In 1880 Colonel Cooke married Miss Helen Grace Burnett, a niece of the late Archbishop Bond, and they became the parents of a daughter and two sons. Violet Burnett; Herbert G., who was educated in the city schools and McGill University and is connected with the office of registrar of Montreal West; A. Douglas, educated in the city schools and McGill University, is now connected with the engineering department of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He married Nita K. Wallace. The death of Colonel Cooke occurred on the 28th of July, 1913, when he was but fifty-five years of age. His record is one of usefulness in the public service, of devotion to the interests of his clients and of fidelity to the ties of home and friendship.
EDMUND HOLYOKE HEWARD.
A few years prior to his death Edmund Holyoke Heward of Montreal retired from active business. He had been prominently connected with banking interests, and his colleagues remember him as a man of progressive spirit and marked capacity for handling the multiplicity of details as well as the principal features that arise in connection with the banking business. The family name figures in the military history of the country. His grandfather, Stephen Heward, was in command of a force of men at the capture of Fort Detroit. The father, Augustus Heward, was associated with Lieutenant Colonel Osborne Smith in founding the Victoria Volunteer Rifles, now the Third Victoria Rifles, of which Lieutenant Colonel Smith became the first commander, while Mr. Heward became the first major, but subsequently succeeded to the command.
Edmund H. Heward was born in the family residence at Cote des Neiges, in 1841. He was educated under Dr. Howe at the Montreal high school and entered into the wholesale hardware business of Mulholland & Baker when in his teens. His initial business experience came through several years’ connection with that house, at the end of which time he entered the service of the Merchants Bank of Canada, with which he was associated for more than thirty years. Gradual advancement brought him to an eminent position in banking circles. He possessed unusual ability in co-ordinating forces and unifying elements into a harmonious whole. For some time he was manager of the St. Johns (Quebec) branch of the bank, but afterward returned to Montreal and established the Notre Dame Street branch and later the St. Catherine West branch of the same bank. As the years passed on every feature of the banking business became familiar to him, and his thorough understanding thereof was manifest in his executive direction and capable control. He retired a few years prior to his death, possessed of a handsome competence that was the legitimate and logical reward of his effort and capability.
Mr. Heward married Miss Alice Ward, a daughter of the late Hon. J. K. Ward of Montreal, and unto them were born six children. Mr. Heward joined his father’s old regiment, the Victoria Rifles, with which he went to the front in the last Fenian raid and was present at the affair at Pigeon Hill. He was a handsome man of fine physique and unfailing courtesy—a gentleman of the old school. His death on May 17, 1910, occasioned deep regret in both the business and social circles of Montreal.
ROBERT BRUCE TAYLOR, D. D.
Rev. Robert Bruce Taylor, author and minister of the gospel and since 1911 pastor of St. Paul’s Presbyterian church in Montreal, was born in Cardross, Scotland, October 22, 1869. He acquired his education in Glasgow University, from which he was graduated M. A. with the class of 1890, and he afterward was a student in the Free Church College. After completing this course he entered Gottingen University and later studied Arabic at Beirut and Damascus. He was a student in three German theological schools and prepared most thoroughly for his chosen life work. After his ordination he was placed in charge of the Loudoun Free Church in Ayrshire and was transferred from there to Ferryhill, Aberdeen. His third charge was at St. John’s Wood, London, England, whence in 1911 he came to Montreal, assuming his present duties as pastor of St. Paul’s Presbyterian church. This is one of the oldest Presbyterian congregations in the city, having been organized in 1832 by Edward Black, D. D. The church was located on St. Helen’s Street until 1867, in January of which year the erection of the present edifice was begun. The church was dedicated September 27, 1868, and cost $100,000. The first pastor, Dr. Edward Black, died in May, 1845, and was succeeded by Robert McGill, who passed away in 1856. Dr. Snodgrass then had charge of the congregation until 1864 and his successor was Dr. Jenkins, who remained in charge from 1865 to 1881. Dr. Barkley did able and capable work from 1883 until 1910, being succeeded by Rev. Robert Bruce Taylor, the present incumbent. The congregation has numbered among its members such distinguished men as Lord Strathcona and Lord Mount Stephen and it numbers now eight hundred souls. Its affairs are in a flourishing and prosperous condition for Dr. Taylor administers them ably and in a way which shows him a man of excellent executive and organizing power as well as a zealous and untiring religious worker. He has organized a club of girls working in stores in the city and has also a Men’s Club, both of which organizations have been fruitful of much good.
Dr. Taylor married a daughter of Professor McKendrick, LL. D., of Glasgow, Scotland, and both are well known in social circles in Montreal. Dr. Taylor is a writer of considerable reputation and besides being the author of a book on Economics, written for the Student Christian Movement, has contributed largely to serial publications on religious and historical topics, accomplishing such able and farsighted work in the interests of his religion that he has been called “the crown jewel of a Presbyterian minister.”