Ontario School Trustee Council
The Ontario School Trustee Council has seven member associations with a combined membership of about 1,500 school systems. The Council deals with various issues related to public school education including effectiveness and remuneration of teachers, financial difficulties of expanding school systems and adequacy of the curriculum in a changing society.
Colonel William Nisbet Ponton, born in 1856 at Belleville, Ont., was educated at Upper Canada College, the University of Toronto, B.A. 1877, M.A. 1878, and Osgoode Hall. He practised law in Belleville where he apparently specialized in the administration of property and estates, and served for 27 years on the Belleville Board of Education in addition to acting as Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce.
Colonel Ponton was an executive of the Associated Boards of Trade of Ontario. Registrar of the Canadian Bar Association, President of the Ontario Bar Association, a member of the Council of the Canadian Red Cross, Grand First Principal of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Canada A.F. & A.M., a Fellow and Vice-President of the Royal Empire Society, a Senator of the University of Toronto, Vice-President of the Old Boys' Association of Upper Canada College, and a bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada. He commanded the 15th Battalion, Argyll Light Infantry, from 1892 to 1901. He was also a member of the Belleville and Bay of Quinte Historical society.
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The township of Portland is situated on the south shore of Big Rideau Lake. First settled in the early nineteenth century, it was one of the earliest settlements along the Rideau. The communitys original seven houses, informally known as The Landing became a transfer point for settlers traveling from Brockville and continuing by barge to the Perth area.
With the completion of the Rideau Canal waterway in 1832, steamboats and barges carrying raw materials such as cordwood from the clearing of forests, maple syrup, potash, cheese, tanned hides and salt beef were a common sight. Portland became a thriving village of trade with Kingston, Montreal and Ottawa. In 1843, the village was a booming commercial centre and adopted the name Portland after the third Duke of Portland. By the 1860's, the settlement had expanded considerably to require five hotels and, by the early 1900's, cottages were springing up around the lake and the tourist trade had begun. Advances in rail and road travel and increasing tourism offset a decline in the role of agriculture.
Charles Powell was a student at the School of Military Instruction in Kingston, Ontario.
The early history of the Presbyterian Church in Canada is very complex. At one time there were eleven
distinct self-governing Presbyterian organizations. This was the result of disunion and fragmentation
in Scotland, partly because of geographical influences and from the fact that Presbyterians entered the country in two streams one from the United States and one from Scotland and ties were kept with the parent bodies. The beginnings of the Presbyterian Church in Canada were in the Maritimes. The first presbytery was formed at Truro in 1786. This was followed by the presbytery of Pictou in 1795. The two groups united in 1817 to form the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Nova Scotia. The first Presbyterian congregation in the Canadas was organized in Quebec about 1765 and the second one at Montreal in 1786. The Presbytery of the Canadas was formed in Montreal in 1918 and became a synod in 1820. This synod was reorganized in 1831 and was known as the United Synod of Upper Canada. In the same year the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Canada in Connection with the Church of Scotland was established. After nine years of negotiations these two synods united in 1840 and became known by the name of the latter synod -- Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Canada in Connection with the Church of Scotland. It is the records of this Synod that are in Queen's University Archives. Between 1840 and 1875, the year of union, various branches of the Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces, the Synod of the Maritime Provinces, the Presbyterian Church of Canada in Connection with the Church of Scotland and the Canada Presbyterian Church. When in 1875 these four united, they adopted the name of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The Reverend John Cook, minister of St. Andrew's Church, Quebec, was elected first Moderator. The General Assembly of the United Church was divided into 4 synods and 33 presbyteries, and had on their rolls some 600 ministers and about 88,000 members.
Prescott Board of Trade (Prescott, Ont.)
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Andrew Rankin was a carter at Kingston, Ontario. He had two sons: Charles, a carpenter and James W., a tinsmith.