as in politics and medicine, the doctor is thoroughly
liberal, and belongs to the Congregational body of worshippers. He is
broad in his views, giving liberty of opinion to all, and exhibits no
desire to scold and burn those who differ from him, except to show them
their error by fair reasoning.
* * * * *
=Boswell, George Morss Jukes=, Q.C., Judge of the County Court of the
United Counties of Northumberland and Durham, Cobourg, Ontario, was born
at Gosport, England, in June, 1804. His father, John Boswell, of London,
England, solicitor, was the youngest son of James Boswell, an officer in
the Royal Navy, whose four elder brothers were also officers in the same
service, and a descendant of the Boswells of Balmuto, Scotland, the
elder branch of the family of the celebrated biographer. Judge Boswell,
the subject of our sketch, was educated at the Grammar School,
Buntingford, Herts, England, came to Canada in 1822, and was one of the
earliest settlers in Cobourg. He was called to the bar in Michaelmas
term, 1827, and is the premier Queen’s counsel in Canada, being the
first created by commission in August, 1841. He was an unsuccessful
candidate for the Upper Canada Assembly in 1836, but was returned at the
first election after the union of Upper and Lower Canada, and sat from
1841 to 1844, in the then Parliament of Canada. While in parliament he
took a prominent part in constitutional debate, was a staunch advocate
of responsible government, and although a Conservative in principle,
worked with the Reform party until constitutional government was
conceded. During the discussion on this question, he forced Mr. Draper,
then attorney-general, to admit the principle, “That if the government
cannot command the majority of the house, so that its measures may be
carried on harmoniously, if they do not find by the whole proceedings of
the house that they have the confidence of a majority of its members,
then that a dissolution of the house shall follow, or that the
government resign.” This then settled this important question of
responsible government, though dragged out of Attorney-General Draper
against his will (see _Cobourg Star_, June 11th, 1841). Before accepting
a judgeship, Mr. Boswell was one of the leading lawyers in Canada, and
as such was specially retained to defend Hunter, Morrison, Montgomery,
and others, who were tried for high treason in connection with the
rebellion in 1837. The two former were acquitted. In 1845, he was
appointed Judge of the County Court of the United Counties of
Northumberland and Durham, and accepted superannuation in 1882. In 1837,
he served under Colonel Ham as brigade major with the volunteers in
suppressing the rebellion, and was on the frontier at Chippawa, at the
time the rebels under McKenzie took possession of Navy Island. Judge
Boswell was married first in 1829, to Susannah, daughter of James
Radcliffe, by whom he had a numerous family; and last to Mary, daughter
of the late Rev. Thomas Wrench, rector of St. Michael’s Church,
Cornhill, London.
* * * * *
=Ogilvie, Hon. Alexander Walker=, Montreal, Lieutenant-Colonel, member
of the Senate of Canada for Alma division, was born at St. Michael, near
the city of Montreal, on the 7th of May, 1829. The Ogilvie family is
descended from a younger brother of Gilchrist, Earl of Angus, a valiant
soldier who in the thirteenth century was rewarded with the land of
Ogilvie, in Banffshire, Scotland, and assumed the name of the estate.
The family is celebrated in history for having long preserved the Crown
and sceptre of Scotland from the hands of Oliver Cromwell. The parents
of Senator Ogilvie came from Stirlingshire, Scotland, to Canada in 1800,
and Mr. Ogilvie, sr., served his adopted country as a volunteer cavalry
officer during the war of 1812-14 against the Americans; and took up
arms against the so-called patriots during the Canadian rebellion of
1837-8. To this couple were born a large family of sons and daughters,
and all have made their mark in the country. In 1854 Alexander and his
brothers, John and William, founded the firm of A. W. Ogilvie & Co., as
millers and dealers in grain, and built extensive mills on the banks of
the canal at Montreal, now known as the Glenora mills. Since that time
the business has grown to such dimensions that the firm’s mills and
business operations are carried on at Montreal, Goderich, Seaforth,
Winnipeg and other parts of the North-West, and they are now the most
extensive millers in the Dominion. In 1874 Alexander retired from the
business. In 1867 he first entered political life, and at the general
election of that year he was chosen by acclamation to represent Montreal
West in the Quebec legislature, when on the dissolution of the house in
1871 he declined re-nomination. He, however, was induced again to enter
the political field in 1875, and was elected for his old seat. This he
occupied until the legislature was dissolved in 1878, when he retired
from local politics. On December 24, 1881, he was called to the Senate
to represent the Alma division in that body. Senator Ogilvie has been an
alderman for the city of Montreal, president of the Workingmen’s, Widows
and Orphans’ Benefit Society, and of the St. Andrew’s Society, and a
lieutenant-colonel of the Montreal Cavalry (now on the retired list). He
is president of the St. Michael Road Company, chairman of the Montreal
Turnpike Trust, and of the Montreal Board of Directors of the London
(England) Guarantee Company, a director of the Sun Life Insurance
Company, the Edwardsburg Starch Company, the Montreal Loan and Mortgage
Company, and the Montreal Investment Company. He is also a justice of
the peace. Senator Ogilvie is a Conservative in politics, and in
religion is a Presbyterian. He is married to a daughter of the late
William Leney, of Montreal, and has a family of four children, one son
and three daughters.
* * * * *
=Campbell, Rev. Robert=, M.A., D.D., Pastor of St. Gabriel Presbyterian
Church, Montreal, was born on a farm near the town of Perth, Lanark
county, Ontario, on the 21st June, 1835. Peter Campbell, father of the
subject of this sketch, was born at Rein-a-Chullaig, Loch Tayside,
Breadalbane, Perthshire, Scotland, and belonged to the Lochnell branch
of the Campbell clan. One of his ancestors having taken part in the
Jacobite rising in 1715, and thus having incurred the displeasure of
Argyll, who was at the head of the Hanoverian forces, did not return to
his native district, but placed himself under the protection of his
other great kinsman, Breadalbane, who was neutral in that contest, and
who assigned him the property called Rein-a-Chullaig. Peter Campbell was
a man of high character and intelligence. He had for a time been a
teacher in Scotland, and this gave him much influence with his Highland
countrymen who accompanied him to Canada in 1817, and settled in the
Bathurst district. He brought some money with him to Canada, and owned
the first yoke of oxen in the settlement; although during the first
season he had to carry a bag of flour on his back through the woods from
Brockville, a distance of about fifty miles, having no road to follow
but guided only by the blazes on the trees. He was chosen an elder of
the first Presbyterian church, which was under the ministry of Rev.
William Bell, shortly after his arrival in the country. But as he was
born and bred in the Church of Scotland, he united with that branch of
the Presbyterian communion as soon as it was established in Perth under
the ministry of the late Rev. T. C. Wilson, of Dunkeld, Scotland, and
was installed an elder in it too, which office he retained till his
death in 1848. Margaret Campbell, Rev. Dr. Campbell’s mother, was of the
Gleno and Inverliver branch of the clan Campbell. She was born in
Glenlyon, Scotland, her mother being a MacDiarmid, one of the oldest
families in Scotland. Mrs. Campbell ably seconded her husband in all his
aims and efforts; and one of the results of their joint influence and
instruction was that three of their sons became ministers of the
Presbyterian Church of Canada in connection with the Church of Scotland,
and a fourth studied for the ministry of the Baptist church, but his
health broke down before he was able to complete his course of
preparation. Robert was the seventh son, and eleventh child of the
family, his youngest brother being Rev. Alexander Campbell, B.A., of
Prince Albert, North-West Territory. He was educated at the common
school, near his birth place; but as it happened that the school was
taught by a succession of able masters, one of them being an admirable
scholar in both classics and mathematics, he enjoyed considerable
advantages, and he, with his youngest brother, made very rapid progress
in study. He himself became a common school teacher at the age of
sixteen; and the desire he had to perfect himself in the subjects which
he had to teach was the best master he was ever under, and he learned
more always while teaching than while avowedly only a student under the
direction of others. In 1853 he entered as a student at Queen’s
University, taking the only open scholarship for the year. This
scholarship he retained by competition every year all through his
course. In 1855 he obtained the first medal ever offered in Queen’s
College for a special examination in English history and ancient
geography. In 1856 he graduated B.A., and in 1858 M.A., in the same
university. He taught the public school near Appleton in 1852, and the
next year the school at Leckie’s Corners, near Almonte. In 1856 he was
appointed headmaster of the Queen’s College Preparatory School, where he
had under his care, at a time when High schools were few and inefficient
throughout the country, students from all parts of Canada, and even from
Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, who had it in view to matriculate
in Queen’s University. A great many of the youth of Kingston also took
advantage of the educational facilities afforded by the school. This
position he held till 1st October, 1860, when he quitted it with a view
to entering the ministry of the Presbyterian Church of Canada in
connection with the Church of Scotland. In the autumn of 1860, after
having received license as a preacher in Canada, he went abroad with a
view to seeing a little of the world, and becoming familiar with men and
things in the older civilized communities, and he remained thirteen
months in Great Britain and the Continent, taking advantage of access to
the museums, art galleries, and learned societies of Edinburgh
particularly, where he spent most of the winter, as well as giving
occasional attendance at lectures in the university. He returned to
Canada late in the autumn of 1861, and accepted a call in April, 1862,
to St. Andrew’s Church, Galt, Ontario, having declined overtures from
Melbourne, Beckwith, and one or two other charges. He remained in Galt
till 1st December, 1866, when called to his present sphere of labour as
minister of the oldest Presbyterian church in the inland provinces. The
centennial celebration of the founding of the congregation that built
this church was held on the 9th of March, 1886, and was an occasion of
great interest to the entire community. The University of Queen’s
College conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity upon him at the
convocation in April, 1887. Rev. Dr. Campbell is chairman of the Board
of Management of the Widows’ and Orphans’ Fund of the Presbyterian
Church of Canada in connection with the Church of Scotland; a member of
the Executive Committee of the Temporalities Board of the same church; a
trustee of Queen’s University, and a member of the Senate of the
Presbyterian College, Montreal. He held the office of lecturer in
Ecclesiastical History for two sessions in Queen’s University, Kingston,
and was a vice-president of the Natural History Society of Montreal. He
has maintained steadfastly his early religious convictions. But while
orthodox himself, he has always exercised toleration towards those that
could not see exactly as he did. Rev. Dr. Campbell won the prize for the
best essay on Presbyterian Union offered by a committee of gentlemen in
Quebec and Montreal in the year 1866, which was afterwards published,
and greatly helped to leaven public opinion on that question. He is now
engaged on a history of the St. Gabriel St. Church, Montreal, which will
shortly be published, and cannot fail to prove of great interest to
every Presbyterian in Canada. Rev. Dr. Campbell was married on the 29th
of December, 1863, to Margaret, eldest child and only daughter of Rev.
George Macdonnell, minister of St. Andrew’s Church, Fergus, a faithful,
useful, and highly respected minister of the Presbyterian Church of
Canada in connection with the Church of Scotland. Rev. D. J. Macdonnell,
B.D., of Toronto, and G. M. Macdonnell, Q.C., of Kingston, are her
brothers. Her mother was Elizabeth Milnes, of the same stock as Moncton
Milnes, Lord Houghton.
* * * * *
=Inches, Peter Robertson=, M.D., M.R.C.S., England, St. John, New
Brunswick, was born on the 19th of February, 1835, at St. John, New
Brunswick. He is a son of James Inches, of Dunkeld, and Janet Small, of
Dirnanean, Perthshire, Scotland, who emigrated to America in 1832, and
settled in St. John. Dr. Inches received his early education in the
Grammar School of his native city, and studied medicine in New York
city, at the University College, and from this institution he graduated
in 1866. He then went to Great Britain and further prosecuted his
studies at the University of Edinburgh, and at King’s College, London.
In 1868 he was elected a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of
England, and then returned to St. John, New Brunswick, and commenced the
practice of his profession, and here he has ever since resided. Dr.
Inches was brought up in the faith as taught by the Presbyterian church,
and has continued his connection with that body of Christians. In 1876
he was married to Mary Dorothea, daughter of Dr. C. K. Fiske, from
Massachusetts, who for many years practised his profession in St. John.
The doctor has had five children born to him, four of whom survive.
* * * * *
=Leach, The Ven. Archdeacon.=—The late William Turnbull Leach, D.C.L.,
LL.D., Archdeacon of Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal, was born in
Berwick-on-Tweed, Scotland, on the 1st of March, 1805, and died at
Montreal, on the 13th of October, 1886. He was of English descent, his
grandfather having removed to Berwick from the previous home of the
family in Lincolnshire, England. Archdeacon Leach was educated in
Edinburgh, and took the degree of M.A. in the university of that city in
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