Part 105

=Nault, Joseph=, the present joint Registrar of St. Hyacinthe, province of Quebec, was born at St. Ours, on the 17th of April, 1841. Early in life his father, Jean Baptiste Nault, who is a well known farmer of Quebec, married Edes’n Girouard, and in 1886 they celebrated their golden wedding at which eighty relatives, consisting of eight children with their families and some other distant connections were present. Joseph Nault, the subject of this sketch, received his education at the St. Hyacinthe Seminary, where he took a full classical course. In 1865 he passed his examination, and was duly admitted as a notary for the province of Quebec. He was secretary of the city of St. Hyacinthe from 1868 to 1874, and only retired from that office in order to take a position in the bank of St. Hyacinthe. In 1879, having received the appointment of joint registrar, he resigned his position in the bank, of which he is now a director. He has taken a great interest in the municipal affairs of St. Hyacinthe, where he occupied the position of alderman from 1874 to 1879, and was one of the promoters of the St. Hyacinthe waterworks, which were erected in 1875, and of which he is secretary and also a shareholder. Since 1878 he has been president of the school commissioners. He belongs to the prevailing religious denomination in Quebec, the Roman Catholic church, and in politics is a Liberal. He was married on the 8th of November, 1864, to Flavie Bourgeois, and has a family of nine children and two grandchildren.

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=Ouimet, Hon. Gédéon=, Q.C., D.C.L., Quebec, Superintendent of Public Instruction for the Province of Quebec, officer of Public Instruction of France, Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, member of the “Academie des Arcades de Rome,” president of the Council of Public Instruction, and of the Roman Catholic Committee, of the province of Quebec, was born in Ste. Rose, Laval county, on the 3rd June, 1823. His father, Jean Ouimet, farmer, was descended from an old French family; and his mother was Marie Bontron _dit_ Major. Mr. Ouimet received a classical education at the colleges of St. Hyacinthe and Montreal, having at the last named place been under the charge of the noted instructor, l’Abbé Duchaine. He studied law with Mr. Sicotte, who was afterwards promoted to the bench, and was admitted to the bar, at Montreal, in August, 1844. Mr. Ouimet practised his profession for about five years, when he removed to Vaudreuil. In October, 1853, he returned to Montreal, and continued his profession along with L. S. Morin and L. W. Marchand, and afterwards with P. Morean and J. A. Chapleau. He soon rose to prominence in his profession, and was highly respected by his fellow-citizens. He was created a Queen’s counsel in 1867, and for a period served as _bâtonnier_ for Quebec province. In 1869 he filled the position of president of the St. Jean Baptiste Society of Montreal. He has also held the president’s chair of the _Institut Canadien-Français_; and is a member of the Literary and Historical Society; and the Geographical Society of Quebec. He was appointed commissioner to the Indian and Colonial Exhibition, in 1886. Entering political life, he represented the county of Beauharnois from 1857 to 1861 in the Legislative Assembly of Canada. From Confederation in 1867 to 1876 he represented the county of Two Mountains in the Quebec legislature, and was attorney-general of the province until February, 1873, when he became premier, minister of public instruction (succeeding the Hon. P. J. O. Chauveau), and provincial secretary. At that time it was necessary that the minister of public instruction should be a member of the parliament; but after a while it became evident to observant statesmen that the two positions were too burdensome for one man to hold, if not inimical to the best interests of education. Consequently, in 1875, the Assembly passed an act abolishing the dual office, and the administration of the educational affairs of the province was put in the same position it was before confederation, namely, in charge of a superintendent. The judgment of the proper authorities, as well as public sentiment, pointed to the Hon. Mr. Ouimet as the person best fitted to this highly responsible position, and he was, on the 1st February, 1876, appointed superintendent of public instruction for the province, when he retired from public life. Since that time educational matters have been greatly improved; and in all cases in which Protestant and Roman Catholic educational interests infringed upon each other, or came into collision, he has succeeded in smoothing down the conflicting elements by his strictly impartial decisions. And judging from his many published addresses, and the frequency of his visits to Protestant schools on public occasions, it cannot be questioned that he is at heart a real friend of education, irrespective of creed or nationality. His well-known urbanity, legal eminence, experience in public business, and impartial zeal in the cause of public education not only qualify him, in a mixed community like that of Quebec, for the important public post which he occupies, but justify the bright future for education in his province. Hon. Mr. Ouimet is a D.C.L. of the University of Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, and of Laval University. He is the author of the “Law on District Magistrates”; and while in the legislature he secured important amendments to the law relating to the qualification of jurors in criminal cases, and also in the code of procedure. Herein it will be seen that he has, in more ways than one, and is still leaving the impress of his well-disciplined and powerful mind in the archives of his native province. In 1878 he was named by the French government “Officier d’Instruction publique,” as a mark of distinction and approbation of the scholastic exhibition of Quebec province during the International Exhibition held in Paris that year. In August, 1850 he was married to Jane Pellant, daughter of the late Alexis Pellant, and they have had a family of six children, five of whom are married.

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=Gauvreau, Rev. Antoine=, Parish Priest, Lévis, was born at Rimouski, on the 22nd September, 1841. His father was Pierre Gauvreau, a notary public, and his mother Elizabeth Dubergès. Rev. Mr. Gauvreau was sent to the college of Ste. Anne de Lapocatière, in the county of Kamouraska, where he followed a complete course of classical studies. At the completion of his course he determined to enter the holy orders, and with that purpose in view was admitted to Laval University to study theology. On the 2nd of October, 1864, he was ordained priest, and appointed missionary vicar to the parish of Rivière-au-Renard, Gaspé. This charge he retained until 1866, when he was called to the city of Quebec, to assume the duties of almoner at the archbishop’s palace, being at the same time chaplain to the Sisters of Charity, the Christian Brothers, and St. Vincent de Paul Society. In 1870 he was removed by his ordinary to the curacy of St. Nicholas, Lévis county, where he remained until 1875. He was then transferred to Ste. Anne de Beaupré, the place of pilgrimage of the Roman Catholics of the whole American continent. Every summer thousands of devout pilgrims wend their way to the shrine of the saint. It is said that the number of people who visited Ste. Anne this season (1887) exceeded one hundred thousand. Two golden crowns of great value were lately presented to the present curate of Ste. Anne by the citizens of Quebec, and his eminence Cardinal Taschereau presided at the ceremonies incidental to the blessing of the princely gift. The attendance was so large that an altar was improvised and high mass was said in the open air, an eloquent proof that faith is still deep-rooted in the hearts of the faithful of the province of Quebec, reports to the contrary notwithstanding. Rev. Mr. Gauvreau exercised his ministry in Ste. Anne until 1878, when he took charge of the important parish of St. Romuald d’Etchemins, county of Lévis, and retained it until 1882. At that date he removed to Lévis, and has had charge of that parish ever since. Rev. Mr. Gauvreau is remembered in all the parishes over which he presided as a kind and considerate pastor.

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=Peck, Charles Allison=, Hopewell Hill, New Brunswick, Barrister-at-law, was born at Hopewell, in the county of Albert, N.B., on the 12th August, 1840. He was educated at Fredericton. Mr. Peck is the youngest son of Elisha and Sarah Peck. His father was an extensive landowner in the county, and captain in the militia, and was one of the first appointed to the magistracy. Charles Allison Peck studied law in the office of the late Sir Albert J. Smith, and was called to the bar in Easter Term, 1861, receiving a first-class certificate. Shortly after he formed a law co-partnership with the Hon. Bliss Botsford, at present Judge Botsford, and practised his profession at Hopewell, residing upon the old homestead. He first appeared in public life in 1865, when he unsuccessfully contested Albert on the Quebec scheme of confederation, to which he was opposed, against the Hon. John Lewis and A. R. McLellan, but was defeated by a small majority. After the union in 1867 he was elected to the New Brunswick Legislature for Albert, where he sat for three sessions, and was generally found supporting progressive legislation; but devoted much of his time to the Albert Railway question, the necessary legislation for which railway he secured against much opposition, the construction of this railway being largely due to his efforts while in the legislature, and subsequently. He was the solicitor of the company until its completion. He organized, and was the first president of, the Albert Southern Railway. In politics he is a Liberal-Conservative. He has more than once declined candidature for political honors, preferring to devote himself to his profession. Mr. Peck was appointed captain of the militia; trustee of Albert county Grammar School; and is a referee in equity. He is not a member of any religions denomination, but a liberal supporter of all. Mr. Peck was married, in 1864, to Amelia, youngest daughter of the late Solomon Nichols, of the city of St. John, who was president of the Bank of New Brunswick at the time of his death. Mrs. Peck is an Episcopalian; and her ancestors were loyalists, who, on coming to the Maritime provinces, left behind them at Flushing, New York state, large and valuable properties. They have two sons, Henry Brougham and Charles Allison, and one daughter, Celia Isabel Frances. The elder son, Henry, who is a student at law, recently entered the civil service.

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