A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time. Various
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Until 1872 he held positions in several of the leading hardware houses there, when he purchased the hardware business in Perth, county of Lanark, which he is now successfully carrying on. Mr. Taylor, for six years, belonged to the Victoria Rifles, Montreal, and served with his corps at Huntingdon, Quebec province, during the Fenian troubles of 1866. In politics Mr. Taylor is a Reformer; and in religion an adherent of the Presbyterian church. He was married, in Montreal, on the 5th November, 1868, to Sarah A., eldest daughter of Rev. Samuel Massey, and has a family of seven children, five daughters and two sons.
Milligan, Rev. George Macbeth, B.A., Pastor of Old St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Toronto. This rising and popular divine was born at Wick, Caithnessshire, Scotland, on the 11th of August, 1841, and when a mere lad came to Canada, and shortly after his arrival the family made Kingston their home. His parents were William Milligan and Catharine Macbeth. George received the first rudiments of his education at Pulteney Academy, Wick, and for some time after his arrival in this country he devoted himself to mechanical pursuits, but finding his inclinations lay in another direction, resolved to educate himself for the ministry, and with this object in view he entered Queen’s College, Kingston, and from this seat of learning he graduated in 1862, taking the first place in all his classes, and highest honours as a B.A. On the 4th of February, 1868, he was ordained to the ministry, and his first charge was at English Settlement, about fourteen miles distant from London, Ontario, and in this charge he remained until July, 1869, when he was called to Detroit. Here he laboured until the fall of 1876, doing good work for the Master, and making for himself many friends in the church, which in a great degree was built up under his pastorate. In 1876 Old St. Andrew’s Church, Toronto, was without a pastor, and the members invited the young preacher to cast in his lot with them. He therefore left Detroit and came to Toronto, and in October of that year he took charge of the congregation. At this time Old St. Andrew’s Church was in a weak condition, the greater part of its members having left the old building and gone with the Rev. Mr. Macdonnell, who for several years had preached in it, to the new St. Andrew’s Church, erected on the corner of King and Simcoe streets. Therefore Mr. Milligan had a hard task before him but he resolved to do his best to keep together the members that remained in the old church edifice, which was situated on the corner of Church and Adelaide streets. At this time the membership only numbered forty-eight persons, but he went to work, and in a very short time enthused his people to such an extent—the membership and congregation having considerably increased in the meantime—that they resolved to abandon the old building and erect a more handsome one on the corner of Jarvis and Carlton streets, which was soon done, and the Rev. Mr. Milligan had the satisfaction of taking possession of the new pulpit in March, 1878. Since then everything has progressed most satisfactorily, and he can now boast of having one of the largest and most influential congregations in the city. Its present membership is 500, and last year the congregation raised, for all purposes, $15,000. But Rev. Mr. Milligan did not confine himself entirely to his duties as pastor. He found the Ministerial Association in a very languid condition, and he resolved to raise it to more vigorous action. He was elected its president during the second year of its existence, and under his presidency it began to be recognised as a power for good in the community, and to-day it exerts an influence far beyond its narrow city bounds. He has also been connected in Toronto with various other public associations, such as temperance, and that for the suppression of crime. He was for years one of the examiners in connection with the intermediate examinations; has been invited by the trustees of Queen’s College, Kingston, to become lecturer on Church history; and for a long time has occupied a position in the Senate of Knox College, and taken a prominent part as an examiner in the same institution. During the election campaign in Ontario, in 1886, he took a prominent part in the discussion then raging with regard to Roman Catholic interference in the Central prison, and in educational matters in our public schools, and helped to clear the atmosphere, to a considerable degree, of the fog some of our politicians attempted to introduce into the controversy. Rev. Mr. Milligan, though a busy man, often finds time to communicate his thoughts through the columns of the newspapers and magazines, and a short time ago the Executive committee of the Foreign Mission Board of his church induced him to write a series of letters to the Globe on the foreign mission work of the Presbyterian Church, which attracted considerable attention at the time. Several of his sermons have been published, and have been well received, and his articles on scientific and ecclesiastical subjects in the magazines always find readers. During his summer vacations he frequently visits Britain. In 1881 he made an extensive tour through Europe, first visiting Britain, and penetrating as far north as John o’ Groat’s, which, by the way, is not very far from where he was born, and then travelled through France from Dieppe to Marseilles, along the shores of the Mediterranean through Cannes to Geneva, where he remained some time, and afterwards visited Paris, Pisa, Florence, Venice and Milan. While on this trip he took copious notes of what he saw, and afterwards embodied them in a course of lectures which he delivered in Toronto, and other places in Ontario, to large and appreciative audiences. He is also familiar with the greater portion of the Dominion from Prince Edward Island to Calgary in the North-West Territory. Rev. Mr. Milligan, it is needless to say, has been from his youth up a Presbyterian, and is conservative in some of his views on theology; yet he is in deep sympathy with many of the other branches of the Christian church. On the 19th November, 1867, he was married to Harriet Eunice Rowse, of Bath, Ontario. This lady is descended from the U. E. loyalists, who settled on the Bay of Quinté, and her grandfather was one of the elders of the Rev. Mr. McDowell, the founder of Presbyterianism in Western Canada. The fruit of the union is one son and three daughters.
Wilson, Rev. Robert, St. John, New Brunswick, was born on the 18th of February, 1833, in Fort George, Scotland. His father, Peter Wilson, was a sergeant in the 93rd Highlanders, and saw service during the reigns of Kings George IV., William IV., and Queen Victoria. He came to Canada with his regiment previous to the rebellion of 1837–38, and helped as a true British soldier to suppress it. At Toronto, in 1841, he got his discharge, and then went to Prince Edward Island, where he resided until his death. He was for many years a Methodist local preacher, and died on the 24th of April, 1883. Robert received his educational training at the public school, New Glasgow Road, and at the Central Academy, Charlottetown (now the Prince of Wales College). After leaving school he adopted the profession of teacher, and taught a district school for some years. During this time, and since, he has taken an active part in everything that has a tendency to elevate his fellow man—politics, temperance, and religion. He was foremost in the advocacy of the confederation of the provinces, using the platform and the press in its advocacy; of temperance, in divisions and the lodge-room, having held the position of W. P. in the Sons of Temperance, and W. C. and chaplain in the Order of Good Templars; and of religion by his pulpit ministrations and practical Christian life. Rev. Mr. Wilson is a warm advocate of Imperial federation, having been one of the first, if not the very first, in the Maritime provinces to press it upon the public attention. As a writer and lecturer on secular subjects he occupies a front position. His lectures rank high as thoughtful literary efforts, and his sermons are generally admired. In short, there is no minister of any denomination down by the sea who has more friends within and beyond his own church, or who so frequently and cheerfully responds to the calls of lecture committees. In politics, Mr. Wilson is a Liberal-Conservative, and had editorial charge of The New Brunswick Reporter, of The Albert County Advocate, and The Maple Leaf. He has also for years been a regular contributor to several newspapers. He has written and published several books, among others, “Tried but True,” 300 pages; and “Never Give Up,” 300 pages (works well spoken of by the provincial press), besides, “Judea and the Jews,” “British North America,” and “Britain among the Nations,” in pamphlet form. He has travelled extensively through Canada, New England, and as a Dominion immigration agent in Great Britain. Mr. Wilson was brought up in the faith of the Kirk of Scotland, but since 1851 he has been connected with the Methodist church. He entered the ministry in 1853, and has been chairman of the Sackville and St. John districts of the New Brunswick Conference, Secretary of the conference for five sessions, and first delegate in the General conference held in Toronto in 1886. He was strongly opposed to the basis of union by which the various Methodist bodies were made one, especially to the general superintendency, because of its tendencies to Prelacy, and its curtailment of the privileges of the Annual conference. He believed in the unification of the non-Episcopal Methodist churches, but thought it wiser to allow the Episcopal to work out