Part 31

=Gariepy, Wilfrid, B.A., B.C.L., K.C., M.L.A.= (Edmonton, Alberta), was born at Montreal, P.Q., on March 14, 1877. He is the son of Joseph H. Gariepy, for many years a pioneer and leading merchant in the city of Edmonton, an alderman and school trustee, and, by the way, a native of St. Lin, P.Q., where was also born Sir Wilfrid Laurier. In days gone by the Gariepys and the Lauriers intermingled considerably and Sir Wilfrid when a boy attended the parish common school along with the grandfather of the hero of this sketch. It was only natural that our subject should at his birth be christened after the renowned Liberal Leader, who in 1877 was already in the political limelight. Four generations of Gariepys were born and lived on the same homestead at St. Lin, three miles from the parochial church. The mother of Mr. Wilfrid Gariepy, Etudienne Boissonneault, who is yet living and residing in Edmonton, as well as her husband, is a daughter of Noel Boissonneault, one of the founders of the Town of Morinville, Alberta, as he came from the Province of Quebec with the first contingent of colonists brought west in 1891 by the late Father J. B. Morin, one of the most enthusiastic colonization agents of his day. Noel Boissonneault was at one time a leading Liberal politician in the Eastern Townships and for some years was the moving spirit of the St. Onge Gold Mining Company, which did business on the Gilbert River in Beauce County, P.Q. A maternal ancestor of our subject was among the French-Canadian soldiers who fought for the British Crown in 1812. On the other hand it is worth noting that another figured in the uprising of 1837-1838, in favor of constitutional government, on the shores of the St. Lawrence. Mr. Wilfrid Gariepy was educated at the Sisters of Providence Academy, “Le jardin de l’enfance,” on St. Denis Street, in Montreal, beginning in September, 1881; at Notre Dame College, Côte des Neiges, Montreal, where he spent two years; at St. Laurent’s College with the Fathers of the Holy Cross, remaining there until January, 1891, when ill-health compelled him to abandon his classical studies. He was then in the middle of versification. Deciding to turn his activities into other channels, he attended the Montreal Business College for some months and afterwards became a clerk in his father’s store: first, in general groceries on St. Paul Street, Montreal, and later in Edmonton, on Jasper Avenue, to which town the family moved in March, 1893. In Montreal, although very young, Mr. W. Gariepy indicated his political tastes by being one of the active members of the “Club Letellier,” one of the oldest Liberal organizations, and also by taking a hand in a mayoralty campaign in favor of the Hon. James McShane, the famous “people’s Jimmy,” and by working for the Hon. Honoré Mercier and his candidates after the famous “renvoi d’office.” In 1893 Edmonton had just become a town, with a population of less than 1,000, no modern conveniences, with the exception of a rudimentary telephone and electric light system. Needless to say, streets were unpaved and there were not even any sidewalks. Still the town had a Mock Parliament, and we find our subject a member of it, with a portfolio in its government. Mr. W. Gariepy was elected one of the secretaries of the Liberal Club and also became, in 1894, at its foundation, secretary to the Société de St. Jean Baptiste of Edmonton. In 1895, with the Hon. Frank Oliver, who had just been selected as Liberal candidate of Alberta, Mr. W. Gariepy made a tour north of Edmonton, during which he addressed several meetings. It was in September, 1895, that Mr. Gariepy found his health and other circumstances such that he was able to return to the St. Laurent College to complete his classical course. He stayed in that institution until June, 1897, during which period he for one year filled the presidency of the Literary Academy of the college. In the rhetoric bacheloriate on papers submitted by Laval University, Mr. Gariepy succeeded with great honors. He next went to the Seminary of Philosophy with the Sulpician Fathers, to follow a two years’ course in philosophy, which gave him the degree of Bachelor of Arts of Laval University. He chose the profession of law and became articled in Montreal to Mr. Matthew Hutchinson, now a judge of the Superior Court, in Sherbrooke. P.Q., with whom he remained for three years, in the meantime following the law lectures at McGill University, from which institution he received, in April, 1902, the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law. In 1901 Mr. Gariepy had the honor of being selected by the McGill Faculty of Law to represent it at the Laval Law Students’ Banquet, at the city of Quebec.

In the federal and provincial campaigns in 1900, Mr. W. Gariepy for several months addressed meetings, spending the bulk of his time in the constituency of Terrebonne, at the request of the late Honorables Raymond Prefontaine and Jean Prévost. At that period, at the formation of a Liberal Students’ Association in Montreal, he was elected its Secretary, while the Vice-President thereof was Walter Mitchell, the present Provincial Treasurer of Quebec. Having been admitted to the Bar of the Province of Quebec in January, 1903, Mr. Gariepy immediately secured his enrolment in the Bar of the North-West Territories and opened an office in Edmonton on the same spot where years before he had been carrying on work as a clerk in his father’s store. In the following May a by-election having been called to elect a member for the constituency of St. Albert, in the North-West Territories Legislature, at a convention, Mr. Gariepy accepted the nomination but for personal reasons subsequently withdrew from the contest. For three years Mr. Gariepy was a member of the law firm of Taylor, Boyle and Gariepy, the senior member being Judge H. C. Taylor, of Edmonton District, and the other member, the Hon. J. R. Boyle, now Minister of Education in the Alberta Government. From 1907 to 1911, Mr. Gariepy was a member of the law firm of Gariepy & Landry, his partner being Mr. Hector Landry, son of the late Sir Pierre Landry, of New Brunswick. Mr. Gariepy is now the senior member of the firm of Gariepy, Dunlop & Pratt. This firm is among the leading firms of the City of Edmonton, and while his present political activities prevent our subject from devoting much time to law, he has always paid great attention to his law practice. He has had the distinction of figuring as leading counsel in two murder cases—one, the Gladu Brothers, who were acquitted, and the other the Barrett case, that life convict who was condemned to capital punishment after having been convicted of wilfully killing with an axe, Deputy-Governor Stedman, of the Edmonton Penitentiary. For six years Mr. Gariepy was a member of the Separate School Board of Edmonton, being chairman of the commission for two years. It was under his chairmanship that the Separate School on Third Street was erected. In December, 1906, he was elected an alderman of the city of Edmonton, and although running for the first time in the city at large, as there are no wards, he came second on the list, the first one beating him only by one vote. Two years later Mr. W. Gariepy was re-elected, this time at the head of the list, having some 300 more votes than the next man. While an alderman he held the chairmanship of several important committees and was delegated on two occasions: first, to Chicago with ex-Mayor J. A. McDougall, to inspect the automatic telephone system, which was eventually to be installed in Edmonton; and, second, to Ottawa with ex-Mayor Lee, to interview the Dominion Government respecting the Dominion’s contribution towards the construction of the C.P.R. high-level bridge between Strathcona and Edmonton. It was during Mr. Gariepy’s term of office that the Edmonton automatic telephone system was installed; that the street railway system was completed and put in operation; and that the C.P.R high-level bridge was completed and opened for traffic; and that negotiations for the amalgamation of Edmonton and Strathcona were begun. In 1910 Mr. Gariepy was chairman of the civic committee that organized such a splendid reception as was tendered to Sir Wilfrid Laurier, then Prime Minister, on the occasion of his visit to the Capital of Alberta, and it was at that time that Mr. Gariepy secured the adoption of a resolution by the city council giving to a park the name of “Laurier Park.” Mr. Gariepy took a leading part in the federal campaigns of 1904, 1908 and 1911. In 1909 he was the unsuccessful Liberal candidate in the provincial constituency of St. Albert, his successful opponent being also a Liberal, as there was no Conservative candidate running. In 1911 he was elected Grand Knight of the Edmonton Council of the Knights of Columbus; in 1907 he was elected president of the Edmonton Société de St. Jean Baptiste; in 1912 he was elected vice-president of the French-Canadian Alberta Convention, held in Edmonton, and by that convention was elected as the only delegate to represent it at the French-Canadian Congress held that year in the city of Quebec; in 1913 he was elected president of the Society du Parler-Français of Alberta, and as such presided over the French-Canadian congress of Alberta, held at Edmonton in 1914. On September 9, 1903, Mr. Wilfrid Gariepy married Albertina Lessard, daughter of Jean P. Lessard and Annie Davidson, of Cranbourne, P.Q., a sister of the Hon. P. E. Lessard, M.L.A., for St. Paul, and a former business partner of Mr. J. H. Gariepy. We may note that Mr. P. E. Lessard had previously married Miss Hélène Gariepy, the eldest sister of our subject. From the marriage of Mr. W. Gariepy with Miss Lessard have been born four children: Hormidas, Marcelle, Wilfrid and George. Mr. Gariepy is a member of the Y.M.C.A. and a lieutenant in the 101st Edmonton Fusiliers. In 1912 he was elected as president of the Edmonton Liberal Association; on March 17, 1913, he was elected a member of the legislature for Beaver River. At the first session of that parliament, in the following September, he was chosen to make the speech in moving the adoption of the Speech from the Throne. On November 28, 1913, he was sworn in as Minister of Municipal Affairs, becoming a member of the administration headed by the Hon. Arthur L. Sifton. On December 15, 1913, Mr. Gariepy was re-elected for Beaver River, by acclamation. On December 22, 1913, at the Cecil Hotel, as a compliment on his becoming a member of the government, his French-Canadian compatriots, numbering some four hundred, tendered him a banquet. In September, 1915, Mr. Gariepy represented, with the Hon. Mr. Sifton, the Province of Alberta at a national tax conference held in San Francisco, California. In March, 1913, Mr. Gariepy was made a King’s Counsel for the Province of Alberta. In August, 1915, the same honor was conferred on him by the Province of Quebec. At the date of writing this biography, Mr. Gariepy has been for over five years a member of the Alberta Government and his friends predict that he has yet a long public career to fulfil. As Minister of Municipal Affairs for Alberta Mr. Gariepy has been responsible for the introduction of legislation which has been a landmark in the western provinces, namely: The Wild Lands Tax Act and the Municipal Hospitals Act.

=Byrne, Daniel J.=, Vice-President and General Manager, Leonard Fisheries, Montreal, Que., producers, curers and packers of sea and lake foods. Entered the employ of that firm as a lad in 1886, and steadily rose to his present responsible position with a reputation as one of the leading authorities in Canada on all questions relating to the fishing industry. Leonard Fisheries, which started business in 1875, and is now one of the leading concerns in its line, was incorporated under its present form in 1917, as a result of the consolidation Leonard Bros., Matthews & Scott, and A. Wilson & Son. This was brought about largely through the efforts of Mr. Byrne, with the object of effecting economies in organization and distribution. The firm has branches in many parts of the Maritime Provinces, notably St. John, N.B., and Halifax, N.S. The subject of this sketch was born in Montreal, April, 1871, and married Mary Louisa, daughter of William Dalt, of Montreal, July, 1900, by whom he has one son, John W. In 1915 he was called on to address the Conservation Commission at Ottawa on the subject of “Canada’s Fisheries.” Mr. Byrne is a member of the following Clubs: The Engineer’s, Country and Rotary. He is a Roman Catholic in religion and Independent in politics. His recreation is golf, fishing and motoring.

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=Harper, John Murdoch= (Quebec City), the Canadian educationist and author, came to Canada in the year of Confederation, 1867, to take charge of an Academy in New Brunswick. He was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland, on the 10th of February, 1845, the eldest son of Robert Montgomery Harper, the founder of the first newspaper published in that town. His grand-uncle was Robert Montgomery, who was for many years a mill-owner and manufacturer in Johnstone. From school he entered the Glasgow E. C. Training College, after taking a Queen’s Scholarship, and graduated as a teacher from it with the highest certificate of his year granted by the Lords of the Council of Education, London, and with special certificates from the Science and Art Department, Kensington. After coming to Canada he became a graduate of Queen’s University, Kingston, and thereafter received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, from the Illinois University, after completing the three years’ post-graduate course in the section of metaphysical science. In 1881 he was unanimously elected a Fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland, an honor seldom conferred on teachers laboring outside of Great Britain. For a time he acted as principal of the Model Schools of Nova Scotia, and afterwards as principal of the Victoria High School of St. John, New Brunswick. While there he was asked by the Premier of Prince Edward Island to become Superintendent of Education in that province, which he declined to accept. But when the Victoria School buildings were destroyed in the great fire of St. John, he was induced to accept the principalship of the Provincial Normal School in Charlottetown and the Supervisorship of the City Schools, while St. John and its school buildings were being rebuilt. At the end of three years spent in inaugurating the new system of schools in Prince Edward Island, he was invited, in face of his inclination to return to his former position in New Brunswick, to take charge of the Quebec High School as its Rector; and, accepting the appointment, he thus became identified with the educational interests of the Province of Quebec, where he has labored ever since, closing his career as an educationist in active service as Inspector of the Protestant Superior Schools of that province. While holding that office he entered upon his vocation as an author, having been for many years editor-in-chief of the “Educational Record,” a contributor to the “Educational Monthly” of Ontario, the “Queen’s Quarterly,” and other periodicals, besides being associated with Dr. Thomas Morison, of Glasgow, one of the most distinguished of the educationists of Scotland, in the compilation of sundry text-books. His earlier essays and addresses on “The New Education,” and “Cause and Effect in School Work,” led to his issue of “A Manual on Moral Drill,” in line with his pleadings for an educative “Mental and Physical Drill” in the schools of the day. His plan for a definite moral training is thus spoken of by a New York educationist and author of high standing: “Dr. Harper’s work is entirely original. It is sound. It is eminently practical and it should be most heartily adopted by all who have the training of the young in hand, and who earnestly desire that the rising generation may develop into a ‘coming race,’ in whom moral rectitude will be natural and spontaneous.” As an author, Dr. Harper has had a career as full of the best kind of literary work, as has been his career as an educationist in advice with his co-workers in school progress throughout Canada. The list of the books he has written is all but incredibly large. His _chef-d’ouvre_ is unquestionably his drama of “Champlain,” which has given him rank, as one critic says, as the greatest of our Canadian dramatic poets since the days of Heavysege. The late George Murray, of Montreal, a writer of just discrimination, claimed that Dr. Harper is one of the most versatile and prolific of Canadian litterateurs. A partial list of his literary output from year to year includes the following: “The Development of the Greek Drama,” “The Chronicles of Kartdale,” “Sacrament Sunday and the Bells of Kartdale,” “The Earliest Beginnings of Canada,” “The Montgomery Siege,” “The Little Sergeant,” “The Seer of Silver Lake,” “_Domini Domus_, or the Chateau St. Louis,” “The Songs of the Commonwealth,” and “A Guide to Good Will in the Empire.” Three uniformly bound volumes of his series of “Studies in Verse and Prose,” have so far appeared, including “The Battle of the Plains,” and “The Annals of the War,” supplementary to his “Champlain, a Drama.” With the influence of his earlier years clinging to him, he has not failed to produce many pieces that depict the scenes of the land of his birth; and his poetic status as a versifier in the Doric of the Scottish Lowlands has been duly recognized by Dr. John D. Ross in his volume on “The Scottish Poets in America,” as well as by the gifted author of the book entitled “The Scot in America.” Dr. Ross pays a high tribute to the author of “Sacrament Sunday,” “Saint Andrew’s Day,” “The Old Graveyard,” “Auld Jeames and His Crack,” “Horace in the Doric,” and others of Dr. Harper’s Scottish odes, in such words as these: “Sweet as the note of a bird in the wildwood, strongly embued with patriotism, fervent in religious sentiment, eloquent in thought, pure in expression, and noble in purpose, form a few of the characteristics of Dr. Harper, the Canadian educationist and author.” In addition to all this, Dr. Harper is a loyal Canadian. In all his public utterances and in the pleadings of his prolific authorship in book or magazine or newspaper, he is a Canadian citizen who upholds as a British subject the ample patriotism of the British Empire. He has been twice married, his first wife’s maiden name having been Miss Agnes Kirkwood, daughter of William Kirkwood of Stanley Muir, near Paisley, and his second, Miss Elizabeth Hastings, daughter of Andrew Hastings, of St. John and step-daughter of William Nossack, a former Mayor of Quebec. His family has comprised two sons and five daughters. His grandson, Major John Harper Evans, has been a soldier at the front, after his training at the Kingston Royal Military College.

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=Brennan, John Charles.= In 1854, when but a boy, when Ottawa (then By-Town) had only some 7,000 inhabitants, when the old Ottawa and St. Lawrence Railway was just built—the only line of railway connecting Ottawa with other towns at that time—when houses were few and far between and when there was no prospect of the place being selected by Her Most Gracious Majesty the late Queen Victoria as the Capital of the Dominion of Canada, the subject of this sketch became a member of the wholesale grocery firm of S. Howell & Co., with which he remained for twenty-seven years, retiring from business in 1881. While giving his untiring care to the affairs of the firm, and by his energy and business tact adding in a marked degree to its advancement—its commercial and financial success—Mr. Brennan, with full confidence in the future that he perceived was in store for Ottawa, never lost an opportunity to place his time, ambition and money in channels leading to its improvement and, with other enterprising citizens, exerted his every endeavor to stimulate its growth and importance. To-day, with marked pride, he sees the seven thousand population increased to one hundred and twenty thousand, the once fields and uncared-for lanes converted into beautifully paved streets, parks, and gardens, the costly Parliament Buildings, standing in all their grandeur upon the hill overlooking the Ottawa River; huge commercial, financial and office buildings and apartment houses galore facing the eye at every angle, and handsome modern residences in abundance. Aside from his other real estate holdings, Mr. Brennan, on the corner of Bank and Queen Streets, in the very midst of the Capital’s commercial and financial activities, has placed that large and solidly-constructed office building, “The Trafalgar.” Mr. Brennan has ever taken a keen interest in Ottawa’s hospitals, charitable institutions, churches, etc., and has unstintingly contributed to their support. Whenever called upon to help advance their interests he has freely contributed his quota, and more. During the great war, his moral, physical, intellectual and financial aid have ever been given to promote the successful operations of the Government, and to afford the war workers, the boys at the front and the returned soldiers, material help. Mr. Brennan has grown up with the city and together both he and it have prospered. Although solicited on many occasions to enter into public life he has steadfastly refused, being satisfied in his private capacity as a citizen to do his share in making general progress his goal. Mr. John Charles Brennan was born at Frankville, Ontario, January 23, 1839. He is the son of John and Amelia Maria (Howell) Brennan; he was educated in the Public Schools and private tuition. June 5, 1899, he married Alice Maud Wilson, daughter of Zachariah Wilson of “Clandeboye,” late Collector of Customs at the Port of Ottawa. He has one son and two daughters—John Charles, Amelia Elizabeth and Jocelyn Maud Wilson. He is a member of the Ottawa Hunt, Connaught Park Jockey, the Gatineau Fish and Game, and the Rideau Fish and Game Clubs. For recreation he indulges in hunting, fishing and travelling. In politics he is a Conservative, in religion a Methodist, and his place of residence is 150 Cooper Street, Ottawa.