Part 163
=Bowell, Hon. Mackenzie=, Minister of Customs of the Dominion of Canada, M.P. for North Hastings, Ontario, was born at Rickinghall, Suffolk, England, on the 27th December, 1823, and when about ten years of age accompanied his parents to Canada. Mr. Bowell, in early youth, exhibited much courage and enterprise, and one is not surprised to see what he has achieved when looking back at his career. He had a quick eye for business, and was seldom astray in judging what sort of enterprise was profitable, and what had better be avoided. He had also a military enthusiasm, and assisted in 1857, in raising and organizing a rifle company of sixty-five men, in what was known at that time as class B, to which no assistance was given by the government, beyond furnishing the rifles. He served on the frontier in the winter of 1864-5, during the American rebellion, and again during the Fenian troubles of 1866. He entered a printing office as an apprentice in 1834, and during his whole life up to the time when heavy political responsibilities fell upon his shoulders, he was connected with the newspaper press of Canada. He was editor and proprietor of the Belleville _Daily_ and _Weekly Intelligencer_ newspaper for a number of years, and at one time president of the Dominion Editors and Reporters’ Association. In education he has taken considerable interest, as is evidenced by the fact that he held for eleven years the chairmanship of the Board of School Trustees, of Belleville. He has always been a prominent Orangeman, and was for eight years grand master of the Provincial Orange Grand Lodge of Ontario East, which position he resigned, when in 1870 he was elected most worshipful grand master and sovereign of the Orange Association of British America. This office he continued to hold until he resigned in June, 1878. He was likewise president of the Triennial Council of Orangeism of the world, having been elected to that position at the council held in Derry, Ireland, in 1876. From Mr. Bowell’s connection with important public enterprises is gathered his connection with industrial and commercial movements. He was, for many years, president of the West Hastings Agricultural Society, and vice-president of the Agricultural and Arts Association of Ontario; president of the Hastings Mutual Fire Insurance Company, the Farren Manufacturing Company, and the Dominion Safe-Gas Company, and president of the Belleville and North Hastings Railway; and was captain of No. 1 company of the 15th battalion while on service during the Fenian troubles, and subsequently major in the 49th battalion of Volunteer Rifles. In 1863 Mr. Bowell contested the north riding of the county of Hastings for parliamentary honors, as the nominee of the Conservative convention, but refusing to join in the cries against the incorporation of Roman Catholic institutions, and what was then termed French domination, which were made test questions at the time, he was defeated. In 1867 he again presented himself to the electors of North Hastings, and having stated his views with that calm reasonableness which has always characterized his utterances, he was elected. He entered parliament therefore at confederation, but took no very prominent part in the debates of the house for the first two or three years. His first success in parliament was in his criticism of a measure introduced by the late Sir George E. Cartier, then minister of militia, for the purpose of reorganizing the militia force of Canada. Upon this occasion his practical experience and knowledge of the requirements of the volunteer force had its effect upon the house, and he succeeded in helping to defeat the government upon the details of the bill three times during one sitting of the house. Being an independent thinker, he was not always in accord with the leaders of his party, having voted against them upon many important measures, notably the Nova Scotia better terms resolutions, and upon the motion for the ratification of the Washington treaty. He was re-elected in 1872, and, consequently, in parliament, when the Macdonald government fell, and the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie succeeded to power. It was in opposition that Mr. Bowell took a leading part, not only in the business of the house, but upon the most important committees. He inaugurated and conducted the proceedings in the House of Commons which resulted in his moving the motion for the expulsion of Louis David Riel, member elect for Provencher, Manitoba, for the part he, Riel, had taken in ordering the shooting of Scott, a prisoner of his during the revolt in Manitoba in 1879. He also took an active part in bringing before the house the question of the violation of the provisions of the Independence of Parliament Act, by its speaker, and by a number of its members. The motion which he made upon this question, though defeated, led subsequently to the resignation of Mr. Speaker Anglin, one member of the cabinet, and four members of the house. He did not make many speeches, but whenever he spoke, the members always listened to him, for he had gained the reputation of being a man who had, first, something to say, and, second, a reasonable and a satisfactory way of saying it. He has been successful at every election since. On the 19th of October, 1878, upon the resumption of power by the Conservative party, Mr. Bowell was called to the Privy Council, and sworn in minister of customs, and that office he still holds. The member for North Hastings is level-headed, and possessed of a sound judgment. It is pleasing sometimes to sit in the gallery of the House of Commons and watch him answer questions or reply to allegations waged against the administration of his department. Under no circumstances, nor by any pressure or irritation, can he be moved to haste or ill-temper; but he sits there, disregarding feeling, and doing what he considers to be his duty as a minister of the Crown. Mr. Bowell married in 1847; Harriet Louise, eldest daughter of the late Jacob G. Moore, of Belleville, by whom he has nine children, five of whom are living.
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=Ritchie, Hon. Robert J.=, Solicitor-General of the Province of New Brunswick, M.P.P. for the county of St. John, was born in St. John, and educated in the city of his birth. Having studied and adopted law as a profession, he was called to the bar on the 16th of October, 1867. Since then he has worked up an extensive and prosperous practice. He has for many years taken a great interest in politics, and was first nominated for a seat in the House of Assembly just previous to the general election in 1878. He won his seat, and at once took a prominent part in the debates in the house. Having offered again in 1882, he was a second time successful. Again, at the general election on 26th April, 1886, he scored a great victory, standing second among the fortunate candidates. The vote was, Hon. D. McLellan, 2943; R. J. Ritchie, 2570; W. A. Quintin, 2531; A. A. Stockton, 2531; defeating James Rourke, 2188; J. A. Chesley, 1834; G. G. Gilbert, 1645; John Connor, 1468; A. T. Armstrong, 1823. In Nova Scotia, since confederation, the legal affairs of the local administration have been attended to by the attorney-general exclusively; but in New Brunswick they still keep up the office of solicitor-general as well. The talented premier, Hon. A. G. Blair, took the position of attorney-general when he formed his cabinet on the 3rd March, 1883, and another lawyer of excellent standing being wanted to complete the _personnel_ of the cabinet, the gentleman who forms the subject of this sketch was fitly selected as the best man for the position of solicitor-general. His appointment to the executive council necessitated his again going to the country and he was re-elected by acclamation. As a member of the government, he has taken an active part in all the measures which have been presented to the house, and has well sustained his prominent position. In addition to his duties, as an active and leading politician, Hon. Mr. Ritchie is connected with several of the local corporations of St. John, and his influence is felt in social and professional circles. Although, having suffered great losses by fire, the people of St. John have a spirit of business enterprise which has risen superior to their reverses. The shipping and lumbering business through which the money of her merchants was chiefly accumulated have languished of late years, and no compensating trade has sprung up to take their place. But the manufacturing activity of the inhabitants has proved successful, and the population of the city has not declined. The yield of the fisheries, as elsewhere down in the maritime provinces during the summer of 1887, was enormous. If St. John is favored by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company as regards making it a winter port, the outlook for the city’s future is good. The bar of St. John is rich in forensic talent. The head-quarters of the legal fraternity centres in Ritchie’s and Palmer’s blocks. The nearness of the lawyers’ quarters to one another enables the members of the bar to obtain counsel and intercommunication which is very advantageous and helpful. When the whirligig of politics brings the Liberals into power again in Dominion affairs there is probably no man in the opposition camp whose prospects of succeeding to a position on the bench are better than those of Hon. R. J. Ritchie. His talents peculiarly fit him for the position of one of Her Majesty’s judges.
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=McLelan, Hon. Archibald Woodbury=, Postmaster-General for the Dominion of Canada, M.P. for Colchester, Nova Scotia, was born at Londonderry, N.S., on the 24th December, 1824. He is descended from a family that emigrated from Londonderry, Ireland, during the last century, and settled in the province of Nova Scotia. His father, the late G. W. McLelan, during his lifetime sat for a long period of years in the Nova Scotia legislature. The future postmaster-general received his primary education in the schools of his native parish, and finished his classical course at Mount Allison Wesleyan Academy. In early life, he engaged in a mercantile line of life, and continued in it for a considerable term, but in later years became an extensive ship-builder and ship-owner. He began to take an interest in politics when comparatively a young man, and represented Colchester in the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia from 1858 to 1863; then North Colchester in the same legislature from the latter year up to confederation; and Colchester, in the House of Commons, at Ottawa, until called to the Senate of Canada on the 21st June, 1869. In 1881, he resigned his seat in the Senate, and on an appeal to his old friends in Colchester, they returned him again as their representative in the House of Commons. On his return to Ottawa, he was sworn in a member of the Privy Council, and made president of the council on the 20th May of the same year. On the 10th July, 1882, he was appointed minister of marine and fisheries; on the 10th December, 1885, minister of finance; and on the 27th January, 1887, postmaster-general, the office he now so ably fills. Hon. Mr. McLelan is a director of the Cobequid Marine Insurance Company. In 1869 he was appointed one of the commissioners for the construction of the Intercolonial Railway; and in 1883, was a commissioner from Canada to the Intercolonial Fisheries Exhibition held in London. As a recognition of his valuable services on this occasion, he was presented with a diploma of honor. He is a Conservative in politics. In 1854 he was married to Caroline Metzler, of Halifax.
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=Reesor, Hon. David=, Rosedale, Toronto, Senator of the Dominion of Canada, is a descendant of a German family. His great-grandfather, Christian Reesor, who was a Mennonite minister, emigrated from Mannheim to Pennsylvania about 1737, having under his charge a small colony, and settled in Lancaster county, where some of the family still reside. The original homestead, a splendid farm of three hundred acres, is still in their possession. The first settlement of this family in the township of Markham took place as early in its history as 1801, when Christian Reesor, the grandfather of the senator, his father, Abraham Reesor, together with three uncles, located in that section of the country. Here David Reesor was born on the 18th January, 1823. His, mother Anna Dettiwiler, was also from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. She died in Markham in 1857, her husband having died in 1832. The early education of Senator Reesor was obtained in the common school of the township, but previous to his being put to any work he received three years private tuition from a competent instructor, which helped him considerably. His father’s farm was the first stage on which he enacted his part in the drama of life; then he became a merchant and manufacturer, and continued business in these lines for five years. In 1856 he published the first copy of the _Markham Economist_, a journal of strong Reform proclivities, which he edited and conducted with considerable skill for several years, and sold the business out about 1868. He has been a magistrate since 1848, a notary public since 1862, and for a long time was secretary and treasurer of the Markham Agricultural Society. When the counties of York, Ontario and Peel were united in 1850, he became a member of the county council and served several years, being warden in 1860. His career as a school trustee will not soon be forgotten, as it was chiefly through his exertions that Markham secured a grammar school. He has long been connected with the militia, and has held the rank of lieutenant-colonel of the reserve since 1866. He was appointed returning officer for the East Riding of York, July, 1854. In the more extensive region of politics Senator Reesor has not been less true to his principles, or less active as a general advocate of measures that tend to the public good, than when in the limited sphere of township councillor he supported and directed local improvements. He represented King’s division in the Legislative Council of Canada from 1860 until the confederation of the provinces, when he was called to the Senate by royal proclamation, October 23, 1867. At the time when the confederation scheme was under discussion in the Legislative Council, he moved a resolution, which, had it been passed, would have made the office of senator elective; but it was defeated on a division. He is a Liberal in politics. Senator Reesor is a member of the Methodist church, and every good cause obtains from him a hearty and willing support. He was for many years president of the Markham Bible Society. In February, 1848, he married Emily, eldest daughter of Daniel McDougall, of St. Marys, Ontario, and sister of Hon. William McDougall, C.B. They have five children, four daughters and one son, two of the former being married. Marion Augusta, the eldest daughter, is the wife of Dr. Colburn, of Oshawa, and Jessie Adelaide, the wife of John Holmes, of Toronto.
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=Read, Rev. Philip Chesshyre=, M.A., Professor of Classics, Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, Quebec province, was born on the 4th March, 1850, at Woodend, Hyde, Cheshire, England. His father, Rev. Alexander Read, B.A., late scholar of Trinity College, Dublin, was a descendant of an old Scotch family from Ayrshire, who settled in North of Ireland, in 1600. His mother, Anne Whiteway, is descended from a Devonshire family from Kingsteignton and Whiteway, and was a daughter of Philip Whiteway, J.P., of Runcorn, Cheshire, and Anne Chesshyre, of Rock Savage, his wife. Professor Read received his education in Manchester Grammar School from 1861 to 1867—being captain of the school in 1866. He then attended Lincoln College, Oxford, where he secured a brilliant record, and in 1872 was assistant lecturer in the college. In 1873 he was ordained by his lordship the Bishop of Salisbury. In 1872 he was appointed assistant master at Marlborough College; in 1874, secretary of the Church Council and examiner of schools under government in Barbadoes; in 1876, head master of the school at Newton, Lancashire; in 1877, rector of Bishop’s College, Lennoxville; in 1882, professor of Classics and Philosophy in Bishop’s College, Lennoxville; and in 1887 examiner to the Medical Board of the province of Quebec. In early life Professor Read began to take an interest in the volunteer movement, and was sub-lieutenant in the Oxford Rifle Volunteers. He is now captain of the school corps at Lennoxville. In 1886 and 1888 he occupied the position of chaplain in the Independent Order of Foresters. He has travelled a good deal, and found time to visit the West Indies, Spain, and several other foreign countries. In religion the professor belongs to the Episcopal church, and holds moderately broad views. On the 28th June, 1879, he was united in marriage to Helen Rosina, daughter of John W. McCallum, of Quebec, and Annie S. Brown, of Halifax, his wife. Mrs. Read is a lineal descendant of an old Scotch manufacturer who settled in Quebec shortly after the conquest of Canada. The fruit of the above union has been two promising children, Alexander Cuthbert Read, and Philip Austin Ottley Read.
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=Sterling, Alexander Addison=, Fredericton, N.B., High Sheriff of the county of York, New Brunswick, was born on the 22nd of August, 1838, at St. Marys, York county. He is the third son of George Henly Sterling, and his wife Susan Elizabeth McLean, and grandson of Captain John Sterling and Captain Archibald McLean, who were both loyalists and served in the war of the American revolution, but eventually settled in New Brunswick. He was brought up on his father’s farm at St. Marys, and commenced his education at the local school, finishing his course of study at the Fredericton Grammar School. He has been engaged in farming and mercantile pursuits all his life, commencing his commercial career as clerk in a store at Fredericton, in 1852, where he remained until 1856. In 1857 he removed to Toronto, Ontario, being employed by Paterson & Sons, hardware merchants of that city. Relinquishing this position in 1858, he returned to New Brunswick, and commenced farming at Maugerville, Sunbury county, in partnership with his brother, the late George A. Sterling (who was elected a member of the Provincial legislature for the county of Sunbury, at the general election of 1882, but who died in October, 1883.) From 1864 to 1867 he represented the parish of Maugerville in the municipal council of the county of Sunbury, but during the latter year he removed to Fredericton, where he opened a general store, which was carried on for fifteen years, and in the year 1883 this was merged into a wholesale flour business, in which trade he is now successfully employed. He was married on the 12th of August, 1869, to Sarah Haws, daughter of John Haws, ship-builder, of Portland, St. John, N.B., and there have been six children issue of this marriage. Living in the cathedral city of his province he is a staunch member of the Episcopal church. He has been an energetic worker in the educational, parochial and municipal affairs, having been appointed a member of the Board of School Trustees for the city of Fredericton, in 1875, and also high sheriff for the county of York, in 1883, both of which offices he now holds. For a number of years he was connected with the temperance movement, and was an active member of the Order of the Sons of Temperance, and held the office of grand worthy patriarch for the province of New Brunswick, in 1876.
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=Torey, Edgar J.=, formerly Principal of the Hants County Academy at Windsor, N.S., is a native of Guysborough, N.S., where he was born about twenty-seven years ago. He attended the grammar school in his native town and studied with such diligence that at a very early age he passed the examination held under the Council of Public Instruction for grade B, or first-class male teacher’s diploma. He began to teach at the age of fifteen, and has since, with intervals of study, pursued that employment. He has taught in Amherst town, Hantsport, Hants Co., and in various other important schools in the province. Feeling the need of a thorough classical education, Mr. Torey availed himself of the advantages offered to gentlemen in the teaching profession by Dalhousie College, Halifax, N.S. He, like many other teachers, taught during the summer months and attended lectures in Dalhousie during the winter term, lasting from November to April. Pursuing this course for some years with success he took his degree of B.A. in 1882. He then took charge of the Victoria County Academy for one year, at the end of which period he resigned the principalship to accept a similar position in Guysborough, and won the encomiums of all with whom he came into contact, for careful and thorough teaching. In October, in the year 1884, the position of Principal in the Hants County Academy at Windsor, worth $850 a year, falling vacant, Mr. Torey applied for the situation and was selected from among a number of other applicants. The public schools were established in Windsor in the autumn of 1866, and now number eight departments. The position of Principal has been held by such educationists as S. S. Fisk; James Forrest, M.A.; J. L. Brown; Dr. Emdon Fritz; John F. Godfrey, B.A., and H. Elliott. The schools are thoroughly graded from the primary department and kindergarten up to the academy, which draws a special government allowance. A three years’ course is followed in the academy, embracing the classics and French, physics and the higher mathematics, and chemistry. The Principal, in addition to his labors in these branches and in preparing students for the matriculation examinations at the various provincial colleges, has a great deal of work to do in preparing and discussing questions for examination in the grading of all the schools. He also has a general supervision of the schools. The school is periodically visited by the county inspector, C. W. Roscoe, an experienced teacher, and also by Dr. David Allison, superintendent of education. Mr. Torey conducted the school with much success, and has fitted several students for college. After holding the position of Principal for three years he decided to adopt the profession of medicine as a permanent employment. His pupils heard of his approaching resignation with regret, and presented him with a valuable and handsome gold-headed cane, accompanied with an address. He resigned his position in October, 1887, and repaired to the University of New York, in the medical department of which he is preparing himself for his life work in the healing profession. He has the advantage of studying in one of the best equipped medical colleges in America, and one from which have graduated some of our best provincial medicos. He is pursuing his studies with great success and is very popular among his fellow-students.
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