Power, Hon. Lawrence Geoffrey, LL.B., was born in Halifax, N.S., on the 9th of August, 1841. His father, the late Mr. Patrick Power, was a prominent figure in Nova Scotia politics and represented the county of Halifax in the House of Commons from 1867 to 1878, with the exception of the period between the general elections of 1872 and 1874. The subject of this sketch began his school life at a day school taught in the basement of St. Patrick’s church, at Halifax, by an old gentleman named McDonald. This teacher having removed to an Acadian village called Chezzetcooke, some twenty-four miles from the city, his pupil, then eight years old, followed him, and remained under his care for about nine months longer. Shortly after his return to Halifax he became a pupil in St. Mary’s College, where he remained for some seven years. Amongst his teachers during this time were the Very Rev. Monsignor Power, lately deceased; the Rev. Canon Woods, now of Rockingham, Halifax county; and the Rev. Joseph P. Roles, now a prominent personage in the diocese of Chicago. Leaving Halifax in the Cunard steamer Europa, in February, 1858, after short visits to London and some other English cities, he entered St. Patrick’s Lay College, Carlow, Ireland, in the middle of March. At the midsummer examination he took a good place; and at the close of the next scholastic year, in July, 1859, the subject of this sketch, with three others, went over to England and passed the matriculation examination of the University of London. Two of the four candidates, hailing respectively from Australia and India, were placed in the second division, while a representative of Ireland and Mr. Power succeeded in getting into the first. It was a somewhat curious circumstance that one comparatively small Irish college should have sent to the same examination, in London, four candidates, each representing a separate continent. In October, 1859, Mr. Power matriculated at the Catholic University of Ireland, and became an inmate of St. Patrick’s House, Stephen’s Green, Dublin. Here he was a regular attendant at the various lectures for students of his year, and passed the various terminal examinations creditably. The long vacation of 1860 was spent in France, and the ensuing scholastic year was devoted chiefly to continuous and earnest study. At the close of the year he took the degree of Scholar at the Catholic University, and was placed first in each of the five classes in which he underwent terminal examinations. At the conclusion of the Dublin examinations, Mr. Power went to London, underwent the first B.A. examination in the University, and was placed in the first division. He was also one of six successful candidates at an examination for honors in Latin, held subsequently. While in Dublin, Mr. Power was an active member and secretary of the Debating and Literary Society conducted by the students of the University; and in July, 1861, was the winner of a silver medal awarded for the best English essay on a given historical subject. In a debate which had taken place some time before, he could find only one member who agreed with him in advocating the right of the Southern States to secede from the American Union. In the month of October, 1861, he returned to Halifax, and entered his father’s employ with a view of qualifying himself for the business of a merchant. A few months’ experience satisfied him that his vocation was not to mercantile life, and in the fall of 1862 he began the study of the law as an articled clerk in the office of J. W. & J. N. Ritchie. In the beginning of September, 1864, he became a student at the Law School of Harvard College, where he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws in January, 1866. Although not a hard student, he attended the lectures of the professors of that day—Joel Parker, Emory Washburn, and Theophilus Parsons—very regularly, and was generally present at the meetings of the Law School Parliament, which met fortnightly during term time. His first speech in this parliament was shortly after his entering the Law School, when he stood up alone to defend England against bitter attacks made upon her for the way in which she discharged her duties as a neutral during the civil war in the United States. As showing the American love of free speech, it may be added that he spoke without interruption, and was applauded when he closed. Among his class-mates at the Law School were Mr. Fairchild, now secretary of the United States treasury, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, jr., at present a judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. Returning home in January, 1866, he completed his course of legal study, and was admitted to the bar in December of the same year. Since that time he has continued to practise law in his native city. From an early day he took a warm interest in politics, and before being admitted, wrote several articles for the Halifax Chronicle against the proposed confederation of the British North American provinces. During several months after his admission, he was a frequent editorial contributor to the Chronicle and the Citizen. In 1867, and again in 1871 and 1875, he was elected clerk assistant and clerk of bills to the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia. In this capacity it was his lot to draw up several important bills, including the Nova Scotia Medical Act, and the act defining the powers and privileges of the Provincial Legislature. In 1869 he was appointed a commissioner of schools for the city of Halifax, an office which he filled for ten years. In 1870 he was elected an alderman for ward Three, and served the usual term of three years. In 1874 he re-entered the city council, where he remained until October, 1877. In 1873 and 1874 he took an active part in the preparation of the Fourth Series of the Revised Statutes of Nova Scotia, and, in 1876, was associated with the present minister of justice in the preparation of a volume containing the laws and ordinances relating to the city of Halifax. In the beginning of February, 1877, he was called to the Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the non-attendance of Sir Edward Kenny. This appointment Mr. Power had at first declined, but after further consideration, decided to accept. The seat in the Senate was indirectly the result of a letter over the signature, “An Ultramontane,” published in the Toronto Globe, in March, 1876. This letter, which dealt with the hostile attitude assumed by the then Bishop of Montreal (Monseigneur Bourget), and some other Catholic prelates and clergymen, to the Liberal party, attracted at the time of its publication much attention. Probably his most important literary work since that time is “A Plea for the Senate,” a defence of the House of which he is a member, contained in two letters to the Toronto Globe, published in January and February, 1881. He is also the author of a paper entitled, “Vinland,” an account 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.”