ALEXANDER GRAY FARRELL.
 


	Although he has not been continuously in residence during all of this
time, Judge Alexander Gray Farrell of the Moosomin district court has
been in close touch with the history and development of the Canadian
west for the past forty years. He first came to the Northwest Territories,
as this region was then known, as a member of a government surveying
party in 1888 and while he later returned to the east, where he com-
pleted his education and started out on his professional career, it was
in the province of Saskatchewan that Judge Farrell settled permanently.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1861, Alexander Gray Farrell comes from
Scotch and Irish stock. His father, James William Farrell, was born in
Belfast, Ireland, and bore the original name of O'Farrell, while Isobel
Gray, his mother, was born in England, of Scotch parents, who came
originally from Aberdeen.
	Alexander Gray Farrell was reared and obtained his early education
in Detroit, graduating from high school in the summer of 1878. He left
the United States to attend Queen's College, Canada, as he had decided
that he preferred to remain under the British flag rather than that of
the Republic. During his college course-in the spring of 1888-he joined
a surveying party under the British government, its work being the
running of parallels of latitude from east to west. These parallels were
right across the prairie country from Manitoba to the Rockies, and were
twenty-four miles apart. For instance, the 49th parallel forms the boun-
dary line between the United States and Canada.  Twenty-four miles
directly north of the 49th parallel one of these parallels was run by this
surveying party right across the country. Then another one twenty-four
miles north of that, and so on up to the North Pole, if the land was
arable, etc. Of course it was not arable all of the way but these parallels
were run as far north as they could be. Then in addition to these paral-
lels, longitudinal lines, known as Principal Meridians, were started north-
ward from the 49th parallel, 180 miles apart.  The one known as the
First Principal Meridian ran: northward just a little west of Winnipeg
(about ten or twelve miles) ; the Second Principal Meridian ran north
and south in Saskatchewan, about twenty-five or thirty miles from the
eastern boundary; the third Principal Meridian, a little west of Moose
Jaw; the Fourth Principal Meridian formed the boundary between Sas-
katchewan and Alberta. These two classes of lines-parallels of latitude
and meridian lines-were the basis of all the future surveys made, and
in consequence had to be made with great care and accuracy. At the
time Mr. Farrell was in Saskatchewan, outside of a small fringe along
the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, the whole country was a
wilderness, with practically nobody in it, except around the various Hud-
son's Bay posts.
	Among the places that he visited in those early pioneer days were
Fort Qu'Appelle, Touchwood Hills, Humboldt, Prince Albert, Fort Carle-
ton-a very fine fort which was burned by the Indians during the rebel-
lion of 1885-Fort Pitt, Moose Jaw, Regina and a number of other points
which are well known cities today. Upon his return to the east the young
man continued his studies at Queen's College at Kingston, from which he
graduated in 1885. The ensuing three years were spent studying law in
the office of a firm that once boasted Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir
Oliver Mowat as its members. He was called to the bar at Osgoode Hall,
Toronto, in 1888, and began practicing his profession at Smith's Falls,
Ontario, in partnership with John R. Lavell, now of Strathcona, Alberta.
His career at Smith's Falls extended over a period of nearly twenty years,
during which he advanced steadily to the front ranks of his profession.
	Mr. Farrell came back to Saskatchewan in 1906, locating in Moose
Jaw. There he formed a partnership with W. E. Knowles, M. P., for the
practice of law. Not long afterward he was appointed to the position of
police magistrate in Moose Jaw. He was still filling that office when he
was appointed, on the rearrangement of the judiciary of the province,
district judge for Moosomin in 1907, following the late Chief Justice
Wetmore at that point, for a number of years discharging the duties also
of the Moose Jaw Judicial District, besides other districts. At the pres-
ent time he has charge (as he has had for a number of years) of the
Melville district, as well as of his own. He possesses the thorough train-
ing and sound legal learning requisite for a jurist of first rank, qualifica-
tions that are, in his case, enhanced by a wide experience as a barrister
and a temperamental aptitude for the work. In the course of his years
upon the bench Judge Farrell has tried many important cases. The per-
son who has occasion to refer to the court reports cannot fail to be im-
pressed by the clarity and force of his decisions, while his bearing when
presiding over the court has a dignity befitting his high position.
	On the 26th of June, 1889, Mr. Farrell was united in marriage to
Miss Isabella Dick, daughter of William John Dick of Kingston, Ontario.
Mr. and Mrs. Farrell have become the parents of three children: James
Wardrope Dick Farrell, born in September, 1890, a member of the Regina
city staff of engineers and assistant superintendent of the waterworks;
Elizabeth Isobel, born in May, 1894, who was married in August, 1923,
to William J. Hyde, C. A., who is in partnership as chartered accountant
with his uncle, John Hyde, C. A., F. C. A. (Canada), F. S. A. A. (Eng-
land), of Montreal; and Conway Macalister Gray Farrell, born in May,
1898, now a medical student at Winnipeg.  Both sons are veterans of
the Great war. James is a graduate of Queen's University with the B.
A. and B. Sc. degrees and entered the military service at the beginning
of the war as a member of the Queen's Engineering Corps, with which
he remained until 1917, when he was transferred to the Flying Corps,
with the rank of captain. He remained in the latter organization until
the end of the war. After the armistice he was given charge of the edu-
cational instruction of several wings of the R. A. F., being taken on
the staff for this purpose. This work was of the same character as that
of the "Kharki University" in the Canadian army. The second son enlisted
in the Flying Corps in 1917, in which he, too, was commissioned captain.
He stayed with this unit through the remaining years of the war and was
decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross for brilliant and coura-
geous work during the great advance made by the Allies on the 8th of
August, 1918.
	Until his elevation to the bench Judge Farrell was actively identified
with the militia. He entered the service in 1878 as a member of the 14th
Princess of Wales Own Rifles of Kingston, and as such assisted in the
suppression of the Northwest Rebellion of 1885.  He retired from that
"crack" regiment with the rank of captain. Shortly afterward he joined
the 42d Regiment of which he was the senior major for many years, and
at the time of his elevation to the bench he was brigade major of the 8th
Division of Infantry.
	Judge Farrell is a Presbyterian and one of the prominent laymen and
elders of his denomination. He has taken an active part in the different
courts of the church and served on various important committees in the
synods and general assembly. In Regina he is a member of Knox church.
Fraternally he is known as a Royal Arch Mason, an Odd Fellow, Forester
and member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Royal
Arcanum. As a young man he was active in sporting circles as a boats-
man and an enthusiastic participant in the aquatic sports.
	Judge Farrell has been more to the communities in which he has re-
sided than a good barrister and jurist and an admirable gentleman.  He
is a public citizen of first rank. Politics, educational matters and social
progress have all come in for a share of his time and attention.  He
contested South Lanark in the interests of the Liberal party years ago
while he was a resident of Smith's Falls. For several terms he served
as an alderman, was twice mayor of Smith's Falls and long held the
chairmanship of the board of education and the public library board.
He is now a member of the senate of the University of Saskatchewan and
chairman of the board of directors of the Moose Jaw College, while for
years he has been a member of the university council of his own Alma
Mater, Queen's College of Kingston. Whatever institutions or societies
aim to elevate the morals of his community, to spread culture, to raim
the civic standards or to increase the material prosperity, those move-
ments have Judge Farrell's hearty support and cooperation. His timely
assistance has furthered many a good cause and he always represents
the highest standards of character and conduct.

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