Part 132

=Irvine, Hon. George=, Q.C., D.C.L., one of the best known and most eminent members of the Quebec bar, is the eldest son of the late Lieut.-Colonel Irvine, principal A.D.C. to the Governor-General of Canada, and grandson of the Hon. James Irvine, for many years a member of the Executive and Legislative Councils of Lower Canada, and of the Hon. Matthew Bell, of Three Rivers, P.Q., at one time member for St. Maurice in the Legislature of Lower Canada, and afterwards a member of the Legislative Council of that province. He was born at Quebec on the 16th November, 1826, and was educated at Dr. Lundy’s school in that city. Having chosen the law as his profession, he was called to the bar in 1848, after the usual course of study, and rapidly rose to distinction, his services being retained in nearly every important case, especially of a commercial nature. In partnership with the late C. G. Holt, Q.C., afterwards judge of the sessions of the peace for the Quebec district, and subsequently with E. H. Pemberton, he practised his profession with steady success and honor, and in 1867 was created a Q.C. in recognition of his leading position at the Quebec bar. Some years previously to this, in 1863, the electors of Megantic county, P.Q., had marked their appreciation of his abilities and exalted character, by returning him at the general election of that year to represent them in the Canadian House of Assembly, in which he continued to sit until confederation, when he was returned for Megantic to the Commons, and represented that county at Ottawa until the abolition of dual representation and the general election of 1872, when he declined re-election. He also represented the county in the Legislative Assembly of the province of Quebec from confederation until January, 1876, and during this period successively held the important Cabinet offices of solicitor-general and attorney-general of that province in the Chauveau and Ouimet administrations, being regarded as the leader of the English element in those governments, and the special champion of the English-speaking and Protestant minority in Lower Canada. In January, 1876, he resigned his seat in the Legislature, on being appointed one of the railway commissioners for the province, which office he also resigned in 1878, in order to present himself for re-election as a supporter of Mr. Joly’s administration, in which he was offered, but declined, a seat. At the general election of that year, he was again returned to represent Megantic in the Legislative Assembly, and once more at the general election of 1880, when he went with his leader, Mr. Joly, into opposition to the Chapleau and Mousseau governments, until June, 1884, when he resigned his seat on accepting the appointment of judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court at Quebec. Throughout his public career, Mr. Irvine was one of the most conspicuous men in the house and before the country, and the organization and legislation of the province of Quebec, under confederation, still bear the impress of his powerful mind. A gentleman of wonderful tact and suavity of manner, a skilful parliamentarian, and a man of rare executive ability, he wielded an immense influence in the councils of that province, and on public opinion. As a speaker and debater, he was not only remarkable for his ready eloquence, but above all for his clearness, precision and logical force. He was a host in himself, and the side which received his support seldom failed to score a victory. As the representative of the English-speaking minority, he retained the public confidence to the last, as much by the independence and personal purity of his character as by his commanding talents. A Conservative by tradition and instinct, he nevertheless did not hesitate to separate himself from the party in provincial politics when the acts of some of his colleagues in the “Tanneries Land Swap” and other matters brought disgrace upon its escutcheon, and his conduct was not only ratified by his own immediate constituents of Megantic, but warmly approved by his fellow-countrymen generally. During the Joly administration he was the “power-behind the throne,” and afterwards, until his resignation of his seat in the house for good, the most conspicuous figure in the Provincial Opposition, next to the leader himself. Although actually the judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court at Quebec, an Imperial appointment, the subject of this sketch still practises his profession in the other courts, and is generally found engaged in all the more important cases, both civil and criminal. He was formerly professor of commercial law in Morrin College, Quebec, and was also chancellor of the University of Lennoxville, P.Q., from which he received the honorary degree of D.C.L., in 1875. He has also been _bâtonnier_ of the Quebec bar and a vice-president of the Union Bank of Canada, at Quebec, which he helped to found. In religion he is a member of the Church of England, and has always taken a keen and active interest in its affairs. He has travelled a good deal on public and professional business, and has repeatedly crossed to England to plead before the Privy Council in appeals of great importance. Has two brothers living, the elder, Commissary-General Matthew Bell Irvine, C.B., C.M.G., and the younger, Lieut.-Col. Acheson Gosford Irvine, a member of the Council of the North-West Territories, and late Commissioner North-West Mounted Police. He married, in August, 1856, the third daughter of the late Henry Le Mesurier, a well-known merchant of Quebec, and formerly an officer in H.M. 48th regiment, and by her has had issue ten children.

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=Cadman, James=, Civil and Mining Engineer, Quebec, is a good type of the men to whose professional skill and energy the eastern section of the Dominion is indebted for so much of its development by railways within the last twenty years. An Englishman, by birth, he has all the Englishman’s well known doggedness of character, and all the trained engineer’s abiding faith in the invincibility of science and the power of mind over matter. The word “impossible” has long since been erased from his lexicon, as illustrated especially by the great undertaking with which his name has been more prominently connected of late, the construction of the railway from Quebec to Lake St. John through a region of unparalleled difficulty from the engineering point of view. Mr. Cadman was born in Dudley, Worcestershire, England, on the 31st January, 1832, his father’s name being also James Cadman, and his mother’s originally, Sarah Forrest Brown. He received a good plain English education at the Blue Coat School, Dudley, and studied civil and mining engineering under S. H. Blackwell, of Russell’s Hall Colliery, Dudley, of which he was afterwards appointed resident engineer. He subsequently distinguished himself in the same capacity in a number of the other great English collieries and iron works until 1862, when he came to New Brunswick as mining engineer for the New Brunswick Charcoal and Pig Iron Company. In 1867, he became connected as resident engineer with the European and North-American Railway, and in 1868 was appointed assistant engineer of the Intercolonial Railway, in the location and construction of which he took an active part until 1875, when he was retained for the survey of the Newfoundland Railway. On his return from Newfoundland, he was named locating engineer of the North Shore Railway, in which position he continued to act until 1879, when he was raised to the still more prominent and responsible post of chief engineer of the Quebec and Lake St. John Railway, which he still holds with great advantage to the success of that arduous and important enterprise. Mr. Cadman is a member of the Church of England, and a Freemason. He has never taken any part in politics in England or Canada, not even to vote. In his early manhood, he was for three years a member of the South Staffordshire Rifle Volunteers. In 1860, he married Margaret Doughty, a niece of the celebrated mining engineer, John Yardley, of East Worcestershire, by whom he has had a family of five children, three of whom are still living.

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=Kelly, Francis=, J.P., Joliette, Quebec province, is a native of Ireland, having been born in Carlow, Leinster, on the 17th of March, 1819. His parents were James Kelly and Margaret Crosby, both natives of the same place. When he came to Canada he took up his residence in Montreal, where he received a commercial education. In 1845 he removed to New York, where he remained till 1850, and then went to California, and for some time worked in the gold mines. He spent four years travelling through the far west, and also visited Mexico and Cuba. Becoming surfeited with travel, he returned to Canada, and settled in Joliette. Here he began the lumbering business, in which he succeeded, and is now spending the remainder of his days in peace and comfort. In religion Mr. Kelly is a member of the Roman Catholic church; and in politics a Liberal. He was married on the 10th January, 1854, to Mary Collins.

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=Howe, Henry Aspinwall=, T.C.D., M.A., LL.D., Rector of the High School, Montreal, province of Quebec, was born near Guildford, Surrey, England, 8th July, 1815. He is the elder and only surviving one of two sons of the late Captain Aspinwall Howe, formerly of the war office, Somerset House, latterly of her Majesty’s 88th regiment (Connaught Rangers), and Mary, eldest and very beautiful daughter of Charles Wickens, of Turnbridge, Surrey, England. The Howes are a branch of the Aspinwalls, an old county family in Lancashire. The subject of the sketch was educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey, and Trinity College, Dublin, passing through both with high credit. He resided afterwards for some years in France, where he acquired a complete knowledge of the French language. Soon after leaving college he became private tutor to the youngest son of the Earl of Ellesmere, in whose family he became domesticated, and was indebted both to the Earl and his amiable Countess for their kind consideration and firm friendship. Mr. Aspinwall Howe was not desirous of making teaching his profession, but Lord Ellesmere considering that he was peculiarly fitted for it, persuaded him to accept the head mastership of the Montreal High School, which Lord Colbourne and Professor Pillans, of Edinburgh University, offered him. Thus, in 1848, he came to Montreal as rector of its High School, which office he has held with eminent success since that date, very many of his pupils having attained high and honorable positions in the Dominion, in the Mother Country and elsewhere. On first entering, however, upon his school duties, he had great cause for disappointment. The Board of High School Directors received him with marked kindness, but the school was undisciplined, and, still worse, in a bankrupt state. A regular income with residence had been promised—the former could not be realized from the funds of the school, the latter was a “mistake”—and many years elapsed before the school was prosperous enough to pay its rector a tolerably fair income. This proved a serious loss and trial, and obliged the rector to draw assistance from his resources at home. In the reconstruction of McGill College, some twenty-eight years ago, Dr. Aspinwall Howe, while retaining his position in the High School, occupied also the chair of mathematics and of natural philosophy in McGill College, _without remuneration_, retiring from these with the title of emeritus professor of three branches, when the university was sufficiently re-established to pay independent professors. He is also a fellow of the University, and has long been matriculation examiner to the medical faculty of McGill College. He has likewise for some years been president of the Board of Examiners for the preliminary examination of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Province of Quebec. Dr. Aspinwall Howe is a prominent member and liberal supporter of St. John the Evangelist Church of England, in Montreal. His moral influence over the many young people who come in contact with him in school and elsewhere is excellent. Dr. Aspinwall Howe is an exception to most highly educated scholars in that his attainments are varied; he excels in classics as well as in mathematics, and has a taste for the arts and for games of skill. He attained a high degree of perfection in drawing; is an accomplished amateur musician, and is well known as a strong player of the royal game of chess. In 1847 he married Louisa, daughter of the late Rev. J. C. Fanshawe, formerly of Franklin Hall, near Exeter, of Coelhaey’s Park, Devon, etc., and of Fanny Delia, daughter of Chancellor Carrington, of Evington, in Devonshire, by whom he had issue as follows:—Louisa Blanche Fanny, married to Hon. Henry, second son of Right Hon. Lord Aylmer; Amelia Egerton; Catharine Maria Fanshawe Coke, deceased; Henry South Leïdebach; Arthur Fanshawe Vernon, deceased; Fanshawe Gardiner, deceased; and others. Mrs. Aspinwall Howe is also Countess Nürenallen de Leïdebach, an honorable recognition given to her branch of the family for valuable service, rendered during the continental troubles of 1814-15.

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=Guest, Sheriff Geo. Hutchinson=, Yarmouth, N.S., was born on 14th July, 1849, at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and is the son of Robert and Mary (Utley) Guest. His grandfather, John Guest, was born in Waterford, Ireland, and settled in St. John’s, Newfoundland, in the latter part of the eighteenth century. He was for some years a leading merchant in St. John’s. He married Dorothy Eustace, of Tor Bay. Robert Guest, the father of the sheriff, arrived in Yarmouth, in the year 1827, and became identified with the business of shipping, then, as now, the leading industry of the place. Robert Guest died February, 1867. His wife, Mary Utley, was a daughter of Nathan Utley, and grand-daughter of the Nathan Utley who represented Yarmouth county in the Provincial legislature from 1800 to 1806. Mrs. Guest died in September, 1887. Sheriff Guest was educated at the Yarmouth Academy. He engaged in the shipping business, and is a shipowner. He was a director of the Yarmouth Marine Insurance Association until it ceased to do business. In politics he is a Liberal, and when T. B. Flint resigned the office of high sheriff of the county, in January, 1887, Mr. Guest received the appointment from the local government. He is connected with the Methodist church, holding the position of a trustee of Providence Church. On the 11th of November, 1874, he married M. E. Lovitt, youngest daughter of the late John Lovitt, who was a grandson of Andrew Lovitt, who settled in Yarmouth in 1766. The Lovitts have always been identified with the best interests of Yarmouth. They have been prominently connected with the shipbuilding and other industries, and the county is at present represented in the Dominion House of Commons by one of the family.

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=Moore, Alvan Head=, Magog, Quebec, was born in Hatley, county of Stanstead, province of Quebec, April 20th, 1836. His father, Thomas Moore, was born in Concord, N.H., United States, Dec. 5th, 1787. His mother, Margaret Moore, whose maiden name was Margaret Dickey, was born near Concord, N.H., July 24th, 1795. They were married Dec. 6th, 1812, and came to Canada in the beginning of the present century. They were amongst the early pioneers who settled Stanstead county. His father was on duty during the war of 1812-14 and the rebellion of 1837-8. He held a commission dated August, 1811, as lieutenant in the Eastern Townships Royal Volunteers and ensign in the militia of 1837-8. The subject of this sketch was liberally educated in Canadian academies and United States collegiate institutes, and at the present time is mayor of Magog, postmaster, commissioner of Superior Court, superintendent of the Government Fish Hatchery, justice of the peace for the district of St. Francis, president of the Waterloo & Magog Railway Company, director in the Stanstead, Shefford & Chambly Railroad Company, director in the Magog Textile and Print Company, was for years president of the Stanstead County Agricultural Society, chairman of the school commissioners of Magog, and secretary and treasurer of the above mentioned W. & M. R. Co., which office he resigned in 1887 to take the presidency of the company. He has been connected with and was one of the principal promoters of all the public enterprises of the place, the most important of them being the Waterloo & Magog Railway and Magog Textile and Print Works. He was an active promoter of both schemes, and has a large amount of money invested in them. He is an active politician, and has been engaged in every political contest which has taken place in the county since confederation. Being a protectionist, he is consequently a Conservative. He has been looked upon as the successor of the present member in the House of Commons, but so far has steadily refused to accept any nomination for parliamentary honors. He is and has always been a temperance man and opposed to the license system, and one of the few men of his age who never signed a requisition for a license. The adoption of the Temperance Act of 1878 in the county of Stanstead was largely due to his exertions. He is a Protestant in religion, and in favor of the alliance and amalgamation of all Christian denominations, and the destruction of sectarian walls that serve to divide and weaken the members of the Christian church. He was married August 12th, 1858, to Julia Ann Merry, eldest daughter of the late Ralph Merry, of Magog, who was one of the most prominent and most public-spirited men of his time, and was for many years mayor of Magog. At the time of his death he was president of the Waterloo & Magog Railway Company; vice-president of the Stanstead, Shefford & Chambly Railroad; and one of the early promoters of both schemes. Mrs. Moore was born at Magog, March 13th, 1838, was educated in Canadian and United States academies, and was also for some time a student in the convent at Longueuil, near Montreal. Immediately after their marriage they went to Kentucky, U.S.A., where they lived for nearly two years and engaged in teaching in the Pleasant Green Seminary until it was accidentally burned, Jan. 1, 1860. The war cloud being about ready to burst over the slavery question, they returned to Canada in the spring of 1860. Mr. Moore became associated in that year with his father-in-law (Mr. Merry) in building the Waterloo & Magog Railroad and in mercantile business. They continued in partnership until 1867, when Mr. Merry retired from the firm and Mr. Moore continued, and is now one of the largest and most successful merchants in the eastern townships. They have three children living, Ralph Merry Moore, born in Kentucky; Catharine Louise Moore and Elizabeth Florence Moore, the two last born in Magog, province of Quebec.

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=Freer, Lieut. Harry Cortlandt=, 1st Battalion, South Staffordshire Regt., and Lieutenant and Brevet Captain and Adjutant, B Company, R.S.I., St. John’s, Quebec, was born at Sherbrooke, Quebec, on the 9th of May, 1859. His father, Cortlandt Freer, of the Grand Trunk Railway engineer staff, is a son of Noah Freer, late captain in the Nova Scotia Fencibles, and at one time A.D.C., or military secretary, to Sir George Prevost. His mother, M. A. Sicotte, is the eldest daughter of the Hon. L. V. Sicotte, judge of the Superior Court, St. Hyacinthe. The subject of this sketch was educated at Trinity College School, Port Hope, and afterwards graduated at the Royal Military College, Kingston. He entered the British service, and served a year each in Malta and Ireland. On the breaking out of the Egyptian war he served with the 1st battalion South Staffordshire regiment, and served throughout the campaign of 1882, receiving the Queen’s and Khedive’s medals for his gallantry. After his return to Canada, the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 again called him to active service, and he was appointed A.D.C. to Major-Gen. Sir Frederick Middleton, K.C.M.G., and was present at Batoche. For his gallantry on that occasion he was mentioned in the despatches, and received the medal with clasp. He has been an extensive traveller both in Europe and the East, as well as in our own country, having travelled as far west as British Colombia. In religion he is a member of the Roman Catholic church, and is unmarried.

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=Montgomery, Donald=, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Chief Superintendent of Education for Prince Edward Island, was born at Valleyfield, 3rd May, 1848. His parents came to the island from Scotland in 1840. Mr. Montgomery received his education at Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown, the foremost seat of learning in Prince Edward Island, and at McGill University, Montreal. He progressed rapidly in his chosen profession of teacher, and in 1874 was appointed principal of the Provincial Normal School. This position he held for three years. The progress of education in the island has been very gradual. At the original distribution of the land in 1767, thirty acres were reserved in each township for a schoolmaster, and there the matter rested until 1821, when a national school was opened at the capital. Later on a board of education was appointed for the island and other schools were opened. In 1836 a central academy was established in Charlottetown. In 1837, John McNeil was appointed the first superintendent of schools. At this time the total population of the island was about thirty-five thousand, and there were only fifty-one schools, with a total attendance of 1,533. Means were scanty and the schoolmaster was literally “abroad” most of his time, removing from house to house, as he got his board among the different families of his district. In 1842, there were 121 schools and 4356 pupils. In 1852, a free school act was passed by the Legislature. In 1853, the office of general superintendent for the island, abolished in 1848 (a county superintendent for each county being substituted), was re-established. In 1855, a bill was passed establishing a Normal School, which was opened in 1856. The question as to whether the Bible should be read in the Central Academy and the Normal School was earnestly debated by the people and brought to the notice of the Legislature in 1858. The House decided against the use of the Bible in the schools. In 1861, however, was passed an act admitting the Bible into the schools. The Prince of Wales College was established in the same year. Many of the best men in the island have received their earlier education at this institution, which, however, they frequently supplement by a course at other seats of learning in the Dominion, the United States and Great Britain. In 1878, Mr. Montgomery embarked in politics, and on the 20th September in that year was elected to a seat in the local legislature for his native district of Belfast. This was a bye-election caused by the resignation of William Welsh. At the general election, Mr. Montgomery again offered, and was re-elected in April, 1879. He was a moderate Conservative. He resigned his seat in the House in the summer of that year, and on the 26th September, 1879, was appointed to the position of chief superintendent of education. This position he has continued to hold up to the present time. He is connected with the Presbyterian denomination. He married, on 10th August, 1887, Mary Isabella, daughter of William McPhail, of Orwell. His residence is situated on Prince street, in Charlottetown. A man in the very prime of life and usefulness, Mr. Montgomery occupies a position of the highest importance.

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