INDEX. (continued 7)

Ferguson, Hon. Donald, M.P.P., Provincial Secretary and Commissioner of Crown Lands of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, was born at East River, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on the 7th of March, 1839. His father, John Ferguson, and mother, Isabella Stewart, were descendants of thrifty Scotch farmers, who emigrated from Blair Athol, in Perthshire, Scotland, in 1807, and settled near Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Donald was reared on the farm and received the rudiments of education in the Public school of his native parish, and subsequently pursued his studies in English and mathematics by private tuition. He became interested in politics when quite a young man, and was a strong advocate of the confederation of the provinces. He was a contributor to the press, and in 1867, wrote a series of letters over the signature of “A Farmer,” which attracted considerable attention, and was replied to by the Hon. David Laird, one of the leading politicians of the island, and subsequently lieutenant-governor of the North-West Territories. At a later date, he engaged, over his own signature, in a discussion with the Hon. George Beer, on the union question, and became at once known as one of the champions on the island for a Canadian nationality. He was also a strong supporter of the interests of the tenantry, an advocate of railway construction, and was the mover of the resolutions in favour of the railway which were adopted at the mass meeting of the electors of Queens county, held at Charlottetown, in the winter of 1871. In 1872, Mr. Ferguson was appointed a justice of the peace, and he held the position of collector of inland revenue for Charlottetown for a short time in 1873. In 1873, the great question of confederation, for which Mr. Ferguson had for years contended, having been settled, he offered himself as a candidate for the Legislative Council of Prince Edward Island, for the second district of Queens county, where the Hon. Edward Palmer had been returned in 1872, to the Council, as an anti-railway and an anti-confederate, by a majority of nearly eight hundred votes—and he succeeded, after a spirited canvass and good fight against great odds in reducing the anti-railway majority to two hundred and fifty votes. A vacancy occurring next year in the same constituency, Mr. Ferguson was again brought out by his friends, and this time succeeded in reducing the anti-railway majority to seventy. In 1876, the question of denominational education came prominently before the electors, and Mr. Ferguson and other leading politicians pronounced in favour of a system of payment by results, by which the state would recognize and pay for secular education in schools in towns, in which religious education might also be imparted at the expense of parents. Religious bitterness was introduced, the Protestants became alarmed, the people decided largely according to their creeds, and the “payment by results” candidates were defeated in all except Roman Catholic constituencies. Believing that almost any settlement of this vexed question was better than a prolonged political-religious agitation, he accepted the situation. In 1874, Mr. Ferguson was appointed secretary of the Board of Railway Appraisers, which office he held until 1876. In 1878, he was invited by the leading electors of the Cardigan district, in Kings county, to offer himself for parliamentary honours; he consented and was returned by acclamation. In March, 1879, on the meeting of the legislature, the government, under the leadership of the Hon. L. H. Davis, was defeated, and the Hon. W. W. Sullivan, who had been entrusted with the formation of a new administration, offered Mr. Ferguson a seat in his cabinet, with the portfolio of public works, which office he accepted. A dissolution of the house having immediately followed, Mr. Ferguson was returned by acclamation. In 1880, he resigned his position as head of the Public Works department, and became provincial secretary and commissioner of Crown Lands, and this position he occupies to-day. In 1882, Mr. Ferguson was elected to represent Fort Augustus, and again in 1886, he had the same honour conferred upon him. Hon. Mr. Ferguson is a member of the Board of Commissioners for the management of the Government Poor-House; a commissioner for the management of the Government Stock Farm, and a trustee for the Hospital for the Insane, at Falconwood. He was a delegate to Ottawa, on the Wharf and Pier question in 1883, in conjunction with the Hon. Messrs. Sullivan and Prowse, and also a delegate to England, with Hon. Mr. Sullivan, on the question of the communication between the island and the mainland. Mr. Ferguson is an enthusiastic agriculturist, and has a farm in a high state of cultivation, four miles from Charlottetown. Besides having published several useful official reports, Mr. Ferguson gave to his fellow-citizens in 1884, an excellent paper on “Agricultural Education,” and another in 1885, on “Love of Country.” He has been a lifelong total abstainer, and became connected with the Good Templars in 1863, and held the office of grand secretary for two years, 1863-5, and that of grand worthy chief templar the following two years, 1865-7. He is a Conservative in politics, and in religion a member of the Baptist denomination. In 1873, he was married to Elizabeth Jane, daughter of John Scott, Charlottetown, and has a family consisting of three sons and two daughters.

Ross, James Duncan, M.D., Moncton, New Brunswick, was born at Pictou, Nova Scotia, in October, 1839, and is a son of the Rev. James Ross, D.D., principal of Dalhousie College, and grandson of the late Rev. Duncan Ross, one of the first Presbyterian ministers who came to Nova Scotia from Scotland. His mother was Isabella Matheson, a daughter of William Matheson, who through industry and perseverance accumulated a fortune at farming, lumbering, and trading, sufficient to enable him to leave the handsome sum of $35,000 to the institutions of the church in the province, and $35,000 to the British and Foreign Bible Society. James Duncan Ross received his elementary training in the public schools in his native town, and then took the arts course in the West River Seminary. He then spent three years in the office of the late Dr. Muir, of Truro, N.S., and afterwards studied medicine and surgery in Philadelphia and Harvard, graduating from Harvard University in 1861, when he moved to Londonderry, in Nova Scotia, and began the practice of his profession, and continued here until 1865; then he went over to Britain and took a course of medicine and surgery in the University and in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Edinburgh, and while in that city he was for a time a student in the office of Sir J. Y. Simpson. He then went to London, and became for a time a dresser in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital; and afterwards, returning to Nova Scotia, he resumed his practice. Dr. Ross occupied the position for some time of assistant surgeon to the 2nd battalion of the Colchester Militia, and also surgeon of the Caledonian (Highland) Society of Nova Scotia. He has been since 1863 a coroner for the county of Westmoreland. He took a deep interest in the establishment of the Medical School in Halifax, and was demonstrator of anatomy in it for the first two years of its existence. The doctor has now practised medicine and surgery continuously for twenty-five years, the first eleven years of his medical career having been spent in Nova Scotia, and the remaining fourteen in Moncton, N.B. His work has been continuous and laborious, and very varied, and he stands high in the profession, especially for surgery. In him the poor always find a kind and sympathizing friend, who dispenses medicine to them gratuitously as well as his best skill. In religion the doctor holds all the doctrines of the second reformation, and believes the Presbyterian form of church government scriptural. He has experienced no change in his views since his youth, except a deeper conviction of the duty which nations owe to Christ, and a more scriptural constitution for nations. He married, in 1870, Ruth, daughter of the late R. N. B. McLellan, merchant, of Londonderry, N.S. The McLellan family are north of Ireland Scotch, and have been closely connected with the political and mercantile interests of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick for many years. Issue, one son, who died in infancy.

McLeod, Rev. Joseph, D.D., Fredericton, was born in St. John, New Brunswick, June 27, 1844. His father, the Rev. Ezekiel McLeod,—born in Sussex, New Brunswick, Sept. 17, 1815, died in Fredericton, New Brunswick, March 17th, 1867,—was the leading minister in the Free Baptist denomination of Canada, and the founder and, till his death, the editor of The Religious Intelligencer. He was an earnest and influential advocate of the confederation of the British American provinces; a strong advocate of prohibition; and widely known and highly regarded both for intellectual qualities and godly character. His mother was Amelia Emery, born in Boston, Massachusetts, and survived her husband till June, 1887. Joseph McLeod was educated in the public schools, and in the Baptist Institution in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and in July, 1868, was ordained to the ministry. In the same month he was called to the pastorate of the Free Baptist Church in Fredericton, which he has held ever since. In 1875 the Rev. Mr. McLeod was chosen chaplain to the New Brunswick legislature, and still holds the office. He is a very active worker in the temperance army, and has held the office of grand worthy chief of the British Templars; president of the National lodge of the United Temperance Association of Canada, and is now, and has for several years been president of the New Brunswick Prohibitory Alliance. He is an ardent advocate of the prohibition of the liquor traffic, and has for years been a leader in this cause in New Brunswick, and has had much to do with introducing the Canada Temperance Act into New Brunswick. In addition to his strong advocacy of temperance measures, he has been an earnest advocate of the establishment of the free, unsectarian school system in his native province. In the Free Baptist denomination he also stands high as a leader in all progressive movements. He is an advocate of the union of the Baptist denominations in Canada, and by voice and pen has done much to promote the union feeling. He is a member and vice-chairman of the joint committee of the Baptist and Free Baptist bodies which now (1887) have the question of union under consideration, and are authorized to arrange a basis of union. He was secretary and a director of the Free Baptist Education Society for many years, till, in 1883, the Baptist and Free Baptist Education Societies were united by act of the legislature; since then he has been a director of the united Education Society. He has also been corresponding secretary of the Free Baptist Foreign Mission Society of New Brunswick for fifteen years; was for three years president of the American Foreign Mission Society, which includes representatives of all the free communion Baptist bodies in the United States and Canada, and is now a member of the managing board of the society. Has been moderator of the New Brunswick Free Baptist Conference twice within ten years. Since 1867 Dr. McLeod has owned and edited the Religious Intelligencer. In May, 1886, Acadia College conferred the well-earned degree of D.D. on Mr. McLeod. He is active in all matters pertaining to the welfare of the public, and is frequently called upon to do pulpit and platform service outside his own charge. He has not found time for a European tour, but has made two trips to the western states; spent the winter of 1882-3 in Florida for the benefit of his health; and in the summer of 1886 made the trip across the continent via the Canada Pacific Railway, spending several weeks in British Columbia, the North-West, and in Manitoba. Dr. McLeod’s parents were Free Baptists, and in this faith he was brought up. He at a very early age became a communicant in that church, and is now one of the most respected of its clergy. In December, 1868, he was married to Jane Fulton Squires, and is blessed with a family of five children.

Chesley, John Alexander, Manufacturer, Portland, New Brunswick, was born in Portland, N.B., in May, 1839. He is the eldest son of William Ambrose and Mary Ann Chesley, of U. E. loyalist descent. He received his educational training in the Public school in Portland, and at the Grammar School in Albert county, N.B. Mr. Chesley began his business career in Portland, N.B., in 1862, as a manufacturer of ships’ iron knees, and conducted the business on his own account until 1869, when he took his brother, W. A. Chesley, into partnership, and thus formed the firm of “J. A. & W. A. Chesley,” of which he is the head and senior partner. Since then the firm has had a very successful career, and is very well and favourably known throughout the Maritime provinces for its locomotive frames, piston and connecting rods, truck, engine and car axles, shafting, ships’ iron knees, etc., and all kinds of heavy forgings. The firm has also a large interest in shipping. In 1876 Mr. Chesley was elected alderman for No. 1 Ward in Portland city, and occupied a seat in the city council continuously until April, 1885,—a period of nine years,—when he was elected mayor of the city. He also sat as one of the representatives of the city of Portland in the municipal council of the city and county of St. John from 1880 to 1886, a period of five years. In 1881 he was appointed a commissioner for taking the census in the county of St. John; and was a liquor license commissioner for St. John county in 1883 under the Dominion Liquor License Act. At the general elections of 1882 and 1886 Mr. Chesley was an unsuccessful candidate for the representation of the city and county of St. John in the legislature of New Brunswick, but received such support that we think he will be justified in running again for parliamentary honours when the occasion offers. In 1872 he was made a Mason, and now holds the rank of past master in the Blue lodge, and also that of past principal in the Royal Arch chapter. He is a member of the Encampment of St. John Knights Templars, and a member of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish rite of Masonry; also a member of the Royal Order of Scotland. He is an active politician, and is a member of the Young Men’s Liberal Conservative Club of the city and county of St. John, and at the present time is the vice-president of the Club for the city of Portland. Mr. Chesley was a supporter of confederation, and worked hard to carry the measure, and has ever since taken an interest in all public questions—Dominion, provincial, and municipal—brought before the people of the city and county of St. John. He also took an active interest in, and laboured very hard in the election held to decide the free school system in New Brunswick, and had the satisfaction of seeing his party win in the contest, and secure for his province a school law that every lover of his country should be proud of. He is a Liberal-Conservative in politics, and a strong supporter of the national policy. He was married, first in December, 1860, to Mary Frances, eldest daughter of Albert Small, of Portland, Maine; and some time after her death he was again married in September, 1872, to Annie, eldest daughter of James S. May, of St. John, N.B.

MacCallum, Duncan Campbell, M.D., M.R.C.S., Eng., Fellow of the Obstetrical Society, London, Foundation Fellow of the British Gynecological Society, and Professor Emeritus, McGill University, Montreal, was born in the province of Quebec, on the 12th November, 1825. By descent Dr. MacCallum is a pure Celt, being the son of John MacCallum and Mary Campbell. His maternal grandfather, Malcolm Campbell, of Killin, during his lifetime widely known and highly esteemed through the Perthshire Highlands, was a near kinsman and relative, through the Lochiel Camerons, of the Earl of Breadalbane. Dr. MacCallum received his medical education at McGill University, at which institution he graduated as M.D. in the year 1850. Immediately on receiving his degree, he proceeded to Great Britain, and continued his studies in London, Edinburgh and Dublin. After examination he was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, England, February, 1851. Returning to Canada, he entered on the practice of his profession in the city of Montreal, and was appointed demonstrator of anatomy in the medical faculty of McGill University, September, 1854. From that time to the present he has been connected with the university, occupying various positions in the faculty of medicine. In August, 1856, he was preferred to the chair of clinical surgery. In November, 1860, he was transferred to the chair of clinical medicine and medical jurisprudence, and in April, 1868, received the appointment of professor of midwifery and the diseases of women and children, which position he held until his resignation in 1883, on which occasion the governors of the university appointed him professor emeritus, retaining his precedence in the university. For a period of twenty-nine years he has been actively engaged in the teaching of his profession. Elected visiting physician to the Montreal General Hospital in February, 1856, he discharged the duties of that position until the year 1877, when he resigned, and was placed by the vote of the governors of that institution on the consulting staff. From 1868 till 1883 he had charge of the university lying-in hospital, to which he is now attached as consulting physician, and for a period of fourteen years he was physician to the Hervey Institute for children, to which charity also he is now consulting physician. He has always taken a warm interest in the literature of his profession, and articles from his pen have appeared in the British American Medical and Surgical Journal, the Canada Medical Journal, and the “Transactions of the Obstetrical Society of London, Eng.” In the year 1854 he, in conjunction with Dr. Wm. Wright, established and edited the Medical Chronicle which had an existence of six years. He was vice-president for Canada of the section of Obstetrics in the ninth International Medical Congress, which was held at Washington during the week commencing September 5th, 1887. Dr. MacCallum married in October, 1867, Mary Josephine Guy, second daughter of the late Hon. Hippolyte Guy, judge of the Superior Court of Lower Canada. The Guy family, of ancient and noble origin, supposed to be a branch of the Guy de Montfort family, has been distinguished for the valuable services, military and civil, which its members have rendered to the province of Quebec, both under the old and new régimes. Pierre Guy, the first of the name to settle in Canada, joined the French army under M. de Vaudreuil, in which he rose rapidly to the rank of captain. He took an active part in the engagements which were then so frequent between the French in Quebec and the English in Massachusetts and New York. He died at the early age of forty-eight. His son Pierre, who was sent to France and received a thorough and careful education, also joined the French army and distinguished himself under General Montcalm at the battle of Carillon, and in the following year at Montmorency. The battle of the Plains of Abraham having annihilated the power of France in Canada, young Guy with others left for France after the capitulation of the country, where he remained till 1764. Returning to Canada, he accepted the situation, entered into business at Montreal, and became a loyal subject of Great Britain. Shortly after, when General Montgomery invaded Canada, he took up arms for the defence of the country, and this so exasperated the Americans that they sacked his stores after the capitulation of Montreal. In 1776 he received from the Crown the appointment of judge, which at that time was considered a signal mark of favour; and in 1802 he was promoted to the rank of colonel of militia. A man of great attainments and scholarly parts, he was an ardent promoter of all educational projects. He was one of the most active in the foundation of the College St. Raphae, under the control of the gentlemen of the Seminary of the Sulpician order, and which still exists and flourishes under the name of the “College of Montreal.” He died in 1812 and left several sons and daughters. Louis, who by the death of his brother became the eldest of the family, was an intimate friend and adviser of Sir James Kempt, and subsequently of Lord Aylmer. He was made a councillor by King William in February, 1831. He died in 1840. Of his family, Judge Hippolyte Guy was the second son. The eldest son, named Louis, received a commission as lieutenant in the British army through the influence of the Duke of Wellington, in consideration of the bravery he had displayed at the battle of Chateauguay, where he gallantly led the advanced guard of the Voltigeurs. Several years before entering the British army he served as a member of the body guard of Charles X. of France, into which no one was admitted who was not of proved noble origin. Judge Guy married the adopted daughter of Chief Justice Vallières, and had four children, a son who died in youth, and three daughters. The eldest of the latter is married to Chief Justice Austin, of Nassau, Bahamas, and the youngest to Gustave Fabre, brother to Archbishop Fabre, Montreal. Dr. MacCallum’s family consists of five children,—four daughters and one son.

Williams, Thomas, Accountant and Treasurer of the Intercolonial Railway, Moncton, New Brunswick, was born at Handsworth, near Birmingham, England, on the 3rd of June, 1846. He is the youngest son of Joseph and Hannah Williams. His father’s ancestors can be traced back several centuries as farmers and occupiers of land in the adjoining parish of Perry Barr. His mother’s ancestors, the Coulburns of Tipton, in South Staffordshire, have been connected with the development of the iron industries there for several generations past. Thomas Williams was educated at the parish schools, and subsequently at the Bridge Trust School—a grammar school founded from the proceeds of a legacy for repairs of bridges in the parish, for which after the organisation of the Highway Board, its existence for its original purposes was not necessary, and the accumulated funds were devoted to the erection and endowment of a superior school. In 1868, he entered the service of the London and North-Western Railway of England as freight clerk, and was subsequently appointed freight agent at Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham, and station master at Marton, near Rugby. He resigned in June, 1870, to come to Canada, and in December, 1870, entered the service of the New Brunswick and Canada Railway, at St. Andrews, New Brunswick, as clerk to the general manager. Mr. Williams left the service of that railway in August, 1873, to enter upon duties of clerk in accountant’s office of the Intercolonial (Government) Railway, at Moncton, New Brunswick, and was subsequently appointed chief clerk in mechanical department of the same railway. In November, 1875, he was sent to Charlottetown, to organise the system of accounts of the Prince Edward Island Railway, and was appointed accountant and auditor of that railway. And on the 1st of July, 1882, he was appointed chief accountant and treasurer of the Intercolonial Railway at Moncton, which position he at present holds. Mr. Williams was a member of the Church of England until December, 1873, but in consequence of Ritualistic practices having been introduced into the church he was in the habit of attending, he left it, and was among the first to join the then newly organized Reformed Episcopal Church, St. Paul’s, in Moncton. He has held the office of vestryman and warden in this church, almost continuously since. On the 12th of January, 1875, he married Analena, daughter of the late John Rourke, merchant, St. John, New Brunswick, and has a family of seven children.

Pickard, Rev. Humphrey, D.D., Methodist Minister, Sackville, New Brunswick, was born at Fredericton, New Brunswick, June 10th, 1813. His parents, Thomas Pickard, was the son of Deacon Humphrey Pickard, and was born at Sheffield in 1783, and Mary Pickard, daughter of David Burpee. Mrs. Pickard was also born at Sheffield in 1783. Both Deacon Pickard and Squire Burpee, came, while yet mere youths, from Massachusetts, New England, with a party of the earliest English settlers on the Saint John river, about the year 1762. The subject of this sketch, after receiving a fair English education in Fredericton, was sent to the Wesleyan Academy, North Wilbenham, Massachusetts, United States, in 1829, where he commenced a classical course of study, and having prepared for matriculation, he entered the Freshman class in the University at Middletown, Conn., in 1831. He, having completed the Freshman course of study, retired from the university in 1832, and spent the following three years in mercantile pursuits. In 1835, he entered the Methodist ministry, as an assistant to the Rev. A. Des Brisay, in the Sheffield circuit. In 1836, he was received on trial as a Wesleyan missionary, by the British Methodist Conference, and laboured for a year as such on the Miramichi mission and Fredericton circuit. In 1837, he resumed his course of university study at Middletown; in 1839, he graduated, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and re-entered the work of the Methodist ministry, being stationed at Richibucto, until 1841, when he was appointed to St. John. In 1842, he was ordained and received into full connection with the English Conference as a Methodist minister, and appointed editor of the British North American Methodist Magazine, which was published at St. John. In November of the same year, he was elected principal of the Mount Allison Academy, and removed with his family to Sackville at the close of the year. The academy was opened on the 19th of January, 1843, with a very few students, but under his skilful management, it rapidly rose into importance in public estimation, and attracting students from all parts of the Maritime provinces, soon took position in the very front rank of the educational institutions of Eastern British America. The catalogue for the term from January to June, 1855, contains 250 names of students in actual attendance, viz.: of 134 in the male branch, and 116 in the female. In 1862, the Mount Allison College was organized at Sackville, by the authority of an Act of the Legislature of New Brunswick, and Mr. Pickard was appointed its president, and he continued to act as president of the college and principal of the academy until 1869. At the annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the united institutions, held May 26, 1869, the following resolution was unanimously adopted: “That the board, having received intimation from Rev. Dr. Pickard, that in consequence of the action of the conference in assigning to him another portion of connexional service, his resignation of the office of president of the institution is deemed necessary, though reluctantly accepting that resignation, would express in strongest terms its regret at the removal of Dr. Pickard from the field of usefulness for which he has special qualifications, and at which for upwards of a quarter of a century, he has with fidelity and honour served the church and his generation. The board is also assured that the great work of education in connection with the Wesleyan Conference of Eastern British America is greatly indebted to the retiring president of the institution, and that its success is largely to be attributed to the indomitable application and perseverance—the high business ability, and the earnest Christian aim by which Dr. Pickard has been animated during the whole period of his service in the government of the institution.” The Provincial Wesleyan, in a notice of the Mount Allison Academy, June 15, 1870, says: “The college established in 1862, under a charter from the Legislature of New Brunswick, mainly through the exertions of the Rev. Dr. Pickard, is the latest of the foundations at Sackville. * * * The first president of the college was the Rev. H. Pickard, D.D., president also of the Wesleyan Conference. Dr. Pickard’s name is so intimately associated with the Sackville institutions as almost to rival that of its benevolent founder. To them he gave the flower of his life. And although retired from the responsible office of president, and engaged in another sphere of usefulness, the doctor is still one of its ablest friends and supporters. His address at the recent celebration was received with the warmest demonstrations.” Dr. Pickard, having been elected to the office of editor of The Wesleyan and book steward, became resident in Halifax, from 1869 to 1873, but in this latter year he returned with his family to Sackville. From 1873 to 1875, he acted as agent for the college, and was largely instrumental in securing the first endowment fund; and in 1876 he was superintendent of the Sackville district. In 1877, he became a supernumerary, and has since so remained resident at Sackville, except during the years 1879-80, when, at the call of the General Conference of the Methodist Church of Canada, he acted as book steward at Halifax. He was elected secretary of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference of Eastern British America in 1857, 1858, 1859 and 1860, and co-delegate of the same conference in 1861, and president in 1862 and 1870. He was appointed representative of the conference of Eastern British America to the Canada Conference, which met in the city of Kingston, June, 1860; and again to the conference which met in the city of Hamilton, June, 1867. He was appointed representative of his conference to the British Conference, first, in 1857, secondly in 1862, and thirdly in 1873. He was a member of the joint committee on the Federal union of the Wesleyan Methodist church in British America, which met in Montreal, October, 1872; and of the joint committee which met in Toronto in 1882, and formulated the basis of union by which the four separate Methodist bodies in Canada united to form the one Methodist church. Rev. Mr. Pickard was a member of the first and second general conferences of the Methodist Church of Canada, and served in both as chairman of the committee on discipline. He was also a member of the second general conference of the Methodist church, which met in Toronto, in September, 1886, and was appointed a member of the court of appeal and of the book committee for the quadrennium, 1886-1890. Mr. Pickard received the degree of Master of Arts in 1842, from the University at Middletown, and had the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity conferred on him by his alma mater in 1857. At the late session of the annual conference of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island of the Methodist church, the following address, beautifully engrossed and elegantly framed, was presented to Dr. Pickard: —

To the Reverend H. Pickard, D.D.:

Dear Brother,—The members of the New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island Conference, assembled in annual session, desire to express to you their hearty congratulations upon the completion of Fifty Years in the honourable work of your ministry. We also express our gratitude to God, that he has so long spared you to see the growth, prosperity, and influence of the church to whose interests you have given such rich qualities of learning, wisdom, and piety.

We rejoice that through all these years your moral and ministerial character has been preserved without a stain. We are profoundly conscious of the far-reaching influence of your life in our Academic and College work. The ministry of this and other churches, as well as the business and professional life of our provinces, have been enriched by the ripe scholarship and godly zeal of those who owe much to you for their culture and their ability in their callings. We are not unmindful that other departments of our church work have been benefited by your consecrated zeal and wisdom. As early life directs and tinges the thoughts of advanced age, we fail not to discern in you the earnestness of purpose, the singleness of aim that mark the years of the early itinerant. Your company has almost gone before, and while with the few venerable men whom we lovingly call Fathers, you wait the summons of the Master, you say —

“In peace and cheerful hope I wait,

On life’s last verge quite free from fears,

And watch the opening of the gate,

Which leads to the eternal years.”

We desire that your day, as it draws to its close, may be brightened by the glory of the sunset, full of the golden promise of the eternity of light.

Signed by order of the Conference,

C. H. Paisley, Robert Wilson,

Secretary. President.

Marysville, N.B., June, 1887.

Mr. Pickard was twice married, first at Boston, on October 2nd, 1841, to the daughter of Ebenezer and Hannah M. Thompson, by whom he had two children—Edward Dwight and Charles F. Allison, who died in early childhood and infancy. Mrs. Pickard died at Sackville, the 11th of March, 1844. She was a lady of superior ability, and much literary talent, her memoirs and selections from her writings were published at Boston, by the Rev. Edward Otheman, A.M., in a duodecimo volume of upwards of 300 pages, in 1845, which is now out of print. He was married again on the 5th of September, 1846, to Mary Rowe Carr, who was born at Portland, Maine, United States, the daughter of John and Avis Preble Carr. This second wife bore him two daughters, the first, Mary Emarancy, is the wife of Andrew M. Bell, hardware merchant in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the mother of two boys, Winthrop P. and Ralph P. The second, Amelia Elizabeth, is the wife of A. A. Stockton, D.C.L., M.P.P., of St. John, New Brunswick, and mother of six living children, three daughters and three sons. The second Mrs. Pickard died on the 24th of January, 1887, in the 77th year of her age.

Kennedy, George, M.A., LL.D., Barrister, Toronto, was born on 1st March, 1838, at Bytown, now the city of Ottawa, Ontario. His father, Donald Kennedy, was born near Blairathol, in Scotland, and came with his father to Canada in 1818, the family settling in the township of Beckwith. About the time of the building of the Rideau canal the father of the subject of this sketch removed to Bytown, engaged in business as a contractor and builder, was employed for some time as surveyor for the district of Dalhousie, now the county of Carleton, and for many years carried on, in partnership with John Blyth, an extensive cabinet-making business. An ancestor of his took part in the battle of Culloden, on the side of Bonny Prince Charlie, by some called the “Pretender,” and the dirk he used on the occasion is still in the possession of the family. Dr. Kennedy’s mother, Janet Buckham, was born in 1807, in Dunblane, Scotland, and came, with her father, to this country in 1828. This family settled in the township of Torbolton, and Mr. Buckham went into farming on a large scale at the head of Sand Bay, where he planted one of the finest orchards in that part of the country. The Buckhams were descended from an old Border family that have resided in Jedburgh from the time of Queen Mary, of Scotland. Mrs. Kennedy died in 1856; but Mr. Kennedy is still alive, and resides about three miles from Ottawa city, on a picturesque spot overlooking the Rideau river. George received his education at the Carleton county Grammar School (now the Ottawa Collegiate Institute), and at University College, Toronto, where he matriculated in 1853, taking the first-class scholarship in classics, and in his subsequent course held first-class honors also in mathematics, metaphysics and ethics, natural sciences, modern languages, logic, rhetoric and history. In 1857 he graduated B.A. with gold medal in metaphysics and ethics; took M.A. in 1860; LL.B. in 1864, and LL.D., in 1877. In 1859 Dr. Kennedy occupied the position of master of the Grammar School of Prescott; and during the years 1860-1 he was second master in the Ottawa Grammar School, and had charge of the branch Meteorological Observatory at Ottawa. In 1862 he began the study of the law in the offices of Crooks, Kingsmill and Cattanach, Toronto, and was admitted as an attorney and solicitor, and was called to the bar of Ontario in Hilary term, 1865. He then began the practice of his profession in Ottawa, and for six years carried on his business in his native place. In February, 1872, he received the appointment of law clerk to the Crown Lands Department of Ontario, and moved to Toronto, where he has ever since resided. During the years 1878-9-80 the doctor was examiner in law at the University of Toronto. He was one of the founders of the Ottawa Literary and Scientific Society, formed by the amalgamation of the Mechanics’ Institute and Natural History Society, and was secretary for some years, and as a recognition of his labours in connection therewith was made a life member. He was also one of the original members of the University College Literary and Scientific Society, and is a member of the Canadian Institute, of which he was for three years a vice-president, and is now editor of “The Proceedings.” For some time he has been secretary to the Toronto St. Andrew’s Society, and as such prepared a history of the Society as a memorial for its jubilee year, 1886. Dr. Kennedy is an omnivorous reader, and as a consequence has a large and well-selected library—indeed he considers a library the most important part of any home—and few men are better posted in book-lore than he. He, too, has seen a good deal of Canada and the United States, and is familiar with the principal places in North America, ranging from the Southern states, the Western states, the Maritime provinces, the Muskoka district, and the regions beyond Ottawa. As might be expected, Dr. Kennedy was brought up a Presbyterian, but when quite young he began to entertain doubts as to the correctness of the Calvinistic faith of his church. For several years he was greatly troubled about this matter, and finding he could no longer stifle his convictions, he broke away from the church, and became almost an Agnostic. After a while, however, he joined the Unitarian church, and no one has now a firmer faith than he in the Divine Fatherhood, and the infinite possibilities of human progress. On the 6th June, 1883, he married Sarah, daughter of the late Henry Jackson, a well-known jeweller, and once resident of Toronto.

Turnbull, William Wallace, Merchant, of the firm of Turnbull & Co., Flour Dealers, Commission Merchants, and Importers of West India Goods, St. John, New Brunswick, was born on the 23rd of May, 1828, at Bear River, Annapolis county, Nova Scotia. His father was William Baxter Turnbull, and his mother, Relief Ann Tucker. His father’s grandparents emigrated from Edinburgh, Scotland, in the last century, and settled at a small place now known as Bay View, about three miles distant from the town of Digby, N.S., and here the father of the subject of our sketch was born. His mother’s grandparents were U. E. loyalists, and came to Nova Scotia from the United States shortly after, or during, the revolutionary war between Great Britain and that country. Mr. Turnbull, sen., was characterized by his keen sense of humour, his cheerfulness, and his affectionate nature, his sympathy for the weak and suffering, his strong religious convictions, and by his fealty to whatever he believed to be just and right. He died at the comparatively early age of forty-five years, and was buried at Bear River, greatly respected and beloved by all who knew him. William’s education was confined to the English branches, and was obtained at the Grammar School at Bear River, and also by attendance, for a short time, at the Grammar School at Albion Vale, a place about one mile distant from Annapolis, N.S. The school at Albion Vale was taught by the late Andrew Henderson, and it was at the time a somewhat celebrated place of instruction. Mr. Turnbull, sen., died, in July, 1845, leaving a widow and nine children (two sons and seven daughters), William being the younger of the two brothers. On the winding up of his estate, and the payment of all just debts, what remained for the family did not much exceed $1,000. For some time previous to this event William’s health was in such a precarious condition that it created a good deal of anxiety to the family, and it may be readily supposed he could do little towards the support of his mother and sisters, and to add to their troubles one of the younger sisters, eight years old, died. In the following spring (1846) all of the family except the brother removed to St. John, and shortly after their arrival in that city William obtained a situation as clerk with W. D. W. Hubbard, auctioneer. In this office he remained for about eighteen months, when he became book-keeper for G. & J. Salter, a firm then largely engaged in the West India trade, and as shipbuilders and shipowners. On the 1st May, 1851, he left their employ and struck out for himself as a wholesale flour, provision, and grocery merchant, adding thereto a few years afterwards shipowning and sailing, and in this business he is engaged at this time. When he started business he had a capital of about $200.00, very small indeed, but he had himself earned this money, and therefore knew its value. Owing, perhaps, to his youth and inexperience, for many years his progress was very slow, he having made a good number of bad debts and unwise ventures, yet notwithstanding these drawbacks he managed to meet all his liabilities as they matured, and now the reflection that throughout his business career he has been able to meet every honourable obligation, affords him the greatest satisfaction. Since his removal from Bear River he has always lived in St. John. The changes or experiences that he has had are perhaps such as are common to men engaged in business for so long a period as thirty-six years, particularly during a time when railroads, steamships and telegraphs have wrought such great changes in the methods of business, and to which we may add the change resulting from the confederation of the provinces into the Dominion of Canada. When Mr. Turnbull was about twenty-four years of age he became a member of the order of Sons of Temperance, but after a few years he withdrew, not because he had ceased to believe in the soundness of total abstinence principles, but because he became so immersed in business that his mind seemed to be wholly absorbed by it, and he felt, owing perhaps to the limitation of his capacity, unable to keep up his interest in the organization. He has always been, and still is, a total abstainer, but is not at present associated with any society having for its object the dissemination of temperance principles. During his connection with the Sons of Temperance he held a number of offices in the division, and afterwards became its presiding officer; and still later a member of the Grand Division of the province of New Brunswick. In May, 1884, Mr. Turnbull was elected president of the St. John Protestant Orphan Asylum, and also a director of the Bank of New Brunswick, which positions he still holds. He, with about a dozen other persons, built a railway from Gibson (opposite Fredericton) to Edmundston, a distance of about one hundred and sixty miles, with branches in addition to Woodstock, N.B., and Fort Fairfield, Maine, and he continued to be connected with this enterprise until the road was sold in 1880 to a number of capitalists in Montreal. He is a member of the Board of Trade of the city of St. John. In 1883 he took a trip to the Old World, and spent some time abroad, visiting Britain, Germany, and Switzerland. Mr. Turnbull’s father was a Presbyterian of the old school, and of course the son was brought up in the same faith; but he now attends the Episcopal church with his family. He, however, is not a member of this or any other church, not that he objects to churches, but simply that his mind is unsettled as to what is really the orthodox doctrine of faith and practice. One thing is certain, however, Mr. Turnbull finds great pleasure in relieving the wants of the deserving poor, and in doing all the good he can to his fellow-men. He does not consider himself in any sense a politician, yet nevertheless he holds decided opinions on most of the political questions that now agitate the country. He is strongly opposed to what is known as the national policy, for he believes it wrings large sums in taxes from the pockets of the people, without its being able to give them in return any compensating advantages. He is also strongly opposed to the expenditure of large sums of money on public works of an unremunerative character, and on public works which exist, as he is satisfied many in Canada do, only by reason of sentiment or false pride. While he recognizes that free trade, in its entirety, owing to the enormous debt of the Dominion, is not now practicable, he holds that it is thoroughly sound in principle, and being so would work the greatest good to the greatest number of our people, he would therefore favour its adoption to as large an extent as might seem to be practicable. He believes in the fullest individual liberty and freedom, consistent with a just regard for the rights of others, and is in favour of all measures having for their object the elevation of the masses. He is, in its true sense, a Liberal, but with enough conservatism in his composition to cause him to oppose any change in the laws of our country that he did not feel firmly convinced would be for the better. Mr. Turnbull was married at Maugerville, Sunbury county, on June 6, 1854, to Julia Caroline, daughter of the late Calvin L. Hatheway, of that place. Mr. Hatheway was of loyalist stock, his father having taken a somewhat prominent part in the revolutionary war between Great Britain and the United States. Mr. Turnbull’s wife’s mother was a daughter of Lieutenant James Harrison, who was also a loyalist, and who came to this province from the United States. He has a family consisting of five children living, namely, three daughters and two sons.

Sprague, Thomas Farmer, M.D., Woodstock, New Brunswick, was born on the 30th of August, 1856, at Brigus, island of Newfoundland. He is a son of the Rev. S. W. Sprague and Jean Manson Sprague. Thomas was educated at Mount Allison Academy, Sackville, New Brunswick, and at the Provincial Normal School. After leaving school he adopted the profession of teaching, which he successfully followed for some years, and then, in 1877, moved to the city of New York, and began the study of medicine. He entered the medical department of New York University, and successfully graduated in the spring of 1880 from this institution. Dr. Sprague then removed to Welsford, in New Brunswick, in April of the same year, and began the practice of his profession. He remained in that place for two years, and in June, 1882, went to Hartland, New Brunswick, where he stayed until June, 1883, and then took up his abode in Woodstock, county of Carleton, New Brunswick, where he has been successfully practising ever since. The doctor was brought up in the faith as taught by the Wesleyan Methodists—his father being a clergyman of that church—and he has seen no reason to change his religious belief since growing up into manhood. He married on the 17th of June, 1884, Loella Nourse, of Boston, Mass.

Gaynor, John Joseph, M.D., St. John, New Brunswick, was born of Irish parents, at Chatham, New Brunswick, on the 19th of March, 1854. They were educated Irish Catholics, his father being a native of the county Meath, and his mother of the county Clare, Ireland. They might well be classed as Irish-Americans, as they were both brought by their respective parents to this country while yet infants. Dr. Gaynor’s father, Thomas Gaynor, was educated at the Grammar School, Chatham; and his mother, Catharine Buckley, at a seminary for young ladies, conducted by a Mrs. Merry at Newcastle, New Brunswick. This privilege, so exceptional for Irish Catholics in those early days, was doubtless the reason which determined the doctor’s parents to bestow in turn a liberal education on their own offspring. On his father’s side Dr. Gaynor comes of the best blood of historic Meath, being a descendant of the same family that in the last century produced General Hand, of revolutionary fame as adjutant-general to Washington during the war of American Independence, and that in the present century gave birth to such eminent churchmen as the late Father Hand, founder of All Hallows College, Dublin, and the present patriotic Bishop of Meath, the illustrious Dr. Nulty. According to family tradition also, one of Dr. Gaynor’s ancestors fought under King James at the ill-fated battle of the Boyne, and was killed while defending the “Bridge of Slane.” His name, the same tradition says, was Thomas Gaynor. While on his father’s side Dr. Gaynor is thus descended from a liberty-loving race, on his mother’s side he is connected with that aristocratic class known in Ireland as “Castle Catholics.” His mother, who was born at Ferhill Castle, Blackwater, county Clare, was also closely allied by ties of blood to the famous fighting “Goughs of Clare,” whose name is historical through General Gough, of India fame. Dr. Gaynor is the eldest member of a family of twelve, eight of whom are still living. One of his brothers, the Rev. William C. Gaynor, is Roman Catholic pastor of Richmond, in Carleton county, New Brunswick. Father Gaynor is a writer of great power on theological questions, and is the author of “Papal Infallibility,” published in 1885, and of a Commentary in Latin on the Summa Theologica, of Thomas Aquinas, now in press in Paris. Another brother, P. A. Gaynor, is a member of a large lumbering house in Pennsylvania, and is now in the Redwood district of California, where he has established a branch firm. Dr. Gaynor was educated partly at St. Michael’s College, Chatham, and partly at St. Joseph’s College, Memramcook. In the former institution he studied mathematics and the exact sciences under the most distinguished teacher of his day in New Brunswick, Thomas Caulfield, M.A., of Trinity College, Dublin. His subsequent studies in logic and metaphysics were pursued at St. Joseph’s College, Memramcook. In this institution he taught the higher mathematics. It was here also that in 1877 he began the study of medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. H. E. Boissy, resident physician to St. Joseph’s, and leading medical practitioner among the Acadians of New Brunswick. From St. Joseph’s Dr. Gaynor went in 1878 to Buffalo, New York. There he attended the lectures in the medical department of Buffalo University. He followed also the different courses of the newly established College of Physicians and Surgeons in the same city. Graduating in 1881, after a four years’ course, he carried off the honours of his class, and was immediately offered the chair of chemistry and toxicology in his alma mater. This honourable position he declined at the insistance of his friends in New Brunswick, and immediately returned to his native province. Shortly after his return he read by invitation a paper on “Chloroform as an Anæsthetic,” before the Medical Society of New Brunswick. Establishing himself at DeBec, Carleton county, he soon acquired a lucrative practice. It was here that for the first time in the history of medicine in New Brunswick nitro-glycerine was employed, by Dr. Gaynor, for remedial purposes. Finding that his sphere of labour was too circumscribed, and desirous of entering into a larger field, Dr. Gaynor removed, in 1884, to St. John city, where he has since resided. On February 20, 1884, he was united in the bonds of holy wedlock to Nora Costigan, of St. John, a relative of the Hon. John Costigan, Minister of Inland Revenue. By her he has three children—Walter and Frederick, born February 16, 1885, and James, born August 28, 1886. During his vacations, while yet a medical student, Dr. Gaynor travelled extensively through the Northern, Western, and Middle states, spending some time in the Oil regions of Pennsylvania, and at the watering places on the Atlantic coast. In politics he is a Liberal-Conservative, with no love, however, for toryism as it exists in the mother country. The descendant of a family that fought and bled for human liberty, he is naturally a liberal in sentiment and aspiration. It is his belief, however, that so far as principles are concerned, there is no essential difference between the Conservative party led by Sir John Macdonald and the Liberal party led by Edward Blake. It is tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee; and in the end the people always rule. Such being his opinion of the two great political parties into which the Canadian people are divided, Dr. Gaynor has pronounced views as to the position which his Irish Catholic co-religionists should take in dominion politics. They should, he believes, adopt Parnell’s famous motto, Support the party which does the most for you. They would thus as a body be bound to neither political party, and would gravitate from one to the other consistently with the fair or unfair, just or unjust, treatment they might receive from either party. Outside his native province Dr. Gaynor is best known as a writer on materia medica. He has made a specialty of the study of new drugs; and his articles in the “Investigator”—a medical monthly of Buffalo—on this and kindred subjects, have attracted unusual attention from the medical profession in America. He also wrote and published in the same journal a series of articles in explanation and defence of the Catholic doctrine on craniotomy. In those articles he triumphantly refuted all the objections brought forward by his adversaries, and abundantly proved, in defence of the Catholic position, that the rational soul animates the human fœtus from the very first moment of conception, and that consequently it is as great a violation of divine law to destroy the living embryo as it would be to murder the new-born child. Dr. Gaynor’s views of medical practice are wide and comprehensive. His motto as regards remedial agents is:

“Seek the best where’er ’tis found,

On Christian earth or pagan ground.”

Yet he is not an eclectic in the narrow sense of the word, which is now practically synonymous with homœopath. A thorough knowledge of anatomy, a complete acquaintance with the physiological effect of every drug or remedy, a no less complete acquaintance with pathology, and a virility of character sufficient to elevate the mind above the crude ideas of past generations, whether sanctioned by usage or made sacred by great names, must in future, he contends, be characteristics of the successful medical practitioner. A determined opponent of everything irrational or unintelligent in medicine, Dr. Gaynor has ever raised his voice against that hit-or-miss method, facetiously yet correctly styled “shot-gun practice,” which combines, for example, in one prescription three, four, or six different remedies, with the hope that if one misses some of the others will touch the target. He is, by consequence, a strong believer in the single remedy in every prescription. Dr. Gaynor is also a specialist in gynecology, his practice in St. John being almost limited to this department of his profession. He resides at number 2 Germain street.

de Martigny, Adelard Le Moyne, Notary and Cashier of La Banque Jacques Cartier, Montreal, was born at Varennes, on the 25th of December, 1826. He is the son of Jacques Le Moyne de Martigny, seigneur of de Martigny, St. Michel and La Trinité, and of Dame Suzanne Eléonore Perrault, daughter of the late François Perrault, prothonotary of the Superior Court at Quebec. Mr. de Martigny is descended from that distinguished family of Le Moyne, who arrived in this country in 1611, of whom were the de Longueuil, de Ste. Hélene, d’Iberville, de Bienville, de Chateauguay, de Sévigny, and de Maricourt; one of his ancestors, J. B. Le Moyne de Martigny, was at the capture of Fort Bourbon by d’Iberville, and was left there as commander of that fort. Having terminated his classical studies at the Montreal College, under the gentlemen of the Seminary of St. Sulpice, he studied law under J. N. A. Archambault, notary, at Varennes, and was admitted to practice in January, 1848. In August, 1856, he was appointed registrar of the county of Beauharnois; and in 1871 manager of the branch of the Merchants Bank of Canada, established in the town of Beauharnois. He, however, resigned these different positions to accept the one as manager of Le Crédit Foncier du Bas Canada in 1875; and finally he was offered the position of cashier of La Banque Jacques Cartier in Montreal in 1877, which he accepted and still occupies. He is one of the executors of the estate of the late Hon. Charles Wilson. Mr. de Martigny is one of the owners of a large asbestos estate in Coleraine, Megantic county, and one of the proprietors of a pulp and paper mill in Sorel, and was president of the Joliette Railroad Company at the time of the sale of that road to the government. In 1855 he married Aglaé Globensky, daughter of Lieut.-Colonel Globensky, one of the officers under Colonel de Salaberry, at the battle of Chateauguay. He has four sons by this marriage, one of them, the oldest, Louis Le Moyne de Martigny, is manager of the Jacques Cartier Bank at Salaberry de Valleyfield. He was married again to his first cousin, Marie Malvina Le Moyne de Martigny, daughter of Hugues Le Moyne de Martigny, seigneur of de Ramezay and Bourgchemin.

Rogers, Henry Cassady, Postmaster, Peterboro’, Ontario, was born at Grafton, Northumberland county, Ontario, on the 16th of July, 1839. He is the second son of the late Lieut.-Col. James G. Rogers and his first wife, Maria Burnham. His father died at his residence in Grafton on the 27th of November, 1874, in his seventieth year, greatly regretted by all who knew him. He (J. G. Rogers) came to Grafton with his parents from the village of Brighton, his birthplace, when he was only five years of age, and his life was spent amidst a people many of whom were the contemporaries of his youth. He was an upright magistrate and a sincere Christian. His grandfather, David McGregor Rogers, was a U. E. loyalist, who came to this country from New England with the first loyalists after the termination of the revolutionary war in 1776. He settled first on the Bay of Quinté, afterwards moving to Presqu’Isle, and finally to the township of Haldimand (now the village of Grafton), where he opened the first post-office between Kingston and York (now Toronto), and where three generations of the family have been born. The homestead is now occupied by his brother, Lieut.-Col. R. Z. Rogers, commanding the 40th battalion. He (D. McG. Rogers) was for twenty-four years a member of the Upper Canada legislature; and died on the 13th July, 1824, in the fifty-third year of his age. In his political opinions he was a warm admirer of the British constitution, and during the time he sat in the legislature no member guarded the rights and interests of the people more zealously than he did. His great-granduncle was the famous Col. Rogers of “Roger’s Rangers,” who was a man of note during the last century,—best known as Major Rogers. He first became famous as a scout in the Indian troubles. His exploits furnished Fenimore Cooper with the ground-work of his tales of the “Leather-stocking,” and “Horrors of the Backwoods.” He was commissioned to raise and organize a regiment of scouts during the French war. This corps rendered valuable service at the taking of Canada from the French, and on its surrender Rogers was entrusted by the commander-in-chief with the arduous duty of proceeding west from Montreal, and taking possession in the name of the king of Great Britain, of the country including forts Frontenac (Kingston), Niagara, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Mackinaw, etc., as far as the Mississippi in the west and Lake Superior north. He had therefore the honour of commanding the first British expedition that passed through the great chain of lakes, interesting accounts of which may be found in his “Journal,” published in London, England, in 1765; “Heely’s Wolfe in Canada,” “Parkman’s Conspiracy of Pontiac,” chap. vi.; and many others. The Rangers were re-organized on the breaking out of the rebellion in 1765, by a brother of the first commanding officer Colonel James Rogers who was the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, commanded at St. John’s, Quebec (the key of Canada as it was then called), and were called the “Queen’s Rangers,” but many of the leading spirits joined the rebels, among others Putnam and Stark, who were lieutenants in the Rangers, and who became celebrated generals in the American army. Great inducements were offered the Rogers to join Washington, but they remained staunch to the Crown, for which they not only lost their homes and possessions (some 30,000 acres of land in New England), but had their good name calumniated, being called traitors and spies by the partisan press of the revolutionists. The mother of H. C. Rogers was third daughter of the late Hon. Zaccheus Burnham, of Cobourg, who came to Cobourg with his four brothers from New Hampshire at the end of the last century, and who carved out homes and affluence from the forest, and left a large circle of descendants who are filling many positions of trust and honour throughout the Dominion. Henry Cassady Rogers, the subject of our sketch, received his primary education in the public school at Grafton; then when twelve years of age he was sent to the Model School at Toronto, and finally to the Grammar School at Kingston where he graduated. He then apprenticed himself to his uncle, the late Lieut.-Colonel R. D. Rogers, of Ashburnham, who learned him how to conduct a commercial business, and with this uncle he remained from 1855 to 1860. He then went into business in Peterboro’ with his brother-in-law, Harry Strickland, son of Colonel Strickland, of Lakefield, and for ten years they carried on a successful mercantile lumbering and mining business under the name of Strickland & Rogers. In 1871 Mr. Rogers retired from the firm and was made postmaster of Peterboro’, which office he now fills with satisfaction to the public. Mr. Rogers has inherited from his illustrious ancestors a love of military life, and when only sixteen years of age, on the Rifle company being formed at Peterboro’ in 1855, he joined that corps; and in 1866, on the promotion of Captain Poole, he was given command of the company, and acted as its captain during the various Fenian raids of that period. In 1867, when the 57th battalion was formed, he and his companions became No. 1 company of the battalion. In this connection, we may here say, that his brother, Lieut.-Colonel Robert Z. Rogers, commands the 40th (Northumberland) battalion; and his cousin, Lieut.-Colonel James Z. Rogers, the 57th battalion Peterboro’ Rangers. In 1872 he raised and commanded the Peterboro’ Cavalry troop, which now forms C troop of the 3rd Prince of Wales Canadian Dragoons. Mr. Rogers is an active member of the Masonic brotherhood, and belongs to Corinthian lodge, No. 101, Peterboro’. He crossed the Atlantic in 1862, and made himself familiar with many cities of the old world. In politics he is a Liberal-Conservative; and in religious matters he is an adherent of the Episcopal church. In 1863 he was married at Smith’s Falls, to Maria, eldest daughter of Dr. W. H. Burritt, a scion of an old U. E. loyalist family of the Rideau, who settled at Burritt’s Rapids many years ago.

Wilson, J. C., M.P. for Argenteuil, Manufacturer, Montreal, was born on the 19th of July, 1841, near Rasharkin, county of Antrim, Ireland, and came to Montreal with his parents in September, 1842, and near this city the family settled. His father, Samuel Wilson, belonged to a numerous family of farmers and artisans in Antrim county; and his mother, Elizabeth Crocket, was descended from similar stock. Her forefathers were of a roving disposition, and their descendants are scattered all over the British colonies. Both Mr. Wilson’s parents were religious people, and held a prominent position in the church. His mother died at an early age from the excessive hardships she had to endure in the vicinity of Montreal, as a pioneer settler. His father, as a youth, received no training as an artisan, yet having a natural talent for using tools, he adopted the trade of carpenter, and in a very few years thereafter became an expert mechanic. He designed and made the first railway snow-plough used in Canada, and from his model the plough now used is still made. He entered the employ of the Grand Trunk Railway Company, and up to the time of his death was engaged by that company in building their cars. He was a very industrious man, and in the evenings, after leaving his usual work, frequently spent hours in his own workshop in his house at his lathe and bench, making furniture for himself and his neighbours. James, the subject of this sketch, was educated by an old-fashioned schoolmaster in the rudiments of learning, and had to work for a living at a very early age. He was apprenticed to mechanical engineering in 1853, and until 1856 he worked at his trade, when, having met with an accident that injured his right arm, he had to give up the trade of a mechanical engineer. Mr. Wilson now shows with pride some fine machinist’s tools he made when he was an apprentice. On recovering from his injuries, a kind friend observing the talents and perseverance of the lad, sent him to the Model School, and from there to the McGill Normal School in Montreal, and in July, 1859, he graduated as a teacher. In 1859 he removed to Beauharnois, and taught the dissentient school in that town until 1862, when he moved west to Belleville, where he clerked until December of that year, when he moved to Toronto, and accepted the position of clerk in the office of a wholesale news company. In 1863 he went to New York, and from November of that year until January, 1867, he had the management of the publishing house of T. W. Strong, of that city, and through his perseverance and industry gained the highest rung of the ladder of fortune in Mr. Strong’s establishment. While Mr. Wilson resided in New York he was a great favourite among the Canadians visiting there, and helped many of them when they were in need. A deep-seated love for Canada, and a special inducement brought him again back to Montreal in January, 1867, and he at once assumed the position of cashier and bookkeeper in the office of Angus, Logan & Co., paper manufacturers (now the Canada Paper Co.) He remained with this firm until September, 1870, when he went into business on his own account. He began the manufacture of paper bags by machinery, and was the first in Canada to supply the grocers all over the Dominion with this very useful article. This proving, by energy and ability, a prosperous business, in 1880 he built a large paper mill at Lachute, province of Quebec, and in 1885 had to double its power so as to be able to make six tons of paper per day. In 1880 Mr. Wilson was elected an alderman for the city of Montreal, and was again returned by acclamation in 1883. For six years he represented St. Lawrence ward in the city council, and for four years was chairman of the light committee. He was president of the Fish and Game Protection Club of the province of Quebec for two years; president of the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society for two years; and has occupied the principal chairs in several other societies in Montreal. Mr. Wilson is a life governor and vice-president of the Montreal Dispensary; a governor of the Protestant Insane Asylums of the province of Quebec; one of the board of Protestant School Commissioners of Montreal; principal and head of the firm of J. C. Wilson & Co., paper and paper-bag makers, Montreal; and at the general elections held February 22, 1887, he was elected to represent the county of Argenteuil, province of Quebec, in the House of Commons at Ottawa. Mr. Wilson is an ardent fisherman, fond of lakes and brooks, and never hesitates to drive thirty or forty miles over a rough road to enjoy a few hours’ trout-fishing, and thoroughly enjoys camp life. In business he is active, pushing, hard-working, and far-seeing in his plans, and never puts off until to-morrow what can be done to-day. With his employees he is a favourite, and is looked upon by them as most generous and kind. Mr. Wilson has adopted as his motto, “It pays to think.” In politics he is a Liberal-Conservative, and in religion an adherent of the Presbyterian form of worship. On the 6th of November, 1865, he married Jeanie, third daughter of the late William Kilgour, of Beauharnois, province of Quebec, and has a family of five children—three sons and two daughters.

Wedderburn, Hon. William, Q.C., Hampton, Judge of the County Courts of Kings and Albert counties, New Brunswick, was born at St. John, October 12, 1834. He is a son of the late Alexander Wedderburn, of Aberdeen, Scotland. Imperial emigration agent at St. John, New Brunswick, and Jane Heaviside, of London, England. His father was the author of several pamphlets and letters on important public affairs. Judge Wedderburn was educated at the St. John Grammar School, and entered as a student for the profession of the law in the office of the Hon. John H. Gray, (now judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia); was called to the bar in 1858, and created a Queen’s counsel in 1873. Until he entered political life he enjoyed a very large and leading law practice. For several years he was intimately connected with the press as a contributor and editor, and in both capacities, as well as on the platform, took a very prominent and pronounced stand in favour of the confederation of the provinces. At the general elections of 1870 he first presented himself for parliamentary honours, and was returned for the city of St. John to the New Brunswick legislature. In 1874 he was re-elected by a very large vote; and again in 1878 he was honoured by re-election. While in parliament he took a very prominent part in the discussions before the house, and was the author and promoter of a series of resolutions in favour of “better terms” for New Brunswick, and was afterwards delegated on several occasions to go to Ottawa on this subject. The result of the agitation was a very large increase to the income of the province, secured with other advantages when the delegates pressed the matter finally and with effect upon the settlement of the export duty question during the discussion of the Washington treaty. Mr. Wedderburn was also the author and mover of the famous resolutions—known and published throughout the election as the “Wedderburn resolutions”—on which the School bill contest in 1874 was conducted, re-affirming the principle of the School law, and protesting against any interference by the parliament of Canada on the subject. Very many laws were added to the Statute Book upon his motion. On February 18, 1876, he was elected speaker of the House of Assembly by acclamation, and while holding this office he was requested to report a code of laws for the government of the house during business and in committee. The rules at this time were very few and incomplete, and quite behind the age. At the following session he reported to the house. Taking the practice of the Imperial and Canadian Houses of Commons, and the rules of parliament, and of the different legislatures of the provinces,—the report provided a full and complete course of procedure. After full discussion during that and the following session the whole of the rules were adopted with very little, if any, material amendment. The committee reported a grant of five hundred dollars to the speaker for his work—which had, of course, been prepared without charge. Mr. Wedderburn ranked high as a parliamentary authority, and is thought not to have been excelled in the chair. At the close of the term of the Assembly, the leader of the opposition, in a very complimentary speech, moved the thanks of the House to Mr. Speaker for his ability, etc., in the government of the house. The premier (now Judge King) seconded the motion, and highly eulogized the Speaker, and concluded by saying that “if he (Mr. Wedderburn) had not been so good a Speaker, he (Mr. King) would have been a better parliamentarian.” Immediately after this, Hon. Mr. Wedderburn was appointed to the office of provincial secretary, and this office he held until he accepted the position of judge of the County Courts of Kings and Albert. He twice refused a seat in the government of 1870, and the appointment of commissioner to consolidate the provincial statutes. He has been prominently identified with the temperance movement, and has filled various important positions in this army of moral reform, among others that of grand worthy patriarch of the Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance of New Brunswick. He was president of the Mechanics’ Institute of St. John for three years consecutively, 1869-72, as well as holding other offices in the institute. He was first president of the Provincial Board of Agriculture, created by a law passed by the government of which he was a member, and the address delivered by him at the inauguration of the board was greatly complimented, and published or largely quoted in English and French throughout Canada and in the United states. And it was largely through his means that the stock farm was undertaken by the government. Hon. Mr. Wedderburn has been speaker, orator, and lecturer on many important public and private occasions, commanding the close attention of his auditors at all times by his eloquent, powerful and ornate deliverances. Among his efforts in this direction may be mentioned his address at the memorial services held in the city of St. John for President Lincoln; his oration as provincial secretary at the memorial services of President Garfield; at the laying the corner stone of the Masonic Temple in St. John; at the ceremonial in celebration of the Centennial of the introduction of Freemasonry into New Brunswick; his great lecture on “Colin Campbell,” in the Mechanics’ Institute, on behalf of the volunteers during the Fenian troubles; and his brilliant oration, delivered by request of the city corporation of St. John, upon the Centennial celebration of the landing of the loyalists in New Brunswick. Many others might be mentioned. Judge Wedderburn has always been prominently identified with the fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons. He was initiated in St. John’s lodge, of St. John, June 19, 1857, and was senior warden in 1860, and worshipful master in 1862 and 1863. The capitular degrees were received in the New Brunswick Royal Arch Chapter. He was the first of, and the most prominent among, those who advocated the erection of an independent Grand Lodge in and for New Brunswick; promoting the movement by his voice and pen, particularly by the latter in the columns of the Masonic Mirror, the organ of the order, and of which he was the editor. At the formation of the Grand Lodge, October, 1867, he was unanimously elected deputy grand master, in which position he continued up to 1870, when he was elected grand master, and occupied the latter office for two years. Although the removal of his residence to his villa at Hampton, Kings county, and the prosecution of his judicial functions have drawn him away from active participation in the work of the craft, nevertheless he continues to retain his membership in the lodge, and to preserve a warm interest in the prosperity of the brotherhood. The editor of the Parliamentary Practice thus refers to him when he was provincial secretary:—“Upon the floor of the House he was a leading spirit; eloquent and argumentative, a keen debater, and a master of sarcasm.” Judge Wedderburn is married to Jeannie, daughter of the late C. C. Vaughan, of St. John, New Brunswick.

Steeves, James Thomas, M.D., Superintendent of the Provincial Lunatic Asylum, St. John, New Brunswick, was born at Hillsborough, Albert county, N.B., on the 25th of January, 1828. He is a brother of the late Hon. W. H. Steeves, senator, and one of the delegates or founders of Canadian confederation; and is of German ancestry. His great-grandfather was born in Osnaburgh, Germany, whence he removed to Philadelphia, and his grandfather, the Rev. Henry Steeves, removed thence to Albert county, N.B., about the beginning of the present century. Dr. Steeves is a Baptist in religion, as all his fathers were; in fact “his fathers” were the pioneers in disseminating Baptist doctrines over a large portion of the province. His literary education was obtained at the Grammar School at Hillsborough, at Sackville Academy, and finally at the Baptist Seminary, Fredericton, under the late Dr. Spurden. After the completion of his literary course, he entered upon the study of medicine at the Pennsylvania Medical College,—attracted by the famous surgeon, Valentine Mott,—the following year he matriculated at the University of New York, and graduated in the class of 1853. From the medical faculty of the university he received a certificate of honour for proficiency and for having pursued a more extended course of instruction than that required by the college curriculum. In June, 1854, the doctor established himself in Portland, St. John, N.B., and entered upon the practice of his profession. After the lapse of a few weeks Asiatic cholera made its appearance there in all its terribleness, spreading dismay and death on every hand. During the prevalence of this fearful scourge, extending over a period upwards of four months, Dr. Steeves, by his unswerving fidelity to his professional duties under every circumstance, and his good measure of success, fairly placed himself among the leading physicians of New Brunswick. In 1864 he removed to the city of St. John and erected the fine block of four brick and stone buildings situated on the corner of Wellington Row and Union street, which escaped the great fire of 1877, and still stand as a monument to his success and enterprise, and where he resided until 1875. On the opening of the General Public Hospital in 1864, the doctor was appointed upon the staff of visiting surgeons, and was the last of the original staff retiring. When the late Dr. J. Waddell was about retiring from the superintendency of the Provincial Lunatic Asylum, Dr. Steeves was recommended by his professional brethren almost as a body, as a suitable successor for the position. Under the management of Dr. Waddell the asylum for the insane had attained a high position for successful work; and since under the present administration it has not lost a whit, but has kept fully abreast with the various modern improvements incident to asylum treatment everywhere. Dr. Steeves is a strong advocate for segregation, pavilion accommodation, and employment for the insane. By means of his advocacy with pen and voice, he has induced the government of New Brunswick to purchase a large farm, and to erect thereon a group of pavilions for the care and employment of a suitable number and class of the most healthy, indigent and pauper insane. The establishment is in full working condition, and is regarded as a complete success, in that it is far better than the old hospital system for this class of patients, giving them more freedom and out-door work, and that it is far more economical both in buildings and maintenance. Dr. Steeves was elected a member of the first medical council of New Brunswick on the introduction of the English Medical Registration Act in 1860. He has occupied the position of vice-president of the Canada Medical Association; he is an honorary member of the American Medical Association; he was elected unanimously first president of the New Brunswick Medical Society under the New Brunswick Medical Act of 1880; and is past president of the New Brunswick Medical Council. The Dr. was married to M. A. McMann, daughter of the late Captain L. McMann, of the city of St. John, in May, 1856; by whom he had born nine children. The eldest son, Frank H. Steeves, M.D., a very promising young man, graduated in medicine at Bellevue Hospital College, N.Y., and soon after went to St. Thomas Hospital College, London, England, in 1880, to further pursue medical studies. There he contracted acute phthisis, to which disease he succumbed in March, 1882. The second son, J. A. E. Steeves, A.M., M.D., is the assistant physician in the Provincial Lunatic Asylum, St. John, at the present time.

Van Wyck, Rev. James, Pastor of the Euclid Avenue Methodist Church, Toronto, was born in Stamford village, in the county of Welland, Ontario, on the 16th of May, 1846. He is descended on his father’s side from an old Dutch family, who many centuries ago were seigniors of Wyck in Holland, but through political intrigue lost their feudal rights. The first Van Wyck in America emigrated from Holland in 1660, and he and his son Theodoras took the oath of allegiance to the British government in 1681. Since then the family has multiplied considerably, and is now scattered throughout the United States, many of them filling important positions, both in church and state. Rev. Mr. Van Wyck’s grandfather was the only one of this name who came to Canada, to make for himself a home, and he settled in the Niagara peninsula, where Daniel Van Wyck, the father of the subject of our sketch, was born, on the 7th of October, 1812, his mother being Nancy Kilman. Daniel Van Wyck was a farmer, a man of good judgment and sterling integrity, and was invariably sought after in cases of arbitration. During the Mackenzie rebellion, he stood by the “old flag.” He took a deep interest in education—filling the position of school trustee for many years, and was an ardent supporter of free schools. In politics he was a Conservative. James Van Wyck, like a great many boys in their days, had to help his father on the farm or in the workshop, and got very little time to attend the public school after he was ten years of age, except a few months in winter, and not even that after he was fifteen years of age. Misfortune had befallen his father, and the son worked hard to help him to regain his former position. When he had reached his nineteenth year, having despaired of getting what his mind craved after, an education, he apprenticed himself to an elder brother in the town of Welland, to learn the carpenter trade, and having served the usual time, he left Welland and went to Lockport, New York state, where he remained for about eighteen months. During these years he had been improving his mind, and had united himself with the Methodist Episcopal church. On his return to Canada in 1869, he entered the ministry of that church, and after preaching four years, and pursuing the required course of study, he was ordained to the work of the ministry in 1873, by the late Bishop Richardson. In the fall of that year he entered Albert College, Belleville, where he remained for four years, and graduated in arts in June, 1878. He was also valedictorian of the year, besides receiving the silver medal. He was then invited to a church in Strathroy, where he remained for nearly five years by special request (it being a privilege at that time to those who were preferred). Next he went to Hamilton, where he remained for three years, and in 1886 he was invited to take charge of the church in Euclid avenue, in Toronto, the pastorate he now fills, with honour to the Master and satisfaction to his people. Rev. Mr. Van Wyck has always taken an active part in temperance work, and from 1879 to 1882 occupied the office of president of the branch of the Dominion Alliance, for the suppression of the liquor traffic in the county of Middlesex. He is a member of the Independent Order of Oddfellows, and he has also been connected with the Sons of Temperance, and the Good Templars for a number of years. He is one of the board of management of Alma College, St. Thomas, and also one of its board of examiners. He occupied a seat on the board of examiners of the Albert College, Belleville, from 1878 up to the time of the union of the Methodist churches a few years ago. He has also been associated with the board of examiners in the Annual Conference of the Methodist church since 1878. Rev. Mr. Van Wyck has been repeatedly appointed a delegate to the General Conference of the Methodist church, and when the question of union was discussed, he supported the union with all his ability. He has been very happy in his church relations, and in all his charges has enjoyed great prosperity. In his earlier years, Mr. Van Wyck was somewhat prejudiced in favour of the denomination in which he was brought up, and thought John Wesley infallible, but Ephraim has now somewhat modified his views. Although he is a firm Arminian, and believes in the genuineness, authority and inspired character of the divine revelation contained in the Bible, yet he sometimes wishes that the creeds of the Evangelical church had more specified articles of faith in them, and that they were more liberally interpreted. He was married on the 24th of August, 1866, to Maria Fares, who was educated in Toronto and Belleville, and is a daughter of Isaac Fares, of Humberstone, Welland county, Ontario.

Bronson, Erskine Henry, M.P.P., for the city of Ottawa, was born on the 12th of September, 1844, at Bolton, Warren county, New York state. He is a son of Henry Franklin Bronson, and Edith E. Pierce, of Bolton, and a member of the firm of Bronsons & Weston, lumber manufacturers, Ottawa city. Mr. Bronson, senr., came to Canada in 1849, when Erskine was a mere child, and visiting the Ottawa valley became greatly impressed with the idea that the Chaudière Falls was a splendid place to begin lumbering operations. The timber supply in the neighbourhood seemed inexhaustible, and the water power magnificent. After a short stay, however, he returned to his home in the state of New York, and thought little more of the matter until 1852, when he persuaded J. J. Harris, an extensive lumberman, with whom he was associated, to go with him to Ottawa. Arrived at their destination, the river experts tried to persuade them that the Ottawa river was not suitable for the safe driving of saw logs. But Mr. Bronson thought differently, and persuaded Mr. Harris to purchase certain water lots at the Chaudière Falls, which he accordingly did, from the Crown, and here, under the personal superintendence of Mr. Bronson, were erected mills, portions of which still exist and form part of the splendid works since erected by Bronsons & Weston. Shortly after the erection of the first mill, Mr. Bronson removed his family to Canada, in the fall of 1853, and made his permanent home at Ottawa. Erskine was brought up here, and received his education in the best schools in the place, and at Sandy Hill, New York state. After finishing his education, he took a position in the business; and in 1864, on the retirement of Mr. Harris, he was admitted a partner into the new firm, which was then established, and which consisted of Henry Franklin Bronson, who with Mr. Harris originated the business, Erskine H. Bronson and Abijah Weston, of Painted Post, New York, and which has since traded under the name of Bronsons & Weston. This firm owns two mills at Ottawa, running ten gates, with a capacity of producing 60,000,000 feet of lumber during the season. They have also close business relations with John W. Dunham, of Albany, New York, and Herman K. Weaver, of Burlington, Vt., and have also a yard in Albany, for the sale of lumber in the rough. Though in the building up of this great concern, the Liberal member for Ottawa has played no inconsiderable part, he has also done something to prove himself a good and useful citizen. He has been a member of the School Board for the last fourteen years, during the past four years of which he has been chairman of the committee on school management. He was first elected to the city council by acclamation in 1871, and served continuously until the close of 1877. During the last year he was in the council he prepared the act consolidating the city debt, and secured its passage in the Ontario Legislature in the session of 1878. This act relieved the city by the extension of the time of the payment of its bonds of a large annual levy for a sinking fund, and fixed the maximum of taxation at one and a half per cent., instead of two per cent. as before, under the general municipal law. Mr. Bronson in politics is a Reformer, and in religious matters an adherent of the Presbyterian church. He is one of our rising men, and we feel that Ottawa in electing him as one of its representatives in the Ontario Legislature, has done something that shall redound to its credit. Mr. Bronson was married in 1874, to Miss Webster, the only daughter of Professor Webster, a Southern gentleman, at one time a resident of the capital, by whom he has two children.

McPherson, R. B., Thorold, Ontario, was born in 1817, in Kingussie, Inverness-shire, Scotland. His father was a merchant; and having a family of twelve children, he considered it would be to their interest if he emigrated to Canada. He therefore left his native country in 1822, and located himself in Glengarry, about twenty miles east by north of Cornwall. Here R. B. McPherson was brought up, and received the very scant education given in the back township schools in those days, the principal being the reading of the Bible and the committing to memory the Shorter Catechism and the Paraphrases. At the age of thirteen he left home, and found employment in a country store, the proprietor of which was in the habit of purchasing timber for the Quebec market. Here Mr. McPherson remained for some time, and frequently had to act in the capacity of raftsman, and help bring his employer’s timber down to Quebec. He often ran the risk of losing his life in the St. Lawrence river rapids before the rafts were safely anchored in the timber coves at Quebec. During the rebellion of 1837-8, Mr. McPherson took sides with the loyalists, and had command at one time of a guard at the river Beaudette bridge near Coteau Rapids, Province of Quebec, whose duty it was to intercept rebels coming or going over it, more especially the late Sir George E. Cartier, for whose head a large sum of money had been offered, and who it was thought would endeavour to escape across the St. Lawrence at this point. In 1840 Mr. McPherson left Lower Canada and came to Toronto, where he remained a short time, and then crossed over to Rochester. From this place he travelled through the Genesee country to Buffalo and the Falls of Niagara, and when at the latter point, he saw Mr. McLeod, of Caroline steamer notoriety, a prisoner, surrounded by a strong guard at the hotel. He again returned to Canada, and found employment near the town of Simcoe. In this place he remained for a short time, and then left for New York, intending to sail from that port to Buenos Ayres, South America, and try his fortune there. On his arrival at New York, he learned that Buenos Ayres was blockaded by a French squadron, and being advised to abandon his southern trip, he remained in New York until his means were exhausted, and then, in the month of January, he left with the idea of tramping his way to New Orleans by way of the Mississippi. On his route he passed through Philadelphia and Baltimore. At Baltimore he took the turnpike road to Pittsburg, but after a while got so tired and footsore with travelling in the snow that he turned off the main road, and took the road right across the state of Pennsylvania through the coal mines, making his way towards Lake Erie. When he reached the Alleghany river he followed its course for a long distance, and then struck off to Jamestown, just then starting into existence, and then on to Buffalo. From this point he walked across Lake Erie on the ice to Port Colborne and then on to St. Catharines. Here he found employment as bookkeeper, paymaster, etc., in the office of Thompson, Haggert & Burford, contractors engaged in building the Welland canal. Frank Smith (now senator) was at this date employed by this former firm and was in charge of a store that shipped goods to the labourers’ employers on the works. After the completion of this famous Welland canal contract Mr. McPherson went to Toronto, and meeting a Mr. Logan, a then prominent merchant in that city, who controlled about a dozen stores in various country parts north and east of Toronto, he entered into an engagement with him to take charge of a store at Oshawa; and while here Mr. Logan’s storekeeper in the village of Markham was murdered (the murderer being afterwards executed in Toronto), and Mr. McPherson was transferred to that village leaving the employ of Mr. Logan, he went to the village of Bradford and took charge of a store for Mr. Cameron, son of the late Colin Cameron, of Hogshollow, Yonge street. In the spring of 1849 Mr. McPherson again got restless and left Bradford with the intention of going to California, but on his way, at Buffalo, he met the late Mr. Brown, who had a large contract in the Welland canal, and abandoning his California trip, he arranged with that gentleman to become his general manager, and once more returned to Canada. Mr. Brown was a large contractor, and shortly after Mr. McPherson joined him, he secured a contract amounting to about two million dollars on the new canal; but before he had half completed the work, he met with an accident which caused his death. Dying without a will, Mr. Brown’s affairs were put into Chancery, and Mr. McPherson was appointed administrator of the estate. He went to work and completed Mr. Brown’s contracts. When the estate was wound up, it was found that Mr. McPherson had faithfully done his duty, and that the sum of six hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars had been realized for Mr. Brown’s heirs. In 1869 Mr. McPherson built a grist flouring mill, and another in 1878, to supply flour, etc., to the men building the canal, both ventures turning out fairly. From 1856 to 1862 he was a member of the town council, and for two years a member of the county council, and when acting as county councillor he had the pleasure of taking part in the reception given the Prince of Wales at Chippawa. Mr. McPherson was a Liberal in politics ever since he knew the meaning of the term, and always took a lively interest in political matters. In 1881, on the death of his wife, he took a tour through the Southern States, and in his rambles visited Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky, returning through some of the Northern States; and came to the wise conclusion that Ontario suited him best, and in this province he spent the remainder of his days. Although Mr. McPherson’s parents were, in the old country, Baptists, and in Canada attended the Presbyterian church, and were very strict observers of Sunday and all the doctrines held by that church, yet as a young man he began to wonder why God was so particular about Sunday. Being of an inquiring turn of mind and not afraid to think for himself, he began reading philosophical works, and works on the religions of antiquity, and comparing them with the writings of the Jews, he gradually relinquished the Christian dogmas, and became an Agnostic. Mr. McPherson was married in 1855, to Miss Secord, whose parents reside near St. David’s, a few miles from Queenston. Her grandmother gained considerable renown during the war of 1812, having walked from Queenston in the night through the enemy’s lines to give important information to the British general stationed about twenty miles west of that place. While on a visit to Buffalo, Mr. McPherson was suddenly taken ill, and died on the 1st December, 1886, in that city, aged sixty-nine years, leaving behind him an honourable record for integrity and usefulness.