Part 16

=Cluxton, William=, Peterboro’, Ontario, was born in Dundalk, county of Louth, Ireland, on the 31st of March, 1819. When but six years of age his father died, and six years later his mother was also removed by death. His education had been carefully looked after by his mother. On the break-up of the family, William, the subject of this sketch, went to reside with an uncle and aunt who was in business in Cootehill, Cavan county, and this worthy couple soon afterwards, having determined to improve their condition, emigrated to America, taking with them the orphan lad. Arrived in Canada, the family located themselves on a farm near the then small village of Peterboro’, but now one of the most thriving towns in the province. Here he soon discovered that nature never intended him to spend his life on a farm. Therefore, with the consent of his relatives—long deceased, and of whom he still speaks with the utmost affection—young as he was, and without a single cent in the world, he sought and obtained a very humble situation in the employment of the late John Hall, father of the late Judge Hall, who was then the leading merchant in the village; and in this place he remained for some time, gradually acquiring knowledge. In 1835, after having given the utmost satisfaction to all who had reposed trust in him, Mr. Cluxton accepted a position in the dry goods store of John R. Benson, and subsequently became the sole manager of his store on Aylmer street. Here, after business hours, he devoted himself so earnestly and labouriously to the cultivation of letters and of music, that he soon became remarkable for his attainments, especially in the latter. In 1836, such flattering offers had been made to him, that he was induced to leave Peterboro’ and take charge, in Port Hope, of the business of the late John Crawford, a wealthy and well-known merchant. In this place, however, from indisposition, being then only seventeen years of age, he remained but one month, and again returned to Peterboro’ to take sole charge of a branch of that gentleman’s business which had been established there, and that was not, it seemed, succeeding so well as desired. Here his management became so successful, that in three years he found himself the sole buyer for all of Mr. Crawford’s establishments, and this position he held until the death of that gentleman, when he was appointed by the trustees of the estate to wind up the business, which he did to their entire satisfaction. In 1842, and after some years of the most unwearied and honourable toil, Mr. Cluxton purchased a stock of general goods, and launched forth his bark in Peterboro’ on his own account. From that time to the present, his success has been of the most marked character, although it may be fairly supposed that he has met, like all others in business, with occasional reverses by the way. In 1872, considering his means sufficiently ample, he retired from the drygoods business. One of its branches established in Lindsay he disposed to a clerk, who had come to him a mere lad, but who now, under his strict and able training, has become one of the wealthiest and best business men in that town. To two of his sons and another clerk he sold the Peterboro’ establishment; but he continued his operations in produce, and of late years has only done sufficient to occupy his mind, so as to prevent the change from an active business life to one of leisure having an injurious effect. For thirty years or more he moved the principal part of the grain along the whole line of railway from Lindsay to Lake Ontario, his transactions amounting to half a million annually. In 1852 he became manager of the Peterboro’ branch of the Commercial Bank of Canada, which position he held for eight years, without having lost a single dollar to the institution, resigning it only because of its wear and tear, and because of his desire to visit Europe for the sake of his health—which visit he made in 1862, accompanied by his wife and a portion of his family. When he did withdraw from this post, however, the estimation in which he was held by the directors may be gathered from the fact that he was appointed confidential adviser to the new manager. Few men in Canada have ever held so many offices of important public trust as Mr. Cluxton, and no man in the whole Dominion can boast of a more honourable record or name. He was for years president of the Midland Railway Company, and has been president of the Marmora Mining Company, the Little Lake Cemetery Company, the Port Hope and Peterboro’ Gravel Road Company, and the Peterboro’ Water Works Company. He has in his time occupied seats in the town and in the county council, and is at present one of the commissioners of the town trust. He took a lively interest in the education of the young, and for twenty-five years was an active member of the school board. He is captain in the Sedentary militia, and in 1872 he was chosen to represent the people of West Peterboro’ in the House of Commons. Mr. Cluxton is a Liberal-Conservative in politics. In private life he is neither banker, merchant nor politician, but simply one of the great brotherhood of mankind, who makes common cause with his numerous tenants and his friends, as well as with the fatherless children and the widow.

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=Falconbridge, William Glenholme=, M.A., Q.C., Barrister, Toronto, was born on 12th May, 1846. He is the eldest son of John Kennedy Falconbridge, J.P., of Richmond Hill, in the county of York, a very well known and highly respected retired merchant, who for many years carried on a large and successful business in the counties of York and Simcoe. The subject of this sketch received his chief preliminary training at the Barrie Grammar School, and at the Model Grammar School for Upper Canada, and matriculated with a general proficiency scholarship in the University of Toronto in 1862. His course at the University was one of rather unusual distinction, inasmuch as there was hardly any department in the curriculum in which he did not at some period obtain first-class honours. After winning college prizes and university scholarships in each year, he graduated B.A. in 1866, with a gold medal. He then filled for a year the chair of professor of modern languages in Yarmouth College, N.S., and returned to Toronto on being appointed lecturer on Italian and Spanish in University College, which position he occupied for one year. In 1868, he commenced the study of law in the office of Patton, Osler and Moss, and was called to the bar in 1871. (While he was a student at law he entered the Military School, which was then established in Toronto, as a gentleman cadet, and in due course obtained his certificate of fitness for a captain’s commission in the active militia—under the instructions of the officers of Her Majesty’s 29th regiment of foot). On the 1st of July, 1871, the firm of Harrison, Osler and Moss was formed, the members of which were the late Chief Justices Harrison and Moss; the present Justice Osler, Charles Moss, Q.C., W. A. Foster, Q.C., and Mr. Falconbridge. He was examiner in the University of Toronto for several years, and was elected registrar in 1872, and held that office until 1881, when he resigned and was immediately elected by his fellow graduates a member of the senate of that institution, and again elected at the head of the poll in 1886. In 1885, he was elected a bencher of our only Inn of Court—the Law Society of Upper Canada,—and was re-elected at the general election in 1886, ranking No. six, out of the thirty successful candidates, those who received a larger number of votes being W. R. Meredith, Charles Moss, Dalton McCarthy, C. Robinson, and B. M. Britton. He was gazetted as one of Her Majesty’s counsel in 1885. Mr. Falconbridge is a pronounced and steadfast Conservative in politics, and has frequently been solicited to enter public life, particularly at the general elections for the House of Commons of the Dominion in February, 1887, when he was offered the nomination for Centre Toronto. His friends think that his abilities and personal qualities eminently fit him for the political arena, but he has hitherto felt obliged by the pressure of professional engagements to decline the honour. But he has never been chary of rendering gratuitous public services when called on to do so. He was a prominent member of the Citizens’ Committee appointed at the time of the terrible accident at the Humber, in January, 1884, when twenty-nine men were killed outright or died of their injuries, and fifteen were more or less injured, the other members of the Committee being the then mayor, A. R. Boswell, J. H. Morris, Q.C., T. McGaw, Jno. Livingstone, H. E. Clarke, M.P.P., and John Hallam. Largely through the intervention and efforts of these gentlemen, more than one hundred thousand dollars were received by way of compensation from the Grand Trunk Railway, and about fifteen thousand dollars collected from the general public. For their services in this connection, given ungrudgingly over a period of nearly two years, they were publicly thanked by resolution of the City Council. Mr. Falconbridge is now a member of the firms of Moss, Falconbridge and Barwick, and Moss, Hoyles and Aylesworth, a strong association, representing the survival of the numerous judicial appointments which have been made from their ranks. In religion he has always adhered to the Church of England, and has been for years an officer of the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society. He is a keen sportsman and a skilful and enthusiastic angler, and he is very popular within the circle of his acquaintance. In 1873, he married Mary, youngest daughter of the late Hon. Mr. Justice Sullivan, and step-daughter of the late Hon. Sir Francis Hincks, C.B., K.C.M.G., by whom he has issue one son and five daughters.

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=Sanderson, Rev. Dr. G. R.=, Pastor of the Methodist church, Sarnia. This worthy and greatly respected minister was born in the city of Kingston, in the year 1817, so that he is now seventy years of age. He is of English parentage. With his parents he attended the church of the Wesleyan Methodists in Kingston, and in the year 1834, through the ministry of the Rev. Dr. Stinson, was converted, and at once connected himself with the church. Having a fair English education, possessing a good voice, good judgment, and above all, a renewed heart, he was by the quarterly official board made a local preacher in connection with the Kingston circuit. Engaged in this relation and realizing his need of better qualification for the work, he entered the Upper Canada Academy, which formed the nucleus out of which Victoria University has risen, where he completed his education. He then left the college to enter the full work of the ministry. The late Rev. Dr. Carroll writes of him: “His going out as chairman’s supply, one year before his formal reception on trial, was at the conference of 1836, and his introduction into his ministerial work was under circumstances which entitle him to rank among the pioneer preachers. He was first sent to the extensive boundaries, miry roads and miasmatic atmosphere of the old Thames circuit; and received a fitting seasoning for its toils by a ride on horseback from Kingston to Chatham. In the course of this journey the writer first met and admired the pluck and heroism of the boy of twenty.” A list of the circuits on which Dr. Sanderson has travelled since entering the ministry will no doubt interest many readers. In 1837, he travelled the old Thames circuit, going thence to Newmarket, Grimsby and Hamilton respectively. In 1841 he was ordained and sent to Stamford, where he remained for two years, then to St. Catharines for two years, and thence to Toronto, where he was elected and ably performed the duties of editor of the _Christian Guardian_. Upon relinquishing the editorial chair, which position he held for five years, he was appointed to Cobourg for three years, during which period he was elected secretary of the conference, and was thence sent back to Toronto to take charge of the Methodist Book and Publishing House. From the successful discharge of these important interests of the church he came to the city of London, where he remained for three years. In the year 1861 he was elected representative from the Canadian Conference to the Wesleyan Conference of Great Britain. In 1860 he was elected chairman of the London district, which position he has held without a break on the several districts on which he has been placed from that period until the present. From London he went to the following places in order, remaining in each the full allotted time of three years: Port Hope, Picton, Belleville, Kingston, St. Catharines, London (Wellington street), London (Dundas street east), and Strathroy. In 1876 he was elected president of the Conference of the Methodist church of Canada, for which position his many years’ experience as chairman well qualified him. The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by his _alma mater_, Victoria University, in May, 1876. Victoria has never honoured a more worthy son, and Dr. Sanderson has always been a noble representative of the claims of this university upon the Methodist people of this dominion. Dr. Sanderson is a fine specimen of the Christian minister. During his long period of service there has been no time that he has been laid aside from work by illness, and no year that there has not been a revival of religion on his circuit. The statement may be ventured that Dr. Sanderson has been the instrument in God’s hands of winning more souls to Christ than any other minister in the regular work in the Methodist church. He is now the oldest man in the active work of the ministry, and at a conference lately held in St. Thomas, a testimonial in the shape of a purse of $120 was presented to him in honour of his advent upon the 50th year of his ministry. Dr. Sanderson as a preacher is at times eloquent, always practical and strictly evangelical. As a speaker he is chaste, polished and powerful, and when in debate he waxes warm with his theme he invariably carries his hearers with him. As a man he is sympathetic and tender and withal firm and unflinching in what he believes to be right. To quote Dr. Carroll again—“He has not been without difficult positions to keep, and has had his trials; yet he has proved faithful to his trust, and has usually triumphed. He is self-contained, manly and enduring, and has never failed in a connexional trust.”

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=Hunter, Rev. Samuel James=, D.D., Pastor of the Centenary Church, Hamilton, Ontario, one of the leading preachers in connection with the Methodist denomination, is a Canadian by birth, having been born in the village of Phillipsburg, province of Quebec, on the 12th April, 1843. He is of Irish parentage, his father and mother having been born and married in Strabane, county Tyrone. The subject of our sketch removed, with the other members of the family, to Upper Canada, and settled in East Gwillimbury, which was then almost a wilderness. He early developed an unconquerable thirst for knowledge, and when a mere lad had reached the limit of the common school teacher’s power to instruct. The few books in scanty libraries here and there amongst the neighbours were read with avidity and studied with care. The first money he ever earned was invested in three works that opened to him the vast world of thought, namely: Dick’s works, Rollin’s Ancient History, and a Latin grammar and reader combined. When seventeen years of age he was led into a religious experience through the ministry of the Methodist church, which he subsequently joined. At the age of eighteen he was received as a probationer for the ministry, and began his labours in the township of Walpole. Four years afterwards he was publicly ordained in London, Ontario. For many years he did the hard work of a Methodist preacher, and at the same time pursued secular study under private masters. His fields of labour have been—one year in Walpole, two in Oakville, two at Thornhill, one at Bowmanville, six in Montreal, twelve in Toronto (six of which were in Elm street, three in Queen street, and three in Sherbourne street Church). He is now completing his second year in Centenary Church, Hamilton, one of the largest and most important congregations in the Dominion. At the convocation of 1886 the Senate of Victoria University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Dr. Hunter, though a member of every general conference that has been held, has no taste for debate, and seldom enters the arena. He is regarded as orthodox in his teachings, but never takes things on trust merely. He thinks for himself, and never burkes his opinions, even when they seem to be out of harmony with the generally accepted creeds. He married, in 1871, Miss Ruston, of Montreal, and has a family of two children.

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=Mathison, George=, Senior Past Grand Worthy Patriarch of the Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance of the Province of Quebec, was one of the most energetic and enthusiastic temperance advocates in that section of our country. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 1st May, 1801, he received his education there, and after leaving school was apprenticed to the baking business. Having faithfully served the prescribed term, he worked for a short period as a journeyman, and wishing to see the world, enlisted in His Majesty’s 70th regiment of foot, and soon attained the position of colour-sergeant. Seeing the evil effects of drink on his comrades, he soon became convinced that a life of total abstinence was the safest and best for him to secure success in his profession, and accordingly adopted the principle. At that time very few had abandoned the entire use of intoxicating liquors as a drink, and those who had were looked upon with suspicion by the “moderate drinkers,” but his example soon began to tell upon his comrades, and many of them were induced to abandon liquor-drinking. In due course of time, with the permission of his commanding officer, he established a total abstinence society in the regiment. He soon afterwards attained to the rank of quarter-master-sergeant, and still continued to use his influence to further the good work he had begun. In the year 1842, having served his country for twenty-one years in Gibraltar, Malta, West Indies and Canada—proving the practicability of the principles of total abstinence in all these varied climes—he was discharged with a pension, and at the same time received a situation in the Commissariat department as keeper of the government woodyard in Quebec. This gave him greater opportunities to work in the temperance cause, and shortly afterward he and several other citizens started the first total abstinence society in that city, and it proved a great blessing to many. In October, 1850, having heard of the order of the Sons of Temperance, which was then making rapid strides in enrolling men in the total abstinence ranks, he and other members of the society secured a charter from the National Division, and Gough Division, No. 3, of Canada East, was organized. This division continued to prosper, and the order to increase in the province, when in January, 1852, the Grand Division of Canada East (now Quebec) was organized, Mr. Mathison being one of the charter members, and in October, 1854, he was elected its Grand Worthy Patriarch. In February, 1852, St. Lawrence Division was organized under very favourable auspices, and in the following year he left Gough Division and joined St. Lawrence, in the hope of extending his usefulness among the military men who had joined in large numbers the younger division. In June, 1867, he was initiated into the National Division of North America, at the session held at Providence, Rhode Island, and continued to attend the meetings of that body as opportunity offered, the last time being at the session held in Halifax, N.S., in 1884. In 1859 he was removed to Halifax to fill another position in the Commissariat department, and later on to Prince Edward Island. In each place he was well known as an enthusiastic worker in the cause of temperance, and other good works. In the year 1866, after serving twenty-four years in Her Majesty’s service, he was superannuated, with another pension, and took up his residence in the city of Quebec, and again associated himself with St. Lawrence Division, and continued to work persistently in the cause he had so much at heart up to the last month of his life, not only in connection with the order of the Sons of Temperance, but in the formation of Cadets of Temperance, Bands of Hope, and other kindred societies. He was ever ready to help, and very few of the youth of the city of Quebec have failed in being influenced to a certain extent by his efforts. He was a consistent member of the Methodist church for over fifty years, and for several years superintendent of the Sabbath school. The class meetings and prayer meetings were always faithfully attended by him and highly appreciated. He passed away after a few days’ illness on the 30th October, 1886, in the eighty-sixth year of his age and the sixtieth of his temperance work, deeply regretted by all his co-laborers in the church, as well as in the cause of total abstinence. George Mathison earned the benediction: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

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