have been born two sons, Louis Edouard and Jacques Emile. Madame
Fortier belongs to one of the oldest French-Canadian families
of this country and is favorably known in social as well as
charitable circles of this city.
LIEUTENANT COLONEL JOSEPH P. COOKE.
On the list of those whom death has recently called appears
the name of Lieutenant Colonel Joseph P. Cooke, whose career
in political and military life was a notable one. Liberal
educational opportunities and thorough training qualified him
for the bar, and he was recognized as an able and learned member
of the profession. His abilities recommended him for political
leadership and he was called to important public offices. Quebec
numbered him among her native sons, his birth having occurred in
Drummondville in 1858. His father was Valentine Cooke and his
grandfather, an officer in the army, received a land grant from
the British government in recognition of his services.
Lieutenant Colonel Cooke attended St. Francis College in
Richmond, there pursuing his more specifically literary
education, while in McGill University he prepared for the bar
and was graduated B. C. L. in 1880. The following year he was
called to the bar of Montreal and entered upon active practice
in partnership with Charles Brookes, K. C. Subsequently he began
practice independently and was widely recognized as a strong and
able lawyer, whose legal counsel was sound and whose powers of
discrimination and analyzation enabled him to readily master all
the details of his cases and win success in their conduct. In
1893 he was created king’s counsel.
While in the practice of law Colonel Cooke passed far beyond the
point of mediocrity and won place with the capable members of
the Montreal bar. He was also active as a political leader and
participated in many of the contests of his day. Originally his
support was given the conservative party and as its candidate he
won the seat for Drummond county in 1892, remaining a member of
the provincial house throughout the session. He was ever fearless
in support of his honest convictions, however, and when he was
led to change his opinions by reason of his study of political
conditions and situations he did not hesitate to become a liberal
and in 1897 contested the seat for St. Lawrence division, but
was defeated by A. W. Atwater, K. C. Soon after the election
he was named crown prosecutor and acted in that capacity with
Rudolph Lemieux, K. C. He was succeeded in the position by Edmund
Guerin, K. C., now the Hon. Justice Guerin. In 1907 Colonel
Cooke was named registrar for Montreal West and continued in
that position until his demise. While in the legislature he
was instrumental in securing the passage of a bill prohibiting
the sale or use of tobacco or opium to or by minors. He never
hesitated to advocate the principles which he deemed beneficial
measures in good government or factors in the welfare and
progress of city and province.
Colonel Cooke’s connection with military affairs began when he
joined the volunteer militia service, in which he was advanced
through positions of minor rank until he assumed command of the
First Regiment, Prince of Wales Fusiliers. After five years, or
in 1903, he retired and was placed on the R. O. with his rank.
He commanded the Bisley team in 1898. In 1902 Colonel Cooke was
presented to the present king and queen at St. James’ palace. He
was also presented to King Edward and by invitation was present
in Westminster Abbey at the coronation of the late King Edward
and Queen Alexandra in 1902.
In 1880 Colonel Cooke married Miss Helen Grace Burnett, a
niece of the late Archbishop Bond, and they became the parents
of a daughter and two sons. Violet Burnett; Herbert G., who
was educated in the city schools and McGill University and is
connected with the office of registrar of Montreal West; A.
Douglas, educated in the city schools and McGill University, is
now connected with the engineering department of the Canadian
Pacific Railway. He married Nita K. Wallace. The death of Colonel
Cooke occurred on the 28th of July, 1913, when he was but
fifty-five years of age. His record is one of usefulness in the
public service, of devotion to the interests of his clients and
of fidelity to the ties of home and friendship.
EDMUND HOLYOKE HEWARD.
A few years prior to his death Edmund Holyoke Heward of Montreal
retired from active business. He had been prominently connected
with banking interests, and his colleagues remember him as a
man of progressive spirit and marked capacity for handling the
multiplicity of details as well as the principal features that
arise in connection with the banking business. The family name
figures in the military history of the country. His grandfather,
Stephen Heward, was in command of a force of men at the capture
of Fort Detroit. The father, Augustus Heward, was associated
with Lieutenant Colonel Osborne Smith in founding the Victoria
Volunteer Rifles, now the Third Victoria Rifles, of which
Lieutenant Colonel Smith became the first commander, while Mr.
Heward became the first major, but subsequently succeeded to the
command.
Edmund H. Heward was born in the family residence at Cote des
Neiges, in 1841. He was educated under Dr. Howe at the Montreal
high school and entered into the wholesale hardware business
of Mulholland & Baker when in his teens. His initial business
experience came through several years’ connection with that
house, at the end of which time he entered the service of the
Merchants Bank of Canada, with which he was associated for
more than thirty years. Gradual advancement brought him to
an eminent position in banking circles. He possessed unusual
ability in co-ordinating forces and unifying elements into a
harmonious whole. For some time he was manager of the St. Johns
(Quebec) branch of the bank, but afterward returned to Montreal
and established the Notre Dame Street branch and later the St.
Catherine West branch of the same bank. As the years passed on
every feature of the banking business became familiar to him, and
his thorough understanding thereof was manifest in his executive
direction and capable control. He retired a few years prior
to his death, possessed of a handsome competence that was the
legitimate and logical reward of his effort and capability.
Mr. Heward married Miss Alice Ward, a daughter of the late Hon.
J. K. Ward of Montreal, and unto them were born six children. Mr.
Heward joined his father’s old regiment, the Victoria Rifles,
with which he went to the front in the last Fenian raid and was
present at the affair at Pigeon Hill. He was a handsome man of
fine physique and unfailing courtesy--a gentleman of the old
school. His death on May 17, 1910, occasioned deep regret in both
the business and social circles of Montreal.
ROBERT BRUCE TAYLOR, D. D.
Rev. Robert Bruce Taylor, author and minister of the gospel and
since 1911 pastor of St. Paul’s Presbyterian church in Montreal,
was born in Cardross, Scotland, October 22, 1869. He acquired
his education in Glasgow University, from which he was graduated
M. A. with the class of 1890, and he afterward was a student in
the Free Church College. After completing this course he entered
Gottingen University and later studied Arabic at Beirut and
Damascus. He was a student in three German theological schools
and prepared most thoroughly for his chosen life work. After
his ordination he was placed in charge of the Loudoun Free
Church in Ayrshire and was transferred from there to Ferryhill,
Aberdeen. His third charge was at St. John’s Wood, London,
England, whence in 1911 he came to Montreal, assuming his present
duties as pastor of St. Paul’s Presbyterian church. This is one
of the oldest Presbyterian congregations in the city, having
been organized in 1832 by Edward Black, D. D. The church was
located on St. Helen’s Street until 1867, in January of which
year the erection of the present edifice was begun. The church
was dedicated September 27, 1868, and cost $100,000. The first
pastor, Dr. Edward Black, died in May, 1845, and was succeeded
by Robert McGill, who passed away in 1856. Dr. Snodgrass then
had charge of the congregation until 1864 and his successor
was Dr. Jenkins, who remained in charge from 1865 to 1881. Dr.
Barkley did able and capable work from 1883 until 1910, being
succeeded by Rev. Robert Bruce Taylor, the present incumbent. The
congregation has numbered among its members such distinguished
men as Lord Strathcona and Lord Mount Stephen and it numbers
now eight hundred souls. Its affairs are in a flourishing and
prosperous condition for Dr. Taylor administers them ably and
in a way which shows him a man of excellent executive and
organizing power as well as a zealous and untiring religious
worker. He has organized a club of girls working in stores in the
city and has also a Men’s Club, both of which organizations have
been fruitful of much good.
Dr. Taylor married a daughter of Professor McKendrick, LL. D.,
of Glasgow, Scotland, and both are well known in social circles
in Montreal. Dr. Taylor is a writer of considerable reputation
and besides being the author of a book on Economics, written for
the Student Christian Movement, has contributed largely to serial
publications on religious and historical topics, accomplishing
such able and farsighted work in the interests of his religion
that he has been called “the crown jewel of a Presbyterian
minister.”
CHARLES AUGUSTE DE LOTBINIERE HARWOOD, K. C.
Charles Auguste de Lotbinière Harwood, a lawyer of the Montreal
bar, who prepared for practice at McGill and is now a member
of the well known firm of Lighthall & Harwood, was born at
Vaudreuil, P. Q., August 2, 1869, his parents being Robert
William and Charlotte (McGillis) Harwood. The father was member
of parliament for Vaudreuil in the house of commons from 1872
until 1878. The mother was a daughter of John McGillis, laird
of Williamstown, Glengarry, Ontario. The Harwoods are closely
connected with the de Lotbinière family and are seigneurs of
Vaudreuil.
Liberal educational opportunities equipped Charles A. Harwood
for the duties of a professional career. He was educated at St.
Laurent College and Laval University. His professional training
was received at McGill University, from which he was graduated
B. C. L. in 1893. He became an advocate in 1895 and is now
actively engaged in the practice of his profession in Montreal as
a member of the law firm of Lighthall & Harwood. His ability is
evidenced in the success which has attended his efforts in the
trial of important cases, which he has ever prepared with great
thoroughness and care. In October, 1911, he was made a king’s
counsel, his ability thus winning recognition.
In politics Mr. Harwood is a liberal-conservative, and his
activity in behalf of the principles in which he believes has
been an effective force in the attainment of success. He served
as secretary of the Conservative Association in the county of
Vaudreuil and became a recognized leader of his party. He has
been intimately connected with the municipal reform movements
of Montreal and served first as a director, then as recording
secretary and is now serving as vice president of the Montreal
Citizens’ Association.
In September, 1898, occurred the marriage of Mr. Harwood and
Miss Marie Adelaide Masson, a daughter of the late Hon. L. R.
Masson, lieutenant governor of Quebec. They reside at No. 162
Hutchison Street, Montreal, and have a summer home, Les Chenaux,
at Vaudreuil. Mr. Harwood belongs to the Liberal-Conservative
Club of Montreal and is a past president of the Cartier Club of
Montreal. He also has membership in the Historical Landmarks
Association, and after having been for many years honorary
recording secretary is now a vice president of the Numismatic
and Antiquarian Society of Montreal. He has delved deep into the
historic past and is the author of various valuable historical
papers, including one entitled The Fort Garry Convention. His
religious belief is that of the Roman Catholic church. A man of
broad intelligence and high ideals, his life record has counted
for much in the field of professional and scientific progress.
[Illustration: C. A. DE LOTBINIERE HARWOOD]
MAJOR DAVID SEATH.
Major David Seath occupies an important position in the public
service of the Dominion as secretary and treasurer of the harbor
commission of Montreal. He is a son of the late Robert Seath, a
wholesale clothing merchant of Montreal, and Margaret (Stephen)
Seath. Born in Montreal on May 9, 1847, he subsequently attended
the high school in this city and the parish school at Ste. Rose,
province of Quebec. In 1864 he entered the employ of his father
and subsequently became connected with the firm of Tyre, Perkins
& Lajoie, accountants and assignees, of which he subsequently
became a member under the firm style of Lajoie, Seath & Perrault,
which was formed in 1877. The firm also was for a time known
under the style of Thibaudeau & Seath, and of this firm our
subject was a partner until 1895. From that year until 1898 he
was president and manager of the Perrault Printing Company.
At that time he was also a member of the board of license
commissioners of Montreal. In 1898 he was appointed secretary and
treasurer of the harbor commissioners board of Montreal, which
office he has ever since held. His public record is one to be
highly commended.
Mr. Seath is a justice of the peace and has to his credit a long
military career in the volunteer service, his years of active
duty comprising those between 1864 and 1905. He joined the
Victoria Rifles as a private in 1864 and took part in the Fenian
raid in 1866 and 1870, receiving in the latter year the medal and
two clasps. During that time, in 1867, he was gazetted lieutenant
in the Sixth Regiment, Hochelaga Light Infantry. He attained the
rank of captain in the Sixth Fusiliers and in 1905 rejoined this
regiment, known as the “Prince of Wales’,” as paymaster with the
honorary rank of major, retiring in the same year. Besides his
Fenian raids medals and clasps, he holds the colonial auxiliary
forces officers’ long service decoration. He was instrumental
in having the services of the volunteers for the Fenian raids
recognized by the government. Besides acting as justice of the
peace he is also commissioner for receiving affidavits from
outside the province of Ontario to be used in Ontario and is
commissioner of the superior court of the province of Quebec.
Major Seath was married in September, 1904, to Miss Emma A. Fish,
of Westmount, on which occasion he was presented with a valuable
service of plate by the Montreal harbor commissioners. In
religious faith he is an Anglican and his political convictions
incline him towards the liberal party. Mr. Seath stands high
in Freemasonry, having attained the thirty-second degree. He
has been grand registrar of the grand lodge of Quebec and grand
scribe, grand treasurer and grand first principal of the grand
chapter of Quebec. He is a Knight Templar and an officer of
the A. & A. Scotish Rite. The family residence is at 95 Mackay
Street, Montreal. Hon. Robert Mackay, the distinguished statesman
and man of affairs, says of him: “An officer of long and faithful
service who was and is always at his post”; and this statement
expresses his faithfulness to duty perhaps better than anything
that could be said in addition.
ALBERT E. DE LORIMIER, K. C.
Albert E. de Lorimier is a successful and distinguished lawyer
of Montreal. He belongs to an old French family, one member of
which, Count de Chamilly, was marshal of France, and another,
Count d’Estoges de Lorimier, was executed with Louis XVI for his
loyalty and devotedness to his king.
His direct ancestor in Canada, Guillaume de Lorimier, sieur des
Bordes en Gatinais, came to Montreal in the seventeenth century
with Governor Marquis de Denonville. His great-grandfather,
Claude Guillaume de Lorimier, knight of the Royal and Military
Order of St. Louis of France, distinguished himself at Fort
George and at the siege of Corlar. His grandfather, Major
Guillaume de Lorimier, author of “My Services During the War of
the American Invasion,” served with his brother Chamilly under
General Sir Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester, on Lake Champlain
in 1775. One of his uncles, Captain William de Lorimier of the
Fencibles, was killed at Chrysler’s Farm in 1813.
A. E. de Lorimier was born at Sault St. Louis, in the province
of Quebec, and is the son of Georges Antoine de Lorimier and
Mrs. Marie L. McComber. He acquired his early education at the
Huntingdon Academy, Huntingdon, completed his classics at St.
Mary’s College, Montreal, and was admitted to the practice of
law in July, 1885, after having graduated LL. B. from Laval
University. He speaks the French and English languages fluently
and equally well.
In October, 1886, he married Miss Mina de Lorimier, daughter of
Mr. Justice Charles Chamilly de Lorimier of Montreal, and both
are well known in social circles of this city.
Mr. de Lorimier first formed partnership with the Hon. F.
X. Trudel, late Senator; N. Charbonneau, now Mr. Justice
Charbonneau, and Gustave Lamothe, K. C., and later with Charles
Chamilly de Lorimier, now Mr. Justice de Lorimier, and finally
with D. Girouard, late justice of the supreme court of Canada.
In 1896 he took the Hon. Sir Auguste R. Angers in his firm known
as Angers, de Lorimier & Godin. He was created king’s counsel
in 1903 and was on several occasions elected member of the
council of the bar. He declined the honor to represent his native
county in the Dominion parliament and to stand as an alderman
in the Centre ward of Montreal, preferring to devote all his
time and knowledge to his clientage. He was in his earlier days
twice president of L’Union Catholique of Montreal and is a life
governor of Notre Dame Hospital and of L’Ecole Sociale Populaire.
He enjoys the reputation of being one of the prominent and most
respected barristers in Montreal. The future, undoubtedly, holds
for him still greater distinction and honor in his chosen field.
[Illustration: ALBERT E. DE LORIMIER]
HON. JOHN YOUNG.
For twenty-five years Hon. John Young was one of the harbor
commissioners of Montreal and no one did more for the development
and protection of the shipping industry at this point. Indeed his
whole life was largely devoted to the public service and there
are few men who have the insight and the prescience to recognize
possibilities and opportunities for the general good as he did
and the perseverance and determination to use such opportunities
for the benefit of the many. His country will ever remember him
with gratitude and his friends with deep affection, for aside
from his public career there were in him traits of character
that endeared him closely to those with whom he came in contact
through other relations. He bound his friends to him with hoops
of steel when their adoption had been tried, and at all times he
held friendship as something sacred and inviolable.
Born in Ayr, Scotland, March 11, 1811, Hon. John Young attended
the parish school, and his aptitude in his studies was manifest
in the fact that when but fourteen years of age he obtained the
appointment of master of the parish school at Coylton, near Ayr,
where he taught for eighteen months. He early developed the
habits of industry and cheerful perseverance which characterized
his after life and in 1826, when a youth of fifteen, he completed
his arrangements to become a resident of Canada, attracted by
favorable reports concerning the great opportunities of the new
world. His initial business experience here came to him as a
clerk in the employ of John Torrance and the development of his
powers and capacity is shown in the fact that in 1835, when but
twenty-four years of age, he became a partner of David Torrance
in the firm of Torrance & Young, which for five years continued
in business at Quebec.
From early manhood he was a student of the signs of the times and
business never claimed his undivided attention. He carefully and
systematically managed his interests, but he also found time to
perform the duties of citizenship wisely and well and he became
a leader of public thought and action. At an early day he urged
upon Lord Gosford the forming of volunteer corps but the governor
general felt there was little reason to comply with this request.
It was not long, however, before events proved the soundness of
his advice and when the rebellion came Mr. Young volunteered
for service in a regiment of light infantry which was raised in
twenty-four hours and in which he became a captain.
When his aid was no longer needed Mr. Young returned to Montreal
and became a partner of Harrison Stephens in the firm of
Stephens, Young & Company which occupied a prominent position
in business circles of Montreal for many years. His personal
interests took him largely over the west and in his travels and
his study of business conditions he saw how valuable was the St.
Lawrence system as a factor in the commercial history of the
American continent, furnishing the course of the natural routes
to the seaboard. It seemed that he never lost sight of any point
bearing upon the subject which came so close to his heart--the
development of the shipping industries of Montreal--and
eventually he became recognized as the greatest canal authority
in America.
Another important public enterprise with which he was associated
at about that period was the organization and establishment of
the Mercantile Library Association. Public feeling was not in
sympathy with such a movement at that time and only four people
were present when the system was formed. Writing of this period,
a contemporary biographer has said: “The change in public feeling
as to educational advantages then and now is well instanced by
the fact that, besides Mr. Young, only four persons were present
at the meeting when this society was commenced. In 1844 party
spirit ran high and serious trouble was expected at the general
election. Secret societies were in existence, and political
associations formed everywhere for the purpose, as was avowed, of
gaining by force what could not be secured otherwise. At such a
time the post of returning officer was difficult and dangerous,
and though the selection of a man to fill it might be esteemed
a high compliment to his personal character, it involved also a
personal risk which required the utmost coolness, determination,
tact and courage in the recipient. Lord Metcalfe’s advisers
selected John Young as the man for the emergency. The result
soon showed that their confidence had been well placed. Mr.
Young seems to have realized to the utmost the necessities and
perils of the office. Fearlessly, openly and with the utmost
judgment, he laid his plans so well and used the powers of his
position to such effect that, contrary to all expectation, the
election passed off without any breach of the peace. He seized
arms and other illegal weapons wherever they could be found,
and without regard to threats. When the secret societies became
openly defiant he called out the troops, who were ably managed
by him, and overawed the disorderly and turbulent so effectually
that no rioting took place. Mr. Young’s services were so highly
appreciated by Lord Metcalfe that they were mentioned in the
despatches sent to the Colonial office and were the subject
of special acknowledgment by the secretary of state for the
colonies. They were also warmly testified to by Sir James Hope,
who was then commander in chief at Montreal.”