Sweeny, Right Rev. John, D.D., Roman Catholic Bishop of St. John, New Brunswick, was born in Fermanagh, Ireland, in May, 1812. His parents, who belonged to the farming class, were James Sweeny and Mary Macguire. The family emigrated to Canada, and settled in St. John in 1828, taking up land for farming. Bishop Sweeny received his literary education in schools in New Brunswick, and studied theology in the Grand Seminary in Quebec city. In 1844 he was ordained priest by Archbishop Turgeon. He was then appointed to missionary work, and returned to St. John and entered upon his labors. Subsequently he was engaged in similar mission work at Chatham and Shediac, until 1851, when, on the death of the Right Rev. Dr. Dollard, he became administrator. A little later he was appointed vicar-general under the Right Rev. Thomas Connolly, bishop of St. John; and in 1860, on the elevation of Bishop Connolly to the archbishopric of Halifax, he was made bishop. During the many years Bishop Sweeny has occupied his high and responsible position he has done good work for his people, irrespective of his spiritual administration. He has built the St. Vincent Convent and Orphan Asylum; the Convent of the Sacred Heart; the Episcopal residence; the side chapels and spire of the cathedral, and a considerable portion of the cathedral itself; a large brick structure for school purposes; St. Malachi and St. Joseph halls, and an Industrial School near St. John city. His lordship has a large diocese which includes the southern half of New Brunswick, embracing the counties of Westmoreland, Albert, Kings, St. John, Charlotte, Queens, Sunbury, York, Carlton, and the larger part of Kent. On this immense diocese he keeps a vigilant eye, and is ever careful of his people’s spiritual wants. As a preacher his discourses are eminently practical; and whenever he expounds any of the doctrines of his church, he never fails to clearly point out how they should affect the lives of the thousands who listen to his voice. His style is plain, simple, and unaffected, so that a listener is at once impressed with the idea that his aim is rather to instruct than to make a display. In the administration of his diocesan affairs he keeps quietly at work, and every year shows an improvement in all its branches. He seldom undertakes anything that he does not finish; and seems to know not the import of the word “fail.”
Pidgeon, J. R., Justice of the Peace, Indiantown, New Brunswick. Mr. Pidgeon was born where he still resides, in April, 1830, and is consequently in his fifty-eighth year. His father and mother, who are still living at the age of 83, were among the earliest settlers, and tell many amusing anecdotes of life in New Brunswick in the early part of the century. Our subject received his education in the Common and Normal schools of his province, and at the age of eighteen began the study and practical education of lumber surveyor. At the age of twenty-five he obtained what was termed a “warrant” qualifying him to practice his profession as surveyor which he did until his 42nd year. That year he received the appointment of railway mail clerk on the Intercolonial Railway which appointment he still holds being one of the oldest employés of the postal department on that road. It is however in connection with the temperance reform that he is best known, having espoused the principles of total abstinence as long ago as 1848. He has held the highest offices in the gift of the various temperance societies of his native province, and there are few platforms in the maritime provinces that have not at one time or other resounded with his eloquent voice. In religious belief Mr. Pidgeon is a Baptist, having united with that body in 1864. He is also a member of the Masonic craft of long standing, and has often occupied positions of eminence therein. For some years he has been in the commission of the peace for New Brunswick, a distinction well merited in his case, to say the least. As a speaker, Mr. Pidgeon is forcible, logical, and eloquent, abounding in anecdote and bubbling over with fun. Politically he is a Prohibitionist through and through, and his whole life seems to be to educate the people up to his standard. To the Independent Order of Good Templars in New Brunswick he has been and still is a tower of strength, and wherever he is known enjoys the respect of all and the hatred of none.
Worthington, Edward D., A.M., M.D., F.R.C.S. (Edin.), Sherbrooke, P.Q. The subject of our sketch is one of the oldest physicians and surgeons in the District of St. Francis, having been in practice nearly fifty years, and gained for himself the reputation of being the leading surgeon in that part of Canada. He was born in Queen’s county, Ireland, on the 1st December, 1820. His parents, John Worthington and Mary Dagge, left Queen’s county on the 11th April, 1822, and after a short stay in Dublin, sailed from that port for America on the 2nd May, and reached Quebec on the 23rd June. Here they remained until 1828, when Mr. Worthington was induced to remove to Upper Canada. Taking his family with him, he started from Quebec on the 28th April of that year, and reached Queenston on the 12th May. This journey proved a most disastrous one, for the whole family suffered from fever and ague, and other misfortunes, and within a few days of one year they returned to Quebec. Here Mr. Worthington remained until his death, he and his wife having resided over fifty years in the city where they first landed after having left their native country. Their bodies now repose in Mount Hermon cemetery, on the banks of the St. Lawrence, surrounded by the graves of seven of their children. The subject of this sketch and his brother John, a druggist in Brooklyn, New York, being all who are left of a large family. In 1834 Dr. Worthington was indentured for seven years to the late Dr. James Douglas, of Quebec, who at that time occupied the foremost rank in his profession in Canada, he and the late Dr. Valentine Mott, of New York, being considered the most accomplished surgeons in America. After serving over five years, Dr. Douglas relieved him from the balance of his indenture, to enable him to accept an appointment as staff-assistant-surgeon in the British army. An assistant-surgeoncy in the army, however, in those piping times of peace, with its “7s. 6d. sterling per diem, and rations,” presented few attractions, so, after serving two years, he left the army, and went to Edinburgh, where he spent two years in attending lectures and “walking” the hospitals. While in Edinburgh he was awarded the medal of the Royal College of Surgeons, and also won the friendship of many of her eminent men, with some of whom he still keeps up a friendly correspondence. Among the students at that time from this side of the Atlantic, were the present Sir Charles Tupper, M.D., C.B.; the Hon. Dr. D. McNeil Parker, of Halifax; and the late Dr. R. H. Russell, of Quebec. On his return to Canada he received, on the 1st August, 1843, the license of the Montreal Medical Board, and immediately settled in Sherbrooke, Eastern townships, where he soon built up an extensive practice, and where he has since continued to reside. He has the fullest confidence of the community in his skill as a physician, and for over thirty years has had nearly all the surgical practice in his district of country. He has the full confidence of his confrères, who frequently send for him from long distances for consultations. Dr. Worthington, it will not be out of place to say here, was the first surgeon in Canada who performed a capital operation under ether as an anæsthetic, and was also among the first to use chloroform. On the 10th March, 1847, he amputated below the knee, under ether; and in January, 1848, three cases under chloroform, one being excision of bone. In 1854 the University of Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, conferred upon him the degree of M.A., honoris causa; and in 1868, McGill College, Montreal, that of M.D.C.M., ad eundem. He is also a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; corresponding member of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Montreal, and of the Gynæcological Society of Boston, Massachusetts; member of the Canada Medical Association, having been, in 1877, vice-president for the province of Quebec; and for many years one of the governors of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Quebec, for the District of St. Francis. The doctor has received several substantial marks of public favor, among others, a solid silver tea-service, for his gratuitous attendance on the poor; and a gold watch and chain for his energetic and successful efforts to prevent the spread of that most loathsome of all diseases in Sherbrooke, the small pox. In the years 1837-8, Dr. Worthington served as a private in Captain Le Mesurier’s company of the Quebec regiment of Volunteer Light Infantry, the adjutant being the late Lieut.-Colonel Thomas Wily. The doctor is a warm supporter of the volunteer movement in Canada, and has served in the 53rd Battalion since its formation. He was on active service in both Fenian raids, and retired in 1887, retaining his rank as surgeon-major. He has written a good deal for medical periodicals, and especially for the Canada Medical Journal, published in Montreal, and some of his papers have been copied into the medical journals of Great Britain and the United States. Among the many papers he has contributed to the Canadian press are: “A new method of bed-making in fractures” (1871); “Glue bandage in fractures” (1872); “Case of gun-shot wound in abdomen, with perforation of stomach” (1876); and “Acute fibrinous bronchitis, with expectoration of tube casts” (1876). Dr. Worthington is a member of the Church of England, and has been a delegate to the Provincial Synod. In politics he is a Conservative. On the 16th October, 1845, he married Fanny Louisa Smith, eldest daughter of the late Hon. Hollis Smith, the first member elected to the Legislative Council for the Division of Wellington. Mrs. Worthington died on the 17th April, 1887, aged fifty-nine years. Of her eight children, five are now living, two daughters and three sons. The younger daughter is married to Major Antrobus, superintendent of the North-West Mounted Police. Of the sons, Edward Bruen, aged twenty-seven, is senior captain in the 53rd battalion; an LL.B. of Bishop’s College University, and in successful practice in Sherbrooke, as a notary public. Arthur Norreys, aged twenty-five, graduated in medicine at McGill College University in 1886, and after spending some time in Europe, settled in Sherbrooke. He was recently gazetted surgeon to the 53rd battalion, on his father’s retirement from the volunteer service. In September, 1887, he married, at Toronto, Emma May, daughter of H. H. Cook, M.P. for Simcoe East. The youngest son, Hugh Standish, is now at Bishop’s College Grammar School, Lennoxville. Arthur Norreys served through the North-West rebellion in the Field Hospital Corps, and so greatly distinguished himself for his humanity and bravery as to receive the following notice in the official report of Dr. Bergin, surgeon-general:
Many of these young men did noble work, regardless of danger. Where the bullets fell thickest, with a heroism that has never been exceeded, they were to be found, removing the wounded and the dying to places of shelter and of safety in the rear. Some cases of individual heroism are reported to me, which I feel call for more than a passing remark; and embolden me to say that amongst these non-combatant lads, and the staff to which they belonged, are to be found some of the greatest heroes of the war. At Batoche I am told that during the fight a flag was thrust from the window of the church, and was observed by a surgeon and a student who were under shelter from the fire at a couple of hundred yards distance. The student, immediately he perceived it, proposed that a party should at once go to the relief of the one demanding succor. No one appeared willing to second his proposal. To go to the church through the open under such a terrible fire as was being poured from the Half-breed pits, seemed to be like proceeding to certain death; but persisting, the surgeon said: “if you are determined to go, and we can find two volunteers to assist us in carrying a stretcher, I am with you.” Two men from the Grenadiers of Toronto at once stepped forward; and the four started upon their perilous journey—crawling upon their bellies—taking advantage of any little inequality of ground to cover them, and to shield them from the bullets of the Half-breeds. They reached the church—the bullets tearing up the earth all around them—without a scratch, and, breathing a short prayer for their deliverance thus far from death and danger, they looked around for him whom they had risked, and were still risking, their lives, to succor and to save. They found him in the person of a venerable priest, who had been wounded in the thigh, and they at once proceeded to remove him, after administering temporary aid. To remain in the church was to court certain death. To return to their corps seemed to be no less perilous; but they chose the latter. When they sortied from the church, so astonished were the Half-breeds at their daring that they ceased their fire for a moment. This time, returning, they had no cover, and were obliged to march erect. Bullets flew thick and fast; but the condition of the wounded man precluded anything like hurry, and they hastened slowly. God watched over them and protected them, and they reached their comrades in safety, their wounded charge also escaping without further harm. Such conduct deserves recognition, and I beg respectfully to call attention to it in this official way. I have not yet been able to obtain the names of the two noble fellows belonging to the Grenadiers, but I hope this notice of it will bring the information I desire. The other two are Surgeon Gravely, of No. 1 Field Hospital, and Mr. Norreys Worthington, from the same hospital. The manner in which Captain Mason was rescued and brought in by, I believe, Dr. Codd, of the 90th, and one of the young dressers (Mr. Norreys Worthington), was an exhibition of marked courage by members of the medical staff. Other instances well deserving of commendation have been reported to me, and I would respectfully suggest inquiry into all such cases, and if they be found as reported to me, that honorable recognition of them be made.
Mr. Worthington claimed descent through Bruen Worthington, of Ashton Hayes, in the county of Chester, and of Philpotstown, in the county of Meath, clerk in the Irish House of Commons, in 1734; from Hugh Worthington, of Worthington, in the county of Lancaster, and of the Manor of Adlington, in Standish parish. He held the lordship of Worthington in the 13th year of Edward IV., A.D. 1474.
Vaughan, William, St. Martins, N.B., was born in 1843, in Liverpool, England, and is consequently in his forty-fifth year. He is the son of the late Captain William Vaughan, of St. Martins, and it is by a mere accident that he claims Liverpool as his birthplace. He received his earlier education in a private school, and afterwards attended the Model school of St. John, N.B., and the Horton Academy at Wolfville, N.S. At the age of seventeen Mr. Vaughan was placed in the office of Farnworth & Jardine, a large shipping firm, of Liverpool, staying there for two years, getting his initial knowledge of business life therein. Returning home, he, in 1866, commenced business on his own account in St. Stephen, N.B. This he continued successfully until 1873, when, in partnership with another gentleman, he established the West India produce house of Vaughan, Clerke & Co. of St. Stephen. On the incorporation of the town, Mr. Vaughan was elected a member of the first town council, and was re-elected as such for the two succeeding years. In 1876 he commenced operations in St. Martins as shipbuilder, building vessels of the larger class. In 1878 the subject of our sketch sold out his interest in the St. Stephen firm, and again made his residence in his boyhood’s home—St. Martins. In 1882, in consequence of the failure of a Liverpool house which were large clients of his, and also in consequence of the depreciation which took place in wooden ships, Mr. Vaughan was compelled to relinquish business. Soon afterwards he was appointed manager of the Government Savings Bank at St. Martins, which position he still holds. In religious belief Mr. Vaughan is a prominent member of the Baptist church, being admitted to fellowship therein in 1857. He has held many positions of honour in this connection, all of which he has filled with credit to himself and with satisfaction to the denomination. Mr. Vaughan is also prominent in Masonic circles, being a past master of Sussex Lodge, St. Stephen; past principal of St. Stephen R. A. Chapter; and past eminent commander of St. Stephen Encampment K.T. In 1867 the subject of our sketch married a daughter of John Marks, of St. Stephen, and has a family of three boys and two girls. Mr. Vaughan has been a life-long total abstainer, not even knowing the taste of alcoholic liquors. At the present writing (1887) he is the grand chief templar of the Independent Order of Good Templars in New Brunswick, and has held the position for two years. Politically, Mr. Vaughan is a Conservative, although, as between the question of prohibition and party, if necessary, the latter would have to bow to the former. A man of good physique and energetic character, Mr. Vaughan is one of the many of her sons of whom his province, and, in fact, his country, may be proud.