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Title: Montreal from 1535 to 1914. Vol. 3. Biographical

Author: William H. Atherton

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MONTREAL
FROM 1535 TO 1914. VOL. 3. BIOGRAPHICAL ***

MONTREAL

From 1535 to 1914

BIOGRAPHICAL

VOLUME III

THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
MONTREAL VANCOUVER CHICAGO
1914

RICHARD B. ANGUS

BIOGRAPHICAL

RICHARD BLADWORTH ANGUS.

“No man in Montreal and very few in Canada have had a fuller, riper and
more successful career than ‘the man of peace,’ as he is known in business
circles.” So writes the Toronto Globe of Richard Bladworth Angus, and
there is little to add that would describe the man more accurately. A
purposeful man, a deep thinker, a man of the highest principles, Mr. Angus
is representative of the empire builders of Canada. Beginning his career in a
humble station, he has climbed the ladder of success rung by rung until he
reached the ranks of men like the late Lord Strathcona, and the present Lord
Mount Stephen, with whom he labored in building the most important
railroad lines in the Dominion and with whom he stood for all that which
has made Canada the great empire that it is today. Not only has Mr. Angus
been prominent as a builder and financier of great rail lines, but he has
given of his time and means toward the establishment of great institutions
to care for the sick, to bring education to all those who may seek it, to
promote and disseminate a thorough understanding of art—in short, to
promote the intellectual as well as the material welfare of that most
enterprising of all British peoples—the Canadian nation.
Richard B. Angus was born in Bathgate, Scotland, May 28, 1831, and
educated there. While in his native country he was employed by the
Manchester & Liverpool Bank for some time and in 1857 entered the
offices of the Bank of Montreal in Canada. To the present generation the
name of R. B. Angus has been rightly considered a synonym for the
financial activity instituted by the Bank of Montreal, for he has been
connected with that institution since 1857, having come out from Scotland
to accept a position in the bank in which at a later date he was to be for
many years the guiding hand. His keen mind, his adaptability to new
conditions, his shrewdness and his careful weighing of important questions

assured him of quick promotion and four years after he became connected
with the institution he was placed in charge of the Chicago agency, in 1861
and in 1863 was agent for the bank in New York.
During his sojourn in Chicago Mr. Angus became acquainted with the spirit
of the great west and what it was hoped might be accomplished there. He
saw the states of Illinois and Iowa budding forth from prairie to splendidly
developed communities and reasoning by analogy he recognized what the
future had in store for the Canadian west following the construction of the
Canadian Pacific Railway. The splendid financial standing of the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company today is also in a measure due to the wisdom of
this man, whom no doubt Sir Thomas Shaughnessy considers one of his
wisest counsellors.
In 1864 Mr. Angus returned to Montreal to become second assistant
manager of the Bank of Montreal, was later appointed assistant manager
and became manager in 1868. In 1869, or two years after the union of the
British North American colonies, Mr. Angus was appointed general
manager of the Bank of Montreal, a position which he held until November
1, 1879. It is said that during these ten years his advice was sought many
times by the different finance ministers of the Dominion not only as regards
federal loans but also concerning the general financial policy of the country.
Although a native of Scotland, where free trade exists, Mr. Angus looked
with favor upon the protectionist program, which triumphed in Canada on
the 18th of September, 1878. He saw therein a means whereby the
Dominion could become a great manufacturing country, and he has lived
long enough to see the splendid fruition of that policy.
After his ten years’ tenure of office as general manager of the Bank of
Montreal Mr. Angus was called to another sphere of usefulness. When
several prominent men connected with the Bank of Montreal bought out the
Dutch interests in what was then called the St. Paul, Minneapolis &
Manitoba Railway, those interested, realizing the ability of Mr. Angus as a
financier and organizer, asked him to leave the bank and become the
representative of their interests in St. Paul. Accepting the management of
the railway, his great success during the two years of his residence in the
American northwest has become a part of the history not only of the
American but also of the Canadian northwest. Mr. Angus was one of the
first promoters of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He was among the earliest

to recognize the stupendous success which would attend the project if there
was carried out an enlightened policy of settlement and industrial
expansion. A syndicate was formed, with Mr. George Stephen, later Lord
Mount Stephen, and Mr. Donald A. Smith, later Lord Strathcona, as its
leading spirits. Mr. Angus was one of the original body and he has remained
in connection with the incorporated company ever since as one of its
directors. He advised upon the strategic points where the chief
entrenchments of the first transcontinental road should be laid out and he
pointed out the spots where the Bank of Montreal could most effectively
plant its branches. This policy of his had a great deal to do with the
expansion which has brought the capitalization of the Bank of Montreal and
the Canadian Pacific Railway up to the present colossal figures.
As general manager of the Bank of Montreal Mr. Angus served under four
presidents, namely, T. B. Anderson, E. H. King, David Torrance and George
Stephen, now Lord Mount Stephen, and he and the latter are the only ones
of the number yet living. He also sat as director with Lord Strathcona and
Sir George A. Drummond, succeeding the latter to the presidency of the
bank July 22, 1910. All admit that no one of that galaxy of financiers who
have year after year sat at the historic round table ever rendered greater
service to the institution than R. B. Angus.
At an age when most men throw off official cares and responsibilities to
enjoy the leisure which prosperity has brought them Mr. Angus in his
octogenarian prime took up as cheerfully as would a man of forty the
principal position in Canada’s foremost financial institution. In November,
1913, on account of advancing years and a desire to be relieved of all
financial burdens of a public character, Mr. Angus resigned the presidency
of the Bank of Montreal, but remains a member of the board and continues
to give the institution the benefit of his ripe, wide and valuable experience.
That worth hath its reward is evident in Mr. Angus’ career, who is rated
today as one of the richest men in Montreal. However, he seems to consider
himself more in the light of a steward of his vast property interests, for he
freely and liberally has given of his means and made handsome
contributions to numerous institutions. Among these is the Montreal Art
Association, of which he was formerly president and to which he gave
money and several valuable paintings. He also supported McGill University
with a considerable sum and gave to the Alexandra Contagious Diseases

Hospital of Montreal, of which he is a governor and was a founder. He was
president of the Royal Victoria Hospital, which institution he also has
liberally supported, and is a vice president of the Royal Victorian Order of
Nurses. The Charity Organization Society, of which he is a director, has
also benefited in a material way and by his timely advice. Mr. Angus was
also a governor of the Montreal General Hospital. An honor to his race and
one of the foremost representatives among Scotchmen in Canada, he served
several times as president of the St. Andrew’s Society of Montreal. Mr.
Angus was governor of the Fraser Institute Free Public Library and is an
honorary member of the Antiquarian and Numismatic Society of Montreal.
Among commercial and financial institutions with which he has been or is
connected are the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, the Laurentide Paper
Company, the Dominion Coal Company, the Dominion Iron & Steel
Company, the Dominion Bridge Company, the Royal Trust Company, the
Grand Falls Power Company, the Pacific Coal Company, the Canadian Salt
Company, the Northwest Land Company and the London & Lancashire Life
Assurance Company.
Mr. Angus has always taken a deep interest in public institutions and was
one of the chief promoters of the board of control in Montreal, which was
founded in 1909. He has ever placed his services at the disposal of such
affairs as have made for a greater and better Canada. In 1910 knighthood
was offered to him, but he declined the honor.
Among the clubs of which Mr. Angus is a member are: the St. James, of
which he was formerly chairman; the Mount Royal, of which he was a
founder and of which he has served as president; the Montreal Jockey; the
Auto and Aero Club; the Forest and Stream Club; and the Winter Club. He
also is a member of the Rideau Club of Ottawa, the Toronto Club, the York
Club of Toronto and the Manitoba Club of Winnipeg.
On June 13, 1857, Angus was married to Miss Mary Anne Daniels, who
died March 13, 1913. To them were born three sons and six daughters, two
of the latter being deceased.
In religious matters Mr. Angus adheres to the stern faith of his fathers, being
a Presbyterian. It may be said of him that in all fields in which he has
exerted his activities he has excelled. Quiet in demeanor, he is purposeful
and unconsciously exerts an influence which makes for domination. That

this domination is always used to good purpose and for the benefit of his
country and its people stands to his high credit. Sir Sandford Fleming paid
him high compliment as a banker in the words that he is a man who “in
every way is a credit to the great institution over which he so worthily
presides,” and the Montreal Star characterizes him as “one of Canada’s
prominent and most highly respected financiers.” Mr. Angus is a true
Scotchman, a truer Canadian, but best of all—a man worthy of the name.

LEONIDAS VILLENEUVE.

From a comparatively humble position in business circles Leonidas
Villeneuve advanced until he ranked with the millionaire merchants of
Montreal and throughout his entire career his record was such as any man
might be proud to possess, bringing to him the respect of colleagues and
contemporaries. The record of his career, showing the steps in his orderly
progression, may serve as a source of inspiration and encouragement to
others and in this biography finds its chief motive and value.
Mr. Villeneuve was born in Terrebonne county, at Ste. Anne des Plaines, a
son of Joachim Villeneuve, who was a farmer there. His boyhood and youth
were uneventfully passed, but when twenty years of age he determined to
try his fortune in the commercial field. He was attracted to the lumber
business and, believing that he would find it congenial and profitable, he
established a small lumberyard north of Mount Royal Avenue, in the
ownership and conduct of which he was first associated with the late
Senator J. O. Villeneuve. Gradually he advanced toward the goal of success,
his business growing with the development of the district. He remained at
its head until his death, eventually conducting an extensive business under
the name of the L. Villeneuve Company. This brought him substantial
returns and his fortune also arose through his wise and judicious
investments in real estate. From time to time he added to his holdings and,
when there was a real-estate boom in the district, he had extensive holdings,
a portion of which he sold, realizing therefrom a handsome fortune.
Mr. Villeneuve was a prominent figure in local circles in connection with
the growth and progress of his section. When the district north of Mount

Royal Avenue gradually developed from a sparsely settled region into a fast
growing town he was one of the leading spirits in planning roadways, parks
and public improvements. To him in great measure it is due that, with its
wide streets and well built homes, Laurier ward is among the most
attractive in this city. He was for twenty years associated with the municipal
life of Ville St. Louis, first serving as alderman and afterward for three
terms as mayor.
In politics Mr. Villeneuve was a stalwart conservative, but while working
actively in the party and doing everything in his power to promote its
growth and secure its success, he could never be tempted to try his fortune
in either the federal or provincial fields, although he was requested on many
occasions to carry the party banner. He was universally respected for his
unswerving business honesty and uprightness, and upon these qualities as a
foundation he builded his success, which placed him among the leaders in
his particular line in eastern Canada. His sound judgment enabled him to
correctly value those things which go to make up life’s contacts and
experiences. His opinions were sound, his enterprise unfaltering and his
activities were of a character that contributed to the public welfare as well
as to individual success. Mr. Villeneuve was a member of the Roman
Catholic church, and took a great deal of interest in church affairs.

LEONIDAS VILLENEUVE
Mr. Villeneuve was married twice. His first wife was Malvina Joyal, a sister
of Dr. Joyal, of Montreal, and to them was born a son, J. Arthur, who was
educated in Montreal and traveled extensively with his father in Europe. He
married Miss Yvonne Lariviere, of Montreal, and has a son, Jean Leonidas,
born July 11, 1913. J. Arthur Villeneuve is vice president of the L.
Villeneuve Company and of the Eagle Lumber Company and is a worthy
successor of his father in connection with the lumber industry of the
country. For his second wife Leonidas Villeneuve chose Dame Exilda
Bergeron, who also survives. His life of intense and intelligently directed
activity brought him success and, moreover, he always followed
constructive methods in his business career, so that his path was never
strewn with the wreck of other men’s fortunes.

HENRY R. GRAY.

Tangible evidence of the public spirit of Henry R. Gray is found in his
service as chairman of the board of health and the radical and effective
measures which he took in preventing the spread of a small-pox epidemic.
He did equally efficient work in promoting sanitary conditions in Montreal
along various lines and at the same time he occupied a prominent position
as a representative of the pharmaceutical profession. He was born
December 30, 1838, in Boston, Lincolnshire, England, and pursued his
education at Standard Hill, Nottingham, the head master of the school being
William Goodacre, the well known author of several standard educational
works. He was afterward articled for five years to William March, chemist
and apothecary, at Newark, England, and subsequently pursued a course of
lectures on chemistry under the celebrated Roscoe in Manchester.
Coming to Canada when twenty-one years of age, Mr. Gray established his
business in Montreal in 1859 and for several years devoted his attention to
the study of sanitary science and particularly to the question of the
sanitation of cities. He was connected with every movement to improve the
sanitary condition of Montreal and his labors were of far-reaching benefit.
He became one of the originators of the Pharmaceutical Association of the
province, of which he was elected secretary and later treasurer and vice
president. He was next called to the presidency, serving for three
consecutive years and also as a member of the board of examiners. He
became one of the charter members of the Montreal College of Pharmacy
and for two years was its president.
In 1884 he was elected alderman of the St. Lawrence ward and soon
afterward was unanimously chosen by the city council as chairman of the
local board of health, serving in that difficult position during the whole of
the disastrous epidemic of small-pox which devastated the city and
province in 1885 and 1886. When the disease broke out and the death rate
amounted to twenty-five per day, there was little civic organization to
prevent the spread of disease or further the promotion of sanitary
conditions. Vaccination was opposed, but Mr. Gray organized a vigorous
campaign to stamp out the disease and obtained the passage of by-laws

insisting on free and compulsory vaccination. He also organized a civic
hospital and insisted on all the small-pox patients being sent to the isolation
hospital. Through this and other emergency methods he allayed the general
fear and stamped out the disease. It was in that year that he succeeded in
getting a by-law through the city council requiring all household refuse to
be cremated, and shortly afterward crematories were erected and a contract
for five years’ collection and cremation given out.
After having served a three years’ term as alderman Mr. Gray declined
reelection. He was appointed by the government a justice of the peace and a
member of the council of public instruction for the province of Quebec and
was elected to represent it on the corporation of the polytechnic school of
this city. He was likewise a life governor of the Montreal General Hospital
and the Notre Dame Hospital. When the public health act passed the
legislature, shortly after the small-pox epidemic, Mr. Gray, who in addition
to his aldermanic duties had been a member of the old central board of
health for the province, was appointed a member of the new provincial
board of health then created and remained a member until his death. In
1885 he was elected membre honoraire de la Société d’Hygiène Française
of Paris, France. After his retirement from the city council he was requested
by a number of leading citizens of all parties and creeds to accept the
nomination of mayor, but owing to business reasons he was obliged to
decline.
Mr. Gray married Miss Catherine Margaret McGale, the youngest daughter
of the late Dr. Bernard McGale, who was a member of the army medical
staff. Mr. Gray died February 18, 1908, and is survived by his wife, three
daughters and a son, Dr. H. R. Dunstan Gray. The memory of his well spent
life is cherished by all who were his contemporaries and his colleagues, and
the worth of his work is recognized by all who know aught of the history of
Montreal.

JAMES JOHNSTON.

Throughout an active, commercial career James Johnston was engaged in
importing and dealing in English and foreign dry goods, in which

connection he built up an enterprise of extensive and gratifying proportions,
his becoming one of the leading commercial houses of Montreal. He was
born March 20, 1849, a son of James and Mary (Burns) Johnston, both of
whom were natives of Scotland, who, coming to the new world in early life,
were married in Montreal. The father, who was born in 1819, passed away
in this city on the 27th of May, 1882.
Spending his youthful days under the parental roof, James Johnston pursued
his education in the schools of Montreal and Quebec and, entering business
circles, he became connected with the firm of James Johnston & Company,
importers of and dealers in dry goods of English and foreign manufacture,
of which his father was the head. After the death of his father he became
head of the business, devoting his entire attention to the development of a
trade which grew to large and gratifying proportions, making his one of the
leading dry-goods establishments in the city. Since his demise the store has
been sold and is now conducted under the firm style of W. R. Brock
Company, Ltd.
Mr. Johnston was married in Montreal, in 1876, to Miss Agnes Grant
Robertson, a daughter of Andrew Robertson, who was a prominent resident
of this city. By this marriage there were eight children of whom seven are
living. The family circle was broken by the hand of death when on the 14th
of July, 1899, James Johnston was called to his final rest. His interests and
activities, aside from business, are indicated by the fact that he held
membership in the St. James Club, the Metropolitan Club, the Hunt Club,
the Forest and Stream Club, and St. Paul’s Presbyterian church. He was
always actuated by high and manly principles and worthy motives, and he
left to his family the priceless heritage of an untarnished name as well as
the substantial reward of his business enterprise and sagacity.

MICHAEL JAMES WALSH.

Michael James Walsh is prominent along various lines of activity in
Montreal, where he is widely known as a successful insurance broker but
has also actively participated in an important way in political and
governmental affairs and is moreover widely known in fraternal circles. Of

good Irish stock, he has brought the sturdiness of his ancestors to the task at
hand and has attained a success which entitles him to consideration as one
of the substantial men of his community and a power for progress and
improvement in the political field.
A native of Montreal, Michael James Walsh was born on the 2d of
September, 1858, a son of Mark and Catherine (Nolan) Walsh, both natives
of County Wexford, Ireland. The father was prominent as a contractor and
everywhere in this city respected as a successful business man. Michael J.
Walsh received his education at St. Ann’s parish, Christian Brothers School,
and upon discontinuing his lessons became connected with the Grand Trunk
and Canadian Pacific Railways, remaining for about ten years in their
employ in their store departments. He then set out independently, becoming
an insurance broker, and by native shrewdness and ability to understand
commercial conditions has succeeded in building up a business which ranks
him among the foremost men in his line in Montreal. When his private
affairs permitted him to devote some of his time to the public weal he
entered politics with the same zest as he displayed in his private business
affairs and as a result was elected alderman of the St. Ann’s ward on
February 1, 1902, continuing in that office for four years or until February
1, 1906, and doing valuable work in promoting measures which have been
of far-reaching benefit to the city. On November 25, 1904, he was also
elected a member of the Quebec provincial legislature and on December 28,
1908, reelected to that office, continuing therein until May 15, 1912. His
legislative career has been one of success and his record has been so clear
that his constituents may well be proud of their representative. He has done
much in supporting valuable bills, especially those undertaken in the
interest of his constituents, and has ever been active in committee rooms
and on the floor of the house in sustaining or promoting constructive
legislation. His political position is that of a liberal, and he always has been
a stanch supporter of that grand man of the liberal party, Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
On October 9, 1882, at Montreal, in St. Henry parish church, Mr. Walsh was
married to Mary Jane Barry, a daughter of David Barry, mechanical
superintendent of the Canada Sugar Refinery, and Mary O’Leary, both
natives of County Cork, Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. Walsh became the parents of
two sons. Joseph Christopher Barry Walsh, B. A., B. C. L., is a well known
notary public. The other son born to the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Walsh is

David Robert Barry Walsh, who graduated from Loyola College and is now
successfully engaged in the insurance business, being inspector for the
Royal Exchange Association. Both sons are young men of excellent habits
and qualifications.
As the years have passed Mr. Walsh has become connected with a number
of outside interests and is now a director in the People’s Mutual Building
Society and for many years has been a member of the Montreal Board of
Trade, doing in that connection important work in promoting commercial
expansion. Fraternally he is very prominent and has held high offices in the
Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Order of Foresters, the Catholic Mutual
Benefit Association, the Canadian Order of Foresters, the Royal Guardians,
the Ancient Order of Hibernians and in St. Patrick’s Society. A man of
varied and important interests, Mr. Walsh has made an honorable record in
business as well as in municipal and provincial politics and enjoys the full
confidence of the best classes of population. In him there is strongly
developed the quality of loyalty, and it is his devotion to a cause which has
led him into the important relations with which he is now connected. He
may justly be classed with Montreal’s leading citizens, and the position
which he has attained is the more creditable as it has been brought about
entirely by his own efforts.

JAMES BELL, M. D.

Notable service in the field of abdominal surgery won for Dr. James Bell an
international reputation. His broad study and research made him a scientist
of renown and his opinions were largely accepted as authority by the
profession which recognized him not only as an eminent surgeon, but
equally capable educator. He was born at North Gower, Ontario, in 1852,
and after acquiring his early education in local schools and by private
tuition, he entered McGill University and was graduated as Holmes’ gold
medallist in 1877, a fact indicative of the excellent work which he had done
in his student days. He was immediately appointed house surgeon in the
Montreal General Hospital, which position he held until 1882, gaining that
broad practical experience and knowledge which only hospital practice can

bring. In 1880 he became medical superintendent of the Montreal General
Hospital and in 1885 was appointed to the position of assistant surgeon,
followed by appointment as surgeon a year later. He filled the position with
distinction for eight years and then became surgeon of the new Royal
Victoria Hospital in 1894, remaining in that connection until his demise. As
the years passed his skill and ability constantly increased and developed and
his reputation spread abroad until he was acknowledged not only one of the
eminent surgeons of Canada, but also, by reason of his specialty in
abdominal work, as one of the most distinguished representatives of the
profession on the American continent. He became just as widely known in
connection with surgical work for the treatment of gall stones and kidney
diseases. In addition to his other hospital service he was consulting surgeon
of the Children’s Hospital. After going to Victoria Hospital he remained a
consulting surgeon of the Montreal General Hospital and also acted in a
similar capacity at the Maternity Hospital.

DR. JAMES BELL
His connection with McGill University was equally brilliant, for through
many years he was one of its able educators in the medical department. In
1888 he was appointed associate professor of clinical surgery. In 1890 he
was made assistant professor of surgery and clinical surgery; in 1895,
professor of clinical surgery, and in 1907, professor of surgery and clinical
surgery. He held membership in the American Surgical Association and the
Canadian Surgical Association, and he served as surgeon major in charge of
the field hospital corps in the Riel rebellion, receiving a medal for his
services, while between 1880 and 1888, he was surgeon to the Sixth
Battalion of Fusiliers. He was the author of various valuable papers,
including one entitled Tubercular Family History, and his contributions to
the press have ever been eagerly received. He was the author of the chapter
on Surgical Diseases and Wounds of the Kidneys and Ureters in American
Practice of Surgery as well as numerous valuable treatises on the kidneys.
He was a member of the Genito-Urinary branch of the American Medical
Association in which he represented the Canadian Medical Association. As
a diagnostician he had few equals and he possessed a medical technique
that was marvelous. One of his strongest traits of character was his utter
fearlessness. He spoke his own mind and was seldom misunderstood. He
never catered to cheaply acquired popularity or public opinion and always
had the courage of his convictions. He spoke what he thought to be the truth
no matter who it opposed or offended. He thoroughly detested sham or
deceit and was self-contained, quiet and self-reliant in connection with all
of his professional service.
Dr. Bell was married in June, 1889, to Miss Edith Mary Arnton, the eldest
daughter of the late John J. Arnton, of Montreal, and they had one son,
James Stuart Ethelwyn Wallace, who was born February 15, 1899, and in
accordance with the wish of his father is preparing for the medical course at
McGill. Dr. Bell was a member of a number of the leading clubs, including
St. James, the Montreal Jockey, the Mount Royal and the University Clubs.
He was for more than twenty years one of the enthusiastic members of the
Montreal Hunt Club and for many years followed the hounds. He greatly
enjoyed outdoor life, much more than so-called society and said with
Byron,
“I love not man the less but nature more.”

He was fond of hunting and fishing and it was his custom each year to hunt
big game in New Brunswick where he was often a guest at August
Belmont’s private shooting preserve. Dr. Bell was also a member of the
Chapleau Club in the Laurentians where he went for his fishing. His
country home, Saraguay, was his residence during four months in the year
for more than eighteen years. Here he maintained a fine breeding
establishment of driving and saddle horses and was able to gratify the great
pleasure his excellent stock afforded him, for he was a lover of a good
horse.
No man ever more fully, however, recognized the duties and obligations of
the profession or more conscientiously met them. The regard entertained for
him by his professional brethren is indicated in the fact that Dr. C. E.
Church termed him “the ablest surgeon in America,” while Dr. T. G.
Roddick said, “the death of Dr. James Bell is a distinct loss to the medical
and surgical profession. He was a man of marked ability, with conscientious
devotion to his work, which earned him the respect of his fellows, as well
as success amongst his patients. And he was not only respected by the
profession throughout the country, but loved by his friends.” In comment
upon his death the Montreal Gazette wrote, “One of the men who have done
much for the advancement of the medical profession in Canada passed
away yesterday when Dr. James Bell, in the ripe fullness of a useful career,
was carried off by appendicitis. It was by a curious irony of fate that Dr.
Bell died most unexpectedly at the Royal Victoria Hospital, in whose wards
still lay many upon whom he had operated, and whose lives he had
probably saved by his skill. For many years Dr. Bell had been recognized as
one of Canada’s leading surgeons, in fact one of the greatest surgeons in
abdominal work on this continent and his services were in great demand,
not only in Montreal, but wherever the work of a skillful scientist whose
immediate judgment and power might be efficacious to save human life,
was needed. Day by day he had been working in the operating room of the
Royal Victoria Hospital and the sick rooms of patients, in circumstances
where a single mistake might mean loss of life. The strain was much greater
than ordinary people could have imagined. He was one of those men who
devoted themselves to their work so well and performed it so efficiently that
there was no need to fight for prominence. His work was such that it
inevitably grew. As his ability became known his services became more in
demand and in a quiet and conscientious way he gradually became one of

the recognized surgical authorities of his time and one of the busiest. Not
only in Montreal but in many parts of Canada he was called upon wherever
there was a stern fight against death, and frequently he was called to
exercise his skill even farther afield in the United States. Those who knew
him as either surgeon or as friend will remember him as one who knew his
work and did it well, without thought of public recognition.”
Dr. Bell was actively engaged in professional duties almost to the closing
hours of his life. On the last day he visited Victoria Hospital he performed
an operation in the forenoon. In the evening of the same day he was taken
ill and the end came a few days later. The board of governors of the Royal
Victoria Hospital caused to be made a bronze bust of Dr. Bell which was
placed in the main hall of that hospital. The significance of this action is
better understood when it is known that but one other bust is there shown—
that of Queen Victoria.

JOSEPH OVIDE GRAVEL.

Joseph Ovide Gravel, for many years manager and executor of the John
Pratt estate in Montreal and prominently connected with other important
corporate and business interests of the city, was born here in 1839. He
acquired his education in the commercial schools of the city and in 1854
began a business career which brought him constantly increasing
prominence and prosperity. From that date until 1863 he was connected
with the firm of Benning & Barsalou and was then made secretary-treasurer
of the Canadian Rubber Company, taking an active part in the affairs of that
concern until 1899. He was later a director in the Canadian Linseed Oil
Mills, a trustee of the Guardian Assurance Company, president of the
Sincennes-McNaughton line and of the Dominion Oil Cloth Company. He
became known as a reliable, forceful and discriminating business man, one
who always carried forward to successful completion whatever he
undertook, and he made his ability and insight the basis of a substantial and
well deserved success. He married Aurelie La Rocque. His son, C. E.
Gravel, is now in charge of the Pratt estate and is ably carrying forward his
father’s work in its management.

JOSEPH LOUIS ARCHAMBAULT.

Joseph Louis Archambault, of Montreal, whose reputation as a
distinguished and able lawyer has made him well known throughout the
province and who is now filling the position of city attorney, was born at
Varennes, June 19, 1849, a son of the late J. N. A. and Aurelie (Mongeau)
Archambault. The father, who was “a patriot of 1837,” became president of
the provincial board of notaries in Quebec and was a distinguished
representative of his profession. The son supplemented his early education
by study in the College of St. Hyacinthe and in broad literary training laid
the foundation upon which he has built the superstructure of professional
knowledge. He pursued his law studies under the direction of the late Sir
George Cartier and at the same time followed the law course in McGill
University, which conferred upon him the B. C. L. degree in 1871. The
same year he entered upon active practice as an advocate and has since
remained a member of the Montreal bar, although his growing powers and
capabilities have won him place among the leaders of the profession in the
province. He was created a king’s counsel by the Marquis of Lansdowne in
1887 and became a member of the council of the bar in 1889. For some
years he filled the position of crown prosecutor for the district of Montreal
and has frequently pleaded before the judicial committee of the privy
council in England, having charge of important cases from Canada. He
became city attorney of Montreal in 1898 and in the discharge of his official
duties has won high honors and encomiums. He has always enjoyed a large
private practice and in following his profession has been associated
successively as law partner with Sir J. A. Chapleau, Q. C., the Hon. J. A.
Mousseau, Q. C. and the Hon. W. W. Linch, Q. C. He has written quite
extensively on legal subjects for the newspaper and magazine press and is
the author of a number of published volumes, including: Jacques Cartier, an
Historical Drama (1879); Etude Legale sur l’Université Laval à Montreal
(1880); Institutions Municipales (1887); Le Barreau Canadien au Conseil
Privé (1889); Généalogie de la Famille Archambault, 1620-1890 (1891); La
Bourgeoisie au Canada, Two Lectures (1894); The Criminal Forum in
Canada (1895); and Etude de Moeurs Judiciares (1897). His opinions upon
involved legal questions are largely accepted as authority by the profession

and the public. He served as batonnier or president of the Montreal bar in
1912 and 1913. In addition to his law practice he is one of the directors of
the Rolland Paper Company.
Mr. Archambault was married in Montreal in June, 1873, to Miss Ernestine,
the eldest daughter of the late Senator Rolland, of Montreal. In religious
faith Mr. and Mrs. Archambault are Catholics, and his political belief is that
of the conservative party. He belongs to the Canadian Club and those who
meet him socially find him an entertaining, genial and cultured gentleman
whose ways are those of refinement and whose word no man can question.
The Montreal Star has said of him: “His career has been marked with
continuous success and great devotion to the legal profession.” His
prominence is the logical outcome of well developed talents and powers
and he is justly accounted today one of the leaders of the provincial bar.

JOHN CLEMENT NEUFVILLE BADGLEY.

The Badgley family is one of the old and prominent families of Montreal,
their connection with the city’s history dating back to 1785.
Four generations of this family have been prominently identified with the
city’s business and professional interests. John C. N. Badgley, active in
business circles for many years, remained a resident of this city from his
birth on December 7, 1856, until his death on March 7, 1906.
He was a son of the Hon. William Badgley, D. C. L., one of the eminent
representatives of the judiciary of the province, and a nephew of Dr. Francis
Badgley, one of the most prominent members of the medical profession of
his day and an early member of the McGill College faculty. Dr. Badgley
died in England where he resided the latter years of his life.
Hon. William Badgley, whose entire life was spent in Montreal, was born in
this city, March 27, 1801, his parents being Francis and Elizabeth (Lilly)
Badgley. The father, a representative of an old Derbyshire family, was born
in London and for years was a well known Montreal merchant. He was
likewise a recognized leader in political circles and represented his city in
the provincial parliament from 1801 until 1805. The father of the Hon.

William Badgley, Francis Badgley, was one of the early settlers of
Montreal, arriving in 1785. Francis Badgley became one of the prominent
fur merchants in Montreal and married Elizabeth Lilly, daughter of John
Lilly.
William Badgley, after pursuing his more specifically literary education
with the Rev. Alexander Skakel, studied law in Montreal and was admitted
to the bar in November, 1823. He entered at once upon active and
successful practice, was created queen’s counsellor in 1847 and received the
honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law from McGill University in 1843.
For about twenty years he practised his profession in Montreal and gained
distinction as a barrister. He was also the author of a work called Remarks
on Registrar’s Office which was published in 1837. In 1840 he was called
to public life in his appointment as commissioner of bankrupts, in which
capacity he served until 1844, when he was appointed circuit judge. He was
also secretary of the Constitutional Association which aided in the reunion
of the Canadas in 1841 and two or three years before that act was
consummated he was one of the delegates sent to England to further the
movement. He continued upon the bench as circuit judge until 1847 and
then resumed the private practice of law. Judicial honors, however, were
again conferred upon him when on the 27th of January, 1855, he was
appointed puisne judge of the superior court of Lower Canada, so
continuing until the 1st of September, 1862, when he was transferred to the
court of queen’s bench as temporary assistant judge. Later he was appointed
puisne judge of that court on the 17th of August, 1866, and after presiding
over its proceedings for eight years was retired on a pension in June, 1874,
because of partial deafness. Devotedly attached to his profession,
systematic and methodical in habit, sober and discreet in judgment, calm in
temper, diligent in research, conscientious in the discharge of every duty,
courteous and kindly in demeanor and inflexibly just on all occasions, these
qualities enabled his honor, William Badgley, to take first rank among those
who have held high judicial offices in the province. His reported opinions
are monuments to his profound legal learning and superior ability. They
show a thorough mastery of the questions involved, a rare simplicity of
style and a remarkable terseness and clearness in the statement of the
principles upon which the opinions rest. His name is also interwoven with
the history of legislation for he sat for Missisquoi in the Canadian assembly
from 1844 until 1851, and for the city of Montreal from the latter date until

the general election in 1854. He was a member of the executive council and
attorney general for Lower Canada from April 23, 1847, to March 10, 1848.
He always gave stanch allegiance to the conservative party, feeling that in
its principles lay the strongest elements of good government. His fraternal
connections were with the Masons, and he was district and provincial grand
master for England from December, 1849, until his demise.
With him passed away one of the links which have bound the bustling men
of middle age today with a generation of which the youth of today know but
very little, of men more proud and precise in their manners than we are, and
whose courtesy and politeness was a part of their daily life. The loss of their
influence and example is no small one.
In 1834, in London, England, Judge Badgley was married to Miss Elizabeth
Taylor, the eldest daughter of Lieutenant Colonel J. W. Taylor of the
Twentieth Regiment B. N. T. Six children were born to this marriage; the
wife and mother passed away in 1874.
John C. N. Badgley, youngest son of the Hon. William Badgley, pursued his
education in Montreal high school and McGill University after spending
some time as a student at Port Hope. When a young man he engaged in the
coal business and was connected with that department of commercial
activity in Montreal throughout his entire life. He became one of the active
business men of this city, his energy and enterprise leading him into
important, commercial relations and winning for him a high standing as a
business man and citizen.
He married Miss Mary E. Badgley, a daughter of Francis H. and Margaret
(Drummond) Badgley of Ottawa.
John C. N. Badgley not only figured prominently in commercial circles but
was also a well known member of the Board of Trade, a past master of St.
Paul’s Lodge of Masons and a member of the Christ Church cathedral. His
death on March 7, 1906, left a widow, son and daughter. The latter,
Elizabeth Ruth, married October 10, 1913, John William Shaw of Montreal,
while the former, Clement Montagu, was born September 17, 1886, in
Montreal and is the fourth generation of the Badgley family that have been
connected with Montreal’s business interests. He finished his education in
this city and after spending some time in travel abroad, concluded to enter
upon a business, rather than a professional, career. He was in the employ of

the Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Company for a time, after
which he became assistant head clerk for the Atlas Insurance Company.
With the valuable experience thus gained, Mr. Badgley entered the
insurance and real-estate business on his own account, and at once secured
a clientele that gave him a high position among the best class of men in this
line of business. He subsequently became associated with David A. Lewis,
as the firm of Lewis & Badgley, in real estate and insurance, with offices in
the Merchants Bank building.
Mr. Badgley is a member of the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association,
and the Canadian Club.

JAMES ROSS.

For almost a half century James Ross was intimately associated with the
growth and development of Canada and was an active factor in establishing,
building and promoting many of the leading national and municipal
railways of the country. It was under him that Sir William Mackenzie
started his career and subsequently he cooperated with him in various
enterprises throughout the world. He was also a long-time associate of Sir
Sandford Fleming, Sir William Van Horne, Sir Thomas Shaughnessy and
Lord Strathcona, more particularly in the ’80s, in the building of the
Canadian Pacific Railway. He was also actively interested in the executive
control of the Montreal and Toronto street railways from 1892. The extent
and importance of his business interests and investments made him
therefore a most prominent factor in the upbuilding and development of the
country and his name is inseparably interwoven with the history of Canada.
Mr. Ross was a son of the late Captain John Ross, merchant and ship owner,
and Mary B. (McKedie) Ross, formerly of Newcastle-on-Tyne, England.
His birth occurred in the year 1848 at Cromarty, Scotland, and after
attending Inverness Academy in his native land he continued his studies in
England. His initial step in the business world brought him into connection
with railway, harbor and water works in Great Britain. Following his arrival
in America he was appointed, in 1870, to the position of resident engineer
of the Ulster & Delaware Railway, of which road he afterward became chief

engineer. In 1872 he acted as resident engineer of the Wisconsin Central
Railway and subsequently held a similar position with the Lake Ontario
Shore road. It was not long before his efficiency as an engineer won him
wide recognition and he was offered the position of chief engineer of the
Victoria Railway, of which he subsequently became general manager. He
was one of the most successful railway builders and owners in the
Dominion, the construction of the Canadian Pacific over the Rockies being
due to his power of organization and engineering ability, and when Sir
Donald Smith, later Lord Strathcona, drove the last spike of the road, no
one of that historic group held a higher place in public regard in Canada
than Mr. Ross.

JAMES ROSS
His active operations in the field of railway construction included the
building of the Credit Valley Railway in 1878-79 and upon its completion

he was appointed general manager of the road and also filled the position of
consulting engineer of the Ontario and Quebec Railway. In the spring of
1883 as general manager of construction, Mr. Ross began at Swift Current
the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway over the Rockies, the Selkirks
and the Gold Range, and early in November, 1885, this stretch of six
hundred and twenty-three miles ending at Craig Ellachie, was completed
more than a year ahead of time, creating a record for fast railway building
on this continent and evoking from Sir William Van Horne the statement
that such a record meant millions to the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was
during the building of the road over the mountains that Mr. Ross might be
said to have discovered and subsequently came into close touch with
William Mackenzie, Donald Mann (both since knighted), Herbert S. Holt
and several others who later on took a front place among the railway
magnates and financial leaders of Canada. In 1886 Mr. Ross brought about
the settlement of location of the Canadian Pacific east of Montreal and the
legislative difficulties attending the entry of the road into the state of Maine.
Upon completing his arduous and complex task he took the contract for the
construction of the remaining portion of their line not already provided for.
The extensions and improvements of the Canadian Pacific created difficult
tasks of civil engineering which were ably performed by Mr. Ross who at
the same time considered the question of railway construction in South
America for which he had options. The railways of the southern continent
were to be built in Argentine and Chile and the options in those two
republics alone amounted to over twenty million dollars. Mr. Ross was also
interested in important contracts in Chicago and elsewhere.
He established his home permanently in Montreal in 1888 and from this
point supported his active professional interests, contracting and building
the Regina and Long Lake Railways some two hundred and fifty miles in
length. In 1889 he supervised the construction of the Calgary & Edmonton
Railway, three hundred miles in length.
Having proven his capability in the field of steam railway construction Mr.
Ross, in 1892, largely concentrated his energies upon problems of street
railway building and in connection with Sir William Mackenzie purchased
the Toronto Railway from the city of Toronto. He afterward rebuilt the
tracks and installed electric power in the operation of the road. In 1892 he
undertook the reorganization of the Montreal Street Railway, changing it

from horse car to electric service. He was at the head of the syndicate that
purchased the franchise from the old City Passenger Railway Company. In
the same way he converted the street railways of Winnipeg and St. John,
New Brunswick, into electric lines and in 1896 he joined Sir William
Mackenzie in the purchase of the tramway systems of Birmingham,
England, and organized the City of Birmingham Tramways Company for
the operation of the road under an electric system. In the following year he
secured a charter and franchise from the government of Jamaica to build
electric tramways on the island.
The energy and enterprise of Mr. Ross seemed limitless. No matter how
many and how important were the enterprises with which he was actively
connected it seemed possible for him to take on others and become a factor
in their successful control. He was one of the promoters of the Lake of the
Woods Milling Company in 1887, chief promoter of the Columbia River
Lumber Company in 1889 and of the Canadian Land and Investment
Company in 1891. His opinions carried weight in the councils of various
companies with which he was connected as a member of the board of
directors, including the Bank of Montreal; Calgary and Edmonton Land
Company, Limited; Canada Life Insurance Company; Canada Sugar
Refining Company, Limited; Canadian General Electric Company, Limited;
Laurentide Paper Company, Limited; Royal Trust Company; and Dominion
Bridge Company and St. John Railway Company, of which two last named
he was president.
Writing of his business career a local paper said: “One of the most
interesting periods of Mr. Ross’s life was that of his prominent connection
with the Dominion Coal and the Dominion Iron and Steel Companies,
lasting for a period of upwards of ten years. At a comparatively early stage
of the development of the coal and iron industries on the island of Cape
Breton, Mr. Ross with his customary business astuteness, foresaw the
possibilities of great development, and decided to invest a considerable
amount of his capital there. He became the owner of a large block of shares
in the coal company, and after the promotion of the Dominion Iron and
Steel Company in 1901 he became a director. As it was obvious that the
interests of the two concerns would, if steel turned out a success, be very
much bound up, Mr. Ross increased his holdings in coal until, in the same
year, the Steel Company was launched, his interest became paramount, and

he was placed in the position of being able to dictate the policy of the
company. Having retired from active participation in many of the interests
which made his earlier career such a busy one, he determined to give his
personal attention to the development of his Cape Breton interests and with
that object in view he accepted the office of vice president of the Dominion
Coal Company and managing director of the Dominion Iron and Steel
Company in 1901.
“The succeeding years were destined to be full of business anxieties and
lively contendings but his keen business ability and foresight brought him
to the end of his active connection with the companies a much richer man
than when he went in, despite the loss of the fight in the courts over the
dispute about the terms of the contract for the supply of coal to the Steel
Company, 1907-08.
“Besides this fight Mr. Ross conducted the affairs of the Coal Company
through disastrous fires which seriously affected the output of the mines,
and labor troubles one of which was of a protracted and costly nature.
Throughout all the various negotiations which were almost continuously
carried on between the two companies for years, Mr. Ross found his
paramount interest was in the Coal Company although he was financially
and executively interested in both, so that eventually he withdrew from the
steel board and gave his whole time to the Coal Company, becoming its
president, a post he retained until December, 1909. In March, 1909, at the
annual meeting of the Dominion Coal Company, Mr. Ross made an
exhaustive statement concerning the relations of the two companies
following the decision of the Privy Council in the preceding month, in
which he justified the course taken by his company. He explained from the
coal point of view, how the company had saved the Steel Company from
bankruptcy at a critical time following the termination of the lease of the
Coal Company to Steel in 1903 and the subsequent dispute which became
acute in 1906 and reached the courts the following year. The final
settlement of the terms of the judgment between the two companies and the
eventual purchase of Mr. Ross’ interest in coal for four million, seven
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which took place late in 1909 when he
retired from the presidency and Coal was amalgamated with Steel,
concluded the most interesting and strenuous period of his career.

“Although Mr. Ross had strong likes and dislikes he never hesitated to
proclaim openly ability he saw in the make-up of a business opponent. A
conversation during the progress of the Steel and Coal litigation brought out
this characteristic to a marked degree. During that memorable conflict Mr.
J. H. Plummer and Sir William Van Horne were perhaps more prominently
in the firing line on the Steel side than any one else, while Mr. Ross for the
Coal Company was the inner and outer defenses and commander-in-chief
combined. He was asked one day while discussing the possibilities of
Canadian Pacific Railway stock what would take place supposing anything
happened to Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, whereupon Mr. Ross said: ‘This
statement will surprise you, but Van Horne would have to go back,’ thus
paying a high compliment to his chief adversary in the Steel-Coal conflict.
The manner in which Mr. Ross came to the rescue of a very important
brokerage firm, the head of which is now dead, the day following President
Cleveland’s message on the Venezuelan situation was another indication,
not only of his good heart, but general interest in the financial community.
The market was in a bad way generally when the message to congress
accentuated to such an extent the unrest and lack of confidence, that gilt-
edged securities were without buyers, even at ruinous prices. The financier
in question was desperately in need of funds and although his securities
were of the best, the then general manager of the Bank of Montreal, who
has also passed away, did not consider himself justified in making the
advance. When James Ross heard of the affair he came forward and said:
‘We cannot afford to allow this man to go to the wall, for if he goes half of
St. François Xavier Street will tumble with him. Give him a million, take
his securities and charge the amount to my account.’ Another public-spirited
director assumed half the responsibility and a very grave financial smash
was averted.
“Mr. Ross was first president of the Mexican Light, Heat and Power
Company and during his several visits to the Mexican capital was brought
in contact with the then ruling spirits of the republic. He at once formed a
very high opinion of the then president with whom Mr. Ross had several
interesting interviews, touching the trade relations of Canada and Mexico,
and with that never erring foresight he also stated to a friend on his return
from the Mexican capital that if ever Diaz was forced to relinquish the helm
of state, trouble would follow in the southern republic as it did not appear to
the Montreal financier that there were enough of trained men around the

then president to carry on successfully the affairs of that country, and the
words of the former appear to have been prophetic.
“Although having a commanding interest in many other establishments and
industries Mr. Ross used to say that the Bank of Montreal, the Canadian
Pacific Railway and the Dominion Coal Company were nearest his heart.
He was a director in the first named institution since 1899, the largest
individual shareholder in the great national railway system and up to a few
years ago the president and the holder of five million dollars stock in the
last named corporation. Mr. James Ross succeeded the late Mr. Hugh
McLennan and had been in consequence director of the Bank of Montreal
for fourteen years. Speaking of the loss that institution sustained in the
death of Mr. Ross, its vice president and general manager, Mr. H. V.
Meredith, said: ‘We have lost an eminently strong man and a sound
adviser,’ while Mr. R. B. Angus, the president, spoke of him as a very able
director of the bank and a warm personal friend.”
About the time that Mr. Ross arrived in Canada the country was deeply
engrossed in the discussion of free trade versus protection, and having seen
the neighboring republic grow from an agricultural to a manufacturing
community, and realizing what the same fiscal policy would do for Canada,
he at once espoused the cause then championed by Sir John Macdonald and
Sir Charles Tupper, both as regards the fiscal policy of the Dominion and
their railway program as well. Mr. Ross was a moderate protectionist,
believing that such a policy was mutually beneficial both to the
manufacturer and consumer. He had seen such states as Illinois, Ohio,
Minnesota and other agricultural sections of the Union vote for protection
and often when apprehension was expressed over the probable outcome of a
moderately protective tariff for the western provinces of Canada, Mr. Ross
would reply that the establishment of eastern industries all over the west
would soon convert the farmers of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan to
protectionist ideas.
In 1872 Mr. Ross was united in marriage to Miss Annie Kerr, a daughter of
the late John Kerr of Kingston, New York, and sheriff of Ulster county.
They had one son, John Kenneth Levison Ross, who married Ethel A.
Matthews, a daughter of W. D. Matthews of Toronto, and they have two
children, James Kenneth and Hylda Annie. Mrs. James Ross is deeply
interested in organizations for promoting aesthetic tastes and is active in

support of benevolent and charitable projects. She is a director of the
Society of Decorative Art, vice president of the English section of the
woman’s branch of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society and is
president of the Maternity Hospital of Montreal.
Flags at half mast on the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Trust Company,
on September 20, 1913, gave official announcement to the financial and
business community that Mr. James Ross, director of the institutions, had
passed away. It is fitting in a review of his life that one take cognizance of
his many good deeds. Aside from his prominent activity in railway and
financial circles, he was a man of marked public spirit and benevolence. In
1902 he gave to Lindsay, Ontario, and the county of Victoria, the Ross
Memorial Hospital as a memorial to his parents. Two years later Alexandra
Hospital of Montreal received from him a gift of twenty-five thousand
dollars and in 1910 he gave an equal amount to the Montreal Art
Association of which he had long been a member and of which he was at
that time the president. His total benefactions to the Art Association
amounted to over a quarter of a million. In his will he made the following
public bequests: to the Royal Victoria Hospital, the General Hospital and
the Maternity Hospital each fifty thousand dollars; to Alexandra Hospital
twenty-five thousand dollars; to the Montreal Art Association and to McGill
University each one hundred thousand dollars and to the Ross Memorial
Hospital at Lindsay, Ontario, twenty-five thousand dollars. He also
remembered many of his old friends and took special care that his servants
and employes should be provided for.
Mr. Ross was identified with many public interests and ranked with loyal
Canadians whose efforts have been effective forces in promoting general
progress.
He was a governor of McGill University, of the Royal Victoria Hospital, of
the Alexandra Hospital and of the Protestant Hospital for the Insane at
Montreal. He was likewise a trustee of Bishop’s College at Lennoxville, P.
Q., and in 1900 he was appointed honorary lieutenant colonel of the Duke
of York’s Royal Canadian Hussars. He took an active interest in yachting
and was the owner of the Glencairn, which won the Seawanhaka-Corinthian
cup for half raters in American waters in 1896. He subsequently bought the
late Joseph Pulitzer’s large steam yacht, Liberty, of one thousand six
hundred fifty tons, which he renamed the Glencairn, and in which he spent

much of his vacation time in the Mediterranean. It might be interesting to
note here that both the small half rater and the large steam yacht were
named in memory of the large full-rigged ship Glencairn, which was owned
and commanded by his late father, Captain John Ross, of Cromarty. Mr.
James Ross was for many years commodore of the Royal St. Lawrence
Yacht Club, and was honorary commodore for life, and was a member of
the Royal Yacht Squadron.
Mr. Ross was well known in club circles, holding membership in the Mount
Royal, St. James, Forest and Stream, Canada, Montreal Hunt, Montreal
Jockey, Montreal Racquet and Montreal Curling Clubs of Montreal; Rideau
Club of Ottawa; Manitoba Club of Winnipeg; Toronto Royal Canadian
Yacht and York Clubs of Toronto; Union Club of St. John, New Brunswick;
Halifax Club of Halifax, Nova Scotia; New York Yacht and Manhattan
Clubs of New York; Royal C. B. Yacht Club of Sydney, Nova Scotia; and
the Constitutional Club of London, England.
Following the demise of Mr. Ross the Gazette of September 22, 1913, said
editorially: “The history of James Ross is to some extent the history of the
financial and creative progress of Canada. He has been associated with
many of our greatest enterprises and always in positions of prominence and
leadership. In any list of citizens whose financial power must be reckoned
with in predicting the course of supreme events in this country, the name of
James Ross would have stood near the top. Many of his fellow citizens will
think of him, however, as a generous and discriminating collector and
exhibitor of art. At a time when Montreal had not many men who both
appreciated and possessed the financial ability to purchase splendid
specimens of the best art which the old world has produced, James Ross
entered that field, and soon made his private collection one of the things of
which Montrealers were proud. The public generally have had a chance to
admire some of his treasures at Loan Exhibitions; and, in this fashion, the
pleasure and benefit of his collection have been widely shared.”
Tributes of respect and regard were paid to Mr. Ross by people in every
station in life. The high and the low, the rich and the poor did him honor.
The following letter was received by his son, Mr. James K. L. Ross:
“The engineers on the S. and L. were much surprised and deeply grieved
when we heard that your father had passed away. Our deepest sympathy

goes out to you in your sad bereavement. We all feel that we have lost a
good and true friend. No other man we have worked for gave our men the
feeling of security in their position that he did. We always were satisfied
that if we did what was right no other influence could hurt us or our
families. When some of us were unfortunate enough to err in judgment and
our error cost the company quite a lot, in the usual course of railways the
officials had nothing to do but severely discipline us. Your father used his
own position not to discipline our men but to give them a good man’s
advice, which has helped our men and also the company which he then
presided over. Acts like these are never forgotten by railway men and there
were many sincere expressions of sorrow heard when the news of his death
flashed over our road. They have also instructed us to convey to your
sorrowing mother our deepest sympathy in her trying hour.
“On behalf of the S. and L. engineers, we are sincerely yours (Signed) D.
W. Macdonald, chairman; Parker Holmes, secretary and treasurer; Hugh
MacPherson, chief engineer.
“Glace Bay, Cape Breton, Canada, September 20, 1913.”
Another well merited tribute being from Principal Peterson of McGill
University, who said:
“The other day we were greatly gratified to learn that a member of the
board of governors, the late James Ross, had remembered McGill
University in his will to the extent of one hundred thousand dollars. Mr.
Ross was one of our friends. His connection with the administration of the
university had given him many opportunities of appreciating the difficulty
of carrying on an institution whose needs in the very nature of things, are
always outrunning its resources; and his kindly thought of us has touched a
chord in our hearts that vibrates with gratitude and appreciation.
“It is a melancholy pleasure to record also our indebtedness to Mr. Ross for
much help and advice given as a member of the governing body of the
university, especially in the department of mechanical engineering. Besides
being a great and experienced engineer, he was a patron also of the arts and
sciences. He took an active interest also in the well-being of our hospitals,
and as they are in a sense university institutions, his bequests to the Royal
Victoria and Maternity Hospitals may be cited here as additional reasons for
gratitude. He was a man of high artistic culture, one who ‘loved that beauty

should go beautifully.’ Mere splendor without taste would always have been
repellent to him. Perhaps his best memorial, apart from the magnificent
collection of pictures which he got together with such care and
discrimination, and which was the joy and pride of his wide circle of
friends, will be the beautiful building on Sherbrooke Street to which he has
contributed so largely as the permanent home of the Art Association. Such
men lend valuable aid in the way of enabling a community to realize some
aspects of its higher self.”

WALTER R. L. SHANKS.

Among the younger members of the well known and distinguished law firm
of Brown, Montgomery & McMichael, advocates and barristers, is Walter
R. L. Shanks. He was born March 20, 1886, at Millers Falls, Massachusetts.
In 1908 he received from McGill University the Bachelor of Arts degree
and in 1911 that of Bachelor of Civil Law. In July of that year he was
admitted to the bar and has since been a member of the above firm. Mr.
Shanks is a young lawyer of promise, and it may be said that his ability—or
such ability as his opportunities have permitted him to demonstrate—
entitles him to be included among those young men to whom the future
holds out rich fields along professional lines. Mr. Shanks is socially popular
and is a member of the University Club of Montreal and the Phi Delta Theta
fraternity.

GEORGE ALEXANDER BROWN, M. D.

George Alexander Brown, M. D., one of the best known physicians of
Montreal, his powers developing through the exercise of effort, was born in
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on the 28th of June, 1866. The
Browns are one of the old families on that island and representatives of the
name in different generations have been prominently identified with
professional interests. The paternal grandfather of Dr. Brown was president
of the Prince of Wales College, while the maternal grandfather was the
leader of the government in Charlottetown for twenty-one years.

Reared in the place of his nativity, Dr. Brown pursued his early education in
St. Peters Boys’ School and subsequently continued his studies in Kings
College University at Windsor, Nova Scotia. The classical course which he
there pursued constituted the foundation upon which he built the
superstructure of professional learning. Entering McGill University, he won
the degrees of M. D. and C. M. from that institution where he graduated
with the class of 1889. During the succeeding year and a half he was
resident physician of the Montreal General Hospital, thus putting his
theoretical knowledge to the practical test and gaining that broad and
valuable experience which only hospital practice can give. For more than
twenty years Dr. Brown has successfully followed his profession in
Montreal and in addition to an extensive private practice is acting as
physician to the Montreal Dispensary and is in charge of the tubercular
clinic. He has been a close and constant student of his profession, interested
in all that tends to bring to man the key to the complex mystery which we
call life and his own investigations and research have resulted in bringing to
light some valuable truths.
In February, 1906, he submitted to the Montreal Medico-Chirurgical
Society, a new treatment for consumption which he has used in his practice
with great success. This consists of the injection into the human system of a
solution principally of iodine and in April, 1912, he read before the
International Tubercular Congress at Rome, Italy, a paper upon this
treatment. He is a member of the Montreal Medical Society and keeps in
close touch with the advanced work that is being done by fellow members
of the profession through the perusal of medical journals and the latest
contributions to medical literature as well as through his connection with
medical societies.
Dr. Brown was united in marriage to Mrs. Elizabeth (Conroy) Muldoon of
Watertown, who by her former marriage had two children, William and
Ella. Dr. and Mrs. Brown have become the parents of two children, Elsie
and Basil. They have a wide acquaintance socially and are connected with
the Unitarian Society, while Dr. Brown is also a member of the University
Club. Year by year has marked his steady progress in his profession, and
today his position of prominence is accorded him by the consensus of
opinion on the part of colleagues and contemporaries.

SIR EDWARD SEABORNE CLOUSTON.

High on the keystone of Canada’s financial arch was inscribed the name of
Sir Edward Clouston, of whom a leading journalist wrote: “He was one of
the mainsprings of Canada’s progress.” Not only did he achieve notable
results in his own career but was also the adviser and counsellor of many
who have stood highest in the public life and activities of the Dominion,
and thus a notable figure passed from the stage of earthly activities when he
was called to his final rest on the 23d of November, 1912. He was then still
in the prime of life, his birth having occurred at Moose Factory on James
Bay, May 9, 1849, his parents being James Stewart and Margaret Clouston.
The father, a native of Stromness, Orkney, Scotland, was a chief factor in
the Hudson’s Bay service. The mother was the eldest daughter of Robert S.
Miles, also prominently connected with the Hudson’s Bay Company. Sent
to Montreal to continue his education, the son became a pupil in the high
school, of which Aspinwall How was then head master. Subsequently he
spent a year in the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company and then returned
to Montreal when a youth of sixteen to become junior clerk in the Bank of
Montreal, entering that institution in 1865. This was the initial step in his
successful career as one of Canada’s foremost financiers. In his twentieth
year he was appointed accountant at Brockville and two years later was
transferred to Hamilton in the same capacity. In 1874 he became assistant
accountant at Montreal, was attached to the London, England, office and
also to the New York office in 1875. Five years later he was made manager
of the Montreal branch and in 1887 was promoted to the position of
assistant general manager. In 1889 he became acting general manager and
from 1890 was general manager, being called to that position of grave and
great responsibility when but forty-one years of age. Throughout the years
of his connection with the bank he had ever in mind, not only the interest of
the shareholders, but also the welfare of his subordinates, many of whom
received from him unusual consideration and kindness. Sir Edward
Clouston’s tenure of office in the Bank of Montreal was longer than that of
any of his predecessors, the presidency during these years having been
filled by Sir Donald Smith, afterward Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal;
Sir George Drummond and Mr. R. B. Angus. In retiring from the general

managership Sir Edward Clouston retained the vice presidency, which he
had held since Sir George Drummond became president in 1906. In his
official capacity as vice president he regularly attended the board meetings
and never ceased to be in close touch with the important affairs and
interests of the bank. The prominent place which he held in the regard of
the leading financiers of the country is shown by the fact that he was again
and again elected to the presidency of the Canadian Bankers Association.
He was thus in constant touch with the financial world and his advice upon
matters connected with it was frequently sought by the different finance
ministers of the Dominion, for no man in Canada had a surer grasp of
difficult financial problems, and his genius in this respect was an enormous
asset to the great institution with which he was so long connected. His
discernment was keen and his insight enabled him readily to recognize the
possibilities and probable outcome of any business situation. The Montreal
Herald spoke of him as “a man of few words, of unerring accuracy in his
judgments and of a caution in business transactions which, while it protects
the bank from loss, does not hinder its development.” The Montreal Witness
said: “Sir Edward Clouston possesses in extraordinary degree that sixth
sense of the banker—intuition as to character, rapid analysis of method,
what is in a proposition from the first chapter to the last—in short knowing
who and what to trust.” It was these qualities which made his cooperation
sought in various directions and brought him prominently before the public
in various important commercial and financial connections. He was vice
president of the Royal Trust Company; a director of the Guarantee
Company of North America, the Canadian Cottons, Limited, the Canada
Sugar Refining Company, the Ogilvie Flour Mills Company, the
Kaministikwia Power Company. He was chairman of the Canadian board of
the Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Company and the Mutual Life
Insurance Company of New York. His cooperation and support extended to
various other projects of a public or semi-public character, and at all times
he manifested a deep interest in those projects relating to general progress
and improvement or the betterment of social, intellectual, political and
moral conditions. He was vice president of the Parks and Play Grounds
Association and The Crematorium, Limited, was president of the Royal
Victoria Hospital and a governor of the Montreal General, Montreal
Maternity, Alexandra and Western Hospitals, the Protestant Hospital for the
Insane, the Fraser Institute, the Montreal Dispensary, the Victorian Order of

Nurses, and McGill University. In 1910 he was one of the principal
promoters of the Typhoid Emergency Hospital and was a member of the
executive committee of the local branch of St. John’s Ambulance
Association. He was honorary treasurer of the King Edward VII Memorial
Fund and of many other commemorative and charitable funds. He was a
patron of art, and possessed many fine pictures himself, while the Montreal
Art Association numbered him as one of its counselors as well as one of its
generous benefactors. Sir Edward Clouston was also well known as a
sportsman, taking an active interest in early life in football and lacrosse, and
he was also a well known racquet player. He was captain of the Canadian
team which played the Harvard University Football Club in 1875. He was
president of the Montreal Racquet Club in 1888 and was appointed a trustee
of the Minto challenge lacrosse cup in 1901. Sir Edward was ever willing to
encourage the amateurs in sports, and in addition to those already
mentioned he was a devotee of snowshoeing and fancy skating. In later
years he became an enthusiastic yachtsman, motorist and golfer. He was
also a clever swimmer himself and did a great deal to advance the sport in
many ways. He was the donor of a trophy for competition among the
members of the Royal Life Saving Station, which is being competed for
annually, and many other such trophies were presented through his
generosity. When the Rugby Club was organized as a branch of the
Montreal Athletic Association he became an active executive officer. He
was one of the trustees of the Stanley cup in the early days of its
competition and acted as an official at many of the championships held
under the auspices of the Amateur Skating Association of Canada.

SIR EDWARD S. CLOUSTON
In November, 1878, Sir Edward Clouston married Annie, youngest daughter
of George Easton, collector of Her Majesty’s customs at Brockville,
Ontario. Lady Clouston, who survives him, keeps up the beautiful and
historic estate at St. Annes, known as Bois Briant, which was the pride and
delight of Sir Edward’s later years, and she also maintains the home at No.
362 Peel Street in Montreal, known so long as the city residence of the
general manager of the Bank of Montreal. This was Sir Edward’s favorite
title. President and vice president appealed to him but little; it was as an
administrator that he won and held his fame. He was mentioned as
successor to Lord Strathcona as high commissioner for Canada in Great
Britain in 1909. The previous year he had been created a baronet and in
1911 he was appointed a Knight of Grace of the Order of the Hospital of St.
John of Jerusalem in England. He was one of the best known club men of

Canada, belonging to Mount Royal Club; St. James Club; Auto and Aero
Club; Forest and Stream Club; M. A. A. A.; Montreal Hunt Club; Montreal
Jockey Club; Royal Montreal Golf Club; Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club;
St. George Snowshoe Club; Toronto Club and York Club, Toronto; Rideau
Club, Ottawa; Manhattan Club, New York; and Bath Club and River
Thames Yacht Club, London, England.
In a review of his life history many points stand out prominently. Within a
quarter of a century he rose from an humble position in the bank to that of
general manager and remained vice president until his demise. He was the
recognized leader of finance, whose counsel was sought and valued in
connection with the greatest undertakings. His business genius and public
spirit went hand in hand and each constituted factors in the progress and
upbuilding of Canada and in the development and promotion of the
country’s interests. His influence was far-reaching and effective as a force
in national prosperity and greatness.
One who knew Sir Edward best summed up his character in the following
article, which appeared in the journal of the Canadian Bankers Association
after his death: “In life Sir Edward Clouston was a man of few words and I
have felt that silence is my most fitting tribute to his memory. He was not
an ostentatious man; he employed neither press agents nor stage managers.
Many of his generous actions are known only to the writer of these lines;
many others are known only to his Maker.”

PHILIBERT BAUDOUIN.

Philibert Baudouin, who has been a representative of the notarial profession
since 1858, although for some years his attention was given to finance, was
born at Repentigny, Quebec, April 27, 1836. He is a descendant in the direct
line of Jean Baudouin, who was here bartering with the Indians as early as
1656, fourteen years after Montreal was founded by de Maisonneuve. In a
fight with the Iroquois in 1660, when he killed one of their chieftains, Jean
Baudouin was taken and led as a prisoner to the enemy’s country, whence
he returned eighteen months afterward, having in the meantime learned the
Iroquois language. A short time subsequent to his return he married and

soon settled in the parish of Pointe-aux-Trembles, where he died peacefully.
He had lost his eldest son in an ambush laid by the same astute foes in
1690. One of his sons, François, took a farm from the Seignior on
L’Assomption river in 1699, near the present site of Charlemagne, and a
few years afterward, in 1716, purchased the homestead on the north bank of
the river St. Lawrence, in the parish and Seigniory of Repentigny, where he
went to live and there spent his remaining days. This homestead remained
in the family for almost two centuries, passing from father to son for four
generations. François Baudouin left it to his son Pierre, who married three
times and left it to his son Raymond. Raymond was drowned and his widow
made a gift of it to their son Pierre. From this last Pierre Baudouin it went
to Zoel Baudouin, one of his sons, whose daughter and only heir, Mrs.
Edmond Robillard, of St. Paul l’Hermite, sold it to its present owner, Mr.
Dechamp.
Philibert Baudouin is a son of Pierre and Marguerite (Etu) Baudouin, the
latter, like her husband, belonging to one of the old families established in
this province in the seventeenth century. The mother’s name was then
written Estur, which has since been wrongly changed to Hetu. The family
name Baudouin should be so spelled instead of Beaudoin, as so often met
with at the present time. It is derived from two Saxon words, bald and win,
and was latinized by the early chroniclers, becoming Balduinus, which was
later translated into French as Baudouin but remained Baldwin in English.
The first one who settled in Montreal very properly signed his name Jean
Baudouin, as may be seen on the old records in the clerk’s office, and in
France it is still written in the same way. Besides being a progressive farmer
Pierre Baudouin was a church warden and a captain in the militia.
Philibert Baudouin was educated at L’Assomption College, in the town of
L’Assomption, where he pursued a full classical course, completed in 1854.
He then prepared for the notarial profession, to which he was admitted in
1858. In 1860 he settled for practice in the town of Iberville and after nearly
fifteen years devoted to the profession he turned his attention to finance,
devoting his energies and activities thereto until 1893, when he removed to
Montreal and resumed the practice of the notarial profession. He has now
passed the seventy-eighth milestone on life’s journey, but is still an active
man. From 1862 until 1873 he was county clerk, clerk of the circuit court
for the county of Iberville and town clerk of Iberville, his decade of public

service being characterized by the utmost fidelity to duty. His financial
activities covered nearly twenty years as bank manager in St. Johns,
Quebec.
On the 22d of August, 1864, in St. Johns, Mr. Baudouin was married to
Miss Caroline A. Marchand, a daughter of Louis Marchand, deputy
protonotary at St. Johns, and of Delphine Phineas. Mrs. Baudouin belongs
to the old Marchand family which settled in St. Johns in the early part of the
nineteenth century. There were three brothers, François, Gabriel and Louis,
the second being the father of the Hon. F. G. Marchand, late premier of the
province of Quebec. Her mother was a daughter of Isaac Phineas, for a long
time agent at Maskinonge, of Seignior Pothier’s estate, and who was an
intimate friend of the Hart family of Three Rivers. Seven sons and two
daughters have been born of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Baudouin,
Philibert, Annette, Gustave, Rodolphe, Joseph, Jean, Charles, Louise and
Oscar. The elder daughter became the wife of Dr. J. C. Tasse, of Worcester,
Massachusetts. Gustave married Augustine Hardy, of Quebec. Joseph
wedded Julie Caty, of Montreal. Jean married Alice Hamilton, of Montreal.
Oscar married Hilda Julien, of Montreal. Louise is the wife of Alfred
Masson, of Valleyfield, a grandson of Dr. L. H. Masson, who took a leading
part in the troublous times of 1837-38.
Mr. Baudouin is a supporter of the old conservative party, but has never
taken a leading part in the political contests, especially so in his advanced
years, when he recognizes the fact that political leaders too often are using
their power for their own preferment instead of the public good.

JOSEPH ADELARD DESCARRIES, K. C.

In every community there are men of broad charity and intelligent public
spirit, of high integrity and sincerity of purpose and of resourceful business
ability who are marked as leaders in development. Worthy of being classed
with men of this character is Joseph Adelard Descarries, one of the eminent
members of the Montreal bar and a man whose name figures in connection
with the legislative history of the province as well as in the court records.
Mr. Descarries is a representative of one of the oldest families of the

province and one whose members have been identified with its growth and
development since the earlier periods of settlement. He was born at St.
Timothee, in the county of Beauharnois, Quebec, November 7, 1853, the
youngest son of the late Pierre and Elizabeth (Gougeau) Descarries.
Having mastered the branches of learning taught in the public schools of his
native village, Joseph A. Descarries afterward attended Montreal College,
McGill University and Laval University, graduating from the latter in 1879,
with the degree of LL. L. He studied law under Hon. Sir Alexander Lacoste
and was called to the bar in 1879, at which time he began practice as an
advocate. He was created a king’s counsellor by the Earl of Derby in 1893
and for more than a third of a century he has been continuously and
successfully engaged in law practice in Montreal, where he has been
accorded an extensive and distinctively representative clientage.

JOSEPH A. DESCARRIES

His public work, too, has been of an important character and has indicated
his loyalty to the highest standards of government. For nine consecutive
years he was mayor of Lachine, giving to the city a businesslike and
progressive administration. In 1892 he was elected for Jacques Cartier
county to the legislative assembly, but resigned in 1896, in which year he
unsuccessfully contested a seat in the house of commons. Since that time he
has taken no active part in politics aside from exercising his right of
franchise and standing stanchly in support of principles and measures in
which he believes. He is now president of the Lachine Conservative Club
and is also president of the St. Jean Baptiste Society of Lachine.
Mr. Descarries is the largest private owner of real estate in Lachine, his
holdings including some of the finest residential properties surrounding
Montreal. Some years ago he purchased a tract of land eleven acres in width
from the Allan family, comprising a most attractive piece of property, which
he developed and thus added greatly to the upbuilding of the district. He is
the owner of one hundred and fifty-two houses, erecting all of them save
one, and in their building substantiality has always been a feature. Unlike
the usual structure built merely to sell, Mr. Descarries has aimed at the
creation of an estate the ultimate value of which cannot help but become
immense. As an illustration of the change in realty values, caused by
improvements and transformation of surroundings, it may be cited that Mr.
Descarries some years ago purchased a tract of land of four hundred acres,
on which the taxes were at that time approximately eighty dollars, while
today for less than one-third of this land which he owns the taxes are more
than three thousand dollars. It would be difficult to estimate the value to a
community of operations of this character. Mr. Descarries has taken an
active part in the upbuilding of industrial interests, and his influence has
been an important factor in securing for Lachine a number of valuable
industries, all of which have materially contributed to growth and
development for the city, enabling it to take a prominent rank among
Montreal’s suburban cities. Among his other business connections Mr.
Descarries is president of the Wealthy Mines Company, Limited, and a
director of Les Champs d’Or Rigaud Vaudreuil.
In 1881 Mr. Descarries was married, at Chateauguay, Quebec, to Miss
Marie Celina Elmire, a daughter of A. N. Le Pailleur, a notary public of
Lachine. The marriage ceremony was performed by Monseigneur Charles

Edward Fabre, archbishop of Montreal. Mrs. Descarries is a graduate of
Mount St. Marie Convent and is a lady of superior intelligence and high
qualities of mind. Their children are as follows. Joseph A. P., who was
graduated from McGill University, specializing in chemistry, founded the
Lachine Gas Company, of which he is now the head. He married Miss Oliva
Forgues, of Outremont, a graduate of St. Anne’s Convent at Lachine. They
have two children, Olivette and Marcelle. Theophile N., who was graduated
from Laval University, is an advocate, associated with his father under the
firm name of Descarries & Descarries. He married Miss Marie Anne Huot,
a daughter of Dr. G. Huot, of Beauharnois, and they have one child, Anne
Marie. Aimee, a graduate of St. Anne’s Convent of Lachine, is a young lady
of unusual artistic taste and skill. Her work as a painter on china shows
exceptional merit and includes some of the finest specimens of this
decorative art exhibited by Canadian artists. Adelard, a graduate of Mount
St. Louis College, is now a student at l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes. Marie
Rose will graduate from St. Anne’s Convent of Lachine in the class of 1914.
Auguste, a student at St. Mary’s College, is a young man of unusual talent
and promise, whose ability as an organist is well known.
Mr. Descarries’ pleasure and recreation have always been greatly
augmented when in the company of his family, whose entertainment, like
their rearing and education, has never been neglected. Estimating highly the
value of education, he has extended to his children exceptional
opportunities for intellectual development and they constitute a family that
would be a distinct credit to any parentage. Both Mr. and Mrs. Descarries
have always maintained a companionship with their children and have been
so close to their interests, thoughts, purposes and plans that there has been
little need for that parental discipline which is often a too pronounced
feature in households. Confidence and mutual understanding have been the
basis of the family relation, rendering this a most attractive household. The
religious belief of the family is that of the Roman Catholic church, and Mr.
Descarries has for several years been president of the St. Vincent de Paul
Society. He is also a member of the Club Lafontaine, the Lachine Snowshoe
Club and the Auto and Aero Club of Montreal.
No history of Mr. Descarries would be complete without mention of the fact
that he is a very public-spirited man, liberal and generous in his support of
any movement for the public good and ever ready to lend his assistance to

such movements as will contribute to the advancement of the city, province
and Dominion. He has been a very successful business man, not only as
regards the accumulation of property but as well in the high esteem in
which he is held. He has all the elements of a man in whom to have
confidence, dependable in any relation and in any emergency. His quietude
of deportment, his easy dignity, combined with an innate courtesy and
politeness, all contribute to a strong personality. The splendid use he has
made of his time, talents and opportunities has equipped him for the
important and valuable work he has been doing and which has given
decided impetus to the city’s progress and improvement, upholding as well
its legal, political and moral status.

LOUIS GUYON.

Capability and loyalty are the essential attributes of the man who would fill
the office of chief inspector of industrial establishments and public
buildings and properly perform the arduous and responsible duties thereby
devolving upon him. Such a man is found in Louis Guyon, who has closely
studied the subject of construction and all that relates to accidents which
may occur in building operations. He is a native of the state of New York,
having been born at Sandy Hill, Washington county. Boyhood, however,
found him located in Montreal where he pursued his education, taking
special courses in preparation for a commercial career. Almost throughout
his entire life he has been in the public service. In April, 1888, he was
appointed factory inspector and made a most capable official. He studied in
every available way in order to know what should be required of factory
owners and operators and just how far their responsibility extended in the
protection of employes. He traveled widely in order to promote his
knowledge of that character and he was a delegate to the Paris convention
on accidents in 1889 and again in 1900. His qualifications were so
thoroughly recognized that he was made chief inspector of industrial
establishments and public buildings in January, 1901, and has since
occupied this position, covering a period of thirteen years, his entire course
being one which commends him to the continued confidence and support of
the public. As inspector he has studied not only to find where fault may lie

in the erection of buildings or in the care of employes, but has also studied
the best methods of safeguarding the workers and in 1903 he founded the
museum of appliances for the prevention of accidents. His reputation for
efficiency in his special field continued to grow and in 1910 he was made
president of the International Convention of Inspectors of Factories. No one
is more deeply interested in this important work or realizes more fully the
obligations which devolve upon the employer in his connection with his
employes, and his work has constituted a campaign of education whereby
the public has come to know what are the needs and demands of the hour
and how best to meet them.

GEORGE HADRILL.

George Hadrill, secretary of the Montreal Board of Trade, is one whose
opinions concerning business conditions are largely accepted as standard,
because of his broad experience and his thorough study of matters effecting
trade relations of the country. For more than a quarter of a century he has
occupied his present position and has been called into conference in many
trade councils. He was born in London, England, August 2, 1848, a son of
George and Elizabeth (Bushell) Hadrill. His education was acquired in the
metropolis, and he spent the earlier years of his business life in that city,
arriving in Canada in 1874, when a young man of twenty-six years. Three
years were devoted to business pursuits before he joined the staff of the
Montreal Board of Trade in 1877. His fitness for the position is evidenced
in the fact that by 1880 he had been promoted to the position of assistant
secretary. Six years passed and in 1886 he was made secretary, so that he
has now acted in that capacity for twenty-eight years. The occasion of the
twenty-fifth anniversary of his acceptance of the position was fittingly
celebrated, and a cabinet of silverware was presented him by the Montreal
Board of Trade.
His position as secretary brings him into close contact with business affairs
and trade organizations throughout the world. He has been a delegate to
several imperial trade congresses, the last being held in Sydney, Australia.
By invitation he was a delegate to Newfoundland to assist in the formation

of a board of trade there in 1909. He was presented in 1903 with a
testimonial from British delegates to the imperial trade congress at
Montreal in acknowledgement of courtesies and services rendered by him.
In 1905 he was elected an honorary member of the International Board of
Foreign Trade and was made honorary secretary of the King Edward
memorial committee of Montreal in 1911. His position has brought him into
close connection with many important civic and municipal projects with
which the Board of Trade has been intimately associated.
In 1891 Mr. Hadrill married Emmeline Lilian, the daughter of J. Albert
Copland of Chelmsford, England. Mrs. Hadrill died in December, 1902. Mr.
Hadrill has been a director of St. George’s Society of Montreal and is an
Anglican in religious faith. The Montreal Herald has written of him that he
is “a man of great natural abilities as a statistician and accountant.” “He
possesses unusual qualifications for his office, which calls for a display of
diplomacy, tact and social qualities as well as for purely business ability,”
writes another paper, and this opinion is corroborated by all who have come
in contact with him. While thoroughly systematic and methodical in
managing the duties of his position, he has at the same time that ready
resourcefulness which enables him to meet an emergency and secure from it
the best possible results.

CHARLES MELVILLE HAYS.

The tales of heroic conduct in times of war will always arouse the
enthusiasm and call forth the praise of those who hear them, but heroism is
by no means confined to the men who wear their nation’s uniform and
march to the sound of the bugle. It has been manifest where there were none
to witness and none to record the story and with nothing but an individual
sense of duty for its inspiration. The world thrilled with the story of the
heroism of the men, who, in the silence of the night, gave women and
children over to the care of the few who manned the lifeboats and quietly
awaited death on the decks of the steamship Titanic when it sank on its
maiden trip across the Atlantic, April 15, 1912. Included in the great toll of
human lives exacted by this catastrophe, was that of Charles Melville Hays,

president of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railways and one of the foremost
railroad magnates of his generation. His was the master mind in the
development of the Grand Trunk Pacific and his work for the Grand Trunk
Railway has become a part of the history of the Dominion. One of the
elements of his success was that he was always essentially and strictly a
railroad man, never dissipating his energies over too broad a field but
concentrating his efforts along that single line of activity.
A native of Rock Island, Illinois, Mr. Hays was born in 1856, and was but a
child when his parents removed to St. Louis, Missouri, in which city he was
reared and received his educational training. He was but a boy of seventeen
when he started out in life on his own account as a clerk in the passenger
department of the Atlantic & Pacific Railway. From that time on his
advancement was continuous and rapid, solely the result of his
thoroughness, efficiency and genuine merit. After a year he was transferred
to the auditor’s department and later was called to a position in the office of
the general superintendent, where his aptitude, enterprise and initiative were
soon recognized. From 1878 until 1884 he was secretary to the general
manager of the Missouri Pacific Railroad and in the latter year was offered
and accepted the position of secretary to the general manager of the Wabash
& St. Louis Pacific Railway Company.

CHARLES M. HAYS
In 1886 he was appointed general manager of the road and the following
year became general manager of the Wabash Western, comprising all of the
Wabash lines west of the Mississippi and also between Chicago and Detroit.
In 1889 he was appointed general manager of the reorganized and
consolidated Wabash system and controlled the important and manifold
interests of the railway for six years or until he resigned to become general
manager of the Grand Trunk, succeeding L. J. Seargeant. Five years later he
left the Grand Trunk to take the position of president of the Southern Pacific
Railway Company but remained in that connection for only a year, as the
railway passed under the control of the Harriman interests, whose policy
differed from that of Mr. Hays. About that time he received a
communication from Sir Charles Rivers Wilson, again offering him the
position of general manager of the Grand Trunk and he returned to the latter

road late in 1901 as second vice president and general manager. His
connection therewith was continuous from that time until his demise, and
on the retirement of Sir Charles Rivers Wilson in October, 1909, he was
appointed president. In the meantime his connection with railway interests
constantly broadened, making him one of the notable figures in railway
circles on the American continent. He became president of the Central
Vermont Railway, the Grand Trunk Western Railway, the Detroit, Grand
Haven & Milwaukee Railway, the Toledo, Saginaw & Muskegon Railway,
the Michigan Air Line Railway, the Chicago, Detroit and Canada Grand
Trunk Junction Railway, the Detroit & Toledo Shore Line, the Southern
New England Railway Company, the Canadian Express Company, the
Grand Trunk Railway Insurance & Provident Society and of various
corporations featuring largely as factors in commercial and industrial
development. He was chosen to the presidency of the St. Clair Tunnel
Company, the International Bridge Company, the Montreal Warehousing
Company, the Portland Elevator Company and the New England Elevator
Company. He also represented the Grand Trunk Western Railway as a
director of the Chicago & Western Indiana Railway and Belt Railway of
Chicago.
In 1905 he was made a member of the permanent commission of the
International Railway Congress and also a director of the United States
Mortgage & Trust Company. He was a delegate to the Imperial Trades
Congress in 1903. He became a director of the Royal Trust Company and
the Merchants Bank of Canada and a director of the Canadian Board of the
London & Lancashire Life Assurance Company. He was also a director of
the Montreal Horticultural and Fruit Growing Association—a fact which
indicated much of the breadth of his interests. His executive ability was
sought as an element in the successful management of various benevolent,
charitable and philanthropic enterprises. He was a governor of the Montreal
General Hospital, a governor of the Royal Victoria Hospital and a governor
of the McGill University. In 1907 he was decorated with the Order of the
Rising Sun (third class) by the emperor of Japan.
He was a man of remarkable personality. Obstacles and difficulties seemed
but a stimulus for renewed effort on his part and he was never happier than
when he could grasp an opportunity and utilize it to the fullest extent or
untangle a knotty problem in railway management and control. Mr. Hays

was a well known figure in club circles, belonging to the Mount Royal, St.
James, Canada, Forest and Stream, Montreal Jockey, Montreal Hunt, St.
Maurice Fish and Game Club and the Laurentian Club of Montreal and the
Rideau Club of Ottawa. Sir Wilfrid Laurier had termed him “a valuable
acquisition to Canada,” and the Montreal Witness said he was “a splendid
example of what brains, pluck and industry can overcome and accomplish,”
while the Montreal Standard styled him “a man of quiet dignity, whose
sanity and strength are seen and felt in all his undertakings.”
Mr. Hays was survived by his widow, who was Miss Clara J. Gregg, a
daughter of William H. Gregg of St. Louis, Missouri, and four daughters,
Mrs. George D. Hall, of Boston, Mrs. Thornton Davidson, Mrs. A. Harold
Grier and Mrs. Hope C. Scott, of Montreal.
One of the ships that hastened to the relief of the Titanic recovered the body
of Mr. Hays, which was brought back to Montreal for interment and laid to
rest following one of the most imposing funerals ever accorded a civilian in
this city. Mr. Hays worshipped at the American Presbyterian church of
Montreal and was one of its trustees, but retained his membership in the
First Presbyterian church of St. Louis, Missouri, and in the memorial
services held in the former on the 25th of April, 1912, a sermon by the Rev.
Dr. McKittrick, pastor of the First Presbyterian church of St. Louis,
following the death of Mr. Hays, was read. He said in part: “The colossal
catastrophe of the seas which has so recently startled and dismayed the
civilized world could not pass today entirely unnoted in the temples of the
living God. Among those who went down to their unexpected and, it seems
to our vision, their untimely death, there was no man who worthily had a
higher position in the social, industrial and financial world than Mr. Charles
M. Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. Since
commonly the boy is father of the man we might almost refer to him as ‘our
Mr. Hays’ for he was once in our Sunday School, and afterwards a member
of our Board of Trustees. His is an inspiring example to all our boys and to
every boy in the land of what may be accomplished by rightful purpose,
industry, determination, all these by the worthy motives which variously
constitute character. It took all the elements which are found in a manly
man to make first so notable a record as was his in this city, and then to
create for himself the distinguished name and for his undertaking the great
prosperity which concerning both the history of today reveals.”

The following reference to Mr. Hays’ life and work was made at the close
of public worship in the American Presbyterian church, Montreal, on
Sabbath, April 28th. Dr. Johnston said: “The subject that we have been
considering this morning has unavoidably suggested to you, as it has to me,
many thoughts regarding the life, the death and the work of Mr. Charles M.
Hays whose loss our land mourns today.
“Much has already been said of Mr. Hays as the railway magnate, the man
of enterprise, the devoted husband and father and the loyal friend. Upon
these phases of his character I will not therefore further dwell, but there
remains something to be said of that feature of his life which, though less
conspicuous to the general public, nevertheless lay deep and strong behind
all these other characteristics, and was indeed the inspiration of them. We
all in this congregation know the large place which Mr. Hays gave to the
work and worship of the church, and the readiness with which his time and
influence were always lent to its interests. He loved the House of God. That
love, in a measure, was doubtless the result of early training in a home of
whose deep religious character he ever loved to speak in terms of affection
and appreciation. It was also due in part to his deep sense of what he owed
in his place of great prominence to the community at large, and to a
younger generation in particular, in the way of example. Most of all,
however, it was due to his appreciation of the place that worship should
have in every life, and to his deep sense of the need of every soul for those
things that the House of God and its services can give. This attitude instead
of lessening, as in so many lives it does, as responsibilities increased, and
honours accumulated, deepened in Mr. Hays with the passing years.
“The continent-wide enterprises with which his name will always be
associated were not simply enterprises and interests to him. They
constituted a work, a ministry, which it was given him to administer for
man, and through man for God. The tens of thousands for whom he had
already thrown open the door of their exodus from European stagnation and
oppression were his Israel, whom he, in God’s name, was leading out into
liberty and larger life. These broad prairies and boundless stretches of
Northern Saskatchewan and the Peace River district, those hitherto
impassable Rockies, giving gateway to the flowering farmlands that slope
toward the silver sands of the Pacific—these were his Canaan, which it was
his to conquer, not with sword and clash of battle, but with genius and

enterprise and the power of science, so that into the good ‘Land of Promise’
he might bring the oppressed peoples of the world, to make a nation strong
in liberty and in righteousness.
“Did time permit I could tell you much of how Mr. Hays carried on his
great heart, the toiling multitudes of earth and their needs, and of how it
was to him a vision glorious that he was permitted in some measure to
contribute to their uplift and redemption. He, too, like Israel’s leader, had
looked upon the burdens of the people. To us it seems that, like Moses, he
has been permitted only to view his promised land from afar. On the
threshhold of completion he has been bidden to lay down his work. A
broken column? A work incomplete? Yes, if this world is all, and this life
the only life, but if death is indeed for the life that lives in Christ, not
extinction but expansion, not frustration but promotion, than surely in some
other of the many mansions in our Father’s one great house, they still serve
who have ceased from labor here, and work with gladness for the bringing
in of that day when throughout all the universe of God there shall be
nothing to hurt nor to destroy, but ‘God shall be all and in all.’”
The press throughout the American continent united in tribute to Charles
Melville Hays and under the caption of Montreal’s Loss the Gazette of
April 19, 1912, said editorially: “Among the many places which will have
home reasons for bearing the loss (April 15, 1912) of the steamship Titanic
in sorrowful memory there will be few to rank before Montreal. Of
residents who had won or were winning honorable places of usefulness in
the city’s commercial life, no less than four ended their earthly career in the
dark hours of Monday when the Atlantic waters closed over the wreck of
what had been one of the world’s noblest vessels. First of these, of course,
ranks Mr. Charles M. Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railways
and director and adviser in many allied and other enterprises. Mr. Hays
came to Montreal as a stranger, when the condition and fortunes of the
Grand Trunk Railway were low indeed. The life had apparently gone out of
the direction and a great property, with greater potentialities, was in danger
of passing into bankruptcy. He and his associates found their task harder
also because they were strangers. It was only a little while, however, before
the city and the country, as well as the proprietors of the railway, recognized
that in the new general manager, which was the title Mr. Hays then had,
they had a man who for capacity ranked with the highest in his profession.

With a slight interruption Mr. Hays has had chief executive control since
1897 of the Grand Trunk Railway. In that time it has been lifted physically
to the standard of a high class, well equipped road, with few superiors in
America. Financially it has been so improved as to meet the interest charges
on the new capital raised for betterments and has been able to pay dividends
on some of the older issues that once seemed to have lost all value as
investments. In late years he was a chief moving spirit in the projection and
construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, which is now approaching
completion. His work in these connections speaks of his executive ability
louder than can words written or spoken. It is only to be added that in all
relations of life, business or social, he was a plain, courteous and kindly
gentleman, to whom all were ready to pay in full measure the respect that
he deserved.”
The memorial service read in the American Presbyterian church to which
previous allusion has been made, was one of the most impressive ever held
within the borders of Canada and the tributes to Mr. Hays on that occasion
attested how high was the position which he held in the regard of business
colleagues, of eminent educators, ministers and others. Principal Peterson
of McGill University said in part: “We have done well to come together in
this solemn manner, not to meet in a useless parade of grief and sorrow, but
to pay a sincere tribute to the worth of one who has gone to his last reward
and to express our sympathy to those who suffer the loss of one so dear, and
who have scarcely yet survived the shock of their sudden bereavement. Our
men died like heroes—in that last dread extremity they bore themselves
nobly and well.
“And I doubt not that foremost in fortitude was that great-hearted man who
today is mourned throughout the world, Charles M. Hays, who was then
eagerly returning to take his controlling part in those great enterprises with
which his name will always be associated, and no doubt looking forward
with joy to returning to his accustomed work and surroundings here. The
vast transportation system over which he so well presided, and to which he
gave fresh life, has just paid him well earned tribute in those moments of
organized, concerted, silence stretching across this continent—the awed
hush of reverent respect and tender sympathy from every section of the
railway service and from every rank and class in the community at large. It
was a moving incident, but only a slight indication of the esteem in which

he was held everywhere, and of the loss which the railways and the people
have sustained.
“Mr. Hays came to Montreal in 1896, shortly after I came here, and since
then it has been my privilege to know him well, and to meet him frequently
in university and other affairs. Only a short time before Mr. Hays left for
Europe I had a walk with him, when he talked to me of his plans for the
future, and discussed university and other educational matters, with the
grave and serious hope for future advancement which marked his thought.
Little then did either of us think it possible that so terrible a disaster should
cut short his vigorous and useful career. He was a real leader of men, a true
captain of industry, carrying a huge burden of work and responsibility on
his shoulders, and always carrying it as a strong Christian man should. We
shall go forth from this solemn service to our customary duties, graver and
sadder men. It may be that we shall not have the melancholy duty of
following to the grave the remains of this man whose work interlinked a
vast continent. He has found his grave in the ocean, and it may be literally
said of him that the whole world is his tomb. Certainly his memory will not
soon die; for long will the memory live of this impressive memorial of his
sad fate and the sorrow of his stricken family. And when the far-reaching
plans for which he stood sponsor are realized we shall often go back in
thought to what this city, this dominion and the empire at large owes to the
ability, the integrity and dauntless energy of Charles Melville Hays.”
One of the glowing and well deserved tributes paid to the memory of
Charles Melville Hays was spoken by Rev. T. S. McWilliams. D. D., of
Cleveland, Ohio, who said: “The man whose loss we mourn today, and
whose memory we would honor was not merely a national, he was an
international figure. The great enterprise of which he was at the head, and,
to an unusual degree the guiding and animating spirit, was not merely a
national, but an international railway. It seems fitting therefore that one
from the United States should have a small part in this memorial service.
The humble tribute which I bring is not merely that of a former pastor—as
such I was privileged to say a few words on Sunday last. Nor is my tribute
that of a personal friend—as such my place would not be here in the pulpit,
but in position with the mourners, amongst those who most deeply and
genuinely feel a sense of personal loss. Mine is the privilege today of
bringing a neighboring nation’s tribute, if you will; of assuring you that

many of the American people share with you the sorrow and sense of loss
which you feel so keenly. In the United States the late Charles M. Hays was
born, and there he spent the larger part of his life. Of our country he
remained a citizen to the last. Yet there were few men more genuinely
devoted to the interests of Canada or more intelligently attached to British
institutions than he. Few, if any, in Canada saw with clearer vision the great
possibilities of the future of your country and believed more intensely in the
great destinies of Canada.
“To speak of Mr. Hays’ preeminent ability as a railway man is scarcely
necessary. We have only to look around to see the monuments to his genius.
There are two immense office buildings that ornament your city; there is
that wonderful steel bridge over Niagara’s gorge and the great station at
Ottawa. There is the rejuvenated and vastly extended Grand Trunk Railway.
And, perhaps greatest of all, there is the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway,
destined at no distant date to span this continent, making accessible natural
resources of incalculable value, and bringing into practical part of the
national progress vast regions at present inaccessible to the agriculturist.
These are great enterprises which have attracted the admiring attention of
the world and stimulated rival systems to greater activity, while bringing
millions in money to your land, and, what means much more to you, an
unprecedented tide of immigration. It is but just to say that such enterprises
as these have been no small factor in the building up of that great progress
and prosperity which characterizes Canada at the present time.
“The credit of such achievements is, of course, to be shared with Mr. Hays’
earnest colaborers—and he would have been the first to give them such
credit—but to Mr. Hays is certainly due the credit of the initiative. For a
man at the early age of thirty-eight years to rise from the bottom of the
ladder to the presidency of such a railway system as the Wabash, and later
to be selected as president of the Grand Trunk, charged with its
rehabilitation, and to so conduct its affairs that after only five years its
securities had enhanced in value by eighty-six millions of dollars; to be
called to the presidency of the Southern Pacific, and then called back again
to the Grand Trunk to consummate yet vaster plans—these are proofs
positive and sufficient of his preeminent railway genius. The tribute of
silence in which we a few minutes ago reverently joined—a silence in
which we were joined by that great army of employes from ocean to ocean

—was not the silence of obedience to an enforced order. It was the genuine
heart-felt tribute of men of all ranks to a leader whom they had loved and
lost.
“The contagion of his example spread through every part of that great
system. Himself a hard and rapid worker his own example was a sufficient
incentive to do away with indolence and incompetence. His presence
anywhere on the system encouraged and thrilled to better work not by fear
of the tyrant’s command to go, but they thrilled at the leader’s call to come.
“Mr. Hays was first, last and all the time a great railway man. But it would
be unjust to speak merely of that. He possessed other qualities that
impressed me even more than that. He was throughout his life a man of
lofty and unbending principle. I personally know that his early ending of his
connection with a great railway system, sacrificing a position to which was
attached great honor and an immense salary, and his going out of that
office, not knowing whither he went, was a wonderful example of the
triumph of principle over what appeared to be personal interests. It stands as
a proof of Mr. Hays’ unwillingness to be the tool of a designing genius no
matter what that might seem to offer him in the way of personal
remuneration. And in the great positions he held it was his constant
endeavor to be just to all. It was his endeavor by day and his prayer by night
to always carry an even balance between the employes of his company and
those who had invested their living in it with even justice to both.
Knowledge of this permeated the whole system, and brought a realization
amongst the men that the main endeavor of the leader was not to get out of
the employes as much as possible and give them in return as little as
possible, but that they were really working with, not for, their president, in
the interests of all.
“And he was a public-spirited man in many other spheres. That he was a
generous friend of education is proven in that he was a governor of McGill
University; that he was a benefactor to suffering humanity is shown by the
hospitals of which he was a governor. But far more than these public
positions were innumerable cases in which he proved himself a generous
but unostentatious friend to the needy. And may I for a moment draw aside
the sacred veil, and speak of his home life. As a father, husband, brother,
comrade, to all in his household he was ever the genial, pure, high-minded
Christian gentleman—the idol of his home, as he deserved to be. His

religious influence was unmistakable and caused him inevitably to work for
the right. I am confident that his deep religious sense of duty was at the
bottom of much that we admire in his career—he was utterly honest, not
because he believed it to be the best business policy, but because he had
faith in the right; he was filled with genial optimism, not from blindness to
the facts, but because he knew them.
“That such lives should be allowed to be interrupted by such disasters as
that we now mourn is a problem which cannot be satisfactorily answered. It
may be said that no man’s place is impossible to be filled. But Methodism
has never found another John Wesley, and the Grand Trunk will look and
wait for long before it finds another Charles Melville Hays.”

DOUGALL CUSHING.

One of the most able, successful and progressive of the younger generation
of professional men in Montreal is Dougall Cushing, connected with
important legal interests as a member of the firm of Barron & Cushing,
notaries. He is a native son of the city, born May 3, 1886, his parents being
Charles and Lily (Macaulay) Cushing. The family is of old American
establishment, the great-grandfather of the subject of this review, Job
Cushing, having been born in Massachusetts in 1765. The father was born
in May, 1848, and he was for a number of years the senior member of the
firm of Cushing & Barron and known as an able and reliable notary. He was
in addition a director in the Sun Life Assurance Company, on the board of
governors of the Young Men’s Christian Association and deacon in Calvary
Congregational church, a man of wide interests, high standards and useful
and important accomplishments. His death occurred September 30, 1910.
He and his wife became the parents of seven children, R. Macaulay,
Dougall of this review, Charles, Arthur, Eric, Geoffrey and Edith.
Dougall Cushing was reared in his parents’ home and acquired his
preliminary education in the grammar and high schools of Montreal. He
afterward attended McGill University, from which he was graduated B. A.
in 1907 and B. C. L. in 1910. In the following year he established himself
as a notary in his native city, associating himself with Robert H. Barron, his

father’s former partner. The firm of Barron & Cushing is today, as it has
been for many years past, one of the strongest of its kind in the city, for
Dougall Cushing has followed closely in his father’s footsteps, and has
proved himself brilliant, reliable and energetic in the conduct of his
professional interests.
Mr. Cushing belongs to Phi Kappa Pi, which he joined in McGill University
and is a member of the Seventeenth Regiment, Duke of York’s Royal
Canadian Hussars. He is one of the popular and enterprising young men of
Montreal and has already gained a creditable place in a profession in which
his superior merit and ability will undoubtedly win for him ultimate
distinction.

HON. SAMUEL GALE.

Hon. Samuel Gale, one of the ablest members of the legal profession in his
day, and a very prominent citizen of Montreal, died in that city on Saturday,
April 15, 1865. He was the son of a Mr. Gale who, born in Hampshire,
England, came to America in 1770 as assistant paymaster to the forces. He
married there a Miss Wells, of Brattleboro, and soon after left the army, and
took up his residence in the colony of New York. During the Revolution he
stood firmly by the old flag under which he had served, and was for some
time imprisoned as a loyalist. After the Revolution, he came to reside in
Canada, upon an estate granted to his wife’s father by the crown, as
indemnification for the losses brought upon him as a loyalist in the
Revolution. He was subsequently secretary to Governor Prescott, whom he
accompanied to England, and there assisted to defend him from the attacks
made upon his administration. While there he wrote an essay on Public
Credit, addressed and submitted to Pitt. The following is the inscription on
his tombstone at Farnham, in Shefford county:
“Here rests Samuel Gale, Esq., formerly acting deputy paymaster general of
H. Majesty’s forces in the Southern Provinces, now the U. S. of America;
subsequently Secretary to H. E. the Governor-in-chief of H. M. dominions
in N. A.; Author of Essays on Public Credit, and other works; born at

Kimpton Hants, England, October 14, 1748; died at Farnham, June 27,
1826.”
Samuel Gale of this review was born at St. Augustine, East Florida, in 1783.
He was educated at Quebec, while his father was secretary, and came to
study law at Montreal under Chief Justice Sewell, in 1802, having Chief
Justice Rolland and Mr. Papineau as fellow students. Mr. Gale was admitted
to the bar in 1808, and ere long secured a large practice. In 1815 he was
appointed a magistrate in the Indian territories, and accompanied Lord
Selkirk when he went to the northwest. Later, when Lord Dalhousie was
attacked for his Canadian administration, Mr. Gale went home as bearer of
memorials from the English-speaking Lower Canadians in the townships
and elsewhere, defending his lordship’s conduct. In 1829, he became
chairman of the quarter sessions, and in 1834 was raised to the bench to
replace Mr. Justice Uniacke, who preferred to resign the seat on the bench
to which he had just been appointed rather than come back to Montreal
during the cholera, then raging here. Judge Gale retired from the bench in
1849, forced into retirement by continued ill health and the gradual coming
on of the infirmities of old age.

HON. SAMUEL GALE
He had married in 1839 a Miss Hawley, of St. Armand West, by whom he
had three daughters. Mrs. Gale died in September, 1849. Of the daughters
the only one now living is Anna R., widow of T. Sterry Hunt, of Montreal,
who is mentioned elsewhere in this work; while of the other two, Agnes
Logan married Andrew Stuart of Quebec, a son of Chief Justice Stuart and
of a very prominent family in that city, and the third became the Baroness
von Friesen, who died December 10, 1875, in Berlin, Germany.
Born of parents who had both suffered for their loyal adherence to the
British Crown during the American Revolution, and educated in their views
Mr. Gale was, as long as he busied himself in politics, a stanch conservative
and defender of British unity and British supremacy. He wrote a series of
letters to the Montreal Herald (in those days the organ of the stoutest
conservatism) over the signature of “Nerva” which produced a strong

impression on the public mind at that time; and in espousing the cause of
Lord Dalhousie and upholding the old constitution (under the title
constitutionalists taken by the conservatives of that day) against the
advocates of democracy or responsible government, he was but consistently
pursuing the course on which he first set out. While upon the bench he
maintained in an elaborate and very able judgment the right of the Crown to
establish martial law here in 1837, refusing to theorize about what abstract
rights man had or ought to have, declaring simply and firmly what the law,
as he read it, established the prerogative of the sovereign to be in a colony.
Both as a lawyer and judge he won the respect of his confreres alike by his
ability and learning.
For many years previous to his death he was deeply interested in the
freedom of the slave. He could not speak with patience of any compromise
with slavery and waxed indignant in denunciation of all who in any way
aided, abetted, or even countenanced it. When the Anderson case was
before the Upper Canada courts he was one of the most active among those
who aroused agitation here. When the Prince of Wales visited this country
he got up a congratulatory address from the colored people of Canada
which, however, was not received, as the prince was desired by the Duke of
Newcastle, not to recognize differences of race and creed wherever it could
be helped.
Judge Gale was a man of high principle and ever bore an unblemished
moral character. Once in his early career at the bar he was forced by the
then prevailing customs of society to fight a duel. His antagonist was Sir
James Stuart, who had quarreled with him in court and Mr. Gale was
severely wounded. It was an event which, we believe, he profoundly
regretted, and gladly saw the better day dawn when men ran no risk of
forfeiting their position as gentlemen by refusing to shoot, or be shot at, in
order to redress real or fancied insults. He was a scrupulously just man,
most methodical and punctual in business matters. There were in his
writings great care, and precision and clearness of language. In his letters,
too, and even in signing his name, the same trait was observable. He often
used to condemn the stupid custom of men who signed their names with a
flourish, yet so illegibly that no one could read, but only guess at, the word
intended. He was not ostentatious of his charities, yet they were not lacking.
Some years before his demise he made a gift of land to Bishop’s College,

Lennoxville, and during the last months of his life, when age and illness
were day by day wearing him out, he found relief for his own distress in
aiding to relieve that of the needy and afflicted.
With him passed away one more of those men, who link the creative past, in
which were laid the foundations of our civilization, with the bustling
present and of whom the generation of today knows naught; of men more
proud and precise in their manners than we are; and of such rectitude and
sense of honor, that we feel deeply the loss of the influence of their
example. A loyal subject, a learned and upright judge, a kind, true, steadfast
friend, was lost to the community in Judge Gale.

ROLLO CAMPBELL, M. D.

Dr. Rollo Campbell, of whom it was said that no man ever spoke ill, was
the son of Dr. Francis W. Campbell and was born in Montreal on the 6th of
June, 1864. His life record covered a comparatively brief span. He was
educated under private tutors and in Bishop’s College, where he pursued his
professional course, being graduated from that institution at Lennoxville, P.
Q., with honors in the class of 1886, at which time the M. D. degree was
conferred upon him. His early professional experience came to him as
interne in the Western Hospital at Montreal, where he remained for a year,
gaining the wide knowledge and training that only hospital practice can
bring. He then went to Europe, pursuing his studies in London and in
Edinburgh. Upon returning to his native land he located in Montreal for
practice and it was not long before he had established an enviable
reputation as a conscientious, capable physician of untiring energy,
thoroughly devoted to his profession and ever ready to do a kindness to
those in need of his services. He was especially interested in surgery and his
researches along that line were broad and varied.
From the time of his graduation Dr. Campbell was on the teaching staff of
Bishop’s College, first as demonstrator of anatomy, to which he was
appointed in 1897, and later as professor of surgery. For many years he was
on the consulting staff of the Montreal Dispensary and was one of the
assistant surgeons of the Western Hospital, in which institution he was

greatly interested. He was likewise an examiner for the New York Life
Insurance Company.
A feature in his professional connections was his service as surgeon for
seventeen years of the Fifth Royal Scots of Canada, in which regiment he
was very popular. At one time he was president of Bishop’s Medical
College Graduates’ Society and he was physician to several fraternal
societies. He also belonged to the Montreal Medico-Chirurgical Society and
along more strictly social lines he was connected with the Metropolitan
Club, the Montreal Military Institute and the Montreal Amateur Athletic
Association. Of the latter he was a life member and was captain of the
Bicycle Club of that organization.
Dr. Campbell was married in Montreal in 1892 in St. Paul’s Presbyterian
church to Miss Marion May Fletcher, a daughter of Henry Fletcher, who for
thirty years was tide surveyor of the port of Montreal, and his wife, whose
maiden name was Margaret Ann McInnes. Dr. and Mrs. Campbell became
parents of two children: Gladys Agnes and Edith Margaret. The family
circle was broken by the hand of death when on the 31st of May, 1904, Dr.
Campbell passed away. Speaking of him at this time a fellow graduate of
Bishop’s College said: “He was a fine fellow. I think I can safely say that I
never heard anyone speak ill of him. He was kind and thoughtful and
devoted himself to his work. In fact, I fear that he worked too hard on
account of that conscientiousness which would not allow of his neglecting
any seeming duty. He will be greatly missed, not only by his fellow
practitioners, but by all who knew him and respected him.”

ROBERT KURCZYN LOVELL.

While Robert Kurczyn Lovell entered upon a business already established,
he has displayed the enterprise and determination which are among his
salient characteristics in the methods which he has followed in conducting
his business affairs. Montreal numbers him among her native sons, but he
comes of Irish and German ancestry. He is the eldest son of the late John
Lovell, who was a prominent publisher of Montreal from 1835 until his

death in 1893. His mother is Mrs. Sarah Lovell, a daughter of N. P. M.
Kurczyn, who was a German merchant of Montreal.
In the acquirement of his education Robert K. Lovell passed through
consecutive grades to the high school. In 1867 he became connected with
his father in business, becoming a partner in 1880 and so continuing until
the latter’s death in July, 1893. The business was conducted under the same
style until 1903 when it was incorporated. Since 1903 he has been president
of the firm of John Lovell & Son, Ltd., publishers of Lovell’s Gazetteer of
the Dominion of Canada and Newfoundland, Lovell’s Montreal Directory,
Lovell’s Montreal Business Directory and numerous other publications. In
all of his business affairs he never deviates from the highest standards. He is
an Anglican in religious faith.

WILLIAM OKELL HOLDEN DODDS.

For over twenty years Major William O. H. Dodds has been connected with
the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, being at present the
assistant manager for Quebec and the maritime provinces. He was born in
Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, July 3, 1867, a son of the late Charles Dodds, a
manufacturer of that province, who died in June, 1893. The mother of our
subject, who was before her marriage Miss Agnes Smith, died in December,
1910.
William Dodds received his education in the Yarmouth high school and the
Yarmouth Academy of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. He completed his school
education in 1884 and then entered the employ of the Bank of Yarmouth,
remaining with that institution until 1887. From 1887 to 1888 he assisted
his father in the wholesale and retail dry-goods business, but in the latter
year came to Montreal, entering the wholesale dry-goods trade, with which
line he continued until 1892. In that year he joined the staff of the Mutual
Life Insurance Company of New York as cashier and, rising through various
positions, was made the assistant manager of the concern for Quebec and
the maritime provinces, which office he yet holds. Mr. Dodds has also been
one of the promoters of the Consumers’ Cotton Company.

On November 29, 1910, Mr. Dodds married Jean Hamilton Holt, eldest
daughter of Robert W. Tyre, of Montreal. Mrs. Dodds is greatly interested in
athletics and in 1911 was elected president of the Ladies’ Montreal Curling
Club.
Major Dodds is also a well known amateur athlete. He was formerly
president of the Canadian Amateur Athletic Union; is a member of the
executive committee of the Amateur Skating Association of Canada; and
was selected as one of the team of the Montreal Curling Club to proceed to
Scotland in December, 1908, but was unable to go. He has long been in the
volunteer military service, being formerly a captain in the Fifth Regiment,
Royal Scots. He subsequently commanded the Third Battery, Montreal, and
then organized the Twenty-first (Westmount) Battery, which he commanded
from October 26, 1907, to April 9, 1910. He is now engaged in the
reorganization of the First Regiment, Grenadier Guards of Canada. In
January, 1906, Major Dodds was elected president of the Montreal Military
Institute and is now councillor of the Boy Scout movement.
Mr. Dodds is a Presbyterian and gives his political support to the
conservative party. He is a member of the Montreal Club, the Montreal
Military Institute, the Montreal Curling Club, the Montreal Amateur
Athletic Association, the Montreal Hunt Club, the St. James Club, the Royal
Montreal Golf Club and others.

ISAIE PREFONTAINE.

Isaie Prefontaine, no less highly esteemed for his business capacity and
enterprise than for his public-spirited citizenship, has contributed along
various lines to the welfare and progress of the city in which he makes his
home. A native of Beloeil, he was born in 1861 and in the pursuit of his
education attended Montreal College, from which he was graduated with
honors. From the outset of his career he has made his labors count as factors
in general progress and improvement. He has been a close student of
conditions and problems of the time and along practical lines has worked
for betterment.

He has taken a warm interest in the commercial development of the city and
has been prominently identified with various bodies working toward that
end. He was president of the Chamber of Commerce of Montreal for the
year 1908-9 and for six years was president of the School of High
Commercial Studies. In 1909 he became president of the Federation of
Chambers of Commerce for the province of Quebec and was continued in
that high and important office for three years. He has also been a member of
the Board of Trade and has been a cordial cooperator in the movement for
providing facilities for specialized instruction and training of those engaged
in manufacturing and other industrial pursuits.

ISAIE PREFONTAINE
His wide research and investigation enable him to speak with authority
upon many questions bearing upon the business condition of the city and its
possibilities for progress along industrial and commercial lines. He is an
idealist, whose methods are practical, and is a man of action rather than of
theory.
In 1883 he married Miss Eliza Pigeon, a daughter of Olivier Pigeon, of
Vercheres, Quebec. He belongs to both the Club St. Denis and the Canadian
Club and in the city has a wide and favorable acquaintance. The Montreal
Herald has termed him “a man of capacity and high character.”

FRANCIS WAYLAND CAMPBELL, M. D.

Dr. Francis Wayland Campbell, practitioner, educator and editor of medical
journals, winning distinction along each line, was born in Montreal on the
5th of November, 1837, a son of the late Rollo Campbell, at one time
publisher of the Montreal Daily Pilot and a native of Perthshire, Scotland.
Dr. Campbell’s more specifically literary education was obtained at Dutton
Academy and the Baptist College, and in preparation for a professional
career he studied medicine in McGill University, from which he was
graduated with the M. D. degree in 1860. He at once located for practice in
his native city, where he continued until his death. After the completion of
his course at McGill he spent some time in study abroad, investigating the
methods and watching the clinics of eminent physicians and surgeons of
London, Dublin, Edinburgh and Glasgow. In 1861 he passed with high rank
an examination before the Royal College of Physicians of London.
In October, 1861, Dr. Campbell married Miss Agnes Stuart Rodger, of
Greenock, Scotland, and in November returned with his bride to Canada,
opening an office for practice in Montreal. Success came to him almost
immediately because his equipment was good and because of his
recognition of and marked devotion to the duties of the profession. He was
offered the editorship of the hospital report department of the British-
American Journal, accepted it and continued to serve in that connection
until 1864, when the publication of the paper ceased. The Canada Medical
Journal was soon afterward started and Dr. Campbell joined Dr. Fenwick in
its editorial management, being thus associated from 1864 until 1872. In the
meantime he had joined the medical faculty of Bishop’s College,
whereupon Dr. Fenwick declined to associate with him any longer in the
publication of the Canada Medical Journal. The result was the
discontinuance of that paper. Dr. Campbell decided to contest the field with
Dr. Fenwick, who began issuing the paper independently, the Campbell
publication being known as the Canada Medical Record, of which he
remained editor and proprietor until his demise. In 1872 Dr. Campbell
joined Drs. David, Smallwood, Hingston and Trenholme in organizing the
medical faculty of Bishop’s College, after which he was appointed
professor of physiology and was elected by the faculty as their registrar. His
writings were considered a valuable contribution to the literature of the

profession and his publications were liberally patronized by those holding
to the highest professional standards.
Dr. Campbell was a member of the volunteer militia from 1854 and in 1860
was appointed assistant surgeon of the First Battalion, Volunteer Rifles of
Canada, now the First Battalion. He served with his regiment on the eastern
frontier, being at Hemingford and at Durham during the Fenian raid in
1866. In the fall of that year he was promoted to the rank of surgeon of the
regiment and again during the brief Fenian raid of 1871 was with his
command at Pigeon Hill, at St. Armands and St. Johns. After being for a
great many years surgeon of the Prince of Wales Rifles he was appointed,
on the formation of the Regular Canadian Militia, to the office of surgeon of
the Infantry School Corps at St. Johns, Province of Quebec, and held the
position for nineteen years, being then retired at the age limit with the rank
of surgeon lieutenant colonel. At that time the regiments were known and
still are as the Royal Regiments Canadian Infantry. In 1894 he established
the V. R. I. Magazine and became its first editor. Lennoxville conferred
upon him the honorary degree of D. C. L. in 1895. Two years later his son,
Dr. Rollo Campbell, was appointed demonstrator of anatomy in Bishop’s
College. Another matter of interest and importance in the life record of Dr.
Campbell was that he held for forty-three years the position of chief
medical examiner for the New York Life Insurance Company at Montreal
and his son, Dr. Rollo Campbell, was his assistant. He was honorary
president of the Military Institute for several years and was one of the
founders of the Western Hospital of Montreal. He was called the father of
that institution and two years ago the hospital placed a very handsome
bronze tablet to his memory in the institution. At the time of his death he
was dean of the medical faculty of Bishop’s College at Montreal. His
degrees were M. A., M. D. and L. R. C. P. of London. Honor and distinction
came to him in many ways, and at all times he bore his honors with
becoming modesty.
Dr. Campbell was a liberal conservative in politics. He belonged to the
Montreal Military Institute and was a past master of the Victoria Lodge of
Masons. Of scholarly attainments, finding keen pleasure in scientific
research and actuated, too, by a broad humanitarian spirit, his professional
service as practitioner, educator and writer was of marked value to the

public and constituted a notable contribution to the world’s work in the field
of medical and surgical progress.

CLEOPHAS EDWARD LECLERC.

Cleophas Edward Leclerc, who for fifteen years was a member of the board
of notaries of Quebec, his home being in Montreal, his native city, was born
September 26, 1844. Almost his entire life was passed in Montreal, where
he supplemented his early education by a classical course in the College of
Ste. Therese de Blainville in the district of Terrebonne. Having determined
to become a notary public, he entered upon his professional studies under
the direction of Mr. F. Des Bastien, registrar of the county of Vaudreuil, and
was admitted to practice on the 15th of October, 1866. For fifteen years he
was a member of the Quebec board of notaries and for three years was its
vice president. He stood high in his profession, and the clientage afforded
him came in recognition of his superior ability.
On the 16th of November, 1875, Mr. Leclerc was married to Miss Caroline
Eliza Archambault of St. Hyacinthe, and they became the parents of six
children: Robertine; Rene, who is managing director of the Credit-Canada,
Limited; Achille; Alice, the wife of Arthur Hubour, who is engaged in the
drug business at the corner of Demontigny and St. Denis Streets; Ovide;
and Rita. Death came to Mr. Leclerc at his home at No. 655 St. Hubert
Street on the 23d of November, 1912, when he was sixty-eight years of age.
He was a man of fine personal appearance, his broad forehead indicating
strong native intelligence. He was of dignified appearance and mien and
looked at life from the standpoint of one who recognized its obligations and
duties as well as its privileges and opportunities. He had an extensive circle
of friends so that his death was deeply regretted by many outside his own
household.

GEORGE CAVERHILL.

Prominent on the roll of leading business men of Montreal stands the name
of George Caverhill, a merchant who for an extended period has been
connected with commercial life and figures prominently in connection with
corporate interests having to do with the business enterprise and consequent
prosperous development of the city. He was born October 18, 1858, at
Beauharnois, P. Q., and is of Scotch descent. His parents were Thomas and
Elizabeth Spiers (Buchanan) Caverhill, the latter a representative of the
Buchanan family of Lenny, while the former was a member of the border
family of Caverhills, residents of Scotland from 1200.
In the attainment of his education George Caverhill attended successively
the Montreal high school, the Galt Collegiate Institute and McGill
University. From the outset of his business career he has been connected
with mercantile interests. In 1877 he entered the employ of Crathern &
Caverhill, of Montreal, and, later ambitious to engage in business on his
own account, utilized the opportunities of becoming a partner in a
wholesale hardware firm, his partners being his brother, the late Frank
Caverhill, J. B. Learmont and T. H. Newman. The four organized the firm
of Caverhill, Learmont & Company, wholesale hardware merchants of both
Montreal and Winnipeg. This by no means indicates the scope of his
investments and his activities. That he is today one of the most important
business men of the province is indicated in the fact that he is vice president
of the Montreal Loan & Mortgage Company, a director of the Dominion
Iron & Steel Company, Canadian Cottons, Ltd., Montreal Trust Company,
Montreal Light, Heat & Power Company, and is identified with a number of
organizations to promote trade and business relations. In 1904 he was
chosen president of the Montreal Metal & Hardware Association, was made
first vice president of the Montreal Board of Trade in 1906 and its president
in 1907.
In 1887 Mr. Caverhill was married to Miss Emily Margaret, daughter of
John Caverhill. She takes active interest in philanthropical and charitable
work and is a member of the general committee of the Victorian Order of
Nurses. Together with her husband, she is a life governor of the Protestant
Hospital for the Insane. Both Mr. and Mrs. Caverhill were presented to the
late King Edward at Windsor Castle in June, 1905.
In addition to his previously mentioned activities, Mr. Caverhill is a
governor of the Montreal General Hospital, and is a life member of St.

Andrew’s Society of Montreal. He has a great love of animals and has won
fully two hundred and sixty prizes with his kennel of skye terriers. Mr.
Caverhill’s political allegiance is given to the liberal party, and in 1911 he
opposed the Taft-Fielding reciprocity compact. Prominent in club circles, he
holds membership with the Mount Royal, St. James, Canada, Canadian,
Forest and Stream, Lachine Boating and Canoe, Montreal Hunt, Montreal
Jockey, Montreal Polo, Reform, Royal Montreal Golf and Royal St.
Lawrence Yacht Clubs, all of Montreal. He is a man of liberal culture and
broad general information, having largely promoted his knowledge through
extended travel in the East Indies, South America, Japan, Egypt, Greece and
Italy. His opinions carry weight on all questions in which he has become
deeply interested, and his interest in any plan or project is ever the source of
activity in its support.

LOUIS JOSEPH ARTHUR SURVEYER.

Louis Joseph Arthur Surveyer, one of the best known business men of
Montreal, his ability and enterprise finding exemplification in his
substantial success, was born May 16, 1841, in the town of Beauharnois, in
the province of Quebec. His father was Dr. Joseph Surveyer, a well known
physician of Beauharnois and surrounding parishes, and his mother bore the
maiden name of Eugenie Duclos Decelles.
L. J. A. Surveyer was educated at St. Laurent College and entered upon his
business career as a clerk in a general store in St. Johns, P. Q. After eighteen
months he came to Montreal and entered the retail hardware store of
Messrs. Ferrier & Company on Notre Dame Street. After nine months’
service in the employ of that firm they sold their business and Mr. Surveyer
entered the employ of Mr. Thomas Davidson in his retail store, continuing
in that employ for seven years. He was ambitious to engage in business on
his own account and so wisely used his time and talent that he was now able
with a capital of six hundred dollars to open a store of his own. His venture
proved successful from the beginning and has been developed and built up
to its present extensive proportions so that Mr. Surveyer is now ranked with
the leading business men of the city.

In 1868 Mr. Surveyer married Miss Amelie Pelletier, who died thirteen
months later. In 1873 he married Miss M. A. Hectorine Fabre, a daughter of
the late E. R. Fabre, and the youngest sister of the late Archbishop Fabre.
Of this union there were born eight children, seven of whom are living, as
follows: Edward Fabre, a lawyer in Montreal, of whom there is further
mention in this work; Eugenie, now Mrs. N. K. Laflamme of Montreal;
Arthur, of Surveyer & Frigon, consulting engineers; Paul, a lawyer in
Montreal; Gustave, of Montreal; Marie; and Therese, now Mrs. Jules
Faurnier of Montreal. Mr. Surveyer is a member of the Canadian Club and
of the Alliance Nationale. There is found in his life history the strong proof
of the fact that the road to opportunity is open to ambition and energy, and
that it leads to the goal of success.

LOUIS J. A. SURVEYER

NORVAL DICKSON.

Norval Dickson, practicing as a notary in Montreal in partnership with R. B.
Hutcheson, and controlling an important, representative and growing
clientage, was born in Howick, Quebec, in 1878 and is a son of Robert
Dickson who came to Canada from Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1830.
Norval Dickson acquired his preliminary education in Huntingdon
Academy, Huntingdon, Quebec, and afterwards entered McGill University
in Montreal, receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1901 and his degree in
law in 1904. Immediately afterward he began practice in Montreal,
continuing alone until May, 1910, when he formed a partnership with R. B.
Hutcheson under the firm name of Hutcheson & Dickson. Mr. Dickson has
proved an important and helpful factor in the success of the firm, for he
possesses a deep and comprehensive knowledge of the underlying
principles of his profession and has a well deserved reputation as a reliable
and competent notary. The firm controls a growing and extensive patronage
and has a high standing in legal circles of the city.

REV. ABRAHAM DE SOLA, LL. D.

Rev. Abraham de Sola, LL. D., who for many years was so familiar a figure
in literary circles in Montreal and who earned so wide and deserved a
reputation as an Oriental scholar and theologian, was a descendent of an
illustrious Spanish-Jewish family. The marvelous history of Israel must ever
be of peculiar interest to mankind, and perhaps no chapter in the post-
biblical portion of that history possesses more charm than that which relates
about the Jews of Spain and Portugal, or Sephardim, as they are styled.
These lived free and untrammeled during those mediæval times when their
brethren in less favored countries were weighed down by the burden of
oppression, and with the Saracens they kept alive the flame of learning and
science in the Iberian peninsula at a time when it burnt lowest in the rest of
Europe. Power, rank and honor were theirs; and when afterwards clouds

obscured the sky of their prosperity, and the storm of persecution burst
pitilessly over their heads, their record of heroic martyrdom and thrilling
adventure is a tale as fascinating as that of many of the most imaginative
pages of fiction.
Among the many bright names which illumined Spanish-Jewish history,
that of De Sola stands prominent. The De Solas had settled in Andalusia as
early as the sixth century, whence they had come from Judea by gradual
stages through northern Africa. They held various offices under the
Saracenic caliphs at Toledo and Cordova, and afterwards when they
removed to Navarre they were received with like favor by the Gothic
princes. From their estate in this province, their surname had its origin. A
particularly distinguished member of the family was Don Bartolomeu de
Sola, who, in reward for his services, was ennobled and, after being a
minister of state, held for a while the position of viceroy of Navarre.
During the fourteenth century another De Sola distinguished himself
fighting under the Infante of Aragon and figured conspicuously in the
Spanish wars of that period. During the succeeding centuries the family
continued to hold an illustrious place, owing to the large number of eminent
scholars, physicians and statesmen it produced. Their fortunes, however,
changed when King Ferdinand, having by the conquest of Granada
destroyed the last vestige of Moorish power in Spain, decided to drive
therefrom all who did not conform to the dominant faith; and in 1492 was
promulgated the terrible edict of expulsion, which, at one blow, deprived
hundreds of thousands of Spain’s most intelligent and industrious
inhabitants of happy and prosperous homes. The De Solas took refuge in
Holland, but a branch of the family continued to hold business connections
with Lisbon, and eventually some of them settled in the Portuguese capital,
where they amassed much wealth. Watched by the Inquisition, they, like
many other Portuguese Jews, for some time evaded the danger by assuming
to become Marannos or Nuevos Christianos—as converted Jews were
styled—while they secretly remained loyal to Judaism. In the latter part of
the seventeenth century, however, suspicion was directed towards them, and
David de Sola (who to elude his persecutors had assumed the name of
Bartolome) was apprehended and charged with having relapsed into
Judaism. Although placed under the most fearful torture nothing seems to
have been proved, as he was allowed to afterwards go free; but he was

physically broken down by his terrible sufferings. Escape from the country
by a suspect was then extremely difficult, but in the next generation his son,
Aaron de Sola, managed to secure refuge on board a British man-of-war
and to make good his escape with his family to England; not, however,
before two of his relatives had been imprisoned, tortured and condemned to
death at an auto-da-fé, by the Inquisition, for secret adherence to Judaism.
It was in 1749 that Aaron de Sola fled with his wife and family to England,
and now that they were freed from the terrors of the Inquisition they openly
avowed once more their loyalty to the faith of their fathers. From England
they took passage for Holland, where they rejoined their relatives, and
taking up their residence in Amsterdam they soon again rose to distinction
in the various learned professions.
Previously to this—in the year 1690—one of the preceding generation,
Isaac de Sola, had settled in London and had acquired a high reputation in
the Hebrew community there as an eloquent preacher and author. Several
volumes of his works are still extant.
Four sons had accompanied Aaron de Sola in his flight from Lisbon in
1749, of whom the eldest, David, was the great-grandfather of the Dr.
Abraham de Sola who forms the chief subject of this sketch. The youngest
of Aaron de Sola’s, sons, Dr. Benjamin de Sola, attained to a foremost place
among the practitioners of the eighteenth century. He was court physician to
William V of the Netherlands and was the author of a large number of
medical works. The other two sons of Aaron de Sola settled in Curacao, and
one of them was the grandfather of General Juan de Sola, who became so
distinguished as a commander of cavalry under Bolivar and Paez when the
South American states revolted from Spain. He took part in the decisive
battle of Carabobo, and led the charge on Puerto Cabello when that city was
stormed by Paez, receiving a sabre wound during the fight. After the
restoration of peace he held important public offices during the Paez
regime.
The Rev. Abraham de Sola, LL. D., was born in London, England, on the
18th of September, 1825. His father, David Aaron de Sola, was senior
minister of the Portuguese Jews of London, to which city he had been
called from Amsterdam, and was eminent as a Hebrew author, having
produced among many other works an elegant translation of the Jewish

Forms of Prayer; also, in conjunction with Dr. Raphael, an edition of
Genesis, very valuable to biblical students on account of its commentaries
and copious notes, and the first English translation of Eighteen Treatises of
the Mishna. His mother was the daughter of Dr. Raphael Meldola, chief
rabbi of the Spanish-Jewish congregations of Britain. The Meldolas had
given eminent chief rabbis to Europe for twelve generations. Abraham de
Sola received careful tuition in all the usual branches of a liberal education.
He became early engrossed in the study of Oriental languages and literature
and of theology, and continued to devote his attention to those subjects until
he acquired that profound knowledge of them which subsequently won him
so prominent a place among scholars. Having been offered the position of
rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Congregation of Montreal he
accepted the call and arrived in this city in the beginning of 1847, and here,
for over thirty-five years, he continued to minister to the spiritual wants of
his people. His able pulpit discourses soon attracted attention. Dr. de Sola’s
abilities, however, were not destined to be confined exclusively to his
official duties. Before leaving London he had been associated in the
editorial work of a Hebrew journal, The Voice of Jacob, and soon after his
arrival in Canada he delivered a course of lectures on Jewish history before
the Mercantile Literary Association. In 1848 he published his “Notes on the
Jews of Persia under Mohammed Shah,” and also “A History of the Jews of
Persia.” Within the same year there appeared his important work on
“Scripture Zoology.” Soon afterwards he published his “Lectures on the
Mosaic Cosmogony.” This was followed by his “Cosmography of Peritsol,”
a work displaying such erudition that it gained a wide circulation in Europe
and was reprinted there in several languages. His next work, “A
Commentary upon Samuel Hannagid’s Introduction to the Talmud,” was a
book which deservedly attracted much attention, owing to the light which it
threw upon an interesting portion of rabbinical literature and to its depth of
Talmudic knowledge. In 1853 he published, conjointly with the Rev. J. J.
Lyons, of New York, a work on the Jewish Calendar System, chiefly
valuable on account of its excellent prefatory treatise upon the Jewish
system of calculating time.
Dr. de Sola’s mastery of Semitic languages and literature early attracted the
notice of our learned bodies, and, after first acting as lecturer, he was, in
1853, appointed professor of Hebrew and Oriental literature at McGill
University. The high abilities which he displayed as occupant of this chair

proved the wisdom of the appointment, and he continued to hold the
position during the rest of his life.
For some time Dr. de Sola had been engaged in the preparation of one of his
most important productions, “The Sanatory Institutions of the Hebrews.”
The work was published in two parts and was an exhaustive exposition of
the hygienic laws of the Hebrews, as exhibited in both Scriptural and
rabbinical writings, critically examined in the light of modern scientific
knowledge. It was a production which evinced how deeply the author had
penetrated into scientific as well as rabbinical paths of learning. Shortly
afterwards he published a supplemental work to it, entitled “Behemoth
Hatemeoth.”
The prominence to which Dr. de Sola had now reached among men of
letters led McGill University to confer upon him the degree of LL. D. in
1858.
In 1860, Dr. Hall, the editor of The British American Journal, devoted to
physical and medical science, induced Dr. de Sola to assist that publication
with his pen, and, among other contributions, his series of articles “Upon
the Employment of Anaesthetics in Cases of Labor, in Connection with
Jewish Law,” call for particular mention.
Dr. de Sola’s wide range of studies had made him very popular both as a
public lecturer and as a contributor to various literary papers. The themes of
some of these were afterwards much amplified by him and republished in
their elaborated and completed form. At comparatively short intervals he
gave to the public his works on “Scripture Botany,” “Sinaitic Inscriptions,”
“Hebrew Numismatics,” “The Ancient Hebrews as Promoters of the Arts
and Sciences,” “The Rise and Progress of the Great Hebrew Colleges,” and
“Philological Studies in Hebrew and the Aramaic Languages.” Turning his
attention again to Jewish history, he, in 1869, wrote his interesting “Life of
Shabethai Tsevi, the False Messiah.” The following year he completed his
“History of the Jews of Poland,” and in 1871 he published his “History of
the Jews of France.”
Dr. de Sola closely identified himself with many of our literary and
scientific associations, notably with the Natural History Society, in which
he was an active colaborer of Sir William Dawson and Sir William Logan.
He was for many years president of the society and received H. R. H. Prince

Arthur (afterwards Duke of Connaught) when that prince visited the society
in 1870. His address upon “The Study of Natural Science,” delivered upon
that occasion, called forth a letter of approbation from Queen Victoria.
During all his intense literary activity Dr. de Sola was taking a very
prominent part in all matters affecting the Jewish people. His mastery of
Jewish theology, in all its branches, had earned him wide renown among his
own race and had gained him a high place among the very foremost rabbis
of the day. Convinced that the fences which orthodoxy placed around the
citadel of his ancestral faith were the best safeguards against disintegrating
forces, the upholders of historical Judaism found in him an able and
powerful champion. Equally noticeable were his bold attacks upon the weak
points of the skeptical school of modern biblical criticism. His intimate
knowledge of all those branches of learning which bear upon this subject
made him particularly formidable in this respect. The Jewish press and
pulpit and the lecture platform were the vehicles by which he usually
reached the public on these subjects. He had, indeed, since his first arrival
in Canada been a particularly active contributor to Jewish journals, more
especially to the Occident of Philadelphia, with which he was for years
identified, being in intimate literary relations with its editor, the gifted Isaac
Leeser.
Dr. de Sola’s ability in the pulpit led to his frequently being invited to
lecture in the United States, where he had acquired much prominence and
popularity. On the 9th of January, 1872, he was invited by General Grant’s
government to perform the ceremony of opening the United States congress
with prayer, and for the first time was witnessed the unique spectacle of one
who was not a citizen of the United States nor of the dominant belief
officiating at the opening ceremonies at the assembling of congress at
Washington. The broad liberality of this act, upon the part of the United
States government, was fraught with particular significance at that time,
owing to the fact that diplomatic relations between Britain and the United
States had then but lately been strained to dangerous tension by the
“Alabama Claims,” and this high compliment to a British subject was the
first evidence of the growth of a better feeling between the two countries.
Sir Edward Thornton, the British ambassador at Washington, formally
extended to Dr. de Sola the thanks of the British government, and Mr.

Gladstone—then prime minister, also personally communicated his
satisfaction.
Upon the death of Isaac Leeser, Dr. de Sola purchased the stereotyped
plates of his works and issued a new edition of that author’s translation of
the Bible according to Jewish authorities. He also brought out a revised
translation of the Jewish Forms of Prayer, in six volumes, based upon the
editions of D. A. de Sola (his father) and of Leeser. He was invited to
become the successor of Mr. Leeser in his ministerial office but declined.
He had previously refused several similar offers.
Dr. de Sola’s onerous duties were at this time further increased by his being
offered the chair of Hebrew at the Montreal Presbyterian College, and later
on he accepted the appointment of lecturer in Spanish literature at McGill
University, a literature and language with which he was specially familiar
and to which he was particularly attached.
But such incessant application to work could not but prove exhaustive, and
his naturally vigorous health broke down under the strain. A year’s rest,
spent in Europe, proved sufficiently beneficial to enable him to return to
some of his duties. For a while he also resumed his contributions to the
Jewish press, and among other interesting writings we notice his “Yehuda
Alcharizi and the Book Tachkemoni.” In 1880 he published his last
important work, “Saadia Ha-Gaon,” a book giving a very valuable
description of the writings and life of one of the greatest of Jewish
philosophers and also containing an interesting account of the court of a
prince of the captivity.
But failing health was destined now to check forever the labors of his active
pen, and while in New York, on a visit to his sister, he was taken ill and his
death occurred on June 5, 1882. The remains were brought on to Montreal
and there interred. He had not yet completed his fifty-seventh year when he
passed away.
In his death the Hebrew community sustained a loss whose magnitude
could scarcely be overestimated. His self-sacrificing devotion to the service
of his race, his ceaseless labor in everything which could elevate and
promote both their moral and intellectual welfare, his quick readiness to
assuage, with kind counsel and help, the lot of those in adversity, and the
rare talents which he had displayed in his multifarious writings, had won for

him the warmest admiration and attachment of his people and had gained
him a reputation among them that was world-wide. His loss, indeed, was
scarcely less regretted by Gentile than by Jew, for the prominence which his
scholarly attainments had acquired for him among Canadian litterateurs, the
active role which he had for thirty-five years played in our various learned
bodies, and the distinguished position which he held in our leading
university, achieved for him an illustrious place among Canada’s public
men.
Dr. de Sola was married in 1852 to Esther Joseph, the youngest daughter of
Henry Joseph, of Berthier, one of the earliest Jewish settlers in this country.
Of his several children, the eldest son, the Rev. Meldola de Sola, succeeded
him as rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal, and
another son, Clarence I. de Sola, is general manager of the Belgian
syndicate, “Comptoir Belgo-Canadien.”

ROBERT MEIGHEN.

The history of Canada’s great industrial and commercial growth during the
past thirty or forty years is but the history of such men as Robert Meighen
one of the foremost business men of his generation, whose intense and
intelligently directed activity constituted a potent force in the material
development and progress of not only the city and province of his adoption
but various other sections of the Dominion as well. His birth occurred at
Dungiven, near Londonderry, Ireland, April 18, 1838, his parents being
Robert and Mary (McLeghan) Meighen, whose family numbered five
children. The family history shows a long line of Irish ancestors.
Robert Meighen was educated at Perth, Ontario, for following the father’s
death the mother brought her family to the new world, settling at Perth,
where her sons were educated and established themselves in business as
retail and wholesale merchants. The firm of A. Meighen & Brothers has for
many years been one of the most extensive mercantile firms doing business
in the old Bathurst district. Robert Meighen carried on business in
partnership with his brother at Perth, Ontario, until 1879, when he removed
to Montreal and entered into business relations with his brother-in-law, Sir

George Stephen, later Lord Mount Stephen, whom he succeeded as
president of the New Brunswick Railway, which now forms part of the
Canadian Pacific Railway system. Successful from the outset of his
business career, Mr. Meighen continually extended his efforts into other
fields. He became one of the founders of the Lake of the Woods Milling
Company, establishing and operating mills and elevators at Keewatin and
Portage la Prairie, which are among the largest and best equipped in the
world. Shortly after the organization of this company Robert Meighen
became its president, which position he retained till the time of his death,
directing its policy and formulating the plans upon which the mammoth
business was constructed. This represented, however, but one phase of his
activity. He carried his efforts into many fields, none of them failing to
profit by his cooperation.

ROBERT MEIGHEN

“The Gazette,” at the time of Mr. Meighen’s death, said in part: “Mr.
Meighen was a self-made man and was proud to designate himself as such.
From the day he entered business pursuits at Perth, many years ago, down
to the time he became a director of the Canadian Pacific Railway, an
institution he had championed from its inception, in commerce, in finance
and in imperial politics, Robert Meighen was never at home except on the
firing line. Although the fact is only perhaps known to the newspaper
fraternity and to some of the leaders of tariff reform in England, he
advocated closer relations between the mother country and the outlying
dependencies of the empire even before Mr. Chamberlain took the platform
in England as the champion of such a policy.
“Mr. Meighen was known in eastern Ontario as a clever business man, a
follower of Sir John A. Macdonald, and as a man who had ideas and could
fearlessly express them on the stump and at the fireside, many years before
he came to Montreal. It was ere his removal to this city that he had secured,
most successfully, the right of way for the Ontario & Quebec Railway, now
the Montreal & Toronto section of the Canadian Pacific, and later on he was
entrusted with the promotion of a bill which was of the utmost importance
to that railway. Mr. Meighen was not a member of parliament, but he stated
his case to the members outside and in the lobbies of the house with such
forcefulness, such clarity of view and in so straightforward a manner that
few could withstand his cogent arguments. It was a tribute to his power that
Sir Richard Cartwright’s denunciation of him was quite as vehement as the
thunderbolts which the chief antagonist of the great railway project used to
launch against Sir John Macdonald, Sir Charles Tupper and the other
parliamentary giants of the day.
“Mr. Meighen believed not only in the Canadian Pacific project itself, but
also in the ultimate value of the great tracts of land lying for a thousand
miles along to the north of where the line was being run away up to the
Saskatchewan, and, if he died a rich man, it was due to abiding faith in the
future of Canada’s western domain and in the ultimate development of the
Dominion as a whole. It was in reply to a jocular observation from Mr.
Choate, the then American ambassador at the court of St. James, who had
asked Mr. Meighen when Canada was going to throw in her lot with the
United States, that the Montreal imperialist declared that it was customary

for the larger unit to absorb the smaller, and no doubt at her pleasure
Canada would follow the established precedent.
“A good many shrewd Montreal merchants smiled when Mr. Meighen came
from a small Ontario town to this city as the promoter of a great industry,
but many months had not passed before they discovered that both in
commerce and finance a rival worthy of their keenest steel had taken his
place amongst them and ever after, when any important subject was up for
discussion on the floors of the Board of Trade, the opinions of the man from
Perth, uttered with characteristic Irish eloquence and wit, invariably
commanded respect and attention. His fellow members did not always agree
with him, but they were always ready to admit that he was sincere and that
he spoke the truth as he felt it.
“Returning from England some years ago, when everything spelt unrest in
industrial Britain, Mr. Meighen gave an interview to The Gazette which has
perhaps been quoted more frequently by politicians on both continents, as
well as by Canadian public men of all parties, than any other of his
utterances. Mr. Meighen, who was always a great reader, declared that
England at that time could only be compared to Athens when Diogenes, the
Greek philosopher, went out with his lantern looking, as he said, for a man.
He said, however, in the course of that interview, that the man would be
found, and sure enough it was not long before Joseph Chamberlain was
entering upon his whirlwind campaign in favor of imperial preference and
the absolute unity of the British empire. Mr. Meighen was denounced more
than once at the Montreal Board of Trade, but a good many of the men who
came to scoff remained to pray, to use Mr. Meighen’s own graphic
language. Three years ago, when a resolution was to be introduced before
the Montreal Board of Trade on the policy of imperial preferential trade,
Mr. Meighen was particularly anxious that it should be fathered by a leader
in commerce and finance. He prepared the resolution, called upon the late
Sir George Drummond, president of the Bank of Montreal and universally
admitted to be the first authority on matters of trade and finance in the
Dominion, asking him to move it. Sir George Drummond’s answer was
characteristic of the man. ‘Mr. Meighen,’ he replied, ‘this resolution meets
my views exactly, but the honor of moving it belongs to you and you alone
and I will take a second place. You will move the resolution and I will be

only too happy to second it.’ Mr. Meighen delivered a masterly address on
that occasion and the resolution was carried.
“His greatest energy was centered in the development of the company over
which he presided up to the hour of his death, yet he stated not very long
ago that he was shaping things in such a manner as would permit younger
men to assume the responsibilities of management and that after the
million-dollar bond issue had been retired he would then feel that he could
take a rest.
“The late president of the Lake of the Woods Company was from the outset
an uncompromising opponent of the Washington reciprocity pact and he did
not hesitate to state on every offered occasion that the ratification of such a
treaty would be a severe blow aimed at the unity of the empire, and a
decided mistake in the widest interests.
“He was the confidential friend and associate in various business
enterprises of both Lord Mount Stephen and Lord Strathcona. These
eminent men had implicit confidence in Mr. Meighen’s business judgment,
and as a matter of fact many other men high up in imperial statecraft came
to him for advice on both Canadian and British trade matters. Indeed, some
of the best speeches delivered on the unionist side during the last two
British elections drew their information from, and were in part, inspired by
the ideas of this foremost, perhaps, of Canadian tariff reformers.”
The same paper said editorially: “A worthy and widely respected citizen
was lost to Montreal by the death yesterday morning of Mr. Robert
Meighen. In business he won marked success. He helped in no small way to
show the great possibilities of the milling trade of Canada and so profited
the country as well as himself and his associates. He judiciously employed
the wealth that came to him and greatly increased his store. The largest
business enterprises sought his counsel on their directorates and profited by
his connection with them. He was a man of ideas in matters outside of
commerce, and held and advocated views about the country and the empire
with vigor and courage and the broadest loyalty. In private life his sincerity,
earnestness and kindliness caused all men to give him their regard. In his
capacity as merchant, citizen and man he rose to high stature; and at a ripe
old age closed a worthy career, leaving a memory that is a help to what is
good and creditable in business life.”

Among his business connections, not already mentioned, Mr. Meighen was
managing director of the Cornwall Manufacturing Company, a director of
the Canada Northwest Land Company, the Bank of Toronto, the Dominion
Transportation Company, the St. John Bridge & Railway Company, the
Montreal Street Railway and the New Brunswick Land Company. His
activities likewise extended to other fields having to do with many subjects
of vital interest to city and country. He was a director of the Montreal Parks
and Playground Association and was president of the New Brunswick Fish
and Game Club. He was likewise vice president of the King Edward
Memorial Committee of Montreal, was chairman of the Canadian board of
the Phoenix Assurance Company and was a governor of the Royal Victoria,
the Western and Maternity Hospitals of Montreal. The Montreal Standard
named him as one of the twenty-three men at the basis of Canadian finance,
and it was a recognized fact that few men were more familiar with the
problems of finance or did more to establish a safe monetary system. Mr.
Meighen belonged to various prominent social organizations, including the
St. James Club, the Mount Royal Club, the Canada Club and the Montreal
Club.
He was a Presbyterian, a member of St. Paul’s church and chairman of its
board of trustees. All his life Mr. Meighen was a firm believer in the
copartnership of capital and labor and in the coexisting duties, on a fair
basis, of one to the other. He realized and carried out the idea of their inter-
dependency. When labor had contributed to the success of capital he never
allowed it go without recognition and its just reward, with the result of
absolute confidence on the part of his employes in his fairness and regard
for their interests, and a willingness to give, in turn, their loyal and honest
support to capital. Above all Mr. Meighen had keen human sympathies. He
delighted in the energetic young man cutting out his road to success, but
this did not prevent him from having patience and sympathy with those
who, perhaps through lack of natural gifts or unfortunate circumstances,
found life an uphill pull. In astonishing numbers both kinds of men seemed
to bring their successes and their failures to him, and to both, provided they
showed honesty of purpose, he would give his time, his advice and his help
in the open-hearted way characteristic of a man who had not a single
ungenerous impulse in his nature.

At the time of his death when the press throughout Canada was giving
appreciations of his ability and of his success one of his intimate friends
remarked, “They have omitted the biggest thing about him—his heart”—
and so it was. When these two, great heart and much ability, go hand in
hand and work together, one vitalizing, as it were, the conceptions of the
other, a potent force is felt to be abroad. Well is it for our Canadian business
world to have had such a force in its midst as the late Robert Meighen truly
was. He died when still, one might say, at the height of his activities and
with a heavy burden of work upon him, but to work was his pleasure. His
loss was deeply deplored by all who knew him and he left behind him a
record of a man who in all things was the soul of honor and an example to
those who come after—“Follow on.”
Mr. Meighen left a widow, Elsie Stephen, daughter of the late William
Stephen, formerly of Dufftown, Scotland, and three children, Lieutenant
Colonel F. S. Meighen, who has succeeded his father as president of the
Lake of the Woods Milling Company, Mrs. R. Wilson Reford and Mrs. R.
O. Harley.

WILLIAM ERNEST BOLTON.

Twenty years’ connection with the real-estate business has brought William
Ernest Bolton into prominence and today he figures as a controlling factor
in some of the leading real-estate companies of Montreal. He was born in
this city April 11, 1873, a son of Richard and Elizabeth (Minchin) Bolton.
His education was acquired in the schools of his native city, and early in his
business career he became identified with real-estate activity in which
connection he has remained for many years as a well known and successful
real-estate broker. He has been identified with many important property
transfers and with important development of real-estate interests. He is now
a director of the Montreal Loan & Mortgage Company; president of the
Birmingham-Montreal Realty Company, Limited; a director of the Midland
Investment Company, Limited; of the Richelieu Realty Company, Limited;
of the Renforth Realty Company, Limited, and of the Riviera Realty
Company, Limited. These are among the most important corporations in

that branch of business having to do with the property interests and
consequent development and progress of the city.
In Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1905, Mr. Bolton was united in marriage to
Miss Catherine Hamilton McClure and they have become the parents of two
sons, Richard and Hamilton. Mr. Bolton votes with the conservative party
but the honors and emoluments of public office have no attraction for him.
When business leaves him leisure for social enjoyment he spends his time
at the Montreal Club, the Beaconsfield Golf Club, the Winter Club, the
Montreal Country Club and the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, in
all of which he holds membership.

THORNTON DAVIDSON.

Foremost among the younger generation of business men in Montreal and
one who had attained a high standing in the financial circles of the city, was
Thornton Davidson, whose untimely death in the sinking of the steamship
Titanic, April 15, 1912, ended a career that had not only been successful,
but gave great promise for the future.
Thornton Davidson was a native of Montreal, and was born on the 17th of
May, 1880. His father was the Hon. C. Peers Davidson, D. C. L., a
distinguished jurist, and his mother Alice Mattice, second daughter of
William Mattice of Cornwall, Ontario. Reared in Montreal, Thornton
Davidson attended the city schools, graduating from high school.
Throughout his active business career he was connected with financial
interests, later becoming manager of the Montreal branch of the New York
house of Charles Head & Company.

THORNTON DAVIDSON
In 1908 he established the firm of Thornton Davidson & Company which
soon took a prominent position among the leading brokerage and
investment security houses in the city. In 1909 Mr. Davidson became a
member of the Montreal Stock Exchange. His thorough capability and great
energy were factors in the success of the business which he established and
of which he remained the head until his death. His personal popularity made
him a valued member of the club life of the city, where he held membership
in the St. James, Racquet, Montreal Hunt, Montreal Jockey, Montreal Polo,
Royal St. Lawrence Yacht, Manitou and Canada Clubs, and also in
Montreal Amateur Athletic Association.
On November 3, 1906, in Montreal, Mr. Davidson was married to Miss
Orian Hays, daughter of Charles Melville Hays. Returning from Europe in
company with his wife and the latter’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles M.

Hays, on the ill-fated Titanic, Mr. Davidson was among those brave men
who on April 15, 1912, gave precedence to women and children and went
down with the ship. Such an act is just what his friends would have
expected of Thornton Davidson in such an emergency. His associates knew
him as a capable business man and a most genial companion, but they
recognized in him also the strength of character which manifests itself in
the highest type of manhood when a crisis arises.

WILLIAM FAWCETT HAMILTON, M. D.

Important professional connections indicate the high standing of Dr.
William Fawcett Hamilton of Montreal, who, in addition to an extensive
private practice has done much hospital work. He is a son of Gustavus W.
and Eleanor (Goodwin) Hamilton, and was born in Baie Verte, New
Brunswick. His early education was acquired in the schools of his native
town and in Upper Sackville and then, having determined upon the practice
of medicine as a life work, he entered McGill University of Montreal, from
which he was graduated with the class of 1891, receiving the degrees of M.
D. and C. M. He has now successfully practiced his profession in this city
for more than two decades and has advanced steadily to a place of
prominence as a representative of the medical profession. From 1891 until
1894 he was medical superintendent of the Montreal General Hospital and
in the latter year became assistant physician of the Royal Victoria Hospital,
and upon the death of Dr. James Stewart, in 1906, he was appointed
attending physician of that institution. He has proven himself a man of
ability and public opinion has accorded him rank with the eminent
physicians of the city. He is now associate professor of clinical medicine at
McGill University and as an instructor displays capability in imparting
readily, clearly, concisely and forcibly to others the knowledge that he has
acquired. In 1909 he was elected a member of the Board of Victorian Order
of Nurses, and he is a member of the Association of American Physicians
and vice president of the Montreal Medico-Chirurgical Society. Through
these connections he keeps in close touch with the advanced work of the
profession and has himself been a leader along the line of professional
progress.

In June, 1897, Dr. Hamilton married Miss Janet Mills of Westmount, P. Q.
Aside from his activity in the professional field Dr. Hamilton has done
important public service as a director of the Young Men’s Christian
Association and as senator of the Montreal Wesleyan Theological College.
He is an active and helpful member of the Methodist church, and his social
nature finds expression in his membership in the University Club and the
Montreal Country Club.

HON. MICHEL MATHIEU.

Hon. Michel Mathieu has engraven his name high upon the list of
Montreal’s eminent jurists, but has now retired from active connection with
the profession, spending the evening of life in the enjoyment of well earned
rest. He has passed the seventy-fifth milestone, having been born at Sorel,
province of Quebec, December 20, 1838, a son of the late Joseph and
Edwidge (Vandal) Mathieu. His education was acquired under private
tuition and in the College of St. Hyacinthe, followed by a professional
course in Laval University. He was admitted to the notarial profession in
1864 and was called to the Montreal bar as an advocate in 1865. His
practice of his profession has been combined with active public service. In
1866 he was chosen sheriff of Richelieu and continued in that position for
six years. He successfully practiced his profession at Sorel and while at the
bar was closely associated with journalism bearing upon his profession,
being the publisher of La Revue Legale, together with some annotated
reports. In 1880 he was created king’s counsel by the Marquis of Lorne. He
became widely known as an educator, for in 1886 he became a member of
the law faculty of Laval University, receiving in that year the degree of LL.
D., and becoming dean of the faculty, which connection he still retains.
It is a well known fact that members of the bar more than representatives of
other professions are prominent in public office. The reasons for this are
obvious and need no amplification here, for the qualities which fit one for
success in law practice also prepare him for the thorough understanding of
involved problems affecting the public welfare, and the habit of analytical
reasoning is as forceful and valuable in one connection as in the other.

Judge Mathieu sat for Richelieu in the house of commons, representing the
conservative interests from 1872 until 1874. He was then defeated but
represented the same constituency in the local parliament from 1875 until
1878. He took his place upon the bench as puisne judge of the superior
court on the 3d of October, 1881, and for twenty-eight years interpreted law
in opinions which were notably free from partiality and bias. His decisions
indicate strong mentality, careful analysis and a thorough knowledge of the
law. The judge on the bench fails more frequently, perhaps, from a
deficiency in that broad-mindedness which not only comprehends the
details of a situation quickly and that insures a complete self-control under
even the most exasperating conditions than from any other cause; and the
judge who makes a success in the discharge of his multitudinous, delicate
duties is a man of well rounded character, finely balanced mind and of
splendid intellectual attainments. That Judge Mathieu is regarded as such a
jurist is a uniformly accepted fact. He figured also in public life as a royal
commissioner to inquire into certain matters concerning the good
government of the province in 1892. He presided at the celebrated Shortis
case for murder in the ’90s; in 1910 he lectured on the Canadian
constitution and in July of that year he was appointed a royal commissioner
to revise, consolidate and modify the municipal code of Quebec.
Judge Mathieu was married in 1863 to Marie Delina Thirza, a daughter of
the late Captain St. Louis of Sorel, province of Quebec. She died in 1870
and in 1881 Judge Mathieu wedded Marie Amelie Antoinette, a daughter of
the late Hon. D. M. Armstrong, M. L. C. The death of Mrs. Marie A. A.
Mathieu occurred in April, 1898. Judge Mathieu now resides at The
Marlborough in Montreal. His religious belief is that of the Roman Catholic
church. Something of his standing is indicated in the words of Dr. J. Reade,
who spoke of him as “much esteemed, especially by the students and
younger members of the bar,” while the Montreal Gazette said of him, “He
is a judge, painstaking and capable and with a grasp of the law and its
meaning that few can equal.” His influence has been far-reaching and
beneficial; it has touched the general interests of society along many lines
and has been a factor in maintaining the legal status upon which rests the
stability and prosperity of a country, the life and liberty of the individual.

HON. CHARLES SERAPHIM RODIER.

Along the path of broad usefulness and activity Hon. Charles Seraphim
Rodier advanced to prominence and success. He was a pioneer contractor,
lumber merchant and manufacturer of Montreal and eventually came to
figure prominently in financial circles. He was born in this city, October 14,
1818, and his life record spans seventy-two years, drawing to its close on
the 26th of January, 1890. His grandfather was a physician in the French
army and leaving Paris came to Canada, settling in Montreal in the middle
of the eighteenth century. His father was Jean Baptiste Rodier, who married
Miss Montreuil, daughter of a well known navigator who commanded
vessels sailing from Montreal.
The opportunities accorded Charles Seraphim Rodier in his youth were
somewhat limited. He pursued his education in a church school, but at the
age of fourteen years put aside his text-books in order that he might earn his
own living. He was apprenticed to the carpenter’s trade and for his services
received a wage of one dollar per day. Thus from a humble position in the
business world he steadily worked his way upward until long prior to his
death he had reached a place in the millionaire class. He applied himself
thoroughly to the mastery of his trade and when but eighteen years of age
began contracting on his own account and gained a good patronage. About
the year 1846 he began the manufacture of threshing machines on St. Peter
Street, now St. Martin, and for the remainder of his life was to be found
almost daily at his office at No. 62 St. Martin. The business prospered from
the beginning and machines that were made there over a half century ago
are still repaired there. Each step in his business career brought him a
broader outlook and wider opportunities. He was the owner of freight and
passenger vessels and was one of the founders of the Jacques Cartier Bank,
in which he placed one hundred and forty-five thousand dollars. He acted as
both vice president and director of that institution and was connected with
several joint stock companies, his opinions carrying weight in their
management, for his advice was always considered sound and his judgment
discriminating in regard to business affairs.
Aside from his personal interests, he was for over fifty years active in
public life. In 1838 he was elected alderman for St. Antoine ward of
Montreal but could not take his seat until later when he became of age. For

nine years he served in the council, being elected three times by
acclamation. Politically he was a stanch liberal-conservative and three times
he refused a senatorship, but later, at the urgent request of his family and
friends, he accepted in 1888, being gazetted senator on the 17th of
December, of that year, for the division of Mille Isles. He last attended
parliament the week before his death and was last at his desk on the 24th of
January, 1890. He gave careful consideration to the grave questions which
came up for settlement and stanchly supported any movement which he
considered of vital worth. His activities also extended to other lines. He was
president of the St. Jean Baptiste Society; was warden of Notre Dame
church; and president of St. Vincent de Paul Society. He was also lieutenant
colonel of the Sixty-fourth Beauharnois Battalion at the time of its
formation and he was ever a generous contributor to religious, educational
and charitable institutions.
Senator Rodier was united in marriage in 1848 to Miss Angelique Lapierre,
a daughter of Andre Lapierre. The death of Mr. Rodier occurred January 26,
1890, when he had reached the age of seventy-two years, while his wife
survived until March 24, 1907. They were the parents of four sons and four
daughters.

ALEXANDER C. HENRY.

In business circles of Montreal the name of Alexander C. Henry was well
known, for from 1899 until his death, three years later, he was purchasing
agent for the entire system of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the magnitude
and importance of his duties making his position a most difficult and
responsible one. He was born at Beamsville, Canada, in 1849, and after
mastering the branches of learning taught in the public schools he attended
the Upper Canada College, at Toronto. Subsequently he removed to
Montreal, and gradually working his way upward in business connections
became, in 1884, assistant purchasing agent for the Canadian Pacific
Railway, and in 1899 was made general purchasing agent for the entire
system. His ability, fidelity, indefatigable energy and enterprise brought him
to the prominent position which he occupied. At the time of his death Sir

Thomas Shaughnessy, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, paid high
tribute to his memory and bore testimony to his honesty, which was
manifest in his careful accounting for every penny, although in his capacity
of purchasing agent he expended over one hundred and two million dollars.
On the 30th of November, 1882, in Montreal, Mr. Henry was united in
marriage to Miss Agnes Wilson, of England, and to them were born three
children, two of whom are living, H. Gordon, being a resident of Cleveland,
Ohio, and the other, A. Wilson, of Montreal. Mr. Henry held membership in
St. James the Apostle church. He was a public-spirited citizen, active in
support of any movement which he deemed of vital worth in the upbuilding
and progress of the community. He belonged to St. James Club, the Forest
and Stream Club and others, and he had an extensive circle of friends who
held him in the highest esteem. Mr. Henry passed away on February 2,
1902.

GEORGE FREDERICK BENSON.

In manufacturing and commercial circles of Montreal the name of George
Frederick Benson is well known. Important business concerns have profited
by his cooperation, have felt the stimulus of his energy and enterprise and
have been quickened by his close application and careful control. Many of
Montreal’s best known and most successful business men are numbered
among her native sons, to which class Mr. Benson belongs. His father,
William T. Benson, a native of Kendal, Westmoreland, England, was a
member of the federal parliament for the constituency of South Grenville,
Ontario, in which county the village of Cardinal (formerly called
Edwardsburg) is situated. There the late W. T. Benson resided for twenty-
seven years, after establishing there in 1858 the industry, so well known for
many years throughout the Dominion of Canada as The Edwardsburg
Starch Company and now forming the Edwardsburg Works of The Canada
Starch Company, Ltd. The late W. T. Benson married in England, before
coming to Canada, Helen Wilson of Acton Grange, Cheshire, England, and
their only son was George Frederick Benson, the subject of this review.

He was educated in England at Uppingham School and Oxford University,
but returned to Canada, after the sudden death of his father in 1885, to take
charge of his father’s varied interests. After first confining his work to the
management of the firm of W. T. Benson & Company, importers of foreign
wools and chemicals at Montreal, he was elected president of The
Edwardsburg Starch Company in 1894, and since the formation of The
Canada Starch Company in 1906 he has been its president and managing
director. He is likewise a director of the West Kootenay Power & Light
Company, and thus his interests have become extensive and important,
connecting him with leading manufacturing, commercial and industrial
interests, not only in the east but also in the west.
In October, 1890, Mr. Benson was united in marriage to Miss Etheldred
Norton, a daughter of the late George Frothingham of the well known firm
of Frothingham & Workman, and they reside at No. 15 Ontario Avenue,
Montreal. Mr. Benson gives his political allegiance to the conservative
party and in religious faith is an Anglican. He has been an active member of
the Montreal Board of Trade, and was treasurer for the year 1913. He has a
wide acquaintance among leading club men of the city, holding membership
in a number of the most important clubs of Montreal, including the St.
James, Mount Royal, Canadian, Canada, Forest and Stream, Montreal Hunt,
Montreal Racquet, Royal Montreal Golf and Royal St. Lawrence Yacht
Clubs. He is also a member of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club of Toronto
and an active member of the Thousand Islands Yacht Club in the Thousand
Islands district, where he has a most attractive summer residence.

LOUIS N. DUPUIS.

Louis N. Dupuis is one of Montreal’s well known business men and
citizens, whose connection with varied and important commercial
enterprises in that city, has gained for him success and high standing as well
as an enviable position in business and financial circles. He was born at St.
Jacques l’Achigan, Montcalm county, October 17, 1855, a son of Joseph
Dupuis and Euphrasie Richard. He attended Archambault’s Catholic
Commercial Academy now called Plateau school and entered upon his

business career as junior clerk in the employ of his late brother, J. Naz.
Dupuis, in 1868. While at this time, Mr. Dupuis was but a lad, yet he
applied himself closely and learned the business rapidly.
He was one of the founders in 1876 of Dupuis Freres, Limited, one of the
best known mercantile houses in Montreal, and during the first ten years of
this firm’s existence he took an important part in the management of its
affairs and was no small factor in its success.
On the 1st of January, 1886, Louis N. Dupuis retired from the firm, since
which time he has given his attention to various commercial enterprises, his
sound judgment constituting an active and effective force in capable
management.
Mr. Dupuis has been for a number of years extensively identified with real
estate interests in Montreal, and in this connection has taken a prominent
part in the city’s development. He is president of the Eastmount Land
Company, also president of La Compagnie General d’Immeubles, Limitee,
and president of the Merchants and Employers Guarantee and Accident
Company. In these companies as well as in others with which he has been
identified, his sound business judgment and foresight have been substantial
contributions to their success.
On the 25th of April, 1881, Mr. Dupuis was married at L’Assomption to
Miss Marie Melanie Panet Levesque, the second daughter of Pierre Thomas
Panet Levesque, a land surveyor. Mr. Panet Levesque was seigneur of
d’Ailleboust and Ramsey, which two seigneuries are situated in the county
of Joliette, P. Q. Mr. and Mrs. Dupuis have ten children, living: Anne Marie;
Amelie; Pauline and Celine; Pierre Louis, a well known young advocate of
Montreal who was married on the 15th of January, 1913, to Miss Carmel
Girouard, daughter of Joseph Girouard, ex-member of parliament of St.
Benoit, Two Mountains; Rosaire, one of the rising young notaries of
Montreal, and of whom further mention is made elsewhere in this work;
François; Camille; Roger; and Jean.

LOUIS N. DUPUIS
Mr. Dupuis holds to the political faith of the conservative party and to the
religious faith of the Roman Catholic church. He is a Knight of Columbus
of Conseil Lafontaine and belongs to the Chapleau Fish and Game Club and
the Canadian Club. Thoroughly progressive in his ideas, he has kept well
informed both by reading and travel. As long ago as 1874, Mr. Dupuis
visited Fort Garry, now the city of Winnipeg, when the journey required
fourteen days from Montreal, and too, when the Red River country was
considered the “Far West.” He has since then visited the Pacific coast no
less than five times, as well as various sections of the United States. He is
equally familiar with England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as well as
continental Europe, as it was formerly his custom to make semi-annual trips
to Europe in connection with his business affairs. He enjoys the outdoor
life, especially the sports of the forest. His public service has been well

performed. At the end of 1909 he was selected by the citizens committee to
form part of the new administration of the city as commissioner and was
elected by the city at large in the election held on the 2d of February, 1910.

ROUER JOSEPH ROY, K. C.

Rouer Joseph Roy, jurist, linguist and an interested student of literary,
scientific and antiquarian subjects, was born in Montreal, January 7, 1821,
his parents being the late Joseph Roy, M. P. P., and Amelia (Lusignan) Roy.
The former, of French descent, rose to a position of prominence,
representing his riding in the provincial legislature. His wife was connected
with the distinguished family of Rouer de Villeray.
Rouer Joseph Roy attended Montreal College, from which he was
graduated with honors in the presence of Lord Durham. Having determined
upon the practice of law as his life profession, he entered the law office of
the Hon. Mr. Sullivan in 1838 and after four years of thorough and
comprehensive study was called to the bar, in 1842. Almost from the
beginning his career was a successful one and after several years devoted to
active law practice he was appointed joint city attorney for Montreal in
1862, filling that position continuously until 1876, when he became the sole
legal advisor of the city, remaining in that office until he resigned in 1898.
He afterward filled the position of consulting city attorney. In 1864 he was
elected syndic of the Quebec bar and so continued for four years. In the
same year he was made queen’s counsel as well as being elected president
of the committee in charge of the bar library, which office he continuously
and honorably filled for thirty years. In 1887 he was unanimously chosen
batonnier of the Montreal bar and the following year was chosen batonnier
general of the province. He held high professional rank and on several
occasions appeared before the judicial committee of the privy council in
England.
In January, 1857, Mr. Roy was married to Miss Corinne Beaudry, a
daughter of the late Hon. J. L. Beaudry, M. L. C., who in 1857 was mayor
of Montreal. Mr. Roy not only enjoyed a high reputation as a lawyer but
also as a scholar, being widely known as a linguist, speaking fluently

Greek, Latin, Italian and French as well as English. For many years he
occupied the presidency of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society. He
was one of the last survivors of the Sons of Liberty, an organization which
played a most important part at the time of the rebellion of 1837. His
religious faith was that of the Roman Catholic church and he filled the
office of church warden of the parish of Notre Dame. His life was
characterized by a nobility that lifted him above those traits which mar
character and when death called him on the 27th of July, 1905, only words
of commendation and respect were spoken concerning his life work. He had
done things worthy to be written and had written things worthy to be read,
and he left to posterity an unblemished name, linked with many deeds that
won him prominence and honor.

CHARLES MACKAY COTTON.

A man of force, experience and capacity, Charles Mackay Cotton has made
for himself an enviable position at the bar of Quebec and is numbered
among the most able and successful advocates of Montreal, where he is in
active practice as a member of the firm of Cotton & Westover. He was born
in Durham township, Missisquoi county, Quebec, February 22, 1878, and is
a representative of a well known Canadian family of English extraction,
being a son of Sheriff Cotton, a grandson of Dr. Cotton and a great-
grandson of Rev. Charles Caleb Cotton, B. A. (Oxford), who came from
England in 1799 and was one of the pioneer Anglican clergymen in the
eastern townships.
Charles Mackay Cotton acquired his preliminary education at Cowansville
Academy, Feller Institute, Grande Ligne, Quebec, and afterward entered
McGill University, Montreal, from which he was graduated with the degree
of B. A. in 1899, winning the high honor of the gold medal for general
proficiency. From the same institution he was afterwards graduated B. C. L.
in 1902, taking at this time the Macdonald scholarship. In his student days
he gave every evidence of the ability and power upon which his present
success is founded for besides the honors above mentioned he was class
orator in science, arts and law. His record in McGill University is very

creditable and one of which he has every reason to be proud, and its
promise has been fully justified by his later accomplishments in the
professional field. Mr. Cotton was called to the bar as advocate in 1902 and
immediately afterwards went abroad in order to get the advantages of
foreign travel and to supplement his excellent legal training by further
study. He attended lectures at the law school of the University of
Montpelier in 1903, thus completing an exhaustive and comprehensive
legal education.
Mr. Cotton opened his first office in Sweetsburg, this province, practising in
partnership with J. C. McCorkill, and proving able, farsighted and
discriminating in the discharge of his professional duties. From Sweetsburg
he came to Montreal, and he is today one of the representative citizens of
this community, prominent in his profession and a leading factor in the
promotion of those projects and measures which have for their object
municipal growth, advancement and progress. The firm of Cotton &
Westover is one of the strongest of its kind in the city and connected
through a wide and representative patronage with a great deal of important
litigation. Mr. Cotton is recognized as an able advocate, possessed of a
comprehensive knowledge of the law and a practical ability in its
application, and his developed powers and wide experience are bringing
him constantly increasing prominence in his chosen field.
Mr. Cotton is a member of the Anglican church and was formerly a captain
in the Fifteenth Shefford Field Battery. A strong liberal, he takes an
intelligent interest in public affairs, opposing political corruption wherever
he finds it and supporting by word and action pure and clean politics.
Viewed from any standpoint his has been a useful and successful career, and
the future undoubtedly holds for him further honors and continued
prosperity.

WILLIAM ALEXANDER HASTINGS.

William Alexander Hastings, for many years vice president and general
manager of the Lake of the Woods Milling Company, Ltd., and one of the
best known men in his line of business in Canada, was born at Petite Cote,

March 6, 1852, a son of George and Margaret (Ogilvie) Hastings. George
Hastings came from Boston, Massachusetts, and located at Petite Cote
where he was engaged in farming.
William A. Hastings pursued his education in the schools of his native city
and began his business career as a clerk in the Exchange Bank. His progress
was rapid and he was promoted to manager of the Bedford (Quebec)
branch, and later manager of the Exeter branch. Subsequently he was
appointed treasurer of the St. Joseph (Missouri) Gas Company, serving until
1882 when he became identified with the milling business in which he
achieved such notable success. In that year, with his brother, George V.
Hastings, he became associated with the Ogilvie Company at Winnipeg,
building and opening the flour mills there with great success. In 1888 he
severed his connection with the above firm and became vice president and
general manager of the Lake of the Woods Milling Company, filling this
prominent and important position until his death, which occurred on May
23, 1903.
Mr. Hastings had thoroughly acquainted himself with the business in its
different phases so that he was well qualified to assume the control of one
of the largest businesses of its kind in the Dominion, and to his rare
judgment and marked executive ability is credited, to no small extent, the
high degree of prosperity enjoyed by the company whose affairs he so ably
directed.
Robert Meighen, president of the Lake of the Woods Milling Company, said
that he had been associated with Mr. Hastings for thirteen years and that
any business which passed through his hands passed through the hands of
God’s noblest work—an honest man. Others bore equally strong testimony
as to his enterprise and his thorough reliability. He never weighed an act in
the scale of public policy but always measured his deeds by the standard of
upright principle.
In 1884 Mr. Hastings was united in marriage to Miss Georgina Roy Ure,
daughter of the late George P. Ure, and they became the parents of the
following children: Margaret Ogilvie, who died in infancy; William Roy, of
Montreal; and John Ogilvie, of Montreal.
Mr. Hastings was lacking in none of the qualities which make for upright
manhood and progressive citizenship, and his cooperation with any

movement or plan largely insured the successful outcome of the same. In
1890 he became a member of the Corn Exchange and in 1893 was elected a
member of the committee of management, in which office he continued
until 1898, serving for the last three years of that period as treasurer.
Throughout his entire life Canada numbered him among her best citizens
and the record which he made reflected credit upon the Dominion,
constituting a factor in its material development.

ROBERT DENNISON MARTIN.

One of the best known men in the grain trade in Canada and one whose
untimely death cut short a business career that had been highly successful
and was full of greater possibilities for the future was Robert Dennison
Martin, who was born at Selby, Ontario, October 18, 1854, a son of William
and Elizabeth (Thompson) Martin. The father was a farmer and the
boyhood of Robert Dennison Martin was spent in the manner of a farmer’s
son of that locality and period. His education, acquired at the place of his
nativity, was somewhat limited. He remained in the district in which he was
born until after attaining his majority. Hearing of the possibilities of the
western country, he went to Manitoba and near Deloraine he secured a
homestead which he developed and improved. As he managed to gather
together a little capital, he turned his attention to merchandising, becoming
a member of the hardware firm of Faulkner & Martin at Deloraine, an
association which continued for a number of years after his removal to
Montreal. It was at Deloraine that he first became connected with the grain
business in which he was destined to win notable success. In the buying of
grain he became associated with Alfred P. Stuart under the firm name of
The R. D. Martin Company, a partnership that continued until the death of
Mr. Martin.
After a few years residence in Winnipeg Mr. Martin came to Montreal in
1899, and with the exception of a year spent in Napanee and a year in
Kingston, Montreal was his place of residence throughout the remainder of
his life. The business of The R. D. Martin Company enjoyed a steady and
prosperous growth and to its development Mr. Martin devoted his entire

attention and rare ability. Since his demise the business has been continued
under the name of the British Empire Grain Company, Limited. Mr. Martin
suffered from ill health for several years prior to his demise which occurred
at his beautiful new home at No. 1 Murray Avenue, Westmount, which was
completed only a few weeks prior to his demise, which occurred on the
28th of June, 1905.

ROBERT D. MARTIN
It was on the 18th of May, 1894, at Winnipeg, that Mr. Martin was united in
marriage to Miss Helen Moncrieff Morton, who was born in Perth,
Scotland, a daughter of Duncan and Jessie (Watson) Morton. The father
died when Mrs. Martin was but two years of age and her mother survived
until a few years ago. Mrs. Martin came to Canada in 1892 and resided in
Winnipeg previous to her marriage, a brother having preceded her to that
place. She is one of five children born to her parents, four of whom survive,

as follows: Jessie, the wife of George Banks of Perth, Scotland; Duncan,
residing in Winnipeg; Helen M., who is Mrs. R. D. Martin; and Madeline,
the wife of Andrew C. Craig of Winnipeg. To Mr. and Mrs. Martin were
born five children: Charles Stuart, a student in McGill University; and
Helen Elizabeth, Edith Laura, Jessie Watson and Robert Henry, all at home.
Mr. Martin was quiet and domestic in his tastes and habits. He held
membership in only one club, the Canada Club, and did not enter actively
into its affairs. He was very fond of his family and found his chief delight in
the home circle, being a loving and kind husband and father. As a business
man he was alert and energetic, ready for any emergency and he seemed to
pass by no opportunity that pointed to honorable success. Contemporaries
and colleagues had the highest respect for him and more than that, he
gained the warm friendship and esteem of a large majority of his
acquaintances. Although a later arrival in Montreal than many of his
business associates, he gained prominence among them and attained an
enviable position in the business world. He was a member of the Board of
Trade and his opinions carried weight among its representatives and in
other connections which had to do with the city’s welfare. He was truly
Canadian in spirit and interests and his devotion to the public good was one
of his notable traits of character.

J. LOUIS A. GUIMOND.

J. Louis A. Guimond, a notary public practicing in Montreal and interested
in business enterprises which connect him with activity in the real-estate
field, was born in the town of Beauharnois, in the province of Quebec on
the 14th of February, 1877. His father was Cyrille Guimond, a merchant
and manufacturer, who married Justine Dubreuil of Pointe-aux-Trembles. In
the pursuit of his education he attended the Seminary of St. Hyacinthe and
was graduated in letters with the class of 1896, while his scientific course
was pursued in College St. Laurent, from which he graduated in 1898. He
has since been an active representative of the notarial profession in which
connection he has secured a large clientage that makes his practice a
profitable one. His life has been one of intense and intelligently directed

activity and aside from his professional duties he is acting as a director and
is a shareholder in a real-estate company. He is likewise secretary-treasurer
of two municipalities and thus takes a helpful interest in public affairs as
well as in the conduct of private business interests.
On the 24th of May, 1909, at Iberville, P. Q., Mr. Guimond was married to
Miss Marie Louise Gayette, a daughter of Calixte Gayette. Their children
are Paul and Ives Guimond. The religious faith of the family is that of the
Catholic church and in politics Mr. Guimond is a liberal-nationalist. He is
energetic, accomplished and successful and by the consensus of public
opinion he is ranked with the representative men of Montreal. He comes of
an old and respected line of ancestors who settled in the province of Quebec
in the seventeenth century. Since that day they have not only been active
and progressive in business, but loyal in citizenship. Mr. Guimond’s lines of
life have been cast in harmony with the record of an honored ancestry and
his forbears have been no more loyal to city, province and country than he.

ROBERT H. BARRON.

A man who has founded success in the legal profession upon ability,
comprehensive knowledge, long experience and untiring industry, is Robert
H. Barron, since 1895 in active and successful practice as a notary in
Montreal. He has made continued and rapid progress in his chosen field of
labor, each year bringing him to a point in advance of the previous one, and
today the firm of Barron & Cushing, of which he is the senior member, is
one of the most reliable of its kind in the city.
Mr. Barron was graduated B. A. from McGill University in 1892 and
acquired his professional training in the same institution, completing the
law course in 1895. In October of that year he began practice in Montreal,
being taken into partnership by Mr. Charles Cushing and Mr. Robert A.
Dunton; this association continued until 1900, and Mr. Barron then
continued in partnership under the firm name of Cushing & Barron until the
death of Mr. Cushing in September, 1910. Mr. Barron then practiced alone
for about one year, when he associated himself with Dougall Cushing, his
present partner and a son of his former partner. Barron & Cushing control a

large and constantly growing business, and the firm is known to be strong
and reliable. Mr. Barron is held in high honor in professional circles of
Montreal, and his prominence stands upon the substantial foundation of
ability and merit.

ARTHUR DELISLE, Q. C.

The legal fraternity of Montreal finds an able representative in Arthur
Delisle, who not only has achieved favorable reputation in a private
capacity but has ably represented the district of Portneuf in the provincial
parliament. Capable, earnest and conscientious, he has been connected with
important litigation before the local courts and his clientele is
representative. He comes of an old and distinguished family whose
ancestors came from France in the year 1669, on the 15th of October of
which year arrived in Quebec Louis de l’Isle, of Dompierre, of the
bishopric Rouen, accompanied by his young wife, Louise des Granges, of
St. Brice of Paris, settlement being made at Pointe-aux-Trembles, of
Quebec.
Arthur Delisle was born at Portneuf and is the son of Jean and Anathalie
(Frenette) Delisle. In the acquirement of his education he attended Laval
Normal School Seminary of Quebec and Laval University of that city,
taking his degree of Master in Law (cum laude) on the 23d of December,
1882. After locating for practice in Montreal important business came to
him and as the years have passed he has become known as one of the most
able men in his profession in the city. He has every faculty of which a
lawyer may be proud, unusual familiarity with human nature and untiring
industry making him one of the most forceful members of the bar. He was
appointed queen’s counsel in 1898.
On April 22, 1890, at Quebec, Mr. Delisle was united in marriage to
Blanche Hudon, a daughter of Théophile Hudon, a prominent merchant of
Quebec. They have two children, Marguerite and Gaston. While attending
the Laval Normal School Mr. Delisle received the usual course of military
training under the supervision of the high officers at the citadel of Quebec,
receiving such instruction there in the years 1876 and 1877. This experience

has been of great benefit to him as it infused into the young man the lasting
benefits of military exactness and punctuality. From 1891 until 1896 he
represented the district of Portneuf in the house of commons, retiring in the
latter year in order to give his seat to Sir Henry Joly de Lotbinière. Public-
spirited and progressive, Mr. Delisle takes an active interest in the progress
his city is making as one of the great metropolitan centers of North America
and is ever willing and ready to support worthy enterprises projected for
general improvement and growth.

DAVID GREENE, M. D.

In the death of Dr. David Greene, Montreal was forced to record the loss of
a most capable member of the medical profession. He added to broad
scientific knowledge and thorough training a deep human sympathy
combined with an almost intuitive understanding of his fellowmen.
Moreover he recognized to the fullest extent the weight of responsibility
and obligations resting upon him, and his fidelity to duty became one of his
strongest characteristics. A native of Ballyshannon, in the north of Ireland,
he died on the 21st of March, 1891, at Montreal, Quebec. He prepared for
college at the Royal School of Portora, Enniskillen, and was graduated from
Trinity College at Dublin. He became a licentiate of the Royal College of
Surgeons of Ireland and from 1858 until 1864 practiced in the north of
Ireland. It was in his native town of Ballyshannon that Dr. Greene wedded
Miss Ellen Green, who with a son and several daughters survive him. But
one of the children was born on the Emerald isle and with this daughter Dr.
and Mrs. Greene came to the new world in 1866, making their way to
Montreal, Canada. For a time Dr. Greene was actively engaged in practice
in this city and then removed to Granby, where he practiced for many years,
but afterward returned to Montreal. His intellectual powers were marked
and his scholastic and literary attainments were of a high order. It was a
liberal education in itself to know him well and profit by his wonderful
store of knowledge, which he unconsciously imparted to his close friends in
conversation that was brilliant and fascinating. His associates recognized
that his comradeship meant expansion and elevation. Being endowed with a
warm heart and splendid mental gifts, he left the impress of his

individuality upon those with whom he was brought into close and intimate
relations. While he took high rank in his profession, his attainments were
varied and brought him fame in other connections. He was a devout
member of the English church, and his influence was always on the side of
right, progress, truth and reform.
The surviving children of Dr. and Mrs. Greene are: Alice, Maud, Gertrude,
Vida, Geraldine, and Whately Stokes. The last named pursued his education
in the schools of Montreal and in March, 1898, made his initial step in
connection with the banking business as an employe in the old Ontario
Bank, with which he was connected for eight years. Through the past seven
years he has been with the Royal Bank of Canada, and is now manager of
the Laurier Avenue branch at the corner of Park Avenue and Laurier Avenue
West. Mr. Greene married Miss Gertrude Anne Sheppard, only daughter of
the late Charles Stanley Sheppard, and they have one daughter, Lorna
Gertrude. Mr. Greene has made for himself a creditable place in financial
circles as did his father in the field of professional service, and the name has
long been an honored one in Montreal.

GEORGES GONTHIER.

In financial circles in Montreal we have to mention Mr. Georges Gonthier
as one of the most familiar figures. A member of the well known firm of St.
Cyr, Gonthier & Frigon and a public accountant of some standing and
repute, he has nevertheless found time to promote many measures of great
commercial and public utility, and to prepare the way for the foundation of
one of our most important institutions (L’Ecole des Hautes Etudes
Commerciales).
Mr. Gonthier was born in Montreal in November, 1869. After a period of
arduous study and preparation he entered upon his business activities in
1890, and since that time has advanced steadily in his profession winning
the good-will and esteem of everyone, so that we now see him occupying
such positions of trust and public confidence as that of treasurer and
director of the Chamber of Commerce and president of the Institute of
Accountants and Auditors of the Province of Quebec. In fact, it was Mr.

Gonthier himself who was chiefly instrumental in bringing about the
establishment of the last mentioned institute, and he played no small part in
its subsequent organization, for which his wide business experience and
knowledge coupled with what we might term an unrivalled commercial
sagacity, especially fitted him.
He was moreover one of the founders with the late Mr. Poindron of the
Canada-French Trade Development Committee, since merged into the
Comité France-Amérique under the presidency in Canada of the Hon. Raoul
Dandurand.
Nor are Mr. Gonthier’s activities limited to the field of practical
achievement. He has entered the lists as a public lecturer on financial and
accounting subjects where he has won for himself considerable renown. In
particular his essay on “Bonds as an Investment” has been highly praised
and was even published in the financial journals at Paris. It is not surprising
therefore that he has considerable influence in Belgium and in France.

GEORGES GONTHIER
It would be superfluous to add anything further to demonstrate the sterling
qualities and well deserved reputation of Mr. Gonthier. It may, however, be
interesting to accountants and auditors in general to know that it was mainly
through his efforts that the law was passed to render compulsory the
keeping of proper accounts to all who engage in business.

HUNTLY WARD DAVIS.

Huntly Ward Davis, member of the firm of Hogle & Davis, architects, was
born in Montreal, October 22, 1875, a son of M. and Lucy (Ward) Davis,
the latter a daughter of Hon. J. K. Ward, M. L. C. Huntly Ward Davis

attended Eliock school at Montreal and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, from which he was graduated as Bachelor of Science in June,
1898. He prepared for and has always followed the profession of architect,
working in early manhood under A. T. Taylor, who became senior partner of
the firm of Taylor, Hogle & Davis, but has since withdrawn, leaving the
firm Hogle & Davis. Mr. Davis is a conservative, and his membership
relations are with St. James Club and with the Church of St. James the
Apostle. On the 26th of October, 1910, in Montreal, he was married to
Evelyn St. Claire Stanley Bagg, daughter of the late Robert Stanley and
Clara (Smithers) Bagg, and they have a daughter, Evelyn Clare Ward Davis.

FRANCOIS XAVIER ROY.

This is an age of specialization. It is the unusual rather than the usual thing
for any man to attempt to gain proficiency in the various departments of the
law; on the contrary he usually concentrates his efforts upon a single branch
of jurisprudence, with the result that he reaches a position which otherwise
he could not hope to gain. Following this general course, François X. Roy
has devoted his attention to commercial law, in which connection he has a
large and distinctively representative clientage. He has been a lifelong
resident of the province of Quebec, his birth having occurred on the 13th of
August, 1863. His educational training was received at the College of
Nicolet and in Laval University. He also spent a year in special study at
Sherbrooke in 1886, was for a year under the direction of the law faculty at
Bishop’s College, and then passed the usual examinations that secured his
admission to the bar.
Choosing Montreal as the seat of his labors, Mr. Roy here began practice in
association with the late Hon. C. A. Geoffrion, and later was with D. R.
Murphy, K. C. He had become so well established in practice as a
successful commercial lawyer that in 1909 he was created king’s counsel.
He has become a recognized authority in the department of law in which he
has chosen to specialize, and as such is called to all parts of the province,
his opinions being largely received as authority upon points of commercial
law. He is now attorney for the Williams Manufacturing Company, Henon-

LeBlanc, Ltd., and several other commercial firms of Montreal. He readily
grasps the relation of cause and effect, and in the preparation of his cases
his analytical power is strongly manifest. In presenting a cause before the
courts he is logical, and his deductions follow in orderly sequence.
Mr. Roy is a liberal in politics and in all his political interests is actuated by
a spirit of progressiveness as affecting both provincial and Dominion
affairs. He has ever stood for improvement, reform and advancement, and
for many years has held the office of treasurer of the Reform Club. Aside
from this he is a member of Le Club Canadien, L’Alliance Nationale,
L’Alliance Française, La Société St. Jean Baptiste and other societies. He
stands as a high type of the French element in the citizenship of Montreal,
combining with the admirable and strongly marked characteristics of a
French ancestry the progressive spirit of the modern age, a spirit which
falters not in the accomplishment of a task until success is achieved.

NAPOLEON URGEL LACASSE.

Napoléon Urgel Lacasse, attorney at law practicing in Montreal as a
member of the well known firm of Bastien, Bergeron, Cousineau, Lacasse
& Jasmin, was born at St. Vincent de Paul, in the county of Laval, P. Q.,
July 11, 1877. In the early records of the French families it is found that
there are several variations to the family name which appears also as Casse,
Cassé and Du Tertre. Angelique Lacasse was born in 1715 and died at
Beaumont, August 22, 1738. Antoine Lacasse, who was born in 1706,
married Marguerite Sionnaux and died November 27, 1778. The parents of
Napoléon Urgel Lacasse were Zéphirin and Rose Delima (Fortier) Lacasse.
Under the parental roof he spent his boyhood days while studying in St.
Mary’s College and Laval University of Montreal, winning his Bachelor of
Arts degree on the 15th of June, 1898, and that of Bachelor of Laws on the
21st of June, 1901. Following his graduation he entered immediately upon
the active practice of his profession and was alone therein until the 1st of
July, 1912, when he entered into his present partnership relations. He is
recognized as one of the strong and able members of the bar among the
younger practitioners, and his experience and study are continually

promoting his knowledge and ability. Aside from his profession he is
financially interested in several joint stock companies and has extensive
real-estate investments.
Mr. Lacasse has been married twice, on the 28th of September, 1903, to
Eugénie Barbeau and on the 31st of March, 1913, to Miss Yvonne Barbeau,
daughter of the late Godfroy Barbeau, a merchant of Ste. Geneviève county,
P. Q. The four children of Mr. Lacasse are: Jean François Bernard, Jacques
Vincent Ferrier, Joséphine Hélène Marcelle and Suzanne Andrée Victoire.
The religious faith of the family is that of the Catholic church. The military
experience of Mr. Lacasse covers more than three years’ service as
commanding officer of St. Mary’s College Cadets from 1896 until 1898
inclusively. He was one of the winners in the cadets contest in 1893 for the
Duke of Connaught prize, also in 1894 and 1895.
In politics he is a conservative and has made public battles for his principles
in elections in the counties of Terrebonne, Jacques Cartier, Laval and
Yamaska. However, the practice of law he considers his real life work,
regarding it as abundantly worthy of his best efforts, and in his chosen
profession he has made continuous and gratifying progress.

FRANK BULLER, M. D., C. M.

Dr. Frank Buller was one of the most celebrated ophthalmologists of the
new world, occupying, as practitioner and educator, a position in which he
had few peers. His scientific research and his broad reading gave him a
knowledge far superior to that of many able members of the profession, and
in the wise utilization of his time and talents he made valuable contributions
to the world’s work.
Dr. Buller was born at Campbellford, Ontario, May 4, 1844, a son of
Charles G. and Frances Elizabeth (Boucher) Buller, of Hillside,
Campbellford. After attending the high school at Peterboro, from which he
graduated in due time, he took up the study of medicine in Victoria College
at Cobourg, completing his course with the class of 1869. He then went to
Germany, where he spent two years in the study of the eye, ear, nose and

throat, acquainting himself with the advanced methods of eminent men in
the profession. While at the University of Berlin he received close personal
instruction from Von Helmholtz and Von Graefe, and, during the Franco-
German war, served as assistant surgeon in a number of military hospitals
of northern Germany. In 1872 Dr. Buller went to London and studied for
some years in “Moorfields”—the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital. He
was for two years chief house surgeon of this hospital, and he introduced to
London the “direct” method of ophthalmoscopy. In England he became a
member of the Royal College of Surgeons. Dr. Buller began practice in
Montreal in 1876 and rapidly advanced to a foremost position in his
profession. For seventeen years he was the opthalmic and aural surgeon in
the Montreal General Hospital and resigned to take the same position in the
Royal Victoria Hospital. He was the first ophthalmologist to be appointed to
the General Hospital—and so remarkably recent is the development of
opthalmology in the new world that, prior to that time, every physician and
surgeon treated his eye cases in his own clinic. For many years Dr. Buller
was professor of ophthalmology and otology in McGill University, being
appointed professor when the chair was founded in 1883. He was equally
able in his large private practice and enjoyed an ever widening reputation.
Dr. Buller received the English degree of M. R. C. S.
Dr. Buller was a powerfully built man, restless and very energetic. His
students used to say of him, “Buller is a great teacher, but he wears us out.”
He was forever engaged in arduous mental work but also took keen interest
in matters outside of his profession. He was frank, straightforward and kind
—a strong generous nature.
Dr. Buller married Elizabeth Belton Langlois, of Quebec, who died
November 20, 1895. By this marriage there were two children, Marguerite
and Cecil. In 1898 he married Miss Jean Brien, of New York, and they had
three children, Francis, Audrey and James, the latter dying in 1909.
Dr. Buller was a member of the Church of England. He died October 11,
1905. He was followed to the grave by the entire medical profession of
Montreal and numerous physicians from a distance. Also many of the city’s
poor were present at the obsequies—a fact which, had he been able to know
it, would have touched that great heart which had so keenly felt their
sorrows.

A colleague of Dr. Buller writes as follows: “In very delicate cases, where
he feared to trust patients in the hands of untrained attendants, and they
were too poor to hire professional nurses, he has been known to stay with
the patients all night, after an operation, and attend to the dressing himself,
lest the eye, so tender and in such a precarious condition, might suffer
needless pain or be injured through a slight mistake.”
“Dr. Buller will be especially remembered because of three inventions: (1)
the Buller eye-shield (composed of a watch-crystal and strips of sticking-
plaster and oftenest employed to protect an unaffected eye when its fellow
is afflicted with gonorrheal infection). (2) Temporary tying of the cacalieuli
for the prevention of wound infection in operations on the eye-ball. (3) The
Buller trial frame. Yet his inventions and investigations were very numerous
and, for the most part, successful in every way. Thus, concerning his
investigation into ‘Methyl Alcohol Blindness,’ conducted jointly with Dr.
Casey A. Wood, De Schweintz declares the work to be ‘by far the most
important contribution to the subject and one to which too high praise
cannot be given.’” Scientists, members of the profession and all mankind
delighted to honor him because of what he had accomplished. High above
any desire for pecuniary reward was his deep interest in humanity and an
earnest purpose to make his life a serviceable one to his fellowmen.

WILLIAM WATSON OGILVIE.

Foremost among those men whose life’s record seems an inseparable part of
Canada’s industrial and commercial growth during the period of their
activities, is that of William Watson Ogilvie, whose identification with the
milling business covered a period of nearly a half century. The position of
Mr. Ogilvie in this important industry was unquestionably at the head. He
did more to develop it than any other man before or since his time, and the
great success he achieved was fully merited.
William W. Ogilvie was born at Cote St. Michel, Montreal, February 14,
1835, of Scotch ancestry, and belonged to the Banffshire family of that
name. He received his education in Montreal schools, and in entering on a

business career chose that which was his by inheritance, the milling
business.
His grandfather, Alexander, erected in 1801, a mill at Jacques Cartier, near
Quebec, where was ground the first flour under British rule that was ever
exported to Europe. This old mill was really the foundation of the immense
business that was built up by W. W. Ogilvie. In 1860 he entered into
partnership with his brothers, Alexander and John, grain merchants and
proprietors of a mill at Lachine Rapids. The growth of the business was
soon responsible for the building of the Glenora Flour Mills on the Lachine
canal. The business continued to grow, and the Ogilvies erected mills at
Goderich and Seaforth, Ontario and Winnipeg, Manitoba; and later, the
Royal Mills at Montreal. The three brothers operated together until 1874,
when the elder brother retired, and on the death of his brother, John, in 1888
the entire business management devolved upon William W. Ogilvie, whose
well developed powers were entirely adequate to the demands made upon
him in the further control and management of this extensive enterprise, of
which he became the head. In addition to the properties mentioned, Mr. W.
W. Ogilvie afterward purchased the City Mills, Montreal, and at the time of
his death had accepted plans for a very large mill at Fort William. Some
years previous to his demise to facilitate the administration of his western
business, the Ogilvie Milling Company of Winnipeg was formed in which
Mr. Ogilvie was the dominant factor. The Ogilvie Flour Mills Company, of
the present, was organized in 1903 and is practically the successor of the
Ogilvie Milling Company and various other interests in this line, belonging
to Mr. Ogilvie’s estate.

WILLIAM W. OGILVIE
Mr. Ogilvie and his brother John were the pioneer wheat buyers in
Manitoba. He had traveled through Canada’s present wheat fields years
before they were cultivated and many times afterwards. From the first small
shipment of five hundred bushels from Manitoba in 1876, the shipments, in
Mr. Ogilvie’s lifetime, to his own mills increased until they reached the
enormous total of eight million bushels of No. 1 hard wheat, all purchased
by his own expert buyers from the farmers, at his seventy elevators,
extending all over the wheat section of Ontario and the northwest.
In the manufacture of flour Mr. Ogilvie spent a lifetime and spared neither
time, labor or expense in bringing his product to the very acme of
perfection. By steady industry and indomitable energy and most of all the
superior quality of his products, upheld at all cost, the business grew until it

not only became the largest of its kind in the Dominion, but the most
extensive flour business in the world controlled by one man.
Mr. Ogilvie was the first to introduce into Canada the patent process of
grinding by rollers. In 1868, he visited Hungary where this system
originated, for the purpose of investigating it. He saw at once its value and
adopted it. He invented improved machinery used in the milling business,
and was always ready to adopt the improvements of others that were
practical.
It was said that he had better knowledge of wheat and wheat lands than any
man in Canada. His business furnished a market for wheat growers and
proved a stimulating influence in the agricultural development of the great
wheat-raising section of middle and western Canada. His labors were
directly responsible for much of the growth, progress and prosperity of
Manitoba and the provinces farther west, and his worth as a business man
and citizen was acknowledged by all.
Mr. Ogilvie’s identification with commercial interests was large and
diversified. He was a director of the Bank of Montreal; the Montreal
Transportation Company; the North British and Mercantile Insurance
Company; the Old Dominion Board of Trade; and the Sailors Institute. He
was president of the Corn Exchange Association; St. Andrew’s Society; and
the Montreal Horticultural Society; governor of the Montreal General and
the Royal Victoria Hospitals; president of the Manufacturers’ Association,
and served as a member of the Harbor Board.
In regard to agricultural and horticultural interests he manifested an interest
and enthusiasm that were contagious, his efforts constituting an example
that many others followed. He served both on the council and board of
arbitration of the Montreal Board of Trade and was president of that body in
1893-4. In matters of citizenship he was extremely public-spirited and what
he accomplished represented the fit utilization of his innate talents and
powers. His political belief is indicated in the fact that in 1896 he was
president of the Liberal Conservative Club of Montreal. He was a forceful
speaker in both French and English and frequently, in his earlier days,
addressed public meetings during political campaigns.
As a young man he served as lieutenant and subsequently as a captain in the
Montreal Cavalry under his brother, being thanked in brigade orders by

Colonel Pakenham in 1866.
He was one of the prominent members of St. Andrew’s church. Mr. Ogilvie
always gave with a free hand toward various public institutions, and there
was no movement of importance to which he did not contribute. His
benefactions were liberal, varied and by no means local. He gave thirteen
thousand dollars, towards making up a deficit for completion of the Jubilee
wing of the Winnipeg General Hospital. He was one of the first to subscribe
to the patriotic fund for the families of those who went with the Canadian
contingent to the Transvaal war. Mr. Ogilvie was a man of great business
capacity and to a most remarkable extent maintained a personal knowledge
of his diversified interests.
His death on January 12, 1900, was very sudden. He had been at his office
attending to business as usual, after which he attended a directors’ meeting
of the Bank of Montreal. On his way home he was taken ill and passed
away soon after reaching there.
Many of the leading mercantile houses and public offices flew their flags at
half mast through respect for him. The Montreal Gazette at time of his
death, said on January 13, 1900, editorially:
“It is long since any event caused such a painful shock in Montreal as did
the death yesterday of W. W. Ogilvie. Strong in body, clear in mind,
actively interested in the details of great concerns, he was one of the last
whose taking away would be thought of. His loss will be felt the more
because of its suddenness and it is a great loss, to the city’s commercial life.
Mr. Ogilvie’s business intelligence and energy long ago raised him to a
place not among Canada’s alone, but among the world’s great merchants.
“It was a just pride that he felt in directing the greatest milling interest in
the world under one man’s control; and the pride was more than personal.
He early saw what the northwest meant to Canada, both commercially and
nationally, and it was a pleasure to him to feel that as his business spread it
was making known the resources of the country, in all of whose affairs he
took the deepest interest.
“The success that he gained in his own business caused his counsel to be
sought in the direction of other great enterprises. He was a director in the
country’s greatest financial corporation, and in other institutions in which

he had investments. On the Corn Exchange and on the Board of Trade, his
was an influential voice, and it was always raised in behalf of that which
was best and broadest.
“He knew how to give generously to a good cause. He earned the respect of
all who were brought into contact with him and especially that of the
hundreds of men who served him in the enterprise of which his was the
directing brain.
“It was a big place that he won through his heart as well as by his head and
it will be long ere there will be found another capable of filling it.”
Mr. Ogilvie was survived by his widow and four children, three sons and a
daughter, Albert Edward, William Watson (died 1906), Gavin Lang and
Alice Helen. Mrs. Ogilvie previous to her marriage in 1871, was Helen, a
daughter of Joseph Johnston of Paisley, Scotland.

R. A. BALDWIN HART.

R. A. Baldwin Hart, prominent as a representative of one of the old families
of Montreal, manager-executor of the Theodore Hart estate, and a public-
spirited citizen, was born in Montreal, December 5, 1852, a son of
Theodore Hart. For a long period the family had been represented in this
city, the name figuring prominently in connection with its history. His
education was acquired in the schools of Montreal and his life was spent in
his native city.
In 1900 in Montreal Mr. Hart was united in marriage to Miss Mary Isabella
Owen, who survives him, the death of Mr. Hart having occurred on the 11th
of September, 1903, when he was yet in the prime of life. He was very fond
of outdoor sports. He was a wide reader and kept abreast with the events of
the day and the progress of the times. Charitable and kindly in spirit, he
listened attentively and sympathetically to a tale of sorrow or distress and
no worthy object failed to receive substantial assistance from him. Civic
affairs were a matter of interest to him and he supported movements which
he deemed of benefit to Montreal. His was indeed a well rounded character

in which the varied important interests of life received due consideration
and he stood as a high type of Canadian manhood and citizenship.

ALAN JUDAH HART.

Alan Judah Hart, founder of the Hart Manufacturing Company, of Montreal,
is a descendant of one of the oldest English speaking families of Canada,
the ancestry being traced back to one who came from New York with
General Amherst in 1759. For many generations the family was represented
at Three Rivers, Canada. Lewis A. Hart, father of Alan J. Hart, has for forty
years or more been a notary in Montreal. He was born at Three Rivers and
was educated in Montreal, supplementing his preliminary studies by
advanced courses which won him the degrees of Master of Arts and
Bachelor of Civil Law. He married Fanny Elizabeth Benjamin and they
became the parents of four sons and four daughters: Claude Benjamin, a
commission merchant; Arthur Daniel, a manufacturer’s agent; Philip
Beyfus, a commercial traveler; Alan Judah; Ethel Muriel; Mabel Ruth;
Gladys Judith; and Dorothy Marguerite.
Alan Judah Hart was born in Montreal, October 4, 1879. He was educated
in Montreal and for some years was employed by E. A. Small & Company,
manufacturers of men’s clothing, and later was with A. H. Sims &
Company, manufacturers of ladies’ clothing, acting as superintendent of the
house for three years. In 1902 he established the Hart Manufacturing
Company for the purpose of manufacturing ladies’ tailor-made suits and
cloaks and in the conduct of this business he has been very successful. Mr.
Hart is a director of H. Vineberg & Company, Limited, manufacturers of the
Progress Brand clothing and has become widely and favorably known in
commercial circles.
Mr. Hart married Miss Eva Vineberg, a daughter of Harris Vineberg, and
they have a family of five children: Edward Henry, Gordon David,
Lawrence Ezra, Alma Ruth and Vera Esther.
Mr. Hart is a life governor of the Montreal General Hospital and a director
of Mount Sinai Sanitarium at Ste. Agathe. He was likewise a member of the

executive board of the Canadian Manufacturers Association, serving in that
capacity in 1912 and 1913, and he is a member of the Montreal Board of
Trade and of the Royal Arcanum. His interests and activities are varied and
important, winning him recognition of his worth in both commercial circles
and in public life.

HON. LOUIS JOSEPH FORGET.

Hon. Louis Joseph Forget, whose name is written large on the pages of
financial and industrial history of Montreal during the past forty years, left
the impress of his great constructive force and energy upon mammoth
projects which are figured as some of the Dominion’s leading enterprises.
He was born March 11, 1853, at Terrebonne, P. Q., a district that has
produced many eminent statesmen, writers, merchants and financiers. He
was one of the nine sons of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Forget and was descended
from a family that came to Canada from Normandy in 1600. Among those
nine sons there were two priests, one of whom declined episcopal robes, a
notary, two lawyers, two contractors, one farmer and he who was destined
to become a power in the financial world, Louis Joseph Forget. His
education was acquired at Masson College and his entrance into business
circles was in connection with a dry-goods establishment. He had almost
reached the determination of trying his fortune in the United States when he
chanced upon a newspaper that contained an advertisement of office help
being needed by Thomas Caverhill. Mr. Forget applied for the position the
next morning and was accepted. From the beginning of his work with Mr.
Caverhill the young man displayed unusual aptness as well as great
eagerness to learn. He was not an ordinary boy. He took great interest in his
work and often asked questions about other features of the business that did
not come within his particular line of duties, but a knowledge thereof added
to his capability and rendered him fit for promotion and opportunity offered
later. It is only natural that a young man of this character should attract the
attention of his employer. Mr. Caverhill took great interest in him and was
instrumental in causing Mr. Forget to enter the brokerage business. The
financial exploit during Jay Gould’s celebrated Black Friday in Wall Street
reflected no little credit upon Mr. Forget, displaying in notable manner his

insight and ability, and soon afterward he was nominated for membership in
the Montreal Stock Exchange by his former employer. It is interesting in
this connection to note that he was the first French-Canadian to be admitted
to membership in that body and that before he had reached his majority he
purchased his seat therein at a cost of nine hundred dollars. He began
business as a stock broker in Montreal in 1873, from which time until his
death, thirty-eight years later, his prominence and success in the investment
security business were not over-shadowed by that of his contemporaries. He
founded the financial house of L. J. Forget & Company, one of the foremost
in its line in Montreal and remained its head during his life time. The Paris
branch of L. J. Forget & Company at 7 Rue Auber, was the first to be
established in continental Europe by a Canadian financial house and readily
secured a clientele that materially broadened the operations of the firm.

HON. LOUIS J. FORGET

Senator Forget was elected president of the Montreal Stock Exchange in
1895 to succeed H. S. Macdougall and in May, 1896, was reelected. His
business and financial connections had been constantly broadening and had
long since included a prominent identification with the foremost financial
and industrial projects of the time. In 1892 he became president of what
was then the Montreal City Passenger Railway Company, now the Montreal
Tramways Company. He remained its directing head until 1911, in which
connection he accomplished what has meant much to Montreal. To no one
man is the city indebted as largely for the upbuilding and development of its
transportation system as to Senator Forget. Under his regime the motive
power was changed from horses to electricity and the market value of the
company’s stock advanced from around one hundred dollars to three
hundred and thirty-seven dollars and a half per share.
In 1895 Senator Forget became president of the Richelieu & Ontario
Navigation Company. At that time the affairs of the company were far from
being on a dividend-paying basis and the rehabilitation of its interests was
but another illustration of Senator Forget’s constructive genius. He resigned
his position as head of the company in 1905, but in the meantime the stock
was paying a six per cent dividend and the affairs of the company generally
were in a better condition than ever before.
One of the great achievements of Senator Forget was in carrying through
the merger of the Montreal Light, Heat & Power Company and in doing so
he accomplished what many predicted to be utterly impossible, saying that
nothing but failure and financial disaster could result. This was in 1900
before the days when big business interests were merged into mammoth
enterprises and the amount involved, seventeen million dollars, seemed to
stagger even the most progressive element in financial circles. Like all of
his undertakings, Mr. Forget had not entered into this without due
consideration and he had implicit confidence in its success. It is doubtful if
any but he could have swung that deal and how well he succeeded is best
indicated in the value of the securities of the company in investment circles.
He was a prominent figure in the notable contest which took place between
the Dominion Coal Company and the Dominion Iron & Steel Company.
Originally a director and vice president of the coal company he espoused
the cause of the steel company in its fight over the coal supply and
ultimately the matter was carried to the privy council and was there decided

in favor of the steel company. Mr. Forget was elected vice president of the
steel corporation when eventually the two companies were merged and he
continued to take an active part in the administration of the affairs of the
company to the time when his health began to fail. Evidence of his
wonderful insight and sagacity in business matters is shown in the fact that
when the trouble first arose from which resulted the extended litigation
between the Dominion Iron & Steel Company and the Dominion Coal
Company Senator Forget went over the point in contention in his
characteristic deliberate manner and at once concluded that the claim of the
steel corporation would be sustained by the courts, notwithstanding the
contrary opinion of some of the greatest legal authorities and business men
of the day and time proved that his judgment was correct.
He was the first French-Canadian to be elected to the directorate of the
Canadian Pacific Railway and was a member of its board at the time of his
death. His greatest enthusiasm was aroused while viewing the untold
resources of the west during the many times he accompanied Sir Thomas
Shaughnessy and R. B. Angus on their annual tours of inspection. When the
life work of Senator Forget was ended the Montreal Daily Star said in part:
“By the death of Senator Forget a man of affairs has been lost to Canada. A
man of wide vision who saw far into the future and who modeled his career
accordingly. A glance through the financial district at the half-masted flags
at once conveys an idea of the number and the prominence of the
institutions that Senator Forget had been interested in. Senator Forget stood
out in Canadian finance, but more than that, he was a true Canadian citizen
and had done his share towards the public weal, forgetting not his duty
towards the state in the midst of tremendous private enterprises. He was a
man of sympathies. At all times courteous and approachable, he could thrust
aside great business matters to attend to the small wants of individuals, nor
was he ever found wanting or indifferent when charity offered a plea.
“In finance Senator Forget was a true leader. He was one of the first men to
loom large in high finance in Canada. He realized many possibilities which
other men have realized too—but he followed that by action. He had the
courage to follow his convictions and many solid institutions which today
enjoy in themselves prosperity and largely aid in the advancement of the
Dominion, owe to him debts which can never be repaid to the individual,
though they will be to the people of the country. His financial ability

brought him into prominence in connection with several of the largest
corporations in the Dominion, prominent among which were the Montreal
Street, the Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Company and the Montreal
Light, Heat & Power Company, the Dominion Coal Company, and the
Dominion Iron & Steel Company.
“Senator Forget was one of the colossal figures about whom have surged
the tides and currents of Canadian finance. The news of his death this
morning was as much of a shock as a surprise, both to those with whom he
had been so long associated in connection with the organization and the
management of the great financial and industrial enterprises of the
Dominion and to the thousands of others to whom his name had come to be
the shibboleth of success.
“But if Senator Forget represented one thing more than success it was
absolute unswerving fidelity to his word. In all the heat and confusion of
the stock market amidst the treacheries which sometimes attend on high
financing and the deception and duplicity which beset the path of the
successful man everywhere, there was never a question of his own
unfaltering veracity. Senator Forget was wisely charitable, an intelligent
patron of the arts, and a strong supporter of all movements which made for
the better government of the city and the state. He will long be remembered
for what he was as well as for what he did.”
Another Montreal paper said of him: “His rise to financial fame is written
on the business history of Montreal, and the story of his success in the
financial world is the history of the development of the city. Although
Senator Forget’s estate will count up into the millions, its accumulation was
not effected by continuous plain sailing.”
Obstacles and difficulties of grave import arose, but his financial capacity
and strict integrity had won the confidence and trust of friends who rallied
to his support, and although he saw the storm clouds gather, he was able to
turn threatened disaster into brilliant achievement. His investments were
most judiciously made and his judgment concerning important financial
transactions seemed never at fault. Once his mind was made up as to the
value of a security nothing could shake his confidence, and much of his
success in life was due to his unerring judgment.

Slow to make a promise or express an opinion, Senator Forget never failed
to fulfill a promise and when he gave his opinion it was the expression of
his honest conviction and indicated a course which he would follow in a
similar position. If he advised an investor it meant that he would not
hesitate a moment in investing his own money in the same security. His
unquestioned loyalty to his friends covered his entire business career. His
recommendation of a security to an investor meant that he would fully
support that security and there were instances in his career when even his
vast resources were taxed in such support. This was true in connection with
the Montreal Stock Exchange in a security where large sums were invested
on his recommendation. The implicit confidence that capital had in his
judgment enabled him to finance and successfully carry out projects that
probably no other man of his time could have handled. His word was as
good as his bond. His denial of a rumor killed it immediately just as an
admission from him settled all doubt. He could see through a proposition
readily and would decide important and extensive matters quickly. His
decision was never hasty or ill advised but came as the result of the fact that
he had mastered many grave business affairs and with readiness
comprehended every phase of a situation that came before him. He was a
man of strong personality. His was never the command of the tyrant to go
but ever the call of the leader to come. He was never vacillating in his
opinions of the best methods to be followed or the manner in which a given
work was to be done. He was a most considerate and appreciative man and
was always ready to encourage one who was striving upward. He was not a
talkative man, that is he talked but comparatively little, yet he talked to the
point and with great earnestness and thinking men listened to him with
attention. He never laughed aloud, but his smile was one full of humor,
enjoyment and good nature. Judging his manner by first appearance might
do him an injustice, for a habit of earnest thought had brought a deep
furrow in the forehead that might be regarded as a frown. An acquaintance,
however, always received the most polite attention from him and his
unfailing courtesy of manner showed him to be a perfect gentleman in the
highest and best sense of the term.
His interest in benevolent and charitable projects was wide and his support
thereof most generous. He became a director of the Notre Dame Hospital
and was a governor of both the General Hospital and the Western Hospital.
He was a governor of the Art Association and life governor of the

Numismatic & Antiquarian Society; also president of the board of
governors of Laval University. His political career is an interesting one, for
he was not always a supporter of the liberal-conservative party. Although a
fellow townsman of Sir Adolphe Chapleau, the Senator had been allied with
Sir Henri Gustave Joly de Lotbinière in that leader’s contest with Chapleau,
Angers and the rest of the conservative leaders of his time. In federal
politics, however, Hon. Mr. Forget declined to follow the free trade policy
of Mackenzie and Cartwright, which had been forced against his will upon
Rodolphe Laflamme, and from the days of the national policy the Senator
worked with the present conservative party. He was appointed to the upper
house during the elections of 1896 and was the last conservative senator to
enter that branch of the Canadian parliament. Senator Forget seldom
addressed the senate, yet his advice in committee was of great value to his
fellow members and it was here that the close friendship sprang up between
Senator Forget and the ex-prime minister, Sir Mackenzie Bowell. The
Senator was a loyal follower of R. L. Borden as leader of the conservative
party, both in parliament and in the country. He realized that it was a very
difficult matter for any leader to find complete favor in the eyes of all the
provinces, but he was confident that Mr. Borden gave his services to the
party and to the country in a patriotic manner and consequently deserved
the support of a united party in both houses. The Montreal Gazette some
years ago termed him “an astute and enterprising man of affairs.” He was
more than that. He was a constructionist and builded where others saw no
opportunity; he was a patriot without narrow partisanship; a Roman
Catholic and stanch churchman without a particle of race prejudice, in
evidence of which fact his closest friend in the senate of the Dominion was
an ex-grand master of the Orange Grand Lodge of British North America—
Sir Mackenzie Bowell. High honors had been accorded him, distinction and
notable success had come to him. These things made him an eminent
citizen, but, more than that, attractive social qualities and genuine personal
worth had gained him the highest regard, confidence, good-will and
friendship of his contemporaries and colleagues.
While Senator Forget was a member of a number of clubs, he manifested
keenest interest perhaps in the Mount Royal Club, of which he was one of
the founders. Among the other clubs to which he belonged were the St.
James, of which he had been president; the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club;

the Forest and Stream; the Montreal Hunt; the Country Club of Ottawa and
the Manhattan Club of New York.
In May, 1876, Senator Forget married Miss Maria Raymond, a daughter of
Gustav A. Raymond of Montreal. They were the parents of five children:
Loulou, now Mrs. W. W. Skinner; Raymond, who died at the age of four
years; Blanche, now Mrs. Guy Boyer; Marguerite; and Pauline. The two
younger daughters accompanied their parents abroad and the family was
sojourning at Nice when Senator Forget passed away, April 7, 1911.

CHARLES M. BLACK.

Thorough preparatory training and broadening experience well qualify
Charles M. Black for the important and responsible duties that devolve
upon him as secretary and treasurer of the insurance brokerage firm of R.
Howard & Company of Montreal. He has many friends in this city, to
whom his life record will prove of interest. He was born in Winnipeg in
1890, a son of William Allan Black and a grandson of Charles R. and
Elizabeth (Hall) Black, of Montreal. There is a mingled strain of English
and Scotch blood in his veins. The birth of William A. Black occurred in
Montreal, November 17, 1862. His education was acquired in the schools of
his native city, and for some years he was in the service of the Grand Trunk
and Canadian Pacific Railway Companies. In 1882 he went to Manitoba
and the following year became connected with the Ogilvie Milling
Company, one of the foremost enterprises of that character in the country.
Gradually in that connection he worked his way upward and in 1902 was
appointed general manager of the western division, while in 1910 he was
elected one of the directors of the company. Still further promotion has
come to him in his election as vice president and managing director of the
Ogilvie Flour Mills Company. He is likewise a member of the Winnipeg
Board of Trade, a councillor of the Winnipeg Grain and Produce Exchange
and a member of the grain survey and grain standard boards. He is likewise
a director of the Home Savings & Investment Company, Molson’s Bank
and Larose Consolidated Mines and is managing director of the
Kaministiquia Power Company and president of the Manitoba Cold Storage

Company. He belongs to the Winnipeg and Manitoba Clubs. He was
married in 1888 to Mary Campbell, daughter of Alexander McEwan, of
Edinburgh, Scotland.
The illustrious example of his father has fired the ambition of Charles M.
Black, who was reared in Montreal and Winnipeg. Making good use of
time, talents and opportunities, he has steadily progressed and is today a
well known factor in insurance brokerage circles of Montreal. The business
of the firm of R. Howard & Company was established in 1901 and was
organized under the present firm style on the 1st of February, 1913, when
Charles M. Black became a member of the firm, of which he has since been
secretary and treasurer, with Robert Howard as the president. He had
received thorough initial business training in three years’ connection with
his father, and he is also secretary and treasurer of the Financial Investment
Company. A young man of determination and energy, he carries forward to
successful completion whatever he undertakes, and obstacles and
difficulties in his path serve but as an impetus for renewed effort on his
part.

JOHN PRATT.

High on the list of Montreal’s worthy citizens who have passed from this
life appears the name of John Pratt, who from 1839 until 1872 was one of
the prosperous merchants of the city. He was born at Berthier, en haut, on
the 20th of July, 1812, and after a well spent life of sixty-four years passed
away July 22, 1876. He was survived for only a few weeks by his brother,
Mr. C. F. Pratt, with whom he had commenced his business career and with
whom he was almost continuously associated thereafter.
The father was a merchant at Berthier and in 1833 the sons, Charles F. and
John, left the paternal home to establish a business house in Quebec under
the firm name of C. F. Pratt & Company. Having succeeded almost beyond
his expectations in that city, John Pratt opened a branch establishment at
Three Rivers and, as in Quebec, won almost immediate prosperity in the
conduct of the enterprise. Soon the brothers found that their sphere of action
was too limited and in 1839 they extended the scope of their interests by

founding the well known leather house of John Pratt & Company in
Montreal.
In 1852 the Quebec house was closed, the brothers concentrating their
energies upon the conduct of the Montreal business, out of which they made
colossal fortunes, that of Mr. John Pratt amounting to about a million
dollars. The tanneries at Roxton Falls were started by the Pratts, who for
many years stood at the head of the leather business. In 1869, however, they
put aside industrial and commercial interests, but while Charles Pratt
confined himself to private affairs, his brother, John Pratt, whose name
introduces this review, unable with his active temperament to remain
comparatively unemployed, engaged in the conduct of several joint stock
companies, with which he had identified himself. At the time of his death he
was president of the Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Company, over whose
board he had presided since 1867. He was president of the Banque du
Peuple, of the Rubber Company, and others; and was vice president of the
Citizens Assurance Company, a position which he also occupied in
connection with other joint stock concerns. He was on the board of directors
of the Valleyfield Cotton Company, an enterprise which he had done much
to promote. Indeed, it may be said of Mr. Pratt that he was an undoubted
authority on all business matters, being sagacious, practical, enterprising
and energetic. He seemed to recognize almost from the beginning the
possibilities of any undertaking, and he never faltered until his purpose was
accomplished.
In 1863 Mr. Pratt was placed on the harbor board, but the succeeding year
the government of Sir John Macdonald removed him from office, doing
exactly the same by Hon. John Young and Mr. Thomas Cramp. In 1874,
however, he was placed upon the newly constituted board, of which he was
an active, practical and influential member. His natural modesty impelled
him, upon several occasions, to decline nomination for parliament, to
which, there is no doubt, had he so desired, he would have been elected.
Politically he was a thorough reformer and even by those who differed from
him, his opinions were looked upon with great respect. He was at all times a
thorough gentleman, a faithful and considerate friend and a real
philanthropist.

JOHN PRATT
On the 3d of March, 1840, Mr. Pratt married Marie Mathilde Roy, the
widow of Charles Ovide Perrault, who was killed in the rebellion of 1837.
Mrs. Pratt died July 29, 1897. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Pratt were:
Marie Mathilde, who was married in 1862 to Desire Girouard; Charles
Alfred, a practicing physician, who in 1866 married Alphonsine Leclair and
resides at Longueuil; Eveline Marie Louise, the wife of Joseph Gustave
Laviolette, of Montreal; Virginia, who was married September 30, 1878, to
George H. Matthews; Aloysia, who was married June 17, 1878, to Percy
Franklin Woodcock, the well known artist; Frederick Emile George, who
was married May 31, 1883, to Albina Thibault, the widow of his younger
brother; and Louis Edouard Albert, who married Albina Thibault and died
August 11, 1880.

On the 27th of July, 1876, the body of Mr. John Pratt was taken from the
family residence, No. 310 Lagauchetiere Street to the church of St. Jacques,
St. Denis Street, and thence to the family vault in the Roman Catholic
cemetery. The attendance at the church was immense, comprising all the
influential and representative citizens, both French and English, of
Montreal. At the church the burial service was celebrated by Rev. A. L.
Sentenne, curé of the parish, assisted by Rev. Father Fleck, superior of the
Jesuits.
Perhaps no better indication of Mr. Pratt’s high standing could be given than
by quoting a letter received by Mrs. John Pratt, reading:
“Dear Madam:
“We, the harbor commissioners of Montreal, take the liberty of intruding
upon you to express our sympathy and condolence to you and your family
in the irretrievable loss sustained by the death of your late husband, our
friend and colleague in the harbor trust. Our late friend rendered such
efficient service in the management of this important trust and was so fully
in sympathy with every movement for the good of his country and this city
in which he lived, as to secure the esteem and confidence of every member
of the commission. At such a time we are aware that nothing can be said to
assuage the natural grief of yourself and family, still we hope, Dear Madam,
it will prove consolatory to you and yours, that your husband, our friend,
has filled up his season of life with so many good deeds and in so
exemplary a manner, and that although he has now gone from among us, he
will be remembered by all who knew him. This we trust will be to you and
your family a source of comfort and help you to bear with fortitude and
resignation your present great affliction.
“Harbor commissioners’ office, Montreal, July
“Thomas Cramp,
28, 1876.”
“Hugh McLennan,
The board of directors of the Richelieu &“Andrew Allan,
Ontario Navigation Company, at its meeting on“Charles H. Gould,
Friday, the 28th of July, 1876, passed“John Young,
unanimously the following resolution: “Adolphe Roy,
“P. Donovan.
“Resolved: That this board of directors have
received with much regret intelligence of the death of the late president of

the company, Mr. John Pratt, whose long and valuable services in its behalf
secured for him the gratitude, not only of the directors, but of every
shareholder in the company. The directors desire to offer to his family the
deep sympathy of every member of the board in the loss they have
sustained, and to assure them of the high esteem in which the late Mr. Pratt
was universally held.

“Hugh Allan, president.
“J. N. Beaudry, secretary.
“Thomas Caverhill.
“Andrew Allan.
“William McNaughton.
“Adolphe Roy.
“D. Masson.
“M. H. Gault.
“Robert Anderson.”

THOMAS W. RITCHIE.

One of the most prominent members of the provincial bar was T. W.
Ritchie, who specialized in the practice of commercial law in Montreal and
represented many important corporations in his professional connection. A
native of Hatley, Quebec, he was born in 1828. After careful preparation for
active law practice he was called to the bar in 1852 and opened an office in
Sherbrooke. In 1860 he removed to Montreal and became a member of the
firm of Rose, Monk & Ritchie. It was in 1867 that he was appointed
queen’s counsel. No dreary novitiate awaited him at the outset of his
professional career. He brought to its starting point several rare gifts, strong
individuality, marked strength of character and high professional ideals, in
addition to comprehensive knowledge of the principles of law and ability to
correctly apply these. He continued in active practice as a member of the
firm of Rose, Monk & Ritchie until Mr. Monk was appointed to the bench.
The partnership relation under the firm style of Rose & Ritchie then
continued until Sir John Rose left Canada for England. Mr. Ritchie was then

joined by J. L. Morris and W. Rose, but the latter left soon afterward and
later Mr. Morris retired. Mr. Ritchie then took in as partner Mr. G. H.
Borlase, who remained with him until 1879, when he retired. Mr. Ritchie
then admitted his son W. F. Ritchie to a partnership under the firm style of
Ritchie & Ritchie. The father was one of the most prominent members of
the bar of the province, ranking high as an advocate in the department of
commercial law and sustaining many important professional relations. At
the time of his death, on the 4th of September, 1882, he was solicitor to the
Bank of Montreal and the Hudson’s Bay Company and was both director
and solicitor to the Montreal, Portland & Boston Railway. For many years
he acted as crown prosecutor for the district of Montreal. The court records
attest his high standing and his ability whereby he engraved his name high
on the keystone of the legal arch. It is the theory of the law that the counsels
who practice are to aid the court in the administration of justice, and
perhaps no representative of the Montreal bar has been more careful to
conform his practice to a high standard of professional ethics than did T. W.
Ritchie.

ALBERT GEORGE NICHOLLS, M. D.

One of the well known members of the medical profession in Montreal, Dr.
Albert George Nicholls has made continual progress, and in the field of
scientific attainment and research is recognized as one of the most eminent
in the profession in the city. His investigations, carried far and wide, have
brought forth many valuable truths, and his contributions to medical
literature are largely accepted as standard.
Dr. Nicholls was born at Shotley Bridge, Durham, England, April 16, 1870,
a son of the late Rev. John Nicholls and Mary Elizabeth (Harland) Nicholls.
The father was the well known pastor of St. Mark’s Presbyterian church in
Montreal for twenty-two years. In England he became identified with the
Methodist clergy and was given charge of churches at Shotley Bridge,
Durham; Chester-le-Street, Hetton and Blyth, Northumberland. He was
born at Willenhall, Staffordshire, England, in 1840, and had reached the age
of fifty-eight years when he passed away in Montreal on the 4th of May,

1898. He had been a resident of Canada for almost a quarter of a century,
having arrived in this country in 1874. It was after he came to the new
world that he connected himself with the Presbyterian church and for
twenty-two years remained pastor of St. Mark’s. The names of few are so
closely interwoven with the history of moral progress in this city. For some
years he was a member of the Protestant Ministerial Association, was editor
of the Bible Reporter, and was a frequent contributor to the press upon
questions relative to the work of the church and the extension of Christian
influence. At the time of the smallpox epidemic in Montreal he served on
various committees formed to relieve the situation and opened his church
for the distribution of relief. He was also one of the originators of the Fresh
Air Fund and while thoroughly versed upon dogmas and the principles of
theology, his religion was ever of that practical character which found
expression in good deeds, in ready sympathy, and in immediate helpfulness.
The survivors of his family are Mrs. Nicholls; Dr. Albert George Nicholls,
whose name introduces this review; and a daughter, Miss Amy Nicholls, B.
A.
Education received high rating in the Nicholls home and the son was
afforded excellent opportunities for acquiring knowledge that would fit him
for any field of labor to which he might choose to devote his efforts. He
attended McGill Model School, the Montreal high school and afterward
entered McGill University, where he won the Bachelor of Arts degree and
became gold medallist in classics in 1890. Three years later his alma mater
conferred upon him the Master of Arts degree and in preparation for the
medical profession he pursued a course of study in McGill, which won him
the M. D. and C. M. degrees in 1894. In 1909 the Doctor of Science degree
was conferred upon him and in 1908 the honor of F. R. S. C. Holding to the
highest professional standards and wishing to reach the highest possible
point of proficiency, Dr. Nicholls has gone abroad for study, doing post-
graduate work at Erlangen, Prague and Vienna. A successful practitioner in
Montreal, he has devoted much time to original research, more especially in
the scientific side of medicine. He is perhaps best known for his work in
connection with typhoid fever, Brights disease, tuberculosis and some of the
more obscure phases of chronic inflammation and his views have been
referred to in several of the more recent authoritative text-books. He is the
author of more than forty monographs and other publications on medical
subjects, and his writings have largely been accepted as standard by the

profession in this section of the country. He was joint author with Professor
Adami of The Principles of Pathology, a work of recognized value. He is
equally well known as a lecturer on clinical medicine and assistant
professor of pathology and bacteriology in McGill University. He is out-
patient physician to the Montreal General Hospital and assistant physician
and pathologist to the Western General Hospital.
In May, 1907, Dr. Nicholls was married to Miss Lucia Pomeroy, the
youngest daughter of the late William H. Van Vliet of Lacolle, P. Q., and
they have three sons, George Van Vliet, John Van Vliet and Robert Van
Vliet. Dr. Nicholls is a conservative and an ardent imperialist. His religious
affiliation is with the Presbyterian church, and he is a member of the
University Club, Montreal, and the Authors’ Club, London.
Those life forces which work for betterment, for progress and improvement
elicit his attention and receive his support, and he is today recognized as a
man of splendidly developed talents and well balanced powers, so that he
has become a forceful factor in the world’s work.

CAPTAIN GEORGE HILLYARD MATTHEWS.

Success in business resulting entirely from capable management, keen
discrimination and unfaltering enterprise came to Captain George Hillyard
Matthews, who for many years was president of the Sincennes-
McNaughton Line. His birth occurred in Montreal on the 14th of August,
1846, and he passed away at the comparatively early age of fifty-seven
years, dying on the 19th of January, 1904. He was a son of George
Matthews, of Mount Victoria, Hudson and Montreal. The father came to
Canada from Essex, England, as a young man and in this country married a
Miss Hudson, also a native of England. They became the parents of six
children, including Captain Matthews, who received his military education
at Sandhurst, England, in 1871. The following year he entered the army and
served for a period of eight years, when he resigned. He was an honorary
member of the officers’ mess of the Third Victoria Rifles and also honorary
president of the Army and Navy Veterans Association. He never ceased to

feel a deep interest in military affairs and believed in the maintenance of a
high standard of service in connection with the army and navy.

CAPTAIN GEORGE H. MATTHEWS
Captain Matthews’ business affairs also brought him prominently before the
public. For many years he was president of the Sincennes-McNaughton
Line and during his term of office the major portion of the harbor fleet of
tugs was built under his supervision. As opportunity offered he made
judicious investments in real estate and became the owner of a large amount
of property in Montreal. Following the death of Baron de Longueuil, he
took charge of his estate, which he wisely managed.
In 1878 Captain Matthews was united in marriage to Miss Virginia Pratt, a
daughter of John Pratt, one of the early settlers of Montreal. He held
membership in the St. James Club and he was interested in various

significant and vital questions of the day, especially in fish and game
protection. He also took an active interest in politics. He was acquainted
with all of the different phases of public life having to do with the
prosperity and progress of his city and province, and his aid and
cooperation could always be counted upon to further movements for the
general good.

DAVID BURKE.

One of the best known insurance and financial men of Montreal was the late
David Burke, who passed away on December 5, 1913. He was born in
Charlottetown, P. E. I., in 1850, being the youngest son of Edward and
Mary (Acorn) Burke, both of whom were natives of Prince Edward Island.
He received his early education in the schools of that province. In early
manhood he turned his attention to the insurance business, being but sixteen
years of age when he entered upon the field of labor in which he was to
attain to importance, making his name one well known in insurance circles
not only in Canada but also in the United States. In 1869 he came to
Montreal, where he was associated in business with his brother, the late
Walter Burke, then general manager for Canada of the New York Life
Insurance Company. On the death of the latter in 1879 the company retired
from Canada owing to differences with the insurance department at Ottawa.
In 1883, being willing to conform to the regulations set down by this
department, the company reentered Canada, and Mr. David Burke was
appointed general manager. In 1897 he retired from his connection with this
firm to organize an insurance company of his own, the Royal Victoria Life
Insurance Company, which was absorbed by the Sun Life in 1911. He thus
bent his energies to administrative direction and executive control and his
opinions were largely accepted as authority upon matters connected with
the complex problems of insurance and the control of the business. In 1882
he was elected an associate of the British Institute of Actuaries, being one
of its oldest members, and in 1897 was made a fellow of the Royal
Statistical Society of Great Britain. In 1904 he was honored with election to
the vice presidency of the Economic and Statistical Society of Montreal and
in 1906 was chosen president of the Canadian Life Insurance Officers

Association. For two years he held the presidency of the Life Managers
Association of Canada, a body formed solely of the executive heads of
insurance companies in Canada, each company being represented in the
association by only one member. He studied every phase of the insurance
business with a thoroughness that made his opinions standard, and he was
the author of a valuable paper published in 1908 entitled “Insurance as a
National Economy.” The Montreal Witness spoke of him as one
“recognized as a most capable insurance administrator,” and his
contemporaries and colleagues speak of his business ability and
resourcefulness in terms of high admiration.
Mr. Burke was married in 1875 to Miss Rose Maclear, the youngest
daughter of the late Thomas Maclear, founder of the Maclear Publishing
Company of Toronto, and they were parents of four sons and two daughters,
as follows: Edmund A., the noted vocalist; Louis, of New York; Alan, of
Boston; Maurice N., of Montreal; Mrs. Fred C. Budden, of Montreal; and
Miss Marjorie Burke, of Montreal.
Mr. Burke was a member of the St. James Club and in religious faith an
Anglican, while his political belief placed him in the position of an imperial
protectionist. His views of life were those of a broad-minded man who
delved deep into the questions of vital importance and who proved himself
the master of those forces which made up his life’s experience.

JAMES JOHN EDMUND GUERIN, M. D., LL. D., T. C. D., K. C. S. G.

Dr. James John Edmund Guerin, medical practitioner and educator, and an
influential figure in the political history of the province, having served with
distinction as a member of the Marchand and Parent cabinets and later as
mayor of Montreal, was born July 4, 1856, in the city which is still his place
of residence, a son of the late Thomas Guerin, C. E., chief hydraulic
engineer of the department of public works, Ottawa, and a brother of the
Hon. Edmund Guerin, one of the judges of the superior court, Montreal. Dr.
Guerin made his studies at the Montreal College, and later entered McGill
University for the purpose of pursuing a course in medicine. He was
graduated M. D., C. M. in 1878, and has since engaged in active practice in
his native city where he has also done important hospital work. He is the
president of the medical board of the Hôtel-Dieu Hospital and one of the

governors of the Notre Dame Hospital; in educational circles he is well
known as professor of clinical medicine in Laval University. He holds to the
highest professional standards of ethics and enjoys the warmest regard of
fellow practitioners. He is a director of the Royal Edward Institute and a
governor of the Victorian Order of Nurses, and in 1909 he was appointed a
member of the royal commission to prevent the further spread of
tuberculosis.
Capable and prominent as is Dr. Guerin in his chosen profession, he has
also become equally widely known in connection with political activity and
has done much important work. In 1895 he was elected president of the St.
Patrick’s Society and was reelected in 1896 and 1897. In the former year he
was a delegate to the Irish National Convention at Dublin. In October,
1895, he was returned to the legislature for Montreal in the liberal interests
by a majority of twelve hundred and fifty-four. In 1897 he was reelected in
the general election and was called to the Marchand cabinet without
portfolio on the 25th of May of that year. He was a minister without
portfolio in the Marchand and Parent administrations from 1897 to 1904,
and in 1901 was appointed member of the council of public instruction of
the province of Quebec. His opinions carried weight in provincial councils
and a discussion of any vital question with him at once indicated how
widely and thoroughly he was informed concerning the points at issue. In
February, 1910, as the candidate of the citizens’ party, he was elected mayor
of Montreal by a majority of twelve thousand nine hundred and eighty-three
and in his administration sought at all times to further the best interests of
the city. He conducted its civic affairs along economical lines and yet never
fettered municipal progress by a narrow conservatism. He represented the
city of Montreal at the funeral of King Edward in London in 1910 and at the
coronation of King George and Queen Mary in 1911. In 1911 he was
created a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, and in
1912 he received the degree of LL. D. from Trinity College, Dublin.
In 1883 Dr. Guerin was married to Miss Mary Carroll O’Brien, daughter of
the late Hon. James O’Brien; she died in 1886. Dr. Guerin resides at No. 4
Edgehill Avenue. His religious faith is that of the Roman Catholic church.
Aside from serving as president of St. Patrick’s Society he has been
president of the Shamrock Lacrosse Club and of many other organizations.
He is a member of the Mount Royal Club, the University Club and the

Montreal Jockey Club. His activity along various important lines indicates
his worth and value as a citizen, and his indorsement at the polls testifies to
the confidence reposed in him by his fellow citizens. His ideals of
citizenship are high, while in his professional career he manifests the
keenest appreciation for the responsibilities and obligations which devolve
upon him.

ANDREW STUART EWING.

Andrew Stuart Ewing, for almost half a century one of the best known
business men of Montreal, was born in 1838 at Lisdillon House,
Londonderry, Ireland, and was a representative of an old family of Irish
origin, his parents being Samuel and Margaret (Hamilton) Ewing, who
crossed the Atlantic to Canada with their family when their son, Andrew,
was seven years of age. He was educated in the public schools of Montreal
and in 1860 entered into partnership with his brother, Samuel H. Ewing, in
the ownership and management of the extensive coffee and spice mills
formerly owned by his father, who founded the business in 1845. In 1860
the firm style of Samuel Ewing & Sons was assumed and in 1892, after the
retirement of Samuel H. Ewing, Andrew S. Ewing became sole proprietor
of the business which was conducted at No. 55 Cote Street. The enterprise
was one of extensive proportions and yielded a substantial profit as a result
of careful management and wise direction.
During the last fifteen years of his life Mr. Ewing was a prominent member
of the Montreal Board of Trade and was interested in its various projects for
promoting the material progress of the city and advancing affairs of
municipal and civic interest. In politics he was a conservative and a strong
supporter of the national policy.
Mr. Ewing died at his home in Montreal, January 8, 1902, and was survived
by his widow until June, 1913. The surviving children are Andrew Stuart
and Royal L. H. Ewing and two daughters, Mrs. Robert Starke and Miss
Adelaide Ewing. The sons are members of the firm of Ewing & Ewing, real
estate and insurance, which was established in September, 1906, by the
brothers in connection with A. F. Gault, but the last named retired from the

firm May 1, 1912. A. Stuart Ewing is a member of the Art Association of
Montreal, the Canadian Club, the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association,
the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club, the St. James Club, the Manitou Club
and the Park Toboganning Club, of which he is vice president.
Mr. Royal L. H. Ewing is a member of the Art Association of Montreal, the
Montreal and Canadian Clubs, the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association,
the Mount Royal Lawn Tennis Club, the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club,
the St. James Club, the Manitou Club and the Park Toboganning Club. The
sons are worthy successors to their father, not only in business activity but
also in that business integrity for which the family name has always stood.

FRANK RICHARDSON ENGLAND, M. D., C. M.

Dr. Frank Richardson England, an alumnus of Bishop’s College of Montreal
and now well known as a practical educator as well as a successful
practitioner, was born August 21, 1862, at Cowansville, province of
Quebec, and is the eldest son of Francis and Jane (Ruiter) England, of
Dunham, Quebec. The family comes of United Empire Loyalist stock and
the parents are now deceased.
While Dr. England acquired his early education at Waterloo, he pursued his
medical course at Bishop’s College in Montreal, from which he was
graduated with the class of 1885, the degrees of M. D. and C. M. being then
conferred upon him, and obtaining the Wood and Nelson gold medals. He
was professor of diseases of children at Bishop’s College in 1887 and
professor of surgery in the same institution in 1894. In 1905 he was
graduated at McGill College (ad eund). The profession has honored him
with official distinction, for in 1906 he was chosen president of the
Montreal Medico-Chirurgical Society and the following year was vice
president of the Canadian Medical Association. He is a governor and fellow
of the American College of Surgeons. He is now, 1914, surgeon of the
Western Hospital at Montreal and in his surgical practice displays
comprehensive knowledge of anatomy, of the component parts of the
human body and of the onslaughts made upon it by disease or left to it as a
legacy by progenitors. He is cool and collected at critical moments and

combines strength with tenderness, seeking ever the ultimate good of
patient and of profession.
Dr. England was married twice. In 1887 he wedded Carrie Ann, youngest
daughter of the late R. L. Galer, of Dunham. Following her death Dr.
England married Octavia Grace Ritchie, B. A., M. D., of Montreal, the
youngest daughter of the late Thomas W. Ritchie, Q. C. She was born in
Montreal and became a student in McGill University, winning the degree of
Bachelor of Arts, together with first class honors in natural science in 1883.
She was afterward graduated from Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, Quebec,
with the degree of M. D. and C. M. in 1891. She was one of the first class
of ladies to graduate from McGill and the first woman to receive a medical
degree in the province of Quebec. Mrs. England took a scholarship at
Kingston and later pursued a post-graduate course at Vienna, Austria. She
has done much to arouse public feeling in favor of the medical education of
women in Quebec and was secretary of the organization called the Donalda
Students to procure this concession. She is now a governor of the Western
Hospital and was assistant gynecologist there from 1894 until 1896. She has
lectured on medical subjects before the Women’s Club and the Young
Women’s Christian Association. She is a member of the Montreal Medico-
Chirurgical Society and was a delegate to the Quinquennial Congress of the
National Council of Women at Toronto in 1909. She is president of the local
council of the National Council of Women. In 1897 she became the wife of
Dr. Frank Richardson England of Montreal. Both continue actively in the
practice of the profession, and each has a large clientage, indicating the
prominence to which they have attained.

WILLIAM JOHN WHITE.

William John White, whose authorship no less than his practice has gained
him eminence and success, is regarded as one of the foremost
representatives of the Montreal bar. Contemporaneous writers pronounce
upon him high encomiums for his contributions to legal as well as to
general literature. A native of Peterboro, Ontario, he was born January 29,
1861, a son of the late Richard White, D. C. L., and Jean (Riddel) White.

After completing his studies in the Montreal high school he entered McGill
University, where he pursued a classical and legal course, winning the B. A.
degree in 1881, the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law in 1882, while in 1885
the Master of Arts degree was conferred upon him and in 1902 that of
Doctor of Civil Law. He completed his legal studies at the Sorbonne in
Paris and in 1883 entered upon the active work of the profession as an
advocate. He has since successfully practiced and was created king’s
counsel in 1899. He is now senior partner of the law firm of White &
Buchanan and is recognized as one of the leaders of the Montreal bar. In
1901 he was made batonnier. His law practice has been of an important as
well as of an extensive character. He was retained as counsel by the
Mexican government in the boundary dispute between the United States
and Mexico in 1911. His high standing in his profession and his thorough
understanding of vital and significant governmental problems have brought
him into prominence in various international affairs. He served as a member
of the board of investigation appointed by the minister of labor in the
United Shoe Machinery case, and his opinions have been sought on various
questions of far-reaching importance. He represented the Montreal bar at
the annual meeting of the New York State Bar Association at Albany in
1902 and at the Illinois State Bar Association in 1906, and on the latter
occasion read a paper on The Law of Quebec. He is the author of a treatise
on Canadian Company Law which was published in 1901.
Aside from his profession Mr. White has been connected with several
business enterprises and public projects of importance. In 1911 he became
one of the directors of the Sherwin-Williams Company of Canada, and from
1906 to 1908 he served as alderman of the city. He is a director and was
elected the vice president of the new Technical School of Montreal. He was
one of the founders of the Society of Historical Studies and was chosen to
the presidency of that organization for 1891-2. He was likewise one of the
organizers of the Society of Canadian Literature and of the Canadian branch
of the American Folk Lore Society. From 1889 until 1891 he published a
monthly magazine known as Canadiana and Dr. John Reade termed him “A
writer of taste and force,” while the Montreal Witness spoke of him as “A
thoroughly capable man.” Mr. White belongs to a number of the leading
clubs, including the St. James, University, Outremont Golf and the
Montreal Jockey Clubs of Montreal; the Rideau Club of Ottawa; the
Quebec Garrison Club; and the Constitutional Club of London, England. It

is in his law practice, however, that he has won the recognition that has
placed him in the present enviable position which he occupies. He has ever
in his practice been faithful to his clients, fair to his adversaries and candid
to the court. In many cases with which he has been connected he has
exhibited the possession of every faculty of which a lawyer may be proud—
skill in presentation of his own evidence, extraordinary ability in cross
examination, strong grasp of every feature of the case, power to secure
favorable rulings from the judge, unusual familiarity with human nature and
untiring industry. These qualities have gained him notable success in law
practice.

ROBERT REFORD.

At the time of his death half a century was drawing to its close since the
subject of this sketch, the late Robert Reford, first established a commercial
connection with Montreal. The outstanding position which Mr. Reford
occupied in the life of the city was the natural outcome of qualities which
quickly bring men to be recognized as a source of strength to whatever
spheres in which they may move. He was a man of very pronounced ability,
tenaciousness of purpose, firmness of decision and of forceful character but
by those who knew him best he will be remembered, chiefly for those high
standards of honor which were his for the straightforwardness and
uprightness of all his dealings with his fellowmen and for the strong sense
of justice which throughout his long career he was so often called upon to
exercise.
Robert Reford was born at Moylena, which for generations had been the
family seat near Antrim, Ireland, in 1831 and was a lad of fourteen when in
1845 he came with his mother, three brothers and one sister to make his
home in Canada. The family arrived at Quebec the night of the great fire
when the lower town was almost completely destroyed. After a very brief
stay in Montreal they settled in Toronto, where Mr. Reford completed his
education. He was, however, still but a boy when he became engaged in
business and, though he was indentured to work for his first employer for
two years at a fixed salary, it is indicative of the great natural capacity

which he possessed and of his steadiness and alertness in business, that at
the end of the first year his salary was increased fivefold and again at the
end of the second year that amount was doubled. In three years time, still
barely on the threshold of manhood, Robert Reford had proved his ability to
such an extent as to be offered a partnership with William Strachan in a
wholesale and retail grocery business which the latter was about to open.
This offer was accepted but the firm dissolved after a few years duration
and Mr. Reford started a business on his own account, which he continued
to conduct alone for several years, only taking Richard Dunbar as a partner
when he acquired, by purchase, from William Ross, another large wholesale
business of the same nature. The two businesses were run separately, one as
Reford & Dunbar, the other in partnership with the late John Dillon, as
Reford & Dillon, wholesale grocers and merchants. It would indeed have
been strange if a man, imbued with the spirit of enterprise and courage, as
was Mr. Reford to a very remarkable degree, had been content to remain
without some wider scope for his abilities than that offered, even by a
successful wholesale business. It was not long before he took the initial step
which was to lead him so far along the path of that vast question of
transportation.

ROBERT REFORD
Mr. Reford was one of the pioneer workers in this direction, entering the
carrying trade, in the early ’60s. He amassed a considerable fortune during
the forty odd years he was engaged in shipping pursuits but never did he
lose sight of the fact that Canada’s interests as a whole are intimately and
indivisibly bound up in every phase of the shipping industry, nor did he
ever fail to consider and work towards the benefit of those wider interests of
his adopted country.
The operation of vessels on the Great Lakes was the beginning of Mr.
Reford’s shipping enterprises. In 1860 he equipped the schooner “Seagull”
and sent her with a general cargo of Canadian produce to Port Natal, South
Africa, thus being the first man to undertake direct shipping connection
between Canada and that part of the world.

In 1865, associated with his old friend William Ross, the firm opened a
branch in Montreal. This was the commencement of the present Montreal
firm. The business was now assuming large trading proportions with Great
Britain, the United States, China, Japan, the West Indies and other foreign
countries; nevertheless it soon began to confine itself more strictly to ocean
shipping. The firm became agents and part owners of the Thomson and
Donaldson lines. When the story of the growth of Canada’s shipping comes
to be written the name of Robert Reford will loom up largely on its pages.
Mr. Dillon severed his connection with Mr. Reford in the shipping business
in 1897 and it was then that the present company, the Robert Reford Co.,
Ltd., was incorporated, with very extensive steamship services of six
different lines to many of the world’s principal ports and with branch
offices established in Quebec, Toronto, St. John, New Brunswick, and
Portland, Maine. Canada owes not a little to Mr. Reford for contributing so
materially to the opening up of new markets for her produce along the east
coast of Great Britain, and also for the building up of further valuable trade
connections by giving direct shipping communication between Canada and
the Mediterranean ports. Every aspect of the carrying trade had been
studied by him with that thoroughness and regard for detail which
characterized the man in everything he undertook. His opinions and advice
on shipping and on transportation generally were appreciated as those of an
expert, and sought after by people from all over the Dominion.
Apart from his shipping enterprises, which remained the main issue of his
commercial life, the most important of his other business activities was his
interest in the Mount Royal Milling and Manufacturing Company. Mr.
Reford founded the company in 1882 for the milling of rice, with mills in
Montreal and Victoria, British Columbia, and acted as its president up to the
time of his death. He was also president for many years of the Charlemagne
& Lac Ouareau Lumber Company, president of the York Lumber Company,
president of the Crown Trust Company and vice president of the Labrador
Company; and a director of the Bank of Toronto, of the Lake of the Woods
Milling Company and of the Paton Manufacturing Company.
From 1901 to 1905 Mr. Reford was a member of the Montreal Board of
Harbour Commissioners and in 1903 was a delegate to the fifth congress of
the Chambers of Commerce of the Empire, but no doubt his chief public
service was rendered first as a member and then as chairman of the Royal

Commission on Transportation, 1904-1905. The work involved in this
important commission necessitated its members visiting every Canadian
port, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with a view to recommending all
possible desirable improvements for the increase of and facilitating the
transportation trade appertaining to the Dominion, both ocean and inland.
The commission sent in an exhaustive report to the government in
December, 1905, based on very thorough personal observations and study,
together with the result of carefully gathered evidence of those residents in
the different sections of Canada who were best fitted to judge. It strongly
advocated the building of the Georgian Bay canal and the formation of
national ports on the Atlantic and Pacific, the St. Lawrence and the Great
Lakes. Further, it was urged that there should be a fast all-round-the-world
British steamship service which would bind together more closely all
portions of the empire, by taking advantage of the shorter ocean route
which services between Canada and Europe, via Great Britain on the east,
and Asia and the Orient on the west, could offer, if Halifax and Galway
were used as the termini for the Atlantic coasts. Mr. Reford’s work on this
commission was stupendous, but none of it was done in the light of the
public eye. Few knew of the great personal sacrifices which it demanded
and which were willingly made by this man of then seventy-four years. In
fact all his life Mr. Reford avoided rather than sought any kind of
prominence or recognition.
Many of Montreal’s educational and charitable institutions looked to him
for guidance and help and whether the requests came to him for his advice,
or for financial support, provided he was in sympathy with the object, to
either his response was equally ready and generous. He was a governor of
McGill University and was the first to respond to an appeal for aid by
donating fifty thousand dollars towards a fund for the increase of salaries of
the professional staff. In 1911 when the campaign for the general funds of
the university was made, it found in him one of its leading spirits and most
ardent supporters. Again he gave proof of his faith in the higher education
of men’s minds as being an asset of immeasurable national value and set the
inspiring example of a one hundred thousand dollars contribution.
Could we mention all the hospitals, homes for the aged poor and for little
children, and in fact every kind of philanthropic institution which knew and
enjoyed his generous help, the list would indeed be a long one and few such

in Montreal omitted from it. Some of his largest donations were to the
Montreal General Hospital of which he was a life governor and to which in
recent years he gave thirty-five thousand dollars; to the Young Men’s
Christian Association he gave ten thousand dollars, and a like sum to the
Diocesan Theological College.
In manner the late Robert Reford was somewhat abrupt but this arose
purely from that eagerness and energy which every move of the body
seemed to betray, and not from any unkindly feeling. He was an
exceptionally clear thinker, his mind worked with precision; his plans were
made and carried out with unvarying promptitude and method which
perhaps supply the key to his amazing capacity for the accomplishment of
work. Self indulgence knew no place with him and to the end he adhered to
his stern habits of life, granting himself but little respite and no holidays.
From the age of twenty-two when he was made captain of No. 4 Company
in the Queen’s Own Rifles his interest in civic affairs never waned. He
fought untiringly for reforms, often with a lack of support which would
have discouraged most men, but this North of Ireland man was not of such
stuff. He was of the kind which the hand of Providence seems to have
scattered far from their native shores, over the face of the British Empire to
give it that salt, without which it could have no savor.
Mr. Reford was twice married; first to Miss Margaret McCord, daughter of
A. T. McCord, chamberlain and treasurer of the city of Toronto, who died
within a year after the marriage. In 1866 he married Miss Katherine S.
Drummond, daughter of Andrew Drummond of Stirling, Scotland. Mrs.
Reford survives him, as do five of his children, they being: Robert Wilson
Reford, president of the Robert Reford Co., Ltd.; A. D. Reford; L. L.
Reford, M. D.; Mrs. H. B. MacDougall; and Miss Kate Reford.
Mr. Reford was a member of St. George’s church and a stanch believer in
the power of the church to be a light unto the lives of men. In all things he
acted as he believed and so the community is bereft of a personality of
strength, of courage and of truth.

MORRIS STANSFELD BLAIKLOCK.

Morris Stansfeld Blaiklock entered the service of the Grand Trunk Railway
over thirty years ago and since 1907 has held the position of engineer of
maintenance and survey in connection with this road. He is a son of the late
Frederick William Blaiklock, who died in 1900, and Elizabeth (Whittaker)
Blaiklock, who died in 1889. The father was public land surveyor and head
of the Cadastral Bureau of Montreal. The family has long been prominent in
engineering circles, the grandfather of our subject, Captain Blaiklock,
having been one of the Royal Engineers. A brother of our subject was the
late Major W. F. Blaiklock, of the Royal Scots. The family is of English
origin.
Morris S. Blaiklock was born in the city of Quebec on the 19th of July,
1859. He pursued his early education in a private school in Quebec and
upon the removal of the parents to Montreal in 1870 attended the high
school in this city, rounding out his course by receiving private tuition. He
then studied architecture for three years and in 1879 entered the employ of
the Grand Trunk Railway as assistant engineer, remaining in that position
until 1889, when he became resident engineer for the St. Clair Tunnel
Company in connection with the same road, holding this office until 1892.
In that year he was promoted to the position of inspector, continuing as such
until 1897, when he became engineer of the eastern division of the Grand
Trunk Railway. In 1902 he was appointed superintendent of the eastern
division and in 1907 engineer of maintenance and survey for the system. He
has held this latter office ever since. He is one of the foremost men in his
line, basing his success upon native ability, a vast experience and executive
force of rare quality.
On November 12, 1889, Mr. Blaiklock married Miss Mary Elizabeth
Tunstall, eldest daughter of the late Gabriel C. Tunstall, of Ste. Anne de
Bellevue, province of Quebec. Mr. and Mrs. Blaiklock have two children,
Jessie B. and Stansfeld. The family residence is at No. 405 Mackay Street,
Montreal. Mr. Blaiklock is a member of the Church of St. James the Apostle
(Episcopalian). Politically he is an independent conservative.

ALEXANDER MICHAUD.

Progressive citizenship in the twentieth century finds a prominent exemplar
in Alexander Michaud, mayor of the city of Maisonneuve, who is an active
factor in public affairs and business life of the city. His clear insight, his
keen sagacity and his public spirit have made his influence a potent factor
in bringing about not only Canada’s commercial progress, but also her
moral uplift. He might be termed a practical idealist, for, while he strives
for the betterment of many civic and commercial conditions, the methods
which he employs take cognizance of present day situations and
opportunities and present none of the impractical views of the dreamer. In a
word, he is a man of action rather than of theory.
Mr. Michaud is a representative of one of the old French families of
Quebec, while the maternal line is of an unadulterated Irish strain. He was
born January 27, 1868, at Back River, Quebec, a son of J. B. and Norah
(Connolly) Michaud. His education was acquired at the Christian Brothers
school and in the Plateau Academy of Montreal. In 1881 he entered the
employ of his father, who was a well known miller and flour merchant,
remaining with him until 1885. During that period Alexander Michaud,
while acting principally in a clerical capacity, also acquired a good general
knowledge of the business in its various departments. In 1885 he accepted a
position with A. L. Hurtubise & Company, grain merchants of Montreal,
with whom he remained for several years in the capacity of bookkeeper and
confidential clerk. His ability gained him recognition, followed by
promotion, and at the time he resigned his position in that house he was
manager of the business.

ALEXANDER MICHAUD
It was then that Mr. Michaud organized the firm of Michaud Brothers &
Company, which soon took a foremost position among the leading
wholesale grain and export firms of Montreal. Its existence covered a
period of about fifteen years and an extensive business was conducted,
constituting another forward step in the career of Alexander Michaud.
However, recognizing the fact that the field of real-estate activity and land
speculation in Montreal afforded great opportunity for profitable
investment, he withdrew from active connection with the grain trade and
entered the real-estate business. It is unusual for a man who has been so
long identified with one line of business to make so radical a change, but
the subsequent success of Mr. Michaud is indicative of his splendid
business foresight and capability. The success that he has achieved in the
real-estate business has been substantial, is well deserved and represents

methods that have lent dignity to the undertaking. There are few, if any,
who have more intimate or comprehensive knowledge of realty values or
whose judgment is more to be relied upon and these facts have served to
bring him an extensive and desirable clientage.
In connection with his public career a Montreal paper has said: “Perhaps the
field in which Mr. Michaud was best known to the citizens of Montreal is
political. He was an alderman and was president of the finance committee
of Maisonneuve from 1905 to 1909 and was elected mayor by acclamation
three times in succession. During this time Maisonneuve has made those
wonderful strides in growth which have been the admiration of the entire
country and have placed herself on a footing which is attracting the
attention of the entire world. The part played in this great advance in
manufacturing and commerce by the city is not a little due to the energy and
foresight of her mayor, who has brought his business acumen and farsighted
commercial judgment into play in running the civic side of affairs, the same
as he did as a merchant or miller. Mr. Michaud prefers to talk about
Maisonneuve rather than about himself, about the opportunities there are
there for capital, the splendid locations for factories and the many other
inducements which have made the city one of the leaders in commercial
advancement during the past five years. It is an interesting subject and more
Aladdinlike than Africa diamond mines or the gold strewn coasts of
Alaska.” It may be mentioned here that Maisonneuve, though surrounded
by the city of Montreal, is an entirely separate city, having its own
autonomy.
Perhaps the most unique point in Mr. Michaud’s public career is its cause.
Like many other men who had been similarly attracted to that locality, Mr.
Michaud took up his residence in Maisonneuve but with neither time nor
inclination for public office. The city at that period had a population of
seven thousand. Twenty-four liquor licenses had been issued and the town,
in modern parlance, was “wide open.” It was a great rendezvous for
hundreds of people from Montreal who would go down there on Sundays,
the open saloons serving as a great attraction. This disregard of the law and
the undesirable notoriety it gave the town aroused the indignation of the
better class of citizens, who, however, were powerless, owing to the
inactivity of those who were in charge of the city government. Mr. Michaud
was one who set about to bring order out of chaos and while his first article

in the local papers attracted attention, his second and subsequent ones
certainly aroused the opposition of the lawless element whose arrogance
had so long held sway. Personal violence was threatened Mr. Michaud and
his residence was attacked by a mob that broke every window within reach.
Missiles of every description were hurled inside. This cowardly attack
instead of intimidating Mr. Michaud, only spurred him on to further action
and showed that the Irish blood in him could mean fight—not fight in the
brutal sense of the mob but with that courage that comes of honest
conviction combined with fearlessness. In the face of such bitter opposition
Mr. Michaud became a candidate for alderman, was elected and wielded
such an influence in favor of good government and progress that from the
time he entered politics to the present he has made a most creditable record.
No citizen of Maisonneuve has worked so incessantly or taken greater pride
in what has been accomplished. That city today, with forty thousand
population, contains but nineteen licensed saloons, all conducted under
strict observance of the law. He is, indeed, a resourceful man and in the
management of public affairs displays the same spirit of careful
watchfulness and wise control that he does in conducting his private
interests. He was named by the provincial government a member of the
Metropolitan Parks commission of Montreal, of which body Sir William
Van Horne is president.
In 1909 Mr. Michaud was the chief factor in the organization of the
Dominion Light, Heat & Power Company and during the two years of its
successful operation, before being absorbed by the Montreal Public Service
Corporation, he was prominently connected with its management. He is a
man but little past middle age and his whole capital when starting in life
was energy and ambition, yet he has been highly successful, not only in the
way of winning prosperity, but also in valuable service to the city and
province. He gets much out of life in comfort and pleasure and has never
lived solely to accumulate wealth, but has ever been a lover of nature and of
outdoor life and it is only severe weather that prevents him from enjoying
the four and a half mile walk daily from his office to his home. In the latter
his greatest interest centers and he is always happiest when in the company
of his family. Mr. Michaud was married February 21, 1898, to Miss Marie
Virolle and to them have been born four children: Margaret, Paul, Germaine
and Alexander. Mr. Michaud is an indulgent father and the comrade of his

children. For a number of years he has spent the summers with his family at
Old Orchard, Maine.

JOHN MILNE BROWNING.

In the later years of his life John Milne Browning lived retired in Montreal.
He was of Scotch birth, a native of Edinburgh, born in June, 1826. His
father, Matthew Browning, died when the son was a young man and the
latter, who had been educated in the schools of his native country, came to
Canada in 1852, when twenty-six years of age. He located at Beauharnois,
where he continued until 1873 and then removed to Montreal, where he
resided through the succeeding fifteen years. In 1888 he went to British
Columbia, where he lived for eleven years, but on the expiration of that
period returned to Montreal, where he spent his remaining days in well
earned and honorable retirement from business. He had been a land
commissioner and was also connected with the Canadian Pacific Railway
Townsite Company. He displayed excellent business ability in that
connection and handled important realty interests.
In 1855 Mr. Browning was united in marriage to Miss Magdeline H.
Norval, born in 1833, in Beauharnois, Quebec, a daughter of R. H. Norval,
who came from Edinburgh when twenty-one years of age and remained
thereafter a resident of Canada until his death in 1856. His daughter, Mrs.
Browning, has seen Montreal develop from a comparatively small place
into a wonderful city, being ever an interested witness of the changes which
have occurred. It was on the 20th of December, 1906, that Mr. Browning
was called from this life and his loss was mourned in the various localities
where he was well and favorably known. He was a member of a number of
clubs and won popularity in those organizations. His public spirit found
tangible expression in many ways and his religious faith was evidenced in
his membership in the Crescent Street Presbyterian church. His life was
honorable and upright at all times and he left behind him an untarnished
name.

JAMES POWER CLEGHORN.

Prominent for many years among the merchants of Montreal was James
Power Cleghorn and equally well was he known through his support of
charitable and philanthropic projects and his cooperation in affairs of public
benefit. He was born in Montreal, October 31, 1830, and his life record
covered the intervening years to the 14th of December, 1911, when he
passed away. He was a son of Robert Cleghorn, who came to Montreal at a
very early day. The latter married Miss Eliza Power, a native of Sorel,
province of Quebec, and whose father was connected with the commissary
department of the army. Their family numbered ten children. Robert
Cleghorn was a public-spirited citizen and a man of domestic tastes, and the
influences of a home of culture and refinement left their impress upon the
life of James Power Cleghorn, who with the passing years rose to
prominence along the different lines in which he exerted his activities.
He was educated at Howden & Taggart’s Academy and entered commercial
circles as junior clerk in the mercantile house of J. G. Mackenzie &
Company of Montreal in 1853. In that establishment he gradually worked
his way upward until admitted to partnership in 1864, after which he had
largely control of the business, which was extensive in proportion and
which ranked with the oldest mercantile houses of the city. Mr. Cleghorn,
however, did not confine his efforts entirely to one line. In fact he became
recognized as a power in other business connections, both commercial and
financial, and was elected to the directorate of the Intercolonial Coal
Company, the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, the Merchants &
Manufacturers Association, the Canada Accident Company and Molson’s
Bank. He served as president of the Board of Trade and it was during his
incumbency of the office that the site for the present building was selected.
He was also a trustee of the Mount Royal Cemetery Association and the
president of the Intercolonial Coal Company. His cooperation was likewise
sought in behalf of those institutions where humanitarian principles must
combine with executive ability in successful management. He was made a
governor of the Montreal General Hospital, of the Montreal Hospital for the
Insane and the Montreal Dispensary. An active member in the Church of
England, he served as a delegate to the synod and cooperated in its work
along many helpful lines. In politics he was a conservative and he stood
ever for the welfare of the people.

On the 14th of February, 1865, Mr. Cleghorn was married to Miss Anna
Spalding, of Port Hope, Ontario, who was born in Peterboro, Ontario. Five
children were born to them: George S., connected with the W. R. Brock
Company, Limited; C. Power, a general insurance broker, who married
Florence Fechheimer, of New York, and to whom have been born two
children, James Power and Helen Power; Emily C.; Helen G., who died at
the age of thirteen years; and James Herbert, whose death occurred when he
was eighteen years of age.
The family residence is at No. 256 Bishop Street, and their summer home,
“Blinkbonny” is situated at Como in the province of Quebec. The death of
Mr. Cleghorn left a gap in those circles where he had moved as a central
figure. In business and social relations and in his connection with
humanitarian interests he had established himself in an enviable position by
reason of personal worth and capability, and his name is inscribed high on
the list of Montreal’s valued citizens.

GEORGE WASHINGTON STEPHENS.

If one would seek a fitting poetical phrase to express the life work of the
Hon. George Washington Stephens these lines might well be chosen:

“He leaves a patriot’s name to after times
Linked with a thousand virtues and no crimes.”

For an extended period he was in public life, and whether connected with
municipal, professional, or national affairs was always the same public-
spirited, progressive citizen, ever seeking the welfare of the constituency
which he represented. He was born in Montreal in 1832, the second son of
Harrison and Sarah (Jackson) Stephens. The father removed from the state
of Vermont to Montreal in 1828 and for years was a leading merchant of the
city.
George W. Stephens was educated at high school, afterward entering
business circles. He became identified with the firm of Law Young &
Company, but after a time determined to enter upon professional activities,

and with this end in view took up the study of law, following a law course
at McGill University, which conferred upon him the B. C. L. degree. Called
to the bar in 1863, he at once entered upon active practice and for some
time was a partner of the late John A. Perkins, an eminent barrister of
Montreal. Mr. Stephens personally conducted the cause celebre of Connolly
versus Woolrych, which he brought to a successful conclusion. The case
was a notable one, awakening widespread interest among the legal
fraternity and establishing the validity of an Indian marriage, celebrated
according to the custom of the tribe.
After a number of years devoted to successful law practice, Mr. Stephens
was obliged to abandon the profession in order to assume the management
of his father’s estate, and proved himself equally capable, sagacious,
farsighted and enterprising in that connection. His ability and his devotion
to the general welfare led to his selection again and again for public office.
In 1868 he was elected alderman of Montreal and for seventeen consecutive
years remained a member of the city council, during which period he served
on several occasions as acting mayor. He did much during that period
toward shaping the policy of city affairs and upholding those interests
which are a matter of civic virtue and civic pride. In fact he became
distinguished for his constant opposition to wrong-doing and dishonesty,
and his stalwart support of a prudent and economical progressive
administration. From the time that age conferred upon him the right of
franchise he advocated the principles of the liberal party and upon its ticket
was elected to the provincial legislature, representing Montreal Centre in
the Quebec assembly from 1881 until 1886, and so earnestly and faithfully
guarded the public interests as to earn the title “watch dog.” At the general
election of 1892 he was returned for Huntingdon and was reelected at the
general election in 1897. On the formation of the Marchand administration
in May of the latter year he was called into the cabinet, without portfolio.
He was the organizer of the Good Government Association of Montreal and
in January, 1897, received the thanks of that body for his “vigorous efforts
and judicious action” in the Quebec assembly in reference to certain local
measures. In 1896 he promoted a measure prohibiting indecent play bills
and posters being displayed on the public streets. No one ever questioned
the honesty and virtue of his position and his belief. Though others may
have differed from him in policy they recognized the patriotic spirit which

actuated him in all his public service, and none was more earnest in
opposition to misrule in public affairs.

HON. GEORGE W. STEPHENS
Aside from his active work in the assembly, Mr. Stephens utilized many
other opportunities for advancing public progress and improvement. He was
at one time a member of the council of the Montreal Board of Trade, was
president of the Mercantile Library Association and president of the
Citizens Gas Company. He was also a governor of the Montreal General
Hospital and of the Protestant Hospital for the Insane. His cooperation
could ever be counted upon in support of any measure or plan to ameliorate
the hard conditions of life for the unfortunate and, as a member of the
Unitarian church, he took an active interest in all good works done in the
name of charity or religion.

Mr. Stephens married first in 1865, Elizabeth Mary MacIntosh and
afterward in 1878, Frances Ramsay MacIntosh, daughter of Nicholas
Carnegie MacIntosh, of Edinburgh, Scotland. For many years Mrs.
Stephens was president of the Decorative Art Association of Montreal and a
recognized leader in social circles. She has accomplished work of far-
reaching importances and benefit in connection with the Woman’s
Immigrant Society; the Soldiers’ Wives League, which was organized
during the South African war; the Maternity Hospital, and the Montreal
Cooking School. In religious faith she is a Unitarian and in more strictly
social lines is connected with the Canadian Woman’s Club, the Ladies
Morning Musical Club and the Royal Montreal Ladies Golf Club. The
children are two sons and two daughters: Major G. W. and F. C. Stephens;
and Mrs. J. Wedderburn Wilson and Mrs. A. Hamilton Gault.
Mr. Stephens was devoted to his family and ever held friendship inviolable.
He belonged to both the St. James and Union Clubs and his military
experience covered service as a cavalry major until he was placed on the
retired list, his connection being with the Montreal Rifle Rangers. One of
the leading newspapers styled him “a liberal of the old school, fearless and
brave.” The same qualities characterized him throughout his entire life in
every relation, and many who were his associates and contemporaries felt at
his passing, which occurred at his country residence, Lac à l’eau Claire, in
1904, that,

“He was a man. Take him for all in all
I shall not look upon his like again.”

MAJOR VICTOR EVELYN MITCHELL.

Public opinion accords Major Victor Evelyn Mitchell a position of
leadership among the members of the Montreal bar, not only because of his
extensive practice and the ability displayed therein, but also because of his
contribution to the literature of the profession. His military record also
gives him right to public recognition. A native of London, England, he was
born October 17, 1865, and is of English lineage, his father having been

James Mitchell, of London, England. In the attainment of his education he
attended the City of London school and afterward McGill University, where
he won his B. C. L. degree and valedictorian honors in 1896. The same year
he began practice as an advocate in Montreal with the late R. D. McGibbon,
K. C. He had been a resident of Canada for eight years, and thus it was that
his preparation for the bar was pursued in McGill. The ability which he has
displayed in practice is indicated by the fact that he was created K. C. in
1909. He is now a member of the firm of McGibbon, Casgrain, Mitchell &
Casgrain and devotes himself to corporation and commercial law. He
published the first English edition of the The Code of Civil Procedure and
in conjunction with J. L. Perron, K. C., brought out an Insolvency Manual.
He is not unknown in the educational field, having lectured on The Legal
Aspects of Trade Unionism and on Warranties and Representations re
Contract of Life Insurance. All this establishes his position as a lawyer well
versed in his profession and capable in handling intricate and involved legal
problems. He is also a well known publicist; his letters to the Montreal Star
on the naval question created great interest and showed a thorough
knowledge and study of the subject.
Aside from his professional interests Major Mitchell has become known in
business circles and in connection with projects of a public or semi-public
character. He is a director of Penman’s, Ltd.; the Canadian Consolidated
Rubber Company; Ames, Holden, McCready, Ltd.; the Canadian
Consolidated Felt Company, Ltd.; the Charlemagne & Lac Ouareau Lumber
Company, Ltd.; and many other commercial companies. He is also a
director of the Laurentian Sanitarium and a governor of the Montreal
General Hospital and the Western Hospital.
For some years Major Mitchell was connected with the volunteer military
service, joining the Sixth Fusiliers in 1889, and when that regiment
amalgamated with the First Prince of Wales Rifles in 1898 he became
senior major in that corps. In 1900 he was placed on the list of retired
officers.
Major Mitchell was married in 1911 to Miss Sarah Proulx, and they reside
at No. 377 Peel Street. Major Mitchell holds membership with the Anglican
church and is well known in club circles, belonging to the St. James,
Canada and University Clubs, the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club, the
Montreal Jockey Club, Outremont Golf Club, Royal Montreal Golf Club,

the Manitou Club of Montreal, the Railroad Club and the Alpha Delta Phi
Club of New York and the United Empire Club of London, England.

WALTER HARDMAN ARDLEY.

A well known figure in railroad circles of Montreal is Walter Hardman
Ardley, who since 1913 has acted as general auditor of the Grand Trunk
Railway system and Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. A native of London,
England, he was born April 24, 1858, and is a son of James and Elizabeth
(Dunton) Ardley, the former of whom passed away during the early
childhood of his son Walter and the latter in 1896.
Mr. Ardley was educated in the City of London College and made his
advent in the business world as an apprentice in a London office. He came
to Canada in November, 1882, entering the service of the Grand Trunk
Railway, in the chief accountant’s office, on November 5, 1882. Steadiness
of purpose, faithfulness and diligence won him advancement. On December
31, 1907, he was made chief clerk and general bookkeeper and so continued
until August 31, 1908, when he became auditor of disbursements. He held
this office until September 30, 1908, when he became assistant general
auditor, and in 1909 he was made general auditor of the Grand Trunk
Railway system and Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Mr. Ardley stands high
in the estimation of the officers of the road on account of the efficient
management of his department.
On December 12, 1889, Mr. Ardley married Miss Tamar Jane Phillips, a
daughter of Henry Phillips, of Upway, England. He is independent
politically and a member of the Church of England.

REV. HERBERT SYMONDS.

A man who has made his zeal and commanding ability the basis of an
important work not only in the cause of religion but in the public service

along lines of charity and reform is Rev. Herbert Symonds, since 1903 vicar
of Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal. He is a prominent orator and
preacher, an able writer and an untiring worker for the promotion of
religious and social advancement and is regarded as one of the vital forces
in the spread of movements looking toward Christian unity. He was born in
Rickinghall-Inferior, Suffolk, England, December 28, 1860, and is a son of
George and Hannah (Wright) Symonds. He studied in Framlingham College
in England and in Trinity University, Toronto, Ontario, from which he was
graduated with the degree of B. A. in 1885, receiving the degree of M. A.
and the prize for an English essay and sermon in 1887. He holds the
honorary degree of D. D., given him by Queen’s University in 1901, and the
honorary degree of LL. D., conferred upon him by McGill University in
1910.
Rev. Herbert Symonds came to Canada in 1881 and four years later was
ordained deacon in the Anglican church. He received orders as a priest in
1887 and from that year to 1890 was a fellow and lecturer in Trinity
University in Toronto. The next two years he spent as professor of divinity
in the same institution and in 1892 was made rector of St. Luke’s church in
Ashburnham, Ontario. He resumed his work as an educator in the year
1901, being made headmaster of Trinity College School in Port Hope,
Ontario, serving in that capacity from 1901 to 1903. In the latter year he
was transferred to Montreal and made vicar of Christ Church Cathedral in
this city, and he has since held the position, which affords him an excellent
scope for his talents and abilities and in which his work has carried him
forward into important relations with Anglican affairs. He was president of
the Montreal Protestant Ministerial Association in 1905, first president of
the Canadian Society of Christian Unity and in 1910 a delegate to the
World’s Missionary Congress, held in Edinburgh, and the Anglican Church
Congress, held in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Mr. Symonds married, in March, 1883, Miss Emma Blackall, fourth
daughter of the late Mossom Boyd, of Bobcaygeon, Ontario, and both are
well known in social circles of Montreal. Since 1907 Mr. Symonds has
served as Protestant school commissioner and he is well known in military
circles, having been from 1896 to 1907 chaplain of the Third Prince of
Wales Canadian Dragoons and since that time chaplain, with the honorary
rank of major, of the First Regiment, Prince of Wales Fusiliers. He is a

member of the Masonic fraternity and is a past grand chaplain of the grand
lodge of Quebec. A writer of great force and power, he has made many
contributions to The Week and Expository Times of England and other
papers and is the author of articles on Trinity University and University
Federation, published in 1894, on Christian Unity, published in 1899, and
The Anglican Church and the Doctrine of Apostolical Succession, 1907. He
is regarded as one of the ablest preachers in the Anglican pulpit at the
present time and has made this talent also a force in the accomplishment of
a great and lasting work.

HENRY HOGAN.

Very few if any men in Montreal were any better known in their respective
lines of business than was Henry Hogan, in connection with the hotel
business. He occupied a position among his contemporaries that made him
a unique personage. The story of his life is best told by the history of the
hostelry, St. Lawrence Hall, that his name had made famous and over which
he had charge for upwards of a half century. Mr. Hogan was born at La
Tortue, near Laprairie, on the 12th of April, 1820, and was a son of
Nicholas Hogan, who served in the British army in the Peninsular war and
at Waterloo under the Duke of Wellington. He was engaged in the woolen
manufacturing business in Manchester, England, and upon coming to
Canada established a mill at La Tortue. He met his death from drowning,
the result of the giving way of the rail on a boat, which precipitated him
into the St. Lawrence river. He was survived by a widow and several
children.

HENRY HOGAN
Henry Hogan was but a boy when he came to Montreal and his early
training in a business way began in the line of business of which he made
such a great success in later life, the hotel business. In 1851 he became
proprietor of what was then called the Hogan Hotel, in which enterprise he
was in partnership with Messrs. Borden and Compaine, but both men
retired early, being succeeded in the firm by Frederick Penn, who remained
a partner with Mr. Hogan until 1869. After that time the latter was alone as
sole proprietor of St. Lawrence Hall. In 1856 he was one of the prominent
factors in the grand banquet given by the citizens in the Hall to mark the
opening of the Grand Trunk Railway, on which occasion many
distinguished citizens were his guests. In 1860 he entertained the members
of the suite of the Prince of Wales, later His Majesty, King Edward VII. In
those days Mr. Hogan entertained many people of title and prominence. The

story of this hotel has its own connection with the history of Canada, for
under the roof of St. Lawrence Hall there occurred many things that led to
the present-day development of the Dominion. Here Mr. John A.
Macdonald, later the great Sir John, met his sturdy opponent, Mr. George
Brown, and exchanged views on the best means of uniting the scattered
provinces. From this beginning confederation was achieved and Mr. Hogan
performed his share in these events and at all times faithfully carried out the
duties of citizenship. St. Lawrence Hall was for many years the best known
hotel in Canada and one of the best known on the continent. Princes of the
royal blood, soldiers and statesmen, political refugees, artists and poets,
stars of the operatic and dramatic stage partook of its hospitality and their
names recall events of bygone days. The opening of Victoria bridge brought
many notables to the Hall, and during the progress of the Civil war in the
United States the clank of the sword was heard at St. Lawrence Hall, which
became the headquarters for the Confederate representatives and southern
refugees. Jefferson Davis and John Wilkes Booth were guests of the Hall,
and during the Trent affair it was the headquarters of the officers. During
the trial of John Surratt, the register of the Hall was taken to Washington
and has never been returned. After the Civil war, General Sherman, of the
Union army, and also one of the most prominent Confederate generals
visited Montreal and were entertained by Mr. Hogan, as was Henry Ward
Beecher and other distinguished Americans. The banquets held at St.
Lawrence Hall were noted affairs, the place being the scene of many
brilliant social gatherings.
The ancestral records of the Hogan family included the names of many
prominent in military circles and Henry Hogan also took a deep interest in
these affairs, being for years commanding officer of the Montreal Field
Battery, of which he was lieutenant in 1855, afterwards became colonel and
assumed command, retiring with that rank in 1866. Mr. Hogan had been
connected with numerous business enterprises aside from his hotel interests.
He always had implicit confidence in the future of Montreal and made
investments that proved highly profitable. His business ability won him
success and prominence in his chosen field and his capability, tact and
resourcefulness made him an ideal host, whether entertaining a little private
gathering of friends or a large concourse of notable and eminent citizens at
a banquet. In religious belief he was a Unitarian. His death occurred
October 9, 1902, and he was survived by a widow, two sons, Henry H. and

Lawrence H., and also two daughters: Anna W., now the widow of Major
Low, of the British army; and Marion E., who died unmarried.

MARTIN MONTGOMERY REYNOLDS.

Martin Montgomery Reynolds enjoyed the reputation of being one of the
foremost experts in railroad accounting and finance. He had thirty years of
experience along that line and was connected with roads in the United
States and Mexico until he came to Canada in 1908 as fifth vice president
of the Grand Trunk Railway and third vice president of the Grand Trunk
Pacific Railway. At his death, which occurred June 17, 1914, he held the
position of vice president in charge of the financial and accounting
departments.
Martin M. Reynolds was born in Syracuse, New York, and educated there.
His first notable position in the railroad world was that of auditor of the
Mexican National Railroad, which office he held until 1892. He then went
to Vermont as general auditor of the Central Vermont Railroad, which office
he held until 1896. From 1896 to 1899 he was auditor for the receivers of
this road, and from 1899 to 1902 auditor for its successor, the Central
Vermont Railway. From 1902 to 1904 he was comptroller of the National
Railway of Mexico and in 1904 accepted in addition to this office the
comptrollership of the Mexican International Railway and the Interoceanic
Railway of Mexico, continuing in this office until 1908. In that year he
came to Montreal as fifth vice president of the Grand Trunk Railway and
third vice president of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, and in 1910 was
promoted to the third vice presidency of the Grand Trunk. From 1911 Mr.
Reynolds was vice president in charge of the financial and accounting
departments of the Grand Trunk and Grand Trunk Pacific and affiliated
lines. His office was one of the most important in the service. Mr. Reynolds
was also a director of the Canadian Express Company.
In 1894 Martin M. Reynolds was united in marriage to Miss Flora
Livingstone and they resided at the Linton apartments, Montreal. Although
he was in Montreal only a few years he quickly became imbued with the
Canadian spirit and his aims and interests became thoroughly Canadian.

CHARLES A. BRIGGS.

Charles A. Briggs was an active business man of Montreal, well known and
respected. He conducted a retail fur store under his name on Notre Dame
Street, and careful management and wise direction of his interests wrought
the substantial success which eventually came to him. A native of Montreal,
he was born October 3, 1839, a son of Russell Briggs, who came to this city
from Vermont and here spent his remaining days. Charles A. Briggs was
indebted to the public-school system of Montreal for the educational
opportunities he enjoyed. In early life he acquainted himself with the fur
business and eventually became proprietor of a retail fur store on Notre
Dame Street. He closely applied himself to the conduct of the business and
his able management and reliable methods were strong elements in his
growing success.
In 1862 Mr. Briggs was united in marriage to Sarah S., a daughter of
Mansfield Holland, who in early life came from Maine to Montreal and was
actively identified with the infant industrial development of the city,
building the first rolling mill here and also a nail and spike factory, making
the first railroad spike manufactured in Canada. His plant was located on
Mill Street and there he continued actively and successfully in business
throughout the remainder of his days, his death occurring in 1883. He was
then seventy-four years of age, his birth having occurred in 1809. He was
twenty years of age when he arrived in Montreal in 1829, becoming a most
active factor in its business circles, for, with the growth of his enterprise, he
employed many men. His wife was in her maidenhood Miss Gould and by
their marriage they became the parents of twelve children. Mr. and Mrs.
Charles A. Briggs became the parents of seven children: Charles Russell;
Celia; Florence; Edwin; Dr. George Nixon; Henry, who died young; and
Ethel.
Mr. Briggs held membership in St. James Cathedral, to the support of which
he made generous contribution. He stood stanchly in support of many of
those factors which work for the betterment of the individual and for the
community and at the same time he conducted a successful business
indicative of his ability and his enterprise.

JOHN A. PILLOW.

Standing deservedly high in the respect of all who knew him, John A.
Pillow was regarded as a progressive business man and valuable citizen of
Montreal, of which city he was a native. He was educated in the public
schools and for many years ranked as one of Montreal’s oldest and best
known manufacturers. In his business career he made advancement step by
step, gaining thus a broader outlook and wider opportunity. He made wise
use of the advantages that came to him and eventually reached a position of
prominence in manufacturing circles. It was in the late ‘60s that he
succeeded to the rolling mill business of T. D. Bigelow & Company, which
was one of the oldest establishments of the city, having been founded for a
century. Forming a partnership with Randolph Hersey, he continued the
business under the firm name of Pillow & Hersey. Later this was converted
into a stock company and Mr. Pillow was elected to the presidency. He
stood deservedly high in the regard of his contemporaries in commercial
circles. Business men knew him as one whose word was thoroughly
reliable, who met every obligation and kept every engagement, and the
record which he thus made was one which any might envy. He was very
thorough and competent in all that he did, neglecting no details and at the
same time developing his interests along the broad lines characteristic of
business enterprise at the present day.
Mr. Pillow was united in marriage to Annie Elizabeth Hillyer, and their
surviving children are two sons, Laurence B. and Howard W. He was a man
of domestic tastes, devoted to the welfare of his family and finding his
greatest happiness in promoting their interests. He rejoiced in his prosperity
not merely from the standpoint of success but because of the opportunity
which it gave him to provide liberally for his family and to give generously
to the poor and needy. He attended the American Presbyterian church and in
his life exemplified his Christian faith. He was much interested in the
welfare of his native city, cooperating in many movements that have
promoted its interests along various lines. He belonged to the Board of
Trade and his social nature found expression in his membership in St.
James Club, the Forest and Stream Club and the Manhattan Club of New
York. Death called him February 16, 1902. He had remained a lifelong

resident of his native city and his worth was widely recognized by those
who had been his associates in business and by those who met him in social
relations.

JAMES ELLIOT.

James Elliot, for more than half a century one of the best known bankers of
Montreal, was born June 2, 1840, in this city, and was the eldest son of the
late Andrew and Sarah (Pullan) Elliot. The father was a native of
Northumberland, England, and following his arrival in Montreal in 1832
became a well known contractor of the city.
After acquiring a thorough education in the Montreal high school James
Elliot entered the dry-goods establishment of the late Mr. Alexander
Molson, and after a time spent in that connection entered Molson’s Bank in
1860. In 1870 he became accountant and further promotion came to him in
recognition of his ability in his appointment to the position of manager of
the Montreal branch in 1879. Step by step he advanced in his connection
with financial interests until he became recognized as one of the foremost
bankers of the city. In May, 1900, he was appointed general manager, which
position he ably filled until his death, December 19, 1913. In banking
circles he was recognized as a man of exceptional ability, prudence and
sagacity, and was termed both a model man and a model banker. That he
occupied a position of distinction in business and financial circles was
evidenced by the large number of business men who paid their last tribute
of respect to his worth when he passed away.
Mr. Elliot was for many years a councillor of the Canadian Bankers
Association and was otherwise officially connected with interests of
importance to the public, being a life governor of the Montreal General
Hospital, a vice president of the Montreal Prisoners Aid Association and an
active factor in philanthropic work. Mr. Elliot was also an attendant at the
Melville Presbyterian church. His political support was given to the
conservative party. Although he was past the allotted age of three score
years and ten when called from this life, Mr. Elliot’s friends were drawn
largely from the younger generation. He was a quiet, unostentatious

gentleman of the old school, whose delight outside of his business was his
home and garden on Cote St. Antoine road. This home was one of the early
residences in Westmount and when erected more than a quarter of a century
ago was surrounded by open fields.

JAMES ELLIOT
Mr. Elliot was unmarried. After providing with great liberality for near
relatives he bequeathed five thousand dollars to the Montreal General
Hospital, five thousand dollars to the Protestant Hospital for the Insane and
a thousand dollars each to the Western Hospital, McKay Institute, Grace
Dart Home, the Protestant House of Industry and Refuge and the Salvation
Army. His bequest to these many organizations showed his broad-
mindedness and his deep interest in the welfare and uplift of his fellowmen.

JOSEPH ARTHUR COUTURE.

Joseph Arthur Couture, a notary public practicing in Montreal and in
Maisonneuve, was born on the 29th of December, 1881, at Sherrington in
the county of Napierville, P. Q., his parents being Jules and Dométhile
(Bourgeois) Couture. He represents two of the old French families of the
province. His great-grandfather and his grandfather, both of whom bore the
name of François Couture, were farming people, the former following
agricultural pursuits at Lacadie, while the latter was a farmer at St. Cyprien
in the county of Napierville. He married Sophie Ward and their family
included Jules Couture, who married Dométhile Bourgeois. Her father,
Pierre Bourgeois, was at one time a farmer at St. Jean, P. Q., and later at St.
Cyprien, where he was residing at the time of his death. His wife was a
member of the Granger family. Jules Couture was born in St. Cyprien,
county of Napierville, and made farming his life work, but since 1900 has
lived retired, his home being in the village of Napierville. His wife was
born in the parish of St. John, P. Q., and died on the 15th of September,
1907. They had a family of twelve children, of whom three daughters and
five sons are living.
Joseph Arthur Couture, the youngest of the family, attended the parish
school to the age of ten years and afterward studied with the parish priest of
Sherrington for three years. He next entered Montreal College, where he
pursued a five years’ classical course and later became a student in the
Seminary of Philosophy, where after two years, or in 1902, he won his
degree of Bachelor of Letters. In September of that year he matriculated in
Laval University where he studied law in preparation for the notarial
profession, receiving his LL. L. degree in 1905. He was received as a notary
in July of the same year and in September began practice in the village of
Napierville, where he continued until the 1st of October, 1906. He then
removed to the city of Maisonneuve, where he continues in practice, and at
the same time maintains an office in the city of Montreal. He is likewise a
commissioner of the superior court in and for the district of Montreal. He
carefully prepared for his chosen calling and his knowledge of the law and
his understanding of all phases of the notarial profession have given him
high rank among his associates in that field of labor.

Mr. Couture is also interested in some syndicates, purchasing lots on the
island of Montreal. He is a director of La Société du Boulevard Pie IX,
Limitée and of Salmon River Gold Fields and of the Montreal Consolidated
Real Estate and Investments, Limited. His connection therewith has resulted
in bringing him good financial returns, while in his profession he is making
continuous advancement.
On the 9th of October, 1905, Mr. Couture was married to Miss Mathilda Ida
Lachapelle, a daughter of Alfred and Mathilde (Beauchamp) Lachapelle, the
former in his life time a merchant of Montreal. Mrs. Couture died at
Maisonneuve, at the age of twenty-seven years, on the 17th of December,
1913, leaving no issue. Mr. Couture is a member of the Roman Catholic
church and in politics he was formerly a conservative but became a
nationalist as he did not approve of the naval policies of either the liberal or
conservative parties. He is still, however, a member of the Montreal
Liberal-Conservative Club. He was for three years recording secretary of
Court Gounod No. 3240, I. O. F., of which he is now deputy chief.

HON. J. O. VILLENEUVE.

The name of Hon. J. O. Villeneuve is inseparably interwoven with the
history of Montreal and its progress. Modesty at all times characterized his
bearing and simplicity his habits, yet the sterling worth of his character and
the high order of his ability brought him to a position of leadership in
connection with municipal and provincial affairs. He labored untiringly for
the best interests of Montreal while acting as chief executive of the city and
was equally faithful in his support of matters relating to the provincial
welfare when serving as senator. A native of the county of Terrebonne, he
was born at Ste. Anne des Plaines, on the 4th of March, 1837, and his life
record covered the intervening period to the 27th of June, 1901, when he
passed away at the age of sixty-four years. He was but a young lad at the
time of the removal of his father, Octave Villeneuve, and the family to
Montreal, so that he was indebted to the school system of this city for his
educational opportunities. He started in the business world as clerk in a dry-
goods store in 1853, when a youth of sixteen years, and his traits of loyalty

and faithfulness were manifest from the beginning, as is evidenced by the
fact that he remained with one establishment until 1865. Ambitious to
engage in business on his own account, he carefully saved his earnings until
his industry and economy had brought him sufficient capital to enable him
to open a grocery store at Mile End. There he conducted business for some
time and subsequently founded the wholesale grocery house of J. O.
Villeneuve & Company, which rapidly gained patronage and a high and
well merited reputation in commercial circles. He was a farsighted man and
one who on recognizing a public need at once sought to meet it. Realizing
the lack of communication between the extreme northern section of
Montreal and the outlying parishes, he established an omnibus route in
1860 between Mile End, Terrebonne, Sault au Récollet and New Glasgow,
which he later sold to the Montreal Street Railway when it seemed feasible
to extend the railway lines into that section.
Mr. Villeneuve was frequently called to public office and it is a notable fact
in his career that no public trust reposed in him was ever betrayed in the
slightest degree. For more than seventeen years he was mayor of St. Jean
Baptiste village and again, when the organization of the town took place, he
served for four years more, carefully guiding the interests of village and
town so as to bring about needed reforms and improvements. Following the
annexation to the city in 1885 he represented St. Jean Baptiste ward from
that date until 1894 in the city council and as a member of the finance
committee his experience in financial matters was found to be of great
service to the public. Higher official honors awaited him, however, for in
1894 he was elected Montreal’s mayor and filled that position for two years,
proving a capable executive and one who most carefully and systematically
safeguarded the public interests. For eighteen years he served as warden of
the county of Hochelaga and in 1886 was elected to represent that county in
the Quebec legislature, where his record was so commendable that he was
reelected in 1890 and again in 1892. In 1888 he was made a member of the
harbor commission and served for several years on that body. In January,
1896, he succeeded the late Hon. Joseph Tasse as senator for the De
Salaberry division. All this, however, did not cover the many phases of his
activity. For many years he was a member of the Board of Trade, and he
had important business connections, serving as director of the Dominion
Cotton Company, in addition to which he had other large manufacturing,
mercantile and real-estate interests in the city. He was resident director of

the Banque Nationale and a member of the harbor board and a governor of
Laval University. He was also senior partner of the firm of L. Villeneuve &
Company, wholesale lumber dealers.
In 1861 Mr. Villeneuve married Miss Susan Ann Walker, a daughter of
Captain James Walker, of Sorel, Quebec, who survives together with their
four children. Her father was a captain in the regiment stationed at Sorel
and was a son of Dr. Edward Walker, surgeon of that regiment. Jacques
Villeneuve, the eldest of the four children, residing at St. Jerome, Quebec, is
proprietor of a stone quarry and brick manufacturing business there. He
married Miss Lamontague and they had seven children, Jacques, Edgar,
Charles Eugene, Lia, Adrienne, Marguerite and Jeanne. For his second wife
Jacques Villeneuve wedded Miss Poitevin, and they have a son, Jean.
Eugene W., the second member of the family, was born in Montreal in 1865
and was associated in business with his father until the latter’s death. He
brought about the royal commission, giving a change of administration and
management of the city by a board of control. In November, 1910, at a
meeting held at St. Jean Baptiste market hall, he proposed that the
centenary of the birth of Sir George Etienne Cartier should be appropriately
commemorated and that steps should be taken for the erection of a
monument to his memory. Since then the monumental enterprise has
assumed not only national but empire scope and representatives of every
portion of the empire will be present at the commemorative celebration
September 6, 1914. Mr. Villeneuve has served faithfully as president of the
executive committee in charge of the celebration and the erection of the
monument. He married Miss Alice Crompton, and their children are James
and Reginald. Frederic Villeneuve, the third member of the family, is a
graduate of Laval University and was afterwards advocate in Montreal and
in Edmonton, Alberta. For several years he was editor of Canadian West
and for four years, from 1898 until 1902, sat for St. Albert in the legislature.
In 1909 he was appointed librarian of the Montreal Civic Library. He
married Miss Howie, of St. Johns. Rachel Villeneuve, the youngest of the
family, married Alphonse Morin, protonotary of St. Johns. Their children
are Josephine, Louise, Susan, Pierre Villeneuve, Lucie, Madeleine and
Andre, and they reside at No. 629 Dorchester West.
The death of Hon. J. O. Villeneuve occurred on the 27th of June, 1901, at
the family residence at 862 St. Denis Street. Editorially the Gazette said of

him: “Senator Villeneuve is dead at the comparatively early age of sixty-
four. His career was a typical one and included fully thirty years of public
service, municipal and parliamentary. His straightforward conduct and good
faith gained him general respect and for almost a generation he could count
on election to whatever office in the gift of the county of Hochelaga or city
of Montreal he aspired to. His municipal career was crowned by the
mayoralty of Montreal and his political work by a senatorship. He was a
thoroughly well meaning man, of modest bearing and simple habits, whose
innate worth was behind his business and public success. In his death
Montreal loses a good citizen and parliament a member of safe judgment
and right purpose.” To thus win the merit and plaudit of the press shows
that the life of Hon. J. O. Villeneuve was one of far-reaching usefulness and
of importance in Montreal. He neglected no opportunity, slighted no duty
nor passed unheedingly the chances to benefit city or province by helpful
service on his part.

JOHN DILLON.

John Dillon, for many years one of the best known merchants of Montreal,
was a member of the firm of Reford & Dillon. He was born in Chambly,
March 18, 1836, a son of John Dillon, Sr., a native of Belfast, Ireland, who
emigrated to Canada and for some years resided in Toronto and Montreal,
his death occurring in the latter city in 1875. He was father of two sons,
George Graham and John Dillon. The former passed his active business life
in Toronto, where he was connected with the retail dry-goods house of
George Bowes & Company. He died in Toronto, while his widow, Mrs.
Catherine Jacques Dillon, passed away in Montreal. They were survived by
a daughter, Miss Elisabeth J. Dillon, who for many years lived with her
uncle, John Dillon, who never married.
It was in Toronto that John Dillon formed a partnership with Robert Reford
under the firm name of Reford & Dillon, wholesale grocers, and in 1867 the
business was moved to Montreal. This association continued for about forty
years and the business was most successfully and capably conducted
according to modern progressive methods. A few years prior to his death

Mr. Dillon retired from the firm, but maintained his interest in other
industrial and commercial institutions. Up to the time of his death he was a
director of the Mount Royal Milling and Manufacturing Company and was
also vice president of the Gould Cold Storage Company. His business
judgment was sound, his discrimination keen and his enterprise unfaltering.
He could see farther than many a man in business circles, foretelling the
outcome of any enterprise from the beginning and, moreover, he had the
power to coordinate and unify forces into a harmonious whole.

JOHN DILLON
Mr. Dillon was much interested throughout his lifetime in charitable work
and among other institutions with which he was actively associated was the
Old Brewery Mission. He was an active member of the Dominion Square
Methodist church, which he joined as a charter member upon its
organization.

The Montreal Star in announcing his death on the 15th of May, 1908, said,
“In the death of Mr. John Dillon which took place this morning very
suddenly at his residence, 19 McGregor Street, Montreal loses one of its
oldest and most respected citizens. Mr. Dillon, who had been in good
health, was speaking to a relative about 11:30 today, when he was overcome
by heart failure, his death taking place almost immediately. Thus passed
onward one who always strove to do his duty by his fellowmen.”

CARLOS A. HAYES.

Carlos A. Hayes, who for a number of years was connected with the Grand
Trunk Railway, lastly as freight traffic manager, was on July 1, 1913,
appointed general traffic manager of the Canadian Government Railways,
with headquarters at Moncton, New Brunswick. Mr. Hayes has long been
prominently connected with Canadian railway service and has in that way
contributed toward the opening up of vast natural resources in the
Dominion.
He was born in West Springfield, Massachusetts, March 10, 1865, and when
a boy of seventeen entered the railway service in 1882, continuing along
that line with various roads in the United States until the year 1892, when
he was made New England agent and, in 1896, manager of the National
Despatch-Great Eastern Line. He held this position until 1903, when he
became connected with the Grand Trunk Railway as assistant general
freight agent in Chicago. Readily grasping railroad problems and possessed
of the true generalship of a railway executive, he was chosen in 1908 to
succeed J. E. Dalrymple as general freight agent of the Grand Trunk, with
headquarters at Montreal, and there remained, first as general freight agent
and later as freight traffic manager, until his recent appointment. Mr. Hayes
is a well known figure in Dominion railway circles and stands high in the
estimation of business men.

JOHN EDWARD MARTIN.

John Edward Martin, K. C., a well known member of the Montreal bar, was
born in September, 1859, at Shefford, in the province of Quebec. He
received his early education in the public school at Waterloo, P. Q., and at
McGill Normal School, and later entered McGill University, where he
graduated with the Degree of Bachelor of Civil Law in 1883, being the
medallist of that year.
In July, 1884, he was admitted to the practice of law and began the practice
of his profession at Sweetsburg, P. Q., in partnership with the late Senator
Baker. In 1893 he removed to Montreal and for over twenty years has been
a member of the law firm of Foster, Martin, Mann, Mackinnon & Hackett,
and his constantly expanding powers brought him prominently before the
public as an able lawyer and led to his being named king’s counsel in 1903.
The litigated interests intrusted to his care have on the whole been of a most
important character, and he has successfully practised before all the courts
of the province, the supreme court of Canada, and has frequently appeared
before the judicial committee of the privy council in London, England.
Mr. Martin has specialized in corporation and insurance law, and his
preparation of cases is always thorough and exhaustive, and the court
records indicate his ability in securing verdicts favorable to his clients.
He was a member of the council of the bar of Montreal for several years
and batonnier of the bar of Montreal and batonnier-general of the bar of the
province of Quebec during the year 1913-1914. In 1913 he was elected an
honorary member of the American Bar Association.
Mr. Martin has been married twice. His first wife, Nellie, daughter of J.
Rooney of Sweetsburg, P. Q., died in January, 1909. In December, 1910, he
married Emily Violet, daughter of James Patterson of Guelph, Ontario.
In politics Mr. Martin is a conservative, and he is a member of the Anglican
church. He is a member of the Mount Royal, Forest and Stream, Canada
and the Laurentian Clubs. He has a wide acquaintance among the leading
residents of the city, where his ability and personal worth have gained for
him the high regard of those with whom he has come in contact.

JAMES ALEXANDER LAWRASON STRATHY.

James Alexander Lawrason Strathy, long a factor in financial circles in
Montreal, was born in London, Ontario, July 22, 1857, where his father,
James B. Strathy, was at one time collector of customs. The mother, Mrs.
Elvira Strathy, was a daughter of Dr. Hiram D. Lee and of United Empire
Loyalist stock. Liberal educational opportunities were accorded the son,
who was educated in the Moncrieff Preparatory School, in Hellmuth
College at London, Ontario, and in Upper Canada College. At the age of
seventeen years he came to Montreal and entered the employ of the
brokerage firm of Gordon Strathy & Company, later becoming a partner in
the business. He subsequently was admitted to the Montreal Stock
Exchange, while six years later he became a member of the Board of Trade.
In the following years he devoted all his time to the Montreal Trust &
Deposit Company, of which he was one of the organizers. He was appointed
general manager of the business and remained with the company until his
death. He was also a member of the executive committee of the Royal
Electric Company and in business connections gave evidence of his ability
to handle important interests and solve intricate problems.
Mr. Strathy was a justice of the peace of Montreal and in official position
made a record equally creditable with that which he won in business. He
was a member of St. Andrew’s Society and vice president of the United
Empire Loyalist Association. Distinction and honors also came to him along
military lines, his military record dating from his appointment as second
lieutenant of the Fifth Royal Scots of Canada, in 1880. He was advanced to
the rank of captain in 1884, became major in 1891 and was made lieutenant
colonel, commanding his regiment, in 1893, so continuing until his
connection with the regiment ceased in December, 1897. In 1894 he became
vice president of the Canada Military Institute at Toronto and the same year
was appointed to the staff of the governor general of Canada as an extra
aide-de-camp.
Mr. Strathy was widely known in sporting circles. As a gentleman rider he
was the winner of the Montreal Hunt Cup Steeplechase in 1880, 1881 and
1886 and of the American Grand National Hunt Steeplechase at Saratoga in
1882 and of the steeplechase open to gentlemen riders. His political

allegiance was given to the conservative party and the interests and duties
of citizenship found ample recognition in his life activities.
On the 9th of January, 1885, Lieutenant Colonel Strathy was married to
Miss Margaret, daughter of Andrew Robertson, of Montreal, and they
became the parents of six children, of whom five are living: Marguerite F.,
Isabella D., Alison L., R. Lee A. and Elvira M. The family circle was
broken by the hand of death when on the 7th of October, 1901, Lieutenant
Colonel Strathy passed away. He was a popular member of the St. James
Club and his position as a business man and in military and sporting circles
classed him with the representative residents of his city.

JOHN RIGNEY BARLOW.

John Rigney Barlow, a civil engineer, who in 1900 was appointed to the
position of city surveyor of Montreal, has since served in that capacity and
is one of her best known civic officials. A native of Scotland, he was born at
Stornoway, Lewis, on the 29th of July, 1850, a son of the late Robert
Barlow of the Canadian Geological Survey. The first five years of his life
were spent in the land of hills and heather, after which the family came to
the new world. John R. Barlow was reared in Montreal and started in the
business world in the employ of the Canadian Geological Survey, with
which he remained from 1872 until 1875. He then entered the service of the
corporation of Montreal in 1876, and did important duty in that connection.
He was engaged in the construction of water works in the town of St. Henri
and did other important duties. He became assistant city engineer of
Montreal in 1880 and was made deputy city surveyor in 1882. Further
advancement came to him in his appointment to the position of city
surveyor in 1900, and he is now acting in that capacity. He thoroughly
understands the scientific principles which underlie his work as well as
every practical phase of the business and now occupies an enviable position
among the civil engineers of Montreal.
In March, 1877, Mr. Barlow was married to Margaret Coutts, a daughter of
the late Rev. William Darrach, and they reside at No. 78 St. Luke Street. Mr.
Barlow is a member of the Engineers Club and also of the Canadian Society

of Civil Engineers, in which he was elected to membership in 1887. His
fraternal relations are with the Masons, and his religious faith is that of the
Presbyterian church. His professional relations have brought him an
extensive acquaintance, while his sterling traits of character have gained
him firm hold upon the affectionate regard of those with whom he has been
brought in contact.

WILLIAM SMITH.

Clearly defined purposes and close application were salient features in the
career of William Smith, who died in Montreal on the 14th of March, 1910,
when nearly eighty-four years of age. He was born in Lanarkshire,
Scotland, September 20, 1826, and came to Canada when a young man. He
practically spent his remaining days in this city. He at first engaged in the
dry-goods business, which he followed for many years with good success.
Eventually he became a manufacturing tobacconist and again prosperity
attended his efforts in the commercial field. He also owned valuable real
estate, having taken advantage of early opportunities for investment along
that line. The soundness of his judgment and the clearness of his vision
were indicated in the rise in his property values, making his holdings well
worthy of consideration.

WILLIAM SMITH
Mr. Smith was married in Montreal to Miss Margaret Watson, daughter of
George and Margaret (Selkirk) Watson of Montreal. He continued to make
the city his home until his life’s labors were ended in death, when he had
reached a venerable age. He was a man respected by all and such was the
regard entertained for his opinions, that his advice was frequently sought
upon important questions. He was an attendant at Erskine church. Mr.
Smith is survived by his widow, who resides in what has been for years the
family residence, built by Mr. Smith at No. 56 Simpson Street and which
home stands on the site of the former home of Sir Alexander Mackenzie,
discoverer of the Mackenzie river and the first European to cross the Rocky
mountains.

JOSEPH ARTHUR BOURGAULT.

Joseph Arthur Bourgault is one of the most prominent figures in real-estate
circles in Montreal, his well defined and carefully executed plans
constituting a potent force in the substantial development and improvement
of various sections of the city. He is yet a young man but has already
attained a position that many a one of twice his years might well envy. He
was born May 30, 1887, at St. Louis de Bonsecours, Richelieu county, P.
Q., his parents being Henri and Caroline (Loriviere) Bourgault, the former a
native of Ste. Victoire, Richelieu county, and the latter of St. Judes in St.
Hyacinthe county, P. Q.
Joseph Arthur Bourgault pursued his education in the schools at Sorel, P. Q.,
and was graduated from St. Bernard College on the 19th of June, 1905. He
started in the business world as a bookkeeper and afterward was traveling
salesman, but eventually turned his attention to the real-estate business,
which he conducts under the name of J. A. Bourgault & Company with
offices at No. 97 St. James Street in Montreal. His progress has been
continuous, and his efforts have been constantly of greater public value, as
he has developed and improved property which hitherto had been an
unsightly waste or had little commercial value. In 1911 he developed and
sold Montmorency Park including eleven hundred lots which brought three
hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars; and in 1912 he sold a part of
Niagara Garden including thirty-two hundred lots, of which nineteen
hundred brought four hundred and twenty thousand dollars. He also sold a
subdivision on the south shore called Woodbine Park including over eleven
hundred lots. All this extensive property has been sold exclusively by Mr.
Bourgault. He is a wide-awake, alert, enterprising young man thoroughly in
touch with the real-estate market. He knows what property is for sale, is
conversant with values and seems never to make a mistake in his
investments. He was graduated at the National Salesmen Training
Association, which has its headquarters in Chicago, and he is a member of
the Headquarters International Realty Company of that city.
On the 25th of November, 1912, in Montreal, Mr. Bourgault was married to
Miss Berthe Daignault, a daughter of the late J. Daignault. They have
gained many friends during the period of their residence here. Mr.
Bourgault has attractive social qualities which render him popular socially

and add not a little to his success in the management and control of an
extensive and growing real-estate business.

DANIEL WILSON.

In Montreal stand many evidences of the ability and skill of Daniel Wilson
in a number of the larger and more substantial buildings of the city, where
for a long period he engaged in the business of general contracting. He was
born in Avoch, Scotland, March 2, 1827, and was in the seventy-ninth year
of his age when he passed away. He had been a resident of Canada since
1853, having come to the Dominion to take charge of stone quarries at
Pointe Claire for the construction of the Victoria bridge. After the
completion of the bridge he entered upon the work of general contracting
and erected many of the largest buildings of Montreal, including the Royal
Insurance building, Molson’s Bank, the Merchants Bank, the Mutual
Telegraph building, the Erskine church, the Windsor Hotel, and others. He
retired from business about 1886, having met with notable success that
brought him a gratifying income.
Mr. Wilson was prominent in public affairs. For eight years he represented
St. Antoine ward in the city council and was interested and active in support
of various projects which have had to do with the welfare and upbuilding of
this city. He was also Protestant school commissioner for a number of years
and aside from positions having to do with the public service he was
connected officially with various charitable and benevolent projects. For six
years he was on the board of the Outdoor Relief and the Protestant Hospital
for the Insane, was a life governor of the General Hospital and a trustee of
Mount Royal Cemetery Association. He was also one of the oldest members
and for eleven years a deacon and twelve years elder of the Crescent Street
Presbyterian church and when other interests left him leisure for sports, he
enjoyed curling and became one of the founders of the Caledonia Curling
Club.
Mr. Wilson was married in Scotland to Miss Margaret Stephen, who died in
Montreal in 1856, being the mother of two children: James, a resident of
Montreal; and Margaret, the widow of Henry Downs, of St. Paul,

Minnesota. In Montreal, in 1858, Mr. Wilson married Miss Catherine
MacGregor, a daughter of Daniel MacGregor, and to this union six children
were born: Robert, a contractor residing in Vancouver; Lillias Ann, who
died in young girlhood; Lillias Isabella, the wife of Peter C. Small, of
Vancouver; Christina, who married James Sutherland and died in Montreal
in 1896; Kate, who is Mrs. William A. Coates, of Montreal; and John
William, a contractor of Montreal.
On the 14th of February, 1906, Daniel Wilson was called from this life,
leaving behind him a record of many good deeds undertaken for the benefit
of his fellowmen and consummated in following the highest ideals of
manhood and responsibility toward those with whom and for whom he
lived.

ARTHUR ECREMENT, B. A.

Arthur Ecrement, who for many years has figured prominently in the public
life of the province and is a well known representative of the notarial
profession, was born at St. Gabriel de Brandon, on the 29th of June, 1879.
Liberal educational opportunities were accorded him and after attending
Montreal College and Laval University he entered upon public life. In fact
his activities have always been of a public or semi-public character and his
labors have been of far-reaching and beneficial effect. For five years he was
secretary to the Hon. R. Dandurand, speaker of the senate, and he was also
secretary of the liberal organization of the district of Montreal. He was first
elected to the house of commons in 1908, in the liberal interests, and his
efforts as a member of that body have been pursued with a singleness of
purpose in the interest of general progress and good government. He brings
to bear in the discharge of his duties executive ability, keen insight into the
situation and a loyalty to the public good that is above question.

REV. FRANK CHARTERS.

One of the most popular and able ministers in the Anglican church in
eastern Canada is Rev. Frank Charters, who for the past seventeen years has
done earnest and zealous work as rector of St. Simon’s church, Montreal.
He is a man of force, experience and capacity, high in his ideals, earnest in
his purposes and straightforward in his methods, and his labors have been
potent forces in the spread of the doctrines in which he believes and in the
promotion of the moral development of the community in which he resides.
Dr. Charters was born in Montreal, March 16, 1865, and acquired his
preliminary education at Arnold school and Fettis College. He afterward
entered McGill University, from which he was graduated with the class of
1888. In the same year he completed a course in the Montreal Diocesan
College, and in 1911 he was given the honorary degree of D. C. L. from the
University of Bishop’s College in Lennoxville. He is a governor of the
Montreal Diocesan College and a member of the corporation of the
University of Bishop’s College. He was ordained deacon in the Anglican
church in 1888 and received full orders in the following year, going
immediately afterward to Iron Hill and West Brome, Quebec, of which he
became Incumbent. In 1896 he was transferred to Montreal, and here since
that time he has done earnest and capable work as rector of St. Simon’s
parish. This congregation was organized in 1892 and the church building
erected in the same year by Dean Carmichael. Rev. Samuel Massey was
first pastor and officiated until the spring of 1896, Dr. Charters succeeding
him. The latter has proved a capable and efficient rector, fully conscious of
the obligations and responsibilities which devolve upon him, and he has
accomplished in the course of years a great deal of consecrated work among
his people, whose love he holds in large measure. He is, moreover, a man of
good business ability and foresight, and the affairs of his parish have been
ably administered and the funds carefully conserved. Dr. Charters has two
hundred and seventy-five families under his charge and manages a church
property valued at fifty thousand dollars. He is very popular among people
of all denominations in Montreal and his unostentatious life, filled with well
directed and zealous labor and characterized by earnest personal service,
has brought him the esteem and confidence of all who are associated with
him.

JOHN T. WILSON.

The life record of John T. Wilson spanned sixty-four years. He was born in
Greenup, Scotland, February 9, 1841, and died in Montreal on the 23d of
February, 1905. His parents were John and Mary (Thomson) Wilson, the
former a sea captain. The youth of John T. Wilson was marked by events
and experiences such as come to the lot of all. He reached a turning point
on the journey of life, however, when he bade adieu to friends and native
country and sailed for Canada. Settling in Montreal, in 1866, he became one
of the city’s foremost business men, his name being engraved high on the
roll of those who contributed most largely to the commercial greatness and
consequent prosperity of the city. He was for forty years the senior member
of the firm of Wilson, Paterson & Company, importers and general
manufacturers’ agents, continuing in active business until his demise. The
volume of trade developed with the growth of the city and had its inception
in the progressive methods, initiative spirit and undaunted enterprise of the
partners.
When business hours were over and the cares of the day were put aside, Mr.
Wilson greatly enjoyed a game of golf or billiards. His interest, too, reached
out to many of those projects which recognize the needs of the city and the
claims of humanity. He attended St. Paul’s Presbyterian church. For ten
years he was a member of the council of the Board of Trade and was ever
keenly alive to the projects instituted by that society for the benefit and
upbuilding of the city. He belonged to the Canadian and St. James Clubs of
Montreal, and the Hunt Club. His business activity was evenly balanced
with his honorable methods in trade; his interest in club life and in manly
outdoor sports giving him the necessary rest and recreation from that line of
work which takes strong hold upon the emotions and calls forth the more
tender sentiment in nature. In a word, his was a well rounded character and
his place as a representative citizen of Montreal none contest.

CHARLES BYRD.

Successful in business, Charles Byrd rejoiced in his prosperity not so much
because of the opportunities which came to him from his wealth, but
because it enabled him to again and again aid his fellowmen. In this he was
prompted by no sense of duty but by a higher interest in humanity—a
genuine regard for his fellow travelers upon life’s journey. His hand was
ever downreaching to aid those who were struggling to raise and he shed
around him much of the sunshine of life not only through his material
assistance, but also through the words of encouragement and inspiration
which he spoke.
Mr. Byrd was born at Lachute, province of Quebec, March 4, 1848, and was
therefore sixty-three years of age when he passed away at Nassau, Bahama
Islands, on the 3d of March, 1911. He had been a resident of Montreal from
early manhood, embarking in the grocery business upon his arrival here.
This he abandoned to enter the Munderloh firm in 1868, at which time its
founder, William C. Munderloh was in control. After the death of this
gentleman Mr. Byrd entered into partnership with Henry Munderloh, son of
William C. Munderloh, in the continuation of the business. In 1909 the firm
was organized as a joint stock company and Mr. Byrd had active voice in its
control, assisting in formulating plans which had to do with its substantial
growth and progress. It became one of the important enterprises of the kind
in the city and through his connection therewith Mr. Byrd won notable,
gratifying and enviable success.
Mr. Byrd was united in marriage in 1873 to Miss Kate Macdonald, a
daughter of the late Alexander Roy Macdonald of Montreal. During the last
years of his life Mr. Byrd was in poor health and, accompanied by his wife,
had spent two winters in the West Indies. He went again in February, 1911,
in order to escape the rigors of the Canadian winter and there passed away
on the 3d of March.
His memory is enshrined in a halo of good deeds, for he was continually
active in support of organized charities or in individual assistance. He gave
liberally to a number of the benevolent organizations of Montreal and
served on the board of management of the Protestant Hospital for the Insane
at Verdun to which he made a contribution of five thousand dollars. He was
also one of the board of managers of the Montreal General Hospital to
which he gave ten thousand dollars; was vice president of the Protestant
House of Industry and Refuge at Longue Pointe, to which he gave ten

thousand dollars; was vice president of the Moore Home and an officer of
the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society, to which his contribution was five
thousand dollars. He gave twenty-five hundred dollars to the Western
General Hospital; two thousand dollars to the Alexandra Hospital; two
thousand to the Montreal Protestant Orphan Asylum; five hundred dollars to
the Boys’ Home; one thousand dollars to St. Patrick’s Society, a goodly sum
to the Erskine church for home movements and a sum of twenty-five
thousand dollars for foreign movements. He was an elder of the old St.
Gabriel church on St. Catherine Street and afterward joined the Erskine
Presbyterian church when it was amalgamated with the Chalmers church. A
high-minded Christian gentleman, the principles of his religion permeated
his life in all of its different connections and his contribution to the world’s
progress along moral and religious lines was a valuable one.

CHARLES BYRD

DAVID MORRICE.

The life record of David Morrice might be summed up in the term
successful achievement. It has, however, been more than the success that is
calculated in the terms of dollars and cents, for his outlook of life has ever
been broad, his conceptions of its opportunities accurate and his recognition
of its duties and obligations correct. He has as fully and carefully met the
last mentioned as he has his chances in a business way. While he has passed
the eighty-fourth milestone on life’s journey, in spirit and interest he seems
yet in his prime. To him might be applied the words of Victor Hugo: “The
snows of age are upon his head, but the spring of youth is in his heart.” He
was born in St. Martin, Perthshire, Scotland, August 11, 1829, and after
acquiring his early education there, started in business life as an employe in
dry-goods stores, remaining for some time in that connection in Dublin,
Liverpool, Manchester and London. The growing western country attracted
him with its almost limitless opportunities, and in 1863 he established
himself in Montreal where he founded the business that has since become
one of the most important commercial enterprises of the city. Under the
name of The D. Morrice Company the business is now one of extensive
proportions. Manufacturers’ agents and general merchants, they have one of
the largest and best appointed establishments of the city, and Mr. Morrice is
also at the head of important productive industries and is said to be one of
the best authorities in cotton matters in the Dominion. He is president of
Penman’s Limited; of the Canadian Cottons, Ltd.; and of the Montreal
Investment & Freehold Company. He is likewise a director of the Bank of
Montreal; of the Dominion Textile Company; and of the Mount Royal
Cemetery Company. While he has now in large measure retired from active
management of these interests, his opinions still carry weight in business
councils, and his judgment and discrimination are those of a man of not
more than three score years and ten. While conducting important and
extensive commercial and manufacturing interests, he has found time to
become a factor in the management and control of many projects for the
benefit of his fellowmen in the alleviation of the hardships of life for the
unfortunate. He is now vice president of the Montreal Tubercular
Association; president of the Montreal General Hospital; president of the

Montreal Sailors’ Institute; president of the Mackay Institute for the Deaf
and Dumb; and governor of the Montreal Boys’ Home. He has long been an
interested member of the Montreal Art Association of which he is one of the
councillors and he maintains an equal interest in Christian education as
chairman of the board of managers of the Montreal Presbyterian College, in
which position he has remained for forty-two years. He has ever been a firm
believer in the early religious training of the young and has labored
untiringly to advance the interests of moral direction for the youth of the
land. In 1905 he was chosen vice president of the Quebec Sunday School
Union and in 1902 was president of the Presbyterian Sunday School
Association. In 1882 he erected the David Morrice Hall of the Montreal
Presbyterian College at a cost of ninety thousand dollars. His gift to the
Montreal General Hospital in 1906 made that institution richer by twenty-
five thousand dollars and in 1910 he gave ten thousand dollars to the
Montreal Art Association.
On the 14th of June, 1860, Mr. Morrice married Anne S. Anderson of
Toronto, and of their children, William J. and David J., are connected with
The D. Morrice Company. The others are Robert B., who is connected with
Penman’s Limited; Arthur A., a resident of Toronto; James Wilson, a
distinguished artist; and a daughter, who is now the wife of Allen G. Law,
of the firm of Law, Young & Company of Montreal. The son, James Wilson
Morrice, born in Montreal in 1864, attended the city schools and the
Toronto University and afterward developed his art talent by study in Paris.
He has not only won high reputation in that city but also in London and is
considered one of the greatest painters of Brittany coast scenes. He has been
a frequent exhibitor at the Paris Salon and one of his pictures has been
purchased by the French government and another by the Canadian
government for the National Art Gallery at Ottawa. He largely paints
landscapes, yet gives some attention to figures and in all of his work there is
an even balance maintained between technique, creative faculty and poetic
feeling.
Mr. David Morrice is now eighty-four years of age, but still maintains deep
and active interest in the church and in the benevolent and civic projects
with which he is identified. Moreover, he still holds membership in the St.
James Club, the Montreal Club, the Mount Royal Club, the Montreal Hunt
Club and the Forest and Stream Club. Someone has said, “there is an old

age which need not suggest idleness or lack of occupation; on the contrary
there is an old age which grows stronger and better, mentally and morally as
the years advance and gives out of the rich stores of its wisdom and
experience for the benefit of others.” Such is the record of David Morrice.

J. F. DUBREUIL.

One of the able advocates of Montreal and one who has filled with honor
various official positions, is J. F. Dubreuil, a descendant of a distinguished
family which has found mention in Abbé Tanguay’s “Dictionnaire
Généalogique.” In this book L’Abbé Cyprien Tanguay mentions among the
earliest ancestors of the house of Dubreuil the following. Christopher
Dubreuil, born in 1696; Jean Du Breuil, born in 1655, a son of Pierre and
Catherine (Gosselin) Du Breuil, married September 28, 1682, at Montreal;
wife died December 22, 1685: one child; married August 6, 1686, Ste.
Famille Marguerite Gaultier: seven children. Jean Etienne Dubreuil was a
notaire royal and a brother of the above mentioned Jean. He married twice
and had a family of many sons and daughters.
J. F. Dubreuil was born at Lachine, province of Quebec, January 24, 1845,
and is a son of Joseph and Hélène (Barré) Dubreuil, the former of Pointe-
aux-Trembles and the latter, of Montreal. The father was for many years a
notary public. J. F. Dubreuil received his education at the Jesuit College of
Montreal, famed for its thorough teachers, and completed the course of
instruction by graduation on February 6, 1866. He subsequently engaged as
an advocate and as he was able, capable and conscientious, soon enjoyed a
profitable practice, his services being demanded by a representative
clientèle. He served from 1873 to 1882 as deputy clerk of the crown and
peace, and from June, 1883, until June, 1889, as deputy sheriff of Montreal.
On January 26, 1869, at Sorel, Mr. Dubreuil was united in marriage to Miss
Marie L. C. Beaupré and they have the following children: J. F. L., vice
president of the Commercial Travelers Association; George, who is
employed in the registry office at Hochelaga; Charles, of Richelieu,
Ontario; and Raoul, who is with the Canadian Electric Company.

In his political faith Mr. Dubreuil is a conservative, giving his support to
that organization. For many years he has made Montreal his home and has
witnessed the change from a comparatively small city to that of a world’s
metropolis, having participated in bringing about the transformation
according to the best of his ability. He is deeply interested in the growth of
the city along material, as well as intellectual, lines and as he has always
lived a life of conscientious righteousness, is highly esteemed and respected
in the community where he is widely known.

JOHN RANKIN.

No worthy enterprise of Montreal sought in vain the assistance of John
Rankin, and his public spirit found expression in tangible effort for the
general good. At the same time he conducted important business affairs as
representative of large corporate interests of his native land. He was born in
Lanark, Scotland, in 1825, and had traveled far on life’s journey when death
called him February 27, 1908. Coming to Canada in 1854, he carried on
business first under his own name and afterward as senior partner in the
firm of Rankin, Beattie & Company. He also represented J. & P. Coates, the
world renowned thread manufacturers of Paisley, for many years, and was
instrumental in establishing for them a large Canadian business. He was
likewise financial agent for the house of Arthur & Company, of Glasgow,
and in the further development of his business interests became one of the
founders of the Shedden Company and of the Guarantee Company of North
America. As his worth and business talent became recognized his
cooperation was sought along many lines and when keen business judgment
prompted his investment in any interest he was almost at once accorded
voice in the management. He became a promoter of the New York Daily
Graphic, the Consolidated Bank and of the Montreal & Sorel Railway, now
a part of the Delaware & Hudson system. As a business man, his position
was second to none and his record was one which any man might be proud
to possess. He never made engagements that he did not keep, nor incurred
obligations that he did not meet, and his name became a recognized
synonym of integrity and enterprise in commercial and industrial circles. At
River David, in 1861, Mr. Rankin was married to Miss Louisa S. C.

Wurtele, a daughter of Jonathan Wurtele, in his life time, Seignor of River
David. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Rankin: James L.,
a contractor of Montreal; Archibald J., who resides in Edmonton, Alberta,
where he is a clerk in the government offices; John, who is a civil engineer,
residing at Victoria, British Columbia; Norman S., who is connected with
the Canadian Pacific Railway at Calgary; Allan C., a bacteriologist in the
employ of the Siam government, at Bangkok; A. G. Ernest, who is a notary
of Montreal; Louisa M., who is Mrs. John Fair, of Montreal; and Isobel S.,
at home.
None ever questioned Mr. Rankin’s interest in the city and the general
welfare of its people. He stood for all those things which are a feature in
civic betterment and his interest in moral progress was evidenced in his
membership in St. Paul’s Presbyterian church, of which he was secretary
and treasurer when the present edifice was erected. He was also a governor
of the Montreal General Hospital. His high standing is further indicated in
the fact that his name was on the membership roll of St. James Club. To
him were accorded the “blest accompaniments of age—honor, riches, troops
of friends.”
The summer home of Mrs. Rankin is “Manor House,” Pointe Seche, County
Kamouraska, Quebec.

EMMANUEL PERSILLIER LACHAPELLE, M. D.

While Dr. Emmanuel Persillier Lachapelle has gained prominence and won
honor in various directions, perhaps the one act which will longest stand as
an enduring monument to his worth and work will be the creation of the
board of health of the province of Quebec, of which he is now the president.
His efforts were a potent factor in bringing about the organization of this
board, the far-reaching effects of which are immeasurable. In this and other
connections he has entered upon a campaign of education for the purpose of
bringing to the public a knowledge of sanitary and health conditions that
will forever prevent widespread contagion and check the ravages of disease
even in individual cases. A man of strong character and wide knowledge of
men and things, his life work has by no means reached its full fruition. In

private and hospital practice he has gained eminence and his name is
associated with one of the strongest and best equipped medical schools of
the country.
Dr. Lachapelle was born on the 21st of December, 1845, at Sault au
Récollet, Quebec, his parents being Pierre Persillier and Marie Zoe (Toupin)
Lachapelle, descendants of some of the earliest settlers of New France. His
father was born at Cote des Neiges, in the county of Hochelaga, in the
province of Quebec. Making his home at Sault au Récollet he followed
farming and was proprietor of grain mills. His parents were Pascal Persillier
and Marie (Ladouceur) Lachapelle, who lived at Cote des Neiges. The
maternal grandparents of Dr. Lachapelle were Charles P. and Angelique
(Leduc) Toupin, of Montreal. The ancestors came to this country in the
early days of the French colony and were married at Laprairie, near
Montreal, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence river.

DR. EMMANUEL P. LACHAPELLE
After acquiring a classical education in the Montreal College Dr. Lachapelle
entered upon the study of medicine in the old Montreal School of Medicine
and Surgery and after a brilliant course was admitted to practice in 1869.
From the first years of his professional life he devoted considerable
attention to the question of hygienic science. He continued his reading and
research after leaving college and is still as keen and devoted a student as
ever. He has long been ranked as a successful practitioner of high standing
in Montreal, especially prominent in the field of hygiene.
In 1872 Dr. Lachapelle was appointed surgeon of the Sixty-fifth Regiment,
Mount Royal Rifles, and retained the appointment until 1886. He was
unable to accompany the regiment on active service to the northwest in
1885, owing to the demands of his professional engagements, but he
personally superintended the preparation of the medical equipment which

the regiment took on service and secured the services of an assistant
surgeon, who went with the regiment.
Dr. Lachapelle took a very active part in the refounding of the medical
legislation and in 1878 was elected a governor and the treasurer of the
College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Province of Quebec, retaining an
official connection with that important body almost continuously since,
while for nine years he has held the position of president. At the time of the
memorable small-pox epidemic in Montreal in 1885-6, when hundreds of
new cases of the disease were reported daily, until the death rate claimed ten
thousand victims, and when the city was practically placed in a state of
quarantine in respect to the rest of the continent, Dr. Lachapelle came to the
front as an outspoken and fearless advocate of the drastic measures adopted
to check the disease. The contagion was spreading so rapidly throughout the
country that it became necessary to take advantage of an old statute law and
to create a central board of health which would apply throughout the
province means for prevention and cure. Such a course had previously been
adopted in Montreal. The moment the horror of the great pestilence was at
an end Dr. Lachapelle proceeded to organize the forces of medical science
for the conservation of the health of the people. He was chiefly instrumental
in getting the provincial government to pass a law for the creation of a
provincial board of health with powers coterminus with provincial bounds.
Prior to that time there was only a local authority operating within restricted
bounds. From that time forward the body which Dr. Lachapelle may be said
to have created was to have jurisdiction over the whole province. The
beneficial results of this measure were soon seen in better methods,
improved sanitation and, above all, in the general vaccination of the people
who had been so terribly scourged because of the lack of this preventative
in 1885. For the most important and valuable work which he did in this
connection Dr. Lachapelle received high encomiums from all sections of the
American continent and from foreign lands as well, not the least flattering
being the recognition of the French republic in 1898 which conferred upon
him the Order of the Legion of Honor. With the establishment of the
provincial board of health he was appointed its president, a position which
he has since filled with credit to himself and great advantage to the entire
province.

Moreover the name of Dr. Lachapelle has been intimately associated with
the effort to improve medical legislation and to raise the standard of
medical education in Quebec. On the establishment of a branch of Laval
University in Montreal, decided upon in 1878, and the inauguration of the
medical faculty in temporary class-rooms in the old Chateau du Ramezay,
on Notre Dame Street, he was one of the most ardent instigators and
supporters of the movement and contributed in a great measure to its
success. At the present time he holds the positions of dean of the medical
faculty at the university and of professor of hygiene; from 1876 until 1894
he was proprietor and editor of L’Union Médicale. In 1885 he had the honor
of presiding as president over the convention of the American Public Health
Association. He had the honor of being elected an associate member of the
Société Française d’Hygiène of Paris. He has been closely and prominently
associated with the Notre Dame Hospital ever since its establishment and
can almost be called its founder. The splendid institution which owes its
establishment partly to the clinical requirements of the then recently
founded medical faculty of Laval was incorporated in 1880, Dr. Lachapelle
being a member of the board of governors and holding the position of
general superintendent until 1906, while to the present time he is president
of the hospital.
A stanch member of the liberal party, Dr. Lachapelle has often been urged
to become a candidate in nomination for political preferment but although
willing to use his influence for the benefit of his party he has invariably
declined to accept a nomination because of a sense of duty toward his
professional interests and benevolent engagements. In 1902 he was urged
by many of the most influential citizens of Montreal, both French and
English, irrespective of party to accept nomination for the mayoralty. He
did accept provisionally but later withdrew to avoid racial complications.
When the city government was changed about three years ago it was
deemed fitting that one so eminent as an authority on sanitation and hygiene
and one so dignified and high-minded as a foremost citizen should be a
member of the new board which was henceforth to administer the affairs of
the city. The Doctor has little inclination for publicity but yielded to the
appeals addressed to him and became controller of Montreal. He has made a
most admirable official, the value of his service being widely recognized. It
is his desire to accomplish the best possible measures of reform during his

term of office, and his efforts have already been productive of great good.
He was elected in 1910 for a term of four years.
Aside from his professional and public activities previously mentioned Dr.
Lachapelle is also a director of the Credit Foncier Franco-Canadien and of
other financial institutions and life insurance companies. He has been
identified with various national and benevolent movements and in 1876 had
the honor of serving as general president of the St. Jean Baptiste Society.
He is also a member of the British Medical Association, the Canadian
Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, Société
Médicale de Montreal, the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Montreal, the
Royal Edward Institute of Montreal and the Canadian Anti-Tuberculosis
League. He has been attending physician to the Hôtel-Dieu and other
institutions, and served as a delegate from the Canadian government to the
second Pan-American Medical Congress held in Mexico in 1896, and to
other similar bodies. He has been a frequent contributor to medical
literature, writing largely for the Union Médicale du Canada and other
periodicals. He is a councillor of the University Club and a member of the
metropolitan parks commission. In religious faith he is a Roman Catholic
and in political belief a liberal. He belongs to the Mount Royal, University
and Montreal Jockey Clubs. By reason of notable ability he has attained to a
position of prominence and power and has been termed “a second Laurier.”
Were his ambitions along political lines he would undoubtedly attain
distinction in that field. He prefers, however, the even broader field of
professional activity wherein his scientific investigation and research
combined with practical knowledge and skill have gained him eminence
and made his life work of signal serviceableness to mankind.

BERNARD MELANCON.

Bernard Melancon, a notary public who has engaged in the practice of his
profession for more than four years in Montreal, was born at St. Jacques
l’Achigan on the 20th of August, 1881, a son of Moise and Elodie (Gaudet)
Melancon, the former a zouave who participated in active military duty in
1869-70. The son attended College Ste. Marie, a Jesuit school, and Laval

University of Montreal. He prepared for the notarial profession, becoming a
notary on the 16th of July, 1909, after which he was associated with M. M.
Loranger under the firm name of Loranger & Melancon. Subsequently he
became a member of the firm of Mayrand, Loranger, Ecrement &
Melancon, but now practices as a member of the firm Loranger, Seguin &
Melancon, with offices at No. 99 St. James Street, Montreal. He is
conducting a successful business and stands well in the profession,
possessing the comprehensive knowledge so necessary to success as well as
the energy and ability which must precede progress in any profession or
business line.
Mr. Melancon is a nationalist in political faith and allegiance and in
religious belief is a Roman Catholic. He was married at Montreal on the
18th of June, 1912, to Miss Annette Jodian, a daughter of L. O. Jodian, who
died on the 17th of May, 1913. Mr. Melancon is yet a young man, but has
already made progress that many an older member of the profession might
well envy, and his past record gives indications of future advancement.

GABRIEL HURTUBISE.

The earliest record of the Hurtubise family leads back to one Louis
Heurtebise (the spelling having been changed later), who was born in 1667
and married on May 3, 1688, at Montreal, Jeanne Gatteau and died on
January 24, 1703. The present generation of this old and distinguished
French-Canadian family is represented by Gabriel Hurtubise, a civil
engineer and land surveyor, who is independently established in business
under the firm name of Hurtubise & Hurtubise, his brother Louis being his
partner. He was born on November 3, 1883, in the city of Montreal, and is a
son of Edwin and Emélie (Brault) Hurtubise, both of whom have passed
away. The father was prominent in insurance circles in Montreal as a
member of the firm of Hurtubise & St. Cyr, representatives of the Royal
Insurance Company, and died on the 30th of December, 1913, in Montreal.
Gabriel Hurtubise enjoyed advantageous educational facilities at St. Mary’s
College, pursuing his more professional studies at the Polytechnic School of
Laval University, from which he graduated on June 14, 1907, as civil

engineer, and on June 10, 1909, as land surveyor. He has since been
prominently engaged in this line in Montreal, having had charge of most
important contracts. He began his career under F. C. Laberge, C. E. and Q.
L. S., of Montreal. At present he is a member of the firm of Hurtubise &
Hurtubise, who are doing an extensive and profitable business.
On May 30, 1911, at Montreal, Mr. Hurtubise was united in marriage to
Miss Yvette Brault, a daughter of H. A. A. Brault, a well known notary of
this city. In his political views Mr. Hurtubise is independent, preferring to
entirely follow his judgment in support of candidates. His religious faith is
that of the Catholic church. Fraternally he is a member of La Fontaine
Council of the Knights of Columbus. Yet a young man, Gabriel Hurtubise
has already made his mark in the world and has taken his place in business
circles of Montreal. Ambition has been the beacon light of his life and his
career again is proof of the fact that ambition, coupled with industry and
energy, will lead to success.

GEORGE BROWNING CRAMP, K. C.

George Browning Cramp was for many years a veteran member of the
Montreal bar and a distinguished representative of the profession, his
opinions being largely accepted as authority on questions of real-estate law,
in which department of jurisprudence he specialized. He was born in
England in 1833, a son of Rev. J. M. Cramp, who came to Montreal to
accept a position at the Baptist College. For years he was at the head of
Acadia University in Nova Scotia and was one of the prominent educators
in the maritime provinces.
In the schools of England and of Nova Scotia George B. Cramp pursued his
education and qualified for the bar as a student in the law office of J. J. Day,
K. C., an eminent member of the bar. Thorough and careful preliminary
training resulted in his being called to the bar about 1855 and he entered
upon active practice in connection with his former preceptor. The latter had
been called to the bar in 1837 and was one of the most distinguished
lawyers of Montreal at an early day. Following his retirement, Mr. Cramp
entered upon active professional association with A. F. Lunn, K. C., under

the style of Lunn & Cramp, a connection that was continued until the death
of Mr. Lunn in 1894. Four years later, or in 1898, Mr. Cramp was joined by
J. Armitage Ewing, K. C., under the style of Cramp & Ewing, and two years
later they admitted George S. McFadden, at which time the firm name was
changed to Cramp, Ewing & McFadden. This relation was maintained until
the death of the senior partner, who was then in his eightieth year. While
well versed in the various departments of the law, he specialized in the field
of real estate and became an expert on legal questions relative thereto. He
was regarded as an expert in the matter of titles. He was retained in a
consulting capacity by such corporations as McGill University, Liverpool &
London & Globe Insurance Company, the Montreal Loan & Mortgage
Company, and the White Star Dominion Line. He remained throughout his
entire professional career an active and discriminating student of law,
constantly broadening his knowledge by reading and investigation, as well
as experience.

GEORGE B. CRAMP
Mr. Cramp held membership in the Mount Royal Club and the St. James
Club and was a casual attendant of the Olivet Baptist church. For many
years Mr. Cramp spent the summer season at Saratoga, New York, or at
Lachine, while his city residence was at No. 62 McTavish Street, where his
sister, the last survivor of the family, now resides. He passed away February
16, 1913, at the age of eighty years, leaving behind him the record of a well
spent life, in which he had wisely employed his time and talents.

THOMAS PRINGLE.

High on the list of mechanical and hydraulic engineers appears the name of
Thomas Pringle. Scientific study, investigation and experience brought him
to the enviable position which he long occupied, making his word authority
upon many problems relating to the profession. He was born in Huntingdon,
province of Quebec, in 1830, and died in Montreal on the 7th day of May,
1911. His father, David Pringle, was a farmer of Huntingdon and it was
there that the son was reared and educated, but in 1850, when a young man
of twenty years, he engaged in business in Montreal as a milling engineer
and for many years was prominently connected with many water power
developments and mill building operations throughout Canada. Every phase
of the milling business seemed familiar to him and each forward step that
he made seemed to bring him a wider outlook and broader opportunities. He
later interested himself in the Montgomery Cotton Mills, the Hochelaga and
St. Ann’s Mills, of the Dominion Cotton Company, and the Magog Print
Mills, owned by the same corporation. His connection with all these
different important projects constituted him a forceful factor in the
industrial development of the country. He was thus associated with many of
the chief productive industries of Canada and beyond this he became one of
the foremost consulting engineers. It was in the ‘60s that his attention was
first attracted to the water power possibilities of the Lachine Rapids, which
were subsequently utilized by the Lachine Rapids Hydraulic & Land
Company. At that early date, now more than half a century ago, he made
preliminary plans and wrote a report upon the feasibility of the development

in the interests of Hugh Fraser, founder of the Fraser Institute. Mr. Pringle
predicted then that the water power would some day be used and he lived to
see the day when the prediction was fulfilled. In 1891 he was again asked to
report on this power in the interest of the Royal Electric Company, and the
following year was asked to report on the Chambly water power for the
same concern. In 1892 his eldest son was admitted to the business under the
firm style of T. Pringle & Son, hydraulic engineers, and during the
succeeding three years close observations were made and much data
accumulated concerning the water power resources of the country, the firm
being regarded as authority upon many questions relative thereto.
Mr. Pringle retired from the firm in 1898 but the business has since been
continued by his son under the same name. His services were greatly
sought, owing to his sound judgment, his scientific attainments, his keen
insight, and his practical experience. He was considered the soul of honor
and none ever questioned his integrity. He assisted many men to gain a start
in life and many others were benefited by his powers of perception and
keen insight. His services were in constant demand as an arbitrator when
insurance companies were concerned in milling matters. John McDougall
took delight in giving him credit for the creation of the large McDougall
fortune and others acknowledged their indebtedness to him in a similar way.
As a natural mathematician he perhaps had no superior in all Canada and he
was regarded as one of the most distinguished members of the Canadian
Society of Civil Engineers.
In 1861 Mr. Pringle was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Ross, a
daughter of Alexander and Isabella (Lang) Ross, of Chateauquay Basin. The
mother, who came from Scotland in 1832, made her home at Chateauquay
Basin, until death called her at the notable old age of ninety-seven years.
Alexander Ross was a builder and assisted in the construction of the locks
at Lachine Canal but his death occurred when he was yet a young man. Mr.
and Mrs. Pringle had two sons: David Alexander, a mechanical engineer of
Montreal; and R. E. T. Pringle, of Toronto, an electrical engineer.

ANDREW JOSEPH DAWES.

One of Montreal’s foremost business men, whose prominent identification
with the financial and industrial life of this city has made him an important
factor in business circles, is Andrew J. Dawes, president of the National
Breweries, Ltd., and also president of Dawes & Company, Ltd. The latter is
the oldest established industrial institution in the Dominion, and was
founded more than a century ago by Thomas A. Dawes, the grandfather of
Andrew J. Dawes, who was the first of the family to leave England and
settle in Canada.
Thomas A. Dawes was first connected with the brewery at River St. Pierre.
Ambitious to engage in business on his own account, he established the
Dawes Brewery in 1811, placed it upon a substantial and profitable basis
and was later joined in its management by his sons, Thomas A. and James
P., who were admitted to a partnership in the business. When James P.
Dawes passed away in 1878 his share in the business passed to his two
sons, James P. Dawes, Jr., and Andrew J. Dawes, who then became
associated with their uncle, Thomas A. Dawes, in continuing the business
which developed steadily until it became one of the most extensive
enterprises of its kind in the Dominion.
Thomas Dawes, Jr., son of Thomas Dawes, the founder of the family in
Canada, was familiarly and affectionately styled Tom throughout Lachine
and wherever he was known. He there resided for nearly eighty years and it
was said that such was the regularity of his habits that one could tell the
time of day by his actions. He always took the same train into town each
morning and the same walk in the evening and visited the bank at the same
hour each day. His life was to the utmost methodical and systematic, and he
was modest in demeanor and of retiring disposition. He occupied a
beautiful home on the river bank of Lachine with his maiden sister. There
he passed away on the 14th of May, 1908, when he was in the seventy-ninth
year of his age, his birth having occurred in Lachine on the 19th of
September, 1829.
James P. Dawes, Sr., another son of Thomas Dawes, the founder of the
family in Canada, married a Miss Leishman, who died in 1856, leaving
three sons, James P., Andrew J. and Thomas A. James P. Dawes, Sr., was
prominently identified with the business during his active life, and
contributed his part towards its progress and expansion. He died in 1878.
His son, Andrew Joseph Dawes is now at the head of the mammoth

business, which had its inception in the brain of his grandfather and took on
material form through his efforts, and grew and developed through the labor
of representatives of the family in intermediate generations to the present.
To accumulate a fortune requires one kind of genius; to retain a fortune
already acquired, to add to its legitimate increment and to make such use of
it that its possessor may derive therefrom the greatest enjoyment and the
public the greatest benefit, requires another kind of genius. Mr. Dawes
belongs to that generation of business men called upon to shoulder
responsibilities differing materially from those that rested upon their
predecessors. In a broader field of enterprise they find themselves obliged
to deal with affairs of greater magnitude and to solve more difficult and
complicated financial and economic problems. Such is the position in which
Andrew J. Dawes found himself and he has proven at all times equal to the
occasion and the demands made upon him.
Born in Lachine, June 15, 1846, he received his education in that town, and
also in Montreal. His business career began early in connection with the
interests of his father and on the death of that parent he assumed additional
responsibilities in the business, which have been continued to the present
time. Mr. Dawes has been a prominent factor in the development of the
business. With its gradual growth facilities were increased, new buildings
were added and the plant has thus expanded until it is represented by
immense blocks of buildings, covering several acres on each side of the
main street in Lachine. Aside from his extensive interests in the brewery
business, Andrew J. Dawes is prominently identified with various projects
and organizations for the development and improvement of the province
along horticultural and agricultural lines, being especially interested in the
subject of fruit growing.
He is a director of the Montreal Horticultural and Fruit Growing
Association; is president of the Council of Agriculture of the Province of
Canada, and at one time was president of the Lachine Horticultural
Association. He is a director of the Merchants Bank and holds the same
official position in regard to the London and Lancashire Fire Insurance
Company, Ltd. He is well known in social and club circles and was
president of the Auto Club of Canada from 1903 to 1906, while his
membership relations extend to the Mount Royal, St. James, Forest and
Stream, Royal Montreal Golf, Royal St. Lawrence Yacht, Montreal Hunt,

Auto and Aero, Montreal Jockey, Montreal Polo, and St. George Snow Shoe
Clubs and to the Rideau Club of Ottawa.
Mr. Dawes married Miss Mary O. A. Wilgress, of Lachine, and they have
two daughters: Rachel M., the wife of F. L. Bond, of Montreal; and Frances
H., the wife of B. Hazen Porteous, of Montreal.
A man of unusual energy whose exceptionally well preserved physical
condition enables him to display a capacity for business more becoming to
one twenty years his junior, success has made possible for Mr. Dawes the
enjoyment of many social pleasures and interests. Yet prominent club man,
that he is, Mr. Dawes’ first interest is the extensive business of which he is
the controlling head and he is everywhere recognized as a forceful,
resourceful man, ready to meet any emergency and ever looking beyond the
exigencies of the moment to the opportunities and possibilities of the future.

T. STERRY HUNT, LL. D., F. R. S.

It is a trite saying that there is always room at the top, for while the lower
ranks of life are crowded, comparatively few have the ambition and the
energy to climb to the heights in connection with business or professional
interests. Recognizing and utilizing his opportunities and wisely employing
his time and talents, T. Sterry Hunt became recognized as one of the
eminent Canadian scientists, his ability winning for him the unusual honor
of being made a fellow of the Royal Society of London. He was born in
Norwich, Connecticut, September 5, 1826, a representative of an old New
England family. It was his parents’ desire that he should become a
representative of the medical profession, but a strong inclination toward the
study of chemistry, mineralogy and geology prevented him from becoming
a physician. In 1845 he pursued his studies under Professor Benjamin
Silliman of Yale University and later became his assistant. His constantly
expanding powers marked him a man above the ordinary and distinguished
honors came to him as the years passed. As early as 1846 the result of his
original research work was published in an article which he wrote for the
American Journal of Science. When the Geological Survey of Canada, then
recently organized by Mr. (later Sir) William E. Logan, required the service

of a competent chemist and mineralogist, Mr. Logan applied to Professor
Silliman to supply the man and Mr. Hunt was recommended for the
position, which he accepted early in 1847. His connection with the survey
continued until 1872, when, much against the wish of the government, he
resigned. His work embraced a large amount of field geology. The most
difficult problems presented by the geological formation of Canada are
those of its crystalline rocks. To this study Mr. Hunt addressed himself from
the beginning and made the first clear exposition ever presented of the
earlier rocks of the country. He afterward gave the names of Laurentian and
Huronian to these rocks and in his investigations, analyses and scientific
research laid the foundation of what he regarded as his life work. He also
gave constant attention to the economic and practical departments of the
survey and was the first to make known the deposits of phosphate of lime in
Canada and call attention to its commercial value for fertilizing purposes,
collecting and sending specimens of the same to the foreign exhibits of
1851, 1855 and 1867. He analyzed soils, investigated the petroleums of
Canada and their distribution, and his studies of the mineral waters of the
Dominion were the first and most complete ever made. His work in many
respects constituted the foundation, basis and stimulus of all later
investigation.

T. STERRY HUNT
During his connection with the survey work Mr. Hunt took part in the great
exhibitions of 1856 and 1867, acting as judge at both, while his services in
a similar connection were sought at the Centennial Exposition in
Philadelphia in 1876. His fame was world-wide as the result of his
investigations and researches were made known, for he took the lead in
much pioneer geological work on the North American continent.
From 1856 until 1862 Dr. Hunt was professor of chemistry at Laval
University in Quebec and was continued as one of its honorary professors
until his death. His annual course of instruction there comprised forty
lectures in the French language and for some years he was also lecturer at
McGill University. In 1872 he accepted the chair of geology in the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, there remaining until
1878, when he resigned in order to concentrate his efforts upon further

study and professional work. His scientific attainments have gained him
recognition both on the American and European continents. Harvard
University created him Master of Arts in 1852 and from Laval and McGill
Universities he received the degree of Doctor of Science. In 1881 he had
the unusual honor of receiving the degree of Doctor of Laws from
Cambridge University of England, and in special recognition of his
eminence as a geologist he was created a fellow of the Royal Society of
London in 1859. In 1874 he was elected to membership in the National
Academy of Sciences of the United States and in 1882 he was one of those
called upon by the Marquis of Lorne to aid in the organization of the New
Royal Society of Canada, becoming that year chief of the section of
physical and mathematical sciences. In 1884 he was elected its president.
Thus year after year honors were conferred upon him—honors well merited
yet worn with becoming modesty. He was one of the founders of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science at Philadelphia and
in 1870 was elected to its presidency. He was also an early member of the
American Institute of Mining Engineers and was its president in 1877,
while in 1880 he became the founder and president of the American
Chemical Society. Among the decorations conferred upon him was that of
the Legion of Honor, bestowed by Napoleon III, and the cross of St.
Mauritius and St. Lazarus from the king of Italy. He contributed much to
scientific literature and was a well known lecturer on scientific subjects. He
frequently went abroad for study, spending much time in that way in Great
Britain, Switzerland and Italy. A chemical green ink which he invented in
1859 was the cause of giving the name of greenbacks to American currency.
His explorations on the American continent had extended from the Gulf of
St. Lawrence southward to the Gulf of Mexico and westward to the Pacific.
In January, 1878, Dr. Hunt was married to Miss Anna Rebecca Gale, the
eldest daughter of Justice Samuel Gale of Montreal, who was judge of the
court of queen’s bench for Lower Canada. His wife was Mary M. Hawley,
who was born in Montreal and was educated in this city and abroad. One of
their daughters became the Baroness von Friesen, of Dresden. After the
death of the father in 1865, Mrs. Hunt traveled extensively in Europe in
company with her two sisters. She is the author of one or two volumes of
poems of considerable merit, so that her name, like her husband’s, is known
in literary circles. Dr. Hunt passed away in February, 1892. His contribution
to the world’s work was a valuable one. His investigation, research and

native intelligence constituted the key which unlocked for us many of the
portals beyond which lay nature’s mysteries. The earth and its construction
were largely to him an open book and he made it a readable volume for
others, placing his investigations before mankind in a way that has
constituted the foundation for further research.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL FREDERICK WILLIAM HIBBARD.

Lieutenant Colonel Frederick William Hibbard has been frequently before
the public as a speaker and writer upon topics of public interest. Although
never a candidate he was for years a participant in both federal and
provincial politics and has appeared on numerous public occasions both in
the province of Quebec and in that of Ontario. He is the senior member of
the firm of Hibbard, Boyer & Gosselin, and a successful member of the
Montreal bar. Ireland claims him as a native son, his birth having occurred
in Dublin on the 19th of October, 1865. His father was the late Lieutenant
Colonel Ashley Hibbard, of Montreal, and his mother was Sarah Ann
Hibbard, the second daughter of the Rev. Ambrose Lane, M. A., perpetual
curate of St. Thomas, Pendleton, Manchester, England.
After spending some years under private instruction, Lieutenant Colonel F.
W. Hibbard entered McGill University, where he took his Bachelor of Arts
degree in 1886. After a couple of years spent in teaching he returned to the
university for the study of law, graduating as B. C. L. in 1891. In addition to
the degree of B. C. L. received in that year he was also gold medallist. In
1892 he received the degree of M. A. He began practice as a barrister in
1893 and was created king’s counsel in 1907. His advancement at the bar
has been continuous and long since he left the ranks of the many to stand
among the successful few. From 1907 until 1910 he was crown prosecutor
for the district of Montreal, and his clientele of a private character has been
extensive and important. In literary circles he is known and has given
papers and addresses upon a number of subjects. In 1903 he was president
of the St. James Literary Society of Montreal. His popularity as a lecturer is
based both upon the entertaining and the instructive nature of his
discourses. He has addressed various audiences upon the following

comprehensive subjects:—Canadian Constitutional Government, The Land
Defence of Canada, The Value of Organized Effort in Municipal Affairs,
The Prophecy of the West, and Canadians at Home and Abroad. He is not
merely a theorist, for his ideas have many times taken practical, tangible
form, and in 1910 his fitness for the position led to his appointment to the
presidency of the Quebec public utilities commission. In military circles his
name is known, for he holds a first class certificate from the Royal School
of Artillery, and in 1894 joined the Second Regiment Canadian Artillery as
a lieutenant. He was advanced to the rank of captain in 1895, major in 1897,
lieutenant colonel in command in 1901 and R. O. in 1906. He was one of
the artillery officers of the Second Canadian Contingent at Queen Victoria’s
Jubilee, received the Diamond Jubilee medal from the hand of King
Edward, and was presented to the late Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle. In
1900 he was elected to the presidency of the Montreal Military Institute and
in 1905 became vice president of the Dominion Artillery Association.
Lieutenant Colonel Hibbard was married in November, 1898, to Miss Emily
Laura Baker, the third daughter of Joseph S. Baker, of Dunham, P. Q. He
finds recreation in golf and has been president of the Outremont Golf Club.
He is a member of the St. James and University Clubs and the Quebec
Garrison Club. A liberal in politics, he has been active in support of the
principles of his party, recognizing the duties and obligations as well as the
privileges of citizenship. In religious belief is an Anglican, having twice
served as warden of his church, is a member of the synod of Montreal and
of the executive committee of the diocese. Mr. D. A. Lafortune, his
colleague as crown prosecutor, has characterized him as “a man of dignity
and learning.” His lifelong habit of study and investigation, his deep and
continuous interest in important public questions, and his earnest purpose,
prompting him to action in behalf of the public welfare, have made him a
citizen of value in advancing progress and working toward that better
ordering of things which is always the goal of progress.

J. ADELARD OUIMET.

Among the better known advocates of Montreal is J. Adélard Ouimet, who
is a member of the firm of Ouimet & Guertin. He is one of the most
successful men in his line, and by his career carries forward the tradition of
the family which to a large extent has been connected with the legal
fraternity. The grandfather, Michel Ouimet, was justice of the peace of St.
Rose, in the county of Laval, and also took an active part in the insurrection
of 1837. The father of J. Adélard Ouimet was Landré Ouimet, and his wife
was in her maidenhood Miss Euphémie Bourqué. A brother of our subject,
also named Landré Ouimet, was for ten years an alderman for St. Jean
Baptiste ward and an uncle on the paternal side was judge of the court of
appeals and president of the City and District Savings Bank.
J. Adélard Ouimet was born at Ste. Scholastique, in the county of Two
Mountains, on the 7th of March, 1868. He pursued his classical studies in
the Seminary of Ste. Thérèse and at the University of Ottawa and his law
course at Laval University, being admitted to the bar in 1895. He then
became a partner of the well known legal firm of Ouimet, Emard, Maurault
& Ouimet, but after the appointment of the Hon. J. A. Ouimet, his uncle, to
the judgeship of the court of appeals he entered into partnership with A.
Délisle, Q. C., then a member of parliament for Portneuf county, but two
years later decided to engage in practice independently. In May, 1913, he
formed a partnership with C. A. Guertin, Q. C., under the firm name of
Ouimet & Guertin. He possesses every quality of which a lawyer may be
proud—skill in the presentation of his evidence, marked ability in cross-
examination, persuasiveness before the jury, a strong grasp of every feature
of the case, the ability to secure a favorable ruling from the judge, unusual
familiarity with human nature and the springs of human conduct and, last
but not least, untiring energy. He has often occasion to demonstrate his
ability and has handled many important cases since his admission to the bar,
his clientele being of the most representative character. He is dignified and
impressive, deliberate in manner, his speeches always commanding
attention. Entirely free from ostentation and display, he largely relies upon
the simple weight of his character and is ever prepared to meet any attack of
the opposing counsel, as his mind works with a rapidity which often excites
the wonder and admiration of his colleagues.
On the 3d of September, 1901, Mr. Ouimet was united in marriage in
Montreal to Miss Dersina Vaillancourt, a daughter of Benjamin

Vaillancourt, a well known grain merchant of Montreal, and they have one
son, George Etienne. As is but natural, Mr. Ouimet has taken a conspicuous
part in the public life of his city and province, having participated in all
elections since 1890, not only in the province of Quebec but also in Ontario.
He is a conservative in his political affiliations and stanchly upholds the
principles of his party. He was the founder and first president of Le Club
Morin, holding the executive office during 1893 and 1894. From 1894 to
1896 he was also president of Le Club des Jeunes Conservateurs and is an
active member of Le Club Cartier, of which he served as treasurer from
1910 to 1912. He is also a military man. After having been in the Sixty-fifth
Regiment for ten years, he then joined the Eighty-fifth Regiment, becoming
captain in 1900. He will be major of that regiment in 1914. Fraternally he is
chief ranger of the Catholic Order of Foresters and is a member of the
Royal Guardians and of the Catholic Foresters Club. His religious faith is
that of the Roman Catholic church, to the work of which he gives his moral
and material support. At the Ottawa University he was the founder of La
Société des Débats Canadien Français in 1889 and served as its first
president. In 1908 he was also elected president of L’Association St. Jean
Baptiste of St. Jean Baptiste parish. Mr. Ouimet is a successful lawyer in
the truest sense of the word, a man unusually broad-minded and intelligent,
tolerant and of wide experience, never mercenary or grasping, believing in
something greater than mere material wealth, who in the course of a
distinguished career, spent simply and unostentatiously, has been a factor
for good along various lines. His public-spirited citizenship has been a boon
to Montreal, who proudly claims him as one of her citizens, and Mr. Ouimet
returns the honor which the city’s people entertain for him by a loyalty
which could not be more devoted.

CHARLES FRANCIS SMITH.

Charles Francis Smith, for half a century a leading figure in the business
and social life of Montreal, was born in Aylesford, Hampshire, England, in
1841. He had reached the psalmist’s allotted span of three score years and
ten when death called him in Montreal on the 30th of September, 1911. His
position was one which gained for him not only the respect but also the

admiration and love of his associates. Important and extensive as were his
business enterprises, they constituted but one phase of an existence that was
largely devoted to charitable works and civic affairs and he was no less
esteemed for his generosity and unfailing kindness than he was admired for
his business acumen. His residence in Canada covered a period of forty-
eight years. He came to this country as a member of the standing army. The
shed in which he and his fellow soldiers slept the first night after landing at
St. Andrews, New Brunswick, is still standing near the beautiful summer
home which he afterward built for himself there. His entrance into
commercial circles in Montreal was made as proprietor of a shoe store on
St. Mary Street. He afterward entered into partnership with the late James
McCready and upon the latter’s death became sole proprietor of the
business and so remained for almost one-third of a century; yet in order to
give his employes the opportunity of sharing in the profits of the business
he formed a limited company nine years prior to his demise. In April, 1911,
the business was sold to D. Lorne McGibbon, although Mr. Smith retained
an interest in the new company,—the Ames, Holden, McCready, Limited,—
of which he became a director.

CHARLES F. SMITH
Public affairs as well as private interests profited by the efforts, the sound
judgment and keen discrimination of Mr. Smith. He was at one time
alderman of Montreal; was a member of the finance committee and was
again and again urged to become a candidate for the mayoralty. Native
modesty, however, caused him to remain in private life even when it was
almost a certainty that he would be elected to any office to which he might
aspire. He was the only English member of the French Commercial School
which was established by the Gouin government, and he belonged to the
Board of Trade for five or six years, being first a member of the council and
rising through the offices of treasurer and vice president to that of president,
being elected by acclamation. He was also a vice president of the Dominion
Express Company; managing director of the Laurentide Pulp Company; a
director of the Merchants Bank; a director of the Montreal Trust Company;

a director of the Dominion Textile Company; was at one time the president
of the Western Hospital, and had been for years one of the governors of
both the Notre Dame and General Hospitals, and vice president of the Royal
Alexandra. He was a well known figure in the city’s fashionable clubs,
belonging to the Mount Royal and St. James Clubs, the Royal Montreal
Golf Club, the Forest and Stream Club and the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht
Club. He was also a charter member of Canada Council of the Knights of
Columbus; a prominent parishioner of St. Patrick’s church, as well as
warden of the same; a director of St. Patrick’s Orphan Asylum, and
president of the Catholic Sailors’ Club. He was also a well known member
of St. George’s Society.
His kindness of heart was invariable, he was especially devoted to his home
and shunned ostentation. At St. Andrews where he spent every summer, one
of his greatest pleasures consisted in the companionship of those friends of
his who lived near him, of whom Sir Thomas Shaughnessy was among the
number. Taking a great interest in matters pertaining to education, he was
one of the founders of the Catholic high school, and a member of the
administration of Laval University, and though, well known in life as a
conservative in politics, he was appointed by Hon. Lomer Gouin as
governor of L’Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales. Besides being a
practical manufacturer, Mr. Smith gave special attention to tariff matters,
and his contributions to the campaign against unrestricted reciprocity in
1891, when Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Mr. Erastus Wiman and their friends
endeavored to establish free trade between Canada and the United States,
did more than a little to secure the protectionist victory of that year.
For years Mr. Smith did not actively participate in civic affairs, but in 1890,
when a reform wave was sweeping over the commercial metropolis he was
asked to come forward as a candidate in one of the civic divisions. He
hesitated for some time, but finally consented to contest the west ward if his
warm personal friend, the late Mr. Frank Hart, would also seek a seat in the
city council. At that time the late Colonel Stevenson was a landmark in
civic politics as well as in military and social circles, and so well was the
colonel known that there were many who considered that with him as an
opponent Mr. Smith had hardly a fighting chance. It was contended that a
Roman Catholic could not be elected in such a pronounced Protestant
district as the west ward, but the success achieved by Mr. Smith in that

contest proved that the reform candidate’s reputation was too well
established to leave him a victim of the religious cry. He served in the
council during 1890 and 1891, on the finance committee, and though
assured that he could have a second election by acclamation, he declined
both the aldermanic and mayoralty honors that were offered him.
In a quiet and unostentatious manner he was a generous contributor to
deserving charities, irrespective of nationality or creed. He was one of the
most prominent English-speaking Catholics in Montreal. As a personal
friend of Archbishop Bruchesi, Mr. Smith was frequently consulted in the
church’s temporal affairs.
Mr. Smith twice married: His first wife was Miss Mary A. McGlynn and his
second wife who survives him, was Miss Margaret M. McNally, daughter of
the late Bernard McNally. Two sons were the issue of the first marriage,
Clarence F. Smith, vice president and general manager of the Ames,
Holden, McCready, Limited, and Frederick H. Smith, who lived in the West
Indies, until his death in April, 1912. To the second marriage the following
children were born: Rose M.; Charles F., who died on August 20, 1911;
Marguerite M.; Francis C.; May G.; and Geraldine M.
The Montreal Herald said of Mr. Smith: “There was no better citizen of
Montreal than the late Charles F. Smith. He had made his way in the world
by dint of rare power of business organization. In addition he was a man
who made friends and held them. He had no taste for public life himself,
but he had a deep interest in public affairs and in the men who in public life
supported his views. It was so in the affairs of the Board of Trade and
resulted in his becoming president of that body. It was so in civic affairs and
resulted in his being much against his inclination, elected to the council. It
was so in Dominion politics, and if he has passed away before his party
friends had the opportunity of showing their appreciation, it is certain that
the fighting ranks of the conservative party had few more prudent or more
generous counsellors.
“Mr. Smith went to the city council with Mr. Laporte, Mr. Ames and the late
Mr. Hart at a time when the city had just been aroused to the need of
wholesale reforms. He played a part of much importance, for with two or
three other trained business men he sat in at the centre of things, on the old
finance committee and supervised a general cleaning up of the city hall. It

was the good work of those days that made possible the larger reforms of
later years.”
The Montreal Gazette said editorially of him: “By the death of Mr. Charles
F. Smith another able and successful man has been taken from Montreal’s
commercial life. Mr. Smith through years of painstaking energy built up a
successful business, from which the city benefited as well as himself.
“In the process he won the respect of all with whom he became associated.
Commercial organizations valued his advice. The Board of Trade counted
him as a wise counsellor. When the city’s affairs were in need of
improvement he served in the council and with his associates did useful
work in its behalf. He could have had other public offices had he desired,
but his preference was for private life. He has passed away at a ripe age,
held in regard alike for the qualities of his mind and of his heart, and
leaving a memory that will encourage others to follow his footsteps.”

GERALD OTHO ROUSSKI ELIOTT.

Since 1908 Gerald O. R. Eliott has occupied the position of assistant marine
superintendent of the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company’s Atlantic
steamship lines. He was born March 28, 1874, in Dalhousie, India, and is a
son of George Augustus and Helen (Jardine) Eliott.
Gerald Eliott received his education at Taplow grammar school, the
Maidenhead high school and then served as a cadet on H. M. S. School Ship
Conway. Naval life having a particular attraction for him, he entered the
mercantile marine and served for some time in sailing vessels of the White
Star line. He was an officer in connection with various steamship lines and
was doing service on boats which carried British troops during the South
African war. In 1901 he joined the Canadian Pacific steamship lines and
served as an officer on various ships until he was appointed to his present
important position of assistant superintendent in 1908.
Mr. Eliott’s naval career includes the following appointments: midshipman,
R. N. R., 1890; appointed acting lieutenant in H. M. S. Jupiter in 1900,
having gone through the gunnery and torpedo course; received naval

reserve decoration for fifteen years’ service in commissioned rank; retired
in 1912 as commander.
In 1908, in Toronto, Ontario, Mr. Eliott married Miss Edith Aspden, a
daughter of Thomas Aspden, of Lancashire, and later of Chicago, Illinois,
and Toronto. Mr. Eliott is a member of the Church of England and upholds
conservative principles at the polls. His club is that of the Commercial
Travelers of Montreal.

AURELIEN BOYER.

Aurelien Boyer, a man of recognized professional ability and prominence,
who since 1899 has been an associate member of the Canadian Society of
Civil Engineers, was born in Montreal and pursued his education in schools
of the city. He was graduated with honors as civil engineer and metallurgist
from Ecole Polytechnique, a department of Laval University, with the class
of 1896 and at once entered upon the active work of his chosen profession.
He was in charge of the survey and location of the Yukon telegraph line and
resigned from the department of public works of Canada after his
appointment as superintendent of government telegraphs and cables for
Quebec and the maritime provinces. In 1905 he was chemical engineer and
local manager of the A. D. Gall Petroleum & Chemical Company, having
charge of their wood distillation plant at Mont Tremblant, Quebec, and in
1909 became vice president and chief engineer of the Duckworth Boyer
Engineering & Inspection Company, Ltd., which was later consolidated
with the Canadian Inspection Company, Ltd., under the name of the
Canadian Inspection & Testing Laboratories, Ltd. Of the latter company he
is now vice president and treasurer. Scientific knowledge, acquired skill and
ability have brought him to a place in the front rank of those who are
engaged in similar enterprises in the province.
In June, 1903, Mr. Boyer married Madame Elmira Corinne Dufresne, of
Three Rivers, Quebec. He belongs to the Engineers Club and the
Winchester Club. He is now a member of the board of administration of
L’Ecole Polytechnique and a director of Association des Anciens Elèves de
L’Ecole Polytechnique.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL JAMES GEORGE ROSS.

Lieutenant Colonel James George Ross, president of the Ross Realty
Company, Ltd., and favorably known in Montreal as a prominent figure in
financial circles, was born in this city, October 18, 1861, a son of the late
Phillip Simpson and Christina Chalmers (Dansken) Ross, both of whom
were natives of Scotland. His early education was acquired in private
schools, with later attendance at the high school of Montreal and
subsequent attendance at the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph, from
which he was graduated with the class of 1881.
Mr. Ross went to the northwest upon an extended trip with a view to
settling there, but returned to Montreal and associated himself with his
father, who was a representative of the profession of chartered accountant.
Shortly afterward he was admitted to partnership with his brother, the
business being carried on under the firm style of P. S. Ross & Sons, and on
the death of his father he became the head of the firm. He is a chartered
accountant and a member of the Association of Accountants and is a fellow
of the Dominion Association of Chartered Accountants. Aside from his
business in that connection he is president of the Ross Realty Company,
Ltd., and as such figures prominently in real-estate circles, negotiating and
managing many important property transfers.
Mr. Ross has always evinced a great interest in military matters. In 1879 he
joined the Ontario Field Battery, retiring in the year 1883. In 1884 he held a
commission as officer in the Victoria Rifles, retiring in 1891 with the rank
of captain. In 1898 he joined the Fifth Royal Highlanders and in 1899 was
gazetted captain while in August, 1906, he was promoted to the rank of
major and in May, 1909, was made lieutenant colonel. In 1907 he received
the Long Service medal for officers having served for twenty years. He is in
active connection with the Montreal Board of Trade and is a director of the
Crown Trust Company. His interest and support extend to charitable and
benevolent projects and he is a life governor of the Montreal Western
Hospital. Fraternally he is a Scottish Rite Mason, while in club circles he is
widely and favorably known, his membership being in the St. James Club,
Canada Club, Beaconsfield Golf Club, Canadian Club, Montreal Curling

Club, Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club, Montreal Amateur Athletic
Association, Westmount Athletic Club and the Junior Army and Navy Club
of London, England. In his younger days he was very active in athletic
sports, especially in running, and he handled the snowshoe with expert skill.
In 1887 it was claimed that he was “the best man in Canada who ever
strapped on a racing shoe.” In the winter of 1888 he accompanied
Lieutenant Schwatka in the explorer’s trip through the Yellowstone Park
and was the only man who came out in as good shape as he went in.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL JAMES G.
ROSS
In March, 1891, Mr. Ross married Miss Alice Margaret Monk, daughter of
the late John Monk, an advocate of Montreal, and they have two daughters,
Marjorie and Evelyn.

THOMAS MUSSEN.

One of the best known merchants of the past generation in Montreal, and a
man whose well ordered life and high business principles commanded the
respect of all who knew him, was born in 1804, in Yorkshire, England, and
came to Canada with his parents in 1817, the family home being established
in the south part of the province of Quebec near the Vermont line.
Thomas Mussen early entered business life in Montreal, becoming a clerk
with the firm of William Smith & Company with whom he remained for
about ten years. He was careful with his earnings and in 1827, he had saved
sufficient capital to enable him to purchase a small stock of dry goods,
opening a store on St. Paul Street, near Jacques Cartier Square, then the
heart of the retail district.
The business prospered from the first and when larger quarters were
demanded he removed to Notre Dame Street, at the corner of St. Gabriel,
being the first merchant to locate on Notre Dame Street, and afterwards
located at the corner of St. Lawrence boulevard and Notre Dame Street,
where he continued until 1865. In that year the store was removed to Craig
Street, near St. Lawrence boulevard, where he continued until his new
building was erected at the corner of St. Lambert and Notre Dame. There
the business was successfully continued by him until his death April 5,
1892. Each removal had indicated a demand for larger quarters. The
business was marked by continuous growth and development under the
strong guiding hand of Mr. Mussen, who came to be ranked with the
leading merchants of the city. His store was one of the leading commercial
establishments of the province. After the death of Mr. Mussen, the business
was carried on by his sons, William W. and Henry S., until 1900 when it
was discontinued, the brothers retiring from active business. William W.
Mussen died in 1904 and Henry S. Mussen passed away in 1912.
Harold Beaufort Mussen, son of William W., and a well known insurance
and real-estate broker of Montreal, after acquiring his education in the
schools of his native city, entered the employ of the Canada Atlantic
Railway, where his developing powers and ability won him promotion until
he became general agent. He continued with them until October, 1904,

when after a service of twelve years he withdrew to engage in business on
his own account.

PETER LYALL.

In the death of Peter Lyall Montreal lost a citizen who left the impress of his
individuality for good upon the community in which he lived. He was a
man of fine personal appearance, and his splendid physique was an
indication of the strength of his mental and moral nature. For many years he
was connected with business interests as a prominent contractor, being the
head of the Peter Lyall & Sons Construction Company, Ltd. While in his
seventieth year at the time of his death, he had always remained in active
connection with his business until a few days prior to his demise.
Scotland numbered Mr. Lyall among her native sons, his birth having
occurred at Castletown, Caithness, Scotland, where he gained a practical
knowledge of the contracting business before crossing the Atlantic in 1870.
When he sought a home in the new world Montreal was his destination and
he made his initial step in circles here in the employ of his cousin, the later
Peter Nicholson. Six years were sufficient to bring him a wide acquaintance
that he believed justified him in embarking in business on his own account.
He was joined by his two sons, William and Traill O. in 1892, who are still
connected with the business that was established in Montreal in 1876. The
third son, Peter D. Lyall, is head of a large contracting firm in Winnipeg.
From the time that he started out independently Peter Lyall was successful
and his name figured prominently in connection with building operations in
Montreal and this part of Canada. He kept in close touch with all phases of
the business and with all progressive steps therein. Many of the business
structures of Montreal still stand as monuments to his ability, his energy and
his notable ambition. He carried out the erection of the Quebec Bank
Building, the Royal Victoria Hospital, Macdonald Engineering buildings at
McGill, the Sun Life building, the Canada Life, the Grand Trunk general
offices, the Coristine building, the new Board of Trade, the Stock
Exchange, the Guardian Life, the Dominion Express and Transportation
buildings, and hundreds of others. Some of the finest residences of the city

also stand as monuments to his handiwork, notably among which are the
homes of the late Sir Edward S. Clouston and George L. Cains. From the
time that he started out in business his rise was continuous. It was soon
evident that he understood the building business, both from a scientific and
practical standpoint, that his reliability made him worthy of a liberal
patronage, and that his energy and indomitable spirit made possible the
prompt and faithful execution of his contracts. Success came to him soon
and was well merited, so that he gained place among the prosperous
residents of the city. His ability in management, his power of carefully
formulating plans and then executing them with determination was seen in
his cooperation in the organization of a number of companies which have
constituted leading factors in industrial, commercial and financial circles.
He was one of the promoters of the Lachine Rapids Hydraulic & Land
Company, formed in 1896, and of the Midway Land Company in the same
year. He was one of the organizers of the Laprairie Brick Company in 1904.
Mr. Lyall was united in marriage to Miss Christina Oman, who, like her
husband, was a native of Castletown, Caithness, Scotland. They became the
parents of three sons, William and Traill O., of Montreal, Peter D., of
Winnipeg and a daughter, now Mrs. D. W. Lockerby, of Montreal. Mr. Lyall
possessed a social nature that found expression in his membership in the
Canada, Reform, Canadian, Country and Engineers Clubs. His kindly
disposition made him a favorite in all circles, and among no class of people
was he more appreciated than by his own employes. He was deeply
interested in all that pertained to affairs of government and to municipal
progress. For many years he was a prominent member of the liberal party,
earnestly striving to promote its success, and in 1904 he unsuccessfully
contested the St. Antoine district for the Dominion parliament. At one time
he was president of the Montreal Reform Club and at all times took a firm
stand in opposition to misrule in public affairs and in support of all that he
believed would uphold the honored tenets of government and promote the
best interests of the people in general. For two years he was a member of
the Montreal city council and brought his splendid business acumen to bear
on civic problems, proving himself one of the strongest men at the council
table. He was afterward eagerly besought to again become a member of the
council but declined. He took a deep and helpful interest in the Citizens
Association, being in hearty sympathy with its purpose, and at the time of
his demise was one of its vice presidents. Above and beyond all this Mr.

Lyall was known as a man of most generous and benevolent spirit, ever
seeking to promote the welfare and happiness of his fellowmen. He could
not listen unmoved to a tale of sorrow or distress, and to the extent of his
ability he extended a helping hand to the needy. He gave not only freely of
his money but also a large portion of his time to good works. He was
president of the Protestant Hospital for the Insane at Verdun, and his efforts
were a potent force in making it one of the excellent institutions of its
character in the country. The Western Hospital found him equally helpful
and generous. Thus he made his presence felt beneficially in commercial,
political and philanthropic circles. To know him was to esteem and honor
him by reason of what he accomplished and the methods he pursued. The
most envious could not grudge him his success, so honorably was it won
and so worthily used.

ALFRED B. DUFRESNE.

In insurance circles in Montreal and among business men in general the
name of Alfred B. Dufresne is well known because of his activity in the
field to which he directs his efforts. He was born April 13, 1874, at Joliette,
Canada, a son of J. Alfred and Honorine (Delfausse) Dufresne, who now
reside in Montreal. He was educated in Plateau Academy and at the age of
eighteen years began work as a clerk in the office of the Alliance Assurance
Company in Montreal. During the twelve years he served the company he
won promotion from time to time until he became chief clerk, his capability
and fidelity thus winning him recognition and gaining for him substantial
advancement. In 1903 he was appointed inspector for the Mount Royal
Assurance Company and so continued until 1907, when he was appointed
chief specific rating inspector of the Canadian Fire Underwriters
Association. In 1908 he was appointed manager of the Montreal-Canada
Fire Insurance Company, filling the position for two years, or until 1910,
when he took up general agency work, now representing the Northwestern
National Insurance Company, the Montreal-Canada Fire Insurance
Company, the Anglo-American Fire Insurance Company, the Protection Fire
Insurance Company and the Rimouski Fire Insurance Company, with
offices in the Duluth building.

On the 12th of October, 1909, Mr. Dufresne was married to Miss Gabrielle
Mathieu, and to them have been born two daughters, Jacqueline and
Françoise. The family reside at No. 171 Esplanade Avenue, and Mr.
Dufresne is a member of the St. Denis Club. Much of his life has been
passed in the city where he now resides, and his admirable traits of
character, as well as his business ability, have gained him firm hold on the
regard and good-will of all with whom he has been associated.

CHARLES ALBERT DUCLOS.

The name of Charles Albert Duclos figures in professional circles in
Montreal as that of a lawyer whose ability has won for him a large
clientage. He is a man of scholarly attainments, which, added to his
knowledge of the law, has gained him prestige among the successful
advocates of the city. A native of Joliette, P. Q., he was born on the 3d of
August, 1861, his parents being the Rev. R. P. and Sophie A. Jeaureneaud
Duclos. The father was a French-Canadian, while the mother was born in
Switzerland. The Rev. R. P. Duclos has devoted his life to the work of the
ministry as a representative of the Presbyterian church. Realizing the value
of education as a factor for success in any chosen field of labor, the father
provided his son with good opportunities in that direction and, after
attending the Montreal high school, Charles A. Duclos entered McGill
University, in which he pursued the arts course, winning the B. A. degree in
1881, and then entered upon the study of law, winning the B. C. L. degree,
with the Elizabeth Torrance gold medal in 1884. His high standing in
scholarship constituted the basis upon which his friends builded their belief
in his successful future, and the faith which they manifested has found
justification in his professional career. Following his graduation he at once
entered upon active practice in Montreal, where he has remained
continuously since. Aside from his practice he is the vice president of the
Ross Realty Company, which was organized in 1906, and in that connection
he has displayed sound business judgment and enterprise.
In June, 1889, Mr. Duclos was united in marriage to Isabella Spence, a
daughter of G. M. Holbrook, of Ottawa, and they reside at No. 488 Elm

Avenue, Westmount. Mr. Duclos’ fellow citizens of Westmount called him
to the office of mayor, in which he served in 1905-6, giving to the city a
businesslike and progressive administration. He is a conservative in politics,
and he stands for all that means progress along material, intellectual,
political and moral lines. His religious faith is that of the Presbyterian
church. His social connections are with St. James, Canada, Royal Montreal
Golf, St. George Snowshoe Clubs, of Montreal; and the Rideau Club, of
Ottawa. Appreciative of the social amenities of life and readily recognizing
and appreciating these qualities in others, he has gained many friends in
these organizations. However, he regards the practice of law as his real life
work and bends his energies, in major part, toward his professional duties.
He was created king’s counsel in 1903, and the years of his active practice
now cover nearly three decades—years in which he has made continuous
advancement as the result of constantly developing power in the line of his
chosen profession.

CHARLES A. DUCLOS

REV. CANON JOHN MACPHERSON ALMOND.

Rev. Canon John Macpherson Almond, rector of Trinity church, Montreal,
is a man whose practical piety has been demonstrated in many ways, as a
traveling missionary, on the field of battle, in the pulpit and in quiet work
among his people. His name stands as a synonym for sincerity of purpose,
upright living and breadth of mind, and his accomplishments have already
been important enough to form a notable part of the history of the Anglican
church in Canada. Canon Almond was born in Shigawake, Quebec
province, July 27, 1872, and is a son of James and Mary Ann (Macpherson)
Almond. He studied in the University of Bishop’s College at Lennoxville,
from which he was graduated B. A. in 1894 and M. A. in 1901. He was
ordained deacon in the Anglican church in 1896 and priest in the following
year, being stationed first as a missionary in Labrador and becoming
afterward traveling missionary for the Quebec diocese. In October, 1899, he
was commissioned chaplain to the Royal Canadian Regiment and
accompanied it to South Africa, where he was chaplain to the Nineteenth
Brigade, composed of the Gordons, Cornwalls, Shropshires and Canadians.
His conduct during the campaign received high praise, more particularly in
connection with his attendance on the enteric fever patients at
Bloemfontein, and he was given a medal for courageous and untiring work
in all conditions of danger both from the enemy and from disease and
discomfort.
Returning to Canada in December, 1900, Canon Almond was made
assistant curate at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Quebec, and as such remained
one year, after which he was appointed rector at Grand Mere. In 1904 he
was transferred to Montreal, where he has since filled the position of rector
of Trinity church, winning the love, respect and confidence of his
parishioners and the high regard of all who have an opportunity of knowing
his honorable and upright life. Canon Almond is a preacher of great power
and forcefulness and has won a wide reputation as a speaker, delivering
among others the oration at the decoration of the soldiers’ graves in

Montreal on Victoria Day, 1905. He was elected president of the South
African Veterans Association of Montreal in 1908 and of the Last Post
Association two years later. Since March, 1911, he has held the office of
chaplain, with the honorary rank of captain, in the Sixth Duke of
Connaught’s Royal Canadian Hussars. In 1912 he was appointed chaplain
of the Montreal jails. Archdeacon Ker has called him “a splendid preacher,”
and the Toronto Globe speaks of him as “a man of zeal, practical piety and
unselfishness, with a knack for executive work”—tributes which he has
won by most able and untiring work in many fields. Canon Almond was
married in October, 1901, to Nellie Estelle, daughter of H. G. Beemer of
Quebec.

WILLIAM LANGLEY BOND, K. C.

William Langley Bond, one of the well known advocates of Montreal,
belongs to an old Canadian family, his parents being Lieutenant Colonel
Frank and Mary (Scott) Bond. Colonel Bond is a well known financial
agent and stockbroker of Montreal and is the eldest son of the late
Archbishop Bond, Primate of All Canada, and Eliza (Langley) Bond. The
father has been connected with banking and financial interests for many
years and has also been prominent in military life.
William L. Bond was born in Montreal, January 20, 1873. He attended the
high school in Montreal and then entered McGill University, from which he
received the degree of B. A. in 1894 and of B. C. L. in 1897. In 1898 he
became an advocate and shortly thereafter a member of the legal firm of
Atwater, Duclos, Bond & Meagher, of Montreal. Among the famous cases
which he argued was the Cantin case, which was tried before Jl. Comte, P.
C., England. In November, 1911, he was appointed a K. C.
For a number of years Mr. Bond was captain and adjutant of the Prince of
Wales Fusiliers. He is also honorary treasurer of the Province of Quebec
Rifle Association. In his religious faith he is an Anglican and was elected
lay secretary of the Montreal Synod in 1907 and also church advocate. In
1910 he was made a governor of the Montreal Diocesan Theological
College. Mr. Bond is prominent in club life, being a member of the

committee of St. James, and a member of the Reform, the Arts, and the
Winter Clubs. He is a great friend of outdoor sports and the lines along
which he seeks recreation are indicated by his membership in the Royal
Montreal Golf Club, the Montreal Curling Club and the Forest and Stream.
He also belongs to the Montreal Military Institute and is an honorary
member of the Polo and Country Club.

ROBERT ANDERSON BECKET.

Robert Anderson Becket, did much to promote musical talent, directly
assisting many young musicians, and thus his loss was distinctly felt in
musical circles, when death called him on the 6th of May, 1910. He had
passed the seventy-fifth milestone on life’s journey, his birth having
occurred in Scotland, December 30, 1834. His father, James Becket, came
to Canada with his family in 1841 and was connected with the customs
department at Montreal, where Robert A. pursued his education in private
schools. He was a young man in his twenty-fourth year, when on January
11, 1858, he wedded Anne Wilson, born in Bellemeana, Ireland, a daughter
of Samuel Wilson.
Robert A. Becket had made his initial step in business as bookkeeper for his
uncle, J. C. Becket, on St. James Street in Montreal, but in the year of his
marriage, removed to Belleville, Ontario, where he embarked in business on
his own account conducting a music and stationery store, for about eight
years, or until 1866, when he returned to this city and became manager for
the D. Morris Ice Company. Some time passed and he became owner of this
enterprise, in which connection he built up a large and profitable business.
He organized a joint stock company called the City Ice Company, Limited,
and devoted all of his time to the conduct of his business, carefully
directing its interests. He was a progressive man and was especially active
along musical lines, doing much to help young musicians. He was also a
prominent figure in quartet and choir work and there was perhaps, no one
who did more to stimulate among the young, a love for music of the higher
class, than Mr. Becket.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Becket were born twelve children, of whom five are
living: Christina A.; Dr. George C., of East Orange, New Jersey; Ralph A.,
of Montreal; Fred M., of Niagara Falls, New York; and Frank W., of New
York. The family attend the Erskine church, of which Mr. Becket was a
prominent member and elder, his religious faith constituting the root from
which sprang his many good deeds, wrought along lines of continuous
benefit to his fellowmen.

HAROLD EARLE WALKER.

Harold Earle Walker, practicing at the bar of Montreal as a member of the
law firm of Chauvin, Baker & Walker, was born in Westmount, Quebec, in
1882. His father, James Robert Walker, a native of the city of Quebec,
became senior partner of the well known firm of J. R. Walker & Company
of Montreal and is not only well known in business circles but also through
his active connection with public affairs. At one time he was mayor of
Westmount and has taken an active part in furthering matters of civic virtue
and civic pride. He married Agnes Cooper Earle.
After attending the Abingdon school, Mr. Walker became a student in
McGill University, completing the arts course in 1904 and the law course
with the class of 1907. His standing is indicated by the fact that he won the
Elizabeth Torrance gold medal and the Macdonald scholarship. Following
his graduation with the class of 1907, which was indicative of the
completion of the thorough course of law prescribed by McGill, he was
admitted to the bar and after a year spent in France returned to Montreal to
enter upon the active practice of his profession, which he now follows as a
member of the law firm of Chauvin, Baker & Walker. An extensive practice
is fast adding to his experience and developing the powers with which
nature endowed him.
In Montreal, in 1911, Mr. Walker was united in marriage to Miss Hazel A.
Hart, a daughter of R. A. Baldwin Hart. His religious faith is that of the
Presbyterian church, and something of the nature of his recreation is
indicated in the fact that he is a member of the Beaconsfield Golf Club. He
is a typical young professional man of the age, alert, energetic, watchful of

opportunities. His friends anticipate for him future success, and the record
he has already made shows that he has taken a far step in advance since
entering upon the active practice of law.

JOSEPH BOWLES LEARMONT.

The history of a country is no longer an account of wars and conquests, but
is a record of notable business activity, of intellectual, aesthetic and moral
progress and political management and control. While never active in the
field of politics, Joseph Bowles Learmont was not only highly successful
where his tastes led, but was as well one of the foremost merchants of the
city, and well known in the business community of Montreal. He
cooperated in various interests having broad humanitarianism as their basic
principle, and he was a connoisseur on rare books and engravings. His
interests were wide and varied and brought him into close connection with
many of the leading citizens of the Dominion.
Mr. Learmont was a native of Montreal. From the beginning of his business
career success attended him so that he at length was numbered among the
city’s most substantial business men. In all his career there was no esoteric
phase, his advancement having been through constructive and progressive
methods. Studying the demands of the times and the conditions of trade he
was no small factor in the growth and development of the extensive
wholesale hardware business of Caverhill, Learmont & Company, of which
Mr. Learmont was the senior member. This well known house succeeded
Crathern & Caverhill (which was established in 1854) and occupies a
foremost position in its line, with a reputation for commercial integrity
second to none.
Successful business man that he was, commerce constituted but one feature
in the life of Mr. Learmont. He was of decided literary tastes and was
frequently heard on literary and historical subjects. He was, moreover, the
author of a most interesting paper on folk lore, in which extended mention
is made of the folk lore of Canada. Another paper of equal interest from his
pen is on The Canadian Indian. Mr. Learmont was widely known as a
collector of rare books and manuscripts, etchings, engravings and autograph

letters, his knowledge of such being that of a connoisseur. His collection of
Bibles comprised more than one hundred rare volumes. He also wrote on
engravings, translations of the English versions of the Bible, children’s
elementary books, etc.
Mr. Learmont’s keen interest in matters historic was probably best shown in
his purchase of Quebec House, the home of Major General James Wolfe,
Westerham, Kent, England. The motive which inspired him to make the
purchase was to secure the property for the Canadian people, to be held by
them in perpetuity “irrespective of race, language or creed.” His desire was
that the Canadian people maintain it so that it may be open to visitors and
free to all that are interested in Canada. Mr. Learmont always manifested
the keenest interest in anything associated with Wolfe and had made a
collection of engravings of the famous general. He also possessed an
excellent painting of Wolfe’s father, the work of Sir James Thornhill.

JOSEPH B. LEARMONT
Mr. Learmont was a member of the council of the Montreal Art Association
and treasurer of the local branch and one of the council of the
Archaeological Institute of America. He likewise became one of the early
members of the Antiquarian Society of Montreal.
Mr. Learmont was first married to Miss Amelia Jane Holton, a daughter of
the late Hon. L. H. Holton, M. P., a prominent parliamentarian and
statesman. Following her death, he married, in 1882, Charlotte Smithers, a
daughter of the late Charles F. Smithers, president of the Bank of Montreal.
Mr. and Mrs. Learmont were always in full accord concerning religious and
charitable work. He was connected with the Congregational church and a
generous supporter of church and benevolent enterprises. Mrs. Learmont is
particularly well known in efforts to ameliorate the conditions of life for the
unfortunate. She is interested in the movement for providing playgrounds
for children; is vice president of the Montreal Day Nursery; vice president
of the local branch of the Needle Work Guild, and president and convener
of the local branch of the ladies’ committee of the Victorian Order of
Nurses. She is likewise a director of the City Improvement League; was one
of the directors of the Royal Edward Institute, and is one of the honorary
presidents of the Young Women’s Christian Association. She was one of a
deputation, headed by the Countess of Aberdeen, who presented Queen
Alexandra an address of congratulation from twenty-five hundred women
of Canada.
Mr. Learmont was a member of the committee of management of the
Montreal General Hospital; a member of the board and a governor of the
Montreal branch of the Victorian Order of Nurses, and a director of the
Charity Organization Society. He belonged to the Montreal Board of Trade,
of which he was for two years a councilor, and in more strictly social lines
was a member of the St. James, Mount Royal, Montreal and City Clubs. He
was termed “a man of exquisite taste and deep knowledge on special
subjects.” He was an advocate of all that is most progressive and beneficial,
never choosing the second best but seeking out those things which are most
beneficial to the individual and to the community, recognizing every man’s
relation and obligation to his fellowman.
Mr. Learmont died March 12, 1914.

FREDERICK WILLIAM THOMPSON.

Centuries past the history of a country consisted of a record of wars and
conquests—the contest of man with man; today the history is the record of
man’s contests with material forces and those who are making the history of
a country are the men who are controlling its important agricultural,
commercial and professional interests. It is they who are shaping the annals
of the nation and those who rise to leadership in any given line are the men
who are preparing the records that in years to come will be eagerly read as
the history of the past. In this connection the name of Frederick William
Thompson stands prominently forth, for he became one of the foremost
figures in connection with the milling industry of Canada. He was born in
Montreal, January 16, 1862, and was but in the prime of life when he
passed away in London, England, May 7, 1912. His parents were the late
Andrew and Josephine (DeLesperance) Thompson. The son was educated
in Montreal and in Brooklyn, New York, living for some years in the latter
city. Subsequently he returned to Montreal and entered the service of the
Exchange Bank as a clerk, remaining with that institution for seven years. It
was thus that he gained his preliminary business experience which he later
turned to account in the management of milling operations. In 1882 he
joined the Ogilvie Mills in Winnipeg, becoming general manager of the
Ogilvie Milling Company in 1888. Following the death of W. W. Ogilvie in
1900 the entire company’s interests were consolidated and the business
purchased by Mr. Thompson and C. R. Hosmer. In 1911 the Ogilvies were
made millers to the King. The business gradually grew and developed and
became a focal point in the milling industry of the country, setting the
standard for activity along that line. Mr. Thompson was active in
coordinating forces and in developing an enterprise which became second
to none in all Canada. He had wonderful powers of organization and could
unite seemingly diverse elements into a unified and harmonious whole. He
considered no detail as too unimportant to claim his attention, while, at the
same time, he gave due regard to the major points in his business. His
executive force and management were many times called forth in other
connections.

He had voice in the control of many important business and financial
interests and in affairs of a public and semi-public character. He was a
director of the Canadian branch of the Liverpool & London & Globe
Insurance Company, the Montreal Transportation Company, the Canadian
Appraisal Company, the Electric Flour Patents Company, the E. N. Heney
Company, the Royal Bank of Canada, the Manitoba Assurance Company,
and was president of the Keystone Transportation Company and of the
Canada Appraisal Company. He was also the originator of the Kaministiqua
Power Company and of a large number of other enterprises which
contributed to the history of the country in its commercial and financial
development.
As stated, Mr. Thompson was a prominent figure in relation to many public
and semi-public interests. He was a governor of the Winnipeg General
Hospital; and a life governor of the Protestant Hospital for the Insane, the
Western Home and the Boys’ Home. In 1908 he lectured on Plain Business
Facts. He was president of the Winnipeg Industrial Exchange Association
and of the Winnipeg Board of Trade. He was likewise a vice president of
the Winnipeg Rowing Club; president and patron of the local branch of the
Royal Caledonia Curling Club, and honorary president of the Winnipeg
Hockey Club. He was a director of the Montreal Association for the Blind,
governor of the Montreal Western Hospital, councilor of the Montreal
Board of Trade, and in Montreal no less than in Winnipeg he was greatly
interested in all public enterprises and philanthropic undertakings. In 1903
he was a delegate to the Fifth Commercial Congress of the Empire.
In the previous year Mr. Thompson received the Prince and Princess of
Wales, now King George and Queen Mary, at the Ogilvie Mill in Winnipeg
and subsequently presented the Princess with the picture of the largest flour
mill in the British Empire. It was in the same year that the largest shipment
of flour to South America from the Dominion of Canada was made.
In 1882 Mr. Thompson was united in marriage to Miss Wilhelmina Reid, a
daughter of the late William Reid of Bedford, province of Quebec, and their
children were Marion, Fred, Alice and Helen. The first named became the
wife of D. C. Rea, of Winnipeg, manager of the Royal Bank. Mr. Thompson
was prominently known in club and social circles, holding membership in
the St. James, Mount Royal, Canada, Forest and Stream, Royal Montreal
Golf, Montreal Jockey, and Auto and Aero Clubs; Montreal Amateur

Athletic Association; the Montreal Curling Club; the Rideau Club of
Ottawa; the Constitutional of London; Manitoba of Winnipeg; and the York
Club of Toronto.
Perhaps no better estimate of the life and character of Mr. Thompson can be
given than by quoting from an editorial which appeared in one of the papers
at the time of his demise and which read:
“Death has within a year robbed the Canadian milling industry of its two
most prominent leaders. During the years which brought Robert Meighen
and Frederick William Thompson to the top, the flour milling industry
underwent an expansion and consolidation second only to that of the
transportation industry and the metal industries. The process was peculiarly
favorable to the rise of men of strong personal character and large
intellectual capacity. It is not surprising, therefore, to find the leaders of the
industry taking a larger part in the public life of the country than those of
almost any other business. Without ever seeking office or public honors, for
which indeed the cares of his business left him no time, the late Mr.
Thompson exercised a very wide and effective influence upon the beliefs
and policies of Canada in business matters. When he spoke it was not as a
mere expert miller, but as an authority of the widest knowledge; and as he
never wasted a public utterance by dealing with any matter on which he was
not perfectly informed, he was listened to with a respect which neither his
wealth nor his business success alone could have commanded. There are
men still living who can remember when the flour milling of Canada was
carried on in hundreds of small local mills under separate ownership. The
process of centralizing the industry has been pretty well completed now;
such companies as that of which Mr. Thompson was the active head are
national in their scope and the extent of their properties.
“He has been cut off in the prime of life and it is difficult to conjecture what
further progress of organization he might have participated in, had he lived.
Whatever it might be, we can be sure that the interests of Canada would
have been advantaged, for he was a thorough Canadian by birth and by
conviction and ever regarded the milling industry less as a source of wealth
than as a factor in Canada’s greatness. In these days the best and most
practical form of patriotism is frequently to be found in business.”

WILLIAM H. HOPE.

William H. Hope, for more than thirty years an active business man on St.
Catherine Street, near Mansfield, was born, March 9, 1840, in the north of
England, and died September 11, 1903, so that his life span compassed
sixty-three years. He came to Montreal as a young man and on July 26,
1878, was married in this city to Miss Mary E. Percy. Their family
numbered seven children: Lena, who is Mrs. Thomas Bradley, now a
resident of New York city; Eva, the wife of Rev. Hunter Laverie, of Forest,
Ontario; William G., of Portland, Oregon; Adam V., who died in infancy;
Sadie, who is the wife of George Wanless, of Outremont; Clifford R.; and
Elsie.
Mr. Hope was a well known business man, conducting an art store at one
location for over thirty years. His business integrity was above question and
he was respected by all who knew him. In his political faith he was a
conservative, but did not take an active part in politics. He was interested,
however, in the promotion of athletic and outdoor sports for the young. A
man of domestic taste, he found his greatest happiness at his own fireside,
doing everything in his power to promote the welfare of his wife and
children. He held membership in St. Paul’s Presbyterian church and his life
was actuated by high and honorable principles that made him a thorough
gentleman, courteous, kindly and considerate at all times.

JAMES O’CONNOR.

Prominent in the business and financial life of the city, James O’Connor
was numbered among Montreal’s well known and successful business men.
He was born at St. Alphonse, province of Quebec, and when a young man
in his teens, came to Montreal at which time his capital was but little more
than his energy, pluck and determination. From the time of his arrival here
his attention was largely concentrated upon business affairs and he wisely
improved his time and opportunities, thus advancing step by step until he
reached the plane of affluence. For many years he had charge of the