LEANDRE BELANGERLEANDRE BELANGER
LEANDRE BELANGER
Mr. Bélanger is a member of the Catholic church and of L’Union Catholique and has served as a director and vice president of the latter. In politics he has ever remained independent. In 1870 he was married at St. François de Sales, to Claire Viger, and they became parents of two children: Joseph, a resident of St. Hyacinthe; and Maria, the wife of Dr. Archambault, of Fall River, Massachusetts. In 1879 Mr. Bélanger was married, in Montreal, to Miss Laura Viau and they have seven children: Leandre, an electrician in Montreal; Adrien, who is in partnership with his father; Armand; Laura; Evelina; Antoinette; and Alice. The family home is on St. Catherine road in Outremont.
Hon. Louis Onesime Loranger, whose name is prominently associated with the history of Montreal’s judiciary, retired from the bench in May, 1910, but has never ceased to feel a deep interest in his profession or in the great and vital problems which are most closely connected with the welfare and progress of the country.
He was born at Yamachiche in the province of Quebec on the 7th of April, 1837, a son of the late Joseph and Marie Louise (Dugal) Loranger. In the acquirement of his education he attended Montreal College and St. Mary’s College, the latter a Jesuit school of Montreal, and in preparation for the bar, having determined to make the practice of law his life work, he began a thorough course of reading and on the 3d of May, 1858, was admitted to practice at Montreal. He then joined his brothers, Hon. T. J. I. Loranger, late judge of the superior court and the late J. M. Loranger, K. C. They acquired an extensive practice and, in fact, were accorded a large share of the most important law work in the city during the greater part ofthe later half of the nineteenth century. Mr. Louis O. Loranger was created a king’s counsel by the Marquis of Lorne in 1881 and the honorary degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Laval University in 1901. He continued in the active profession of law until appointed judge of the superior court for the district of Montreal in 1882, and remained upon the bench for twenty-seven years, or until May, 1910, when he entered into the enjoyment of a full pension.
Judge Loranger’s public service aside from his connection with the judiciary has been extensive and of an important character. He was alderman of Montreal from 1868 until 1879, covering a period of eleven years, and he sat for Laval in the local legislature for a period of seven years, or from 1875 until 1882. He was attorney general in the Chapleau administration from 1879 until 1882. It was upon his retirement from that position that he was made puisne judge, continuing upon the bench for twenty-seven years thereafter. His public service also covers incumbency in the office of president of the St. Jean Baptiste Society in 1895-6. In 1906 he was elected governor of Laval University and the same year was made president of Notre Dame Hospital.
Judge Loranger was twice married. In 1867 he married Marie Anne Rosalie Lafranboise, a daughter of the late Hon. Mr. Justice Lafranboise. To them were born seven children: Louise, the deceased wife of Henry Masson; Louis J., a prominent advocate of Montreal, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume; Adele, now Mrs. H. Prefontaine; Caroline, now Mrs. Hubert Desjardins; Joseph, a well known advocate of Montreal; Maurice, a well known attorney of this city; and Rosalie, now Mrs. Emile Chaput, of Montreal. The mother of these children died in May, 1883, and Judge Loranger was again married in May, 1888, his second wife being Mrs. Antonette (Valois) Verin, a daughter of the late S. Valois.
Hon. L. O. Loranger is a communicant of the Roman Catholic church. He belongs to Club Lafontaine and is an advocate to conservative principles. He enjoys high reputation as a lawyer and as a debater and still takes an exceedingly active interest in political affairs. He has long since passed the Psalmist’s span of three score years and ten, having now reached the age of seventy-seven, but in spirit and interest seems yet in his prime. Old age need not necessarily suggest inactivity; on the contrary, there is an old age which grows stronger and better mentally and morally as the years go by and gives out of the rich store of its experience for the benefit of others. Such is the record of Hon. Louis Onesime Loranger, whose opinions carry weight in many councils and are always worthy of an interested hearing.
Edouard O. Champagne, superintendent of the department of boiler inspection for the city of Montreal, has been connected with that department of the city government for thirty-five years, during which time he has established a reputation for capability and efficiency in his line that is probably unsurpassed on the continent. Thoroughly progressive and up-to-date, he has kept fully abreast of the advancement made in all lines of manufacture and usage affecting his department.
Mr. Champagne comes from one of the old and prominent families of the province, a family whose members for nearly two hundred and fifty years have been identified with provincial history and have been regarded as of the highest type of French-Canadian citizenship. Edouard O. Champagne was born at Sorel, Quebec, in 1848. His education was acquired at the Christian Brothers College,where he excelled in mechanical drawing and civil engineering and also at the John Allan Model and Classical school of Sorel. He served his apprenticeship as a machinist in the St. Lawrence engine works, after which he was for fourteen years employed on steamboats on the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers and Lakes Champlain, Erie and Ontario in his professional capacity.
EDOUARD O. CHAMPAGNEEDOUARD O. CHAMPAGNE
EDOUARD O. CHAMPAGNE
His splendid record as an engineer of various boats induced the harbor commissioners of Montreal to engage him to run the St. Peter, their best boat, which was never outdistanced during the four years in which he was in charge. In 1872 he obtained a first class certificate from the federal government as a mechanical engineer, being the first French-Canadian to whom was accorded that distinction. In 1879 he was appointed boiler inspector for the city of Montreal by a council, the majority of whose members were English-speaking. His experience has enabled him to solve many of the difficult and intricate problems that arise in connection with the operation of engines, pumps, steam plants, elevators and water and gas plants. In a word, he has expert scientific knowledge and practical mechanical ability and is splendidly qualified for the onerous and important duties which devolve upon him in this connection. As an example of his capability, as well as the value of his services to the city, mention might be made of the heating apparatus of the public baths. In July, 1913, when the question of heating water for the public baths was being considered by the city officials, various types of expensive and complicated apparatus were shown and inspected. The expense of installation, as well as that of fuel and maintenance, represented a large sum if any of those systems had been adopted. Mr. Champagne had given the matter some thought and, with a system of entirely his own planning, offered to install an efficient and economical apparatus for that purpose. How well he succeeded may be inferred from the fact that at an expense of ten dollars he secured the same result, in less than one-half the time, that a system costing ten thousand dollars would have accomplished. Three such equipments were supplied by him, representing a first cost saving of thirty thousand dollars to the city. Being in the city’s employ, he waived all claims to remuneration as an inventor. The city’s requirements in the future will call for a number of such installations, each one of which will mean a saving of an additional ten thousand dollars.
At their annual meeting in 1880 the various members of the Association of Boiler Inspectors of the United States and Canada were invited to submit designs from which the organization’s official seal was to be selected. Mr. Champagne, through illness in his family, was unable to attend this meeting. However, he submitted the design he had planned, and it was adopted. This has ever since been in use as the official seal of the association. The first impression made from the seal, together with a small photogravure of the original drawing, were sent to Mr. Champagne by the officials. The design of the seal is unique and highly appropriate, containing accurate drawings of sixteen dangerous types of boilers which form its circular border. Mr. Champagne has frequently been called upon as an expert in determining causes of boiler explosions, and in matters generally pertaining to his line of business there are few, if any, better posted men in the Dominion.
Mr. Champagne is also a noted marksman and one of the best snapshots in the Dominion. He came into permanent possession of several challenge cupsas evidence of his skill. Few men would probably display more modesty over achievements of equal importance and significance than he has done.
In 1895 he came into public notice through his heroism at the Longue Pointe Asylum fire, when he and Chief Benoit saved the lives of over ninety inmates. It is characteristic of him that he never considers himself in the presence of imminent danger, and his faithfulness and fidelity in public service have won him the confidence and high regard of all who know aught of his career. As a citizen he represents the best of the French-Canadian type, has reared an excellent family and, with them, is highly esteemed and respected.
Hon. François Xavier Choquet, judge of the juvenile court, Montreal, since January 2, 1912, is uniformly recognized as an eminent legist and jurist, as well as an able member of the judiciary. He occupied for many years a position of distinction at the Montreal bar, where his name figured in connection with the court records of some of the most prominent cases heard in the province.
Judge Choquet was born on the 8th of January, 1851, at Varennes, in the province of Quebec. His father, Jean Baptiste Choquet, was a farmer at Varennes and descended from one of the oldest French families in the province, while the mother of Judge Choquet, Adeline Provost, a daughter of Amable Provost, also belonged to an old and honorable family.
The Choquet family has been identified with the history of the province since 1665, the founders, who originally belonged to Picardie, France, settling in Canada in that year.
Judge Choquet added to the fundamental principles of education the knowledge acquired in attendance at L’Assomption College, the Montreal Seminary and McGill University, being graduated from the last named in 1874 with the B. C. L. degree, having determined to make the practice of law his life work. In the meantime he had studied law under Sir La Jette and Senator Beique, in the firm of Jette & Beique, and after being called to the bar on the 10th of January, 1875, he began the practice of his profession in Montreal as a partner of his former law preceptors, being admitted to the firm of Jette & Beique, where he remained about four years. Subsequently he practiced alone for six years, during which time he acquired a clientele that was not surpassed by any of his contemporaries. He afterwards became partner in the firm of Mercier, Beausoleil & Choquet, so continuing from 1884 until 1892, when the senior partner, the late Hon. Honore Mercier, withdrew, and the firm style of Beausoleil & Choquet was adopted. Judge Choquet was created a king’s counsellor by the Earl of Aberdeen on March 7, 1893.
Many important duties have devolved upon him, either in the direct or indirect path of his profession. He was a royal commissioner to revise the charter of Montreal in September, 1897, and was appointed judge of the session of the peace, police magistrate, and license commissioner of Montreal on the 27th of December, 1898. He was also appointed an extradition commissioner under the extradition act, July 20, 1901. In more strictly professional lines his service asa member of the council of the Montreal bar continued from 1894 until 1897, and he was appointed a delegate to the general council of the bar of the province of Quebec.
HON. FRANCOIS X. CHOQUETHON. FRANCOIS X. CHOQUET
HON. FRANCOIS X. CHOQUET
He has been a continuous student of his profession, constantly broadening his knowledge by reading, study, research and investigation until today his opinions are largely accepted as authority concerning any vital legal problems.
In the course of his professional career, Judge Choquet successfully handled many important railway and municipal cases. He made a special study of the law relating to transportation matters and also the laws governing municipal affairs, while on the law of elections, the Montreal Herald has referred to him as “the highest authority of the province.”
In June, 1884, Judge Choquet was married to Miss Marie Caroline Barry, a daughter of John E. Barry, of Saguenay and Trois Pistoles. Both Judge and Mrs. Choquet are prominently connected with the Montreal Children’s Aid Society, of which he was president for some time, while Mrs. Choquet has been vice president. He is also president of the Cooperative Funeral Expense Society. Their religious faith is that of the Roman Catholic church, and Mrs. Choquet was granted an audience by the pope in 1906. Judge Choquet is vice president of the Shawinigan Fishing Club, holds membership also with the Engineers and Winchester Clubs, and has been president of the latter for ten years. He resides at No. 814 Dorchester Street, West, Montreal, through the winter seasons and has a summer home at Rigaud, P. Q.
On the list of representatives of the judiciary of Montreal appears the name of Hon. Louis Tellier, puisne judge of the superior court of the province of Quebec. A native of Berthier, Quebec, he was born on the 25th of December, 1844, a son of Zephirin Tellier of Ste. Melanie d’Aillebout and Luce Ferland, the latter a daughter of V. Prisque Ferland. After attending Joliette College Louis Tellier was called to the bar in 1866, and thus for almost half a century he has been a representative of the legal profession in the province. For a number of years he held the office of deputy prothonotary of the superior court, also deputy clerk of the circuit court and deputy clerk of the peace and of the crown for the district of St. Hyacinthe. He had studied law under the late Mr. Baby, who became a justice of the court of queen’s bench in the province of Quebec, and afterward under Mr. Chagnon, who became a judge of the superior court for the province of Quebec in the district of Iberville, and had come to the bar well equipped for the honors and responsible duties of the profession. His ability was early manifest in the manner in which he prepared and conducted his cases, and in 1873 he was appointed crown prosecutor for the district of St. Hyacinthe. He also became a recognized leader in political as well as in legal circles, and in 1878 he was elected to the house of commons for the St. Hyacinthe riding at the general election and sat for that district until 1882. He was appointed queen’s counsel in 1882 by the Marquis of Lorne. He resumed the practice of law and was raised to the bench as puisne judge of the superior court of the provinceof Quebec by the Marquis of Lansdowne on the 12th of November, 1887. He was appointed for the district of St. Hyacinthe, succeeding Justice Sicotte, but in 1903 he was removed to the district of Montreal, where he now presides. His decisions on the bench are models of judicial soundness, showing a comprehensive grasp of the law with ability to accurately apply its principles.
On the 26th of May, 1868, Judge Tellier married Hermine, daughter of the late Dr. A. Malhiot. She died in 1878, and on the 18th of July, 1882, Judge Tellier married Elzire Hamel, daughter of Joseph A. Hamel, collector of customs in St. Hyacinthe division. Her death occurred October 6, 1906. On the 26th of January, 1914, the Judge married Mrs. Jules Richard whose maiden name was Regina Royer and who was the widow of Jules Richard, advocate, practicing his profession at Sherbrooke in the district of St. Francis. Judge Tellier has three sons and five daughters.
He is an administrator of Laval University and is a member of the Catholic church. His mind is naturally analytical, logical and inductive, and his clear reasoning finds expression in judicial opinions from which colleagues and contemporaries seldom take exception.
Henry Johnstone Elliott, senior member of the law firm of Elliott & David, has been a lifelong resident of Montreal, and is a son of the late Hugh Elliott. He received his early education in the schools of his native city and pursued his preparation for the bar at McGill University, from which he was graduated B. C. L. in 1898. The same year he began practice as an advocate, and ten years’ successful work as a representative of the legal profession won him position among the king’s counselors, being created such in 1908. He understands thoroughly the necessity for careful preparation before presenting his cause in the courts, and in the trial of cases it is seen that his knowledge of the law is exact and comprehensive, while in the application of legal principles he is seldom if ever at fault.
Mr. Elliott finds enjoyment in golf, and interest and recreation in various outdoor sports, exercises and athletics. He belongs to the Beaconsfield Golf Club, Outremont Golf Club, Montreal Athletic Association, the Engineers Club and the Temple Club, all of Montreal. His religious belief is that of the Anglican church and he has been a delegate to the synod.
Rev. Malcolm A. Campbell, pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Montreal and known in that city as a man of superior attainments and of active religious zeal, was born in Bruce county, Ontario, October 10, 1875. He acquired his education in high school atPort Elain, in his native province, and later attended the Collegiate Institute at Owen Sound. He supplemented this by acourse in McGill University and in the Presbyterian College at Montreal, from which he was graduated in April, 1909. He was ordained in the following October and in January, 1910, became minister of the First Presbyterian church of this city, a position which he still retains. This is one of the most important parishes in Montreal, being a combination of St. Gabriel’s and Chalmers Presbyterian churches, the former the first Protestant church in Canada. Rev. Campbell brings to the duties of his responsible position well directed energy, unflagging zeal and a firm belief in the importance of the work in which he is engaged, and the results of his labors are seen in the excellent condition of the parish and its constant growth.
On the 26th of October, 1910, Rev. Campbell was united in marriage to Miss Louise Crippen, of Trout River, New York. He is a member of the Masonic order, being grand chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Quebec province, and he is widely and favorably known in Montreal, where he is recognized as a man sincere in his aims and purposes and one whose honorable and upright life is always in strict conformity with the doctrines which he professes.
In preparation for the onerous and difficult duties and responsibilities of the profession Dr. Arthur Joseph Richer has studied under eminent physicians and surgeons of the old world and the new, and his labors have manifestly been of marked value to his fellowmen, especially in the conduct of the Brehmer Rest, a sanitarium promoting a preventive treatment for tuberculosis.
He was born at Upton, P. Q., November 16, 1868, and is a son of Damase and Celina (Larvie) Richer, of Antonvale, P. Q. His education was acquired at Sabrevois Mission College and in Bishop’s College at Lennoxville, P. Q., where he was accorded the degrees of M. D. and C. M. in 1892. Since that time he has taken post-graduate work in New York and for a year and a half he was connected with the Pasteur Institute of Paris. He was also assistant under Dr. Roux in his private laboratory, and under his guidance and that of Pasteur, Metchkinoff and others, Dr. Richer performed many successful experiments. Later he was assistant at L’Ecole de Pharmacie Superieure at Paris for a short time and was appointed house surgeon at the faculty surgical clinic at Krakow, Austria, in 1895. He next went to Breslau for a winter’s study before returning to Canada. At different times he was a student at Dresden, Leipzig, Halle, Berlin and Hamburg and was an assistant in the laboratory of physiology of the faculty of medicine of Paris.
Dr. Richer returned to Canada in 1897 and located for practice in Montreal. He has since carried on an active crusade against tuberculosis in this country. The scheme of a recuperative home such as Brehmer Rest at Ste. Agathe des Monts was suggested by Dr. Richer. He has been a lifelong worker in fighting the dread disease and in the early spring of 1905 Brehmer Rest was opened as the result of his untiring efforts. In his first annual report concerning the institution he said: “When we select for treatment convalescents from pneumonia, pleurisy, and typhoid fever, as well as those affected with anaemia, chlorosis anddebility, we do so with a definite object in view. Nine-tenths of those affected as above will inevitably become victims of tuberculosis.
“If they can be treated and trained before they become a prey to the dread scourge, the saving is evident from every viewpoint. In the pre-tuberculosis stage a patient can be restored to health in eight or ten weeks; when tuberculosis has developed it becomes a matter of as many months. At the last International Congress, held in Paris, October, 1905, one of the delegates present expressed his opinion in very strong terms regarding the treatment of the conditions of disease known as ‘pre-tuberculosis;’ they comprise the group above mentioned. In this respect Brehmer Rest stands out as supplying an actual need, and enjoys the unique distinction of being the first institution in the world devoted to that special class of work. Brehmer Rest has undoubtedly anticipated the movement of the future, particularly when considered in the light of the statements recently made by Von Behring in connection with his method of vaccination against tuberculosis. The new product (Tulase), which this distinguished scientist offers to the world, is a substance extracted from the cultivated germ of the disease (tuberculosis), so modified as to impart resisting power to the human organism without impairing health. It is markedly curative in the first stage of the disease, thus its action is twofold, protective and curative.”
Dr. Richer’s efforts along this line have gained him not only national but international fame and distinction. His name is known on the other side of the Atlantic as well as on this, and he has joined hands with the men of earnest purpose who are using the highest scientific skill and knowledge to blot out the dread disease. His labors have been effective in hundreds of cases and thus his life work has been a valuable contribution to mankind, placing him with the benefactors of the race.
Joseph Tremblay, chief of the Montreal fire brigade, was born at St. Isidore, a little village a few miles from Montreal, where his parents were the proverbially poor but honest French-Canadian small farmers. His education was the usual course of reading, writing and arithmetic gleaned from the village priest. At the age of twelve years he left school and the farm, thinking to find more congenial and profitable occupation in the city. He made his way to Montreal with all his earthly possessions tied in a bundle, after the manner of Dick Whittington of old. At that period he knew no English, but he had little difficulty in finding a position as errand boy with one Beauvais, a merchant tailor of Chaboillez Square. Being an errand boy had small attractions in those days and it did not suit Joe Tremblay to remain one for long. He, therefore, gathered up his bundle, put his money in his sock and departed for the United States. For a while he lingered on that side the border, learning many lessons in the school of experience which have since been of much use to him. Following his return to Montreal he sought to establish himself in the tailoring business, which he had followed during his sojourn in the United States. He located at Ste. Cunegonde, then a separate municipality south of Westmount and north of Point St. Charles. There hehung out two neat brass signs, one of which read Joseph Tremblay, Tailleur, and the other Joseph Tremblay, Tailor, thus soliciting business from both the English and French population. While he was then ready for business, it appeared that business was not ready for him. F. Beecher Edwards, in an article in a Montreal paper, said:
JOSEPH TREMBLAYJOSEPH TREMBLAY
JOSEPH TREMBLAY
“Fate, wishing to do some good to poor old Montreal for a change, glimpsed one Joseph Tremblay working busily in his little tailoring and men’s furnishing shop on the southwestern borders of the city. Whereupon, things went very badly for the said Joseph Tremblay in his little tailoring and men’s furnishing business. People to whom he owed money camped on his doorstep and people who owed him money left for parts unknown in the dead of night, so Joseph Tremblay put up the shutters on his little tailoring and men’s furnishing shop on the southwestern borders of the city and went into the Ste. Cunegone fire department. Consequently the Montreal fire department is today a thing to be proud of in a city which has little enough reason to be proud of the vast majority of its civic enterprises.
“Fate, it will be observed, may be a trifle circumlocutious in her methods, but she gets there in the end. So we may thank fate that made Joseph Tremblay an unsuccessful tailor and haberdasher, for the fact that during the tragic Christmas week—1913—when through somebody’s outrageous blundering the greater portion of this great Canadian metropolis went inadvertently dry; when the fire menace, ever present, hovered more threateningly over thousands of human lives and millions of dollars worth of property, because of the fact that our strongest barrier of defense was broken down with the collapse of a few feet of unstable concrete somewhere out beyond Point St. Charles, we may thank fate for the fact that we had at the head of the Montreal fire department, deprived from no fault of its own of its heaviest ammunition, a man of the quality, the resource and the ability of Joseph Tremblay, the bad tailor who became one of the greatest, if not the greatest of fire chiefs on the North American continent.
“At the time that Joseph Tremblay became a member of the fire department he was much as he is now, with the exception of recent inclination to embonpoint, a well set up, good looking man of above the average build and as strong as two ordinary men. He had a brain, too, but they did not find that out until he had been in the Ste. Cunegonde force at least a week, when it began to be hinted that there was more to this young man than to the average. Six months after Joe Tremblay joined the Ste. Cunegonde fire brigade the chief of the brigade retired from office; whereupon, to the amazement of one and all, the Ste. Cunegonde council made the new recruit, the man who had been an unsuccessful tailor, chief. This may safely be put forward as the world’s record for rapid promotion.
“In the course of time Ste. Cunegonde was annexed to Montreal and Chief Tremblay became Sub-Chief Tremblay, in charge of the western division. This was in 1906. In 1907 he was made a deputy chief to Chief Benoit and when one year later the veteran retired in his turn Deputy Chief Tremblay became head of the Montreal fire brigade.
“Chief Tremblay is an omnivorous reader of all literature appertaining to fires and fire fighting and he is not above learning from other cities and makes at his own expense at least one trip a year to the principal cities in the States to see what helpful piece of information he can pick up.
“One of his first official acts was to institute an inspection system which was largely instrumental in reducing the rates of fire insurance here. In 1905, 1906 and 1907 the fire loss was around nine dollars per annum per capita. In 1913 it was something like two dollars and thirty-four cents per capita. He was responsible for the introduction of automobile fire apparatus here; he started the firemen’s drill school at Chaboillez Square, and he had the fire headquarters transferred from the City Hall to its present location on Craig Street. The chief is well known by sight to Montrealers. His inspiring figure has bulked large on the horizon of many a panic stricken householder at hundreds of fires during the last few years. He is a big, handsome man, and his very size begets confidence. He works his men hard and he works himself just as hard, for he believes that the citizens should get full value for their money. He has one or two hobbies, all of them connected with fire fighting, a high pressure system for the down town district, a fire tug for the harbor and the placing of the firemen’s benevolent fund on a sound footing. Chief Joseph Tremblay is a man’s size man and if there was any doubt on the subject lingering in anyone’s mind it was banished by the splendidly efficient manner in which he handled the appalling situation during the water famine of December, 1913.”
Paul E. Mercier, one of the best known civil engineers in Montreal and a member of the firm of Baulne & Mercier, has won a position of high standing in his profession. He was born at St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, March 15, 1877. His father was the late Hon. Honore Mercier, premier of Quebec, of whom a more extended mention appears elsewhere in this work, while his mother previous to her marriage was Virginie St. Denis.
When four years of age Mr. Mercier was brought to Montreal and in the schools of the city pursued his early education. He afterward attended St. Mary’s College and was graduated with honor from Ecole Polytechnique with the Bachelor of Science degree in 1899. During his holiday periods he was employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company and following the completion of his college course he went to the Yukon, where he spent a year as assistant engineer of the Dominion public works and two years as district engineer in the Yukon.
Following his return Mr. Mercier was for two years district engineer of Dominion public works for the district of Quebec and from 1904 until 1907 was engineer in charge of work of the National Transcontinental Railway. In the latter year he returned to Montreal and opened an office as consulting engineer, while in 1910 he formed a partnership with S. A. Baulne, with offices in the Shaughnessy Building. Reading between the lines one may see that his progress has been continuous and that he has advanced step by step until he now occupies a commanding position in engineering circles. His ability has increased through experience and continuous study and investigation. He keeps abreast with the leaders of the profession in all that pertains to his chosen life work and his ability has won him wide recognition and well earned reputation. In 1911 hewas appointed professor of railway engineering at Ecole Polytechnique and in 1913 was appointed on the board of examiners for the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers. On May 16, 1914, he was appointed deputy chief engineer of public works of Montreal. He has important membership relations along professional lines. He has been secretary of theAssociation des Anciens Elèves de L’Ecole Polytechnique since its organization and he has been professor of transportation and communication at l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Montreal. He is a member of the American Railway Engineering Association, the Quebec Land Surveyors’ Corporation, the Society of Civil Engineers of France and the Association International Congress of Navigation. Mr. Mercier is also well known in military connections. He is captain of the Corps of Guides of the Canadian Volunteer Militia and organized and commands as major the Canadian Officers Training Corps of Laval University.
On the 29th of June, 1901, Mr. Mercier was married, at Whitehorse, Yukon, to Miss Marie Louise Tache, of Ottawa, Ontario, and their children are Simone, Jeanne, Yvonne and Heva.
James Morgan, an influential citizen of Montreal, is perhaps best known as president of Henry Morgan & Company, Limited. His activities, however, have extended to other lines, all of which have proved beneficial to Montreal in its material, civic or moral upbuilding. In the utilization of opportunities that others have passed heedlessly by, he has achieved distinction and honorable success, and yet the acquirement of wealth has been but one phase of his existence, never excluding his active participation in and support of other vital interests which go to make up community and national life. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, a son of the late James Morgan, a native of Saline, Fifeshire, who was associated with his brother, Henry Morgan, in the conduct of the business now carried on by Henry Morgan & Company, Limited.
In early life James Morgan became a resident of Montreal and attended the Montreal high school. He then became connected with the business founded by his uncle and father, and gradually worked his way upward in that connection. Mr. Morgan, moreover, is president of the Colonial Real Estate Company and has been prominently connected with various other business enterprisesof far-reaching importance. He aided in promoting the British Columbia Bank Note Company in 1904 and in organizing and developing the Montreal Cement Company in 1905. He was likewise vice president of the Accident & Guarantee Company of Canada, and in all these associations his judgment is sound, while his ability to coordinate and unify seemingly diverse elements has been one of the strong features in his growing success. While he has reached the millionaire class, his business methods have ever been such aswill bear the closest investigation and scrutiny, in that there is no esoteric phase in his entire career and what he has accomplished, both for himself and the community at large, represents the fit utilization of the innate powers and talents which are his.
Mr. Morgan was united in marriage to Miss Anna Lyman, a daughter of Frederick Lyman, of Connecticut. They are influential members of the Church of the Messiah (Unitarian) of Montreal, in which Mr. Morgan is serving as trustee. His interests and activitiesextend to many beneficent projects and to those which spread culture and stimulate intellectual activities. He is a director of the Montreal Horticultural and Fruit Growing Association and one of the principal promoters of the Montreal Citizens Association, of which he is now a director and treasurer. He was likewise one of the promoters of the Montreal Board of Control, but declined election thereto. He is one of the governors of the Montreal General Hospital and is interested in various projects seeking to meet public needs along broad humanitarian lines. He is a councillor of the National Historical Society, belongs to the St. Andrews Society, to the Montreal Art Association and to the Antiquarian and Numismatic Society. He is also a member of the Canada and the Reform Clubs. His life has been one of intense and well directed activity, fruitful of good results for the general public as well as for himself.
Anselme Séraphin Deguire enjoys high distinction as a lawyer and has also given much evidence of his public spirit in his position as alderman of the city of Montreal. He comes of an old Canadian French family, the earliest ancestor recorded in Abbé Tanguay’s Dictionnaire being François De Guire, who was born in 1641 and who died at Montreal. In 1669 he married Mlle. Rose Colin, born in 1641, and they became the parents of nine children.
Anselme S. Deguire was born at Côte des Neiges on the 25th of November, 1874, a son of Séraphin Deguire and Alphonsine Pilon of Ste. Anne de Bellevue.The father was a gardener by profession. Mr. Deguire of this review studied at Montreal College, from which he was graduated in 1895 with the degree of B. A., and afterwards took a law course at Laval University. He was admitted to practice in 1901. Immediately afterwards he interested himself in municipal affairs and his aptitude along financial lines made him valuable in a number of important positions which he held in the administration of the village of Côte des Neiges. Under his leadership the proceedings to erect the village into a town were successfully completed.
As a lawyer Mr. Deguire soon secured a select clientele, no long novitiate awaiting him in his practice. He is one of a coterie of lawyers, or more correctly, he continues the traditions of a coterie of lawyers who had their origin in Côte des Neiges and several of whom were well known and very prominent. Such were the late Judge Madore and Judges Charbonneau and Demers. Mr. Deguire is universally esteemed by his fellow citizens and since the annexation of Côte des Neiges to the city of Montreal, of which annexation he was an ardent advocate, he has been its representative in the Montreal city hall. He was elected first for the Côte des Neiges ward in 1910 and reelected by acclamation in 1912.
ANSELME S. DEGUIREANSELME S. DEGUIRE
ANSELME S. DEGUIRE
At the Church of St. Louis de France, on the 18th of November, 1902, Mr. Deguire married Mlle. Aloysia Chopin, a daughter of the late Dr. J. Nestor Chopin of Sault au Récollet. Mr. and Mrs. Deguire have one son, René, born January 1, 1904. Mr. Deguire is not only a successful advocate and lawyer, but a patriotic citizen and a splendid example of a loyal French-Canadian. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Royal Arcanum.
When death claimed John J. Arnton on the 13th of November, 1894, he was the oldest real-estate man in Montreal in years of continuous connection with the business in this city. Montreal numbers him among her native sons, his birth having occurred in 1832. He began his business career with the firm of John Leeming & Company and later practically succeeded to the business and good will of the firm. He watched the notable development in real estate methods and, keeping abreast of the progress of the times, met substantial success. He was in business at the time of the real-estate boom of the‘70s and he gained a patronage as large as he could handle. Realizing fair profit from his real estate negotiations, he was at length able to retire with a comfortable competence. The integrity of his business methods was one of the features of his growing success, and his progressiveness was also an element in his advancement.
Mr. Arnton entered the city council but retired before completing his term. For some years he was a director of the Canadian Bank of Commerce and his name was an honorable one on commercial papers. He was at one time president of the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society and was a man of generous spirit, giving freely of his means to the poor and needy and extending a helping hand to the unfortunate. He was survived by six children, when on the 13th of November, 1894, he passed away at the age of sixty-two years, leaving behind the memory of a well spent life, fraught with many good deeds.
Howard Winthrop Pillow is the Montreal manager for the British American Bank Note Company and is vice president and one of the directors of that corporation. His position as one of the younger business men of the city is enviable. He was born in Montreal, May 9, 1883, and is a son of John Alexander and Annie Elizabeth (Hillyer) Pillow. He attended Bishop’s College School at Lennoxville and for two years was a student in McGill University. With liberal education to serve as the foundation, he has gradually worked his way upward, the exercise of effort developing his latent powers and talents. He is now bending his efforts to administrative direction and executive control as the manager at Montreal for the British American Bank Note Company, a position to which he has attained by individual merit. He is the vice president and one of the directors of the company and as such occupies a prominent and enviable position in business circles.
On the 1st of October, 1906, in Boston, Massachusetts, Mr. Pillow was married to Miss Lucile E. Fairbank, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L. G. Fairbank, and they now have one child, Lucile Marguerite.
Mr. Pillow is a well known club man and much of the nature of his interests and recreation, aside from business, is indicated in the fact that he belongs to the St. James, Montreal and Beaconsfield Golf Clubs, the Automobile Club of Canada, the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, the Montreal Jockey Club, the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club and the Heather Curling Club.
High on the list of Montreal’s best known surgeons appears the name of Dr. Xavier Arthur Robichon, who is a descendant of one of the old French families of the province of Quebec. His great-grandfather, the first of the family to come to Canada, was in early life a captain of French vessels. After arriving in this country he established an iron foundry near Three Rivers, in the province of Quebec. The Doctor’s grandfather also followed the business of an iron founder at that place and Nicolas Treffle Robichon, the father, was a successful merchant at Three Rivers. He married Trenche Montague, who since his death has resided in Montreal. Their children are: Nicolas Raoul, a civil engineer of Montreal; Xavier Arthur; George Henri, an advocate of Three Rivers; and Mastai, who died at the age of seven years.
Dr. X. A. Robichon was educated in a preparatory school in Three Rivers, and at the Christian Brothers Ste. Ursule school at the same place, followed by a five-years’ classical course at St. Joseph College at Three Rivers, his classical studies being completed in St. Mary’s College in Montreal, where he spent four years and where he was graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree, receiving the medal of the governor general and the prize of excellency.
Upon the broad foundation of literary learning Dr. Robichon erected the superstructure of professional knowledge. Immediately after the completion of his course at St. Mary’s he began the study of medicine at Laval University, graduating summa cum laude in 1906, with the degree of M. D. The following year he spent as interne in Notre Dame Hospital of Montreal, gaining the broad practical experience which only hospital practice can bring. During the succeeding two years he specialized in the study of surgery in Paris, France, and in the summer of 1909 he entered upon active practice in Montreal as a general surgeon, since which time he has devoted his attention exclusively to professional duties of growing volume and importance. Throughout this entire period he has also been assistant demonstrator of anatomy at Laval University. He is a member of La Société Médicale de Montreal, and he has his office at No. 335 St. Denis Street.
On the 18th of September, 1907, Dr. Robichon was married by the archbishop of Montreal, Monseigneur Paul Bruchesi, to Miss Flora Salvail, daughter of Dr. Salvail, of Helena, Montana, and they are parents of five daughters,Claire, Jeanne, Alice, Lucienne and Estelle. Family and professional interests divide Dr. Robichon’s time. Upon his home and his practice his interest centers, and laudable ambition in the latter connection has brought him to a high position, experience, wide reading and research constantly developing his skill until he is now one of the foremost surgeons of the city.