Part 49

=Bruce, Rev. George=, B.A., Pastor of St. David’s (Presbyterian) Church, St. John, New Brunswick, is a Scotchman by birth, having been born near Aberdeen, Scotland, on 6th of September, 1837. His parents were John Bruce and Elspeth Cadger. The family is an old one and can be traced far back in the annals of Scotland. The Simpsons (Sir George and Thomas), of Hudson Bay notoriety, were relatives, and Mr. Bruce, sen., remembers when young George Simpson came to bid them good-bye before leaving for America. Alexander Bruce, the eldest brother of John Bruce, was educated in King’s College, Aberdeen. When the Rev. George Bruce was only four years of age he was brought to Canada. The family settled in Markham, near Toronto, and there they have been extensively engaged in various kinds of business ever since, chiefly, however, in farming and milling. George, the subject of this sketch, after receiving the usual public school training, attended the Normal School in Toronto for some time; and in 1863 he went to Whitby, where, under Thomas Kirkland, now principal of the Toronto Normal School, he prepared himself for the university. In September, 1864, he matriculated in the University of Toronto, and four years afterwards he graduated from the same institution. While attending the university he devoted himself to general study, principally, however, in the direction of mathematics, metaphysics, political economy and natural science (especially in regard to its more modern developments, in which he took an exceptional interest). He then entered Knox College, in the same city, and from this college he graduated in 1871. While a student, Mr. Bruce became deeply impressed with the great loss sustained by the church through the frequent removal of student missionaries from their fields, on account of their return to college every winter to pursue their studies, leaving the fields unsupplied to the manifest and serious loss of the interest and organization which had resulted from the labours of the missionary during the summer. As licentiates were almost always settled in congregations at once upon the completion of their studies, the smaller and more sparsely settled mission fields were left almost entirely to the student supply in the summer vacation. It seemed to him that the only relief for this lay in getting students to give from one to two or more years of voluntary work to these fields after they were licensed, so as to bring them up to a stable and self-sustaining position. He wrote a considerable number of articles calling attention to this matter, and brought it before the General Assembly. In order to make practical trial and do, himself, what was recommended, he took such work for four years after he was licensed, declining to be ordained, though he is not sure of the wisdom of that part of his course now, as ordination gives additional fitness for the work falling to the hand of the missionary. The system, however, gradually gained favour, and is now almost universally put in practice in such fields, as far as young men can be found willing to undertake such work. Rev. Mr. Bruce’s field lay in the region of Newmarket and Aurora, Ontario, which, though old and prosperous settlements, had suffered very much so far as the Presbyterian church was concerned, from the system he had spoken of. Two brick churches were built during the four years he resided there, and the congregations were separated soon after and are both prosperous. In September, 1876, he was ordained over the First Presbyterian Church in St. Catharines, Ontario, where he remained seven years. This charge had been one of the congregations established by the American Church, and retained its name as such and its connection with the Presbytery of Buffalo till immediately before his ordination. He was, therefore, the first minister in the new relation, although it was a very old congregation. During his ministry a brick church, the one now in use, was erected. Rev. Mr. Bruce was for six years convener of the Home Mission Committee of the Presbytery of Hamilton, and member of the General Home Mission Committee of the church. In 1881 he was sent out with the Rev. Dr. Cochrane by the Home Mission Committee to visit the churches in Manitoba, and to meet with the presbytery and arrange for the designation of the Rev. James Robertson as superintendent of missions, as well as for the settlement of various other questions which had been before the committee. On his way up to fulfil this appointment he was on the steamer _City of Winnipeg_ when she was burnt at Duluth. The fire took place at night and five lives were lost, the others escaping with difficulty. Besides church work he has always had a deep interest in educational matters, and has written a good deal in connection with our system from time to time. In January, 1883, he was inducted into his present charge, St. David’s Church, St. John, New Brunswick. The congregation was one formed at the disruption as the Free Church, and is a large and active one. Here as formerly he has taken a deep interest in home mission work. Within the bounds of the large presbytery there is a vast field. He is convener of an “Augmentation Committee” for enlarging the salary of ministers in weak charges. Rev. Mr. Bruce’s travels have not been great, although somewhat extended on this continent, and almost incessant at times in church work. His trip in 1881 to the North-West was an interesting experience of the “trail and tent” life, as the Canadian Pacific Railway was only commenced, and he passed the men at work several times. They had then attained a rate of one mile per day, which was considered a wonder, although this speed of track-laying was afterwards increased to three or even four miles per day. His religious views have continued much the same in general principles. He is a Presbyterian, and therefore, of course, a Calvinist in doctrine. He has gone over all the ground carefully in connection with scientific difficulties and other new phases, and with a mind, so far as he knows, open to receive impressions and conviction. He believes much enlargement has come from the study of Science in connection with Religion, but has seen nothing to cause him to change his faith in the “old doctrines.” It has been, he thinks, man’s narrow, mistaken, and prejudiced construction of Bible teaching which has been the source of the weakness, wherever there has really been a weakness. What is needed is practical adaptation of teaching, preaching, and modes of work to the requirements of the age. Broad sympathy and charity is the very pith and marrow of the Gospel, and unswerving loyalty to the truth where it is perceived. He has read extensively in rationalistic literature, the “new theology” and evolutionary theories of revelation and man. He admires the scientific spirit and patient research, but is deeply impressed with the rash and superficial nature of much of the theorising so confidently asserted. It is unscientific and unreliable. On the 18th June, 1884, Rev. Mr. Bruce was married to Catherine Emily, third daughter of the late John R. Dickson, M.D., president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Kingston, Ontario, and medical superintendent of the Asylum for the Insane there. Dr. Dickson’s name is widely known in the medical profession. He was especially celebrated as a surgeon, and in the midst of a very extensive practice he found time to keep himself abreast of the scientific progress of the age, and to take an active interest in many matters of moral beneficence and religion. He came from Ireland when quite young, part of the family remaining at home.

* * * * *

=Stewart, John=, Superintendent of the Northern Division of the New Brunswick Railway, Woodstock, New Brunswick, was born at St. Andrews, N.B., on the 2nd February, 1845. His father, Duncan Stewart, was in early life a colour-sergeant in the rifle brigade, and afterwards became an officer in the Customs department, and served in that capacity at St. John and at St. Stephen. John was educated at the St. Stephen and Calais High schools. Some time after leaving school he entered the Customs service, and acted as weigher and gauger at St. Stephen in 1864-5, when he was appointed to the position of conductor on the New Brunswick and Canada Railway, and acted as such until 1874, when he was promoted to a superintendency. In 1882, after the consolidation of the line with the New Brunswick Railway Company, he was appointed to and filled the office of general superintendent until 1885, and then was made superintendent of the Northern division, which office he now fills. Having a taste for military affairs, he joined the volunteers when a mere youth, and held the rank of captain in the St. Stephen Infantry School, and saw a good deal of active service during the Fenian invasion of our frontiers. In 1872 he was made a Freemason, and has ever since taken an interest in the order. Mr. Stewart is a member of the Presbyterian denomination. In 1874 he was married to Susan A. Haddock, daughter of J. Haddock, of St. Andrews, and has a family consisting of three children.

* * * * *

=Workman, Joseph=, M.D., Toronto, was born in Ballymacash, near the town of Lisburn, Ireland, on the 26th May, 1805. He is descended from an illustrious ancestry, the first of whom is noticed by Neale in his history of the Puritans, namely, the Rev. William Workman, who was lecturer at St. Stephen’s Church, in Gloucester, England, from 1618 to 1633, and whom the historian describes as a man of great piety, wisdom and moderation. About that time Archbishop Laud had assumed power, and was addressing himself with great energy to stemming the tide of reformation which had set in. The images and pictures were restored to the churches, and the clergy had begun to array themselves in gorgeous vestments, such as those used by the clergy of the Roman Catholic church. The Rev. Mr. Workman could not brook this state of things; and in one of his sermons stigmatized pictures and statues of the founders of Christianity, the fathers, and other eminent persons, as unfit ornaments for churches, and declared that to set up images of Christ or of the saints in the private houses was according to the Homily unlawful and tended to idolatry. This sermon having been reported to Laud, the Rev. Mr. Workman was brought before the Court of High Commission, and after a short trial was convicted of heresy, deposed and excommunicated. He now opened a school in order to support his family, but as an excommunicated person he was inhibited from teaching youth. He then commenced the practice of medicine, in which he had some skill, but the archbishop forbade, and the result was that not knowing where to turn to support his family, he fell into a settled melancholy and died. These circumstances eventually made a deep impression on his children; and they eagerly joined the parliamentary army, in which William Workman, from whom the Canadian Workmans spring, held a commission, and was one of those who met the charge of Prince Rupert on the field of Naseby. This William served until 1648, when he went over to Ireland with Oliver Cromwell; and on the close of the Irish campaign he retired from military life, receiving as a reward for his services a grant of the two town lands of Merlacoo, and two sizeacks in the county of Armagh. Of these lands the old soldier held possession for only a short time. He was in the midst of a hostile population, different in race and religion, with bitter memories of defeat, and a passionate hunger for vengeance, born of what they considered great wrongs. During Tyrconnel’s administration he removed to county Down, near Donaghadee, whence he was obliged to flee and shelter his old age behind the walls of Derry, soon to be invested by King James’ army. He must have succumbed to the appalling privations of the siege, as his name does not appear in the history of an event which is so familiar in all its details. When at last the besieging army, a long column of pikes and standards, was seen retreating up the left bank of the Foyle, William Workman’s two sons and their wives emerged from the war-scarred walls of Derry and settled in the county of Antrim. One of the brothers settled at Brookend Mills, near Coagh, whence he removed to Monymore, to take charge of the mill there, and for more than a century this mill remained in charge of successive generations of Workmans. Joseph Workman, the father of the subject of our sketch, was the last of the family who resided at the Monymore mill. This gentleman having made a visit of three years to the United States, returned to Ireland and took up his abode at Ballymacash, near the town of Lisburn, where his family, nine in number, were born, all of whom ultimately came to Canada, and have left their mark on its history. As will be seen from the above, the father of Joseph Workman was of English descent, but his mother, Catharine Gondy, was descended from a Scottish family. Joseph received his English education from a Mr. Shields, and he was taught classics by J. Nealy, in Lisburn, Ulster, and studied medicine in McGill College, Montreal. In 1836 he came to Toronto, where he successfully practised his profession until July, 1853, when he was appointed by the government as medical superintendent of the Asylum for the Insane at Toronto. This position he filled with entire satisfaction until July, 1875, when he asked to be relieved of the responsibility. And here we may say, Dr. Workman deserves well of his adopted country, for no one could possibly have done more to bring the institution over which he presided for so many years to a comparative state of perfection, and to make the unfortunates under his care more comfortable and happy. Dr. Workman is of a literary turn of mind, and has contributed largely to various journals in the United States and Canada. He is an associate member of several scientific societies in Britain, Italy, the United States and Canada. He was one of the commissioners appointed by the government to enquire into the affairs of King’s College and Upper Canada College in 1848-50. In religion the doctor may be styled a progressive liberal, and is willing that all should search out the truth for themselves. He has generously supported the Unitarian Church in Toronto from its infancy. In consequence of close devotion to duty he has not been able to travel much, yet he is very familiar with all parts of Canada. On the 30th May, 1835, he was married to Elizabeth Wassridge, a native of Sheffield, England. This estimable lady died 16th May, 1885. The fruit of this union has been six children, of whom three sons and two daughters now survive.

* * * * *

=Campbell, George W.=, A.M., M.D., LL.D.—The late Dr. Campbell was born in Roseneath, Dumbartonshire, Scotland, in 1810. He entered early on his medical studies, which he pursued in the Universities of Glasgow and Dublin. After graduating with distinction he came to Canada in May, 1833, and settled in Montreal. His marked ability soon placed him in the front ranks of his profession, and gave him a large share of city practice. The success following him naturally led to his being very frequently called in consultation by his _confrères_, and for many years before his death very few cases of any importance were treated in Montreal without the advice of Dr. Campbell having been obtained. His sound knowledge of pathology, and naturally clear insight into the varying shades of distinction between clinical conditions apt to resemble each other, made him an expert in diagnosis. Surgery was always his _forte_, and his great reputation chiefly made by many successful achievements in operative work. In 1835 Dr. Campbell was appointed to the chair of surgery in McGill University, which position he continued to hold with credit to himself and great advantage to the school until 1875—exactly forty years—when, owing to failing health, he resigned. He was made dean of the faculty in 1860, taking then the place of the late Dr. Holmes. The duties of this office he fulfilled even after his resignation of the chair of surgery, and it was only in March, 1882, that Prof. Howard was appointed acting dean in order to relieve him of some necessary work and supply his place during temporary absences. For nearly half a century Dr. Campbell’s name was identified with the medical faculty of McGill University, and it was largely due to his ability as a teacher of surgery that this school attained the high degree of popularity which it has so long enjoyed. As its dean, he always possessed the fullest confidence of his colleagues, and under his able management its policy was always dignified and liberal, whilst internal dissensions were entirely unknown. Dr. Campbell did not write much for the medical journals. “Deeds, not words,” was his motto. But his work as a successful teacher, and as a member of the corporation of the university, led to the appropriate bestowal of the honorary degree of LL.D. His style of lecturing was free from all oratorical effort, but it was clear, forcible and impressive. Hundreds of practitioners throughout this continent and elsewhere owe the foundations of their surgical knowledge to Dr. Campbell’s early teaching. As the acknowledged head of the profession in Montreal, he was often called upon to entertain strangers and professional visitors, and most worthily did he perform this duty. His house always held for such a true-hearted Scotch reception, for he was a warm-hearted host, and his pleasant, cheery manner, his sparkling reminiscences, his stores of learning always bright, his animated conversation, made an evening spent in his company always something to be remembered. He took great pleasure in seeing his friends around him, and all know well the kindly and generous hospitality which for years has been dispensed from his house by himself and his talented family. For some years previous to his death Dr. Campbell suffered from bronchitis, and was obliged to retire from active practice and give himself more rest. He had also suffered from slight attacks of pneumonia, and when in London, in 1882, on a visit, pneumonia again set in, but being somewhat better, he went to Edinburgh, where, however, more serious symptoms showed themselves, and he expired on the 30th of May of that year. The example of such a man as Dr. Campbell cannot fail to be productive of great good. An accomplished physician and skilful surgeon, an upright, honourable citizen, a kind and considerate friend to the poor, a loved and honoured counsellor of the rich, zealous in business but scrupulously honourable, a firm protector of the dignity of his profession, and, above all, a thoroughly consistent Christian gentleman.

* * * * *

=Coburn, George Hayward=, M.D., Physician and Surgeon, Fredericton, New Brunswick, was born at Sheffield, Sunbury county, N.B., on the 10th March, 1855. His parents were Moses Henry Coburn and Hepzibah Coburn. He received his literary education at the Sunbury Grammar School, and at the University of New Brunswick. Having chosen medicine as a profession, he spent some years at the University of Pennsylvania, United States, in study, with that end in view, and graduated from that institution with honours in 1875. On his return to his native province he began the practice of his profession, and has succeeded in building up a large business. In 1883 Dr. Coburn was appointed health officer in Fredericton, and still retains the position. In 1885 he was chosen a member of the Board of Health for the same city; and in 1887 he was chosen chairman of the board. During the same year he was appointed a member of the Provincial Board of Health. In religion he is an adherent of the Methodist church; and in politics is a Liberal. On the 19th June, 1878, he was married to Mary Gamble, of Philadelphia, U.S. Their family consists of two children.

* * * * *