Saint-Cyr, Dominique Napoleon Deshayes, Conservator of the Museum of National Instruction, Quebec, was born on the 4th of August, 1826, in the parish of St. Jean Baptiste de Nicolet, district of Three Rivers, province of Quebec. His father, Jean Baptiste Deshayes Saint-Cyr, was an honest farmer, and his mother, Josephte Lefebvre Descôteaux. They were both descended from old French families, having numerous representatives all over the province, and more particularly in the district of Three Rivers. After undergoing a successful course of classical studies at the College of Nicolet, Mr. Saint-Cyr proceeded to Sherbrooke, Quebec, at that time settled almost entirely by people of English descent, for the purpose of mastering a knowledge of the English language, teaching French meanwhile at the Lennoxville Grammar School from 1846 to 1848. He then founded the first French Catholic school ever established in Sherbrooke, teaching until 1850. (This school still exists in the town of Sherbrooke, in the same building in which it was started.) In August, 1850, he removed to St. Anne de la Pérade, and lived in that beautiful village until 1876, devoting twenty-six years of his life to the noble work of educating the youth of the country. In 1851, he received his diploma as model school teacher, and in 1859 that of academy teacher. In 1855, he was elected secretary-treasurer of the municipal council of Ste. Anne, and filled the duties of that office until 1863. During that period, the handsome bridge, 1,400 feet long, which crosses the river Ste. Anne, was built, and the same structure is still standing. In 1867 he was admitted a notary public. He attended the Quebec Military School in 1863, and received a first class certificate, and went into camp at Laprairie in 1864. In 1875 the subject of our sketch was induced to enter public life, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly for the county of Champlain by a majority of 122, at the general election which took place on the 7th July of that year. The constituents of his county elected him once more to represent them in the Assembly at the general elections held on the 1st May, 1878, by the handsome majority of 566. The favorite study of Mr. Saint-Cyr had been natural history, and, to have more freedom, he resolved, in 1881, to abandon public life, and to devote his time to the formation of a museum of specimens of natural history of the province of Quebec, with the result of forming the museum of public instruction, which is composed of large collections of plants, insects, fossils, minerals, etc., and for which he was awarded at the last provincial exhibition eleven diplomas, four medals, and two first prizes in cash, and this he considered sufficient reward for his untiring efforts. His appointment as conservator of the Museum of Public Instruction was confirmed by order-in-council on the 6th of April, 1886. In 1882, Mr. Saint-Cyr started on a scientific expedition to the Labrador coast and the islands, returning on the 20th September of the same year. He brought back with him a large number of plants, insects, shells (living and fossil), minerals, etc., to enrich his embryo museum. He made another voyage to the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1885, a report of which was published by order of the Legislative Assembly in April, 1886. A second edition of the same work, ordered, at the last session of parliament, to be printed, was issued in November, 1887. He also wrote for several years in Le Naturaliste Canadien on Canadian zoology, etc. At the present time he devotes all his energies to the enlargement and management of the museum entrusted to his care. On the 12th September, 1854, Mr. Saint-Cyr married Marie Rose Anne Amanda, a daughter, of Antoine Deshayes Saint-Cyr and Marguerite Emilie Ricard, by whom he had issue fifteen children, eight of whom still survive, five sons and three daughters. His residence is Ste. Anne de la Pérade.
Thomas, Benjamin Daniel, D.D., Pastor of the Jarvis Street Baptist Church, Toronto.—This popular divine is a Welshman by birth, having been born near Narberth, Pembrokeshire, on the 23rd January, 1843. He comes of a good stock. His parents were Benjamin and Jane Thomas. His father, the Rev. Benjamin Thomas, was pastor of the Baptist Church in Narberth for the long period of forty years. Dr. Thomas received his primary education in Graig House Academy at Swansea, where he spent four years, and then entered Haverford-West, the denominational college of South Wales, where he pursued a regular course of study, and graduated. Immediately on leaving college he was chosen pastor of the Baptist Church at Neath, Glamorganshire, where he successfully labored for six years. In the fall of 1868 he came to the United States, and soon after his arrival entered upon the pastorate of the Baptist Church in Pittston, Pennsylvania, where he remained nearly three years. In October, 1871, became pastor of the Fifth Church, one of the largest in Philadelphia, where he labored with great acceptance until he removed to Canada. In 1882 he was chosen as successor to Rev. Dr. John Castle, who had become principal of McMaster Hall (Baptist College), Toronto, and in October of the same year he settled as pastor of Jarvis Street Baptist Church. Here a large congregation attends his ministrations, to whom he has greatly endeared himself. As a preacher he is popular, and never fails to bring forth things new and old from Bible treasures, and presents them to his hearers in “thoughts that breathe and words that burn.” He contributes occasionally to religious papers and magazines; and a few years ago he published a small volume of great merit, entitled, “Popular Excuses of the Unconverted.” He favors all social movements having in view the elevation of the race, and labors earnestly to extend Christ’s kingdom on the earth. He was married in Wales, in 1864, to Mary Jones, but this estimable lady died in 1886, leaving six children behind, with their father, to mourn her early demise.
Richey, Hon. Matthew H., Q.C., D.C.L., Government House, Halifax, Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Nova Scotia, was born on the 10th June, 1828, at Windsor, N.S. He is the third son of the Rev. Matthew Richey, D.D., by his marriage with Louisa Matilda Nichols, a native of New York, but of English parentage, her grandfather having been one of John Wesley’s assistants, and of a Cornish family. Lieutenant-Governor Richey received his education at the Windsor Collegiate School, the Upper Canada Academy (Cobourg), of which his father was the first principal, the Upper Canada College (Toronto), and Queen’s College (Kingston), where he went through the usual course of study in the English branches and classics. He adopted law as a profession, and began its study in Windsor, N.S., in the office of the Hon. Lewis M. Wilkins, afterwards one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. He was called to the bar of Nova Scotia in 1850, and practised his profession in Halifax. In 1873 he was created a Queen’s counsel. He occupied a prominent position among his fellow-citizens of Halifax; sat as alderman in the city council during the years 1858-1864, inclusive; and was mayor of the city for six years, namely, from 1864 to 1867, and from 1875 to 1878. His attention to the duties of his office won general approbation. At the general elections held in September, 1878, he was first elected to represent Halifax in the House of Commons at Ottawa, and occupied a place in that house until his appointment to the position of lieutenant-governor on the 4th July, 1883, and this office he has since held with dignity and satisfaction to the people of Nova Scotia. While in political life he was a member of the Liberal-Conservative party. For some years he was president of the Halifax School Association, a society originated for the purpose of working reforms in the school system of his province; and in 1865, when the law establishing free schools came into operation, he was chosen one of the school commissioners, and served in that capacity for several years. When the University of Halifax was established he was appointed by the government one of the members of the senate of the university, and was also one of its examiners in jurisprudence and Roman law. Mount Allison Wesleyan College, Sackville, New Brunswick, conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.C.L. in 1884. Lieut.-Governor Richey has always manifested a strong inclination towards the promotion of social science, and formerly gave much time to literary and charitable institutions, which, in Halifax, are numerous and well conducted. Mr. Richey was for some years the president of the Halifax Society for the Prevention of Cruelty, and when a member of the parliament of Canada, was active in promoting remedial legislation in furtherance of the objects of such societies. His honor is an adherent of the Methodist Church of Canada. For six years, from 1854 to 1860, he conducted with marked success the denominational organ of that church in the Maritime provinces. While in the Dominion Parliament he did not often speak, but when he did so, was listened to attentively. During the session of 1879 he spoke on the then all-absorbing question—the tariff. In 1880 he was selected by the premier to move the answer to the Speech from the throne; and he led in the adjourned debate on the question of the fishery award, in a speech which covered a large field of constitutional law, and the relations of the provinces to the Dominion under the Act of Confederation. He was married on the 22nd June, 1854, to Sarah Lavinia, daughter of the late Hon. John Hawkins Anderson, for some time member of the Legislative Council, and receiver-general of the province of Nova Scotia, and called by Royal proclamation to the Senate of Canada, 1st July, 1867. Three children have been the fruit of their union. Hon. Mr. Anderson died in 1870.
McNeil, Hon. Daniel, Barrister, Port Hood, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, M.P.P. for Inverness county, N.S., was born at Mabou, C.B., on the 31st January, 1853. He is the second son of Malcolm and Ellen McNeil, and brother of the Rev. Neil McNeil, D.D., Ph.D., rector of St. François Xavier College, Antigonish. The subject of our sketch is descended, on the paternal side, from Roderick McNeil, of Bara, Scotland, who settled in Cape Breton during the early part of this century. Hon. Mr. McNeil was educated at the St. François Xavier College. He studied law at Halifax; was called to the bar of Nova Scotia in December, 1879, and then removed to Port Hood, the shiretown of his native county. Here he entered into partnership with S. Macdonnell, Q.C., ex-M.P., and continued as a partner with this gentleman for about three years and a half, when the partnership was dissolved. Afterwards he became the senior member of the law firm of McNeil & Hensley, solicitors, notaries public, etc., in the same town. In June, 1883, Mr. McNeil was appointed a school commissioner for South Inverness; in July, of the same year, a notary and tabellion public; and in March, 1884, a commissioner of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. He has for a number of years taken an interest in all the political movements,—municipal, provincial and federal—and always on the Liberal side. He was first returned to the Nova Scotia legislature at the last general election; and on the 28th June, 1886, was sworn in a member of the Executive Council of Nova Scotia, and took office in the Fielding administration, without a portfolio. In religion he is an adherent of the Roman Catholic church. He married, on the 4th August, 1881, Ellen Maria Margaret, youngest daughter of the late James McDonnell. For a period of upwards of a quarter of a century, this gentleman held the important offices of prothonotary of the Supreme Court and clerk of the Crown at Port Hood; also the office of registrar of deeds for the county of Inverness for many years. He was the first inspector of schools for Inverness county under the present educational system of the province.
Chabot, Julien, Harbor Commissioner, Quebec, was born at Levis, in October, 1834, and is a descendant of one of the oldest French families who emigrated from Poitiers, France, and settled in Canada in the vicinity of Quebec in 1632. His father, Julien Chabot, was born at the Island of Orleans in 1800, and died on 10th August, 1864. He came to Levis at the age of thirteen, and here he married Dame Susanne Carrier in 1830. Being engaged in navigation, he gained wealth and reputation by promoting the local industries of Levis. He built the first horse boat which crossed the ferry between Quebec and Levis in 1828, and afterwards the first regular ferry-boat which ran between the two cities in 1844. He was also extensively engaged in the towing business, and between the years 1845 and 1860 he built several tug steamers to tow sailing vessels from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Montreal. His son Julien, the subject of our sketch, was educated in the Seminary of Quebec from 1846 to 1853; and in 1856 he became a partner with his father, and took the management of the business. In 1863 he succeeded, with all the tug owners of the port of Quebec, in forming a joint stock company, called the St. Lawrence Tow Boat Company, and had it incorporated on the 12th of May of that year, for the purpose of towing large sailing vessels from the Gulf to Montreal, and he had the management of this company for twenty-three years. During this period he supported the views of the president of the company, Hon. Thomas McGreevy and of the bishop, D. Racine, in inaugurating in 1866 the Saguenay line, which has proved so beneficial to the colonization of the Chicoutimi district and the St. John valley. Since 1874 a daily line has been established to Ha! Ha! Bay and Chicoutimi, the management of which is highly praised by the local and principally by the American tourists. The Saguenay line is now connected with the Richelieu and Ontario Navigation Company, and is under the special management of its inaugurator, Mr. Chabot. He had the control of the Quebec and Levis ferries for several years, during which period the old system of summer and winter ferries were remodelled and rebuilt in the best modern style, and were classified the best ferry steamers in Canada. Mr. Chabot having been impressed from his boyhood with the difficulties of the winter navigation of the St. Lawrence, several successful tests were made by the St. Lawrence Steam Navigation Company, under his supervision, during the winter months on the Lower St. Lawrence. Mr. Chabot is now the oldest member of the Quebec Harbor Commissioners trust, having been on active duty since 1870, and has helped as trustee with his co-members in building the extensive harbor improvements in the port of Quebec, and in securing for Levis, his native place, the location of the largest graving dock on this continent. He was twice elected president of the Board of Trade of Levis. In religion, he is a member of the Roman Catholic church, and held the office of church warden in Notre Dame church in 1879. A Conservative in politics, Mr. Chabot has taken a prominent part in support of his principles. He contested the county of Levis in 1874 against Louis Honoré Frechette, the poet laureate, when the Liberal party came into power, but was defeated by the influence of the Federal government by only a small majority. He married, on the 26th October, 1857, Marguerite Aimée Brunelle, daughter of the celebrated ship builder, Pierre Brunelle, of Quebec.