Part 144
[7] The Senecas were one of the Five Nations, composing the redoubtable Iroquois Confederacy. The Tuscaroras joined the League in 1715, and it is subsequently known in history as the “Six Nations.”
[8] In this year, Eustache, son of Abraham and Margaret Martin, the first child of European parentage born in Canada, was born at Quebec.
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=Lacerte, Elie=, M.D., Three Rivers, was born on the 15th November, 1821, at Yamachiche, county of St. Maurice, district of Three Rivers, province of Quebec. He is a son of Pierre Lacerte, farmer, of the same place, who was born 11th September, 1792, and died 29th April, 1885, in the suburb of Three Rivers. His grandfather emigrated from the city of Angers, France, in 1671. In 1812 this gentleman enlisted as lieutenant in the Canadian militia, under the late Lieut.-Colonel C. B. A. Gugy, and served up to 1815. On his return he married Louise Blais, of Yamachiche. After a classical course at Nicolet College, Elie Lacerte, the subject of our sketch, began the study of medicine at Three Rivers, and in 1843 went to continue them at the University of Harvard, Cambridge, Mass., where he graduated doctor of medicine on the 5th of March, 1845. He practised as a physician in Boston for some time, then returning to Yamachiche on the 19th November, 1847, where he continued to practice. On the 26th June, 1853, he was appointed justice of the peace for the district of Three Rivers; and in March, 1857, was appointed as postmaster of his town. In 1864 the Post-Office department entrusted him with the conveyance of mails from Montreal to Three Rivers, and this service he faithfully performed up to 1868, when he was elected member of the House of Commons for the county of St. Maurice. In 1872 he was re-elected by acclamation, and in the following session he presented the address in answer to the speech from the throne, but in 1874 he was defeated on the Pacific Scandal question. In 1875 he was elected to a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec, and he sat in this house until the 2nd of March, 1878, when the De Boucherville cabinet was dismissed by Lieut.-Gov. Le Tellier. He then withdrew from active public life, without, however, becoming indifferent to the success of the Liberal-Conservative party to which he always belonged. On the 13th October, 1886, he accepted the agency of the lands and forests of the Crown, in the district of St. Maurice, and that position he still holds. Some years ago Dr. Lacerte commenced a mercantile business, and succeeded very well, but growing tired of this kind of life, in 1884 he handed the business over to one of his sons, who has successfully conducted it ever since. In religion the doctor is a Roman Catholic. He married, 1848, Louise Lamy, and by her has had eleven children, six sons and five daughters. Four sons are still living, and the eldest, Arthur, succeeded his father in 1868 as postmaster.
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=Kerr, William Warren Hastings=, Q.C., Montreal, was born at Three Rivers, in November, 1826. He was the son of James Hastings Kerr, a respected land agent of Quebec. His grandfather, a distinguished English barrister, settled at Quebec in 1797, and was appointed by Imperial commission as judge of the Vice Admiralty Court at Quebec, on the 19th August, 1797; appointed judge of the King’s Bench, in 1807; called to the Executive Council in 1812; to the Legislative Council in 1821, and later on was speaker of the Legislative Council. Mr. Kerr received his early education at Lundy’s College, Quebec, and ultimately he proceeded to Queen’s College, Kingston, and at both institutions his love of legal studies was made conspicuous. He completed his legal studies at Quebec, first with Mr. (later on judge) Jean Chabot, and lastly with Mr. (now Sir) Andrew Stuart, chief justice, S.C. On the 1st May, 1854, he entered into partnership at Quebec with J. M. Le Moine, under the style of Kerr & Le Moine. In May, 1858, this partnership having been dissolved, he entered into partnership with Archibald Campbell, an old friend and fellow student. After practising with success for a few years at Quebec, under the well remembered style of Campbell & Kerr, he sought in Montreal a wider field for his splendid talents. The silk gown of a Queen’s counsel was conferred upon him in 1873, and McGill University granted him the degree of D.C.L. in the same year. He was dean of the Faculty of Law in McGill University and professor of International Law. He was elected _bâtonnier_ of the bar in 1878. In politics, Mr. Kerr was always of a markedly independent turn of mind, and it is generally conceded that if he had taken a more decided position in the political world he would have been elevated to the bench, which he would have ornamented. Twice he unsuccessfully contested parliamentary seats, once running against Sir John Rose in Huntingdon, in the first parliament; and secondly against the late H. A. Nelson for the Quebec legislature. Mr. Kerr’s position at the Montreal bar was one of the very foremost. In every branch of law, civil, criminal, international and constitutional, his opinion was generally regarded as final. Among the prominent trials in which he has figured may be noted the case of the St. Albans’ raiders and the Consolidated Bank; in the latter he defended the directors and secured their final acquittal. His contention as to the status of lieutenant-governors was accepted as final in the famous Letellier case. The news of his death on 12th February, 1888, was received with the deepest regret by his _confrères_ at the bar, and the courts were adjourned out of respect to his memory, in order that the members of the bar might attend his funeral in a body. Hon. Mr. Justice Davidson, at the opening of the Superior Court, in speaking of the death of Mr. Kerr, said: “During the years that I led in the Crown business of this district, there were few great cases in which he was not retained. As a consequence, I had many opportunities of being impressed with his deep knowledge of the principles and intricacies of criminal jurisprudence, his fertility of resource and his subtle powers as a cross examiner. On the civil side of the courts he also occupied a notable position. It is not often that the same mind achieves so large a mastery over two so dissimilar systems of laws. During my earlier practice I often turned to him for counsel, and it was given with a kindliness and sympathy which I have never forgotten. In later years our relations went much beyond those of an ordinary professional intimacy. Such a connection cannot end forever without personal sorrow, compelling the utterance of this more than formal eulogium to his attainments and character. And not only is the Queen’s counsel dead, a husband and father of rarely sweet and affectionate qualities is also to be buried out of our sight.” He was married to a daughter of the Rev. Mr. Arnold, by whom he had two children.
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=Sutherland, Hugh McKay=, Winnipeg, ex-M.P. for Selkirk, Manitoba, President of the Winnipeg and Hudson Bay Railway Company, is the descendant of an old Sutherlandshire (Scotland) family, and was born in New London, P.E.I., on 22nd February, 1843. His parents removed with their family to Oxford county, Ont., where the subject of this sketch was educated. Mr. Sutherland was engaged in lumbering and contracting for a considerable period, but, though leading an active life, he found time to take part in politics, becoming a man of considerable prominence among the members of the Liberal party with which he was identified. In 1874 he was made superintendent of Public Works in the Northwest Territories for the Dominion government, a position for which his knowledge and executive ability well fitted him. During his absence he was nominated for the Provincial legislature of Ontario by the Liberals of East Simcoe in the general election of 1875. Though unable to attend to the elections he made a good run, but was not successful. In 1879 he settled permanently in Winnipeg, after having made it his headquarters during the four or five years he was in the service of the Dominion government, and has ever since been identified with the progress of Manitoba and the development of some of its most important resources. In 1882 he contested Selkirk in the Liberal interest, and was returned for that constituency to the House of Commons at Ottawa by a majority of about 450. In the general election of February, 1887, he was nominated to oppose W. B. Scarth for the city of Winnipeg, but was defeated by the narrow majority of eight. He was the principal promoter of the Hudson Bay Railway scheme, an enterprise which is on a par with the Suez Canal or the Canadian Pacific Railway in its possibilities of influence upon the trade of the world; and was chiefly instrumental in procuring a charter from the Dominion parliament, in 1880, incorporating the Winnipeg and Hudson Bay Railway Company, of which he has ever since been president. Through countless difficulties he has guided this, his greatest enterprise, and has succeeded in building already about forty miles of the road. Notwithstanding the apathy of the mass of Canadians and the active opposition of many great interests, Mr. Sutherland still has faith in the scheme, and feels satisfied it will attract capitalists. He hopes soon to have arrangements completed for continuing the line on to Hudson Bay, and the placing on the route to Britain of a fleet of steamers specially built for the trade. This done, the result must be the revolutionizing of the trade, not only of Manitoba, but of the whole Canadian and American North-West. In energy, tact and organizing ability Mr. Sutherland is preeminently the man to have charge of a gigantic undertaking of this kind. He has been twice married; first, on the 10th February, 1864, to Mary, daughter of Alex. Dickie, of Brant. This lady having died on 11th October, 1875, he married his second wife, Mary, only daughter of Hon. T. Banks, of Baltimore, U.S., on the 10th December, 1878.
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=Otter, Lieut.-Colonel Wm. Dillon=, Toronto, was born near Clinton, Ontario, on the 3rd of December, 1843, and is of English descent. His parents were Alfred William Otter and Anna Dela Hooke. He received his education at the Grammar School, Goderich, and at the Model School and the Upper Canada College in Toronto. He joined the Victoria Rifles, Toronto (now F Company Queen’s Own), in October, 1861, and was promoted to a lieutenancy in the Queen’s Own Rifles in December, 1864. He served in that rank on the Niagara frontier during the winter of 1864-5, in the 2nd Administrative battalion. Appointed adjutant of the Queen’s Own in August, 1865, and was present throughout the Fenian raid of 1866, including the action at Limeridge. Promoted major in June, 1869, and went to England as second in command of the Wimbledon team in June, 1873. Promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel in June, 1874, and appointed to the command of the corps a year later. He commanded the regiment during the “pilgrimage riots,” Toronto, in the latter part of 1875, and also during the riots consequent upon the strike of the Grand Trunk engineers at Belleville, in January, 1877. In 1881 Colonel Otter compiled and published “The Guide,” a manual of military interior economy, etc., a book now extensively used in the present schools of military instruction and throughout the militia force. In 1883 he was appointed to the command of the Wimbledon team, and subsequently sent to Aldershot for three months to acquire information in the conduct of military schools. He received the appointment of commandant of the School of Infantry at Toronto, in December, 1883, and organized C company, Infantry School Corps, with the school of instruction attached thereto. During the Northwest rebellion of 1885, Colonel Otter commanded the centre or Battleford column, making therewith a forced march across the prairie from Saskatchewan Landing to Battleford, a distance of 190 miles, in five days and a half. He was in command of the successful reconnaisance against the Indian chief, Poundmaker, and in the action at Cut Knife Hill, which prevented that chief’s junction with Big Bear and their projected assistance to Riel. He afterwards, at the close of the rebellion, commanded the Turtle Lake column sent in pursuit of Big Bear. Appointed to the command of military district No. 2, in July, 1886, in conjunction with the charge of the Royal School of Infantry at Toronto. In religion the colonel is an adherent of the Church of England. He was married in October, 1865, to Mary, second daughter of the late Rev. James Porter, inspector of public schools, Toronto, and previously superintendent of education, New Brunswick.
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=Hart, John Semple=, Bookseller and Stationer, Perth, Ontario, is a Scotchman by birth, having been born in Paisley, on the 15th July, 1833. His father, John Hart, is a native of the town in which his son was born; and his mother, Jean Mason Semple, was born in the city of London, England. The Hart family is a very old one—one of the name appearing in the records of the old Paisley Abbey, as master mason and builder, in the thirteenth century. Since then it has continuously occupied public positions of trust in that old borough town. Mr. Hart and family sailed from Glasgow for Canada on the 15th April, 1842, and arrived in Perth on 17th June, of the same year, after a fairly prosperous voyage across the Atlantic in the old style of sailing vessel that now belongs to a past generation. Mr. Hart, sen., only intended to stay in Perth a few days and then go on to Toronto—then only a large town, but the principal town of Upper Canada—but whilst here, he was persuaded to remain and make it his home. Perth at this time was an active town, with a population of about 800 inhabitants, but its progress was comparatively slow in consequence of its being inland from the St. Lawrence and off the Rideau canal route. All emigrants passed over these highways of travel at this time to Upper Canada, where new tracts of farming lands were opening up of fine quality and on easy terms of purchase. These cheap lands and the attractions of pioneer life drew not only the emigrants but the young and active men from the older settlements, and thus Perth and its surrounding country was made tributary to the settlement of the “Huron Tract,” as all Ontario has been lately to the great Northwest. The progress of the town was therefore not as rapid as its citizens wished; business was also in a very unsatisfactory state at this time; money as a medium of exchange was not unknown, but was a scarce commodity; barter or trade was the principal means of exchange in buying and selling, and in the stores of that day you could get anything required for the household use from a “needle to an anchor.” Times were hard, and rigid economy the rule, and all members of the family were expected to do what they could to help. John S., the subject of this sketch, being the eldest of the family, had to make himself generally useful, give his father a helping hand at his trade, and embrace every chance offered for attending school. Fortunately, however, for him, he had received a good grounding in educational matters in schools in his native town and in Glasgow before coming to Canada, and suffered less in this direction than many a young man before him. In 1853 he and his father opened a book and stationery store; with a small stock of goods, but enough to meet the wants of the community. Business prospered, and in 1857 they removed to their present store, one of the best in Perth. Here for the past thirty years Mr. Hart has been carrying on business, and by close attention to it, and studying the wants of his numerous customers, he has succeeded in building up a good, paying book and stationery business. Mr. Hart has taken an active interest in military affairs, and served in the ranks for several years under the old militia system, until he was appointed a lieutenant, and after a while he was further promoted to the rank of major in the sedentary militia. During the _Trent_ excitement he became an active member of the local drill association, which was formed for home protection at that time. During the Northwest rebellion in 1885, when it was decided to establish hospitals for the wounded and sick soldiers and to send trained nurses to manage them, Mr. Hart, on learning that one of the ladies of the town had volunteered and was accepted as a nurse, and that it was necessary to send additional medical appliances and stores to those provided by the government, at once took an active part in equipping the “Perth Ward,” and the generous response of his fellow-townsmen was afterwards attested to by many a poor fellow who benefited by these auxiliary stores. And, in this connection, it may also be said that after the death of young Lieut. Kippen, of Perth (who was killed at Batoche), when it was decided to erect a monument to his memory, Mr. Hart exerted himself in procuring subscriptions, and was an active member on the committee appointed to see that the wishes of the subscribers were carried out, and, as a result of their united efforts, the Kippen memorial monument now forms the most conspicuous of the many beautiful monuments in Elmwood Cemetery, Perth. In 1864, Mr. Hart was placed on the list of justices of the peace, but not being ambitious for public positions, he has always declined to serve in this capacity, as he has almost invariably done in municipal offices. He has been connected with several local manufacturing companies, the Tay Navigation Company, etc., and it may almost be said that the Perth Cemetery Company owes its existence to him, for he was instrumental in getting the majority of the stock subscribed in 1871 or 1872, and for the successful working of the company. He has now held the office of treasurer and manager of this company for over fifteen years, and the beautiful grounds of the cemetery are a credit alike to the town and manager. Mr. Hart is a Conservative, and takes an active part in provincial and federal politics. He supports the Conservative party because it represents his ideas on trade and commerce, he having advocated the national policy long before it was introduced. In municipal affairs he is also interested, and is always willing to help in anything that has for its object the building up of the town of Perth—railways, education, etc. In religion, he belongs to the Presbyterian church. Mr. Hart has not had time to revisit his father-land; but he has visited nearly the whole of Canada from east to west, making the tour of the lakes from the Saguenay to Duluth, and the principal towns and cities of Ontario, on various occasions, and all the principal cities of the Northern and New England States, either for pleasure or business. He is a citizen that Perth could ill spare. He was married on January 1st, 1857, to Margaret Brown, daughter of the late William Brown, of Glasgow, Scotland, and later, of Perth, Ontario. She died in 1863, leaving a family of two sons and one daughter. He was married again in Feb., 1870, to Mary Irving, daughter of the late John Irving, of Montreal, and who came from Scotland and the parish where his kinsman, the celebrated Edward Irving, was born.
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