Gibson, Theron (Toronto, Ont.), Valuator and Financial Agent, began his career as an accountant with John Hogg, dry goods merchant, Guelph, Ont., in 1875, after an early education in the Public Schools and British American Business College. He was successively, Treasurer of the Guelph Lumber Company, 1878-1880; Office Manager, John Hogg & Son, Guelph, 1880-1885; Financial Manager, A. R. McMaster & Bro., Toronto, 1885-1886; Accountant, Freehold Loan & Savings Co., Toronto, 1886-1887; Inspector of the same, 1887-1898; and Inspector, Canada Permanent & Western Canada Mortgage Corporation, 1898-1903. Since when he has been engaged in business on his own account valuing real estate for investors, conducting arbitrations, managing estates, in addition to negotiating investments and fire insurance. He is interested in State Consolidated Oil Co., and a director both of Wm. Cane & Sons Co., Newmarket, and of Fire Insurance Exchange Corporation, Toronto. Mr. Gibson has always taken a prominent part in church and benevolent work. For some years he was President of the Guelph Y.M.C.A. and Treasurer and Member of the Board of the Toronto Y.M.C.A. For thirteen years he has been Superintendent of Central Presbyterian Sunday School, and for seven years Treasurer of the Ontario Branch of the Dominion Alliance. Since 1905 he has been a member of the Executive of the Provincial Sunday School Association, and is to-day Vice-Chairman of that body, as also a member of the Executive Committee and Board of Trustees of the International Sunday School Association, and Secretary of that board and life member of the Association; Treasurer and Member of the Executive Committee, Presbyterian Sunday School Association; Vice-President of the Toronto Sunday School Association, and director of the Upper Canada Bible Society. He has been an elder in the Presbyterian Church since 1883. Mr. Gibson was born in Huron County, Ont., February 19, 1852, the son of David and Sarah Jane Gibson, and married Mary Jean, daughter of the late John Stephen Holmwood, Flamboro W., Ont., September 11, 1877. He has five children, David Holmwood, Norman Rothwell, William Ernest, Douglas and Jessie Winnifred.
Murphy, Hon. Charles, B.A. The son of James Murphy of Birr, King’s County, Ireland, and Mary Conway, of Limerick, was born in Ottawa, December 8, 1863. He was educated in the Separate Schools, the Collegiate Institute and Ottawa University (B.A.), and Osgoode Hall, Toronto. He is a Barrister-at-law and has been for several years honorary solicitor for the Christian Aid Society. In September, 1908, upon the retirement from the Cabinet of Hon. R. W. Scott, Secretary of State, Mr. Murphy was chosen to succeed him and was sworn in on October 10. This office he held until the resignation of Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s Cabinet, October 6, 1911. He was nominated by the Liberals of Russell County as their candidate for the House of Commons, and at the general election of 1908 was elected by a large majority. He was re-elected at the general election of 1911. He is recognized throughout Canada as one of the most persistent advocates of Home Rule for Ireland, and his efforts and eloquence have ever been prominently evident in that cause. He is a member of the Laurentian, University and Rivermead Golf Clubs, Ottawa, and the Ontario Club, Toronto. He is a Roman Catholic, a Liberal in politics, and resides at 174 Maclaren Street, Ottawa. His father, the late James Murphy, was a well-known contractor and built, among other important public works, the Pembina branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Cole, Wilmot Howard, ex-M.L.A., Colonel (Brockville, Ont.), was born at Brockville, February 16, 1834. The patronymic Cole is of very ancient Saxon origin: It appears in the “Domesday Book.” The public records show that in the year 1640, Sir John Cole, of Shenley, in Hertfordshire, England, was a landed proprietor. His son, Adam, married and had issue a son, Cornelius. This Cornelius Cole emigrated to America in the year 1708; in 1711 he became a justice of Albany County comprised within the limits of what was called “Livingston Manor.” His land was next to that of W. T. Livingston, and extended from the Manor House road to Jansens’s Kill, or creek, and was one of the finest farms in the Manor. He had three sons, named Nicholas, John and Adam. On the breaking out of the rebellion, Cornelius Cole and his sons, John and Adam, espoused the cause of England, and the sons joined the Royalist forces. As the war proceeded the feeling ran so high against the “Tories,” as the Royalists were called, and Cornelius Cole, although an old man, was seized and imprisoned, where he died a victim of fidelity to Motherland. His property was confiscated, and his sons forced to seek a home in the wilds of Canada. In 1773 John and Adam Cole with his wife and her two brothers, Jonathan, Jr., and Abel Fulford, left with other United Empire Loyalists for Canada, and passing up the St. Lawrence, they landed and settled in the County of Leeds, in that part now called the Township of Elizabethtown, at a point on the River St. Lawrence about five miles west of the present town of Brockville, which place is still called “Cole’s Ferry.” Here Adam Cole settled, being, as he was frequently heard to say, the first person to begin a settlement in the Township of Elizabethtown. Some years after the close of the war, Peter, a son of John Cole, returned to his grandfather’s old home in Ulster County, to ascertain whether he could recover some of the family estate, which had been confiscated, but failed, as the authorities had granted the property to other persons. Adam Cole’s wife was Thankful Fulford, also descended from Loyalist stock. Her father, Jonathan Fulford, sen., with the rest of his family came in 1784, and settled in the same neighborhood, and left numerous descendants. Adam Cole’s family, in 1812, consisted of nine sons and seven daughters, besides four who died in infancy. Five of the sons served in the War of 1812, the eldest, Peter, having assisted in the capture of Ogdensburg, and subsequently held the rank of captain. The house of Adam Cole was the general headquarters of the military, when they were in that section of country, or when moving between Montreal and Kingston. It is related of Peter Cole, the eldest son, that in the year 1810, the mail carrier was taken sick at his father’s house, and Peter took the mail to Kingston, where he received that from Toronto and carried it back to Montreal. At Montreal he took charge of the mail for the west, which had been accumulating for a month and weighed upwards of sixty pounds, and carried it to Kingston. He accomplished the whole trip, going and coming, of 430 miles on foot, in fourteen days, and this was in March, when the trail most of the way was through the forest and very difficult. He received for this service, from the Government the sum of fifteen dollars. Abel Cole, who was the youngest son of Adam Cole, died December 9, 1893, aged 88 years. His wife, Catherine Seaman, a grand-daughter of Caleb Seaman, died Nov. 2, 1893, aged 83 years, being one of the sons of Caleb Seaman who was with Lord Cornwallis at York Town. Wilmot Howard Cole, second son of Abel Cole, was educated at Brockville. He commenced mercantile business in 1855, and continued in the same until 1882. The old spirit of loyalty which he inherited, prompted him upon the organization of the Volunteer Militia of Canada in 1855, to become a member of the old “Brockville Rifle Company,” commanded by Major Smythe (later of the 100th Regiment, British Army). The late Col. James Crawford, William Fitzsimmons (a former postmaster of Brockville), the late Samuel Ross, William Morris, Thomas Camm and other business men of Brockville, shouldered their muskets and learned the drill at the same time. Wilmot Howard Cole filled every position in rank from private to colonel of battalion. In December, 1864, he went with the Brockville Rifle Company, as lieutenant, to Amherstburg, in the County of Essex, remaining there on duty until the following May. In November, 1865, the fear of a Fenian Raid was so strong in the vicinity of the River St. Lawrence, that the officers of the Brockville Rifle Company (who were at the time, the late Col. Crawford in command, Lieut. Cole, Lieut. Robert Bowie, and the late Lieut. Windeat), offered their services without pay, and to increase their company to 100 men to do duty for the protection of Brockville and vicinity, by drilling the men and mounting a heavy guard every night, with sentries posted in different parts of the town, the men only being paid twenty-five cents per day. The offer was accepted by the government and that duty performed until the ensuing March, when a large portion of the volunteer force were called out, and a provisional battalion formed at Brockville, under command of Col. Crawford, Lieut. Cole assuming command of the Brockville Rifle Company, with which he remained on duty until the next November, part of the time at Brockville and part at Cornwall. Again in 1870, as major of the 41st battalion, he was on duty at Cornwall during the Fenian excitement. On June 28, 1871, he was appointed to the command of the 41st battalion; on June 28, 1898, he resigned, having held the command for 27 years, and was a member of the active force for 43 years. In 1913 the Militia Department honored him with the full rank of Colonel. Col. Cole occupied various positions of trust and importance in the gift of his fellow-citizens. He was a member of the Town Council of Brockville for fourteen years; a director for many years, and president of the Johnstown Mutual Fire Insurance Company; a member of the Independent Order of Oddfellows for many years, filling various offices in the local lodge and also in the Grand lodge and Grand Encampment. He was chosen by his brethren to fill the position of Grand Master the year the Sovereign Grand Lodge met in Toronto, in September, 1880, who were entertained by their Ontario brethren. He always took an active part in everything that would advance the interests of his native town. In connection with the late Allan Turner, he worked for many years to obtain a system of waterworks for Brockville, and in 1881 they organized a company, consisting of Allan Turner, John McMullen, Thomas Gilmour, George A. Dana, and Wilmot H. Cole, to construct waterworks; and as a result of the efforts of these gentlemen, Brockville has now a most excellent system of water supply for all purposes. Colonel Cole was elected a member of the Legislature of the Province of Ontario for the Brockville riding, in the Liberal interest, at the general elections in 1875, and was a warm supporter of the Mowat Government. He received the appointment of Registrar for the County of Leeds in February, 1882. He was president of the Brockville Loan and Savings Company. Col. Cole was a member of the Methodist Church, and for over fifty years a trustee of the Wall Street Church in Brockville, and was looked upon by his fellow church members as ready to assist in carrying forward all enterprises for the benefit of the church. Col. Cole married Jane Adelaide, youngest daughter of the late Abram Philips, of New York. Their family consisted of four children, two sons and two daughters. The sons, following the traditions of the family, entered the volunteer force very early. The elder, Eugene Maurice Cole, was bugler in the Brockville Rifle Company in 1866, and did duty with that company whenever on service; he subsequently became lieutenant, after which he resigned, having removed from Brockville. The youngest son, Capt. George Marshall Cole, was captain of No. 4 company, 41st battalion. The latest enterprise which Col. Cole had been connected with and will eventually benefit his native town more than all the others, was the Brockville, Westport and Sault Ste. Marie Railway. The idea of a railway from Brockville to Westport had been entertained, and a charter was procured, but nothing further was done, and after a time the charter expired. Subsequently, Eugene M. Cole, who was in business in New York City, and enjoyed commercial relations with gentlemen interested in building railways and other public works, conceived the idea that a line of railway from Brockville to Sault Ste. Marie would prove an advantageous route in many ways, and at the same time benefit his native town. After much labor in gathering statistical information, he laid the whole matter before his father, who had it brought before the leading men of the County of Leeds, and the proposition made that if the municipalities would bear the expense of preliminary survey and obtain the charter, and grant aid by way of bonus to the extent of $125,000, Eugene M. Cole would work up the scheme and obtain the capital and contractors to build at least the first section of the road to Westport. This was agreed to, the last bonus by-law being passed on July 15, 1885, and work on the construction of the railway commenced on January 13, 1886. Although ably assisted by many persons in the County of Leeds in connection with the enterprise, the credit of the inception of the scheme, and the labor in working it up materially and financially, belong to Eugene M. Cole. Colonel Cole died December 13, 1915, in his eighty-second year, being pre-deceased by his wife by about two months.
Scott, James Guthrie, the prominent railway manager of Quebec City, was born in that city on February 13, 1847, the son of Hugh Erskine Scott. His mother’s maiden name was Margaret Chillas. The family of the Scotts has filled an important place in the community since the days of Mr. Scott’s grandfather, who came from Scotland. Mr. Henry S. Scott, hardware merchant, was his uncle, and Mr. William C. Scott and Mr. Charles Scott, his brothers, all of whom took an active interest in the progress of the city, as has their distinguished relative. The latter received his early education at the Quebec High School. In his seventeenth year he had his first start in business in the offices of the Montmorency Lumber Mills, where he eventually became head of one of the departments. In 1879, he entered the service of the Quebec and Lake St. John Railway, becoming, in time, its general manager and assuming the onerous task of having that line completed as far as Chicoutimi and extended, under the name of the Great Northern, to Hawkesbury, Ont., across the Ottawa, a distance in all of five hundred miles. But for Mr. Scott’s supervisory tact and engineering skill, Quebec would hardly have become the important railway terminal that it now is, not only of the Canadian Northern System, but of the National Transcontinental. During the earlier operations of the Quebec and Lake St. John Railway, Mr. Scott and his Board of Directors organized a system of assisted colonization that peopled the parishes all along their line, as many as from ten to twelve thousand families being induced to take up homesteads in the districts opened up for settlement. For twenty-five years Mr. Scott was facile princeps in these beneficent operations; and it was only when the Canadian Northern Railway Company took over the properties supervised by him in 1908, that he decided to retire from office to take up other work involving the commercial advancement of his native city. In 1916 he was elected President of the Quebec Board of Trade, after many years of active service as one of its members, and is also President of the British Columbia Skeena Coal Company. For many years he has been a member of the Quebec Geographical Society and other associations; and his contemporaries can look back with satisfaction at the civic progress he awakened as a railway projector and business man, and the manufacturing centres he succeeded in locating from the time he undertook to complete the Lake St. John Railway. In June, 1908, upon his retirement from the management of the railway, he was given a banquet by the citizens of Quebec at the Chateau Frontenac, in recognition of the enterprising and successful work he had done while completing extensions north and west from the city, and at the same time was presented with testimonials of value. And in addition to the story of his life as a railway manager and projector, Mr. Scott has to his credit twelve years’ service in the Militia, having been called out to frustrate the advance of the enemy in certain border raids near Windsor, Ontario, in 1865, as well as to protect Canada from the Fenian Raids, during the four years succeeding that date. In 1873 he married Miss Sophy Mary Jackson; and in 1901 was married, for a second time, to Miss Cordelia Mary Jackson, daughter of Dr. Alfred Jackson, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Laval University. By his first marriage he has had two sons and a daughter, and by his second, one son and one daughter.
Bender, Prosper, M.D., and Litterateur (Quebec City), was born in Quebec on July 30, 1844. He was the son of L. P. Bender, Advocate, his mother’s maiden name having been Miss Jane McMillan. His school education began at the Quebec Seminary and was continued at Laval University, where he went through a successful course in belles lettres and collateral studies. Thereafter he entered McGill University, where in 1864 he took his degree of M.D. On the following year he entered upon his career as a medical man in his native city, where, in 1868, he married Miss Amelia Scott, daughter of A. S. Scott. At the time of his graduation, the Civil War between the Northern and Southern States of the American Republic was nearing its climax, and in the excitement of events an opportunity offered itself to the young student to mature his skill in surgery and the healing art on the battlefield. He was given employment in the army in North Virginia, which was then under the command of General Ulysses Grant. As an assistant surgeon he remained with that army up to the time of General Lee’s surrender, his faithfulness and skill bringing him to the notice of his medical associates and eventually to the notice of the General in person. After the war, Dr. Bender proceeded to New York to gain further professional experience in the hospitals, before entering upon the first period of his residence in Quebec as a medical practitioner. During that period he came into touch with several of the rising public men of the town, who made a kind of literary rendezvous of his residence, much as years afterwards the Circle de Dix used to hold their seances out at Spencer Wood, under the hospital auspices of Sir Adolphe Chapleau. The social gatherings at Dr. Bender’s had no doubt the effect of turning the attention of the successful physician to literary work, leading him to publish two volumes, respectfully titled, “Literary Sheaves,” and “Old and New Canada.” In 1884 he removed to Boston, where he practised as a homeopathist, and won a reputation among the literary men of that city, as a contributor to the magazines and reviews. Within the last ten years preceding his death in 1917, he had his residence again in Quebec. During these years he published in amplified form a series of sketches about the friends of his earlier comradeship. These sketches embodied the characteristics of the brilliant literary guests who had once met round his table, and were read with the greatest of interest by the public as they appeared from time to time, as an illustration of the author’s geniality of spirit and literary acumen. Altogether, Dr. Prosper Bender’s professional and literary career stood as a blend of duly recognized medical skill and critical literary insight, holding always the confidence of his patients and being widely esteemed for his bonhomie and intellectuality as a writer of books worth reading.