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.
[Illustration: 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.