Part 125
=Rogers, Rev. Jabez A.=, Windsor, Nova Scotia, is the son of David and Rebecca Rogers, and was born at St. John’s, Newfoundland, on the first day of March, 1843. He received his early education at the Wesleyan Academy in St. John’s, and at the Grammar School in Harbour Grace. At the age of sixteen he was converted and united with the Wesleyan Methodist Church, an occasion of great joy in his father’s household—prayer being turned into praise on the happy night when he made his peace with God. The event was the more a subject of heart-felt joy inasmuch as his friends had expected that he was destined for the legal profession, a career in which a man of his brilliant parts and great eloquence would assuredly have attained no mean place. Shortly after his conversion Mr. Rogers felt that he was called to preach the gospel. He still attended the Grammar School at Harbour Grace, devoting his time to the study of the classics and the Greek Testament, under the direction of the scholarly and accomplished Principal, J. J. Roddick. When but seventeen years of age he preached his first sermon, and was appointed a local preacher of the Wesleyan Methodist church. He then entered upon theological studies, with the view of preparing to offer himself as a candidate for the ministry. In his twentieth year he was recommended by the Newfoundland District Meeting to the Methodist Conference of Eastern British America, and was received on probation. This is the first step in the Methodist ministry. In June, 1862, he was appointed as a probationer to Catalina, Trinity Bay, and in 1864 to Exploits Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland. In June, 1866, he was received into full connection by the Methodist Conference of Eastern British America, and was ordained a minister in full standing in the Centenary Church in St. John, New Brunswick. His first appointment as minister was to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, for one year, as the assistant of that great light in the Methodist church, the Rev. Matthew Richey, D.D. In the next year, 1867, Rev. Mr. Rogers was appointed to the church in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where he remained the full itinerary term of three years, and gained a great reputation as a fervid and eloquent preacher. On the Lyceum platform he also occasionally appeared with marked success. A very popular and able lecture of his was delivered in Halifax, Windsor and other places on the subject of “True Greatness.” In more recent years he has lectured on “Moral Warfare,” “The Old Lamp and the New Lights,” and “The Land of the Pharaohs.” In 1870 he was appointed to Brunswick Street Church, the largest of the eight Methodist churches in Halifax. Here he remained three years, or until 1873, when he removed to Wesley Church, Yarmouth. Three years later the exigencies of the itinerary system placed him in Truro. In 1879 he removed to the church in Amherst, and three years later he returned to Wesley Church, Yarmouth. In 1885 he was appointed to the Methodist Church in Windsor, a pulpit which has for many years been filled by the very best men in the ministry. His next field of labour will be Brunswick Street Church in Halifax again, he having received an invitation to that church in 1887. Rev. Mr. Rogers has always been a hard-working man in his chosen sphere, and has from time to time been honored with many of the most honorable offices in the church. From 1876 to 1878 he was Journal secretary, and from 1879 to 1884 secretary of the Nova Scotia Conference of the Methodist Church of Canada. He worthily filled the office of chairman of district from 1879 to 1852, and again from 1884 to 1887. He was a delegate to the General Conferences of 1878, 1882, 1883 and 1886. He was also appointed a member of the Union Committee which met in Toronto in November, 1882, and which formulated the basis for the union of the different branches of the Methodist church. This union, in the face of much opposition and controversy, was consummated in 1883. There were great financial difficulties to be overcome, and old time differences between the Methodist Episcopal church and the Wesleyans had to be smoothed over. In 1884 Rev. Mr. Rogers was elected the first president of the Nova Scotia Conference of the Methodist church. In 1870 he was united in marriage to Jane M., daughter of Rufus S. Black, M.D., of Halifax, N.S., grandson of the Rev. Wm. Black, the founder of Methodism in Nova Scotia. The Black family have, with few exceptions, continued staunch members of the church of their forefathers. Three years ago there was opened at Sackville, N.B., a handsome memorial hall in honor of the Rev. Wm. Black, on which occasion Rev. Mr. Rogers, by appointment, represented the Nova Scotia Conference. Rev. Mr. Rogers has a family of six children living.
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=Paquet, Hon. Anselme Homere=, M.D., St. Cuthbert, province of Quebec, Senator for De la Valliere, was born at St. Cuthbert, on the 29th September, 1830. He is a son of the late Captain T. Paquet and Mary F. Robillard. He received his education at the College of L’Assomption. He is one of the numerous pupils of the “Ecole de Médicine et de Chirurgie de Montréal,” and was licensed as a physician by the provincial medical board on the 10th of May, 1853. In 1863, he entered politics, but was an unsuccessful candidate in March of that year for the Legislative Council. He was, however, elected to the Legislative Assembly in June, 1863, where he sat until Confederation. He was elected for the House of Commons in 1867, and again in 1872, after contests, and by acclamation in January, 1874. He was called to the Senate by Royal proclamation in February, 1875. He was president of the Permanent Building Society of Berthier, one of the originators and directors of La Banque Ville Marie, Montreal, and one of the governors of the Medical College of the Province of Quebec, from 1877 till 1880. He was appointed in 1879, as professor on hygiene in the Medical School, Montreal, affiliated with Victoria University, and is now one of the consulting physicians in Hotel Dieu Hospital, and professor of medical clinics in the same hospital. He was appointed in September, 1887, a member of the provincial commission on hygiene. In religion, Hon. Mr. Paquet is an adherent of the Roman Catholic church, and in politics a Liberal. He was married at L’Assomption, on the 24th September, 1854, to Marie Alp. Henriette Gariépy, fourth daughter of Captain P. Gariépy and Mary Roy.
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=Kelly, Samuel James=, M.D., M.S., Joliette, Quebec province, was born on the 12th of August, 1856, at Joliette. His parents were Francis Kelly and Mary Collins. He received his classical education in his native parish, and prosecuted his medical studies in Quebec and Montreal. Having graduated, he returned to Joliette, where he began the practice of his profession, and has succeeded in building up a good business. In addition to his professional practice, he has an interest in the lumber business of Kelly & Brother, Joliette. He is a member of the Roman Catholic church. He was married on the 29th of November, 1881, to Emmelie Mandehard.
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=Russell, Willis=, Quebec.—While this work was under compilation, the subject of this sketch was somewhat suddenly called to appear before the tribunal of Heaven, after a long and well-spent life of seventy-three years, and with him has passed away one of the oldest and best known landmarks of the ancient capital. A local paper, the _Daily Telegraph_, of the 17th October, 1887, the day after his deeply lamented death, had the following biographical notice of the deceased gentleman:—
For nearly half a century the name of Willis Russell has been a household word, not only in the city of Quebec, but amongst all who have been in the habit of coming here, on visits of business or of pleasure, and we know of no one whose loss would be more widely felt than his, or more deeply regretted amongst both residents in and visitors to the old rock city. A native of one of the New England states, where he was born in 1814, the late Mr. Russell took up his abode in Quebec over forty-three years ago, and has been an uninterrupted resident of our city ever since, remaining identified all that time with the business in which he lived and died—the maintenance and the management of the principal hostelries of the ancient capital. It would be difficult at this distant date to follow the deceased gentleman very minutely through the early part of his career in this city. Suffice it to say that in 1844 he entered, on his arrival here, upon the business which he made his life work, and that his untiring efforts to make the houses which he controlled the best of their kind in the locality never failed of success. For some time Mr. Russell was proprietor of an hotel known, we believe, as the St. George’s, situated in the old union, building on Place d’Armes, now the property of Mr. D. Morgan, merchant tailor. This was before he became proprietor of the Albion Hotel, on Palace street, which, during his management, extending over a long term of years, was the leading hostelry of the then capital of united Canada. Mr. Russell’s later career as proprietor of the St. Louis Hotel and Russell House is well known to the present generation of Quebecers and to all travellers and tourists in the habit of visiting Quebec. For some years back, there has not been sufficient business in town to keep both houses open during the winter season, but in summer they are frequently crowded to their utmost capacity, and some time back Mr. Russell also became the lessee of the Albion Hotel on Palace street, and sometimes utilised it for the excess of his summer business. Mr. Russell’s success in business was, of course, largely due to the attention which he gave it, and to his admirable adaptability for it. His career is an example to all young men about to start out in business, to first select that particular line to which they feel they can devote their best energy and efforts, and then, so far as they legitimately can, to permit nothing to stand between themselves and success. Mr. Russell’s attention to his business was proverbial, and the comfort of his guests was his first and principal care. With this object in view, he skilfully contrived to have the best possible _menu_ always before them, so that travellers from all parts of the United States and Canada have always been able to claim that the best tables to which they have been accustomed have been those of the St. Louis Hotel. In the matter of gentlemanly and polite attendance the same hotel has always stood deservedly high, the leading officials connected with the management having been always selected from those foremost in the business. In common with all the citizens of Quebec, Mr. Russell has been for some time aware that Quebec is behind the age in the matter of a proper hotel building. He has always been foremost, therefore, in the various efforts that have been made to secure a new hotel for our city. A few years ago it seemed as if success was about to crown Mr. Russell’s efforts in this direction. He had all but completed the formation of a company to build a splendid new house on Dufferin terrace, on the site of the old Normal School. The necessary charter incorporating the Chateau St. Louis Hotel was duly obtained from the local legislature, and large subscriptions of stock were being made by a number of prominent citizens towards the undertaking. Mr. Russell brought on a famous architect from New York to draw the plans of the proposed hotel, and everybody remembers how much they were admired at the time, and how they received the approval of the Princess Louise, who manifested considerable interest in the undertaking. However, after the expenditure of an immense amount of money and time on the subject, Mr. Russell had the mortification of seeing the scheme fall through, in consequence of some difficulty at Ottawa about the land required for the site. It will be observed, all the same, that it was not Mr. Russell’s fault if the city of Quebec was unsuccessful in her attempt to obtain the new hotel. The deceased gentleman has occupied many important positions of trust amongst his fellow-citizens. He was a J.P. for many years past. Realizing its vast promise of success, and the necessity which existed for it, he became one of the most active promoters of the North Shore railway. Years afterwards he was a member of the city council for about six years. He was elected to represent St. Louis ward in the municipal body, and retired from office nearly four years ago. During most of the period in which he occupied a seat at the council board, Mr. Russell was chairman of the fire committee. This was immediately after the last great fire in the suburbs, and Mr. Russell was indefatigable in his efforts to secure a thorough reorganization of the fire department, and the acquisition of additional steam engines and other appliances for fighting the flames. The prolongation of the old Durham terrace to the dimensions of the present Dufferin terrace is also largely due to Mr. Russell’s determined efforts. The deceased gentleman has always been a determined advocate of the proposed Quebec and Levis bridge. In American politics, in his earlier days, he was a great Dan Webster man. Though a naturalized Canadian, he never took a very decided stand in our politics, though he formed many personal friendships amongst our public men. One of his closest friends for the past thirty years has been the esteemed member for Quebec West, Owen Murphy. Another was Colonel Rhodes. Mr. Russell’s active mind was never content to remain fixed alone upon the hotel business, and he speculated largely at different periods in lumber and mines. His mining property was situated principally in the eastern townships, and for some time he was at the head of a number of saw mills and a lumber company at Arthabaskaville. His recreation consisted principally in salmon fishing, and his favorite fishing ground was the Marguerite river, above Tadousac, of which he controlled the right, and where, in company with a number of American capitalists, he formed the St. Marguerite fishing club. The deceased gentleman was the proprietor of the Music Hall (now the Academy of Music), which he purchased some five years ago, and in which he has given at various periods an immense number of the most brilliant public dinners and balls, the _sine qua non_ of a fashionable event of the kind in Quebec being that it should be entrusted to Mr. Russell’s management. Our regretted friend was a member of the congregation of the English Cathedral, and in his last illness received the consolations of religion at the hands of the Revs. Messrs. Petry and Fothergill. Notwithstanding the delicate state of his health for some years past, he attended to business to the very last day, and his death may be considered both sudden and unexpected. He was downstairs in the public office of the St. Louis Hotel on Friday, apparently as well as he had been at any time during the last year, and on Saturday he was dead. It is supposed he must have taken cold, for congestion of the bowels declared itself, and when he felt compelled, by his inflammatory pains on Friday afternoon, to retire to his room, he was destined never to leave it again. He grew rapidly worse during the night, and on Saturday morning it was evident that the end was approaching. All day he continued to sink rapidly, expiring at ten minutes to ten o’clock at night. He was surrounded by his wife and children, and was perfectly conscious to the last. With Mrs. Russell and her children—W. E. Russell and Mrs. H. J. Miller—we sincerely sympathize in this hour of deep affliction. Their sorrow is shared by all our people, who feel that they have lost one of their best, most useful and most patriotic citizens. The rotunda of the St. Louis Hotel without his well-known figure, pleasant countenance, hearty laugh and amusing anecdote, will indeed be sadly changed.
The _Morning Chronicle_, the leading paper of Quebec, also had an extended notice of the deceased, and the French papers of the city devoted much of their space to praise of his useful life and the expression of regret at his death. His funeral was one of the largest and most imposing ever witnessed in Quebec, and was attended by all classes of the local population, including the ministers of the federal and provincial governments in town at the time, ex-provincial ministers, members of the Dominion parliament and provincial legislature, and leading citizens generally.
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=Monk, Hon. Samuel Cornwallis=, LL.D., Senior Puisné Judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench of the Province of Quebec, Montreal, was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 29th July, 1814. His father, Samuel Wentworth Monk, was descended from a family of U. E. loyalists, who left Boston, in Massachusetts, on the breaking out of the revolutionary war, and settled in Nova Scotia. The Monk family was related to the Goulds, Wentworths, Deerings, Apthorps, and the Hon. Edward Cornwallis, at one time governor of Nova Scotia, all of whom were persons of note in those early days. Judge Monk’s great grandfather was attorney-general of Nova Scotia, and his grandfather a judge of that province. One of his granduncles, Sir James Monk, was chief justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench for Montreal. Samuel Cornwallis Monk was educated in Windsor, N.S., and was subsequently prepared for entering Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, but it was thought advisable that he should immediately begin the study of law in Canada, and this he did in 1831, and was admitted to the bar in 1837. He then made an extended tour, which occupied two years, in Europe, and on his return entered into a partnership with Sir John Rose, baronet, now of London, England, who at that time was carrying on an extensive law business in Montreal. In 1854 Mr. Monk was appointed a Queen’s counsel, and for some years represented the attorney-general of Lower Canada in Crown prosecutions. In 1859 he was raised to the bench, and for a period of nine years sat as a puisné judge in the Superior Court of Lower Canada. In 1868 he was promoted to the Queen’s Bench, on the retirement of Justice Aylwin. His reputation as a judge stands high. His natural talents, united to his vast knowledge and graceful elocution, have made him one of the most instructive and agreeable persons to listen to whenever he has a judgment to deliver in the Court of Appeals or a charge to make in the Criminal Court. His knowledge of both the English and French languages is so perfect that it would be impossible for a stranger to tell by his speech to which nationality he belonged. The old French law, which forms the basis of the jurisprudence in the province of Quebec, is so familiar to him that when a case is heard in the Court of Queen’s Bench before him and his associates, after reading the printed factum of both parties, he is generally ready to give his opinion and support it with the most learned arguments. The capabilities of this learned judge, as shown in criminal matters, are always very highly appreciated. When he represented the Crown before the criminal courts as Crown prosecutor, before being elevated to the bench, he met with great success, and his reputation as a criminal lawyer stood very high. Upon the bench he has met the expectations of his admirers by the dignity with which he presides in court, and the vast legal knowledge, combined with the high sense of justice which he displays in discharging his duties. He had the degree of LL.D. conferred upon him a number of years ago by Laval University, Quebec. Judge Monk was married in 1844 to a daughter of the late Hon. P. D. DeBartzch, member of the Legislative Council of Lower Canada. The fruit of this marriage has been five sons and one daughter, the latter having died some years ago.
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=Taillon, Alphonse Antoine=, Sorel, Quebec, was born at Ottawa, on the 17th July, 1847. His parents were John Taillon and Dame Geneviève Lionais. His father was one of the first merchants of Bytown, and took a prominent part in promoting the interests of the future city of Ottawa. Wm. P. Lett, Ottawa’s poet, in his poem, “Recollections of old Bytown,” alludes to him as one of the good, honorable citizens of the time, and a man of genial character. The subject of this sketch received a full commercial course at the College of Ottawa, now the University. He served in the “Chasseurs Canadiens” at St. John’s, Laprairie and St. Armands during the first Fenian raid in 1866; was appointed lieutenant in 1869, and captain in 1870. He entered the Merchants Bank, at Montreal, in 1867, and became manager of the Sorel branch in 1871. The bank closed its branch in 1881, and handed the business over to Mr. Taillon, who continued as a private banker, and is one of the leading business men of the town. He was an alderman and chairman of the Finance Committee in 1883 and 1884, and was elected by a large majority over Senator Guévremont as mayor in 1887. He is president of Richelieu County Conservative Association, and was several times called on to be a candidate for both local and federal parliamentary honors, which he invariably declined. He was president of several local societies, and was the promoter of many public enterprises. He is a Roman Catholic. On the 12th January, 1871, he was married to Josephine de Boucherville, eldest daughter of P. V. de Boucherville, M.D., of Beauharnois. He has had eight children, six of whom are living.
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