Sutherland, Hugh McKay, Winnipeg, ex-M.P. for Selkirk, Manitoba, President of the Winnipeg and Hudson Bay Railway Company, is the descendant of an old Sutherlandshire (Scotland) family, and was born in New London, P.E.I., on 22nd February, 1843. His parents removed with their family to Oxford county, Ont., where the subject of this sketch was educated. Mr. Sutherland was engaged in lumbering and contracting for a considerable period, but, though leading an active life, he found time to take part in politics, becoming a man of considerable prominence among the members of the Liberal party with which he was identified. In 1874 he was made superintendent of Public Works in the Northwest Territories for the Dominion government, a position for which his knowledge and executive ability well fitted him. During his absence he was nominated for the Provincial legislature of Ontario by the Liberals of East Simcoe in the general election of 1875. Though unable to attend to the elections he made a good run, but was not successful. In 1879 he settled permanently in Winnipeg, after having made it his headquarters during the four or five years he was in the service of the Dominion government, and has ever since been identified with the progress of Manitoba and the development of some of its most important resources. In 1882 he contested Selkirk in the Liberal interest, and was returned for that constituency to the House of Commons at Ottawa by a majority of about 450. In the general election of February, 1887, he was nominated to oppose W. B. Scarth for the city of Winnipeg, but was defeated by the narrow majority of eight. He was the principal promoter of the Hudson Bay Railway scheme, an enterprise which is on a par with the Suez Canal or the Canadian Pacific Railway in its possibilities of influence upon the trade of the world; and was chiefly instrumental in procuring a charter from the Dominion parliament, in 1880, incorporating the Winnipeg and Hudson Bay Railway Company, of which he has ever since been president. Through countless difficulties he has guided this, his greatest enterprise, and has succeeded in building already about forty miles of the road. Notwithstanding the apathy of the mass of Canadians and the active opposition of many great interests, Mr. Sutherland still has faith in the scheme, and feels satisfied it will attract capitalists. He hopes soon to have arrangements completed for continuing the line on to Hudson Bay, and the placing on the route to Britain of a fleet of steamers specially built for the trade. This done, the result must be the revolutionizing of the trade, not only of Manitoba, but of the whole Canadian and American North-West. In energy, tact and organizing ability Mr. Sutherland is preeminently the man to have charge of a gigantic undertaking of this kind. He has been twice married; first, on the 10th February, 1864, to Mary, daughter of Alex. Dickie, of Brant. This lady having died on 11th October, 1875, he married his second wife, Mary, only daughter of Hon. T. Banks, of Baltimore, U.S., on the 10th December, 1878.
Otter, Lieut.-Colonel Wm. Dillon, Toronto, was born near Clinton, Ontario, on the 3rd of December, 1843, and is of English descent. His parents were Alfred William Otter and Anna Dela Hooke. He received his education at the Grammar School, Goderich, and at the Model School and the Upper Canada College in Toronto. He joined the Victoria Rifles, Toronto (now F Company Queen’s Own), in October, 1861, and was promoted to a lieutenancy in the Queen’s Own Rifles in December, 1864. He served in that rank on the Niagara frontier during the winter of 1864-5, in the 2nd Administrative battalion. Appointed adjutant of the Queen’s Own in August, 1865, and was present throughout the Fenian raid of 1866, including the action at Limeridge. Promoted major in June, 1869, and went to England as second in command of the Wimbledon team in June, 1873. Promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel in June, 1874, and appointed to the command of the corps a year later. He commanded the regiment during the “pilgrimage riots,” Toronto, in the latter part of 1875, and also during the riots consequent upon the strike of the Grand Trunk engineers at Belleville, in January, 1877. In 1881 Colonel Otter compiled and published “The Guide,” a manual of military interior economy, etc., a book now extensively used in the present schools of military instruction and throughout the militia force. In 1883 he was appointed to the command of the Wimbledon team, and subsequently sent to Aldershot for three months to acquire information in the conduct of military schools. He received the appointment of commandant of the School of Infantry at Toronto, in December, 1883, and organized C company, Infantry School Corps, with the school of instruction attached thereto. During the Northwest rebellion of 1885, Colonel Otter commanded the centre or Battleford column, making therewith a forced march across the prairie from Saskatchewan Landing to Battleford, a distance of 190 miles, in five days and a half. He was in command of the successful reconnaisance against the Indian chief, Poundmaker, and in the action at Cut Knife Hill, which prevented that chief’s junction with Big Bear and their projected assistance to Riel. He afterwards, at the close of the rebellion, commanded the Turtle Lake column sent in pursuit of Big Bear. Appointed to the command of military district No. 2, in July, 1886, in conjunction with the charge of the Royal School of Infantry at Toronto. In religion the colonel is an adherent of the Church of England. He was married in October, 1865, to Mary, second daughter of the late Rev. James Porter, inspector of public schools, Toronto, and previously superintendent of education, New Brunswick.
Hart, John Semple, Bookseller and Stationer, Perth, Ontario, is a Scotchman by birth, having been born in Paisley, on the 15th July, 1833. His father, John Hart, is a native of the town in which his son was born; and his mother, Jean Mason Semple, was born in the city of London, England. The Hart family is a very old one—one of the name appearing in the records of the old Paisley Abbey, as master mason and builder, in the thirteenth century. Since then it has continuously occupied public positions of trust in that old borough town. Mr. Hart and family sailed from Glasgow for Canada on the 15th April, 1842, and arrived in Perth on 17th June, of the same year, after a fairly prosperous voyage across the Atlantic in the old style of sailing vessel that now belongs to a past generation. Mr. Hart, sen., only intended to stay in Perth a few days and then go on to Toronto—then only a large town, but the principal town of Upper Canada—but whilst here, he was persuaded to remain and make it his home. Perth at this time was an active town, with a population of about 800 inhabitants, but its progress was comparatively slow in consequence of its being inland from the St. Lawrence and off the Rideau canal route. All emigrants passed over these highways of travel at this time to Upper Canada, where new tracts of farming lands were opening up of fine quality and on easy terms of purchase. These cheap lands and the attractions of pioneer life drew not only the emigrants but the young and active men from the older settlements, and thus Perth and its surrounding country was made tributary to the settlement of the “Huron Tract,” as all Ontario has been lately to the great Northwest. The progress of the town was therefore not as rapid as its citizens wished; business was also in a very unsatisfactory state at this time; money as a medium of exchange was not unknown, but was a scarce commodity; barter or trade was the principal means of exchange in buying and selling, and in the stores of that day you could get anything required for the household use from a “needle to an anchor.” Times were hard, and rigid economy the rule, and all members of the family were expected to do what they could to help. John S., the subject of this sketch, being the eldest of the family, had to make himself generally useful, give his father a helping hand at his trade, and embrace every chance offered for attending school. Fortunately, however, for him, he had received a good grounding in educational matters in schools in his native town and in Glasgow before coming to Canada, and suffered less in this direction than many a young man before him. In 1853 he and his father opened a book and stationery store; with a small stock of goods, but enough to meet the wants of the community. Business prospered, and in 1857 they removed to their present store, one of the best in Perth. Here for the past thirty years Mr. Hart has been carrying on business, and by close attention to it, and studying the wants of his numerous customers, he has succeeded in building up a good, paying book and stationery business. Mr. Hart has taken an active interest in military affairs, and served in the ranks for several years under the old militia system, until he was appointed a lieutenant, and after a while he was further promoted to the rank of major in the sedentary militia. During the Trent excitement he became an active member of the local drill association, which was formed for home protection at that time. During the Northwest rebellion in 1885, when it was decided to establish hospitals for the wounded and sick soldiers and to send trained nurses to manage them, Mr. Hart, on learning that one of the ladies of the town had volunteered and was accepted as a nurse, and that it was necessary to send additional medical appliances and stores to those provided by the government, at once took an active part in equipping the “Perth Ward,” and the generous response of his fellow-townsmen was afterwards attested to by many a poor fellow who benefited by these auxiliary stores. And, in this connection, it may also be said that after the death of young Lieut. Kippen, of Perth (who was killed at Batoche), when it was decided to erect a monument to his memory, Mr. Hart exerted himself in procuring subscriptions, and was an active member on the committee appointed to see that the wishes of the subscribers were carried out, and, as a result of their united efforts, the Kippen memorial monument now forms the most conspicuous of the many beautiful monuments in Elmwood Cemetery, Perth. In 1864, Mr. Hart was placed on the list of justices of the peace, but not being ambitious for public positions, he has always declined to serve in this capacity, as he has almost invariably done in municipal offices. He has been connected with several local manufacturing companies, the Tay Navigation Company, etc., and it may almost be said that the Perth Cemetery Company owes its existence to him, for he was instrumental in getting the majority of the stock subscribed in 1871 or 1872, and for the successful working of the company. He has now held the office of treasurer and manager of this company for over fifteen years, and the beautiful grounds of the cemetery are a credit alike to the town and manager. Mr. Hart is a Conservative, and takes an active part in provincial and federal politics. He supports the Conservative party because it represents his ideas on trade and commerce, he having advocated the national policy long before it was introduced. In municipal affairs he is also interested, and is always willing to help in anything that has for its object the building up of the town of Perth—railways, education, etc. In religion, he belongs to the Presbyterian church. Mr. Hart has not had time to revisit his father-land; but he has visited nearly the whole of Canada from east to west, making the tour of the lakes from the Saguenay to Duluth, and the principal towns and cities of Ontario, on various occasions, and all the principal cities of the Northern and New England States, either for pleasure or business. He is a citizen that Perth could ill spare. He was married on January 1st, 1857, to Margaret Brown, daughter of the late William Brown, of Glasgow, Scotland, and later, of Perth, Ontario. She died in 1863, leaving a family of two sons and one daughter. He was married again in Feb., 1870, to Mary Irving, daughter of the late John Irving, of Montreal, and who came from Scotland and the parish where his kinsman, the celebrated Edward Irving, was born.
Lafrance, Charles Joseph, City Treasurer, of Quebec, is one of the best known and most respected public citizens in the ancient capital. His true name is Charles Joseph Levesque, dit, or called, Lafrance. The possession of two names in this way is an institution peculiar to many of the French Canadians of the province of Quebec, the first being the original or real family appellation, and the other more in the nature of a distinguishing sobriquet, given in the remote past for some reason which cannot now be traced, but eventually crowding the real name out of daily and general use. Thus, the late Hon. Joseph Cauchon, ex-lieut.-governor of Manitoba, was better known by that name than by his real patronymic, which was Laverdière dit Cauchon. The same remark applies to the city treasurer of Quebec, who is better known to his fellow citizens by the name of Lafrance than by his real family name of Levesque, though his brother, the present parish priest of Matane, P.Q., was ordained under the name of Levesque, and is known by no other. In fact, nine-tenths of them would hardly recognize him by any other. He was born in the St. Roch suburb of Quebec, on 13th November, 1833, of the marriage of the late Charles Levesque dit Lafrance, carpenter, and Marie Prevost. His parents were not blessed with a superabundance of this world’s goods, but they were actuated by a laudable ambition to give their boy a good education and ultimately a profession. He was accordingly placed at the Quebec Seminary with the intention of following a complete classical course in that institution in order to prepare himself for the study and practice of the law. He was an apt scholar, and the progress he made in his collegiate studies was remarkable, but, before he could complete them, circumstances over which he had no control compelled him to abandon them, and relinquish—as he then thought, only for a time—the legal career which he had laid out for himself, and to turn his attention to school teaching as a means of livelihood. In the fall of 1850, he secured the appointment of teacher at Cap Rouge, near Quebec, and for the next three years he “taught the young idea there how to shoot.” He then removed to Batiscan, P.Q., where he taught for another year. In June, 1854, he wedded Catherine Stegy dit Angers, daughter of the late Olivier Stegy dit Angers, and his wife, Catherine Bilodeau, of St. Roch’s of Quebec. After his marriage, he bade adieu for good to his long cherished idea of becoming a member of the legal profession, and took charge of the school at Beauport, some three miles out of the city of Quebec, on the road to Montmorency Falls. In this field he again labored for some time, until tiring of the position and prospects of a country teacher, he resolved to establish himself in the city where there was a greater opening for his talents. Accordingly on 1st May, 1859, he opened in the St. John suburb of Quebec, an independent school under the name of the “St. Jean Baptiste Commercial Academy,” which he continued to superintend until July, 1876. During the interval, he devoted all his leisure time from his pupils to study and the compilation for his classes of a number of valuable works on French, English, and book-keeping. Among these may be more specially mentioned, the very useful French grammar which he published in 1865, and his treatise on arithmetic, published in 1867. He also took a great interest in the affairs of the Teachers’ Association, of which he was long a member, and several times secretary and president, besides being chosen as a delegate to represent the teachers of the Quebec district at the great convention of the teachers of the province of Quebec, held at Montreal in May, 1861. In the educational interest, he also started in 1864, at Quebec, jointly with N. Thibault and Joseph Letourneau, both professors of the Laval Normal School, the publication of La Semaine (The Week), a weekly paper devoted to the cause of education and the teaching profession. The promotion of a strong national feeling among his French Canadian fellow-countrymen was another of his ambitions, and he early became a prominent member of their great national society, the St. Jean Baptiste, of Quebec, of which he was elected secretary in 1866. He filled this office during eight years, then that of vice-president during two years, and lastly that of president during two years more. It was while he was still an office-holder of the society in 1874, that he was named with the Hon. Hector Fabre, now the Canadian commissioner in Paris, and J. P. Rheaume, ex-M.P.P. for Quebec East and an alderman of the city, as one of the delegates to represent Quebec at the great celebration of the national festival at Montreal that year. The active and intelligent interest which Mr. Lafrance had also taken in municipal affairs, his large fund of information and ready eloquence, marked him out as early as 1868 for civic honors, and in that year he was pressed to stand as a candidate for one of the seats for St. John’s ward in the city council of Quebec. But, politically, he was a liberal of the liberals; toryism was then in the ascendant in the ancient capital, and he had to make a desperate fight against terrible odds. He won, however, and after that he was constantly re-elected without opposition down to 1876, when he declined further re-election, though pressed thereto by a requisition signed by the majority of the electors of both political parties. In the Quebec city council, Mr. Lafrance was one of the most conspicuous figures, leading in all important debates, and generally taking a prominent part in all committee and council work for the good of the city. On financial questions, he was especially strong, and was altogether a valuable municipal representative, his course throughout being marked by great independence, and his name unsullied by the breath of scandal. It has already been stated that Mr. Lafrance was an ardent liberal in politics. Even in his school-days, he was noted for the intensity of his liberalism, and as he grew to manhood he threw himself with all the enthusiasm and self-denial of his nature into all the struggles of his party in the Quebec district. But the liberal fortunes were at a low ebb in Lower Canada in those days, the cause was unpopular, and the very name of Rouge was a bugbear. It required great moral courage for a young man to cast his lot with the Dorions, the Holtons, the Lauriers, the Fourniers and the other ardent spirits, who were then considered the advocates’ of revolution among the French Canadians, and condemned accordingly from hustings and pulpit. All the worldly, and, it may be added, spiritual inducements of the day were on the other side. But Mr. Lafrance never hesitated even for a moment in his choice between principles and interest. He at once took his place in the van of the Liberal party militant, and boldly lifted its fallen banner in the Quebec district. Prompt to perceive that the great want of his fellow-countrymen was political education, and that the chief drawback of his party was the absence of organs to supply that education and to denounce the wrong doing and short comings of their adversaries in power, the hard-working school teacher threw himself also into journalism, and started paper after paper in the interest of his party. His confidence in the eventual success of that party’s mission was unbounded; but his means and support were necessarily limited, and though his papers were ably, nay, brilliantly, conducted, they were short lived. Each failure, however, seemed to encourage him to new exertion. Thus, in 1866, he assumed the publication of L’Electeur, and upon its death embarked his fortunes in L’Echo du Peuple, which he published during 1867 and 1868. In 1870, he brought out L’Opinion Nationale, and in 1871 and 1872 L’Opinion du Peuple, the last named being an open advocate of annexation to the United States as the only remedy for existing evils from which escape then seemed to him otherwise hopeless. In this view, it will be remembered that he did not stand alone at the time. But he had the courage of his convictions and boldly advocated them. It was, however, up-hill work to do so, and his life history at this stage was one of prolonged struggle and self-sacrifice. In 1874, he was the candidate chosen by the Liberal party to contest with the government candidate the seat for Quebec Centre in the Provincial legislature, and his personal popularity with the mass of the electors was so great that his return was confidently anticipated. But the government delayed the issue of the writ from January to April, and in the interval the late Hon. Joseph Cauchon was commissioned to announce to him that the government would allow him to be elected by acclamation, provided he signed a pledge to give them a certain amount of “fair play.” Mr. Lafrance’s reply to this tempting offer was characteristically consistent. He said: “I have always been a Liberal. If to have the honor of representing Quebec Centre I must begin by making concessions of this kind, I prefer to remain at home.” This reply cost him the active support of Mr. Cauchon, who was then a great political power in Quebec, and the English vote of the division was also alienated from him by a pamphlet which he had published towards the end of December, 1873, under the title of “Our Political Divisions.” Bribery and corruption on an extensive scale, coupled with the treachery of several of his chief election managers, did the remainder of the work and secured his defeat at the polls. In 1876, the Liberal government of Mr. Mackenzie was in power at Ottawa, and our subject was named as inspector of gas at Quebec, when he abandoned school teaching. But he continued to contribute to the local press and especially to L’Evenement, of which he assumed the complete editorial management from the fall of 1876 to the close of 1877, during the absence of its proprietor and usual editor, Senator Fabre, at Ottawa and in France. In 1878, the important and responsible office of treasurer of the city of Quebec became vacant, and, recalling the financial ability he had manifested as a member of the city council, public opinion at once designated Mr. Lafrance for the office and he received it. This appointment, and successive family bereavements about the same time, determined his abandonment of politics and the devotion of his remaining years of usefulness to the finances of the city and the interests of his family. Under his able and cautious management, Quebec’s financial situation as a city has since very materially improved, and its credit stands high in the money markets of the world—the latest quotation of its bonds on the English market being 118. He has also very thoroughly and effectively re-organized the book-keeping and audit systems of the Quebec corporation, and is the originator of a scheme for the consolidation of the city debt, which still claims very serious attention and may probably at no distant day be carried out. In religion, Mr. Lafrance is a Roman Catholic. He has seven surviving children. One of his sons is assistant accountant of the Quebec corporation, and one of his daughters not long since left Quebec with thirty self-sacrificing young ladies to devote herself as a nun to the care of the sick and infirm in the convent of the Incarnate Word at San Antonio, Texas.
Scarth, William Bain, Winnipeg, M.P. for the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, on the 10th November, 1837. His father was James Scarth, a scion of the family of the Scarths of Binscarth, Orkney Islands; and his mother, Jane Geddes, of Stromness in the same islands. He received a general classical education in schools in Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Mr. Scarth came to Canada in 1855, when seventeen years of age, and after several years spent in mercantile life in Hamilton and London, Ontario, he removed, in 1868, to Toronto, where he resided till 1884. Soon after his removal to Toronto he began to take a prominent part in public affairs. For two years he occupied a seat in the city council as representative of St. James’ ward; was a high school trustee, and was manager of the North British-Canadian Investment Company and the Scottish Ontario and Manitoba Land Company. He was also president of the Conservative Association of Centre Toronto. After removing to Winnipeg, in 1884, he became managing director of the Canada Northwest Land Company; secretary and director of the Canadian Anthracite Coal Company, and director of the North British-Canadian Investment Company. He presented himself for parliamentary honors in 1887, and was elected to serve in the House of Commons at Ottawa as representative for Winnipeg, and this seat he still occupies. Mr. Scarth has travelled a good deal, and long before railway days traversed the far North-west. He has also visited Cuba, and is familiar with every part of the United States and Canada. In politics he is a Conservative; and in religion, a member of the Presbyterian church. In 1869 he was married to Jessie Stewart Franklin, daughter of the late Dr. John Macaulay Hamilton, R.N., a native of Stromness, Orkney, and cousin of Lord Macaulay, the historian. Her mother was Miss Rae, sister of Dr. Rae, the Arctic explorer.