Walker, Thomas, M.D., St. John, N.B., was born on the 20th March, 1840, at Hampton, in Kings’s County New Brunswick. He is of English extraction and is the eldest son of Rev. William Walker and Anne Walker. He is descended on the paternal side of the house from Elizabeth Yates, who was a sister of the famous Pendrell brothers, who was instrumental in saving King Charles II., after the fatal battle of Worcester. In consideration of these services, a pension was granted to the Pendrell family when the merry monarch came to his own. The pension is still received by the descendants of the Pendrells, though cut up by a failure of male heirs. Though coming of good old royalist stock, the subject of this sketch is a thorough Liberal of the Liberals and opposed the confederation of the provinces. He served his party actively and well in many fights. His early school days were passed at the Grammar School of his native county. He completed his classical course of study at King’s College, Fredericton, from which university he received the degree of B.A. From this college, which was modelled after King’s College, Windsor, N.S., the oldest degree-conferring college in British North America, have gone forth many of the ablest men in the learned professions in the Maritime provinces. It is an unsectarian institution, liberally endowed and supported out of the Provincial treasury. In order to prepare himself for the labors of the medical profession, Dr. Walker crossed the Atlantic in 1859, and spent the following four years in close study at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated M.D. in August, 1863. In the same year he obtained the license of the Royal College of Surgeons. In July, 1866, Dr. Walker married Mary R., eldest daughter of the late William Jack, Q.C., formerly Advocate-general of New Brunswick, and sister of I. Allan Jack, D.C.L. recorder of the city of St. John, N.B. Of this marriage, have been born seven children. Dr. Walker speedily arose to eminence in his profession, and was president of the New Brunswick Medical Society in 1884 and 1885. He now holds the office of treasurer of the society. He is also a member of the Council of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick. He has never seen any active service in warfare, but holds the position of surgeon in the 62nd, St. John Fusiliers. No troops from New Brunswick were ordered to the front during the late troubles in the North-West. He is a member of the Church of England, holding moderate views in the many divisions of his church. Like most medical men, Dr. Walker is an active member of the Masonic fraternity, which order he joined in 1871. He is N. and E. Commander of the Encampment of St. John Knights Templars, on the registry of the Chapter General of Scotland. Among his other positions of public esteem and influence, Dr. Walker is a commissioner of the St. John Public Hospital.
Shehyn, Hon. Joseph, Provincial Treasurer, Quebec, is politically, commercially and socially one of the conspicuous figures of the hour in the province of Quebec. As the Treasurer of the Province, he is at the head of the most important of its public departments, and, as one of the leading merchants of the port of Quebec, his commercial and social standing is of the highest. With talents rather of the solid than the brilliant order, he is pre-eminently what is termed “a safe man,” and a striking example of the success which attends a well-regulated character—his probity and industry in business being only equalled by his consistency and moderation in politics. Of Irish and French-Canadian parentage, Mr. Shehyn was born in the city of Quebec, in 1829, and was also educated there, partly at the Quebec Seminary, and partly by private tuition. Entering commercial life, he rapidly rose to wealth and distinction, finally becoming a member of the great wholesale dry goods firms of Sterling, McCall & Co., and McCall, Shehyn & Co., of London, Montreal and Quebec. For many years he has been the representative and head of the last named firm at Quebec, where it holds a foremost position in the dry goods importing trade, and does an extensive wholesale business with all parts of the province through its commercial travellers. But it was not until he entered the Quebec Board of Trade that the subject of our sketch began to attract much public attention outside of commercial circles. As a member of that body, his natural taste for figures, his intimate acquaintance with financial questions, his seemingly inexhaustible fund of statistics and the earnest and intelligent lead he always took in all that concerned the trade of Quebec and generally of the St. Lawrence, soon made him a marked man. Elected a member of the Council of the Board of Trade, his name was prominently and constantly before the public as one of the ablest champions of Quebec’s interests. On different important occasions he represented them as a delegate to Ottawa, or defended them before the Board in speeches and published papers with a logic and force which commanded wide-spread notice and respect, and the Board expressed its confidence in him by electing and re-electing him its president until he was compelled to decline further acceptance of the honor, on being called in 1887 to the discharge of still higher public duties, which promised to absorb all his available time from his private business. It was during his presidency of the Board that he contributed to its records an important paper entitled “Railways vs. Canals,” which was considered so valuable that the Board unanimously ordered it to be printed in pamphlet form for the public information. No more powerful argument has yet been adduced against the injustice of saddling the Dominion at large with Montreal’s harbor debt, including the cost of deepening Lake St. Peter, and against the folly generally of expending public money on the improvement of artificial water courses in the face of the overshadowing competition and advantages now-a-days of railways as inland trade carriers. Mr. Shehyn’s services were also warmly appreciated by his fellow citizens of Quebec outside of the Board of Trade. A Liberal in politics, though a moderate man in his views, he was first selected as the party’s candidate for the important division of Quebec East at the general elections for the Legislative Assembly of the province of Quebec in 1875, and was returned by a large majority. At the general elections of 1878, he was re-elected for the same division by a handsome majority, and again at the general elections of 1881 he was elected by acclamation. At the last general elections in October, 1886, opposition to his re-election was deemed futile by his adversaries, and he was accordingly again returned by acclamation. These were the elections which brought the Liberal opposition into power in the province under Hon. H. Mercier, and, in the latter’s assumption of the reins of office as Premier of Quebec, in January, 1887, Mr. Shehyn, as one of the ablest of his lieutenants, and as the financial authority and critic par excellence of his party, was among the first invited to enter his cabinet, which he did to the general satisfaction as Treasurer of the province, when the electors of Quebec East immediately signified their approval by once more electing him by acclamation. During the session of the legislature, which followed in March, the new Treasurer did not disappoint the high estimate formed by the public of his financial abilities. His Budget speech dealt in a masterly manner with a fiscal situation of unusual complication and difficulty, and the remedial measures he proposed not only met with the sanction of the House, but the approbation of all business minds. The result has been eminently satisfactory. Under Mr. Shehyn’s skillful management the finances of the province, which were very seriously embarrassed when he took charge, have steadily improved; new sources of revenue, hitherto undeveloped, have been opened up, the license laws have been more vigorously enforced, as well to the benefit of the public treasury as of public morals; and some long-pending questions in legislation or in dispute, such as the tax on commercial corporations, etc., have been advantageously settled. Method and economy are the prevailing characteristics of his administration, and, as a whole, the province of Quebec has reason to be congratulated upon it. As a member of the Quebec government, Mr. Shehyn also took an important and leading part in the late Inter-Provincial Conference at Quebec, and his princely residence of Bandon Lodge, opposite the parliament buildings, was the home of Premier and Mrs. Mowat, of Ontario, as well as the scene of many of the splendid social festivities on that memorable occasion. In religion, Mr. Shehyn is a Roman Catholic. He has been a member of the commission of the peace for the Quebec district since 1874. On the 16th of August, 1858, he married Marie Zoe Virginie, daughter of Ambroise Verret, of Quebec, and by her has had a large issue of children, six of whom are living; the eldest son, Lieutenant Shehyn, of the 9th battalion of Quebec, served with distinction with his regiment in the Northwest, during the last rebellion. Mrs. Shehyn is one of the leaders of Quebec society, and much of its brilliancy is due to her graceful influence and example.
Maclaren, James, Lumber Manufacturer, Buckingham, province Quebec, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, about the year 1818. His parents came to Canada when he was a young boy and settled in the township of Tarbolton, on the Upper Ottawa. His father, who was a man of education and culture, set to work vigorously to make himself a new home in his adopted country. Among other enterprises, he went into the manufacture of lumber, and had succeeded in erecting a saw mill, when a freshet came and carried away the dam, thereby entailing upon him a heavy pecuniary loss. But nothing daunted by this mishap, he went to work, again constructed the dam, and soon had his mill in running order. James, the subject of our sketch, at this time was a mere lad, but an observing one, and picked up from his father a fund of practical knowledge with regard to mills and dams, which, when he went into the lumbering business on his own account years afterwards, proved of great benefit to him. Mr. Maclaren’s first business as a merchant was at the “Pesche,” in the township of Wakefield, on the Gatineau river, where his sagacity enabled him to select a spot between the hills and the Gatineau river, where there was just land enough for the road, and a store and a dwelling, and where consequently every one going up and down the Gatineau must pass at the very door of his store. He soon built up a large and lucrative business with the farmers and settlers all around; erected grist and other mills, and supplied many jobbers and others engaged in getting out saw logs and timber. About this time he, in company with the late J. M. Currier, leased the extensive saw mills, &c., at the mouth of the Rideau river, near Ottawa, belonging to the late Hon. Thomas McKay, and for years, carried on a large business. Later on Mr. Maclaren purchased these mills and the adjoining property and carried on the business in his own name. About the year 1864, he purchased the large lumbering establishment and extensive lumber limits on the River du Lievre, formerly owned by the late Baxter Bowman, and changed his residence to the village of Buckingham, where he has since resided. He was also largely interested for some years in the saw mills and large lumber business carried on, on the opposite side of the River du Lievre, as well as in the saw mills on the North Nation river. For some years, too, he carried on a square timber business, near Lake Temiscamangue, on the Upper Ottawa. In spite of these varied and important occupations, Mr. Maclaren found time to establish the Bank of Ottawa, of which he has been president since its establishment, and is now its largest stockholder. He is also largely interested in railways, and is the vice-president of the Ontario Central. His business operations are not confined to Canada. At Burlington, Vermont; at Boston, Massachusetts; and in Michigan, he is interested in large and flourishing lumber concerns, whose success is largely due to his great energy, clear-headedness and business sagacity. In religion, Mr. Maclaren is a Presbyterian, and his munificent gift to Knox College, Toronto, testifies to the interest he takes in religious education. He is now a wealthy man, being possessed of property worth millions of dollars. This fortune has all been acquired by hard work, honesty and integrity, and while making his money he has retained the respect and esteem of all who know him. In politics Mr. Maclaren is a Liberal.
Denoncourt, Nazaire Lefebvre, Advocate and Q.C., Three Rivers, Que., was born in the parish of La Pointe du Lac, in the county of St. Maurice, district of Three Rivers, on May 4th, 1834. His father was Joseph Lefebvre Denoncourt, a descendant of Ignace Lefebvre Sieur de Belle Isle, who came to Three Rivers in 1656. His mother was Marie Louise Panneton. The subject of this sketch was sent to Nicolet College and received an excellent classical education. After the usual course of study in law he was called to the bar on 1st September, 1861, and was made a Queen’s counsel on the 11th September, 1880. He has since practised his profession successfully in the city of Three Rivers. He has appeared for the Crown in several cases, was appointed city attorney on May 16th, 1878, and legal adviser of the Hochelaga Bank in 1885; has pleaded before all the courts of the province; and successfully maintained the rights of the local legislature before the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, to authorize municipalities to levy taxes on the sale of liquors and on commercial travellers. On October 14th, 1862, he married Marie Ann Cecile Garceau, a daughter of Louis Benjamin Garceau, descendent of an Arcadian family. Her mother was Adele Poulin de Courval, one of the ancient and most important families of New France.
McConville, Joseph Norbet Alfred, Advocate, Joliette, Que., was born at Berthier (en haut) Que., on March 1st, 1839. His father, John McConville, who was headmaster of the Berthier Academy from 1833 to 1846, was born at Newry, county Down, Ireland, came to Canada in 1818, was married at Berthier, on January 7th, 1832, and died at St. Paul, Quebec, September, 10th, 1849. His grandfather, Meredith McConville, while living at Portadown, county Down, Ireland, joined the United Irishmen in 1798, and died March 4th, 1838. His grandmother, Mary McCardle, died on Easter Sunday, 1827, in church, having lived to a good old age: her father, who died at the age of 109, was well able to plough two years before. His mother, Mary Magdalen McKie, was born at St. Melanie, Quebec, June 28th, 1813, was married at Berthier, January 7th, 1832, and died at Joliette, April 30th, 1878. Her father, John McKie, surveyor, was born at Alloa, Scotland, 1767, was married at Sorel, Quebec, September 23rd, 1805, and died at St. Melanie, October 11th, 1818. Her mother, Mary Magdalen McKay, was born at St. Cuthbert, Quebec, about 1790, was married at Sorel, September 23rd, 1805, and died at St. Melanie, September 25th, 1817. Angus McKay, one of his mother’s grandparents, was of extraordinary physical strength, married Magdalen Fauteux, at Sorel, August 19th, 1789. The subject of this sketch was educated at L’Assomption College, Quebec, studied law at Drummondville, and was admitted to the bar at Three Rivers, in February, 1865. He was captain and paymaster of No. 1 Joliette Provisional Battalion, from 1872 to 1875. He was secretary-treasurer of the Municipal Council and School Commissioners of Grantham, Windover and Simpson, from 1862 to 1866; town councillor of Joliette from 1872 to 1875; and is now one of the school commissioners of Joliette. He is a shareholder in the St. Jacques Brewery; a shareholder and secretary of the Joliette Lumber Co.; was editor and proprietor, in conjunction with his late brother, (L. Arthur McConville) of the newspaper L’Industrie in 1872-73; and is now shareholder in L’Imprimerie de la Gazette de Joliette. In politics he is a Conservative, and was the defeated candidate at the Dominion general election in 1882, contested the election, but was again defeated at the new election in the fall of the same year. In 1885, he was, however, more successful, being elected a member of the Quebec legislature in September, but was again defeated at the election in October, 1886. In July and August, 1883, he made a foreign tour, visiting in the course of his travels, Londonderry, Dungannon, Portadown, Newry, Drogheda, with the Boyne battle-field, and Dublin, in Ireland; Liverpool, Leicester and London, in England; and Boulogne, Amiens, Paris, Rouen and Dieppe, in France. In religion, he is a Roman Catholic. He was married at Berthier, Que., May 12th, 1874, to Annie Magdalen Kittson, daughter of the late Alexander Kittson, merchant, and Sophie Desantels, born in Berthier, October 12th, 1842, and a niece of Commodore Norman Kittson, of St. Paul’s, Minnesota.