On Friday night Mr. John Charlton,
one of the best known men in the county, passed away at his residence in
Lynedoch. For many years Mr. Charlton represented the North Riding of
Norfolk in the Dominion Parliament in the Reform interest. He had been an
invalid for some time, the result of a stroke of paralysis.
The late John Charlton was born at
Wheatlands, near Caledonia, N.Y., on Feb. 3, 1829. He was educated at the
McLaren Grammar School, of Caledonia, and at Springville Academy, New
York, after which he read law and engaged in newspaper work.
With his parents, he came to
Canada in 1849, and for four years worked on his father's farm near the
village of Ayr.
In 1853 he opened a general store
in Lynedoch, which he conducted until in 1859 [when] he was placed in charge of
the Canadian business of the lumber firm of Smith and Westover, of
Tonawanda, N.Y., and in 1861 embarked in the same business on his own
account.
This business developed till Mr.
Charlton became known as one of the "lumber princes" of the
province.
He was an ardent Liberal, and
first entered the political arena as Dominion member for North Norfolk in
the general election of 1872, and he held the seat continuously until
failing health compelled him to resign in 1904.
Mr. Charlton was not always in
accord with his party. He advised an increase in duties in 1867 to provide
for deficiency in revenue and to satisfy the protectionist element of the
Liberal party. He voted against his party leader, and with the Macdonald
Government on the Riel question, and was one of the "Noble
Thirteen," who supported Col. O'Brien's resolution in opposition to
the Jesuit Estates Bill. He was the father of the Charlton Act, and took
up the subject of the better observance of the Lord's Day. The bill for the
latter purpose passed the Commons in 1904, but then failed to command a
majority in the Senate.
Mr. Charlton was one of the
founders of the Dominion Lord's Day Alliance, which was organized in 1888,
and held office therein as vice president. He always advocated friendly
trade relations with the United States to the point of free trade between
the two countries. He was on the Joint High Commission which met at
Quebec, 1898, to settle disputes and remove trade obstacles between Canada
and the United States.
In November, 1854, Mr. Charlton
married Ella, daughter of the late George Gray, of Charlotteville, who
predeceased him in December, 1905. He married again about three years ago.
The late John
Charlton, ex-M.P., of Lynedoch was the oldest of a family of nine
children, and the first to die. At the time of Mr. Charlton's death
their combined ages totalled [sic] six hundred and fifty years. The surviving
brothers and sisters are
W. A. Charlton of Toronto;
George G. Charlton of Ponoma, Cal.;
Thomas Charlton of North Tonawanda;
Miss Amelia Charlton of New York;
Mrs. A. E. Robertson of Muscatine, Ohio;
Mrs. J. R. Cannon of Wyman, Ohio;
Mrs. E. C. Sampson of Los Angeles, Cal.; and
Mrs. J. H. Rex of North Tonawanda.The
funeral on Tuesday of last week was largely attended. The services were
in charge of Rev. J. Johnston of Lynedoch Presbyterian Church; he was
assisted by Rev. W. J. Dey, M.A., of Simcoe, and Rev. Dr. McArthur,
Methodist, Lynedoch. The pall-bearers were E. C. Carpenter and
Lieut.-Col. T. R. Atkinson, both ex-M.P.Ps; Crown Attorney T. R. Slaght;
ex-Warden Wm. Sutton; H. H. Groff, manager of Molsons Bank at Simcoe,
and H. B. Donly of the Simcoe Reformer.
