A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time by Rose
1882. He is representative in Quebec of the Grand Lodge of California
707 words | Chapter 75
and Grand Chapter of Indiana. And he has always taken an active part in
all matters pertaining to the craft in his district and province, and is
an ardent supporter of the principle of Grand Lodge sovereignty. In
politics Mr. Fitch is a Liberal; and in religion is an adherent of the
Baptist church. He was married to Mary A., second daughter of the late
James Bowen, of Quebec.
* * * * *
=Badgley, Rev. Prof. E. I.=, M.A., B.D., LL.D., Victoria University,
Cobourg.—Professor Badgley, of United Empire loyalist descent, was born
in Prince Edward county, which county was also the birth place of his
father and mother. At the time of the American revolution his
great-grandfather owned a large landed property in the state of New
Jersey, but having espoused the royalists’ cause, his property was
confiscated. Preferring citizenship under the British Crown rather than
in the Republic, he determined to find a home in the then wilderness of
Canada. Pursued as an enemy and a fugitive, he suffered many
hair-breadth escapes. For several days he lay concealed in his hayloft,
where more than once the enemy searched for him, repeatedly walking over
him as he lay buried beneath the hay. From this place of concealment he
escaped to find refuge for three days in a potato pit. After many
adventures scarcely less perilous, he finally was enabled to reach
Canada, whither his family in due time followed him. They settled about
six miles from Belleville, in what is now the township of Thurlow. Dr.
Canniff, in his work on the “Settlement of Upper Canada,” mentions him
and his sons as among the first settlers north of the village of
Cannifton. His wife’s name was Lawrence, whom he married in England, and
through that connection repeated efforts have been made to secure for
the heirs a supposed fortune lying to their credit, so far, however,
without any success. One of the sons, Professor Badgley’s grandfather,
finally settled in Prince Edward county, from which place he went to
Kingston to do service for his country, in 1812. By an exchange of
property the family removed to Thurlow, where his mother, whose maiden
name was Howard, still lives. With an ardent desire for a better
training than the public school could furnish, Professor Badgley left
the farm when seventeen years of age, and entered as a student at
Belleville Seminary, afterwards Albert University. He graduated with the
second-class in 1868, and immediately entered upon the work of the
ministry, in connection with the late Methodist Episcopal church. After
three years of successful labor, he returned to Albert College as an
adjunct professor in metaphysics and mathematics. Three years later, on
the election of Dr. Carman, president of the university, to the
episcopacy, Professor Badgley was appointed to the chair of mental and
moral philosophy, which he satisfactorily filled for a period of ten
years. While in the ministry, and during the period he served as adjunct
professor, he pursued a definite line of reading, and regularly
graduated in both theology and law. As a result of Methodist union,
Albert University was consolidated with Victoria, in 1884, since which
date he has held the chair of mental philosophy and logic in the latter
university. For several years Professor Badgley was a regular
contributor to the editorial columns of the _Canada Christian Advocate_,
and has frequently written for the “Canadian Methodist Magazine.” He was
a delegate to the Ecumenical Methodist Conference, in London, in 1881,
where he read an important paper on ministerial education. At different
times and places he has delivered several addresses on metaphysical and
philosophical subjects, the publication of which has been frequently
requested. In May, 1887, he delivered the tenth annual lecture before
the Theological Union of Victoria University, on “Faith, _vs._
Knowledge.” In 1870 he was married to Emma Bell, daughter of John S.
Bell, Napanee, whose father was an officer in the British army, and on
whose confiscated property a part of the city of Albany now stands. They
have three children, two sons and a daughter.
* * * * *
=McConnell, John=, M.D., M.C.P.S.O., Toronto, Lieutenant 12th Battalion
York Rangers, was born in the township of Scarboro’, on the 4th March,
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