Amongst Blanshard's most gifted settlers was the subject of our present sketch. His character was unique, and in many of its aspects had no counterpart in the township. With the bluff courtesy of the Englishman was combined the quality of caution attributed to the Scotch; a clever reader of the character and thoughts of other men, he is an adept at counseling his own, is possessed of great powers of observation, and correct in all his conclusions; from the refining force of his reflection, he has consummate tact, an affectionate manner, and such liberality toward the opinions of others that he has for years been one of Blanshard's most popular men.

William Flesher Sanderson was born on the 23rd day of October, 1835, in the city of Bradford, Yorkshire, England. His father, the Rev. William Sanderson, like the greater portion of the clergy in England, was frequently moved from one charge to another, and his son, as a matter of course, had many changes in schoolmasters after he had reached school age. Notwithstanding the itinerance inseparable from his father's calling, Mr. Sanderson was able to secure, before he reached his fifteenth year, a fair English education. But the spirit of enterprise and adventure which characterized his conduct during the active period of his life manifested itself at this early age and in spite of the tears of his mother and kind solicitations of his father, he determined to cross the Atlantic and seek his fortune in the wilds of Upper Canada, as Ontario was then called. He therefore, on the 1st day of May 1850, left his father's roof, where he was destined never to enter again, and sailed from the St Catherines docks in the city of London for Quebec. In the bark Ethelred, under Capt. McLeod he made a successful voyage in five weeks and four days.


Next Page - William F Sanderson - Arrives in Quebec


Note: In History of Perth County 1825-1902, William Sanderson's middle name is spelt Fletcher