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Graciously Transcribed by: Richard Hirst U.E.


ELIAS AUGUSTINE, was born in Humberstone Township October 30th, 1834. He is a son of John and Catharine, and grandson of George and Mary (Stoner) Augustine. At the age of eighteen he went to learn the carpenter trade, which he worked at for five years. He has been twenty-three years at the business of carriage building, and is at present the senior partner of the firm of Augustine & Kilmer, of Humberstone, who do an extensive manufacturing business in their line. Mr. Augustine married January 8th, 1861, Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Henry C. and Catharine (Bowen) Anger, and grand-daughter of John Bowen. They have two children, Adella Florence, born October 19th, 1862, and Curtis Jerome, who was born September 11th, 1865. Our subject is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and also of the A. O. U. W. The whole family are connected with the Methodist church, of which Mr. A. has been a member for about twenty years.

B. F. CANBY, farmer, was born at Clark Hill, Niagara Falls, on the 29th day of January, 1850. He is a son of Thomas and Margaret (Harris) Canby. The father was born at St. Johns, New Brunswick, in 1796, came to this country in 1837, and for fifteen years lived at Niagara Falls. Although a man of considerable means, his training and disposition seemed to incline him to take a position in an office, rather than the more active field of speculation. For this reason he was for a number of years in the employ of Samuel Street, as his head clerk. He moved from Niagara Falls to Fonthill about 1852, and at one time was the owner of the greater part of the land on which the village is situated. This land he divided into lots and sold ; virtually starting the village. The mother of our subject was born 22nd April, 1822, and was the daughter of Elisha and Rachael (Brown) Harris, the latter born in Nova Scotia, February 14th, 1800. The paternal grandfather, Joseph Canby, was the owner of vessels trading with the West Indies, an enterprise that at one time largely engaged his attention. Mr. Canby, our subject, was educated at Fonthill Grammar School, and graduating from that institution, attended, for a time, Toronto University. He married January 28th, 1875, Victoria, a daughter of Wesley and Martha (Lemon) Buchner, and grand-daughter of Ozias Buchner, born on lot 1 in the 4th concession of Crowland in 1779, probably the first white child born in that township ; and great grand-daughter of Capt. Henry Buchner, a U.E. Loyalist, who left his home on Staten Island in the early days of the revolutionary war, establishing indisputably the fact that the Buchners were among the earliest pioneers of the county of Welland. Mrs. Canby was born in Crowland Township, May 24th, 1853, and because of her birthday being on the same day as Queen Victoria's she was given her name. Her father moved to Fonthill shortly after her birth. Mr. Canby bought a fine farm of 147 acres at Sugarloaf Point in 1878, pleasantly situated at the eastern base of Sugarloaf Hill, moving there in April of that year. He has since sold a part of the farm, reserving the portion bordering on the lake, and has fitted up as a summer resort, where a few select families are furnished board and camping grounds. He has recently purchased a farm of 52 acres on the lake in the township of Wainfleet. His family consists of three children, viz : Lucilla Amelia, born January 2nd, 1876 ; Julia French, born December 19th, 1882, and Charles Sperry, born October 29th, 1885. Mr. Canby is one of the enterprising and energetic young men of the county.

CHARLES H. CARTER, son of Levi and Hannah Carter was born in Chester County, New Jersey, in 1822. A year later the family moved to New York State, near Rochester. They contemplated forestalling Horace Greeley's advice and going west. In fact Mr. Carter and his father made a preliminary trip west, but the Black Hawk war broke out, and after being besieged in Fort Peoria for a season, they returned, and subsequently came to Canada instead. In 1838, Mr. Charles Carter, with his brother William, engaged in the business of towing on the Welland canal, at first with horses and later with tugs, as steam superseded quadrupedal power. The brothers owned the second tug built on the lakes, the "Underwriter" sixty horsepower, built at Buffalo. In 1874, Charles Carter was appointed harbor master at Port Colborne, which position he yet holds. During the seasons of 1885-86 he had charge of the navigation of the Welland aqueduct, his successful management of which won high mention from leading Chicago, and other papers. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and one of the charter members of McNab Lodge, A.F. & A.M., Port Colborne. There are but few, if any, men living better known on the lakes than the subject of this sketch. In 1849 he married Miranda, daughter of Solomon Steele, Esq., of Humberstone. This union was blessed with five sons and one daughter, all yet living. The three eldest sons, DeWitt, Sperry and Frank, are doing a successful tug and wrecking business, having accomplished some notable exploits as wreckers. The other sons are Harry V., engaged in law business in Minnedosa, Man., and Alfred, located in Alberta Territory. Mr. Carter's present wife, to whom he was married on the 13th April, 1887, is Amy, the second daughter of Archibald Thompson, Sr., Esq., of Welland.

L. G. CARTER, Esq., postmaster, Port Colborne, is a native of New York State. He came to Canada with his father in 1834. They located in Port Robinson, but in 1838 moved to Port Colborne, where in 1850 the subject of this sketch engaged in mercantile pursuits. His buciness rapidly increased from a small grocery to a general store. After doing busines in this way for twenty years, and accumulating considerable property by his honesty, carefulness and adherence to his calling, he went exclusively into dry-goods, going the next year to England and to Scotland to purchase his stock in the chief markets of the world. At one time his business was the most important of the kind in the county. In 1880 he retired from active pursuits, and now lives a little way from the scene of his busy life on a farm of eighty-five acres, in one of the finest residences in the county. Mr. Carter was born on the twenty-seventh day of February, 1828, in Brighton, Monroe County, N.Y., and is a son of Levi and Hannah (Green) Carter, natives of New Jersey, of English descent. The ancestors of the family, Benjamin, Daniel and James, three brothers, came from England to America in 1760 and settled in New Jersey. Wm. Carter, son of the Benjamin mentioned above, and Nancy, his wife, was born in 1784 in Gloucester, N.J. ; his wife was Deborah ; they are the grandparents of our subject ; their son Levi, his father, was born at Pedericktown, Salem County, N.J., on the 22nd day of June 1791. "Levi and Hannah Carter, his wife, were married on the twenty-third day of the ninth month of the year one thousand eight hundred and thirteen." L.G. Carter was the eighth of his father's family of eleven children, five sons and six daughters. He was married Sept. 16th, 1851, to Mary Fielden, daughter of Col. John and Margaret (Killman) Scholfield, and grand-daughter of James and Mary (Fielden) Scholfield. Mr. Carter has been a justice of the peace for the past thirty years, and postmaster for twenty-eight years. In 1873 Mr. Carter erected the superstructure of the Baptist church in Port Colborne at a cost of four thousand dollars and deeded it to the congregation. He has always taken a deep interest in morality and religion, doing all in his power to further the cause of both, and has ever shown a generous public spirit. He has been clerk of the church since its organization in 1860, and at present is deacon and clerk.

HENRY CRONMILLER Esq., the senior member of the firm of Cronmiller & White, was born in the township of Bertie in 1829. His parents were natives of Alsace, one of the provinces so long in dispute between Germany and France. Our subject spent his boyhood on the farm and received a common school education. In 1850 he married Miss Caroline Weidman, of Humberstone, and began life on his own account as a farmer in the township of Bertie. About 1860 he started a store and hotel in Humberstone, still continuing to run a farm. This business he continued until 1873, when he sold out and went to Port Colborne, where he engaged in buying grain until 1875, when he started the brewery. The brewing business of the firm is very extensive. Mr. Cronmiller is a good business man and has always possessed the confidence of the public in a high degree. While living in Humberstone he was for ten years treasurer of that township, and since removing to Port Colborne he has been several years a member of the village council, and is now serving his fourth term as reeve. In the county council he is highly respected. Mr. and Mrs. Cronmiller are the parents of nine children and the grand-parents of eleven.

W.T. COOK, merchant, was born in Fort Erie in the year 1834. His parents were Thomas and Sarah Ann (Howell) Cook, the father being a native of the United States. The family moved to Port Colborne when our subject was ten years of age. Mr. Cook, when a young man, began life as a clerk in the store of L.G. Carter, in which position he remained sixteen years. He then went into business for himself in Port Colborne, where he has remained ever since, with the exception of a few years he spent on a farm. Mr. Cook's present place of business is on the line between Port Colborne and Stonebridge. His store, which adjoins his beautiful residence, is very neat and tasteful in its design and fittings. Mr. Cook married Sarah Jane, daughter of John Ashenhurst, of Uxbridge, who has been a most devoted wife and helpmate ; their union has been blessed with only one child - a little girl who died at the age of nine months. Mr. Cook is a member of the R. T. of T. and the C. H. C. Mr. and Mrs. Cook have been for years consistent members of the Baptist church, of which our subject has been the treasurer for nineteen years, almost from its infancy in Port Colborne.

JOHN CROSS, employee of the Grand Trunk Railway, was born in Ross-shire, Scotland in 1814. His parents were Donald and Ann (McCloy) Cross. Our subject spent several years in England at railroad work, and worked in France on the construction of the road from Havre to Paris as foreman for Brassey & McKenzie. He came to Canada in August, 1842, by the New York route and immediately went to work on the Welland Canal. He afterwards went to Caledonia and worked at making a road from that place to Walpole. He returned to this district and ran a boat on the Welland Canal for Richard Boyle. He spent about sixteen years in the employ of the late John Brown, as foreman, occasionally taking a subcontract on the canal and in the construction of the macadamized roads of the county. He also superintended the construction of the Welland Railway as far as Port Robinson, and afterwards was engaged to purchase wood for the use of that road. He went to Pennsylvania to build a projected railway there, but it was a losing speculation. He then returned to Canada and was engaged by the Grand Trunk Railway Company to take charge of the railway bridge on the canal at Port Colborne, which duty he still performs. Mr. Cross enjoys good health considering his advanced age. He owns comfortable premises in Port Colborne, and has the distinction of having built the first macadamized roads in the county, viz : those leading from St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Port Robinson to Thorold.

DR. OWEN W. FARES was born in the township of Humberstone April 18th, 1843, and received his education at Dr. Rolph's School of Medicine, and Victoria College, and graduated with the degree of M.D. in 1864, and for a short time after practised his profession. He afterwards engaged in the drug business, until 1878, when he retired from the active duties of his profession, and is now living outside the borders of the corporation of Port Colborne, enjoying the benefit of a competence. The doctor is a son of Owen and Christiana (Winter) Fares, both native born Canadians. His grandfathers, William Fares and Emanuel Winter, were both born in Pennsylvania. Grandfather William Fares came to Canada when a small boy, and settled in the township of Wainfleet, in the county of Welland, having been one of the first pioneers of the place. Dr. Fares married April 27th, 1868, Mary E., daughter of John and Catharine (Kilman) Shugg, the former of English and the latter of Canadian birth. Mrs. Dr. Fares is a granddaughter of Adam and Elizabeth (Near) Kilman, of German descent.

ELISHA FURRY, merchant, Humberstone, was born in the township of Wainfleet in 1831. His parents were Samuel and Elizabeth (McKay) Furry. In 1849 he married Sarah Ann, daughter of the late Matthias Zavitz, of the same township. They have a family of five: The eldest, Mary Elizabeth, married Walter Simpson, (now deceased); Margaret Angeletta, married to Lemuel R. Snider ; and Helena Alberta, Ulysses S. Grant and Ella Ezella A., at home, unmarried. He followed the farming pursuits until 1867, when he engaged in business at Port Colborne as a general merchant - a business which he has continued ever since, either in Port Colborne or Humberstone. He combines the grain buying business with his general store, and is one of the substantial men of the township. He enjoys the respect of his fellowmen in a high degree, and has filled many important public positions. While farming in Moulton he was elected reeve of that township. He has also been a member of the Port Colborne Village and Humberstone Township councils for a term of fifteen years, repeatedly representing the latter place in county council. In 1882 he was elected warden of the county of Welland, and in 1884 he was appointed by the Ontario Government a member of the board of license commissioners for the said county, which position he held for three years. His grandparents were among the first settlers of Canada. His grandfather, McKay Lawrence Furry came from Pennsylvania between the years 1780 and 1790, and enlisted with the British soldiers. He was wounded while fighting in battle during the war of 1812, for which he received a yearly pension up to the time of his death which occurred about the year 1850.

PETER GIBBONS, Esq., hardware merchant, Port Colborne, was born in the town of Newport, county of Mayo, Ireland, on the 22nd day of may 1821. He is a son of John and Mary (Quinn) Gibbons. He was educated in his native land, and came to America in 1847. He landed at New York and proceeded to Buffalo by packet boat; the New York Central Railway was at that time being constructed. Mr. Gibbons, a short time after arriving in Buffalo, came on to Port Colborne, then better known as Gravelly Bay. After filling an engagement as clerk in the store of John McRae at Stonebridge, he began business on his own account in Port Colborne in 1849, and has continued to conduct mercantile business in the place ever since - at present enjoying the distinction of being the oldest merchant in the village. His business career has been - thanks to his ability, application, and fair dealing - an uninterrupted success. His first goods came by boat to Niagara and were teamed from that place by horses, the canal being under repair. Mr. Gibbons was married in August, 1861, to Mary Ellen, daughter of Nicholas Higgins. They have a family of two, John P. and Mary M. Our subject has been justice of the peace for thirty years. He is of the religious faith of the church of Rome, and is a reformer in politics.

MATTHEW F. HANEY, M.D., was born in the township of Pelham April 4th 1824. He is a son of Matthew and Anna (Mains) Haney, both natives of Canada. Our subject received his preliminary education at the St. Catharines Academy, Lincoln County. He then engaged in the study of medicine and became a graduate of the Buffalo Medical College in 1850. He afterwards attended the Toronto Medical University, passing the board of examiners in 1851, obtaining a license to practice his profession in this province, and since that period has been located in the village of Stonebridge. He was married 6th December 1855, to Rebecca, a daughter of Jonathan Wild, of Humberstone Township, and has from the union a family of five children, viz : Helen Susanna Adeline, Anna Rebecca, Thomas Fletcher, Esther Elizabeth, and Frederick Stephen McKenzie. The grand-parents of our subject were natives of New Jersey, and came to this province on account of their love for the British flag. Matthew Haney, the doctor's father, was an artilleryman in 1812, and was engaged in battles along the frontier in the flying artillery, where he served with distinction, and was honorably discharged. Our subject has always taken an active interest in educational affairs, and was for twelve years local superintendant of public schools, during the Ryerson regime. He was elected as member of the township council of Humberstone in 1857, and served in that capacity for four years. He afterwards served as reeve for a like term of years and occupied the warden's chair in 1871. During the Sandfield Macdonald administration the doctor was appointed justice of the peace, and both as magistrate and physician enjoys the confidence and esteem of the entire community.

ALBERT HANNA, farmer, Welland P.O., was born on the old homestead in Humberstone on the fourteenth day of July, 1844. His parents were Richard and Ann Jane (Johnson) Hanna, both of whom were natives of Ireland, his father having been born in the county of Cavan and his mother in the county of Tyrone. They were married in Toronto, where they lived for some time. About 1835 they came to this county and lived for a short time near where the aqueduct now is in the town of Welland, and afterwards settled on the farm where our subject now lives. Mr. Albert Hanna is one of a family of twelve children. He was educated at the common schools, and has always followed the business of farming, but has also engaged in baling hay, dealing in tember, and other enterprises. He married on the 19th day of September, 1883, Miss Jennie, daughter of Hiram Skinner of Niagara Falls, Ont. They have two children - Arthur Alexander, born July 24th, 1884 and Eva Geraldine, born January 3rd, 1886. Mr. Hanna is a member of the Orange fraternity.

DR. FRANK KING, of Port Colborne, is a son of Dr. Richard S. King, who died at Port Robinson, August 2nd, 1885. For years previous to his death, he was perhaps as widely known, as highly respected, and had as extensive a practice, as any physician who ever lived on the Niagara Peninsula. Dr. Richard S. King was born at Mac Mine Castle, county of Wexford, Ireland, in 1817. He was educated for the medical profession and graduated at the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin. After graduating he, for a short time, resided in Manchester, England. In 1844 he set sail for Canada, and on arriving here come up the lakes and went to the residence of his brother-in-law, Dr. Morris, at Fort Erie. Dr. King commenced the practice of his profession at Stonebridge, but in 1849 removed to Port Robinson and assumed charge of the practice of Dr. Campbell, and was shortly after appointed surgeon to the police force, who were keeping peace along the line of the canal, then in course of construction. In 1861, at the time of the troubles in regard to the Trent affair, Dr. King at Port Robinson, and Capt. Verner at Port Colborne, organized the Welland Canal field battery. In the March previous to the Fenian raid, the battery was called out, owing to an apprehension of impending trouble, but, no disturbances occurring just then, in April the men returned to their homes. On the first of June, 1866, the battery was again called out, and with Capt. King in command, was ordered to go to Fort Erie and patrol the river on the tug "W. T. Robb" in company with the Dunnville naval brigade. They arrived at Fort Erie at about 8 a.m., landed and marched to Black Creek, where they re-embarked on the tug and returned to Fort Erie. Shortly after their arrival at the village they engaged in battle with the Fenian horde, and it was here that a rifle ball shattered Dr. King's left leg so badly that it necessitated amputation. After being shot, and when the Fenians were charging, he rolled himself over to the side of the wharf, and clung to one of the piles until rescued from his perilous position by his friends. After the battle was over, he was removed to Buffalo to have his wound attended to. When well enough to return home he crossed the river and was met by an immense assemblage of his fellow citizens, headed by the warden of the county, who warmly received him, and congratulated him on his recovery. On his arrival home the doctor was met by the county council, the Welland Canal field battery, and an immense concourse of people, who had come to do honor to the brave soldier. The warden, Edward Lee, Esq., of Marshville, presented a laudatory address on behalf of the county, and accompanied it with the gift of a beautiful sword. The people of Fort Erie also presented an address, which was read by Charles Treble, Esq., then reeve of the village. Along with the latter address there was presented a very handsomely mounted sword of honor, the blade of which bore the inscription : "Presented to Captain R. S. King, by the inhabitants of Fort Erie, for gallant conduct on the 2nd of June, 1866." In the fall of 1866, when the Imperial troops and the volunteers camped at Thorold and Port Robinson, many of the officers enjoyed the hospitality of Dr. King, amongst the more frequent visitors being Colonel Wolseley, now Lord Wolseley. In 1870, at the time of the second Fenian raid the battery was again called out and remained on duty for a short time, and Major King was then in command of the whole of the troops in this district. He retired from the service in 1882, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Dr. King was always a consistent Conservative. In 1867 he refused a nomination tendered him by both parties to a seat in the old Legislative Council, made vacant by the resignation of Hon. J. G. Currie. He also refused the nomination of the Conservative part for a seat in the Local Legislature. He was chairman of the Liberal-Conservativc Association of Welland for a number of years, and contested the county in 1872 as a candidate for the House of Commons. The election is referred to in our chapter on politics.

REV. JAMES KILCULLEN was born in