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Call, Robert Randolph, Newcastle, New Brunswick, was born in Newcastle, Miramichi, N.B., September 12, 1837. His father, Obadiah Call, was a native of the state of Maine, having been born in the village of Dresden, August 1, 1800, and is still alive. Margaret Burke, his mother, was born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1810, and came to Miramichi with her father, who was a house-carpenter, shortly after the great fire in 1825. She died on the 10th of May, 1877. Robert, the subject of this sketch, was educated at the Grammar School of Newcastle, and soon after leaving this institution developed an aptitude for business. In 1871, in company with John C. Miller, he built the side-wheel steamer New Era, and established the first line of passenger steamers that ran on the Miramichi river. During the past twenty-five years he has been interested in the steamboat business, and occupied the position of agent for the Quebec and Gulf Ports Steamship Company, and for other lines of steamers that have called at the port of Newcastle. On November 26, 1866, he received the appointment of United States Consular Agent at Newcastle. In June, 1867, was elected chairman of the Northumberland County Almshouse Commissioners; and in January, 1874, was made a member of the board of Pilotage Commissioners for the Miramichi district of New Brunswick, under the Pilotage Act, which then came into force, and was chosen its secretary-treasurer. Mr. Call is owner of the gas works in his native town, and they are operated under his own immediate direction. On the 9th September, 1865, he was appointed a lieutenant in the 2nd battalion Northumberland County Militia; and on October 1st, 1868, at a public meeting held in the town of Newcastle for the purpose of organizing a battery, was chosen captain of the Newcastle Field Battery of Artillery, and was gazetted as such on the 18th December of the same year. On the 18th December, 1873, he was made major, and lieutenant-colonel on the 4th February, 1885. He still retains the command of this battery, which he was mainly instrumental in raising. In 1875 this corps was called into active service during the school riots in Caraquet, Gloucester county. Lieutenant-Colonel Call, with Lieutenant Mitchell second in command, and part of the battery, in all forty-six persons, with horses, sleds, two nine-pounder guns, ammunition, etc., left Newcastle on the afternoon of the 28th January for Bathurst, the shire town of Gloucester county, and had to traverse a distance of fifty-five miles through a comparatively desolate country. The weather was very unsettled, and more severe than it had been for years. The snow was fully four feet deep on the level, while in many places it was drifted so badly that the men had to shovel for hours before the teams could pass. They, however, after experiencing great fatigue, and with hard labour, succeeded in reaching their destination on the evening of the 29th, having accomplished the journey in twenty-eight hours, without resting, except while the horses were being fed on the road, the men in the meantime keeping their seats on the sleds, and eating the provisions they had brought from home with them. On their arrival in Bathurst they found that twenty-six of the leading rioters had been safely lodged in the jail there. The infantry that followed them proceeded to Caraquet. Here the battery remained for about six weeks, making the court house their barracks, until the excitement was calmed down and quiet was restored. Mr. Call became a member of Northumberland lodge, A. F. and A. Masons, in 1863, and in the years 1866 and 1867 was master of the lodge. In 1873 he was appointed representative to the Grand Lodge of New Jersey. He is also a member of the Northumberland Highland Society, and one of its vice-presidents. He has travelled a good deal, having visited England for his health in 1863, going over and returning in a sailing vessel. In 1881 he went, via Lake Superior, to Rainy River, Lake of the Woods, Winnipeg, etc., to Portage la Prairie, then the extreme end of the Canadian Pacific Railway, for the purpose of having a look at this wonderful country, and has taken an occasional trip to the United States. Mr. Call is a Presbyterian, is one of the Trustees of St. James’ Church, and has been its secretary and treasurer since 1874. He was married, May 21st, 1862, to Annie Rankin Nevin, who was born in Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, Scotland, on 5th December, 1836.