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Jaffray, William, Berlin,
Ontario, was born on March 6th, 1832, at Shrewsbury, England. He is a son
of Peter Jaffray, a native of Stirling, Scotland, and Mary Ann, nee
Gittins, of Shrewsbury. Mr. Jaffray, senior, was may say, was a gentleman
of excellent literary attainments, and was, for a number of years, editor
of the Shrewsbury Chronicle. Our subject, for one year, attended
the Diocesan School in his native place. When very young, he entered the
sedentary militia, and in 1854 was promoted to a lieutenancy. Our subject,
it may be said, comes of a newspaper race, for the "inherited tendency"
seems to manifest itself in the matter of the journalistic instinct, as
well as in legal, military or ecclesiastical leanings. Some members of the
family occupy prominent journalistic positions in Birmingham, England;
some in Australia; some, as we see, in Canada, and several in the United
States. In 1856 our subject became editor of the Galt Reporter and
Berlin Chronicle, and for several years took an energetic, prominent
and influential part in the political contests of South Waterloo. He
married, on January 26th, 1834, Agnes Jackson, a native of Kilmarnock,
Scotland, and the fruit of the union was eight children. Three of the sons
are publishers and proprietors of the Canadian-American Journal,
another holds an important office in the St. Paul M. & M. R. R., at Des
Moines, Iowa, and the fifth is a partner with our subject, both being
Grand Trunk R. R. agents in Berlin. Mr. Jaffray's father, we may say,
established the Galt Reporter in 1847, and the son became partner
with him in 1851. In 1856 the Berlin Chronicle was founded, but the
enterprise was sold out in 1861. Mr. Jaffray has always been an unyielding
and sturdy Conservative. In 1862, Mr. Jaffray was appointed postmaster for
Berlin, and in 1864 he became the express and telegraph agent. In the
period extending from 1865 to 1883, our subject has been councillor,
deputy reeve, reeve and mayor, and occupied the last named position for
two years. He has always been active and interested in municipal affairs,
and although and Englishman, has in many contests been victorious, by
considerable majorities, in a German town. He is an Episcopalian, and has
been a member of church choirs continuously for over forty years. He once
went to Scotland and England, and took a three month holiday through the
countries. It is scarcely necessary to say that our subject is one of the
most popular and respected inhabitants of Berlin. |
