Gidney, Angus Morrison

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Shirley B. Elliott, “GIDNEY, ANGUS MORRISON,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 11, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/gidney_angus_morrison_11E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Teacher, journalist, and poet; b. 4 May 1803 at Jemseg, N.B., son of Joshua Gidney and Phoebe Morrison; m. Experience Beals, and they had one son and three daughters; d. 20 Jan. 1882 at Bridgetown, N.S.
    • As a child Angus Morrison Gidney moved with his parents to a farm east of Bridgetown where he devoted his early years to self-education and farming. In his late teens he began to contribute prose and verse to the periodical press of the province, meanwhile embarking on a teaching career, mainly in Wilmot and Annapolis townships, in which he was engaged for the next two decades.
    • In August 1845 he severed his connections with these two newspapers and purchased from Alexander Lawson the Yarmouth Herald, then the only newspaper in Nova Scotia west of Halifax. As its managing editor he vehemently supported reform in the Nova Scotian government, the paramount issue at that time being the struggle for responsible government, which finally became a reality in February 1848. 
    • A figure of formidable appearance, Gidney served as sergeant-at-arms of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly during the Liberal régime from 1868 to 1878. He was postmaster in Bridgetown for a brief period but lost the position, probably because of politics, in 1865. He was apparently a voracious reader and derived considerable pleasure from presenting lectures on literary and historical topics to local reading societies.
    • Described as a “teacher, journalist and poet . . . [with] powers far above mediocrity,” Gidney was highly regarded in the community, where he gave devoted service to the local Baptist church and actively campaigned for the temperance movement. In 1835 he had published anonymously a temperance tract, The effects of alcohol; a poem descriptive and moral. As a political journalist he expressed himself with facility and conviction, freely employing caustic satire with marked success. His poetry, often published under a pseudonym, embraced a wide range of topics, from the death of a daughter to reflections on Henry Ward Beecher and a tribute to Halifax. No doubt influenced by English poets of the previous century, his style is stilted and characterized by florid language and frequent allusions to classical and literary subjects.
  • Grandson of Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory –https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=3159
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