In the spring of 1862 Dr. Schultz was unfortunate enough to be away from home when the terrible Sioux massacre occurred in Minnesota, completely cutting off connection between its frontier settlements and Fort Garry, and spreading devastation and terror throughout the whole of the North-West. The Doctor, after waiting some time at St. Paul, where he had been transacting business, attempted the passage through the Indian country by the "Crow Wing" trail, as it was called. After many days and nights of cautious travelling, and one capture by the Indians, from which he owed his release to his ability to convince the savages that he was English and not American, he arrived safely at Pembina, whence he made his way to Fort Garry. In 1864 he became the owner and editor of the Nor'-Wester, the pioneer newspaper of the North-West, and laboured hard through its columns to make the great agricultural value of the country known. His policy was, of course, diametrically opposed to that of the Hudson's Bay Company, and as time passed by, the hostility between that Company and himself became very bitter and implacable. He subsequently disposed of the Nor'-Wester to Dr. Walter Robert Bown, by whom the paper was conducted at the time of the outbreak to be presently referred to.
In 1868 Dr. Schultz married Miss Agnes Campbell Farquharson, formerly of Georgetown, British Guiana. He soon afterwards built the house which was destined to become historical for the defence against Riel and his insurrectionary force. In the autumn of 1868 he greatly extended the fur business in which he was engaged, sending expeditions for that purpose to the far north and west. The following autumn brought with it the first mutterings of the Red River Rebellion, and it was seen that Dr. Schultz was a marked man. Warning letters from Riel and other insurgents were sent to him. Some of the Hudson's Bay Company's officials openly accused him of having been the means of bringing about connection with Canada, and in the gathering of the storm there seemed to be an ominous future for him whom many of the Canadians then in the country looked upon as their leader, and trusted to for their defence. He was unfortunate, too, in the situation of his residence and trading post, which were the nearest buildings to Fort Garry, and within easy range of the field guns which Riel afterwards planted to force the giving up of the Canadian Government provisions. Upon the actual breaking out of the insurrection, Dr. Schultz suffered severely, both in person and in purse. His pecuniary losses were recompensed to him by the Government, but the bodily privations to which he was subjected were the means of inflicting a shock upon his constitution, the effects of which are still to some extent perceptible. After the seizure of Fort Garry by the insurgents, the loyal Canadians of the settlement were placed under surveillance. About fifty of these assembled for mutual safety at Dr. Schultz's house, about eight hundred yards from the Fort. Here they were besieged by several hundred of Riel's followers for three days. The siege does not seem to have been incessant or very active, but there were more than two hundred armed French half-breeds who kept continually on the watch, and the inmates were prevented from egress. It is said that two mounted six-pounders were drawn by the insurgents outside the walls of Fort Garry, with their muzzles pointed in the direction of the beleaguered house. The little force inside the building was too small to enable the besieged to make a permanent resistance, and at last they were compelled to surrender. They were then marched by the rebels to Fort Garry and imprisoned there. Dr. Schultz himself, who was the especial object of Riel's hatred, was placed in solitary confinement, under a strong guard. His wife, who had insisted on remaining by his side, was at first permitted to share his imprisonment, but after a few days she was forcibly separated from him, and it seemed not unlikely that this separation had been effected by Riel with a view to wreaking his vengeance on the Doctor by taking his life. Riel himself alleged that there was no intention of harming any of the prisoners, but that he considered it desirable to separate Mr. and Mrs. Schultz, lest the husband should be enabled to escape through the instrumentality of his wife, who of course was not a prisoner, and who was permitted ingress and egress at all reasonable hours. Dr. Schultz, however, placed little reliance on the word of the arch-insurgent. Knowing the sentiments with which he was regarded by Riel, he felt that his life was liable to be sacrificed at any moment, and he determined to make an attempt to escape. This purpose, after being confined for nearly three weeks, he successfully accomplished. Mrs. Schultz contrived to secretly convey to him a pen-knife and a small gimlet. With these inadequate means he made an opening through his cell, large enough to enable him to pass through into the inner quadrangle of the Fort. On the night of Sunday, the 23rd of December, 1869, he cut into strips the buffalo-robe which served for his bed, fastened an end to a projection in his cell, passed through the opening he had made in the wall, and prepared to descend to terra firma. While he was making the descent one of the strips of buffalo skin snapped, and he was precipitated violently to the ground. The fall rendered him temporarily lame, and caused him great suffering, but even in this disabled condition he managed to scramble over the outer wall near one of the bastions, and found himself at liberty. He stole away in the dead silence of night, and after a toilsome march of some hours in a blinding snow-storm, took refuge in the house of a friendly settler in the parish of Kildonan. There, in the course of the next few weeks, he and other Canadians organized a force about six hundred strong, with a view to releasing their friends who were still imprisoned at Fort Garry. Everything being in readiness for action, a message, demanding the release of the prisoners, was despatched to Riel. The demand was vigorously backed up by the influence of Mr. A. G. B. Bannatyne, a prominent citizen of Red River, and Miss McVicar, a young lady from Canada who was on a visit to the settlement. These two called upon Riel at Fort Garry, and begged him to avert the bloodshed which would certainly result if he persisted in detaining the prisoners. Riel, under the combined influence of his interlocutors and the demand which had been made upon him by the Canadian forces, displayed the better part of valour, and promptly released the captives. He was determined, however, to recapture Dr. Schultz, and sent out several expeditions to discover his whereabouts. He declared that he would have Dr. Schultz's body, dead or alive, if it was to be found in the Red River Settlement. Disappointed at the non-success of his emissaries, Riel started out himself at the head of an expedition, to scour the settlement, and to recapture the object of his enmity. The expedition reached the Stone Fort, or Lower Fort Garry, about midway between the capital of the settlement and the entrance of Red River into Lake Winnipeg. They entered the enclosure, and searched every nook and corner of the Fort. Ill would it have fared with Dr. Schultz had he been discovered there; but he was far away, and was every hour increasing the distance between Riel and himself. A large meeting of loyalist settlers had been held, at which Dr. Schultz was requested to proceed to Canada, and to lay the real state of affairs before the people there. Such a mission involved grave perils and hardships, for all the roads leading to Minnesota were closely guarded by the insurgents, and certain death would have overtaken the Doctor had he again fallen into their hands. He determined, however, to make the attempt by way of Lake Superior. On the 21st of February, accompanied only by an English half-breed named Joseph Monkman, he started on his perilous expedition. News of his having done so came in due course to the ears of Riel, who sent out scouts in every direction to intercept him. The Doctor and his companion eluded their vigilance, and with snow-shoes on their feet struck across the frozen south-easterly end of Lake Winnipeg to the mouth of the Winnipeg River. They made their way past the rushing cascades of that stream to the Lake of the Woods; thence across to Rainy Lake, and thence across the northern part of the State of Minnesota to the head of Lake Superior. Numerous camps of Indians were encountered on this adventurous march, and from time to time guides were obtained from the latter. "Over weary miles of snow-covered lakes; over the watershed between Rainy Lake and the lakes of the Laurentian chain; over the height of land between Rainy Lake and Lake Superior; through pine forests and juniper swamps, these travellers made their way, turning aside only where wind-fallen timber made their course impossible. Often saved from starvation by the woodcraft of Monkman; their course guided by the compass, or by views taken from the top of some stately Norway pine, they found themselves, after twenty-four weary days of travel, in sight of the blue, unfrozen waters of Lake Superior. They had struck the lake not far from its head, and in a few hours presented themselves to the astonished gaze of the people of the then embryo village of Duluth, gaunt with hunger, worn with fatigue, their clothes in tatters, their eyes blinded with the glare of the glittering sun of March." They then learned for the first time of the terrible event which had occurred at Fort Garry since their departure—the murder of the unfortunate Thomas Scott. From Duluth they made their way to Toronto, whither news of their adventures had preceded them. On the 6th of April an indignation meeting was held in Toronto, at which a stirring address was delivered by Dr. Schultz, wherein the whole nature of the Red River difficulty was reviewed. Resolutions expressive of indignation at Scott's murder, and calling aloud for active Government interference, were passed. Similar meetings were held, and similar resolutions passed in Montreal, and in various other cities and towns in both the Upper and Lower Provinces. The expedition under Colonel (now Sir Garnet) Wolseley was soon afterwards set on foot, but the account of it has no special bearing upon Dr. Schultz's life, and need not be given here. The Doctor soon afterwards returned to Manitoba, where he has ever since resided, and where he exercises a potent influence over public affairs.
For nearly ten years past Dr. Schultz has been engaged in active political life. At the first general election after Manitoba became part of the Dominion, he was elected to represent the county of Lisgar (which comprises most of the old Lord Selkirk Settlement) in the House of Commons. The following year he was appointed a member of the Executive Council of the North-West Territories, which sat in Winnipeg under the Presidency of the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province. In this capacity he was able to utilize his knowledge of the Indians and their wants much to their advantage, in the passage of a Prohibitive Liquor Law for the whole of the North-West, and in other measures for the amelioration of their condition. He was reëlected to represent Lisgar at the general election of 1872, and again at that of 1874, and again by acclamation at the last general election. He is a member of the Dominion Board of Health for Manitoba, a Director of the Manitoba Southwestern Colonization Railway, one of the Board of Examiners of the Manitoba Medical Board, a Director of the Winnipeg and Hudson's Bay Railway, and of the Great Northwestern Telegraph Company. He is moreover one of the largest land owners in the Province. He is enthusiastic in his views as to the future of Manitoba, and of the North-West generally, and takes an active interest in promoting the welfare and prosperity of that part of the Dominion. Of late years his health has been somewhat less robust than formerly. This result is partly due to a native energy which frequently impels him to overtax his physical strength, and partly, doubtless, to the sufferings and privations above referred to. The North-West, however, has upon the whole been propitious to the Doctor. His speculations have made him a thoroughly independent man, so far as worldly wealth is concerned, and he can well afford to take repose for the remainder of his life. He is a member of the Liberal-Conservative Party, and a staunch supporter of the Government now in power at Ottawa.
THE HON. GEORGE WILLIAM BURTON.
Judge Burton was born at the town of Sandwich, the most ancient of the Cinque Ports, in the county of Kent, England, on the 21st of July, 1818. He was the second son of the late Admiral George Guy Burton, R.N., of Chatham. He received his education at the Rochester and Chatham Proprietary School, under the late Rev. Robert Whiston, LL.D., a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who subsequently occupied the position of Head-Master of the Grammar School at Rochester, and who was the author of several works remarkable for sound scholarship and independence of thought. Mr. Burton has always held his tutor in honoured remembrance, and to this day is accustomed to speak of him with the respect due to his great learning and attainments.
In 1836, the year before the breaking out of Mackenzie's rebellion, Mr. Burton, then a youth of eighteen, came over to Upper Canada and repaired to Ingersoll, in the county of Oxford, where he began the study of the law in the office of his paternal uncle, the late Mr. Edmund Burton, who then carried on a legal business there. The gentleman last named had formerly held an office in connection with the Admiralty, and had been stationed at the mouth of the Grand River during the War of 1812, '13, and '14. After the close of the war he devoted himself to the law, and spent the rest of his life in Upper Canada. His presence in this country was doubtless to some extent the cause of his nephew's emigration from England. The latter spent the regular term of five years in his uncle's office in Ingersoll. Upon the expiration of his articles, he was called to the Bar, in Easter Term, 1842, and settled down to the practice of his profession in Hamilton, where he was not long in acquiring a large and lucrative business. He identified himself with the Reform Party in politics, and took an active part in various local elections. He was frequently importuned to enter Parliament, but he preferred to confine his best energies to his professional duties, and, as the years passed by, his business assumed such dimensions that he had full occupation for his time. He formed various partnerships, but was always the guiding spirit of the firm, and became known from one end of the Province to the other as a sound and learned lawyer. His connexion with Mr. Charles A. Sadleir lasted for many years, and the firm of "Burton & Sadleir" was one of the best known in the western part of the Province. On the 9th of June, 1850, Mr. Burton married Miss Elizabeth Perkins, daughter of the late Dr. F. Perkins, of Kingston, in the Island of Jamaica, and niece and adopted daughter of the late Colonel Charles Cranston Dixon, of the 90th Regiment.
The life of an industrious lawyer, though interesting to himself and his clients, is uneventful, and there is not much to be said about Mr. Burton's professional career, except that it was a remarkably successful one. He had many wealthy merchants and corporations for his clients, and was regarded as an adept in the law relating to railway companies. He was for many years Solicitor for the City of Hamilton; also for the Canada Life Assurance Company, of which he is at present a Director, having been elected to that position soon after his elevation to the Judicial Bench. In 1856 he was nominated a Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada, and when that body became elective by the profession at large, under the Ontario Act of 1871, he was elected to the position. In 1863 he was invested with a silk gown.