Part 3
=Robertson, John Ross=, journalist. The direct descendant of Duncan R., chief of the clan of Robertson of Strowan, 1347; eldest son of the late John Robertson, wholesale dry goods merchant, Toronto, and Margaret R., daughter of Hector Sinclair, Stornoway, Island of Lewis, Scotland. He was born in Toronto, Dec. 28, 1841, and educated at Upper Canada College; married, 1st, in 1871, Maria Louisa (d. Aug., 1886), daughter of Edward Earle Matthew Gillbee, Northamptonshire, Eng., grandson of the late Rev. Dr. Edward Gillbee, Vicar of Barby, near Rugby, descendant of the noted Anthony Gilby, one of the translators of the first edition of the Geneva or “Breeches” Bible, 1560; 2ndly, 1888, Jessie Elizabeth, daughter of George B. Holland, a prominent insurance man of Toronto. While still at college he occupied his spare hours in acquiring a knowledge of the printer’s craft, and was a fairly rapid compositor; commenced a small office which he established in his father’s residence, John St., Toronto, and with a few fonts of type he issued to the boys at Upper Canada College a paper under the name of the “College Times,” which later took the name of the “Boys’ Times,” a monthly publication that existed 1857-60. He also published in succession to the “Boys’ Times,” during a year at the Model Grammar School, a newsy paper for boys called “Young Canada.” Picking up a general knowledge of setting type and small job work in city offices, his face was a familiar one in the old “Christian Guardian” office, where occasionally he used to work off odd jobs, the composition of which he did in his own office; in the “Globe” Office, where in 1859, when opportunity offered, he sometimes used to feed one of the Hoe single cylinder presses when printing the inner pages of the four-page “Globe,” for the inside was always printed the afternoon before the morning issue; in the “Leader,” where he at times worked off on a small job cylinder Hoe press, the “Grumbler,” the weekly that he issued in 1860; the following year he equipped a newspaper and job office, and issued “Sporting Life,” the first paper in Canada to be devoted to athletic sports, and subsequently continued the publication of the “Grumbler,” a weekly satirical paper, at one time edited by W. J. Rattray, W. A. Foster, and the late Chief Justice Thomas Moss. He worked on the reportorial and advertising staff of the “Leader,” when Charles Lindsey and Charles Belford were editors and Ephraim Roden, City Editor, continuing at the same time the management of his printing office. He also issued for a year, Robertson’s Canadian Railway Guide, the first of its kind in Canada, and early in 1865 joined the Toronto “Globe” staff as city Editor, in May, 1866, becoming one of the founders of the “Daily Telegraph,” a journal that had a high reputation among the newspapers of Canada. Owing to political complications it ceased publication in 1872. Prior to this, in December, 1869, Mr. Robertson, then of the “Daily Telegraph,” made a trip to the North-West, accompanied by Mr. Robert Cunningham of the “Globe.” They travelled by rail from Toronto to the end of steel at St. Cloud, Minn., and there with a French half-breed guide and a two-horse farmer’s sleigh, fully equipped, began a journey of about 400 miles over the prairie. Snow storms raged and the thermometer ran from zero to 20 below. The travellers camped every night in the woods along the Red River, and arrived in Fort Garry after a perilous journey of ten days, to be locked up by the so-called “President” Riel, in Fort Garry for a week, and only allowed out to see their friends in the town, under a guard. They both secured interesting information, but were ordered out of the territory, as Riel thought they were “dangerous characters,” so they left Fort Garry for Pembina, U.S., the boundary post, one day when the thermometer was about 40 below zero. They declared they would not do the trip again for the whole North-West. Mr. Robertson, after the “Daily Telegraph” ceased publication, proceeded to London, Eng., where for three years he acted as resident correspondent and business representative of the Toronto “Daily Globe.” On his return to Canada, 1875, he assumed the business management of the “Nation,” edited by the late Prof. Goldwin Smith. It is said that during his managership of the “Nation,” his friend, Mr. Goldwin Smith asked his opinion as to the opportunities offered for an independent daily evening paper in Toronto, and that this conversation led up to the establishment of the “Evening Telegram,” which first saw light in April, 1876. It is said to be the only daily paper in Canada that has paid its way from the start. Mr. Robertson continued to conduct it until his death, May 31, 1918. “The immediate success of this paper,” said the “Globe,” in a sketch of his career published during his lifetime, “is ample evidence that he has graduated from a good school of journalism. Neither accident or luck had aught to do with his success. He launched out in new and original lines, and the good fortune that attended his efforts was the outcome of his energy, enthusiasm and experience, reinforced by a persistence and resource that would admit of no failure; it is these qualities that he brings to his every undertaking, and on the “Globe” he left behind him a reputation that is worthy of his later achievements.” This was publicly demonstrated by his Masonic career and his management of that great charity—the Hospital for Sick Children. From the first he has held high rank in the Masonic order. He entered the Craft in 1867, and was W.M. of his Mother Lodge, King Solomon’s, in 1880-1, and of Mimico, No. 359, in 1879-80. After having served successively as Grand Senior Warden, as District Grand Master of the Toronto District in 1886, he became in 1890 Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Canada, and was subsequently chosen Grand First Principal of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Canada, 1894-5, and Provincial Grand Prior, Ontario Centre, Sovereign Great Priory of Canadian Knights Templar, 1882; was Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of England in Canada, having been appointed to succeed Sir John A. Macdonald in that office on the latter’s death, 1891; indeed, every honor at the disposal of his fellow-craftsmen had been accorded him. In September, 1902, in commemoration of the coronation of His Majesty King Edward, the Duke of Connaught (q.v.) then and now Grand Master, was pleased to confer the honorary rank of Past Grand Warden of England upon several eminent personages, including the subject of this sketch. For many years Mr. Robertson was president of the Canadian Copyright Association and rendered important services in that regard, and also Vice-President and President of the Canadian Associated Press, and Hon. President of the Toronto Press Club. He was present, with his wife, by invitation, in Westminster Abbey, at the coronation of King Edward and Queen Alexandra. As an author of Masonic works, Mr. Robertson is well known, having written the “History of the Degree of the Cryptic Rite in Canada,” etc. (1888); “History of the Knights Templar of Canada, from the Foundation of the Order to the Present Time” (1890); “Talks with Craftsmen” (1893); “Freemasonry in Canada,” 2 vols., 1,000 pages each (1899). He was a contributor to the U.C. College Memorial Volume, 1893, edited the “Diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe, wife of the First Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, 1792-6” (1911), as a press notice said, “The book of the year, a superb work,” and the author and compiler of “Robertson’s Landmarks of Toronto” (7 vols.). In 1888 the ambulance system in Toronto was unsatisfactory, and with a view to making it efficient, he imported from London, Eng., a modern ambulance, fully equipped, and presented it to the city. There are about sixty ambulances in Canada made from this model. The presentation marked a new era in this branch of humane work. He later gave a collection of 4,000 Canadian historical pictures to the Toronto Public Library, the largest collection of its kind in the world, valued at $150,000. In January, 1917, he acquired and presented to the Public Library a magnificent ornithological collection of birds and game of Canada, done in water-color by William Pope, an English sportsman and artist, who resided for forty years at Port Ryerse, Ont. This collection of water-colors is pronounced by eminent Canadian biologists to be equal of and in some respects superior to, the work of Audubon. Mr. Robertson later added to this another collection of Canadian birds, exquisite reproductions in color of hundreds of birds that are not in the Pope Collection, so that the entire collection is unparalleled in Canada. He founded and gave three magnificent silver cups, made by eminent British silversmiths, from special patterns, for the promotion of cricket, hockey and bowling; but it was as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, that he will be most gratefully remembered. For thirty-five years he carried the chief burden of this important charitable institution, bringing to its needs not only much money of his own, but aiding it with the full force of his powers as a financier and organizer. He took an active part in the management and visited the Hospital every day. His gifts to the Hospital amounted to about half a million dollars during his lifetime, for he completely equipped the Hospital buildings on College St. and on Elizabeth St., and built and founded, in connection with the Hospital, the Lakeside Home for Little Children, at Lighthouse Point, Toronto Island, with an accommodation for 250 patients and an entire hospital equipment; here, during the summer months, the suffering little ones are won back to health and strength with the aid of the cool breezes which sweep across Lake Ontario. Included in his benefactions to the Hospital he erected, equipped and presented to the Hospital (as a memorial of his first wife) a five-storey nurses’ brick residence, containing 125 rooms, which has been declared to be the most perfect building of its kind ever erected; in July, 1911, he presented to the Heather Club an extension to the pavilion for tubercular children in connection with the Lakeside Home. He built and established a complete plant for the pasteurization of milk, on the Hospital grounds, College St., Toronto, the only one of its kind in the Dominion. By his will the whole of his estate will ultimately go to this philanthropy. He was an all-round amateur athlete, and has been sometimes called “The Father of Amateur Hockey in Ontario”; was President of the Ontario Hockey Association, 1899-1905. He sat for East Toronto in 1896-1900 in the House of Commons as an Independent Conservative, pledged to oppose any Government which would attempt to establish separate schools in Manitoba, to support the “National Policy,” and to vote for the general good of the country. According to Sir Charles Tupper (q.v.) he was in all respects “a model member,” and a devoted Imperialist. In religion he was a Presbyterian. In February, 1917, Mr. Robertson was offered in the New Year’s honors a knighthood and a senatorship, both of which honors he gratefully declined. A well-known politician said, “It is the first time in the history of Canada that anyone declined a knighthood and a senatorship in the same day.” He was a member of the National, Victoria and Arts and Letters Clubs; Constitutional (Conservative) Club, London, Eng. “A born journalist”—“Canada,” of London, Eng.; “A truly independent man”—D. McCarthy, Q.C., M.P.; “Possesses a heart as big as that of an ox”—Hamilton “Spectator”; “The good angel of many of Toronto’s charitable institutions”—Hamilton “Times”; “No man need desire a more noble monument than these Hospital buildings, which would keep Mr. Robertson’s memory green if all other achievements were forgotten”—Toronto “Globe”; “He has risen step by step until he is to-day recognized as one of the keenest, most practical and successful publishers of the Dominion. The blind goddess had nothing to do with his success”—Ottawa “Citizen.”
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=Hearst, Hon. Sir William Howard, K.C.M.G., K.C., M.P.P.=, Prime Minister of the Province of Ontario, was born on February 15, 1864, in the township of Arran, Bruce County, Ontario, the son of William and Margaret (McFadden) Hearst. His father was a farmer, and the subject of this sketch was educated at the public schools of Arran Township and later at Collingwood Collegiate Institute. Subsequently he studied for the legal profession at Osgoode Hall, Toronto, and was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1888. He commenced the practice of law in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., where he became prominent in municipal affairs and active as a speaker in the Conservative interest. He was an unsuccessful candidate in Algoma East in 1894, but in the Ontario Legislative elections in 1902 he helped to organize a group of newly defined constituencies in Northern Ontario for Mr. (afterward Sir) James P. Whitney, and by his effective methods largely assisted in placing them in the Conservative column. When the Whitney Government was formed in 1905 Mr. Hearst was appointed Government agent in connection with the guarantee loan furnished to the Lake Superior Corporation, under the provisions of which the Government had a voice in the management of the corporation until the loan should be liquidated. In this capacity Mr. Hearst proved a business success but resigned the office in 1908 to contest the riding of Sault Ste. Marie for the Ontario Legislature. He was successful and in September, 1911, when Hon. Frank Cochrane resigned the Portfolio of Forests and Mines to become Minister of Railways and Canals in the first Borden cabinet, Sir James Whitney tendered the vacancy in his cabinet to Mr. Hearst. The latter accepted and was re-elected by acclamation by his constituents, whom he has ever since continued to represent. On the death of Sir James Whitney in 1914, he was asked to form a Government, all his former colleagues accepting office under him. He was sworn in as Prime Minister and President of the Council on October 2, 1914, this being practically the last official act of Sir John Gibson, as Lieutenant-Governor. Following the death of Hon. James Duff in December, 1916, he also assumed the post of Minister of Agriculture, retaining it for two years until the elevation of Hon. George Henry to the cabinet in 1918. In connection with his profession as a lawyer he was created a K.C. in 1908 and was elected a bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1912. On February 13, 1917, he was created a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. The Premiership of Sir William Hearst has been marked by energetic administration and progressive legislation. He took office at a time of peculiar difficulty in Canadian affairs, when the great war had been in progress for two months and when it was becoming evident that it would be necessary for a vast and united effort if it was to be successfully prosecuted. Perhaps his most radical step was his act of 1916, to prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors throughout the province of Ontario. Subsequent orders-in-Council by the Federal government gave this act the effect of absolute prohibition. In 1917 he introduced and carried an act to confer the Parliamentary franchise on women. Under his leadership a comprehensive measure previously enacted providing for compensation to workmen for injuries was put into successful operation and extended. An important measure of his provides for loans to settlers, and he has also taken practical steps to deal with the housing problem. The policy of Sir James Whitney and Sir Adam Beck of government control and operation of the water powers of the province, known as the Hydro-Electric system has been amplified under Sir William Hearst. In connection with the war he visited the battlefront to personally ascertain the needs of the situation. Under his administration the Orpington Military Hospital in England was built as the gift of the people of Ontario. As Minister of Agriculture he organized measures for increased food production to meet the needs of soldiers and civilians overseas; and is taking active measures to assist in reconstruction, by helping returned soldiers to settle on the land. In religion Sir William is a Methodist. On July 21, 1891, he married Isabella Jane Dunkin of Sault Ste. Marie by whom he has four children, Lieutenant Howard Vernon Hearst and Lieutenant Irving Hearst, both of whom are on active war service; and Misses Isabel and Evelyn Hearst. Sir William resides at Toronto.
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=Meighen, Hon. Arthur, K.C.= (Portage la Prairie, Man.), was born June 16, 1874, at Anderson, Blanchard Township, Perth County, Ont., and is the son of Joseph and Mary Meighen, of St. Mary’s, Ont. He was educated at St. Mary’s Collegiate Institute and Toronto University; received degree B.A. (Tor.), 1896; graduated with honors in mathematics. Taught High School, Caledonia, Ont., 1897-98. After graduating as a Barrister, he entered business for himself, 1902, and built up a large practice at Portage la Prairie. Bencher Manitoba Law Society since 1908; Bencher of Upper Canada Law Society since 1914. Having a capacity for public life, at the solicitation of his friends, he accepted the nomination as Conservative candidate for the Constituency of Portage la Prairie, Man., and was elected by a majority of 250. In 1904 Mr. Crawford, Liberal, had been elected by a majority of 358. In the general elections, September 21, 1911, when the Laurier Administration was defeated at the polls on the question of Reciprocity with the United States, Mr. Meighen was again elected by a majority of 675 over his opponent R. Patterson. When the position of Solicitor-General became vacant, June 26, 1913, Sir Robert Borden invited Mr. Meighen to accept that office, and at a bye-election held July 19, 1913, he was returned by acclamation. In August, 1917, he became Secretary of State for Canada and Minister of Mines, and as such devised and installed the organizations in Canada and overseas for the holding of the war election of that year. On the formation of the Union Government in the autumn of 1917 he accepted the portfolio of Minister of the Interior, and was re-elected by a handsome majority at the general elections which ensued. As a parliamentarian he has been a success, and is held in high esteem by members on both sides of the House. As a debater he is considered one of the ablest, and always commands the respect of his colleagues when he rises to speak on any important subject. Mr. Meighen was married June 1, 1904, to Jessie Isabel Cox, to whom were born three children, Theodore Roosvelt Meighen (1905), Maxwell Charles Gordon Meighen (1908), and Lillian Meighen (1910). In religion he is a Presbyterian; in politics, a Conservative. Clubs, Portage la Prairie, Rideau, Ottawa. Address, 21 Cooper St., Ottawa.
[Illustration: MAJOR-GEN. SIR. ARTHUR WILLIAM CURRIE Victoria, B.C.]
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