Part 70

=Williams, Rev. John Æthuruld=, D.D., Toronto, a General Superintendent of the Methodist church.—Dr. Williams is one of the most notable figures in the history of Canadian Methodism. For over forty years he has been intimately identified with its progress, and has deservedly, and with universal acceptance, attained the highest position in the gift of that church. Dr. Williams is a man who would anywhere command attention. He bears his seventy years with wonderful vigor. His fresh complexion, keen bright eyes, and remarkable alertness and energy, both of body and mind, seem to belong to a much younger man. He comes of sturdy Welsh stock, as his name—John Æthuruld Williams—indicates. He was born at Caermarthen, in South Wales, December 19th, 1817. He early lost his father, and was deprived of his only remaining parent at the age of twelve. He was thrown into the world of London, and there learned to develop that independence and energy of character by which he is marked. He received a good education at the Academy of Hoxton, near London. He came to Canada in his seventeenth year, and found a home in the town of Prescott, where the early years of his Canadian life were spent. He united with the Wesleyan Methodist church two years later, and for some time was engaged in secular business. His talents and religious zeal led to his entering the Methodist ministry in the year 1846, and to his ordination in 1850. He soon reached a leading position in the ministry, and in 1859 was elected chairman of the Owen Sound district. Such was the fitness which he evinced for that office that he has generally been elected chairman of the districts in which his pastoral charge has been situated. He has occupied several of the leading pulpits of the Methodist church: in Toronto, London, Port Hope, Brockville, Milton, Simcoe, St. Thomas, Goderich, St. Catharines, etc. When the London conference was organized in 1874, he was appointed its first president, in which office he was continued for a second term. He was a delegate to the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal church of the United States in 1876. In 1878 he received from Victoria University, in recognition of his wide reading, his general culture, and his distinguished ability, the degree of D.D. At the general conference of 1882 he was elected vice-president of that body; and at the united general conference of 1883, at which arrangements for the unification of Canadian Methodism were completed, he was unanimously elected president. The duties of this delicate and difficult position, at an important crisis in the history of the church, he discharged with such ability and impartiality as to command the admiration of the entire body. At the Centennial Conference of American Methodism, which met in Baltimore, in 1884, Rev. Dr. Williams and the Rev. Dr. Gardiner were the Canadian delegates. On that occasion Dr. Williams read an able paper, which commanded much attention, on the rise and progress of Canadian Methodism. On the lamented death of Rev. Dr. Rice, in 1885, it was the Rev. Dr. Williams whom the executive committee of the general conference selected as his successor in the office of general superintendent till the ensuing general conference. So ably did he discharge the important duties of that office that the general conference of 1886, by an almost unanimous vote, re-elected him to that position. In association with his colleague, the Rev. Dr. Carman, he has travelled with indefatigable energy throughout the length and breadth of the Dominion in promotion of the varied interests of the church of which he is a general superintendent.

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=Ker, Rev. Robert=, Rector of Trinity Church, Mitchell, Ontario.—The subject of this brief biographical notice was born in the North of Ireland, some time about the year 1842 or ’43, and is the eldest son of the late Robert Ker, of Newbliss, county Monaghan. Having received an excellent common school education, and being very zealous in Sunday-school and other Christian work in his native place, it was intended that he should enter the ministry of the Church of England; but circumstances for the moment turned his thoughts in another direction. So early as 1857, Mr. Ker organized a Young Men’s Christian Association in his native town, and although quite unaware of the ultimate development of the movement, or of the parties even then working in it, the rules he drew up for the management of the association would be found to be not much dissimilar from the leading features of Young Men’s Christian Association work at the present. At a very early period Mr. Ker evinced a marked taste for newspaper writing, and took an active part in the controversy respecting the more general adoption of the National School system of education by the Protestants of Ireland. He vigorously denounced the system as an unworthy attempt to displace the Bible in the public schools, and succeeded in arousing a good deal of local hostility to the movement. About 1862 Mr. Ker entered the Normal Training College in Dublin, where his abilities as a thoughtful educationist attracted considerable attention, and he was awarded one of the four scholarships at the disposal of the committee, and on graduating from the institution he was one of three placed in the coveted rank of first class. Mr. Ker was promptly appointed to Lord Powerscourt’s chief school, which he taught with distinguished success for several years, and was awarded four honorary certificates from the Incorporated Society for the success of his pupils. Mr. Ker finally resigned the position, and at the invitation of the late Major Knox, proprietor of the _Irish Times_, Dublin, he became the special correspondent for that journal in Belfast. Those were exciting days on the Irish press, and very often the collecting of news involved a good many personal risks, and the subject of this sketch had his full share of them. Few of the leading public men of those days were unknown to Mr. Ker, and many are the incidents which he relates of the events of that stormy period, culminating, as it did, in the disestablishment of the Irish Church. It was Mr. Ker who reported the famous speech made by the Rev. John Flanagan respecting the kicking of the Queen’s crown into the Boyne, and which aroused the wrath of the London _Times_, and set the country in a blaze. Mr. Ker has occupied, at one time or another a position on every leading Irish paper. Late in 1872 he came to Canada, and was immediately engaged on the Toronto _Leader_, then an influential factor in Canadian politics. He remained on the staff of the _Leader_ for some time, and while there edited the _Patriot_, well known for its sterling defence of Protestant principles. In 1874, circumstances appeared favorable for carrying out the never wholly-abandoned idea of entering the ministry of the church, and after due matriculation Mr. Ker entered Trinity College, Toronto, under Provost Whitaker, and subsequently took charge of St. John’s High School, province of Quebec, as principal, and it was while occupying that position that he was, in 1877, ordained to the diaconate by the Right Rev. Dr. Oxenden, Metropolitan, who forthwith appointed him to the mission of Chelsea, Templeton and Portland. This was a very trying district, entailing long drives over bad roads, but Mr. Ker soon became a prime favorite, and was greatly missed upon leaving. During his incumbency he had the debt paid off the Chelsea church and a new one consecrated at Portland. The following year he was advanced to the priesthood, and appointed to succeed the late Rev. Dr. Clarke, as incumbent of St. Stephen’s Church, Buckingham, province of Quebec. From there he was transferred to St. Paul’s Church, Mansonville, and while there he was called, in 1880, to the rectorship of Trinity Church, Quebec city. Rev. Mr. Ker labored in the ancient capital for nearly seven years. Trinity congregation was by no means wealthy, but he succeeded in gathering around him an earnest body of workers, to whom he became greatly attached, and the congregation returned the feeling very heartily. He purchased the church building from the Sewell family at $8,300, and paid off $4,300 of the amount within the year, leaving the balance as a mortgage upon the building. During the seven years of the Rev. Mr. Ker’s pastorate in Trinity Church, it was a great centre of attraction for the young, and when he decided upon accepting a charge in Ontario, the feeling of regret was wide-spread and profound. For about four years of his residence in Quebec, Rev. Mr. Ker, in addition to his other duties, filled the position of vice-rector in the Boys’ High School. He was also appointed by the Lieutenant-governor-in-Council a member of the Board of Protestant Examiners, and that body subsequently elected him their secretary. Rev. Mr. Ker was also for a time inspector of the schools for the Colonial Church Society in the district of Quebec, and vice-president of the Quebec Teachers’ Association; so that, altogether he has rendered good service to the country of his adoption. As to his theological views, he wishes to be described simply as “a churchman,” irrespective of party distinctions, which he looks upon as injurious and uncalled for. In 1863 he was initiated into the Masonic order; and since then has held a leading position in its ranks, having been elected worshipful master of Albion lodge, and subsequently, in 1885, he was elected to the position of grand chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Quebec, and re-elected again in 1886. The Rev. Mr. Ker has been a constant contributor to leading periodicals, and is an editorial writer of recognized ability; in fact, in every sense he has been one of our hard workers. As a preacher he is held in high esteem, for, while avoiding sensationalism on the one hand and the dry conventionalities of ordinary preaching on the other, he addresses himself in plain and forcible language to the wants of his hearers, and denounces in vigorous terms the prevailing hollowness of religious professors. He participated to some extent in the controversies carried on by churchmen a few years ago, but this he very sincerely regrets, believing as he does that unquestioning loyalty to the Church and Christian forbearance to the brethren are clear and imperative duties. On the 23rd August, 1874, he was married at New Brighton, S. I., to Lizzie, youngest daughter of the late Thomas Wilkin. Their family consists of three sons and two daughters. The Rev. Mr. Ker is at present rector of Trinity church, Mitchell, in the diocese of Huron; and his brother, the Rev. John Ker, is rector of All Saints Church, Dunham, province of Quebec, in the diocese of Montreal, and is esteemed by Bishop Bond as one of the most active and most successful missionaries.

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=Pelton, Sandford Harrington=, Q.C., Barrister, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, was born in New York, on the 28th September, 1845. His father was Milo Sandford Pelton, who was of English descent, and his mother, Louisa Maria Harrington, was a Nova Scotian. Sandford received his early educational training at the public school of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and studied classics, mathematics, and the higher branches under the Rev. R. F. Brine, Episcopal minister at Arichat, Cape Breton. He studied law with the late Charles F. Harrington Q.C., of Arichat, who for some time represented Richmond county in the Nova Scotia legislature, and also with the Hon. Daniel Macdonald, formerly M.P.P. for Antigonish county, and attorney-general for Nova Scotia. On the 22nd October, 1867, he was admitted to the bar of Nova Scotia as a barrister and attorney, and commenced business in Yarmouth, on the 20th November, 1867, and here he has resided since, and has built up an extensive practice. He was appointed by the Nova Scotia government, on May 27th, 1876, a Queen’s counsel. Mr. Pelton is an active Mason, and occupies a prominent position in the order; is a past district deputy grand master, and a past junior grand warden of the Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia. In temperance work, too, he has taken a hand, and is a member of several societies. In politics, he is a Liberal, and worked actively for his party during the last elections. He is an adherent of the Presbyterian church. On the 16th November, 1869, he was married to Mary Georgina Darby, youngest daughter of the late Captain Jos. W. E. Darby (who was for some years employed by the Nova Scotia government in the fishery protection service as commander of the cutter _Daring_, and died on board that vessel in 1851; he made quite a name for himself by his skill and ability in the discharge of his duties), and granddaughter of the late Superintendent Darby, of Sable Island.

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=Shakespeare, Noah=, General Agent, Victoria, British Columbia, M.P., for Victoria, was born at Brierley Hill, Staffordshire, England, on the 26th of January, 1839. His parents were Noah and Hannah Shakespeare. The father was a distant relation of William Shakespeare, the bard of Avon. Mr. Shakespeare received his education in the public schools of his native place. He left school at an early age, and being of an independent turn of mind, and anxious to get on in the world, he worked as hard and as long hours, as any lad in England. Having heard of British Columbia as a field in which a young man might get on, he determined to try his fortune in that far-off land, and accordingly left England, and landed in Victoria, on the 10th of January, 1863, and has since that time been a resident of the province. Arriving like many another poor lad in Canada, without scarcely a penny in his pocket, he availed himself of the first job that offered, namely, that of a place in the Vancouver collieries. Here he faithfully performed the duties assigned to him for some years, until he saw an opportunity of bettering his condition. He then moved to Victoria city, and began to climb the path which has since led to distinction. His first public position was that of councillor, and being a workingman himself, his efforts during the four years he was in the council, were always directed in favour of the workingman. In 1882, he was elected mayor of the city, by a large majority of the ratepayers, and never, it may be said, had Victoria a better chief magistrate, and its affairs better managed than under his administration. This same year he was elected president of the Mechanics’ Institute; and at the general election of 1882, he was sent to Ottawa, to represent Victoria in the House of Commons; and again re-elected to the same position at the general election in the spring of 1887. In 1885, Mr. Shakespeare was elected to the presidency of the British Columbia Agricultural Association; and in 1886, he was also made president of the British Columbia Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of which he was the principal organizer in Victoria. He is a friend of all movements adopted for the good of his race. He was president of the Anti-Chinese Association of Victoria, in 1879; was elected grand worthy chief of the Grand Lodge of Good Templars of Washington Territory and British Columbia, in 1877; again elected to the same position in 1878; and in 1886, he filled the honourable office of president of the Young Men’s Christian Association of Victoria. In 1884 he introduced and succeeded in getting carried a resolution in favor of restricting Chinese immigration into the Dominion of Canada. He is a justice of peace for the Province of British Columbia. In politics, he is a Liberal-Conservative; and in religion, an adherent of the Methodist church. On December 26th, 1869, he was married to Eliza Jane Pearson.

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=Fielding, Hon. William Stevens=, Premier of Nova Scotia, and M.P.P. for the city and county of Halifax, was born at Halifax, on the 24th of November, 1848, and is of English descent. He was educated in his native city, and has devoted the greater part of his life to journalism. At the age of sixteen he entered the office of the _Morning Chronicle_, in Halifax, the leading Liberal paper in Nova Scotia, as a clerk, and gradually worked through the reportorial and editorial departments to the position of managing editor, which office he resigned in 1884, when called upon to fill a high position in the government of his native province. During these twenty years, he did not confine his writing exclusively to his own province, but contributed to various journals abroad. For fourteen years he was connected with the Toronto _Globe_, as Nova Scotia correspondent. In 1882, at a convention of the Liberal party held at Halifax, after the resignation of the Thompson government, the positions of premier and provincial secretary were offered to Mr. Fielding, but he declined the honor. He, however, entered the administration of the Hon. W. T. Pipes, on the 22nd of December, of the same year, without a portfolio, having previously declined the offer of a seat in it. In May, 1884, he resigned. On the retirement of the Hon. W. T. Pipes, on the 15th of July following, he was called upon to reorganize the cabinet, which he succeeded in doing, and became premier and provincial secretary, on the 28th of July, 1884, and this position he still holds. He was first returned to the House of Assembly at the general election held in 1882, re-elected on his accepting office, 20th of August, 1884, and again at the last general election in 1886. The Hon. Mr. Fielding is a Liberal in politics, and favors the withdrawal of the Maritime provinces from the Canadian confederation, and the formation of a Maritime union. As will be seen, he has for the past five years played an important part in the politics of his country, and being yet a comparatively young man, there is yet a brilliant future before him. In religion, he is attached to the Baptist church. On the 7th of September, 1876, he was married to Hester, daughter of Thomas A. Rankine, of St. John, New Brunswick.

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=Hetherington, George A.=, M.D., L.M. (Dublin), St. John, New Brunswick, was born at Johnston, New Brunswick, on the 17th March, 1851. His father, James Grierson Hetherington, was of English descent, his father (the grandfather of the subject of our sketch) having been born in England, and came out to St. John, N.B., about seventy years ago, and established a merchant tailoring business there, which was one of the first in that then very young and small city. Mary Jane Clark, his mother, was a native of New Brunswick, and of U. E. loyalist descent. George A. Hetherington received the rudiments of his education at the place of his birth; then he went to the Normal School at St. John, N.B., where he took a teacher’s certificate in 1860, and taught school for a short time. Subsequently, for two years, he attended the Baptist Seminary at Fredericton, N.B., and then spent a year in the medical department of the University of Michigan, United States. He then received an appointment in the Washtenaw Almshouse Hospital and Insane Asylum, as resident physician, and this office he held for a year, during which period he took a partial course, after the first year’s full course, in the same university. He then went to Cincinnati, where he further prosecuted his studies in medicine and surgery in the General Hospital and in the Cincinnati College, and graduated M.D., in 1875. Returning to his native country he successfully practised his profession for nearly five years, and then went to Great Britain. Here he spent a short period in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and then went to Dublin, where he took the full qualification of Rotunda Hospital for Women (_Lic.Mid._); also a special course certificate for diseases of women and children. After this Dr. Hetherington received an appointment in the same hospital as assistant clinical instructor and clerk, having charge of an extensive maternity department. At the close of his engagement he returned to St. John, N.B., in 1882, and began a general practice, and is now one of the leading practitioners of that city. He is a licentiate of the Council of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick; and a member of the British Medical Association. In 1871 he attended the Military School at Fredericton, N.B., and was the recipient of a second-class certificate. In 1877 he was appointed coroner for the county of Queens, and, after removing to St. John, surgeon to the St. John Firemen’s Mutual Relief Association in 1885. The doctor is also a past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias; supreme vice-chief ranger of the Independent Order of Foresters, and past high physician of the same order, and a member of the brotherhood of Freemasons. He has travelled considerably, having visited all the important points in the Maritime provinces, Quebec, Ontario, the Eastern States, New York, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Great Britain and Ireland. In politics he is a Liberal; and in religion a Baptist. He was married on 5th September, 1876, to Sybil McIntyre, of Sussex, New Brunswick.

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=Wallace, Joseph James=, Truro, Nova Scotia, Superintendent of the Halifax and St. John District of the Intercolonial Railway, was born in Albert county, New Brunswick, on the 20th of April, 1847. His parents were David and Mary Wallace. Mr. Wallace received his education in the High School, Hillsboro’, New Brunswick. He entered the service of the European and North-American Railway Company, on the 25th of May, 1865, and continued in its service until November, 1872, during which period he filled the various positions of telegraph operator at Salisbury, New Brunswick; clerk and telegraph operator in the superintendent’s office, at St. John, New Brunswick; station master, telegraph operator, and postmaster, at Salisbury, New Brunswick; assistant accountant in the superintendent’s office, at St. John, New Brunswick; and in November, 1872, and on the absorption of the above railway by the Intercolonial Railway Company, he was made auditor of the latter company. This office he held until May, 1883, when he was appointed to the more important position of superintendent of the Halifax and St. John district, which office he holds to-day. Mr. Wallace has shewn by his integrity, industry, and perseverance, what a young man can do when he once determines to rise in his profession. In 1870, he joined the Masonic brotherhood, and is now a past master of his parent lodge. In May 26th, 1868, he was married to Ruth M. Hopper, and the fruit of this union has been five children, three of whom survive.

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