Additional Pictou Missionaries

Rev. Dr. Grant is a native of Pictou, born there in 1839. His first charge was at Merigomish, N. S. He retired from the Trinidad mission in 1907, after thirty-seven years of most faithful and devoted service. He is now engaged in mission work among the Coolies in Vancouver, B. C. Dr. Grant was first married to Miss Sarah Geddes, Yarmouth. His second wife was Miss Copeland of Merigomish, N. S. A son of his, Rev. George A. Grant, is pastor at Black River Bridge, N. B.; another son, G. Geddes Grant, born in Pictou, is a leading business man in Port of Spain, West Indies.

Rev. William L. Macrae was born at Abercrombie, Pictou Co., and was educated at Dalhousie College and Pine Hill. He began his work in Trinidad in 1886, and was located at Princestown. Here he labored most faithfully and successfully in missionary and educational work for nearly nineteen years, until his health failing him, he returned home. Since July 1905 he has been serving a congregation at Golden, B. C. Mr. Macrae was first married to Miss Elizabeth Creelman, Stewiacke, N. S. She died in 1889. His present wife was Miss Sadie Mitchell, Merigomish, N. S.

Rev. A. W. Thomson was appointed missionary to Couva in 1890. Mr. Thomson is a son of the late Rev. James Thomson, and was born at Durham, Pictou Co. Graduating from Dalhousie University in 1885, he took his theological course at Princeton Seminary. For twenty years Mr. Thomson labored with great energy and with conspicuous success in the mission field. Ill health compelled him to resign and return to Nova Scotia. He is now pastor of Knox Church, Pictou, inducted there in 1911. His brother, Rev. William McC. Thomson, is pastor of Greyfriars Church, Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Pictou has sent three of her sons to do missionary work in far off India. Rev. Charles M. Grant, D. D., was for three years a missionary in India. He was sent out in connection with the India Mission Committee of the church of Scotland. While settled as a pastor in Halifax, he resigned at the request of Dr. Norman McLeod to preach to the educated natives of Calcutta, where his lectures were attended by hundreds of English speaking natives. His promising career was arrested by a severe illness, whereupon he was ordered home. A year later he accepted a call to Glasgow, Scotland, and then to Dundee. The Rev. Dr. Grant is a Pictonian, a brother of the late Principal Grant. He retired from active service a few years ago and makes his home in Dundee.

Rev. Robert C. Murray was sent to India in 1885 by the Western section of the Church St. Paul's Church, Montreal, undertaking his support. Mr. Murray was a son of Hugh Murray and was born in Cariboo, Pictou Co., educated in Arts and Theology at Queen's University, Ontario. He graduated in the spring of 1885. In the fall of that year he began his work in Ujjain the oldest city in India, with rare tact and zeal. A year later, Miss Charlotte Wilson, daughter of the late Charles Wilson, Pictou, joined him and they were married. In less than a year Mrs. Murray died and four months later Mr. Murray himself died suddenly of sun stroke. "Lovely and pleasant were they in their lives, and in death they were not divided." Kenneth G. MacKay, B. S. A., Toronto Univ., was sent by the Canadian Church, 1906 to Central India to instruct the natives in agricultural and industrial work. He resigned in 1912, and returned to Pictou, his native place. Rev. William R. McKay is stationed at Kongmoon, South China. Mr. McKay was first sent to Macao, in 1902, and was the first missionary located there. He devotes most of his time to educational work. He was born in Springville, Pictou Co., and is a son of Mr. Joseph McKay, an elder in the Springville Presbyterian. Church. He graduated from Dalhousie College in 1896, taking a B. D. degree from Princeton Seminary, in 1901. For three years previous to his departure for China, he held a pastorate at Noel and Kennetcook. He married Miss Mary O'Brien, B. Sc., Noel, N. S. Knox Church, Regina, supports them.

Rev. George M. Ross, B. A., son of Alexander Ross, was born at Blue Mountain, Pictou, and studied theology at Pine Hill, where he graduated in 1901. He married, Minnie Robertson of Ontario. He was sent as a missionary to North Honan, China, in 1903, where he is now laboring. He is supported by St. John's Church, Toronto.

Rev. Luther L. Young is Pictou's representative in. Korea. He went out in 1906 and is settled in Ham Heung. He was born at Millsville, Pictou Co., graduated from Dalhousie University in 1903, and three years later from Pine Hill. He is married to Catherine F. Mair, B. A., Campbelltown, N. B. The first Presbyterian Church, New Glasgow supports Mr. and Mrs. Young.

Rev. D. G. Cock, a descendant of Rev. Daniel Cock the first settled minister of Truro, was appointed missionary to Mhow, Central India. He was born in the West River Valley, and graduated from Pine Hill in 1899. Soon after, he was sent as an ordained missionary to Alaska where he spent three years. On the eve of his departure as missionary to India in 1902, he was married to a college classmate, Miss Ella Maxwell, Halifax, N. S

So far as known, none of Pictou's fair daughters have entered the ministerial or legal professions or ventured far into the fields of literature and science. They have devoted their lives to the humbler yet equally important spheres of the home and the schoolroom. The county has been the home of the very best type of capable and self sacrificing mothers and wives. Much of its fame and influence is due to them. Many families have furnished teachers for the public schools some families as many as half a dozen. For that matter, nearly every man in the professional lists in this book, at one time or another, taught school; and as the students from the Academy and College went out into the country districts to teach in the summer, they had much to do with making Pictou the literary and educational centre which it is.

A few Pictou women have studied medicine, and over a dozen have gone to be missionaries and teachers in foreign lands, and have been faithful and fruitful workers for the Master. The first to go was Miss Mary B. McKay, a daughter of Mr. James McKay, elder, Stellarton, N. S. She was sent by the Western section of the Church to Central India, in 1888. She was only a short time in. the field when she was married to Rev. John Buchanan, M. D., of Ontario. Mrs. Buchanan is a graduate of Mt. Allison Ladies' College, Sackville, N. B., and of the Ladies' Medical College, Toronto. She is now living in Amkhut, Central India, where she and her husband are successfully engaged in missionary and medical work among the Bhils.

Mrs. Elizabeth M. Butler went to India as an officer of the Salvation Army, in. 1898, but in a few years joined the Friend's Foreign Missionary Association of England with her husband, the late Edward J. Butler. Altogether she has given eighteen years of active service with Sohagpur as a centre. Mrs. Butler is a daughter of the late James McLaren, Wentworth Grant, Pictou Co.

Cariboo, Pictou Co., has sent two missionaries from the same house to labor in India Misses Jemima and Mary McKenzie. In 1904, Jemima McKenzie was appointed, under the Women's Union Missionary Society of America, to medical work in Cawnpore, India. Two years later she went to Fatephur where she had charge of a large hospital which she was largely instrumental in building, and of which she is now in full charge. In 1905, her sister, Mary McKenzie, was appointed to succeed her in Cawnpore where for nearly six years she engaged in Medical and Bible work. In 1911 she was married to Rev. A. A. Smith, Verschoyle, Ont. The two sisters are graduates of Dalhousie University and the Medical School, Halifax, and are highly esteemed both for their work and their personal qualities.

From the Millsville district, Pictou Co., three young women have given their lives to the cause of missions. Miss Annie Young, a sister of Rev. L. L. Young, was settled at Wan Chi, Central China, in 1897. She was educated at Pictou Academy and in the Christian Alliance Institute, New York City, under whose auspices she is now laboring. Miss Jennie Fraser, also of Millsville, sailed for India in 1898. She has charge of a mission station at Shantipur. Her sister, Agnes Fraser, (now Mrs. John N. Culver, a missionary from the U. S. A.), went to India in 1904 and is located in Dholka, India. They were both trained for missionary work in the Christian Alliance School, at Nyack, N. Y., and are working under its Board.

Miss Mary S. Herdman, daughter of the late Rev. Andrew Herdman, Pictou, is doing missionary and educational work in Dhar, Central India. She was first sent out to Northern India in 1903 by the Church of England, but for the last dozen years she has been under the control of the Canadian Church and is supported by the W. M. F. Society, Toronto. She helps in the Dispensary, and acts as Bible teacher to women.

Another clergyman's daughter, Miss Bessie McCunn, daughter of the late Rev. R. McCunn, River John, is laboring in Jhansi, India. She was first appointed as teacher to Princestown, Trinidad in 1900, and spent five years there. Afterwards she attended the Ewart Missionary Training School Toronto, and while there was appointed by the Women's Union Missionary Society, N. Y., to go to India. Her work includes Hospital and Zenana work, and the superintending of day and Sunday schools.

Miss Maud M. Rogers, daughter of Mr. B. D. Rogers, Stellarton, was sent out, in. 1909, by the Canadian Church and is now laboring in Song Jin, Korea. She took a course in Domestic Science in Boston.

Priscilla McDonald, daughter of Mr. John McL. McDonald, Durham, Pictou, (now the wife of Rev. Willard S. Tedford) is in the mission field in Rayagadda, India. Mrs. Bessie A. Robb, wife of Rev. A. F. Robb, Korea, is a daughter of Rev. Robert Cumming, D. D., Westville, N. S. They were appointed to Wonsan in 1901, and are supported by St. Paul's Church, Fredericton, N. B. Miss Jenny Hazel Kirk, daughter of J. H. Kirk, East River St. Mary's, Pictou Co., was appointed by the Foreign Mission Board of the Maritime Synod to Wonsan, Korea. She sailed December 5, 1913, from Vancouver, B. C. A daughter of William Cameron, County Clerk, Pictou, Christina Cameron, was married to Rev. Fred Paton, son of Rev. John Paton, D. D., and was engaged in mission work with her husband in Malekula, New Hebrides. She died April, 1914.

It will thus be seen that Pictou County has made notable contributions to the cause of Missions. Great honor has fallen to her in sending forth such a noble band of men and women to publish the message of the King.

Pictonians at Home and Abroad, 1914

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