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Of New York (late of Montreal). There are few
good men now living who have done more good as a journalist and a
temperance reformer than the subject of our sketch. John Dougall was born
in the town of Paisley, Scotland, on the 8th of July, 1808, and was
descended from an intelligent and thrifty ancestry. His grandfather,
Duncan Dougall, who was only thirty six years older than his grandson,
John Dougall, was the son of a well-to do weaver, and was engaged as a
manufacturer of muslin. This gentleman, was an enthusiastic tory, even in
the midst of the most rampant radicalism, and a man of imperious but
affectionate nature, passionately fond of flowers, as taste for which
descended to his grandchildren. His son, John Dougall, the father of our
subject, was said to have been the greatest reader in Paisley, and a keen
reformer. He gave his two sons, John (of Montreal), and James (of
Windsor), a desultory education, including almost unlimited reading, and
to encourage the lads in their love for learning, started a boys' literary
club in his own house. Out of this club, which consisted of six members,
sprang one poet and three journalists, all of considerable note. John
Dougall, with the idea of going to South America, learned the Spanish
language. But this field of enterprise was abandoned, and, at the age of
eighteen, in 1826, he sailed for Canada, taking with him a large
assortment of goods, with the view of establishing a branch house and a
commission business. In the prosecution of his business he travelled a
good deal, and became familiar with the then rising towns west of
Montreal, and a winter spent in the backwoods of Lanark gave him an
insight into the privations suffered by our pioneer settlers. Mr. Dougall
was temperate from early youth, but not until 1828 did he take an active
part in the temperance movement. Temperance (that is abstinence from
strong drink, but the use of wine and beer in moderation) was first
publicly advocated in Montreal, in 1828, by the Rev. Mr. Christmas, and
out of this sprang the Montreal Temperance Society, which Mr. Dougall
joined, and at once became on of its most active members. He then became
editor of the Canada Temperance Advocate, the organ of the new
departure, and this position he ably occupied, in addition to carrying on
his other business, until 1846, when he started The Witness
newspaper, with which his name has been for so many years identified. In
1835 it was discovered that the moderate use of wine and beer did not
decrease the number of drunkards, the Montreal Temperance Society
therefore abandoned the so-called temperance pledge, and adopted the more
sensible one of total abstinence from all drinks that intoxicate. in 1838,
the Rev. Dr. Kirk, of Boston, having visited Montreal, Mr. Dougall was so
impressed with the preaching of this zealous man, the the piety of his
boyhood was revived, and in 1840, shortly after his marriage, he joined
the Congregational Church, and has remained a consistent member of the
church ever since. The Witness started in 1846; continued for ten
years to be published as a weekly sheet; and then it was issued as a
semi-weekly, a tri-weekly, and a weekly. In 1860 a daily edition was added
at the low price of one half-penny, and, though maintaining the strict
religious and temperance character of its predecessors, it rapidly
reached, through the interest excited by the American was, what was then
an unprecedented and startling circulation. Such was the early success of
this venture in point of acceptance with the people, that its founder
never ceased to contrive how to secure the establishment of daily papers
of similar character in other places. He visited several cities, spoke at
an International Young Men's Christian Association Convention in behalf of
cheap daily Christian newspapers; addressed, on the same subject several
important religious gatherings and conferred with the editors of religious
weeklies about beginning daily editions, but found no one prepared to try
the experiment. Owing largely, perhaps, to the failure of the New York
World to carry out the similar religious intentions of its founders, the
proposal was not carried out till 1871, when Mr. Dougall was practically
encouraged by a gentleman of means to commence the enterprise himself, and
the New York Daily Witness was begun, and carried on for seven
years, when it was obliged to succumb at last during the depression of
1878. after a large sum of money had been expended in it; but it left
behind it the New York Weekly Witness, which now has a circulation
approaching a hundred thousand copies weekly, and it is believed,
exercises an influence in that country second to no other publication.
Though Mr. Dougall is now in his seventy-seventh year, he is still hale
and hearty, and apparently has a good many years of usefulness still
before him. The Montreal Witness has been under the management of
John Redpath Dougall since his father went to New York in 1871, and we are
pleased to say that it is one of the most popular papers in the province
of Quebec, and taking its daily and weekly circulation into account, is,
perhaps, the most largely read newspaper in Canada. It is almost
unnecessary to say that John Redpath Dougall has followed in the footsteps
of his father, and is a staunch advocate of Temperance and Prohibition.
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