Chisholm, C. Kenneth; pres. Chisholm Shoe Co.; born, Ontario, 1865; married, Ashtabula, O., 1899, Laura Ford; one daughter, Ruth; 32d° Mason; member Cleveland Athletic, Mayfield, Country, Hermit, and Rotary Clubs.
One of the oldest and most substantial merchants in Sarnia, county of Lambton, is Daniel Mackenzie, who has been in business here more than thirty years, and has weathered every financial storm. He is a native of the village of Campbelltown, parish of Ardersier, Inverness-shire, Scotland, and was born on the 4th of March, 1828. His parents were John and Margaret (Cameron) Mackenzie, his father being a druggist. Both families, were military. Daniel received a parish school education; lost his father about 1833, and in 1843 came to Canada with his mother and two sisters locating at London, where he … Read more
This well known citizen of Reynolds, Owyhee county, is one of the largest sheep-raisers in Idaho and has been largely instrumental in improving the grade of stock raised in the state. His efforts have therefore been of public benefit, for the improvement of stock adds to its market value, and the wealth of the agricultural class is thereby augmented. The rich pasture lands of the northwest provide excellent opportunities to the stock-raiser, and this industry has become a most important one in the commercial interests of Idaho. Mr. Noble, one of its leading representatives, is of English birth, a native … Read more
Doctor Coburn, son of John and Eliza (Walker) Coburn, was born near Bradford, County of Simcoe, November 11, 1837. His father was born in the City of New York; his mother, near Belfast, Ireland. His paternal grandfather was also from Ireland, and moved from New York to Upper Canada when the father of our subject was a youth, settling near the Village of Bradford. John Coburn became a wealthy farmer, and is still living in the old homestead, hale and robust, having always been a man of industrious and, in every way, correct habits. His (the Dr’s) mother died December … Read more
John Prain, warden of the county of Wellington, is a native of Perthshire, Scotland, and was born May 29, 1830, his parents being George and Ann (Sim) Frain. Frain is a rare name in Scotland, except in some parts of Perthshire and Forfarshire, it there being common. John was educated at a parish school in his native country; farmed until about twenty years of age; worked for a few years for a company engaged on public roads, and in the spring of 1858 came to Canada West, and settled in the township of Minto, four miles from Harriston, where he … Read more
James Fleming, County Attorney for Peel, is a native of this Province, and was born in the Township of Vaughan, County of York, June 20, 1839. His parents, Robert and Marian (McMillan) Fleming were from Scotland. He was educated in common schools, the Normal School at Toronto, and in private; studied law with Henry B. Morphy, of Toronto; was called to the Bar in Easter term, 1866, and since that time has been in constant practice at Brampton. He does business in all the Courts, and from the start has had a liberal practice, his first experience at the Bar … Read more
Like many others who have made their mark in Canada, the subject of our sketch, Mr. Warring Kennedy, is an Irishman, having been born in the County Down, in 1827. When young in years Warring Kennedy was taken to Londonderry, and placed in a school, where he received an ordinary education sufficient to qualify him for a business career. He commenced life in a dry goods store in the town of Kilrea, but at the expiration of his apprenticeship he went to Belfast, where he lived many years, earning for himself a reputation second to none for intelligence, undivided application … Read more
Few men now living are more worthy of a place in this book, as a pioneer in Elgin county and a self made man, whose self reliance, perseverance and industry in life made him successful, than Thomas Williams. He was born in Manchester, Eng., April 5, 1803. His father, a silk manufacturer, was Richard Williams, and the maiden name of his mother was Mary Rice. The latter died at the great age of ninety-three, and then from the effects of an accident, and the former lived to be seventy-eight. In 1816, the family left the old country, and came to … Read more
The, to which the subject of this sketch belongs, is of Scandinavian origin, and traces its ancestry back as far as Heiti, father of Suadi, and the brother of Gore-Nor, from whom Norway had its name, in A.D. 690. The progenitor of the clan was Gunn, the second son of Olav, of Gairsey, a descendant of the Earls of Orkney, and the Norse Kings, afterwards Olav the Black, King of Man, and the Isles, and brother of Swein, the last and greatest of the Norse Vikings. Gunn was born about A.D. 1090. The country of the Gunns, after they attained … Read more
Rev. John Potts, was born in 1838, at Maguire’s Bridge, county Fermanagh, Ireland. After an uneventful childhood, John Potts determined at an early age to leave the land of his birth, and try his chance in the New World. We accordingly hear that when only seventeen, the young man started for the Southern States of America, taking Kingston in route. As a straw will of times influence the current of a stream and direct it from its original course, young Potts’ sojourn amongst his Kingston relations, associated as it was with the pleasantest reminiscences, induced him on his return from … Read more
Darby Bergin, son of William Bergin, Civil Engineer, was born in Toronto, Ontario, September 7, 1826. His father, who was a native of King’s County, Ireland, came to Canada in 1820, and was a merchant for some time in the city where the son was born. His mother, before her marriage, was Miss Mary Flanagan, daughter of John Flanagan of Charlottenburg, County of Glengarry, Ontario. The subject of this notice received his literary education at the Upper Canada College, Toronto; graduated M.D. at the university of McGill College, Montreal, in 1847, and has since been practicing at Cornwall, having an … Read more
John E. Smith, mayor of St. Thomas, and one of the leading merchants of the town, was born near Grimsby, in the old Niagara District, December 29, 1830. His father William Smith, a farmer, was also a native of Canada. His mother was Ann Ensley, whose family were from New Jersey, her grandfather being one of the adherents to the Crown when the rebellion broke out in 1775, and was a Captain in the royal army. The subject of this sketch was reared till near manhood on his father’s farm, in the township of Yarmouth, county of Elgin, receiving an … Read more
Alfred Beckett a prominent citizen of Westminster, Orange County, was born in Ontario, Canada, June 7, 1830, a son of Stephen and Anna (Taylor) Beckett, and the sixth child in a family of nine. He received a good common-school education, worked at the mill and lumber business for several years and also did some farming, and in 1877 came to California and bought forty acres of laud in Westminster, which he has put under a high state of cultivation. Politically he is an intelligent supporter of the Republican party. Both himself and wife are highly respected members of social circles. … Read more
Joseph Fleury, the principal manufacturer in Aurora, and warden of the county of York, is a native of the same county, being born in the township of King, December 7, 1832. His father, Joseph Fleury, senior, a farmer of French descent, was also a native of Canada. His mother, who was Mary, Sipes, before her marriage, was likewise born in Canada. Joseph received an ordinary district school education; learned the blacksmith’s trade, and followed it about fifteen years, including a few years of the time that he was manufacturing plows, which business he commenced at Aurora, in 1859. The first … Read more
John Elley Harding, senior member of the firm of Harding, Harding and White, barristers, dates his birth May 29, 1840, in the township of Beverley, county of Wentworth, Ontario. His father, John Harding, a farmer and mill owner, was a native of the county of Tipperary, Ireland, and his mother, whose maiden name was Jane Talbot, was from Queen’s County, in the same country. Our subject commenced his education in a country school, and subsequently spent four years at Caradoc Academy, near London, and two years under the private tuition of Rev. Henry B. Jessop, incumbent of the English church … Read more
Homer Pratt Brown, treasurer of the county of Oxford, and a native of Cattaraugus county, New York, was born February 13, 1822. His parents were Henry and Sarah (Pratt) Brown. His father was in the second war with England, fighting on the American side and subsequently becoming a British subject. In the infancy of Homer, the family moved to the Genesee valley, and spent several years at Avon, Livingston county, and Mendon, Monroe county, removing to Paris, Upper Canada, in 1835. There his mother died in 1837; his father at Woodstock, in 1866. Young Homer received an ordinary public school … Read more
Thomas Oliver, who represents North Oxford in the Dominion Parliament, is a native of Sutherlandshire, Scotland, the son of Thomas Oliver, senior, whose calling was that of a shepherd, and Janet nee Walker, and was born in March, 1821. He was educated in part in a parish school, and with additional private study fitted himself for an instructor. After teaching a parish school two years in his native county, he came to Canada in 1840, and located in the township of Zorra, now West Zorra, county of Oxford. There he taught school three or four years; then settled in Woodstock; … Read more
One of the prominent families at Pembroke is that of the Moffats, who came from Haddingtonshire, Scotland, in 1834, and after spending six years at New Edinburgh, adjoining Bytown, now Ottawa, moved to Pembroke in the autumn of 1840. At that date the principal settlers here were Peter White, Campbell, Arhuna and John Dunlap, James Jardine and Hugh Fraser. Here Alexander Moffat built a grist mill and laid out the village of Pembroke into lots, and was engaged in manufacturing flour until his death in April, 1872. He also built a woolen mill. He was the first postmaster here, being … Read more
John Marjoribanks Lawde Et, late Judge of the County of Lincoln, dates his birth at Greenock, Scotland, August 16, 1824, his parents being John Lawder, Custom House officer at Greenock, and Jane Hervey, a native of Glasgow. Both died while he was young, and in 1837, an orphan boy, he came to Upper Canada, having completed his school studies before leaving the old country. He studied law at Toronto with Robert Hervey, now of Chicago; was called to the Bar at Hilary term, February, 1845; practiced at Niagara a little more than twenty-two years; was appointed county attorney and clerk … Read more
Richard Blain, for the last four years Mayor of Galt, is a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Little) Blain, both natives of the County of Cumberland, England, where the son was born January 26, 1821. His father was in general business. In 1839 he came to Upper Canada, and at Dundas learned the millers’ trade with James B. Ewart, for many years a prominent manufacturer in that town. Mr. Blain worked for him five years in Dundas and ten in Galt, settling in the latter place in 1844. In 1854 he commenced milling with his brother, James Blain, leasing and … Read more