Part 141
=Pope, Hon. James Colledge=, was born at Bedeque, Prince Edward Island, on the 11th June, 1826. He was the second son of the Hon. Joseph Pope, and his mother was Lucy Colledge, daughter of Capt. Colledge, of the 1st regiment of foot, who married a daughter of the Hon. Thomas Wright, several times administrator of the government of the island, and who was one of the commissioners appointed to administer the oath to the members of the first parliament which met in Charlottetown in 1773. The subject of this sketch received his early education on the island, and was afterwards sent to England to complete it. In early manhood he entered upon a mercantile career, as merchant, shipbuilder and shipowner, at Summerside, P.E.I., where he lived for many years, and which he was largely instrumental in building up. He was one of the passengers by the brig _Fancy_ to California, when the gold fever broke out there in 1849. In 1863 he took up his residence in Charlottetown, where he remained until 1878, when his acceptance of the portfolio of minister of marine necessitated his removal to Ottawa. The last three years of his life he spent at Summerside, his old home, where he died on the morning of the 18th May, 1885; and was buried at St. Eleanor’s, in St. Mary’s churchyard (Episcopal), where a very handsome granite obelisk, erected as a tribute from his many friends, marks the last resting-place of one of Prince Edward Island’s most gifted and patriotic sons. Mr. Pope entered political life in 1857, and from that time onwards he was engaged in a constant turmoil of political excitement, having his ups and downs like most politicians. On the 10th September, 1870, he became leader of a coalition government, which, however, only lasted two years; but he was, on the dissolution of the house, triumphantly returned for Charlottetown, although he failed to secure a majority in the new house. On the 19th October, 1878, he was sworn a member of her Majesty’s Privy Council for Canada, and received the portfolio of minister of marine and fisheries, a position he held but a short time, when in 1881 he was forced, to the inexpressible grief of his many friends, by a general breaking up of his mental and physical powers, to retire from the active duties of his office, never, as the sequel proved, to resume them again. He always occupied a foremost place among those with whom his lot was cast. In his early life he took a very active interest in the volunteer movement, and passed through the various grades, retiring with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Besides being one of the most prominent merchants, he was also one of the largest landholders on the island, and farmed more extensively than any other man on it. He was also engaged in fishing industries, besides being interested in many other business ventures. He, however, attempted too much for his powers of endurance, and thus brought a useful life to an early close. In everything that he undertook, however, whether political, commercial or agricultural, he had the interests of the island at heart, and his memory will ever be revered by his countrymen, who possess monuments of his energy and worth more enduring than brass. The Prince Edward Island Railway is a memento of his public career that will ever serve to keep his memory green. In 1852 he married Eliza, second daughter of Thomas Pethick, of Charlottetown, by whom he had issue eight children.
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=Germain, Adolphe=, Barrister, Sorel, province of Quebec, was born in St. Ours, in the same province, in June, 1837. His father was François Germain, an old patriot of 1837-38. Mr. Germain received a classical course of education at St. Hyacinthe College, Quebec province, and afterwards studied law; and for over fifteen years he has successfully practised his profession in Sorel, first alone, but latterly under the firm name of Germain & Germain, his partner being his eldest son, S. Adolphe Germain. In 1878 he was created a Queen’s counsel. He has been frequently called upon to represent the attorney-general of Quebec province in Crown cases, and was one of the joint counsel in the celebrated Provencher trial, in which the accused was found guilty, along with his paramour, of poisoning the latter’s husband, and afterwards executed for the murder—the woman being sent to the penitentiary for life. Mr. Germain has been mayor of Sorel, and is dean of the bar of Quebec, for the district of Richelieu. He is a public-spirited gentleman, and has identified himself with the leading improvements—among others the fine public buildings recently erected—in the thriving town in which he resides. He has also taken an active interest in all the political movements of the country, and stands high in the estimation of his fellow-citizens. In religion he is an adherent of the Roman Catholic church; and in politics is a staunch Liberal. In February, 1862, he was married to Marie Louise Demers, and the issue of the marriage has been five children.
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=Sears, James Walker=, Lieutenant South Staffordshire regiment, was born in St. John, New Brunswick, on the 22nd January, 1861. He is a son of John Sears, of St. John, N.B., and Ann, daughter of the Rev. William Blackwood, of Nova Scotia, and grandson of Thatcher Sears, a United Empire loyalist, of the former place. He received his primary education in various private schools in his native city. He left St. John in 1877, and after spending a year at the Collegiate Institute at Galt, Ontario, became a cadet at the Royal Military College at Kingston. Here, on the 25th June, 1881, after a course of studies lasting for three and a half years, and having passed a successful examination, he was awarded a commission in the Canadian militia, and a commission in Her Majesty’s 38th South Staffordshire regiment of foot. In this regiment he served throughout the Egyptian campaign of 1882, was present at the reconnaissance in force at Kafr-el Dwar on the 5th August, the surrender of Damietta by Abdulal, and the subsequent occupation of Cairo. For those services he received a medal and the Khedive’s star. He visited the Holy Land in April, 1883, and in May of the same year returned to Malta from Egypt with his regiment. He was appointed Lieutenant in the Infantry School corps by the Canadian government in December, 1883, in which corps, at Toronto, he has since held the appointment of adjutant. He served in the North-West rebellion of 1885 as brigade major of the Battleford column, and was present at the battle of Cut Knife Hill, and subsequently commanded the scout corps of the Turtle Lake column in the pursuit of Big Bear. He was mentioned in despatches, and received the medal and clasp. He became brevet captain in the Canadian militia on the 21st December, 1887.
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=Proulx, Hon. Jean Baptiste George=, Nicolet, province of Quebec, was born at Nicolet, on the 23rd April, 1809, and died on the 27th January, 1884. He was the son of J. B. Proulx and Magdalen Hébert. His great grandfather was one of the oldest settlers of Nicolet, having settled there in 1725. The subject of this sketch was educated at Nicolet College. He was elected, in 1860, for De La Vallière, and sat in the Legislative Council until the union. In 1867, he was appointed to the Legislative Council for life. He was a Liberal in politics. He was one of the patriots of 1837; and was charged with having cast bullets, but was not arrested. He was married, on the 20th January, 1835, to Julia, daughter of Dr. Calvin Alexander, a graduate of Harvard, and had issue as follows:—Rev. M. G. Proulx, of Nicolet College, and Revs. Edward and Stephen Proulx, of the Society of Jesus.
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=Charlebois, Alphonse=, Contractor, Quebec, is well known throughout the Dominion as an extensive and successful undertaker of great public works. A French-Canadian, he is endowed with more than the ordinary energy and versatility of his race, and his career furnishes an apt illustration of the triumph of tact and pluck over adverse circumstances. He was not of the fortunate class who are said to come into the world with “a silver spoon in their mouth.” His parents were simple Lower Canadian _habitants_, and our subject was born of their marriage at the town of St. Henri, Hochelaga county, on the outskirts of Montreal, on the 15th December, 1841. His father, Arséne Charlebois, was a native of Pointe Claire, in Jacques Cartier county, P.Q., and his mother was Edwidge Chagnon, of Verchères, P.Q. On his father’s side he is closely related to the late Mr. Charlebois, M.P.P. for Laprairie; to the Rev. Mr. Charlebois, curé of Ste. Therese, and to the late Dr. Charlebois, of Bleury street, Montreal; and, on his mother’s, to the late Sir George Etienne Cartier, who owed his election for Verchères, then one of the most Liberal constituencies in Lower Canada (after his defeat in Montreal East by the present Chief Justice Sir A. A. Dorion), mainly to the exertions and influence of her brother, the late Paschal Chagnon, of Verchères. Young Charlebois was educated partly at the Christian Brothers’ School and partly at Maxwell’s Commercial School, both in Montreal, receiving a fair commercial training, in French and English. After leaving school he served about a year to the builder’s trade in Montreal, and then entered the hardware trade in that city as a clerk to the late Mr. Brewster, with whom he remained nine years down to 1865, when he bought out the business on the retirement of his employer. Two years later, he abandoned hardware, and boldly took up the lumber trade in Montreal, making advances to the lumberers on the Gatineau, and otherwise speculating in the great staple of the country with more or less success until 1872, when he took a new and still more enterprising departure. Since the days of the Hon. François Baby in Lower Canada, no French-Canadian had figured prominently as a public contractor. In that field, the English speaking element were virtually without competition. Mr. Charlebois pluckily resolved to enter it, and the results have more than justified this step on his part. He is to-day known from Halifax to Vancouver as a leading contractor, and the country is indebted to him for the successful execution of some of its most important public works. His first undertaking in this line was on the Lachine canal, and since then he has been connected with the contracts for the Dufferin improvements at Quebec, the graving dock at Levis, the Georgian Bay branch of the C.P.R., the construction of four sections of the same road in British Columbia, and the erection of the new parliament buildings at Quebec, and of the new departmental buildings on Wellington street, Ottawa. The two last mentioned structures remain as lasting monuments, as well to his taste and skill, as to his energy as a builder. He is a director of the Clemow syndicate for the construction of the Great North-Western Central Railway, Manitoba, and before his removal from Montreal to Quebec, which is now his residence, he was during three years an alderman, and afterwards, during four years, mayor of his native town of St. Henri. He belongs to the Roman Catholic faith, and during his residence in the Montreal district was elected people’s trustee for life of the Roman Catholic parish church of St. Henri. He has travelled exclusively in Canada and the United States, chiefly on business. In 1865 he married Marie Flore Charlotte Valois, daughter of the late Dr. Valois, of Pointe Claire, and at one time M.P. for the county of Jacques Cartier, P.Q., and by her has had issue four children, all of whom are still in their teens.
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=Dupré, Rev. L. L.=, Sorel, province of Quebec, was born in Sorel, in 1841, and educated at the Seminary of St. Hyacinthe, P.Q. In 1868, he was ordained a priest, and placed as vicar in the Roman Catholic cathedral. In 1873, he was called as vicar to his native town, and in 1875 was appointed to the important post of curé of Sorel. Sorel being the most considerable place in the Roman Catholic diocese of St. Hyacinthe, requires the unremitting exertions and oversight of the pastor, and no one could perform the duties more zealously and unremittingly than does the present worthy incumbent. The rev. father has, in addition to his special duties, assisted in many ways in promoting the material welfare of his native town. As an instance, it may be mentioned that in 1880, by his exertions amongst his parishioners subscriptions were raised to an amount sufficient to build a large addition to the general hospital of Richelieu county, rendering that institution much more comfortable for the patients, and more suitable to the growing requirements of the town. He was also mainly instrumental in furthering the erection of the new college building, which is acknowledged to be the finest structure of the kind in the province. Since his incumbency, he has had the former parish of St. Peter’s divided into three distinct parishes—St. Peter’s, Ste. Anne, and St. Joseph. The parish of Ste. Anne, of which parish Mr. Dupré is the curé, is quite a populous one, and through his active exertions, a commodious stone church was soon built in the parish, on one of the finest sites of the St. Lawrence. That the curé possesses very superior administrative abilities is sufficiently proved by the foregoing, and is further attested by the manner in which he performs his onerous ecclesiastical duties. He has a remarkable memory, is a fluent speaker, and as a pulpit orator is unequalled by few. He is an ardent admirer of art, which he patronises liberally, and is possessed of a considerable collection of valuable and rare books, engravings, etc., proving a literary and cultivated taste. He is much esteemed by his parishioners and by the community of Sorel generally.
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=Tessier, Jules=, Barrister, Quebec, M.P.P. for Portneuf, is one of the most conspicuous and popular figures in the legal, political and social life of the ancient capital. His distinguished father, Hon. U. J. Tessier, is a judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench for the province of Quebec, and was formerly member for Portneuf in the Canadian parliament, commissioner of public works in the Macdonald-Sicotte administration, speaker of the Legislative Council before confederation, and at one time mayor of Quebec. Between the careers of the father and son there are many points of resemblance. The father was one of the most prominent members of the Quebec bar in his day; the son is a rising member of the same bar. The father represented Portneuf in the Canadian parliament; the son represents the same constituency in the Quebec legislature. Lastly, the father was a member of the city council and mayor of Quebec; the son to-day is one of the councillors for St. Louis ward of that city, and a prominent member of the civic body, though still quite a young man. He was born at Quebec, in 1852. His mother, now deceased, before her marriage, was a Miss Kelly, and a member of the Drapeau family, seigneurs of Rimouski. His maternal grandfather was of Irish extraction, but the remainder of his parentage is French-Canadian on both sides. Educated in the classics at the Quebec Seminary and the Jesuits’ College, Montreal, he afterwards studied law, and was called to the bar in 1874, and soon acquired a considerable practice, together with the confidence of the public and the esteem of his professional brethren. He is one of the editors of the ‘Quebec Law Reports.’ In politics, Mr. Tessier, like his father while in public life, is what is termed a moderate Liberal, but almost from his youth he has been actively identified with all the struggles of the Liberal party in the Quebec district. He was secretary of the National Convention held in 1880, and was elected president of the Quebec Liberal Club after its reorganization for the last provincial and federal electoral campaign, which office he still holds. As such, he was selected as the party’s candidate to oppose ex-Mayor Brousseau, of Quebec, in Portneuf county, for the Legislative Assembly of the province, at the general election of October, 1886, and defeated his adversary, who had been the sitting member, by a very heavy majority. In the house, he is recognized as one of the staunchest supporters of the Mercier government, and has proved himself a most useful member. To his exertions Quebec was mainly indebted for its selection for the holding of the Provincial Exhibition of 1887, which was so great a success. Mr. Tessier is a member of the Church of Rome; and for many years past one of the principal officers of the St. Jean Baptiste Society, of Quebec. He is a director of the Lake St. John Railway Company, and a member of the Provincial Board of Arts. He is married to a daughter of Edmund Barnard, the well-known Q.C., of Montreal, and his two sisters are the wives respectively of the Hon. Alexander Chauveau, who was solicitor-general in the Joly administration, and is now police judge at Quebec, and of Lieut.-Col. Duchesnay, deputy adjutant-general for the Quebec military district.
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=Aikins, Hon. James Cox=, P.C., Lieut.-Governor of Manitoba and Keewatin Territory, was born in the township of Toronto, Peel county, Ontario, on the 30th of March, 1823. His father, the late James Aikins, emigrated from the county of Monaghan, Ireland, to Philadelphia, in 1816, and after a residence of four years there he removed to Upper Canada, and took up a quantity of land in the first concession north of the Dundas road, in the township of Toronto. The subject of our sketch was the eldest son, and was brought up on his father’s farm, and was early inured to the hardships of rural life in Canada in those primitive times. He united with the Methodist body at an early age. He attended the public schools in the neighborhood of his home, and afterwards spent some time at the Upper Canada Academy, at Cobourg, which subsequently developed into Victoria College and University. At the first collegiate examination, which was held in 1843, he figured as one of the merit students. After completing his education he settled down on a farm in the county of Peel, a few miles from his paternal homestead. In 1845, soon after leaving college, he married Mary Elizabeth Jane Somerset, the daughter of a neighboring yeoman. In 1851 he was tendered the nomination as the representative of his native constituency in the Legislative Assembly, and declined, but at the general election held in 1854, he offered himself as a candidate on the Reform side, in opposition to the sitting member, George Wright, and was elected. Upon taking his seat he recorded his first vote against the Hincks-Morin administration, and thus participated in bringing about the downfall of that ministry. He voted for the secularization of the clergy reserves, and his voice was occasionally heard in support of measures relating to public improvements. In the election of 1861, owing to his action on the county town question, which excited keen sectional opposition, he was defeated by the late Hon. John Hillyard Cameron. The following year he was elected a member of the Legislative Council for the Home Division, comprising the counties of Peel and Halton. He continued to sit in the council so long as that body had an existence; and when it was swept away by confederation he was called to the Senate of the Dominion. On the 9th of December, 1867, he accepted office in the government of Sir John A. Macdonald, as secretary of state, and has ever since been a follower of that statesman. During his tenure of office the Dominion lands bureau was established—which has since extended until it has become an independent department of state under control of the minister of the interior. The Public Lands Act of 1872, is another measure which dates from Mr. Aikins’ term of office. The disclosure with reference to the sale of the Pacific Railway charter resulted, in November, 1873, in the overthrowing of the government. Upon Sir John A. Macdonald’s return to power in October, 1878, he again accepted office as secretary of state, and retained that position until the month of November, 1880, when there was a readjustment of portfolios, and he became minister of inland revenue—which he held until his resignation, 23rd May, 1882. On the 22nd September, 1882, he was appointed lieutenant-governor of the province of Manitoba, and Keewatin Territory. He is major of the 3rd battalion Peel Militia, and chairman of the Manitoba and North-West Loan Company.
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