Harris, John Leonard, Merchant and Manufacturer, Moncton, New Brunswick, was born in Norton, Kings county, on the 27th September, 1833. He is the second son of Michael Spurr Harris, who came to Moncton with his family in 1836. Here John L. Harris received his education, and in early life became engaged with G. &. J. Salter, shipbuilders, as their bookkeeper and chief business man. About the year 1856 he associated with him his brother, C. P. Harris, in the shipbuilding business, which they carried on under the firm name of J. & C. Harris. And since 1858, as general merchants, they have largely imported British, foreign and West India goods. From this business it may be said was developed some of the most important industries of the town of Moncton, viz.: a sugar refinery and a cotton mill—and these were established in 1880 and 1882, under the supervision of this firm—J. L. Harris being the president and managing director of both companies. But it is largely to Mr. Harris’s own personal exertions and untiring energy that his native town is indebted for the accomplishment of its most important public benefit—a work which has been of equal benefit to every citizen, and has not only placed Moncton at once in a position to prosecute the industries and arts of life, but has fixed a permanent value to real estate, while it protects property from fire, and insures health, cleanliness and comfort for future generations. It was in 1878 that he organized the Moncton Gas Light and Water Company, the works of which, although extensive, were carried to completion with great promptness and success during the same year. Within three months 30,000 days’ labor were performed; and combined with this was erected the gas works, during the same year, which subsequently included a system of electric lighting. Mr. Harris has been the president and managing director of this company, as well as of the sugar and cotton manufacturing companies, from their organization to the present time; and he has for many years been active in advocating and promoting a harbor improvement enterprise for Moncton, having, with his colleagues, obtained acts of the Dominion and Local parliaments incorporating the Moncton Dock and Harbor Improvement Company. He has also been identified with other public enterprises in the town, and generally those called into existence by reason of the national policy of Canada, which he has warmly supported. He is an upholder of the principles of the Liberal-Conservative party. In 1881 and 1882 Mr. Harris was elected to the position of mayor, and thus served two years as presiding officer of the Moncton town council. He has been for many years very active in Freemasonry, and is a past master of Keith lodge; past first principal of Botsford Royal Arch Chapter; a member of the order of Knights Templars, and has taken other advanced degrees. In religion he is an adherent of the Presbyterian church. He was married August 11th, 1864, to Mary, second daughter of the late Alexander Cowie, M.D.
Joncas, Louis Zephrin, General Agent, Grand River, M.P. for Gaspé, is of Norman descent, and was born at Grand River, in the county of Gaspé, province of Quebec, on the 26th July, 1846. His parents were Léon Joncas and Esther Beaudin. His family was during many years engaged in the fishing industry. Mr. Joncas, the subject of our sketch, received his education at the College Masson, in Terrebonne, near Montreal, and after having gone through his classical course of studies he began studying law in Montreal, but in consequence of ill health was obliged to discontinue it and go back to his native village, where during twelve years he has carried on the business of fish-curing. In 1876 Mr. Joncas was appointed sheriff of the county of Gaspé, in place of John Short, and this office he held until the 20th February, 1887, when he resigned to run for the House of Commons. Under the name and style of L. Z. Joncas & Co., he keeps at Grand River a general agency and accountant’s office. In 1883 he was chosen by the Dominion government one of the commissioners to represent Canada, and more especially the province of Quebec, at the International Fisheries Exhibition, held in London, England, and in this capacity he won golden opinions both from the British and from the Canadian press. At the Fishery Congress in connection with the International Fisheries Exhibition, Mr. Joncas read a paper on the “Fisheries of Canada,” which has been greatly appreciated both abroad and at home. Speaking of this lecture, the London Canadian Gazette of the 5th July, 1883, said: “At a conference held on Monday, the 2nd day of July inst., at the Fisheries Exhibition, the Hon. A. W. McLelan, minister of marine of Canada, presiding, a remarkably comprehensive and interesting paper upon the various fisheries of British North America was read by Mr. L. Z. Joncas, one of the Canadian commissioners at the Exhibition. The subject was a large one, but Mr. Joncas’ practical knowledge of it enabled him to do justice to all its branches, and he concentrated in his paper much information of great value upon all sections of the trade. We hope at an early date to give some extracts from it of interest to our readers. By order of the executive committee of the Exhibition this work has been published and thousands of copies are being distributed.” The London Daily Telegraph, alluding to the same paper, says: “The most important of the papers yet read at the International conference was that of Monday, 2nd instant., on the ‘Fisheries of Canada,’ by Mr. L. Z. Joncas, one of the executive commissioners for Canada, which was at once able, valuable, and as far as possible exhaustive.” In 1884 Mr. Joncas was asked to lecture on the same subject before the members of the British Association then assembled in Montreal, and he read a paper considering the fisheries from an economical point of view. This paper, which makes a pamphlet of over sixty pages, has been largely distributed both in Europe and in Canada by the Dominion government. In 1887, when Dr. Fortin, who had represented Gaspé in the House of Commons since 1867, signified his intention of resigning, Mr. Joncas was asked to come forward by a large number of the electors of Gaspé, and he was elected at the general election held on the 22nd March, 1887, to the House of Commons of Canada. In politics he is an independent Conservative; and in religion is an adherent of the Roman Catholic church. On the 18th July, 1870, he married Emerentienne Blouin, of St. Valier, in the county of Bellechasse, province of Quebec, a sister to the Right Rev. F. A. Blouin, curé of Carleton, Bonaventure county, and general vicar of the diocese of Rimouski, P.Q.
Law, William, Shipping and Commission Merchant, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, M.P.P. for Yarmouth, was born in Belfast, Ireland, on 5th August, 1833, and in October, 1847, he came to Yarmouth. Here he remained until 1849, when he went to Oxford, in the state of Massachusetts, and did business there until 1855, when he again took up his abode in Yarmouth. Since that time Mr. Law has been extensively engaged in business, as head of the firm of William Law & Co., shipping and commission merchants. In 1870 he was appointed a justice of the peace for Yarmouth county. He has filled the office of president of the Oriental Marine Insurance Company for eight years; and was appointed manager, for Nova Scotia, of the Boston Marine Insurance Company, in 1881. In 1886 he was chosen to represent Yarmouth county in the Nova Scotia legislature. In politics he is a Liberal, and is a strong advocate of free trade and commercial union with the United States. In his religious views he is an independent. While living in Oxford, Mass., he was married to Mary A., daughter of Enoch and Abigail Brown, of Douglas, Mass. Mr. Brown represented the town of Douglas in the Massachusetts legislature.
Laurie, John Wimburn, Major-General, Oakfield, Nova Scotia, was born on the 1st October, 1835, in London, England. He is the eldest son of John Laurie, M.P. for Barnstaple, of 10 Hyde Park Terrace, London, and Marshalls, Havering atte Bower, in Essex; justice of the peace for Middlesex and Essex, and deputy-lieutenant for both counties. His mother is Eliza Helen Collett, youngest daughter of Kenrick Collett, master in Chancery, of Holcrofts, Fulham, Middlesex, England. Major-General Laurie received his education at Harrow, and Dresden, Saxony, and graduated with honors at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, obtaining a commission without purchase. He was appointed to the 2nd Queen’s Royals in depot, in 1853, and volunteered for active service against the Russians in 1854, and appointed to the 4th King’s Own regiment of foot. With this regiment he served ten months at the siege and fall of Sebastopol. He was twice wounded in the trenches, and was mentioned in despatches for his gallant defence of advanced positions against a largely superior force of Russians. He never missed a day’s duty during the twenty months he spent in the Crimea, except when wounded. He was present at the attacks on Sebastopol on the 18th June, with a storming party on Barrack battery on the 8th September, and at the capture of the stronghold on the 9th. September, 1855. He served at Mauritius in 1857, to keep order among the Indian coolies during the excitement consequent on the Indian mutiny; and in Central India against the rebellious Sepoys during 1858-59-60, as staff officer of a field force with irregular cavalry and camel corps, making forced marches in the Rewah and Mahi Kante districts. He was promoted to major, unattached, for distinguished service, in 1861. In 1854 and 1856 Major Laurie attended the School of Musketry at Hythe, and took a prominent part in introducing musketry instruction and rifle practice in the army. He passed a competitive examination, and entered Staff College at Sandhurst in 1861; but on the occurrence of the Trent affair he volunteered for active service, and was sent to Canada to organize the militia, and was retained in Nova Scotia by the Marquis of Normanby and General Sir Hastings Doyle, and remained as inspecting field officer until that province joined the confederation. In 1866 he placed 15,000 men under arms to repel the threatened Fenian invasion, and also took over the garrison duties at Halifax, so that the regular troops might go to the New Brunswick frontier. In 1869 he took over the duties of brigade major, and succeeded to the position of deputy adjutant-general on the death of Colonel Sinclair, continuing in command in Nova Scotia until 1881, when he was transferred to British Columbia. When on leave in England, in 1877, he offered to raise a regiment in Canada for active service against the Russians, and for this he received the personal thanks of the secretary of war; and in 1881 he volunteered and accompanied Sir Frederick Roberts to South Africa, with the expedition against the Boers of the Transvaal. On the conclusion of peace he returned and assumed command in British Columbia, and remained there until 1882, in which year he was promoted, by selection, to the rank of major-general in the army. In 1885, on the outbreak of the Servo-Bulgarian war, he was appointed commissioner to the headquarters of the Servian army, under the Red Cross Convention, and remained until the conclusion of peace in 1886, in charge of hospitals organized by him, and in carrying aid to the wounded and those suffering from contagious and epidemic diseases; and with Baron Mundy, the eminent philanthropist of Austria, jointly organized an ambulance train for the conveyance of wounded from the field by railway trains, for all of which services he received the personal and repeated thanks of the King and Queen of Servia, as well as of the Red Cross Society of Great Britain, and of Austro-Hungary. On the outbreak of Riel’s rebellion in the North-West of Canada, he volunteered for service under General Middleton, who was his junior in the army, and after joining the advanced column, was appointed commandant of base and line of communication, which position he filled until the close of the campaign. He has received, as decorations for his war services: from her Majesty, Queen Victoria, the Crimean medal, with clasp for Sebastopol, Indian mutiny medal for Central India, North-West Canada medal; from the Sultan of Turkey the Russian war medal and the Imperial Order of the Medjijie; from the King of Servia the Servian war medal and the decoration of Knight Commander of the order of St. Sava; and from the Queen of Servia, the order of the Red Cross for saving life. Major-General Laurie was elected councillor for his district, and first warden of Halifax county on the organization of the municipality in 1879, and again in 1880. He was appointed a justice of the peace for Halifax county in 1869. For ten years he has been president of the Provincial Board of Agriculture in Nova Scotia, and has been active in organizing joint stock companies for the development of manufactures. He carries on a large experimental farm at Oakfield, about twenty miles from Halifax. He has been elected for ten years grand master of the Freemasons of Nova Scotia; and was also president of the St. George’s Society of Halifax; and aided in organizing the Royal British Veteran Society, a self-supporting benefit society, composed of members who have served in the army or navy, and of which he is president. He contested Shelburne county, a Liberal stronghold, at the general election of 1887, as an independent supporter of the national policy, and was defeated by thirty-four votes. During the thirty-four years of his active service, Major-General Laurie served her Majesty in a campaign in every quarter of the globe; has written descriptive articles for the contemporary press, and was called upon by the Admiralty authorities in Britain to publish his views as to the most suitable position for a naval base for Great Britain in the Pacific. He is a strong advocate for closer union and more harmonious united work amongst all Evangelical denominations. He married, in 1863, Frances Robie, youngest daughter of the Hon. Enos Collins, of Gorsebrook, Halifax, granddaughter of the late Chief Justice Sir Brenton Haliburton, and great-granddaughter of Bishop Inglis, of Nova Scotia, who, as rector of Trinity Church, New York, at the time of the revolution, continued to offer prayers for the king, although levelled guns warned him that his life would be taken unless he desisted. Two sons are now serving in the army: the elder in the 4th King’s Own, in which General Laurie won his spurs, and the younger in the old 86th, now the Royal Irish Rifles.
Hall, John Smythe, Jun., B.A., B.C.L., Q.C., M.P.P. for Montreal West, is a native of Montreal, having been born there on the 7th August, 1853. He is the son of John S. Hall and Emma Robins Brigham. Mr. Hall, sen., was a member of the old firm of Grant, Hall & Co., extensive lumbermen, and subsequently flour millers. Mr. Hall, jun., received his primary education at Bishop’s College School, Lennoxville, and afterwards entered McGill University, taking the degree of B.A. in 1874, and that of B.C.L. in 1875. He was called to the bar in 1876, and at once took a prominent place. He is now a member of the well-known law firm of Chapleau, Hall, Nicholls & Brown. He has always taken a deep interest in educational matters. In 1883 he was chosen representative fellow-in-law, and became a member of the corporation of McGill University, and re-elected to the same position in January, 1886. He was also president of the University Literary Society; in 1884 president of the Graduates’ Society; and in 1887 president of the University Club. In politics he is a Conservative, and an active member of the Junior Conservative Club, occupying the position of president in 1885. This year (1887) he was made a Q.C. Mr. Hall has taken an active interest in the volunteer force, and is now a captain in the Montreal Field Battery of Artillery. He is a member of the Church of England; and on the 3rd January, 1883, married Victoria Brigham, daughter of the late T. C. Brigham, of Ottawa. At the last general election for the province of Quebec, Mr. Hall contested Montreal West against G. W. Stephens, Liberal, and W. W. Robertson, workingman’s candidate, for a seat in the Quebec legislature, and was returned by a majority of 127 over Mr. Stephens, and 1,000 over Mr. Robertson.