A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time: A Collection of Persons Distinguished in Professional and Political Life, Leaders in the Commerce and Industry of Canada, and Successful Pioneers
History
A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time: A Collection of Persons Distinguished in Professional and Political Life, Leaders in the Commerce and Industry of Canada, and Successful Pioneers
“Our sheet this week appears in mourning, because we are called
to record the death of one whose removal is indeed a public
loss, and one, too, of no ordinary magnitude. Almost every
individual in our community feels the death of Charles F.
Allison as a public bereavement. But far beyond the circle of
personal acquaintanceship, everywhere throughout the lower
British American colonies, Mr. Allison’s name has been known and
his influence felt, as the most munificent public benefactor who
has yet arisen in these provinces, to bless his country and
benefit the world. Mr. Allison was a native of Cornwallis, Nova
Scotia, but came to this place when a young man, and here
carried on, in connection with his partner, the late Hon. Wm.
Crane, an extensive business until 1840. In all his business
transactions he was remarkable for diligence, promptitude,
punctuality, and rigid honesty. He did not make haste to be rich
by embarking in any rash speculation, being, doubtlessly, more
inclined to the _safe_ than to the _rapid_ mode of acquiring
wealth. He was, however, quite successful, so that when he was
led, many years since, to the more earnest consideration of the
fundamental doctrine of the Christian system of practical
ethics, ‘_Ye are not your own, but bought with a price_,’ etc.,
he found himself in possession of a considerable amount of
property, of which he evidently, thenceforward to the end of his
life, considered himself but the steward; and as such he was
eminently wise and faithful, so that, we doubt not, he has been
greeted by his Divine Master with the commendation, ‘_Well done,
good and faithful servant._’ A large portion of the last
eighteen or twenty years of his life was most unostentatiously
employed in various works altogether unselfish. The noble
educational institutions which he founded, and which he has so
largely helped to build up to their present state of pre-eminent
usefulness, have occupied a great deal of his time and
attention, for he not only cheerfully paid six thousand pounds
and upwards to ensure their establishment, but without fee or
reward discharged the onerous duty of treasurer, and watched and
labored with parental kindness, solicitude and devotion, to
promote their prosperity. These, we believe, will long stand,
monuments of the wisdom as well as of the benevolence of the
Christian patriot and philanthropist. We have not room to
enlarge upon the modesty, gentleness, affability, and other
traits of character which so endeared him to all who had the
privilege of his personal acquaintance. Nor yet can we speak of
the many ways in which his quiet influence will be so much
missed in our neighborhood. ‘_He rests from his labors, and his
works do follow him._’”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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