VOLUME III
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
MONTREAL VANCOUVER CHICAGO
1914
[Illustration: RICHARD B. ANGUS]
BIOGRAPHICAL
RICHARD BLADWORTH ANGUS.
“No man in Montreal and very few in Canada have had a fuller,
riper and more successful career than ‘the man of peace,’ as
he is known in business circles.” So writes the Toronto Globe
of Richard Bladworth Angus, and there is little to add that
would describe the man more accurately. A purposeful man, a
deep thinker, a man of the highest principles, Mr. Angus is
representative of the empire builders of Canada. Beginning his
career in a humble station, he has climbed the ladder of success
rung by rung until he reached the ranks of men like the late
Lord Strathcona, and the present Lord Mount Stephen, with whom
he labored in building the most important railroad lines in the
Dominion and with whom he stood for all that which has made
Canada the great empire that it is today. Not only has Mr. Angus
been prominent as a builder and financier of great rail lines,
but he has given of his time and means toward the establishment
of great institutions to care for the sick, to bring education to
all those who may seek it, to promote and disseminate a thorough
understanding of art--in short, to promote the intellectual as
well as the material welfare of that most enterprising of all
British peoples--the Canadian nation.
Richard B. Angus was born in Bathgate, Scotland, May 28, 1831,
and educated there. While in his native country he was employed
by the Manchester & Liverpool Bank for some time and in 1857
entered the offices of the Bank of Montreal in Canada. To the
present generation the name of R. B. Angus has been rightly
considered a synonym for the financial activity instituted by the
Bank of Montreal, for he has been connected with that institution
since 1857, having come out from Scotland to accept a position in
the bank in which at a later date he was to be for many years the
guiding hand. His keen mind, his adaptability to new conditions,
his shrewdness and his careful weighing of important questions
assured him of quick promotion and four years after he became
connected with the institution he was placed in charge of the
Chicago agency, in 1861 and in 1863 was agent for the bank in New
York.
During his sojourn in Chicago Mr. Angus became acquainted with
the spirit of the great west and what it was hoped might be
accomplished there. He saw the states of Illinois and Iowa
budding forth from prairie to splendidly developed communities
and reasoning by analogy he recognized what the future had in
store for the Canadian west following the construction of the
Canadian Pacific Railway. The splendid financial standing of the
Canadian Pacific Railway Company today is also in a measure due
to the wisdom of this man, whom no doubt Sir Thomas Shaughnessy
considers one of his wisest counsellors.
In 1864 Mr. Angus returned to Montreal to become second assistant
manager of the Bank of Montreal, was later appointed assistant
manager and became manager in 1868. In 1869, or two years after
the union of the British North American colonies, Mr. Angus was
appointed general manager of the Bank of Montreal, a position
which he held until November 1, 1879. It is said that during
these ten years his advice was sought many times by the different
finance ministers of the Dominion not only as regards federal
loans but also concerning the general financial policy of the
country. Although a native of Scotland, where free trade exists,
Mr. Angus looked with favor upon the protectionist program,
which triumphed in Canada on the 18th of September, 1878. He
saw therein a means whereby the Dominion could become a great
manufacturing country, and he has lived long enough to see the
splendid fruition of that policy.
After his ten years’ tenure of office as general manager of
the Bank of Montreal Mr. Angus was called to another sphere of
usefulness. When several prominent men connected with the Bank of
Montreal bought out the Dutch interests in what was then called
the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway, those interested,
realizing the ability of Mr. Angus as a financier and organizer,
asked him to leave the bank and become the representative of
their interests in St. Paul. Accepting the management of the
railway, his great success during the two years of his residence
in the American northwest has become a part of the history not
only of the American but also of the Canadian northwest. Mr.
Angus was one of the first promoters of the Canadian Pacific
Railway. He was among the earliest to recognize the stupendous
success which would attend the project if there was carried out
an enlightened policy of settlement and industrial expansion.
A syndicate was formed, with Mr. George Stephen, later Lord
Mount Stephen, and Mr. Donald A. Smith, later Lord Strathcona,
as its leading spirits. Mr. Angus was one of the original
body and he has remained in connection with the incorporated
company ever since as one of its directors. He advised upon the
strategic points where the chief entrenchments of the first
transcontinental road should be laid out and he pointed out the
spots where the Bank of Montreal could most effectively plant
its branches. This policy of his had a great deal to do with
the expansion which has brought the capitalization of the Bank
of Montreal and the Canadian Pacific Railway up to the present
colossal figures.
As general manager of the Bank of Montreal Mr. Angus served
under four presidents, namely, T. B. Anderson, E. H. King, David
Torrance and George Stephen, now Lord Mount Stephen, and he and
the latter are the only ones of the number yet living. He also
sat as director with Lord Strathcona and Sir George A. Drummond,
succeeding the latter to the presidency of the bank July 22,
1910. All admit that no one of that galaxy of financiers who have
year after year sat at the historic round table ever rendered
greater service to the institution than R. B. Angus.
At an age when most men throw off official cares and
responsibilities to enjoy the leisure which prosperity has
brought them Mr. Angus in his octogenarian prime took up as
cheerfully as would a man of forty the principal position in
Canada’s foremost financial institution. In November, 1913, on
account of advancing years and a desire to be relieved of all
financial burdens of a public character, Mr. Angus resigned the
presidency of the Bank of Montreal, but remains a member of the
board and continues to give the institution the benefit of his
ripe, wide and valuable experience.
That worth hath its reward is evident in Mr. Angus’ career, who
is rated today as one of the richest men in Montreal. However,
he seems to consider himself more in the light of a steward of
his vast property interests, for he freely and liberally has
given of his means and made handsome contributions to numerous
institutions. Among these is the Montreal Art Association, of
which he was formerly president and to which he gave money and
several valuable paintings. He also supported McGill University
with a considerable sum and gave to the Alexandra Contagious
Diseases Hospital of Montreal, of which he is a governor and
was a founder. He was president of the Royal Victoria Hospital,
which institution he also has liberally supported, and is a
vice president of the Royal Victorian Order of Nurses. The
Charity Organization Society, of which he is a director, has
also benefited in a material way and by his timely advice. Mr.
Angus was also a governor of the Montreal General Hospital. An
honor to his race and one of the foremost representatives among
Scotchmen in Canada, he served several times as president of the
St. Andrew’s Society of Montreal. Mr. Angus was governor of the
Fraser Institute Free Public Library and is an honorary member of
the Antiquarian and Numismatic Society of Montreal.
Among commercial and financial institutions with which he has
been or is connected are the Canadian Pacific Railway Company,
the Laurentide Paper Company, the Dominion Coal Company, the
Dominion Iron & Steel Company, the Dominion Bridge Company, the
Royal Trust Company, the Grand Falls Power Company, the Pacific
Coal Company, the Canadian Salt Company, the Northwest Land
Company and the London & Lancashire Life Assurance Company.
Mr. Angus has always taken a deep interest in public institutions
and was one of the chief promoters of the board of control in
Montreal, which was founded in 1909. He has ever placed his
services at the disposal of such affairs as have made for a
greater and better Canada. In 1910 knighthood was offered to him,
but he declined the honor.
Among the clubs of which Mr. Angus is a member are: the St.
James, of which he was formerly chairman; the Mount Royal, of
which he was a founder and of which he has served as president;
the Montreal Jockey; the Auto and Aero Club; the Forest and
Stream Club; and the Winter Club. He also is a member of the
Rideau Club of Ottawa, the Toronto Club, the York Club of Toronto
and the Manitoba Club of Winnipeg.
On June 13, 1857, Angus was married to Miss Mary Anne Daniels,
who died March 13, 1913. To them were born three sons and six
daughters, two of the latter being deceased.
In religious matters Mr. Angus adheres to the stern faith of his
fathers, being a Presbyterian. It may be said of him that in all
fields in which he has exerted his activities he has excelled.
Quiet in demeanor, he is purposeful and unconsciously exerts an
influence which makes for domination. That this domination is
always used to good purpose and for the benefit of his country
and its people stands to his high credit. Sir Sandford Fleming
paid him high compliment as a banker in the words that he is
a man who “in every way is a credit to the great institution
over which he so worthily presides,” and the Montreal Star
characterizes him as “one of Canada’s prominent and most highly
respected financiers.” Mr. Angus is a true Scotchman, a truer
Canadian, but best of all--a man worthy of the name.
LEONIDAS VILLENEUVE.
From a comparatively humble position in business circles Leonidas
Villeneuve advanced until he ranked with the millionaire
merchants of Montreal and throughout his entire career his record
was such as any man might be proud to possess, bringing to him
the respect of colleagues and contemporaries. The record of his
career, showing the steps in his orderly progression, may serve
as a source of inspiration and encouragement to others and in
this biography finds its chief motive and value.
Mr. Villeneuve was born in Terrebonne county, at Ste. Anne des
Plaines, a son of Joachim Villeneuve, who was a farmer there. His
boyhood and youth were uneventfully passed, but when twenty years
of age he determined to try his fortune in the commercial field.
He was attracted to the lumber business and, believing that he
would find it congenial and profitable, he established a small
lumberyard north of Mount Royal Avenue, in the ownership and
conduct of which he was first associated with the late Senator J.
O. Villeneuve. Gradually he advanced toward the goal of success,
his business growing with the development of the district. He
remained at its head until his death, eventually conducting an
extensive business under the name of the L. Villeneuve Company.
This brought him substantial returns and his fortune also arose
through his wise and judicious investments in real estate. From
time to time he added to his holdings and, when there was a
real-estate boom in the district, he had extensive holdings, a
portion of which he sold, realizing therefrom a handsome fortune.
Mr. Villeneuve was a prominent figure in local circles in
connection with the growth and progress of his section. When the
district north of Mount Royal Avenue gradually developed from
a sparsely settled region into a fast growing town he was one
of the leading spirits in planning roadways, parks and public
improvements. To him in great measure it is due that, with its
wide streets and well built homes, Laurier ward is among the most
attractive in this city. He was for twenty years associated with
the municipal life of Ville St. Louis, first serving as alderman
and afterward for three terms as mayor.
In politics Mr. Villeneuve was a stalwart conservative, but while
working actively in the party and doing everything in his power
to promote its growth and secure its success, he could never be
tempted to try his fortune in either the federal or provincial
fields, although he was requested on many occasions to carry the
party banner. He was universally respected for his unswerving
business honesty and uprightness, and upon these qualities as a
foundation he builded his success, which placed him among the
leaders in his particular line in eastern Canada. His sound
judgment enabled him to correctly value those things which go to
make up life’s contacts and experiences. His opinions were sound,
his enterprise unfaltering and his activities were of a character
that contributed to the public welfare as well as to individual
success. Mr. Villeneuve was a member of the Roman Catholic
church, and took a great deal of interest in church affairs.
[Illustration: LEONIDAS VILLENEUVE]
Mr. Villeneuve was married twice. His first wife was Malvina
Joyal, a sister of Dr. Joyal, of Montreal, and to them was born
a son, J. Arthur, who was educated in Montreal and traveled
extensively with his father in Europe. He married Miss Yvonne
Lariviere, of Montreal, and has a son, Jean Leonidas, born
July 11, 1913. J. Arthur Villeneuve is vice president of the
L. Villeneuve Company and of the Eagle Lumber Company and is a
worthy successor of his father in connection with the lumber
industry of the country. For his second wife Leonidas Villeneuve
chose Dame Exilda Bergeron, who also survives. His life of
intense and intelligently directed activity brought him success
and, moreover, he always followed constructive methods in his
business career, so that his path was never strewn with the wreck
of other men’s fortunes.
HENRY R. GRAY.
Tangible evidence of the public spirit of Henry R. Gray is found
in his service as chairman of the board of health and the radical
and effective measures which he took in preventing the spread of
a small-pox epidemic. He did equally efficient work in promoting
sanitary conditions in Montreal along various lines and at the
same time he occupied a prominent position as a representative
of the pharmaceutical profession. He was born December 30, 1838,
in Boston, Lincolnshire, England, and pursued his education at
Standard Hill, Nottingham, the head master of the school being
William Goodacre, the well known author of several standard
educational works. He was afterward articled for five years to
William March, chemist and apothecary, at Newark, England, and
subsequently pursued a course of lectures on chemistry under the
celebrated Roscoe in Manchester.
Coming to Canada when twenty-one years of age, Mr. Gray
established his business in Montreal in 1859 and for several
years devoted his attention to the study of sanitary science
and particularly to the question of the sanitation of cities.
He was connected with every movement to improve the sanitary
condition of Montreal and his labors were of far-reaching
benefit. He became one of the originators of the Pharmaceutical
Association of the province, of which he was elected secretary
and later treasurer and vice president. He was next called to
the presidency, serving for three consecutive years and also as
a member of the board of examiners. He became one of the charter
members of the Montreal College of Pharmacy and for two years was
its president.
In 1884 he was elected alderman of the St. Lawrence ward and soon
afterward was unanimously chosen by the city council as chairman
of the local board of health, serving in that difficult position
during the whole of the disastrous epidemic of small-pox which
devastated the city and province in 1885 and 1886. When the
disease broke out and the death rate amounted to twenty-five per
day, there was little civic organization to prevent the spread
of disease or further the promotion of sanitary conditions.
Vaccination was opposed, but Mr. Gray organized a vigorous
campaign to stamp out the disease and obtained the passage of
by-laws insisting on free and compulsory vaccination. He also
organized a civic hospital and insisted on all the small-pox
patients being sent to the isolation hospital. Through this and
other emergency methods he allayed the general fear and stamped
out the disease. It was in that year that he succeeded in getting
a by-law through the city council requiring all household refuse
to be cremated, and shortly afterward crematories were erected
and a contract for five years’ collection and cremation given out.
After having served a three years’ term as alderman Mr. Gray
declined reelection. He was appointed by the government a justice
of the peace and a member of the council of public instruction
for the province of Quebec and was elected to represent it on
the corporation of the polytechnic school of this city. He was
likewise a life governor of the Montreal General Hospital and
the Notre Dame Hospital. When the public health act passed the
legislature, shortly after the small-pox epidemic, Mr. Gray, who
in addition to his aldermanic duties had been a member of the old
central board of health for the province, was appointed a member
of the new provincial board of health then created and remained a
member until his death. In 1885 he was elected membre honoraire
de la Société d’Hygiène Française of Paris, France. After his
retirement from the city council he was requested by a number
of leading citizens of all parties and creeds to accept the
nomination of mayor, but owing to business reasons he was obliged
to decline.
Mr. Gray married Miss Catherine Margaret McGale, the youngest
daughter of the late Dr. Bernard McGale, who was a member of
the army medical staff. Mr. Gray died February 18, 1908, and
is survived by his wife, three daughters and a son, Dr. H. R.
Dunstan Gray. The memory of his well spent life is cherished by
all who were his contemporaries and his colleagues, and the worth
of his work is recognized by all who know aught of the history of
Montreal.
JAMES JOHNSTON.
Throughout an active, commercial career James Johnston was
engaged in importing and dealing in English and foreign dry
goods, in which connection he built up an enterprise of extensive
and gratifying proportions, his becoming one of the leading
commercial houses of Montreal. He was born March 20, 1849, a son
of James and Mary (Burns) Johnston, both of whom were natives
of Scotland, who, coming to the new world in early life, were
married in Montreal. The father, who was born in 1819, passed
away in this city on the 27th of May, 1882.
Spending his youthful days under the parental roof, James
Johnston pursued his education in the schools of Montreal and
Quebec and, entering business circles, he became connected with
the firm of James Johnston & Company, importers of and dealers in
dry goods of English and foreign manufacture, of which his father
was the head. After the death of his father he became head of the
business, devoting his entire attention to the development of a
trade which grew to large and gratifying proportions, making his
one of the leading dry-goods establishments in the city. Since
his demise the store has been sold and is now conducted under the
firm style of W. R. Brock Company, Ltd.
Mr. Johnston was married in Montreal, in 1876, to Miss Agnes
Grant Robertson, a daughter of Andrew Robertson, who was a
prominent resident of this city. By this marriage there were
eight children of whom seven are living. The family circle was
broken by the hand of death when on the 14th of July, 1899,
James Johnston was called to his final rest. His interests and
activities, aside from business, are indicated by the fact that
he held membership in the St. James Club, the Metropolitan
Club, the Hunt Club, the Forest and Stream Club, and St.
Paul’s Presbyterian church. He was always actuated by high and
manly principles and worthy motives, and he left to his family
the priceless heritage of an untarnished name as well as the
substantial reward of his business enterprise and sagacity.
MICHAEL JAMES WALSH.
Michael James Walsh is prominent along various lines of activity
in Montreal, where he is widely known as a successful insurance
broker but has also actively participated in an important way in
political and governmental affairs and is moreover widely known
in fraternal circles. Of good Irish stock, he has brought the
sturdiness of his ancestors to the task at hand and has attained
a success which entitles him to consideration as one of the
substantial men of his community and a power for progress and
improvement in the political field.
A native of Montreal, Michael James Walsh was born on the
2d of September, 1858, a son of Mark and Catherine (Nolan)
Walsh, both natives of County Wexford, Ireland. The father was
prominent as a contractor and everywhere in this city respected
as a successful business man. Michael J. Walsh received his
education at St. Ann’s parish, Christian Brothers School, and
upon discontinuing his lessons became connected with the Grand
Trunk and Canadian Pacific Railways, remaining for about ten
years in their employ in their store departments. He then set
out independently, becoming an insurance broker, and by native
shrewdness and ability to understand commercial conditions has
succeeded in building up a business which ranks him among the
foremost men in his line in Montreal. When his private affairs
permitted him to devote some of his time to the public weal
he entered politics with the same zest as he displayed in his
private business affairs and as a result was elected alderman of
the St. Ann’s ward on February 1, 1902, continuing in that office
for four years or until February 1, 1906, and doing valuable work
in promoting measures which have been of far-reaching benefit
to the city. On November 25, 1904, he was also elected a member
of the Quebec provincial legislature and on December 28, 1908,
reelected to that office, continuing therein until May 15, 1912.
His legislative career has been one of success and his record has
been so clear that his constituents may well be proud of their
representative. He has done much in supporting valuable bills,
especially those undertaken in the interest of his constituents,
and has ever been active in committee rooms and on the floor of
the house in sustaining or promoting constructive legislation.
His political position is that of a liberal, and he always has
been a stanch supporter of that grand man of the liberal party,
Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
On October 9, 1882, at Montreal, in St. Henry parish church, Mr.
Walsh was married to Mary Jane Barry, a daughter of David Barry,
mechanical superintendent of the Canada Sugar Refinery, and Mary
O’Leary, both natives of County Cork, Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. Walsh
became the parents of two sons. Joseph Christopher Barry Walsh,
B. A., B. C. L., is a well known notary public. The other son
born to the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Walsh is David Robert Barry
Walsh, who graduated from Loyola College and is now successfully
engaged in the insurance business, being inspector for the Royal
Exchange Association. Both sons are young men of excellent habits
and qualifications.
As the years have passed Mr. Walsh has become connected with
a number of outside interests and is now a director in the
People’s Mutual Building Society and for many years has been a
member of the Montreal Board of Trade, doing in that connection
important work in promoting commercial expansion. Fraternally he
is very prominent and has held high offices in the Knights of
Columbus, the Catholic Order of Foresters, the Catholic Mutual
Benefit Association, the Canadian Order of Foresters, the Royal
Guardians, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and in St. Patrick’s
Society. A man of varied and important interests, Mr. Walsh has
made an honorable record in business as well as in municipal
and provincial politics and enjoys the full confidence of the
best classes of population. In him there is strongly developed
the quality of loyalty, and it is his devotion to a cause which
has led him into the important relations with which he is now
connected. He may justly be classed with Montreal’s leading
citizens, and the position which he has attained is the more
creditable as it has been brought about entirely by his own
efforts.
JAMES BELL, M. D.
Notable service in the field of abdominal surgery won for Dr.
James Bell an international reputation. His broad study and
research made him a scientist of renown and his opinions were
largely accepted as authority by the profession which recognized
him not only as an eminent surgeon, but equally capable educator.
He was born at North Gower, Ontario, in 1852, and after acquiring
his early education in local schools and by private tuition,
he entered McGill University and was graduated as Holmes’ gold
medallist in 1877, a fact indicative of the excellent work which
he had done in his student days. He was immediately appointed
house surgeon in the Montreal General Hospital, which position
he held until 1882, gaining that broad practical experience and
knowledge which only hospital practice can bring. In 1880 he
became medical superintendent of the Montreal General Hospital
and in 1885 was appointed to the position of assistant surgeon,
followed by appointment as surgeon a year later. He filled
the position with distinction for eight years and then became
surgeon of the new Royal Victoria Hospital in 1894, remaining
in that connection until his demise. As the years passed his
skill and ability constantly increased and developed and his
reputation spread abroad until he was acknowledged not only one
of the eminent surgeons of Canada, but also, by reason of his
specialty in abdominal work, as one of the most distinguished
representatives of the profession on the American continent. He
became just as widely known in connection with surgical work for
the treatment of gall stones and kidney diseases. In addition
to his other hospital service he was consulting surgeon of the
Children’s Hospital. After going to Victoria Hospital he remained
a consulting surgeon of the Montreal General Hospital and also
acted in a similar capacity at the Maternity Hospital.
[Illustration: DR. JAMES BELL]
His connection with McGill University was equally brilliant,
for through many years he was one of its able educators in the
medical department. In 1888 he was appointed associate professor
of clinical surgery. In 1890 he was made assistant professor of
surgery and clinical surgery; in 1895, professor of clinical
surgery, and in 1907, professor of surgery and clinical surgery.
He held membership in the American Surgical Association and the
Canadian Surgical Association, and he served as surgeon major
in charge of the field hospital corps in the Riel rebellion,
receiving a medal for his services, while between 1880 and 1888,
he was surgeon to the Sixth Battalion of Fusiliers. He was
the author of various valuable papers, including one entitled
Tubercular Family History, and his contributions to the press
have ever been eagerly received. He was the author of the chapter
on Surgical Diseases and Wounds of the Kidneys and Ureters
in American Practice of Surgery as well as numerous valuable
treatises on the kidneys. He was a member of the Genito-Urinary
branch of the American Medical Association in which he
represented the Canadian Medical Association. As a diagnostician
he had few equals and he possessed a medical technique that was
marvelous. One of his strongest traits of character was his utter
fearlessness. He spoke his own mind and was seldom misunderstood.
He never catered to cheaply acquired popularity or public opinion
and always had the courage of his convictions. He spoke what he
thought to be the truth no matter who it opposed or offended.
He thoroughly detested sham or deceit and was self-contained,
quiet and self-reliant in connection with all of his professional
service.
Dr. Bell was married in June, 1889, to Miss Edith Mary Arnton,
the eldest daughter of the late John J. Arnton, of Montreal, and
they had one son, James Stuart Ethelwyn Wallace, who was born
February 15, 1899, and in accordance with the wish of his father
is preparing for the medical course at McGill. Dr. Bell was a
member of a number of the leading clubs, including St. James, the
Montreal Jockey, the Mount Royal and the University Clubs. He was
for more than twenty years one of the enthusiastic members of the
Montreal Hunt Club and for many years followed the hounds. He
greatly enjoyed outdoor life, much more than so-called society
and said with Byron,
“I love not man the less but nature more.”
He was fond of hunting and fishing and it was his custom each
year to hunt big game in New Brunswick where he was often a guest
at August Belmont’s private shooting preserve. Dr. Bell was also
a member of the Chapleau Club in the Laurentians where he went
for his fishing. His country home, Saraguay, was his residence
during four months in the year for more than eighteen years. Here
he maintained a fine breeding establishment of driving and saddle
horses and was able to gratify the great pleasure his excellent
stock afforded him, for he was a lover of a good horse.
No man ever more fully, however, recognized the duties and
obligations of the profession or more conscientiously met them.
The regard entertained for him by his professional brethren is
indicated in the fact that Dr. C. E. Church termed him “the
ablest surgeon in America,” while Dr. T. G. Roddick said, “the
death of Dr. James Bell is a distinct loss to the medical and
surgical profession. He was a man of marked ability, with
conscientious devotion to his work, which earned him the respect
of his fellows, as well as success amongst his patients. And
he was not only respected by the profession throughout the
country, but loved by his friends.” In comment upon his death the
Montreal Gazette wrote, “One of the men who have done much for
the advancement of the medical profession in Canada passed away
yesterday when Dr. James Bell, in the ripe fullness of a useful
career, was carried off by appendicitis. It was by a curious
irony of fate that Dr. Bell died most unexpectedly at the Royal
Victoria Hospital, in whose wards still lay many upon whom he had
operated, and whose lives he had probably saved by his skill.
For many years Dr. Bell had been recognized as one of Canada’s
leading surgeons, in fact one of the greatest surgeons in
abdominal work on this continent and his services were in great
demand, not only in Montreal, but wherever the work of a skillful
scientist whose immediate judgment and power might be efficacious
to save human life, was needed. Day by day he had been working in
the operating room of the Royal Victoria Hospital and the sick
rooms of patients, in circumstances where a single mistake might
mean loss of life. The strain was much greater than ordinary
people could have imagined. He was one of those men who devoted
themselves to their work so well and performed it so efficiently
that there was no need to fight for prominence. His work was such
that it inevitably grew. As his ability became known his services
became more in demand and in a quiet and conscientious way he
gradually became one of the recognized surgical authorities of
his time and one of the busiest. Not only in Montreal but in many
parts of Canada he was called upon wherever there was a stern
fight against death, and frequently he was called to exercise
his skill even farther afield in the United States. Those who
knew him as either surgeon or as friend will remember him as one
who knew his work and did it well, without thought of public
recognition.”
Dr. Bell was actively engaged in professional duties almost
to the closing hours of his life. On the last day he visited
Victoria Hospital he performed an operation in the forenoon. In
the evening of the same day he was taken ill and the end came
a few days later. The board of governors of the Royal Victoria
Hospital caused to be made a bronze bust of Dr. Bell which was
placed in the main hall of that hospital. The significance of
this action is better understood when it is known that but one
other bust is there shown--that of Queen Victoria.
JOSEPH OVIDE GRAVEL.
Joseph Ovide Gravel, for many years manager and executor of the
John Pratt estate in Montreal and prominently connected with
other important corporate and business interests of the city, was
born here in 1839. He acquired his education in the commercial
schools of the city and in 1854 began a business career which
brought him constantly increasing prominence and prosperity.
From that date until 1863 he was connected with the firm of
Benning & Barsalou and was then made secretary-treasurer of the
Canadian Rubber Company, taking an active part in the affairs of
that concern until 1899. He was later a director in the Canadian
Linseed Oil Mills, a trustee of the Guardian Assurance Company,
president of the Sincennes-McNaughton line and of the Dominion
Oil Cloth Company. He became known as a reliable, forceful and
discriminating business man, one who always carried forward to
successful completion whatever he undertook, and he made his
ability and insight the basis of a substantial and well deserved
success. He married Aurelie La Rocque. His son, C. E. Gravel, is
now in charge of the Pratt estate and is ably carrying forward
his father’s work in its management.
JOSEPH LOUIS ARCHAMBAULT.
Joseph Louis Archambault, of Montreal, whose reputation as a
distinguished and able lawyer has made him well known throughout
the province and who is now filling the position of city
attorney, was born at Varennes, June 19, 1849, a son of the late
J. N. A. and Aurelie (Mongeau) Archambault. The father, who was
“a patriot of 1837,” became president of the provincial board of
notaries in Quebec and was a distinguished representative of his
profession. The son supplemented his early education by study
in the College of St. Hyacinthe and in broad literary training
laid the foundation upon which he has built the superstructure
of professional knowledge. He pursued his law studies under the
direction of the late Sir George Cartier and at the same time
followed the law course in McGill University, which conferred
upon him the B. C. L. degree in 1871. The same year he entered
upon active practice as an advocate and has since remained
a member of the Montreal bar, although his growing powers
and capabilities have won him place among the leaders of the
profession in the province. He was created a king’s counsel
by the Marquis of Lansdowne in 1887 and became a member of
the council of the bar in 1889. For some years he filled the
position of crown prosecutor for the district of Montreal and has
frequently pleaded before the judicial committee of the privy
council in England, having charge of important cases from Canada.
He became city attorney of Montreal in 1898 and in the discharge
of his official duties has won high honors and encomiums. He has
always enjoyed a large private practice and in following his
profession has been associated successively as law partner with
Sir J. A. Chapleau, Q. C., the Hon. J. A. Mousseau, Q. C. and the
Hon. W. W. Linch, Q. C. He has written quite extensively on legal
subjects for the newspaper and magazine press and is the author
of a number of published volumes, including: Jacques Cartier,
an Historical Drama (1879); Etude Legale sur l’Université Laval
à Montreal (1880); Institutions Municipales (1887); Le Barreau
Canadien au Conseil Privé (1889); Généalogie de la Famille
Archambault, 1620-1890 (1891); La Bourgeoisie au Canada, Two
Lectures (1894); The Criminal Forum in Canada (1895); and Etude
de Moeurs Judiciares (1897). His opinions upon involved legal
questions are largely accepted as authority by the profession
and the public. He served as batonnier or president of the
Montreal bar in 1912 and 1913. In addition to his law practice he
is one of the directors of the Rolland Paper Company.
Mr. Archambault was married in Montreal in June, 1873, to Miss
Ernestine, the eldest daughter of the late Senator Rolland,
of Montreal. In religious faith Mr. and Mrs. Archambault are
Catholics, and his political belief is that of the conservative
party. He belongs to the Canadian Club and those who meet him
socially find him an entertaining, genial and cultured gentleman
whose ways are those of refinement and whose word no man can
question. The Montreal Star has said of him: “His career has
been marked with continuous success and great devotion to the
legal profession.” His prominence is the logical outcome of well
developed talents and powers and he is justly accounted today one
of the leaders of the provincial bar.
JOHN CLEMENT NEUFVILLE BADGLEY.
The Badgley family is one of the old and prominent families of
Montreal, their connection with the city’s history dating back to
1785.
Four generations of this family have been prominently identified
with the city’s business and professional interests. John C. N.
Badgley, active in business circles for many years, remained a
resident of this city from his birth on December 7, 1856, until
his death on March 7, 1906.
He was a son of the Hon. William Badgley, D. C. L., one of the
eminent representatives of the judiciary of the province, and a
nephew of Dr. Francis Badgley, one of the most prominent members
of the medical profession of his day and an early member of the
McGill College faculty. Dr. Badgley died in England where he
resided the latter years of his life.
Hon. William Badgley, whose entire life was spent in Montreal,
was born in this city, March 27, 1801, his parents being Francis
and Elizabeth (Lilly) Badgley. The father, a representative of
an old Derbyshire family, was born in London and for years was a
well known Montreal merchant. He was likewise a recognized leader
in political circles and represented his city in the provincial
parliament from 1801 until 1805. The father of the Hon. William
Badgley, Francis Badgley, was one of the early settlers of
Montreal, arriving in 1785. Francis Badgley became one of the
prominent fur merchants in Montreal and married Elizabeth Lilly,
daughter of John Lilly.
William Badgley, after pursuing his more specifically literary
education with the Rev. Alexander Skakel, studied law in Montreal
and was admitted to the bar in November, 1823. He entered at
once upon active and successful practice, was created queen’s
counsellor in 1847 and received the honorary degree of Doctor
of Civil Law from McGill University in 1843. For about twenty
years he practised his profession in Montreal and gained
distinction as a barrister. He was also the author of a work
called Remarks on Registrar’s Office which was published in
1837. In 1840 he was called to public life in his appointment
as commissioner of bankrupts, in which capacity he served until
1844, when he was appointed circuit judge. He was also secretary
of the Constitutional Association which aided in the reunion
of the Canadas in 1841 and two or three years before that act
was consummated he was one of the delegates sent to England to
further the movement. He continued upon the bench as circuit
judge until 1847 and then resumed the private practice of law.
Judicial honors, however, were again conferred upon him when
on the 27th of January, 1855, he was appointed puisne judge of
the superior court of Lower Canada, so continuing until the
1st of September, 1862, when he was transferred to the court
of queen’s bench as temporary assistant judge. Later he was
appointed puisne judge of that court on the 17th of August, 1866,
and after presiding over its proceedings for eight years was
retired on a pension in June, 1874, because of partial deafness.
Devotedly attached to his profession, systematic and methodical
in habit, sober and discreet in judgment, calm in temper,
diligent in research, conscientious in the discharge of every
duty, courteous and kindly in demeanor and inflexibly just on all
occasions, these qualities enabled his honor, William Badgley,
to take first rank among those who have held high judicial
offices in the province. His reported opinions are monuments to
his profound legal learning and superior ability. They show a
thorough mastery of the questions involved, a rare simplicity of
style and a remarkable terseness and clearness in the statement
of the principles upon which the opinions rest. His name is
also interwoven with the history of legislation for he sat for
Missisquoi in the Canadian assembly from 1844 until 1851, and
for the city of Montreal from the latter date until the general
election in 1854. He was a member of the executive council and
attorney general for Lower Canada from April 23, 1847, to March
10, 1848. He always gave stanch allegiance to the conservative
party, feeling that in its principles lay the strongest elements
of good government. His fraternal connections were with the
Masons, and he was district and provincial grand master for
England from December, 1849, until his demise.
With him passed away one of the links which have bound the
bustling men of middle age today with a generation of which
the youth of today know but very little, of men more proud and
precise in their manners than we are, and whose courtesy and
politeness was a part of their daily life. The loss of their
influence and example is no small one.
In 1834, in London, England, Judge Badgley was married to Miss
Elizabeth Taylor, the eldest daughter of Lieutenant Colonel J. W.
Taylor of the Twentieth Regiment B. N. T. Six children were born
to this marriage; the wife and mother passed away in 1874.
John C. N. Badgley, youngest son of the Hon. William Badgley,
pursued his education in Montreal high school and McGill
University after spending some time as a student at Port
Hope. When a young man he engaged in the coal business and
was connected with that department of commercial activity in
Montreal throughout his entire life. He became one of the active
business men of this city, his energy and enterprise leading him
into important, commercial relations and winning for him a high
standing as a business man and citizen.
He married Miss Mary E. Badgley, a daughter of Francis H. and
Margaret (Drummond) Badgley of Ottawa.
John C. N. Badgley not only figured prominently in commercial
circles but was also a well known member of the Board of Trade,
a past master of St. Paul’s Lodge of Masons and a member of the
Christ Church cathedral. His death on March 7, 1906, left a
widow, son and daughter. The latter, Elizabeth Ruth, married
October 10, 1913, John William Shaw of Montreal, while the
former, Clement Montagu, was born September 17, 1886, in Montreal
and is the fourth generation of the Badgley family that have
been connected with Montreal’s business interests. He finished
his education in this city and after spending some time in
travel abroad, concluded to enter upon a business, rather than
a professional, career. He was in the employ of the Liverpool
& London & Globe Insurance Company for a time, after which he
became assistant head clerk for the Atlas Insurance Company.
With the valuable experience thus gained, Mr. Badgley entered
the insurance and real-estate business on his own account, and
at once secured a clientele that gave him a high position among
the best class of men in this line of business. He subsequently
became associated with David A. Lewis, as the firm of Lewis
& Badgley, in real estate and insurance, with offices in the
Merchants Bank building.
Mr. Badgley is a member of the Montreal Amateur Athletic
Association, and the Canadian Club.
JAMES ROSS.
For almost a half century James Ross was intimately associated
with the growth and development of Canada and was an active
factor in establishing, building and promoting many of the
leading national and municipal railways of the country. It was
under him that Sir William Mackenzie started his career and
subsequently he cooperated with him in various enterprises
throughout the world. He was also a long-time associate of Sir
Sandford Fleming, Sir William Van Horne, Sir Thomas Shaughnessy
and Lord Strathcona, more particularly in the ’80s, in the
building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He was also actively
interested in the executive control of the Montreal and Toronto
street railways from 1892. The extent and importance of his
business interests and investments made him therefore a most
prominent factor in the upbuilding and development of the country
and his name is inseparably interwoven with the history of Canada.
Mr. Ross was a son of the late Captain John Ross, merchant
and ship owner, and Mary B. (McKedie) Ross, formerly of
Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. His birth occurred in the year 1848
at Cromarty, Scotland, and after attending Inverness Academy in
his native land he continued his studies in England. His initial
step in the business world brought him into connection with
railway, harbor and water works in Great Britain. Following his
arrival in America he was appointed, in 1870, to the position of
resident engineer of the Ulster & Delaware Railway, of which road
he afterward became chief engineer. In 1872 he acted as resident
engineer of the Wisconsin Central Railway and subsequently
held a similar position with the Lake Ontario Shore road. It
was not long before his efficiency as an engineer won him wide
recognition and he was offered the position of chief engineer of
the Victoria Railway, of which he subsequently became general
manager. He was one of the most successful railway builders and
owners in the Dominion, the construction of the Canadian
Pacific over the Rockies being due to his power of organization
and engineering ability, and when Sir Donald Smith, later Lord
Strathcona, drove the last spike of the road, no one of that
historic group held a higher place in public regard in Canada
than Mr. Ross.
[Illustration: JAMES ROSS]
His active operations in the field of railway construction
included the building of the Credit Valley Railway in 1878-79
and upon its completion he was appointed general manager of the
road and also filled the position of consulting engineer of the
Ontario and Quebec Railway. In the spring of 1883 as general
manager of construction, Mr. Ross began at Swift Current the
building of the Canadian Pacific Railway over the Rockies,
the Selkirks and the Gold Range, and early in November, 1885,
this stretch of six hundred and twenty-three miles ending at
Craig Ellachie, was completed more than a year ahead of time,
creating a record for fast railway building on this continent
and evoking from Sir William Van Horne the statement that such
a record meant millions to the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was
during the building of the road over the mountains that Mr. Ross
might be said to have discovered and subsequently came into
close touch with William Mackenzie, Donald Mann (both since
knighted), Herbert S. Holt and several others who later on took a
front place among the railway magnates and financial leaders of
Canada. In 1886 Mr. Ross brought about the settlement of location
of the Canadian Pacific east of Montreal and the legislative
difficulties attending the entry of the road into the state of
Maine. Upon completing his arduous and complex task he took the
contract for the construction of the remaining portion of their
line not already provided for. The extensions and improvements of
the Canadian Pacific created difficult tasks of civil engineering
which were ably performed by Mr. Ross who at the same time
considered the question of railway construction in South America
for which he had options. The railways of the southern continent
were to be built in Argentine and Chile and the options in those
two republics alone amounted to over twenty million dollars. Mr.
Ross was also interested in important contracts in Chicago and
elsewhere.
He established his home permanently in Montreal in 1888 and
from this point supported his active professional interests,
contracting and building the Regina and Long Lake Railways some
two hundred and fifty miles in length. In 1889 he supervised the
construction of the Calgary & Edmonton Railway, three hundred
miles in length.
Having proven his capability in the field of steam railway
construction Mr. Ross, in 1892, largely concentrated his energies
upon problems of street railway building and in connection with
Sir William Mackenzie purchased the Toronto Railway from the
city of Toronto. He afterward rebuilt the tracks and installed
electric power in the operation of the road. In 1892 he undertook
the reorganization of the Montreal Street Railway, changing
it from horse car to electric service. He was at the head of
the syndicate that purchased the franchise from the old City
Passenger Railway Company. In the same way he converted the
street railways of Winnipeg and St. John, New Brunswick, into
electric lines and in 1896 he joined Sir William Mackenzie in
the purchase of the tramway systems of Birmingham, England,
and organized the City of Birmingham Tramways Company for the
operation of the road under an electric system. In the following
year he secured a charter and franchise from the government of
Jamaica to build electric tramways on the island.
The energy and enterprise of Mr. Ross seemed limitless. No matter
how many and how important were the enterprises with which he was
actively connected it seemed possible for him to take on others
and become a factor in their successful control. He was one of
the promoters of the Lake of the Woods Milling Company in 1887,
chief promoter of the Columbia River Lumber Company in 1889 and
of the Canadian Land and Investment Company in 1891. His opinions
carried weight in the councils of various companies with which he
was connected as a member of the board of directors, including
the Bank of Montreal; Calgary and Edmonton Land Company, Limited;
Canada Life Insurance Company; Canada Sugar Refining Company,
Limited; Canadian General Electric Company, Limited; Laurentide
Paper Company, Limited; Royal Trust Company; and Dominion Bridge
Company and St. John Railway Company, of which two last named he
was president.
Writing of his business career a local paper said: “One of the
most interesting periods of Mr. Ross’s life was that of his
prominent connection with the Dominion Coal and the Dominion
Iron and Steel Companies, lasting for a period of upwards of ten
years. At a comparatively early stage of the development of the
coal and iron industries on the island of Cape Breton, Mr. Ross
with his customary business astuteness, foresaw the possibilities
of great development, and decided to invest a considerable amount
of his capital there. He became the owner of a large block of
shares in the coal company, and after the promotion of the
Dominion Iron and Steel Company in 1901 he became a director.
As it was obvious that the interests of the two concerns would,
if steel turned out a success, be very much bound up, Mr. Ross
increased his holdings in coal until, in the same year, the Steel
Company was launched, his interest became paramount, and he was
placed in the position of being able to dictate the policy of
the company. Having retired from active participation in many
of the interests which made his earlier career such a busy one,
he determined to give his personal attention to the development
of his Cape Breton interests and with that object in view he
accepted the office of vice president of the Dominion Coal
Company and managing director of the Dominion Iron and Steel
Company in 1901.
“The succeeding years were destined to be full of business
anxieties and lively contendings but his keen business ability
and foresight brought him to the end of his active connection
with the companies a much richer man than when he went in,
despite the loss of the fight in the courts over the dispute
about the terms of the contract for the supply of coal to the
Steel Company, 1907-08.
“Besides this fight Mr. Ross conducted the affairs of the Coal
Company through disastrous fires which seriously affected the
output of the mines, and labor troubles one of which was of
a protracted and costly nature. Throughout all the various
negotiations which were almost continuously carried on between
the two companies for years, Mr. Ross found his paramount
interest was in the Coal Company although he was financially
and executively interested in both, so that eventually he
withdrew from the steel board and gave his whole time to the
Coal Company, becoming its president, a post he retained until
December, 1909. In March, 1909, at the annual meeting of the
Dominion Coal Company, Mr. Ross made an exhaustive statement
concerning the relations of the two companies following the
decision of the Privy Council in the preceding month, in which he
justified the course taken by his company. He explained from the
coal point of view, how the company had saved the Steel Company
from bankruptcy at a critical time following the termination of
the lease of the Coal Company to Steel in 1903 and the subsequent
dispute which became acute in 1906 and reached the courts
the following year. The final settlement of the terms of the
judgment between the two companies and the eventual purchase of
Mr. Ross’ interest in coal for four million, seven hundred and
fifty thousand dollars, which took place late in 1909 when he
retired from the presidency and Coal was amalgamated with Steel,
concluded the most interesting and strenuous period of his career.
“Although Mr. Ross had strong likes and dislikes he never
hesitated to proclaim openly ability he saw in the make-up of
a business opponent. A conversation during the progress of
the Steel and Coal litigation brought out this characteristic
to a marked degree. During that memorable conflict Mr. J. H.
Plummer and Sir William Van Horne were perhaps more prominently
in the firing line on the Steel side than any one else, while
Mr. Ross for the Coal Company was the inner and outer defenses
and commander-in-chief combined. He was asked one day while
discussing the possibilities of Canadian Pacific Railway stock
what would take place supposing anything happened to Sir Thomas
Shaughnessy, whereupon Mr. Ross said: ‘This statement will
surprise you, but Van Horne would have to go back,’ thus paying
a high compliment to his chief adversary in the Steel-Coal
conflict. The manner in which Mr. Ross came to the rescue of
a very important brokerage firm, the head of which is now
dead, the day following President Cleveland’s message on the
Venezuelan situation was another indication, not only of his
good heart, but general interest in the financial community. The
market was in a bad way generally when the message to congress
accentuated to such an extent the unrest and lack of confidence,
that gilt-edged securities were without buyers, even at ruinous
prices. The financier in question was desperately in need of
funds and although his securities were of the best, the then
general manager of the Bank of Montreal, who has also passed
away, did not consider himself justified in making the advance.
When James Ross heard of the affair he came forward and said:
‘We cannot afford to allow this man to go to the wall, for if he
goes half of St. François Xavier Street will tumble with him.
Give him a million, take his securities and charge the amount to
my account.’ Another public-spirited director assumed half the
responsibility and a very grave financial smash was averted.
“Mr. Ross was first president of the Mexican Light, Heat and
Power Company and during his several visits to the Mexican
capital was brought in contact with the then ruling spirits of
the republic. He at once formed a very high opinion of the then
president with whom Mr. Ross had several interesting interviews,
touching the trade relations of Canada and Mexico, and with
that never erring foresight he also stated to a friend on his
return from the Mexican capital that if ever Diaz was forced
to relinquish the helm of state, trouble would follow in the
southern republic as it did not appear to the Montreal financier
that there were enough of trained men around the then president
to carry on successfully the affairs of that country, and the
words of the former appear to have been prophetic.
“Although having a commanding interest in many other
establishments and industries Mr. Ross used to say that the Bank
of Montreal, the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Dominion Coal
Company were nearest his heart. He was a director in the first
named institution since 1899, the largest individual shareholder
in the great national railway system and up to a few years ago
the president and the holder of five million dollars stock
in the last named corporation. Mr. James Ross succeeded the
late Mr. Hugh McLennan and had been in consequence director of
the Bank of Montreal for fourteen years. Speaking of the loss
that institution sustained in the death of Mr. Ross, its vice
president and general manager, Mr. H. V. Meredith, said: ‘We have
lost an eminently strong man and a sound adviser,’ while Mr. R.
B. Angus, the president, spoke of him as a very able director of
the bank and a warm personal friend.”
About the time that Mr. Ross arrived in Canada the country
was deeply engrossed in the discussion of free trade versus
protection, and having seen the neighboring republic grow from
an agricultural to a manufacturing community, and realizing
what the same fiscal policy would do for Canada, he at once
espoused the cause then championed by Sir John Macdonald and
Sir Charles Tupper, both as regards the fiscal policy of the
Dominion and their railway program as well. Mr. Ross was a
moderate protectionist, believing that such a policy was
mutually beneficial both to the manufacturer and consumer. He
had seen such states as Illinois, Ohio, Minnesota and other
agricultural sections of the Union vote for protection and often
when apprehension was expressed over the probable outcome of a
moderately protective tariff for the western provinces of Canada,
Mr. Ross would reply that the establishment of eastern industries
all over the west would soon convert the farmers of Alberta,
Manitoba and Saskatchewan to protectionist ideas.
In 1872 Mr. Ross was united in marriage to Miss Annie Kerr, a
daughter of the late John Kerr of Kingston, New York, and sheriff
of Ulster county. They had one son, John Kenneth Levison Ross,
who married Ethel A. Matthews, a daughter of W. D. Matthews of
Toronto, and they have two children, James Kenneth and Hylda
Annie. Mrs. James Ross is deeply interested in organizations for
promoting aesthetic tastes and is active in support of benevolent
and charitable projects. She is a director of the Society of
Decorative Art, vice president of the English section of the
woman’s branch of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society and is
president of the Maternity Hospital of Montreal.
Flags at half mast on the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Trust
Company, on September 20, 1913, gave official announcement to the
financial and business community that Mr. James Ross, director of
the institutions, had passed away. It is fitting in a review of
his life that one take cognizance of his many good deeds. Aside
from his prominent activity in railway and financial circles,
he was a man of marked public spirit and benevolence. In 1902
he gave to Lindsay, Ontario, and the county of Victoria, the
Ross Memorial Hospital as a memorial to his parents. Two years
later Alexandra Hospital of Montreal received from him a gift of
twenty-five thousand dollars and in 1910 he gave an equal amount
to the Montreal Art Association of which he had long been a
member and of which he was at that time the president. His total
benefactions to the Art Association amounted to over a quarter
of a million. In his will he made the following public bequests:
to the Royal Victoria Hospital, the General Hospital and the
Maternity Hospital each fifty thousand dollars; to Alexandra
Hospital twenty-five thousand dollars; to the Montreal Art
Association and to McGill University each one hundred thousand
dollars and to the Ross Memorial Hospital at Lindsay, Ontario,
twenty-five thousand dollars. He also remembered many of his old
friends and took special care that his servants and employes
should be provided for.
Mr. Ross was identified with many public interests and ranked
with loyal Canadians whose efforts have been effective forces in
promoting general progress.
He was a governor of McGill University, of the Royal Victoria
Hospital, of the Alexandra Hospital and of the Protestant
Hospital for the Insane at Montreal. He was likewise a trustee
of Bishop’s College at Lennoxville, P. Q., and in 1900 he was
appointed honorary lieutenant colonel of the Duke of York’s Royal
Canadian Hussars. He took an active interest in yachting and was
the owner of the Glencairn, which won the Seawanhaka-Corinthian
cup for half raters in American waters in 1896. He subsequently
bought the late Joseph Pulitzer’s large steam yacht, Liberty,
of one thousand six hundred fifty tons, which he renamed the
Glencairn, and in which he spent much of his vacation time in the
Mediterranean. It might be interesting to note here that both the
small half rater and the large steam yacht were named in memory
of the large full-rigged ship Glencairn, which was owned and
commanded by his late father, Captain John Ross, of Cromarty. Mr.
James Ross was for many years commodore of the Royal St. Lawrence
Yacht Club, and was honorary commodore for life, and was a member
of the Royal Yacht Squadron.
Mr. Ross was well known in club circles, holding membership
in the Mount Royal, St. James, Forest and Stream, Canada,
Montreal Hunt, Montreal Jockey, Montreal Racquet and Montreal
Curling Clubs of Montreal; Rideau Club of Ottawa; Manitoba Club
of Winnipeg; Toronto Royal Canadian Yacht and York Clubs of
Toronto; Union Club of St. John, New Brunswick; Halifax Club of
Halifax, Nova Scotia; New York Yacht and Manhattan Clubs of New
York; Royal C. B. Yacht Club of Sydney, Nova Scotia; and the
Constitutional Club of London, England.
Following the demise of Mr. Ross the Gazette of September 22,
1913, said editorially: “The history of James Ross is to some
extent the history of the financial and creative progress
of Canada. He has been associated with many of our greatest
enterprises and always in positions of prominence and leadership.
In any list of citizens whose financial power must be reckoned
with in predicting the course of supreme events in this country,
the name of James Ross would have stood near the top. Many of his
fellow citizens will think of him, however, as a generous and
discriminating collector and exhibitor of art. At a time when
Montreal had not many men who both appreciated and possessed the
financial ability to purchase splendid specimens of the best art
which the old world has produced, James Ross entered that field,
and soon made his private collection one of the things of which
Montrealers were proud. The public generally have had a chance to
admire some of his treasures at Loan Exhibitions; and, in this
fashion, the pleasure and benefit of his collection have been
widely shared.”
Tributes of respect and regard were paid to Mr. Ross by people
in every station in life. The high and the low, the rich and the
poor did him honor. The following letter was received by his son,
Mr. James K. L. Ross:
“The engineers on the S. and L. were much surprised and deeply
grieved when we heard that your father had passed away. Our
deepest sympathy goes out to you in your sad bereavement. We all
feel that we have lost a good and true friend. No other man we
have worked for gave our men the feeling of security in their
position that he did. We always were satisfied that if we did
what was right no other influence could hurt us or our families.
When some of us were unfortunate enough to err in judgment and
our error cost the company quite a lot, in the usual course of
railways the officials had nothing to do but severely discipline
us. Your father used his own position not to discipline our men
but to give them a good man’s advice, which has helped our men
and also the company which he then presided over. Acts like these
are never forgotten by railway men and there were many sincere
expressions of sorrow heard when the news of his death flashed
over our road. They have also instructed us to convey to your
sorrowing mother our deepest sympathy in her trying hour.
“On behalf of the S. and L. engineers, we are sincerely yours
(Signed) D. W. Macdonald, chairman; Parker Holmes, secretary and
treasurer; Hugh MacPherson, chief engineer.
“Glace Bay, Cape Breton, Canada, September 20, 1913.”
Another well merited tribute being from Principal Peterson of
McGill University, who said:
“The other day we were greatly gratified to learn that a member
of the board of governors, the late James Ross, had remembered
McGill University in his will to the extent of one hundred
thousand dollars. Mr. Ross was one of our friends. His connection
with the administration of the university had given him many
opportunities of appreciating the difficulty of carrying on an
institution whose needs in the very nature of things, are always
outrunning its resources; and his kindly thought of us has
touched a chord in our hearts that vibrates with gratitude and
appreciation.
“It is a melancholy pleasure to record also our indebtedness
to Mr. Ross for much help and advice given as a member of the
governing body of the university, especially in the department
of mechanical engineering. Besides being a great and experienced
engineer, he was a patron also of the arts and sciences. He took
an active interest also in the well-being of our hospitals, and
as they are in a sense university institutions, his bequests to
the Royal Victoria and Maternity Hospitals may be cited here as
additional reasons for gratitude. He was a man of high artistic
culture, one who ‘loved that beauty should go beautifully.’
Mere splendor without taste would always have been repellent
to him. Perhaps his best memorial, apart from the magnificent
collection of pictures which he got together with such care and
discrimination, and which was the joy and pride of his wide
circle of friends, will be the beautiful building on Sherbrooke
Street to which he has contributed so largely as the permanent
home of the Art Association. Such men lend valuable aid in the
way of enabling a community to realize some aspects of its higher
self.”
WALTER R. L. SHANKS.
Among the younger members of the well known and distinguished law
firm of Brown, Montgomery & McMichael, advocates and barristers,
is Walter R. L. Shanks. He was born March 20, 1886, at Millers
Falls, Massachusetts. In 1908 he received from McGill University
the Bachelor of Arts degree and in 1911 that of Bachelor of
Civil Law. In July of that year he was admitted to the bar and
has since been a member of the above firm. Mr. Shanks is a young
lawyer of promise, and it may be said that his ability--or
such ability as his opportunities have permitted him to
demonstrate--entitles him to be included among those young men to
whom the future holds out rich fields along professional lines.
Mr. Shanks is socially popular and is a member of the University
Club of Montreal and the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.
GEORGE ALEXANDER BROWN, M. D.
George Alexander Brown, M. D., one of the best known physicians
of Montreal, his powers developing through the exercise of
effort, was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on
the 28th of June, 1866. The Browns are one of the old families
on that island and representatives of the name in different
generations have been prominently identified with professional
interests. The paternal grandfather of Dr. Brown was president
of the Prince of Wales College, while the maternal grandfather
was the leader of the government in Charlottetown for twenty-one
years.
Reared in the place of his nativity, Dr. Brown pursued his early
education in St. Peters Boys’ School and subsequently continued
his studies in Kings College University at Windsor, Nova Scotia.
The classical course which he there pursued constituted the
foundation upon which he built the superstructure of professional
learning. Entering McGill University, he won the degrees of M.
D. and C. M. from that institution where he graduated with the
class of 1889. During the succeeding year and a half he was
resident physician of the Montreal General Hospital, thus putting
his theoretical knowledge to the practical test and gaining
that broad and valuable experience which only hospital practice
can give. For more than twenty years Dr. Brown has successfully
followed his profession in Montreal and in addition to an
extensive private practice is acting as physician to the Montreal
Dispensary and is in charge of the tubercular clinic. He has
been a close and constant student of his profession, interested
in all that tends to bring to man the key to the complex mystery
which we call life and his own investigations and research have
resulted in bringing to light some valuable truths.
In February, 1906, he submitted to the Montreal
Medico-Chirurgical Society, a new treatment for consumption which
he has used in his practice with great success. This consists of
the injection into the human system of a solution principally
of iodine and in April, 1912, he read before the International
Tubercular Congress at Rome, Italy, a paper upon this treatment.
He is a member of the Montreal Medical Society and keeps in close
touch with the advanced work that is being done by fellow members
of the profession through the perusal of medical journals and the
latest contributions to medical literature as well as through his
connection with medical societies.
Dr. Brown was united in marriage to Mrs. Elizabeth (Conroy)
Muldoon of Watertown, who by her former marriage had two
children, William and Ella. Dr. and Mrs. Brown have become the
parents of two children, Elsie and Basil. They have a wide
acquaintance socially and are connected with the Unitarian
Society, while Dr. Brown is also a member of the University Club.
Year by year has marked his steady progress in his profession,
and today his position of prominence is accorded him by the
consensus of opinion on the part of colleagues and contemporaries.
SIR EDWARD SEABORNE CLOUSTON.
High on the keystone of Canada’s financial arch was inscribed the
name of Sir Edward Clouston, of whom a leading journalist wrote:
“He was one of the mainsprings of Canada’s progress.” Not only
did he achieve notable results in his own career but was also
the adviser and counsellor of many who have stood highest in the
public life and activities of the Dominion, and thus a notable
figure passed from the stage of earthly activities when he was
called to his final rest on the 23d of November, 1912. He was
then still in the prime of life, his birth having occurred at
Moose Factory on James Bay, May 9, 1849, his parents being James
Stewart and Margaret Clouston. The father, a native of Stromness,
Orkney, Scotland, was a chief factor in the Hudson’s Bay service.
The mother was the eldest daughter of Robert S. Miles, also
prominently connected with the Hudson’s Bay Company. Sent to
Montreal to continue his education, the son became a pupil in
the high school, of which Aspinwall How was then head master.
Subsequently he spent a year in the service of the Hudson’s Bay
Company and then returned to Montreal when a youth of sixteen
to become junior clerk in the Bank of Montreal, entering that
institution in 1865. This was the initial step in his successful
career as one of Canada’s foremost financiers. In his twentieth
year he was appointed accountant at Brockville and two years
later was transferred to Hamilton in the same capacity. In
1874 he became assistant accountant at Montreal, was attached
to the London, England, office and also to the New York office
in 1875. Five years later he was made manager of the Montreal
branch and in 1887 was promoted to the position of assistant
general manager. In 1889 he became acting general manager and
from 1890 was general manager, being called to that position
of grave and great responsibility when but forty-one years of
age. Throughout the years of his connection with the bank he had
ever in mind, not only the interest of the shareholders, but also
the welfare of his subordinates, many of whom received from him
unusual consideration and kindness. Sir Edward Clouston’s tenure
of office in the Bank of Montreal was longer than that of any of
his predecessors, the presidency during these years having been
filled by Sir Donald Smith, afterward Lord Strathcona and Mount
Royal; Sir George Drummond and Mr. R. B. Angus. In retiring from
the general managership Sir Edward Clouston retained the vice
presidency, which he had held since Sir George Drummond became
president in 1906. In his official capacity as vice president
he regularly attended the board meetings and never ceased to be
in close touch with the important affairs and interests of the
bank. The prominent place which he held in the regard of the
leading financiers of the country is shown by the fact that he
was again and again elected to the presidency of the Canadian
Bankers Association. He was thus in constant touch with the
financial world and his advice upon matters connected with it
was frequently sought by the different finance ministers of the
Dominion, for no man in Canada had a surer grasp of difficult
financial problems, and his genius in this respect was an
enormous asset to the great institution with which he was so long
connected. His discernment was keen and his insight enabled him
readily to recognize the possibilities and probable outcome of
any business situation. The Montreal Herald spoke of him as “a
man of few words, of unerring accuracy in his judgments and of
a caution in business transactions which, while it protects the
bank from loss, does not hinder its development.” The Montreal
Witness said: “Sir Edward Clouston possesses in extraordinary
degree that sixth sense of the banker--intuition as to character,
rapid analysis of method, what is in a proposition from the first
chapter to the last--in short knowing who and what to trust.”
It was these qualities which made his cooperation sought in
various directions and brought him prominently before the public
in various important commercial and financial connections. He
was vice president of the Royal Trust Company; a director of
the Guarantee Company of North America, the Canadian Cottons,
Limited, the Canada Sugar Refining Company, the Ogilvie Flour
Mills Company, the Kaministikwia Power Company. He was chairman
of the Canadian board of the Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance
Company and the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. His
cooperation and support extended to various other projects of a
public or semi-public character, and at all times he manifested a
deep interest in those projects relating to general progress and
improvement or the betterment of social, intellectual, political
and moral conditions. He was vice president of the Parks and Play
Grounds Association and The Crematorium, Limited, was president
of the Royal Victoria Hospital and a governor of the Montreal
General, Montreal Maternity, Alexandra and Western Hospitals,
the Protestant Hospital for the Insane, the Fraser Institute,
the Montreal Dispensary, the Victorian Order of Nurses, and
McGill University. In 1910 he was one of the principal promoters
of the Typhoid Emergency Hospital and was a member of the
executive committee of the local branch of St. John’s Ambulance
Association. He was honorary treasurer of the King Edward VII
Memorial Fund and of many other commemorative and charitable
funds. He was a patron of art, and possessed many fine pictures
himself, while the Montreal Art Association numbered him as one
of its counselors as well as one of its generous benefactors.
Sir Edward Clouston was also well known as a sportsman, taking
an active interest in early life in football and lacrosse, and
he was also a well known racquet player. He was captain of the
Canadian team which played the Harvard University Football Club
in 1875. He was president of the Montreal Racquet Club in 1888
and was appointed a trustee of the Minto challenge lacrosse cup
in 1901. Sir Edward was ever willing to encourage the amateurs
in sports, and in addition to those already mentioned he was
a devotee of snowshoeing and fancy skating. In later years he
became an enthusiastic yachtsman, motorist and golfer. He was
also a clever swimmer himself and did a great deal to advance the
sport in many ways. He was the donor of a trophy for competition
among the members of the Royal Life Saving Station, which is
being competed for annually, and many other such trophies were
presented through his generosity. When the Rugby Club was
organized as a branch of the Montreal Athletic Association he
became an active executive officer. He was one of the trustees of
the Stanley cup in the early days of its competition and acted as
an official at many of the championships held under the auspices
of the Amateur Skating Association of Canada.
[Illustration: SIR EDWARD S. CLOUSTON]
In November, 1878, Sir Edward Clouston married Annie, youngest
daughter of George Easton, collector of Her Majesty’s customs
at Brockville, Ontario. Lady Clouston, who survives him, keeps
up the beautiful and historic estate at St. Annes, known as
Bois Briant, which was the pride and delight of Sir Edward’s
later years, and she also maintains the home at No. 362 Peel
Street in Montreal, known so long as the city residence of the
general manager of the Bank of Montreal. This was Sir Edward’s
favorite title. President and vice president appealed to him
but little; it was as an administrator that he won and held his
fame. He was mentioned as successor to Lord Strathcona as high
commissioner for Canada in Great Britain in 1909. The previous
year he had been created a baronet and in 1911 he was appointed
a Knight of Grace of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of
Jerusalem in England. He was one of the best known club men of
Canada, belonging to Mount Royal Club; St. James Club; Auto and
Aero Club; Forest and Stream Club; M. A. A. A.; Montreal Hunt
Club; Montreal Jockey Club; Royal Montreal Golf Club; Royal St.
Lawrence Yacht Club; St. George Snowshoe Club; Toronto Club and
York Club, Toronto; Rideau Club, Ottawa; Manhattan Club, New
York; and Bath Club and River Thames Yacht Club, London, England.
In a review of his life history many points stand out
prominently. Within a quarter of a century he rose from an humble
position in the bank to that of general manager and remained
vice president until his demise. He was the recognized leader of
finance, whose counsel was sought and valued in connection with
the greatest undertakings. His business genius and public spirit
went hand in hand and each constituted factors in the progress
and upbuilding of Canada and in the development and promotion
of the country’s interests. His influence was far-reaching and
effective as a force in national prosperity and greatness.
One who knew Sir Edward best summed up his character in the
following article, which appeared in the journal of the Canadian
Bankers Association after his death: “In life Sir Edward
Clouston was a man of few words and I have felt that silence is
my most fitting tribute to his memory. He was not an ostentatious
man; he employed neither press agents nor stage managers. Many of
his generous actions are known only to the writer of these lines;
many others are known only to his Maker.”
PHILIBERT BAUDOUIN.
Philibert Baudouin, who has been a representative of the notarial
profession since 1858, although for some years his attention
was given to finance, was born at Repentigny, Quebec, April 27,
1836. He is a descendant in the direct line of Jean Baudouin,
who was here bartering with the Indians as early as 1656,
fourteen years after Montreal was founded by de Maisonneuve. In
a fight with the Iroquois in 1660, when he killed one of their
chieftains, Jean Baudouin was taken and led as a prisoner to the
enemy’s country, whence he returned eighteen months afterward,
having in the meantime learned the Iroquois language. A short
time subsequent to his return he married and soon settled in
the parish of Pointe-aux-Trembles, where he died peacefully. He
had lost his eldest son in an ambush laid by the same astute
foes in 1690. One of his sons, François, took a farm from the
Seignior on L’Assomption river in 1699, near the present site of
Charlemagne, and a few years afterward, in 1716, purchased the
homestead on the north bank of the river St. Lawrence, in the
parish and Seigniory of Repentigny, where he went to live and
there spent his remaining days. This homestead remained in the
family for almost two centuries, passing from father to son for
four generations. François Baudouin left it to his son Pierre,
who married three times and left it to his son Raymond. Raymond
was drowned and his widow made a gift of it to their son Pierre.
From this last Pierre Baudouin it went to Zoel Baudouin, one of
his sons, whose daughter and only heir, Mrs. Edmond Robillard, of
St. Paul l’Hermite, sold it to its present owner, Mr. Dechamp.
Philibert Baudouin is a son of Pierre and Marguerite (Etu)
Baudouin, the latter, like her husband, belonging to one of the
old families established in this province in the seventeenth
century. The mother’s name was then written Estur, which has
since been wrongly changed to Hetu. The family name Baudouin
should be so spelled instead of Beaudoin, as so often met with
at the present time. It is derived from two Saxon words, bald
and win, and was latinized by the early chroniclers, becoming
Balduinus, which was later translated into French as Baudouin
but remained Baldwin in English. The first one who settled in
Montreal very properly signed his name Jean Baudouin, as may be
seen on the old records in the clerk’s office, and in France it
is still written in the same way. Besides being a progressive
farmer Pierre Baudouin was a church warden and a captain in the
militia.
Philibert Baudouin was educated at L’Assomption College, in the
town of L’Assomption, where he pursued a full classical course,
completed in 1854. He then prepared for the notarial profession,
to which he was admitted in 1858. In 1860 he settled for
practice in the town of Iberville and after nearly fifteen years
devoted to the profession he turned his attention to finance,
devoting his energies and activities thereto until 1893, when
he removed to Montreal and resumed the practice of the notarial
profession. He has now passed the seventy-eighth milestone on
life’s journey, but is still an active man. From 1862 until 1873
he was county clerk, clerk of the circuit court for the county
of Iberville and town clerk of Iberville, his decade of public
service being characterized by the utmost fidelity to duty. His
financial activities covered nearly twenty years as bank manager
in St. Johns, Quebec.
On the 22d of August, 1864, in St. Johns, Mr. Baudouin was
married to Miss Caroline A. Marchand, a daughter of Louis
Marchand, deputy protonotary at St. Johns, and of Delphine
Phineas. Mrs. Baudouin belongs to the old Marchand family
which settled in St. Johns in the early part of the nineteenth
century. There were three brothers, François, Gabriel and Louis,
the second being the father of the Hon. F. G. Marchand, late
premier of the province of Quebec. Her mother was a daughter of
Isaac Phineas, for a long time agent at Maskinonge, of Seignior
Pothier’s estate, and who was an intimate friend of the Hart
family of Three Rivers. Seven sons and two daughters have been
born of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Baudouin, Philibert,
Annette, Gustave, Rodolphe, Joseph, Jean, Charles, Louise and
Oscar. The elder daughter became the wife of Dr. J. C. Tasse, of
Worcester, Massachusetts. Gustave married Augustine Hardy, of
Quebec. Joseph wedded Julie Caty, of Montreal. Jean married Alice
Hamilton, of Montreal. Oscar married Hilda Julien, of Montreal.
Louise is the wife of Alfred Masson, of Valleyfield, a grandson
of Dr. L. H. Masson, who took a leading part in the troublous
times of 1837-38.
Mr. Baudouin is a supporter of the old conservative party,
but has never taken a leading part in the political contests,
especially so in his advanced years, when he recognizes the fact
that political leaders too often are using their power for their
own preferment instead of the public good.
JOSEPH ADELARD DESCARRIES, K. C.
In every community there are men of broad charity and intelligent
public spirit, of high integrity and sincerity of purpose and
of resourceful business ability who are marked as leaders in
development. Worthy of being classed with men of this character
is Joseph Adelard Descarries, one of the eminent members of
the Montreal bar and a man whose name figures in connection
with the legislative history of the province as well as in the
court records. Mr. Descarries is a representative of one of the
oldest families of the province and one whose members have been
identified with its growth and development since the earlier
periods of settlement. He was born at St. Timothee, in the county
of Beauharnois, Quebec, November 7, 1853, the youngest son of the
late Pierre and Elizabeth (Gougeau) Descarries.
Having mastered the branches of learning taught in the public
schools of his native village, Joseph A. Descarries afterward
attended Montreal College, McGill University and Laval University,
graduating from the latter in 1879, with the degree of LL. L. He
studied law under Hon. Sir Alexander Lacoste and was called to
the bar in 1879, at which time he began practice as an advocate.
He was created a king’s counsellor by the Earl of Derby in 1893
and for more than a third of a century he has been continuously
and successfully engaged in law practice in Montreal, where he
has been accorded an extensive and distinctively representative
clientage.
[Illustration: JOSEPH A. DESCARRIES]
His public work, too, has been of an important character and has
indicated his loyalty to the highest standards of government.
For nine consecutive years he was mayor of Lachine, giving to
the city a businesslike and progressive administration. In 1892
he was elected for Jacques Cartier county to the legislative
assembly, but resigned in 1896, in which year he unsuccessfully
contested a seat in the house of commons. Since that time he has
taken no active part in politics aside from exercising his right
of franchise and standing stanchly in support of principles and
measures in which he believes. He is now president of the Lachine
Conservative Club and is also president of the St. Jean Baptiste
Society of Lachine.
Mr. Descarries is the largest private owner of real estate
in Lachine, his holdings including some of the finest
residential properties surrounding Montreal. Some years ago
he purchased a tract of land eleven acres in width from the
Allan family, comprising a most attractive piece of property,
which he developed and thus added greatly to the upbuilding
of the district. He is the owner of one hundred and fifty-two
houses, erecting all of them save one, and in their building
substantiality has always been a feature. Unlike the usual
structure built merely to sell, Mr. Descarries has aimed at
the creation of an estate the ultimate value of which cannot
help but become immense. As an illustration of the change in
realty values, caused by improvements and transformation of
surroundings, it may be cited that Mr. Descarries some years
ago purchased a tract of land of four hundred acres, on which
the taxes were at that time approximately eighty dollars,
while today for less than one-third of this land which he owns
the taxes are more than three thousand dollars. It would be
difficult to estimate the value to a community of operations
of this character. Mr. Descarries has taken an active part in
the upbuilding of industrial interests, and his influence has
been an important factor in securing for Lachine a number of
valuable industries, all of which have materially contributed
to growth and development for the city, enabling it to take a
prominent rank among Montreal’s suburban cities. Among his other
business connections Mr. Descarries is president of the Wealthy
Mines Company, Limited, and a director of Les Champs d’Or Rigaud
Vaudreuil.
In 1881 Mr. Descarries was married, at Chateauguay, Quebec, to
Miss Marie Celina Elmire, a daughter of A. N. Le Pailleur, a
notary public of Lachine. The marriage ceremony was performed
by Monseigneur Charles Edward Fabre, archbishop of Montreal.
Mrs. Descarries is a graduate of Mount St. Marie Convent and
is a lady of superior intelligence and high qualities of mind.
Their children are as follows. Joseph A. P., who was graduated
from McGill University, specializing in chemistry, founded the
Lachine Gas Company, of which he is now the head. He married Miss
Oliva Forgues, of Outremont, a graduate of St. Anne’s Convent at
Lachine. They have two children, Olivette and Marcelle. Theophile
N., who was graduated from Laval University, is an advocate,
associated with his father under the firm name of Descarries &
Descarries. He married Miss Marie Anne Huot, a daughter of Dr. G.
Huot, of Beauharnois, and they have one child, Anne Marie. Aimee,
a graduate of St. Anne’s Convent of Lachine, is a young lady of
unusual artistic taste and skill. Her work as a painter on china
shows exceptional merit and includes some of the finest specimens
of this decorative art exhibited by Canadian artists. Adelard, a
graduate of Mount St. Louis College, is now a student at l’Ecole
des Hautes Etudes. Marie Rose will graduate from St. Anne’s
Convent of Lachine in the class of 1914. Auguste, a student at
St. Mary’s College, is a young man of unusual talent and promise,
whose ability as an organist is well known.
Mr. Descarries’ pleasure and recreation have always been greatly
augmented when in the company of his family, whose entertainment,
like their rearing and education, has never been neglected.
Estimating highly the value of education, he has extended to his
children exceptional opportunities for intellectual development
and they constitute a family that would be a distinct credit
to any parentage. Both Mr. and Mrs. Descarries have always
maintained a companionship with their children and have been
so close to their interests, thoughts, purposes and plans that
there has been little need for that parental discipline which
is often a too pronounced feature in households. Confidence and
mutual understanding have been the basis of the family relation,
rendering this a most attractive household. The religious
belief of the family is that of the Roman Catholic church, and
Mr. Descarries has for several years been president of the
St. Vincent de Paul Society. He is also a member of the Club
Lafontaine, the Lachine Snowshoe Club and the Auto and Aero Club
of Montreal.
No history of Mr. Descarries would be complete without mention
of the fact that he is a very public-spirited man, liberal and
generous in his support of any movement for the public good and
ever ready to lend his assistance to such movements as will
contribute to the advancement of the city, province and Dominion.
He has been a very successful business man, not only as regards
the accumulation of property but as well in the high esteem in
which he is held. He has all the elements of a man in whom to
have confidence, dependable in any relation and in any emergency.
His quietude of deportment, his easy dignity, combined with
an innate courtesy and politeness, all contribute to a strong
personality. The splendid use he has made of his time, talents
and opportunities has equipped him for the important and valuable
work he has been doing and which has given decided impetus to the
city’s progress and improvement, upholding as well its legal,
political and moral status.
LOUIS GUYON.
Capability and loyalty are the essential attributes of the man
who would fill the office of chief inspector of industrial
establishments and public buildings and properly perform the
arduous and responsible duties thereby devolving upon him. Such
a man is found in Louis Guyon, who has closely studied the
subject of construction and all that relates to accidents which
may occur in building operations. He is a native of the state
of New York, having been born at Sandy Hill, Washington county.
Boyhood, however, found him located in Montreal where he pursued
his education, taking special courses in preparation for a
commercial career. Almost throughout his entire life he has been
in the public service. In April, 1888, he was appointed factory
inspector and made a most capable official. He studied in every
available way in order to know what should be required of factory
owners and operators and just how far their responsibility
extended in the protection of employes. He traveled widely in
order to promote his knowledge of that character and he was a
delegate to the Paris convention on accidents in 1889 and again
in 1900. His qualifications were so thoroughly recognized that he
was made chief inspector of industrial establishments and public
buildings in January, 1901, and has since occupied this position,
covering a period of thirteen years, his entire course being one
which commends him to the continued confidence and support of
the public. As inspector he has studied not only to find where
fault may lie in the erection of buildings or in the care of
employes, but has also studied the best methods of safeguarding
the workers and in 1903 he founded the museum of appliances for
the prevention of accidents. His reputation for efficiency in his
special field continued to grow and in 1910 he was made president
of the International Convention of Inspectors of Factories. No
one is more deeply interested in this important work or realizes
more fully the obligations which devolve upon the employer in
his connection with his employes, and his work has constituted a
campaign of education whereby the public has come to know what
are the needs and demands of the hour and how best to meet them.
GEORGE HADRILL.
George Hadrill, secretary of the Montreal Board of Trade, is
one whose opinions concerning business conditions are largely
accepted as standard, because of his broad experience and his
thorough study of matters effecting trade relations of the
country. For more than a quarter of a century he has occupied
his present position and has been called into conference in many
trade councils. He was born in London, England, August 2, 1848,
a son of George and Elizabeth (Bushell) Hadrill. His education
was acquired in the metropolis, and he spent the earlier years
of his business life in that city, arriving in Canada in 1874,
when a young man of twenty-six years. Three years were devoted
to business pursuits before he joined the staff of the Montreal
Board of Trade in 1877. His fitness for the position is evidenced
in the fact that by 1880 he had been promoted to the position
of assistant secretary. Six years passed and in 1886 he was
made secretary, so that he has now acted in that capacity for
twenty-eight years. The occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary
of his acceptance of the position was fittingly celebrated, and a
cabinet of silverware was presented him by the Montreal Board of
Trade.
His position as secretary brings him into close contact with
business affairs and trade organizations throughout the world.
He has been a delegate to several imperial trade congresses, the
last being held in Sydney, Australia. By invitation he was a
delegate to Newfoundland to assist in the formation of a board of
trade there in 1909. He was presented in 1903 with a testimonial
from British delegates to the imperial trade congress at Montreal
in acknowledgement of courtesies and services rendered by him.
In 1905 he was elected an honorary member of the International
Board of Foreign Trade and was made honorary secretary of the
King Edward memorial committee of Montreal in 1911. His position
has brought him into close connection with many important civic
and municipal projects with which the Board of Trade has been
intimately associated.
In 1891 Mr. Hadrill married Emmeline Lilian, the daughter of
J. Albert Copland of Chelmsford, England. Mrs. Hadrill died in
December, 1902. Mr. Hadrill has been a director of St. George’s
Society of Montreal and is an Anglican in religious faith.
The Montreal Herald has written of him that he is “a man of
great natural abilities as a statistician and accountant.” “He
possesses unusual qualifications for his office, which calls for
a display of diplomacy, tact and social qualities as well as for
purely business ability,” writes another paper, and this opinion
is corroborated by all who have come in contact with him. While
thoroughly systematic and methodical in managing the duties of
his position, he has at the same time that ready resourcefulness
which enables him to meet an emergency and secure from it the
best possible results.
CHARLES MELVILLE HAYS.
The tales of heroic conduct in times of war will always arouse
the enthusiasm and call forth the praise of those who hear them,
but heroism is by no means confined to the men who wear their
nation’s uniform and march to the sound of the bugle. It has been
manifest where there were none to witness and none to record the
story and with nothing but an individual sense of duty for its
inspiration. The world thrilled with the story of the heroism
of the men, who, in the silence of the night, gave women and
children over to the care of the few who manned the lifeboats
and quietly awaited death on the decks of the steamship Titanic
when it sank on its maiden trip across the Atlantic, April 15,
1912. Included in the great toll of human lives exacted by
this catastrophe, was that of Charles Melville Hays, president
of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railways and one of the foremost
railroad magnates of his generation. His was the master mind
in the development of the Grand Trunk Pacific and his work for
the Grand Trunk Railway has become a part of the history of the
Dominion. One of the elements of his success was that he was
always essentially and strictly a railroad man, never dissipating
his energies over too broad a field but concentrating his efforts
along that single line of activity.
A native of Rock Island, Illinois, Mr. Hays was born in 1856, and
was but a child when his parents removed to St. Louis, Missouri,
in which city he was reared and received his educational
training. He was but a boy of seventeen when he started out in
life on his own account as a clerk in the passenger department of
the Atlantic & Pacific Railway. From that time on his advancement
was continuous and rapid, solely the result of his thoroughness,
efficiency and genuine merit. After a year he was transferred to
the auditor’s department and later was called to a position in
the office of the general superintendent, where his aptitude,
enterprise and initiative were soon recognized. From 1878 until
1884 he was secretary to the general manager of the Missouri
Pacific Railroad and in the latter year was offered and
accepted the position of secretary to the general manager of the
Wabash & St. Louis Pacific Railway Company.
[Illustration: CHARLES M. HAYS]
In 1886 he was appointed general manager of the road and the
following year became general manager of the Wabash Western,
comprising all of the Wabash lines west of the Mississippi and
also between Chicago and Detroit. In 1889 he was appointed
general manager of the reorganized and consolidated Wabash
system and controlled the important and manifold interests of
the railway for six years or until he resigned to become general
manager of the Grand Trunk, succeeding L. J. Seargeant. Five
years later he left the Grand Trunk to take the position of
president of the Southern Pacific Railway Company but remained
in that connection for only a year, as the railway passed under
the control of the Harriman interests, whose policy differed from
that of Mr. Hays. About that time he received a communication
from Sir Charles Rivers Wilson, again offering him the position
of general manager of the Grand Trunk and he returned to the
latter road late in 1901 as second vice president and general
manager. His connection therewith was continuous from that
time until his demise, and on the retirement of Sir Charles
Rivers Wilson in October, 1909, he was appointed president. In
the meantime his connection with railway interests constantly
broadened, making him one of the notable figures in railway
circles on the American continent. He became president of the
Central Vermont Railway, the Grand Trunk Western Railway, the
Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Railway, the Toledo, Saginaw &
Muskegon Railway, the Michigan Air Line Railway, the Chicago,
Detroit and Canada Grand Trunk Junction Railway, the Detroit &
Toledo Shore Line, the Southern New England Railway Company, the
Canadian Express Company, the Grand Trunk Railway Insurance &
Provident Society and of various corporations featuring largely
as factors in commercial and industrial development. He was
chosen to the presidency of the St. Clair Tunnel Company, the
International Bridge Company, the Montreal Warehousing Company,
the Portland Elevator Company and the New England Elevator
Company. He also represented the Grand Trunk Western Railway as
a director of the Chicago & Western Indiana Railway and Belt
Railway of Chicago.
In 1905 he was made a member of the permanent commission of
the International Railway Congress and also a director of the
United States Mortgage & Trust Company. He was a delegate to
the Imperial Trades Congress in 1903. He became a director of
the Royal Trust Company and the Merchants Bank of Canada and
a director of the Canadian Board of the London & Lancashire
Life Assurance Company. He was also a director of the Montreal
Horticultural and Fruit Growing Association--a fact which
indicated much of the breadth of his interests. His executive
ability was sought as an element in the successful management of
various benevolent, charitable and philanthropic enterprises.
He was a governor of the Montreal General Hospital, a governor
of the Royal Victoria Hospital and a governor of the McGill
University. In 1907 he was decorated with the Order of the Rising
Sun (third class) by the emperor of Japan.
He was a man of remarkable personality. Obstacles and
difficulties seemed but a stimulus for renewed effort on his part
and he was never happier than when he could grasp an opportunity
and utilize it to the fullest extent or untangle a knotty problem
in railway management and control. Mr. Hays was a well known
figure in club circles, belonging to the Mount Royal, St. James,
Canada, Forest and Stream, Montreal Jockey, Montreal Hunt, St.
Maurice Fish and Game Club and the Laurentian Club of Montreal
and the Rideau Club of Ottawa. Sir Wilfrid Laurier had termed him
“a valuable acquisition to Canada,” and the Montreal Witness said
he was “a splendid example of what brains, pluck and industry can
overcome and accomplish,” while the Montreal Standard styled him
“a man of quiet dignity, whose sanity and strength are seen and
felt in all his undertakings.”
Mr. Hays was survived by his widow, who was Miss Clara J. Gregg,
a daughter of William H. Gregg of St. Louis, Missouri, and
four daughters, Mrs. George D. Hall, of Boston, Mrs. Thornton
Davidson, Mrs. A. Harold Grier and Mrs. Hope C. Scott, of
Montreal.
One of the ships that hastened to the relief of the Titanic
recovered the body of Mr. Hays, which was brought back to
Montreal for interment and laid to rest following one of the most
imposing funerals ever accorded a civilian in this city. Mr. Hays
worshipped at the American Presbyterian church of Montreal and
was one of its trustees, but retained his membership in the First
Presbyterian church of St. Louis, Missouri, and in the memorial
services held in the former on the 25th of April, 1912, a sermon
by the Rev. Dr. McKittrick, pastor of the First Presbyterian
church of St. Louis, following the death of Mr. Hays, was read.
He said in part: “The colossal catastrophe of the seas which has
so recently startled and dismayed the civilized world could not
pass today entirely unnoted in the temples of the living God.
Among those who went down to their unexpected and, it seems to
our vision, their untimely death, there was no man who worthily
had a higher position in the social, industrial and financial
world than Mr. Charles M. Hays, president of the Grand Trunk
Railway of Canada. Since commonly the boy is father of the man
we might almost refer to him as ‘our Mr. Hays’ for he was once
in our Sunday School, and afterwards a member of our Board of
Trustees. His is an inspiring example to all our boys and to
every boy in the land of what may be accomplished by rightful
purpose, industry, determination, all these by the worthy motives
which variously constitute character. It took all the elements
which are found in a manly man to make first so notable a record
as was his in this city, and then to create for himself the
distinguished name and for his undertaking the great prosperity
which concerning both the history of today reveals.”
The following reference to Mr. Hays’ life and work was made at
the close of public worship in the American Presbyterian church,
Montreal, on Sabbath, April 28th. Dr. Johnston said: “The subject
that we have been considering this morning has unavoidably
suggested to you, as it has to me, many thoughts regarding the
life, the death and the work of Mr. Charles M. Hays whose loss
our land mourns today.
“Much has already been said of Mr. Hays as the railway magnate,
the man of enterprise, the devoted husband and father and the
loyal friend. Upon these phases of his character I will not
therefore further dwell, but there remains something to be said
of that feature of his life which, though less conspicuous to
the general public, nevertheless lay deep and strong behind
all these other characteristics, and was indeed the inspiration
of them. We all in this congregation know the large place which
Mr. Hays gave to the work and worship of the church, and the
readiness with which his time and influence were always lent
to its interests. He loved the House of God. That love, in a
measure, was doubtless the result of early training in a home of
whose deep religious character he ever loved to speak in terms of
affection and appreciation. It was also due in part to his deep
sense of what he owed in his place of great prominence to the
community at large, and to a younger generation in particular,
in the way of example. Most of all, however, it was due to his
appreciation of the place that worship should have in every
life, and to his deep sense of the need of every soul for those
things that the House of God and its services can give. This
attitude instead of lessening, as in so many lives it does, as
responsibilities increased, and honours accumulated, deepened in
Mr. Hays with the passing years.
“The continent-wide enterprises with which his name will always
be associated were not simply enterprises and interests to him.
They constituted a work, a ministry, which it was given him
to administer for man, and through man for God. The tens of
thousands for whom he had already thrown open the door of their
exodus from European stagnation and oppression were his Israel,
whom he, in God’s name, was leading out into liberty and larger
life. These broad prairies and boundless stretches of Northern
Saskatchewan and the Peace River district, those hitherto
impassable Rockies, giving gateway to the flowering farmlands
that slope toward the silver sands of the Pacific--these were
his Canaan, which it was his to conquer, not with sword and
clash of battle, but with genius and enterprise and the power of
science, so that into the good ‘Land of Promise’ he might bring
the oppressed peoples of the world, to make a nation strong in
liberty and in righteousness.
“Did time permit I could tell you much of how Mr. Hays carried on
his great heart, the toiling multitudes of earth and their needs,
and of how it was to him a vision glorious that he was permitted
in some measure to contribute to their uplift and redemption. He,
too, like Israel’s leader, had looked upon the burdens of the
people. To us it seems that, like Moses, he has been permitted
only to view his promised land from afar. On the threshhold of
completion he has been bidden to lay down his work. A broken
column? A work incomplete? Yes, if this world is all, and this
life the only life, but if death is indeed for the life that
lives in Christ, not extinction but expansion, not frustration
but promotion, than surely in some other of the many mansions in
our Father’s one great house, they still serve who have ceased
from labor here, and work with gladness for the bringing in of
that day when throughout all the universe of God there shall be
nothing to hurt nor to destroy, but ‘God shall be all and in
all.’”
The press throughout the American continent united in tribute to
Charles Melville Hays and under the caption of Montreal’s Loss
the Gazette of April 19, 1912, said editorially: “Among the
many places which will have home reasons for bearing the loss
(April 15, 1912) of the steamship Titanic in sorrowful memory
there will be few to rank before Montreal. Of residents who had
won or were winning honorable places of usefulness in the city’s
commercial life, no less than four ended their earthly career in
the dark hours of Monday when the Atlantic waters closed over
the wreck of what had been one of the world’s noblest vessels.
First of these, of course, ranks Mr. Charles M. Hays, president
of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railways and director and adviser in
many allied and other enterprises. Mr. Hays came to Montreal as
a stranger, when the condition and fortunes of the Grand Trunk
Railway were low indeed. The life had apparently gone out of the
direction and a great property, with greater potentialities, was
in danger of passing into bankruptcy. He and his associates found
their task harder also because they were strangers. It was only a
little while, however, before the city and the country, as well
as the proprietors of the railway, recognized that in the new
general manager, which was the title Mr. Hays then had, they had
a man who for capacity ranked with the highest in his profession.
With a slight interruption Mr. Hays has had chief executive
control since 1897 of the Grand Trunk Railway. In that time it
has been lifted physically to the standard of a high class, well
equipped road, with few superiors in America. Financially it
has been so improved as to meet the interest charges on the new
capital raised for betterments and has been able to pay dividends
on some of the older issues that once seemed to have lost all
value as investments. In late years he was a chief moving spirit
in the projection and construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific
Railway, which is now approaching completion. His work in these
connections speaks of his executive ability louder than can words
written or spoken. It is only to be added that in all relations
of life, business or social, he was a plain, courteous and kindly
gentleman, to whom all were ready to pay in full measure the
respect that he deserved.”
The memorial service read in the American Presbyterian church
to which previous allusion has been made, was one of the most
impressive ever held within the borders of Canada and the
tributes to Mr. Hays on that occasion attested how high was the
position which he held in the regard of business colleagues,
of eminent educators, ministers and others. Principal Peterson
of McGill University said in part: “We have done well to come
together in this solemn manner, not to meet in a useless parade
of grief and sorrow, but to pay a sincere tribute to the worth
of one who has gone to his last reward and to express our
sympathy to those who suffer the loss of one so dear, and who
have scarcely yet survived the shock of their sudden bereavement.
Our men died like heroes--in that last dread extremity they bore
themselves nobly and well.
“And I doubt not that foremost in fortitude was that
great-hearted man who today is mourned throughout the world,
Charles M. Hays, who was then eagerly returning to take his
controlling part in those great enterprises with which his name
will always be associated, and no doubt looking forward with joy
to returning to his accustomed work and surroundings here. The
vast transportation system over which he so well presided, and to
which he gave fresh life, has just paid him well earned tribute
in those moments of organized, concerted, silence stretching
across this continent--the awed hush of reverent respect and
tender sympathy from every section of the railway service and
from every rank and class in the community at large. It was a
moving incident, but only a slight indication of the esteem in
which he was held everywhere, and of the loss which the railways
and the people have sustained.
“Mr. Hays came to Montreal in 1896, shortly after I came here,
and since then it has been my privilege to know him well, and
to meet him frequently in university and other affairs. Only a
short time before Mr. Hays left for Europe I had a walk with him,
when he talked to me of his plans for the future, and discussed
university and other educational matters, with the grave and
serious hope for future advancement which marked his thought.
Little then did either of us think it possible that so terrible
a disaster should cut short his vigorous and useful career. He
was a real leader of men, a true captain of industry, carrying
a huge burden of work and responsibility on his shoulders, and
always carrying it as a strong Christian man should. We shall go
forth from this solemn service to our customary duties, graver
and sadder men. It may be that we shall not have the melancholy
duty of following to the grave the remains of this man whose
work interlinked a vast continent. He has found his grave in the
ocean, and it may be literally said of him that the whole world
is his tomb. Certainly his memory will not soon die; for long
will the memory live of this impressive memorial of his sad fate
and the sorrow of his stricken family. And when the far-reaching
plans for which he stood sponsor are realized we shall often go
back in thought to what this city, this dominion and the empire
at large owes to the ability, the integrity and dauntless energy
of Charles Melville Hays.”
One of the glowing and well deserved tributes paid to the memory
of Charles Melville Hays was spoken by Rev. T. S. McWilliams. D.
D., of Cleveland, Ohio, who said: “The man whose loss we mourn
today, and whose memory we would honor was not merely a national,
he was an international figure. The great enterprise of which
he was at the head, and, to an unusual degree the guiding and
animating spirit, was not merely a national, but an international
railway. It seems fitting therefore that one from the United
States should have a small part in this memorial service. The
humble tribute which I bring is not merely that of a former
pastor--as such I was privileged to say a few words on Sunday
last. Nor is my tribute that of a personal friend--as such my
place would not be here in the pulpit, but in position with the
mourners, amongst those who most deeply and genuinely feel a
sense of personal loss. Mine is the privilege today of bringing a
neighboring nation’s tribute, if you will; of assuring you that
many of the American people share with you the sorrow and sense
of loss which you feel so keenly. In the United States the late
Charles M. Hays was born, and there he spent the larger part of
his life. Of our country he remained a citizen to the last. Yet
there were few men more genuinely devoted to the interests of
Canada or more intelligently attached to British institutions
than he. Few, if any, in Canada saw with clearer vision the great
possibilities of the future of your country and believed more
intensely in the great destinies of Canada.
“To speak of Mr. Hays’ preeminent ability as a railway man is
scarcely necessary. We have only to look around to see the
monuments to his genius. There are two immense office buildings
that ornament your city; there is that wonderful steel bridge
over Niagara’s gorge and the great station at Ottawa. There
is the rejuvenated and vastly extended Grand Trunk Railway.
And, perhaps greatest of all, there is the Grand Trunk Pacific
Railway, destined at no distant date to span this continent,
making accessible natural resources of incalculable value, and
bringing into practical part of the national progress vast
regions at present inaccessible to the agriculturist. These are
great enterprises which have attracted the admiring attention of
the world and stimulated rival systems to greater activity, while
bringing millions in money to your land, and, what means much
more to you, an unprecedented tide of immigration. It is but just
to say that such enterprises as these have been no small factor
in the building up of that great progress and prosperity which
characterizes Canada at the present time.
“The credit of such achievements is, of course, to be shared
with Mr. Hays’ earnest colaborers--and he would have been the
first to give them such credit--but to Mr. Hays is certainly
due the credit of the initiative. For a man at the early age
of thirty-eight years to rise from the bottom of the ladder
to the presidency of such a railway system as the Wabash, and
later to be selected as president of the Grand Trunk, charged
with its rehabilitation, and to so conduct its affairs that
after only five years its securities had enhanced in value by
eighty-six millions of dollars; to be called to the presidency
of the Southern Pacific, and then called back again to the Grand
Trunk to consummate yet vaster plans--these are proofs positive
and sufficient of his preeminent railway genius. The tribute
of silence in which we a few minutes ago reverently joined--a
silence in which we were joined by that great army of employes
from ocean to ocean--was not the silence of obedience to an
enforced order. It was the genuine heart-felt tribute of men of
all ranks to a leader whom they had loved and lost.
“The contagion of his example spread through every part of
that great system. Himself a hard and rapid worker his own
example was a sufficient incentive to do away with indolence and
incompetence. His presence anywhere on the system encouraged and
thrilled to better work not by fear of the tyrant’s command to
go, but they thrilled at the leader’s call to come.
“Mr. Hays was first, last and all the time a great railway man.
But it would be unjust to speak merely of that. He possessed
other qualities that impressed me even more than that. He was
throughout his life a man of lofty and unbending principle. I
personally know that his early ending of his connection with
a great railway system, sacrificing a position to which was
attached great honor and an immense salary, and his going out of
that office, not knowing whither he went, was a wonderful example
of the triumph of principle over what appeared to be personal
interests. It stands as a proof of Mr. Hays’ unwillingness to be
the tool of a designing genius no matter what that might seem to
offer him in the way of personal remuneration. And in the great
positions he held it was his constant endeavor to be just to all.
It was his endeavor by day and his prayer by night to always
carry an even balance between the employes of his company and
those who had invested their living in it with even justice to
both. Knowledge of this permeated the whole system, and brought a
realization amongst the men that the main endeavor of the leader
was not to get out of the employes as much as possible and give
them in return as little as possible, but that they were really
working with, not for, their president, in the interests of all.
“And he was a public-spirited man in many other spheres. That
he was a generous friend of education is proven in that he
was a governor of McGill University; that he was a benefactor
to suffering humanity is shown by the hospitals of which he
was a governor. But far more than these public positions were
innumerable cases in which he proved himself a generous but
unostentatious friend to the needy. And may I for a moment draw
aside the sacred veil, and speak of his home life. As a father,
husband, brother, comrade, to all in his household he was ever
the genial, pure, high-minded Christian gentleman--the idol of
his home, as he deserved to be. His religious influence was
unmistakable and caused him inevitably to work for the right. I
am confident that his deep religious sense of duty was at the
bottom of much that we admire in his career--he was utterly
honest, not because he believed it to be the best business
policy, but because he had faith in the right; he was filled with
genial optimism, not from blindness to the facts, but because he
knew them.
“That such lives should be allowed to be interrupted by such
disasters as that we now mourn is a problem which cannot be
satisfactorily answered. It may be said that no man’s place is
impossible to be filled. But Methodism has never found another
John Wesley, and the Grand Trunk will look and wait for long
before it finds another Charles Melville Hays.”
DOUGALL CUSHING.
One of the most able, successful and progressive of the younger
generation of professional men in Montreal is Dougall Cushing,
connected with important legal interests as a member of the firm
of Barron & Cushing, notaries. He is a native son of the city,
born May 3, 1886, his parents being Charles and Lily (Macaulay)
Cushing. The family is of old American establishment, the
great-grandfather of the subject of this review, Job Cushing,
having been born in Massachusetts in 1765. The father was born in
May, 1848, and he was for a number of years the senior member of
the firm of Cushing & Barron and known as an able and reliable
notary. He was in addition a director in the Sun Life Assurance
Company, on the board of governors of the Young Men’s Christian
Association and deacon in Calvary Congregational church, a man
of wide interests, high standards and useful and important
accomplishments. His death occurred September 30, 1910. He and
his wife became the parents of seven children, R. Macaulay,
Dougall of this review, Charles, Arthur, Eric, Geoffrey and Edith.
Dougall Cushing was reared in his parents’ home and acquired
his preliminary education in the grammar and high schools of
Montreal. He afterward attended McGill University, from which
he was graduated B. A. in 1907 and B. C. L. in 1910. In the
following year he established himself as a notary in his native
city, associating himself with Robert H. Barron, his father’s
former partner. The firm of Barron & Cushing is today, as it
has been for many years past, one of the strongest of its kind
in the city, for Dougall Cushing has followed closely in his
father’s footsteps, and has proved himself brilliant, reliable
and energetic in the conduct of his professional interests.
Mr. Cushing belongs to Phi Kappa Pi, which he joined in McGill
University and is a member of the Seventeenth Regiment, Duke
of York’s Royal Canadian Hussars. He is one of the popular and
enterprising young men of Montreal and has already gained a
creditable place in a profession in which his superior merit and
ability will undoubtedly win for him ultimate distinction.
HON. SAMUEL GALE.
Hon. Samuel Gale, one of the ablest members of the legal
profession in his day, and a very prominent citizen of Montreal,
died in that city on Saturday, April 15, 1865. He was the son
of a Mr. Gale who, born in Hampshire, England, came to America
in 1770 as assistant paymaster to the forces. He married there
a Miss Wells, of Brattleboro, and soon after left the army, and
took up his residence in the colony of New York. During the
Revolution he stood firmly by the old flag under which he had
served, and was for some time imprisoned as a loyalist. After the
Revolution, he came to reside in Canada, upon an estate granted
to his wife’s father by the crown, as indemnification for the
losses brought upon him as a loyalist in the Revolution. He was
subsequently secretary to Governor Prescott, whom he accompanied
to England, and there assisted to defend him from the attacks
made upon his administration. While there he wrote an essay on
Public Credit, addressed and submitted to Pitt. The following is
the inscription on his tombstone at Farnham, in Shefford county:
“Here rests Samuel Gale, Esq., formerly acting deputy paymaster
general of H. Majesty’s forces in the Southern Provinces, now
the U. S. of America; subsequently Secretary to H. E. the
Governor-in-chief of H. M. dominions in N. A.; Author of Essays
on Public Credit, and other works; born at Kimpton Hants,
England, October 14, 1748; died at Farnham, June 27, 1826.”
Samuel Gale of this review was born at St. Augustine, East
Florida, in 1783. He was educated at Quebec, while his father was
secretary, and came to study law at Montreal under Chief Justice
Sewell, in 1802, having Chief Justice Rolland and Mr. Papineau
as fellow students. Mr. Gale was admitted to the bar in 1808,
and ere long secured a large practice. In 1815 he was appointed
a magistrate in the Indian territories, and accompanied Lord
Selkirk when he went to the northwest. Later, when Lord Dalhousie
was attacked for his Canadian administration, Mr. Gale went home
as bearer of memorials from the English-speaking Lower Canadians
in the townships and elsewhere, defending his lordship’s conduct.
In 1829, he became chairman of the quarter sessions, and in
1834 was raised to the bench to replace Mr. Justice Uniacke,
who preferred to resign the seat on the bench to which he had
just been appointed rather than come back to Montreal during the
cholera, then raging here. Judge Gale retired from the bench in
1849, forced into retirement by continued ill health and the
gradual coming on of the infirmities of old age.
[Illustration: HON. SAMUEL GALE]
He had married in 1839 a Miss Hawley, of St. Armand West, by whom
he had three daughters. Mrs. Gale died in September, 1849. Of the
daughters the only one now living is Anna R., widow of T. Sterry
Hunt, of Montreal, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work; while
of the other two, Agnes Logan married Andrew Stuart of Quebec,
a son of Chief Justice Stuart and of a very prominent family in
that city, and the third became the Baroness von Friesen, who
died December 10, 1875, in Berlin, Germany.
Born of parents who had both suffered for their loyal adherence
to the British Crown during the American Revolution, and educated
in their views Mr. Gale was, as long as he busied himself in
politics, a stanch conservative and defender of British unity and
British supremacy. He wrote a series of letters to the Montreal
Herald (in those days the organ of the stoutest conservatism)
over the signature of “Nerva” which produced a strong impression
on the public mind at that time; and in espousing the cause of
Lord Dalhousie and upholding the old constitution (under the
title constitutionalists taken by the conservatives of that day)
against the advocates of democracy or responsible government, he
was but consistently pursuing the course on which he first set
out. While upon the bench he maintained in an elaborate and very
able judgment the right of the Crown to establish martial law
here in 1837, refusing to theorize about what abstract rights man
had or ought to have, declaring simply and firmly what the law,
as he read it, established the prerogative of the sovereign to be
in a colony. Both as a lawyer and judge he won the respect of his
confreres alike by his ability and learning.
For many years previous to his death he was deeply interested in
the freedom of the slave. He could not speak with patience of
any compromise with slavery and waxed indignant in denunciation
of all who in any way aided, abetted, or even countenanced it.
When the Anderson case was before the Upper Canada courts he
was one of the most active among those who aroused agitation
here. When the Prince of Wales visited this country he got up a
congratulatory address from the colored people of Canada which,
however, was not received, as the prince was desired by the Duke
of Newcastle, not to recognize differences of race and creed
wherever it could be helped.
Judge Gale was a man of high principle and ever bore an
unblemished moral character. Once in his early career at the bar
he was forced by the then prevailing customs of society to fight
a duel. His antagonist was Sir James Stuart, who had quarreled
with him in court and Mr. Gale was severely wounded. It was an
event which, we believe, he profoundly regretted, and gladly saw
the better day dawn when men ran no risk of forfeiting their
position as gentlemen by refusing to shoot, or be shot at, in
order to redress real or fancied insults. He was a scrupulously
just man, most methodical and punctual in business matters. There
were in his writings great care, and precision and clearness of
language. In his letters, too, and even in signing his name, the
same trait was observable. He often used to condemn the stupid
custom of men who signed their names with a flourish, yet so
illegibly that no one could read, but only guess at, the word
intended. He was not ostentatious of his charities, yet they were
not lacking. Some years before his demise he made a gift of land
to Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, and during the last months of
his life, when age and illness were day by day wearing him out,
he found relief for his own distress in aiding to relieve that of
the needy and afflicted.
With him passed away one more of those men, who link the creative
past, in which were laid the foundations of our civilization,
with the bustling present and of whom the generation of today
knows naught; of men more proud and precise in their manners
than we are; and of such rectitude and sense of honor, that we
feel deeply the loss of the influence of their example. A loyal
subject, a learned and upright judge, a kind, true, steadfast
friend, was lost to the community in Judge Gale.
ROLLO CAMPBELL, M. D.
Dr. Rollo Campbell, of whom it was said that no man ever spoke
ill, was the son of Dr. Francis W. Campbell and was born in
Montreal on the 6th of June, 1864. His life record covered a
comparatively brief span. He was educated under private tutors
and in Bishop’s College, where he pursued his professional
course, being graduated from that institution at Lennoxville, P.
Q., with honors in the class of 1886, at which time the M. D.
degree was conferred upon him. His early professional experience
came to him as interne in the Western Hospital at Montreal, where
he remained for a year, gaining the wide knowledge and training
that only hospital practice can bring. He then went to Europe,
pursuing his studies in London and in Edinburgh. Upon returning
to his native land he located in Montreal for practice and it was
not long before he had established an enviable reputation as a
conscientious, capable physician of untiring energy, thoroughly
devoted to his profession and ever ready to do a kindness to
those in need of his services. He was especially interested in
surgery and his researches along that line were broad and varied.
From the time of his graduation Dr. Campbell was on the teaching
staff of Bishop’s College, first as demonstrator of anatomy,
to which he was appointed in 1897, and later as professor of
surgery. For many years he was on the consulting staff of the
Montreal Dispensary and was one of the assistant surgeons of the
Western Hospital, in which institution he was greatly interested.
He was likewise an examiner for the New York Life Insurance
Company.
A feature in his professional connections was his service as
surgeon for seventeen years of the Fifth Royal Scots of Canada,
in which regiment he was very popular. At one time he was
president of Bishop’s Medical College Graduates’ Society and he
was physician to several fraternal societies. He also belonged to
the Montreal Medico-Chirurgical Society and along more strictly
social lines he was connected with the Metropolitan Club, the
Montreal Military Institute and the Montreal Amateur Athletic
Association. Of the latter he was a life member and was captain
of the Bicycle Club of that organization.
Dr. Campbell was married in Montreal in 1892 in St. Paul’s
Presbyterian church to Miss Marion May Fletcher, a daughter of
Henry Fletcher, who for thirty years was tide surveyor of the
port of Montreal, and his wife, whose maiden name was Margaret
Ann McInnes. Dr. and Mrs. Campbell became parents of two
children: Gladys Agnes and Edith Margaret. The family circle
was broken by the hand of death when on the 31st of May, 1904,
Dr. Campbell passed away. Speaking of him at this time a fellow
graduate of Bishop’s College said: “He was a fine fellow. I
think I can safely say that I never heard anyone speak ill of
him. He was kind and thoughtful and devoted himself to his work.
In fact, I fear that he worked too hard on account of that
conscientiousness which would not allow of his neglecting any
seeming duty. He will be greatly missed, not only by his fellow
practitioners, but by all who knew him and respected him.”
ROBERT KURCZYN LOVELL.
While Robert Kurczyn Lovell entered upon a business already
established, he has displayed the enterprise and determination
which are among his salient characteristics in the methods which
he has followed in conducting his business affairs. Montreal
numbers him among her native sons, but he comes of Irish and
German ancestry. He is the eldest son of the late John Lovell,
who was a prominent publisher of Montreal from 1835 until his
death in 1893. His mother is Mrs. Sarah Lovell, a daughter of N.
P. M. Kurczyn, who was a German merchant of Montreal.
In the acquirement of his education Robert K. Lovell passed
through consecutive grades to the high school. In 1867 he became
connected with his father in business, becoming a partner in 1880
and so continuing until the latter’s death in July, 1893. The
business was conducted under the same style until 1903 when it
was incorporated. Since 1903 he has been president of the firm of
John Lovell & Son, Ltd., publishers of Lovell’s Gazetteer of the
Dominion of Canada and Newfoundland, Lovell’s Montreal Directory,
Lovell’s Montreal Business Directory and numerous other
publications. In all of his business affairs he never deviates
from the highest standards. He is an Anglican in religious faith.
WILLIAM OKELL HOLDEN DODDS.
For over twenty years Major William O. H. Dodds has been
connected with the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York,
being at present the assistant manager for Quebec and the
maritime provinces. He was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, July
3, 1867, a son of the late Charles Dodds, a manufacturer of that
province, who died in June, 1893. The mother of our subject, who
was before her marriage Miss Agnes Smith, died in December, 1910.
William Dodds received his education in the Yarmouth high school
and the Yarmouth Academy of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. He completed
his school education in 1884 and then entered the employ of
the Bank of Yarmouth, remaining with that institution until
1887. From 1887 to 1888 he assisted his father in the wholesale
and retail dry-goods business, but in the latter year came to
Montreal, entering the wholesale dry-goods trade, with which line
he continued until 1892. In that year he joined the staff of the
Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York as cashier and, rising
through various positions, was made the assistant manager of the
concern for Quebec and the maritime provinces, which office he
yet holds. Mr. Dodds has also been one of the promoters of the
Consumers’ Cotton Company.
On November 29, 1910, Mr. Dodds married Jean Hamilton Holt,
eldest daughter of Robert W. Tyre, of Montreal. Mrs. Dodds is
greatly interested in athletics and in 1911 was elected president
of the Ladies’ Montreal Curling Club.
Major Dodds is also a well known amateur athlete. He was formerly
president of the Canadian Amateur Athletic Union; is a member
of the executive committee of the Amateur Skating Association
of Canada; and was selected as one of the team of the Montreal
Curling Club to proceed to Scotland in December, 1908, but
was unable to go. He has long been in the volunteer military
service, being formerly a captain in the Fifth Regiment, Royal
Scots. He subsequently commanded the Third Battery, Montreal,
and then organized the Twenty-first (Westmount) Battery, which
he commanded from October 26, 1907, to April 9, 1910. He is
now engaged in the reorganization of the First Regiment,
Grenadier Guards of Canada. In January, 1906, Major Dodds was
elected president of the Montreal Military Institute and is now
councillor of the Boy Scout movement.
Mr. Dodds is a Presbyterian and gives his political support to
the conservative party. He is a member of the Montreal Club,
the Montreal Military Institute, the Montreal Curling Club, the
Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, the Montreal Hunt Club,
the St. James Club, the Royal Montreal Golf Club and others.
ISAIE PREFONTAINE.
Isaie Prefontaine, no less highly esteemed for his business
capacity and enterprise than for his public-spirited citizenship,
has contributed along various lines to the welfare and progress
of the city in which he makes his home. A native of Beloeil, he
was born in 1861 and in the pursuit of his education attended
Montreal College, from which he was graduated with honors. From
the outset of his career he has made his labors count as factors
in general progress and improvement. He has been a close student
of conditions and problems of the time and along practical lines
has worked for betterment.
He has taken a warm interest in the commercial development of
the city and has been prominently identified with various bodies
working toward that end. He was president of the Chamber of
Commerce of Montreal for the year 1908-9 and for six years was
president of the School of High Commercial Studies. In 1909
he became president of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce
for the province of Quebec and was continued in that high and
important office for three years. He has also been a member of
the Board of Trade and has been a cordial cooperator in the
movement for providing facilities for specialized instruction
and training of those engaged in manufacturing and other
industrial pursuits.
[Illustration: ISAIE PREFONTAINE]
His wide research and investigation enable him to speak with
authority upon many questions bearing upon the business condition
of the city and its possibilities for progress along industrial
and commercial lines. He is an idealist, whose methods are
practical, and is a man of action rather than of theory.
In 1883 he married Miss Eliza Pigeon, a daughter of Olivier
Pigeon, of Vercheres, Quebec. He belongs to both the Club St.
Denis and the Canadian Club and in the city has a wide and
favorable acquaintance. The Montreal Herald has termed him “a man
of capacity and high character.”
FRANCIS WAYLAND CAMPBELL, M. D.
Dr. Francis Wayland Campbell, practitioner, educator and editor
of medical journals, winning distinction along each line, was
born in Montreal on the 5th of November, 1837, a son of the late
Rollo Campbell, at one time publisher of the Montreal Daily
Pilot and a native of Perthshire, Scotland. Dr. Campbell’s more
specifically literary education was obtained at Dutton Academy
and the Baptist College, and in preparation for a professional
career he studied medicine in McGill University, from which he
was graduated with the M. D. degree in 1860. He at once located
for practice in his native city, where he continued until his
death. After the completion of his course at McGill he spent some
time in study abroad, investigating the methods and watching the
clinics of eminent physicians and surgeons of London, Dublin,
Edinburgh and Glasgow. In 1861 he passed with high rank an
examination before the Royal College of Physicians of London.
In October, 1861, Dr. Campbell married Miss Agnes Stuart Rodger,
of Greenock, Scotland, and in November returned with his bride
to Canada, opening an office for practice in Montreal. Success
came to him almost immediately because his equipment was good and
because of his recognition of and marked devotion to the duties
of the profession. He was offered the editorship of the hospital
report department of the British-American Journal, accepted it
and continued to serve in that connection until 1864, when the
publication of the paper ceased. The Canada Medical Journal
was soon afterward started and Dr. Campbell joined Dr. Fenwick
in its editorial management, being thus associated from 1864
until 1872. In the meantime he had joined the medical faculty of
Bishop’s College, whereupon Dr. Fenwick declined to associate
with him any longer in the publication of the Canada Medical
Journal. The result was the discontinuance of that paper. Dr.
Campbell decided to contest the field with Dr. Fenwick, who began
issuing the paper independently, the Campbell publication being
known as the Canada Medical Record, of which he remained editor
and proprietor until his demise. In 1872 Dr. Campbell joined
Drs. David, Smallwood, Hingston and Trenholme in organizing the
medical faculty of Bishop’s College, after which he was appointed
professor of physiology and was elected by the faculty as their
registrar. His writings were considered a valuable contribution
to the literature of the profession and his publications were
liberally patronized by those holding to the highest professional
standards.
Dr. Campbell was a member of the volunteer militia from 1854 and
in 1860 was appointed assistant surgeon of the First Battalion,
Volunteer Rifles of Canada, now the First Battalion. He served
with his regiment on the eastern frontier, being at Hemingford
and at Durham during the Fenian raid in 1866. In the fall of that
year he was promoted to the rank of surgeon of the regiment and
again during the brief Fenian raid of 1871 was with his command
at Pigeon Hill, at St. Armands and St. Johns. After being for a
great many years surgeon of the Prince of Wales Rifles he was
appointed, on the formation of the Regular Canadian Militia, to
the office of surgeon of the Infantry School Corps at St. Johns,
Province of Quebec, and held the position for nineteen years,
being then retired at the age limit with the rank of surgeon
lieutenant colonel. At that time the regiments were known and
still are as the Royal Regiments Canadian Infantry. In 1894 he
established the V. R. I. Magazine and became its first editor.
Lennoxville conferred upon him the honorary degree of D. C. L. in
1895. Two years later his son, Dr. Rollo Campbell, was appointed
demonstrator of anatomy in Bishop’s College. Another matter of
interest and importance in the life record of Dr. Campbell was
that he held for forty-three years the position of chief medical
examiner for the New York Life Insurance Company at Montreal and
his son, Dr. Rollo Campbell, was his assistant. He was honorary
president of the Military Institute for several years and was
one of the founders of the Western Hospital of Montreal. He was
called the father of that institution and two years ago the
hospital placed a very handsome bronze tablet to his memory in
the institution. At the time of his death he was dean of the
medical faculty of Bishop’s College at Montreal. His degrees were
M. A., M. D. and L. R. C. P. of London. Honor and distinction
came to him in many ways, and at all times he bore his honors
with becoming modesty.
Dr. Campbell was a liberal conservative in politics. He belonged
to the Montreal Military Institute and was a past master of the
Victoria Lodge of Masons. Of scholarly attainments, finding keen
pleasure in scientific research and actuated, too, by a broad
humanitarian spirit, his professional service as practitioner,
educator and writer was of marked value to the public and
constituted a notable contribution to the world’s work in the
field of medical and surgical progress.
CLEOPHAS EDWARD LECLERC.
Cleophas Edward Leclerc, who for fifteen years was a member of
the board of notaries of Quebec, his home being in Montreal,
his native city, was born September 26, 1844. Almost his entire
life was passed in Montreal, where he supplemented his early
education by a classical course in the College of Ste. Therese de
Blainville in the district of Terrebonne. Having determined to
become a notary public, he entered upon his professional studies
under the direction of Mr. F. Des Bastien, registrar of the
county of Vaudreuil, and was admitted to practice on the 15th of
October, 1866. For fifteen years he was a member of the Quebec
board of notaries and for three years was its vice president. He
stood high in his profession, and the clientage afforded him came
in recognition of his superior ability.
On the 16th of November, 1875, Mr. Leclerc was married to Miss
Caroline Eliza Archambault of St. Hyacinthe, and they became
the parents of six children: Robertine; Rene, who is managing
director of the Credit-Canada, Limited; Achille; Alice, the wife
of Arthur Hubour, who is engaged in the drug business at the
corner of Demontigny and St. Denis Streets; Ovide; and Rita.
Death came to Mr. Leclerc at his home at No. 655 St. Hubert
Street on the 23d of November, 1912, when he was sixty-eight
years of age. He was a man of fine personal appearance, his
broad forehead indicating strong native intelligence. He was
of dignified appearance and mien and looked at life from the
standpoint of one who recognized its obligations and duties as
well as its privileges and opportunities. He had an extensive
circle of friends so that his death was deeply regretted by many
outside his own household.
GEORGE CAVERHILL.
Prominent on the roll of leading business men of Montreal stands
the name of George Caverhill, a merchant who for an extended
period has been connected with commercial life and figures
prominently in connection with corporate interests having to
do with the business enterprise and consequent prosperous
development of the city. He was born October 18, 1858, at
Beauharnois, P. Q., and is of Scotch descent. His parents were
Thomas and Elizabeth Spiers (Buchanan) Caverhill, the latter a
representative of the Buchanan family of Lenny, while the former
was a member of the border family of Caverhills, residents of
Scotland from 1200.
In the attainment of his education George Caverhill attended
successively the Montreal high school, the Galt Collegiate
Institute and McGill University. From the outset of his business
career he has been connected with mercantile interests. In 1877
he entered the employ of Crathern & Caverhill, of Montreal,
and, later ambitious to engage in business on his own account,
utilized the opportunities of becoming a partner in a wholesale
hardware firm, his partners being his brother, the late Frank
Caverhill, J. B. Learmont and T. H. Newman. The four organized
the firm of Caverhill, Learmont & Company, wholesale hardware
merchants of both Montreal and Winnipeg. This by no means
indicates the scope of his investments and his activities.
That he is today one of the most important business men of the
province is indicated in the fact that he is vice president of
the Montreal Loan & Mortgage Company, a director of the Dominion
Iron & Steel Company, Canadian Cottons, Ltd., Montreal Trust
Company, Montreal Light, Heat & Power Company, and is identified
with a number of organizations to promote trade and business
relations. In 1904 he was chosen president of the Montreal Metal
& Hardware Association, was made first vice president of the
Montreal Board of Trade in 1906 and its president in 1907.
In 1887 Mr. Caverhill was married to Miss Emily Margaret,
daughter of John Caverhill. She takes active interest in
philanthropical and charitable work and is a member of the
general committee of the Victorian Order of Nurses. Together with
her husband, she is a life governor of the Protestant Hospital
for the Insane. Both Mr. and Mrs. Caverhill were presented to the
late King Edward at Windsor Castle in June, 1905.
In addition to his previously mentioned activities, Mr. Caverhill
is a governor of the Montreal General Hospital, and is a life
member of St. Andrew’s Society of Montreal. He has a great love
of animals and has won fully two hundred and sixty prizes with
his kennel of skye terriers. Mr. Caverhill’s political allegiance
is given to the liberal party, and in 1911 he opposed the
Taft-Fielding reciprocity compact. Prominent in club circles,
he holds membership with the Mount Royal, St. James, Canada,
Canadian, Forest and Stream, Lachine Boating and Canoe, Montreal
Hunt, Montreal Jockey, Montreal Polo, Reform, Royal Montreal
Golf and Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Clubs, all of Montreal. He is
a man of liberal culture and broad general information, having
largely promoted his knowledge through extended travel in the
East Indies, South America, Japan, Egypt, Greece and Italy. His
opinions carry weight on all questions in which he has become
deeply interested, and his interest in any plan or project is
ever the source of activity in its support.
LOUIS JOSEPH ARTHUR SURVEYER.
Louis Joseph Arthur Surveyer, one of the best known business men
of Montreal, his ability and enterprise finding exemplification
in his substantial success, was born May 16, 1841, in the town of
Beauharnois, in the province of Quebec. His father was Dr. Joseph
Surveyer, a well known physician of Beauharnois and surrounding
parishes, and his mother bore the maiden name of Eugenie Duclos
Decelles.
L. J. A. Surveyer was educated at St. Laurent College and entered
upon his business career as a clerk in a general store in St.
Johns, P. Q. After eighteen months he came to Montreal and
entered the retail hardware store of Messrs. Ferrier & Company
on Notre Dame Street. After nine months’ service in the employ
of that firm they sold their business and Mr. Surveyer entered
the employ of Mr. Thomas Davidson in his retail store, continuing
in that employ for seven years. He was ambitious to engage in
business on his own account and so wisely used his time and
talent that he was now able with a capital of six hundred dollars
to open a store of his own. His venture proved successful from
the beginning and has been developed and built up to its present
extensive proportions so that Mr. Surveyer is now ranked with the
leading business men of the city.
In 1868 Mr. Surveyer married Miss Amelie Pelletier, who died
thirteen months later. In 1873 he married Miss M. A. Hectorine
Fabre, a daughter of the late E. R. Fabre, and the youngest
sister of the late Archbishop Fabre. Of this union there were
born eight children, seven of whom are living, as follows: Edward
Fabre, a lawyer in Montreal, of whom there is further mention
in this work; Eugenie, now Mrs. N. K. Laflamme of Montreal;
Arthur, of Surveyer & Frigon, consulting engineers; Paul, a
lawyer in Montreal; Gustave, of Montreal; Marie; and Therese, now
Mrs. Jules Faurnier of Montreal. Mr. Surveyer is a member of the
Canadian Club and of the Alliance Nationale. There is found in
his life history the strong proof of the fact that the road to
opportunity is open to ambition and energy, and that it leads to
the goal of success.
[Illustration: LOUIS J. A. SURVEYER]
NORVAL DICKSON.
Norval Dickson, practicing as a notary in Montreal in
partnership with R. B. Hutcheson, and controlling an important,
representative and growing clientage, was born in Howick, Quebec,
in 1878 and is a son of Robert Dickson who came to Canada from
Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1830.
Norval Dickson acquired his preliminary education in Huntingdon
Academy, Huntingdon, Quebec, and afterwards entered McGill
University in Montreal, receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree
in 1901 and his degree in law in 1904. Immediately afterward he
began practice in Montreal, continuing alone until May, 1910,
when he formed a partnership with R. B. Hutcheson under the firm
name of Hutcheson & Dickson. Mr. Dickson has proved an important
and helpful factor in the success of the firm, for he possesses a
deep and comprehensive knowledge of the underlying principles of
his profession and has a well deserved reputation as a reliable
and competent notary. The firm controls a growing and extensive
patronage and has a high standing in legal circles of the city.
REV. ABRAHAM DE SOLA, LL. D.
Rev. Abraham de Sola, LL. D., who for many years was so familiar
a figure in literary circles in Montreal and who earned so wide
and deserved a reputation as an Oriental scholar and theologian,
was a descendent of an illustrious Spanish-Jewish family. The
marvelous history of Israel must ever be of peculiar interest to
mankind, and perhaps no chapter in the post-biblical portion of
that history possesses more charm than that which relates about
the Jews of Spain and Portugal, or Sephardim, as they are styled.
These lived free and untrammeled during those mediæval times when
their brethren in less favored countries were weighed down by
the burden of oppression, and with the Saracens they kept alive
the flame of learning and science in the Iberian peninsula at a
time when it burnt lowest in the rest of Europe. Power, rank and
honor were theirs; and when afterwards clouds obscured the sky of
their prosperity, and the storm of persecution burst pitilessly
over their heads, their record of heroic martyrdom and thrilling
adventure is a tale as fascinating as that of many of the most
imaginative pages of fiction.
Among the many bright names which illumined Spanish-Jewish
history, that of De Sola stands prominent. The De Solas had
settled in Andalusia as early as the sixth century, whence
they had come from Judea by gradual stages through northern
Africa. They held various offices under the Saracenic caliphs at
Toledo and Cordova, and afterwards when they removed to Navarre
they were received with like favor by the Gothic princes. From
their estate in this province, their surname had its origin.
A particularly distinguished member of the family was Don
Bartolomeu de Sola, who, in reward for his services, was ennobled
and, after being a minister of state, held for a while the
position of viceroy of Navarre.
During the fourteenth century another De Sola distinguished
himself fighting under the Infante of Aragon and figured
conspicuously in the Spanish wars of that period. During the
succeeding centuries the family continued to hold an illustrious
place, owing to the large number of eminent scholars, physicians
and statesmen it produced. Their fortunes, however, changed when
King Ferdinand, having by the conquest of Granada destroyed
the last vestige of Moorish power in Spain, decided to drive
therefrom all who did not conform to the dominant faith; and in
1492 was promulgated the terrible edict of expulsion, which,
at one blow, deprived hundreds of thousands of Spain’s most
intelligent and industrious inhabitants of happy and prosperous
homes. The De Solas took refuge in Holland, but a branch of the
family continued to hold business connections with Lisbon, and
eventually some of them settled in the Portuguese capital, where
they amassed much wealth. Watched by the Inquisition, they, like
many other Portuguese Jews, for some time evaded the danger by
assuming to become Marannos or Nuevos Christianos--as converted
Jews were styled--while they secretly remained loyal to Judaism.
In the latter part of the seventeenth century, however, suspicion
was directed towards them, and David de Sola (who to elude his
persecutors had assumed the name of Bartolome) was apprehended
and charged with having relapsed into Judaism. Although placed
under the most fearful torture nothing seems to have been proved,
as he was allowed to afterwards go free; but he was physically
broken down by his terrible sufferings. Escape from the country
by a suspect was then extremely difficult, but in the next
generation his son, Aaron de Sola, managed to secure refuge on
board a British man-of-war and to make good his escape with his
family to England; not, however, before two of his relatives
had been imprisoned, tortured and condemned to death at an
auto-da-fé, by the Inquisition, for secret adherence to Judaism.
It was in 1749 that Aaron de Sola fled with his wife and family
to England, and now that they were freed from the terrors of
the Inquisition they openly avowed once more their loyalty to
the faith of their fathers. From England they took passage for
Holland, where they rejoined their relatives, and taking up their
residence in Amsterdam they soon again rose to distinction in the
various learned professions.
Previously to this--in the year 1690--one of the preceding
generation, Isaac de Sola, had settled in London and had acquired
a high reputation in the Hebrew community there as an eloquent
preacher and author. Several volumes of his works are still
extant.
Four sons had accompanied Aaron de Sola in his flight from Lisbon
in 1749, of whom the eldest, David, was the great-grandfather
of the Dr. Abraham de Sola who forms the chief subject of this
sketch. The youngest of Aaron de Sola’s, sons, Dr. Benjamin de
Sola, attained to a foremost place among the practitioners of
the eighteenth century. He was court physician to William V of
the Netherlands and was the author of a large number of medical
works. The other two sons of Aaron de Sola settled in Curacao,
and one of them was the grandfather of General Juan de Sola, who
became so distinguished as a commander of cavalry under Bolivar
and Paez when the South American states revolted from Spain. He
took part in the decisive battle of Carabobo, and led the charge
on Puerto Cabello when that city was stormed by Paez, receiving a
sabre wound during the fight. After the restoration of peace he
held important public offices during the Paez regime.
The Rev. Abraham de Sola, LL. D., was born in London, England,
on the 18th of September, 1825. His father, David Aaron de Sola,
was senior minister of the Portuguese Jews of London, to which
city he had been called from Amsterdam, and was eminent as a
Hebrew author, having produced among many other works an elegant
translation of the Jewish Forms of Prayer; also, in conjunction
with Dr. Raphael, an edition of Genesis, very valuable to
biblical students on account of its commentaries and copious
notes, and the first English translation of Eighteen Treatises of
the Mishna. His mother was the daughter of Dr. Raphael Meldola,
chief rabbi of the Spanish-Jewish congregations of Britain. The
Meldolas had given eminent chief rabbis to Europe for twelve
generations. Abraham de Sola received careful tuition in all
the usual branches of a liberal education. He became early
engrossed in the study of Oriental languages and literature and
of theology, and continued to devote his attention to those
subjects until he acquired that profound knowledge of them
which subsequently won him so prominent a place among scholars.
Having been offered the position of rabbi of the Spanish and
Portuguese Jewish Congregation of Montreal he accepted the call
and arrived in this city in the beginning of 1847, and here,
for over thirty-five years, he continued to minister to the
spiritual wants of his people. His able pulpit discourses soon
attracted attention. Dr. de Sola’s abilities, however, were not
destined to be confined exclusively to his official duties.
Before leaving London he had been associated in the editorial
work of a Hebrew journal, The Voice of Jacob, and soon after his
arrival in Canada he delivered a course of lectures on Jewish
history before the Mercantile Literary Association. In 1848 he
published his “Notes on the Jews of Persia under Mohammed Shah,”
and also “A History of the Jews of Persia.” Within the same year
there appeared his important work on “Scripture Zoology.” Soon
afterwards he published his “Lectures on the Mosaic Cosmogony.”
This was followed by his “Cosmography of Peritsol,” a work
displaying such erudition that it gained a wide circulation in
Europe and was reprinted there in several languages. His next
work, “A Commentary upon Samuel Hannagid’s Introduction to the
Talmud,” was a book which deservedly attracted much attention,
owing to the light which it threw upon an interesting portion of
rabbinical literature and to its depth of Talmudic knowledge.
In 1853 he published, conjointly with the Rev. J. J. Lyons, of
New York, a work on the Jewish Calendar System, chiefly valuable
on account of its excellent prefatory treatise upon the Jewish
system of calculating time.
Dr. de Sola’s mastery of Semitic languages and literature early
attracted the notice of our learned bodies, and, after first
acting as lecturer, he was, in 1853, appointed professor of
Hebrew and Oriental literature at McGill University. The high
abilities which he displayed as occupant of this chair proved the
wisdom of the appointment, and he continued to hold the position
during the rest of his life.
For some time Dr. de Sola had been engaged in the preparation of
one of his most important productions, “The Sanatory Institutions
of the Hebrews.” The work was published in two parts and was an
exhaustive exposition of the hygienic laws of the Hebrews, as
exhibited in both Scriptural and rabbinical writings, critically
examined in the light of modern scientific knowledge. It was a
production which evinced how deeply the author had penetrated
into scientific as well as rabbinical paths of learning. Shortly
afterwards he published a supplemental work to it, entitled
“Behemoth Hatemeoth.”
The prominence to which Dr. de Sola had now reached among men of
letters led McGill University to confer upon him the degree of
LL. D. in 1858.
In 1860, Dr. Hall, the editor of The British American Journal,
devoted to physical and medical science, induced Dr. de Sola
to assist that publication with his pen, and, among other
contributions, his series of articles “Upon the Employment of
Anaesthetics in Cases of Labor, in Connection with Jewish Law,”
call for particular mention.
Dr. de Sola’s wide range of studies had made him very popular
both as a public lecturer and as a contributor to various
literary papers. The themes of some of these were afterwards
much amplified by him and republished in their elaborated and
completed form. At comparatively short intervals he gave to the
public his works on “Scripture Botany,” “Sinaitic Inscriptions,”
“Hebrew Numismatics,” “The Ancient Hebrews as Promoters of the
Arts and Sciences,” “The Rise and Progress of the Great Hebrew
Colleges,” and “Philological Studies in Hebrew and the Aramaic
Languages.” Turning his attention again to Jewish history, he, in
1869, wrote his interesting “Life of Shabethai Tsevi, the False
Messiah.” The following year he completed his “History of the
Jews of Poland,” and in 1871 he published his “History of the
Jews of France.”
Dr. de Sola closely identified himself with many of our literary
and scientific associations, notably with the Natural History
Society, in which he was an active colaborer of Sir William
Dawson and Sir William Logan. He was for many years president
of the society and received H. R. H. Prince Arthur (afterwards
Duke of Connaught) when that prince visited the society in 1870.
His address upon “The Study of Natural Science,” delivered upon
that occasion, called forth a letter of approbation from Queen
Victoria.
During all his intense literary activity Dr. de Sola was taking
a very prominent part in all matters affecting the Jewish
people. His mastery of Jewish theology, in all its branches,
had earned him wide renown among his own race and had gained
him a high place among the very foremost rabbis of the day.
Convinced that the fences which orthodoxy placed around the
citadel of his ancestral faith were the best safeguards against
disintegrating forces, the upholders of historical Judaism found
in him an able and powerful champion. Equally noticeable were
his bold attacks upon the weak points of the skeptical school
of modern biblical criticism. His intimate knowledge of all
those branches of learning which bear upon this subject made him
particularly formidable in this respect. The Jewish press and
pulpit and the lecture platform were the vehicles by which he
usually reached the public on these subjects. He had, indeed,
since his first arrival in Canada been a particularly active
contributor to Jewish journals, more especially to the Occident
of Philadelphia, with which he was for years identified, being
in intimate literary relations with its editor, the gifted Isaac
Leeser.
Dr. de Sola’s ability in the pulpit led to his frequently being
invited to lecture in the United States, where he had acquired
much prominence and popularity. On the 9th of January, 1872,
he was invited by General Grant’s government to perform the
ceremony of opening the United States congress with prayer, and
for the first time was witnessed the unique spectacle of one
who was not a citizen of the United States nor of the dominant
belief officiating at the opening ceremonies at the assembling
of congress at Washington. The broad liberality of this act,
upon the part of the United States government, was fraught with
particular significance at that time, owing to the fact that
diplomatic relations between Britain and the United States
had then but lately been strained to dangerous tension by the
“Alabama Claims,” and this high compliment to a British subject
was the first evidence of the growth of a better feeling between
the two countries. Sir Edward Thornton, the British ambassador at
Washington, formally extended to Dr. de Sola the thanks of the
British government, and Mr. Gladstone--then prime minister, also
personally communicated his satisfaction.
Upon the death of Isaac Leeser, Dr. de Sola purchased the
stereotyped plates of his works and issued a new edition of
that author’s translation of the Bible according to Jewish
authorities. He also brought out a revised translation of the
Jewish Forms of Prayer, in six volumes, based upon the editions
of D. A. de Sola (his father) and of Leeser. He was invited to
become the successor of Mr. Leeser in his ministerial office but
declined. He had previously refused several similar offers.
Dr. de Sola’s onerous duties were at this time further increased
by his being offered the chair of Hebrew at the Montreal
Presbyterian College, and later on he accepted the appointment of
lecturer in Spanish literature at McGill University, a literature
and language with which he was specially familiar and to which he
was particularly attached.
But such incessant application to work could not but prove
exhaustive, and his naturally vigorous health broke down under
the strain. A year’s rest, spent in Europe, proved sufficiently
beneficial to enable him to return to some of his duties. For a
while he also resumed his contributions to the Jewish press, and
among other interesting writings we notice his “Yehuda Alcharizi
and the Book Tachkemoni.” In 1880 he published his last important
work, “Saadia Ha-Gaon,” a book giving a very valuable description
of the writings and life of one of the greatest of Jewish
philosophers and also containing an interesting account of the
court of a prince of the captivity.
But failing health was destined now to check forever the labors
of his active pen, and while in New York, on a visit to his
sister, he was taken ill and his death occurred on June 5, 1882.
The remains were brought on to Montreal and there interred. He
had not yet completed his fifty-seventh year when he passed away.
In his death the Hebrew community sustained a loss whose
magnitude could scarcely be overestimated. His self-sacrificing
devotion to the service of his race, his ceaseless labor in
everything which could elevate and promote both their moral and
intellectual welfare, his quick readiness to assuage, with kind
counsel and help, the lot of those in adversity, and the rare
talents which he had displayed in his multifarious writings, had
won for him the warmest admiration and attachment of his people
and had gained him a reputation among them that was world-wide.
His loss, indeed, was scarcely less regretted by Gentile than
by Jew, for the prominence which his scholarly attainments had
acquired for him among Canadian litterateurs, the active role
which he had for thirty-five years played in our various learned
bodies, and the distinguished position which he held in our
leading university, achieved for him an illustrious place among
Canada’s public men.
Dr. de Sola was married in 1852 to Esther Joseph, the youngest
daughter of Henry Joseph, of Berthier, one of the earliest Jewish
settlers in this country. Of his several children, the eldest
son, the Rev. Meldola de Sola, succeeded him as rabbi of the
Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal, and another son,
Clarence I. de Sola, is general manager of the Belgian syndicate,
“Comptoir Belgo-Canadien.”
ROBERT MEIGHEN.
The history of Canada’s great industrial and commercial growth
during the past thirty or forty years is but the history of
such men as Robert Meighen one of the foremost business men
of his generation, whose intense and intelligently directed
activity constituted a potent force in the material development
and progress of not only the city and province of his adoption
but various other sections of the Dominion as well. His birth
occurred at Dungiven, near Londonderry, Ireland, April 18, 1838,
his parents being Robert and Mary (McLeghan) Meighen, whose
family numbered five children. The family history shows a long
line of Irish ancestors.
Robert Meighen was educated at Perth, Ontario, for following the
father’s death the mother brought her family to the new world,
settling at Perth, where her sons were educated and established
themselves in business as retail and wholesale merchants. The
firm of A. Meighen & Brothers has for many years been one of
the most extensive mercantile firms doing business in the
old Bathurst district. Robert Meighen carried on business in
partnership with his brother at Perth, Ontario, until 1879, when
he removed to Montreal and entered into business relations with
his brother-in-law, Sir George Stephen, later Lord Mount Stephen,
whom he succeeded as president of the New Brunswick Railway,
which now forms part of the Canadian Pacific Railway system.
Successful from the outset of his business career, Mr. Meighen
continually extended his efforts into other fields. He became
one of the founders of the Lake of the Woods Milling Company,
establishing and operating mills and elevators at Keewatin and
Portage la Prairie, which are among the largest and best equipped
in the world. Shortly after the organization of this company
Robert Meighen became its president, which position he retained
till the time of his death, directing its policy and formulating
the plans upon which the mammoth business was constructed. This
represented, however, but one phase of his activity. He
carried his efforts into many fields, none of them failing to
profit by his cooperation.
[Illustration: ROBERT MEIGHEN]
“The Gazette,” at the time of Mr. Meighen’s death, said in part:
“Mr. Meighen was a self-made man and was proud to designate
himself as such. From the day he entered business pursuits at
Perth, many years ago, down to the time he became a director of
the Canadian Pacific Railway, an institution he had championed
from its inception, in commerce, in finance and in imperial
politics, Robert Meighen was never at home except on the firing
line. Although the fact is only perhaps known to the newspaper
fraternity and to some of the leaders of tariff reform in
England, he advocated closer relations between the mother country
and the outlying dependencies of the empire even before Mr.
Chamberlain took the platform in England as the champion of such
a policy.
“Mr. Meighen was known in eastern Ontario as a clever business
man, a follower of Sir John A. Macdonald, and as a man who had
ideas and could fearlessly express them on the stump and at the
fireside, many years before he came to Montreal. It was ere his
removal to this city that he had secured, most successfully, the
right of way for the Ontario & Quebec Railway, now the Montreal
& Toronto section of the Canadian Pacific, and later on he was
entrusted with the promotion of a bill which was of the utmost
importance to that railway. Mr. Meighen was not a member of
parliament, but he stated his case to the members outside and in
the lobbies of the house with such forcefulness, such clarity of
view and in so straightforward a manner that few could withstand
his cogent arguments. It was a tribute to his power that Sir
Richard Cartwright’s denunciation of him was quite as vehement as
the thunderbolts which the chief antagonist of the great railway
project used to launch against Sir John Macdonald, Sir Charles
Tupper and the other parliamentary giants of the day.
“Mr. Meighen believed not only in the Canadian Pacific project
itself, but also in the ultimate value of the great tracts of
land lying for a thousand miles along to the north of where the
line was being run away up to the Saskatchewan, and, if he died a
rich man, it was due to abiding faith in the future of Canada’s
western domain and in the ultimate development of the Dominion
as a whole. It was in reply to a jocular observation from Mr.
Choate, the then American ambassador at the court of St. James,
who had asked Mr. Meighen when Canada was going to throw in
her lot with the United States, that the Montreal imperialist
declared that it was customary for the larger unit to absorb the
smaller, and no doubt at her pleasure Canada would follow the
established precedent.
“A good many shrewd Montreal merchants smiled when Mr. Meighen
came from a small Ontario town to this city as the promoter of
a great industry, but many months had not passed before they
discovered that both in commerce and finance a rival worthy of
their keenest steel had taken his place amongst them and ever
after, when any important subject was up for discussion on the
floors of the Board of Trade, the opinions of the man from Perth,
uttered with characteristic Irish eloquence and wit, invariably
commanded respect and attention. His fellow members did not
always agree with him, but they were always ready to admit that
he was sincere and that he spoke the truth as he felt it.
“Returning from England some years ago, when everything spelt
unrest in industrial Britain, Mr. Meighen gave an interview to
The Gazette which has perhaps been quoted more frequently by
politicians on both continents, as well as by Canadian public men
of all parties, than any other of his utterances. Mr. Meighen,
who was always a great reader, declared that England at that
time could only be compared to Athens when Diogenes, the Greek
philosopher, went out with his lantern looking, as he said, for a
man. He said, however, in the course of that interview, that the
man would be found, and sure enough it was not long before Joseph
Chamberlain was entering upon his whirlwind campaign in favor of
imperial preference and the absolute unity of the British empire.
Mr. Meighen was denounced more than once at the Montreal Board
of Trade, but a good many of the men who came to scoff remained
to pray, to use Mr. Meighen’s own graphic language. Three years
ago, when a resolution was to be introduced before the Montreal
Board of Trade on the policy of imperial preferential trade, Mr.
Meighen was particularly anxious that it should be fathered by
a leader in commerce and finance. He prepared the resolution,
called upon the late Sir George Drummond, president of the Bank
of Montreal and universally admitted to be the first authority
on matters of trade and finance in the Dominion, asking him to
move it. Sir George Drummond’s answer was characteristic of the
man. ‘Mr. Meighen,’ he replied, ‘this resolution meets my views
exactly, but the honor of moving it belongs to you and you alone
and I will take a second place. You will move the resolution and
I will be only too happy to second it.’ Mr. Meighen delivered a
masterly address on that occasion and the resolution was carried.
“His greatest energy was centered in the development of the
company over which he presided up to the hour of his death, yet
he stated not very long ago that he was shaping things in such a
manner as would permit younger men to assume the responsibilities
of management and that after the million-dollar bond issue had
been retired he would then feel that he could take a rest.
“The late president of the Lake of the Woods Company was from the
outset an uncompromising opponent of the Washington reciprocity
pact and he did not hesitate to state on every offered occasion
that the ratification of such a treaty would be a severe blow
aimed at the unity of the empire, and a decided mistake in the
widest interests.
“He was the confidential friend and associate in various business
enterprises of both Lord Mount Stephen and Lord Strathcona. These
eminent men had implicit confidence in Mr. Meighen’s business
judgment, and as a matter of fact many other men high up in
imperial statecraft came to him for advice on both Canadian
and British trade matters. Indeed, some of the best speeches
delivered on the unionist side during the last two British
elections drew their information from, and were in part, inspired
by the ideas of this foremost, perhaps, of Canadian tariff
reformers.”
The same paper said editorially: “A worthy and widely respected
citizen was lost to Montreal by the death yesterday morning
of Mr. Robert Meighen. In business he won marked success. He
helped in no small way to show the great possibilities of the
milling trade of Canada and so profited the country as well as
himself and his associates. He judiciously employed the wealth
that came to him and greatly increased his store. The largest
business enterprises sought his counsel on their directorates
and profited by his connection with them. He was a man of ideas
in matters outside of commerce, and held and advocated views
about the country and the empire with vigor and courage and the
broadest loyalty. In private life his sincerity, earnestness
and kindliness caused all men to give him their regard. In his
capacity as merchant, citizen and man he rose to high stature;
and at a ripe old age closed a worthy career, leaving a memory
that is a help to what is good and creditable in business life.”
Among his business connections, not already mentioned, Mr.
Meighen was managing director of the Cornwall Manufacturing
Company, a director of the Canada Northwest Land Company, the
Bank of Toronto, the Dominion Transportation Company, the St.
John Bridge & Railway Company, the Montreal Street Railway
and the New Brunswick Land Company. His activities likewise
extended to other fields having to do with many subjects of vital
interest to city and country. He was a director of the Montreal
Parks and Playground Association and was president of the New
Brunswick Fish and Game Club. He was likewise vice president of
the King Edward Memorial Committee of Montreal, was chairman
of the Canadian board of the Phoenix Assurance Company and was
a governor of the Royal Victoria, the Western and Maternity
Hospitals of Montreal. The Montreal Standard named him as one
of the twenty-three men at the basis of Canadian finance, and
it was a recognized fact that few men were more familiar with
the problems of finance or did more to establish a safe monetary
system. Mr. Meighen belonged to various prominent social
organizations, including the St. James Club, the Mount Royal
Club, the Canada Club and the Montreal Club.
He was a Presbyterian, a member of St. Paul’s church and chairman
of its board of trustees. All his life Mr. Meighen was a firm
believer in the copartnership of capital and labor and in the
coexisting duties, on a fair basis, of one to the other. He
realized and carried out the idea of their inter-dependency.
When labor had contributed to the success of capital he never
allowed it go without recognition and its just reward, with the
result of absolute confidence on the part of his employes in
his fairness and regard for their interests, and a willingness
to give, in turn, their loyal and honest support to capital.
Above all Mr. Meighen had keen human sympathies. He delighted
in the energetic young man cutting out his road to success, but
this did not prevent him from having patience and sympathy with
those who, perhaps through lack of natural gifts or unfortunate
circumstances, found life an uphill pull. In astonishing numbers
both kinds of men seemed to bring their successes and their
failures to him, and to both, provided they showed honesty of
purpose, he would give his time, his advice and his help in the
open-hearted way characteristic of a man who had not a single
ungenerous impulse in his nature.
At the time of his death when the press throughout Canada was
giving appreciations of his ability and of his success one of
his intimate friends remarked, “They have omitted the biggest
thing about him--his heart”--and so it was. When these two, great
heart and much ability, go hand in hand and work together, one
vitalizing, as it were, the conceptions of the other, a potent
force is felt to be abroad. Well is it for our Canadian business
world to have had such a force in its midst as the late Robert
Meighen truly was. He died when still, one might say, at the
height of his activities and with a heavy burden of work upon
him, but to work was his pleasure. His loss was deeply deplored
by all who knew him and he left behind him a record of a man who
in all things was the soul of honor and an example to those who
come after--“Follow on.”
Mr. Meighen left a widow, Elsie Stephen, daughter of the late
William Stephen, formerly of Dufftown, Scotland, and three
children, Lieutenant Colonel F. S. Meighen, who has succeeded his
father as president of the Lake of the Woods Milling Company,
Mrs. R. Wilson Reford and Mrs. R. O. Harley.
WILLIAM ERNEST BOLTON.
Twenty years’ connection with the real-estate business has
brought William Ernest Bolton into prominence and today
he figures as a controlling factor in some of the leading
real-estate companies of Montreal. He was born in this city
April 11, 1873, a son of Richard and Elizabeth (Minchin) Bolton.
His education was acquired in the schools of his native city,
and early in his business career he became identified with
real-estate activity in which connection he has remained for
many years as a well known and successful real-estate broker. He
has been identified with many important property transfers and
with important development of real-estate interests. He is now
a director of the Montreal Loan & Mortgage Company; president
of the Birmingham-Montreal Realty Company, Limited; a director
of the Midland Investment Company, Limited; of the Richelieu
Realty Company, Limited; of the Renforth Realty Company, Limited,
and of the Riviera Realty Company, Limited. These are among the
most important corporations in that branch of business having to
do with the property interests and consequent development and
progress of the city.
In Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1905, Mr. Bolton was united in
marriage to Miss Catherine Hamilton McClure and they have become
the parents of two sons, Richard and Hamilton. Mr. Bolton votes
with the conservative party but the honors and emoluments of
public office have no attraction for him. When business leaves
him leisure for social enjoyment he spends his time at the
Montreal Club, the Beaconsfield Golf Club, the Winter Club,
the Montreal Country Club and the Montreal Amateur Athletic
Association, in all of which he holds membership.
THORNTON DAVIDSON.
Foremost among the younger generation of business men in Montreal
and one who had attained a high standing in the financial circles
of the city, was Thornton Davidson, whose untimely death in the
sinking of the steamship Titanic, April 15, 1912, ended a career
that had not only been successful, but gave great promise for the
future.
Thornton Davidson was a native of Montreal, and was born on the
17th of May, 1880. His father was the Hon. C. Peers Davidson, D.
C. L., a distinguished jurist, and his mother Alice Mattice,
second daughter of William Mattice of Cornwall, Ontario. Reared
in Montreal, Thornton Davidson attended the city schools,
graduating from high school. Throughout his active business
career he was connected with financial interests, later becoming
manager of the Montreal branch of the New York house of Charles
Head & Company.
[Illustration: THORNTON DAVIDSON]
In 1908 he established the firm of Thornton Davidson & Company
which soon took a prominent position among the leading brokerage
and investment security houses in the city. In 1909 Mr. Davidson
became a member of the Montreal Stock Exchange. His thorough
capability and great energy were factors in the success of the
business which he established and of which he remained the head
until his death. His personal popularity made him a valued member
of the club life of the city, where he held membership in the St.
James, Racquet, Montreal Hunt, Montreal Jockey, Montreal Polo,
Royal St. Lawrence Yacht, Manitou and Canada Clubs, and also in
Montreal Amateur Athletic Association.
On November 3, 1906, in Montreal, Mr. Davidson was married to
Miss Orian Hays, daughter of Charles Melville Hays. Returning
from Europe in company with his wife and the latter’s parents,
Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Hays, on the ill-fated Titanic, Mr.
Davidson was among those brave men who on April 15, 1912, gave
precedence to women and children and went down with the ship.
Such an act is just what his friends would have expected of
Thornton Davidson in such an emergency. His associates knew him
as a capable business man and a most genial companion, but they
recognized in him also the strength of character which manifests
itself in the highest type of manhood when a crisis arises.
WILLIAM FAWCETT HAMILTON, M. D.
Important professional connections indicate the high standing of
Dr. William Fawcett Hamilton of Montreal, who, in addition to an
extensive private practice has done much hospital work. He is a
son of Gustavus W. and Eleanor (Goodwin) Hamilton, and was born
in Baie Verte, New Brunswick. His early education was acquired
in the schools of his native town and in Upper Sackville and
then, having determined upon the practice of medicine as a life
work, he entered McGill University of Montreal, from which he
was graduated with the class of 1891, receiving the degrees of
M. D. and C. M. He has now successfully practiced his profession
in this city for more than two decades and has advanced steadily
to a place of prominence as a representative of the medical
profession. From 1891 until 1894 he was medical superintendent
of the Montreal General Hospital and in the latter year became
assistant physician of the Royal Victoria Hospital, and upon the
death of Dr. James Stewart, in 1906, he was appointed attending
physician of that institution. He has proven himself a man of
ability and public opinion has accorded him rank with the eminent
physicians of the city. He is now associate professor of clinical
medicine at McGill University and as an instructor displays
capability in imparting readily, clearly, concisely and forcibly
to others the knowledge that he has acquired. In 1909 he was
elected a member of the Board of Victorian Order of Nurses, and
he is a member of the Association of American Physicians and vice
president of the Montreal Medico-Chirurgical Society. Through
these connections he keeps in close touch with the advanced work
of the profession and has himself been a leader along the line of
professional progress.
In June, 1897, Dr. Hamilton married Miss Janet Mills of
Westmount, P. Q. Aside from his activity in the professional
field Dr. Hamilton has done important public service as a
director of the Young Men’s Christian Association and as senator
of the Montreal Wesleyan Theological College. He is an active and
helpful member of the Methodist church, and his social nature
finds expression in his membership in the University Club and the
Montreal Country Club.
HON. MICHEL MATHIEU.
Hon. Michel Mathieu has engraven his name high upon the list
of Montreal’s eminent jurists, but has now retired from active
connection with the profession, spending the evening of life
in the enjoyment of well earned rest. He has passed the
seventy-fifth milestone, having been born at Sorel, province
of Quebec, December 20, 1838, a son of the late Joseph and
Edwidge (Vandal) Mathieu. His education was acquired under
private tuition and in the College of St. Hyacinthe, followed by
a professional course in Laval University. He was admitted to
the notarial profession in 1864 and was called to the Montreal
bar as an advocate in 1865. His practice of his profession has
been combined with active public service. In 1866 he was chosen
sheriff of Richelieu and continued in that position for six
years. He successfully practiced his profession at Sorel and
while at the bar was closely associated with journalism bearing
upon his profession, being the publisher of La Revue Legale,
together with some annotated reports. In 1880 he was created
king’s counsel by the Marquis of Lorne. He became widely known as
an educator, for in 1886 he became a member of the law faculty
of Laval University, receiving in that year the degree of LL.
D., and becoming dean of the faculty, which connection he still
retains.
It is a well known fact that members of the bar more than
representatives of other professions are prominent in
public office. The reasons for this are obvious and need no
amplification here, for the qualities which fit one for success
in law practice also prepare him for the thorough understanding
of involved problems affecting the public welfare, and the habit
of analytical reasoning is as forceful and valuable in one
connection as in the other. Judge Mathieu sat for Richelieu in
the house of commons, representing the conservative interests
from 1872 until 1874. He was then defeated but represented
the same constituency in the local parliament from 1875 until
1878. He took his place upon the bench as puisne judge of the
superior court on the 3d of October, 1881, and for twenty-eight
years interpreted law in opinions which were notably free from
partiality and bias. His decisions indicate strong mentality,
careful analysis and a thorough knowledge of the law. The judge
on the bench fails more frequently, perhaps, from a deficiency
in that broad-mindedness which not only comprehends the details
of a situation quickly and that insures a complete self-control
under even the most exasperating conditions than from any other
cause; and the judge who makes a success in the discharge of
his multitudinous, delicate duties is a man of well rounded
character, finely balanced mind and of splendid intellectual
attainments. That Judge Mathieu is regarded as such a jurist is
a uniformly accepted fact. He figured also in public life as a
royal commissioner to inquire into certain matters concerning
the good government of the province in 1892. He presided at
the celebrated Shortis case for murder in the ’90s; in 1910 he
lectured on the Canadian constitution and in July of that year
he was appointed a royal commissioner to revise, consolidate and
modify the municipal code of Quebec.
Judge Mathieu was married in 1863 to Marie Delina Thirza, a
daughter of the late Captain St. Louis of Sorel, province of
Quebec. She died in 1870 and in 1881 Judge Mathieu wedded Marie
Amelie Antoinette, a daughter of the late Hon. D. M. Armstrong,
M. L. C. The death of Mrs. Marie A. A. Mathieu occurred in
April, 1898. Judge Mathieu now resides at The Marlborough in
Montreal. His religious belief is that of the Roman Catholic
church. Something of his standing is indicated in the words of
Dr. J. Reade, who spoke of him as “much esteemed, especially by
the students and younger members of the bar,” while the Montreal
Gazette said of him, “He is a judge, painstaking and capable and
with a grasp of the law and its meaning that few can equal.” His
influence has been far-reaching and beneficial; it has touched
the general interests of society along many lines and has been
a factor in maintaining the legal status upon which rests the
stability and prosperity of a country, the life and liberty of
the individual.
HON. CHARLES SERAPHIM RODIER.
Along the path of broad usefulness and activity Hon. Charles
Seraphim Rodier advanced to prominence and success. He was a
pioneer contractor, lumber merchant and manufacturer of Montreal
and eventually came to figure prominently in financial circles.
He was born in this city, October 14, 1818, and his life record
spans seventy-two years, drawing to its close on the 26th of
January, 1890. His grandfather was a physician in the French army
and leaving Paris came to Canada, settling in Montreal in the
middle of the eighteenth century. His father was Jean Baptiste
Rodier, who married Miss Montreuil, daughter of a well known
navigator who commanded vessels sailing from Montreal.
The opportunities accorded Charles Seraphim Rodier in his youth
were somewhat limited. He pursued his education in a church
school, but at the age of fourteen years put aside his text-books
in order that he might earn his own living. He was apprenticed
to the carpenter’s trade and for his services received a wage of
one dollar per day. Thus from a humble position in the business
world he steadily worked his way upward until long prior to
his death he had reached a place in the millionaire class. He
applied himself thoroughly to the mastery of his trade and when
but eighteen years of age began contracting on his own account
and gained a good patronage. About the year 1846 he began the
manufacture of threshing machines on St. Peter Street, now St.
Martin, and for the remainder of his life was to be found almost
daily at his office at No. 62 St. Martin. The business prospered
from the beginning and machines that were made there over a half
century ago are still repaired there. Each step in his business
career brought him a broader outlook and wider opportunities. He
was the owner of freight and passenger vessels and was one of
the founders of the Jacques Cartier Bank, in which he placed one
hundred and forty-five thousand dollars. He acted as both vice
president and director of that institution and was connected with
several joint stock companies, his opinions carrying weight in
their management, for his advice was always considered sound and
his judgment discriminating in regard to business affairs.
Aside from his personal interests, he was for over fifty years
active in public life. In 1838 he was elected alderman for St.
Antoine ward of Montreal but could not take his seat until
later when he became of age. For nine years he served in the
council, being elected three times by acclamation. Politically
he was a stanch liberal-conservative and three times he refused
a senatorship, but later, at the urgent request of his family
and friends, he accepted in 1888, being gazetted senator on the
17th of December, of that year, for the division of Mille Isles.
He last attended parliament the week before his death and was
last at his desk on the 24th of January, 1890. He gave careful
consideration to the grave questions which came up for settlement
and stanchly supported any movement which he considered of
vital worth. His activities also extended to other lines. He
was president of the St. Jean Baptiste Society; was warden of
Notre Dame church; and president of St. Vincent de Paul Society.
He was also lieutenant colonel of the Sixty-fourth Beauharnois
Battalion at the time of its formation and he was ever a generous
contributor to religious, educational and charitable institutions.
Senator Rodier was united in marriage in 1848 to Miss Angelique
Lapierre, a daughter of Andre Lapierre. The death of Mr. Rodier
occurred January 26, 1890, when he had reached the age of
seventy-two years, while his wife survived until March 24, 1907.
They were the parents of four sons and four daughters.
ALEXANDER C. HENRY.
In business circles of Montreal the name of Alexander C. Henry
was well known, for from 1899 until his death, three years later,
he was purchasing agent for the entire system of the Canadian
Pacific Railway, the magnitude and importance of his duties
making his position a most difficult and responsible one. He was
born at Beamsville, Canada, in 1849, and after mastering the
branches of learning taught in the public schools he attended
the Upper Canada College, at Toronto. Subsequently he removed
to Montreal, and gradually working his way upward in business
connections became, in 1884, assistant purchasing agent for
the Canadian Pacific Railway, and in 1899 was made general
purchasing agent for the entire system. His ability, fidelity,
indefatigable energy and enterprise brought him to the prominent
position which he occupied. At the time of his death Sir Thomas
Shaughnessy, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, paid high
tribute to his memory and bore testimony to his honesty, which
was manifest in his careful accounting for every penny, although
in his capacity of purchasing agent he expended over one hundred
and two million dollars.
On the 30th of November, 1882, in Montreal, Mr. Henry was united
in marriage to Miss Agnes Wilson, of England, and to them were
born three children, two of whom are living, H. Gordon, being
a resident of Cleveland, Ohio, and the other, A. Wilson, of
Montreal. Mr. Henry held membership in St. James the Apostle
church. He was a public-spirited citizen, active in support of
any movement which he deemed of vital worth in the upbuilding and
progress of the community. He belonged to St. James Club, the
Forest and Stream Club and others, and he had an extensive circle
of friends who held him in the highest esteem. Mr. Henry passed
away on February 2, 1902.
GEORGE FREDERICK BENSON.
In manufacturing and commercial circles of Montreal the name
of George Frederick Benson is well known. Important business
concerns have profited by his cooperation, have felt the stimulus
of his energy and enterprise and have been quickened by his
close application and careful control. Many of Montreal’s best
known and most successful business men are numbered among her
native sons, to which class Mr. Benson belongs. His father,
William T. Benson, a native of Kendal, Westmoreland, England,
was a member of the federal parliament for the constituency of
South Grenville, Ontario, in which county the village of Cardinal
(formerly called Edwardsburg) is situated. There the late W. T.
Benson resided for twenty-seven years, after establishing there
in 1858 the industry, so well known for many years throughout
the Dominion of Canada as The Edwardsburg Starch Company and
now forming the Edwardsburg Works of The Canada Starch Company,
Ltd. The late W. T. Benson married in England, before coming to
Canada, Helen Wilson of Acton Grange, Cheshire, England, and
their only son was George Frederick Benson, the subject of this
review.
He was educated in England at Uppingham School and Oxford
University, but returned to Canada, after the sudden death of his
father in 1885, to take charge of his father’s varied interests.
After first confining his work to the management of the firm of
W. T. Benson & Company, importers of foreign wools and chemicals
at Montreal, he was elected president of The Edwardsburg Starch
Company in 1894, and since the formation of The Canada Starch
Company in 1906 he has been its president and managing director.
He is likewise a director of the West Kootenay Power & Light
Company, and thus his interests have become extensive and
important, connecting him with leading manufacturing, commercial
and industrial interests, not only in the east but also in the
west.
In October, 1890, Mr. Benson was united in marriage to Miss
Etheldred Norton, a daughter of the late George Frothingham of
the well known firm of Frothingham & Workman, and they reside at
No. 15 Ontario Avenue, Montreal. Mr. Benson gives his political
allegiance to the conservative party and in religious faith
is an Anglican. He has been an active member of the Montreal
Board of Trade, and was treasurer for the year 1913. He has a
wide acquaintance among leading club men of the city, holding
membership in a number of the most important clubs of Montreal,
including the St. James, Mount Royal, Canadian, Canada, Forest
and Stream, Montreal Hunt, Montreal Racquet, Royal Montreal Golf
and Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Clubs. He is also a member of the
Royal Canadian Yacht Club of Toronto and an active member of the
Thousand Islands Yacht Club in the Thousand Islands district,
where he has a most attractive summer residence.
LOUIS N. DUPUIS.
Louis N. Dupuis is one of Montreal’s well known business men and
citizens, whose connection with varied and important commercial
enterprises in that city, has gained for him success and high
standing as well as an enviable position in business and
financial circles. He was born at St. Jacques l’Achigan, Montcalm
county, October 17, 1855, a son of Joseph Dupuis and Euphrasie
Richard. He attended Archambault’s Catholic Commercial Academy
now called Plateau school and entered upon his business career as
junior clerk in the employ of his late brother, J. Naz. Dupuis,
in 1868. While at this time, Mr. Dupuis was but a lad, yet he
applied himself closely and learned the business rapidly.
He was one of the founders in 1876 of Dupuis Freres, Limited, one
of the best known mercantile houses in Montreal, and during the
first ten years of this firm’s existence he took an important