Harper, John Murdoch (Quebec City), the Canadian educationist and author, came to Canada in the year of Confederation, 1867, to take charge of an Academy in New Brunswick. He was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland, on the 10th of February, 1845, the eldest son of Robert Montgomery Harper, the founder of the first newspaper published in that town. His grand-uncle was Robert Montgomery, who was for many years a mill-owner and manufacturer in Johnstone. From school he entered the Glasgow E. C. Training College, after taking a Queen’s Scholarship, and graduated as a teacher from it with the highest certificate of his year granted by the Lords of the Council of Education, London, and with special certificates from the Science and Art Department, Kensington. After coming to Canada he became a graduate of Queen’s University, Kingston, and thereafter received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, from the Illinois University, after completing the three years’ post-graduate course in the section of metaphysical science. In 1881 he was unanimously elected a Fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland, an honor seldom conferred on teachers laboring outside of Great Britain. For a time he acted as principal of the Model Schools of Nova Scotia, and afterwards as principal of the Victoria High School of St. John, New Brunswick. While there he was asked by the Premier of Prince Edward Island to become Superintendent of Education in that province, which he declined to accept. But when the Victoria School buildings were destroyed in the great fire of St. John, he was induced to accept the principalship of the Provincial Normal School in Charlottetown and the Supervisorship of the City Schools, while St. John and its school buildings were being rebuilt. At the end of three years spent in inaugurating the new system of schools in Prince Edward Island, he was invited, in face of his inclination to return to his former position in New Brunswick, to take charge of the Quebec High School as its Rector; and, accepting the appointment, he thus became identified with the educational interests of the Province of Quebec, where he has labored ever since, closing his career as an educationist in active service as Inspector of the Protestant Superior Schools of that province. While holding that office he entered upon his vocation as an author, having been for many years editor-in-chief of the “Educational Record,” a contributor to the “Educational Monthly” of Ontario, the “Queen’s Quarterly,” and other periodicals, besides being associated with Dr. Thomas Morison, of Glasgow, one of the most distinguished of the educationists of Scotland, in the compilation of sundry text-books. His earlier essays and addresses on “The New Education,” and “Cause and Effect in School Work,” led to his issue of “A Manual on Moral Drill,” in line with his pleadings for an educative “Mental and Physical Drill” in the schools of the day. His plan for a definite moral training is thus spoken of by a New York educationist and author of high standing: “Dr. Harper’s work is entirely original. It is sound. It is eminently practical and it should be most heartily adopted by all who have the training of the young in hand, and who earnestly desire that the rising generation may develop into a ‘coming race,’ in whom moral rectitude will be natural and spontaneous.” As an author, Dr. Harper has had a career as full of the best kind of literary work, as has been his career as an educationist in advice with his co-workers in school progress throughout Canada. The list of the books he has written is all but incredibly large. His chef-d’ouvre is unquestionably his drama of “Champlain,” which has given him rank, as one critic says, as the greatest of our Canadian dramatic poets since the days of Heavysege. The late George Murray, of Montreal, a writer of just discrimination, claimed that Dr. Harper is one of the most versatile and prolific of Canadian litterateurs. A partial list of his literary output from year to year includes the following: “The Development of the Greek Drama,” “The Chronicles of Kartdale,” “Sacrament Sunday and the Bells of Kartdale,” “The Earliest Beginnings of Canada,” “The Montgomery Siege,” “The Little Sergeant,” “The Seer of Silver Lake,” “Domini Domus, or the Chateau St. Louis,” “The Songs of the Commonwealth,” and “A Guide to Good Will in the Empire.” Three uniformly bound volumes of his series of “Studies in Verse and Prose,” have so far appeared, including “The Battle of the Plains,” and “The Annals of the War,” supplementary to his “Champlain, a Drama.” With the influence of his earlier years clinging to him, he has not failed to produce many pieces that depict the scenes of the land of his birth; and his poetic status as a versifier in the Doric of the Scottish Lowlands has been duly recognized by Dr. John D. Ross in his volume on “The Scottish Poets in America,” as well as by the gifted author of the book entitled “The Scot in America.” Dr. Ross pays a high tribute to the author of “Sacrament Sunday,” “Saint Andrew’s Day,” “The Old Graveyard,” “Auld Jeames and His Crack,” “Horace in the Doric,” and others of Dr. Harper’s Scottish odes, in such words as these: “Sweet as the note of a bird in the wildwood, strongly embued with patriotism, fervent in religious sentiment, eloquent in thought, pure in expression, and noble in purpose, form a few of the characteristics of Dr. Harper, the Canadian educationist and author.” In addition to all this, Dr. Harper is a loyal Canadian. In all his public utterances and in the pleadings of his prolific authorship in book or magazine or newspaper, he is a Canadian citizen who upholds as a British subject the ample patriotism of the British Empire. He has been twice married, his first wife’s maiden name having been Miss Agnes Kirkwood, daughter of William Kirkwood of Stanley Muir, near Paisley, and his second, Miss Elizabeth Hastings, daughter of Andrew Hastings, of St. John and step-daughter of William Nossack, a former Mayor of Quebec. His family has comprised two sons and five daughters. His grandson, Major John Harper Evans, has been a soldier at the front, after his training at the Kingston Royal Military College.
Brennan, John Charles. In 1854, when but a boy, when Ottawa (then By-Town) had only some 7,000 inhabitants, when the old Ottawa and St. Lawrence Railway was just built—the only line of railway connecting Ottawa with other towns at that time—when houses were few and far between and when there was no prospect of the place being selected by Her Most Gracious Majesty the late Queen Victoria as the Capital of the Dominion of Canada, the subject of this sketch became a member of the wholesale grocery firm of S. Howell & Co., with which he remained for twenty-seven years, retiring from business in 1881. While giving his untiring care to the affairs of the firm, and by his energy and business tact adding in a marked degree to its advancement—its commercial and financial success—Mr. Brennan, with full confidence in the future that he perceived was in store for Ottawa, never lost an opportunity to place his time, ambition and money in channels leading to its improvement and, with other enterprising citizens, exerted his every endeavor to stimulate its growth and importance. To-day, with marked pride, he sees the seven thousand population increased to one hundred and twenty thousand, the once fields and uncared-for lanes converted into beautifully paved streets, parks, and gardens, the costly Parliament Buildings, standing in all their grandeur upon the hill overlooking the Ottawa River; huge commercial, financial and office buildings and apartment houses galore facing the eye at every angle, and handsome modern residences in abundance. Aside from his other real estate holdings, Mr. Brennan, on the corner of Bank and Queen Streets, in the very midst of the Capital’s commercial and financial activities, has placed that large and solidly-constructed office building, “The Trafalgar.” Mr. Brennan has ever taken a keen interest in Ottawa’s hospitals, charitable institutions, churches, etc., and has unstintingly contributed to their support. Whenever called upon to help advance their interests he has freely contributed his quota, and more. During the great war, his moral, physical, intellectual and financial aid have ever been given to promote the successful operations of the Government, and to afford the war workers, the boys at the front and the returned soldiers, material help. Mr. Brennan has grown up with the city and together both he and it have prospered. Although solicited on many occasions to enter into public life he has steadfastly refused, being satisfied in his private capacity as a citizen to do his share in making general progress his goal. Mr. John Charles Brennan was born at Frankville, Ontario, January 23, 1839. He is the son of John and Amelia Maria (Howell) Brennan; he was educated in the Public Schools and private tuition. June 5, 1899, he married Alice Maud Wilson, daughter of Zachariah Wilson of “Clandeboye,” late Collector of Customs at the Port of Ottawa. He has one son and two daughters—John Charles, Amelia Elizabeth and Jocelyn Maud Wilson. He is a member of the Ottawa Hunt, Connaught Park Jockey, the Gatineau Fish and Game, and the Rideau Fish and Game Clubs. For recreation he indulges in hunting, fishing and travelling. In politics he is a Conservative, in religion a Methodist, and his place of residence is 150 Cooper Street, Ottawa.
W. BULMAN
Winnipeg
Bulman, William John (Winnipeg, Man.), one of the most prominent and progressive business men of Manitoba, was born at Toronto on April 5, 1870, the son of William and Frances (Cable) Bulman. He was educated in the Toronto Public Schools and, on leaving school at the age of sixteen, learned the art of the lithographer, in which he was employed in his native city for six years. In 1892 he went to Winnipeg and founded the business of Bulman Bros., Ltd., Lithographers, of which he is President and which is one of the most important firms of its kind in Canada. In promoting the advancement of Winnipeg he has been indefatigable. He was one of the founders of the Winnipeg Industrial Bureau, and was its President from 1911 to 1913. He was Hon. Secretary of the Manitoba branch of the Canadian Manufacturers’ Association for some years and subsequently became 2nd Vice-President for Canada. At the annual convention of the C.M.A., held at Winnipeg in the summer of 1918, he was elected President of that body, an office which is coveted by all Canadian business men. He is also a member of the council of the Winnipeg Board of Trade. Mr. Bulman has also been very prominent in educational affairs and was for a number of years a member of the Advisory Board of the Manitoba Education Department. He has been a School Trustee of Winnipeg since 1912 and Chairman of various Committees. During the great war he was very active in support of patriotic objects, and was Vice-President of the Manitoba Patriotic Fund. He is the originator of the Imperial Home Reunion Association, which aims at assisting the man who desires to make a home for himself in the West to bring the members of his family to this country. This idea has had the approval of many eminent Imperial thinkers. He is also the originator of the movement for citizenship through the schools, now a national one, with a National Conference to be held in August under the patronage of His Honor the Governor-General. Winnipeg possesses no citizen more popular with all classes of the community and he is Honorary President of the Manitoba Conservative Association. He is a member of the Carleton and Manitoba Clubs and the National Club, Toronto, and his recreations are motoring, motor boating, cruising and fishing at his summer home, Kenora, Ont. He is a Methodist in religion, and in 1894 married Lily, daughter of Samuel Thompson, of Toronto, and has five children, Eileen, Bessie, Dorothy, Lillian and John. He resides at 104 Wellington Crescent, Winnipeg.