A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time by Rose

At the general elections held in September, 1878, he was first elected to represent Halifax in the House of Commons at Ottawa, and occupied a place in that house until his appointment to the position of lieutenant-governor on the 4th July, 1883, and this office he has since held with dignity and satisfaction to the people of Nova Scotia. While in political life he was a member of the Liberal-Conservative party. For some years he was president of the Halifax School Association, a society originated for the purpose of working reforms in the school system of his province; and in 1865, when the law establishing free schools came into operation, he was chosen one of the school commissioners, and served in that capacity for several years. When the University of Halifax was established he was appointed by the government one of the members of the senate of the university, and was also one of its examiners in jurisprudence and Roman law. Mount Allison Wesleyan College, Sackville, New Brunswick, conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.C.L. in 1884. Lieut.-Governor Richey has always manifested a strong inclination towards the promotion of social science, and formerly gave much time to literary and charitable institutions, which, in Halifax, are numerous and well conducted. Mr. Richey was for some years the president of the Halifax Society for the Prevention of Cruelty, and when a member of the parliament of Canada, was active in promoting remedial legislation in furtherance of the objects of such societies. His honor is an adherent of the Methodist Church of Canada. For six years, from 1854 to 1860, he conducted with marked success the denominational organ of that church in the Maritime provinces. While in the Dominion Parliament he did not often speak, but when he did so, was listened to attentively. During the session of 1879 he spoke on the then all-absorbing question—the tariff. In 1880 he was selected by the premier to move the answer to the Speech from the throne; and he led in the adjourned debate on the question of the fishery award, in a speech which covered a large field of constitutional law, and the relations of the provinces to the Dominion under the Act of Confederation. He was married on the 22nd June, 1854, to Sarah Lavinia, daughter of the late Hon. John Hawkins Anderson, for some time member of the Legislative Council, and receiver-general of the province of Nova Scotia, and called by Royal proclamation to the Senate of Canada, 1st July, 1867. Three children have been the fruit of their union. Hon. Mr. Anderson died in 1870. * * * * * =McNeil, Hon. Daniel=, Barrister, Port Hood, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, M.P.P. for Inverness county, N.S., was born at Mabou, C.B., on the 31st January, 1853. He is the second son of Malcolm and Ellen McNeil, and brother of the Rev. Neil McNeil, D.D., Ph.D., rector of St. François Xavier College, Antigonish. The subject of our sketch is descended, on the paternal side, from Roderick McNeil, of Bara, Scotland, who settled in Cape Breton during the early part of this century. Hon. Mr. McNeil was educated at the St. François Xavier College. He studied law at Halifax; was called to the bar of Nova Scotia in December, 1879, and then removed to Port Hood, the shiretown of his native county. Here he entered into partnership with S. Macdonnell, Q.C., ex-M.P., and continued as a partner with this gentleman for about three years and a half, when the partnership was dissolved. Afterwards he became the senior member of the law firm of McNeil & Hensley, solicitors, notaries public, etc., in the same town. In June, 1883, Mr. McNeil was appointed a school commissioner for South Inverness; in July, of the same year, a notary and tabellion public; and in March, 1884, a commissioner of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. He has for a number of years taken an interest in all the political movements,—municipal, provincial and federal—and always on the Liberal side. He was first returned to the Nova Scotia legislature at the last general election; and on the 28th June, 1886, was sworn in a member of the Executive Council of Nova Scotia, and took office in the Fielding administration, without a portfolio. In religion he is an adherent of the Roman Catholic church. He married, on the 4th August, 1881, Ellen Maria Margaret, youngest daughter of the late James McDonnell. For a period of upwards of a quarter of a century, this gentleman held the important offices of prothonotary of the Supreme Court and clerk of the Crown at Port Hood; also the office of registrar of deeds for the county of Inverness for many years. He was the first inspector of schools for Inverness county under the present educational system of the province. * * * * * =Chabot, Julien=, Harbor Commissioner, Quebec, was born at Levis, in October, 1834, and is a descendant of one of the oldest French families who emigrated from Poitiers, France, and settled in Canada in the vicinity of Quebec in 1632. His father, Julien Chabot, was born at the Island of Orleans in 1800, and died on 10th August, 1864. He came to Levis at the age of thirteen, and here he married Dame Susanne Carrier in 1830. Being engaged in navigation, he gained wealth and reputation by promoting the local industries of Levis. He built the first horse boat which crossed the ferry between Quebec and Levis in 1828, and afterwards the first regular ferry-boat which ran between the two cities in 1844. He was also extensively engaged in the towing business, and between the years 1845 and 1860 he built several tug steamers to tow sailing vessels from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Montreal. His son Julien, the subject of our sketch, was educated in the Seminary of Quebec from 1846 to 1853; and in 1856 he became a partner with his father, and took the management of the business. In 1863 he succeeded, with all the tug owners of the port of Quebec, in forming a joint stock company, called the St. Lawrence Tow Boat Company, and had it incorporated on the 12th of May of that year, for the purpose of towing large sailing vessels from the Gulf to Montreal, and he had the management of this company for twenty-three years. During this period he supported the views of the president of the company, Hon. Thomas McGreevy and of the bishop, D. Racine, in inaugurating in 1866 the Saguenay line, which has proved so beneficial to the colonization of the Chicoutimi district and the St. John valley. Since 1874 a daily line has been established to Ha! Ha! Bay and Chicoutimi, the management of which is highly praised by the local and principally by the American tourists. The Saguenay line is now connected with the Richelieu and Ontario Navigation Company, and is under the special management of its inaugurator, Mr. Chabot. He had the control of the Quebec and Levis ferries for several years, during which period the old system of summer and winter ferries were remodelled and rebuilt in the best modern style, and were classified the best ferry steamers in Canada. Mr. Chabot having been impressed from his boyhood with the difficulties of the winter navigation of the St. Lawrence, several successful tests were made by the St. Lawrence Steam Navigation Company, under his supervision, during the winter months on the Lower St. Lawrence. Mr. Chabot is now the oldest member of the Quebec Harbor Commissioners trust, having been on active duty since 1870, and has helped as trustee with his co-members in building the extensive harbor improvements in the port of Quebec, and in securing for Levis, his native place, the location of the largest graving dock on this continent. He was twice elected president of the Board of Trade of Levis. In religion, he is a member of the Roman Catholic church, and held the office of church warden in Notre Dame church in 1879. A Conservative in politics, Mr. Chabot has taken a prominent part in support of his principles. He contested the county of Levis in 1874 against Louis Honoré Frechette, the poet laureate, when the Liberal party came into power, but was defeated by the influence of the Federal government by only a small majority. He married, on the 26th October, 1857, Marguerite Aimée Brunelle, daughter of the celebrated ship builder, Pierre Brunelle, of Quebec. * * * * * =Lugrin, Charles H.=, A.M., Barrister, Fredericton, New Brunswick, was born at Fredericton in 1846. His parents were Charles S. Lugrin and Martha Stevens. (See sketch of Charles S. Lugrin.) Mr. Lugrin received his education at the Collegiate School of Fredericton, and at the New Brunswick University, graduating from the latter institution in 1865. For some time he taught the St. Stephen’s High School, and afterwards studied law. In 1868 he was admitted attorney, and called to the bar of New Brunswick in due course. He was appointed clerk of the peace, clerk of the county court, and clerk of circuits for Victoria, N.B., in 1869. He removed to Grand Falls, Victoria, in that year, and remained there until 1874, when he took up his abode in Fredericton, and joined in a law partnership with George Botsford. Since that time he has been engaged, with much success, as counsel in many important criminal cases. He acted as counsel for the temperance party in New Brunswick, in the cases involving the constitutionality of the Canada Temperance Act. He has also engaged largely in journalism, and took an active part in politics, unsuccessfully contesting Victoria for a seat in the local legislature in 1878. He was appointed secretary of the Board of Agriculture in 1885. He is the author of the works—“New Brunswick: Its Resources, Advantages and Progress;” “Open Season;” “The Fertile Belt,” and numerous pamphlets and letters upon New Brunswick, commercial union, temperance legislation, and other subjects. He volunteered and was enrolled at St. Stephen at the time of the threatened Fenian raid in 1866; and afterwards was appointed a captain in the reserve militia. He is a past worthy patriarch of the Sons of Temperance; and secretary and treasurer of the New Brunswick branch of the Prohibitory Alliance. He has been secretary of the Fredericton Board of Trade. In religion he is an adherent of the Methodist church, and in politics a Liberal. He is married to Maria, daughter of G. L. Raymond, now of Olympia, Washington territory. Mr. Raymond was grandson of Rice Raymond, a loyalist from Long Island. * * * * * =Spencer, Elijah Edmund=, Frelighsburg, province of Quebec, M.P.P. for Missisquoi county, is of English and Welsh descent, but his immediate ancestors were United Empire loyalists. He is a son of the late Ambrose S. Spencer, who was for many years one of the most prominent men and magistrates of the county, and whose father before him was among the first who settled in that section, and took an active part in the stirring scenes connected with its early history. His mother, Mary Thomas, is a daughter of the late Major P. Thomas, who was also one of that hardy band of pioneers who battled so successfully with the rougher elements of an early settler’s life. Elijah Edmund Spencer, the subject of our sketch, was born in St. Armand East, on the 19th April, 1846, and has always resided in the immediate vicinity of his ancestral home. He received his education mainly at the Frelighsburg Grammar School, but subsequently passed through a course of study at Poughkeepsie, in the state of New York. In June, 1883, he was married to Frances S., daughter of the late R. L. Galer, of Dunham, province of Quebec, with whom he now resides at his home overlooking the pleasant village of Frelighsburg. In religion, he is a Protestant, and in politics, a Liberal-Conservative. He has always followed farming as an occupation, and has at the present time a large landed estate demanding his personal supervision. From his boyhood he has taken an active part in municipal affairs, and held in succession many prominent offices in the town and county. He was for some time president of the Missisquoi County Agricultural Society, and is now president of the Missisquoi and Rouville Mutual Fire Insurance Company. At the general election in 1881, for member of the Legislative Assembly of the province of Quebec, the county being essentially an agricultural one, and its farming interest largely predominating, he was brought forward as a candidate, representing a class which were thought to be as equally deserving recognition as the commercial and manufacturing interests of the country. The result was his return by a large majority, and he took his seat, being one of the youngest members of the house. At the last general election, in 1886, he again came forward as a candidate, and his course in the house during the five years he held the seat being eminently satisfactory, his constituents again honored him with their confidence, and re-elected him for another term. * * * * * =Valin, Pierre Vincent=, Shipbuilder, Château Richer, county of Montmorency, province of Quebec, was born at Château Richer, on the 1st of June, 1827. His parents, though not possessed of a large share of this world’s goods, were industrious and highly esteemed. From an old record we find that the family belongs to the nobility of old France, although in this democratic country they do not see fit to wear the title they are entitled to. We quote the extract: “Extrait de ‘L’Art Héraldique,’ par A. Playne, avocat et professeur chez Charles Osmond, libraire, enregistré à Paris le 23 décembre, 1716, avec approbation du roi du 2 décembre, 1716, par Fouquet. Valin . . . de gueules à la bande composée d’argent et d’azur.” Toussaint Valin, the father of the subject of our sketch, married Marie Tremblay, of Eboulements, county of Charlevoix, and they settled in Château Richer, where their elder children were born. The space at our disposal is too limited to admit of a narrative of the various phases through which Pierre Vincent Valin has passed in the course of a long and eventful career; we will simply refer in a general manner to the difficulties surmounted by the indefatigable energy he displayed from his youth until, having started from the lowest rung of the social ladder, he finally attained the pinnacle of rank and wealth. Through his own efforts, with only his energy and the good principles inculcated in his mind by zealous parents, he obtained sufficient education to enable him to hold, in after years, the following prominent positions: chairman of the Quebec Harbor Commission; member of the Legislative Assembly, and member of the House of Commons. In these divers posts his social and individual qualities made him a friend to all those who came in contact with him. His remarkable business tact and sterling integrity soon brought him to the front rank among the princes of finance and commerce, and he has fairly earned the title ascribed to so many in this country, “self-made man.” In his youth he worked at different trades, and devoted the whole of his scanty earnings to help his parents, and commenced shipbuilding when yet quite a young man. He soon rose to the position of employer, and as his business increased, so did his facilities for doing the work he was engaged in, until he gave employment to hundreds of men, paying $5,000 in wages alone every week. In the beginning of his career he fully developed the capacities he possessed, being at the same time architect, builder, clerk, bookkeeper, and his own consignee, seller and buyer on the European markets. He still owns several large ships which are engaged in the East India trade. He is also interested in steamers running to Newfoundland. He crossed the Atlantic sixty times in the transaction of business, and made warm and devoted friends in both France and England, in the best society of these countries. In 1872, the warm-hearted population of Quebec East, to whom he had been a benefactor, begged him to represent them in the city council. After serving a short time as councillor, his constituents sent him to the Legislative Assembly in 1874, and he made his first appearance in public life. In 1878 he presented himself before the electors of Montmorency, who elected him in preference to Jean Langlois, the former representative of the county, by a majority of 226. On the 14th January, 1880, he was unseated on petition, but re-elected again. At the general election of 1882 he was again chosen as the Conservative standard-bearer of the county of Montmorency over Charles Langelier, one of the strong men of the Liberal party. At the last general election (1887) he was unsuccessful, the majority against him being only one vote. Since he has acquired wealth Mr. Valin has made a noble use of his means. The whole county, and more particularly his native parish, are greatly indebted to him for the improvements he has made. He bought from the Lemoine family the splendid mansion called “Château Beau Pré,” and the numerous and artistic improvements with which he has adorned the château and its _alentours_, have made it a lovely spot, which excites the admiration of all the American tourists who visit this part of the country every summer. The beautiful parish church building, with its costly decoration and numerous oil paintings, has been mainly built by him, and as a crowning gift he presented the curé with its largest bell. The employment he gives to the laboring class of Château Richer gives sustenance to a large proportion of its population. Apart from his individual means, he has been able to secure an expenditure of over $80,000 by the government in public works in the county of Montmorency, and by untiring efforts has succeeded in establishing telegraphic communication between the mainland and the Island of Orleans. On the inhospitable beach of St. François and Ste. Famille, where so many lives have been lost by wrecks, two wharves were built at considerable expense. The channel of the St. Lawrence was deepened and widened between the island and Beaupré, thus enabling ships to pass through at low tide without danger. The placing of twelve lights and six buoys on the river, reducing danger from wrecking to the least proportion, is also due to his influence. In 1880 he presented the Cercle Catholique of Quebec with a handsome banner woven in golden cloth, which he had brought from Paris. He is chairman of the Harbor Commission of Quebec, and since he has held that office several important works have been undertaken and carried to a successful issue, among others may be mentioned the following: the graving dock, the Basin Louise, the work done opposite Quebec by the lifting-barge, etc. Mr. Valin married in 1854, Marie Angélique, daughter of Joseph Talbot, Beaumont, Bellechasse county. She died on the 8th of October, 1883. He married a second time, on the 10th June, 1885, in the chapel of the Sacred Heart, Quebec, Marie Virginie Célina, a daughter of the late and regretted Dr. P. M. Bardy, in his lifetime one of the most remarkable men of the city of Quebec, and a descendant of a French family of rank, in fact the Count de Bardi and the Duke de Parma being the sons of Madame Louise, the only sister of the late Henry V., Count de Chambord, the legitimate successor to Louis XVIII., and consequently the heir to the throne of France, if that country had retained its monarchical institutions. In the remarkable work of Benjamin Sulte, “L’Histoire des Canadiens-Français,” will be found a complete biography of Dr. Bardy, who was the first president of the St. Jean Baptiste Society of Quebec. On the occasion of the marriage of Mr. Valin, we clip the following from _La Patrie_ of the 12th of June, 1885:—“A telegraphic despatch from Quebec announces the marriage of P. V. Valin, M.P. for Montmorency, and chairman of the Harbor Commission for Quebec, to Célina Bardy, only daughter of Dr. Bardy, the founder and first president of the St. Jean Baptiste Society of Quebec, in his lifetime one of the foremost citizens of the ancient capital. Miss Bardy, who is a lady endowed with wonderful beauty and good qualities, has conquered a most enviable rank among the _littérateurs_ of the province. She is a member of L’Académie des Muses Santonnes, France. We extend our hearty congratulations to the happy couple.” The following extract is taken from the Ottawa _Citizen_ of the 18th June, 1885:—“Last evening, while the Hon. J. A. Chapleau, secretary of state, was speaking on the Pacific Railway resolutions, applause commenced on the ministerial side and soon became general. Many persons were unable to discern for a time the cause of it, as the remarks of the honorable gentleman did not call for any expression of approval, more especially on the part of ‘honorable gentlemen opposite.’ It turned out that the greeting was addressed to Mr. Valin, M.P. for Montmorency, who had just entered the chamber on his return from his honeymoon trip. He acknowledged the compliment by bowing his head, and after the applause subsided, Hon. Mr. Chapleau complimented him in a few elegantly constructed sentences, wishing the honorable gentleman the supreme degree of connubial bliss.” These flattering newspaper comments show clearly the high esteem Mr. and Mrs. Valin enjoy among their friends, as well as among the members of the whole house. * * * * * =Morin, Louis Edmond=, President of the Corporation of Pilots, Quebec, was born on the 25th August, 1837, in St. Rochs, Quebec, Canada. He was the fourth son of a family of six children. His father, Michel Morin, was a sea pilot for a period of fifty years on the river St. Lawrence, and died at the advanced age of seventy-seven in 1880. His mother, Christine Nolet, is still living, and in full possession of her health, at eighty years of age. Mr. Morin, the subject of our sketch, was educated at the Christian Brothers’ School, and afterwards at Thom’s Commercial Academy, Quebec. He was for two years in one of the largest dry goods stores in the upper town of Quebec, but finding that his health was declining, he left the trade. In 1855 he resolved to follow the calling his father had so very successfully followed, and apprenticed himself as a pilot. He served in this capacity for seven years, during which period he crossed the Atlantic ocean no less than ten times. On the 6th March, 1862, his apprenticeship being completed, he was permitted to act as a sea pilot, and he has been one of the most successful of the profession on the St. Lawrence. In 1868 he was selected to pilot the steamers of the Allan line, and continued to act as such until the fall of 1872, when he retired, on being elected one of the directors of the Corporation of Pilots of Quebec, incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1860. He remained on the board for a period of eleven consecutive years, of which time he was six years president. In 1884 he was again selected to pilot the steamers of the Allan line. In 1885 he was re-elected president of the Corporation of Pilots, and still occupies the same position. In 1873 Mr. Morin was delegated to go to Ottawa in the interest of the sea pilots, in order to watch the passing of the Pilotage Act, and succeeded in getting a clause inserted in this act, whereby a guarantee was given that at the end of each period of three years the salary of the pilots would be increased if their earnings were in the average during the season less than six hundred dollars net. In 1880, with the help of some of his _confrères_ and of several members of the government, he succeeded in getting a by-law passed by the Board of Harbor Commissioners, by which the tariff of pilotage was raised fifteen per cent; but after having several interviews with the members of the Dominion government at Ottawa, with the object of gaining this boon, he failed to secure what he wanted in consequence of a strong outside pressure against the measure. He, however, accepted a compromise, namely that of an advance of seven and a half per cent, on the old tariff, and the promise of the government that the revised tariff would be based on tonnage throughout the whole Dominion. In religion Mr. Morin is a Roman Catholic; and in politics an independent. He was married, in 1863, to Marie Flore Trahan, daughter of the late Edward Trahan, in his lifetime shipbuilder in Quebec, and of Marie Bédard. The fruit of this marriage has been thirteen children, of whom eight are still living, four sons and four daughters. * * * * * =Jones, Hon. Alfred Gilpin=, P.C., Bloomingdale, North-West Arm, Halifax, M.P. for Halifax, Nova Scotia, was born at Weymouth, Nova Scotia, September, 1824. He is a son of the late Guy Jones, who was registrar of deeds for Digby county. His paternal ancestor, Josiah Jones, emigrated from England, and settled in Boston, Massachusetts, in