My dear dear boy,

You will, I fear think me very slow not to have followed your advice more quickly about selling the stock. But Mr. C.[Chisholm] did not help me in the matter, he advised me to go slowly and in the meantime am afraid it has gone down a little¹. To-day I had a long talk with Mr. Logie and he thought I had better sell, until I said that I could not quite see why I should sell, and in the end only have 21 shares, when I might use other money (which only brings in 5 percent) to buy up the new shares and at the rate given the stockholders it would give me 6 percent, and I would then have 23 shares in the bank². Did you think of it in this way? I have $500. waiting in Ham. Prov. [Hamilton Provincial Bank] for investment and as the call comes for paying in Mr. C. had said before he would lend me or we would manage someway to make amount up. Perhaps there is something still that I do not see. Of course selling now I would lose $20. off my dividend in June, unless they issue the new shares at once or very soon. I do not fancy the value will go down very much till after June 1st.

Ruby's letter on Saturday brought the unwelcome news of another scarlet fever patient but she had been taken to infirmary, so they were hoping there would be no other cases. I most sincerely trust so. To-day the streets are running with water and H.[Hilda] and I were tramping about making calls all the afternoon. Mrs. Mullin was here to-day for dinner, quite excited over an offer made to Robin. Through Dr. White, who married May Cameron, they are in Indianapolis³, the offer was for R. to take charge of some department in medicine, for which he was to receive $1500. to start and was to be sent abroad for 6 months or a year to study, so Robin has started off to see about it. But it is not to be mentioned until it is decided. Heurner has gone to Baltimore to learn something or other⁴.

A letter from Tom to-day tells of a battle royal between the two old ladies at the boarding house, so that Tom had to hold on to Miss Maxwell to prevent bodily injury.⁵ I had a letter from Jessie Proudfoot, to whom I had written on the death of Mr. Proudfoot's brother the Rev. Dr. She said they had written each other every week⁶.

I should think you had been working hard, why Saturday's paper seemed full of your work, I should think they were trying what you can do, and I thought all your articles interesting but really I do not know how you are to keep up with this everlasting writing, it must be so wearing and not very satisfactory to yourself either, just writing scraps about various things, and yet this is what really makes up the newspaper⁷.

On Sabbath Afternoon we went to hear Eva Booth in Association Hall. She was very different in appearance from what I expected. Has most peculiar hair, short & curled round her face covering her ears, so that it looked just like a wig with staring, dark eyes and long nose like her father. She has a great flow of language, becomes very impassioned and would make a tragic actress. She also played on the harp. To me she was not a winning speaker, and had not a winning face or manner, she shrieked so much. I am sorry I did not hear the father⁸.

Well, I must close, my news is exhausted, except I heard Mat McKichan was here. I do hope you are not utterly worn out, I wish you had fallen upon some easier mode of making a living, but we do not live by chance and we know that our lives are ordered by a higher power, so that there is a purpose in them and it just remains for us to carefully & diligently seek divine guidance and follow its leading. The belief that we are so led is our greatest comfort and only support. Hoping you are well, with fondest love, my dear son.

Your loving mother

M.B McQuesten

¹ For James Chisholm, see W2520.

² William Alexander (Leander) Logie (Hon. Justice in 1909, Colonel/ Major/Brigadier-General) became James Chisholm's law partner after Isaac McQuesten's death in 1888. In 1909 Logie also formed a partnership with Thomas B. McQuesten when Thomas joined his father's old law firm. Logie attended MacNab St. Presbyterian Church. He was also a founding member with James Chisholm and J.R. Moodie (and others) of the 91st Highland Regiment in 1903, later the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. He was the first commanding officer and served with them in WWI. He lived at 77 Markland St. with his wife (nee Wylie) and daughter, in 1900 (DHB3.19, DHB3.28, DHB3.33; Best 26; Tyrell 147; Campbell 204; W4759, W6805, W6820, W6828, W6836, W6920, W6967, W8785).

Added August 2010--E-Mail from Anne-Marie Langlois "Hello Ms. Anderson--your request for information regarding W.A. Logie was forwarded to me by the Great Library reference staff.

From what we know, he [Logie] was on the Ontario High Court of Justice from Sept. 30, 1918 until his death on June 6, 1938 (the court was known as the Supreme Court of Ontario, High Court Division between 1913 and 1930).

He was also a Law Society bencher (member of the board of governors, elected by the Ontario legal profession) from 1911 until 1918, when he became a judge.

Yes, his full name was William Alexander Logie. He was admitted by the Law Society of Upper Canada as a student-at-law in Easter term 1897 and was called to the bar in Trinity term 1890.

Our records show that he was on active service during World War I from around 1916 through to around 1917 or 1918, and it seems he held the rank of Major General. (You can confirm his military service through the records at Library and Archives Canada if you are interested.)

As you have already discovered, he practiced in Hamilton until he became a judge. I don't know if you got the practice information you already have on him from the published law lists--the Canadian Law List--but in case you have not seen this source, there were annual editions published after 1890, where you can get a fuller picture of his legal practice from 1890 through 1918. Many of the larger libraries have runs of the law lists in their holdings but please let me know if you have any problems with access and I'll see what I can do to help.

You may have already seen this source but just in case, he is included in the 2nd (1912) edition of Henry James Morgan's biographical dictionary The Canadian Men and Women of the Time ...

Unfortunately, we don't have any photos or other images of W.A. Logie. He was a graduate of Queen's University, so you may want to contact their Archives to see what they may have. As well, his father, Alexander Logie, was also a lawyer and a county court judge, and our records indicate that the McMaster University Archives and Library and Archives Canada have records relating to him in their holdings. It is possible that these include information/images relating to his son William, so you may want to ask these repositories what they may have.

I hope this information is helpful but please let me know if you have any further questions.
Regards
Ann-Marie Langlois"
Records & Information Management Specialist
Corporate Records & Archives
The Law Society of Upper Canada
Osgoode Hall, 130 Queen St. West
Toronto, Ontario Canada
M5H 2N6
tel. 416-947-3912
e-mail: amlanglo@lsuc.on.ca

³ Dr. White and May Cameron were married in January 1902 in Toronto (W4759, W4521).

⁴ For Mullin family, see W4521

⁵ Calvin and Tom regularly had boarding-house problems, and Mary worried about the "upsetting" and about their care and meals, (W4444, W4436, W4454, W4759).

⁶ Miss Jessie A. Proudfoot was the unmarried daughter of Hon. William Proudfoot (1823-1903), Isaac McQuesten's law (and drinking) partner (Best 2, 5). He was a justice of the High Court of Ontario 1874-90 and was professor of law and vice-chancellor at University of Toronto (DHB1.166; DHB3.5). The Proudfoots were members of MacNab Street Church. Proudfoot had been widowed since 1878 and lived with his daughter Miss Jessie Proudfoot and Miss Sydney Stevenson at 3 Queen's Park Cr., Toronto in 1900. For William Proudfoot's death in August 1903, see W5172 (Tyrell 98; W5074). For Stevenson, see W5172.

William Proudfoot's deceased brother, Rev. Dr. John J.A. Proudfoot, had been a theology professor for thirty-five years and was "one of the leading lights at Knox College" (Moir Called 30). Their father, Rev. William Proudfoot (1788-1851) had also been a theology professor from 1844 (the year that Knox was founded) until his death (Moir Enduring 117-18, 84-5; Called 23-30). He had come to Canada as a missionary and was a founding member of the Presbyterian Church in Ontario. In the 1830's he had been a circuit rider in the Gore District, preaching the "worde of God" [sic] to the "depraved patrons" of the hostelries (Johnston 89). He also "walked to Goderich and back, gathering groups of worshippers along the way" (Wee Kirks 40). He was a "tireless traveller whose voluminous diaries and letters provide an invaluable record, not merely of his own and the presbytery's work, but of the religious and social history of western Upper Canada during the 1830's" (Moir Enduring 84-5; W213, W224, W232, W319, W1410, W2167, W2326, W2434, W2436, W2442, W2444, W2454, W2485, W4271, W4283, W4288, W4364, W4436, W4605, W5053, W5063, W5074, W5078, W5172, W7018, W7432, W8162, W-MCP3-5.011).

⁷ Since Calvin's articles are unsigned, it is difficult to identify "the scraps" with certainty. However, his column, "The Tatler" of January 24 had five articles: The first, "Ralph and de Blowitz" is a tribute to "two of the greatest journalists" who had recently died. M. de Blowitz, originator of the editorial dispatch, wrote for the London Times and "showed a rare instinct for humanity and drama." Julian Ralph wrote about the "war office and council chamber with the mind of a statesman and a strategist." The second article, "How J.J. Hill Left School" is an anecdote about the railroad king and his schoolmaster "Rev. Dr. Wetherald, father of Miss Wetherald, the well known Canadian poetess." The third article, "Maori M.P.'s" records the election of four Maoris to political office in New Zealand, who "are now a superior and well-educated class." One M.P. Hone Heke was a descendent of a fighting and fanatical Maori chief who had opposed British colonization and "drove them into the sea." The fourth article, "A Curious Survival" recounts the survival of an ancient custom at Newcastle-on-Tyne in which the mayor presented an ancient coin to each of the judges on circuit. The coins were "a jacobus and a carolus" with which they were to purchase daggers to protect themselves through the border country which was "infested by the Scots." The fifth article, "A Leonine Epidemic" concerns the ranchers of Northern Montana who were driven to desperation by the losses of their stock to mountain lions. They trapped the lions in a mountain basin which were "then picked off by marksmen." Calvin also included questions from readers about history and literature, and replied with thoroughness and humour.

⁸ Eva Booth was the daughter of Edwin Thomas Booth (1833-93), the American actor who toured with a Shakespearean company in America, Britain and Germany. He was the son of Junius Brutus Booth, actor, and brother of John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Abraham Lincoln (CBD 179). For more on John Wilkes Booth and Abraham Lincoln, see W-MCP4-6.064