Lefebvre, Joseph Hubert, Waterloo, province of Quebec, was born March 3rd, 1853, at Lawrenceville, township of Stukely, county of Shefford, Quebec. He is the eldest son of Joseph Lefebvre, a notary by profession, and who died May 11th, 1884. This family came from France and settled in Lower Canada, in the early part of the 17th century. His mother, Eulalie Boisvert, was a resident of the township of Stukely. The subject of this sketch received an excellent education, spending six years at an English Academy in Knowlton; then taking a classical course at St. Hyacinthe College; and afterwards a business course at the Montreal branch of Bryant & Stratton’s College. In 1870, he was articled to his father as a law student, and was admitted as a notary public, his commission being dated October 4th, 1877. From 1873 to 1876 he was in the lumber business with his brother, William R. Lefebvre, to whom he sold out his interest when he left the place. On being admitted to the notarial profession, Mr. Lefebvre practised a while at Granby, and in May, 1879, settled in Waterloo, where he succeeded to the business of Mr. Brassard, who had a large practice which was transferred to the hands of our subject, and his business consequently was brisk from the start. He was secretary-treasurer of the municipalities of the village of Waterloo, and township of Shefford, and of the schools of the village of Waterloo, and was secretary-treasurer of the municipality and schools of the parish of St. Joachim, when it was erected into a separate municipality, but he only held that position for a short time in order to get the municipality and school board into working order. He resigned all these secretaryships upon being appointed successor to his late father as registrar of the county of Shefford, his commission as such being dated November 7th, 1884. He was president of the Board of License Commissioners appointed under the License Act of 1883, and was appointed revising barrister for the county of Shefford, under a commission of the governor-general, dated October 26th, 1885. He is one of the promoters of the Shefford Agricultural Park Association, was instrumental in getting it incorporated, and has been its secretary-treasurer since its inception. He is largely interested in real estate, having purchased several thousand acres in the township of Minerve, in the county of Ottawa, which he is now colonizing. He was a volunteer in the frontier corps at the time of the Fenian raid in 1870; and was graduated at the Military Academy at Montreal, in 1872. He is a Conservative in politics, and has taken part in some of the political campaigns in Shefford and Brome counties; but is not a bitter partisan. He is a Roman Catholic in religion. He was married April 10th, 1877, to Clara Dorval, a daughter of the late Cajetan Dorval, formerly a merchant and postmaster of St. Césaire, and they have had seven children—six of whom are living and one is dead.
Howe, Hon. Joseph.—The late Hon. Mr. Howe was born at the North-west Arm, about two miles from Halifax, in December, 1804. His father was John Howe, a U. E. loyalist, who was at one time a printer in Boston, but who subsequently became a writer for the newspapers. Young Howe went to school in an irregular fashion in Halifax, and picked up the rudiments of a rough-and-ready sort of education. He was of a rugged frame, had an exuberance of animal spirits, and was fond of crag, and forest, and hill. He had, indeed, those who knew him say, the “poetic temperament,”—though it must be confessed that he did not show much of it in the verses, by so many called poetry, which he afterwards wrote. In 1817 he began to learn the printing business at the Gazette office, Halifax. This paper was owned by his younger brother, John. He served out his full apprenticeship, and then engaged himself in journeyman printing work. While learning his trade young Howe is said to have read voraciously every book that he could lay hands upon. He also published in the Gazette a lot of verses, which, however, did not amount to very much as poetry. “One morning,” says a Canadian writer, “while taking a solitary swim in the Arm, he was seized with cramp and felt himself sinking. He cast an agonized look round, and caught sight of the dearly-loved cottage on the hillside, where his mother was just placing a lighted candle on the window-sill. The thought of the grief which would overshadow that woman’s heart on the morrow inspired him with a strength to give a last despairing kick. The kick dispelled the cramp, and, hastily swimming ashore, he sank down exhausted, but thankful for his deliverance. It was long before he could summon courage to acquaint his parents with the circumstance.” Joseph Howe began a newspaper business on his own account, in 1827, becoming part proprietor of the Weekly Chronicle, the name of which was afterwards changed to that of the Acadian. He, however, soon sold out the latter, and purchased the Nova Scotian. In this newspaper he wrote with great earnestness, eloquence, and force. His style was pregnant, trenchant, and sometimes overwhelming. Mr. Howe’s celebrated Legislative Review began to appear in 1830, and attracted wide notice. In 1835 he published an article which the oligarchists could not tolerate, and he was indicted for libel. He consulted various lawyers. “There can be no successful defence made for you,” they all said, and some invited him to make a humble apology, and throw himself upon the mercy of his prosecutors. He borrowed a lot of law books, read all he could find on libel, and convinced himself that the learned men of the law were wrong. He pleaded his own case, and his heart became comforted, as he saw among the jurors an old man, with tears streaming from his eyes. The jury returned in ten minutes with a verdict of “not guilty,” and the lawyers who had said, “he who pleads his own case has a fool for a client,” were in a way dumbfounded. From this day forward Mr. Howe was a noted man. In 1836 he was elected to parliament for the county of Halifax; and two years later he travelled through Europe, in company with Judge Haliburton, better known as “Sam Slick.” Mr. Howe returned in 1838, and plunged into public work again. Sir Colin Campbell, the iron-headed autocrat, who was then governor, could not understand what the “common” people meant by talking about their “rights,” and with him, Mr. Howe, it need not be said, was at issue. On petition of the province, Governor Campbell was recalled, and was succeeded by Lord Falkland, a son of William IV., by Mrs. Jordan. After a time Falkland became a cat’s-paw in the hands of the Tories, and provoked fierce hostilities from the Liberals, at the head of whom was Joseph Howe. In 1848, the day of triumph came for the Liberals. Mr. Mackie was called upon to form a government, and Mr. Howe became provincial secretary. In 1851 he retired from the representation of Halifax; and in 1863 he became premier, in the place of Mr. Young, who was elevated to the bench. Since the entry into public life of Dr. Tupper, in 1855, there had been a steady, often a furious, hostility between himself and Mr. Howe. The strife was greatest between them on the question of union, to which Mr. Howe was opposed. But Dr. Tupper prevailed, not that he was a greater man than Mr. Howe; but because luck was on his side—there being a general movement in the direction of union, and the Imperial government desired the measure. When confederation was accomplished the now almost broken-down veteran was made to see, by Sir J. A. Macdonald, that he could be loyal to his province, by accepting the inevitable, and making the best of the new order of things. Hence he entered the Dominion cabinet in 1869 as president of the council. Ten months later he became secretary of state for the provinces and superintendent-general of Indian affairs. His health was now all the while growing feebler, and his mental retrogression seemed to keep pace with his physical. In 1873 he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia; but he died a few weeks afterwards. As an orator, Joseph Howe was the greatest man that the provinces which compose Canada have ever produced. He married, in 1828, Catharine Susan Ann, a daughter of Captain John McNab, of the Nova Scotia Fencibles.
Coté, Louis, Manufacturer, St. Hyacinthe. St. Hyacinthe is one of the most flourishing cities of the province of Quebec, and probably also its greatest manufacturing centre. Its tanneries, and its manufactories for boots and shoes, of woollen and knitted goods, of machinery, organs, etc., are not only numerous, but important and thriving establishments. These great industries impart to the local trade an extraordinary amount of activity, which is further enhanced by the well-known fertility of the surrounding agricultural region, and moreover, provides business for a local bank and two branch banks, in addition to the business of the same kind done in Montreal. When a stranger visits this pretty little town, he is always struck by the pervading air of ease, progress, and prosperity. Its buildings are noted for the remarkable taste shown in their construction. The streets are fine, straight, well kept, generally lined with handsome shade trees, and, after dark, lit with the electric light. Besides the magnificent promenade provided by Girouard street, there are also those of the Park, which will be a charming spot when the plantations of trees, made within a few years back, shall have increased in growth. Altogether, the place bears the stamp of activity, enterprise, and progress in every shape. Although founded upwards of seventy-five years ago, it is only about twenty years since St. Hyacinthe entered upon its present era of extraordinary development. In and about 1860, it was still nothing more than a big country village, inhabited by a sleeping population. The magnificent water power of the Yamaska river was only utilized to run two grist mills and a rope factory, the remainder of the water running to waste, while no one dreamt of making use of it for manufacturing purposes calculated to furnish employment to a working population steeped in want. The only establishments which gave the city any importance were its splendid college and convents. A few years before this, the two Coté brothers, in partnership with Guillaume Bresse, had introduced into Quebec the boot and shoe industry, which has since developed to such an extraordinary extent in that city. The Messrs. Coté had been born and reared in the environs of St. Hyacinthe, and their native city had naturally a warm place in their regard. They had long been sensible of the adaptability of its advantages to manufacturing industry, and only an occasion, some happy circumstance, was needed to induce them to turn them to account. Mr. Bourgeois, now judge of the Superior Court at Three Rivers, was then a practising lawyer at St. Hyacinthe, where he wielded an amount of influence as extensive as it was well deserved. A gentleman of broad and patriotic views, sincerely anxious for the progress of his town, he believed it had all the requirements of a manufacturing centre, and, as the cousin and intimate friend of Louis Coté, he pressed the point upon his attention, and urged him to establish himself in St. Hyacinthe, convinced that, with the assistance of so intelligent and enterprising a man, the place could not fail to fulfil its manifest destiny. The proposition was favorably entertained by Louis Coté, for whom Judge Bourgeois also found a partner with some capital in the person of Victor Coté. Leaving Mr. Bresse at Quebec, Louis Coté removed to St. Hyacinthe in 1863, and in partnership with his brother George and Victor Coté, he opened the establishment which marked St. Hyacinthe’s first step towards manufacturing eminence. The success of this establishment, now one of the largest in the country, is too well known to be dwelt upon. But it is not alone as a successful business man that Louis Coté has distinguished himself. He is also famous as an inventor, and the boot and shoe industry is indebted to his ingenuity for several machines which have largely contributed to its development. Most of his inventions have, in fact, become so indispensable to the trade that no one dreams at present of manufacturing shoes without them any more than of driving nails without a hammer. Attempts have been made to infringe his patents, and, to vindicate his rights, Mr. Coté had even to do battle for them before the Supreme Court of the United States, but he won his case, and to-day his machines are deservedly regarded as the ne plus ultra of perfection. His inventions are now in use all over in the great boot and shoe factories of Canada, the United States, England, Germany, and France. It will be easily understood that a man so intelligent and enterprising as our subject could not fail to exercise a marked influence on the progress of the city which had the advantage of counting him among its population, and the still more direct advantage of having him as its mayor during a number of years. In concert with Judge Bourgeois, who was also for many years a councillor and mayor of St. Hyacinthe, he always favored and stimulated industrial progress, or the encouragement of promising branches of manufacture. His own example, his prosperity, and the ever increasing success of his own establishment, were the means by which St. Hyacinthe was raised to the pinnacle of manufacturing importance on which it stands to-day, and on which it rests its claim to the dignity of the greatest industrial centre, in proportion to population, not only of the province of Quebec, but of the Dominion of Canada. But Mr. Coté’s beneficial influence was not alone felt in the commercial and industrial departments. As a member of the city council, and especially as mayor, he did much towards endowing St. Hyacinthe with improvements which are usually found only in the most populous and advanced cities. The superb waterworks which supplies the city and protects it against the recurrence of the disastrous conflagrations which ravaged it in the past, was built by a company of which Mr. Coté was the initiator, and is the principal stockholder and president. In the work of reform of the local school system, Mr. Coté labored hand in hand with the Rev. Mr. Gravel, then parish priest of St. Hyacinthe, and acting bishop of Nicolet; Jos. Naud, registrar; Euclide Richer, stationer; Charles Ledoux, and Mr. Chenet, all of whom gave in the matter proof of a zeal and devotion which entitles them to the lasting gratitude of their fellow citizens. He inspired, and was to a large extent the author of all the measures adopted to make the place the most prosperous and attractive manufacturing centre, not only in the province of Quebec, but in all Canada, outside of the great commercial cities. In a word, Mr. Coté, by his industry and example, made St. Hyacinthe. The brilliant and fruitful career of this good man furnishes a striking illustration of what can be done by intelligence, industry, good conduct, and love of country. He started out in life without education or pecuniary resource. After learning his trade in the United States, he returned to Montreal, where he soon secured a position as foreman in one of the great shoe factories of that city. There he devoted all his leisure time to study, and saved his earnings in order to procure for himself a good education. He followed the courses of the Jacques Cartier Normal School, and, thanks to the kindly interest taken in him by the Abbé Verrault, principal of that institution, he completed his studies there, and left it with that superior education in which so many of our great manufacturers and mechanics are deficient. Since then he has continued to instruct himself, and his library to-day offers him a source of information upon which he draws abundantly. The money which he saved by his self-denial not only furnished him with education but with a small capital which enabled him to start business on his own account, and to conquer fortune. By his intelligence and good conduct he has also given to the great question of capital and labor the only practical solution of which it is susceptible—he acquired capital by labor. To-day Mr. Coté is one of the wealthiest manufacturers in his line. He enjoys, in the fullest measure, the esteem and gratitude of his fellow citizens, and is known all over the country as a remarkable man. Although a Liberal in politics, the Federal government has paid homage to his merits and abilities, by appointing him a member of its labor commission, and, thanks to his intimate acquaintanceship with economic questions, his experience and practical knowledge, he is sure to make his mark in that connection as he has done in all others in the past. Louis Coté is still a comparatively young man, being only in his fiftieth year, so that, if he should be spared, there is still a bright career of usefulness before him for the good of his native city and the country at large. In religion, he is a Roman Catholic. He married, in 1868, Louise, daughter of Charles Pigeon, a most charming and distinguished lady; he has no family.
Casavant, Joseph Claver & Samuel, St. Hyacinthe, Quebec. Joseph was born on 16th September, 1855, and Samuel on 4th April, 1859, in the city of St. Hyacinthe. These two gentlemen compose the firm of Casavant, Frères, organ builders, St. Hyacinthe, Quebec province. They are the sons of Joseph Casavant, who died the 9th March, 1874, aged 67 years, after a successful career as an organ-builder, in the course of which he built the organs for Kingston and Ottawa Roman Catholic Cathedrals, and many others. The subjects of this sketch were educated at St. Hyacinthe college, and after leaving this seminary of learning they were entered as apprentices with a prominent firm of organ builders. After acquiring a thorough insight into the details of the business, they went to Europe in 1878 and made an extensive tour of England, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France, the primary object of their travels being to gain an idea of the more recent improvements made by the more prominent organ builders in the countries visited. Returning to Canada in 1880, they entered into business on their own account, and have built many organs which testify to the ability of the builders, and the thoroughness with which they have grasped every detail of their profession. Among the best specimens of their work are the organs in the St. Hyacinthe Roman Catholic Cathedral, Varennes parish church, Notre Dame de Lourdes, in Montreal, etc. Ever on the watch for improvements, and determined to have a knowledge from personal investigation, of every new invention relating to their business, the brothers, in 1886, took another tour through the principal centres in Europe, returning by way of the United States. In the course of this tour they obtained many valuable hints which they have turned to good account in their latest instruments. They are now building an organ for Notre Dame French Church in Montreal, which will contain eighty-five sounding stops (one hundred knobs), and is estimated to cost thirty thousand dollars. It will be provided with all the modern improvements, and will contain several new features which have not yet been used in Canada, the most important being that of electric action. This magnificent organ will be the largest in Canada, and will be a credit alike to the builders and to the Dominion of Canada.
Kincaid, Robert, M.D., Peterboro’, Ont., Surgeon-Major, was born June 10th, 1832, in the county Donegal, Ireland. He is the son of George Kincaid, and Elizabeth Virtue, his wife, daughter of George Virtue, a wealthy mill owner of Donegal. She was also related to the Virtues of the great publishing house, London, England. Dr. Kincaid, the subject of this sketch, came to Canada in 1847, and received his education at Queen’s University, Kingston, graduating with honors in 1863. He has been the surgeon of the 57th battalion, Peterborough Rangers, since it was gazetted in 1866, and now holds the rank of surgeon-major. He entered the service of the United States in 1863, and served until the termination of the war, being present at the engagements of the Wilderness, Mine Run, Coal Harbor, Spottsylvania Court House and Petersburg. He was for a time surgeon in charge of Governor’s Island Hospital, at the foot of Broadway, N.Y., the most important medical office in the gift of the government of the United States; and was afterwards, in 1864, transferred to Maine, as medical director of that state, with headquarters at Portland. Upon the conclusion of the war he returned to Canada, and in 1865 settled in Peterborough, where he has resided ever since and built one of the largest and most important practices in the midland district. In addition to his medical practice he conducts a large stock farm of about 400 acres a few miles from town, and has been prominently identified with the different agricultural societies for some years. He has been surgeon of the county of Peterborough since 1867; surgeon to the corporation of the town of Peterborough since 1868, and he still holds both offices; he is also senior surgeon of the Nicholls’ Hospital, examining surgeon for the Canada Life, North American Life, Equitable Life, Federal Life and the Manufacturers’ Life Insurance companies. In politics he has been a life long Conservative, and still holds the same views, although at the last Dominion election he warmly supported George A. Cox, the Reform candidate, on strong personal grounds. In 1883, upon the death of the late W. H. Scott, Q.C, M.P.P., the doctor was elected by acclamation to represent West Peterborough in the Ontario legislature, he being the only man in the riding acceptable to both parties, and the only man in Canada who was ever nominated for parliament by both political parties at the same time. At the end of his term, he declined re-nomination. Dr. Kincaid is a fluent speaker. For many years he held the office of coroner for the town and county of Peterborough, and in that capacity conducted many important inquests; but upon his election to parliament he resigned the office, and has since declined re-appointment. He has frequently been asked to run for municipal honors, but always declined, preferring to devote all his time to his profession. He was chosen to the Senate of Queen’s University in 1886. For many years he was prominently identified with the Masonic order, and held all the different offices until he reached the high position of district deputy grand master of Ontario district. He was initiated into Masonry in 1863, in St. Lawrence lodge, Montreal, under the Grand Lodge of England. The doctor has travelled through every state in the American Union and through all parts of the Dominion. He was brought up in the faith of the Episcopal Church, and was confirmed by John Toronto. He is still in sympathy with the doctrines of that church, but being opposed to the high church views which prevail in Peterborough, he does not attend the services. Has attended the Presbyterian churches here, and for some time was chairman of the Board of Managers of St. Andrew’s Church, but left that body, consequent upon the change of ministers, when the Rev. D. J. Macdonnell left Peterborough for Toronto. Dr. Kincaid was married in 1865 to Margaret M., daughter of James Bell, then manager of the Commercial Bank of Canada, at Perth, now registrar of the county of Lanark; niece of the Rev. Dr. Bell, of Queen’s College; niece of Judge Malloch, of Brockville, and cousin of Prof. Bell of the Geological Survey of Canada. The union has been blessed with several children, one girl and three boys of whom are now living.