twenty-five million dollars for the single purpose of deepening
the channel from Montreal to the Gulf. It is far from being
completed. Since the channel was started we have not yet expended
one-fifth of this amount and yet we can look backward with
confidence and contemplate with pride the work accomplished. It
is needless to give here the figures. Suffice it to say this is
not a financial treatise but a statement to the people, telling
them frankly that in less than five years we have created
from nothing at Sorel, the national workshops of maritime
construction, the most perfect, the best equipped, the best
managed in existence in Canada and which would do credit to any
other country. We have constructed the dredges and the apparatus
necessary for digging and maintaining the channel at a desirable
depth. The channel will be thirty feet in depth throughout
almost its entire course. We have reasonably widened the curves
wherever they were met. We have constructed signals and placed
buoys to extend as far as the gulf and join with the channel.
We have installed submarine bells and we are experimenting with
a new electrical system for the direction of the vessels in the
channel. We have made the channel between Montreal and Sorel as
light at night as it is by day. We are now replacing floating
fires with stationary fires. We have commenced and will continue
with powerful vessels specially constructed to this end to make
possible winter navigation and this trial, mark my words, will
culminate in good results. That is as a matter of fact quite a
goodly sum of finished work since Sir Wilfrid Laurier has come
into power and, without boasting too much, since he has entrusted
to your humble servant the portfolio of marine, so much decried
by our good friends, the conservatives.
“Now, as far as professional progress is concerned, we can
still cite without fear of criticism improvement of the law in
regard to pilots who are now under control of my department, new
conditions regarding more severe regulations, etc.; the revision
of the law for the examination of captains and mates; the
re-drafting of the law regarding the inspection of steamships;
the creation of a competent tribunal of nautical inquiries; the
establishment of navigation schools, and the organization of a
scientific system of oceanographic and hydrographic observations.
Here, in brief, between two viewpoints, we can, I believe,
address our friends in order to show them in a new and authentic
light the liberal work which has been done on the service of our
grand maritime route. But you say in Quebec that with all this
there still will be accidents on the river. This I cannot deny
and no one regrets it more keenly than I. There will be accidents
everywhere and these will happen in spite of all the precautions
taken and at the moment when they are least expected. It is for
this very reason that we call them accidents. Accidents happen
on the canals, they will happen in mid-ocean and they might even
happen in the port of Quebec if Providence so ordains, which I
sincerely pray, not.”
At the outbreak of the Boer war Mr. Préfontaine gauged public
feeling in Canada correctly and favored the contribution of men
to the cause of the Empire and also favored the establishment
of a Canadian navy. While maintaining offices in the city hall
he displayed remarkable faculty for winning friends. It was
said of him that no matter how bitterly opponents assailed him
he never bore resentment. As years went by this trait actually
made admirers out of those who had formerly been enemies. He
was always ready to do a friendly act and was naturally of an
optimistic temperament, being scarcely ever known to show a sign
of dejection or low spirits. A belief in the possibilities of an
undertaking always served as a stimulus to his intense activity,
usually accompanied by the desired results.
In June, 1876, Mr. Préfontaine married Miss Hermantine Rolland,
and unto them were born three sons: Rolland, a civil engineer
in Montreal; Fernand, of the firm of Préfontaine & Drouin,
architects of Montreal; and Adrien, now deceased.
Mr. Préfontaine died in Paris, France, December 25, 1905. At
that time Mr. Lawrence A. Wilson said of his dead friend: “As
the last candle lights were flickering out their little flames
upon the gilded Christmas trees that had made so many young and
old hearts happy, a cruel message, wrapped in thunder, reached
us. A man had died: Yes! a big, big man in the fullest sense
of the word. A generous friend he was always to the needful,
irrespective of color, creed or nationality and one whom I have
never known, during twenty years, to have harbored over night an
ill feeling against his greatest political foe. When I asked him
recently during a friendly conversation why he worked so hard to
the detriment of his personal interests and particularly of his
health, he replied, ‘My greatest pleasure is to be able to do
something for my friends.’ He was a kind husband to his devoted
but now sorrowing wife, a good father to his three bright boys, a
solid friend to all those he trusted and a faithful, unflinching
follower of his chief, Sir Wilfrid Laurier. That man was Raymond
Préfontaine.”
The Montreal Daily Star editorially said of him: “Canadian
public life has produced few men who would be more sincerely
mourned by an army of personal friends than will the late Raymond
Préfontaine. He was a man who was always bigger than his party,
bigger than his numerous victories and broader in his sympathies
than many a man who made more display of public spirit. A
genuine liking for the big, generous man pervaded all classes
of the community and was no small share of his strength in any
political contest. His death comes at an exceedingly bad time
for the country, just when he had taken up the problem of the
St. Lawrence channel in real earnest and was bent upon giving us
a clean bill of health. He has hardly been long enough in the
federal field for the nation to learn to know him as he has long
been known in this district. As a public man he has come in for
not a little criticism. He was a candidate who stood fire well
and was seldom irritated into replying with unwise petulance.
Perhaps at times he displayed too great a faith in the financial
recuperative powers of this city but after all is said and done,
that was a generous fault. At this moment our people will only
remember the attractive personality, the stanch British subject,
the warm-hearted political leader who lies dead in the French
capital.”
La Presse, whose editor, Mr. Dansereau, was a close personal
friend of the late Hon. Raymond Préfontaine, after referring to
the news of his death, continues: “We do not seek to hide our
deep emotion, for he was counted among our oldest friends, and
we were the last Canadians to grasp his hand before he embarked
at New York on the steamer which took him across. Had he any
presentiment? He was serious and pensive, nothing about him of
the ordinary joy which is connected with the perspective of a
short journey was shown in his manner. The distinguished deceased
had eminent qualities, for he was a man of action and energy.
He had done more in two years for the development and aiding of
navigation than all his predecessors in the department since
confederation. At least he has the merit of tracing a program
that must not be laid aside. Life is ephemeral; fame matters
little to him at this moment. But his family will have the
consolation of a heritage more precious than fortune, that of his
talent, his prestige, of his political and administrative worth.”
PROFESSOR THOMAS ALBERT STARKEY.
Professor Thomas Albert Starkey, a well known educator, lecturer
and physician of Montreal, was born in Hertford, England, a son
of Thomas Starkey. His early education was obtained in his native
town and in 1894 he was graduated from London University with
the degree of M. D. Subsequently he pursued a course in the
University Collegiate Hospital in London and was house surgeon at
the Brompton Hospital. Subsequently he was sent to India to carry
on researches and promote the cure and prevention of the plague
and cholera. He worked in the Imperial Research Laboratory in
Bombay from 1899 until 1901 and afterward was given charge, under
the sanitary commission, of the entire hygienic condition of two
large districts, his labors there being of inestimable value in
improving existing conditions.
On his return to England Dr. Starkey pursued public health work
in the laboratory of University College at London and was also
bacteriologist of the London county council. He came to the new
world in 1902, being appointed in November of that year professor
of hygiene at McGill University of Montreal. In 1906 he was
elected a fellow of the Royal Sanitary Institute of England and
is now secretary and examiner of the local branch of the same
body. In 1910 he was elected the first president of the Canada
Public Health Association in which connection his efforts have
been far-reaching and beneficial. Not only has he done important
practice and research work, but has also written upon questions
relating to the public health. He has lectured on the Ancient
and Modern Methods of Water Supply--A Comparison, and on kindred
subjects, all of which have to do with the public health and the
prevention of disease.
In September, 1904, Dr. Starkey was united in marriage to Miss
Josephine MacCullum, a daughter of the late Dr. Duncan Campbell
MacCullum, and they have one son, Hugh. It would be difficult to
measure the usefulness of the life work of Dr. Starkey, but the
scientific world acknowledges its indebtedness to his efforts
and his labors, far-reaching and effective, have been beneficial
forces for humanity in various sections of the world.
CHARLES CHAPUT.
It would be difficult to find a more active business man in
Montreal and one whose labors are more gratifyingly resultant
than Charles Chaput, who stands as one of the most successful
merchants of the metropolis, ranks among its most substantial
citizens and to quote the Montreal Gazette is “a man of
unimpeachable integrity.” He was born in Montreal, November 14,
1841, a son of the late Leander Chaput, who came to Montreal from
L’Assomption in 1832 and in 1842 founded what is now the well
known wholesale grocery house of L. Chaput, Fils & Cie, Limitee.
He lived to the age of eighty-four years, passing away in 1901.
His wife was Helene St. Denis, a daughter of J. B. St. Denis of
Montreal.
Charles Chaput acquired his education in the best French and
English schools in Montreal of the time. In 1857 at the age of
sixteen years he joined his father’s firm as a junior clerk, at
which time the firm was L. Chaput & Cie, and on his being made a
partner in 1862 the style was changed to L. Chaput, Fils & Cie.
In 1875 upon the retirement of his father Charles Chaput became
the head of the firm, where he has since remained, although there
have been many changes since in its personnel. In 1884 L. E.
Geoffrion was admitted a partner and for years was actively
interested in the conduct and management of the business. In
1896 E. St. Denis retired after having been a partner for
forty years and in the same year Ferd Prudhomme was taken into
partnership. In 1899 Armand Chaput and in 1909 Emile Chaput, sons
of Charles Chaput, were admitted as members of the firm, which
was incorporated on February 1, 1912, under name of L. Chaput,
Fils & Cie, Limitee, Charles Chaput becoming president, Armand
Chaput vice president and manager and Ferd Prudhomme secretary
and treasurer. The house of L. Chaput, Fils & Cie, Limitee, has
attained a widespread, honorable and unassailable reputation in
business circles by reason of the straightforward and commendable
principles employed in the conduct of its large interests.
[Illustration: CHARLES CHAPUT]
For many years Mr. Chaput has maintained an extremely active
business interest not only in the large firm of which he is now
the head but also as a director in many other firms, in banks
and in financial institutions. As a member of the council of
the Board of Trade he has played a very important part in the
work of that organization. A governor of Notre Dame Hospital, he
has been largely instrumental in strengthening the finances of
that splendid institution. He was for several years a director
of La Banque d’Hochelaga and also of the Canada Life Insurance
Company. He has been a councillor of the Chambre de Commerce
and president of the Wholesale Grocers Guild. He is a director
of the International Mercantile Agency, also vice president of
the Montreal Business Men’s League and president of the Montreal
Citizens Association and has ever taken an active interest in
business matters and all things tending to promote the welfare of
the city and the uplifting of humanity.
His charitable instincts and activities are broad and varied.
Aside from the institutions above mentioned with which he is
connected he is also a governor of the Montreal General Hospital
and a member of the Montreal Dispensary. He cooperates earnestly
and effectively in many movements which have for their object the
alleviation of hard conditions of life for the unfortunate. In
religious faith he is a Roman Catholic.
Mr. Chaput has never entered the political field, yet he has
always maintained a deep and sincere interest in the political
affairs of the country. Furthermore, he has played a very
prominent part in municipal affairs and while not himself
directly interested or a seeker of place he has been one of the
leading figures in the organization of the Citizens’ Association
and a sturdy exponent of municipal government through the medium
of the Board of Control. He is progressive in all things, being
ever ready to give his support to any movement that will tend to
the improvement of conditions in Montreal.
Mr. Chaput married Rose Anne Smith, who died in September, 1883;
he then married Clara Chevalier, who died in July, 1893; his
third wife was L. Patoine in her maidenhood. He has a family of
three sons and two daughters, all born to the first marriage.
The eldest son, Rev. Father Charles Chaput, is a Jesuit priest
and a professor of philosophy. The second son, Armand Chaput,
is vice president of L. Chaput, Fils & Cie, Limitee. He married
Juliette Auger, a daughter of J. C. Auger, formerly registrar of
Montreal. The third son, Emile Chaput, is a director in the firm
and married Rosalie Loranger, daughter of the Hon. Mr. Justice
Loranger of Montreal. Rose Anna, the elder daughter, is the
widow of Mr. Gabriel Marchand, M. P., son of the late Hon. F. G.
Marchand, who was premier of the province of Quebec. Antoinette,
the younger daughter, is the wife of Mr. E. Desaulniers, notary,
of St. Lambert, P. Q.
Mr. Chaput holds membership in L’Association St. Jean Baptiste
and in the Antiquarian and Numismatic Society--associations which
show something of the nature of his interests and his delight in
research work.
AIME CHASSE.
Aime Chasse, advocate, was born at St. Elphége, Yamaska County,
Province of Quebec, October 9, 1886, of the marriage of Zoel
Chasse, a cultivateur, and Julie (Proulx) Chasse. He studied the
classics at the Seminaire de Nicolet, graduating with the degree
of Bachelor of Arts in 1908. He studied law at Laval University
in Montreal and at the same time in the office of Coderre &
Coderre, in Montreal, and was admitted to the bar in July, 1912.
Since the 1st of June, 1914, he has been a member of the law firm
of Archambault & Chasse. Mr. Chasse has been president of the
Association de la Jeunesse Conservatrice de Montreal since April
15, 1914. He has lived in Montreal since September, 1908. On
January 7, 1911, he married Alphonsine Boisvert, of St. Elphége.
HON. LIEUTENANT COLONEL SIR HUGH MONTAGU ALLAN.
Clubman, sportsman and business man of marked enterprise--in
these few words are summed up the life record of Sir Hugh
Montagu Allan, whose interests have been many and whose
activities far-reaching. 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 quite another kind
of genius. Sir Hugh Montagu Allan belongs to that younger
generation of business men of Montreal called upon to shoulder
responsibilities differing materially from those resting 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 was the position in which Sir Hugh Montagu Allan found
himself following the demise of his father, Sir Hugh Allan, an
eminent figure in shipping and financial circles of Canada. The
mother, Matilda Caroline (Smith) Allan, was the second daughter
of the late John Smith, a prominent merchant of Montreal and it
was in this city that Sir Hugh Montagu Allan was born October
13, 1860. His education acquired in Bishop’s College School at
Lennoxville, was supplemented by study in Paris, France. He was
a young man of but twenty-two years at the time of his father’s
death and under the terms of his father’s will entered the
firm of H. & A. Allan, steamship agents. It was in the latter
connection that they established the Allan Line of steamships,
then and now the most important factor in passenger service and
freight carrying trade between Great Britain and Canada. More
and more he has come into prominence, as he has given proof of
his power to carefully, systematically, wisely and successfully
promote the important interests of mammoth corporate concerns. He
is today president of the Merchants Bank of Canada, the Acadia
Coal Company, the Railway Securities Company, and vice president
of the Canada Paper Company and the Canadian Vickers, Limited.
His name is on the directorate of the Montreal Light, Heat &
Power Company, the Ogilvie Flour Mills Company, the Canadian
Transfer Company, the Labrador Company, the Dominion Iron &
Steel Company, the Dominion Steel Corporation, the Mutual Life
Association Company of Canada, the Canadian Cottons, Limited,
the Royal Trust Company, the Montreal Investment Trust and the
Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company of Montreal.
In December, 1878, he assumed the name of Hugh Montagu instead
of Hugh Andrew Allan, by which he was previously known. Long
connected with the Montreal Board of Trade, he served as a
counselor for several years and as its treasurer in 1891 and
1892. Further interests of a public character which have profited
by his cooperation include the Montreal Horticultural and Fruit
Growing Association, of which he is a director and St. Andrew’s
Society, of which he is president. His prominence as a sportsman
is indicated in the fact that he is an ex-master of the Montreal
Hunt. His horses have won the Queen’s plate, the Montreal hunt
cup, members’ plate and hunters’ handicap steeplechase cup. Sir
Hugh Montagu Allan is now president of the Montreal Jockey Club,
vice president of the Canadian Racing Association and director
of the International Horse Show Association. He was formerly
vice president of the Montreal Racket Club and a director of the
Montreal Skating Association and the Amateur Skating Association
of Canada. His activities have touched many benevolent and
charitable projects. He has been a director of the Sailors’
Institute, the Charity Organization Society, the Society for
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and is vice president of the
Montreal General Hospital. He gave five thousand dollars to the
Charles Alexander Memorial Fund and the Allan Cup as a perpetual
trophy for competition between amateur hockey clubs in 1910. He
is one of the founders of the Mount Royal Club and the Winter
Club at Montreal.
In October, 1893, Sir Hugh Montagu Allan wedded Marguerite Ethel
Mackenzie, a daughter of the late Hector Mackenzie of Montreal.
She was elected a member of the Central Council Victoria League
at London, England, in 1909, and is honorary president of the
Daughters of the Empire in Montreal. Sir Hugh and Lady Allan at
their Montreal home, Ravenscrag, entertained H. R. H. Prince
Arthur of Connaught in 1906, and H. I. H. Prince Fushimi of Japan
in 1907. Sir Hugh was presented to the late King Edward in March,
1910, and Lady Allan was presented in July, 1906. He was knighted
June 24, 1904, became C. V. O. in 1907, and Order of the Rising
Sun of Japan (third class) in 1907. He was appointed honorable
lieutenant colonel of the First Battalion, Fifth Regiment,
Royal Highlanders, in 1911. His religious faith is that of the
Presbyterian church. In addition to Ravenscrag in Montreal, Sir
Hugh has a summer home, Montrose, at Cacouna, and another estate,
Allancroft, in Beaconsfield, province of Quebec. That he is an
eminent and well known figure in club circles is indicated by the
fact that he belongs to the St. James Club, Mount Royal Club,
Canada Club, Auto and Aero Club, Montreal Hunt, Montreal Jockey
Club, Winter Club, Royal Montreal Golf Club, Royal St. Lawrence
Yacht Club, Canadian Club, Forest and Stream Club, Lachine
Boating and Canoeing Club, Montreal Curling Club, Back River Polo
Club, Montreal Racket Club, Montreal Thistle Curling Club, all
of Montreal; Toronto Club, York Club of Toronto; Rideau Club,
of Ottawa; Racquet and Tennis Club and Knickerbocker Club, of
New York; and Junior Carlton Club, Canada Club, and Royal Thames
Yacht Club, of London, England.
The subjective and objective forces of life are in him well
balanced, making him cognizant of his own capabilities and
powers, while at the same time he thoroughly understands his
opportunities and his obligations. To make his native talents
subserve the demands which conditions of society impose at the
present time is the purpose of his life, and by reason of the
mature judgment which characterizes his efforts at all times,
he stands today with those whose activity in various lines does
not exclude active participation in and support of other vital
interests which go to make up human existence.
LOUIS EDOUARD FORTIER, M. D.
Dr. Louis Edouard Fortier, one of the most prominent of the
French physicians of Montreal, was born in the city of Quebec,
February 11, 1865, a son of Edouard and Celina (Marcotte)
Fortier. The paternal grandfather, Louis Fortier, was a farmer
and was the founder of the village of Fortierville, while his son
Edouard was a merchant in the city of Quebec.
The family removed to Montreal during the Doctor’s boyhood and
both parents passed away in this city. Two brothers of Dr.
Fortier are still living: one, Dr. Joseph Emile, is one of the
busiest medical practitioners of Montreal; the other, Joseph
Auguste, a well known writer, after having traveled all around
the world settled in India about fifteen years ago, and is
principal and superintendent of the Agha Engineering School, in
Fyzabad, Oudh.
Dr. Fortier was educated in the Jesuit College of Montreal, after
which he studied medicine in Victoria University, being graduated
therefrom with the degree of M. D. in the class of 1889. He was
at once appointed demonstrator of anatomy at Victoria University
and physician to the Hospital Hôtel-Dieu. These positions he
filled in addition to attending to his private practice, which
has been extensive from the beginning, and he has been regular
physician to the Hôtel-Dieu since 1889. After some years devoted
to active practice, he further continued the study of his
profession in Paris and London, coming in touch with the work
of eminent physicians and surgeons in both cities. He ranks
high in hospital work and is widely recognized as a learned and
able member of the profession, who is constantly promoting his
knowledge through reading, research and investigation. He is
also classed with the able educators and at the present time is
professor of pharmacology and therapeutics in Laval University.
A scholar and a good writer, Dr. Fortier has been during
many years editor of La Gazette Médicale de Montréal, the
official organ of the Victoria University Medical School
in Montreal before the affiliation of this school with Laval
University. Since that time, besides many valuable contributions
to medical reviews, Dr. Fortier published a few years ago a
Handbook of Medicine for Nurses, and last year a Manual of
Pharmacology,--according to the British Pharmacopœia, this
last book being especially for the use of students and young
practitioners.
[Illustration: DR. LOUIS E. FORTIER]
Dr. Fortier is an active social worker and is particularly
interested in the work of medical dispensaries. He is now medical
director of the Institut Bruchési, founded for the treatment of
tubercular patients; medical superintendent of the Sacred Heart
Hospital for the Indians, at Caughnawaga; and chief director
of the dispensaries of l’Assistance Maternelle, instituted to
provide attendance to the sick women of the poorer classes.