Ontario Head Of Highways Is Bereaved

Hamilton, Dec. 7 - Mrs. Mary Baker McQuesten, mother of Hon. T.B.McQuesten, Minister of Public Works and Highways, died during the night at her home here, aged 85. She was born in Brantford Oct. 10, 1849, the daughter of Commander Thomas Baker, R.N. and Mary Jane McIlwaine.

Mrs. McQuesten's father, as first lieutenant, served on the battleship St. Lawrence which was constructed at Kingston in 1813. Subsequently he rose to the rank of Commander in the British Navy before he decided to retire from the service to enter the ministry. He came out to Canada under the auspices of the London Missionary Society and settled in Newmarket Ont. where Mrs. McQuesten attended the Newmarket Grammar School and spent most of her early life.

Aside from her absorbing interest in her home and family, Mrs. McQuesten found time to devote to the activities of MacNab Street Presbyterian Church, where she was one of the oldest members. Since girlhood she had been interested in missionary work and for many years had been honorary president of the Ontario Provincial Women's Missionary Society.

In June, 1873 she married Issac Baldwin McQuesten.

Hamilton (CP)- Funeral services for T.B. McQuesten, minister of highways in the Hepburn government, this afternoon is to be attended by scores of men from all walks of life who were colleagues in his many ventures which benefited both this city and the province.

The service will be conducted in the church in which Mr. McQuesten was one of the most active members for many years, MacNab Street Presbyterian, by Rev. Forbes Thomson. The address will be delivered by the former minister of the church and close friend of Mr. McQuesten, Dr. Beverly Ketchen.

Active pall-bearers include Judge Ainslie Wright, Bracebridge; C. Ellison Kaumeyer, Niagara Falls, Judge William F. Schwenger, W. G. Welby, Fred Marshall and John Newlands, all of Hamilton.

Ontario Loses a Good Citizen

The late Hon. T.B. McQuesten, a resident of Hamilton, was a man of broad interests. He was distinguished by a love of Canadian history and a regard for aesthetic and practical values. He was responsible for turning a gravel pit on the western approach to his home city into a beautiful rock garden.

He was first elected alderman in Hamilton in 1913. For a quarter century he served on the civic parks board. He was very active in developing the Royal Botanical Gardens. As a member of the Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park commission he contributed to the beautifying of the Niagara Falls park area.

In 1934 Mr. McQuesten entered the legislature and became minister of highways and public works in the Hepburn cabinet. He launched a 200-million-dollar good roads program that included the Queen Elizabeth way.

Mr. McQuesten had a hand in the restoration of Fort Henry in Kingston at a cost of $800,000. He took steps to have a Brant museum built near Burlington. Although a devout and militant Presbyterian, he concerned himself with the welfare of McMaster University, a Baptist institution. That university conferred on him the honorary degree of doctor of laws.

Recently, Mr. McQuesten was chosen as Hamilton's man of the year and awarded the Hamilton Advertising and Sales Club's gold medal for citizenship, a well-deserved honor. He was a brother of the Rev. Calvin McQuesten, who for a number of years was a valued member of The Star's editorial staff. Mr. McQuesten lived up to his professions and devoted his life to the public good.