humble, pious and resigned.
Reader,
‘Go and do thou likewise.’”
George Fry, the father of our subject, though not a member of the Society of Friends, was educated in one of their schools, and a certain amount of quiet reserve, sedateness, and plainness of speech descended from the father to several of his sons, who are still apt to call a spade a “spade” and not an “agricultural implement.” Mr. Edward Carey Fry received his education at the grammar school of Bristol, a city famous for its schools, and by the time he had received all that his friends could give him in that respect, his elder brother Henry had become a Canadian ship-owner, while several of his other brothers were at sea. It was decided that the boy, Edward, should follow their example and he was accordingly apprenticed to Henry and served some time in one of his ships, the well known old Lotus. Although by this means he acquired a knowledge of the sea and of ships, which has since been very valuable to him in his capacity of Lloyd’s Agent, life in a timber ship was necessarily distasteful to a lad of his stamp and, as it was seen, that by education and a certain amount of refinement he was more fitted for his brother’s office in Quebec than for the forecastle of a timber ship, the change was made. There the business portion of his education commenced, progressed, and was completed under his brother’s fostering care, so that for experience of Canadian timber and shipping matters and especially of all that concerns the port of Quebec and its trade, he is probably excelled by none. He was finally taken into partnership by Mr. Henry Fry, a connection only to be dissolved by the lamented break-down of the latter gentleman’s health owing to overwork very largely honorary, philanthropic, and for the welfare of his fellow citizens of Quebec, by whom no one was more highly respected or deservedly regretted. The business has since been carried on by Mr. Edward Carey Fry, under the old and honoured name. After becoming a citizen of Quebec, Mr. Edward Fry added to his previous ties by marrying Elizabeth, the daughter of the Revd. David Marsh, the well-known and esteemed Baptist minister of Quebec, who, like her young husband, was born in England, though transplanted to this country at a very early age. They have a large family of bright, intelligent boys and girls, undoubtedly showing in their physique their Anglo-Saxon origin, but Canadian born and with all the advantages of education that an excellent school system can supply. Mr. Fry has been associated from infancy with the Baptist church. In fact he was named after the great Baptist missionary, Edward Carey, and, as a child, attended Broadmead Baptist chapel, Bristol, well known to the religious world as having been the scene of the labours of Drs. Robert Hall, Foster, and Evans, whose names are historical. In politics, like his elder brother, it is understood that he declines to be tied to any party, his motto being “measures, not men,” and that he will support either side when he believes they are acting honestly for the welfare of his adopted country. If he has a bias, it is believed to be in favour of perfect liberty and equality in religion, politics and commerce, which is only what might be expected from one not very remotely connected with the freedom-loving Society of Friends. At one time his firm was largely interested in the timber business, but this branch has been abandoned by it for some years and its time and attention are now wholly devoted to shipping and commission. Mr. Fry’s position as Lloyd’s Agent and agent for other British and continental underwriters at Quebec, and representing, as he does, several large ship-owning houses, both sail and steam, have given him an extensive and unique experience in getting vessels and cargoes out of difficulties at the least possible cost to all concerned. Like most Quebecers, who have commercial relations with England, he takes periodical trips to his native land. In fact, he has crossed the Atlantic at least fifty times, and it must be said to the credit of his filial affection and sense of patriotism that he never allows his business on such occasions to prevent him, when in England, from paying a visit of love and reverence to the home of his ancestors in Somersetshire, and especially to his father’s native place, the pretty village of Winscombe, where, notwithstanding the march of modern improvement, all is still rustic simplicity. The beautiful old church, with its wealth of historic associations from the days of the Crusaders downwards, and its picturesque churchyard, which commands a series of views of a lovely country and contains one of the finest yew trees in England, are still just as his father knew them in his youth. Time has not perceptibly changed them; but the spot, more than all others, which always interests the son, is that immediately in front of the font in the sacred edifice, on which his father was held for baptism over a hundred years ago. On one of his visits to Winscombe church, Mr. Fry had the pleasure of examining its old register and has now in his possession a certified copy of his father’s baptismal record—a quaint interesting memorial of the past in the old English way of writing. It shows that the old man was born as far back as 1783, or seventeen years before the beginning of the present century, and it can be readily imagined that many notable events in the world’s history were embraced within the recollection of one whose span of existence was prolonged down to our own times in 1868. Mr. Fry still vividly recalls listening at his father’s knee to his stories of his long life, how he could just remember hearing in his boyhood the startling news of the execution of Louis XVI. and his queen Marie Antoinette, and how, as his memory became more vigorous with his growth, he retained more vivid impressions with regard to the battles of the Nile, St. Vincent, and Trafalgar, the nation’s mourning for Nelson, and the times of privateering in which Bristol took a very prominent part, and when wheat was nevertheless a guinea a bushel in the midst of all the ill-gotten wealth of that day. “Fine times those were for the landlords and farmers”—used the old man to say—“but the common people were reduced to the verge of starvation.” And he often added that, though he had probably outlived all the leading spirits of those privateering days, he could not remember any case in which the money so acquired appeared to have done any real good, and that he hoped to see the day when, in time of war, the rights of inoffensive private property would be respected and privateers receive the only rights to which, in his opinion, they were entitled—a good rope at the yard-arm as pirates. Other milestones in his memory, on which he frequently loved to descant for the benefit of his children, were the days of the Regency, the battle of Waterloo, the death of Napoleon, the trial of Queen Caroline, whose husband he thought a sensual brute, though he was styled “the first gentleman in Europe;” the passing of the Reform Bill, the opposition to which by the member for Bristol, Sir Charles Wetherall, contrary to the wishes of his constituents, caused fearful riots and loss of life in that city, the second and even the third French revolution, the abolition of slavery under the British flag in 1834, the accession and marriage of Queen Victoria, the abolition of the corn laws, and the abandonment by Great Britain of protection for the benefits of a vigorous free trade policy. It is scarcely necessary to say that these stirring reminiscences made a deep impression on young Fry’s mind and that, while as a man to-day his preference is for his adopted country and his faith strong in the greatness of its future, he still yields to none either in love for Old England or in unswerving adherence in public and private to the sturdy principles of rectitude which seem to have been so marked a characteristic of his worthy father. Ability and uprightness in business and straightforwardness in all things have won for him the respect of his fellow-citizens of Quebec, and few are held in higher or more deserved estimation by all classes of the population. Mr. Fry is a member of the Quebec Board of Trade, and, though adverse to accepting any prominent position in that or any other public body, because, owing to the demands of his business, he cannot give to them all the requisite time and attention, he nevertheless ever takes a deep and watchful interest in all that concerns the public good, whether in a commercial, municipal, political or religious sense, and can always be counted on to do his duty intelligently and as a good citizen when necessary.
Ogden, Charles Kinnis, Three Rivers, Province of Quebec, was born at Three Rivers, on the 11th of February, 1829. He is a son of Isaac Governeur Ogden, who was for forty years sheriff of the district of Three Rivers, and also served as captain in H.M. 56th Regiment, and in another regiment with Colonel De Salaberry. His grandfather was the Hon. Isaac Ogden, judge of the Superior Court, Montreal, and a U. E. loyalist, who was driven out of his possessions in New Jersey by Gen. George Washington, in 1775, his lands being all confiscated on account of his loyalty to the British Crown. The city of New Jersey is now situated in the centre of his farm, but from which the Ogden family receive no income. Mr. Ogden is a nephew of the late Charles Richard Ogden, attorney-general under Sir John Colborne’s administration, in 1837. He is also a nephew of the late William Walker, advocate, of Montreal, who defended the patriots in 1837, and who was a direct descendant of the celebrated Walker who defended Derry during the ever memorable siege. Another uncle was Peter Skene Ogden, who was at one time in business with the celebrated John Jacob Astor, later becoming a partner in the North-West Fur Company, which afterwards amalgamated with the Hudson Bay Company, when he took the position of chief factor, and had charge of Vancouver and Oregon, at the time of the cession of the latter to the U.S. government, which was represented on the occasion of the transfer by General Grant. The subject of this sketch was educated at Lennoxville, P.Q., under the Rev. Mr. Doolittle, also at the high school, Montreal, under the Rev. Mr. Simpson. He has been postmaster of Three Rivers for many years; has also been in the telegraph and insurance business, and was local agent of the Hon. Hudson Bay Company. He was chiefly instrumental in building a fine rectory for the English church clergyman at Three Rivers; he also erected a fine building which was used by the telegraph and insurance companies, and as a post office, but which is now used as a private residence, Sir Hector L. Langevin, C.B., having induced the government to build a post office in Three Rivers, which is an honor to the city. Mr. Ogden has never had any connection with any secret or political societies, and he has always been liberal and conservative in his views, without prejudice to any one. He is a valued and consistent member of the Episcopal church. He was married in 1865, to Rosina Meyer, daughter of William B. Meyer, merchant, of Quebec, and niece of the Rev. Mr. Aldriche, rector of Ipswich, England.
Howard, Robert Palmer, M.D., L.R.C.S.E., Montreal, was born in the city of Montreal, on the 12th January, 1823. His parents, Robert Howard and Margaret Kent, were natives of Ireland, and had settled in Montreal some years before their son Robert was born—Mr. Howard carrying on business as a merchant. The subject of this sketch was educated in Montreal, and studied medicine in the McGill University and in Great Britain and France. Returning from Europe in 1849, he practised his profession in his native city as a “general practitioner” till the year 1880, when he gave up the practice of surgery and confined his attendance to the work of the pure physician. He was appointed Professor of Clinical Medicine in the McGill University in 1856, and on the death of Dr. Holmes, in 1860, succeeded to the chair of Theory and Practice of Medicine in the same institution, which position he still occupies. Two years ago the degree of LL.D., honoris causa, was conferred upon him by the University, in which he has been a professor for thirty-four years, and dean of its medical faculty for six years. In the course of his career he has held several of the offices indicative of professional standing and responsibility. Dr. Howard has been president of the Canada Medical Association; president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Quebec; and president of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Montreal. He is one of the vice-presidents of the Association of American Physicians. This year (1887), on the occasion of the celebration of the Centennial Anniversary of the College of Physicians, of Philadelphia, he was made Fellow of that distinguished body. For twenty-two years he was one of the attending physicians and surgeons of the Montreal General Hospital, and has been the secretary of that institution for thirty-three years. For the greater part of his professional life in his capacity as a member of the Board of Governors of the Medical Council of his native province, he has endeavoured to elevate the standard of medical education and requirements, and for several years laboured earnestly, but unhappily in vain, with many of the leading physicians in Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec, to bring about a General Medical Council for the Dominion of Canada. He is a member of the Church of England, and has been twice married. First in 1855, to Mary Frances Chipman, daughter of the late Judge Chipman, of Halifax, N.S., by whom he had one son, R. J. B. Howard, M.A., F.R.C.S., Eng., who is associated with his father in the practice of his profession, and is engaged in teaching practical anatomy in McGill College. He married in 1872. His second wife is Emily, daughter of the late Thomas Severs, of London, England, and they have had two sons and two daughters born to them, three of whom are living. A physician thus puts on record his estimation of Dr. Howard’s position and work: “The life of a man of such unceasing industry as Dr. Howard, may be considered from many aspects. As an author he has contributed largely to medical literature during the past thirty years. His studies on pneumonia, phthisis and on heart disease, have made him a recognized authority in the profession. The work on anæmia, which he prepared for the International Medical Congress in 1876, was one of the earliest and remains one of the most important contributions to the subject. The elaborate articles on rheumatism and allied affections published in the System of Medicine, by American authors, 1885, are perhaps the most exhaustive in the English language. The Canadian and American journals contain many lesser contributions from his pen. As a teacher, Dr. Howard has been eminently successful. For some years he held the position of Professor of Clinical Medicine in McGill University, and in 1861, on the death of Dr. Holmes, was transferred to the chair of medicine, which he still occupies. Painstaking industry at the bed-side, a clear, logical mind, a forcible and impressive delivery, combined to make Dr. Howard a model hospital teacher, and his course of didactic lectures on medicine is the most thorough and complete with which the writer is acquainted.” For years Dr. Howard has been a zealous advocate of higher medical education, and to his energy and perseverance is due the endowment of the McGill medical faculty, as well as many other improvements. In the long struggle to establish the Medical Board of the province of Quebec, on a proper basis, Dr. Howard has been very active, and for many years has been the prominent English representative. As a practitioner, Dr. Howard has been exceptionally successful and for years he has been the leading medical consultant in the Dominion. His reputation as a careful observer and close student has gained for him the confidence of the profession in an unusual degree. A kindly, sympathetic manner, scrupulous attention to details and exceptional skill and judgment in the management of cases, have combined to give the laity implicit trust in his opinion. Important and enduring has been Dr. Howard’s influence upon the groups of students which have come under his care and upon the men who have been fortunate enough to be his confrères. Unselfish to a fault, keenly zealous for the welfare of the profession, enthusiastic as a youth, he has—perhaps unconsciously to himself—impressed all with whom he came in contact with the earnestness of life, the nobility of work, and the dignity of his calling.
Pope, Edwin, Superintendent of the Great North-Western Telegraph Company, Quebec, was born at Kingston, Ontario, on the 14th of March, 1843. His father was the late Major Pope, who was for many years provincial store-keeper at Montreal. His mother was Maria Craig. He removed with his parents successively to Montreal and Quebec. He was educated in the latter city, and resided there for several years, in the employ of the Montreal Telegraph Company. In 1862 he was transferred to the company’s Toronto office; and in 1863, at the early age of twenty years, was sent to Watertown, N.Y., as superintendent in charge of the company’s line in the State of New York. In 1866 he was promoted to the still more important and responsible position of the company’s superintendent at Quebec, and was reappointed to the same position in 1881, when the lines were consolidated under the Great North-Western Telegraph Company. He still holds this office, and enjoys the general respect of the population of the ancient capital for his courtesy and blameless life. Mr. Pope is a member of the Church of England, and holds office in various organizations connected therewith, and in other local societies. In 1864 he married Mary Margaret, fifth daughter of Robert McClure, of Toronto, and by her has had issue eight children.