A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time. Various
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with Donald Cameron. The new firm did a large local mercantile trade, and sent several rafts of square timber to the Quebec market in 1863–4. This partnership was dissolved in 1864. Mr. Bell, in the years 1858, 1865 and 1866, carried on saw-mills at Eganville and Douglas; and in 1864 and 1865, having joined William Halpenny, in Renfrew, under the name of A. W. Bell & Co., they carried on a general mercantile business. In 1867 Mr. Bell removed from Douglas to Newboro’, Leeds county, and where he bought out the business belonging to John Draffin. In this place he remained until April, 1872, and then took up his abode at Carleton Place. Here he prosecuted his mercantile business until 1875, and then, selling it out to a partner he had admitted in 1873, he retired into private life. In addition to his other business enterprises, Mr. Bell has dealt considerably in real estate in the counties of Lanark and Renfrew, and has bought and sold many thousand acres of farm lands, and built several shops and dwellings in Carleton Place, which he still owns. In 1856 he was appointed postmaster in Eganville, Renfrew county, which position he held until 1859, when he resigned; again, in 1862, he was appointed postmaster of Douglas, in the same county, and resigned in 1867. In March, 1862, he was made clerk of the Seventh Division Court for Lanark and Renfrew, but when these counties were separated in October, 1866, he gave up the position. In 1862 he was made a notary public, and also commissioner for taking affidavits and an issuer of marriage licenses. In 1863 the Government conferred upon him the commission of a justice of the peace. In 1873 the Board of Trade of Ottawa appointed him official assignee for the county of Lanark, and in 1875 the Government appointed him to the same office, and this office he held until the repeal of the Insolvency Act. Mr. Bell also acted in the capacity of creditors’ assignee in the counties of Lanark, Renfrew and Pontiac, and was arbitrator for the Canada Central Railway at Renfrew and at Pembroke, and purchased part of the right of way for the railway company. Mr. Bell was the originator of the Winnipeg and Hudson Bay Railway and Steamship Company—his name being first in the charter as passed by parliament—and he also had a hand in procuring two other North-West charters. Mr. Bell is a member of the Masonic fraternity, having joined in June, 1859. He held a commission as lieutenant, and afterwards captain, in the militia, dating from July, 1856. Though brought up as a Presbyterian, Mr. Bell now attends the Episcopal church, his wife being a member of that communion. He married, 27th July, 1857, Jane Andersen, daughter of the late James Gibb, merchant, of Glasgow, Scotland. Mrs. Bell died on 2nd June, 1886.
McIntyre, Right Rev. Peter, D.D., Bishop of Charlottetown, was born at Cable Head, in the parish of St. Peter, Lot 41, Kings county, Prince Edward Island, on the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, June 29th, 1818. His parents, Angus McIntyre and Sarah McKinnon, Scotch Highland Catholics, emigrated from Southwest Inverness-shire to Prince Edward Island, towards the close of the last century. Providence blessed their industry and integrity; and they were enabled not only to have “full and plenty” for a large family of sons and daughters, but also to extend the sacred rites of hospitality to all who came in the way. Mr. McIntyre’s house at Cable Head was one of the principal stations of the late Bishop McEachern in that part of the country—before there was a church at St. Peter’s—and his children were naturally enough brought to the notice of the pious and discerning bishop. The bishop, it is needless to say, entertained a very high regard for Angus McIntyre and his family, and his lordship insisted that the youngest son, little Peter, should be sent to college to be educated for the church. Mr. McIntyre was well aware that the proposed undertaking would be exceedingly heavy, at a time when schools were few and means were not easily obtained. But out of respect for the wishes of his bishop, he generously acted upon the suggestion, and his son Peter was accordingly among the first students at the opening of old St. Andrew’s College. After the death of the good Bishop McEachern, in 1835, young McIntyre expressed a strong desire to be sent to Canada to pursue his studies. This wish was complied with by his kind father, who placed him in the college of St. Hyacinthe, where he remained for five years, entering the Grand Seminary of Quebec in 1840. After a three years’ course at the Grand Seminary he was, on the 26th of February, 1843, ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Signay in the Cathedral of Quebec, and returned to his native diocese the same year. We have been told by an old friend of the family that when young McIntyre first went to college, his father had accumulated quite a large sum in Spanish dollars, and so was enabled to promptly make generous remittances to his son and pay the college bills on presentation. The same good friend also tells us that by the time young “Father McIntyre” returned from Quebec the Spanish dollars were pretty low, but not exhausted. May it not be that the generous manner in which his venerable father furnished him with ample funds until he was able to provide for himself, materially helped to form and develop those generous, hospitable and princely traits of character which we all admire in Bishop McIntyre. The first missionary duties of Father McIntyre were performed as assistant to Father Perry. After a short time, however, he was appointed to the charge of Tignish, Lot 7, the Brae and Cascumpec, with his principal residence at Tignish. There he lived and laboured for seventeen years; and it was there that he first gave evidence of his talent for building. The Acadian French, who form the largest proportion of the Catholic congregation at Tignish, were, at that time, neither rich in this world’s goods nor counted enterprising. Yet to them belongs the very great credit of building, under the direction of Father McIntyre, the first brick church—if we mistake not, the first public building of brick—ever erected in this province—a church which, at this day, is one of the finest on the island. Inspired by their enthusiastic priest, the poor French people made the bricks, hauled them to the site, laid the foundation, and built the church. They had little money, but much zeal; and they were led by a man of rare administrative ability. To the church at Tignish was added a handsome parochial house and a fine convent, both of brick. A church and parochial house were also about the same time built at Brae. The talents and zeal of Father McIntyre were soon recognized by a church which—whatever her faults—is not slow to see and reward true merit. On the death of Bishop Macdonald, he was appointed to preside over the Roman Catholic diocese of Charlottetown, comprising Prince Edward Island and the Magdalen Islands; and on the 15th of August, 1860, he was solemnly consecrated Bishop of Charlottetown. The ceremony was performed by the late Archbishop Connolly, of Halifax, assisted by the late Bishop McKinnon and Bishop Sweeney—the late Bishop Mullock, of St. John’s, Newfoundland, and Bishop Dalton, of Harbour Grace, being also present. Under the administration of Bishop McIntyre great attention has been given to the education of the youth of the Catholic people and to the erection of buildings in which to carry on the work of the church; and the bishop’s talent for building has found scope. The first work of consequence which he undertook was the rebuilding of St. Dunstan’s College. The Catholic population of the island at the time of Bishop McIntyre’s consecration was 35,500. There were only thirteen priests to minister to their spiritual wants. The Catholic population is now about 55,000, and there are thirty-seven priests with well organized missions. The new parishes established by Bishop McIntyre are Cardigan Bridge, Montague Bridge, Cardigan Road, Morrell, South Shore, Hope River, Lot 7, Lot 11, Brae, Palmer Road, Little Pond, Bloomfield, Alberton, Summerside, in Prince Edward Island, and Bassin in the Magdalen Islands, which form part of the diocese. Besides the splendid episcopal residence in Charlottetown, which was much required for the diocese, he has built St. Patrick’s School (one of the finest buildings in the city); St. Teresa’s Church, Cardigan Road; St. Francis’, Little Pond; St. Mary’s, Montague Bridge; St. Andrew’s, St. Peter’s; St. Lawrence’s, Morell; St. Michael’s, Corran Ban Bridge; St. Patrick’s, Fort Augustus; St. Joachim’s, Vernon River; St. Lawrence, South Shore (the first stone church built on the island); St. Anne’s, Hope River; St. Charles, Summerside; St. Mark’s, Lot 7; St. Mary’s, Brae; St. Bridget’s, Lot 11; St. Anthony’s, Bloomfield; SS. Simon and Jude, Tignish; St. Thomas’, Palmer Road; Sacred Heart, Alberton; and in the Magdalen Islands, Notre Dame de la Visitation, Amherst; Etang du Nord, St. Pierre; Bassin, St. François Xavier. This is work enough, one would say, for one prelate and an indefatigable staff of clergymen for one generation; but besides these churches, many of them splendid specimens of architecture, there have been eight conventual establishments erected and founded within the last twenty-five years in various parts of the province, which educate annually thousands of pupils. The chief part of the labour of the churches was done by the zealous people in several of the parishes. In 1877 Bishop McIntyre organized the Central Council of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union, with affiliated societies in every parish of the diocese. He has accomplished a great work in the suppression of intemperance