Barclay, Rev. John, D.D., Presbyterian Minister, and honorary Chaplain of the St. Andrew’s Society of Toronto, was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, and died at Toronto on the 27th September, 1887, in his seventy-fifth year. He came to Canada in 1842, and in December of the same year was inducted pastor of the St. Andrew’s Church, then on the corner of Church and Adelaide streets, Toronto. He retained the pastorate of this church until 1870, when he was succeeded by the Rev. D. J. Macdonnell. Shortly after this event the congregation divided, the majority going west to the new church erected on the corner of King and Simcoe streets; and the remainder, after a few more years occupation of the venerable church edifice, also removed to a handsome church erected on the corner of Jarvis and Carlton streets, the old pile being then removed to give place to a block of new buildings. During his lifetime Rev. Dr. Barclay was one of the business men of the church, and for some years clerk of the presbytery; a member of the Temporalities Board; a trustee of Queen’s College; and withal an ardent curler. In 1855 the University of Glasgow conferred upon him the degree of D.D. He was not in good health for some time previous to his death. The deceased gentleman began immediately after his arrival in this country to take an active interest in curling, and many of his friends remonstrated with him at that time, considering it unbecoming a clergyman to indulge in such recreation; but he maintained that the mind and body were only strengthened by such invigorating exercise as the participation in this sport afforded, and now-a-days there are many enthusiastic curlers in the ministry. About seven years ago a controversy arose in the Ontario branch of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, as to whether the Ontario branch should cut loose altogether from the older institution. James Russell proposed that the Ontario branch should retain its connection with the R.C.C.C., on condition that it be permitted to make its own laws and regulations, and spend its money in the way best calculated to promote curling in Ontario. Dr. Barclay strongly opposed any change from the original arrangement, by which the Ontario branch was subservient to the R.C.C.C., but after a struggle, Mr. Russell’s idea was adopted. Dr. Barclay was chaplain of the Toronto Club for many years, and of the Ontario branch since its formation. He made many friends in the city of his adoption during his long and useful career, and his remains were conveyed to their last resting place accompanied by a large concourse of his acquaintances.
Laviolette, Hon. Joseph Gaspard, Montreal, M.L.C. for the Division of De Lorimier, is a son of the late Lieut.-Colonel Laviolette, of St. Eustache, county of Two Mountains, and Madame Adelaide Lemaire, St. Germain, and was born at St. Eustache, on the 2nd March, 1812. After attending the primary schools of his native town, he was sent to the College of Montreal to complete his education, and went through a thorough course of classical studies. He is seignior of the seigniory of Sherrington, county of Napierville, and holds a commission of lieutenant-colonel in the militia. He was appointed census commissioner by the government of Canada in 1860, and again in 1870 by the same government. He has occupied the post of warden of the county of Napierville, and was also elected mayor of the town, and held a commission of justice of the peace and commissioner for the summary trial of small causes. Hon. Mr. Laviolette has always been an active politician and a supporter of the Conservative party. He was appointed to the Legislative Council of the province of Quebec, in 1876, for the division of De Lorimier. For several years he was a director of the Montreal and Champlain Railway. He was married twice, the first time to Célanire, a daughter of the late Lieut.-Colonel Portelance, M.P.P.; the second time to Corine, a daughter of André Bédard, N.P., brother to Justice Bédard. He has a family of six children, two sons and four daughters; one son is a merchant in San Francisco, Cal., the other a druggist and M.D., in Montreal; three sons-in-law: A. Bélaire, merchant, of St. Eustache, J. Girouard, M.D., of Longueuil, A. Marsolais, M.D., of Montreal, and the late L. N. Duverger, merchant, of Montreal.
Campbell, Francis Wayland, M.A. (Bishop’s College), M.D. (McGill), L.R.C.P. (London, England), was born in the city of Montreal, where he still resides, on the 5th November, 1837. His father, the deceased Rollo Campbell, for many years carried on the business of printer and publisher, and was the proprietor of The Pilot, a political newspaper that exerted a great influence in its day. This gentleman was born at Dunning, Perthshire, Scotland, and settled in Canada many years ago. He could trace his descent as far back as 1670, there being in the village in which he was born a stone cottage, with a slab over the doorway with the initials engraven thereon of “R. C. and J. F., 1670,” these letters standing for “Rollo Campbell” and “Janet Fenton,” and from this pair Dr. Campbell has sprung. On the maternal side, Dr. Campbell’s mother was Elizabeth Steel, who was a native of Kilwinning, Scotland. He received his general education at the Baptist College, Montreal; his medical education he received at McGill University, in the same city, graduating in 1860, and subsequently at the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and finally at London, where he took the English qualification of licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. On his return to Montreal he commenced practice, and has succeeded in building up a lucrative business. In 1872 Dr. Campbell joined with the late Drs. David and Smallwood, and Drs. Hingston and Trenholme, in organizing the present medical faculty of Bishop’s College in Montreal, and he was appointed professor of physiology, and registrar. These offices he filled till 1882, when, on the death of Dr. David, he was chosen to fill the chair of practice of medicine, and elected dean of the faculty, both of which positions he still fills. Dr. Campbell represents Bishop’s College in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the province of Quebec; and for the last seven years has been the secretary of this—the licensing board of that province. He is a physician to the Montreal General Hospital, and to the Western Hospital. This latter is at present the only hospital in Canada devoted to the diseases of women. Although others were connected with him in the early organization of this hospital corporation, its equipment, and its actual commencement of work, was due to Dr. Campbell, who assumed its rental, organized its committee, and, till self-sustaining, supplied for two years a considerable amount of money to sustain it. He is a consulting physician to the Montreal Dispensary. Dr. Campbell is known as one of the best life insurance medical men in the Dominion. Since 1868 he has been an examiner for the New York Life, and two years ago was given charge, by this company, of all its medical matters in Canada. His work with this company occupies much of his time. He is also the chief medical officer of the Citizens’ Life and Accident Company of Montreal; this he has held for over eight years. Dr. Campbell takes a deep interest in the volunteer movement, and his record as a volunteer is one of which any man might be proud. He is surgeon of B. company Infantry School Corps, permanent militia, and was lately promoted surgeon-major after twenty years service as surgeon. He joined No. 2 company of Montreal Independent Rifles as a private in the summer of 1855, at the age of sixteen years. In 1858, when it formed No. 2 company of the 1st Battalion Volunteer Militia Rifles of Canada, he became hospital sergeant of the battalion. In May, 1860, on his graduation as M.D., he was gazetted its assistant surgeon, and in 1866 served with it (then become the 1st Prince of Wales Rifles) on the eastern frontier during the Fenian raid. On the 6th October, 1866, he was gazetted surgeon of the regiment, and again served with it at Pigeon Hill and St. John’s, Quebec, during the Fenian raid of 1870. He continued as surgeon of the Prince of Wales Rifles till the 21st December, 1883, when he was transferred to the permanent force as surgeon of Infantry School Corps. On leaving the Prince of Wales Rifles, with which he had been connected for twenty-eight years, Dr. Campbell addressed a letter to his brother officers, in which he made a statement such as few men in the force could make, viz.: that up to that date, during his entire connection with it, the regiment had never turned out, either for active service or holiday parade, that he had not been with them. What this means can only be fully appreciated by those who know the large amount of varied service which the Prince of Wales Rifles have performed. Dr. Campbell is a past master of Victoria lodge, late C.R., A. F. and A. M., and now an active member of Royal Albert lodge. He is president of the Upsalquitch Salmon Club, holding a lease on the Restigouche river, in New Brunswick, and is an enthusiastic salmon fisherman. In politics he is a Liberal-Conservative, and a member of the Junior Conservative Association of Montreal. He has travelled a good deal, having crossed the Atlantic twelve times, and been over most of the European continent. In religious matters he is a Baptist. He was married in October, 1861, in Greenock, Scotland, to Agnes Stuart Rodger, of the same town. Her maternal grandfather, Walter Washington Buchanan, was born at Morristown, New Jersey, U.S.A., and was christened in General Washington’s arms, Kosciusko and Lafayette being his godfathers. On Washington’s death, he bequeathed to him his camp knives and forks, which are now in possession of Mrs. Campbell’s brother, Walter Washington Buchanan Rodger, of Bagatelle, Greenock. In Dr. Buchanan’s early life he was an intimate playmate of Washington Irving, and the two have often rolled hoops around New York city. He subsequently entered the American navy, and was afterwards professor of midwifery in Columbia College, New York. While in the navy he served under Commodore Sands, and was on Lake Ontario during the war of 1812. He subsequently inherited property in Scotland, and removed thither, where he died.
Park, William A., Newcastle, M.P.P. for the County of Northumberland, New Brunswick, was born at Douglastown, Miramichi, N.B. on the 27th June, 1853. His father, William Park, a merchant in Newcastle, N.B., is a native of Dumfries, Scotland, who settled in Miramichi about five years before the great fire of 1825, and engaged extensively in the milling and lumbering business. His mother, Margaret McLaggan, is a native of New Brunswick, and is a daughter of the late Alexander McLaggan, of Blackville, Northumberland, N.B. William A. Park, the subject of our sketch, received his education at the Presbyterian Academy, Chatham, and at Harkin’s Seminary in Newcastle. He studied law as a profession; was admitted as an attorney for New Brunswick in April, 1875, and called to the bar of the same province in April, 1876. He carries on his practice in Newcastle, and does a good business. For some time Mr. Park was connected with the volunteer militia, but of late years his numerous other engagements have precluded him from taking an active interest in the force. From 1876 to 1879 he was a municipal councillor for Newcastle; and was warden of the county of Northumberland in 1877. In 1882, at the general election held that year, he was elected to the New Brunswick legislature for Northumberland county, and was again returned at the general election in 1886. Mr. Park is a Liberal-Conservative in politics, and has always supported the policy of the Dominion government, led by Sir John A. Macdonald. In religion he is an adherent of the Presbyterian church.
Inch, James R., M.A., LL.D., Sackville, New Brunswick, President of the University of Mount Allison College, Sackville, is one of the veteran educationists of Canada, having been engaged in the work of teaching for the last thirty-seven years. He is of Scotch-Irish descent. His parents, Nathaniel Inch and Anne Armstrong, emigrated from the neighbourhood of Enniskillen to New Brunswick in 1824, and settled in Petersville, Queens county, where the subject of this sketch, the youngest of eight children, was born on the 29th of April, 1835. His early education was in the district school of his native place and at the High School of Gagetown, the county town. In 1850, after attendance at the St. John Training School, he received the license of a first-class teacher. After spending three years in the Public school service, he accepted in 1854 a situation at Mount Allison Academy, an institution founded by the late C. F. Allison, at Sackville, and then under the principalship of the Rev. H. Pickard, D.D. In 1862 Mount Allison College was organized with university powers. Mr. Inch entered the junior-class, and took his B.A. degree in 1864, and M.A. three years later. Upon receiving the baccalaureate degree in 1864, he was called to the charge of the Ladies’ Academy, at that time without financial resources, heavily burdened with debt, and having but a slight hold upon public confidence. In the arduous and important work of building up this branch of the Mount Allison institutions he laboured for fourteen years, and not without marked success; for when in 1878 he was elected to the presidency of the college, he left the Ladies’ Academy in a high state of efficiency, the buildings having been renovated, greatly enlarged and refurnished, the debt paid, and the public confidence and patronage fully secured. Before entering upon the duties of the presidency and of the chair of philosophy and logic, he was honoured by his alma mater with the degree of LL.D. As president of the college, Dr. Inch has been obliged, in addition to his professional duties, to devote much of his time and energy to the work of extending and strengthening the material resources of the institution. Under his régime, besides many general improvements, the endowment fund has been increased, by about one hundred thousand dollars, and a handsome stone university building erected at a cost of thirty-five thousand dollars. In 1876 the government of Nova Scotia appointed Dr. Inch a Fellow of the University of Halifax, a degree-conferring university, modelled after the University of London, and intended to consolidate university education in the province of Nova Scotia. The University of Halifax, from causes which need not be here mentioned, had but a brief existence; yet during its organization and its subsequent history, Dr. Inch, as a member of the Senate and examiner in mental science and logic, rendered it loyal and valuable service. In 1880, accompanied by his daughter, Dr. Inch spent three months in Europe, travelling extensively in England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Germany, France, and Switzerland. In crossing the Atlantic the steamship Anchoria, in which he had taken passage, when about three hundred miles from Sandy Hook, came into collision, during a dense fog, with the steamship Queen, both vessels being under full headway. The Anchoria was struck abaft the foremast and cut down nearly to the keel; the Queen, though not so badly damaged as the Anchoria, had her bow completely demolished and her forward compartment opened to the waves. The Anchoria’s passengers hastily took to the boats, were transferred to the Queen, and brought in safety back to New York. More than a thousand human beings, many of them women and children, were by this accident placed for hours in deadly peril, and yet, through the mercy of Providence, not a life was lost. It is doubtful whether the records of ocean disaster furnish a parallel case. Dr. Inch is an active member of the Methodist church, and a member of the General Conference Special Committee, to whose care the general interests of the denomination are entrusted during the interim between the conference sessions. As representative of his district he has attended all the general conferences except the first—at Montreal in 1878, at Hamilton in 1882, at Belleville in 1883, and at Toronto in 1886. He is also a member of the Board of Management of the Church Educational Society, and lay treasurer of the fund for supernumerary ministers. In 1886 he was elected vice-president for the province of New Brunswick of the American Institute of Christian Philosophy. Dr. Inch was married in 1854 to Mary Alice Dunn, of Keswick, York county, and has one daughter, now the wife of Prof. Sidney W. Hunton, of Mount Allison University.