Russell, Willis, Quebec.—While this work was under compilation, the subject of this sketch was somewhat suddenly called to appear before the tribunal of Heaven, after a long and well-spent life of seventy-three years, and with him has passed away one of the oldest and best known landmarks of the ancient capital. A local paper, the Daily Telegraph, of the 17th October, 1887, the day after his deeply lamented death, had the following biographical notice of the deceased gentleman: —
For nearly half a century the name of Willis Russell has been a household word, not only in the city of Quebec, but amongst all who have been in the habit of coming here, on visits of business or of pleasure, and we know of no one whose loss would be more widely felt than his, or more deeply regretted amongst both residents in and visitors to the old rock city. A native of one of the New England states, where he was born in 1814, the late Mr. Russell took up his abode in Quebec over forty-three years ago, and has been an uninterrupted resident of our city ever since, remaining identified all that time with the business in which he lived and died—the maintenance and the management of the principal hostelries of the ancient capital. It would be difficult at this distant date to follow the deceased gentleman very minutely through the early part of his career in this city. Suffice it to say that in 1844 he entered, on his arrival here, upon the business which he made his life work, and that his untiring efforts to make the houses which he controlled the best of their kind in the locality never failed of success. For some time Mr. Russell was proprietor of an hotel known, we believe, as the St. George’s, situated in the old union, building on Place d’Armes, now the property of Mr. D. Morgan, merchant tailor. This was before he became proprietor of the Albion Hotel, on Palace street, which, during his management, extending over a long term of years, was the leading hostelry of the then capital of united Canada. Mr. Russell’s later career as proprietor of the St. Louis Hotel and Russell House is well known to the present generation of Quebecers and to all travellers and tourists in the habit of visiting Quebec. For some years back, there has not been sufficient business in town to keep both houses open during the winter season, but in summer they are frequently crowded to their utmost capacity, and some time back Mr. Russell also became the lessee of the Albion Hotel on Palace street, and sometimes utilised it for the excess of his summer business. Mr. Russell’s success in business was, of course, largely due to the attention which he gave it, and to his admirable adaptability for it. His career is an example to all young men about to start out in business, to first select that particular line to which they feel they can devote their best energy and efforts, and then, so far as they legitimately can, to permit nothing to stand between themselves and success. Mr. Russell’s attention to his business was proverbial, and the comfort of his guests was his first and principal care. With this object in view, he skilfully contrived to have the best possible menu always before them, so that travellers from all parts of the United States and Canada have always been able to claim that the best tables to which they have been accustomed have been those of the St. Louis Hotel. In the matter of gentlemanly and polite attendance the same hotel has always stood deservedly high, the leading officials connected with the management having been always selected from those foremost in the business. In common with all the citizens of Quebec, Mr. Russell has been for some time aware that Quebec is behind the age in the matter of a proper hotel building. He has always been foremost, therefore, in the various efforts that have been made to secure a new hotel for our city. A few years ago it seemed as if success was about to crown Mr. Russell’s efforts in this direction. He had all but completed the formation of a company to build a splendid new house on Dufferin terrace, on the site of the old Normal School. The necessary charter incorporating the Chateau St. Louis Hotel was duly obtained from the local legislature, and large subscriptions of stock were being made by a number of prominent citizens towards the undertaking. Mr. Russell brought on a famous architect from New York to draw the plans of the proposed hotel, and everybody remembers how much they were admired at the time, and how they received the approval of the Princess Louise, who manifested considerable interest in the undertaking. However, after the expenditure of an immense amount of money and time on the subject, Mr. Russell had the mortification of seeing the scheme fall through, in consequence of some difficulty at Ottawa about the land required for the site. It will be observed, all the same, that it was not Mr. Russell’s fault if the city of Quebec was unsuccessful in her attempt to obtain the new hotel. The deceased gentleman has occupied many important positions of trust amongst his fellow-citizens. He was a J.P. for many years past. Realizing its vast promise of success, and the necessity which existed for it, he became one of the most active promoters of the North Shore railway. Years afterwards he was a member of the city council for about six years. He was elected to represent St. Louis ward in the municipal body, and retired from office nearly four years ago. During most of the period in which he occupied a seat at the council board, Mr. Russell was chairman of the fire committee. This was immediately after the last great fire in the suburbs, and Mr. Russell was indefatigable in his efforts to secure a thorough reorganization of the fire department, and the acquisition of additional steam engines and other appliances for fighting the flames. The prolongation of the old Durham terrace to the dimensions of the present Dufferin terrace is also largely due to Mr. Russell’s determined efforts. The deceased gentleman has always been a determined advocate of the proposed Quebec and Levis bridge. In American politics, in his earlier days, he was a great Dan Webster man. Though a naturalized Canadian, he never took a very decided stand in our politics, though he formed many personal friendships amongst our public men. One of his closest friends for the past thirty years has been the esteemed member for Quebec West, Owen Murphy. Another was Colonel Rhodes. Mr. Russell’s active mind was never content to remain fixed alone upon the hotel business, and he speculated largely at different periods in lumber and mines. His mining property was situated principally in the eastern townships, and for some time he was at the head of a number of saw mills and a lumber company at Arthabaskaville. His recreation consisted principally in salmon fishing, and his favorite fishing ground was the Marguerite river, above Tadousac, of which he controlled the right, and where, in company with a number of American capitalists, he formed the St. Marguerite fishing club. The deceased gentleman was the proprietor of the Music Hall (now the Academy of Music), which he purchased some five years ago, and in which he has given at various periods an immense number of the most brilliant public dinners and balls, the sine qua non of a fashionable event of the kind in Quebec being that it should be entrusted to Mr. Russell’s management. Our regretted friend was a member of the congregation of the English Cathedral, and in his last illness received the consolations of religion at the hands of the Revs. Messrs. Petry and Fothergill. Notwithstanding the delicate state of his health for some years past, he attended to business to the very last day, and his death may be considered both sudden and unexpected. He was downstairs in the public office of the St. Louis Hotel on Friday, apparently as well as he had been at any time during the last year, and on Saturday he was dead. It is supposed he must have taken cold, for congestion of the bowels declared itself, and when he felt compelled, by his inflammatory pains on Friday afternoon, to retire to his room, he was destined never to leave it again. He grew rapidly worse during the night, and on Saturday morning it was evident that the end was approaching. All day he continued to sink rapidly, expiring at ten minutes to ten o’clock at night. He was surrounded by his wife and children, and was perfectly conscious to the last. With Mrs. Russell and her children—W. E. Russell and Mrs. H. J. Miller—we sincerely sympathize in this hour of deep affliction. Their sorrow is shared by all our people, who feel that they have lost one of their best, most useful and most patriotic citizens. The rotunda of the St. Louis Hotel without his well-known figure, pleasant countenance, hearty laugh and amusing anecdote, will indeed be sadly changed.
The Morning Chronicle, the leading paper of Quebec, also had an extended notice of the deceased, and the French papers of the city devoted much of their space to praise of his useful life and the expression of regret at his death. His funeral was one of the largest and most imposing ever witnessed in Quebec, and was attended by all classes of the local population, including the ministers of the federal and provincial governments in town at the time, ex-provincial ministers, members of the Dominion parliament and provincial legislature, and leading citizens generally.
Monk, Hon. Samuel Cornwallis, LL.D., Senior Puisné Judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench of the Province of Quebec, Montreal, was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 29th July, 1814. His father, Samuel Wentworth Monk, was descended from a family of U. E. loyalists, who left Boston, in Massachusetts, on the breaking out of the revolutionary war, and settled in Nova Scotia. The Monk family was related to the Goulds, Wentworths, Deerings, Apthorps, and the Hon. Edward Cornwallis, at one time governor of Nova Scotia, all of whom were persons of note in those early days. Judge Monk’s great grandfather was attorney-general of Nova Scotia, and his grandfather a judge of that province. One of his granduncles, Sir James Monk, was chief justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench for Montreal. Samuel Cornwallis Monk was educated in Windsor, N.S., and was subsequently prepared for entering Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, but it was thought advisable that he should immediately begin the study of law in Canada, and this he did in 1831, and was admitted to the bar in 1837. He then made an extended tour, which occupied two years, in Europe, and on his return entered into a partnership with Sir John Rose, baronet, now of London, England, who at that time was carrying on an extensive law business in Montreal. In 1854 Mr. Monk was appointed a Queen’s counsel, and for some years represented the attorney-general of Lower Canada in Crown prosecutions. In 1859 he was raised to the bench, and for a period of nine years sat as a puisné judge in the Superior Court of Lower Canada. In 1868 he was promoted to the Queen’s Bench, on the retirement of Justice Aylwin. His reputation as a judge stands high. His natural talents, united to his vast knowledge and graceful elocution, have made him one of the most instructive and agreeable persons to listen to whenever he has a judgment to deliver in the Court of Appeals or a charge to make in the Criminal Court. His knowledge of both the English and French languages is so perfect that it would be impossible for a stranger to tell by his speech to which nationality he belonged. The old French law, which forms the basis of the jurisprudence in the province of Quebec, is so familiar to him that when a case is heard in the Court of Queen’s Bench before him and his associates, after reading the printed factum of both parties, he is generally ready to give his opinion and support it with the most learned arguments. The capabilities of this learned judge, as shown in criminal matters, are always very highly appreciated. When he represented the Crown before the criminal courts as Crown prosecutor, before being elevated to the bench, he met with great success, and his reputation as a criminal lawyer stood very high. Upon the bench he has met the expectations of his admirers by the dignity with which he presides in court, and the vast legal knowledge, combined with the high sense of justice which he displays in discharging his duties. He had the degree of LL.D. conferred upon him a number of years ago by Laval University, Quebec. Judge Monk was married in 1844 to a daughter of the late Hon. P. D. DeBartzch, member of the Legislative Council of Lower Canada. The fruit of this marriage has been five sons and one daughter, the latter having died some years ago.
Taillon, Alphonse Antoine, Sorel, Quebec, was born at Ottawa, on the 17th July, 1847. His parents were John Taillon and Dame Geneviève Lionais. His father was one of the first merchants of Bytown, and took a prominent part in promoting the interests of the future city of Ottawa. Wm. P. Lett, Ottawa’s poet, in his poem, “Recollections of old Bytown,” alludes to him as one of the good, honorable citizens of the time, and a man of genial character. The subject of this sketch received a full commercial course at the College of Ottawa, now the University. He served in the “Chasseurs Canadiens” at St. John’s, Laprairie and St. Armands during the first Fenian raid in 1866; was appointed lieutenant in 1869, and captain in 1870. He entered the Merchants Bank, at Montreal, in 1867, and became manager of the Sorel branch in 1871. The bank closed its branch in 1881, and handed the business over to Mr. Taillon, who continued as a private banker, and is one of the leading business men of the town. He was an alderman and chairman of the Finance Committee in 1883 and 1884, and was elected by a large majority over Senator Guévremont as mayor in 1887. He is president of Richelieu County Conservative Association, and was several times called on to be a candidate for both local and federal parliamentary honors, which he invariably declined. He was president of several local societies, and was the promoter of many public enterprises. He is a Roman Catholic. On the 12th January, 1871, he was married to Josephine de Boucherville, eldest daughter of P. V. de Boucherville, M.D., of Beauharnois. He has had eight children, six of whom are living.
Vallee, Thomas Evariste Arthur, M.D., Quebec, is one of the leaders of the medical profession in that city, and a well-known specialist in insanity and toxicology. He was born in Quebec on the 22nd December, 1849, of the marriage of Prudent Vallée and Henrietta Casault, and was educated at the Quebec Seminary and Laval University, from which last institution he graduated as an M.D. in 1873. He also had the advantage of a three years’ course of medical study in London and Paris. In 1878 his alma mater, Laval University, fittingly recognized his abilities by appointing him one of the professors of its medical faculty. First called to the chair of medical jurisprudence and toxicology, which he filled with distinction, he was, on the death of the late Dr. Alfred Jackson, in 1885, transferred to that of tocology and gynæcology, which he still occupies. In 1879 he was further appointed visiting physician of the Beaufort Insane Asylum, and medical superintendent of the same great institution in 1885. For several years past he has also been visiting physician of the institutions of the Good Shepherd, the Sisters of Charity, the Hotel Dieu and the Lying-in Hospital, at Quebec. In questions of insanity and toxicology, Dr. Vallée is one of the recognized authorities of his native province, and his great skill as an analyst, where death by poisoning is suspected, has frequently been of the most valuable service to its authorities and the cause of justice. Among the causes célèbres in Lower Canadian criminal annals in which it has more recently been called into requisition to assist the administration of the law, may be mentioned more specially the Coats’ case at Sherbrooke, and the Boulet and Lagacé poisoning cases in the Quebec district. In the Boulet case, the prisoner, Mrs. Boulet, was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, but during the night preceding the execution, and after the gallows had been erected, her sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life, owing to some technical objection raised by the unfortunate woman’s counsel, F. X. Lemieux, M.P.P. (of notoriety also as Riel’s counsel), and to the popular dislike of visiting the last penalty of the law on a woman. As an expert in insanity, Dr. Vallée also figured very prominently before the public in the celebrated Lynam case, which created so much excitement in Montreal a couple of years since. While studying for his profession, in 1871, the subject of this sketch further obtained a diploma from the Quebec military school. A gentleman of literary taste and culture, he was elected president of “L’Institut Canadien de Quebec” in 1878, and filled that office down to 1880. He has travelled extensively in the United States, England, France, Belgium, Italy, Turkey and the East for pleasure and to extend his knowledge of his profession. In religion Dr. Vallée is a Roman Catholic, and on the 30th April, 1878, he married Honorine Chauveau, daughter of the eminent French-Canadian littérateur, educationalist and statesman, Hon. P. J. O. Chauveau, late premier of the province of Quebec, and now sheriff of Montreal.