Chapter M: C. Baillairgé, Quebec (43)

=Cabana, Hubert Charon=, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Prothonotary of the Superior Court for the province of Quebec, district of St. Francis, was born on the 14th of June, 1838, at Verchères, a parish situate on the south side of the St. Lawrence river, about thirty miles from Montreal. He is the son of Lambert Charon Cabana, a well-to-do farmer, of Verchères, and of Marie Louise Endfield, granddaughter of Colonel Thomas Endfield, who came direct from England to what is now the province of Quebec, in 1760, and died in 1812, being eighty-two years of age. The subject of this sketch was educated at the College of L’Assomption, in the town of L’Assomption, a classical college, incorporated as such over fifty years ago. He took a full classical course, leaving the college in June, 1858; entered on the study of the law in October, 1858; was admitted to practice on October 7th, 1862, at Sherbrooke, and practised there as advocate, solicitor, and attorney, until the 17th September, 1885, when he was appointed prothonotary. On the 3rd October, 1880, the degree of _Law Licentiate Magister_ was conferred on him by Lennoxville University; has been professor of civil law at the Lennoxville University since 1880; made Queen’s counsel on the 26th June, 1883; elected _bâtonnier_ of the bar, district of St. Francis, on the 1st May, 1884; elected member of the city council of Sherbrooke, for the first time, in January, 1876, and was continued in office until his appointment as prothonotary, which appointment rendered him by law unable to act any longer as councillor, when he was unanimously elected mayor of Sherbrooke, in January, 1880, and again in 1885. On the 13th October, 1866, he established the _Pionnier de Sherbrooke_, it being now the oldest established French newspaper published in this part of the province of Quebec, known as the Eastern Townships, in partnership with L. C. Belanger, now practising in Sherbrooke as advocate. He bought out Mr. Belanger’s interest in the paper on the 24th July, 1874, and continued to publish it till April, 1878, when he sold it to “La Compagnie Typographique des Cantons de l’Est,” of which company he was chosen president, and continued to act in that capacity until September, 1885. In September, 1883, he went to Europe, and in the course of his tour visited the principal cities and places of interest in France, Belgium, and Italy. He is a Roman Catholic in religion. On the 13th July, 1866, he was married to Marietta, eldest daughter of Francis Carr, a well-to-do farmer of the township of Compton, about twelve miles from Sherbrooke, and who had become a Catholic some time before her marriage, her family being Protestant.

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=Botsford, Hon. Bliss=, Moncton, N.B., was born on the 26th November, 1813, at Sackville, N.B. The Botsford family have taken a prominent part in New Brunswick and Canadian history. He is the seventh son of the late Hon. William Botsford, who was speaker of the New Brunswick Assembly, and one of the judges of the supreme court of the province. His grandfather, Amos Botsford, was a United Empire loyalist, from Newton, Conn., and was the first speaker of the New Brunswick Assembly after it became a separate province, and held that office for twenty-eight years. Hon. Lieut.-Col. Amos E. Botsford, senator from New Brunswick, is an elder brother of the subject of this sketch. Hon. Bliss Botsford was educated at King’s College, Fredericton; studied law with the late William End, of Bathurst; was admitted as an attorney in 1836; called to the bar of New Brunswick in 1838; and practised his profession at Moncton from 1836 to 1870. During those thirty-four years he had a fair share of criminal as well as an extensive civil practice, and gained well-merited distinction at the bar of his native province. He was brought into special prominence by the celebrated Albertite suit, in which he was the defendant’s attorney, and won the case. While at the bar, his vigorous, earnest, and persuasive style of delivery always made a favorable impression on a jury, being, like most of the members of his family, of commanding presence, with a personal magnetism that was often irresistible. He sat for Westmoreland in the New Brunswick Assembly, from 1851 to 1854, from 1857 to 1861, and from 1865 to October 24th, 1870, when he was elevated to the bench. As a judge, he is held in high esteem by the profession, being very painstaking, carefully weighing in his mind all cases presented for his consideration, and is logical and concise in his charges to the jury. He is not over-exacting in his requirements of younger members of the profession, generally allowing them considerable latitude and freedom; but when called upon to decide any point of a relevant or irrelevant character, he is prompt and firm in his decision. He was appointed surveyor-general in 1865, and was a member of the executive council during the administration of the late Hon. Sir Albert Smith, and speaker from 1867 until the general election in 1870, his politics being Conservative. Judge Botsford was married in 1842, at Moncton, to Jane, daughter of John Chapman, from Cumberland, England, and has had five children, three daughters and one son living, all married, and another son who died. Sarah L., the eldest daughter, is the wife of William J. Croasdale, civil engineer, Moncton; Eliza is the wife of George C. Peters, son of Dr. George Peters, deceased, St. John; Robert L. married Emily C., eldest daughter of Lewis Carroll, and is a physician and surgeon, practising at Richibucto, N.B.; and Florence is the relict of the late Thomas Byers, Moncton.

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=Bain, James William=, St. Polycarpe, Quebec, M.P. for Soulanges, was born at St. Polycarpe, Quebec, on the 22nd June, 1838. Mr. Bain is one of that very large class of French Canadians who, though thoroughly identified with their fellow-countrymen, are partly of Scottish blood. The father of the subject of this sketch was Daniel Bain, from Caithness-shire, a thorough Scot, having all the best characteristics of his race. The mother was Adelaide Lantier, a descendant of an old French Canadian family, sister of the late J. P. Lantier, M.P. for Soulanges. The son has the Scottish cast of countenance, and might readily be mistaken for a native of the “land of the mountain and the flood.” He was educated in his native town, where he has ever since resided. On arriving at man’s estate, he entered business with his father, who carried on a large trade as a merchant in Polycarpe. Though taking an active and prominent part in public affairs in his own district from an early age, he has continued to devote his attention to his business, extending it in every way, until it has brought him a large amount of worldly prosperity. Mr. Bain first devoted attention to school affairs, and when elected to the school board was soon made president of that body, a position which he has retained for ten years. At the death of J. P. Lantier, in 1882, the Conservatives of the county chose Mr. Bain as their candidate in the election which was to follow. The contest was a keen one, and resulted in the election of his opponent, G. R. S. De Beaujeau, by a majority of two votes. Mr. Bain protested the election, and an appeal being made to the Supreme Court, Mr. Beaujeau was unseated. A new election followed in February, 1885, and Mr. Bain was returned by a majority of twenty-six votes, and took his seat in the House of Commons at Ottawa. The lot of the French Conservative member of parliament was not altogether a happy one during the contest in 1887, owing to the prejudice stirred up in relation to the unfortunate Riel affair; but Mr. Bain did not shrink from the contest, and again accepted the nomination of his party. The struggle was one of the keenest ever known in the district; but the people had faith in their old representative, and so he still sits in the house as the representative for Soulanges. Though differing from the younger school of French Canadian politicians, in that he lays little claim to being an orator, and makes no effort to shine in the theatrical way so many of them affect, Mr. Bain performs the duties of a representative of the people faithfully and well. He is strictly regular in his attendance, and brings to bear upon the legislation of the house practical experience in business affairs, and good common sense. In 1877 Mr. Bain married Georgiana, daughter of the late J. O. Lantier, well known in Montreal for many years as a prominent merchant.

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=Chisholm, Mrs. Addie=, Ottawa, President of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union of Ontario, is a native Canadian, having been born in the city of Hamilton, Ontario. Her early life was spent there, excepting a few years devoted to study in the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, at Lima, New York, where she was distinguished for diligence, aptitude, and general proficiency. Both before and after her marriage she was known as an enthusiastic worker in every religious and charitable movement, and many benevolent institutions had the advantage of her wise counsel, gentle sympathy and bright encouragement. As an infant class teacher in one of the Methodist Sunday schools of Hamilton, she was remarkably successful in developing on right lines the tender minds that were entrusted to her care, and here she passed through just the training to fit her for the broader sphere of usefulness that was waiting her riper talents and attainments. Sympathizing very deeply with the temperance reformation, she could not but be drawn strongly towards the crusade work which was so successful in the United States some years ago, and when that great uprising of loving, ill-treated womanhood, was crystalized into the effective and permanent form—the Women’s Christian Temperance Union organization, Mrs. Chisholm at once came to the front as one of its enthusiastic supporters, warmest advocates, and most efficient directors. Mrs. Yeomans was the first president of the Ontario Union, and was succeeded by Mrs. Chisholm, several years ago, and has held the position up till to-day, being annually reinstated by the unanimous vote of her appreciative sisters. Her success in this sphere of responsibility must be judged by the facts already so well known in regard to the results attained by this great organization—results that were only possible through the united, prayerful, determined work of many loving hearts and heads, as well as a skilful leadership possessed of the faculty to govern, and guided and blessed by the wisdom and strength without which all labor is in vain. Not merely in the many organizations with which she has been connected, chief among which, of course, is the Union, has Mrs. Chisholm shown her genius and skill. For near four years she has been publisher and editor of the _Woman’s Journal_, the Canadian organ of the White Ribbon Army. She has also written tracts and pamphlets that have blessed and helped the temperance cause everywhere. She has visited, spoken, organized, and worked with an untiring energy that could only come from deep sympathy and fervent zeal; while every act has been characterized by Christian gentleness and kindness, that won where more openly aggressive methods would be sure to fail. We earnestly hope that our good sister may long be spared to aid with her tongue, her pen, and her brain, the cause that is so near to our heart, and that under the management and direction of such as she, and “the blessing that maketh rich and addeth no sorrow,” the Women’s Christian Temperance Union may continue a mighty power for good, until the end for which it was organized has been fully attained.

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=Noyes, John Powell=, Q.C., Advocate, Waterloo, Quebec province, was born at Potton, county of Brome, Quebec, on the 15th September, 1842. His father, Heman B. Noyes, was of English descent, coming to Canada from Tunbridge, Vermont, where six generations of the family are buried. His mother, Sarah Powell, is also of English descent, but was born at Potton, Quebec. The subject of this sketch was educated at Bangor, Franklin county, N.Y., and at Fort Covington Academy. In 1861 he settled at Waterloo, studied law first with Huntington & Lay, and afterwards with Hon. Mr. Laframboise; graduated at the law school connected with St. Mary’s College, Montreal; was admitted to the bar in October, 1866, and was created a Queen’s counsel in 1879. He has held the offices of secretary-treasurer of the township of Shefford and village of Waterloo, chairman of the Waterloo school board, special commissioner of Bolton lands, _bâtonnier_ of the Bedford bar, and is at present _bâtonnier-general_ of the bar of the province of Quebec. He has been secretary-treasurer of the Stanstead, Shefford, and Chambly Railway for more than ten years. In 1864 he became editor of the Waterloo _Advertiser_, and continued to be so until 1875, making the paper a strong exponent of the principles of the Liberal party, as well as a very readable general newspaper. He is a leading member of the Masonic Order in his district; was worshipful master of his lodge for three terms; first principal of the R.A. Chapter; and grand Z. of Grand Chapter of R.A.M., of Quebec, for 1885 and 1886. He has taken part in all political contests, and in municipal affairs, since 1860; has been secretary, and later chairman, of Shefford County Reform Club for many years; and this has kept him in politics a great deal, as it has been remarked that this county seems to have a political contest always on hand. As if to make good our words, a contest is now (February, 1888) going on, and Mr. Noyes has been selected by the Reform or national convention of the county as its candidate; but in a county where the parties are so evenly divided, it is always difficult to tell in advance who will be elected. In religion, he is Protestant, and belongs to the Church of England; has often been a delegate to the Synod, and a valued member of various committees there. He was married, in November, 1867, to Lucy A., daughter of Joseph Merry, of Magog, Quebec, whose father was one of the early pioneers there, by whom he had issue six children, only four of whom are now living. Mrs. Noyes graduated before her marriage, at McGill Normal School, with academy diploma, and is at present provincial superintendent of the department of physiology and hygiene of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union of the province of Quebec.

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=Pope, Hon. James Colledge=, was born at Bedeque, Prince Edward Island, on the 11th June, 1826. He was the second son of the Hon. Joseph Pope, and his mother was Lucy Colledge, daughter of Capt. Colledge, of the 1st regiment of foot, who married a daughter of the Hon. Thomas Wright, several times administrator of the government of the island, and who was one of the commissioners appointed to administer the oath to the members of the first parliament which met in Charlottetown in 1773. The subject of this sketch received his early education on the island, and was afterwards sent to England to complete it. In early manhood he entered upon a mercantile career, as merchant, shipbuilder and shipowner, at Summerside, P.E.I., where he lived for many years, and which he was largely instrumental in building up. He was one of the passengers by the brig _Fancy_ to California, when the gold fever broke out there in 1849. In 1863 he took up his residence in Charlottetown, where he remained until 1878, when his acceptance of the portfolio of minister of marine necessitated his removal to Ottawa. The last three years of his life he spent at Summerside, his old home, where he died on the morning of the 18th May, 1885; and was buried at St. Eleanor’s, in St. Mary’s churchyard (Episcopal), where a very handsome granite obelisk, erected as a tribute from his many friends, marks the last resting-place of one of Prince Edward Island’s most gifted and patriotic sons. Mr. Pope entered political life in 1857, and from that time onwards he was engaged in a constant turmoil of political excitement, having his ups and downs like most politicians. On the 10th September, 1870, he became leader of a coalition government, which, however, only lasted two years; but he was, on the dissolution of the house, triumphantly returned for Charlottetown, although he failed to secure a majority in the new house. On the 19th October, 1878, he was sworn a member of her Majesty’s Privy Council for Canada, and received the portfolio of minister of marine and fisheries, a position he held but a short time, when in 1881 he was forced, to the inexpressible grief of his many friends, by a general breaking up of his mental and physical powers, to retire from the active duties of his office, never, as the sequel proved, to resume them again. He always occupied a foremost place among those with whom his lot was cast. In his early life he took a very active interest in the volunteer movement, and passed through the various grades, retiring with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Besides being one of the most prominent merchants, he was also one of the largest landholders on the island, and farmed more extensively than any other man on it. He was also engaged in fishing industries, besides being interested in many other business ventures. He, however, attempted too much for his powers of endurance, and thus brought a useful life to an early close. In everything that he undertook, however, whether political, commercial or agricultural, he had the interests of the island at heart, and his memory will ever be revered by his countrymen, who possess monuments of his energy and worth more enduring than brass. The Prince Edward Island Railway is a memento of his public career that will ever serve to keep his memory green. In 1852 he married Eliza, second daughter of Thomas Pethick, of Charlottetown, by whom he had issue eight children.

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=Germain, Adolphe=, Barrister, Sorel, province of Quebec, was born in St. Ours, in the same province, in June, 1837. His father was François Germain, an old patriot of 1837-38. Mr. Germain received a classical course of education at St. Hyacinthe College, Quebec province, and afterwards studied law; and for over fifteen years he has successfully practised his profession in Sorel, first alone, but latterly under the firm name of Germain & Germain, his partner being his eldest son, S. Adolphe Germain. In 1878 he was created a Queen’s counsel. He has been frequently called upon to represent the attorney-general of Quebec province in Crown cases, and was one of the joint counsel in the celebrated Provencher trial, in which the accused was found guilty, along with his paramour, of poisoning the latter’s husband, and afterwards executed for the murder—the woman being sent to the penitentiary for life. Mr. Germain has been mayor of Sorel, and is dean of the bar of Quebec, for the district of Richelieu. He is a public-spirited gentleman, and has identified himself with the leading improvements—among others the fine public buildings recently erected—in the thriving town in which he resides. He has also taken an active interest in all the political movements of the country, and stands high in the estimation of his fellow-citizens. In religion he is an adherent of the Roman Catholic church; and in politics is a staunch Liberal. In February, 1862, he was married to Marie Louise Demers, and the issue of the marriage has been five children.

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=Sears, James Walker=, Lieutenant South Staffordshire regiment, was born in St. John, New Brunswick, on the 22nd January, 1861. He is a son of John Sears, of St. John, N.B., and Ann, daughter of the Rev. William Blackwood, of Nova Scotia, and grandson of Thatcher Sears, a United Empire loyalist, of the former place. He received his primary education in various private schools in his native city. He left St. John in 1877, and after spending a year at the Collegiate Institute at Galt, Ontario, became a cadet at the Royal Military College at Kingston. Here, on the 25th June, 1881, after a course of studies lasting for three and a half years, and having passed a successful examination, he was awarded a commission in the Canadian militia, and a commission in Her Majesty’s 38th South Staffordshire regiment of foot. In this regiment he served throughout the Egyptian campaign of 1882, was present at the reconnaissance in force at Kafr-el Dwar on the 5th August, the surrender of Damietta by Abdulal, and the subsequent occupation of Cairo. For those services he received a medal and the Khedive’s star. He visited the Holy Land in April, 1883, and in May of the same year returned to Malta from Egypt with his regiment. He was appointed Lieutenant in the Infantry School corps by the Canadian government in December, 1883, in which corps, at Toronto, he has since held the appointment of adjutant. He served in the North-West rebellion of 1885 as brigade major of the Battleford column, and was present at the battle of Cut Knife Hill, and subsequently commanded the scout corps of the Turtle Lake column in the pursuit of Big Bear. He was mentioned in despatches, and received the medal and clasp. He became brevet captain in the Canadian militia on the 21st December, 1887.

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=Proulx, Hon. Jean Baptiste George=, Nicolet, province of Quebec, was born at Nicolet, on the 23rd April, 1809, and died on the 27th January, 1884. He was the son of J. B. Proulx and Magdalen Hébert. His great grandfather was one of the oldest settlers of Nicolet, having settled there in 1725. The subject of this sketch was educated at Nicolet College. He was elected, in 1860, for De La Vallière, and sat in the Legislative Council until the union. In 1867, he was appointed to the Legislative Council for life. He was a Liberal in politics. He was one of the patriots of 1837; and was charged with having cast bullets, but was not arrested. He was married, on the 20th January, 1835, to Julia, daughter of Dr. Calvin Alexander, a graduate of Harvard, and had issue as follows:—Rev. M. G. Proulx, of Nicolet College, and Revs. Edward and Stephen Proulx, of the Society of Jesus.

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=Charlebois, Alphonse=, Contractor, Quebec, is well known throughout the Dominion as an extensive and successful undertaker of great public works. A French-Canadian, he is endowed with more than the ordinary energy and versatility of his race, and his career furnishes an apt illustration of the triumph of tact and pluck over adverse circumstances. He was not of the fortunate class who are said to come into the world with “a silver spoon in their mouth.” His parents were simple Lower Canadian _habitants_, and our subject was born of their marriage at the town of St. Henri, Hochelaga county, on the outskirts of Montreal, on the 15th December, 1841. His father, Arséne Charlebois, was a native of Pointe Claire, in Jacques Cartier county, P.Q., and his mother was Edwidge Chagnon, of Verchères, P.Q. On his father’s side he is closely related to the late Mr. Charlebois, M.P.P. for Laprairie; to the Rev. Mr. Charlebois, curé of Ste. Therese, and to the late Dr. Charlebois, of Bleury street, Montreal; and, on his mother’s, to the late Sir George Etienne Cartier, who owed his election for Verchères, then one of the most Liberal constituencies in Lower Canada (after his defeat in Montreal East by the present Chief Justice Sir A. A. Dorion), mainly to the exertions and influence of her brother, the late Paschal Chagnon, of Verchères. Young Charlebois was educated partly at the Christian Brothers’ School and partly at Maxwell’s Commercial School, both in Montreal, receiving a fair commercial training, in French and English. After leaving school he served about a year to the builder’s trade in Montreal, and then entered the hardware trade in that city as a clerk to the late Mr. Brewster, with whom he remained nine years down to 1865, when he bought out the business on the retirement of his employer. Two years later, he abandoned hardware, and boldly took up the lumber trade in Montreal, making advances to the lumberers on the Gatineau, and otherwise speculating in the great staple of the country with more or less success until 1872, when he took a new and still more enterprising departure. Since the days of the Hon. François Baby in Lower Canada, no French-Canadian had figured prominently as a public contractor. In that field, the English speaking element were virtually without competition. Mr. Charlebois pluckily resolved to enter it, and the results have more than justified this step on his part. He is to-day known from Halifax to Vancouver as a leading contractor, and the country is indebted to him for the successful execution of some of its most important public works. His first undertaking in this line was on the Lachine canal, and since then he has been connected with the contracts for the Dufferin improvements at Quebec, the graving dock at Levis, the Georgian Bay branch of the C.P.R., the construction of four sections of the same road in British Columbia, and the erection of the new parliament buildings at Quebec, and of the new departmental buildings on Wellington street, Ottawa. The two last mentioned structures remain as lasting monuments, as well to his taste and skill, as to his energy as a builder. He is a director of the Clemow syndicate for the construction of the Great North-Western Central Railway, Manitoba, and before his removal from Montreal to Quebec, which is now his residence, he was during three years an alderman, and afterwards, during four years, mayor of his native town of St. Henri. He belongs to the Roman Catholic faith, and during his residence in the Montreal district was elected people’s trustee for life of the Roman Catholic parish church of St. Henri. He has travelled exclusively in Canada and the United States, chiefly on business. In 1865 he married Marie Flore Charlotte Valois, daughter of the late Dr. Valois, of Pointe Claire, and at one time M.P. for the county of Jacques Cartier, P.Q., and by her has had issue four children, all of whom are still in their teens.

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=Dupré, Rev. L. L.=, Sorel, province of Quebec, was born in Sorel, in 1841, and educated at the Seminary of St. Hyacinthe, P.Q. In 1868, he was ordained a priest, and placed as vicar in the Roman Catholic cathedral. In 1873, he was called as vicar to his native town, and in 1875 was appointed to the important post of curé of Sorel. Sorel being the most considerable place in the Roman Catholic diocese of St. Hyacinthe, requires the unremitting exertions and oversight of the pastor, and no one could perform the duties more zealously and unremittingly than does the present worthy incumbent. The rev. father has, in addition to his special duties, assisted in many ways in promoting the material welfare of his native town. As an instance, it may be mentioned that in 1880, by his exertions amongst his parishioners subscriptions were raised to an amount sufficient to build a large addition to the general hospital of Richelieu county, rendering that institution much more comfortable for the patients, and more suitable to the growing requirements of the town. He was also mainly instrumental in furthering the erection of the new college building, which is acknowledged to be the finest structure of the kind in the province. Since his incumbency, he has had the former parish of St. Peter’s divided into three distinct parishes—St. Peter’s, Ste. Anne, and St. Joseph. The parish of Ste. Anne, of which parish Mr. Dupré is the curé, is quite a populous one, and through his active exertions, a commodious stone church was soon built in the parish, on one of the finest sites of the St. Lawrence. That the curé possesses very superior administrative abilities is sufficiently proved by the foregoing, and is further attested by the manner in which he performs his onerous ecclesiastical duties. He has a remarkable memory, is a fluent speaker, and as a pulpit orator is unequalled by few. He is an ardent admirer of art, which he patronises liberally, and is possessed of a considerable collection of valuable and rare books, engravings, etc., proving a literary and cultivated taste. He is much esteemed by his parishioners and by the community of Sorel generally.

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=Tessier, Jules=, Barrister, Quebec, M.P.P. for Portneuf, is one of the most conspicuous and popular figures in the legal, political and social life of the ancient capital. His distinguished father, Hon. U. J. Tessier, is a judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench for the province of Quebec, and was formerly member for Portneuf in the Canadian parliament, commissioner of public works in the Macdonald-Sicotte administration, speaker of the Legislative Council before confederation, and at one time mayor of Quebec. Between the careers of the father and son there are many points of resemblance. The father was one of the most prominent members of the Quebec bar in his day; the son is a rising member of the same bar. The father represented Portneuf in the Canadian parliament; the son represents the same constituency in the Quebec legislature. Lastly, the father was a member of the city council and mayor of Quebec; the son to-day is one of the councillors for St. Louis ward of that city, and a prominent member of the civic body, though still quite a young man. He was born at Quebec, in 1852. His mother, now deceased, before her marriage, was a Miss Kelly, and a member of the Drapeau family, seigneurs of Rimouski. His maternal grandfather was of Irish extraction, but the remainder of his parentage is French-Canadian on both sides. Educated in the classics at the Quebec Seminary and the Jesuits’ College, Montreal, he afterwards studied law, and was called to the bar in 1874, and soon acquired a considerable practice, together with the confidence of the public and the esteem of his professional brethren. He is one of the editors of the ‘Quebec Law Reports.’ In politics, Mr. Tessier, like his father while in public life, is what is termed a moderate Liberal, but almost from his youth he has been actively identified with all the struggles of the Liberal party in the Quebec district. He was secretary of the National Convention held in 1880, and was elected president of the Quebec Liberal Club after its reorganization for the last provincial and federal electoral campaign, which office he still holds. As such, he was selected as the party’s candidate to oppose ex-Mayor Brousseau, of Quebec, in Portneuf county, for the Legislative Assembly of the province, at the general election of October, 1886, and defeated his adversary, who had been the sitting member, by a very heavy majority. In the house, he is recognized as one of the staunchest supporters of the Mercier government, and has proved himself a most useful member. To his exertions Quebec was mainly indebted for its selection for the holding of the Provincial Exhibition of 1887, which was so great a success. Mr. Tessier is a member of the Church of Rome; and for many years past one of the principal officers of the St. Jean Baptiste Society, of Quebec. He is a director of the Lake St. John Railway Company, and a member of the Provincial Board of Arts. He is married to a daughter of Edmund Barnard, the well-known Q.C., of Montreal, and his two sisters are the wives respectively of the Hon. Alexander Chauveau, who was solicitor-general in the Joly administration, and is now police judge at Quebec, and of Lieut.-Col. Duchesnay, deputy adjutant-general for the Quebec military district.

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=Aikins, Hon. James Cox=, P.C., Lieut.-Governor of Manitoba and Keewatin Territory, was born in the township of Toronto, Peel county, Ontario, on the 30th of March, 1823. His father, the late James Aikins, emigrated from the county of Monaghan, Ireland, to Philadelphia, in 1816, and after a residence of four years there he removed to Upper Canada, and took up a quantity of land in the first concession north of the Dundas road, in the township of Toronto. The subject of our sketch was the eldest son, and was brought up on his father’s farm, and was early inured to the hardships of rural life in Canada in those primitive times. He united with the Methodist body at an early age. He attended the public schools in the neighborhood of his home, and afterwards spent some time at the Upper Canada Academy, at Cobourg, which subsequently developed into Victoria College and University. At the first collegiate examination, which was held in 1843, he figured as one of the merit students. After completing his education he settled down on a farm in the county of Peel, a few miles from his paternal homestead. In 1845, soon after leaving college, he married Mary Elizabeth Jane Somerset, the daughter of a neighboring yeoman. In 1851 he was tendered the nomination as the representative of his native constituency in the Legislative Assembly, and declined, but at the general election held in 1854, he offered himself as a candidate on the Reform side, in opposition to the sitting member, George Wright, and was elected. Upon taking his seat he recorded his first vote against the Hincks-Morin administration, and thus participated in bringing about the downfall of that ministry. He voted for the secularization of the clergy reserves, and his voice was occasionally heard in support of measures relating to public improvements. In the election of 1861, owing to his action on the county town question, which excited keen sectional opposition, he was defeated by the late Hon. John Hillyard Cameron. The following year he was elected a member of the Legislative Council for the Home Division, comprising the counties of Peel and Halton. He continued to sit in the council so long as that body had an existence; and when it was swept away by confederation he was called to the Senate of the Dominion. On the 9th of December, 1867, he accepted office in the government of Sir John A. Macdonald, as secretary of state, and has ever since been a follower of that statesman. During his tenure of office the Dominion lands bureau was established—which has since extended until it has become an independent department of state under control of the minister of the interior. The Public Lands Act of 1872, is another measure which dates from Mr. Aikins’ term of office. The disclosure with reference to the sale of the Pacific Railway charter resulted, in November, 1873, in the overthrowing of the government. Upon Sir John A. Macdonald’s return to power in October, 1878, he again accepted office as secretary of state, and retained that position until the month of November, 1880, when there was a readjustment of portfolios, and he became minister of inland revenue—which he held until his resignation, 23rd May, 1882. On the 22nd September, 1882, he was appointed lieutenant-governor of the province of Manitoba, and Keewatin Territory. He is major of the 3rd battalion Peel Militia, and chairman of the Manitoba and North-West Loan Company.

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=Taschereau, Hon. Jean Thomas=, LL.D., Quebec, late Judge of the Supreme Court of the Dominion of Canada, is a gentleman, the simple mention of whose name recalls a family famous in the political annals of Lower Canada, and which has given more eminent men to the church and bench than probably any other in the country. It has almost passed into a proverb among the French Canadians of the province of Quebec that “there is always a Taschereau on the bench.” As a matter of fact, three generations of the family have been represented on it, and five Taschereaus in all have exercised the highest judicial functions in the province or in the dominion. In the case of our distinguished subject not only was he himself a judge, but his father before him was a judge, his son after him is a judge of the Superior Court of the province, and another of his relatives, the Hon. Elzear Taschereau, is at present one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the Dominion. Still another member of the family, Hon. Andrée Taschereau, now deceased, was resident judge of the Superior Court in the Kamouraska district, and one of the most eminent jurists of his day. Others again have held the office of sheriff of the Beauce district; one is now a prominent member of the bar of that district, and was the representative of Beauce county in the Canadian House of Commons during the last parliament; and one, Lieutenant-Colonel Taschereau, holds one of the most important military commands in the Quebec district. But the judicial, political, and military distinction of the Taschereau family is altogether eclipsed by the lustre conferred upon it by the fact that the first Canadian wearer of the Roman purple was selected from among its members. His Eminence, Cardinal Taschereau, Archbishop of Quebec, is a brother of our subject, and the “bright particular star” whose elevation to the exalted dignity of a Prince of the Roman Catholic church, has made the name of Taschereau famous all over the civilized world. The family is also one of the oldest and most distinguished in Lower Canada, its founder there being Thomas Jacques Taschereau, of Touraine, France, who was a son of Christopher Taschereau, King’s counsellor, director of the mint and treasurer of the city of Tours, and who came to New France towards the beginning of the last century, was appointed by the French viceroy as treasurer of the marine, and in 1736 obtained from the French Crown the grant of a valuable seigniory along the banks of the river Chaudière in Beauce, P.Q. Our subject’s father was the Hon. Jean Thomas Taschereau, senior, long a prominent member of the parliament of Lower Canada, and one of the advocates and champions of constitutional liberty in that province, who suffered imprisonment for their opinions in 1810. He was afterwards raised to the dignity of puisne judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench for his native province, and distinguished himself as an able and upright magistrate. Our subject was one of his sons by his wife, Maria Panet, daughter of the late Hon. Jean Panet, first speaker of the Lower Canadian House of Assembly (an office which he held for twenty consecutive years), and was born in the city of Quebec, on the 12th December, 1814. He was educated at the Quebec Seminary, where, like his brother, the present cardinal, he greatly distinguished himself in different branches, taking the leading prizes, especially for Latin, mathematics, etc. On the completion of his classical course, he studied law with two of the most eminent local practitioners of the day, Hon. Henry Black, afterwards judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court at Quebec, and Andrew Stuart, Q.C., afterwards Her Majesty’s solicitor-general for Lower Canada, and was called to the bar of that province in 1836, subsequently following several law courses in Paris, France. On his return to Canada, he opened a law office in the city of Quebec, and for the next twenty years practised his profession with success and distinction. In 1855, he was honored by Laval University with the title of LL.D., and in September of the same year he was called by the government to act as assistant judge of the Superior Court in the place of one of the regular judges of that court, during the sitting of the special court formed under the act to abolish feudal rights and seignorial dues in Lower Canada. Twice afterwards, in 1858 and in 1860, in which last mentioned year he was also created a Q.C., was he honored by a similar mark of the government’s appreciation, and in 1865 he was definitely appointed to the bench as a puisne judge of the Superior Court, as successor to the Hon. A. N. Morin, deceased. On the 11th February, 1873, he mounted another rung of the judicial ladder, being appointed puisne judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench for the province of Quebec, and some two years later on, the 8th October, 1875, he was elevated to the still more exalted position of puisne judge of the Supreme Court of the Dominion, which he retained until the 19th October, 1878, when he resigned on account of ill-health, and retired on his well-earned pension, after having served the public in all nineteen years on the bench as a judge. Our subject enjoyed to the utmost the confidence of the bar and the people, as well for his scrupulous and painstaking character, as for the almost invariable soundness of his decisions. It is needless to say that his religion is the Roman Catholic. In the spring of 1887, the Roman Pontiff, Leo XIII., conferred on him the decoration or cross of the Order of St. Gregory the Great. He has been twice married—firstly, in 1840, to Louise Adele, daughter of the late Hon. Amable Dionne, M.L.C., who died in 1861; and lastly in 1862, to Marie Josephine, daughter of the late Hon. R. E. Caron, second lieutenant-governor of the province of Quebec, and a sister of Sir A. R. Caron, Dominion minister of militia. He is the father of twelve children, ten of whom survive. His eldest son, Hon. Henri Thomas Taschereau, formerly Liberal M.P. for Montmagny, has been a judge of the Superior Court for the province of Quebec since 1878; and another son, by his second union, is now a rising member of the Quebec bar.

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=Morin, Eusebe=, St. Hyacinthe, Quebec province, was born on the 14th of July, 1853. He is the son of François Morin, merchant, and Marguerite Maheux. At the age of ten years he entered the St. Hyacinthe Seminary, which he left after taking a classical course of education. At the age of sixteen years he entered as clerk with L. V. Sicotte, dry goods merchant, but after spending one year in this establishment he left, and entered into partnership with Mr. Lamoureux, and traded under the firm name of Lamoureux & Morin for about fifteen months, when he bought his partner out, and assumed the business himself. When he entered into this business, a friend lent him $800 to start with, and this money he honorably paid with interest about a year after he had received it. He continued alone in business until he was twenty-three years of age, in the meantime becoming the first merchant in St. Hyacinthe, in his line, thus proving what can be done by close attention to business. After this, and by the time he had reached his twenty-seventh year, he had established small wholesale and retail houses, trading under the various names of Morin & Lamothe, Morin & Dion, Morin & Robitaille, Morin & Brodeur, both in the city of St. Hyacinthe and the neighboring country. Being of delicate health, he was almost given up by the doctors, and was obliged to liquidate the firms in order to proceed to Europe for the benefit of his health. After an extensive tour through England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Italy, he returned to Canada with a large and varied assortment of European goods, and was thus enabled to re-establish his trade on a sound and more extensive basis than ever, creating the following firms:—Morin & Co., in the liquor trade; Morin & Laline, general store; Morin & Bergeron, dry goods, all in St. Hyacinthe, with a capital of $200,000, he being principal partner in all the above establishments. When thirty-two years of age, becoming tired of the retail trade, he sold to his partners his interest in all the stores he had established, with the object of embarking in real estate transactions, and in this he has proved equally successful. He has built one of the finest private residences in the city of St. Hyacinthe, and finds himself, at the age of thirty-three, the most important property owner in the county of St. Hyacinthe. He enjoys a good reputation, and his numerous partners and friends have reason to be thankful to him for his aid at various times. The city of St. Hyacinthe is also indebted to him for the erection of numerous blocks of magnificent stores, and several private residences. Although Mr. Morin is yet comparatively young, he is exceedingly popular in his district, and has been several times requested to enter public life, but has invariably declined, on the ground that he could be of greater use to his friends and the country at large, in promoting private and public enterprises. He is looked upon as the Vanderbilt of St. Hyacinthe.

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=MacDowall, Day Hort=, Prince Albert, M.P. for Saskatchewan, North-West Territory, was born in 1850, at Carruth House, Renfrewshire, Scotland. He is the second son of Henry MacDowall, of Garthland, Renfrewshire, Scotland, _vide_ “Nesbitt’s Heraldry.” Mr. MacDowall was educated at Windlesham, Surrey, England, and Trinity College, Glenalmond, Scotland. He was a captain in the Renfrewshire Rifle Volunteers from 1872 to 1879. He accompanied Gen. Middleton’s force through the Northwest rebellion of 1885, and took charge of the party dispatched by the general through the rebel district from Humboldt to Prince Albert. He was a member of the North-West Council for the district of Lorne, from June, 1883, to October, 1885; and was returned to Parliament, as the member for Saskatchewan, at the general election in 1887. He is a Conservative in politics. He was married August 12th, 1884, to Alice Maude Blanchard, daughter of Charles Blanchard, Truro, N.S. He is a member of the Manitoba Club, Winnipeg; Wanderers’ Club, Pall Mall, London, Eng., and Rideau Club, Ottawa, Ont.

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=Prévost, Oscar A.=, Brevet-Major, (late of the regiment Canadian artillery, then A and B batteries, permanent artillery), Quebec, was born in Montreal on the 9th of May, 1845. His father, Amable C. Prévost, was a descendant of an old French family of Anjou, (Prévost de la Boutèlière). He was a merchant of Montreal, very successful in business, leaving an estate of over half a million dollars. He died in February, 1872. His mother, Rosalind E. Bernard, was born in Montreal, educated at Notre Dame congregation, and was married to Amable C. Prévost, March, 1838. The subject of this sketch was educated at St. Mary’s College, Montreal, taking a classical course, including mathematics and natural philosophy; he afterwards studied law; was admitted to the bar of Lower Canada in October, 1866, and practised his profession until 1870. He joined, as lieutenant, the 4th battalion in the year 1865; served on the frontier during the Fenian raid of 1866; was transferred in 1870 to the Quebec rifle regiment of the North-West expeditionary force under Colonel (now General, Sir) Garnet Wolseley; remained stationed in the North-West till February, 1872, being transferred in July, 1872, to the School of Gunnery, Quebec, and gazetted to B battery as lieutenant with rank of captain; was adjutant of the School of Gunnery B battery, August, 1873, till February, 1880. He went to Woolwich, England, for a special course in the Royal Arsenal, and on his return was appointed superintendent of the government cartridge factory at Quebec, and still holds that appointment. In 1882 he was sent by the minister of militia and defence, Sir A. P. Caron, to England to purchase machinery required for a small ammunition factory to be erected in the government buildings in Quebec. The plans, specifications, alterations to buildings, placing machinery, including boilers and steam engines, and putting the whole plant in working order, was done under his immediate supervision, bringing forth his ability as a practical engineer, and his scientific attainments. This factory has now been at work since 1883. It produced 2,000,000 rounds of ball ammunition, in three months, during the North-West rebellion of 1885, and now supplies the whole Dominion with service ammunition. It can give employment to four hundred hands. He submitted to a board of artillery officers in September, 1886, a new projectile for light and heavy rifled guns, which increased the range and accuracy of guns in a remarkable degree. A foundry, in connection with the cartridge factory, was erected for the manufacture of these projectiles, in July, 1887, and the work now goes on daily. Thus two entirely novel industries have been started in Canada, and the military efficiency of the Dominion increased. In 1876 he travelled through France, Italy, Austria, Hungary and Germany, being authorized to visit the imperial arsenal at Vienna, and obtain information with regard to the new field ordnance and carriages at that time introduced into the Austrian service. Major Prévost was married on 25th May, 1874, to Louisa J., daughter of Hon. Juschereau Duchesnay, of Quebec, ex-senator for the division of Lassale, province of Quebec; seigneur of the seigniories of Fossambault and Gaudarville. Hon. Mr. Duchesnay’s father commanded a company of _Voltigeurs_ under Colonel de Salaberry, his cousin, at the victorious battle of Chateauguay, in 1812. The Juschereau Duchesnay family were connected to Robert Giffard, first seigneur of Beauport, near Quebec, to whom this seigniory had been granted in 1635 by the “Compagnie de la Nouvelle France,” under authority of the French King. The Duchesnays inherited this seigniory in 1668, and they owned it for over two hundred years.

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