lliam Dawson was born in the town of Pictou, Pictou County, Nova
Scotia, on October 13th, 1820, and there he received his early
schooling. His parents believed in the value of education. Early in his
career they determined that he should have whatever school privileges
the country provided, and that he should later receive a college
training. Many years afterwards he wrote: "To this day I cannot recall
without deep emotion the remembrance of the sacrifices they made, and of
the anxieties they incurred to secure for me opportunities of
improvement.... I would specially record with gratitude that, at a time
when he was in straitened circumstances, my father contributed liberally
in aid of educational institutions then being established in Pictou,
with the view of securing their benefits for his sons, and that he and
my mother aided and stimulated our early tastes for literature and
science."

The childhood influences that moulded William Dawson were typical of the
homes of the early Scottish pioneers in the Maritime Provinces of Canada
at the beginning of the last century. They were characterised by
simplicity, by frugality and by reverence. They were founded on an
unwavering belief in religion and education and honest labour as
necessary to the development of the individual and the nation. They were
based on principles inculcated in the youth of these early Canadian days
long before Carlyle with rugged pen and organ tone declared them. Later,
when Principal of McGill, Dr. Dawson used to speak with affectionate
remembrance of the agencies which fashioned him in the little seacoast
town of black wharves, and tossing tides, and far-come sailing ships
bearing mysterious cargoes from unknown and romantic lands, and manned
by strangely-garbed and bearded seamen speaking a foreign tongue. "Our
home," he said, "was a very quiet one except when strangers, especially
men engaged in missionary and benevolent enterprises, were occasionally
invited as guests. To some of these I was indebted for much information
and guidance ... There was always much work and study in the winter
evenings, and I remember with what pleasure I used to listen to my
father's reading, chiefly in history and biography, for the benefit of
my mother when busy with her needle, as well as of my brother and
myself, after our lessons were finished.... My early home had much in it
to foster studies of nature, and both my parents encouraged such
pursuits. A somewhat