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Dewar, John, of Milton,
Ontario, the subject of this sketch, was born in Aberfeldy, Perthshire,
Scotland, on the 22nd of August, 1829. His father was Mr. John Dewar, who
married, in 1828, Emily Knight, and by this lady he had nine children. In
1830, being then just two years married, he sailed for Canada, and on his
arrival settled in the township of Esquesing, County of Halton, where he
devoted himself to farming. When the father left for Canada, the subject
of our sketch was just nine months old. He was sent at an early age to
school, continuing his studies till his fifteenth year, when he began to
teach school. A year later he entered the Grammer School in Palerno, in
the County of Halton, and Spent four years in teaching, and then he
repaired to the United States, and entered Franklin College, in Ohio. He
returned to Canada in 1852, and began a study of the law in the respective
offices of S. M. Jarvis, John McNab, and Morrison & Lees, concluding under
the legal tutorship of the late Angus Morrison. In 1858 he went to Milton
and began to practice as an attorney. A year later he was admitted
barrister; and in August, 1868, upon the death of Gilbert Tice Bastedo,
was appointed Crown Attorney and Clerk of the Peace. Most brilliant and
successful had his career been all along, and his achievement was all the
result of a quick, keenly-discerning mind, and a tireless energy and
application. He has been superintendent of public schools; was several
times school trustee, and at the time of writing this sketch is chairman
of the school board. He is also, and has for many years been, president of
the Mechanics' Institute in the town of his adoption. Mr. Dewar is a
gentleman whose exceedingly brilliant natural parts have not alone been
improved by an excellent education, but by the advantages of travel. In
1870 he left on a visit to the old country, travelling through the most
interesting parts of England, Scotland and Ireland; thence he passed over
to France, an extensive tour of which he made, returning again to Canada.
He likewise visited the principal cities of the United States. There is no
part of the human experience more valuable than travel among the different
conditions of men, to those who have the seeing eye and the receptive
mind, and it is not at all to be wondered at that Mr. Dewar returned with
his mind enriched, and with his eyes opened to the conditions of men and
the conduct of affairs, to a degree that renders him a valuable
acquisition to the community. In religion he is a staunch Presbyterian,
but not a bigot, for he yields to every man the right to worship God in
the way that he thinks best. In politics he is a Reformer, and has always
lent his voice and his hand to those whom he believed were promoting the
cause of good government. Up to the time of his appointment as county
crown attorney he was secretary to the Reform Association of the County of
Halton. He was married in October, 1874, to Miss Jane W. Somerville, a
daughter of Mr. Robert B. Somerville, late M.P. for Huntington, Province
of Quebec, and at one time a manager of a branch of the Standard Bank of
Canada. Mr. Dewar was a member for some time of the town and county
council, and retained this position till receiving his crown appointment,
when he resigned. His father died in 1879, beloved and lamented by all who
had known him so long as a worthy citizen. But the qualities of the father
are exhibited well in the son, to whose career many a young man would do
well to look up as a guide and incentive to his justifiable ambition.
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