It may not be very widely known that the_Montreal, 1535-1914. Vol. 2. Under British Rule, 1760-1914

Christian Association on this continent was organized by a member

of the First Baptist Church, Mr. T.J. Claxton, in the First

Baptist Church and especially for the young men who were members

of this church and their Christian associates in the city.

The period from Mr. Gilmour’s resignation in 1835 to the building

of the Beaver Hall Hill Chapel, was one of trial and testing

but finally of establishment and triumph. The following are the

names of the pastors who served the church during this time,

with the dates on which they took charge:--Rev. Newton Bosworth,

September 29, 1835; Rev. John Hatch Waldon, September 19, 1837;

Rev. Beniah Hoe, September 18, 1839; Rev. John Girdwood, June

21, 1841; Rev. Thomas Spalding, April 19, 1851; Rev. Phaucellus

Church, January 5, 1853; Rev. James Lillie, D.D., November 29,

1853; Rev. J.N. Williams, April 20, 1856; Rev. John Goadby, D.D.,

May 1, 1859--nine pastors in twenty-six years, or an average of a

little less than three years each, indicating an unsettled period

in the history of the church, yet one that laid solid foundation

for future work.

With the advent of Doctor Goadby, May 1, 1859, the church entered

upon a second stage or epoch in her history which we can properly

designate the growing and multiplying period.

The church, under the leadership of Doctor Goadby, with a

membership of 160, decided to build a house of worship in a

more residential and convenient location than St. Helen Street

was. With this end in view a site was secured at the corner of

Beaver Hall Hill and Lagauchetiere Street on which a beautiful

and up-to-date church home, with excellent equipment for

Sunday-school work and other departments of Christian activity,

was erected at the cost of $25,000. This was opened in January,

1862, and sold in 1878 to the Reformed Episcopal Church. On

the twenty-seventh day of March, 1863, the Rev. John Alexander

accepted the pastorate of this church. During his incumbency

the church entered upon a period of uninterrupted prosperity;

constant accessions were made to its membership.

In 1864 a mission was started in the East end of the city in

the lecture room of the German Lutheran Church on St. Dominique

Street, with a Sunday-school of twenty-eight scholars and eight

teachers. Shortly after the starting of this school a Thursday

evening prayer meeting and a Sunday evening service were

commenced. These, after the lapse of some time, outgrew their

accommodation and in 1868 Mr. T.J. Claxton and other members of

the church erected a commodious building on the corner of St.

Catherine and St. Justin streets, afterwards known as Russell

Hall, for the accommodation of this mission. This building was

called Russell Hall in honor of Major General Russell of the

British Army, a loyal Baptist, who at the time resided in this

city and who in every possible way supported the work of this

mission.

Russell Hall Sunday-school, under the leadership of Mr. T.J.

Claxton, was for some years, from the numerical standpoint at

least, one of the most successful in connection with the Baptist

denomination, the enrollment reaching 600 and the average

attendance 500. On September 3, 1869, through the advice of a

large council called for the purpose, this mission was organized

into a regular Baptist church of which Rev. Robert Cade, ordained

by the same council, was chosen pastor.

In 1875 building on St. Catherine Street, at present occupied by

the First Baptist Church, was erected as the house of worship

for the St. Catherine Street Church, at the cost of about

$60,000, in which they continued to worship in their separate

capacity for three years. During the period between 1869 and

1878 the following were the pastors:--Rev. Robert Cade, 1869-70;

Rev. J. Denovan, afterwards Doctor Denovan, 1870-77; Rev. J.L.

Campbell, now Doctor Campbell of the First Church, Cambridge,

Massachusetts, 1877-78; during his pastorate the union between

the St. Catherine Street and First Churches was consummated.

Going back now to the point, in 1864, at which we diverged from

the history of the First Baptist Church, in tracing the story of

Russell Hall Mission and St. Catherine Street Church, we find

that after the lapse of about two years, in 1866, another mission

was started at Point St. Charles which shortly afterwards was

organized into an independent church that gave great promise of

usefulness in that interesting community, with Rev. Thomas Gale

as its pastor. Mr. T.J. Claxton of the First Church erected a

building for the accommodation of the Point St. Charles interest.

We find, however, that this church disbanded, the cause for

which, owing to lack of information, we are unable to state nor

are we able to say what disposition was made of the building nor

with what church did the remnant of the membership unite.

In the year 1875 eighty-five members withdrew from the First

Church in order to organize the Olivet Baptist Church. In after

years many other members withdrew and united with this church.

While the First Church and its affiliated institutions suffered

greatly by this movement yet the after history of both the First

and Olivet Churches clearly shows that no single Baptist church

could, in the City of Montreal, be as strong and influential as

the two have been and are now.

In 1878 the First Baptist Church worshipping in the house of

Beaver Hall Hill and the St. Catherine Street Church worshipping

in the building on the corner of St. Catherine and City

Councillor streets united, this united body to be known as the

First Baptist Church, making the house on St. Catherine Street,

in which they now worship, their church home. The house on Beaver

Hall Hill was at that time sold to the Reformed Episcopal church

for the sum of $25,000. The Rev. J.L. Campbell, pastor of the St.

Catherine Street Church, retiring, the Rev. A.H. Munroe, pastor

of the First Church continued to shepherd the united flock.

During this interesting section of the growing and multiplying

period of the church’s history, lying between the erection of the

Beaver Hall Hill house of worship and the union of the First and

St. Catherine Street Churches, the following were the pastors of

the First Church:--Rev. John Goadby, D.D., May 1, 1859; Rev. John

Alexander, March 27, 1863; Rev. William Cheetham, 1870; Rev. A.H.

Munroe, 1876.

Between the years 1881 and 1886 two missions were started by

individual members of the church, one at Cote St. Louis and the

other at St. Louis de Mile End, both of which continued for some

time and gave promise of considerable success. Owing, however, to

the lack of helpers, the former was by the discouraged workers

handed over to Canon Evans of the Anglican Church who had a

mission in that neighborhood, and so has become the nucleus

of that which is now All Saints’ Church; and the latter was

closed because the workers united with the band that withdrew to

organize Grace Baptist Church.

In the year 1888 the Gain Street Church was started as another

mission and Sunday-school in the East End of the city to which in

1897 a number of members were dismissed to organize it into an

independent church.

In 1890, during the months of March and April, thirty-four

members of the First Baptist Church were dismissed in order

to organize with the St. Louis de Mile End workers, the Grace

Baptist Church, now known as the Westmount Baptist Church. In

1902 the First Church assumed charge of the North Baptist Mission

on St. Urbain Street and Duluth Avenue. About this time another

mission was started on Berri Street, not under the auspices

of this church, but successfully carried on by one of its

deacons--Mr. John Ede, who had associated with him a number of

the members of this church and other workers.

More recently the North Mission property was sold to the

Protestant school commissioners. On the completion of the

Temple Baptist Church (corner of Park and Laurier avenues) the

Berri Street Mission lapsed and its workers returned to the

First Baptist Church or to the Temple Church, the Rev. Mr. Ede

afterwards being called to the Tabernacle Church. The latest

church added is the Verdun Baptist Church on Rockland Avenue.

Mention must be made of the French Baptist Church L’Oratoire at

14 Mance Street, above Sherbrooke Street.

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

Organized Canadian Congregationalism began in Montreal in 1829

when the Canada Education and Home Missionary Society was founded

in Montreal with Mr. Henry Wilkes, then a young man in business,

as its first secretary. This society was designed to support

pioneer Presbyterian, Baptist or Congregational ministers. There

had been, however, previous sporadic and unorganized attempts

at church establishment in upper Canada. One such was that

founded in 1817 by a Congregational minister, the Rev. Joseph

Silcox, bearing the extraordinary title of “The Congregational

Presbyterian Prince of Peace Society.” Mr. Wilkes went to

Scotland shortly after the formation of the Montreal society

and while a church student in Glasgow induced some ministers,

among them the Rev. Richard Miles, to come to Canada. The Rev.

Richard Miles came to Montreal in 1831, while Rev. Adam Lillie

went to Brantford in 1833. The visit of the Reverend Doctors Reed

and Matheson, delegates from England to the American churches

in 1834, who also made a trip through Canada, led the foreign

missionary society to send out some missionaries here, and in

1836, under Mr. Wilkes’ leadership, the Colonial Missonary

Society, still the foster mother of Canadian Congregationalism,

was organized in Montreal. The Rev. Mr. Wilkes became the agent

in Montreal and the Rev. Mr. Roaf in Toronto.

The first Congregational Church was opened for service on St.

Maurice Street on the second Sabbath of February, 1833. This

was sold and in 1846 Zion Church was erected. The third church

dates to 1868 and was erected at the corner of Amherst and Craig

streets. Other churches of a later date are Calvary Church (302

Guy Street), Emanuel Church (Drummond Street, near Sherbrooke

Street, West), Zion Congregational Church, Point St. Charles (185

Congregation Street), Bethlehem Congregational Church, corner of

Western Avenue and Clark Avenue.

UNITARIAN

The history of the Unitarian movement in Montreal dates from the

year 1832, when on the 29th of July the Rev. David Hughes of

England preached in the Union School Room at the corner of St.

Sacrament and St. Nicholas streets the first Unitarian sermon

ever delivered, it is believed, anywhere in Canada. This was the

year in which Montreal was devastated by the Asiatic cholera,

1,900 persons dying in four months, out of a population of

little more than thirty thousand. Mr. Hughes was one of these

victims of the plague, but the work which he had inaugurated

survived him. A small band of Unitarian believers secured a place

to hold services in a building which was known on account of its

location as St. Joseph Street Chapel. Here the Rev. Mr. Angier,

an American minister, took charge of the services, and a Sunday

School was inaugurated by Mr. Benjamin Workman. A movement was

begun by the infant society to acquire land, and erect a church,

but the times were unpropitious. A return of the cholera in 1834,

together with the subsequent depression of business and the

political disturbances which culminated in the Riel Rebellion

of 1837, caused so much discouragement that interest flagged,

and for a while even the regular services were discontinued.

Occasional meetings were, however, held until, in 1841, the

movement was definitely renewed under the inspiration chiefly of

a few devoted women, prominent among whom were Mrs. Cushing and

Mrs. Hedge, whose conviction that the time had come for a new

and more vigorous Unitarian propaganda was shared by a group of

men whose names have been synonymous with good citizenship and

philanthropy in Montreal during more than one generation. Mr.

John Frothingham, Mr. Benjamin Workman, Mr. Luther Holton, Mr.

William Molson, and Doctor Cushing, were actively interested in

the formation of the second Unitarian congregation of Montreal,

and their efforts were stimulated by the eloquent preaching of

an English minister, the Rev. Mr. Giles, who for several months

conducted services in a small building situated at the corner

of Fortification Lane and Haymarket Square. Subsequently an

invitation was extended by this small company of worshippers to

the Rev. John Cordner, of Belfast, Ireland, to become their first

settled pastor. Mr. Cordner, who preached his first sermon in

Montreal in November, 1843, had been ordained by the Remonstrant

Synod of Ulster, and his congregation remained for several years

in official relation with the Irish Synod. In 1858 this alliance

was dissolved, and the Montreal Church united in fellowship with

its nearest neighbor, the American Unitarian Association, having

headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. During its early years

of struggle financial aid, as well as friendly interest and the

service of visiting ministers, had been given by this Association

to the Montreal congregation, and it was with their assistance

that, in 1844, a piece of land was purchased and a church

building erected on Beaver Hall Hill on a site once occupied by

the old Frobisher mansion, historically connected with the early

development of the fur-trade in Canada, and with the pioneer days

of the North West Company. In the following year the Unitarian

congregation received legal status by Act of Parliament, and its

ministers were authorized to keep record of civil acts required

of all settled pastors under the laws of the Province. By 1857

the congregation had outgrown its first building, and a new

place of worship was erected which, with its simple dignified

architecture, and beautiful spire, remained for fifty years a

well-known landmark of the city, under the name at this time

adopted, the Church of the Messiah.

In 1869 this building was seriously damaged by fire, and during

the time when it was undergoing repairs its congregation

worshiped in the hall of the St. Patrick’s Association in

response to the generous invitation of the Rev. Father Dowd.

Towards the end of his long pastorate of thirty-six years Doctor

Cordner was assisted, first by the Rev. Edward Hayward for a

period of one year, and afterwards, by the Rev. J.B. Green,

during three years. In 1879 when Doctor Cordner’s advancing years

made it desirable for him to retire from the active duties of

the ministry he was succeeded by the Rev. William S. Barnes, of

Boston.

Like his predecessor Mr. Barnes enjoyed a long pastorate, serving

his congregation faithfully for thirty years. Of each of these

ministers it may truly be said that he gained a unique place in

the affection of his congregation, combined with one of honor

and respect from the community at large. Each was distinguished

by a life of constant devotion to the service of his ideals, and

the duties of his pastorate, by unusual intellectual gifts, and

by great pulpit eloquence. The University of McGill recognized

the ability and public services of both ministers by awarding to

them the degree of LL. D. The story of the growth and unification

of the Church of the Messiah is largely the story of the devoted

lives of the two ministers who occupied its pulpit for a combined

period of nearly seventy years.

In 1905 the congregation decided that, owing to the movement

of the population uptown, and away from the old-time centers,

the situation of its place of worship had become inconveniently

remote, and the property was therefore sold, and a new church

building erected at the corner of Sherbrooke West and Simpson

streets. The new building, considered to be architecturally one

of the most successful erections of the city, owes much of its

harmony of design and execution to the artistic taste and culture

of Dr. Barnes, who felt its erection to be the culmination of his

life-work.

HEBREW SYNAGOGUES

Jewish settlers arrived in Canada towards the close of the period

of French rule. Among the officers and soldiers who fought in the

armies of Amherst and Wolfe were a number of men of the Hebrew

race who did their modest share towards assisting in the conquest

of the country and making it a part of the British Empire. When

they became sufficiently numerous to establish their first

Jewish congregation in Montreal, Canada, in 1768, they followed

the ritual of the Spanish and Portuguese or Sephardic Jews.

This congregation took the name of the Spanish and Portuguese

Jews, “Shearith Israel,” and the Congregation has continued ever

since in existence, being one of the most ancient of the Jewish

congregations in America. It at present worships on Stanley

Street above St. Catherine. The first place of worship was in a

room or hall on St. James Street, but in 1777 there was built

the first regular synagogue building on a lot of land belonging

to David David, son of Lazarus David, the first Jewish settler

in this city. The building was described as a low walled edifice

of stone with a red roof and high white-washed wall enclosing

it. It stood on Notre Dame Street at the junction of St. James

Street adjoining the present Court House and had an entrance on

either side. Shortly after the erection of this synagogue the

Congregation bought its first lot of land for a cemetery on St.

Janvier Street near what is now known as Dominion Square.

The first synagogue built near the Court House had to be

abandoned on account of the land on which it was built reverting

to the David family after the death of David David, and after

worshipping temporarily at the south-west corner of St. Helen and

Recollet streets, the second synagogue building of the Spanish

and Portuguese Congregation was erected on Chenneville Street in

1835 and completed in 1838. It was a small but dignified stone

building with a Doric portico and quasi-Egyptian interior. The

work was mainly carried out under the direction of Moses J. Hays,

a son of Andrew Hays, one of the earliest Jewish colonists, and

he was at that time a trustee of the Congregation.

When the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue was founded its first

rabbi was the Rev. Jacob Raphael Cohen, who came to Montreal in

1778, and held office for a number of years. He was succeeded by

M. Levy, and after him came Isaac Valentine. Rev. David Piza was

appointed minister of the Congregation in 1840 and held office

for six years, when he returned to London and became one of the

ministers of the Sephardic congregation there.

In 1846 the Rev. Abraham de Sola, LL. D., of London, England,

was elected rabbi and arrived in Canada early in the following

year. Dr. Abraham de Sola belonged to a family that had long

been prominent in the annals of the Jewish people in Spain and

afterwards in Holland and in England. His mother was of the

equally distinguished Meldola family. For over thirty-five years

he remained the spiritual chief of the Sephardic Jews in this

country. He died in 1882 and was succeeded by his eldest son,

Rev. Meldola de Sola.

In 1890 the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Congregation removed to

a new synagogue building which they had erected on Stanley Street

above St. Catherine. The corner stone had been laid three years

previously. Its architectural features are interesting as being a

conscientious attempt to carry out a pseudo Judeo-Egyptian style

with considerable success. Its design was due to Mr. Clarence I.

de Sola, one of the sons of Dr. Abraham de Sola, who directed

its erection and who had much to do with the carrying out of the

undertaking.

In the same year the Spanish and Portuguese Jews obtained a new

act of incorporation from the Provincial Parliament, its earlier

act of incorporation proving now inadequate to the needs of the

growing body.

Up to the year 1846 the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation,

“Shearith Israel” had remained the only Jewish Congregation in

Montreal, but during that year a number of recently arrived

German and Polish Jews established a second synagogue, and in

consequence of this a joint act of Parliament had been secured

for the two congregations. The second congregation, however,

existed only for a very short time, as its members were very

few in number so that they disbanded and joined the original

Spanish and Portuguese Congregation. In 1857-58, however, a

number of new arrivals of Jews from Poland, availing themselves

of the act of incorporation that had been obtained by their

predecessors, organized in 1858, what is now known as the

Congregation of German and Polish Jews, “Shaar Hashamoyim.” They

gathered regularly for worship about 1860 and erected their

first synagogue on St. Constant Street, now known as Cadieux

Street. Among the founders of the congregation were A. Hoffmann,

M.A. Olandorff, Edward Hymes and Lewis Anthony and were shortly

afterwards joined by David Moss, Edward Moss, Lawrence Moss and

Solomon Silvermann. The members of the Moss family were long

among the most prominent of the leaders in this synagogue and

were active here in Jewish communal affairs for two generations.

Among those of the younger generation of this family were Samuel

D. Moss, Hyman D. Moss and John Moss, who all in turn held office

in “Shaar Hashamoyim.” Among others who occupied the office

of president of this congregation were Lyon Silverman, Moses

Vineberg and D.A. Ansell. In 1887 the congregation built a new

synagogue in McGill College Avenue. During recent years it has

grown immensely in membership. This has been notably the case

under the administration of its late president, Mr. Lazarus

Cohen, as well as during the administration of his son, Mr. Lyon

Cohen, both of whom have been very active and capable workers

in the Jewish community of to-day. So well, indeed, have these

men and their associates managed the affairs of the Congregation

that they have already acquired land near Atwater Avenue and

St. Luke Street to put up a much larger synagogue to meet the

demands of its ever-growing membership. The first regular rabbi

of Congregation “Shaar Hashamoyim” was the Rev. Mr. Foss and

among his successors were the Rev. I.M. Cohen, Rev. E.M. Myers,

Rev. L. Friedlander, Rev. Isador Myers and the Rev. B. Kaplan.

The present incumbent of the office is the Rev. Dr. Hermann

Abramowitz.

Up to the year 1881 the Jewish population of Montreal was not

large, and the membership of the two congregations which then

existed was, in consequence, limited; but the terrible outbreak

of persecution of Jews in Russia in 1881 and the recurrence of

these outbreaks periodically in the following decades resulted

in immense numbers of Jews immigrating from Russia to Canada and

other countries. As a result the Jewish population of Montreal

increased by tens of thousands in a very short time, and it is

estimated that to-day there are in this city alone fully 60,000

Jews. One of the results was the formation of a large number

of new Jewish congregations and the erection of quite a number

of commodious synagogues. Among these are the Congregation of

“B’Nai Jacob,” which erected a new building on the site of the

old one in Cadieux Street. Among its founders were L. Aaronson

and L. Lazarus. The Roumanian Jews formed the Congregation “Beth

David,” and purchased the Chenneville Street building from its

former occupants after they had altered it considerably. Shortly

afterwards the Congregation “Chevra Kadisha” was formed, and they

erected their present handsome building on St. Urbain Street,

while the Austrian Jews erected a large synagogue on Milton

Street. The building of new synagogues has continued apace,

and the formation of new congregations of Hebrews is a common

occurrence.

All the congregations referred to above follow the customs of

traditional or orthodox Judaism, but in 1882 a small number of

gentlemen who favored the principles of American Reform Judaism

met in the old Lindsay Building on St. Catherine Street to form

a “Reform” congregation, and thus was founded what is now known

as Congregation Temple Emanuel. They held their first services in

the autumn of 1882 and obtained an act of incorporation in March,

1883. Among the founders of this congregation were B.A. Boas, B.

Kortosk, Leopold Isaacs, L. Abrahams, E. Lichtenhein, S. Fishel,

and A. Goldstein. They were soon afterwards joined by Samuel

Davis, who for a number of years held office as president and who

was a popular member of the reform community. They first rented

a building but afterwards erected a temple on Stanley Street,

in the rear of the Windsor Hotel. On September 17, 1911, they

dedicated their new temple building on Sherbrooke Street, West,

near Westmount. This Congregation is up to the present the only

one following the Reform ritual in Canada, and although they form

but a small minority of the total community, they have adhered to

their views in a typical manner. Their present president is Mr.

Maxwell Goldstein, K.C. Their first minister was the Rev. Samuel

Marks, who was followed among others by the Rev. H. Veld, and

Rev. Isaac Landman. Their present rabbi is the Rev. Nathan Gordon.

THE SALVATION ARMY

The religious work of the Salvation Army began in Montreal on the

13th of November, 1884, with the following as the first corps

of officers: Commissioner T.B. Combs, territorial commander,

in charge of the work throughout Canada; Staff Commander

Madden, divisional commander; Captain and Mrs. “Happy Bill”

Cooper, corps officers; assisted by Lieutenant Eva Lewis. It

met initial difficulties, principally in the injunction that

forbade the holding of meetings unless they kept moving, which

was circumvented by moving around in a circle at the same spot, a

necessity which was finally allowed to drop.

The first corps held its meetings for the first two years in

Webber’s Hall, which stood on the site of the present Canadian

Northern Steamship Company’s building on Dollard Lane and St.

James Street. Next the Mechanic’s Hall, on St. James and St.

Peter streets was used as a meeting place for six months. The

next location was the basement of Leggett’s boot and shoe factory

at the corner of Craig and Victoria streets, where the present

Greenshield’s building stands, until the St. Alexander Street

building was erected.

This was the citadel and training home for officers and the main

corps of the army. The fine structure on University Street, the

divisional headquarters, was erected in 1903, and the building

on St. Alexander Street was altered entirely to become the

present “Metropole” for social relief work. The University Street

building, in addition to serving as the divisional headquarters

of the Army also houses the finance and immigration departments

and is the home of Corps No. 1, and includes the Young Women’s

Lodge.

Following the opening of the work by Corps No. 1, Corps No. 2 was

organized in Point St. Charles on March 15, 1885.

Corps No. 3, the French Corps, opened its work on the 9th of

December, 1887, in a little store on St. Lawrence Main and St.

Viateur streets. French-speaking officers, brought over from

Paris, organized the work and still continue in charge of its

affairs. This little home was at first the scene of much turmoil,

many serious fights occurring in which chairs and other weapons

were freely used, but out of this grew, with the passing of the

years, the present strong, harmonious body.

On the 30th of June, 1890, Corps No. 4 was formed in the East

End, and on April 5, 1905, Corps No. 5 on St. Alexander Street,

which is the Men’s Social Corps. Corps No. 6, the most recent to

be organized, began its work on June 25, 1914, in Verdun.

It is difficult to account fully for the origin of other

religious bodies in the city. The German Lutherans established

their church in 1858 on St. Dominique Street, immediately in the

rear of St. Lawrence market. It is now occupied by the “Temple

of Labour.” The Swedenborgians were established on Dorchester

Street, corner of Hanover, in 1862. The Assembly of Christians,

at the corner of St. George Street and Fortification Lane, about

the same period. The French Evangelical Church, on Craig Street,

was established in 1864. Lovell’s directory of today gives the

location of the following churches: Christian Science--First

Church of Christ Scientist--41 and 43 Closse Street, Western

Square: New Jerusalem Church, corner of Dorchester West and

Hanover Street; Lutheran Churches--St. John’s Church (German

Lutheran), corner of Mance and Prince Arthur Street; Church

of the Redeemer (Evangelical Lutheran), 365 Mountain Street;

Catholic Apostolic Church, 314 St. Catherine Street, West; Church

of Christ (Disciples), 109 Fairmount, corner of Mance Street;

Seventh Day Adventist Church, corner of Villeneuve, West, and

Hutchison streets; Montreal Chinese Mission (Protestant), 336

Lagauchitiere Street, West; Undenominational Mission (City),

294-296 Cadieux Street; Desrivières Street Mission; Italian

Methodist Mission, corner of Dorchester Street, West, and St.

Urbain. The following charts will provide the curious student the

religious origins of our population as revealed by the census of

1911.

RELIGIONS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF MONTREAL, 1911.

|Total

|Population

| |Adventists

| | |Anglicans

| | | |Baptists

and | | | | | | | | |Friends

MONTREAL-STE. ANNE | 21,676| --| 2,385| 174|--|--| 67| --| --| 122| 841

Centre ward | 458| --| 7| -- |--|--| --| --| --| 22| --

Ste. Anne ward | 20,992| --| 2,334| 173|--|--| 67| --| --| 100| 833

West ward | 226| --| 44| 1|--|--| --| --| --| -- | 8

| | | | | | | | | | |

MONTREAL-ST. ANTOINE | 48,638| 6|10,653| 840|18| 9|453| 10| 4| 111| 1,247

St. Joseph ward | 17,879| --| 2,241| 340|--| 1| 40| --| 1| 61| 483

St. Georges ward | 13,844| 1| 4,373| 241|18| 8|186| 2| 3| 45| 419

St. Andrews ward | 16,915| 5| 4,039| 259|--|--|227| 8| --| 5| 345

| | | | | | | | | | |

MONTREAL-ST. JACQUES | 44,057| 1| 429| 45| 2| 3| 15| --| --| 188| 547

East ward | 3,561| --| 17| -- |--|--| 1| --| --| 118| 1

Lafontaine ward | 25,026| --| 348| 37|--| 3| 11| --| --| 13| 409

St. James ward | 15,470| 1| 64| 8| 2|--| 3| --| --| 57| 137

| | | | | | | | | | |

MONTREAL-ST. LAURENT | 55,860| 2| 4,109| 280|23|14|205| 2| 4| 411|19,193

St. Laurent ward | 25,039| 2| 3,342| 197|12| 1|170| 2| 4| 165| 7,712

St. Louis ward | 30,821| --| 767| 83|11|13| 35| --| --| 246|11,481

| | | | | | | | | | |

MONTREAL-STE. MARIE | 54,910| --| 1,651| 113|--|11| 12| --| --| 42| 326

Papineau ward | 39,079| --| 1,409| 67|--|--| 12| --| --| 39| 292

Ste. Marie ward | 15,831| --| 242| 46|--|11| --| --| --| 3| 34

| | | | | | | | | | |

HOCHELAGA | 75,049| 3| 9,302| 954|48|--|698| 3| 1| 44| 580

Ste. Cunégonde ward | 11,174| 3| 658| 44| 1|--| 31| --| --| 9| 102

St. Gabriel ward | 18,961| --| 2,855| 278| 8|--|323| --| --| 11| 54

St. Henri ward | 30,335| --| 1,560| 113| 4|--| 19| 3| --| 15| 50

Westmount | 14,579| --| 4,229| 519|35|--|325| --| 1| 9| 374

| | | | | | | | | | |

JACQUES-CARTIER | 65,023| 4| 8,905| 511|63| 8|201| 2| --| 236| 541

Côte St. Paul | 3,421| --| 732| 16| 4|--| 10| --| --| -- | 6

Neiges | 912| --| 46| -- |--| 4| --| --| --| -- | 8

Ste. Vierge | 221| --| -- | 3|--|--| --| --| --| -- | --

Lachine | 828| --| 106| 18|--|--| --| --| --| -- | 13

l’Ile | 813| --| 98| 1|--|--| --| --| --| -- | 8

Ste. Geneviève | 1,075| --| -- | -- |--|--| --| --| --| -- | --

Pointe Claire | 805| --| 91| 4 |--|--| --| --| --| -- | --

St. Laurent | 2,228| --| 258| 10 | 7|--| --| --| --| -- | 9

Bizard | 586| --| 1| -- |--|--| --| --| --| -- | --

Summerlea | 161| --| 33| -- |--|--| --| --| --| -- | 3

Beaconsfield | 375| --| 70| -- |--|--| 2| --| --| -- | 2

Dorval | 1,006| --| 184| 6 |--|--| 12| --| --| -- | 11

Lachine | 10,699| --| 1,600| 43 |--| 4| 4| 2| --| 57 | 322

Montréal | 703| 1| 205| 6 |--|--| 14| --| --| -- | --

Notre-Dame de Grâce | 5,217| --| 978| 64 |--|--| 17| --| --| 80 | 2

Outremont | 4,820| --| 917| 129 |21|--| 57| --| --| -- | 41

Pointe Claire | 793| --| 116| 2 |--|--| --| --| --| -- | --

Bellevue | 1,416| --| 76| 9 |--|--| 7| --| --| -- | 9

St. Laurent | 1,860| --| 24| -- |--|--| --| --| --| -- | --

Verdun | 11,629| --| 2,309| 154|15|--| 67| --| --| 8 | 67

Ville Emard | 6,179| --| 418| 24|--|--| --| --| --| 1 | --

Youville | 2,394| 3| 134| 6|16|--| 5| --| --| 2 | 2

Cartierville | 905| --| 1| -- |--|--| --| --| --| -- | 10

Côte des Neiges | 2,444| --| 254| 3|--|--| 6| --| --| -- | 23

Côte St. Luc | 303| --| 22| -- |--|--| --| --| --| -- | --

Ste. Geneviève | 612| --| -- | -- |--|--| --| --| --| -- | --

St Pierre aux Liens | 2,201| --| 192| 12|--|--| --| --| --| 88 | 5

Senneville | 418| --| 40| 1|--|--| --| --| --| -- | --

| | | | | | | | | | |

MAISONNEUVE |170,978| 33|11,642|1,176|52|21|309| 5| 1| 272| 5,227

De Lorimier ward | 10,453| --| 745| 232|--| 6| 2| --| --| 1| 3

Duvernay ward | 13,445| 1| 188| 4|--| 4| 5| --| --| 12| 37

Hochelaga ward | 20,986| --| 1,236| 133|--|--| 7| --| --| -- | 42

Laurier ward | 37,000| 17| 4,608| 379|48| 6|190| 5| 1| 23| 1,204

Maisonneuve | 18,684| 2| 970| 51|--| 5| 2| --| --| 45| 8

Rosemont ward | 1,319| --| 58| 51|--|--| --| --| --| -- | --

St. Denis ward | 40,364| 13| 2,284| 187| 4|--| 69| --| --| 31| 1,015

ward | 21,116| --| 1,121| 123|--|--| 26| --| --| 30| 2,918

Ste. Marie ward | 7,611| --| 432| 16|--|--| 8| --| --| | --

RELIGIONS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF MONTREAL, 1911.

|Lutherans

| |Mennonites

| | |Methodists

| | | |Mormons

and | | | | | | | |Protestants

--------------------+---+---+-----+--+-----+-------+---+---+--+---+----

MONTREAL-STE. ANNE |101| 8| 526|--|1,719| 14,835| 28|799|11| 33| 27

Centre ward | --| --| 3|--| 17| 409| --| --|--| --| --

Ste. Anne ward | 99| 8| 507|--|1,675| 14,318| 24|798| 5| 33| 18

West ward | 2| --| 16|--| 27| 108| 4| 1| 6| --| 9

| | | | | | | | | | |

MONTREAL-ST. ANTOINE|294| --|2,305|--|7,117| 24,774| 46|399| 8|255| 89

St. Joseph ward | 76| --| 467|--|1,030| 13,029| 6| 37|--| 53| 14

St. Georges ward |110| --| 825|--|2,732| 4,489| 30| 78| 8|202| 74

St. Andrews ward |108| --|1,013|--|3,355| 7,256| 10|284|--| --| 1

| | | |--| | | | | | |

MONTREAL-ST. JACQUES| 39| 1| 108|--| 349| 41,832| --|315| 9| 63|111

East ward | --| --| 11|--| 41| 3,311| --| |--| 13| 48

Lafontaine ward | 26| --| 84|--| 252| 23,601| --|165|--| 23| 54

St. James ward | 13| 1| 13|--| 56| 14,920| --|150| 9| 27| 9

| | | | | | | | | | |

MONTREAL-ST. LAURENT|178| 1|1,412|--|2,772| 25,831| 30|754| 6|426|207

St. Laurent ward |149| --|1,149|--|2,166| 9,272| 25|202| 6|334|129

St. Louis ward | 29| 1| 263|--| 606| 16,559| 5|552|--| 92| 78

| | | | | | | | | | |

MONTREAL-STE. MARIE | 33| --| 366|--|1,130| 50,082| 46|995|--| 39| 64

Papineau ward | 23| --| 238|--| 796| 35,454| 30|644|--| 28| 47

Ste. Marie ward | 10| --| 128|--| 334| 14,628| 16|351|--| 11| 17

| | | | | | | | | | |

HOCHELAGA |226| --|3,598|--|7,677| 50,745|112|637| 5|375| 41

Ste. Cunégonde | 23| --| 230|--| 424| 9,498| 8| 88|--| 52| 3

St. Gabriel ward | 68| --|1,206|--|2,104| 11,815| 94| 71|--| 61| 13

St. Henri ward | 12| --| 535|--| 723| 26,828| 8|417| 4| 34| 10

Westmount |123| --|1,627|--|4,426| 2,604| 2| 61| 1|228| 15

| | | | | | | | | | |

JACQUES-CARTIER |127| --|2,441|--|5,073| 46,085| 41|592| 3|173| 17

Côte St. Paul | 31| --| 235|--| 30| 2,331| --| 26|--| --| --

Neiges | 1| --| 9|--| 22| 822| --| --|--| --| --

| | | | | | | | | | |

la Ste. Vièrge| --| --| --|--| 1| 217| --| --|--| --| --

Lachine | 5| --| 22|--| 108| 556| --| --|--| --| --

Bout de l’Ile | --| --| 3|--| 76| 587| --| 40|--| --| --

Ste. Geneviève | --| --| --|--| --| 1,063| --| 12|--| --| --

Pointe Claire | --| --| 8|--| 38| 662| --| 2|--| --| --

St. Laurent | --| --| 35|--| 224| 1,670| 8| 6|--| --| 1

l’Ile Bizard | --| --| --|--| --| 585| --| --|--| --| --

Summerlea | --| --| 9|--| 39| 77| --| --|--| --| --

Beaconsfield | 2| --| 36|--| 20| 225| 3| 10|--| 5| --

Dorval | 1| --| 18|--| 179| 585| --| 8|--| --| 1

Lachine | 9| --| 373|--| 673| 7,288| --|287|--| 33| 4

Montréal | 3| --| 119|--| 272| 74| --| --|--| 9| --

Grâce | 3| --| 254|--| 432| 3,344| 1| 16|--| 26| --

Outremont | 11| --| 389|--| 768| 2,425| --| 16| 3| 39| 4

Pointe Claire | 3| --| 6|--| 70| 580| --| 15|--| 1| --

Bellevue | --| --| 43|--| 73| 1,188| --| 7|--| 4| --

St. Laurent | --| --| 1|--| 19| 1,812| --| 1|--| 3| --

Verdun | 40| --| 723|--|1,530| 6,631| 27| 26|--| 29| 3

Ville Emard | 6| --| 86|--| 77| 5,526| --| 37|--| --| 4

Youville | 5| --| 1|--| 117| 2,102| 1| --|--| --| --

Cartierville | --| --| 4|--| 20| 838| --| 32|--| --| --

Côte des Neiges | 6| --| 41|--| 122| 1,971| 1| --|--| 17| --

Côte St. Luc | --| --| --|--| --| 245| --| 36|--| --| --

Ste. Geneviève | --| --| --|--| --| 612| --| --|--| --| --

Liens | 1| --| 26|--| 156| 1,720| --| --|--| 1| --

Senneville | --| --| --|--| 7| 349| --| 15|--| 6| --

| | | | | | | | | | |

MAISONNEUVE |289| 1|3,550|--|7,300|139,708| 53|767| 2|486| 84

De Lorimier ward | 10| --| 346|--| 654| 8,289| 6|116| 2| 39| 2

Duvernay ward | 1| --| 36|--| 94| 13,003| --| 40|--| 15| 5

Hochelaga ward | 40| 1| 268|--| 445| 18,604| --| 35|--| 47| 1

Laurier ward |121| --|1,546|--|3,073| 25,447| 20|102|--|179| 31

Maisonneuve | 24| --| 288|--| 861| 16,277| 3| 77|--| 61| 10

Rosemont ward | 2| --| 52|--| 152| 988| --| --|--| 16| --

St. Denis ward | 63| --| 522|--|1,266| 34,627| 12|227|--| 40| 4

ward | 21| --| 335|--| 587| 15,749| 11|104|--| 60| 31

Ste. Marie ward | 7| --| 157|--| 168| 6,724| 1| 66|--| 29| --

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The sketch by the Rev. J.A. Gordon written in 1906 has been

used.

CHAPTER XXVI

1760-1841

SCHOOL SYSTEM OF MONTREAL BEFORE THE CESSION

NEW MOVEMENT FOR BOYS--THE COLLEGE DE MONTREAL--THE BEGINNINGS

OF ENGLISH EDUCATION--THE FIRST ENGLISH SCHOOLMASTERS BEFORE

1790--A REPORT OF 1790 FOR THE SCHOOLS OF CANADA--THE DESIRE

TO REAR UP A SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION--THE JESUITS’

ESTATES--THE “CASE” AGAINST AMHERST’S CLAIM TO THE JESUITS’

ESTATES AND FOR THEIR DIVERGENCE TO PUBLIC EDUCATION--NEW

ENGLISH MOVEMENT FOR A GENERAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION--THE

ACT OF 1801--THE ROYAL INSTITUTION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF

LEARNING--NEVER A POPULAR SUCCESS--ITS REFORM IN 1818--A

COUNTERPOISE--THE FABRIQUE ACT OF 1824--REVIEW OF SCHOOLS UNDER

THE ROYAL INSTITUTION--SUBSIDIZED SCHOOLS--REVIEW OF CATHOLIC

SCHOOLS--LAY SCHOOLS--LORD DURHAM’S REPORT ON EDUCATION. NOTE:

THE JESUITS’ ESTATES.

Under the English Rule the system of primary education carried on

by the Sulpicians for boys and Marguerite Bourgeoys’ congregation

for girls was continued as before the session. That for boys

began when the Sulpician Souart, the first schoolmaster of

Montreal, commenced his school teaching about 1669, after he had

finished the first term as superior of the seminary.

The earliest new movement for boys after the English possession

was made as follows:

In 1773 the stables and poultry house of the old Château de

Vaudreuil became a school for little boys for elementary

education, and from this date the château became known as the

Collège de St. Raphael, the successor of the Pétit Seminaire

established in 1767 by M. Curatteau in his presbytery at Longue

Pointe.

In 1776 the Collège de St. Raphael was formerly inaugurated for

the purpose of higher education, but it continued its elementary

classes or petites écoles.

On October 11, 1790, in answer to a request of Lord Dorchester

of the sixth of the same month, a catalogue of the professors of

the College of Montreal for 1790 was sent with some remarks on

the college and on the schools. The latter are as follows: “The

schools which the ecclesiastics of the Seminary of Montreal keep

are nearly as old as the establishment of the town. They teach

only reading and writing in Latin and in French. The Seminary

undertakes all the expense, furnishes the wood and the books,

pays the masters’ board and lodges them. These schools are

divided into ‘grandes’ and ‘petites.’ The petites écoles are for

children who are only beginning to learn to read. The grandes

écoles are for those who commence already to know how to read and

who are learning to write. The parents who are able, pay five

shillings a year for each scholar. The poor pay nothing at all.”

The first English schoolmaster in Montreal would seem to

be a John Pullman, who came from New York in 1773 by the

recommendation of the Rev. Dr. Ogilvie to try to establish a

school in Montreal in consequence of an application to him from

gentlemen of that city. He worked under a committee. This above

information is told in the memorial of 1779, in which he applied

for a license of Protestant schoolmaster similar to the position

that Tanswell then possessed in Quebec. His recommendation

was signed by the leading men of Montreal. But his scholars

dwindling through competition, doubtless, his poverty forced him

to apply, in 1782, for any small employment as a clerk and for

a subscription to a work he had prepared, the short title of

which was “Cash Clerks’ Assistant.” Finlay Fisher opened a school

about 1778 which he said was well attended and flourishing. The

Rev. Mr. John Stuart opened an academy for youth in Montreal in

1781. Mr. Stuart was born in the province of Virginia in 1736 or

1740, was ordained in England, returning in 1770 to Philadelphia,

whence he went as a missionary to the Mohawk valley. On the

outbreak of the American revolution he had been made a prisoner

for his loyalty. He seems to have escaped and made his way to

Montreal. He prepared his advertisement and sent it to Governor

Haldimand, who offered to give him every encouragement and

appropriated to the undertaking part of the bounty allowed

by government, adding “Your advertisement will be published

tomorrow, but I directed the words ‘principally intended for the

children of Protestants’ to be left out as it is a distinction

which could not fail to create jealousies at all times improper

but more particularly so at present.” His Excellency desired that

all classes should be received. Mr. Stuart in complying said that

he had already admitted any persons that offered, Protestants,

Catholics, Jews, etc.

It was difficult to get schoolmasters in the early days. Mr.

Stuart’s assistant was a Mr. Christie. He was incapable of

teaching even the lowest branches of arithmetic and language.

Mr. Stuart on November 27, 1782, reported in all simplicity

to Haldimand: “I could have dispensed with his ignorance of

the English language and faulty accent, but when I found him

unacquainted with the rules of common arithmetic and often

obliged to apply to me (in presence of the pupils) for the

solution of the most simple question, I could no longer doubt

of his inefficiency.” A new assistant was engaged and shortly

afterward Christie left the province. Finlay Fisher in 1783 in

his memorial applied for Christie’s salary, £25 a year, to be

added to his own; he did not receive it, however, till May 1,

1786, when it came due for the first time for the preceding six

months. Mr. Stuart’s last salary at Montreal was for the six

months between November 1, 1785, to April 30, 1786. He then went

to Kingston on which his gaze had been fixed for some time. He

became the first Anglican clergyman there. In 1789 he established

a classical school there, the first school of the kind in Upper

Canada.

An early report issued in England before 1790 by the “Society for

the Propagation,” speaking of the early struggles, mentions that

“there is not a single Protestant church in the whole province.

* * * There are two schools, to each of which a salary of £100

a year is allotted by the government, the one at Quebec and the

other at Montreal. The schoolmaster’s name at Quebec is Tanswell.

The Rev. Mr. Stuart had the school at Montreal for a short time

(after his flight from Fort Hunter, where he was a missionary)

until, about two years ago, the government thought proper to take

half his salary away and divide it between a Mr. Fisher and Mr.

Christie, both Presbyterians. * * * But besides the division of

the salary there is neither a schoolhouse nor land appropriated

nor trustees appointed, nor any regularities made respecting the

application of the £100 salary. The inhabitants are opulent and

generous and only want a proper person to place and establish

a seminary. In that case the income cannot fail of being

considerable. The prices for tuition have been for Latin, half a

guinea, for English and arithmetic, $2 per month. There is not an

English school in the place.”

[Illustration: STUDIES FROM THE CARTIER MONUMENT: Law]

[Illustration: STUDIES FROM THE CARTIER MONUMENT: Education]

In 1790, however, a memorandum was made of the ecclesiastical and

educational aspects of the country which gives us an insight into

the growing life of the English colony in Canada and Montreal,

occasioned, no doubt, by the influx of the United Empire

Loyalists migrating into the country:

PROTESTANT CLERGY

Episcopal or English Church

Salaries.

M. de Lisle, Montreal £ 200

Tunstall 100

De Montmolten, Quebec 200

Toosey 200

Veyssiere, Three Rivers 200

Doty, William Henry 100

Stuart, Kingston 100

Bryan, Cornwall 50

Langhorn, near Kingston (missionary from ye society for

propagating ye gospel with £50 and from government £100) 150

Church of Scotland

Messrs. Henry and Spark, Quebec; Bethune near Oswegatchie 50

------

£1,350

PROTESTANT SCHOOLS

Quebec

Scholars. Teachers. Salary.

25 Tanswell £100

18 Fraser

32 Keith

53 Jones

11 Sargeant

41 Burrows

----

180

Montreal

42 Fisher £ 50

48 Nelson

39 Bowen

17 Gunn

----

146

Three Rivers

11 Brown

15 Morris

----

William Henry

17 Biset

Gaspe

Hobson £ 25

No returns yet made up of ye Protestant schools in ye counties of

Gaspe, Lunenberg, Mechlenburg, Naysau and Hesse.

* * * * *

Although, therefore, the educational outlook was not very

great[1] in 1790, yet already there was foreseen the necessity of

an established system of public education in connection with the

government. For this funds were badly needed.

In pursuing the history of the educational movement in which

Montreal shares, notice must be now taken of the Jesuit estates,

for upon the funds accruing from these, an early movement

started to rear the means of an educational system in Canada.

After the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1774 in Canada

these estates had been promised to Lord Amherst as a recognition

of his services. This met with consistent opposition, and a

contra-movement arose to secure the estates as a means of rearing

up a public educational system. A petition of November 19, 1787,

was signed at Quebec by 195 inhabitants transmitting a “case” in

which it was claimed that “as Canadians and citizens they had a

right therein by title, and law, the College of Quebec having

been founded for their education. It is their patrimony which

they have cleared and cultivated. Even as subjects they have a

right to public education which exists in every government.” The

“case” insists that the Jesuits were only the rectors, professors

and managers: that the Hundred Associates and others had founded

the colleges for educational purposes. The petitioners demand

that the troops then using the college as a barracks should

be dislodged and pray the government “to restore the antient

professors of the college or to name others and regulate the

recompense due to their talents and attentions.” It is but

just to note that the Jesuits never ceded their claims to the

complete possession of their estates, nor recognized a mere

trusteeship.

A similar petition to that of 1787 was addressed by the

inhabitants of Montreal in 1793, and again in 1800, praying that

on reversion of the Jesuit estates the revenue should be diverted

to the education of youth. Three Rivers similarly protested

against the policy of the Amherst grant. At the first legislative

assembly a recommendation was made for the divergence of the

Jesuit funds to popular education. Thus Amherst’s patent was

not signed. The death of Perè Casot, the last surviving Jesuit

of the old régime, occurring in 1801, the governor claimed the

estates for the crown, which hitherto had been administered by

the Society. A majority in the house preferred that they should

be devoted to educational purposes and demanded the titles. But

it was not till 1831 that they were finally ceded, with the

exception of the Jesuit College at Quebec which became converted

into a barracks. Meanwhile the Anglican bishop of the diocese and

other English leaders, especially the merchants, deploring the

lack of educational facilities, agitated for a _general_ school

system, one of the arguments being the usefulness this would have

of encouraging the English language through the province. At

this time three classes of schools were in contemplation: parish

schools (elementary), grammar schools and superior seminaries

or universities, schools on the line of Westminster, Winchester

and Eton. With regard to a university the committee of the

executive council thought it premature to formulate any plan, but

recommended that an appropriation should be made to cover any

plan that might be adopted.

The future of education was reported on in answer to the

following questions: “The establishing of schools and seminaries

for the education of youth from those funds now unemployed

as well in England as in this province and particularly a

respectable college in this city with able professors and

erecting free schools at convenient distances throughout this

extensive province for the purpose of opening and enlarging the

human mind, conciliating the affections of all His Majesty’s

subjects and having a tendency to render this a happy and

flourishing province.” Observation: “There remains for us to

advert to a subject which we consider as the surest and best

means of obtaining a cheerful and dutiful obedience to the

laws and government from subjects in general, and that is by

establishing throughout the province at proper distances public

schools for the education of youth. We hardly know of a single

school in any country part of the district for teaching boys

and it is to the zeal of the few sisters of the congregation

that we are indebted for all the little which is taught to

girls throughout the country. The captains of militia who are

frequently called upon to enforce law and order are so illiterate

that not one in three can write or even read. The consequence is

confusion and disorder and frequent suits and complaints between

them and the militiamen.” They then suggest that for funds the

estates of the Jesuits, which they understood likely to revert to

the crown, could be conveniently applied for the purpose; that

also, owing to the separation of the American states, there might

be some unappropriated funds in England which could be applied

for. The report reverts to the former petition of 1785 for a

house of assembly, suggesting this as the only way to promote the

welfare of the province as a British colony. In 1793, therefore,

a further recommendation was made to the legislative assembly

which presented an address to the governor urging upon the crown

the propriety of devoting the Jesuit estates for educational

purposes. No answer having been given, another on the same

subject was presented to the governor in 1800.

In reply to this the governor, in a speech to the legislature,

intimated the intention of the government “to set apart a portion

of the crown domain instead for the establishment of a competent

number of free schools for the instruction of their children

in the first rudiments of useful learning and in the English

tongue; and also as occasion may require for foundations of a

more enlarged and comprehensive nature.” In 1801, therefore,

an act entitled “an act for the establishment of free schools

and the advancement of learning in the province” was passed by

the provincial legislature to give effect to these promises. It

provided also for “the establishment of a Royal Institution for

the Advancement of Learning.” To this corporation was entrusted

the entire management of all schools and institutions of royal

foundation in the province as well as the administration of all

estates and property appropriated to these schools.

This act remained practically a dead letter, since no grants

were ever made. What rendered the scheme a failure was the

additional reason of its unpopularity with the majority. Of the

eighteen trustees of the Royal Institution, four only were Roman

Catholics; and of the fourteen Protestants, three were prominent

officials in Upper Canada. The teachers, too, were principally

from Britain, unacquainted with the French language and generally

ignorant of the habits of the people.

In 1818 in order to give practical effect to the act of 1801 all

the government schools then receiving government aid were placed

under the Royal Institution. The question of representative

trusteeship was made more simple and more equitable, but the

Protestant Lord Bishop of Quebec was named principal. This again

kept the Catholics from participating, the movement being still

looked upon as Protestant and Anglicizing. So that Lord Dalhousie

wrote from Quebec on the 10th of June, 1821, to Lord Bathurst,

asking that His Majesty would sanction the establishment

of a Catholic institution precisely similar to that of the

Protestants for the government of their schools. “The Catholic

religion in this province,” he said, “is certainly the most sure

defense yet against our neighbours and every fair encouragement

should be given to it in promoting education and learning. One

great objection complained of is the being subjected to the

superintendence of the Royal Institution, of which the Protestant

bishop is president. That objection is natural in a country where

the Catholic religion prevails as to numbers and is guarded by

ministers always watchful and perhaps jealous of the Protestant

church.”

The Royal Institution was never popular because of its want of

sympathy with the people whom it wished to benefit. It cannot be

said to have been a success, owing to the peculiar denominational

constitution of its charter and the apathy in its own council.

Still it pointed the way to a general scheme of public education

which afterwards bore fruit. Its greatest success is in the

present day McGill University, whose official title is still the

“Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning.”

Various attempts were made by the legislature to introduce a more

popular system of management in the schools. In 1824, on the

elaborate report of a special committee of the province which

represented that in many parishes not more than five or six of

the inhabitants could write; that generally not above one-fourth

of the entire population could read and that not above one-tenth

of the entire population could write, a counterpoise measure

to the royal institution was passed for the Catholics entitled

the “Fabrique act” by which the Fabriques or corporations of

the parish churches consisting of the curé and church wardens

as school commissioners, could hold and acquire property, etc.,

to found and carry on elementary schools, one for every one

hundred families. One of the great reasons for the failure of

educational legislation down to 1836 was the want of permanency

about it all. Another was the jobbery of politicians in a time

of seething turmoil. Arthur Buller, commissioner, appointed by

Lord Durham in 1838, reports clearly on this. “In short, the

moment that they found that their educational provisions could be

turned to political account, from that moment those provisions

were formed with a view to promote party rather than education.

This was their essential fault. This, it was, that pervaded and

contaminated the whole system and paralyzed all good that was

otherwise in it.” There were about one thousand, six hundred

schools in Canada and these had to be closed.

It is now in place to review the state of education in Montreal

under the Royal Institution. When finally funds were forthcoming

they were supplied by an annual vote of the provincial parliament

of £2,000, but under an authority from Lord Bathurst, dated

January 24, 1817, a grant was made from the revenues of the

Jesuit estate confined to the grammar schools of Quebec and

Montreal. The latter received £200 a year with £52 a year for

the rent of the schoolhouse. By the rules of the foundation

twenty free scholars were to be admitted. At this date there were

fifteen all told who paid for their education as day scholars.

The terms for instruction in the higher education were £10 a year

and £8 for the lower.

There were also two elementary schools at Montreal which received

appropriations from the government, viz., the British and

Canadian schools (£300) and the National free school (£200). With

regard to the schools under the institution a memorandum of Sir

John Kempt states that “by a return made in the year 1818 the

number of schools in this province was stated to be thirty-seven

attended by only 1,048 scholars and maintained at an expense to

the public of £1,883 10 strg.”

In 1829 he also states the number of schools up to July 1st

as seventy-eight and the number of scholars 3,772. Up to this

date Catholics had no connection with the institution. In Lord

Aylmer’s report of 1832 the schools under the royal institution

of which the names are given as well as those of the teachers and

their salaries, number seventy. The schools of Montreal given

among the list of “society or private” institutions receiving

occasional aid from public funds are given thus:

Place. Establishment. Name of Professor

or Teacher. Salary.

City of Montreal Grammar School A. Skakel £200

City of Montreal National School W. Greene 65

Miss Meredith 45

City of Montreal British and Canadian

School Male Teacher 90

Female Teacher 60

City of Montreal St. Jacques School

(French) M. Archambault 28-15

(English) Mr. Ryden 28-15

(Female) I. Lauzon 15-5

(Evening) M. Ducharme 12-10

City of Montreal Recollect School Masters--Two 63

Mistresses--Two 27

City of Montreal Infants’ School Two Teachers 54

City of Montreal Experimental School J. Lancaster 90

There were in addition many private Catholic and Protestant

schools. We may note the origins of some of the most important

public schools. The Royal Grammar school was founded in Montreal

in 1816, with Mr. Alexander Skakel, M.A., who came out from

England as head master. A writer in the Montreal Daily Herald of

Saturday, March 15, 1913, writes:

“This may be said to have been the first ambitious attempt to put

Protestant education in Montreal on a substantial and efficient

footing. Mr. Skakel came out under, as he was wont to say, the

pleasing illusion that the new world would offer him prospects

denied him in the old. He was disillusionized, for the colony was

not only young and raw, but the political and social conditions

of the time were anything but congenial, while the emoluments

were slender, and the life, generally, wholly different to that

to which he had been accustomed. However, Mr. Skakel--whose

portrait hangs in the High School--did not complain, but went

straight on, developing the school which met, first of all, in

the old Belmont Park building, and afterwards in the Fraser

building at the corner of Dorchester Street and Union Avenue.”

Mr. Skakel was succeeded by the Rev. John Leeds and the Rev.

George Simpson. The Royal grammar school was merged with the

high school shortly after the organization of the latter in

1845. The Lancaster School took its name from Messrs. Lancaster

and Bell, who came out from England, having been instrumental

in establishing popular schools there, and they interested

themselves in the formation of the British Canadian school. The

early days of education were those of sacrifice for the teachers,

ill paid, with inadequate teaching facilities, both in materials

and buildings, overwork, and for the treasury which had to depend

on voluntary gifts and collecting cards. Things are better now,

but one wonders whether the teaching profession will ever come to

its own.

The National School was founded in 1816 under the auspices of

the Montreal district committee of the Society for Promoting

Christian Knowledge. In 1839 the number of boys was 36 French and

120 English, and of girls 20 French and 84 English.

The British and Canadian School Society, which was opened in

a building belonging formerly to the Montreal Hospital, was

instituted on the 21st of September, 1822, to maintain on

an extensive scale a school to promote the education of the

labouring classes, and secondly, as a model school to train up

teachers under Mr. Lancaster and a committee of gentlemen for

future schools to follow the British system. It was meant to be

undenominational. Its early success enabled it to build by funds

from voluntary sources and from the provincial government a more

commodious schoolhouse on Lagauchetière Street, the foundation

being laid on the 17th of October, 1826. It was designed to

school 414 boys and 232 girls. In 1826 the number of attendance

was:

Boys Girls

Roman Catholics 97 38

Episcopal Church 27 9

Presbyterian 42 21

Methodists 30 11

---- ----

196 79

Total, 275.

This school lapsed in 1837, the year of the rebellion, which

proved so fatal to education. There were 1,600 schools in the

province, teaching 40,000 children, and these had to be closed.

The Brothers of the Christian Schools made their entry into

Montreal in 1837. Their important work, of which humble seeds

were now laid, developed greatly under the Union, its story being

therefore left to a later chapter.

A summary of the schools of 1839 is presented by Bosworth

in “Hochelaga Depicta.” Besides the “New College” or “pétit

seminaire,” there were “several respectable academies in the

city, as the Royal Grammar School in Little St. James Street,

conducted by A. Skakel, Esq.; the Rev. Dr. Black’s, adjoining

St. Paul Church; Rev. J. Ramsay’s, Main Street, St. Lawrence

suburbs; Messrs. Howden & Taggart’s, Craig Street; Mr. Workman’s,

in Hospital Street; and Mr. Bruce’s, in McGill Street. There are

also young ladies’ schools of high reputation, as Miss Easton’s,

in Bonaventure Street; Miss Felton’s, in St. Gabriel Street; and

Mrs. Fitzgerald’s, in Notre Dame Street. The total number of

schools it would be impossible to assign. A few years since two

gentlemen of the city made personal inquiry throughout the place

with a view to determining the point. They found fifty-nine of

different classes, but it is probable not only that some were

overlooked, but that the number is greater now than it was then.

There was also much private tuition in the families of the more

wealthy inhabitants.”

The writer probably includes in the fifty-nine or more among

the unnamed schools those of the Catholics, which were under

the auspices of the Sulpicians, the teaching orders of the

Congregational Nuns and the Brothers of the Christian Schools,

and those conducted by lay people. A review of the schools for

Catholics up to the Union may be now presented.

The early movement under the Sulpicians up to 1790 has already

been stated. About 1796, as the city was beginning to expand,

M. Roux, the superior of the seminary, opened a new school for

children in the St. Lawrence district under the control of a

layman. Later he established other schools at Bonsecours, St.

Lawrence, St. Antoine, St. Mary (or the Faubourg de Quebec), and

St. Joseph, all these schools with the exception of the seminary

receiving children of both sexes. M. Quiblier, succeeding M.

Roux, determined to erect separate schools or boys and girls,

the latter to be under the direction of the Congregation Nuns.

These, therefore, opened successively a great number of classes,

three at the Faubourg, St. Lawrence; six at that of Quebec

(St. Mary’s), two of which were for the Irish; three classes at

St. Antoine, and three at St. Joseph, and two classes at the

Recollects for the Irish.

The Seminary provided the schools, their furniture and upkeep,

and undertook to convey the nuns to and fro morning and evening.

About fifteen hundred children were instructed and educated

gratuitously in these schools. In addition the Congregation

maintained in its own motherhouse, the pensionat, composed of

six classes; the “great school,” with its three classes; and the

“small school,” with two.[2] What he had done for the education

of the girls M. Quiblier would do for the boys, and it is due to

him that he succeeded in bringing the Brothers of the Christian

Schools to Montreal in 1837. A tribute paid by the Hon. Jacques

Viger to M. Quiblier and the Sulpicians may be quoted from a

Précis Historique which he composed. “Sur les petites écoles

de la paroisse de Montréal pour les garçons.” “Should the time

come,” he says, “when the Gentlemen of the Seminary might have no

other right to public recognition than that of having constantly

exercised their generous zeal for education undying blessings

should be their desert; and if M. Quiblier had no other title of

glory beyond that of having surpassed his predecessors in that

respect that title would be fine enough. * * * Such are, among

the other good works of the house of St. Sulpice, those which it

has never ceased to lavish on the progress of education in a town

of which it can, with good cause, be called the foundress and the

mother.”

Mr. Huguet-Latour, in his “Annuaire de Ville Marie,” notes some

of the schools of this period as follows. It is interesting as

showing the part then being played by the laity:

“On May 1, 1813, a school was founded for young girls by Mrs.

Richard O’Keefe.

“About 1819 a school was founded by a Mr. Ryan in the house of

the ‘Recollets.’

“In 1825 a school for boys was established by Mgr. Lartigue, on

October 1st, on the ground floor of his Episcopal residence at

St. James Church, and another for girls, on January 3, 1827,

under the direction of his secretary, afterwards Bishop Bourget,

in a house hired for the purpose. In 1828 the sewing classes

began in this school under the direction of the ‘Association

Bienveillante des Dames de St. Jacques.’ These lasted till 1853.

In 1831 these ladies, while still maintaining the supervision,

hired a mistress to teach the school. On October 1st of the same

year, Mgr. Lartigue opened a school for English boys, in the

basement of the Sacristy of his cathedral.

“In 1830 a third class for boys was added. The first schoolhouse

of St. James (75 by 40 feet, with three stories) was built in

1831 on land given by Mgr. Lartigue in 1831. Thither the various

classes connected with St. James were transferred in 1831 and

1832. This school suffered, with the Cathedral, destruction in

the great fire of July 8, 1852. The school, which commenced in

1825 with sixty children, had reached 400.

“On July 7, 1834, a school was founded at No. 31 Beaudry Street

by Mr. Joseph Bourgoin.”

As a summary of the general outlook on Canadian education in the

Province of Quebec[3] at the time of the rebellion we may use

Lord Durham’s own summing up in his famous report in preparation

for the Union. “The bulk of the population is composed of the

hard-working yeomanry of the country district commonly called

habitants. * * * It is impossible to exaggerate the want of

education among them; no means of instruction have been provided

for them and they are almost universally destitute of the

qualifications even of reading and writing. * * * The common

assertion that all classes of Canadians are equally ignorant is

perfectly erroneous; for I know of no people among whom a larger

provision exists for the higher kinds of elementary education

or among whom such education is really extended to a larger

proportion of the population. The piety and benevolence of the

early possessors of the country founded in the seminaries that

exist in the different parts of the province, institutions of

which the funds have long been directed to the promotion of

education. Seminaries and colleges have been by these bodies

established in the cities and in other central points. The

education given in these establishments greatly resembles the

kind given in the English public schools, though it is more

varied. It is entirely in the hands of the Catholic clergy. The

number of pupils in this establishment was estimated altogether

at 1,000 and they turn out as far as I could ascertain between

two and three hundred young men thus educted.”

Thus at the time of the rebellion of 1837, at least in the towns

such as Montreal, the outlook on education was not so depressing

as it is generally painted.

NOTE

The long drawn out question of the Jesuits’ estates was settled

in 1888. Its history may now be recapituated. After the

suppresssion of the society in 1773, the government waited until

the death, in 1801, of Father Casot, the last Canadian Jesuit

to claim them. Amherst had been promised them, but the public

sentiment was against this, and they were demanded for the cause

of public education. The Jesuits meanwhile always maintained that

there was an implicit contract on the part of the government to

restore them. Up to 1888 the yearly revenues accruing had become

very great. In 1800 these reached the sum of $7,800; in 1812 that

of more than $9,000; in 1822, $6,000; in 1831, $15,000; in 1840,

$27,000; in 1852, $45,000; during the other years more or less

considerable sums. The total is about $960,000. If there is added

to that the use of the lands of Champ de Mars, the courthouse and

the city hall, and the land of the college at Quebec, it will be

seen that the amount reached nearly two million dollars’ revenue.

The value of the estates themselves resulting from the donations

made by the kings of France and rich individuals was about four

to five millions. Evidently all this could not all be returned.

It became a question of indemnity. In 1874 the Jesuits demanded

such. Father Braun composed a memorial to Rome on the point,

and Father Chazaux, then superior, addressed a request to the

government in the name of the Holy See which had consented to the

demand for the indemnity.

There was delay until May 12, 1887, when the Quebec government

incorporated the Society of Jesus, and on July 12, 1888, passed

the Jesuit estates bill, partially compensating the Society of

Jesus for their loss. On March 3d of the following year the

Commons sustained the act respecting the Jesuit estates by a vote

of 188 to 13. On June 11th the Equal Rights party formed up to

protest. On June 19th the Presbyterian Assembly denounced the act

of incorporation of the Jesuits and the Jesuits estate act, and

the Anglican Synod did the same this month. In July a general

meeting in Queen’s Hall in Montreal also protested.

A petition was at this time presented to the Governor-General,

Lord Stanley, requesting the disallowance of the act of March 3,

1888, and in answer, on August 2d, he replied that the adverse

advice of his ministers, which he deemed sound, bound him to

uphold it.

On November 5, 1889, the Hon. Honoré Mercier, the premier of the

province of Quebec, paid to the Jesuits the sum of $400,000, of

which $60,000 was turned over at once to the Protestant Board of

School Commissioners for the province. The balance did not go

solely to the Jesuits, for Rome decided that of this the claims

for a share made by other Catholic-teaching bodies should be

maintained, so that eventually the Society of Jesus received

barely one-third of the indemnity. It is now clearly recognized

that an elemental act of justice was at last completed.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See Haldimand’s remarks, Chapter X, Part 1.

[2] “Mémoires particuliers pour servir a l’histoire de l’eglise

de L’Amerique du Nord,” Tome 2 (vie de la Sœur Bourgeoys).

[3] The census of 1911 revealed the interesting fact, that in

view of some popular impressions erroneously entertained the

greatest proportion of children attending school for over six

months in the year was noted in Quebec. It was 76.47 per cent.,

and compares with 74.43 per cent. in Ontario, which comes next in

order. In the Maritime Provinces the ratio was under 70 per cent.

CHAPTER XXVII

1841-1914

THE SCHOOL SYSTEM AFTER THE UNION

THE RISE OF THE “SCHOOL COMMISSIONS OF MONTREAL”

EDUCATION AFTER THE REBELLION--THE EDUCATIONAL ACT OF

1846--THE PERSONNEL OF THE FIRST CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT

COMMISSIONERS--NORMAL SCHOOLS--THE AMENDED SCHOOL ACT OF

1868-69--THE CHARTER--THE PROTESTANT HIGH SCHOOL--THE

PROTESTANT COMMISSIONERS, 1869-1914--HISTORY OF

SCHOOLS--LIST OF CATHOLIC COMMISSIONERS, 1869-1914--PRESENT

SCHOOLS UNDER COMMISSION--INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC SCHOOL

COMMISSIONS--THE ORGANIZATIONS COOPERATING WITH THE CENTRAL

COMMISSION--“NUNS”--“BROTHERS”--“LAITY.”

NOTE: SECONDARY EDUCATION--TECHNICAL AND COMMERCIAL--VOCATIONAL.

The events of 1837 paralyzed education and the educational

system became disorganized so that no attempt was made to

reconstruct it till the question of union was settled. In 1841

the first parliament of United Canada passed an act embodying

many of Buller’s suggestions, providing for the establishment

and maintenance of public education. An ex-officio chief

superintendent of education was appointed for the united province

with working superintendents for its eastern and western

sections. The executive educational officer, therefore, for lower

Canada, was the Hon. Dr. J.B. Meilleur, an active educationalist

and a former member of the legislature, who had been the

principal author of the projected school act of 1836.

In 1843 the school act of 1841 was repealed as far as Upper

Canada was concerned and in 1845 as far as it applied to Lower

Canada. This was on account of the working experience gained by

the two superintendents. In 1846 the office of the ex-officio

chief superintendent was abolished and each of the eastern and

western executive officers now administered the school law which

was adopted by the act of 1846 to suit the needs of each section

of the United Province. A very important principle--that of local

taxation for the support of education--introduced with success in

Upper Canada--was substituted for that of voluntary contributions

as an experiment. This was repealed in 1849, owing to strong

opposition, and local assessment was rendered permissive, not

compulsory as before, and the system of voluntary contribution

restored.

The year 1846 marks the origin of the modern Protestant and

Catholic school commissioners of the city of Montreal appointed

by the provincial parliament (9 Victoria, Cap. 27).

THE PROTESTANT BOARD

The Protestant Board at its inception was not incorporated by act

of parliament and had little recognized status. It had no funds

to administer except a small grant from the city council. It had

no school buildings to superintend. The early practice was to

subsidize the existing schools. But the idea of the board grew.

It received doles occasionally from the city council and it made

headway. Its first school was the Ann Street School, established

in a rented building, in 1850. It was afterward named the

“William Lunn” after the first secretary-treasurer of the board,

an ardent educationalist and one of the founders of the British

and Canadian School.

The first meeting of the board of commissioners under the act

of 1846 was held on December 10, 1846. Its commissioners up to

1868-69 were:

Rev. Charles Bancroft, chairman, 1846 to 1848; Rev. Caleb Strong,

1846 to ----; Rev. J.M. Cramp, 1846 to----; Mr. William Lunn,

who acted as secretary-treasurer from 1846 to 1871; Mr. Andrew

Watson, 1846 to----; Mr. John Dougall, 1846 to----; Reverend Dr.

Falloon, chairman, February, 1848, to October, 1848; Reverend

Dr. McGill, chairman, October, 1848 to 1856; Ven. Arch-deacon

Gilson, 1854 to 1856, chairman, 1856 to 1861; Rev. William

Snodgrass, chairman, 1861 to 1865; Mr. Kemp,---- to 1865; Rev.

John Jenkins, D.D., chairman, 1865 to 1868; chairman, February,

1868, to February, 1869; Rev. D.H. MacVicar, D.D., LL. D., 1865

to February, 1869; Hon. James Ferrier, senator, 1865 to February,

1869; Mr. Hector Munro, 1865 to February, 1869.

THE CATHOLIC BOARD

The Catholic board, also appointed in 1846, had similar

difficulties. The organization of the schools was small. The work

done was sincere, but woefully limited. The schools were small

and not modern in structure and character. The teachers were few

and sadly handicapped in every way, for at that time the chief

thought was how to struggle along in a material way. The cause

of Catholic education was greatly helped at this period by the

advent of the Christian Brothers in 1837, the Brothers of St.

Joseph in 1841, and the religious bodies of women, including the

Ladies of the Sacred Heart in 1842, the Sisters of Providence in

1844, the Ladies of St. Croix in 1847, and others, such as the

Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus, the Sisters of Charity, etc.

The Catholic school commissioners from 1846 to 1868 were:

Very Rev. A.F. Truteau, V.G., canon, 1846-1848; Rev. Francis A.U.

de Charbonnel, P.S.S. (late bishop of Toronto), 1846-1848; Albert

Furniss, 1846-1849; P.S. Letourneux, 1846-1849; Pierre Beaubien,

physician, 1846-1849; J.U. Beaubry, advocate (later judge of

supreme court), 1848-1862; Rev. A. Pinxsonnault (late bishop

of London), 1848-1850, 1851-1853; Rev. F.R. Mercier, canon,

1848-1849; Rev. J.H. Prevost, P.S.S., pastor of Notre Dame,

1849-1864; A.M. Delisle, 1849-1852; W.C.F. Coffin, prothonotary,

1849-1851; André Ouimet, advocate, 1849-1851; Rev. E.C. Fabre

(afterwards archbishop of Montreal), 1850-1851, 1861-1865;

G. d’Eschambault, physician, 1851-1856; P. Garnot, professor,

1857-1861; Very Rev. H. Moreau, V.G., canon, 1853-1861; J.F.

Pelletier, advocate, 1853-1854; Louis Giard, physician,

1855-1857, 1858-1860, 1861-1868; C.S. Cherrier, advocate,

1857-1859; Gedeon Ouimet (afterward superintendent of public

instruction), 1859-1861; H. Kavanagh, inspector of customs,

1860-1868; Edward Murphy, merchant (later senator), 1861-1865,

1869-1880; Alfred Larocque, 1862-1865; Rev. A. Giband, P.S.S.,

1864-1866; Rev. P.L. Leblanc, canon, 1865-1876; Louis Belanger,

advocate (later judge supreme court), 1865-1874; P.S. Murphy

(later member of the council of public instruction), 1865-1884;

Rev. V. Rousselot, P.S.S., pastor of Notre Dame, 1866-1886;

E.H. Trudel, physician, 1868-1869; Francis Cassidy, advocate,

1868-1869.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BOARDS

From 1846 to 1869 the school commissioners were appointed by the

corporation of Montreal to hold office for two years. Since 1869

three are appointed by the provincial government and three by the

corporation for three years.

In 1856 two bills, regarding higher and elementary education,

became law on the report of Doctor Meilleur. They provided, among

other things, for the distribution, through the superintendent

of education and on his report, of the Lower Canada superior

education fund among the various universities, colleges,

academies, and model schools; for the establishment of three

model schools instead of one; the appointment of a council of

public instruction for Lower Canada; the publication of journals

of education in English and French and the creation, as in Upper

Canada, of a superannuated common school teachers’ fund.

In 1857 the long delayed establishment by government of normal

schools at length took place. On the 2d of March the Jacques

Cartier and the McGill Normal Schools[1] were inaugurated with

fitting ceremonies at Montreal, to be followed in May by the

Laval Normal School at Quebec. The Protestant Normal School at

Montreal was established in the Belmont Street School until the

Macdonald College Normal School was opened. Several private

attempts to provide normal schools had been made, however, before

this date. In 1854 a model school was opened on Bonaventure

Street (St. James), maintained by the Colonial Church and School

Society as one of a group of Protestant schools throughout the

Dominion. This society (formerly the “Church Colonial Society”

and the “Newfoundland School Society”), in connection with the

Church of England, originated in London in 1823; it extended to

Canada in 1838. In January, 1851, the two societies were united

and became the “Colonial Church and School Society.” In May,

1861, it became the “Continental Church and School Society.” In

1863, 105 schools had been established, or at one time aided, by

this society.

The school laws relating to the city of Montreal were amended by

the act of 1868-69, and the present system firmly established

by charters of incorporation being granted to both Protestant

and Catholic boards to the effect that the Roman Catholic and

Protestant boards of school commissioners of the city of Montreal

have always been and now are bodies politic and corporate, and

as such have always enjoyed and now enjoy all the rights and

privileges of corporation under the respective names of “the

Roman Catholic board of school commissioners of the city of

Montreal” and the “Protestant board of school commissioners of

the city of Montreal,” as the case may be. The commissioners

were to have a right to hold real estate to any amount. The

annual revenue to be paid by the government was to be according

to the relative proportion of the Roman Catholic and Protestant

populations in the city. In addition there was to be a special

city school tax collected by the city so that the corporation

should pay for division among both boards, a tax assessable on

real estate payable by the proprietors equal to a stated per

cent on the dollar.[2] The proprietors were placed under four

panels, Roman Catholics, Protestants, neutral school tax from

corporations or incorporated companies, or of those that have not

declared in writing their desires to be inscribed on panels 1 or

2, and owners of real estate exempted from taxation. The neutral

tax to be paid by corporations in proportion to the value of the

property inscribed on panel 3 was to be divided between the Roman

Catholic and Protestant boards according to the relative ratio

of the Roman Catholic and Protestant population in the city, and

the remainder in the relative ratio of the value of the property

inscribed on panels 1 and 2 respectively. Jews[3] were empowered

to inscribe on either of panels 1 or 2. Further source of revenue

might come from additional amounts granted by the corporation of

the city or from monthly school fees according to the nature of

the schools, elementary, normal or academic, and from the issue

of debentures, bonds, etc.

Since the passing of this act the progress in education has been

very great, the number and dignity of the school buildings being

marked.

Gradually most of the private schools came under the various

commissions.

In 1870 the “old” Protestant high school came under the new

board. Its history as the fostering ground of so many prominent

citizens deserves special mention. The school opened September

25, 1843, with sixty-five pupils, in the Bigham building on St.

Denis Street, near Notre Dame Street. It was founded about 1843,

and shortly after its organization the Royal Grammar School was

merged into it. The next home was in the semi-ecclesiastical

buildings on Belmont Street, the cornerstone of this erection

having been laid by Lord Metcalfe Governor-General, on July 11,

1845, after the act of incorporation in the same year.[4] Shortly

before 1857 the high school was transferred to the premises now

used by the Fraser Library and Institute. Its first principal

was the Rev. George Foster Simpson. On his resignation Reverend

Dr. Howe succeeded in 1848, and on his retirement in 1891 he was

followed by the Rev. Dr. Elson S. Rexford, to be succeeded in

1904 by the present principal, Mr. Wellington Dixon.

“This school was in many respects,” said one who remembers it

well, “a worthy example of this type. The masters whom I recall

were the rector, Dr. H. Aspinwall Howe, brisk, alert, competent,

self-possessed, showing many of the qualities of an English

parsonage and of an Irish breeding; Mr. Rodger, stern, just,

a Scotchman of serious type, an aquamarine set in steel, was

highly regarded by his pupils for his unswerving uprightness;

Mr. Gibson, tall, spare, peering, of classical proclivities;

Mr. (later Doctor) Murray, a short, rotund Englishman, whose

strong point was not discipline and whose pupils in their noisy

acclamation wore with their heels a long, deep trench in front

of their recitation form; Mr. Tronteau, instructor in French,

who lacked that final something which commands the respect of

British boys. Disciplinary trouble caused his retirement shortly

afterward.” Other contemporaries and pupils of Doctor Murray

remember him as a most lovable man, a lover of his kind, a

deep scholar, a thinker with a brilliant pen and a high poetic

and critical faculty. Another teacher closely connected with

Doctor Howe was Dr. S.P. Robins, who became one of the foremost

educationalists in Canada. The old high school, the scholarly

gentlemen who taught this and its other memories are regarded

with veneration by the Protestant grandfathers of Montreal of

today who gathered there their love of culture and their upright

principles under its successive roofs.

The next location of the high school was on Peel Street. It was

handed over to the school commissioners in 1870.[5]

In 1890 it was destroyed by the act of foolish boy incendiaries.

But a more commodious building was erected on the same site and

continued its progressive work till 1914, when it was sold. In

the meantime the new high school, a handsome building, being

prepared on University Street, above Sherbrooke Street, was

opened on September 8, 1914, to receive its new generation.

The past commissioners under the act of 1868-69 are as follows:

Rev. John Jenkins, D.D., chairman, February, 1869, to June,

1884; Rev. Canon Bancroft, D.D., LL.D., February, 1869, to June,

1877; Rev. D.H. MacVicar, D.D., LL.D., February, 1869, to June,

1876; June, 1878, to June, 1879; June, 1884, to December, 1902;

William Lunn, February, 1869, to July, 1883; Hon. James Ferrier,

senator, February, 1869, to July, 1872; T.M. Thompson, city

councillor, February, 1869, to April, 1872; Principal William J.

Dawson, LL. D., F.R.S., F.G.S., April, 1872, to August, 1883;

W. Frederick Kay, alderman, July, 1872, to July, 1875; G.W.

Stephens, B.C.L., alderman, July, 1875, to June, 1884; Samuel

E. Dawson, June, 1876, to June, 1878; Rev. J.F. Stevenson, LL.

D., June, 1877, to June, 1887; Rev. Canon Norman, M.A., D.C.L.,

June, 1879, to February, 1888; Richard Holland, alderman, August,

1883, to June, 1891; J.H. Mooney, alderman, June, 1883, to June,

1889; J.C. Wilson, alderman, June, 1884, to June, 1887; Rev. A.G.

Upham, June, 1887, to November, 1890; J.S. Archibald, D.C.L., Q.

C, alderman, June, 1887, to June, 1890; E. Thompson, alderman,

June, 1891, to June, 1894; D. Wilson, alderman, June, 1889, to

June, 1895; R. Wilson-Smith, alderman and mayor, June, 1895, to

June, 1898; R. Costigan, alderman, June, 1894, to June, 1900;

James McBride, alderman, June, 1890, to June, 1902; Very Rev.

Dean Evans, D.D., D.C.L., February, 1888, to June, 1906; H.A.

Ekers, alderman and mayor, June, 1898, to June, 1906; Farquhar

Robertson, alderman, June, 1900, to June, 1906; G.W. Stephens,

M.P.P., June, 1906, to August, 1907; H.B. Yates, M.D., alderman,

June, 1906, to June, 1910; Rev. W.I. Shaw, D.D., LL. D., D.C.L.,

November, 1890, to March, 1911; I.H. Stearns, alderman, June,

1902, to June, 1911; Rev. James Barclay, January, 1903, to June,

1914; R. Turner, alderman, June, 1906, to June, 1912; Rev. H.

Symonds, D.D., LL. D., June, 1907, to June, 1912; James Robinson,

alderman, June, 1910, to June, 1913; Rev. W.R. Young, D.D.,

May, 1911, to June, 1913; Joseph Ward, alderman, August, 1911,

to June, 1914; Rev. J. Scrimger, August, 1912; W.S. Weldon,

alderman, July 1, 1914.

SCHOOLS PAST AND PRESENT UNDER THE PROTESTANT BOARD OF SCHOOL

COMMISSIONERS OF THE CITY OF MONTREAL

HIGH SCHOOL OF MONTREAL.--Founded in 1845 and transferred to the

Board September 1, 1870. Moved to new building in Peel Street.

Destroyed by fire, November 28, 1890. Rebuilt and officially

opened, June 20, 1892. Iron Fire Escapes erected in 1909. New

site purchased in 1911 on University Street. Building opened on

September 8, 1914.

Preparatory High School.--Opened, September, 1870.

Transferred to the High School of Montreal, September, 1891.

HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS.--Opened in private dwellings, 131 and 133

Metcalfe Street, in September, 1875, and transferred to High

School buildings in Peel Street, 1892. Cookery Room equipped in

1908. Iron Fire Escapes erected in 1909.

COMMERCIAL AND TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL.--Opened, September, 1906.

Senior school. Opened in leased premises in Ontario Street,

September 1877. Afterwards removed to Burnside Hall, and

subsequently transferred to new premises in Metcalfe

Street. Transferred to Commercial and Technical High

School, September, 1906.

ABERDEEN SCHOOL.--Opened, September, 1896. Enlarged by twelve

rooms, February, 1906. Assembly Hall converted into four class

rooms, September, 1908. Ventilation remodeled, 1908. Iron Fire

Escapes erected in 1909.

Sherbrooke Street School.--Opened, September 1, 1874. Closed

and pupils transferred to Aberdeen School, September, 1896.

St. Lawrence Street School.--Opened in a rented building in

1871. Transferred to Sherbrooke Street School, September 1,

1874.

ALEXANDRA SCHOOL.--Site purchased and building erected in 1910.

Opened in February, 1911.

Trinity School.--Opened in the basement of Trinity Church,

St. Denis Street, September, 1909. Closed and pupils

transferred to the Alexandra School, February, 1911.

AMHERST PARK SCHOOL.--Transferred to the Board, July 1, 1913.

BELMONT STREET SCHOOL.--Opened in September, 1907, in the McGill

Normal School Buildings, leased from the Provincial Government.

Lease renewed for a period of five years from July 1, 1911.

Baron de Hirsch Day School, St. Elizabeth Street.--Subsidized

by the Board 18--to 1904. Moved to new building, 250 Bleury

Street, and conducted under the management of the Board

from September, 1904, to June, 1907. Agreement terminated

June, 1907, and accommodation for pupils provided in the

Belmont Street School in September, 1907.

BERTHELET STREET SCHOOL.--37 Berthelet Street.--Opened in

September, 1886. Iron Fire Escapes erected in 1909.

Ontario Street School.--Opened in leased premises in 1876.

Closed and pupils transferred to Berthelet Street School.

St. George’s School.--Maintained by Colonial and Continental

Church and School Society. (Subsidized, 1878.) Discontinued

after June, 1886.

BORDEAUX SCHOOL.--Territory annexed to that of the Board, July 1,

1913. Dwelling house purchased and converted into a two-roomed

school. School opened, September 2, 1913.

BRITANNIA STREET SCHOOL.--Opened, October 1, 1887. Janitor’s

apartments and the basement of the school building remodeled,

1909.

Mill Street School.--Opened in Government Immigration

Building in Britannia Street, September, 1877. Transferred

to Britannia Street School, October, 1887.

CÔTE DES NEIGES SCHOOL.--Transferred to the Board, July 1, 1911

DELORIMIER SCHOOL.--Transferred to the board, July 1, 1910. Site

enlarged by purchase of adjoining lots, 1911.

DUFFERIN SCHOOL.--Opened, March 5, 1894. Enlarged by addition of

nine rooms, February, 1906. Assembly Hall converted into four

class-rooms September, 1907. Fire Tower erected in 1908. Iron

Fire Escapes erected in 1909. Lavatories remodeled, 1912.

British and Canadian School.--Established in 1822.

Transferred to the Board in 1866. New storey added and

interior rearranged September 15, 1873. Closed and pupils

transferred to Dufferin School, March 4, 1894.

Dorchester Street School.--Opened at 381 Dorchester Street in

September, 1874. Closed and pupils transferred to Dufferin

School, March 4, 1894.

French Protestant School.--Opened, October, 1875, and shortly

afterwards transferred to Dorchester Street School.

EARL GREY SCHOOL.--School site purchased 1907. School opened

September 1908. Enlarged by the addition of eight rooms

September, 1910.

Boulevard School.--Transferred to the Board in 1906. School

building closed and pupils transferred to the Earl Grey

School, corner Comte and Amherst streets, September, 1908.

EDWARD VII SCHOOL.--Site purchased, 1911. School erected, 1912.

School opened for reception of pupils, November, 1912.

FAIRMOUNT SCHOOL.--Transferred to the Board, July 1, 1910.

Heating and ventilation remodeled and the building enlarged by

the addition of twelve rooms, September, 1911.

LANSDOWNE SCHOOL.--Opened, September, 1891. Enlarged by six

rooms, February, 1906. Iron Fire Escapes erected in 1909.

Panet Street School.--Opened, 1860. Closed and pupils

transferred to Lansdowne School, September, 1891.

Quebec Suburbs School.--Opened in a private house on Papineau

Square in April, 1850. Destroyed by fire, July 8, 1852.

School continued in Colborne Avenue. Closed and pupils

transferred to the Panet Street School, 1860.

De Salaberry Street School.--Opened in 1870. Closed

September, 1891. Pupils transferred to Lansdowne School,

1891.

LORNE SCHOOL.--Opened, September, 1891. Assembly Hall converted

into three class-rooms September, 1907. Entrances remodeled,

and Fire Escapes built, 1908. Iron Fire Escapes erected 1909.

St. Gabriel School.--Transferred to the Board in 1878.

Transferred to Lorne School, September, 1891.

MOUNT ROYAL SCHOOL, formerly St. Urbian St or St. Jean

Baptiste.--Renamed 1893-94. Enlarged in 1898. Enlarged by

twelve rooms, February, 1906 Enlarged by two rooms, September,

1907. Ventilation remodeled in 1908. Assembly Hall converted

into four class-rooms, 1909. Fire Escapes built, 1909.

Mission Hall adjoining purchased, January, 1911, and converted

into a Kindergarten Class Room, February, 1911.

St. Jean Baptiste School. Transferred to the Board in 1886.

Removed to new building in St. Urbain Street, April, 1889.

Enlarged and renamed Mount Royal School, September, 1894.

RIVERSIDE SCHOOL, formerly Point St. Charles School.--Renamed.

Enlarged in 1894. Enlarged by addition of eight class rooms,

September, 1908, and ventilation remodelled; entrances

remodelled. Two Fire Towers built on school building, 1908. Two

Iron Fire Escapes built, 1909.

Point St. Charles School on Favard Street.--Opened, January,

1876. Renamed Riverside.

Grace Church School.--Opened in the school room of Grace

Church, September, 1872. Closed, January, 1876; re-opened,

March, 1887. Closed, September, 1891.

St. Matthew’s School.--Opened in school room of St. Matthew’s

Church, January, 1874. Closed, September, 1891.

ROSEMOUNT SCHOOL.--Transferred to the Board, July 1st, 1911.

Assembly Hall Converted into two class rooms, September, 1911.

Boardroom converted into a class room, September, 1913.

ROYAL ARTHUR SCHOOL.--Opened, February 11th, 1870, by H.R.H.

Prince Arthur. Remodelled in 1888. Partially destroyed by fire,

January 18th, 1909. New building erected on former site during

1909-10 and opened in September, 1910.

SARAH MAXWELL MEMORIAL SCHOOL.--Erected on the site of the former

Hochelaga School. Opened, April 6th, 1908. Enlarged by addition

of four rooms, 1912.

Hochelaga School.--Transferred to the Board in April, 1884.

Removed to new building in Prefontaine Street, November

17th, 1890. School burned, February 26th, 1907. Replaced by

the Sarah Maxwell Memorial School, 1908.

SHAW MEMORIAL CHURCH SCHOOL.--Opened in rented basement of Shaw

Memorial Church, September, 1913.

STRATHEARN SCHOOL.--Site purchased, and plans prepared, 1912.

Building erected 1912-13 and opened for the reception of

pupils, September 2nd, 1913.

VICTORIA SCHOOL.--Corner Stone laid June 20th, 1887. School

opened September 1st, 1888. Fire escapes built in 1909.

Enlarged by addition of Gymnasium Sloyd and Cookery Rooms, in

1911.

WILLIAM DAWSON SCHOOL.--Site purchased June, 1908. Building

erected in 1910-11. Opened, April, 1911.

Berri Street School.--Transferred to the Board in 1905. New

site purchased in June, 1908. Building closed and pupils

transferred to the William Dawson School, April, 1911.

WILLIAM LUNN SCHOOL.--Erected on the site of the former Ann

Street School. Opened, October 6th, 1908.

Ann Street School.--Established 1850 in a rented building.

Property purchased in 1853. Wing added to building in 1864.

Transferred to new building in Ann Street in April, 1872.

Heating and ventilation remodelled in 1890. Destroyed

by fire, August 26th, 1907. Rebuilt in 1908 and renamed

the William Lunn School. Pupils transferred to the new

building, October 6th, 1908.

YOUVILLE SCHOOL.--Transferred to the Board, July 1st, 1913.

[Illustration: A GROUP OF SCHOOLS UNDER THE PROTESTANT

COMMISSIONERS]

[Illustration: Royal Arthur--Erected 1910]

[Illustration: Montreal high school]

[Illustration: Edward VII--Erected 1912]

[Illustration: Fairmount--Enlarged 1911]

[Illustration: Alexandra--Erected 1910]

[Illustration: Strathearn--Erected 1913]

THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL COMMISSION

The board of the Catholic schools commissioners under the act of

1868-9 has been served by:

The Rev. V. Rousselot, P.S.S., 1868-1886; Rev. P.L. Leblanc,

canon, 1868-1876; P.S. Murphy, 1868-1884; Louis Belanger,

1868-1874; Edward Murphy, 1868-1869; Narcisee Valois, alderman,

1869-1870; Severe Rivard, advocate, 1870-1878; J.A. Ouimet,

advocate (later minister of public works), 1874-1879; Rev. E.

Moreau, canon, 1876-1880; Jacques Grenier, alderman, 1878-1887;

E.C. Monk, advocate, 1879-1883; Rev. P.C. Dufresne, canon,

1880-1881; L.O. Hetu, notary, 1880-1883; Very Rev. N.Z. Lorrain,

V.G., 1881-1882; Very Rev. L.D.A. Maréchal, V.G., canon,

1883-1892; H.B. Rainville, alderman, 1883-1886; F.D. Monk,

advocate, 1883-1891; Rev. A.L. Sentenne, P.S.S., pastor of Notre

Dame, 1886-1894; R. Préfontaine, M.P., alderman, 1886-1903:

A.S. Hamelin, ex-alderman, 1887-1893; J.H. Semple, merchant,

1887-1892; F.L. Beique, advocate, 1891-1893; Rev. A.P. Dubuc,

1892-1894; F.J. Hart, merchant, 1893-1894;[6] C. Beausoleil,

M.P., alderman, 1895-1902; W. Farrell, merchant, 1893-1901; M.T.

Brennan, M.D., 1891-1896; L.E. Desjardins, M.D., 1894-1895;

Rev. J. Quinlivan, P.S.S., 1894-1897; Rev. J.W. Leclaire, P.P.,

1894-1902; Rev. P.M. Bruchesi, canon, 1894-1897, 1894-1900 (now

archbishop of Montreal); C.S. de Lorimier, judge, Superior Court,

1895-1896; B. Connaughton, judge, Superior Court, 1896-1899;

Mgr. Z. Racicot, P.A., vicar general (became auxiliary bishop

of Montreal), 1897-1905; P.J. Martineau, advocate, 1897-1907;

L.P. Demers, advocate, M.P., 1898-1904, 1899-1911 (now judge of

Superior Court), 1899-1911; Daniel Gallery, alderman, 1900-1904;

Rev. C. Larocque, P.P., 1901-1904; J.R. Savignac, 1901-1904;

A.S. Hamelin, ex-alderman, 1902-1908; Martin Callaghan, P.P.,

1902-1905; H. Laporte, alderman (afterward mayor), 1903-1906;

N.A. Troie, P.S.S., P.P. Notre Dame, 1904-1906; C. Piché, K.C.,

M.P., 1904-1908: S.D. Vallières, alderman, 1904-1907; L. Abbé

P. Perrier, March 23, 1905-December 15, 1905; G. Dauth, canon,

December 15, 1905-1910; W. O’Meara, canon, P.P., 1905----; F.L.T.

Adam, canon, P.P., 1906-1909; L. Payette, alderman (afterwards

mayor), 1907-1910: L.A. Lapointe, alderman, 1907----; E.

Lafontaine, judge, Superior Court, 1907----; J.P. Décarie, M.D.,

1908----; J.M. Demers, P.P., 1909-1910; Joseph McLaughlin,

1909-1910; Mgr. Emile Roy, V.G., P.A., 1910----; Anthime Corbeil,

P.P., St. Joseph, 1910----; Napoleon Giroux, alderman, 1910----;

L. A. Lavallée, K. C, mayor, 1911-1914; Emery Larivière,

alderman, 1914----.

The following is the history of some of the earlier schools of

the Commission:

The “Plateau” school in 1871 became the headquarters of the

new board of Catholic school commissioners. Its situation on a

plateau, between St. Catherine, St. Urbain and Ontario streets,

gives it its popular name. Its official title is the Commercial

Academy, which was founded in 1853 on Cote Street and which

was transferred to the plateau in 1871. The Montcalm School

dates back to 1860 when it was formerly known as the Académie

Sainte Marie; this was on Craig Street, 157. It is the oldest

institution under the board. The Champlain School formerly the

Ecole St. Vincent, was built in 1870 and rebuilt in 1890 at 164

Fullum Street. Belmont School, 245 Guy Street, was founded in

1878. Its first principal was P.L. O’Donaghue. Olier School, 216

Roy Street (now 282), was formerly the St. Denis Academy under

the direction of Mr. Primeau, and was founded in 1875. In 1878 it

was moved to Roy Street. Sarsfield School was built in 1870, at

97 Grand Trunk Street. Plessis Street School, 383 Plessis Street

(now 505), was founded in 1878 and was entrusted to the Brothers

of the Christian Schools. St. Gabriel School, 350 Centre Street.

St. Alphonsus, 120 Conway Street, was built in 1890.

The names and addresses of schools controlled by the Board at

present are as follows:

Names of Schools. Where Situated. By Whom Directed.

Commercial Academy Plateau Avenue Lay teachers

Montcalm School 408, de Montigny Street Lay teachers

Champlain School 224, Fullum Street Lay teachers

Sarsfield School 97, Grand Trunk Street Lay teachers

Belmont School 245, Guy Street Lay teachers

Olier School 282, Roy Street Lay teachers

Edward Murphy School 680, Craig East Street Lay teachers

Salaberry School 26, Robin Street Bros. of the Christian

Shls.

St. Joseph School 141, St. Martin Street Bros. of the Christian

Shls.

St. Bridget’s School 50, St. Rose Street Bros. of the Christian

Shls.

Plessis School 505, Plessis Street Bros. of the Christian

Shls.

St. Ann’s School 127, Young Street Bros. of the Christian

(Boys) Shls.

St. Patrick’s School 371, Lagauchetière W. St. Bros. of the Christian

(Boys) Shls.

St. Charles’ School 220, Island Street Bros. of the Christian

Shls.

Meilleur School 695, Fullum Street “Sacred Heart” Brothers

Chauveau School 134, Laprairie Street Presentation Brothers

St. Helen’s School 727, St. Paul Street St. Gabriel Brothers

(Boys)

St. Peter’s School 220, Panet Street Marist Brothers

Italian School 479, Dorchester E. St Italians

N.D. des Anges 15, Mullins Street Congr. Notre-Dame

School

St. Catherine School 1298, St. Catherine E. Congr. Notre-Dame

Bourgeoys School 490, Plessis Street Congr. Notre-Dame

Visitation School 703, Craig East Street Congr. Notre-Dame

St. Joseph’s School 739, Notre-Dame West Congr. Notre-Dame

(Girls)

St. Ann’s School 102, McCord Street Congr. Notre-Dame

(Girls)

St. Louis School 101, Roy Street Congr. Notre-Dame

N.-D. du Bon 714, Craig East Street Congr. Notre-Dame

Conseil Schl

Jeanne LeBer School 740, Wellington Street Congr. Notre-Dame

St. Agnès’ School 357, St. Antoine Street Congr. Notre-Dame

St. Patrick’s Schl. 79, St-Alexander Street Congr. Notre-Dame

(Girls)

St. Stanislaus 321, Sanguinet Street Congr. Notre-Dame

School

St. Antoine School 434, Lagauchetière W. Congr. Notre-Dame

St. Eusebius School 711, Fullum Street Congr. Notre-Dame

St. Helen’s School 5, Chaboillez Street Congr. Notre-Dame

(Girls)

St. Alphonsus School 120, Conway Street Congr. Notre-Dame

St. John the 495, Centre Street Sisters of the Holy Cross

Evangelist

St. Bridget’s School 111, Papineau Street Sisters of the Holy Cross

St. Gabriel School 478, Centre Street Sisters of the Holy Cross

St. Alexis Orphanage 247, St. Denis Street Sisters of Providence

Jardin de l’Enfance 110, Visitation Street Sisters of Providence

St. Vincent-de-Paul 247, St. Denis Street Sisters of Providence

Institut. for the 95, St. Catherine W. St. Grey Nuns (S. of Charity)

Blind

Bethlehem Asylum. 1, Richmond Square Grey Nuns (S. of Charity)

Marchand Academy 356, Dorchester E. St Lady lay teachers

Garneau School 463, Visitation Street Lady lay teachers

Mrs. Mackay 58, Ontario West Street Lady lay teachers

Wolff’s Schl

Miss Viger’s School 440, St. Hubert Street Lady lay teachers

St. Joseph, 156, Charlemagne St Lady lay teachers

Longue Pointe

Vinet Longue Pointe 139, Lepailleur Street Lady lay teachers

Ecole St. Croix In Edmard Ward Lay teachers

(Boys)

Notre Dame du Perpétuel In Edmard Ward Congregation N.D.

Secours (Girls)

The commission is at present building six new buildings and four

of them will be completed during the present year.

It should be borne in mind that the above list does not represent

the full number of Catholic schools in Montreal in 1914, in a

population of over four hundred and sixty-six thousand, of which

over two-thirds are Catholics. The above are only those schools

controlled by the “Montreal Catholic school board” which is no

longer an exact expression.

For it must be understood that while from a municipal point of

view, the City of Montreal has grown by successive annexations

which have considerably enlarged its territory and the number of

its inhabitants, nevertheless the Catholic School Board has not

enlarged its domain. Its jurisdiction is exercised only within

the limits of the old city before annexations. The towns and

villages lately annexed have preserved their school autonomy, so

that what with the towns or villages annexed for municipal, but

not for school purposes, and those not in any way annexed, there

are altogether about thirty-two different school boards in what

is considered the metropolis of Montreal.

There are now more pupils in the many schools of the territory

outside the scope of the Central Commission than are under its

regulation. This should be carefully understood, else the

above list would indeed look small for so large a Catholic city.

[Illustration: THE OLD “BLACK” NUNNERY The northeast portion of

the garden of the convent of the “Congregation de Notre Dame,”

founded by Marguerite Bourgeoys in 1659. The present buildings

are those of the third convent, the previous two having been

burned. The projected extension of St. Lawrence Boulevard to

the harbor necessitates the demolition of the convent and the

adjoining church of Notre Dame de Pitie.]

WOMEN TEACHING ORGANIZATIONS--THE “CONGREGATION”

The chief women organizations at present cooperating with the

Catholic school commission have an interesting history. The early

history of the pioneering work for education in Montreal by the

Congregation Nuns has been told in the first volume. To resume in

brief, on November 25, 1657, Marguerite Bourgeoys, with Madame

Marguerite Pacaud, opened the first school proper, in Montreal

in a stable (36 by 18 feet) given by M. de Maisonneuve, facing

the Hôtel Diéu on St. Paul Street. In 1666 a boarding school

for young girls was opened by her. In 1670, the stable being

insufficient, a large house in stone was built. In 1683 the house

was burnt down and two of her community, Géneviève Durosoy and

Marguerite Soumillard perished. The Congregation immediately

commenced, with only 40 sols, to build their house in the “haut

ville,” on ground donated to them adjoining the Hôtel Diéu. This

was the site on which the subsequent convent additions were built

and which has recently, in 1912, been purchased by the city for

the elongation of St. Lawrence Boulevard. In 1713 the northeast

wing of the convent was commenced for a “pensionnat” which

received a foundation of 13,000 _livres_ from Jeanne Le Ber, the

recluse of Notre Dame de Pitié church, erected since 1693 in the

convent grounds. The revenue from this sum was to educate and

board gratuitously seven young girls. In 1768, on April 11th, a

second fire destroyed all the buildings of the convent. In 1823

the Sisters added to their establishment a three-story building.

When the great movement for popular education was promoted in

1833 by M. Quiblier, superior of the Seminary, some of the

Sisters left their convent to open extern free day schools,

first, Externat Ste. Marie, opened September 21, 1833, on Craig

and Visitation streets, and, second, Externat St. Laurent, 324

St. Catherine Street, to be followed, in successive years till

today, by other “externats,” a course which has entitled them to

much public recognition. In 1845 the nuns adjoined the annex to

the _pensionnat_--a building 300 by 57 feet, erected on St. Jean

Baptiste Street. In 1854 a second _pensionnat_ was added, called

“Villa Maria” by the purchase of Monklands, a residence southwest

of Mountain, the original home of the “Monk” family, which became

the official residence of the governor general. It was there that

Lord Elgin retired after signing the rebellion losses bill. In

1860 the original pensionnat, dating from 1666, was removed from

the old site to Mount St. Mary, to the building used as the St.

Patrick’s Hospital for the Irish from 1852 to 1860, and before

that as a Baptist college.

In 1880 the mother house and the novitiate were transferred

to the western slope of Mount Royal, near Villa Maria. The

handsome new building was burnt to the ground on June 8, 1893.

The community returned to their old home on St. Jean Baptiste

Street, which in the meantime had been used as the normal school

entrusted to the nuns, since 1898, for the education of female

bodies for the Province. But a new mother house was preparing;

which they entered in July, 1908. It is an immense building, one

of the largest in the world devoted to religious purposes. It is

built in the Romanesque style. This building is the home of the

college for the higher education of women in affiliation with

Laval University.

The Normal School for girls to be trained for Catholic teachers

for the Province of Quebec has been connected with their

organization since its foundation, on September 14, 1898.

SISTERS OF THE HOLY NAMES OF JESUS AND MARY

The institution of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and

Mary is a Montreal foundation which has spread over Canada,

Oregon, California, and many parts of the United States. It

had for its foundress Mlles. Eulalie Durocher (afterwards, in

religion, Mother Maria Rose), Melodie Dufresne and Henriette

Céré, who began their work of teaching the young in October,

1843, in a modest house in Longueuil. In 1844 it was formed into

a religious community and the Sisters took possession of their

convent there. On December 8th the foundresses took their first

religious vows and on August 15, 1846, their final vows. The work

of teaching may be said to be definitely founded in 1845. It has

steadily progressed. The Sisters have about 27,470 children who

attended school under their charge in 1913. They have fifty-six

establishments and direct twenty-five parochial schools in Canada

alone.

Its principal schools are the Hochelaga Convent and the imposing

convent at Outremont, on St. Catherine Road.

On the Eastern slope of Mount Royal, built on one of the

choicest sites of Montreal, is the Outremont boarding-school. A

magnificent panorama of the surrounding country may be seen from

the upper steps of the Convent. The immense cutstone building, of

modern architecture, is surrounded by verdant lawns and gravel

walks, whereon the pupils may indulge in all the pastimes of

convent life. The course of studies is the same as at Hochelaga,

although the appointments may be more modern. A beautiful white

chapel, with its marble altars, burnished brass communion-table

and stained glass windows, is worthy of attention. A museum is

located in the dome which overtops the building.

SISTERS OF THE HOLY CROSS

Another body cooperating with the Catholic School Commission,

is that of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross,

founded in 1841, at Mans, France, by Father Anthony Moreau and

Mother Mary of the Seven Dolors, née Leocadie Gascoin. In May,

1847, at the formal request of Rev. J.B. Saint Germain, Pastor

of St. Laurent, Bishop Bourget, on his return from Europe,

brought three nuns from this recently organized institute to

establish a branch in Canada. Its beginnings were very humble

and, perhaps on account of its distance from the mother-house, it

made little progress during the first thirty-five years of its

existence. After this ordeal, it suddenly underwent a wonderful

transformation and now numbers 623 members, 530 professed and

98 novices, and owns 40 prosperous houses situated in three

provinces, wherein upwards of 14,000 children are educated. The

Convent still occupies its original site, but has undergone so

many improvements that it is now as fine and massive a structure

as any of the more modern buildings. The boarding-school,

attached to the mother-house and novitiate, Notre Dame Des

Anges, offers every facility for the physical and intellectual

development of youth. The course comprises a term of nine

years. There are 250 pupils under tuition. The house confers

diplomas on such as graduate with honors. Its fine museum is

noted for its rare collections and for their intelligent and

scientific classification; its physical-culture class caters to

the requirements of modern ideas; its vast library contains 4,500

volumes, the best works of French and English authors.

[Illustration: HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN: Royal Victoria College]

[Illustration: HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN: Mother House of the

Congregation De Notre Dame]

St. Basil’s Boarding School was erected in 1895, and opened the

following year under the supervision of the Sisters of the Holy

Cross. More than 350 pupils take the full English and French

course, and are eventually awarded the diploma of the house,

or the academic, if they pass the examination of the Board of

Catholic Examiners of the Province of Quebec.

SISTERS OF ST. ANNE

The Sisters of St. Anne is another teaching congregation

assisting the Catholic School Commission. It was founded at

Vaudreuil in 1850 by Miss Esther Lureau dit Blondin. The order

now extends over four provinces of which two are in Canada,

with 54 houses of which 21 are at the diocese of Montreal.

The convent at Lachine, formerly the residence of Sir George

Simpson, governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, is their chief

establishment in Montreal; another is the large boarding-house at

St. Henri.

OTHER CONGREGATIONS

Among the congregations not primarily teaching organizations, but

charitable institutions with schools attached to the Board, the

Sisters of Providence conducting the schools of the orphanage of

St. Alexis founded in 1864, and schools of St. Vincent de Paul,

and of the Jardin de L’Enfance founded in 1881. This congregation

accepts a subsidy from the School Commission. It also teaches the

School of the Deaf Mutes, but not under the Commission as in the

other case.

The Grey Nuns also receive subsidies under the Commission for

their instruction in the classes of l’Asyle Bethlehem on Richmond

Square, founded by the Hon. C.S. Rodier and “Nazareth” Asylum on

St. Catherine Street, founded in 1860, for the blind. The history

of these organizations will be found in another section.

MEN’S TEACHING ORGANIZATIONS

The coming of the Brothers of the Christian Schools to Montreal

in 1837 must be chronicled at some length since the modern

Catholic primary educational system for the boys of the city

has been so largely under their hands. The first project of the

establishment in Canada of the “Christian” Brothers, as they are

now popularly called, dates back as far as the year before the

death of the founder of the institute, St. Jean Baptiste de la

Salle, 1718, but negotiations were broken off. In 1733 Brothers

Denis and Pacificus were sent to Montreal to study the situation,

but with no results. Nearly a century later, in 1830, the

superior of the seminary and vicar general of the diocese, Abbé

Quiblier, made overtures to Brother Anacletus, who then governed

the institute, for a settlement for the brothers to teach the

boys whose education had never been so systematically organized

as that of the girls. Numbers being small, it was not till 1837,

on November 7th, that three brothers, the first to visit America,

arrived at the seminary, where they were entertained as guests

for six months, till they were installed in their first novitiate

on St. Francois Xavier Street, the gift of the Sulpicians, in a

house adjoining the school. On December 23, 1837, they commenced

their classes in the seminary building. Two classes were

immediately filled, to be quickly succeeded by a third.

As the scholars grew M. Quiblier acquired for the brothers an

old country house of one of the governors of Montreal in Coté

Street, which formed a second novitiate and a temporary school.

In 1840 there was added, parallel to the novitiate, a new school

(St. Lawrence) built in stone and in 1841 there were in the two

schools eight classes with 860 scholars who were visited by a

Lord Sydenham. In 1842 the brothers began to wear the three

cornered caps of their congregation, now so familiar on the

streets in Montreal. Up to this they had not been permitted

this privilege. The prejudice against the body of religious not

priests wearing a religious habit will be remembered by those

familiar with the history of the Charron Brothers before the

English regime.

Further French classes were opened by them. In 1843 two special

classes for the Irish children were begun in the old convent

of the Récollets. In 1843, also, the Brothers were invited to

Quebec and later to other places in Canada and in America.

Again Montreal is seen as the distributing point of influence

through education. A French-Canadian journal has said: “Ce grain

de senevé, jeté sur les rives du St. Laurent a donné naissance

à un arbre magnifique dort les rameaux bienfaisants ombrageat

les principaux centres du Canada et des Etats Unis.” The

numerous homes of education of this body and the lists of their

educational output of school text-books deserve a more prolonged

study than space permits here. The Brothers have done for the

boys the work that the Congregation of Marguerite Bourgeoys has

done for the girls. At present, around Montreal alone, these have

over twenty communities presiding over colleges or schools.

Besides their many elementary schools, the Brothers of the

Christian Schools have the large “Collège de Mont St. Louis”

on Sherbrooke Street, which being divided into three courses,

elementary, commercial and scientific, prepares its pupils for

the polytechnical schools and the different university courses.

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS

Of the male teaching religious organizations acting under the

Commission there are the “Sacred Heart,” the “Marist,” the St.

Gabriel, and the “Presentation” Brothers, and the Brothers of the

Christian Schools.

--LAY TEACHERS

A third class of those cooperating with the board are the

layteachers. The early teachers especially are deserving of

every praise for their efforts to meet the call for education.

We have already indicated the names of some of those who taught

school before the Union, a partial list of others who worked for

the most part independently of any support chiefly during the

first School Act between 1846 and 1868 may be a fitting tribute.

The dates subjoined give the official opening of school, the

name being the principal. (Cf. “Annuaire de Ville Marie” by

Hugues-Latour):

May 1, 1843, Mlle. Portias; May 1, 1844, Mlle. Sophie Godaire;

September 1, 1853, The Academie Commercial Catholique, founded

by the Catholic Commissioners; August 1, 1856, Mrs. Mary Mullin,

No. 13 St. Alexander Street; September 1, 1852, Mlle. Caroline

Gibeau; October 4, 1852, Mlle. A. Lefebre; September 1, 1854,

Mlle. Sophia Casson; September 1, 1857, School for Boys and

Girls, under the direction of Mr. and Mrs. Clark, Mlle. Lacombe

and Mr. Octave Clark; September 1, 1857, St. Ann’s Male School,

McCord Street, founded by Mr. Andrew Keegan; October 11, 1858,

Mlle. Richard; May 1, 1859, Montreal Select Model School, founded

by Mr. W. Doran; June 11, 1859, Mme. Lafontaine; July, 1859,

Mlles. Lesage; August 1, 1859, Mlle. Louise Larivière; August

15, 1859, St. Ann’s Female School, founded by Miss Marguerite

Lawless; May 1, 1861, Mlle. Varin, for English and French; May

1, 1861, Académie St. Marie, founded by School of Christian

Brothers; September 1, 1861, M. Charles Lafontaine; July 14,

1862, St. Patrick’s Model School, English and French (Girls),

School Commissioners, Wellington Street; September 1, 1862, Mlle.

A.M. Clark, English and French (Girls); September 1, 1862, Mlle.

Corinne Boudreau, English and French (Girls); January 23, 1863,

Académie St. Joseph, M. Joseph Mauffet, and evening school for

men, M. and Madame Mauffet; May 16, 1863, Model School for Boys,

French, School Commissioners; August 1, 1863, St. Patrick’s Model

School, School Commissioners; August 1, 1863, St. Patrick’s

Model School, School Commissioners; April 5, 1863, Mlles. Louise

Lafricain and Jessie Lengley, English and French (Girls); May 1,

1863, Mlle. Josephine Cassant; April 4, 1863, Mrs. Jane Curran;

July 1, 1863, Mlle. Aurélie Valade; September 1, 1863, Miss A.L.

Cronin; September 1, 1863, Mlle. Louise Gingras; October 19,

1863, Mlle. Ida Labelle.

NOTE I

SECONDARY EDUCATION

In addition to the Elementary schools, there are many Catholic

and Protestant schools and colleges which, in or around the

city, provide for Secondary education mostly in preparation

for a further University course. These are supplied by private

citizens or corporate bodies; among them may be mentioned: Miss

Edgar’s School, 507 Guy Street; Lower Canada College, Notre Dame

de Grâce; the Catholic High School (Presentation Brothers),

Durocher Street; Lyola College, Drummond Street; St. Marie’s

College, Bleury Street; the Convent of the Ladies of the Sacred

Heart, St. Alexander Street and Sault au Récollet; St. Laurent’s

College (Holy Cross Brothers); Mort St. Louis College (Christian

Brothers), Sherbrooke Street; and the academies for advanced

education in connection with the different teaching Brotherhoods

and Sisterhoods.

There are also many business schools.

NOTE II

TECHNICAL, COMMERCIAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN MONTREAL

The earliest attempt at technical education before the

capitulation of 1760 will be found in Vol. I, Under The French

Régime. The modern movement remains to be chronicled.

THE BOARD OF ARTS AND MANUFACTURES

In 1859 the Board of Arts and Manufactures of Lower Canada

established a central school at Montreal.

In 1872, the Council of Arts and Manufactures made an attempt

to put technical education on its feet. Hitherto the progress

of industry had not been sufficiently perceived. The growth

of manufactures following upon the National policy made the

experiment more necessary. The early equipment was meager, the

means small, and there were but few classes and few pupils.

Still steady progress was made. In 1898 Mr. Thomas Gauthier

became president and long steps in advance were made. There are

now nearly three thousand pupils over the Province of Quebec,

in Montreal, Quebec, St. Hyacinthe, Sherbrooke, Three Rivers,

St. Jean, Lachine, Valleyfield, Sorel, Fraserville, Charny, St.

Romuald, and Chicoutimi.

In Montreal alone there are over one thousand five hundred and

ten pupils in four schools, of which the Monument National is the

most important.

COMMERCIAL AND TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL

Technical night schools are also provided at the Commercial and

Technical High School, the successor of the Montreal Senior

School. This latter school was organized by the Protestant Board

of School Commissioners in September, 1877, to accommodate the

classes of what was then known as the second senior grade of

the public elementary schools. For a year the school met in a

building on Ontario Street, between Bleury and Mance streets,

and in 1878 was transferred to the old high school building at

the corner of Dorchester and University streets, now the Fraser

Institute, and in 1883 to the building on Burnside Place between

Metcalfe and Peel streets.

In 1906 the course of study of the Montreal Senior School was

revised, its name changed to the Commercial and Technical High

School, and the school moved to its new building at 53 Sherbrooke

Street West.

It may not be very widely known that the first Young Men’s