In 1869 the degree of A.M. was conferred upon him. In the following autumn he accepted the principalship of the English High School, Fredericton, N.B., but resigned it at the close of 1873, in order to take a position offered him in the Provincial Normal School of New Brunswick, and here he has continued, with various changes of work, down to the present time. His position now is officially designated as “Mathematical and Science Master, and Instructor in Industrial Drawing,” the term “Professor” not being applied to the instructors or teachers in this Normal school. Mr. Creed was elected a member of the Board of Governors of Acadia College in 1883; a senator of Acadia College in 1882, and secretary of the Senate in 1883; all of which offices he now holds. In 1871 he was made one of the examiners of the college, and filled the position for several years. He is secretary of the Educational Institute of New Brunswick, having been re-elected every year from its organization in 1877; vice-president of the Baptist Convention of the Maritime provinces for the current year; a director of the Baptist Annuity Association of New Brunswick and of the Maritime Baptist Publishing Co. He was at one time president of the Associated Alumni of Acadia College; president of the Fredericton Young Men’s Christian Association, and for eight years secretary of the Fredericton Auxiliary Bible Society. Mr. Creed has been connected with the following among other Temperance societies:—The Sons of Temperance since 1857, and is a P.W.P.; the Temple of Honour and Temperance from 1871 to 1875, and is a P.W.C.T. and past deputy G.W.C.T.; the Temperance Reform Club; the New Brunswick Branch of the Dominion Prohibitory Alliance. He has also been connected with the Masonic order, in which he is a past master; the Independent Order of Oddfellows as a P. G. and a P.D.D.G.M., Independent Order of Foresters, and is at present H.C.R. (presiding officer) of the High Court of New Brunswick; and is a past commander in the American Legion of Honour. Mr. Creed has written largely for the press, for the most part anonymously, on educational topics; on the temperance question; on matters of Christian doctrine and practice, etc; and has also prepared a variety of matter for school texts and other books. On November 4th, 1867, he was married to Jessie S., third daughter of John F. Marsters, of St. John, N.B., customs broker and forwarding agent, and has a family of four children, three sons and a daughter. Mr. Creed has been a member of the Baptist church since he attained his seventeenth year.
Harrison, Thomas, LL.D., President of the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, was born at Sheffield, New Brunswick, on the 24th October, 1839. He is son of Thomas Harrison, by his wife Elizabeth Coburn, and grandson of James Harrison, of the county of Antrim, Ireland, who emigrated to South Carolina in 1767. During the Revolutionary war Lieutenant James Harrison, with his elder brother, Captain Charles Harrison, fought under Sir Henry Clinton, on the British side, and in 1783 these gentlemen came among the loyalists to New Brunswick. Charles Harrison was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the militia of the county of Sunbury, by Governor Thomas Carleton, in 1784, and the two brothers settled at Sheffield, Sunbury county. James Harrison married Charity Cowperthwaite, of a Quaker family from Philadelphia, and in 1806 died, leaving five sons and four daughters. Their descendants are numerous, and are mostly settled in New Brunswick. Thomas Harrison, the subject of our sketch, was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, under the tutorship of Dr. Salmon, F.R.S., whose works have for many years been the standard treatises for advanced students in some of the highest branches of modern mathematical science. He was a first honour man in mathematics, and was elected a mathematical scholar in Trinity College in 1863. He also attended law lectures, and took the degrees of B.A. and LL.B. in the University of Dublin in 1864, and afterwards the degrees of M.A. and LL.D. in the same university. In June, 1870, he was appointed professor of the English language and literature and of mental and moral philosophy in the University of New Brunswick. In 1874 he was made, by the Dominion government, superintendent of the meteorological chief station at Fredericton, and in August, 1885, president of the University of New Brunswick, and professor of Mathematics by the Provincial government. Mr. Harrison is a member of the Episcopal church. He married, in 1865, Susan Lois Taylor, daughter of the late John S. Taylor, of Sheffield, N.B., and niece of Sir Leonard Tilley, K.C.M.G., lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick. The fruit of this marriage is two sons and a daughter. The eldest son, John Darley Harrison, is a member of the graduating class of 1887 in the University of New Brunswick.
Blanchet, Hon. Joseph Goderic, Collector of Customs, Quebec, is a descendant of one of the first families that came from France to Canada, and is a son of Louis Blanchet, of St. Pierre, Rivière du Sud, and Marguerite Fontaine, whose family came from Picardy, in France. Joseph G. Blanchet, the subject of our sketch, was born at St. Pierre, on the 7th June, 1829, and received his education in the arts at the Quebec Seminary and at the Ste. Anne College. He afterwards studied medicine with his uncle, Jean Baptiste Blanchet, M.D., and for many years practised his profession at Levis, during which time he stood high among his confrères of the medical fraternity. Dr. Blanchet, jr., took an active interest in the militia of his native province, and in 1863 he raised the 17th battalion of Volunteer Militia Infantry, which he commanded, holding the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He had command of the 3rd administrative battalion on the frontier during the St. Albans raid in 1865, and the active militia force on the south shore of the St. Lawrence river, in the Quebec district, during the Fenian raid of the next year, and also in 1871. Dr. Blanchet, during his residence in Levis, occupied many prominent positions. For six years he was its mayor. In 1870 he was elected president of the Cercle de Québec; in 1872 president of the Levis and Kennebec Railway; and in 1873 he was appointed a member of the Catholic section of the Council of Public Instruction for the province of Quebec. Though a busy man, Dr. Blanchet did not neglect the interests of his country. He took an active part in politics, and as early as 1857 he presented himself as a candidate for Levis in the Legislative Assembly of Canada; but, although he made a good run, in the end he was unsuccessful in securing his election. Four years later he again presented himself as a candidate in the same constituency and succeeded, and sat from 1861 until confederation in 1867, when he was returned by acclamation to the House of Commons. There he continued to sit until 1874, being meantime speaker of the House of Assembly of the province of Quebec, from the meeting of the first parliament after confederation, until the dissolution of the second parliament in 1875. The year before this latter date, in consequence of the passing of the law respecting dual representation, he resigned his seat in the House of Commons in order to continue to hold one in the provincial assembly, which he did, as representative for Levis, until the general elections in 1875, when he was defeated. In November of that year, a vacancy having occurred in the representation for Bellechasse, in consequence of the elevation of the sitting member, Mr. Fournier, who had been made a justice of the Supreme Court of the Dominion, he presented himself for election, and was secured this seat; and in September, 1878, he was once more returned for Levis. At the general election held in 1882 he was again returned by his old constituency, but only held the seat for about a year, when he resigned to accept the collectorship of the port of Quebec, and this office he still holds. When the Hon. Mr. Blanchet was speaker of the Quebec House of Assembly, he showed fine talents in that capacity, and made an admirable presiding officer, and some time before the fourth parliament had met, his name was again mentioned in connection with the speakership, he being a Conservative and his party once more in power. On the meeting of the House of Commons in February, 1879, he was unanimously elected speaker of that august body, and the choice proved a wise one, for he soon showed himself an adept in parliamentary rules and tactics, was prompt and impartial, and on his retirement from office carried with him the good will and respect of both sides of the House. In August, 1850, Hon. Mr. Blanchet was married to Emilie, daughter of G. D. Balzaretti, of Milan, Italy, and the fruit of this marriage has been six children, four of whom are dead, three having died in infancy.
Harris, Michael Spurr.—The late Michael Spurr Harris, of Moncton, New Brunswick, who was born at Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, September 22nd, 1804, and married, May 11th, 1826, Sarah Ann Troop, of Granville, Annapolis county, N.S., was descended from a long line of ancestors. One of these, Arthur Harris, came from England, and was among the earliest settlers in Duxbury, Plymouth county, Massachusetts. In 1640 he moved to Bridgewater, Mass., and a few years afterwards, about 1656, he took up his residence in Boston, where he died on the 10th June, 1674, leaving a widow and five children. Samuel Harris, a direct descendant of Arthur Harris, married, in 1757, Sarah Cook, in Boston, from whence, about 1763, they emigrated to Nova Scotia, and settled in Annapolis county at a place called Mount Pleasant, near Bridgewater, and here Samuel Harris died in 1801, leaving
