Germain, Adolphe, Barrister, Sorel, province of Quebec, was born in St. Ours, in the same province, in June, 1837. His father was François Germain, an old patriot of 1837-38. Mr. Germain received a classical course of education at St. Hyacinthe College, Quebec province, and afterwards studied law; and for over fifteen years he has successfully practised his profession in Sorel, first alone, but latterly under the firm name of Germain & Germain, his partner being his eldest son, S. Adolphe Germain. In 1878 he was created a Queen’s counsel. He has been frequently called upon to represent the attorney-general of Quebec province in Crown cases, and was one of the joint counsel in the celebrated Provencher trial, in which the accused was found guilty, along with his paramour, of poisoning the latter’s husband, and afterwards executed for the murder—the woman being sent to the penitentiary for life. Mr. Germain has been mayor of Sorel, and is dean of the bar of Quebec, for the district of Richelieu. He is a public-spirited gentleman, and has identified himself with the leading improvements—among others the fine public buildings recently erected—in the thriving town in which he resides. He has also taken an active interest in all the political movements of the country, and stands high in the estimation of his fellow-citizens. In religion he is an adherent of the Roman Catholic church; and in politics is a staunch Liberal. In February, 1862, he was married to Marie Louise Demers, and the issue of the marriage has been five children.
Sears, James Walker, Lieutenant South Staffordshire regiment, was born in St. John, New Brunswick, on the 22nd January, 1861. He is a son of John Sears, of St. John, N.B., and Ann, daughter of the Rev. William Blackwood, of Nova Scotia, and grandson of Thatcher Sears, a United Empire loyalist, of the former place. He received his primary education in various private schools in his native city. He left St. John in 1877, and after spending a year at the Collegiate Institute at Galt, Ontario, became a cadet at the Royal Military College at Kingston. Here, on the 25th June, 1881, after a course of studies lasting for three and a half years, and having passed a successful examination, he was awarded a commission in the Canadian militia, and a commission in Her Majesty’s 38th South Staffordshire regiment of foot. In this regiment he served throughout the Egyptian campaign of 1882, was present at the reconnaissance in force at Kafr-el Dwar on the 5th August, the surrender of Damietta by Abdulal, and the subsequent occupation of Cairo. For those services he received a medal and the Khedive’s star. He visited the Holy Land in April, 1883, and in May of the same year returned to Malta from Egypt with his regiment. He was appointed Lieutenant in the Infantry School corps by the Canadian government in December, 1883, in which corps, at Toronto, he has since held the appointment of adjutant. He served in the North-West rebellion of 1885 as brigade major of the Battleford column, and was present at the battle of Cut Knife Hill, and subsequently commanded the scout corps of the Turtle Lake column in the pursuit of Big Bear. He was mentioned in despatches, and received the medal and clasp. He became brevet captain in the Canadian militia on the 21st December, 1887.
Proulx, Hon. Jean Baptiste George, Nicolet, province of Quebec, was born at Nicolet, on the 23rd April, 1809, and died on the 27th January, 1884. He was the son of J. B. Proulx and Magdalen Hébert. His great grandfather was one of the oldest settlers of Nicolet, having settled there in 1725. The subject of this sketch was educated at Nicolet College. He was elected, in 1860, for De La Vallière, and sat in the Legislative Council until the union. In 1867, he was appointed to the Legislative Council for life. He was a Liberal in politics. He was one of the patriots of 1837; and was charged with having cast bullets, but was not arrested. He was married, on the 20th January, 1835, to Julia, daughter of Dr. Calvin Alexander, a graduate of Harvard, and had issue as follows:—Rev. M. G. Proulx, of Nicolet College, and Revs. Edward and Stephen Proulx, of the Society of Jesus.
Charlebois, Alphonse, Contractor, Quebec, is well known throughout the Dominion as an extensive and successful undertaker of great public works. A French-Canadian, he is endowed with more than the ordinary energy and versatility of his race, and his career furnishes an apt illustration of the triumph of tact and pluck over adverse circumstances. He was not of the fortunate class who are said to come into the world with “a silver spoon in their mouth.” His parents were simple Lower Canadian habitants, and our subject was born of their marriage at the town of St. Henri, Hochelaga county, on the outskirts of Montreal, on the 15th December, 1841. His father, Arséne Charlebois, was a native of Pointe Claire, in Jacques Cartier county, P.Q., and his mother was Edwidge Chagnon, of Verchères, P.Q. On his father’s side he is closely related to the late Mr. Charlebois, M.P.P. for Laprairie; to the Rev. Mr. Charlebois, curé of Ste. Therese, and to the late Dr. Charlebois, of Bleury street, Montreal; and, on his mother’s, to the late Sir George Etienne Cartier, who owed his election for Verchères, then one of the most Liberal constituencies in Lower Canada (after his defeat in Montreal East by the present Chief Justice Sir A. A. Dorion), mainly to the exertions and influence of her brother, the late Paschal Chagnon, of Verchères. Young Charlebois was educated partly at the Christian Brothers’ School and partly at Maxwell’s Commercial School, both in Montreal, receiving a fair commercial training, in French and English. After leaving school he served about a year to the builder’s trade in Montreal, and then entered the hardware trade in that city as a clerk to the late Mr. Brewster, with whom he remained nine years down to 1865, when he bought out the business on the retirement of his employer. Two years later, he abandoned hardware, and boldly took up the lumber trade in Montreal, making advances to the lumberers on the Gatineau, and otherwise speculating in the great staple of the country with more or less success until 1872, when he took a new and still more enterprising departure. Since the days of the Hon. François Baby in Lower Canada, no French-Canadian had figured prominently as a public contractor. In that field, the English speaking element were virtually without competition. Mr. Charlebois pluckily resolved to enter it, and the results have more than justified this step on his part. He is to-day known from Halifax to Vancouver as a leading contractor, and the country is indebted to him for the successful execution of some of its most important public works. His first undertaking in this line was on the Lachine canal, and since then he has been connected with the contracts for the Dufferin improvements at Quebec, the graving dock at Levis, the Georgian Bay branch of the C.P.R., the construction of four sections of the same road in British Columbia, and the erection of the new parliament buildings at Quebec, and of the new departmental buildings on Wellington street, Ottawa. The two last mentioned structures remain as lasting monuments, as well to his taste and skill, as to his energy as a builder. He is a director of the Clemow syndicate for the construction of the Great North-Western Central Railway, Manitoba, and before his removal from Montreal to Quebec, which is now his residence, he was during three years an alderman, and afterwards, during four years, mayor of his native town of St. Henri. He belongs to the Roman Catholic faith, and during his residence in the Montreal district was elected people’s trustee for life of the Roman Catholic parish church of St. Henri. He has travelled exclusively in Canada and the United States, chiefly on business. In 1865 he married Marie Flore Charlotte Valois, daughter of the late Dr. Valois, of Pointe Claire, and at one time M.P. for the county of Jacques Cartier, P.Q., and by her has had issue four children, all of whom are still in their teens.
Dupré, Rev. L. L., Sorel, province of Quebec, was born in Sorel, in 1841, and educated at the Seminary of St. Hyacinthe, P.Q. In 1868, he was ordained a priest, and placed as vicar in the Roman Catholic cathedral. In 1873, he was called as vicar to his native town, and in 1875 was appointed to the important post of curé of Sorel. Sorel being the most considerable place in the Roman Catholic diocese of St. Hyacinthe, requires the unremitting exertions and oversight of the pastor, and no one could perform the duties more zealously and unremittingly than does the present worthy incumbent. The rev. father has, in addition to his special duties, assisted in many ways in promoting the material welfare of his native town. As an instance, it may be mentioned that in 1880, by his exertions amongst his parishioners subscriptions were raised to an amount sufficient to build a large addition to the general hospital of Richelieu county, rendering that institution much more comfortable for the patients, and more suitable to the growing requirements of the town. He was also mainly instrumental in furthering the erection of the new college building, which is acknowledged to be the finest structure of the kind in the province. Since his incumbency, he has had the former parish of St. Peter’s divided into three distinct parishes—St. Peter’s, Ste. Anne, and St. Joseph. The parish of Ste. Anne, of which parish Mr. Dupré is the curé, is quite a populous one, and through his active exertions, a commodious stone church was soon built in the parish, on one of the finest sites of the St. Lawrence. That the curé possesses very superior administrative abilities is sufficiently proved by the foregoing, and is further attested by the manner in which he performs his onerous ecclesiastical duties. He has a remarkable memory, is a fluent speaker, and as a pulpit orator is unequalled by few. He is an ardent admirer of art, which he patronises liberally, and is possessed of a considerable collection of valuable and rare books, engravings, etc., proving a literary and cultivated taste. He is much esteemed by his parishioners and by the community of Sorel generally.