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Calixa Lavallée

1842 - 1891 Person Name: Calixa Lavallée, 1842-1891 Composer (melody) of "O CANADA" in The Hymnary of the United Church of Canada Born: December 28, 1842, Verchères, Canada. Died: January 21, 1891, Boston, Massachusetts. Buried: Boston, Massachusetts; reinterred in 1933 in Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery, Montréal, Canada. Lavallée’s father was originally a wood cutter and blacksmith, but eventually started repairing musical instruments and teaching music in his local community. After moving to St. Hyacinthe, Calixa’s father worked for organ builder Joseph Casavant. Calixa was playing the organ by age 11, and at age 13 gave a piano recital in the Théâtre Royal in Montréal. Calixa later moved to America, where he a won a competition in New Orleans, Louisiana. As accompanist to Spanish violinist Olivera, he toured Brazil and the West Indies, then returned to America and fought in the American civil war, rising to rank of lieutenant on the northern side. He returned to Montréal after the war, but continued to do concert tours and teach. The Congrès National des Canadiens-Français commissioned him to compose "O Canada" for St. Jean-Baptiste Day in 1880. In 1887, he became president of the Music Teachers’ National Association. Lavallée wrote operettas, a symphony, and various occasional pieces and songs. Sources: Jones, pp. 84-85 --www.hymntime.com/tch/ See also in: Wikipedia

Albert Durrant Watson

1859 - 1926 Person Name: Dr. A. D. Watson, 1859- Author of "Lord of the lands, beneath Thy bending skies" in Methodist Hymn and Tune Book Watson, Albert Durrant. (Dixie, Ontario, January 8, 1859--May 3, 1926, Toronto, Ont.). Methodist. Victoria University, M.D., C.M., 1883; Edinburgh, P.R.C.P., 1883. While practising medicine in Toronto, he published nine books of prose and verse, culminating in Poetical Works (1924), and served on the compilation committee of the 1917, Methodist Hymn and Tune Book. For it, he wrote "Lord of the lands" to fit Calixa Lavallee's tune for "O Canada", since no English version of its French words had yet to gain general acceptance, and its Quebec origin worked against its use in Protestant churches. His words were widely used on patriotic occasions for the next fifty years, but only in church services, never in state celebrations. --Hugh D. McKellar, DNAH Archives

W.S. Dingman

1858 - 1947 Person Name: W.S. Dingman, 1858- Harmony editor of "O CANADA" in The Hymnary of the United Church of Canada Born: May 9, 1858. Absalom Dingman, a newspaper publisher from Strathroy and a United Empire Loyalist who had migrated to Canada from an early Dutch settlement along the Hudson River in New York State, came to Stratford with his family and purchased the Herald, a weekly with a steadily increasing readership. Three of his sons joined him at the paper with the eldest, William Smith, who in addition to his newspaper experience in Strathroy, had spent a year as managing editor at the Port Arthur Daily Sentinel becoming Co-publisher, and hence began what is described by Adelaide Leitch in her history of Stratford, Floodtides of Fortune, as a newspaper dynasty. It would last for 113 years. William Smith Dingman and Margaret (Maggie) Elizabeth McDonough were married in Strathroy March 13, 1889 with her father, the Rev. William McDonough, a Methodist clergyman, performing the ceremony. They immediately moved into 59 Grant Street where their first child, a daughter, Wilhelmine Margaret was born. William and Maggie’s first son, George McDonough, served in World War 1 and afterwards continued in the family tradition as an advertising manager in St Thomas. In 1890 William moved the Herald into a new building, designed by architect Joseph Kilburn, on the south side of Market Square where it would remain until the merger with the Beacon in 1923. He became active in municipal life serving on the Board of the Collegiate Institute, as an alderman on the city council and finally as mayor 1909-10. It was during his term as mayor that he played a key role in bringing water-powered hydro service to Stratford. His advocacy and support for Sir Adam Beck’s Niagara Power project culminated in a 1910 Christmas Eve ceremony at which the first Niagara powered electric lights were switched on to illuminate Stratford’s streets. In 1899 he was elected President of the Canadian Press Association, a non profit organization created in 1859 to improve relations among newspaper publishers, proprietors and editors and strengthen the press against the divisive effect of political interference. After more than 30 years in the newspaper business the Ontario government called on him in 1915 to serve as Vice Chairman of the newly established Ontario Board of License (Liquor) Commissioners. This position would soon involve him in the administration of the Ontario Temperance Act which came into effect in 1917. He and Maggie moved to Toronto where they spent the rest of their lives. William Smith Dingman died in 1947 at age 89 and is buried with Maggie in Mount Pleasant Cemetery there. --www.stratford-perthcountybranchaco.ca/