A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time. Various
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Church, and warden of St. George’s Guild. During the Fenian troubles in 1866, Mr. Ellis served as lieutenant in the Garrison Artillery in Prescott, and retired from military service on the disbandment of his company. He has travelled a good deal, and has twice visited France. He has been married twice. First, in October, 1855, to M. E. A. Jessup, of Prescott, daughter of Edward Jessup, formerly M.P., for the Johnstown district. This lady died, leaving a family of two children. The son has graduated M.D. in McGill University. He married the second time in May, 1886, to M. A. A. Bryant, daughter of Shettelworth Bryant, of Blackheath (Eng.), and cousin of Colonel Bryant, St. Leonards, England.
Call, Robert Randolph, Newcastle, New Brunswick, was born in Newcastle, Miramichi, N.B., September 12, 1837. His father, Obadiah Call, was a native of the state of Maine, having been born in the village of Dresden, August 1, 1800, and is still alive. Margaret Burke, his mother, was born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1810, and came to Miramichi with her father, who was a house-carpenter, shortly after the great fire in 1825. She died on the 10th of May, 1877. Robert, the subject of this sketch, was educated at the Grammar School of Newcastle, and soon after leaving this institution developed an aptitude for business. In 1871, in company with John C. Miller, he built the side-wheel steamer New Era, and established the first line of passenger steamers that ran on the Miramichi river. During the past twenty-five years he has been interested in the steamboat business, and occupied the position of agent for the Quebec and Gulf Ports Steamship Company, and for other lines of steamers that have called at the port of Newcastle. On November 26, 1866, he received the appointment of United States Consular Agent at Newcastle. In June, 1867, was elected chairman of the Northumberland County Almshouse Commissioners; and in January, 1874, was made a member of the board of Pilotage Commissioners for the Miramichi district of New Brunswick, under the Pilotage Act, which then came into force, and was chosen its secretary-treasurer. Mr. Call is owner of the gas works in his native town, and they are operated under his own immediate direction. On the 9th September, 1865, he was appointed a lieutenant in the 2nd battalion Northumberland County Militia; and on October 1st, 1868, at a public meeting held in the town of Newcastle for the purpose of organizing a battery, was chosen captain of the Newcastle Field Battery of Artillery, and was gazetted as such on the 18th December of the same year. On the 18th December, 1873, he was made major, and lieutenant-colonel on the 4th February, 1885. He still retains the command of this battery, which he was mainly instrumental in raising. In 1875 this corps was called into active service during the school riots in Caraquet, Gloucester county. Lieutenant-Colonel Call, with Lieutenant Mitchell second in command, and part of the battery, in all forty-six persons, with horses, sleds, two nine-pounder guns, ammunition, etc., left Newcastle on the afternoon of the 28th January for Bathurst, the shire town of Gloucester county, and had to traverse a distance of fifty-five miles through a comparatively desolate country. The weather was very unsettled, and more severe than it had been for years. The snow was fully four feet deep on the level, while in many places it was drifted so badly that the men had to shovel for hours before the teams could pass. They, however, after experiencing great fatigue, and with hard labour, succeeded in reaching their destination on the evening of the 29th, having accomplished the journey in twenty-eight hours, without resting, except while the horses were being fed on the road, the men in the meantime keeping their seats on the sleds, and eating the provisions they had brought from home with them. On their arrival in Bathurst they found that twenty-six of the leading rioters had been safely lodged in the jail there. The infantry that followed them proceeded to Caraquet. Here the battery remained for about six weeks, making the court house their barracks, until the excitement was calmed down and quiet was restored. Mr. Call became a member of Northumberland lodge, A. F. and A. Masons, in 1863, and in the years 1866 and 1867 was master of the lodge. In 1873 he was appointed representative to the Grand Lodge of New Jersey. He is also a member of the Northumberland Highland Society, and one of its vice-presidents. He has travelled a good deal, having visited England for his health in 1863, going over and returning in a sailing vessel. In 1881 he went, via Lake Superior, to Rainy River, Lake of the Woods, Winnipeg, etc., to Portage la Prairie, then the extreme end of the Canadian Pacific Railway, for the purpose of having a look at this wonderful country, and has taken an occasional trip to the United States. Mr. Call is a Presbyterian, is one of the Trustees of St. James’ Church, and has been its secretary and treasurer since 1874. He was married, May 21st, 1862, to Annie Rankin Nevin, who was born in Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, Scotland, on 5th December, 1836.
Dowdall, James.—The deceased, James Dowdall, who for many years practised as a Barrister-at-Law in the town of Almonte, Ontario, was born at Perth, county of Lanark, on the 31st December, 1853, and died on the 27th October, 1885. His father, Edward Dowdall, was a son of the deceased Patrick Dowdall, a reputable and well-educated magistrate of the township of Drummond, in the county of Lanark; and his mother, Mary O’Connor, was a daughter of an equally respected and literary farmer of Drummond township—Denis O’Connor, who was successful in life, and died February, 1887. James Dowdall received his education at the Public and High schools of Almonte, to which town his parents removed when he was four years of age. In 1872 he commenced his law course with Joseph Jamieson, M.P., Almonte, and concluded his studies in the office of Hon. Edward Blake, at Toronto, and was called to the bar in 1877. He then formed a partnership with D. G. Macdonell, and the firm in a very short time attained to a high position in the legal fraternity, and secured a large share of public support. He was president of several literary, debating, benevolent and other societies, from his seventeenth year continuously until his death in 1885. He also occupied the position of president of the local Reform Association; was founder and president of the Almonte branch of the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association; chairman of the Separate School Board; had a seat on the High School Board; and for years sat in the town council. He had a very large law practice, and for years previous and up to his demise was Crown counsel for the counties of Lanark and Renfrew. Mr. Dowdall was a public spirited man, and took an active part in everything that went to improve his native place and the surrounding district. He was a staunch Reformer, and took an intelligent interest in politics. As a speaker, he was eloquent and argumentative, and travelled through Lanark and other counties in Ontario during several local and federal election campaigns, and did good work for his party. In 1879 he married Onogh T. Nogle, daughter of the late William Nogle, and left a family of children. The Almonte Gazette thus alludes to his death:—“Mr. Dowdall was an able antagonist in court, quick to see the weak points in an opponent’s case, and no less expert in concealing his own. These qualities, as well as his careful study of the law in each case, made him a generally successful lawyer in court, while his knowledge of human nature gave him great advantage in cross-examination. Had his life been spared there is no doubt he would have risen to the highest point in his profession. His many good qualities more particularly demand our grateful recognition. Many a battler with the world can tell of a hand stretched out and aid given just at a time when a friend in need was a friend indeed. Many a struggling tradesman can tell how often he has mounted the office stairs to ask for help to meet a note or some other similar emergency, and that he did not ask in vain. Many a poor and perplexed one took up his time by recounting some act of another’s from which they were or had been suffering, and from him obtained as much attention and as carefully considered advice as though they had carried a large fee in their hands. The blank caused by the death of Mr. Dowdall will be a wide one: not all at once will it be discovered how much he is missed, but as the days and weeks glide by there will be many occasions when parties will long for the sound of a voice that is still, and it is safe to say in his case that take him for all and all it will be long before we look upon his like again. Mr. Dowdall was a Roman Catholic, and the Roman Catholic church of this town will miss his counsel and assistance greatly, but it can be said to his credit that though himself a devoted Catholic he was as broad-minded and liberal as he was zealous in religious matters. Throughout his career he always showed a warm feeling for his co-religionists, while nothing ever prevented his doing justice to those who differed from him. The Reform party, too, will greatly miss him.” The Central Canadian, of Carleton Place, also spoke of him in this kindly manner:—“As a member of the corporation of Almonte, he contributed of his judgment, knowledge, energy, and life to make everybody happy and everything prosperous. Mr. Dowdall’s prominent play in politics and his long sphere of operations as a lawyer of much discretion and accuracy brought out his innermost self in a way few other professions do, and showed what manner of man he was. Yet though thus so fiercely exposed