Part 179

=Honan, Martin=, Barrister, Three Rivers, Quebec province, was born in 1845, at Fermoy, Cork county, Ireland. His parents were Kernon Honan, and Mary Burns. His father was a corporal in the 94th regiment of foot, and served for twenty-one years in the army. The parent pair with their three children, Patrick, Martin and Margaret, all under eleven years of age, emigrated to Canada in 1848. A short time after their arrival in Montreal—having been taken sick on the boat while on the passage from Quebec to that city—father and mother and little sister died, and Patrick, eleven years of age, and Martin, the subject of our sketch, three years of age, were left to the tender mercy of the world. They were at first taken to the hospital, and afterwards conveyed by a Catholic priest (now Monsignor Marquis of St. Celestine, county of Nicolet, P.Q.) to Becancour, in the latter county. The little party taken to the country at this time consisted of fourteen orphans, and all were adopted by French-Canadian farmers. Patrick was adopted by Nazaire Comeau, and Martin by Olivier Tourigny. He remained three years and three months at Nicolet College, and on the 1st of May, 1862, having completely forgotten the English language, he went to St. Patrick’s Hill, in the township of Tingwick, county of Arthabaska, and settled in the midst of an Irish settlement to pick up again his native language. Here he hired as a clerk in a store, where he remained four months. He then resolved to adopt a profession, and in July, 1861, began to study for the position of notary public. In 1863, having been retained by the late Mr. Parker, a celebrated lawyer of his day, to take notes of the evidence in a celebrated murder trial then going on, he was so impressed with Mr. Parker’s eloquent address to the jury, that he decided to abandon the notaryship and begin the study of law. But having had only three years of a classical course, he found he could not be admitted to study without further education. Nothing daunted he bought a lot of books, and perused his studies alone, and when he thought he could pass an examination he went to a person authorised by our law and passed his examination. Having received from him the necessary certificate of qualification, he went to Quebec, passed his examination before the Board of Examiners, of which Mr. Parker was a member, and was admitted to the study of law. He studied hard, and had the satisfaction of being admitted to the bar of Lower Canada on the 5th of August, 1867, and began the practice of his profession at Arthabaskaville, where he remained until the 2nd of October, 1872, when he removed to Three Rivers, where he now successfully does business. Mr. Honan was deputy registrar of deeds at Arthabaskaville, in the county of Arthabaska, from the 7th September, 1862, to December, 1865, and from the latter date to October, 1866, clerk in the prothontary’s office. From this time to June, 1867, he followed the law lectures at St. Mary College, Montreal, and studied under the Hon. Senator Trudel. He is a Liberal in politics, and has taken part in all political contests since 1867. He was married on the 6th September, 1868, to Marie Louise Annabella Stein, second daughter of Adolphus Stein and Marie Genevieve Buteau. Mrs. Honan’s father emigrated from Germany when only seventeen years of age.

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=Gilmour, Lieut.-Col. Arthur H.=, Banker, Stanbridge East, province of Quebec, was born at “The Manor,” Nicolet, Quebec. His grandfather was the late Assistant Commissary-General Gilmour; and his father the widely-known Dr. Gilmour, master of surgery, F.R.H.S., Glasgow, Scotland, and now located as a practising physician and surgeon at Waterloo, Quebec. His mother was a de Cressy, daughter of the late Michael de Cressy, seignior, of Nicolet. His parentage, therefore, is half Scotch and half French. Colonel Gilmour, the subject of the present sketch, received his education principally in the French College, Nicolet, and is equally conversant with the French and English languages. In 1864 he entered the Military School in Quebec city, where he took a full course of instruction, and passed a highly creditable examination, receiving a first-class diploma, and was immediately gazetted as captain in the militia service of Canada. The following year he received his commission of lieutenant in the 52nd (Brome and Shefford) battalion, in which he served about four years, during which time he was called to the front with his company on the occasion of a threatened invasion by Fenians. He was afterwards transferred to the 60th (Missisquoi) battalion, with the rank of senior major, and was shortly afterwards elevated to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, a position which he now holds. Colonel Gilmour also holds a prominent position in the Masonic order, having entered the Sussex Encampment, Dunham, in 1874, and was installed and proclaimed knight-preceptor of the Order of the Temple in 1877, and past eminent preceptor in 1883. He is a director of the Montreal and Vermont Junction Railway Company, and secretary-treasurer of the board. He is also vice-president of the M. P. and B. Railway, and, besides, holds several important local positions, such as president of the Stanbridge Agassiz Association, president of the Missisquoi County Ploughing Association, and vice-president of the 60th battalion Rifle Association. In June, 1885, the two latter associations united in a grand demonstration in his honor, to show their appreciation of the valuable services he had rendered these bodies during his connection with them. The event was one long to be remembered by the hundreds who participated in it, and was the grandest affair of the kind ever held in the township. Colonel Gilmour is now the owner of the most valuable real estate properties in Missisquoi county, having in his possession about one thousand acres of extra tillable land. He is also the proprietor of the _Missisquoi Record_ newspaper, published in Stanbridge East, a journal established June 5th, 1885, and devoted to the interests of the Eastern Townships of Canada. His banking institution was established in 1867 by J. C. Baker, his late father-in-law, to which he succeeded in 1880. Since Colonel Gilmour assumed control of its affairs the business of the bank has nearly doubled. Although a private and non-incorporated institution, “Gilmour’s Bank” is known far and wide, and its numerous customers are among the best and most prominent people and firms in the province.

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=Deschenes, Geo. Honore=, St. Epiphane (oû Viger), province of Quebec, M.P.P. for Témiscouata, was born at Cacouna, on the 16th August, 1841. He is a farmer and takes an active interest in public affairs. He has been for thirteen years secretary-treasurer of his municipality and of the school board of the parish. He is also a director of the St. Lawrence & Témiscouata Railway Co. He has always taken a part in the management of the Agricultural Society of Témiscouata county, and is its vice-president. In 1875 he was returned to represent Témiscouata in the Legislative Assembly, and was re-elected in 1882 by acclamation. He was again elected at the last general election. In politics he is a Conservative, and in his county is held in high esteem. On 26th January, 1864, he married Susan Michand.

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=Duchesnay, Lieutenant-Colonel Henri Jules Juchereau=, was born in Quebec on the 6th July, 1845, and in his unexpected and untimely death, not only those who know him lost a true friend, but the parliament of Canada lost a member who, had he lived, would doubtless have taken a leading part in the councils of the nation. He was a descendant of some of the most distinguished French families of the province of Quebec, the Duchesnays having settled in Canada in 1645, and held several seigniories, including Beauport, Gaudarville and others. His father was a member of the Dominion senate, and the mother of the present sketch was of the famous Taschereau family, which has given to Canada its first cardinal and one of its greatest politicians and most able judges. Young Duchesnay received a liberal education, studying both at Laval and McGill Universities, after having passed through a sound preliminary training in the Seminary of Quebec. After reading a course in law, he was, at the age of twenty-one years, called to the bar of the province of Quebec. Being in a position to do so, he gave a great part of his time and attention to public affairs and to great public enterprises. He identified himself with the 23rd (Beauce) battalion of the active militia, and became lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, a position which he was eminently fitted to hold. In 1869 he married Caroline Tetu, daughter of C. Tetu, a well-known member of the old family of that name. He served several terms as mayor of St. Mary, Beauce, and also as warden of Beauce county, in which positions he qualified himself to engage in the higher legislative duties which he was afterwards elected to perform. He was for a time president of the Levis and Kennebec Railway Company, of which enterprise he was one of the most active promoters. In the general election of 1877 he was nominated as the nationalist Conservative candidate, and succeeded in defeating his opponent by about five hundred majority. During the short time he was in parliament he made many friends, and his untimely death, a short time after the session of 1878, was a subject of general regret among his fellow-members.

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=Duclos, Silas T.=, of the firm of Duclos & Payan, St. Hyacinthe, is the third living son of Antoine Duclos, J.P., and Julie Philibothe, of St. Pie, county of Bagot, province of Quebec, and was born the 23rd of May, 1846. He went through the elementary schools of his parish, then was sent to the mission school of Pointe aux Trembles, and for one year attended the commissioners school, in Montreal, with a view of learning English and qualifying himself for business, for which he showed an early disposition. In 1864 he became a clerk with Mr. Williamson, dry goods merchant; later on he entered the establishment of Henry Morgan & Co., Montreal; then he went to H. Vallee’s store in Ogdensburgh, New York state. In 1868 he returned to Montreal, and again found employment with Henry Morgan & Co. Finding that little money could be made in clerking, and having no means to start business as a drygoods merchant, he resolved to seek some other means of earning a livelihood. Several of his friends and acquaintances were doing well in the bark business, so he made a temporary arrangement with J. Daigneau, then largely engaged in this line of business. When the engagement expired, he visited Europe, and on his return entered into partnership with Paul F. Payan. They soon got tired of the risky bark business, not having enough capital to exert an influence on the market. In 1873 they decided to go into the tanning business, secured a lot, and put up a building 75 feet long. During their first few years in business they suffered heavy losses by the failure of some of their customers, and the capital with which they started was considerably reduced. But they worked steadily on, nevertheless, having adopted the motto, “Honesty is the best policy.” Mr. Payan devoted all his attention to the shop, and Mr. Duclos to the finances, and they soon got out of difficulty. In 1876 their goods got a first prize at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. In October of the same year, Mr. Duclos was married to Elizabeth Finley. Better days began to dawn on him and the firm he belonged to. In steering safely through the hard times, without wrecking, while so many apparently stronger were failing on all sides, they won for themselves the enviable reputation of an honest and well managed firm. In 1875 they bought a rival tannery of V. Coté, and in 1882 they doubled the size and tripled the capacity of their own tannery. With the property came the influence in local affairs. In 1880 Mr. Duclos was elected councillor, which position he has held ever since to the great satisfaction of the electors. During his effective administration the city of St. Hyacinthe underwent several important improvements; a public park was created, a fine police station built, an effective fire service organized, the granite mills, and a large boot and shoe factory started, and a gas company put on a working footing. Thanks to his influence, a tannery for the manufacture of morocco leather was started in St. Hyacinthe, and its proprietors are now doing a good business. Mr. Duclos was brought up a Protestant, his parents having seceded from the Church of Rome in 1840. He and his family belong to the Presbyterian church.

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=Robertson, Norman=, Treasurer of the County of Bruce, Walkerton, Ontario, was born on the 27th June, 1845, in Belleville, Ontario. His father, Peter Robertson, merchant, was born in Scotland; and his mother, Sarah Ross, was born in England. His grandfather on the paternal side was David Robertson, a Presbyterian minister; and his mother’s father was one of those who entered England with Prince Charles Edward Stuart in 1746. Norman Robertson, the subject of our sketch, was educated at the Belleville Grammar School, where at an early age he gave evidence of the talent and ability which afterwards distinguished him in commercial pursuits. He left school when only eleven years of age; and from 1856 to 1863 was engaged in his father’s shop at Kincardine; from 1863 to 1869 with Lewis, Kay & Co., wholesale dry goods, Montreal; from 1869 to 1874 with John Birrell & Co., London, Ontario, as English buyer; from 1874 to 1877 English buyer for Robertson, Linton & Co., of Montreal, and from 1877 to 1887 he carried on business on his own account in Kincardine. He became a member of the Kincardine company of volunteers at the time of the _Trent_ affair; and in 1866 joined the Victoria Rifles of Montreal, and went to the front with them that year. Mr. Robertson commenced his present official duties on May 6th, 1887, prior to which he resided in Kincardine, and sat for three years at the School Board. He was president of the Board of Trade there for two years, one year town councillor, and was also superintendent of the Sunday school for nine years. In all of these capacities he acquitted himself with perfect satisfaction to all concerned. In politics he was a Reformer until the initiation of the national policy, in 1878, but since then he has been a supporter of this policy. As buyer for the two wholesale dry goods houses noted above, he frequently visited the British markets, and has, during his lifetime, crossed the Atlantic no less than twenty-four times. He is thoroughly familiar with Canada and its needs, having during his commercial career visited nearly every town in it from Sarnia to Halifax. In religion he is a Presbyterian. Comments on the career of Mr. Robertson are needless, as the above facts speak for themselves, and he ought to be proud of being, in the true sense of the word, “the architect” of his own fortunes. He was married in Montreal on August 3rd, 1871, to Lilla May Warren, daughter of S. R. Warren, organ builder, afterwards of Toronto, and has a family of four children, two girls and two boys.

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=Gibsone, William Cuppage=, Advocate, Quebec, is a leading member of the Quebec bar, in large practice. He was born at Quebec on the 12th March, 1841, and is a son of the late George Farar Gibsone, merchant, of that city, and his wife, Elizabeth Cuppage. On the father’s side he is of Scotch, and on the mother’s Welsh descent. He was educated classically at the Quebec High School under the late Doctors William Stewart Smith and Wilkie, and studied law in the office of Campbell & Kerr. On his admission to the bar, in 1862, he entered into partnership with his patron, Mr. Archibald Campbell, now one of the prothonotaries of the Superior Court at Quebec, and rapidly rose to distinction in his profession as much by his industry and application as by his talents and high character. On the retirement of Mr. Campbell, he formed a new partnership with the late Mr. Leveson Lewell, and on the death of the latter, with his present associate, T. C. Aylwin, a nephew of the late Judge Aylwin, and one of the city councillors of Quebec. His practice is now one of the largest in the Quebec district, and he enjoys in a high degree the regard of his colleagues of the bar, and the esteem and confidence of the public. He has been a member of the council of the Quebec bar for a number of years, and has in addition filled the offices of syndic and delegate of the same. He is an active member of the Church of England; and in politics, an Independent Liberal. In September, 1871, he married Elizabeth Primrose, and has had issue eight children, all of whom are still young.

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=Farrell, Edward=, M.D., Halifax, Nova Scotia, is a native of Halifax, where he was born about forty-five years ago. He is the son of Dominick Farrell, of Dartmouth, N.S. His boyhood was spent in Halifax, where he received his early education at St. Mary’s College of that city. Having resolved to devote his life to the profession of medicine, he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, and achieved great distinction in his studies. He is especially remarkable for sureness of touch, great strength of nerves, and cool self-reliance and good judgment in critical cases. He graduated as M.D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York in 1864; was two years on the house staff of Bellevue Hospital, New York, and commenced practice in Halifax in 1866, where he rapidly came to the front as a leading physician, and worked up for himself an extensive and lucrative business. His office for some years was in Argyle street, a central part of the city; but he now lives in a handsome residence in South Park street. His wife was Miss Walsh, daughter of the late Thomas Walsh, of Halifax, and they have several children. In religion he is a member of the Roman Catholic church. Politically he is a staunch Liberal, and is a strong believer in the policy of home rule for Ireland and repeal for Nova Scotia. When the provincial government was reconstructed, and the Hon. P. C. Hill became provincial secretary and premier, Dr. Farrell was induced by his friends to come forward as a candidate at the election of 1874, the ticket being P. C. Hill, Dr. Farrell and Donald Archibald, now high sheriff of Halifax county. They were opposed by the Hon. W. J. Almon, now Dominion senator; Robert Sedgewick, afterwards recorder of Halifax, and now deputy minister of justice at Ottawa; and Martin J. Griffin, then of Halifax, now librarian of parliament at Ottawa; but Messrs. Hill, Farrell and Archibald, succeeded in winning the battle at the polls. From 1877 to 1878 Dr. Farrell was a member of the Hill administration without office. This was an era of vigorous railway-building in Nova Scotia, the government giving liberal help to the Eastern Extension Railway running from New Glasgow, Pictou county, through Antigonish and Guysborough counties to the Strait of Canso; the Western Counties Railway, and the Nictaux and Atlantic Railway. The great seal question, involving the question of the validity of documents which had been stamped since confederation with the great seal in use previous to confederation, also challenged much attention in the house and the law courts at this time. Dr. Farrell frequently addressed the Assembly, always forcibly, and was listened to with attention and respect. During this time he had several passages at arms with Douglas B. Woodworth, member for King’s county, who has since figured in the House of Commons at Ottawa. At the close of the parliament previous to the general election of 1878, Dr. Farrell, although strongly urged to again accept a nomination, declined to do so on the ground that parliamentary work interfered too seriously with his medical practice. But before he retired to private life, he, however, addressed to the electorate a strong letter on the situation, advising them to support the Liberal ticket. He also advocated in the public press the doctrine of repeal previous to the Dominion general election of February, 1887.

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=Henderson, David=, Acton, Ontario, M.P. for Halton, was born on the 18th February, 1841, in the township of Nelson. His father, John Henderson, one of the pioneer farmers of the county, came from Roxburghshire, Scotland, in 1832, and settled in the township of Milton. David was educated at the Milton Grammar School and the Normal School, Toronto. Mr. Henderson has been reeve and councillor of the village of Acton for about fifteen years. He was appointed to the office of deputy registrar of the county of Halton in 1866, which position he held until 1873. He then commenced business by opening a general store, which he still carries on. In connection with this he has a private bank, which he opened in the autumn of 1881. This institution was one that the citizens of Acton greatly needed, as they had no banking office nearer than Guelph. In politics Mr. Henderson is a Liberal-Conservative, and was elected during the bye-election in 1888 to represent Halton in the House of Commons. He is an adherent of the Presbyterian church. He married on Christmas Day, 1865, Alison Christie, daughter of Charles Christie, late of Nassagaweya, and has a family of six sons and one daughter.

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