A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time. Various
are not unmindful that other departments of our church work have been benefited by your consecrated zeal and wisdom. As early life directs and tinges the thoughts of advanced age, we fail not to discern in you the earnestness of purpose, the singleness of aim that mark the years of the early itinerant. Your company has almost gone before, and while with the few venerable men whom we lovingly call Fathers, you wait the summons of the Master, you say—
“In peace and cheerful hope I wait,
On life’s last verge quite free from fears,
And watch the opening of the gate,
Which leads to the eternal years.”
We desire that your day, as it draws to its close, may be brightened by the glory of the sunset, full of the golden promise of the eternity of light.
Signed by order of the Conference,
C. H. Paisley, Robert Wilson,
Secretary. President.
Marysville, N.B., June, 1887.
Mr. Pickard was twice married, first at Boston, on October 2nd, 1841, to the daughter of Ebenezer and Hannah M. Thompson, by whom he had two children—Edward Dwight and Charles F. Allison, who died in early childhood and infancy. Mrs. Pickard died at Sackville, the 11th of March, 1844. She was a lady of superior ability, and much literary talent, her memoirs and selections from her writings were published at Boston, by the Rev. Edward Otheman, A.M., in a duodecimo volume of upwards of 300 pages, in 1845, which is now out of print. He was married again on the 5th of September, 1846, to Mary Rowe Carr, who was born at Portland, Maine, United States, the daughter of John and Avis Preble Carr. This second wife bore him two daughters, the first, Mary Emarancy, is the wife of Andrew M. Bell, hardware merchant in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the mother of two boys, Winthrop P. and Ralph P. The second, Amelia Elizabeth, is the wife of A. A. Stockton, D.C.L., M.P.P., of St. John, New Brunswick, and mother of six living children, three daughters and three sons. The second Mrs. Pickard died on the 24th of January, 1887, in the 77th year of her age.
Kennedy, George, M.A., LL.D., Barrister, Toronto, was born on 1st March, 1838, at Bytown, now the city of Ottawa, Ontario. His father, Donald Kennedy, was born near Blairathol, in Scotland, and came with his father to Canada in 1818, the family settling in the township of Beckwith. About the time of the building of the Rideau canal the father of the subject of this sketch removed to Bytown, engaged in business as a contractor and builder, was employed for some time as surveyor for the district of Dalhousie, now the county of Carleton, and for many years carried on, in partnership with John Blyth, an extensive cabinet-making business. An ancestor of his took part in the battle of Culloden, on the side of Bonny Prince Charlie, by some called the “Pretender,” and the dirk he used on the occasion is still in the possession of the family. Dr. Kennedy’s mother, Janet Buckham, was born in 1807, in Dunblane, Scotland, and came, with her father, to this country in 1828. This family settled in the township of Torbolton, and Mr. Buckham went into farming on a large scale at the head of Sand Bay, where he planted one of the finest orchards in that part of the country. The Buckhams were descended from an old Border family that have resided in Jedburgh from the time of Queen Mary, of Scotland. Mrs. Kennedy died in 1856; but Mr. Kennedy is still alive, and resides about three miles from Ottawa city, on a picturesque spot overlooking the Rideau river. George received his education at the Carleton county Grammar School (now the Ottawa Collegiate Institute), and at University College, Toronto, where he matriculated in 1853, taking the first-class scholarship in classics, and in his subsequent course held first-class honors also in mathematics, metaphysics and ethics, natural sciences, modern languages, logic, rhetoric and history. In 1857 he graduated B.A. with gold medal in metaphysics and ethics; took M.A. in 1860; LL.B. in 1864, and LL.D., in 1877. In 1859 Dr. Kennedy occupied the position of master of the Grammar School of Prescott; and during the years 1860–1 he was second master in the Ottawa Grammar School, and had charge of the branch Meteorological Observatory at Ottawa. In 1862 he began the study of the law in the offices of Crooks, Kingsmill and Cattanach, Toronto, and was admitted as an attorney and solicitor, and was called to the bar of Ontario in Hilary term, 1865. He then began the practice of his profession in Ottawa, and for six years carried on his business in his native place. In February, 1872, he received the appointment of law clerk to the Crown Lands Department of Ontario, and moved to Toronto, where he has ever since resided. During the years 1878–9-80 the doctor was examiner in law at the University of Toronto. He was one of the founders of the Ottawa Literary and Scientific Society, formed by the amalgamation of the Mechanics’ Institute and Natural History Society, and was secretary for some years, and as a recognition of his labours in connection therewith was made a life member. He was also one of the original members of the University College Literary and Scientific Society, and is a member of the Canadian Institute, of which he was for three years a vice-president, and is now editor of “The Proceedings.” For some time he has been secretary to the Toronto St. Andrew’s Society, and as such prepared a history of the Society as a memorial for its jubilee year, 1886. Dr. Kennedy is an omnivorous reader, and as a consequence has a large and well-selected library—indeed he considers a library the most important part of any home—and few men are better posted in book-lore than he. He, too, has seen a good deal of Canada and the United States, and is familiar with the principal places in North America, ranging from the Southern states, the Western states, the Maritime provinces, the Muskoka district, and the regions beyond Ottawa. As might be expected, Dr. Kennedy was brought up a Presbyterian, but when quite young he began to entertain doubts as to the correctness of the Calvinistic faith of his church. For several years he was greatly troubled about this matter, and finding he could no longer stifle his convictions, he broke away from the church, and became almost an Agnostic. After a while, however, he joined the Unitarian church, and no one has now a firmer faith than he in the Divine Fatherhood, and the infinite possibilities of human progress. On the 6th June, 1883, he married Sarah, daughter of the late Henry Jackson, a well-known jeweller, and once resident of Toronto.
Turnbull, William Wallace, Merchant, of the firm of Turnbull & Co., Flour Dealers, Commission Merchants, and Importers of West India Goods, St. John, New Brunswick, was born on the 23rd of May, 1828, at Bear River, Annapolis county, Nova Scotia. His father was William Baxter Turnbull, and his mother, Relief Ann Tucker. His father’s grandparents emigrated from Edinburgh, Scotland, in the last century, and settled at a small place now known as Bay View, about three miles distant from the town of Digby, N.S., and here the father of the subject of our sketch was born. His mother’s grandparents were U. E. loyalists, and came to Nova Scotia from the United States shortly after, or during, the revolutionary war between Great Britain and that country. Mr. Turnbull, sen., was characterized by his keen sense of humour, his cheerfulness, and his affectionate nature, his sympathy for the weak and suffering, his strong religious convictions, and by his fealty to whatever he believed to be just and right. He died at the comparatively early age of forty-five years, and was buried at Bear River, greatly respected and beloved by all who knew him. William’s education was confined to the English branches, and was obtained at the Grammar School at Bear River, and also by attendance, for a short time, at the Grammar School at Albion Vale, a place about one mile distant from Annapolis, N.S. The school at Albion Vale was taught by the late Andrew Henderson, and it was at the time a somewhat celebrated place of instruction. Mr. Turnbull, sen., died, in July, 1845, leaving a widow and nine children (two sons and seven daughters), William being the younger of the two brothers. On the winding up of his estate, and the payment of all just debts, what remained for the family did not much exceed $1,000. For some time previous to this event William’s health was in such a precarious condition that it created a good deal of anxiety to the family, and it may be readily supposed he could do little towards the support of his mother and sisters, and to add to their troubles one of the younger sisters, eight years old, died. In the following spring (1846) all of the family except the brother removed to St. John, and shortly after their arrival in that city William obtained a situation as clerk with W. D. W. Hubbard, auctioneer. In this office he remained for about eighteen months, when he became book-keeper for G. & J. Salter, a firm then largely engaged in the West India trade, and as shipbuilders and shipowners. On the 1st May, 1851, he left their employ and struck out for himself as a wholesale flour, provision, and grocery merchant, adding thereto a few years afterwards shipowning and sailing, and in this