A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography. Various
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to represent from term to term for nearly twenty years. It was not until 1891 he was defeated by Mr. Georges Desjardins. During his parliamentary days he was ever diligent in assuming his share of committee work, having taken a prominent part in the Royal Commission appointed to investigate the administration of public affairs in the constituency of Rimouski. Two years after his defeat in L’Islet, he was given the presidency of a second Royal Commission to enquire into the affairs of the Montreal and Sorel Railway. During his long term of office in the Court House, he gained a prominence as a writer and investigator of the traditions that fringed the historical atmosphere of his native city. He was elected for a term of two years President of the Literary and Historical Society in 1898, and seven years afterwards he was chosen for the same position a second time. He also was a member of the Navy League, and took an active part in securing the Plains of Abraham as a federal asset, thus preparing the way for its becoming a permanent acquisition of the National Battlefields Parks Commission. In 1907 he was elected Vice-President of the Canadian Landmarks Association, and was later awarded a diploma from the Royal Society of Canada for his zeal in archæological research. The Transactions of the Royal Society and of the Literary and Historical Society bear testimony to his industry in preparing historical and antiquarian matter for publication, which otherwise might have been lost. For instance, he successfully located the site of the fountain from which the founder of the colony, Samuel de Champlain, had water drawn to supply his habitation, as well as the site of the house in which General Montcalm lived during his sojourn in Quebec, and the house in which he died; the site of the place of abode of Abraham Martin, whose name is perpetuated in the name of the historic battlefield; the site of Dumont’s Mill, near the baylet curvature of the St. Lawrence known as Wolfe’s Cove; the location of Claire Fontaine, that gave its name to the street which, as an elevated pathway on the brow of Perrault’s Hill, saw the marshalling of Montcalm’s troops in three divisions; besides the locations of many other historical landmarks in the Ancient Capital. Learned in the law, he was held in high respect as an official of the Palais de Justice. His long tenure of office in Parliament and out of it has always been characterized by integrity of purpose in dealing with public matters.
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