Bethune, Charles James Stewart

Cedric Gillott, “BETHUNE, CHARLES JAMES STEWART,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 16, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/bethune_charles_james_stewart_16E.html
DCB profile notes:
- Church of England minister, educator, and entomologist; b. 11 Aug. 1838 in West Flamborough Township, Upper Canada, third son of Alexander Neil Bethune and Jane Eliza Crooks; nephew of John (1791–1872), James Gray, Angus, and Donald Bethune; cousin of Norman Bethune; grandson of John Bethune* (1751–1815) and James Crooks; great-uncle of Henry Norman Bethune; m. 21 April 1863 Harriett (Harriet) Alice Mary Forlong (1844–98) in Toronto, and they had two sons and four daughters; d. 18 April 1932 in Toronto and was buried in Cobourg, Ont
- Born into a prominent family of Scottish heritage, Charles Bethune was educated at Upper Canada College in Toronto. He then attended Trinity College there, obtaining a ba in 1859 (with first-class honours in classics and distinction in mathematics) and an ma three years later; he would be awarded an honorary dcl in 1883. Ordained deacon in the Church of England in 1861, he became a priest the following year.
- In 1870, after initially refusing, Bethune was persuaded by his father to accept the position of headmaster at Trinity College School, which had been founded in Weston (Toronto) by William Arthur Johnson in 1865 and had moved to Port Hope in 1868. Bethune remained there for 29 years, during which time the institution, which lacked an endowment or even a finished building when he arrived, developed into one of the most prestigious educational establishments for boys in Canada. This journey was not, however, a smooth one. Severe economic depressions occurred in the late 1870s and late 1880s, and four fires broke out over a four-year period, the last of which, in 1895, almost completely destroyed Trinity’s buildings. In 1890, overwhelmed by his increasing workload, Bethune asked the governing board for relief from some of his duties. For three years he served as warden while the Reverend Arthur Lloyd acted as headmaster, but in 1893, following Lloyd’s resignation, Bethune resumed his former position. After six more stressful years in charge, and following Alice’s death caused by injuries she suffered in an accident when the horses drawing her cab bolted, Bethune resigned and moved southwest to London, where he lived until 1906.
- Few records relating to Bethune’s years in London seem to have survived, but it is clear that during this time he devoted much of his attention to entomology. He had been interested in the subject since childhood, and as an undergraduate at Trinity College in the 1850s he began to collect and study insects in earnest. Their efforts, carried out with Croft’s assistance, led to the formation of the Entomological Society of Canada on 16 April 1863. Bethune was appointed secretary-treasurer in 1864 and became president in 1871, the same year that the organization was renamed the Entomological Society of Ontario. A three-time head of the ESO (1871–75, 1890–92, and 1912–13), he also served as vice-president, council member, librarian, and curator of the insect collection. He was editor of the society’s publication, the Canadian Entomologist, from 1868 to 1873 and from 1886 to 1909, and was named editor emeritus after giving up his duties because of failing eyesight.
- In the late 19th century the value of entomology to North American agriculture was becoming recognized, and Bethune came to be regarded as one of the best economic entomologists in Canada by his contemporaries. In 1870, at the request of the provincial Bureau of Agriculture and Arts, he helped prepare the first Annual report on the noxious insects of the province of Ontario. He would contribute to each annual report for the next three decades. For this continuing work the society received an annual grant of $400, which was increased to $1,000 after the bureau commissioned a special study of the Colorado potato beetle. “What really made the fortunes of the Society,” Bethune would reflect in his presidential address of 1913, “was the invasion of Ontario by the Colorado Potato Beetle.”
- On 1 June 1906 Bethune, now 67 years of age, became professor and head of the department of entomology and zoology at the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph. He held this position until his retirement in October 1920, and during his 14-year tenure he built the department into a strong teaching and research unit, with many of his students becoming well known in their fields. Bethune published regularly, and his most notable works include Insects affecting vegetables and Common insects affecting fruit-trees, as well as Insects of the northern parts of British America.
- Throughout his career as a man of science, Bethune remained a devoutly religious person. Years later, when a student asked him why God had created butterflies, Bethune replied simply, “Because the Lord has an eye on the beautiful.”
Grandson of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=565
Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/220944185/charles-james_stewart-bethune