Underhay, John Collier, Farmer and Land Surveyor, Bay Fortune, M.P.P. for Kings, First District, was born at Bay Fortune, in Kings county, in the province of Prince Edward Island, on the 15th of January, 1829. He is the only surviving son of William Underhay, who emigrated to Prince Edward Island from Devonshire, England, in the year 1818, and married Marianne Withers, daughter of James Withers, of the Commissariat department, Somerset, England, and sister to J. C. Withers, the present Queen’s printer of Newfoundland. The first months of their married life were spent in one of the houses on Lord Townshend’s estate, which Captain Marryat gives an account of the building of for the Irish emigrants. It was first occupied by Pat. Pierce, who murdered Abel, the steward or agent, at whose place the officers of the ship in which the “naval officer” sailed stayed while Lord Townshend was settling his new tenants on his estate, the nearest part of which was only about a mile and a half from the harbor where the warship was lying, and close to which the agent, Edward Abel, lived. After several removals, each one diminishing the stock of money brought from the old country, until it was about exhausted, they settled on the land which now comprises the premises where the subject of this sketch was born, and now resides. He received there a good common school education, and he completed his studies with Robert Blacke Irving, who was then one of the best mathematicians in the province. Having at a very early age closely identified himself with the party who was contending for responsible government, free schools, and free lands. At the age of twenty-four years he was appointed a justice of the peace, the youngest person ever appointed to that office in the province. Some years after he was appointed a commissioner of the court for the trial of small debts at Bay Fortune, and occupied the position of presiding judge in that court until those courts gave place to the present county courts. In 1868 he connected himself with the Independent Order of Good Templars, and in 1870 was elected grand chief of the province, a position which he has since filled for two successive terms. In May, 1884, he was a delegate to the Washington session of the Right Worthy Grand Lodge, and was placed on several important committees; and has ever since his connection with the order taken a leading part in the temperance movement. In 1874, he contested, unsuccessfully, the first legislative council district of Kings county, but in 1879 he was returned to represent the first district of Kings county in the House of Assembly. At the general election in 1882 he contested the second district unsuccessfully; but at the next general election, in 1886, he was returned for that district, which he now represents, in conjunction with the leader of the government. He was formerly a Liberal in politics, but lately has allied himself with the Liberal-Conservatives, whom he thinks more fully represent the principles of the old Liberal party of his province. As a justice of the peace Mr. Underhay has demonstrated more successfully than any other officer in the province that the Canada Temperance Act was workable in all its provisions, and only wanted public sympathy and support to make it effectual in the suppression of the liquor traffic. He has been the presiding magistrate in over fifty suits for violation of its provisions, and not one of these has been set aside or judgment reversed by subsequent legal proceedings. During the survey for the Prince Edward Island Railway, he suggested several alterations as to location, which time has demonstrated, and it is now generally conceded, would have been great improvements had they been adopted, and would have materially added to the utility of the line. He, however, succeeded, in opposition to the official engineers, in getting the present line through Souris to the Breakwater—a route which, although universally admitted to be the best, was declared by the engineers in charge to be impracticable. This route has proved to be not only by far the most convenient, but the cheapest to construct. He was brought up a member of the Church of England, but living amidst a Presbyterian community, he is a regular attendant and supporter of the Presbyterian church, and has for over fifteen years held the offices of secretary and treasurer to the congregation. He took an active and leading part in the erection of the new church at Bay Fortune. He has been a trustee for the school district in which he resides continuously for nearly a quarter of a century; and on every occasion that he was a candidate for a seat in the legislature he received an almost unanimous vote from the settlers for several miles around, without regard to political or other party distinction. He is taking a leading part in the present movement for the erection of a monument to perpetuate the memory of the late Hon. E. Whelan, who, in conjunction with the Hon. G. Coles, obtained for the province self-government, free schools and free lands, and many other liberal reforms. On the 17th September, 1856, Mr. Underhay was married to Rosaline, daughter of the late Hon. James Craswell, M.L.C., a descendant of Sir Edward Craswell.
Read, John, Secretary-Treasurer and Manager of the Stratford Gas and Electric Light Company, Stratford, Ontario, was born in South Petherton, Somersetshire, England, on the 20th August, 1838. His parents were John and Susan Read. He received his education in his native parish, and also attended for a short time Billing’s Academy, near where he was born, receiving a very meagre education, having to leave school when only thirteen years of age to accompany his parents to America. Shortly after his coming to Ontario, in February, 1852—he having arrived in Canada in September, 1851—he was apprenticed to the late Mark Holmes, in London, to learn the trade of carriage-making; and having faithfully served his time and worked some time as a journeyman, he removed to Stratford in May, 1862, which city he made his place of abode. In 1865 he entered into partnership with John Humphrey, and they carried on the business of carriage and waggon makers for some years. In 1875 he became a building contractor, and continued as such until 1883, when he abandoned business, and accepted the position of secretary-treasurer and manager of the Stratford Gas and Electric Light Company, which office he still holds. Mr. Read has been in public life for about twenty years, and has held during that time the various offices of councillor, reeve, and public and high school trustee. He has always taken a great interest in the improvement of the city, and worked hard to secure for it a public cemetery, under one management, in which the remains of both Protestants and Catholics may be consigned to mother earth. He also took an active part in the erection of the high and public school buildings, which are a credit to the young city of Stratford. Mr. Read belongs to the order of Oddfellows, and is a past representative of that body. He is a Conservative in politics, and has held for several years the office of president of the Conservative Association of Stratford. He, too, has been president of the North Perth Agricultural Society, and while he held office the new fair grounds were purchased and buildings erected thereon. In religion he is an adherent of the Methodist church. He was married on the 1st September, 1874, to Mary E. Taylor, whose parents are of Irish descent, and live in Ohio, United States.
Pope, Hon. Joseph, ex-Auditor and Manager of the Savings Bank, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, was born on the 20th June, 1803, at Turnchapel, Devon, England. His father was Thomas Pope, of Padstow, Cornwall, England, and his mother, Annie Hase, of Barnstaple, Devon, England. His grandfather was a substantial yeoman, who occupied his own estate. Joseph was the sixth and youngest son, and his brothers almost all distinguished themselves in their professions and callings. He received his education at West Hore, parish of Plymstock, Devon, England, and landed in Prince Edward Island in 1819, one year later than his brothers, William and John, who had established themselves there as merchants and shipowners. John returned to England in 1823, and William in 1828, leaving Joseph to carry on the business on his own account at Bedeque, where he afterwards remained for thirty-two years. In 1830 he was elected to represent Prince county in the Legislative Assembly, and occupied a seat in the house for twenty-three consecutive years, during which period he was twice speaker for two full terms. In June, 1839, he was appointed to a seat in the Executive Council, and in 1851, upon the introduction of responsible government, was reappointed to the Executive Council, and appointed treasurer of the island. In 1831 he was appointed a justice of the peace; in 1832, a commissioner for taking special bail, and for the recovery of small debts; also a sub-collector of customs, and collector of inland revenue at Bedeque; in 1833, a deputy receiver of land tax for Prince Edward Island; in 1837, a high sheriff of Prince county; in 1843, a commissioner under the Act for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors; in 1842, a commissioner for managing public shares in Steamboat Company; and in 1844, a commissioner of Oyer and Terminer. In 1838, the Hon. Mr. Pope was sent to Canada, with the Hon. J. H. Howland, Joseph Howe, Sir William Young, Dr. Dalrymple, and others, to confer with Lord Durham regarding federal union, and he received the special approbation of His Majesty William IV., for upholding the laws of the colony. In 1847, with the Hon. Edward Palmer (now chief justice), he was sent by the inhabitants with a petition to Her Majesty, signed by four thousand two hundred electors, and approved of by the legislature, praying for the removal of Lieut.-Governor Huntley; and whilst in England, he conferred with Lord Gray with regard to the introduction of responsible government, of which he was always an ardent advocate. On his return to the island with Sir Donald Campbell (a new governor), he received the thanks of the Assembly and people. As a member of the Assembly, he originated the erection of the Colonial Building, and obtained, through the influence of Lady Mary Fitzroy, a grant from the Imperial government towards the erection of an insane asylum. With Dr. Dalrymple, he obtained a satisfactory settlement of the glebe lands, and was chiefly instrumental in bringing in the Road Compensation Act. In 1838 he moved the resolution for the separation of the Legislative and Executive councils. In 1853, Hon. Mr. Pope resigned office, and was absent from the island for about fifteen years. In 1868 he returned, and in 1870 he was re-appointed to his old office of treasurer and manager of the Savings Bank. In 1873, after confederation, he was appointed by the Dominion government dominion auditor and manager of the Savings Bank, and his appointment was confirmed by order-in-council in November of the same year. But the Hon. Mr. Pope being a staunch Conservative, he was dismissed from this office by the Mackenzie government a few weeks after they came into power. However, he was almost immediately afterwards appointed provincial treasurer by the Island government, and two years later, commissioner of Crown and Public lands, which office he held until his reappointment as auditor and manager of the Savings Bank, in June, 1880. On the 30th of June, 1883, he retired from office, and has since resided at Summerville, Prince Edward Island. The Hon. Mr. Pope has for many years taken an interest in military affairs. As early as 1828, he was appointed captain in the Prince county militia; in 1837, he was major commanding; and in 1853, he was gazetted lieutenant-colonel. In religion, he is a member of the Church of England. He has been married three times, but had no children except by his first wife, Lucy, who was a daughter of Captain Colledge, of the First Royal Regiment of foot, of which the Duke of Kent was colonel. His only children, William Henry, and James Colledge, are both mentioned in this volume. He spent the year 1848 in Great Britain, and there married Eliza M. Cooke, of Liverpool, his present wife. In 1853 he fitted up a vessel and started for Australia, but owing to the sufferings of his wife from seasickness, had to abandon the voyage at Liverpool, where he then remained for the next fifteen years.
McCallum, George Alexander, M.D., Dunnville, Ontario, was born in Toronto, on the 23rd April, 1843. His parents were George McCallum, who was a native of Jedburgh, Scotland; and Jane Sangster, of London, England. The father’s family were of Highland origin, and the mother’s Lowland Scotch. Dr. McCallum was educated at Stouffville, Ontario, and at the age of seventeen, having gained a second-class certificate he began teaching school, and for two years taught at Ringwood, township of Markham. He then took up the study of medicine, under the late Dr. Andrew Lloyd, at Stouffville, and graduated M.D. at Victoria University, Cobourg, in 1866, and began the practice of his profession. He moved to Dunnville in 1868, since which time he has enjoyed a large practice. In 1882 Dr. McCallum entered political life and contested the county of Monck for a seat in the Dominion parliament, against Lachlan McCallum, but the county having been gerrymandered a short time before, he was defeated by a small majority. In 1887, at the general election of that year, the doctor again presented himself for parliamentary honors, but was defeated by Arthur Boyle. This time the county had been further manipulated by the new Franchise Act. He has always been a staunch Liberal; and in religion he is an adherent of the Presbyterian church. Dr. McCallum was married to Flora Eakins, of Sparta, Ontario, on the 21st September, 1870, by whom four children have been born, two sons and two daughters.
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.