Gouin, Antoine Nemese, Sorel, Quebec, was born on February 25th, 1821, in the parish of Ste. Anne de la Pérade, Quebec. He is a son of Charles Gouin, merchant, and Marguerite Elizabeth Richer Lafleche, his wife, first cousin to his grace Bishop Lafleche. In 1825, Mr. and Mrs. Gouin removed from Ste. Anne to Sorel, then called the borough of William Henry. The subject of this sketch attended the College of St. Hyacinthe, from 1832 to 1839, and on leaving this seminary of learning entered the office of Cherrier & Mondelet, in Montreal, to study law, and was admitted to the bar in November, 1843. He practised his profession in Montreal for two years, when he removed to Sorel, where he has resided ever since. At the general election in December, 1851, he was elected member of parliament for the county of Richelieu, as a Liberal-Conservative, and, as such, took part in the discussions on all the leading questions of the day, such as the clergy reserves, the seignorial tenure, the Grand Trunk Railway, etc. On May 18th, 1858, he was appointed prothonotary of the Superior Court, clerk of the crown, of the peace, and of the circuit court, in and for the district of Richelieu, which office he is still holding. Mr. Gouin is a French Canadian and a Roman Catholic. He was married March 18th, 1863, to Adele Catherine Penton, daughter of Henry Penton, sen., of Pentonville, England, and of Catherine Cordier de la Houssaye, a French lady. Mrs. Gouin was born in Calais, France, on October 25th, 1825, and died at Sorel, on February 19th, 1886, leaving two daughters and a son—the issue of her first marriage with Assistant Commissary-General James Lane.
Clinch, Robert Thomson, St. John, N.B., is descended from an old Irish family of record in Ireland since the time of Edward the Second. His ancestors, Peter and Simon Clinch, took an active part on the Stuart side, in the troublous times of James the Second and William the Third. He was born at St. George, New Brunswick, June 27th, 1827, and is the seventh son of Patrick and Eleanor Clinch, and grandson of Captain Peter Clinch, who, for special services rendered the British government during the American revolutionary war, was awarded a large tract of land. Nearly half of the land on which the city of St. John now stands, and where at that time Captain Clinch resided, was ungranted. Taking with him two Indians, Captain Clinch traversed the province of New Brunswick, and on reaching Charlotte county was so struck with the beauty of Magaguadavic Falls that he resolved to select his land grant in this neighborhood. He then retired from the army, and became the first settler, and the founder of the town of St. George. This gentleman represented Charlotte county in the first House of Assembly in New Brunswick, which was opened in St. John, January 3rd, 1786, by Governor Thomas Carleton. His son, Robert Clinch’s father, also represented Charlotte county in the House of Assembly, some eight or ten years, and was a justice of the court of common pleas, and for several years editor of the Provincialist, a newspaper, published in St. Andrews. Mr. Clinch has been connected with the telegraph service ever since its introduction into New Brunswick, and for the past twenty years has been superintendent in the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. He is a member of the Church of England, and has been four times elected representative to the Provincial Synod, and in 1880 was appointed one of the delegates from the Provincial Synod to the convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, then assembled in New York. Mr. Clinch, for thirty-four years, has been an active member of the Masonic fraternity. In 1866 he was appointed district grand master by the late Earl of Zetland, and after the formation of the Grand Lodge of New Brunswick was thrice elected grand master. He is now the representative of the Grand Lodge of England to the Grand Lodge of New Brunswick, and is also past commander of the Knights Templars of St. John, and a member of the supreme council of the 33rd Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for the Dominion of Canada. He married in 1860, Henrietta, daughter of George W. Cleary, barrister, who died April 3rd, 1862. In 1866 he married Helen E., daughter of Thomas Barlow, a member of the old late house of E. Barlow & Sons.
Baudouin, Philibert, St. John’s, province of Quebec, was born at Repentigny, Quebec, April 27th, 1836. He is a son of Pierre Baudouin and Margaret Hétu, his wife. He is a descendant of Jean Baudouin, who was a resident of Montreal in 1663, and whose son, Guillaume, settled at Repentigny, on the estate where M. Baudouin was born, and which has been in the family since its cession by the seigneur in 1698. The family name of Baudouin is derived from the language of old Gaul, and is the origin of the name Baldwin, which was first spelled Baudwin. The subject of this sketch was educated at L’Assomption College, and took a full classical course. He is a notary public for the province of Quebec, and in 1858 resided at Coteau Landing; in 1860, at Iberville; from 1862 to 1873, he was county clerk, clerk of the circuit court, etc., for Iberville county, and town clerk of Iberville; from 1875 to 1877, he was manager of the agency of the Banque de St. Jean, at Farnham; from 1877 to 1886, cashier of the Banque de St. Jean, at St. John’s; and since 1886 he has been manager of the agency of the Banque du Peuple, at St. John’s. He has travelled through the Eastern States, and was one of the many thousands at the Philadelphia exposition of 1876. He is a Roman Catholic in religion. Mr. Baudouin is a total abstainer from liquor, and is in the enjoyment of perfect health, although a hard brain-worker. He was married, August 22nd, 1864, to Caroline Annie Marchand, of the Marchand family, long established in St. John’s, the most prominent of which now are the Hon. F. G. Marchand, M.P.P., speaker of the Quebec legislature, etc., and Henri Marchand, prothonotary, S.C., at St. John’s; and on her mother’s side, a granddaughter of Isaac Phineas, long agent at Maskinonge of Seigneur Pothier’s estate, and one of the English Jews who settled in Canada about a century ago.
Lamarche, Felix Oliver, Mayor of Berthierville, province of Quebec, was born at Montreal, Quebec, on 1st December, 1837. He is the son of Charles Lamarche and Marguerite Tranque, his wife, who is descended from an ancient Norman family, who, on leaving the old land, settled in Montreal. The subject of this sketch received an elementary school education at Berthier-en-haut. In 1839, he left Montreal for that town, and has resided there since. He was for several years actively engaged in the shipping interest, being the owner of several vessels, and for nine years commanded a vessel sailing on the St. Lawrence river. As a sailor, he was on several trips down the gulf to St. John’s, N.F.; Halifax, N.S.; St. John, N.B.; La Baie des Chaleurs, P.E.I., etc. For the past sixteen years he has been in the hay and grain business, and is now one of the largest hay shippers in the province of Quebec, having nine hay barns or sheds, with eleven hay presses, employing fifty men, and shipping some five thousand tons of hay annually to the United States and local markets. He is president of the Compagnie Industrial of Berthierville, and of the bolt manufactory; was a shareholder in the late Stadacona Insurance Company; and also in the Union Steam Navigation Company. In politics, he is a strong Conservative, and a liberal subscriber to its funds. He has been repeatedly solicited to allow himself to be brought forward as a candidate in the Conservative interest, but invariably refused. He was also offered government positions, but would not accept them in view of his business connections, and also because his busy life could not stand the restraint such a position would place upon him. In religion, he is a fervent Roman Catholic. He has been married twice—first to Alphonsine Ducharme, on the 7th November, 1858, by whom he had two children. This lady died on the 22nd August, 1861. Again to Caroline St. Cyr, on the 30th August, 1875, and by whom he has had seven children. Of the nine children, three only are living.
Bresse, Hon. Guillaume (William), Quebec, is the leading boot and shoe manufacturer of the ancient capital, and a member of the Legislative Council of the province of Quebec. An admirable type of the self-made man, Mr. Bresse has risen from obscurity to a commanding position of industrial eminence and affluence by the sheer force of native talent and enterprise. With no other educational advantages than those afforded by the parish school of St. Athanase, d’Iberville, P.Q., at which the present premier of the province of Quebec, Hon. H. Mercier, also received the rudiments of his education; he has climbed the ladder of fortune until he now stands on the topmost rung of wealth and influence, while still a comparatively young man. But he has not forgotten that he was once a workingman himself. One of the largest employers of labor in the province of Quebec, his workmen and women are more his friends than his employees, and the interest he takes in their comfort and welfare is altogether paternal. Born in Chambly, near Montreal, he is now in the fifty-third year of his age. His parentage was humble, but respectable. His father was a farmer, a typical French-Canadian habitant, and his mother was a member of the Rocheleau family, of Chambly. His uncle, Major Bresse, served in the Canadian militia under De Salaberry, at Chateauguay, during the war of 1812, and was the Lower Canadian hero’s most trusted lieutenant. After receiving such education as the school of St. Athanase could impart, our subject went out into the world to earn his own livelihood, and his life down to about 1863 was that of the ordinary workingman, laboring for his day’s wage in Montreal and the manufacturing centres of the New England States. During his sojourn in the latter, he formed a close intimacy with another workingman and fellow countryman, who has also since risen to wealth and fame in his native province—Louis Coté, the great boot and shoe manufacturer of St. Hyacinthe, P.Q., for many years the popular mayor of that city, and now a member of the Dominion Labor Commission. The two young French-Canadians were kindred spirits. Both were of an observant turn of mind and actuated by a laudable ambition to advance themselves. Happily, too, for themselves and their native province, they were both gifted with more than the usual pluck and enterprise of their race. Noting the preference given to their countrymen as factory hands in the United States, on account of their peculiar adaptability to the work, their orderly character, and their contentment with moderate earnings, they quickly came to the conclusion that if the French-Canadians were so profitable to their employers abroad, where the cost of living was high, they would be much more so at home. They accordingly returned to Canada with the determination to start in the business of boot and shoe manufacturing on their own account. The old city of Quebec seemed to offer the most favorable field for their undertaking. One of its staple industries, shipbuilding, was declining, and a large element of the local population were out of employment and ready to embark in any new branch which promised steady work. The tanneries of Quebec, already famous for the abundance and excellence of their leather, also offered the attraction of a cheap, plentiful, and convenient supply of the raw material, and altogether the situation appeared exceedingly propitious to make a bold bid for the Canadian trade. But the two young adventurers were without means or friends to help them, and their beginning was, consequently, on a very small and humble scale. By the merest accident, when they reached Point Levis, opposite Quebec, on their return from the United States in the winter of 1863, they met François Langelier, then a young lawyer returning, after completing his studies in Europe, and now the Hon. François Langelier, mayor of Quebec and member of the House of Commons for the electoral division of Quebec Centre. While being conveyed through the floating ice of the St. Lawrence over to Quebec, an acquaintanceship was formed between the three young men, which has since ripened into a warm and lasting friendship, personal and political. The encounter was a fortunate one for all three. To Messrs. Bresse and Coté it was particularly so, for a few days afterwards a reference to Mr. Langelier enabled them to secure the lease of a building in St. John’s suburbs, on favorable terms, suited to their purpose. It has often been asserted that the Messrs. Woodley were the pioneers of the great boot and shoe industry of Quebec city, but such is not the case. The Woodleys did not start in it until 1866, or three years after the firm of Coté & Bresse, who began manufacturing with machinery in St. George street, in St. John’s suburbs, in the spring of 1863. To these two enterprising French-Canadians rightfully belongs the credit of leading the way in a branch of trade which is now the most important of Quebec, and furnishes a means of support to a larger body of the population even than the lumber trade. From St. George street they removed to Des Fosses street, in Quebec East, when the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Coté going to St. Hyacinthe, and Mr. Bresse remaining in Quebec and removing to St. Paul street. His present factory and palatial residence on Dorchester street, Quebec East, erected in 1871, cover an entire block, and the factory itself is the largest and finest of its kind in the city. It gives constant employment to an average of four hundred hands, male and female, and the quantity of boots and shoes it turns out is enormous, while their excellence has rendered Mr. Bresse’s name famous all over the Dominion. From Newfoundland in the east to Vancouver in the west, his goods find a ready market, and his numerous hands are kept busy all the year round in filling orders. In addition, Mr. Bresse is the patentee of several valuable labor-saving machines of his own invention, and owns a large tannery at Arthabaska, several farms in the district surrounding Quebec, and property in Winnipeg, Montreal, and elsewhere. He also holds a controlling interest in the St. Hyacinthe Water Works Company, of which he is a director. He was a member of the Senecal Syndicate which purchased the North Shore Railway from the provincial government of Quebec, under the premiership of Hon. Mr. Chapleau, the present Dominion secretary of state, and acted as administrator of that road until it passed into the hands of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. In fact, there are but few local undertakings, financial or industrial, in which he has not been, or is not now, concerned, and he may be truly said to be an eminently successful man. As a citizen, he is deservedly held in the highest respect, and his fellow townsmen some years ago marked their confidence in him by electing him as one of their representatives in the city council for Jacques Cartier ward. He sat in the council for one term, after which he declined re-election on account of the demands of his extensive business upon his time. As an employer of labor, he is probably one of the most popular in Quebec, having a genuine workingman’s sympathy for workingmen, and treating them more as his children than his servants. In politics, Mr. Bresse has always been a warm and consistent Liberal, and the opposition leader in the Dominion parliament, the silver-tongued Laurier, has no stronger admirer or supporter in his constituency of Quebec East. Hon. H. Mercier, the present premier of the province, is also one of his warmest friends, and it was by his government that Mr. Bresse was, in December, 1887, called with general public approval to the Legislative Council as the representative of Les Laurentides division upon the resignation of Hon. J. E. Gingras. On that occasion, the pleasant relations existing between him and his employees was marked by their presentation to him of a congratulatory address. In religion, he is a Roman Catholic, like the great majority of his fellow countrymen. He is unmarried.