M.A., LL.B., LL.D., Winnipeg, was born on
the 22nd of April, 1844, at Mount Pleasant, Brant county, Ontario. His
parents were George and Catherine Bryce, and his mother's maiden name was
Henderson. Mr. Bryce, senior, came from the neighbourhood of Dunblane,
Perthshire, Scotland, where the family has been traced back by baptismal
records to 1640. In the reign of James I., one Walter Bryce was tried at
Dunblane on the charge of Wizardry, but was acquitted on the interference
of influential friends. Our subject's grandfather carried on a long and
extensive lawsuit against the Earl of Moray to protect a feaudal right
invaded by the earl. Young Bryce was educated at Mount Pleasant Public
Schools and Brantford Collegiate Institute. He matriculated in Toronto
University in 1863 with honours. He took numerous honours, scholarships
and prizes during his course, chiefly in science and English. He graduated
with a medial in 1867, and entered Knox College, Toronto, in 1868, where
he became president of the Literary and Metaphysical Society. From this
institution he graduated in 1871, taking five out of the six scholarships
open. He was selected by the College professors to be assistant and
successor in Chalmers' Church, Quebec, whither he went in 1871. It may be
added that he took prizes for English essay writing in Toronto University
and Knox College. He entered the volunteer service in 1862, during the
excitement of the Trent affair. With a young school mate he
organized the Mount Pleasant Infantry, a company of the Brant battalion.
He was connected with the University Rifles, Queen's Own, in 1863, and
entered the Military School, Toronto, in 1864, whence he took a second
class certificate of fitness as to duties of captain. he was at Laprairie
camp as a cadet under General (the Colonel) Wolesley in 1865, and was with
the University company at Ridgeway, acting as ensign, and made out the
roll of the company present, killed, wounded and missing, after the
conflict. He was appointed by the Home Mission Committee of the
Presbyterian General Assembly in august, 1871, to leave Quebec and proceed
to Winnipeg, to found a college among the Selkirk settlers on the Red
River, and also to organize a Presbyterian Church in Winnipeg. He was
ordained in Toronto on September 19th, 1871, and arrived in Winnipeg,
going the last 300 miles over the prairies by stage through Minnesota. He
organized the college, which he called Manitoba college, the same being
established at Kildonan, four miles from Winnipeg. He obtained
incorporation for the college in 1883, and the following year it was
removed to Winnipeg. In 1877 he was one of the chief founders of the
Manitoba University, which combines St. Boniface (Roman Catholic), St.
John's (Episcopal) and Manitoba college (Presbyterian). He has been on the
executive of the University since its beginning, and has framed many of
its most important statutes. He urged in 1880 the erection of new college
buildings, obtained subscriptions, and in 1881 saw begun, to be completed
in 1882, the present beautiful building of Manitoba college, valued, with
grounds, at $70,000. He was elected in 1877, on he first School Board for
Winnipeg under the cities and towns act, and served for three years. He
was appointed first inspector of Winnipeg Public Schools in the same year,
and was chairman of school management. In 1871 and 1872 he acted as
examiner in natural history in Toronto University, and has been an
examiner in natural science in Manitoba University since 1878. For several
years he was chairman of the Board of Examiners of Public School Teachers
in Manitoba. He organized Knox Church, Winnipeg, and was its first
moderator, 1872-3. He likewise organized St. Andrew's Church, Winnipeg, in
1881, and has held the first service in many of the new settlements of
Manitoba. He has opened, or re-opened, some twenty new churches in
Manitoba. He is a trustee of all Presbyterian Indian mission property in
the North-West, and in 1884 was appointed by the General Assembly the
moderator of the first Presbyterian Synod of Manitoba and the North-West
territories. he was one of the incorporators, and from 1874 to 1879 a
director of the Winnipeg General Hospital, and for 1877 and 1878 was
secretary and treasurer of that institution. In 1881 he was appointed
delegué regional of the Institution Ethnographique of Paris. In 1878 he
was one of the incorporators of the Historical and Scientific Society of
Manitoba, and was from 1878 to 1883 corresponding secretary of this
society, and for 1884 and 1885 its president. On being relieved of the
heavy duties of mission secretary, Dr. Bryce, in 1881, began to pay more
attention to authorship. In 1882 he published in London (Sampson, Low
& Searle, publishers) his work "Manitoba; its Infancy, Growth and
Present Condition", octavo, 364pp. This volume has had a wide sale.
an English gentleman read it in New Zealand, and coming to Manitoba by way
of San Francisco, purchased 100,000 acres of wild land in the province.
The work is largely a vindication of the Earl of Selkirk, the founder of
the Red River Settlement. The author has had the plesure of reversing the
unfavourable opinion formerly held in Canada of the earl. During a visit
to Britain in 1881-82, Dr. Bryce visited the then Earl of Selkirk and Lady
Isabella Hope, his sister, and had acces to the family papers in preparing
his work. The article "Manitoba" in the Enclyclopedia Britannica
is by Dr. Bryce. During the year 1884 his publications were, "Plea
for a Canadian Camden Society" and the "Five Forts of
Winnipeg", published by the Royal Society of Canada; "Education
in Manitoba", published in the Canadian memorial volume by the
British Associates; "Our Indians", by the Y.M.C.A. of Winnipeg;
"Coal", by the C.P.R. Literary Association, Winnipeg; and
"The Mound Building", by the Historical Society. Dr. Bryce is
now engaged on a work of considerable size and importance on a department
of Canadian and North-West history. Our subject has visited England,
Ireland, Scotland, France and Italy. Eastern States, Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, Quebec, the Rocky Mountains, and has written descriptions of
many of his travels. He received early and careful religious instruction
in a Christian home. he is now in church matters, while an ardent
churchman, an enemy of ecclesiasticism. He married, September 17th, 1872,
Marion Samuel, daughter of the late James Samuel, Kirkliston, near
Linlithgow, Scotland. |