A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time. Various
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council. Previous to this, however, in 1855, he had been chosen by the Guelph Board of Trustees superintendent of the schools in the town, then only three or four in number. This situation he has since filled without interruption, and has seen the progress made up to this date, the number of schools having increased to twenty-six, and a class of buildings provided unsurpassed by any in Ontario. Shortly after the Rev. Mr. Torrance’s settlement in Guelph, a new presbytery was formed, called the Presbytery of Wellington, and of this he was chosen clerk, and this office he filled till the union of the churches, which took place in 1861, when Mr., now Rev. Dr. Middlemiss, who had been clerk of the Free Church Presbytery, was chosen clerk of the united one. In 1870, Mr. Middlemiss resigned, and was succeeded by Mr. Torrance, who still occupies the office. The church with which he was connected was known in his early days as the “United Secession,” a name afterwards changed to “United Presbyterian,” when the union between the Relief and Secession churches was effected. For some years he filled the position of convener of their committee on statistics, and also of their committee on the supply of vacancies and distribution of probationers. In 1874, his name appears for the first time as convener of the committee of the united church on statistics, and he was continued in the office at the farther union, which took place in 1875, and still occupies it. For some time the supply of vacancies and allocation of probationers were under the charge of the Home Mission committee, but they chose a sub-committee for the purpose, and for a few years the burden of the work fell to him with the other members. Ultimately a distinct committee was appointed by the General Assembly, to whom this service was assigned, and he was chosen convener. In 1880 he was chosen moderator of the Synod of Toronto and Kingston, which met in St. James’ Square Church, Toronto, and occupied the office for the usual period of one year. In 1883, he tendered his resignation, when Rev. Mr. Laidlaw of St. Paul’s Church, Hamilton, was chosen to succeed him. The scheme fell out of use, and it was considered unnecessary to continue the committee after 1884, till 1886, when the want of it having made itself felt, a new committee was appointed under a revised scheme, of which Rev. Mr. Laidlaw was appointed convener by the Assembly, and Mr. Torrance clerk by the committee, Mr. Laidlaw feeling that he could not carry on the work of the committee in connection with the weight and responsibility of his labours as the minister of an important city charge. In 1884, Mr. Torrance was chosen a life member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at its meeting in Montreal. In 1885, he was installed as a member of the Canadian Postal College of the natural sciences, and in September of the same year, he was constituted a life member of the Canadian Short-Hand Society. For several years he has been a member, by the appointment of the General Assembly of the Board of Examiners of Knox College, Toronto, and the senate of that institute conferred upon him, in 1885, the honorary degree of D.D. In 1851, he revisited Scotland, for the restoration of his health, which had become impaired through the labours that had been undergone; and again in 1881 he visited the old country, accompanied by his wife. On this occasion he travelled over the greater part of Scotland, visited Ireland and its chief cities, with the lakes of Killarney, and crossed over to Paris, where a week was spent amid the scenes of that gay and enchanting city. Rev. Mr. Torrance’s religious views are Presbyterian; these he says he acquired from his parents and is satisfied with their scriptural character, and has not changed his mind since boyhood. Rev. Mr. Torrance may now be considered as having retired from very active duties. In 1857, he purchased ten acres of fine land in the neighbourhood of Guelph, and having built thereon for himself a comfortable house, he resides there and devotes his spare time to gardening and the cultivation of flowers, having gone to the expense of importing from Scotland, and even China, some very rare flower seeds. In August, 1854, he was married to Bessie Dryden, of Eramosa, whose father and mother had come from the neighbourhood of Jedburgh, in Scotland, and took up land in that township soon after it was thrown open to settlers. Four children, two sons and two daughters, were born, all of them now grown up; two of them married, one of the latter, a daughter, having gone with her husband to China, under an engagement for four years at the close of which they have returned.
Moore, Paul Robinson, M.D., Sackville, New Brunswick, was born on the 30th of March, 1835, in Hopewell, Westmoreland county, New Brunswick. (Since the county was divided, Hopewell is in Albert county). His father, Thomas Benjamin Moore was a lawyer in Albert and Westmoreland counties, and died in Moncton, Westmoreland county, April, 1875, aged sixty-eight years. His mother’s maiden name was Apphia Robinson, daughter of Deacon Paul C. Robinson, of Hopewell. She bore thirteen children, six sons and seven daughters, of whom three sons and four daughters still survive, the subject of this sketch being the third child. His paternal grand-father was John W. Moore, sergeant of the 1st battalion of Royal Artillery, and died a pensioner in Ballymena, Ireland, at eighty-five years of age. His paternal ancestors resided in the north of Ireland, and it is a family tradition that at the siege of Londonderry there were seven brothers Moore, engaged in the fighting, five of whom were slain in one attack. The remaining two survived the perils of the siege, and their descendants are still for the most part settled in the north of Ireland. His father was five years old when he came to this country in 1813, when the regiment to which his grand-father belonged was ordered out to defend Fort Cumberland. Paul Robinson Moore received a mathematical and classical education at the Mount Allison Institution, in Sackville, New Brunswick, up to the age of fifteen, when on account of ill health his studies were abandoned. Three years later, having regained his health, he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Wm. T. Taylor, of Philadelphia, U.S., but had to give it up at the end of the first year, on account of another serious attack of illness which threatened to end in phthisis. He then returned to New Brunswick, and after recruiting his health, took a clerkship at the Albert mines in Hillsborough, New Brunswick, for eighteen months, and afterwards he was employed as bookkeeper and pay-master of the Boudreau stone quarries in Westmoreland county for a year. His health being then perfectly restored, he went to New York, and resumed his medical studies at the university of the city of New York, receiving private instruction at the same time from Dr. Gaillard Thomas. He graduated in March, 1859, and was appointed house physician and surgeon of Brooklyn City Hospital the following May, which position he held till May, 1860, when he returned to Albert county, New Brunswick, and commenced the practice of his profession. In January, 1875, he removed to Sackville, and entered into a professional co-partnership with Dr. Alexander Fleming, which continued till April, 1881, when Dr. Fleming removed to Brandon, North-West Territory, since which time Dr. Moore has been attending closely to his professional duties in Sackville. He was appointed coroner for Albert county in 1866, and magistrate for the same county in 1873. The doctor has taken an interest in various companies, and is at present a stockholder in the Moncton Cotton Company, the Sackville Music Hall Company, and the Baptist Publishing Company. He joined the Howard lodge of Free Masons in 1867, and Sackville division of the Sons of Temperance in 1875; became honorary member of the Glasgow Southern Medical Society in 1880, and president of the New Brunswick Medical Society in 1885. He is also a member of the Medical Council. He has never taken an active part in politics, but supports a Liberal government, and is an uncompromising Prohibitionist. He has travelled in England, Ireland, France, Scotland, and the United States. He has been a member of the Baptist church since 1865. On the 12th of December, 1866, he was married to Rebecca, eldest daughter of John Weldon, of Dorchester, Westmoreland county, by whom he has had nine children, four boys and five girls, of whom one boy and five girls survive.
Archambault, Urgel-Eugène, Principal of the Catholic Commercial Academy, Montreal, was born at L’Assomption, on the 27th of May, 1834. His parents were Louis Archambault, farmer, and Marie-Angélique Prud’homme, belonging to a very old family of the province of Quebec. The Archambault family came from France and settled on the Isle of Montreal about the year 1650, thence off-shoots established themselves in different parts of the province of Quebec, especially at L’Assomption, from which place three or four members of this family were, at various times, elected to the Canadian parliament. Urgel-Eugène having attended school at Saint-Jacques de l’Achigan and at L’Assomption, became a teacher at the age of seventeen years (1851), taught during six years at Saint-Ambroise de Kildare, L’Assomption, Chateauguay, and finally completed his own studies at the Jacques-Cartier Normal School, from which institution he received an academic diploma. In 1858, he taught at Saint-Constant, and the following year he became head-master of the Catholic Commercial Academy of Montreal, the principal work of his life, and which he still directs. This school, established in Coté street, was transferred to the Plateau