=Champlain, Samuel de.=—Standing on the _A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time A Collection of Persons Distinguished in Professional and Political Life, Leaders in the Commerce and Industry of Canada, and Successful Pioneers

eminences at the mouth of the Saguenay, and looking back through the

haze of two hundred and eighty-five years, we may descry two small

sailing craft slowly making their way up the majestic stream which

Jacques Cartier, sixty-eight years before, christened in honor of St.

Lawrence. The vessels are French build, and have evidently just arrived

from France. They are of very diminutive size for an ocean voyage, but

are manned by hardy Breton mariners for whom the tempestuous Atlantic

has no terrors. They are commanded by an enterprising merchant-sailor of

St. Malo, who is desirous of pushing his fortunes by means of the fur

trade, and who, with that end in view, has already more than once

navigated the St. Lawrence as far westward as the mouth of the Saguenay.

His name is Pontgravé. Like other French adventurers of his time, he is

a brave and energetic man, ready to do, to dare, and, if need be, to

suffer; but his primary object in life is to amass wealth, and to effect

this object he is not over-scrupulous as to the means employed. On this

occasion he has come over with instructions from Henry IV., King of

France, to explore the St. Lawrence, to ascertain how far from its mouth

navigation is practicable, and to make a survey of the country on its

banks. He is accompanied on the expedition by a man of widely different

mould; a man who is worth a thousand of such sordid, huckstering

spirits; a man who unites with the courage and energy of a soldier a

high sense of personal honor and a singleness of heart worthy of the

Chevalier Bayard himself. To these qualities are added an absorbing

passion for colonization, and a piety and zeal which would not misbecome

a Jesuit missionary. He is poor, but what the poet calls “the jingling

of the guinea” has no charms for him. Let others consume their souls in

heaping up riches, in chaffering with the Indians for the skins of wild

beasts, and in selling the same to the affluent traders in France. It is

his ambition to rear the _fleur-de-lis_ in the remote wilderness of the

New World, and to evangelize the savage hordes by whom that world is

peopled. The latter object is the most dear to his heart of all, and he

has already recorded his belief that the salvation of one soul is of

more importance than the founding of an empire. After such an exordium

it is scarcely necessary to inform the student of history that the name

of Pontgravé’s ally is Samuel De Champlain. He had already figured

somewhat conspicuously in his country’s annals, but his future

achievements were destined to outshine the events of his previous

career, and to gain for him the merited title of “Father of New France.”

He was born some time in the year 1567, at Brouage, a small seaport town

in the province of Saintonge, on the west coast of France. Part of his

youth was spent in the naval service, and during the wars of the League

he fought on the side of the King, who awarded him a small pension and

attached him to his own person. But Champlain was of too adventurous a

turn of mind to feel at home in the confined atmosphere of a royal

court, and soon languished for change of scene. Erelong he obtained

command of a vessel bound for the West Indies, where he remained more

than two years. During that time he distinguished himself as a brave and

efficient officer. He became known as one whose nature partook largely

of the romantic element, but who, nevertheless, had ever an eye to the

practical. Several important engineering projects seem to have engaged

his attention during his sojourn in the West Indies. Prominent among

these was the project of constructing a ship-canal across the Isthmus of

Panama, but the scheme was not encouraged, and ultimately fell to the

ground. Upon his return to France he again dangled about the court for a

few months, by which time he had once more become heartily weary of a

life of inaction. With the accession of Henry IV. to the French throne

the long religious wars which had so long distracted the country came to

an end, and the attention of the government began to be directed to the

colonization of New France—a scheme which had never been wholly

abandoned but which had remained in abeyance since the failure of the

expedition undertaken by the brothers Roberval, more than half a century

before. Several new attempts were made at this time, none of which were

very successful. The fur trade, however, held out great inducements to

private enterprise, and stimulated the cupidity of the merchants of

Dieppe, Rouen and St. Malo. In the heart of one of them something nobler

than cupidity was aroused. In 1603, M. De Chastes, governor of Dieppe,

obtained a patent from the King conferring upon him and several of his

associates a monopoly of the fur trade of New France. To M. De Chastes

the acquisition of wealth—of which he already had enough, and to

spare—was a matter of secondary importance, but he hoped to make his

patent the means of extending the French empire into the unknown regions

of the far West. The patent was granted soon after Champlain’s return

from the West Indies, and just as the pleasures of the court were

beginning to pall upon him. He had served under De Chastes during the

latter years of the war of the League, and the governor was no stranger

to the young man’s skill, energy, and incorruptible integrity. De

Chastes urged him to join the expedition, which was precisely of a kind

to find favor in the eyes of an ardent adventurer like Champlain. The

King’s consent having been obtained, he joined the expedition under

Pontgravé, and sailed for the mouth of the St. Lawrence on the 15th of

March, 1603. The expedition, as we have seen, was merely preliminary to

more specific and extended operations. The ocean voyage, which was a

tempestuous one, occupied more than two months, and they did not reach

the St. Lawrence until the latter end of May. They sailed up as far as

Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, where a little trading-post had

been established four years before by Pontgravé and Chauvin. Here they

cast anchor, and a fleet of canoes filled with wondering natives

gathered round their little barques to sell peltries, and

(unconsciously) to sit for Champlain for their portraits. After a short

stay at Tadousac the leaders of the expedition, accompanied by several

of the crew, embarked in a batteau and proceeded up the river past

deserted Stadacona to the site of the Indian village of Hochelaga,

discovered by Jacques Cartier in 1535. The village so graphically

described by that navigator had ceased to exist, and the tribe which had

inhabited it at the time of his visit had given place to a few Algonquin

Indians. Our adventurers essayed to ascend the river still farther, but

found it impossible to make headway against the rapids of St. Louis,

which had formerly presented an insuperable barrier to Cartier’s

westward progress. Then they retraced their course down the river to

Tadousac, re-embarked on board their vessels, and made all sail for

France. When they arrived there they found that their patron, De

Chastes, had died during their absence, and that his company had been

dissolved. Very soon afterwards, however, the scheme of colonization was

taken up by the Sieur, de Monts, who entered into engagements with

Champlain for another voyage to the New World. De Monts and Champlain

set sail on the 7th of March, 1604, with a large expedition, and in due

course reached the shores of Nova Scotia, then called Acadie. After an

absence of three years, during which Champlain explored the coast as far

southward as Cape Cod, the expedition returned to France. A good deal

had been learned as to the topographical features of the country lying

near the coast, but little had been done in the way of actual

colonization. The next expedition was productive of greater results. De

Monts, at Champlain’s instigation, resolved to found a settlement on the

shores of the St. Lawrence. Two vessels were fitted up at his expense

and placed under Champlain’s command, with Pontgravé as lieutenant of

the expedition, which put to sea in the month of April, 1608, and

reached the mouth of the Saguenay early in June. Pontgravé began a

series of trading operations with the Indians at Tadousac, while

Champlain proceeded up the river to fix upon an advantageous site for

the projected settlement. This site he found at the confluence of the

St. Charles with the St. Lawrence, near the place where Jacques Cartier

had spent the winter of 1535-6. Tradition tells us that when Cartier’s

sailors beheld the adjacent promontory of Cape Diamond they exclaimed,

“_Quel bec!_”—(“What a beak!”)—which exclamation led to the place

being called _Quebec_. The most probable derivation of the name,

however, is the Indian word _kebec_, signifying a strait, which might

well have been applied by the natives to the narrowing of the river at

this place. Whatever may be the origin of the name, here it was that

Champlain, on the 3rd of July, 1608, founded his settlement, and Quebec

was the name which he bestowed upon it. This was the first permanent

settlement of Europeans on the American continent, with the exception of

those at St. Augustine, in Florida, and Jamestown, in Virginia.

Champlain’s first attempts at settlement, as might be expected, were of

a very primitive character. He erected rude barracks, and cleared a few

small patches of ground adjacent thereto, which he sowed with wheat and

rye. Perceiving that the fur trade might be turned to good account in

promoting the settlement of the country, he bent his energies to its

development. He had scarcely settled his little colony in its new home

ere he began to experience the perils of his quasi-regal position.

Notwithstanding the patent of monopoly held by his patron, on the faith

of which his colonization scheme had been projected, the rights

conferred by it began to be infringed by certain traders who came over

from France and instituted a system of traffic with the natives. Finding

the traffic exceedingly profitable, these traders erelong held out

inducements to some of Champlain’s followers. A conspiracy was formed

against him, and he narrowly escaped assassination. Fortunately, one of

the traitors was seized by remorse, and revealed the plot before it had

been fully carried out. The chief conspirator was hanged, and his

accomplices were sent over to France, where they expiated their crime at

the galleys. Having thus promptly suppressed the first insurrection

within his dominions, Champlain prepared himself for the rigours of a

Canadian winter. An embankment was formed above the reach of the tide,

and a stock of provisions was laid in sufficient for the support of the

settlement until spring. The colony, inclusive of Champlain himself,

consisted of twenty-nine persons. Notwithstanding all precautions, the

scurvy broke out among them during the winter. Champlain, who was

endowed with a vigorous constitution, escaped the pest, but before the

advent of spring the little colony was reduced to only nine persons. The

sovereign remedy which Cartier had found so efficacious in a similar

emergency was not to be obtained. That remedy was a decoction prepared

by the Indians from a tree which they called _Auneda_—believed to have

been a species of spruce—but the natives of Champlain’s day knew

nothing of the remedy, from which he concluded that the tribe which had

employed it on behalf of Cartier and his men had been exterminated by

their enemies. With spring, succours and fresh immigrants arrived from

France, and new vitality was imported into the little colony. Soon after

this time, Champlain committed the most impolitic act of his life. The

Hurons, Algonquins, and other tribes of the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa,

resolved upon taking the war-path against their enemies, the Iroquois,

or Five Nations—the boldest, fiercest, and most powerful confederacy

known to Indian history. Champlain, ever since his arrival in the

country, had done his utmost to win the favor of the natives with whom

he was brought more immediately into contact, and he deemed that by

joining them in opposing the Iroquois, who were a standing menace to his

colony, he would knit the Hurons and Algonquins to the side of the King

of France by permanent and indissoluble ties. To some extent he was

right, but he underestimated the strength of the foe, an alliance with

whom would have been of more importance than an alliance with all the

other Indian tribes of New France. Champlain cast in his lot with the

Hurons and Algonquins, and accompanied them on their expedition against

their enemies. By so doing he invoked the deadly animosity of the latter

against the French for all time to come. He did not foresee that by this

one stroke of policy he was paving the way for a subsequent alliance

between the Iroquois and the English. On May 28th, 1609, in company with

his Indian allies, he started on the expedition, the immediate results

of which were so insignificant—the remote results of which were so

momentous. The war-party embarked in canoes, ascended the St. Lawrence

to the mouth of the Richelieu—then called the River of the

Iroquois—and thence up the latter stream to the lake which Champlain

then beheld for the first time, and which until that day no European eye

had ever looked upon. This picturesque sheet of water was thenceforward

called after him, and in its name his own is still perpetuated. The

party held on their course to the head waters of the lake, near to which

several Iroquois villages were situated. The enemy’s scouts received the

intelligence of the approach of the invaders, and advanced to repel

them. The opposing forces met in the forest on the south-western shore,

not far from Crown Point, on the morning of the 30th of July. The

Iroquois, two hundred in number, advanced to the onset. “Among them,”

says Mr. Parkman, “could be seen several chiefs, conspicuous by their

tall plumes. Some bore shields of wood and hide, and some were covered

with a kind of armour made of tough twigs, interlaced with a vegetable

fibre, supposed by Champlain to be cotton. The allies, growing anxious,

called with loud cries for their champion, and opened their ranks that

he might pass to the front. He did so, and advancing before his red

companions-in-arms stood revealed to the astonished gaze of the

Iroquois, who, beholding the warlike apparition in their path, stared in

mute amazement. But his arquebuse was levelled; the report startled the

woods, a chief fell dead, and another by his side rolled among the

bushes. Then there arose from the allies a yell which, says Champlain,

would have drowned a thunder-clap, and the forest was full of whizzing

arrows. For a moment the Iroquois stood firm, and sent back their arrows

lustily; but when another and another gunshot came from the thickets on

their flank they broke and fled in uncontrollable terror. Swifter than

hounds, the allies tore through the bushes in pursuit. Some of the

Iroquois were killed, more were taken. Camp, canoes, provisions, all

were abandoned, and many weapons flung down in the panic fight. The

arquebuse had done its work. The victory was complete.” The victorious

allies, much to the disgust of Champlain, tortured their prisoners in

the most barbarous fashion, and returned to Quebec, taking with them

fifty Iroquois scalps. Thus was the first Indian blood shed by the white

man in Canada. The man who shed it was a European and a Christian, who

had not even the excuse of provocation. This is a matter worth bearing

in mind when we read of the frightful atrocities committed by the

Iroquois upon the whites in after years. Champlain’s conduct on this

occasion seems incapable of defence, and it was certainly a very grave

error, considered simply as an act of policy. The error was bitterly and

fiercely avenged, and for every Indian who fell on the morning of that

30th of July, in this, the first battle fought on Canadian soil between

natives and Europeans, a ten-fold penalty was exacted. “Thus did New

France rush into collision with the redoubted warriors of the Five

Nations. Here was the beginning, in some measure doubtless the cause, of

a long succession of murderous conflicts, bearing havoc and flame to

generations yet unborn. Champlain had invaded the tiger’s den; and now,

in smothered fury the patient savage would lie biding his day of blood.”

Six weeks after the performance of this exploit, Champlain, accompanied

by Pontgravé, returned to France. Upon his arrival at court he found De

Monts there, trying to secure a renewal of his patent of monopoly, which

had been revoked in consequence of loud complaints on the part of other

French merchants who were desirous of participating in the profits

arising from the fur trade. His efforts to obtain a renewal proving

unsuccessful, De Monts determined to carry on his scheme of colonization

unaided by royal patronage. Allying himself with some affluent merchants

of Rochelle, he fitted out another expedition, and once more despatched

Champlain to the New World. Champlain, upon his arrival at Tadousac,

found his former Indian allies preparing for another descent upon the

Iroquois, in which undertaking he again joined them; the inducement this

time being a promise on the part of the Indians to pilot him up the

great streams leading from the interior, whereby he hoped to discover a

passage to the North Sea, and thence to China and the Indies. In this

second expedition he was less successful than in the former one. The

opposing forces met near the confluence of the Richelieu and St.

Lawrence rivers, and though Champlain’s allies were ultimately

victorious, they sustained a heavy loss, and he himself was wounded in

the neck by an arrow. After the battle, the torture-fires were lighted,

as was usual on such occasions, and Champlain for the first time was an

eye-witness to the horrors of cannibalism. He soon afterwards began his

preparations for an expedition up the Ottawa, but just as he was about

to start on the journey, a ship arrived from France with intelligence

that King Henry had fallen a victim to the dagger of Ravaillac. The

accession of a new sovereign to the French throne might materially

affect De Monts’ ability to continue his scheme, and Champlain once more

set sail for France to confer with his patron. The late king, while

deeming it impolitic to continue the monopoly in De Monts’ favor, had

always countenanced the latter’s colonization schemes in New France; but

upon Champlain’s arrival he found that with the death of Henry IV. De

Monts’ court influence had ceased, and that his western scheme must

stand or fall on its own merits. Champlain, in order to retrieve his

patron’s fortunes as far as might be, again returned to Canada in the

following spring, resolved to build a trading post far up the St.

Lawrence, where it would be easily accessible to the Indian hunters on

the Ottawa. The spot selected was near the site of the former village of

Hochelaga, near the confluence of the two great rivers of Canada. The

post was built on the site now occupied by the hospital of the Grey Nuns

of Montreal, and even before its erection was completed a horde of rival

French traders appeared on the scene. This drove Champlain once more

back to France, but he soon found that the ardor of De Monts for

colonization had cooled, and that he was not disposed to concern himself

further in the enterprise. Champlain, being thus left to his own

resources, determined to seek another patron, and succeeded in enlisting

the sympathy of the Count de Soissons, who obtained the appointment of

lieutenant-general of New France, and invested Champlain with the

functions of that office as his deputy. The count did not long survive,

but Henry de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, succeeded to his privileges, and

continued Champlain in his high office. In the spring of 1613 Champlain

again betook himself to Canada, and arrived at Quebec early in May.

Before the end of the month he started on his long deferred tour of

western exploration. Taking with him two canoes, containing an Indian

and four Frenchmen, he ascended the Ottawa in the hope of reaching China

and Japan by way of Hudson’s Bay, which had been discovered by Hendrick

Hudson only three years before. In undertaking this journey Champlain

had been misled by a French impostor called Nicholas Vignan, who

professed to have explored the route far inland beyond the head waters

of the Ottawa, which river, he averred, had its source in a lake

connected with the North Sea. The enthusiastic explorer, relying upon

the good faith of Vignan, proceeded westward to beyond Lake Coulange,

and after a tedious and perilous voyage, stopped to confer with

Tessouat, an Indian chief, whose tribe inhabited that remote region.

This potentate, upon being apprised of the object of their journey,

undeceived Champlain as to Vignan’s character for veracity, and

satisfied him that the Frenchman had never passed further west than

Tessouat’s own dominions. Vignan, after a good deal of prevarication,

confessed that his story was false, and that what the Indian Chief had

stated was a simple fact. Champlain, weary and disgusted, abandoned his

exploration, and returned to Quebec, leaving Vignan with the Indians in

the wilderness of the Upper Ottawa. His next visit to France, which took

place during the summer of the same year, was fraught with important

results to the colony. A new company was formed under the auspices of

the Prince of Condé, and a scheme was laid for the propagation of the

gospel among the Indians by means of Recollet missionaries to be sent

out from France for the purpose. These, who were the first priests who

settled in Canada, came out with Champlain in May, 1615. A province was

assigned to each of them, and they at once entered upon the duties of

their respective mission. One of them settled among the Montagnais, near

the mouth of the Saguenay; two of them remained at Quebec; and the

fourth, whose name was Le Caron, betook himself to the far western

wilds. Champlain then entered upon a more extended tour of westward

exploration than any he had hitherto undertaken. Accompanied by an

interpreter and a number of Algonquins as guides, he again ascended the

Ottawa, passed the Isle of Allumettes, and thence to Lake Nipissing.

After a short stay here he continued his journey, and descended the

stream since known as French River, into the inlet of Lake Huron, now

called Georgian Bay. Paddling southward, past the innumerable islands on

the eastern coast of the bay, he landed near the present site of

Penetanguishene, and thence followed an Indian trail leading through the

ancient country of the Hurons, now forming the northern part of the

county of Simcoe, and the north-eastern part of the county of Grey. This

country contained seventeen or eighteen villages, and a population,

including women and children, of about twenty thousand. One of the

villages visited by Champlain, called Cahiague, occupied a site near the

present town of Orillia. At another village, called Carhagouha, some

distance farther west, the explorer found the Recollet friar Le Caron,

who had accompanied him from France, only a few months before, as above

mentioned. And here, on the 12th of August, 1615, Le Caron celebrated,

in Champlain’s presence, the first mass ever heard in the wilderness of

western Canada. After spending some time in the Huron country, Champlain

accompanied the natives on an expedition against their hereditary foes,

the Iroquois, whose domain occupied what is now the central and western

part of the State of New York. Crossing Lake Couchiching, and coasting

down the north-eastern shore of Lake Simcoe, they made their way across

country to the Bay of Quinté, thence into Lake Ontario, and thence into

the enemy’s country. Having landed, they concealed their canoes in the

woods and marched inland. On the 10th of October, they came to a

Seneca[7] village, on or near a lake which was probably Lake

Canandaigua. The Hurons attacked the village, but were repulsed by the

fierce Iroquois, Champlain himself being several times wounded in the

assault. The invading war-party then retreated and abandoned the

campaign, placing their wounded in the centre, while armed warriors

guarded the front and rear, returning to where they had hidden their

canoes, in which they embarked and made the best of their way back

across Lake Ontario, where the party broke up. The Hurons had promised

Champlain that if he would accompany them on their expedition against

the Iroquois, they would afterwards furnish him with an escort back to

Quebec. This promise they now declined to make good. Champlain’s

prestige as an invincible champion was gone, and, wounded and

dispirited, he was compelled to accompany them back to their country

near Lake Simcoe, where he spent the winter in the lodge of Durantal,

one of their chiefs. Upon his return to Quebec in the following year, he

was welcomed as one risen from the dead. Hitherto, Champlain’s love of

adventure had led him to devote more attention to exploration than to

the consolidation of his power in New France. He determined to change

his policy in this respect, and crossed over to France to induce a

larger emigration. In July, 1620, he returned with Madame de Champlain,

who was received with great demonstrations of respect and affection by

the Indians upon her arrival at Quebec. Champlain found that the colony

had rather retrograded than advanced during his absence, and for some

time after his return various causes contributed to retard its

prosperity. At the end of the year, 1621,[8] the European population of

New France numbered only forty-eight persons. Rival trading companies

continued to fight for the supremacy in the colony, and any man less

patient and persevering than the Father of New France, would have

abandoned his schemes in despair. This untoward state of things

continued until 1627, when an association, known to history by the name

of “The Company of the One Hundred Associates,” was formed under the

patronage of the great Cardinal Richelieu. The association was invested

with the vice-royalty of New France and Florida, together with very

extensive auxiliary privileges, including a monopoly of the fur trade,

the right to confer titles and appoint judges, and generally to carry on

the government of the colony. In return for these truly vice-regal

privileges the company undertook to send out a large number of

colonists, and to provide them with the necessaries of life for a term

of three years, after which land enough for their support and grain

wherewith to plant it was to be given them. Champlain himself was

appointed governor. This great company was scarcely organized before war

broke out between France and England. The English resolved upon the

conquest of Canada, and sent out a fleet to the St. Lawrence, under the

command of Sir David Kertk. The fleet having arrived before Quebec, its

commander demanded from Champlain a surrender of the place, and as the

governor’s supply of food and ammunition was too small to enable him to

sustain a siege, he signed a capitulation and surrendered. He then

hastened to France, where he influenced the cabinet to stipulate for the

restoration of Canada to the French Crown, in the articles of peace

which were shortly afterwards negotiated between the two powers. In

1632, this restoration was effected, and next year Champlain again

returned in the capacity of governor. From this time forward he strove

to promote the prosperity of the colony by every means in his power.

Among the means whereby he zealously strove to effect this object, was

the establishment of Jesuit missions for the conversion of the Indians.

Among other missions so established was that in the far western Huron

country, around which the _Relations des Jesuites_ have cast such a halo

of romance. The Father of New France did not live to gather much fruit

from the crop which he had sown. His life of incessant fatigue at last

proved too much even for his vigorous frame. After an illness which

lasted for ten weeks, he died on Christmas Day, 1635, at the age of

sixty-eight. His beautiful young wife, who had shared his exile for four

years, returned to France. But few particulars have been preserved with

reference to Madame de Champlain’s life. Her maiden name was Helen

Boullé, and she was the sister of a friend and fellow-navigator of her

husband’s. After her return to France she renounced the Protestant

faith, and became a devout Roman Catholic. Having resolved upon adopting

a conventual life, she became an Ursuline nun, under the name of Mother

Helen de St. Augustine. She founded a convent at Meaux, in which she

immured herself during the remainder of her life. She survived her

husband nearly nineteen years, and died on the 20th of December, 1654,

at the age of fifty-six. There was no issue of the marriage, and the

patrimony descended to a cousin of the founder of New France.

Champlain’s body was interred in the vaults of a little Recollet Church

in the Lower Town, Quebec city. This church was subsequently burned to

the ground, and its very site was not certainly known until recent

times. In the year 1867, some workmen were employed in laying

water-pipes beneath the flight of stairs called “Breakneck Steps,”

leading from Mountain Hill to Little Champlain street. Under a grating

at the foot of the steps, they discovered the vaults of the old Recollet

Church, with the remains of the Father of New France enclosed.

-----

[7] The Senecas were one of the Five Nations, composing the redoubtable

Iroquois Confederacy. The Tuscaroras joined the League in 1715, and it

is subsequently known in history as the “Six Nations.”

[8] In this year, Eustache, son of Abraham and Margaret Martin, the

first child of European parentage born in Canada, was born at Quebec.

* * * * *

=Lacerte, Elie=, M.D., Three Rivers, was born on the 15th November,

1821, at Yamachiche, county of St. Maurice, district of Three Rivers,

province of Quebec. He is a son of Pierre Lacerte, farmer, of the same

place, who was born 11th September, 1792, and died 29th April, 1885, in

the suburb of Three Rivers. His grandfather emigrated from the city of

Angers, France, in 1671. In 1812 this gentleman enlisted as lieutenant

in the Canadian militia, under the late Lieut.-Colonel C. B. A. Gugy,

and served up to 1815. On his return he married Louise Blais, of

Yamachiche. After a classical course at Nicolet College, Elie Lacerte,

the subject of our sketch, began the study of medicine at Three Rivers,

and in 1843 went to continue them at the University of Harvard,

Cambridge, Mass., where he graduated doctor of medicine on the 5th of

March, 1845. He practised as a physician in Boston for some time, then

returning to Yamachiche on the 19th November, 1847, where he continued

to practice. On the 26th June, 1853, he was appointed justice of the

peace for the district of Three Rivers; and in March, 1857, was

appointed as postmaster of his town. In 1864 the Post-Office department

entrusted him with the conveyance of mails from Montreal to Three

Rivers, and this service he faithfully performed up to 1868, when he was

elected member of the House of Commons for the county of St. Maurice. In

1872 he was re-elected by acclamation, and in the following session he

presented the address in answer to the speech from the throne, but in

1874 he was defeated on the Pacific Scandal question. In 1875 he was

elected to a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec, and he sat in

this house until the 2nd of March, 1878, when the De Boucherville

cabinet was dismissed by Lieut.-Gov. Le Tellier. He then withdrew from

active public life, without, however, becoming indifferent to the

success of the Liberal-Conservative party to which he always belonged.

On the 13th October, 1886, he accepted the agency of the lands and

forests of the Crown, in the district of St. Maurice, and that position

he still holds. Some years ago Dr. Lacerte commenced a mercantile

business, and succeeded very well, but growing tired of this kind of

life, in 1884 he handed the business over to one of his sons, who has

successfully conducted it ever since. In religion the doctor is a Roman

Catholic. He married, 1848, Louise Lamy, and by her has had eleven

children, six sons and five daughters. Four sons are still living, and

the eldest, Arthur, succeeded his father in 1868 as postmaster.

* * * * *

=Kerr, William Warren Hastings=, Q.C., Montreal, was born at Three

Rivers, in November, 1826. He was the son of James Hastings Kerr, a

respected land agent of Quebec. His grandfather, a distinguished English

barrister, settled at Quebec in 1797, and was appointed by Imperial

commission as judge of the Vice Admiralty Court at Quebec, on the 19th

August, 1797; appointed judge of the King’s Bench, in 1807; called to

the Executive Council in 1812; to the Legislative Council in 1821, and

later on was speaker of the Legislative Council. Mr. Kerr received his

early education at Lundy’s College, Quebec, and ultimately he proceeded

to Queen’s College, Kingston, and at both institutions his love of legal

studies was made conspicuous. He completed his legal studies at Quebec,

first with Mr. (later on judge) Jean Chabot, and lastly with Mr. (now

Sir) Andrew Stuart, chief justice, S.C. On the 1st May, 1854, he entered

into partnership at Quebec with J. M. Le Moine, under the style of Kerr

& Le Moine. In May, 1858, this partnership having been dissolved, he

entered into partnership with Archibald Campbell, an old friend and

fellow student. After practising with success for a few years at Quebec,

under the well remembered style of Campbell & Kerr, he sought in

Montreal a wider field for his splendid talents. The silk gown of a

Queen’s counsel was conferred upon him in 1873, and McGill University

granted him the degree of D.C.L. in the same year. He was dean of the

Faculty of Law in McGill University and professor of International Law.

He was elected _bâtonnier_ of the bar in 1878. In politics, Mr. Kerr was

always of a markedly independent turn of mind, and it is generally

conceded that if he had taken a more decided position in the political

world he would have been elevated to the bench, which he would have

ornamented. Twice he unsuccessfully contested parliamentary seats, once

running against Sir John Rose in Huntingdon, in the first parliament;

and secondly against the late H. A. Nelson for the Quebec legislature.

Mr. Kerr’s position at the Montreal bar was one of the very foremost. In

every branch of law, civil, criminal, international and constitutional,

his opinion was generally regarded as final. Among the prominent trials

in which he has figured may be noted the case of the St. Albans’ raiders

and the Consolidated Bank; in the latter he defended the directors and

secured their final acquittal. His contention as to the status of

lieutenant-governors was accepted as final in the famous Letellier case.

The news of his death on 12th February, 1888, was received with the

deepest regret by his _confrères_ at the bar, and the courts were

adjourned out of respect to his memory, in order that the members of the

bar might attend his funeral in a body. Hon. Mr. Justice Davidson, at

the opening of the Superior Court, in speaking of the death of Mr. Kerr,

said: “During the years that I led in the Crown business of this

district, there were few great cases in which he was not retained. As a

consequence, I had many opportunities of being impressed with his deep

knowledge of the principles and intricacies of criminal jurisprudence,

his fertility of resource and his subtle powers as a cross examiner. On

the civil side of the courts he also occupied a notable position. It is

not often that the same mind achieves so large a mastery over two so

dissimilar systems of laws. During my earlier practice I often turned to

him for counsel, and it was given with a kindliness and sympathy which I

have never forgotten. In later years our relations went much beyond

those of an ordinary professional intimacy. Such a connection cannot end

forever without personal sorrow, compelling the utterance of this more

than formal eulogium to his attainments and character. And not only is

the Queen’s counsel dead, a husband and father of rarely sweet and

affectionate qualities is also to be buried out of our sight.” He was

married to a daughter of the Rev. Mr. Arnold, by whom he had two

children.

* * * * *

=Sutherland, Hugh McKay=, Winnipeg, ex-M.P. for Selkirk, Manitoba,

President of the Winnipeg and Hudson Bay Railway Company, is the

descendant of an old Sutherlandshire (Scotland) family, and was born in

New London, P.E.I., on 22nd February, 1843. His parents removed with

their family to Oxford county, Ont., where the subject of this sketch

was educated. Mr. Sutherland was engaged in lumbering and contracting

for a considerable period, but, though leading an active life, he found

time to take part in politics, becoming a man of considerable prominence

among the members of the Liberal party with which he was identified. In

1874 he was made superintendent of Public Works in the Northwest

Territories for the Dominion government, a position for which his

knowledge and executive ability well fitted him. During his absence he

was nominated for the Provincial legislature of Ontario by the Liberals

of East Simcoe in the general election of 1875. Though unable to attend

to the elections he made a good run, but was not successful. In 1879 he

settled permanently in Winnipeg, after having made it his headquarters

during the four or five years he was in the service of the Dominion

government, and has ever since been identified with the progress of

Manitoba and the development of some of its most important resources. In

1882 he contested Selkirk in the Liberal interest, and was returned for

that constituency to the House of Commons at Ottawa by a majority of

about 450. In the general election of February, 1887, he was nominated

to oppose W. B. Scarth for the city of Winnipeg, but was defeated by the

narrow majority of eight. He was the principal promoter of the Hudson

Bay Railway scheme, an enterprise which is on a par with the Suez Canal

or the Canadian Pacific Railway in its possibilities of influence upon

the trade of the world; and was chiefly instrumental in procuring a

charter from the Dominion parliament, in 1880, incorporating the

Winnipeg and Hudson Bay Railway Company, of which he has ever since been

president. Through countless difficulties he has guided this, his

greatest enterprise, and has succeeded in building already about forty

miles of the road. Notwithstanding the apathy of the mass of Canadians

and the active opposition of many great interests, Mr. Sutherland still

has faith in the scheme, and feels satisfied it will attract

capitalists. He hopes soon to have arrangements completed for continuing

the line on to Hudson Bay, and the placing on the route to Britain of a

fleet of steamers specially built for the trade. This done, the result

must be the revolutionizing of the trade, not only of Manitoba, but of

the whole Canadian and American North-West. In energy, tact and

organizing ability Mr. Sutherland is preeminently the man to have charge

of a gigantic undertaking of this kind. He has been twice married;

first, on the 10th February, 1864, to Mary, daughter of Alex. Dickie, of

Brant. This lady having died on 11th October, 1875, he married his

second wife, Mary, only daughter of Hon. T. Banks, of Baltimore, U.S.,

on the 10th December, 1878.

* * * * *

=Otter, Lieut.-Colonel Wm. Dillon=, Toronto, was born near Clinton,

Ontario, on the 3rd of December, 1843, and is of English descent. His

parents were Alfred William Otter and Anna Dela Hooke. He received his

education at the Grammar School, Goderich, and at the Model School and

the Upper Canada College in Toronto. He joined the Victoria Rifles,

Toronto (now F Company Queen’s Own), in October, 1861, and was promoted

to a lieutenancy in the Queen’s Own Rifles in December, 1864. He served

in that rank on the Niagara frontier during the winter of 1864-5, in the

2nd Administrative battalion. Appointed adjutant of the Queen’s Own in

August, 1865, and was present throughout the Fenian raid of 1866,

including the action at Limeridge. Promoted major in June, 1869, and

went to England as second in command of the Wimbledon team in June,

1873. Promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel in June, 1874, and appointed to

the command of the corps a year later. He commanded the regiment during

the “pilgrimage riots,” Toronto, in the latter part of 1875, and also

during the riots consequent upon the strike of the Grand Trunk engineers

at Belleville, in January, 1877. In 1881 Colonel Otter compiled and

published “The Guide,” a manual of military interior economy, etc., a

book now extensively used in the present schools of military instruction

and throughout the militia force. In 1883 he was appointed to the

command of the Wimbledon team, and subsequently sent to Aldershot for

three months to acquire information in the conduct of military schools.

He received the appointment of commandant of the School of Infantry at

Toronto, in December, 1883, and organized C company, Infantry School

Corps, with the school of instruction attached thereto. During the

Northwest rebellion of 1885, Colonel Otter commanded the centre or

Battleford column, making therewith a forced march across the prairie

from Saskatchewan Landing to Battleford, a distance of 190 miles, in

five days and a half. He was in command of the successful reconnaisance

against the Indian chief, Poundmaker, and in the action at Cut Knife

Hill, which prevented that chief’s junction with Big Bear and their

projected assistance to Riel. He afterwards, at the close of the

rebellion, commanded the Turtle Lake column sent in pursuit of Big Bear.

Appointed to the command of military district No. 2, in July, 1886, in

conjunction with the charge of the Royal School of Infantry at Toronto.

In religion the colonel is an adherent of the Church of England. He was

married in October, 1865, to Mary, second daughter of the late Rev.

James Porter, inspector of public schools, Toronto, and previously

superintendent of education, New Brunswick.

* * * * *

=Hart, John Semple=, Bookseller and Stationer, Perth, Ontario, is a

Scotchman by birth, having been born in Paisley, on the 15th July, 1833.

His father, John Hart, is a native of the town in which his son was

born; and his mother, Jean Mason Semple, was born in the city of London,

England. The Hart family is a very old one—one of the name appearing in

the records of the old Paisley Abbey, as master mason and builder, in

the thirteenth century. Since then it has continuously occupied public

positions of trust in that old borough town. Mr. Hart and family sailed

from Glasgow for Canada on the 15th April, 1842, and arrived in Perth on

17th June, of the same year, after a fairly prosperous voyage across the

Atlantic in the old style of sailing vessel that now belongs to a past

generation. Mr. Hart, sen., only intended to stay in Perth a few days

and then go on to Toronto—then only a large town, but the principal

town of Upper Canada—but whilst here, he was persuaded to remain and

make it his home. Perth at this time was an active town, with a

population of about 800 inhabitants, but its progress was comparatively

slow in consequence of its being inland from the St. Lawrence and off

the Rideau canal route. All emigrants passed over these highways of

travel at this time to Upper Canada, where new tracts of farming lands

were opening up of fine quality and on easy terms of purchase. These

cheap lands and the attractions of pioneer life drew not only the

emigrants but the young and active men from the older settlements, and

thus Perth and its surrounding country was made tributary to the

settlement of the “Huron Tract,” as all Ontario has been lately to the

great Northwest. The progress of the town was therefore not as rapid as

its citizens wished; business was also in a very unsatisfactory state at

this time; money as a medium of exchange was not unknown, but was a

scarce commodity; barter or trade was the principal means of exchange in

buying and selling, and in the stores of that day you could get anything

required for the household use from a “needle to an anchor.” Times were

hard, and rigid economy the rule, and all members of the family were

expected to do what they could to help. John S., the subject of this

sketch, being the eldest of the family, had to make himself generally

useful, give his father a helping hand at his trade, and embrace every

chance offered for attending school. Fortunately, however, for him, he

had received a good grounding in educational matters in schools in his

native town and in Glasgow before coming to Canada, and suffered less in

this direction than many a young man before him. In 1853 he and his

father opened a book and stationery store; with a small stock of goods,

but enough to meet the wants of the community. Business prospered, and

in 1857 they removed to their present store, one of the best in Perth.

Here for the past thirty years Mr. Hart has been carrying on business,

and by close attention to it, and studying the wants of his numerous

customers, he has succeeded in building up a good, paying book and

stationery business. Mr. Hart has taken an active interest in military

affairs, and served in the ranks for several years under the old militia

system, until he was appointed a lieutenant, and after a while he was

further promoted to the rank of major in the sedentary militia. During

the _Trent_ excitement he became an active member of the local drill

association, which was formed for home protection at that time. During

the Northwest rebellion in 1885, when it was decided to establish

hospitals for the wounded and sick soldiers and to send trained nurses

to manage them, Mr. Hart, on learning that one of the ladies of the town

had volunteered and was accepted as a nurse, and that it was necessary

to send additional medical appliances and stores to those provided by

the government, at once took an active part in equipping the “Perth

Ward,” and the generous response of his fellow-townsmen was afterwards

attested to by many a poor fellow who benefited by these auxiliary

stores. And, in this connection, it may also be said that after the

death of young Lieut. Kippen, of Perth (who was killed at Batoche), when

it was decided to erect a monument to his memory, Mr. Hart exerted

himself in procuring subscriptions, and was an active member on the

committee appointed to see that the wishes of the subscribers were

carried out, and, as a result of their united efforts, the Kippen

memorial monument now forms the most conspicuous of the many beautiful

monuments in Elmwood Cemetery, Perth. In 1864, Mr. Hart was placed on

the list of justices of the peace, but not being ambitious for public

positions, he has always declined to serve in this capacity, as he has

almost invariably done in municipal offices. He has been connected with

several local manufacturing companies, the Tay Navigation Company, etc.,

and it may almost be said that the Perth Cemetery Company owes its

existence to him, for he was instrumental in getting the majority of the

stock subscribed in 1871 or 1872, and for the successful working of the

company. He has now held the office of treasurer and manager of this

company for over fifteen years, and the beautiful grounds of the

cemetery are a credit alike to the town and manager. Mr. Hart is a

Conservative, and takes an active part in provincial and federal

politics. He supports the Conservative party because it represents his

ideas on trade and commerce, he having advocated the national policy

long before it was introduced. In municipal affairs he is also

interested, and is always willing to help in anything that has for its

object the building up of the town of Perth—railways, education, etc.

In religion, he belongs to the Presbyterian church. Mr. Hart has not had

time to revisit his father-land; but he has visited nearly the whole of

Canada from east to west, making the tour of the lakes from the Saguenay

to Duluth, and the principal towns and cities of Ontario, on various

occasions, and all the principal cities of the Northern and New England

States, either for pleasure or business. He is a citizen that Perth

could ill spare. He was married on January 1st, 1857, to Margaret Brown,

daughter of the late William Brown, of Glasgow, Scotland, and later, of

Perth, Ontario. She died in 1863, leaving a family of two sons and one

daughter. He was married again in Feb., 1870, to Mary Irving, daughter

of the late John Irving, of Montreal, and who came from Scotland and the

parish where his kinsman, the celebrated Edward Irving, was born.

* * * * *

=Lafrance, Charles Joseph=, City Treasurer, of Quebec, is one of the

best known and most respected public citizens in the ancient capital.

His true name is Charles Joseph Levesque, _dit_, or called, Lafrance.

The possession of two names in this way is an institution peculiar to

many of the French Canadians of the province of Quebec, the first being

the original or real family appellation, and the other more in the

nature of a distinguishing _sobriquet_, given in the remote past for

some reason which cannot now be traced, but eventually crowding the real

name out of daily and general use. Thus, the late Hon. Joseph Cauchon,

ex-lieut.-governor of Manitoba, was better known by that name than by

his real patronymic, which was Laverdière _dit_ Cauchon. The same remark

applies to the city treasurer of Quebec, who is better known to his

fellow citizens by the name of Lafrance than by his real family name of

Levesque, though his brother, the present parish priest of Matane, P.Q.,

was ordained under the name of Levesque, and is known by no other. In

fact, nine-tenths of them would hardly recognize him by any other. He

was born in the St. Roch suburb of Quebec, on 13th November, 1833, of

the marriage of the late Charles Levesque _dit_ Lafrance, carpenter, and

Marie Prevost. His parents were not blessed with a superabundance of

this world’s goods, but they were actuated by a laudable ambition to

give their boy a good education and ultimately a profession. He was

accordingly placed at the Quebec Seminary with the intention of

following a complete classical course in that institution in order to

prepare himself for the study and practice of the law. He was an apt

scholar, and the progress he made in his collegiate studies was

remarkable, but, before he could complete them, circumstances over which

he had no control compelled him to abandon them, and relinquish—as he

then thought, only for a time—the legal career which he had laid out

for himself, and to turn his attention to school teaching as a means of

livelihood. In the fall of 1850, he secured the appointment of teacher

at Cap Rouge, near Quebec, and for the next three years he “taught the

young idea there how to shoot.” He then removed to Batiscan, P.Q., where

he taught for another year. In June, 1854, he wedded Catherine Stegy

_dit_ Angers, daughter of the late Olivier Stegy _dit_ Angers, and his

wife, Catherine Bilodeau, of St. Roch’s of Quebec. After his marriage,

he bade adieu for good to his long cherished idea of becoming a member

of the legal profession, and took charge of the school at Beauport, some

three miles out of the city of Quebec, on the road to Montmorency Falls.

In this field he again labored for some time, until tiring of the

position and prospects of a country teacher, he resolved to establish

himself in the city where there was a greater opening for his talents.

Accordingly on 1st May, 1859, he opened in the St. John suburb of

Quebec, an independent school under the name of the “St. Jean Baptiste

Commercial Academy,” which he continued to superintend until July, 1876.

During the interval, he devoted all his leisure time from his pupils to

study and the compilation for his classes of a number of valuable works

on French, English, and book-keeping. Among these may be more specially

mentioned, the very useful French grammar which he published in 1865,

and his treatise on arithmetic, published in 1867. He also took a great

interest in the affairs of the Teachers’ Association, of which he was

long a member, and several times secretary and president, besides being

chosen as a delegate to represent the teachers of the Quebec district at

the great convention of the teachers of the province of Quebec, held at

Montreal in May, 1861. In the educational interest, he also started in

1864, at Quebec, jointly with N. Thibault and Joseph Letourneau, both

professors of the Laval Normal School, the publication of _La Semaine_

(_The Week_), a weekly paper devoted to the cause of education and the

teaching profession. The promotion of a strong national feeling among

his French Canadian fellow-countrymen was another of his ambitions, and

he early became a prominent member of their great national society, the

St. Jean Baptiste, of Quebec, of which he was elected secretary in 1866.

He filled this office during eight years, then that of vice-president

during two years, and lastly that of president during two years more. It

was while he was still an office-holder of the society in 1874, that he

was named with the Hon. Hector Fabre, now the Canadian commissioner in

Paris, and J. P. Rheaume, ex-M.P.P. for Quebec East and an alderman of

the city, as one of the delegates to represent Quebec at the great

celebration of the national festival at Montreal that year. The active

and intelligent interest which Mr. Lafrance had also taken in municipal

affairs, his large fund of information and ready eloquence, marked him

out as early as 1868 for civic honors, and in that year he was pressed

to stand as a candidate for one of the seats for St. John’s ward in the

city council of Quebec. But, politically, he was a liberal of the

liberals; toryism was then in the ascendant in the ancient capital, and

he had to make a desperate fight against terrible odds. He won, however,

and after that he was constantly re-elected without opposition down to

1876, when he declined further re-election, though pressed thereto by a

requisition signed by the majority of the electors of both political

parties. In the Quebec city council, Mr. Lafrance was one of the most

conspicuous figures, leading in all important debates, and generally

taking a prominent part in all committee and council work for the good

of the city. On financial questions, he was especially strong, and was

altogether a valuable municipal representative, his course throughout

being marked by great independence, and his name unsullied by the breath

of scandal. It has already been stated that Mr. Lafrance was an ardent

liberal in politics. Even in his school-days, he was noted for the

intensity of his liberalism, and as he grew to manhood he threw himself

with all the enthusiasm and self-denial of his nature into all the

struggles of his party in the Quebec district. But the liberal fortunes

were at a low ebb in Lower Canada in those days, the cause was

unpopular, and the very name of _Rouge_ was a bugbear. It required great

moral courage for a young man to cast his lot with the Dorions, the

Holtons, the Lauriers, the Fourniers and the other ardent spirits, who

were then considered the advocates’ of revolution among the French

Canadians, and condemned accordingly from hustings and pulpit. All the

worldly, and, it may be added, spiritual inducements of the day were on

the other side. But Mr. Lafrance never hesitated even for a moment in

his choice between principles and interest. He at once took his place in

the van of the Liberal party militant, and boldly lifted its fallen

banner in the Quebec district. Prompt to perceive that the great want of

his fellow-countrymen was political education, and that the chief

drawback of his party was the absence of organs to supply that education

and to denounce the wrong doing and short comings of their adversaries

in power, the hard-working school teacher threw himself also into

journalism, and started paper after paper in the interest of his party.

His confidence in the eventual success of that party’s mission was

unbounded; but his means and support were necessarily limited, and

though his papers were ably, nay, brilliantly, conducted, they were

short lived. Each failure, however, seemed to encourage him to new

exertion. Thus, in 1866, he assumed the publication of _L’Electeur_, and

upon its death embarked his fortunes in _L’Echo du Peuple_, which he

published during 1867 and 1868. In 1870, he brought out _L’Opinion

Nationale_, and in 1871 and 1872 _L’Opinion du Peuple_, the last named

being an open advocate of annexation to the United States as the only

remedy for existing evils from which escape then seemed to him otherwise

hopeless. In this view, it will be remembered that he did not stand

alone at the time. But he had the courage of his convictions and boldly

advocated them. It was, however, up-hill work to do so, and his life

history at this stage was one of prolonged struggle and self-sacrifice.

In 1874, he was the candidate chosen by the Liberal party to contest

with the government candidate the seat for Quebec Centre in the

Provincial legislature, and his personal popularity with the mass of the

electors was so great that his return was confidently anticipated. But

the government delayed the issue of the writ from January to April, and

in the interval the late Hon. Joseph Cauchon was commissioned to

announce to him that the government would allow him to be elected by

acclamation, provided he signed a pledge to give them a certain amount

of “fair play.” Mr. Lafrance’s reply to this tempting offer was

characteristically consistent. He said: “I have always been a Liberal.

If to have the honor of representing Quebec Centre I must begin by

making concessions of this kind, I prefer to remain at home.” This reply

cost him the active support of Mr. Cauchon, who was then a great

political power in Quebec, and the English vote of the division was also

alienated from him by a pamphlet which he had published towards the end

of December, 1873, under the title of “Our Political Divisions.” Bribery

and corruption on an extensive scale, coupled with the treachery of

several of his chief election managers, did the remainder of the work

and secured his defeat at the polls. In 1876, the Liberal government of

Mr. Mackenzie was in power at Ottawa, and our subject was named as

inspector of gas at Quebec, when he abandoned school teaching. But he

continued to contribute to the local press and especially to

_L’Evenement_, of which he assumed the complete editorial management

from the fall of 1876 to the close of 1877, during the absence of its

proprietor and usual editor, Senator Fabre, at Ottawa and in France. In

1878, the important and responsible office of treasurer of the city of

Quebec became vacant, and, recalling the financial ability he had

manifested as a member of the city council, public opinion at once

designated Mr. Lafrance for the office and he received it. This

appointment, and successive family bereavements about the same time,

determined his abandonment of politics and the devotion of his remaining

years of usefulness to the finances of the city and the interests of his

family. Under his able and cautious management, Quebec’s financial

situation as a city has since very materially improved, and its credit

stands high in the money markets of the world—the latest quotation of

its bonds on the English market being 118. He has also very thoroughly

and effectively re-organized the book-keeping and audit systems of the

Quebec corporation, and is the originator of a scheme for the

consolidation of the city debt, which still claims very serious

attention and may probably at no distant day be carried out. In

religion, Mr. Lafrance is a Roman Catholic. He has seven surviving

children. One of his sons is assistant accountant of the Quebec

corporation, and one of his daughters not long since left Quebec with

thirty self-sacrificing young ladies to devote herself as a nun to the

care of the sick and infirm in the convent of the Incarnate Word at San

Antonio, Texas.

* * * * *

=Scarth, William Bain=, Winnipeg, M.P. for the city of Winnipeg,

Manitoba, was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, on the 10th November, 1837.

His father was James Scarth, a scion of the family of the Scarths of

Binscarth, Orkney Islands; and his mother, Jane Geddes, of Stromness in

the same islands. He received a general classical education in schools

in Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Mr. Scarth came to Canada in 1855, when

seventeen years of age, and after several years spent in mercantile life

in Hamilton and London, Ontario, he removed, in 1868, to Toronto, where

he resided till 1884. Soon after his removal to Toronto he began to take

a prominent part in public affairs. For two years he occupied a seat in

the city council as representative of St. James’ ward; was a high school

trustee, and was manager of the North British-Canadian Investment

Company and the Scottish Ontario and Manitoba Land Company. He was also

president of the Conservative Association of Centre Toronto. After

removing to Winnipeg, in 1884, he became managing director of the Canada

Northwest Land Company; secretary and director of the Canadian

Anthracite Coal Company, and director of the North British-Canadian

Investment Company. He presented himself for parliamentary honors in

1887, and was elected to serve in the House of Commons at Ottawa as

representative for Winnipeg, and this seat he still occupies. Mr. Scarth

has travelled a good deal, and long before railway days traversed the

far North-west. He has also visited Cuba, and is familiar with every

part of the United States and Canada. In politics he is a Conservative;

and in religion, a member of the Presbyterian church. In 1869 he was

married to Jessie Stewart Franklin, daughter of the late Dr. John

Macaulay Hamilton, R.N., a native of Stromness, Orkney, and cousin of

Lord Macaulay, the historian. Her mother was Miss Rae, sister of Dr.

Rae, the Arctic explorer.

* * * * *

=Hould, Jean Baptiste Ludger=, LL.B., Barrister, Three Rivers, who is

one of the most prominent lawyers in Three Rivers, was born on the 3rd

of September, 1841, at St. Angèle de Laval, and is the son of Jean

Baptiste Hould, who for many years was mayor and member of the council

of the latter place. His mother was Olive Tourigny, of the same place.

Mr. Hould was educated at the Seminary of Nicolet, where he succeeded in

securing a good education. He afterwards studied law at Laval

University, during which term he was engaged in the office of the then

well-known firm of Casault, Langlois & Angers, the Hon. Mr. Casault, now

judge of the Superior Court, and the Hon. Mr. Angers, the present

lieutenant-governor of Quebec, being members of it. Mr. Hould was

admitted to the bar of Lower Canada in July, 1864, and commenced

practice at Three Rivers in 1865, and since then he has enjoyed by far

the most lucrative practice in that city. Amongst his many duties, he

has pleaded at the Court of Review, in the Queen’s Bench and in the

Supreme Court. He held office for many years in the city council, but

his multifarious duties in connection with his practice compelled him to

relinquish his connection with municipal affairs. He was elected twice

president (_bâtonnier_) of the bar of Three Rivers, and in May, 1883,

was also chosen president (_bâtonnier_-general) of the bar of the

province of Quebec. He is acknowledged by his _confrères_ as possessing

a great amount of professional ability; is greatly respected by the

community at large, and highly deserving of the confidence for integrity

reposed in him. Mr. Hould helped to have the tax of $4.00 abolished

which each advocate was formerly compelled to pay for the publication of

the Lower Canada Reports; and he established a law library for the bar

of Three Rivers. He is one of the founders and the first president of

the literary and scientific society called _Société Basault_, which was

founded in 1863, at Laval University, in Quebec. He acted as advocate

for F. H. B. Methot, H. Montplaisir, H. G. Mathiot and F. Trudel when

their elections were contested. He married on the 30th June, 1869,

Sarah, daughter of the late Francis Xavier Turcotte, who was for many

years clerk of the peace for Three Rivers. By this marriage there has

been issue nine children, five of whom survive.

* * * * *

=Taschereau, His Eminence Elzéar-Alexandre=, Cardinal and Archbishop of

Quebec, was born on the 17th February, 1820, at St. Marie de la Beauce,

Quebec province. This illustrious prince of the Roman Catholic church is

descended from Thomas Jacques Taschereau, a gentleman who came to Canada

in the early part of the seventeenth century from Touraine, in France,

and whose descendants have ever since occupied prominent positions in

the province of Quebec. Soon after the arrival of the founder of the

Canadian branch of the family, he was appointed to the office of marine

treasurer, and in 1736 received a grant of a seigniory on the banks of

the Chaudière river. The Cardinal’s grandfather was the late Hon.

Gabriel Elzear Taschereau, who, during his lifetime, was a member of the

Legislative Assembly. His father was Jean Thomas Taschereau, who was a

judge of the King’s Bench and died in 1832. His mother, Marie Panet, was

a daughter of the Hon. Jean Antoine Panet, who was the speaker of the

first Legislative Assembly of Canada. This estimable lady died in 1866.

The future Cardinal, when a mere lad, was sent to the Quebec Seminary,

where he soon became distinguished as a student. Here he pursued a

course of classical studies, and then entered the Grand Seminary, where

he began the usual course of theology. In 1836, when he was in his

seventeenth year, he visited Rome in company with Abbé Holmes, of the

Seminary, and in the following year received the tonsure at the hands of

Monsigneur Piatti, archbishop of Trebizonde, in the Basilica of St. John

Lateran. Shortly after this he returned to Quebec and again took up his

theological studies, which, with other branches of learning, occupied

his attention for about six years, when, though he was still under

canonical age, he was ordained priest. His ordination took place on the

10th September, 1842, at the Church of St. Marie de la Beauce, his

native place, in the presence of Monseigneur Turgeon, then coadjutor,

and subsequently successor to Archbishop Signal. Within a short time

after his ordination he was appointed to the chair of philosophy in the

Seminary, and this important position he held for twelve years. Previous

to this, even in 1838, he held the professorship of Latin and Greek, and

in 1841 he was professor of rhetoric. A very interesting episode in this

illustrious clergyman’s life occurred shortly after this date, which we

cannot help recording here, and which deserves to be written in letters

of gold. About thirty miles below the port of Quebec, in the St.

Lawrence river, and nearly opposite St. Thomas, is a small island known

by the name of Grosse Isle, which has been used for a great number of

years by the government of Canada as a quarantine station, where all

ships carrying emigrants are required to report before sailing further

up the river. In 1847 a malignant fever broke out among the emigrants

there which ran a rapid course, and the victims died in great numbers.

At this time the emigrants coming in were chiefly Irish Roman Catholics

who had been driven by poverty and famine to seek a home in Canada;

their vitality had been greatly impaired by starvation before leaving

home, and they fell easy victims to the ship fever then so prevalent,

which in some cases carried them off in a few hours. The greater part of

the island was for a time little better than a mass of loathsomeness and

pestilence, and the heroism that would enable a man to face such a state

of things is much more praiseworthy than the courage required to enable

him to walk up to the mouth of a cannon. Father Taschereau felt the call

of duty and volunteered his services to assist the Rev. Father Moylan,

who was then chaplain at Grosse Isle, to minister to the spiritual

necessities of the victims of the fever. His kind offer was thankfully

accepted, and he landed on the island where he remained until he himself

was stricken down by the scourge and brought literally to death’s door.

His conduct at this time endeared him very much to the Irish Roman

Catholics in Quebec and their countrymen throughout the west. But, to

resume, Father Taschereau was appointed professor of theology in the

Seminary in 1851, and three years afterwards, in 1854, he again visited

Rome, charged by the second Provincial Council of Quebec to submit its

decrees for the sanction of his Holiness the Pope. He spent two years at

this time in the Eternal City, during which period he occupied himself

chiefly in studying the canon law, and while here (July, 1856) the Roman

Seminary conferred upon him the degree of doctor of canon law. On his

return to Quebec, he was appointed director of the _Petit Seminaire_, a

position which he filled until 1859, when he was elected director of the

_Grand Seminaire_, and appointed a member of the Council of Public

Instruction for Lower Canada. In 1860 he became superior of the Seminary

and rector of Laval University. In 1862 he accompanied Archbishop

Baillargeon to Rome on business connected with Laval University, and on

his return the same year, was appointed vicar-general of the

arch-diocese of Quebec. Again in 1864 he paid a visit to Rome on similar

business connected with Laval. In 1866, his term of office as superior

of the _Grand Seminaire_ having expired, he was again appointed

director, and three years afterwards, on the expiration of another term,

he was re-elected superior. In 1870 he paid another visit to Rome, this

time as secretary to Monseigneur C. Baillargeon, archbishop of Quebec,

who went there to attend the Vatican Council, and on his return the same

year he resumed his duties as superior of the Seminary and rector of

Laval University. After the death of Archbishop Baillargeon in October,

1870, he administered the affairs of the arch-diocese conjointly with

Grand Vicar Cazean. On the 13th Feb., 1871, it was announced that he had

been appointed successor to the late archbishop, and on Sunday, the 19th

of March, following, he was consecrated to this high office in the

presence of a vast concourse of people, many of the clergy of the

diocese and of the bishops of Quebec and Ontario,—the Archbishop of

Toronto officiating. In 1872 and 1884, business again led him to Rome.

And in 1887, on his last visit to the capital of Christendom, he was

presented with the Cardinal’s hat. His Eminence is the first Canadian

who has thus been so honored by his church, and his Protestant

fellow-countrymen are as proud of the honor conferred upon him as his

co-religionists, for he is held in high esteem by persons of all classes

and creeds in the Dominion for his work’s sake.

* * * * *

=Curry, Matthew Allison=, M.D., of Halifax, N.S., is a native of

Windsor, Hants Co., N.S., where he was born about thirty years ago. The

Curry family are of Irish extraction, but have been long settled in this

province, where they are principally engaged in farming and

manufacturing. It is now nearly forty years since five brothers,

William, Mark, Levi, Elisha and Edward started what is known as Curry’s

Factory at Curry’s Corner, a point on the junction of the Halifax and

Chester roads about a mile from Water street, Windsor. They were all

young men and first-rate mechanics. They manufactured sashes, doors and

all kinds of work in connection with house-building, carriages, railway

cars, and had a machine and carriage shop. William the oldest brother,

was at the head of the concern. Mark was a house joiner, Levi managed

the blacksmith shop, Elisha was a painter, and Edward looked after the

carriage factory. They employed nearly thirty hands, had plenty of work,

but were relentlessly pursued by fire. About the year 1855 their works

were completely destroyed by a fire which broke out in the night. Again

in 1860 fire consumed all their property, among other valuable goods,

being a number of railway cars which Edward had contracted to build for

the Nova Scotia Railway. About the year 1870 Mark and Elisha started the

furniture factory in Windsor, which has always done a very large

business, its goods being sold all over the Maritime provinces. It is

now managed by A. P. Shand. Previous to this time, however, Mark Curry

had, in conjunction with A. P. Shand, carried on an extensive grocery,

lumber and flour business in Windsor, under the firm of Curry and Shand.

Elisha and Levi Curry died a few years ago. Mark Curry has charge of the

government savings bank in Windsor, and Edward Curry is sheriff of Hants

county. William Curry, the father of the subject of this sketch, has

stuck to the original business at the corner, which still retains nearly

its former dimensions. The last fire occurred about five years ago, when

the premises were again totally consumed. William Curry, being a man of

iron will and unbroken courage and perseverance, went at once to work

and rebuilt his factory, which, in conjunction with his second son

James, he continues to conduct. Dr. Curry is the eldest son of the above

William Curry, his mother being Martha, daughter of the late Matthew

Allison, of Windsor, in his lifetime a farmer and shipowner. He received

his classical education at the Grammar School at Curry’s Corner,

afterwards at the school conducted by the late Thomas Curren, and at the

Collegiate School at Windsor, where he carried off the first prize. He

entered King’s College, Windsor, in October, 1877, and graduated in

June, 1881. During his course he won one of the General Williams prizes

and also one of the Stevenson scholarships. After leaving college he

studied two years at the Medical College, in Halifa,. N.S., subsequently

spent a session at the University of New York, and graduated from the

medical department of that institution in 1883. Not content with such

experience in his profession as he had already obtained, he decided to

cross the Atlantic, and accordingly, spent the year 1884 principally in

attending the medical course in Trinity College, Dublin. He made a

specialty of midwifery and the study of the treatment of the diseases

peculiar to women. After completing his post-graduate studies, he

availed himself of the opportunity to make a trip through Scotland and

England, previous to returning home. He visited Edinburgh, Liverpool and

London, and took note of the famous educational endowments and the

professional resorts of those cities. After returning to this province

he was in some doubt as to whether to begin practice in one of the

country shire towns such as Yarmouth, or to commence in Halifax. He

finally decided that, upon the whole, the chances of advancement in the

metropolis were the best. The expenses of a beginner in one of the

learned professions in a city are greater at first than those of a

country practitioner, but in the long run a man of brains and tact will

not regret the incidental outlay, in consideration of the many

advantages of counsel with brother-workers, and the other opportunities

open to competition in the city. Dr. Curry opened an office in Hollis

street, Halifax, in the spring of 1885, and has since worked up a very

prosperous practice in the south end of the city. Many young men begin

among the poorer classes and gradually work into a wealthier _clientèle_

but Dr. Curry was fortunate enough to secure rich patrons at the start.

When the Medical School was established on a new basis two years ago,

Dr. Curry was offered a position as lecturer, which offer, however, he

declined, having some scruples about accepting an office which might

seem to place him in opposition to some of the older members of the

profession. In religion he is a Presbyterian, and is connected with St.

Andrew’s Church in John street. He is unmarried. Being a man of great

sociability and geniality of manners he is a great favorite in any

society in which he happens to find himself. These traits are very

helpful to a physician whose practice lies among all classes of the

community, and who must freely give and take in the rough and tumble of

professional work and class competition.

* * * * *

=Price, Evan John=, Quebec, is the present head of the great lumber

manufacturing and exporting house of Price Bros. & Co., of that city,

and of the Saguenay, the oldest and probably the best known to the

trade, not only throughout the Dominion, but all over the continent of

America and in Europe. It was founded nearly three quarters of a century

ago, by our subject’s father, the late William Price, of Wolfesfield,

Quebec, who died in 1867, and who was frequently styled in his day the

“King of the Saguenay,” from the controlling interest he exercised over

that section of the province of Quebec, through the employment afforded

by his extensive lumber limits and numerous saw mills to its local

population. Indeed, the Saguenay country, and it may be added, much of

the region on both shores of the St. Lawrence, below Quebec, owe their

development in a large measure, if not wholly, to the enterprise of the

Price family. Their agents explored the whole country, and upon every

stream, where prospects warranted it, a saw mill was erected with the

usual result. Hundreds flocked to the place, and soon made comfortable

homes for themselves. Villages sprang up, mills were erected, churches

built, and localities which but a few years before, were a barren waste,

rapidly blossomed into thriving communities. The present prosperous town

of Chicoutimi and the outlying settlements around Lake St. John had

their origin in this way, and if is not surprising that the name of

Price should be venerated by their populations as few other old country

names have been venerated by the French Canadian element of Lower

Canada. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that the Price family have

made the Saguenay region what it is to-day in point of material

progress. To their enterprise, their fostering care and their unstinted

generosity, the _habitants_ of that region are indebted for the

assistance which enabled them to tide over the hardships and

difficulties always incidental to the early life of the pioneers of

settlements at points remote from the centre of civilized life. Mr.

Price was born some forty years ago, at his late father’s beautiful

country residence of Wolfesfield, on the outskirts of Quebec, and in the

immediate vicinity opposite the spot where Wolfe died victorious, at the

battle of the Plains of Abraham. He was educated at a private school in

England, and entered his father’s office, while still young, to learn

the business to a share of which he was in due course admitted, his

elder brothers, Hon. David E. Price, afterwards a senator of the

Dominion, and William E. Price, afterwards M.P. and M.P.P., for the

united counties of Chicoutimi and Saguenay, both now deceased, being

already members of the firm. On the death of the venerable founder of

the house in 1867, its extensive business was continued by the brothers,

under the old name, which is still retained, notwithstanding the deaths

of the elder brothers. The surviving partner, Evan John Price, is now

the head of the house, which still holds its prominence in the trade,

shipping annually a large amount of lumber of its own manufacture, both

from Quebec and the Saguenay to the European market. The Price family is

of Welsh descent, and their home, “Scipwick,” was at Elstree, in

Hertfordshire, up to the time of his father’s death. Mr. Price’s father

was born at Hornsey, near London, England, but his grand parents were

both natives of South Wales, the one of Glamorganshire, and the other of

Cardiganshire. On the maternal side, Mr. Price has good old Scottish

blood in his veins. His mother was a Stewart, his father having married

Jane, third daughter of the late Charles G. Stewart, in his lifetime

comptroller of the imperial customs at Quebec. In religion Mr. Price is

a member of the Church of England, and in politics, a Conservative, like

all his family before him. He is unmarried.

* * * * *

=Larue, Jules Ernest=, Q.C., Quebec, Puisné Judge for the province of

Quebec.—Jules Ernest Larue was born at Quebec on the 7th July, 1844. He

is the son of the late W. Larue, N.P., and Louise B. Panet, daughter of

the late Hon. Louis Panet, senator and M.L.C. Mr. Larue followed a

classical course of studies at the Seminary of Quebec, and having taken

his degrees at Laval University, was admitted to the bar of Quebec on

the 6th February, 1866. He then became a member of the important firm of

Larue, Angers and Casgrain, of Quebec. He was for ten years editor of

the Quebec “Law Reports.” In recognition of his legal attainments he was

made a Q.C. in 1882, and was appointed a puisné judge of the Superior

Court for the province of Quebec on the 10th of April, 1886. He married

on the 22nd September, 1880, Marie Louise, whose parents were the late

François Angers, Q.C., and Marie Louise Panet, a daughter of the late

Charles Panet, Q.C.

* * * * *

=Elliott, George=, Guelph, Ontario, formerly one of the leading

merchants of that city, and largely identified with its municipal

history, is a native of Rochester, county of Kent, England, having been

born there on the 27th May, 1819. His father, George Elliott, a country

gentleman, was descendent from an ancient Scottish family, and his

mother, Elizabeth Moulden, from an old Kentish family. Mr. Elliott, the

subject of our sketch, who received a good education, including

mathematics and classics, came to Canada with the family in the autumn

of 1832. He was in business in Toronto and Cincinnati, Ohio, for several

years, and coming to Guelph in 1850, carried on business as a general

merchant until 1865, when he retired, having been very successful in his

business operations. His father died in Guelph a few years ago, in his

ninety-fifth year, much lamented by many friends. Mr. Elliott served in

the town, city and county councils at various times, for over twenty

years, and held the positions of town councilman, deputy reeve, reeve,

warden and mayor. He has performed a great deal of valuable work in the

interests of Guelph and the county of Wellington, and was chairman of

the building committee when the town hall and other public buildings

were erected. He was chairman of the old Board of Public Instruction,

and for six years was a member of the High School Board of Trustees. He

took great pleasure in aiding in the elevation of the standard of public

instruction, and found many earnest and efficient co-operators in this

noble work in the town. When in the council he was almost constantly

chairman of the finance committee, having fine business talents, and

thoroughly trustworthy. He was arbitrator on behalf of the town, upon

the adjustment of the indebtedness between it and the county, when

Guelph was raised to the dignity of a city. Is a justice of the peace.

When the Guelph General Hospital was organized and opened in 1875, he

was made chairman of the board of directors, which position he still

holds. Mr. Elliott is a Reformer, and quite an influential member of

that party, having been for some time, president of the Reform

Association for the South Riding of Wellington. He is also president of

the St. George’s Society, Guelph. In religion, he is a member of the

Church of England, was warden of St. George’s Church, Guelph, for

several years, and is a continuous lay delegate to the Diocese of

Niagara, and also to the Provincial Synod which meets at Montreal. He is

a prominent member of these bodies, and takes a very active part in the

proceedings and discussions. Mr. Elliott is an efficient and able

speaker on public matters, and a clear writer on questions of a

financial and public interest. He was a member of the building

committee, and treasurer, when the St. George’s magnificent house of

worship was erected, and continues to be indefatigable in church and

other work. The poor find a warm friend in Mr. Elliott, and his equally

benevolent wife, and his sister, who resides with him. His residence,

“Vinehurst,” on the Paisley street hill, is one of the most sightly and

pleasant homes in the young and beautiful city of Guelph.

* * * * *

=Ives, Hubert Root=, Montreal, was born in the town of Farmington,

Hartford county, state of Connecticut, United States, on the 15th

September, 1833. His father was at one time a prominent farmer and

breeder of full-blooded stock. In the same county also for a number of

years he held the responsible position of judge of probate in the town

of Farmington, and on resigning the office he removed to New Haven,

Connecticut, when he entered into the manufacture of hardware, and

became after a short time one of the most successful manufacturers of

that busy city. Mr. Ives received his early education at the Hopkins

Grammer School, New Haven, Conn., where he received a full classical

course, after which, unlike most young men, he took a full and complete

commercial training, which fitted him in after life for the large and

various experiences that he passed through as a manufacturer. After

leaving school, young Ives was sent on a lengthy tour through the United

States and Canada, with the object of selecting a suitable place wherein

he could build up for himself a name worthy to be looked upon with

respect and admiration by those who were to follow after him. In 1856

Mr. Ives also travelled extensively over the continent of Europe,

visiting all the capital cities of renown. In 1859 he settled in

Montreal, and became the founder of the large business now carried on by

the firm of H. R. Ives & Co., one of the largest in Canada. The firm,

then known as Ives & Allen, was the first to establish a foundry and

hardware manufactory in Canada, in which was manufactured small

hardware, and the obstacles to be overcome, in order to find a market in

a young country for their productions were very great, but eventually

the perseverance which has ever characterized Mr. Ives, soon prevailed,

and the new venture proved a great success. In the year 1868 he still

further enlarged the firm’s operations by the manufacture of stoves, and

this branch is now a leading feature of their business. The quality of

the work turned out by the firm speaks as a sample of the firm’s work.

We need only point to the fine wrought iron gates and railings which

surround the parliament buildings at Ottawa, which for graceful form and

beauty of design are not surpassed on this continent. When the firm

received the contract from the Grand Trunk Railway for making the

locomotive and car castings, and which necessitated the enlargement of

their already extensive works, the municipality of Longueuil immediately

offered them a bonus of $10,000 and exemption from taxes for ten years,

if they would establish a branch of their foundry in the village of

Longueuil. They at once availed themselves of this offer, and buildings

being promptly erected, the new establishment was soon ready for

business. The new foundry is well worthy of a visit. Its capacity is

such that $200,000 worth of castings can be made in a year, and a great

number of hands are constantly employed in the works. Mr. Ives has been

for a long time a member of the Board of Trade of Montreal; and for many

years sat in its council. Mr. Ives holds the position of honorary

secretary to the Egypt Exploration Fund for the Dominion of Canada. This

society conducts systematic and scientific explorations and excavations

in Egypt, on sites of Biblical and classical interest, under special

powers delegated by the Egyptian government. The officers of this

society are persons of the highest scientific and social standing in

Britain, and most important discoveries have already been made. In early

youth he was an adherent of the Presbyterian church, but is now a member

of the Church of England. He was first married in 1858, to a daughter of

the Rev. Dr. Chester, of Buffalo. This lady died in 1884. In June, 1887,

he was again united in marriage to a daughter of the late Judge Daniell,

judge of the united counties of Prescott and Russell.

* * * * *

=Macdonald, Duncan=, St. John’s, province of Quebec, was born in

Kingston, Ont., on the 24th June, 1815. His father, Major William

Macdonald, was a native of Inverness, Scotland, a captain in the

celebrated “Black Watch,” or 42nd Highlanders, and came to Canada at the

critical period in the history of our country when the war of 1812 was

just beginning. He was attached to the 104th regiment, commanded by

Colonel Drummond, and took a most active part in the campaign which

followed. On his arrival at Halifax, he was ordered at once to the

front, and with his regiment marched from Halifax to Quebec. This was in

the depth of winter, and during the thirty-one days of the march he did

not enter a house but slept in snow banks or such sheltered spots as

could be found. His first battle in this country was at the Windmill

Point, Prescott, and he afterwards participated in the battles of

Lundy’s Lane and Sackett’s Harbor. The Macdonalds came of an old

military family, the captain’s father having been killed at the battle

of Bunker’s Hill, Boston, while fighting with his regiment, which like

his son’s, was the “Black Watch.” The subject of this sketch was

educated at Montreal and Laprairie, taking a commercial course. He then

engaged in the drug business in Montreal for seven years, and afterwards

removed to St. John’s, Que., where, in conjunction with his brother

Edward, in 1837, he started a general store. They dealt largely in

grain, and were soon known as the most extensive shippers of grain in

the province. As the years went on they saw the lack of banking

facilities in the neighborhood, and in 1858, decided to supply this want

and started as private bankers. In 1873, the partnership was dissolved,

Edward retiring therefrom; and then Duncan entered into the manufacture

of stone chinaware, and the business has steadily increased until it has

developed into the now well-known St. John’s Chinaware Factory, which is

to-day the largest of the kind in the Dominion. Under the able

management of Alexander, the son of Duncan Macdonald, the products of

the factory have been brought to great perfection, and have been placed

on exhibition and taken gold medals at Philadelphia, Toronto, Antwerp,

Belgium, and London, England. A recent large addition to the already

extensive works, now enables the firm to give employment to about four

hundred people. Mr. Macdonald has visited Europe twice, and has

travelled extensively in Canada and the United States. He is a justice

of the peace, and mayor of St. John’s, Que. In politics he is a

Conservative, and in religion a Roman Catholic. He was married in 1845,

to Miss De Lisle, daughter of Benjamin De Lisle, Montreal, and has had

issue three children, only one of whom is now living.

* * * * *

=Beaubien, Hon. Louis=, Montreal, born in the city of Montreal, on 27th

July, 1837, is son of Dr. Pierre Beaubien, of the University of Paris.

He is descended from Trottier de Beaubien, who came from St. Martin

d’Ige, in the province of Perche, in France, and settled in Canada near

Three Rivers, in 1650. His father was a professor in the Victoria

Medical School, Montreal, and its president for many years, attending

surgeon to the Montreal gaol and reformatories; and had been elected to

parliament twice, for Montreal in 1841, and for Chambly in 1848. His

mother, Dame Justine Casgrain, was a daughter of Pierre Casgrain,

seigneur of Rivière Ouelle. She had been married first to Dr. A.

Maguire, a surgeon in the British navy. Hon. Louis Beaubien was educated

at the St. Sulpice College, Montreal, and after a successful course of

studies, devoted himself to agriculture and stock-breeding. He entered

political life in 1867, when he was elected for Hochelaga to the Quebec

legislature. He succeeded in defeating successively such opponents as

Mr. Dorion (now Sir A. A. Dorion, chief justice, Queen’s Bench), Victor

Hudon, and others. Mr. Beaubien was elected to the Dominion parliament

in 1872, and held both seats until the year 1874, when he resigned his

seat in the House of Commons on account of the dual representation being

abolished, but retained his seat in the local house. He was elected

speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec, 11th November, 1876,

which position he held until April, 1878. He was re-elected for the same

county in 1878 and again in 1882. But at the last general election in

1886 he declined re-election on account of ill health. Besides his

agricultural pursuits, the Hon. Mr. Beaubien was an active promoter of

the Northern Colonization Railway, which developed into the Quebec,

Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway, now the eastern division of the

Canadian Pacific Railway. He was opposed to the sale of the eastern

branch of the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway, and on

that account, along with the Hon. Dr. Ross, Hon. Mr. de Boucherville,

and other well-known Conservatives, withdrew his confidence from the

Chapleau government. He has taken a great interest in the improvement of

Canadian agriculture. After retiring from politics, he went to France

for his health, and to get an operation performed on the eye of his

eldest son. Being successful in this he came back to Canada, but was

taken again with his former disease which for a time laid him very low.

He has, we are glad to say, now recovered completely, and is as active

as ever working for the establishment of an elevated railway in

Montreal. Hon. Mr. Beaubien is a member of the Provincial Council of

Agriculture of the Ayrshire Breeders’ Association, of the Montreal

Horticultural Society, etc. He married in 1864, Susanna Lauretta,

daughter of Sir Andrew Stuart, chief justice of the Superior Court,

Quebec, and for some time administrator of the province.

* * * * *

=Wright, Philemon.=—The late Mr. Philemon Wright was appropriately

called the “Father of the Ottawa.” He was a native of Woburn, State of

Massachusetts, United States, where he was born in 1760. Mr. Wright

emigrated to this country in the year 1800, and with a steady

perseverance, he determined on ascending the river Ottawa in quest of a

tract of land suitable for an agriculturist. With this object in view,

he steadily penetrated into the country, at a great expense of mental

and bodily exertion, for sixty miles beyond any previous settler, where,

finding a spot adapted for his purpose, he obtained, after many efforts,

and irritating delays, from government, permission to settle upon and

survey the township of Hull, in the county of Ottawa, Lower Canada. This

being accomplished, he went to work with a will characteristic of the

early New England pioneers, and was in a few years rewarded for his toil

and hardships by witnessing a thriving settlement growing up around him.

In furtherance of his agricultural pursuits, he, at a very heavy cost,

imported from Great Britain some of the most approved breeds of cattle,

and thereby contributed in the most efficient manner to promote the

interests of the settlers in that section of the country. He was also

the projector of some of the greatest improvements on the Ottawa. He

died at Hull, C.E., on 2nd June, 1839. He left a numerous offspring, to

all of whom he was endeared by the tenderest ties of affection and

esteem. His epitaph will be recorded in the beautiful and prosperous

settlement of Hull, or, as it was sometimes called, Wrightstown, which

he commenced and lived to see attain a degree of magnitude, where his

name will be long remembered with the highest respect.

* * * * *

=Quinton, William A.=, Fairville, N.B., Farmer and Lumber Dealer, M.P.P.

for the county of St. John, New Brunswick, was born on the 4th April,

1847, in the parish of Lancaster, county of St. John, N.B., and is

descended from a family who has made its mark in the world. In looking

over the history of the early settlers in New Brunswick, we find that

among the party who arrived at the mouth of the St. John river, August

28th, 1762, was Hugh Quinton and wife, and that their son James was

noted as being the first child of the new settlers born here, having

first seen the light in Fort Frederick the evening of their arrival.

Hugh Quinton was born in New Hampshire and had been a soldier in the old

French war. He enlisted when quite a youth, as did many others, but at

that time recruits for military service were enlisted at an early age.

In the Revolutionary war, in some, if not all of the colonies, all who

were sixteen years old were compelled to do military duty. Hugh Quinton

first enlisted from Windham, formerly part of the town of Londonderry,

New Hampshire, March 5th, 1757, in a company in which Hercules Mooney

was captain and Alexander Todd lieutenant, and was discharged March 5th

of the same year. The following spring he again enlisted, April 12th, in

a company in which Alexander Todd was captain, and he was discharged

October 30th. He again enlisted, the following year, for the third time,

on the 11th of March, 1760, and on the 24th of October was discharged

sick, and it is said he went to Albany, N.Y. The expeditions in which he

was engaged were four operations at Crown Point and Fort William Henry,

on the north shore of Lake George. Fort William Henry was captured by

the French and Indians in August, 1757, and out of two hundred New

Hampshire soldiers, eighty were mercilessly slaughtered by the Indians

after they had surrendered. Some of Hugh Quinton’s relatives early

settled not far from Albany, in that part of old Whitehall township

known as Hampton. Among them were Josiah and John Quinton and their

sister Ann, who married a McFarland. In 1806 Josiah removed across the

State line to Fairhaven, in Vermont, a short distance from Hampton.

Fairbank’s History of Fairhaven names a number of descendants. In an old

family bible of the Quinton family it is stated that Hugh Quinton was

born at Cheshire, New Hampshire, in 1741; that Elizabeth Cristy was born

at Londonderry, N.H., 1741, and that they were married in 1761. In the

lower tier of counties of New Hampshire, is one called Cheshire, but the

writer has found no mention of the name of Quinton among early settlers,

but in the town now called Chester, which was originally called

Cheshire, in Rockingham county, was a prominent early settler named

James Quenton. The first settlers of Cheshire or Chester, Londonderry,

Windham and vicinity were mainly Scotch Presbyterians from the North of

Ireland. In the “New Hampshire Provincial Papers,” volume 4, is copied a

petition to the governor from sundry inhabitants of Chester, in 1737,

which states that “the present inhabitants of Chester, aforesaid,

formerly belonged (most of them) to the Kingdom of Scotland and Ireland,

where they were educated in the principles of the Kirk of Scotland, for

which they have great veneration,” and the petition proceeds to refer to

some differences about calling a minister. Among the signers is the name

of James Quenton. He is named again in a list of tax-payers, 1741, and

again in the minutes of the Presbyterian church, Sept. 14, 1753, as

parish clerk. As he is the only Quenton or Quinton named in the full

list of tax-payers at that place, it is reasonable to presume that he

was the father of Hugh Quinton. The latter had two half-brothers named

Jonathan and Joshua. In 1771, a John Quinton is named at Dorchester,

N.H. In the revolution, David Quentin enlisted Oct. 1, 1777, at Windham,

and he is again named in New Hampshire Provincial Papers, vol. 11, in an

order for pay of a soldier’s dues in 1790. After this, the writer has

found no mention of the name of Quinton in copies of New Hampshire

records. Hugh Quinton the St. John pioneer, had sons, James, John, David

and Jesse. In the early days of the settlement of the city, when fears

were entertained of Indians, Hugh Quinton, it is said, was appointed

captain of a militia company, organized for defence of the settlers. In

Hotten’s list of emigrants it is stated that a Henry Quinton, aged 20,

left London, Jan. 2, 1634, for Virginia, and Roger Quintin left London,

July 24, 1635, for the same place. This was about a century before the

name of James Quinton appears in New Hampshire. In the same work is

named Henry Quintyne of Barbadoes as a person to whom were consigned

“convicted rebels” from Bristol, England, in 1679 and 1685. This may be

the same “Henry Quinton of Barbadoes” named in a will of Samuel Spicer

of Boston, Dec. 24, 1664, who speaks of him as “my loving father-in-law,

Henry Quinton.” This will is quoted in the New England Historical and

Genealogical Register, volume 16, page 330. In the New Hampshire

records, the name of this family is given by town and parish clerks as

Quinton, Quenton, Quanton and Quentin. The latter was probably the

spelling when the name was first introduced into England as a surname,

and it eventually became Anglicized to Quinton. It appears to belong to

that class of surnames brought into England about the time of William

I., derived from French towns or places. The town of St. Quentin in

Picardy was so called in honor of Quentin, an early Christian martyr.

Sir Walter Scott names the leading character in his novel of Quentin

Durward for this saint. The first or founder of the Quentin family in

England was Sir Herbert St. Quentin, a companion in arms of William the

Conqueror, who granted him the manor of Skipsey and other lands in

county Notts. Sir Herbert St. Quentin, a grandson, was summoned to

parliament in 1294, and had two daughters; first Elizabeth and second

Lora, who eventually became sole heir and married Robert de Grey of

Rothersfield. The barony of St. Quentin passed through Grey, Fitzhugh

and Parr to the Earl of Pembroke, descending from William St. Quentin,

eldest surviving son of Edward II., and fourth in descent from the

founder of the county. The last baron was Sir William St. Quentin, who

died 1795, when the baronetcy became extinct. His nephew, Wm. Thomas

Darby, of Sunbury, Middlesex, was his heir, and upon succeeding to the

estates, assumed the surname and arms; he was succeeded by his son,

Matthew Chitty Downes St. Quentin. There appears to have been several

branches of this family beside the above direct line, which show the

gradual changing of the name from St. Quentin to Quentin and Quinton.

The arms and crest of the different branches are given in both Burke’s

and Fairbanks’ Armory of families of Great Britain and Ireland. The arms

and crest of the first of the family, Sir Herbert, is thus given; Arms:

Or, three chevronels, gu. a chief vair. Crest: Out of a ducal coronet

gu. A pearise, ppr., on the top of a fluted column between two horns,

or. A representation of the crest of the “Quintons of England” is given

in Fairbank’s Armory, and it is thus described: “An arm, in armour,

couped, embowered, in hand, a sword, ppr.” Mr. Quinton, the subject of

our sketch, is the son of James Quinton, who was a farmer and the

leading contractor and builder in St. John, and served two terms in the

New Brunswick legislature, and was one of the first confederate members.

His mother was named Elizabeth Tilley. Young Quinton received his

educational training in the city of St. John; and when only twenty years

of age, having begun early in life to take an interest in military

affairs, enlisted in the militia, and has since kept up his interest in

militia life, being now major in the force. For four years he has been

member of the city council; and for five years he was a member of the

municipal council. In 1882 he entered political life, and was returned

as member for the county of St. John, N.B., and has since represented

that county in the New Brunswick legislature. Over eighteen years ago he

joined the Masonic order; and is also connected with the Orange order.

He has travelled extensively through the United States, and during the

late war visited the Southern States. In religion, Mr. Quinton is an

adherent of the Episcopal church; and in politics, a Liberal. He was

married 6th December, 1877, to Kate, daughter of R. R. Allan, of

Carleton, St. John, N.B. Mr. Quinton resides on the old family

homestead, and follows the business of farming and dealing in lumber.

* * * * *

=Chagnon, Hon. Hubert Wilfred=, residing in the town of St. John’s, in

the district of Iberville, Judge of the Superior Court of the province

of Quebec, now retired, was born in the parish of Verchères, district of

Montreal, on the 22nd of March, 1833, from the marriage of Eloi Chagnon,

farmer, of said parish, with Justine Brousseau. He followed a classical

course of study at the College of Montreal, and was articled as a law

student in November, 1852, under Forréol Pelletier, then a practising

advocate in Montreal, and since assistant judge of the Superior Court in

Montreal. He followed the course of the law faculty, under the

professorship of Maximilien Bibaud, at the Jesuits’ College, in

Montreal, and was admitted to the bar in November, 1855. He remained in

the office of Mr. Pelletier, practising with him, up to July, 1856, when

he entered into partnership with A. Papineau, then practising advocate

in St. Hyacinthe, and now a judge in the Superior Court in Montreal In

December, 1857, he left Mr. Papineau, and took a partnership with L. V.

Sicotte, then practising advocate in St. Hyacinthe, and practised with

him up to 1863, when Mr. Sicotte was appointed judge of the Superior

Court of Quebec. Since then he went into partnership with Mr. Sicotte’s

son, and during a certain time with Magloire Lanctot, since a district

magistrate for the district of St. Hyacinthe, and finally he was

appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec province on 27th

September, 1873. He administered justice in the district of Iberville

from 27th September, 1873, to November, 1887, when, on account of

ill-health, he was obliged to retire, with the ordinary pension. He is,

and has always been, an adherent of the Roman Catholic church. He was

married, in January, 1858, to Marie Elizabeth Varin, daughter of Jean

Baptiste Varin, registrar of the county of Laprairie, in the district of

Montreal.

* * * * *

=Chapleau, Hon. Joseph Adolphe=, Q.C., LL.D., M.P. for Terrebonne,

Secretary of State for Canada, was born at Ste. Therese de Blainville,

in the county of Terrebonne, province of Quebec, on the 9th November,

1840. His ancestors emigrated from France, and were among the early

settlers, of the seigniory of Terrebonne; but the father of Mr. Chapleau

was an humble, hard-working mechanic, of whom the son was not ashamed,

and who instilled into the latter principles of honor and devotion to

duty. From the earliest age the boy displayed a taste for learning, and

his mind was so active that means were found to put him to school, where

he grounded himself in the elements of grammar. Thence he was sent to

the neighbouring village of Terrebonne, where a college had been

established by Madame Masson, mother of the ex-lieutenant-governor of

the province of Quebec, and where he pursued his studies until

transferred to St. Hyacinthe, and put through a course which left its

impression on the whole of his subsequent career. On leaving college he

wended his way to Montreal, in search of a profession suitable to a

youth of his tastes and aptitudes. He chose the law, and, encouraged by

his success, devoted himself to criminal practice, acquiring a position

therein which set him, within a short time, in the highest rank among

his youthful associates. But this was not sufficient for his buoyant

nature. He launched into politics at the age of nineteen, mounting the

hustings with assurance, and maintaining himself thereon in the midst of

the most violent campaigns. He went further, and took up the pen in

defence of his political views and principles. With a couple of

congenial spirits he founded a newspaper called _Le Colonisateur_, and

for three years used its columns in an attempt to reach those readers

whom his voice could not attain. From these very beginnings Mr. Chapleau

made his mark, and the political leaders soon foretold that he would

lose no time in taking high rank. His physical appearance was in his

favor. Tall, well built, with a shapely head, wavy black hair thrown

back over his neck like a plume, a musical, flexible voice, an abundance

of animal energy, a fearless spirit that shrank from no difficulty, he

readily placed himself at the head of his companions, with their full

acquiescence, and as if by natural right. Another advantage which the

future statesman enjoyed at the opening of his career was that he found

himself the representative of the young men coming after the radicalism

of 1848, when the French revolution of that year had its echo on this

side, and the cry of annexation rang through the whole of Lower Canada.

This period of acute crisis was followed by a long term of bewilderment

and unrest, called the decade of transition, when party lines were only

faintly drawn, because every one felt that there should be a reunion of

all forces in order to insure the future of the common country. From

1860 to the year of Confederation the young men kept on growing in the

school of strife and trial, but none grew more perceptibly, and with

fuller promise of future strength, than the subject of this sketch. His

opportunity came at length, and he was not slow to seize it. In 1867 the

British North America Act proclaimed to the world a new nation, and the

province of Quebec, without knowing it, and almost in spite of herself,

entered into full possession of her autonomy. She was presented with her

own lieutenant-governor; her own legislature, consisting of two Chambers

and a long scroll of rights and privileges, which practically made the

people of French Canada their own masters. The general election took

place, and Mr. Chapleau, going straight into his native county, asked to

be made its first representative in the Provincial parliament. He was

returned by acclamation, and retained the seat till 1882, through the

ordeal of at least a half-dozen elections. That first session at Quebec

was a memorable one, with such members as Chauveau—a man of high temper

and noble spirit—as premier; Joly, the political Bayard, as leader of

the opposition; Cartier, Langevin, Irvine, Chapais, Marchand, and others

of hardly less note. In such a presence the representative of Terrebonne

took his place, at the age of seven and twenty. Within a few hours he

arose, and the eyes of a crowded house were fastened upon him, as he

proceeded to discharge the honorable function of moving the Address in

reply to the Speech from the Throne. His first effort settled his

position at once, both as an orator and a public man, and thenceforth

the legislative career of Mr. Chapleau was secure. He went along quietly

for several years, making himself acquainted with the new order of

things under Confederation, when the province took an upward bound, and

everything revived—business, agriculture, literature, and the national

spirit—imbuing himself with the principle of practical politics,

whereby the development of the country’s material resources should be

fostered. The time came soon when he was called upon to apply these

schemes in a higher sphere, and another forward step was taken. Mr.

Chapleau was sworn in of the Executive Council, and appointed

Solicitor-General in the beginning of 1873, with the sanction of his

whole party and the approval of his political adversaries. And away, in

a quiet London street, and on a bed of sickness from which he was never

to rise, Sir George Cartier heard of the promotion, and wrote that it

was no more than the reward of merit. The great man, who was the friend

of young men, and who took pains to train them in public life, was

comforted at the last with the thought that one of his favorites had

entered on the paths of responsible office. But this new period, from

1873 to 1879, was a stormy one, and not the least exciting incident was

the defence, at Winnipeg, by Mr. Chapleau, of Lépine and other

Half-breeds, implicated in the North-West troubles of that period. In

September, 1874, the Ouimet government went down on the outcry about the

Tanneries Land Swap, and Mr. Chapleau, after a vigorous defence of his

conduct in a public speech, withdrew into private life. But in January,

1876, he was recalled as provincial secretary, and remained in office

till the disruption of the Boucherville cabinet, by Governor Letellier

de St. Just, in 1878. Another opportunity was here afforded, of which he

took prompt advantage. In a mass meeting, held in Montreal, he was

chosen leader of the Conservative party and of the Opposition, and at

once set to work to prepare the way for the downfall of the Joly

ministry. This he accomplished within a little beyond the year. In

October, 1879, Mr. Joly resigned, and his opponent was summoned to form

a government, which he at once did, adding to his position as first

minister the department of Agriculture and Public Works. The same tact,

energy, and general ability which he displayed as leader of the

Opposition, where the best qualities of a public man are tested, Mr.

Chapleau manifested as head of the government, and lost no time in

turning to a business policy. The chief measure of his administration

was the sale of the North Shore railway, to relieve the exchequer of the

province. The subject gave rise to violent debates, and led to a

division in the Conservative party itself, but subsequent events have

justified it in a measure, and effectually removed the danger of a

powerful corporation being turned into a mere party machine, with

nameless resources of corruption. The general elections came on in 1881,

and Mr. Chapleau swept the province, carrying fifty-three seats out of

sixty-five. This seemed to crown his provincial career, and the project

long cherished by his friends of his promotion from Quebec to Ottawa was

urged upon him with great force. Strong objections were adduced on the

other hand, however, and Mr. Chapleau was warned against taking a false

step; but there is reason to believe that the state of his health,

shattered by the wearing and worrying labors of the previous two years,

turned the scales at the end. In the summer of 1882 Mr. Chapleau

resigned his position, as prime minister, and accepted the portfolio of

State in the government of Sir John Macdonald. It is only those who are

acquainted with the modes, the habits, and the general situation of

French Canada who can measure the difference existing between Quebec and

Ottawa. Many of Mr. Chapleau’s critics foretold that he would be out of

place in his new field; that the showy qualities which had won him so

much distinction and power among his own people would go for very little

with the cool, practical politicians of the Dominion capital, and that

while he was supreme in the provincial arena, he would prove only third

or fourth rate in the federal competition. Our readers can judge for

themselves how far these predictions were fulfilled. Foes will agree

with friends in stating, as a simple matter of justice, that the

influence of Mr. Chapleau has not waned since he became a member of the

Queen’s Privy Council for Canada. On the contrary, he increased his

strength before the whole country by the bold and consistent stand which

he took in the Riel affair. None but those who know the French Canadian

people, how they are attached to their race, some of them cherishing the

odd feeling that they are not treated with becoming justice and respect

by the other elements of the population, and none but those who dwelt in

the province at this time, and witnessed the morbid excitement, the

hopes, the fears, the anxiety which prevailed throughout the whole

crisis, can have the faintest notion of the gravity of the situation.

Against this universal outburst Mr. Chapleau, with his two Quebec

colleagues, had to make a stand, and in the large Montreal district,

over which he has recognized control, he was obliged to bear the brunt

of the onset alone. All agencies were set to bear against him. At first

he was tempted and cajoled. If he put himself at the head of the

movement, all parties would join in his wake, and he would be the master

and idol of the province. Then intimidation was hinted at. If he

ventured to set his foot in Montreal, he would be hooted and mobbed.

There were several weeks, after the meeting in the Champ de Mars, when

the tide of passion ran high, argument was useless, and but for the good

sense and honest purpose of the best classes, a serious rupture might

have ensued. From their point of view this indignation was natural, and

it was respectable, springing from motives of injured patriotism, and

aggravated by the definite promises which the party papers published,

even on the eve of the unfortunate man’s execution. There are two sides

to every question of this kind, and the readers in Ontario and the other

provinces should take the particular circumstances into consideration in

judging of the movement which almost rent the province of Quebec

asunder. The record is that the Secretary of State remained calm and

collected through it all. Knowing his people as he does, he understood

all that he was risking, and the bright prospects which his ambition was

throwing away; but, on the other hand, he seems to have seen his duty

clear from the start, and, like a man, he did it. Without being defiant,

he was fearless throughout. And he was outspoken. In a letter addressed

to his countrymen, on the 28th November, 1885, he broaches the question

face to face, saying that his oath of office was inviolable, even at the

risk of losing friendships and emoluments, and that he had the profound

conviction of the injustice of what was demanded of him as detrimental

to the best understood interests of the province. “I saw,” he adds, “as

a logical consequence of this movement, the isolation of French

Canadians, causing an antagonism of race, provoking retaliation,

combats, and disasters. I felt that there was more courage in breasting

the current than in drifting with it, and, without failing in my duty, I

let pass the misguided crowd who overwhelmed me with the names of

traitor and poltroon.” The letter then goes on to discuss the whole

question in all its bearings, and coming from a statesman, on his

defence, who was acquainted with even the most secret details of the

controversy, it possesses an intrinsic value which future historians

will not overlook. Mr. Chapleau closes with these brave words: “My

conscience tells me that I have failed, in this instance, neither to my

Maker, nor to my Sovereign, nor to my countrymen. . . . I have served my

native land, as a parliamentarian, for eighteen years with joy and

pride. I shall continue to do it on one sole condition, that of keeping

my freedom, with no other care than my honor and my dignity.” In other

respects, as minister of the Crown at Ottawa, Mr. Chapleau may be said

to have pressed hard the claims of his province in the cabinet and in

parliament, and in certain cases he is charged with having done so at

the risk of serious dissensions in the ministerial ranks. Here, as

elsewhere throughout, the difficulties of the French Canadian province

must be taken into account, and many things, very well meant from that

point of view, are quite inexplicable when judged according to Saxon

standards. Very few, if any, among partizan writers, will refuse Mr.

Chapleau the quality of statesmanship, however they may differ on the

principles that actuate it, or the results which it is likely to

accomplish. But on the question of eloquence there can hardly be two

opinions. He is a born orator, with almost all the physical gifts which

go to the making of the perfect master of speech. A volume of his

speeches has just been published, a perusal of which gives the further

assurance of solidity, logical reasoning, rhetorical taste, and generous

sentiment. To the persons who have the pleasure of his acquaintance he

is the accomplished gentleman, lettered and sociable, full of agreeable

information, and willing to oblige. Having married, on the 25th

November, 1874, Marie Louise, a daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel King, of

Sherbrooke, Mr. Chapleau is thoroughly conversant with the English, and,

indeed, uses it in public speeches with judgment and fluency. As he is

still a young man, there is reason to hope that he may long be spared to

serve his country, and, while naturally leaning a little to his own

Quebec, devote his fine gifts to the welfare of the Dominion at large.

* * * * *

=Magnan, Adolphe=, Notary Public, Joliette, Quebec province, was born at

Berthier (_en haut_). His father, J. B. Magnan, was a brave and honest

farmer of that place, and his mother was Marie Louise Raymond. The

subject of this sketch was educated at the College of L’Assomption,

where he took a classical course of studies. L’Assomption College, it

may be mentioned, has given to the church and state many eminent men.

Mr. Magnan entered college in 1838, and left it in 1845. In November of

the same year he entered as a student in the office of Firmin Perrin, a

notary at Berthier, and in 1847 left this place for Montreal, where he

engaged in the office of Mr. Denis Emery Papineau, who was then

practising in partnership with the late Pierre Lamothe. He was received

as a notary in 1850, and shortly afterwards settled in the village of

L’Industrie, now the town of Joliette. Mr. Magnan created for himself in

a short time an excellent practice as a notary and as a man of business.

He was soon appreciated as a laborious, honest and conscientious notary,

and commanded public confidence on account of his legal knowledge

acquired under so distinguished a patron as D. E. Papineau. He, in

company with Dr. Michel S. Boulet, founded in 1851, at Joliette, the St.

Jean Baptiste Society, of which he was for several years the president.

Mr. Magnan was official assignee for the Joliette district, under the

acts of 1869 and 1875, and also occupied the position of justice of the

peace for the same district. He was member also of the board of notaries

for the province of Quebec, as well as councillor for the town of

Joliette, and acting mayor for some time. Mr. Magnan has been agent for

the Seigneurial lands of Tarrieu, Joliette and Taillant, in the old

seigniory of Lavaltrie, for more than thirty years; and was also agent

for the seigniory of Daillebout and Ramsay. He practises as a notary at

Joliette, in partnership with Alexis Cabana; and has been notary to the

Bank of Hochelaga at Joliette, since 1874, the date the bank was first

opened at this place. Mr. Magnan is a Liberal in politics. Since 1854 he

has taken an active part in electoral struggles on behalf of that party.

He has always refused to become a candidate, preferring to remain

quietly at home. Mr. Magnan has been twice married, his first wife

having been Aurelie Blanchard. His second wife is Marie Louise Lefleur,

who bore him three children. Albina, his daughter, is married to Dr.

Louis L. Anger, of Great Falls, New Hampshire, U.S.; Arthur and Rosario,

his sons, are both engaged in Montreal in the hardware trade.

* * * * *

=Jones, Rev. Septimus=, M.A., Rector of the Church of the Redeemer,

Toronto, Ont., was born June 4th, 1830, at Portsmouth, county Hants,

England. He is the seventh son of Rev. James Jones, a presbyter of the

English church, and of Esther Budge, both natives of England. Rev. Mr.

Jones received his preparatory education at the city of London School,

England; and in 1848, the family having removed to Canada, he

matriculated at the University of Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, in the

province of Quebec. Having graduated in arts, and finished the

theological course in 1853, he filled for a year the position of

classical master in the St. John’s High School, P.Q. In 1854 he was

ordained deacon by Bishop Fulford of Montreal, and preached the

following Sunday in the cathedral, and in St. George’s Church, of which

Bishop Bond, of Montreal, was then assistant minister under Venerable

Archdeacon Leach. His first charge was the mission of Cape Cove and

Percé, in the district of Gaspé, P.Q. In 1854, the only mode of reaching

that remote region, some five hundred miles below Quebec, was by means

of small schooners, in the fish carrying trade, the passage occupying

from three days to three weeks, and the fare, meals included was

$5,—and dear even at that price. The field was unpromising. The people

of the coast were given over to drunkenness, and a very low tone of

morality prevailed. Education, too, was at a very low ebb, and the

people were split up into factions. His nearest clerical neighbor was

forty miles distant on the one side, and sixty on the other. Mr. Jones

gave two hours each morning to the school. The Sunday’s work at Cape

Cove was, at 8 a.m. Sunday school; 10 a.m. morning service; 2:30 p.m.

Sunday school at Percé, nine miles distant, and had to travel this

distance often on foot owing to the state of the roads; 3:30 p.m.

afternoon service; and 7 p.m. evening service at Cape Cove. Cottage

lectures each week evening from house to house. The diet was almost

exclusively salt cod and potatoes; but on Sundays beef or mutton was

served. The mail came in once a week in summer and once a fortnight in

winter. Such is a fair specimen of a missionary’s life in those days. In

1855 Mr. Jones was admitted to the order of presbyter by Bishop Mountain

of Quebec. In the following year, his health having suffered from

overwork and the rigor of the climate (the snow lying from November to

the middle of May), he was removed to Quebec and appointed incumbent of

St. Peter’s Church in that city. In 1859, he went to Philadelphia,

Penn., where he was appointed rector of the Church of the Redeemer; but

in 1861, there being at the time imminent danger of war between Great

Britain and the United States, he returned to Canada. After filling, as

a temporary appointment, the position of assistant minister of St.

Thomas’ Church, Belleville, Ontario, he was appointed the first rector

of Christ Church in that city. In 1870 he was chosen as the first rector

of the Church of the Redeemer, Toronto, which since then has enjoyed a

large measure of prosperity. The present handsome edifice of stone, next

in seating capacity to St. James’ Cathedral, was erected in 1879,

opposite the north gate of Queen’s Park, one of the choicest sites in

the city of Toronto. Rev. Mr. Jones acted for some years as inspector of

schools in Belleville, and subsequently as one of the board of

Intermediate Examiners in Ontario. He has also been connected with

Wycliffe College, since its inception, as one of the council, and as a

teacher, chiefly of the subject of apologetics. He has acted in the

capacity of chaplain for the St. George’s societies, in Quebec,

Belleville, and Toronto. He takes an active part in the work of the

Anglican Synod, and, owing to his administrative ability, he is always a

member of its principal standing and special committees; and he took the

chief part in the preparation of that most useful handy-book, “The

Churchwarden’s Manual,” and was the author of the canon on the

superannuation fund, passed at the 1887 session of the Diocesan Synod.

In the Ministerial Association of Toronto he is greatly interested, and

seldom fails to attend its meetings; and also, when occasion calls, he

is found advocating every movement having for its object the spiritual

and moral improvement of the people. On the 28th April, 1862, Mr. Jones

married Catherine Eliza Bruce Hutton, youngest daughter of the late

William Hutton, secretary to the Bureau of Agriculture. The issue of the

marriage has been eight children, two of whom died in infancy.

* * * * *

=Payan, Paul=, St. Hyacinthe, Quebec province, is a member of the firm

of Duclos & Payan, Tanners, Manufacturers of buff, split-leather, shoe

stock and curriers’ grease. He is the son of Louis Payan and Sophie

Susanne Beranger, and was born the 14th day of February, 1840, in the

city of Mens, department de l’Isère, France. At the early age of twelve

he entered as apprentice in a tailoring establishment. In 1854, when the

Crimean war broke out, his father, who had served under Napoleon the

1st, and accompanied the emperor in most of his campaigns, decided to

send his two sons to America, feeling unwilling to expose them to the

hardship of war, as his eldest son had attained the age of conscription.

On the 7th of July they left for Havre, from which seaport they sailed

for New York, leaving behind them their father and mother to dispose of

their business of smallwares and stationery. After forty-six days’

sailing, the _Arlington_ dropt her anchor in the bay of New York. Then

began their anxieties, greatly increased by the fact that they could not

understand the language of the country. Abused by overcharges in a

hotel, and threatened by bullies, they passed out into the street where

they wandered the whole night. It was only at the close of the next day

that they bought their tickets for Champlain by boat to Albany; and

after many troubles, baggages lost, delays, and disappointment of all

kinds, they landed at Rouse’s Point, where sad news awaited them. A

sister, the wife of the Rev. Mr. Charbonnel, then living at Roxton, had

gone to her rest a few weeks before. His elder brother soon got

employment in a carpenter’s shop, and Paul Payan entered as an

apprentice in a tin shop; but soon discovering it would take a life-time

to make a mere living, he followed the advice of his brother-in-law;

gave up tailoring and the tinsmith business, and concluded an engagement

with the owner of a small tannery. He soon passed to a larger leather

establishment at Roxton Falls, and later on came to St. Pie and St.

Hyacinthe. By that time he had learned his trade and made some money. He

was married to Louisa Tenny, but having to support his young family, and

his father and mother, who arrived in America a year after their son,

his capital did not accumulate very fast. He made two unsuccessful

attempts at starting a tannery business at Roxton Pond and at St.

Hyacinthe. He then went into the bark business, but freight being high,

he reduced its bulk by planing it thin; and was the first to send to the

State of Massachusetts pressed bark. Competition having soon reduced the

profit to a minimum, he gave this up, and went into the grocery business

in Granby. After the death of his wife, he left Granby and became an

agent for J. Daigneau, in an extensive and remunerative bark business.

While in his employ he met with an accident, having broken his leg.

After another attempt at bark business with a young friend, he came back

to a long cherished idea of starting a tannery. With this object in

view, he visited the western part of the United States and Canada; but

finding no more advantages there than in the province of Quebec, he

returned, and was married to his second wife, Olympe Duclos. In 1873 he

formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Silas Duclos, and began to

put up a building of 75 feet long. In 1879 he bought Cotes’ tannery, and

in 1882 doubled its capacity, which now employs 120 hands.

Notwithstanding severe losses through failures, Mr. Payan grew in wealth

and influence. In 1880 he was elected city councillor, which position he

held till 1884, when he resigned. It was during his wise administration

that the city of St. Hyacinthe underwent many improvements, that a

public park was planned, a fire engine house and police station built, a

more efficient fire service organized, the granite mill and a large shoe

factory started, and a gas company put on a working footing. In 1881 Mr.

Payan visited Europe in the interest of his business, seeking a new

market for their manufactured goods. He is a worthy offshoot of a most

faithful Huguenot family, was born and educated a Protestant, and is

still a strong, quiet, unostentatious and consistent professor of the

Presbyterian church of Canada.

* * * * *

=Wells, Hon. Rupert Mearse=, Toronto, Barrister, was born in Prescott

county, Ontario, on the 25th November, 1835. He is descended, on the

paternal side, from an English family, members of which emigrated to

America, and settled in the town of Scituate, in the state of Rhode

Island, towards the end of the seventeenth century. His

great-grandfather, James Wells, came to Canada during the American

revolutionary war. James Pendleton Wells, the father of the subject of

our sketch, was born in Montreal, in 1803, and while a young man removed

to the county of Prescott, where he resided for upwards of fifty years.

He took an active and prominent part in public and political affairs,

and for many years, until he was appointed sheriff, was the recognized

leader of the Reform party in that county. Few men in that district were

more widely known or more generally respected than Sheriff Wells. His

wife was Emily Hamilton Cleveland, a native-born Canadian of

Scotch-English descent. Hon. Mr. Wells, the subject of our sketch,

received his educational training at home and at Brockville, and in 1850

was sent to the University of Toronto. Here he won the Jameson gold

medal for history, and was silver medallist in ethics. Graduating B.A.

in 1854, he began the study of law with Alexander McDonald, then one of

the firm of Blake, Connor, Morrison & McDonald, leading barristers in

Toronto, and on the completion of his law course, was called to the bar

of Upper Canada, Trinity term, 1857. He then removed to L’Orignal, the

county town of the united counties of Prescott and Russell. Mr. Wells

remained here for about three years, during which time, in addition to

his professional duties, he edited and published _The Economist_

newspaper. Removing to Toronto, in 1860, he associated himself with the

Hon. Edward Blake in the law business—the firm name being Blake, Kerr &

Wells. A dissolution of this partnership having taken place in 1870, he

formed another with Angus Morrison, Q.C., who for several years was

mayor of Toronto, the new firm being known by the name of Morrison,

Wells & Gordon. On the death of Mr. Morrison, a few years ago, a change

took place in the firm, and now Mr. Wells carries on his law business in

partnership with Angus MacMurchy, B.A., under the name of Wells &

MacMurchy, barristers, 110 King street west. In 1871 Mr. Wells was

appointed to the office of county attorney for York county and Toronto

city, but this office he only held for about a year when he resigned, to

become the Reform candidate for the South Riding of Bruce, for which

constituency he was elected to the Ontario legislature in October, 1872.

Shortly after entering the house, on the resignation of the Hon. J. G.

Currie, 7th January, 1872, he was elected Speaker, and this high and

honorable position he held until the dissolution of the parliament. He

was elected to the same office on 23rd November, 1875, and held it until

January, 1880. In 1882 he resigned his seat in the Ontario legislature,

and was elected to represent East Bruce in the House of Commons. This

seat he held until the general election of 1887, when he failed to

secure his re-election. The Hon. Mr. Wells is now solicitor for the

Canadian Pacific Railway. In politics he is a staunch Reformer.

* * * * *

=Stuart, Sir Andrew=, Knight, Quebec, is the distinguished Chief Justice

of the Superior Court of the province of Quebec, and one of the most

eminent of living Canadian jurists. Chief Justice Stuart may be said to

have been “to the manner born,” and to have inherited the profound legal

abilities, and splendid judicial mind, which make him one of the

greatest ornaments of the Lower Canadian bench. “_Bon chien tient de

race_” is a favorite French-Canadian maxim, which seems to have much

application to his case. Legal and judicial talent runs, so to say, in

his blood. His father, the late Andrew Stuart, Q.C., of Quebec, was her

Majesty’s solicitor-general for Lower Canada, just before the union, and

one of the most brilliant and remarkable lawyers of his day. Sir James

Stuart, baronet, one of the most conspicuous figures in Canadian

history, and for many years chief justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench

for Lower Canada, was another member of the gifted family, as was also

the late Hon. George O’Kill Stuart, for some years one of the

representatives of the city of Quebec in parliament, and, at the time of

his death, judge of her Majesty’s Vice-Admiralty Court at the port of

Quebec. Our distinguished subject’s patronymic indicates his Scottish

extraction. He was born at Quebec, on the 16th June, 1812, and was

educated at Chambly, P.Q., in the Rev. Mr. Parkin’s school, which was

conducted under the auspices of the Lord Bishop of Quebec. After the

usual course of legal study in those days, he was called, in 1834, to

the Quebec bar, and rapidly rose to distinction among his brethren of

the long robe. On his father’s death, he succeeded to the most of his

extensive and lucrative practice, and became the trusted adviser of the

leading merchants and business men of the ancient capital, his services

being retained in nearly all the important cases which came before the

Quebec courts during the next twenty years. In 1854, he was raised to

the dignity of a Q.C., in recognition of his eminent professional

talents, and in the course of the same year he was also appointed a

commissioner to consolidate the Statutes of Canada. In 1859, on the

appointment of the late Hon. Justice Morin, as a member of the

codification commission, he was named an assistant judge of the Superior

Court for Lower Canada, and appointed a puisné judge of the same court

at Quebec, on the death of Hon. Justice Chabot, in 1860. In 1874, he was

offered a seat in the Court of Queen’s Bench for the province of Quebec,

but declined it, and in March, 1885, on the retirement of Sir William

Collis Meredith, he was elevated to the more important position of chief

justice of the Superior Court for the province of Quebec, which he still

fills, with honor to himself, satisfaction to the bar, and benefit to

the country. In fact, Sir Andrew Stuart is one of the most popular, as

he is also one of the most eminent, of the Lower Canadian judiciary.

Throughout his career at the bar, his practice was so extensive that he

may be said to have had no time to take any part in politics. At all

events, he never adventured actively on that stormy sea, and, even to

this day, his party proclivities, if he can be stated to have any,

remain in doubt, so evenly did he hold, and has always held, the

balance. This marked characteristic, together with his exalted office as

chief justice, naturally pointed him out as the fit and proper person to

represent the Crown on different occasions in the province of Quebec,

and during the illness of Lieut.-Governor Masson, he was appointed

provincial administrator, in April, 1886, and again in February, 1887,

acquitting himself on both occasions of his high and delicate trust with

a tact and impartiality which won golden opinions from all political

parties in the province. On the 9th May, 1887, Chief Justice Stuart

received, in the honor of knighthood, from her Majesty, a mark of his

Sovereign’s appreciation of his eminent services, in which the whole

country rejoiced, and none more so than the people of Quebec, his native

city and home. Although now past the scriptural three score and ten, Sir

Andrew is still a hale and vigorous man, with well preserved powers of

mind and body, and doubtless has yet many years of public usefulness

before him. On the bench, he is a model of dignity in his demeanor and

lucidity in his judgments, and especially kind to the younger

practitioners before him. In private life, he is essentially the

well-bred gentleman, noted for his affability, geniality, and the

old-time courtliness of his manners. In 1842, he married Elmire Aubert

de Gaspé, a daughter of the late Philip Aubert de Gaspé, seigneur of St.

Jean Port Joly, and a member of one of the oldest and most aristocratic

French families of Lower Canada, who received large grants of land from

the French kings before the conquest. One of Mrs. Stuart’s sisters is

the wife of Hon. Charles Alleyn, formerly commissioner of public works

in the government of Canada, and at present sheriff of Quebec; and

another is the widow of the late Hon. William Power, in his lifetime a

judge of the Superior Court of Quebec. By his marriage, Sir Andrew has

had issue eight children, four sons and four daughters. One of the

former, Henry McNab Stuart, now in British Columbia, is a barrister by

profession. His second son, Andrew Charles Stuart, now deceased, was

also a barrister, and for many years the popular lieut.-colonel and

commanding officer of the 8th battalion of Quebec Royal Rifles. A third

son, Gustavus G. Stuart, is a prominent and successful practitioner at

the Quebec bar, and one of the legal firm of which Sir A. P. Caron,

Dominion minister of militia, is also a member. His eldest daughter,

Lauretta Stuart, is the wife of Hon. Louis Beaubien, of Montreal,

formerly M.P.P. for Hochelaga, and speaker of the Legislative Assembly

of Quebec. Another daughter, Maud Margaret, is the wife of William G.

Lemesurier, and now in India with her husband. Sir Andrew Stuart is a

member of the Church of England.

* * * * *

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=Champlain, Samuel de.=—Standing on the summit of one of the rocky