Aikins, William T., M.D., LL.D., Dean of the Medical Faculty of Toronto University, was born in the county of Peel, Ontario, on the 4th of June, 1827. His father, James Aikins, emigrated from the county of Monaghan, Ireland, to Philadelphia, in the year 1816, and after a residence of four years there removed to Upper Canada with his family, and purchased a quantity of land in the first concession north of the Dundas road, in the township of Toronto, about thirteen miles from the town of York. This was over sixty-seven years ago, when that township, like nearly every other part of the province, was sparsely settled, and there was not a church or place of worship in the neighborhood; the itinerant Methodist preacher being the only exponent of the Gospel to the people. Mr. Aikins, like the greater part of the immigrants from the north of Ireland, had been brought up in the Presbyterian faith, but soon after settling in Peel he joined the Methodist body, and his house became a well known place of meeting for worship among the people of the settlement. Dr. Aikins received his education, like his brother, the Hon. James Cox Aikins, the lieutenant-governor of Manitoba, in the public schools of the neighborhood, and afterwards attended Victoria College, Cobourg. After passing through that university he removed to Toronto, where he took up the study of medicine, and was granted a license to practise in 1849. He, however, to better fit himself for his important calling went to Philadelphia and entered the Philadelphia College of Medicine, and graduated in 1850 with the degree of M.D. On his return to Toronto Dr. Aikins soon began to take a foremost position in the profession, especially in surgery, and is now one of the leading surgeons of the present day. He is one of the first members of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and has been the treasurer of the same since its foundation. For about twenty-four years he was one of the medical staff of the Toronto General Hospital, and is now consulting surgeon of the same institution. He also holds the position of surgeon to the Central Prison, Toronto. But it is in his connection with the Toronto School of Medicine that Dr. Aikins has most signally distinguished himself. He has been one of its faculty from its inception, first as professor of anatomy, and subsequently on surgery, as well as dean of the faculty. For thirty-eight years Dr. Aikins has been engaged in assisting the young members of the profession to qualify themselves for the duties of life; and in order that he might be the better enabled to accomplish this, he took a trip to the principal seats of learning in Great Britain and the continent of Europe, so as to study the latest scientific methods of treatment and see experiments performed that would be of benefit to his pupils on his return. The question of organizing a medical faculty to the University of Toronto having become a public matter, Dr. Aikins and the faculty of the Toronto School of Medicine were invited by the senate to amalgamate their school and become part of our national university. This, after mature consideration, was acceded to, and in the fall of 1887 Toronto School of Medicine ceased to exist as a separate institution, and is now an integral part of Toronto University, Dr. Aikins being elected dean of the medical faculty and professor of surgery in the new medical branch of the university. In 1884 his alma mater, Victoria University, conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. In religion he is a member of the Methodist church, and takes an active interest in everything that helps to advance her interests. In politics he is a Reformer.
Mackenzie, John Mills, Mayor of Moncton, New Brunswick, was born at Moncton, county of Westmoreland, N.B., on the 27th April, 1825. He is, on the paternal side, of Scotch descent, his grandfather having come from Scotland many years ago, and settled in the maritime provinces. His father, William Mackenzie, was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and his mother, Charlotte Mills, of English descent, first saw the light in Moncton, having been the first child by English parents born in the locality in which her father and mother resided after coming from Poughkeepsie, state of New York, at the close of the American revolutionary war. Mr. Mackenzie was educated at Moncton, and received a sound English course. When quite a young man he started out in life and was engaged from 1842 to 1851 as a school teacher in his native county and the adjoining county of Albert; and afterwards he engaged in commercial pursuits for a period of nine years. He then became deputy-sheriff of Westmoreland county, and from 1861 to 1867 held this office, and became curator of the Westmoreland bank—having been appointed to that position by the Supreme Court of New Brunswick—and wound up its affairs. Subsequently he was appointed official assignee by the Dominion government under the then Insolvency Act. He was by the local government appointed to the office of justice of the peace and commissioner for taking special bail, and for taking affidavits to be read in the Supreme Court. Mr. Mackenzie took an active part in the purchase of the Moncton Tannery Company’s property, and assisted in the organization of a new company which was successfully operated until its property was destroyed by fire. The company immediately rebuilt its premises, but before the expiration of the second year the building was again destroyed by fire, when the company paid their liabilities in full and gave up business. After this he helped to organize the following companies, namely: The Moncton Gas-Light and Water Company, the Moncton Sugar Refining Company, and the Moncton Cotton manufacturing Company, all of which have since been successfully carried on. Mr. Mackenzie is connected with the Masonic brotherhood, and is a member of Keith Lodge, and also of the Botsford Royal Arch Chapter, both of which he helped to organize. He has occupied the position of town councillor for several terms; and was elected to the position of mayor of the town in March, 1887, and this honorable position he still occupies. He is one of Moncton’s most spirited citizens, and takes great interest in every movement that has for its object the moral and material interests of its inhabitants. In religion he belongs to the Baptist denomination. On the 3rd April, 1855, he was married to Sarah Caroline Cornwall, who is of English loyalist descent.
Gibbons, Robert, Goderich, Sheriff of the County of Huron, belongs to an old Birmingham family (of England), where his father, William Gibbons, and his ancestors for several generations, were born, though he himself dates his birth to Glasgow, Scotland, December the 24th, 1811. His father was an ingenious machinist, and was engaged for years in turning, finishing and fitting up machinery. The maiden name of the Sheriff’s mother was Margaret M. McDonald, who was born in Scotland. In June, 1820, the family left the old world for Canada, landing at Quebec in August, and settled on land in the county of Lanark. About four hundred persons came out on the same vessel from Glasgow, and made their home in the same county, each head of the family having received 100 acres of land from the government, on condition that they would occupy and improve it. Robert aided his father in clearing a farm there. In 1827, he went with the family to Pottsdam, St. Lawrence county, New York, where he spent five years in cultivating the soil, and where he received most of his education. On leaving here on 16th May, 1832, he reached Goderich, walking all the way from Toronto, a distance of 135 miles. The place then contained about two hundred and fifty inhabitants, and he has seen it expand into a town of about six thousand people. When Mr. Gibbons reached this point he had but a few dollars left, but he had the wealth of a sound constitution, two hands already toil-hardened, and a disposition to use them to good advantage. After working a few months at farming, he opened a meat shop, and for sixteen years was a butcher and cattle buyer, in which he proved himself a very energetic business man. After a short time, he again turned his attention to farming and stock-raising, which he continued until a few years ago. When the rebellion broke out he went into the militia as a sergeant, and retired in March, 1838, a lieutenant. In 1867 Mr. Gibbons was elected to the Ontario legislature, to represent South Huron; lost his seat during the second session; was re-elected in 1871, serving two sessions, and in November, 1872, resigned, and accepted the shrievalty of the county, which position he still holds, and is an efficient and obliging officer. In politics he is a Reformer, and has spent much time and money for the benefit of the cause and in disseminating the principles of his party. Mr. Gibbons has done an unusual amount of work in the town and county municipalities. Commencing in the district council in 1848, he served as reeve nearly twenty years, and warden thirteen years in succession, first in the united counties of Huron and Bruce, then of Huron alone. He was elected mayor in 1853, 1854 and 1855, and his labors in the town and county have been of great value to the community. In 1868 he was elected a member of the Board of Agriculture and Arts Association of Ontario, and served in that position for nine years. He was vice-president in 1873, and president, in 1874, and his address the latter year was ordered to be printed in pamphlet form, and was widely distributed. He is an adherent of the Presbyterian church, is one of the most liberal supporters of the gospel in Goderich, and has assisted many houses of worship in the county as well as in the town. Although he has been always a hard-working man, and is now well up in years, yet he is well preserved; has a cheerful disposition, and a good share of bonhomie, which qualities shorten no one’s days. He has been twice married, first in November, 1835, to Jane Wilson, of Cumberland, England, who died in May, 1873, leaving five children, one of whom shortly afterwards died; another, the only son, dying in February, 1879. His second marriage took place in June, 1874, to Alice Roddy, also from England.
Robertson, Hon. Thomas, Hamilton, Ontario, Judge of Chancery Division, High Court of Justice, was born in the village of Ancaster, on the 25th January, 1827. At that time Ancaster was the most important business centre west of York. His father, the late Alexander Robertson, of Goderich, a remote descendant of the clan Donnachie, came to Canada in 1820, from Foxbar, in Renfrewshire, which had been the home of his family for several generations, since the time when the misfortunes of Prince Charles, having proved the ruin of so many of his adherents, not a few of the Robertsons had left their beloved Rannoch to seek for better fortunes in the, to them, unwontedly peaceful pursuits of the lowlands. He was married in 1824 to Matilda, eldest daughter of Col. Titus Geir Simons, high sheriff of the old Gore district, who had served in command of his regiment in the war of 1812-13, and fought at Lundy’s Lane, where he was dangerously wounded. Of this marriage the Hon. Mr. Robertson is the eldest child. He was educated at the London and Huron District Grammar Schools and the University of Toronto; studied law under the late Hon. John Hillyard Cameron; became an attorney in 1849, was called to the bar of Upper Canada in 1852; became a Queen’s counsel under patent from the Earl of Dufferin, governor-general in 1873, and a bencher of the Law Society of Ontario, in 1874. He began his professional career at Dundas, whence he subsequently removed to Hamilton, where he enjoyed a large practice, and a widely extended reputation as a leading nisi prius advocate. He was the first Crown attorney for Wentworth, and remained such until 1863, when he was superseded by the appointment by Sandfield Macdonald of the late S. B. Freeman, Q.C., to the clerkship of the peace, whereby he became also ex-officio Crown attorney. At the first general election after Confederation, Mr. Robertson contested South Wentworth with Mr. Rymal, the then sitting member for that constituency, at whose hands he suffered defeat by a majority of twenty-seven votes. Mr. Robertson and his colleague F. E. Kilvert, now collector of Customs for Hamilton, were elected at the general election of 1878, in opposition to Mr. Irving, Q.C., and Mr. Wood, the late members, to the representation of the constituency for which they were then returned, at the general election in 1882, and continued to represent that city until his elevation to the Bench of the High Court of Justice of Ontario of the Chancery Division in February, 1887. In politics he was a Liberal-Conservative and a supporter of the National Policy, which in its main features he strongly advocated in 1867, in his contest with Mr. Rymal in South Wentworth. He was also in favor of compulsory voting, which he suggested as a desirable amendment of the law, both through the press and in letters to Hon. Edward Blake and other persons so long ago as 1870. Hon. Mr. Robertson married, in June, 1850, Frances Louisa, youngest daughter of the late Theodore Reed, one of the earliest pioneers of the Huron Tract, by whom he has three sons and one daughter living.
Murray, William, Sherbrooke, Quebec, was born in the county of Armagh, Ireland, on the 15th day of August, 1845. He came to Canada with his parents when a lad, and was educated at St. Edwards, in the county of Napierville, P.Q., taking a commercial course. He was then apprenticed to the grocery trade in Montreal with Alexander McGibbon, and remained with him from 1861 to 1865. He then went to Sherbrooke, and opened a retail general store, in which he continued till the year 1881. By strict attention to business he succeeded in building up a large trade connection. In 1881, believing that he could increase his business still further, he sold out the retail store and started as a wholesale merchant, and his business at the present time is a large and lucrative one. Mr. Murray has always taken a great interest in municipal affairs, and has been a school trustee since 1876. He was appointed in 1878 by the government a member of the commissioners’ court for the township of Ascot, P.Q., and continued to hold this office until 1887, when, on the coming into office of the Mercier administration, his commission was revoked on political grounds. In 1885 Mr. Murray was elected for the first time to the city council, and was chosen chief magistrate of Sherbrooke in 1887. In January, 1888, his friends again elected him to the city council, and this time by acclamation. He is also one of the trustees of the St. Michael’s cemetery, being elected one of the first members of the board. He is a director of the Eastern Townships Colonization Company, and was elected its president in 1888. As the principal shareholders of this company are in Nantes, France, it will be seen that though not one of their countrymen, his fellow shareholders have the greatest confidence in his financial abilities. He was also one of the founders of the Typographical Printing Company, has been a director since its organization, and in 1877 was its president. In politics Mr. Murray is a Liberal-Conservative, and in religion a Roman catholic. He was married on the 25th of May, 1868, to Amelia Moreau, daughter of Michael Moreau, of Montreal, a descendant of an old French family, by whom he has a family of three daughters and two sons.