A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time by Rose

of the Norse discovery of America, read before the Nova Scotia Historical Society in the winter of 1887. Mr. Power drafted the charter of the University of Halifax, established by statute in 1876, and from that time until the practical extinction of the institution, owing to the withdrawal of the provincial grant by the Holmes government, in 1879, was an active and prominent member of the senate of the University, and an examiner in the Faculty of Law. Owing, in a great measure, to the numerical weakness of the Liberal party in the Senate of Canada, the subject of this sketch has, since his appointment, taken a very active part in the business of the House and its committees. While called upon to speak on subjects of every kind, he has given special attention to constitutional questions, railways, and the fisheries. Among his most important speeches may be mentioned one made in the session of 1879, in which were pointed out, for the first time in parliament, the many advantages of the Sault Ste. Marie route for a railway to the North-West; one in 1880 against the Deceased Wife’s Sister Bill; one in 1884 on the disproportion between the expenditure on the Intercolonial Railway and the receipts from that work; one on the question of Prohibition, and another on the route of the proposed “short line” railway from Montreal to the Lower Provinces, in 1885; one made during the discussion arising out of the proposal to take Senator O’Donohoe into the Cabinet, in 1886; and one made in the session of 1887 on a resolution introduced by Mr. Power, and unanimously adopted by the Senate, to the effect that in any negotiations for the admission of United States fishermen to the territorial waters of Canada, care should be taken that when admitted they should be subject to the laws and regulations governing our own fishermen. Amongst other parliamentary work done by the subject of this notice during recent years may be mentioned the drafting of the Nova Scotia Married Woman’s Property Act, which became law in 1884. Outside of politics, he has taken an active interest in various local matters of a public character, and is now a commissioner of schools for his native city; a commissioner of the Provincial Library, a director of the Victoria School of Art; a director of the Halifax Visiting Dispensary; one of the executive committee of the Halifax Ratepayers’ Association; and a member of the Nova Scotia Historical Society and of the Wanderers’ Athletic Association, as well as of certain associations connected with the Roman Catholic church. Although not a man of extreme views, but rather a conservative Liberal, Mr. Power has been consistent and resolute in his loyalty to the Reform party, and in his opposition to Liberal-Conservatism. His theory of government is that each individual, each family, each hamlet, village, town, city, county and province, should have the greatest liberty and self-government consistent with the safety of the common country, and that the business of government should be carried on according to the same principles which are adopted by prudent men in managing their own affairs. He thinks that the powers of the central government in Canada are greater than they should be, and that the machinery of that government is complicated, cumbrous, ineffective and expensive, to a lamentable degree. If these defects and abuses were removed, and the tariff framed in the interests of the mass of the population instead of as now in the interests of a very small minority, he thinks that the natural advantages of our country would ere long have the effect of largely increasing our wealth, population, and our importance in the eyes of the outside world. Mr. Power was married on the 23rd of June, 1880, to Susan, daughter of Mr. M. O’Leary, of Noodiquoddy, Halifax county. * * * * * =McDonald, Rev. Clinton Donald=, B.A., B.L., B.D., M.A., Ph.B., B.Sc., Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Thorold, Ontario, was born in the city of Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, on the 17th June, 1842. His father, Angus McDonald, and his mother, Mary McDonald, both belonged to the Clan McDonald, of Glencoe, Inverness-shire, and had moved to Glasgow shortly before the birth of their only son. In Glasgow, Angus McDonald, a stalwart Highlander, over six feet in height, served for several years in the city police force, and afterwards removed to the village of Dalmuir, in Dumbartonshire, where he was employed in Tennant’s chemical works, and here he died. Both his parents died before Clinton had seen his tenth birthday, and thus the orphan boy, with his only sister, were thrown upon the world to push their way the best they could. For five or six years Clinton spent his time among the farmers in the parishes of Old Kilpatrick, Cardross, and Row; and having saved a little money he emigrated to Canada. Shortly after his arrival he found employment as a farm hand in the county of Huron, and worked there for about three years as such. Being addicted to no vices, steady, moral, and frugal in his habits, he had in these few years acquired sufficient money to enable him to obtain that which of all things he had long desired, namely, a better education. With this object in view, he gathered together his worldly possessions, and started from the backwoods of the township of Hullett, and took up his abode in the town of Clinton. Here he entered the public school, then taught by John McFaul, where he continued for a year, and then spent another year in the High school taught by George Argo, B.A. When he first entered school he had but the slightest knowledge of geography and grammar, and only the most elementary rules in arithmetic, yet at the end of these two years he had made such rapid progress that, at the examination for teachers in the county of Huron, he obtained a first class teachers’ certificate. He then took up teaching as a profession, and for about two years successfully prosecuted this work. But the desire for a still higher education had taken such possession of his mind that he determined to still further prosecute his studies. He entered Knox College, Toronto, and having passed its full literary and classical courses, entered Toronto University, and passed the first three of its five examinations in the Arts course. Before completing the Arts course in the university he entered the divinity hall of Knox College to study Theology, and on the completion of this course he entered the ministry. During his college course, which lasted about six years, the Rev. Mr. McDonald gained marked distinction, and at the competitive examinations carried off so many of the cash prizes that he was able thereby to pay all the costs of his college career. In 1877, the congregation of the First Presbyterian church of Thorold called the Rev. Mr. McDonald, who at that time had charge of the Presbyterian church at Point Edward, near Sarnia, to become its pastor, and since then the church has had a very successful career. The population of Thorold, through the completion of certain public works in its vicinity, is now about one thousand less than it was when Rev. Mr. McDonald went there, yet though the number of people in the town is much less, the number of members in the Presbyterian church is much greater; that is, while the population has fallen from about three thousand down to two thousand, yet the number of members in the church has risen from ninety-nine up to one hundred and eighty. Looking at the facts above stated, we may fairly conclude that Rev. Mr. McDonald is evidently a man of push and perseverance, and we predict for him a highly honourable career, such an one as must fall to the lot of a man who has thus steadily worked himself up to his present position in the church. * * * * * =Coldwell, Albert Edward=, M.A., Professor of Natural Science, Acadia College, Wolfville, N.S., was born at Gaspereau, Kings county, N.S., September 18th, 1841. The Coldwell family is of English origin, the family name in its present form having been handed down for some centuries. Mr. Coldwell’s great-great-grandfather came to Nova Scotia from New England and took up lands in the beautiful valley of the Gaspereau. Many of his descendants are now living in the immediate vicinity. Our subject’s father was Ebenezer Coldwell and his mother Mary Stevens, also a well known family in Nova Scotia. Mr. Coldwell’s maternal uncle, Rev. James Stevens, was widely known and respected, not only in Nova Scotia but outside of it, as a prominent member of the Baptist ministry, up to the time of his death which occurred at a ripe old age. Mr. Coldwell was educated at Horton Collegiate Academy and Acadia College. He pursued the general classical course, graduating B.A. (with honours) in 1869. At the end of Sophomore year he won the monthly essay prize and in his senior year the Alumni essay prize of $40 open to all undergraduates. Obtained his M.A. degree in 1872. In 1877, Mr. Coldwell won the Vaughan prize of £20 sterling for the best essay on the History of Acadia College. This history is published in the memorial volume issued by the college in 1881, and apart from its historical value is a gem of literary excellence. Prof. Coldwell has not been satisfied with education derived from books alone, but has travelled somewhat extensively and thereby came into immediate contact with the scholars of other countries. For a short time he resided in London, making the most of his opportunities, and he is also familiar with the centres of thought in the eastern and middle States. It is scarcely necessary to add that he is a Baptist. He also married into a well known family of that denomination, his wife being Jessie, a daughter of W. J. Higgins, and niece of Professor Higgins, of Acadia College, and also of Rev. Dr. Higgins, pastor of the Wolfville Baptist Church. In January, 1871, Mr. Coldwell was appointed instructor in mathematics in Horton Collegiate Academy, which post he filled until 1882, when he was appointed instructor in Natural Science in Acadia College. In June, 1884, he was appointed professor in that department, which position he still holds. Prof. Coldwell’s reputation does not rest alone upon his connection with Acadia, but in consequence of the special attention he has given to science studies since graduating he is rapidly gaining a name for himself in the scientific world. * * * * * =Spencer, Charles Worthington=, Montreal, general superintendent eastern division Canadian Pacific Railway, was born on the 31st October, 1857, at Kemptville, Ont. He would confer no small service on mankind, and especially on that portion of it which constitutes the business world of our modern civilization, who would set forth, in the form of “brief biographies,” the stages by which men attain success in the various walks of active life. Soldiers, statesmen, _litterateurs_, men of science, scholars, and churchmen, who have achieved distinction, rarely lack pens to celebrate their courage, their genius, their learning and their discoveries. Their names become household words in the professions or occupations by which they have risen to fame, so that those who succeed them in the same path of effort are at no loss for examples by which to shape their own careers. In the vast range of multifarious activity—the world of commerce and skilled industry, the world of railroads and steamships, to which our age is mainly indebted for its practical progress—it is unfortunately otherwise. Hundreds of the men who have blessed their kind while advancing their own interest—who have opened up new fields of human labor, who have broadened the realm of trade, and, by inventions, adaptations and administrative talent, have brought communities, severed by thousands of miles, into friendly contiguity, and given facility, safety and comfort to the intercourse between nation and nation—have been allowed to pass away with hardly a record of their existence, and still oftener without any worthy memorial of their services to their fellowmen. To the young man just beginning life; such a biographical collection, based on the careers of men who by the faithful and conscientious use of natural and acquired advantages had won for themselves a name and position in their chosen path of endeavors, would be of untold value. He would learn what qualities to accentuate, what dangers to avoid, how best to avail himself of opportunities as they offered, and, in time, how, by serving faithfully, to fit himself eventually for the task of supervision and command. When such a work, or series of works (as this), is given to the public, there is one name which it is sure to include in its list of examples, that which stands at the head of this memoir. Charles Worthington Spencer, general superintendent of the eastern division of the Canadian Pacific Railway, has the peculiar distinction of being the youngest man in his profession who fills so high and responsible a position. To what gifts and energies he owes his promotion those who have the pleasure of his acquaintance need not be informed. Able, courteous, with a mental grasp that can take in wide surveys, without at the same time neglecting details, he has risen step by step to the exalted place which he occupies with a rapidity rarely, if ever, paralleled on any of our great American lines. Mr. Spencer, at the present time, 1888, is only in his thirty-first year. He entered the railway service on the 7th day of May, 1871, and was operator and clerk at the Ottawa station until May, 1874, when he became assistant agent. He then passed successively through the stages of assistant train despatcher, chief train despatcher, traffic superintendent, assistant superintendent, and assistant general superintendent. From 1st August, 1884, to 30th April, 1885, he was assistant general superintendent of the eastern division; from the latter date to 27th September, 1886, he was assistant general superintendent of the eastern and Ontario divisions. From the latter date to 25th September, 1887, he was acting general superintendent of the same division. On the date last mentioned he received the important appointment which he still holds, that of general superintendent of the eastern division. The whole of Mr. Spencer’s experience was gained in Canada, and in connection with the great enterprise to which he is still so honorably attached. If Canada has reason to be proud of her industry and commerce, which of late have so grand a development, she owes her progress in those respects to her great public works and improvements, her chain of canals and net-work of railways, which same have made inter-communication possible. Of these, the C. P. R. takes the acknowledged lead, and of the men to whom that great route is indebted for that perfection of equipment and administration which have won it the public confidence at home and the admiration of foreigners, not the least worthy of grateful recognition is Charles Worthington Spencer. * * * * * =Tetreau, Rev. F.=, was born at St. Hyacinthe, on October 11th, 1819. His parents were honest farmers. Left an orphan when very young, his grandparents carefully watched over his earliest education. At the age of twelve years, under the kind and generous protection of the curé of his parish, he entered and commenced his classical studies at the St. Hyacinthe College, and there terminated them with great success in 1838, in the midst of such distinguished men as the present Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario and the Archbishop of St. Boniface. After mature reflection, this young philosopher became a priest, and consecrated his life to the care and instruction of the young of that institution, which so deservedly merited all his gratitude and devotion. One day his bishop remarked to him, “Be a pillar of the seminary.” This remark became an order, accepted and carried out in its fullest extent. For more than half a century the “pillar” has been in its place, and has only bowed to the inevitable march of time, and Providence has blessed him, and crowned his ripe years with success. The aged priest has the energy and ardor of his younger days, leading a uniform life, and filling all the necessary duties of a college professor. He has practised in his deportment the ascetic maxim, “_Ama nesciri et pro nihilo reputari_.” This maxim did not prevent him keeping up kindly relations with his brothers in religion or his old pupils, all deeply attached to the cradle of their intellectual life. He was also much interested in the young writers of St. Hyacinthe, as well as elsewhere, Oscar Dunn being one of those of whom he retains an intimate and indelible remembrance. Who knows but that the old priest, in the exuberance of his youth, was guilty of many press delinquencies? Whether he was on the side of the press or not, it is certain he has written a great deal. Since 1849 he has chronicled, collected and made note of every event of importance which has taken place in the world, particularly in Canada, but more especially at St. Hyacinthe and the college. As every change occurs, it has been carefully committed to writing day by day, and these memoirs in the future will serve as a foundation for local history. Those who have had the privilege of seeing the manuscript agree that it is most valuable. After this short and condensed notice, it will easily be understood that the Rev. F. Tetreau has been one of the useful workers of this earth, and his life a general benefit to his fellow-creatures, always practising the maxim, “_Ama nesciri et pro nihilo reputari_.” * * * * * =Fry, Edward Carey= (Henry Fry & Co., of Quebec) was born in Bristol, the commercial capital of the west of England, on the 24th June, 1842. Although, like many others of our prominent men in the various walks of life, the subject of our sketch was not born in Canada, he is, nevertheless, by commercial training, more than thirty years’ residence in the country, and also by marriage, a typical Anglo-Canadian. He is one of the leading members of Quebec commercial society. His parents were of the middle class in life, but still possessed of sufficient means to give their numerous family the elements of a good sound English commercial education. His surname at once suggests some connection with the Society of Friends commonly known as “Quakers,” and with good reason, for his immediate ancestors were certainly of that denomination, while there is little doubt that those more remote were of the band who left England for these shores to avoid religious persecution, and who appear to have settled in New Brunswick, as the name is well known around St. Stephen’s to this day. In fact, when Mr. Fry’s elder brother, Henry, first landed there in 1853, the first person to address him bore exactly the same name as himself, and with little difficulty they traced their descent to a common ancestor. A Peter Fry left New Brunswick and settled in the county of Somerset, England, where he became the founder of that branch of the family, and numerous are the mural tablets in the picturesque village churches of that county to the memory of different members of this family, who seem to have been held in the highest respect, as was its founder, of whom the following is recorded in marble in the parish church of Axbridge, Somerset:— “To the Memory of PETER FRY, Who resigned his spirit into the hands of his Redeemer, 21st September, 1787, Aged 52 years. That his example may be a light to others Let this stone record his virtues. In transacting business he showed great ability and clear understanding and a sound judgment. He was much trusted and never betrayed a trust; yet his inviolable integrity was tempered with the gentlest humanity. In social life, he was benevolent, friendly and charitable. In his domestic connexions, prudent, affectionate, and tender. In his commerce with God, in whom he placed a truly Christian confidence, humble, pious and resigned. Reader, ‘Go and do thou likewise.’” George Fry, the father of our subject, though not a member of the Society of Friends, was educated in one of their schools, and a certain amount of quiet reserve, sedateness, and plainness of speech descended from the father to several of his sons, who are still apt to call a spade a “spade” and not an “agricultural implement.” Mr. Edward Carey Fry received his education at the grammar school of Bristol, a city famous for its schools, and by the time he had received all that his friends could give him in that respect, his elder brother Henry had become a Canadian ship-owner, while several of his other brothers were at sea. It was decided that the boy, Edward, should follow their example and he was accordingly apprenticed to Henry and served some time in one of his ships, the well known old _Lotus_. Although by this means he acquired a knowledge of the sea and of ships, which has since been very valuable to him in his capacity of Lloyd’s Agent, life in a timber ship was necessarily distasteful to a lad of his stamp and, as it was seen, that by education and a certain amount of refinement he was more fitted for his brother’s office in Quebec than for the forecastle of a timber ship, the change was made. There the business portion of his education commenced, progressed, and was completed under his brother’s fostering care, so that for experience of Canadian timber and shipping matters and especially of all that concerns the port of Quebec and its trade, he is probably excelled by none. He was finally taken into partnership by Mr. Henry Fry, a connection only to be dissolved by the lamented break-down of the latter gentleman’s health owing to overwork very largely honorary, philanthropic, and for the welfare of his fellow citizens of Quebec, by whom no one was more highly respected or deservedly regretted. The business has since been carried on by Mr. Edward Carey Fry, under the old and honoured name. After becoming a citizen of Quebec, Mr. Edward Fry added to his previous ties by marrying Elizabeth, the daughter of the Revd. David Marsh, the well-known and esteemed Baptist minister of Quebec, who, like her young husband, was born in England, though transplanted to this country at a very early age. They have a large family of bright, intelligent boys and girls, undoubtedly showing in their physique their Anglo-Saxon origin, but Canadian born and with all the advantages of education that an excellent school system can supply. Mr. Fry has been associated from infancy with the Baptist church. In fact he was named after the great Baptist missionary, Edward Carey, and, as a child, attended Broadmead Baptist chapel, Bristol, well known to the religious world as having been the scene of the labours of Drs. Robert Hall, Foster, and Evans, whose names are historical. In politics, like his elder brother, it is understood that he declines to be tied to any party, his motto being “measures, not men,” and that he will support either side when he believes they are acting honestly for the welfare of his adopted country. If he has a bias, it is believed to be in favour of perfect liberty and equality in religion, politics and commerce, which is only what might be expected from one not very remotely connected with the freedom-loving Society of Friends. At one time his firm was largely interested in the timber business, but this branch has been abandoned by it for some years and its time and attention are now wholly devoted to shipping and commission. Mr. Fry’s position as Lloyd’s Agent and agent for other British and continental underwriters at Quebec, and representing, as he does, several large ship-owning houses, both sail and steam, have given him an extensive and unique experience in getting vessels and cargoes out of difficulties at the least possible cost to all concerned. Like most Quebecers, who have commercial relations with England, he takes periodical trips to his native land. In fact, he has crossed the Atlantic at least fifty times, and it must be said to the credit of his filial affection and sense of patriotism that he never allows his business on such occasions to prevent him, when in England, from paying a visit of love and reverence to the home of his ancestors in Somersetshire, and especially to his father’s native place, the pretty village of Winscombe, where, notwithstanding the march of modern improvement, all is still rustic simplicity. The beautiful old church, with its wealth of historic associations from the days of the Crusaders downwards, and its picturesque churchyard, which commands a series of views of a lovely country and contains one of the finest yew trees in England, are still just as his father knew them in his youth. Time has not perceptibly changed them; but the spot, more than all others, which always interests the son, is that immediately in front of the font in the sacred edifice, on which his father was held for baptism over a hundred years ago. On one of his visits to Winscombe church, Mr. Fry had the pleasure of examining its old register and has now in his possession a certified copy of his father’s baptismal record—a quaint interesting memorial of the past in the old English way of writing. It shows that the old man was born as far back as 1783, or seventeen years before the beginning of the present century, and it can be readily imagined that many notable events in the world’s history were embraced within the recollection of one whose span of existence was prolonged down to our own times in 1868. Mr. Fry still vividly recalls listening at his father’s knee to his stories of his long life, how he could just remember hearing in his boyhood the startling news of the execution of Louis XVI. and his queen Marie Antoinette, and how, as his memory became more vigorous with his growth, he retained more vivid impressions with regard to the battles of the Nile, St. Vincent, and Trafalgar, the nation’s mourning for Nelson, and the times of privateering in which Bristol took a very prominent part, and when wheat was nevertheless a guinea a bushel in the midst of all the ill-gotten wealth of that day. “Fine times those were for the landlords and farmers”—used the old man to say—“but the common people were reduced to the verge of starvation.” And he often added that, though he had probably outlived all the leading spirits of those privateering days, he could not remember any case in which the money so acquired appeared to have done any real good, and that he hoped to see the day when, in time of war, the rights of inoffensive private property would be respected and privateers receive the only rights to which, in his opinion, they were entitled—a good rope at the yard-arm as pirates. Other milestones in his memory, on which he frequently loved to descant for the benefit of his children, were the days of the Regency, the battle of Waterloo, the death of Napoleon, the trial of Queen Caroline, whose husband he thought a sensual brute, though he was styled “the first gentleman in Europe;” the passing of the Reform Bill, the opposition to which by the member for Bristol, Sir Charles Wetherall, contrary to the wishes of his constituents, caused fearful riots and loss of life in that city, the second and even the third French revolution, the abolition of slavery under the British flag in 1834, the accession and marriage of Queen Victoria, the abolition of the corn laws, and the abandonment by Great Britain of protection for the benefits of a vigorous free trade policy. It is scarcely necessary to say that these stirring reminiscences made a deep impression on young Fry’s mind and that, while as a man to-day his preference is for his adopted country and his faith strong in the greatness of its future, he still yields to none either in love for Old England or in unswerving adherence in public and private to the sturdy principles of rectitude which seem to have been so marked a characteristic of his worthy father. Ability and uprightness in business and straightforwardness in all things have won for him the respect of his fellow-citizens of Quebec, and few are held in higher or more deserved estimation by all classes of the population. Mr. Fry is a member of the Quebec Board of Trade, and, though adverse to accepting any prominent position in that or any other public body, because, owing to the demands of his business, he cannot give to them all the requisite time and attention, he nevertheless ever takes a deep and watchful interest in all that concerns the public good, whether in a commercial, municipal, political or religious sense, and can always be counted on to do his duty intelligently and as a good citizen when necessary. * * * * * =Ogden, Charles Kinnis=, Three Rivers, Province of Quebec, was born at Three Rivers, on the 11th of February, 1829. He is a son of Isaac Governeur Ogden, who was for forty years sheriff of the district of Three Rivers, and also served as captain in H.M. 56th Regiment, and in another regiment with Colonel De Salaberry. His grandfather was the Hon. Isaac Ogden, judge of the Superior Court, Montreal, and a U. E. loyalist, who was driven out of his possessions in New Jersey by Gen. George Washington, in 1775, his lands being all confiscated on account of his loyalty to the British Crown. The city of New Jersey is now situated in the centre of his farm, but from which the Ogden family receive no income. Mr. Ogden is a nephew of the late Charles Richard Ogden, attorney-general under Sir John Colborne’s administration, in