Joseph Read

READ, JOSEPH, merchant, shipowner, and master mariner; b. 31 October 1849 in Summerside. son of Ephraim Read and Rosara Chappell; m. 27 September 1877 Sarah Carruthers of Bedeque, and they had two children, John and George; Unitarian; d. 6 April 1919 in Ottawa. Read, a Liberal, was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in the general election of 1900 for 4th Prince. He was re-elected in the general elections of 1904 and 1908. Following the 1908 election, which he won by two votes, he was defeated in July 1909 because of a discrepancy over the eligibility of some voters. Other accounts state he resigned to allow for a by-election. Read was defeated in the subsequent by-election held 6 August 1909, by a margin of three votes. He was appointed as a Minister without Portfolio in the Executive Council on 10 October 1904 and served until he resigned in January 1905. In the 1917 federal election, he ran successfully for Prince, and died while a Member of the House of Commons. An issue of particular concern to Read was the number of provincial representatives in the House of Commons. Following Confederation, the province had six Members of Parliament, but due to a decrease in the Island's population and an increase in the population of the rest of Canada, provincial representation in the Commons had been decreased to five seats in 1892, and to four in 1904. Read made a reasoned and well-argued speech in the Legislature in March 1909, urging Ottawa to restore provincial representation to the level it was when the Island first joined Canada. Despite his efforts and the plea of the provincial government, the number of Island Members of Parliament was reduced to three in 1911. A lifelong resident of Summerside, Read studied at Summerside High School, after which he travelled to Liverpool, England, where he attended Ion's Nautical Academy. Early in his adult life, he became a sailor, and eventually gained the status of master mariner. For many years, he commanded some of the largest ships owned by John Lefurgey*. Read later sailed his own ship, a barque named the Charles E. Lefurgey. Following his time at sea, he became a produce merchant, and owned Joseph Read and Company Limited in Summerside. Although he was ultimately a success in the business world. Read suffered a business failure. In a tribute to Read's integrity, delivered in the House of Commons, D. D. MacKenzie, Leader of the Opposition, recounted how Read had gone back to sea to make enough money to pay all his creditors, though the laws of insolvency did not require him to do so. Read's other involvements included serving as the president of the local and Maritime Board of Trade. He was also shipping master and port warden in Summerside. Read appreciated history, and despite his busy life in politics and business contributed to the book Past and Present of Prince Edward Island (1906). Joseph Read died 6 April 1919. Sarah Read was born ca. 1840 and predeceased her husband by several years. Read's mother was born in Nova Scotia.