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Ferrier, Alexander David, Lieut. Col., ex-M.P.P., J.P.,
Fergus, Ont., was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 13th November, 1813.
His father was Louis Henry Ferrier, of Belsyde, Linlithgowshire, Scotland,
who died in Quebec, February, 1883, where he held the position of
collector of customs, having removed with his family to Quebec in
June,1830. His mother was Charlotte Monro, second daughter of Alexander
Monro, professor of anatomy in the University of Edinburgh, who died in
1821. A. D. Ferrier was educated at the Edinburgh Academy and University.
Upon his arriving at Quebec with his father, he entered a merchant’s
office, where he remained till 1834, and after a visit to Britain came to
Fergus, Ont, in June 1835. Here he worked upon his farm till 1846, when he
went to Elora, as book-keeper to Ross & Co., mill owners.
&c. In 1849 Mr. Ferrier was appointed clerk to
the Wellington county council, which position be held till 1871,
when he resigned. He removed to Elora in 1844, and to Guelph in
1849. In 1850 Mr. Ferrier married Magdalene Dingwall Fordyce, who died
without issue in September, 1872. Mr. Ferrier returned to Fergus, to his
old place in 1854; but sold out in 1875, and proceeded to Britain, and
returned in 1878. In 1854 be did business in Fergus as accountant and
conveyancer, &c., which occupation he gave up in 1875. He was a member of
the old district council for four years, from 1845 to 1849, and in
September, 1867, was elected M.P.P. for the Centre Riding of Wellington.
He was a private in the Fergus volunteers in 1835, and served during the
rebellion in 1837 and 1838. He obtained his commission as captain in the
13th Gore in 1839, and in 1859 was gazetted lieut.-colonel of the Fourth
Wellington militia, which battalion he organized. Col Ferrier was a
commissioner of the old court of requests, and was made a J.P. in 1843. He
was secretary to two road companies Guelph and Arthur and Fergus and Owen
Sound, till the county assumed them. He has not lately taken a very deep
interest in politics, seeing that there are plenty of men for that
business. He was a member of St Andrew’s Society of Fergus and also the
Curling Club. Col. Ferrier has travelled from Land’s End to John O'Groat’s,
and from Quebec to Winnipeg; and he declares that Dunkeld in Scotland is
the prettiest place that he has seen, and his own native town of Edinburgh
by far a more beautiful city than any in Britain or in this Dominion. His
father was an elder in the church of Scotland, and he has been an elder in
the Presbyterian church of Canada for over forty years. When he first
visited Montreal, in September, 1830, the steamboat landed its passengers
on a mud bank, as there was no wharf there of any kind. When Mr. Ferrier
first saw York in 1834, there was a pool at the corner of Yonge and King
streets covered with green shine, and a nice little creek at the west end
meandering through the town. The leading hotel was not exactly equal to
the "Queen’s." There was no decent road north of Dundas, and there wasn’t
a tree cut between Fergus and Owen Sound. Tempera mutantur et nos rnutamur
in illis! Colonel Ferrier was appointed a school commissioner for Nichol
in 1836, then township superintendent in 1843, and in 1879 chairman of the
school board for Fergus. He held the latter position for six years, when
he declined re-election far the trusteeship. |
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