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.
[Illustration: 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.