Part 98

=Wallace, Rev. Robert=, Pastor West Presbyterian Church, Toronto, was born on the 25th of April, 1820, at Castleblaney, county Monaghan, Ireland. His people were originally from Ayrshire, Scotland, and like the Ulster Presbyterians generally are called the Scotch-Irish. His father, Samuel Wallace, was in early manhood chosen as an elder, and long held a leading position in the church as such. For many years he acted as superintendent of a Sabbath school, and also conducted a prayer-meeting at his own house, where the young people were often examined in the Shorter and Brown’s catechisms. He was often sent for to visit the sick, and to draw up wills for the dying, and was the kind and sympathizing friend of the poor and afflicted, Roman Catholic as well as Protestant. He was greatly esteemed by all who knew him as a man of most loving and amiable disposition, and of great spirituality of mind, who held constant and intimate communion with his God and Saviour. Mr. Wallace’s mother, Agnes Stephenson, was born at Poyntzpass, county Armagh. Her brothers had as tutor a French officer of the old regime. Her elder brother, Robert, bought a commission as lieutenant in the regular army, and was shot in the battle of Coruna, under Sir John Moore, and died in London on his way home. Her younger brother, Thomas, was for some years a Presbyterian minister in Dublin, but died early. Robert, the subject of our sketch, was the youngest of four sons and five daughters. His father and family emigrated to Canada, in 1829, while he was still a little boy, and he attended school in Toronto for some time, his teacher being the late Mr. Barber, afterwards secretary of the School Board. The school was then called the Central School, on the corner of Adelaide and Jarvis streets, and it ultimately became the Collegiate Institute. His father purchased two hundred acres of college land, being No. 1, third concession East Chinguacousy, where Mr. Wallace lived some years, attending the public school there. He was early dedicated to the Gospel ministry by his father. When about twelve years of age he read the life of Rev. Levi Parsons, the first missionary to the Jews of Palestine sent out by the American Board from New England, and he then desired to be a missionary to the Jews of Palestine. But years after, when studying for the ministry, Rev. William Rintoul, of Streetsville, said to him that we needed all our young men for Canada, and he then resolved to give up that primary desire of his heart. Rev. Angus McColl, now of Chatham, Ontario, was the first of the Canadians who studied wholly in Canada for the Presbyterian ministry. He began in 1835. The Synod appointed Dr. John Rae, principal of the Grammar school at Hamilton, to take charge of any young men who might wish to study for the ministry. Mr. Wallace began his studies under Dr. Rae in February, 1838, and continued under his care during 1838, 1839, and 1840, taking the lead as head of the Grammar school most of the time (Mr. McColl taking lessons in private). During 1841 he studied with the Rev. Mr. Rintoul, of Streetsville, and Mr. Adam Simpson, of the Grammar school. In February, 1842, Queen’s College was opened, and Mr. Wallace, with six others, entered the theological classes under Rev. Dr. Liddell, principal, while also attending the Greek class under professor Campbell, along with John Mowat, now professor in Queen’s College. Mr. Wallace attended Queen’s College during three sessions, when, because of the disruption in Scotland, he and five others—that is six of the seven theological students—left Queen’s College and joined the Free Church of Canada, formed in June, 1844. Rev. Dr. Charles King, of Glasgow, was sent out by the Free Church as professor of theology in the new Free Church College at Toronto, called Knox College, after the heroic founder of the Church of Scotland. The synod appointed Rev. Henry Esson and Rev. William Rintoul to assist the Rev. Dr. King. The first session, 1844-5, was held in a small private house, the residence of Professor Esson, on James street, Toronto, and was attended by fourteen students. That was the last year of Mr. Wallace’s course. In April, 1845, he began his preaching tours over the land, and as the Rev. Mr. Rintoul wished the three young men who had finished their studies (Messrs. McColl, McKinnon and Wallace) to give at least a year to mission work, Mr. Wallace resolved to carry out his wishes, and he refused all calls to settle as a pastor until after fifteen months of most laborious work. The Rev. Mr. Rintoul advised him to accept the next call, as he saw that his health was breaking down with overwork and privation. During that time he travelled about six thousand miles on foot or on horseback, preached about four hundred times, and visited several hundred Presbyterian families scattered over the country from Kingston to Goderich. The roads were then in a primitive condition, and Mr. Wallace often travelled through rain and deep mud, his horse and himself covered with mud; and the fatigue was so great that he broke down several horses, and, at the same time, occasionally went without dinner in the new settlements. He thus organised or supplied in their earlier stages a large number of small congregations near Toronto, in Scarboro’, Markham, Vaughan, King, West Gwilliambury, Bradford, Inisfil, Chinguacousy, Toronto Township, Esquesing, Trafalgar, Oakville, etc., and a few times Stratford and other places up to Goderich, London Township and Westminster, besides preaching at Kingston, Belleville and places north of it. On the 15th July, 1846, Mr. Wallace was ordained at Keene, Otonabee, a place at that time very subject to fever and ague; and, as his constitution was very much run down, he was only three weeks there when he was stricken down by that disease till the close of the year 1847, when the doctor declared he was in danger of paralysis if he attempted to preach any more, and ordered him to return home and recruit. He remained at his mother’s during that winter, and regained his health, though with occasional symptoms of the old trouble. During the summer of 1848 he was sent by the Rev. Mr. Rintoul to take charge of the Free Church at the town of Niagara, a place free from malaria, and while there was greatly benefited. Towards the close of that summer he was advised to visit Ingersoll, and preach in a new church without a pastor. He did so, and was called and settled there in January, 1849. The congregation grew from being a handful of people to be a large, flourishing centre, and after some years the church had to be enlarged, which was done by erecting a gallery, without ventilators. The result was that soon after the re-opening, owing to the great heat from stove pipes meeting in front of the pulpit, Mr. Wallace took tonsillitis, or clergyman’s sore throat; and, after trying various remedies, was advised to resign his charge and visit Britain for the removal of his trouble. In January, 1860 he did so, and accepted the situation of agent for the French Canadian Missionary Society. In less than five months he collected over $4,000 for that mission in Canada, nearly double what had been collected the previous year. On the 30th June, 1860, he left for Britain, by the Allan steamer _Hibernian_. He collected in Scotland and England between $4,000 and $5,000, and introduced the mission among the higher classes in London, by addressing the annual soiree of the Evangelical Alliance, and getting subscriptions from such men as Lord Lawrence and the late Duke of Marlborough. He had reason to believe that he could have raised twice as much in an ordinary year; but that year about $1,500,000 had been contributed in England for three special objects—the famine stricken in India, the friends of the massacred Christians at Damascus and on Lebanon, and towards the sixty thousand silk weavers at Coventry, thrown out of employment by free trade with France. He also preached in Dr. Cooke’s church, Belfast, and got a grant of £100 a year from the Irish Presbyterian church, which was afterwards increased to £200 a year. After an absence of eleven months he arrived home on the 23rd of May, 1861, fully restored in health and vigor. He continued to labor for the French Canadian Mission till June, 1862, when he accepted a call to Thorold and Drummondville, where he labored for over five years. During that time the membership of the church at Thorold more than doubled, and at Drummondville was about trebled. In October, 1867, he received a call to West Church, Toronto, where he was inducted by the presbytery on the 6th November, 1867. Since then he has received about one thousand eight hundred into church fellowship, and a new, commodious and well-built brick church, seating about one thousand, has been erected, and a good work carried on. West Church has now a membership of about seven hundred and forty communicants. In February, 1839, while Mr. Wallace was a student at Hamilton, the late John Dougall, of Montreal, gave an address on the duty of Christians to give up the use of all intoxicants, in order to set an example to others, and thus prevent them from becoming drunkards—on the principle set forth by the great apostle in Romans 14th, and 1st Corinthians, 8th chapter. Mr. Wallace at once accepted the principle, and took the total abstinence pledge, and ever since it has been one of the chief aims of his life to promote the cause of temperance, through total abstinence, as the only effective way of preventing drunkenness. He often lectured, even while a student, and still more frequently since, and several times he has published sermons and pamphlets on the subject, such as “Temperance from the Bible Standpoint,” while labouring, as a member of the executive of the Ontario Temperance and Prohibitory League, to secure the Scott Act, which was carried at Ottawa as the result of a petition signed by about five hundred thousand persons. While residing at Ingersoll he leavened the county of Oxford with his views, and thus prepared the way for the Scott Act there. A few years ago he was appointed to prepare a tract for the executive of the Ontario Alliance, entitled, “The Lesson of Statistics; or, Facts and Figures on the Temperance Question,” five thousand copies of which were circulated. Since then he read a paper, by request, before the Toronto Ministerial Association, on “The Scriptural Argument for Prohibition,” which was published, by request, in the _Canada Citizen_, the organ of the Alliance. He also wrote, “The Scott Act and Prohibition the Hope of Canada,” published by the Methodist Book Room. Soon after the confederation of the provinces, Mr. Wallace wrote a pamphlet entitled “The New Dominion,” giving a description of the several provinces, with their various characteristics and resources. He has also written a good deal for _The Presbyterian_ and other papers, on Missions, the Sabbath, etc. His life has been a very busy one, a hard worker, working generally twelve to fifteen hours a day ever since he entered on his course of studies for the ministry. He has received about three thousand into church membership, and supplied or fostered a large number of stations in their earlier stages. He has several times been moderator of his own presbytery, at London, Hamilton, and Toronto, and has been honored by his brethren by being made president of the Toronto General Ministerial Association, and also president of the Toronto Presbyterian Ministerial Association. He was married at Ingersoll, Ontario, on the 3rd September, 1850, to Marianne Barker. Mr. Wallace had only one son, now the Rev. F. H. Wallace, M.A., B.D., born at Ingersoll, county of Oxford, on the 5th of September, 1851. He has had a very brilliant career as a student. After studying some years at the High School of Drummondville, Niagara Falls, he came out “head boy” of Upper Canada College in 1869, carrying off the Governor-General’s prize, and several other prize books. During his course at Toronto University, he held the three first scholarships in classics, modern languages, and general proficiency, and when he graduated he obtained the gold medal in classics. He took part of his theological course in Knox College, Toronto, and studied two sessions at Drew Theological Seminary, New Jersey, where he took his degree of B.D. Then he went to Germany, and spent the session of 1876-77 at Leipsic University. He has since been in the Methodist ministry in Toronto, Cobourg and Peterboro’. He has lately been appointed professor of New Testament Exegesis in Victoria University, Cobourg. Mr. Wallace had only one daughter who grew up to maturity. She held a first position all through her course of study, and was married in December, 1879, to Rev. Donald Tait, of Berlin, Ontario, and died in September, 1881, greatly beloved, leaving one little boy behind her, Francis Wallace Tait, who, through the kindness of his father, is still left with his grandparents.

* * * * *

=Dobell, Richard Reid=, Timber Merchant, Quebec, was born in 1837, at Liverpool, England. His father, George Dobell, was a successful tradesman in Liverpool, and well known for his strict integrity and stern independence. Richard Dobell, the subject of our sketch, secured his education at the Liverpool College, and came out to Quebec in August, 1857. For many years he carried on the business of timber merchant, under the name of Richard Dobell & Co.; but since 1885 the firm has been conducted under the title of Dobell, Beckett & Co., with a branch house in London, England. Mr. Dobell has always been deeply interested in the trade and prosperity of Quebec. He served as president of the Board of Trade, and was delegated by the Dominion Board of Trade to organize a conference in London to consider the advisability of a closer fiscal policy between Great Britain and her colonies. He is a member of the Executive Council of the Imperial Federation League in London, and is a firm advocate of a closer union being established between all the British colonies. He has been a member of the Quebec Harbor Commission since it was re-organized by the government, and was mainly instrumental in the construction of the Louise basin and docks. He is a Conservative in politics; and in religion a member of the Church of England. He is married to Elizabeth Frances, eldest daughter of Sir David MacPherson, and has three sons and two daughters.

* * * * *

=Carrier, Charles William=, Manufacturer, Lévis, province of Quebec, was born at St. Henri de Lauzon, county Lévis, on the 20th January, 1839. He was one of the first pupils of the College of Lévis, having entered that institution in the year it was founded. He went through the usual course of studies, and showed himself one of the brightest pupils of the school. In 1855 he took a situation as clerk in the commercial house of L. & A. Carrier, where he remained six years, gaining the highest step in the ladder by hard work, integrity, and attention to business. In 1861 he opened a store on his own account, and in a few years was at the head of an extensive business. In the year 1864, a young mechanic, of Lévis, Mr. Lainé, asked Mr. Carrier to give him the help of his experience and money to establish an iron foundry in Lévis. Many a less enterprising or more timid man would have refused, under the specious plea that he was doing a prosperous business, and could see no reason why he should abandon a sure trade to embark into a risky undertaking. Not so with Mr. Carrier; he saw at a glance that the enterprise had a good chance of success, would be the means of giving employment to a large number of people, and enthusiastically concentrated all his skill and interest in the advancement of the town of Lévis. Time amply proved that he was right in his surmises. In 1872, eight years after its foundation, the small foundry had grown up to the immense “Carrier-Lainé” works, known all over the country. In this undertaking Mr. Carrier gave the full measure of his capabilities as a business man and manager. When he thought of establishing this new industry the building of wooden ships, which had been almost the sole support of the working population, was in the wane, so much so, in fact, that the question was anxiously asked how the deserted ship-yards were to be again put in operation, and what would be the outcome of the enforced idleness of willing workers. Mr. Carrier came just in time to raise the courage of the inhabitants of Lévis and put new life into trade. He had to create and organize everything. After twenty years of ceaseless toil he has succeeded in gathering as good a gang of iron workers as can be found in the province, and to-day the Carrier-Lainé works are among the first in the Dominion in extent, perfected machinery, and finish and solidity of work. Besides making a financial success of his enterprise, Mr. Carrier has earned the gratitude of his countrymen, for having opened the doors of his works to the aspiring youth desirous to learn. In a country where industrial schools are in an embryo state, it is opportune to recall to the memory of those who will come after us the name of the man who was the first to open new avenues to the young generation. The Carrier-Lainé workshop has been a nursery from which have issued mechanics of all kinds, who are eagerly sought after in all the great centres of industry. How many families owe the future of their children to this good man? Mr. Carrier was beloved by his employees, chiefly on account of the interest he took in their welfare. For each and every one of them he had a word of encouragement or a good advice. Unlike the majority of employers who have become wealthy, he knew and instinctively felt that a little consideration to an employee at the right time is never out of place. In times of depression he never closed his works, even temporarily. “Profits are not large these times,” he would say, “but my workmen earn a living, and I am glad of it.” Such an example might be advantageously followed in many quarters. In the midst of his numerous occupations, Mr. Carrier found time to devote himself to everything tending to better the condition of the working classes. He was one of the founders of the Permanent Building Society of Lévis, and of the Loan and Investment Society of Quebec, having been a director of the latter company from its foundation until his death. Since 1870 he held a seat in the Council of Arts and Manufactures, over which he presided for two years. He devoted both his time and wealth to acts of charity and works of public interest. In 1882 he gave the town of Lévis a bronze statue of its founder, which is erected in Deziel square, and the municipal authorities have had the name of the generous donor engraved on the pedestal of the monument. Worn out by incessant labour, Mr. Carrier went to California to improve his health, but after a few months sojourn in that country he returned to his home, where he died on the 18th of September, 1887. In 1864 Mr. Carrier was married to Henriette Camille, the only daughter of Louis Carrier, who was the first mayor of Lévis, and occupied that position for seven consecutive years.

* * * * *

=Sedgewick, Robert=, Q.C., Barrister, Halifax, Nova Scotia, is a Scotchman by birth, having been born in Aberdeen on the 10th May, 1848. His father, the Rev. Robert Sedgewick, D.D., was born in Paisley, Scotland, was a minister of the United Presbyterian church, and for several years pastor of the U. P. Belmont street Church, Aberdeen. In 1849 he came to Nova Scotia, and was inducted as the minister of the congregation of Musquodoboit, where he died in 1885. His wife was Anne Middleton, a native of Perth, Scotland. The Rev. Dr. Sedgewick was the author of several works, which at the time of their publication attracted considerable attention; among others, that on “The Proper Sphere and Influence of Women in Christian Society;” “Amusements for Youth,” and “The Papacy: the Idolatry of Rome.” His eldest son, the Rev. Thomas Sedgewick, of Tatamagouche, N.S., a graduate of King’s College, Aberdeen, was, in the year 1886, the moderator of the Synod of the Presbyterian church in the Maritime provinces, and is a leading member of that communion. Robert Sedgewick entered as an undergraduate at Dalhousie College, Halifax, N.S., in November, 1863, where he obtained the degree of B.A. in May, 1867. In 1868, he commenced the study of the law in the office of the late John Sandfield Macdonald, premier of Ontario, at Cornwall, and in November, 1872, he was called to the bar of Ontario. He was admitted by Act of Parliament to the bar of Nova Scotia in May, 1873, in which province he has since practised his profession. In 1880 he was made a Queen’s counsel by the Dominion government. In 1885 he was appointed and now holds the office of recorder of the city of Halifax. In 1874 he unsuccessfully contested the county of Halifax in the Conservative interest for the local legislature. He was for four years an alderman of the city of Halifax, and for two terms he was a commissioner of schools for the same city. He was for several years president of the Alumni Association of Dalhousie College, and is now a governor of that university. He is also lecturer on Equity-Jurisprudence in connection with the Dalhousie Law School. In 1886 he was vice-president of the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society, and he is now a member of its council. He was for some years secretary of the North British Society and was eventually its president. Mr. Sedgewick is a Presbyterian in religion and a Liberal-Conservative in politics. He is at present the senior member of the legal firm of Sedgewick, Ross, and Sedgewick, Halifax, N.S. In 1873 he married Mary Sutherland Mackay, eldest daughter of the late William Mackay, of Halifax, N.S.

* * * * *