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

1879. He was elected leader of the government by the unanimous vote of

his party in both branches of the legislature, and was appointed attorney and advocate general, and president of the Executive Council on the formation of the administration, which positions he has held continuously ever since. The House of Assembly was dissolved and a general election held on the 9th of April, 1879, when the government were sustained by a majority of twenty-six to four, being the largest support ever accorded to any administration in the island. Among other acts, Hon. Mr. Sullivan was chiefly instrumental in securing branch lines of railway to Souris and Tignish in 1872; assisted in carrying through the Island legislature terms of confederation in 1873; assisted in passing The Land Purchase Act, 1875, and other acts on the same subject in 1876; introduced and carried through the legislature An Act for Abolishing Imprisonment for Debt, in 1879, and The Jury Act, 1880, which provides for the trial of all civil cases by seven instead of twelve jurors, as well as many other measures of law reform, and acts for the general benefit of the province. The Hon. Mr. Sullivan has been, on several occasions, a delegate to Ottawa, on public business; and, in 1886, was a delegate to London, to lay before the Imperial government the case of Prince Edward Island, concerning the non-fulfilment of the terms of confederation, with regard to continuous steam communication between that province and the mainland of Canada. He declined a nomination for the House of Commons at the general elections in February, 1887. Hon. Mr. Sullivan has been premier for a longer period than any of his predecessors. As a leader he matures his measures thoroughly before submitting them to the house, hence his success in that position; his industry is unwearied; he clings with the utmost tenacity to the cause which he advocates, and never trusts the discharge of any parliamentary duty devolving upon himself to another. He is a thorough master of the English language, and speaks with exactness and precision. He is also extremely cautious, and takes good care not to get his party (the Conservatives) into deep water. Having a strong and determined will, once convinced that he is right, he pushes forward, with unflinching perseverance, and success almost invariably crowns his efforts. He was married at Charlottetown, on the 13th of August, 1872, to Alice Maude Mary, third daughter of John Fenton Newbery, B.A., of Oxford, and formerly of London, England, and Siena, Italy, and they have six children. The family are members of the Roman Catholic church. Their residence, “Brighton Villa,” adjoining Charlottetown, is a beautiful place. * * * * * =Boire, Louis Henri Napoleon=, Manager of the Three Rivers Branch of the Banque d’Hochelaga, was born on the 17th of February, 1850, in the parish of St. Philippe, county of Laprairie, province of Quebec, of well-to-do parents. After attending for five or six years the country school of the place of his birth, he entered, at the age of twelve, the Montreal College, where he remained three years, after which he became a scholar in the Jacques Cartier Normal School in Montreal, where he followed the whole course of studies with a decided and marked success. Later on, in May, 1869, he was admitted to the study of medicine, but gave it up to enter on a business career; and for this purpose he became a student in the Montreal Business College, and after a few months he graduated from this institution. The following years, of which a few months were passed in Manitoba, he was employed as accountant or bookkeeper in Montreal mercantile houses, when, in September, 1874, he was appointed accountant in the Joliette branch of the Banque d’Hochelaga, and six months later, in March, 1875, he was made manager of the same branch. Here he remained until February, 1885, and was then appointed manager of the Three Rivers branch of the same bank, and in that town he has resided since. He was married in January, 1876, to M. Lea Cornellier, of Joliette, P.Q., daughter of the late E. Cornellier, a retired merchant. * * * * * =Wade, Edward Harper=, Quebec, was born in 1846, in what was formerly known as “the good old town of Liverpool.” His father, Samuel Mosley Wade, and his grandfather, Samuel Wade, were long engaged as brokers in the cotton trade of that port, and his mother was a daughter of the late Richard Harper, of Low Hill, Liverpool. He received his commercial training in the office of Sharples, Jones & Co., who then carried on a large wholesale importing business in Quebec timber in connection with their Canadian house. His father having been lost at sea in the _Royal Charter_, when returning from a visit to Australia, he was apprenticed to the firm named, by his uncle and guardian, the late Thomas Wilson, a well-known Liverpool shipbuilder. Indentures were drawn up in the good old-fashioned style, binding the apprentice to five years’ service in consideration of being taught the trade and business of a timber merchant. This engagement was faithfully carried out on both sides, and every opportunity given for the acquisition of such knowledge of all timber mysteries as the Canada Dock Quay, or the town office of the firm, afforded; and the lesson of straightforward and truthful dealing and liberal fulfilment of all business obligations and promises was duly inculcated. After the expiration of the term named he remained three years with the firm, and was then transferred to the Quebec office of C. & J. Sharples & Co. The Quebec firm became John Sharples, Sons & Co., and the Liverpool house Henry Sharples, Son & Co., and all the senior partners had passed away before he left the employ at the end of 1877, having for several previous years travelled on contracting business in all parts of the United Kingdom, but especially in Ireland and North Wales, districts then largely importing Quebec goods. At that time this portion of the business seldom fell into such young hands, but the high standing and careful shipments of the firm served the young salesman well, and enabled him to continue and extend the connection of the house in the districts specially left to his care. Many little ports that are now entirely or almost altogether supplied from larger centres at that time imported several Quebec timber cargoes each year, and districts which now consume little besides pitch pine, spruce deals and Baltic goods were good customers for Canadian white pine, then commonly called yellow pine. At the end of 1877 he entered into business arrangements with the old and well-known Quebec firm of Roberts, Smith & Co. The parting between Messrs. Sharples and himself was characterized by the greatest good feeling on both sides, and the long connection left behind it a warm friendship that has never been disturbed in the slightest degree, even during the keen competition of the most trying selling seasons. His respect and esteem for all members of the family have always been strongly expressed, and their kindly feeling towards him has remained unchanged. For three years he continued as salesman with Roberts, Smith & Co., with a percentage on the profits of the business; and on Mr. Joseph Roberts retiring in 1880, he was taken into partnership by Mr. R. H. Smith, and the firm was continued under the style of Smith, Wade & Co. Taught by the sound judgment and thorough practical knowledge of timber and its classification and by the long experience of all points connected with Quebec contracting possessed by Mr. Roberts, and instructed in sound principles of finance, banking, and details of management by Mr. Smith, whose qualifications in this respect are so well known, the subject of our sketch obtained a thorough insight into the working of a Quebec shipping business as it should be carried on. Under such training it is not strange that he has established a character for reliability, that with him a promise is as faithfully carried out as a contract, and the spirit as well as the letter of the agreement always kept. For many years Mr. Roberts and Mr. Smith had entire charge of the Canadian supply to the English dockyards under admiralty contracts through Messrs. Chapman, of London. This was a most important business, including the annual supply of many large masts and spars of considerable value, such as are now only obtained from the Pacific coast. Mr. R. H. Smith retired at the end of last year, and Mr. H. T. Walcot, for nine years past a member of the firm of John Burstall & Co., has joined Mr. Wade in carrying on the business, under the same style, with the same staff, and upon the same lines. Shortly after his arrival in Canada, and during a political riot, Mr. Wade had a narrow escape with his life in rescuing from an infuriated mob an unfortunate man who, but for his interference, would probably have been killed. Except in such extreme cases he is an advocate of non-intervention, and of letting people manage their own affairs in their own way. The Canadian system of home rule is, in his opinion, the perfection of government. Although a firm believer in free trade, he readily admits that sometimes there are more important questions than any connected with the tariff, and believes it is essential to keep in power the best men in the country. Apart from his energy, enterprise, and thorough knowledge of that portion of the trade of which he is a worthy representative, much of Mr. Wade’s success is doubtless due to the genial and courteous manner which characterizes his intercourse with all sorts and conditions of men, and which has been the means of securing him hosts of friends and well-wishers. Mr. Wade was married in 1874 to Margaret, eldest daughter of John Simons, of Quebec, by whom he has five children. * * * * * =Blanchet, Hon. Jean=, Q.C., Quebec, M.P.P. for the County of Beauce, was born in February, 1843, in St. François, county of Beauce, and is a descendant of one of the oldest settlers in La Nouvelle France. He is the son of C. Blanchet, N.P., of St. François de la Beauce, and a nephew of the Right Rev. Mgrs. Blanchet, bishops of Oregon and Vancouver respectively, whom we may truly call the pioneer apostles of evangelisation in British Columbia. This country is under a heavy debt of gratitude to the reverend prelates for the detailed descriptions and quaint narratives of their early travels in that far-off part of the Dominion, and the historian of the future will find an inexhaustible supply of materials in their memoirs. The subject of our sketch was educated at the College of Nicolet, and at the termination of his classical course of studies entered Laval University to follow the law course of that institution, attending the office of Bossé and Bossé at the same time. On the 3rd of October, 1863, he was admitted to the bar of Lower Canada, and in 1876 was appointed a Queen’s counsel by the government of the province of Quebec, and re-appointed as such by the Dominion Government, on the 11th October, 1880, it having been decided by the courts of law that the appointment of Queen’s counsels was _ultra vires_ of the provincial legislatures, and rested solely with the federal authorities. He is a member of the council of the bar, Quebec section. On his first presenting himself for parliamentary honours in his native county, at the general election of 1872, he was unsuccessful. In November, 1881, he, however, was elected by acclamation, and was sworn in as a member of the executive council on the 31st July, 1882, taking the portfolio of provincial secretary in the Mousseau administration. In 1884, he was again appointed to the same office, under the Ross administration, and accepted the same portfolio in January, 1887, under the Hon. L. O. Taillon, who resigned in the same month. He has been elected at the general election of 1886 by 187 majority. Hon. Mr. Blanchet is an honorary member of several societies. Among others, may be mentioned L’Athénée Louisianais, the Historical Society of Montreal, and the Geographical Society of Bordeaux, France; he is also president of the Asbestos Mining and Manufacturing Company of Canada, and the Artisans’ Permanent Building Society. In politics Hon. Mr. Blanchet is a Liberal-Conservative, and resides in Quebec, enjoying an extensive _clientèle_ in Quebec, Beauce, and Montmagny. He is a member of the law firm of Blanchet, Drouin and Dionne. He married on the 5th of August, 1878, Jeanie, daughter of General S. Seymour, of Albany, late state engineer of the state of New York, by whom he has issue two children, one son and one daughter. * * * * * =Phillips, Rev. Caleb Thaddeus=, Minister of the Free Baptist Church, Woodstock, New Brunswick, was born at Wakefield, county of Carleton, N.B., on the 7th June, 1841. His father was Cornelius Ackerman Phillips, whose grandfather was one of the U. E. Loyalists; and his mother Frances Stevens, daughter of John Stevens and Mary Ackermann, and grand-daughter of Colonel Lawrence, a noted officer in the British army during the revolutionary war. Rev. Mr. Phillips received his education in his native parish and at Acadia College, Wolfville. He afterwards entered the ministry, and was for fourteen years in charge of the Sussex pastorate, in Kings county. Upon his resignation he was presented with a gold watch and an address from the citizens, and in 1884 took charge of the Free Baptist Church in Woodstock, N.B., of which he is the present pastor. He takes a deep interest in the temperance reform, and is a hard worker for the advancement of the Master’s kingdom on earth. He belongs to the fraternity of Freemasons, and is a member of Woodstock lodge. On the 8th October, 1870, he was married to Georgia, daughter of the Rev. Cyriac Cyrell Doucette, and has a family of four children. * * * * * =Jetté, Hon. Louis A.=, LL.D., Montreal, Judge of the Superior Court, was born at L’Assomption, province of Quebec, on the 15th January, 1836. His father was Amable Jetté, merchant, whose ancestors came to Canada from near Tours, in France, in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. His mother, Caroline Gauffreau, was also of French descent. Her grandfather was a planter in St. Domingo when that island was under French rule, but left during some political troubles, and came to Canada. Judge Jetté, the subject of our sketch, received his literary education at L’Assomption College, and afterwards studied law (first) with Pelletier & Belanger, barristers, and afterwards with David & Ramsay, barristers. He was called to the bar in February, 1857. He practised his profession in Montreal from that date until he was appointed to the bench, on 2nd September, 1878. While at the bar Hon. Mr. Jetté greatly distinguished himself; and in the celebrated Guibord case he won an almost world-wide reputation for legal ability. In an extended review of the case, the _Belgique Judiciaire_, of Belgium, Europe, thus spoke of him, quoting largely from his pleading: “This speech, like all the pleadings of Mr. Jetté, has a tone remarkable for sincerity and loyalty. Mr. Jetté appears to us, moreover, to be an advocate of great merit, who must hold the front rank at every bar where he has a great cause to plead. * * * Voltaire, hearing the speech of Mr. Jetté, at Montreal, would find himself more comfortable than at the Court of Appeals at Paris, or in the Legislative Assembly at Versailles.” At one period of his life Judge Jetté was greatly interested in politics, and was a pronounced Liberal. At the general election in 1872 he contested Montreal East, and succeeded in beating the late Sir George E. Cartier, baronet, the then great statesman and leading Conservative in the province of Quebec, having polled the unprecedented majority of twelve hundred votes. This great triumph produced at the time great enthusiasm among the judge’s _confrères_. At the general election held in 1874, he was re-elected by acclamation; served through the session of the House of Commons at Ottawa in 1878, and in the spring of that year was offered a seat in the cabinet of the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie, who then held the reins of government. But he declined the proffered honor, having decided to retire from political life. In the summer of 1878 he visited Europe, and while in Paris he received, by telegram, the information that he had been appointed to a seat on the bench of the Superior Court of his native province, and requesting his immediate return. Since his elevation to the bench he has fully realized the most sanguine expectations of his friends, and no judge in the province is more respected than he. Amongst the important cases he has been called to decide, since his appointment to the bench, we may mention: 1st. the liberation from the lunatic asylum of Mrs. Lynam, a poor unfortunate woman who had been kept there for nearly two years, a case which, three or four years ago, attracted the attention of everyone in the Dominion, and led to an investigation by the provincial government in the management of those institutions; 2nd. the Laramée and Evans case, where he stated, in a most exhaustive judgment, the law of the province on the subject of marriage, a judgment which was deemed so important that, on motion of Hon. E. Blake, a copy of it was laid on the table of the House of Commons; 3rd. the case of Dobie and the Board of Temporalities of the Presbyterian church; 4th. the case of Lambe vs. the Insurance Companies, for the recovery of the tax imposed on those companies by the provincial government of Quebec, where he maintained the constitutionality of the provincial law, being confirmed in that view by her Majesty’s Privy Council. Judge Jetté is a corresponding member of _La Société de Legislation Comparée de Paris_; and is also a corresponding editor of the _Revue de Droit International_ of Ghent, Belgium. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Laval University, Quebec, in 1878, and is professor of law in the Montreal branch of the same celebrated institution of learning. In 1862 he married Berthe Laflamme, daughter of the late Toussaint Laflamme, merchant, Montreal, and sister of Hon. R. Laflamme, minister of justice in the Mackenzie government. * * * * * =McLellan, Hon. David=, Lumber Merchant, Indiantown, M.P.P. for St. John city and county, New Brunswick, was born in Portland, N.B., on the 20th of January, 1839. His father, David McLellan, was by trade a shipbuilder, emigrated from Kelton, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, and settled in the Maritime provinces many years ago. His mother, Mary Knight, was a descendant of a Quaker family in Pennsylvania, United States. Mr. McLellan received his education chiefly in a commercial and mathematical school in St. John, taught by William Mills, and acquired a good mental outfit with which to begin life. After leaving school he commenced business as a surveyor and dealer in lumber, and is now the senior member of the firm of McLellan & Holly, doing a large trade in lumber in the rough, handling over 60,000,000 superficial feet of logs annually. He entered political life in 1878, and at the general election of that year was elected to represent the city and county of St. John, in the New Brunswick legislature. He again, at the general election held in 1882, presented himself for re-election, and was returned by his old constituency. On the 28th July, 1883, he was sworn in a member of the Executive Council, and was appointed provincial secretary in the Blair administration, in place of the late Hon. Wm. Elder. His acceptance of office necessitated another appeal to the electors, and he was again elected. At the general election held in 1886 he was once more chosen by a large majority. Hon. Mr. McLellan is president of the Board of Agriculture for the province of New Brunswick. He is a Freemason, and also belongs to the fraternity of Oddfellows. In politics he is a pronounced Reformer; and in religion, an adherent of the Baptist church. In December, 1864, he was married to Fanny B. Richards, daughter of Henry Richards, of St. John, N.B., and has had a family of four children—two sons and two daughters, one of the boys died in infancy. * * * * * =Taschereau, Hon. Henri Elzéar=, Judge of the Supreme Court, Ottawa, was born at the Seignorial Manor house, Ste. Marie de la Beauce, county of Beauce, province of Quebec, on the 7th of October, 1836. He is the eldest son of the late Pierre Elzéar Taschereau, and a near relative to Cardinal Taschereau. His father was, prior to the union of the provinces, for many years a member of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, and after the union he was also a representative in the parliament of the united provinces. He had married Catherine Hénédine, a daughter of the late Hon. Amable Dionne, who was also at one time a member of the Legislative Council. The founder of the family, Thomas Jacques Taschereau, settled in the province of Quebec several years before the conquest. Many members of the Taschereau family have achieved high distinction in Canada, no less than seven of its members having occupied seats on the judicial bench. The subject of our sketch was sent to the Quebec Seminary, and after completing his classical studies, studied law in the office of his cousin, the Hon. Jean Thomas Taschereau, one of the most eminent lawyers of the province of Quebec, who was appointed a puisné judge of the Supreme Court of the Dominion on its formation in 1875, and was superannuated some years ago. In October, 1857, Mr. Taschereau was called to the bar of Lower Canada, and formed a partnership with his cousin, the eminent jurist above mentioned, and they practised their profession at Quebec. He soon gained a high reputation as a lawyer, and subsequently entered into partnership with William Duval and Jean Blanchet, who afterwards became speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec, and of the House of Commons at Ottawa. In 1861, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly for the county of Beauce, and continued to represent that constituency until confederation, when, at the general election of 1867, he was unsuccessful as a candidate for the House of Commons. During that year he was made a Queen’s counsel, and the following year he was appointed clerk of the peace for the district of Quebec, a position which he held only three days, resigning at the end of that time on account of a misunderstanding with the government. He then devoted himself to professional pursuits, and on the 12th of January, 1871, he was appointed a puisné judge of the Superior Court of the province of Quebec, and held that position until the 7th of October, 1878, when he was elevated to his present position of a judge of the Supreme Court of the Dominion. As a law writer, Judge Taschereau is an authority, he having written several important works, among which we may mention “The Criminal Law Consolidation and Amendment Acts of 1869, 32-33 Vict., for the Dominion of Canada, as amended and in force on the 1st November, 1874, in the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, and on the 1st of June, 1875, in British Columbia, with Notes, Commentaries, Precedents of Indictments,” etc., etc., in two volumes, the first of which was published in Montreal in 1874, and contains 796 pages. The second volume, containing 556 pages, was published in Toronto in 1875. Both volumes display much erudition, and have been highly commended by competent legal authorities, among others by C. S. Greaves, an English Queen’s counsel, and one of the most eminent contemporary writers on English jurisprudence. “Le Code de Procédure Civile du Bas-Canada, avec annotations” was published in 1876, and also received high commendation from legal critics. The Hon. Judge Taschereau married, on the 27th of May, 1857, Marie Antoinette de Lotbinière Harwood, a daughter of the Hon. R. U. de Lotbinière Harwood, a member of the Legislative Council of Quebec, and seigneur of Vaudreuil, near Montreal. Mrs. Taschereau is a sister of Lieut.-Col. de Lotbinière Harwood. They have a family of five children, two sons and three daughters. Hon. Judge Taschereau has his residence in Ottawa, and is joint proprietor of the seigniory of Ste. Marie de la Beauce, conceded to his great-grandfather in the year 1726. * * * * * =Williams, Right Rev. James W.=, D.D., Bishop of Quebec, was born in the town of Overton, Hampshire, England, on the 15th September, 1825, and was brought up in that neighbourhood. He is the son of the Rev. David Williams, for many years rector of Baughurst, Hampshire. He was educated by his father at home, at the Grammar School, Crewkerne, Somerset, and at Pembroke College, Oxford. In 1851 he graduated as B.A., taking honours in classics, and in due course obtained his degree of M.A. and D.D. The Lord Bishop of Oxford admitted him to deacon’s orders, and in 1856 he was ordained priest by the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells. He held curacies for a short time in Buckinghamshire and Somersetshire. His classical attainments were of more than average excellence. For two years he was assistant master in Leamington College. In 1857, whilst curate of Huish-Champflower, he was chosen to organize a school in connection with Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, Quebec. He held the office of rector of the College Grammar School, together with that of professor of belles-lettres in the university, until his elevation to the episcopacy. Upon the death of the late Right Rev. George Jehosaphat Mountain, Bishop of Quebec, in 1863, Rev. Mr. Williams was chosen by the synod to succeed him, and on the 11th of June, of the same year, he was consecrated at Quebec by the Most Reverend the Metropolitan, assisted by the bishops of Toronto, Ontario, Huron and Vermont. His first episcopal act was to advance three deacons to the priesthood. The See of Quebec, over which the bishop’s jurisdiction extends, was constituted in 1863, and formerly comprised the whole of Upper and Lower Canada. Owing to various causes, and mainly to the increase in the population and growth of the Church of England its extent has been curtailed from time to time until it was confined to that part of the province of Quebec extending from Three Rivers to the Straits of Belle Isle and New Brunswick, on the shores of the St. Lawrence, and all east of a line drawn from Three Rivers to Lake Memphremagog. Bishop Williams is a plain preacher, and never exhibits any affectation; he is a man of scholarly tastes. He makes no pretence to showy or transcendent gifts of pulpit oratory, but is known as an energetic and industrious ecclesiastic, watching with zealous care over the spiritual welfare of his flock and clergy. Several of his lectures and sermons have been published and were highly commended by the Canadian and American religious newspapers. Among them may be more especially mentioned his charge delivered to the clergy of the diocese of Quebec at the visitation held in Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, in 1864; and a lecture on Self-Education, published at Quebec in 1865. * * * * * =Moody, James Cochrane=, M.D., Windsor, Nova Scotia, was born at Liverpool, N.S., on the 1st of September, 1844. His father, the Rev. John T. T. Moody, D.D., was born at Halifax, on the 25th of March, 1804, and at the date of his son’s birth was rector of Liverpool, but subsequently removed with his family to Yarmouth, N.S., to which parish he was appointed rector in 1846. His mother was Sarah Bond, eldest daughter of the late Henry Greggs Farish, M.D., of Yarmouth, N.S., and was born on the 9th of July, 1807. They were married in 1830, and both lived to the advanced age of 80 years. Dr. Moody commenced the study of medicine under the preceptorship of his great uncle, the late Joseph B. Bond, M.D., of Yarmouth, in 1862. He is a graduate of the University of New York, having taken his degree of M.D. at that institution in the spring of 1866. On his return home during the Fenian alarm of the same year, he was appointed an assistant surgeon to the Yarmouth militia. Commencing the practice of his profession at Richibucto, Kent county, New Brunswick, in the autumn of 1866, he soon succeeded in building up a good practice. Was appointed a coroner for Kent county, November 1st,