A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time. Various
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church, and has continued his connection with that body of Christians. In 1876 he was married to Mary Dorothea, daughter of Dr. C. K. Fiske, from Massachusetts, who for many years practised his profession in St. John. The doctor has had five children born to him, four of whom survive.
Leach, The Ven. Archdeacon.—The late William Turnbull Leach, D.C.L., LL.D., Archdeacon of Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal, was born in Berwick-on-Tweed, Scotland, on the 1st of March, 1805, and died at Montreal, on the 13th of October, 1886. He was of English descent, his grandfather having removed to Berwick from the previous home of the family in Lincolnshire, England. Archdeacon Leach was educated in Edinburgh, and took the degree of M.A. in the university of that city in 1827. In 1831, he was ordained a minister of the Presbyterian church, but shortly afterwards came to Canada, and was appointed to the charge of St. Andrew’s Church, Toronto, and was also chaplain to the 93rd Highlanders, stationed in that city, about the time of the rebellion in 1837–8. He subsequently entered the Church of England, to which he was ordained by Bishop Mountain in 1841, and was appointed to the incumbency of St. George’s Church, Montreal, which position he retained for nearly twenty years. He took the warmest interest in educational matters, was one of the founders of Queen’s College, Kingston, and was for many years an honoured member of the Council of Public Institution for Lower Canada, afterwards the province of Quebec. He was one of the little band who brought McGill University to its present position. His connection with McGill dates from 1845, and he may be said to have been the last survivor of the original staff. From the earliest years of the college, he was one of the professors of the Faculty of Arts, and as the work of the university extended, he relinquished his ministerial duties to devote himself exclusively to college work. During his active connection with the college, he held the Molson chair of English language and literature, was professor of logic and of mental and moral philosophy, dean of the Faculty of Arts, and vice-principal of the University. He was created D.C.L. of McGill in 1849, and LL.D. of McGill in 1857, and in 1867, the University of Lennoxville conferred upon him the degree of D.C.L. The Venerable Archdeacon Leach married three times. Shortly after his arrival in Canada, he returned for a short visit to Scotland, where he married Miss Skirving, daughter of Mr. Skirving, of Haddington, and granddaughter of Adam Skirving, author of “Johnnie Cope,” and other songs very popular at the time in Scotland. Of this marriage there were four children, two of whom are living, viz.: David S. Leach, of Montreal, and Mrs. Howell, of London, England. He afterwards married Miss Easton, daughter of the Rev. Robert Easton, a lady well known and much beloved, who previous to her marriage had conducted one of the principal establishments in Canada for the education of young ladies. His widow (daughter of the late Francis Gwilt), with her young unmarried daughter, reside in Montreal.
St. George, Percival Walter, Civil Engineer, Montreal, was born at Forres, Morayshire, Scotland, on the 22nd October, 1849. He is a son of Lieutenant-Colonel James D. N. St. George, who was a lieutenant-colonel in her Majesty’s Ordnance Staff Corps, and had charge for many years of the clothing establishment of the British army in London, England. Walter was sent to France by his parents to be educated, and spent seven years of his boyhood days in that country, and then finished his educational course in Edinburgh University, where he took honours in mathematics. He came to Canada in 1866, and began the practice of his profession. From 1866 to 1868, two years, he was the pupil of Alexander McNab, chief engineer for the province of Nova Scotia; from 1868 to 1872, four years, he acted as assistant engineer on construction and survey of the Intercolonial Railway of Canada; in 1872–73 he was engineer on survey of the North Shore Railway of Canada; in 1873–74, engineer maintenance of way on the Intercolonial Railway, in charge of one hundred and eight miles; in 1874–75 engineer on survey of the Northern Colonization Railway, from Ottawa to the Mattawan; in 1875–76 he was assistant engineer of Montreal; and from 1876 to 1883, eight years, deputy city surveyor of the same city; from July to December, in 1883, he was engineer in charge of three hundred miles of line on the Norfolk and Western Railway in Virginia; and in December of 1883 he was appointed city surveyor of Montreal, and this position he has occupied ever since. He was also one of the members of the Royal Flood Commission of Montreal, appointed in 1886. Mr. St. George has been an associate member of the Institute of Civil Engineers of England since 1877; and is now a member of the Council of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers. He is a master Mason, and a member of the Royal Arch Chapter. He has travelled a good deal, and his profession has made him familiar with the greater part of Canada. He is a member of the Church of England. On the 11th July, 1872, he was married to Flora Stewart, daughter of the Rev. Canon Geo. Townshend, rector of Amherst, Nova Scotia, and Elizabeth Stewart, daughter of the Hon. Alexander Stewart, C.B., master of the Rolls, and judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court, and has issue five children.
Palmer, Caleb Read, Justice of the Peace, Moncton, was born at Dorchester, Westmoreland county, New Brunswick, on the 13th February, 1834. His father, John Palmer, grandson of Gideon Palmer, a U. E. loyalist, who came to New Brunswick from Staten Island, New York, is a veteran of 1812, and is now (1887) in his ninety-ninth year, and regularly draws his pension for services during the war. His mother, Elizabeth Cole, was a daughter of Ebenezer Cole. Caleb received his education at the Wesleyan Academy, in Sackville, N.B., taking a course in the higher mathematics and languages, and then for some time adopted teaching as his profession. From 1859 to 1870 he taught the Superior School in Sussex, Kings county, and from January, 1870, to September, 1882, he acted in the capacity of station master at Dorchester for the Intercolonial Railway Company. In July, 1883, he became manager of the Moncton Publishing Company, and this position he occupied until February, 1885, since which time he has confined himself to the duties of justice of the peace, and secretary to the Board of School Trustees of the town of Moncton. Mr. Palmer is interested in shipping, and is also a stockholder in the Moncton Cotton Factory. He is a member of the Royal Arcanum, and in politics is a Liberal. Although brought up in the Episcopal church, he found it more congenial to his taste to attend the Methodist church, and is now a member of that denomination. He was married on the 21st of December, 1865, to Agnes Murray, daughter of John Murray, of Studholm, Kings county, N.B.
Ferguson, Hon. Donald, M.P.P., Provincial Secretary and Commissioner of Crown Lands of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, was born at East River, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on the 7th of March, 1839. His father, John Ferguson, and mother, Isabella Stewart, were descendants of thrifty Scotch farmers, who emigrated from Blair Athol, in Perthshire, Scotland, in 1807, and settled near Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Donald was reared on the farm and received the rudiments of education in the Public school of his native parish, and subsequently pursued his studies in English and mathematics by private tuition. He became interested in politics when quite a young man, and was a strong advocate of the confederation of the provinces. He was a contributor to the press, and in 1867, wrote a series of letters over the signature of “A Farmer,” which attracted considerable attention, and was replied to by the Hon. David Laird, one of the leading politicians of the island, and subsequently lieutenant-governor of the North-West Territories. At a later date, he engaged, over his own signature, in a discussion with the Hon. George Beer, on the union question, and became at once known as one of the champions on the island for a Canadian nationality. He was also a strong supporter of the interests of the tenantry, an advocate of railway construction, and was the mover of the resolutions in favour of the railway which were adopted at the mass meeting of the electors of Queens county, held at Charlottetown, in the winter of 1871. In 1872, Mr. Ferguson was appointed a justice of the peace, and he held the position of collector of inland revenue for Charlottetown for a short time in 1873. In 1873, the great question of confederation, for which Mr. Ferguson had for years contended, having been settled, he offered himself as a candidate for the Legislative Council of Prince Edward Island, for the second district of Queens county, where the Hon. Edward Palmer had been returned in 1872, to the Council, as an anti-railway and an anti-confederate, by a majority of nearly eight hundred votes—and he succeeded, after a spirited canvass and good fight against great odds in reducing the anti-railway majority to two hundred and fifty votes. A vacancy occurring next year in the same constituency, Mr. Ferguson was again brought out by his friends, and this time succeeded in reducing the anti-railway majority to seventy. In 1876, the question of denominational education came prominently before the electors, and Mr. Ferguson and other leading politicians pronounced in favour of a system of payment by results, by which the state would recognize and pay for secular education