Payan, Paul, St. Hyacinthe, Quebec province, is a member of the firm of Duclos & Payan, Tanners, Manufacturers of buff, split-leather, shoe stock and curriers’ grease. He is the son of Louis Payan and Sophie Susanne Beranger, and was born the 14th day of February, 1840, in the city of Mens, department de l’Isère, France. At the early age of twelve he entered as apprentice in a tailoring establishment. In 1854, when the Crimean war broke out, his father, who had served under Napoleon the 1st, and accompanied the emperor in most of his campaigns, decided to send his two sons to America, feeling unwilling to expose them to the hardship of war, as his eldest son had attained the age of conscription. On the 7th of July they left for Havre, from which seaport they sailed for New York, leaving behind them their father and mother to dispose of their business of smallwares and stationery. After forty-six days’ sailing, the Arlington dropt her anchor in the bay of New York. Then began their anxieties, greatly increased by the fact that they could not understand the language of the country. Abused by overcharges in a hotel, and threatened by bullies, they passed out into the street where they wandered the whole night. It was only at the close of the next day that they bought their tickets for Champlain by boat to Albany; and after many troubles, baggages lost, delays, and disappointment of all kinds, they landed at Rouse’s Point, where sad news awaited them. A sister, the wife of the Rev. Mr. Charbonnel, then living at Roxton, had gone to her rest a few weeks before. His elder brother soon got employment in a carpenter’s shop, and Paul Payan entered as an apprentice in a tin shop; but soon discovering it would take a life-time to make a mere living, he followed the advice of his brother-in-law; gave up tailoring and the tinsmith business, and concluded an engagement with the owner of a small tannery. He soon passed to a larger leather establishment at Roxton Falls, and later on came to St. Pie and St. Hyacinthe. By that time he had learned his trade and made some money. He was married to Louisa Tenny, but having to support his young family, and his father and mother, who arrived in America a year after their son, his capital did not accumulate very fast. He made two unsuccessful attempts at starting a tannery business at Roxton Pond and at St. Hyacinthe. He then went into the bark business, but freight being high, he reduced its bulk by planing it thin; and was the first to send to the State of Massachusetts pressed bark. Competition having soon reduced the profit to a minimum, he gave this up, and went into the grocery business in Granby. After the death of his wife, he left Granby and became an agent for J. Daigneau, in an extensive and remunerative bark business. While in his employ he met with an accident, having broken his leg. After another attempt at bark business with a young friend, he came back to a long cherished idea of starting a tannery. With this object in view, he visited the western part of the United States and Canada; but finding no more advantages there than in the province of Quebec, he returned, and was married to his second wife, Olympe Duclos. In 1873 he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Silas Duclos, and began to put up a building of 75 feet long. In 1879 he bought Cotes’ tannery, and in 1882 doubled its capacity, which now employs 120 hands. Notwithstanding severe losses through failures, Mr. Payan grew in wealth and influence. In 1880 he was elected city councillor, which position he held till 1884, when he resigned. It was during his wise administration that the city of St. Hyacinthe underwent many improvements, that a public park was planned, a fire engine house and police station built, a more efficient fire service organized, the granite mill and a large shoe factory started, and a gas company put on a working footing. In 1881 Mr. Payan visited Europe in the interest of his business, seeking a new market for their manufactured goods. He is a worthy offshoot of a most faithful Huguenot family, was born and educated a Protestant, and is still a strong, quiet, unostentatious and consistent professor of the Presbyterian church of Canada.
Wells, Hon. Rupert Mearse, Toronto, Barrister, was born in Prescott county, Ontario, on the 25th November, 1835. He is descended, on the paternal side, from an English family, members of which emigrated to America, and settled in the town of Scituate, in the state of Rhode Island, towards the end of the seventeenth century. His great-grandfather, James Wells, came to Canada during the American revolutionary war. James Pendleton Wells, the father of the subject of our sketch, was born in Montreal, in 1803, and while a young man removed to the county of Prescott, where he resided for upwards of fifty years. He took an active and prominent part in public and political affairs, and for many years, until he was appointed sheriff, was the recognized leader of the Reform party in that county. Few men in that district were more widely known or more generally respected than Sheriff Wells. His wife was Emily Hamilton Cleveland, a native-born Canadian of Scotch-English descent. Hon. Mr. Wells, the subject of our sketch, received his educational training at home and at Brockville, and in 1850 was sent to the University of Toronto. Here he won the Jameson gold medal for history, and was silver medallist in ethics. Graduating B.A. in 1854, he began the study of law with Alexander McDonald, then one of the firm of Blake, Connor, Morrison & McDonald, leading barristers in Toronto, and on the completion of his law course, was called to the bar of Upper Canada, Trinity term, 1857. He then removed to L’Orignal, the county town of the united counties of Prescott and Russell. Mr. Wells remained here for about three years, during which time, in addition to his professional duties, he edited and published The Economist newspaper. Removing to Toronto, in 1860, he associated himself with the Hon. Edward Blake in the law business—the firm name being Blake, Kerr & Wells. A dissolution of this partnership having taken place in 1870, he formed another with Angus Morrison, Q.C., who for several years was mayor of Toronto, the new firm being known by the name of Morrison, Wells & Gordon. On the death of Mr. Morrison, a few years ago, a change took place in the firm, and now Mr. Wells carries on his law business in partnership with Angus MacMurchy, B.A., under the name of Wells & MacMurchy, barristers, 110 King street west. In 1871 Mr. Wells was appointed to the office of county attorney for York county and Toronto city, but this office he only held for about a year when he resigned, to become the Reform candidate for the South Riding of Bruce, for which constituency he was elected to the Ontario legislature in October, 1872. Shortly after entering the house, on the resignation of the Hon. J. G. Currie, 7th January, 1872, he was elected Speaker, and this high and honorable position he held until the dissolution of the parliament. He was elected to the same office on 23rd November, 1875, and held it until January, 1880. In 1882 he resigned his seat in the Ontario legislature, and was elected to represent East Bruce in the House of Commons. This seat he held until the general election of 1887, when he failed to secure his re-election. The Hon. Mr. Wells is now solicitor for the Canadian Pacific Railway. In politics he is a staunch Reformer.
Stuart, Sir Andrew, Knight, Quebec, is the distinguished Chief Justice of the Superior Court of the province of Quebec, and one of the most eminent of living Canadian jurists. Chief Justice Stuart may be said to have been “to the manner born,” and to have inherited the profound legal abilities, and splendid judicial mind, which make him one of the greatest ornaments of the Lower Canadian bench. “Bon chien tient de race” is a favorite French-Canadian maxim, which seems to have much application to his case. Legal and judicial talent runs, so to say, in his blood. His father, the late Andrew Stuart, Q.C., of Quebec, was her Majesty’s solicitor-general for Lower Canada, just before the union, and one of the most brilliant and remarkable lawyers of his day. Sir James Stuart, baronet, one of the most conspicuous figures in Canadian history, and for many years chief justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench for Lower Canada, was another member of the gifted family, as was also the late Hon. George O’Kill Stuart, for some years one of the representatives of the city of Quebec in parliament, and, at the time of his death, judge of her Majesty’s Vice-Admiralty Court at the port of Quebec. Our distinguished subject’s patronymic indicates his Scottish extraction. He was born at Quebec, on the 16th June, 1812, and was educated at Chambly, P.Q., in the Rev. Mr. Parkin’s school, which was conducted under the auspices of the Lord Bishop of Quebec. After the usual course of legal study in those days, he was called, in 1834, to the Quebec bar, and rapidly rose to distinction among his brethren of the long robe. On his father’s death, he succeeded to the most of his extensive and lucrative practice, and became the trusted adviser of the leading merchants and business men of the ancient capital, his services being retained in nearly all the important cases which came before the Quebec courts during the next twenty years. In 1854, he was raised to the dignity of a Q.C., in recognition of his eminent professional talents, and in the course of the same year he was also appointed a commissioner to consolidate the Statutes of Canada. In 1859, on the appointment of the late Hon. Justice Morin, as a member of the codification commission, he was named an assistant judge of the Superior Court for Lower Canada, and appointed a puisné judge of the same court at Quebec, on the death of Hon. Justice Chabot, in 1860. In 1874, he was offered a seat in the Court of Queen’s Bench for the province of Quebec, but declined it, and in March, 1885, on the retirement of Sir William Collis Meredith, he was elevated to the more important position of chief justice of the Superior Court for the province of Quebec, which he still fills, with honor to himself, satisfaction to the bar, and benefit to the country. In fact, Sir Andrew Stuart is one of the most popular, as he is also one of the most eminent, of the Lower Canadian judiciary. Throughout his career at the bar, his practice was so extensive that he may be said to have had no time to take any part in politics. At all events, he never adventured actively on that stormy sea, and, even to this day, his party proclivities, if he can be stated to have any, remain in doubt, so evenly did he hold, and has always held, the balance. This marked characteristic, together with his exalted office as chief justice, naturally pointed him out as the fit and proper person to represent the Crown on different occasions in the province of Quebec, and during the illness of Lieut.-Governor Masson, he was appointed provincial administrator, in April, 1886, and again in February, 1887, acquitting himself on both occasions of his high and delicate trust with a tact and impartiality which won golden opinions from all political parties in the province. On the 9th May, 1887, Chief Justice Stuart received, in the honor of knighthood, from her Majesty, a mark of his Sovereign’s appreciation of his eminent services, in which the whole country rejoiced, and none more so than the people of Quebec, his native city and home. Although now past the scriptural three score and ten, Sir Andrew is still a hale and vigorous man, with well preserved powers of mind and body, and doubtless has yet many years of public usefulness before him. On the bench, he is a model of dignity in his demeanor and lucidity in his judgments, and especially kind to the younger practitioners before him. In private life, he is essentially the well-bred gentleman, noted for his affability, geniality, and the old-time courtliness of his manners. In 1842, he married Elmire Aubert de Gaspé, a daughter of the late Philip Aubert de Gaspé, seigneur of St. Jean Port Joly, and a member of one of the oldest and most aristocratic French families of Lower Canada, who received large grants of land from the French kings before the conquest. One of Mrs. Stuart’s sisters is the wife of Hon. Charles Alleyn, formerly commissioner of public works in the government of Canada, and at present sheriff of Quebec; and another is the widow of the late Hon. William Power, in his lifetime a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec. By his marriage, Sir Andrew has had issue eight children, four sons and four daughters. One of the former, Henry McNab Stuart, now in British Columbia, is a barrister by profession. His second son, Andrew Charles Stuart, now deceased, was also a barrister, and for many years the popular lieut.-colonel and commanding officer of the 8th battalion of Quebec Royal Rifles. A third son, Gustavus G. Stuart, is a prominent and successful practitioner at the Quebec bar, and one of the legal firm of which Sir A. P. Caron, Dominion minister of militia, is also a member. His eldest daughter, Lauretta Stuart, is the wife of Hon. Louis Beaubien, of Montreal, formerly M.P.P. for Hochelaga, and speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec. Another daughter, Maud Margaret, is the wife of William G. Lemesurier, and now in India with her husband. Sir Andrew Stuart is a member of the Church of England.
Dorion, Hon. Sir Antoine Aimé, Knight, Montreal, Chief Justice of the Province of Quebec, was born at Ste. Anne de la Pérade, district of Three Rivers, on the 17th January, 1818. He is a son of Pierre Antoine Dorion, who was a member of the House of Assembly for Lower Canada for the county of Champlain, prior to the troubles of 1835 and 1837, and Genevieve Bureau, his wife. He is a grandson of P. Bureau, who sat in the Assembly for the county of St. Maurice, and nephew of Hon. Jacques O. Bureau, who is a Senator for DeLorimer division. The subject of this sketch received an excellent education at Nicolet College. After a course of study in law he was called to the bar of Lower Canada, January, 1842; was appointed a Q.C. in 1863, and created a knight in 1877. He has occupied a distinguished position at the bar; was elected several times bâtonnier of the Montreal bar, and was also bâtonnier-general of the bar of the province. He began at an early age to take an interest in politics, and from 1854 to 1861 he sat in the Canadian Assembly for Montreal, and for Hochelaga from 1862 until the union. He represented the same county in the House of Commons until 1872, when he was returned for Napierville, for which he continued to sit until his elevation to the bench. He was leader of the Rouge or French Canadian Liberal party of the province of Quebec, from his entrance into political life until his retirement. In August, 1858, the Macdonald-Cartier government was succeeded by the Brown-Dorion administration, when Mr. Dorion became attorney-general. He was sworn in a member of the Privy Council November 7th, 1873, and was minister of justice from that date until appointed chief justice of the province of Quebec. During his career in parliament, he held the offices of commissioner of crown lands in 1858; provincial secretary from May, 1862, to January, 1863, when he resigned on the Intercolonial Railway question; attorney-general for Lower Canada, and co-leader of the government (with Hon. John Sandfield Macdonald as premier), from May, 1863, to March, 1864, when the ministry resigned from office. He acted as administrator of the province of Quebec, in December, 1876, during the illness of Lieut.-Governor Caron. He was married, in 1848, to a daughter of the late Dr. Trestler, of Montreal.
Tupper, Hon. Sir Charles, G.C.M.G., C.B., D.C.L., Minister of Finance for the Dominion of Canada, M.P. for Cumberland, Nova Scotia, was born at Amherst, N.S., on the 2nd July, 1821. The family is of Hesse-Cassel origin. After having settled for a time in Guernsey, one of the British channel islands, the forefathers of the future Canadian minister of finance, with the object of improving their condition, left for Virginia, in America, and subsequently, at the termination of the American revolutionary war, removed, with other United Empire loyalists, to Nova Scotia, where they settled. The family was also connected with that of the late Major-General Sir Isaac Brock, the hero of Queenston heights. His father was the late Rev. Charles Tupper, D.D., of Aylesford, N.S. Young Tupper received a classical education at Acadia College, Nova Scotia, and graduated from that institution with the degrees of M.A. and D.C.L. He subsequently went to Edinburgh, Scotland, where he studied medicine, and took the degree of M.D., and also received the diploma of the College of Surgeons of the same city, in 1843. On his return he began the practice of his profession, and soon succeeded in building up a lucrative business. A man of Dr. Tupper’s ambitious turn was likely, sooner or later, to take that road which leads so many men to high public distinction, and probably when he did so, few men in this country were ever so well equipped for such a venture. He had a good presence, a hearty, genial address; he had read widely, observed keenly, and could discourse volubly and captivatingly upon any topic that arose. His extensive professional practice made him known to nearly everybody in Cumberland; and he had the tact—as the time was near that he had chosen for embarkation on public life—to be less prompt in sending in his accounts, and less rigid in enforcing payment than heretofore. Indeed, the robust and correct business man soon attained the name of being generous. Dr. Tupper was always a Conservative, and for the Conservative party he always expressed his preferences. But he could not be called a Tory. There was nothing retrogressive or narrow about him, and he did not care three straws for custom or tradition if it stood in the way of any condition of affairs that he considered desirable. In 1855 a general election took place in Nova Scotia, and, in response to a call from a number of prominent Conservatives, he offered himself for Cumberland, and was successful. And successful, too, over an opponent no less redoubtable than the then great lion of the Reform party, Joseph Howe. Howe was a most generous opponent. In that contest he did not suppose that he would be defeated, but he recognised the strength of his young opponent. From hustings to hustings he went, at each one saying that he had no fear of the result, but bearing testimony to the power of his opponent, and predicting that the time was near when he would be heard from, and render a creditable account of himself. The result of the fight, as we have said, was that Dr. Tupper was returned to represent his native county in the Nova Scotia legislature, where the young member for Cumberland at once attracted notice. As a speaker he was astute, ready, sarcastic, and often overwhelming, and for downright thunderous strength of style, no one could come near him. In 1856 he became provincial secretary in the Hon. James W. Johnston’s administration; in 1858 he went to England on a mission connected with the Intercolonial Railway; and in 1864 he became premier, on the retirement of the Hon. Mr. Johnston to the bench. In 1869 he moved the resolutions providing for a conference in Prince Edward Island to consider a scheme for a maritime union, but that project was afterwards merged into the larger one, which aimed at a confederation of the whole of the British North America provinces. In the confederation movement, Dr. Tupper took a leading part, attending the Quebec conference, and afterwards going to England when the question was discussed before the members of the Imperial government. In 1867 he was created a C.B., and in the same year was invited to take a seat in the Privy Council of Canada. This he refused, remaining a private member of the House of Commons till 1870, when he consented to become president of the council. In 1872 he became minister of inland revenue, and in 1873 minister of customs, which office he was soon obliged to surrender, by reason of the defeat of the ministry. During the campaign of 1878 he was like a lion in the fight, and his great battle-cry infused courage into the hearts of thousands of men who wavered between the two parties. That year the Liberals were defeated, and Dr. Tupper became minister of public works till that department was divided, when he took the portfolio of railways and canals. In 1879 he was created a knight of the order of St. Michael and St. George. His connection with the Canadian Pacific Railway is in everybody’s mind. To him more than to any other man in Canada is due the success of that great enterprise. In 1883 he was appointed high commissioner of Canada to the Court of St. James in London, retaining his position as minister of railways and canals. In this connection, Sir John Macdonald passed an act relieving the honorable gentleman from penalties under the Independence of Parliament Act; but after the close of the session of 1884, Sir Charles resigned his seat in the cabinet, and retained the high commissionership. He, however, soon re-entered active politics again. He was returned at the last general election by his old constituency, and was appointed finance minister on the 27th January, 1887, which office he still holds. Sir Charles Tupper was appointed executive commissioner for Canada at the International Exhibition held at Antwerp in 1885, and executive commissioner at the Colonial and Industrial Exhibition held in London in 1886. At the close of 1887 he was appointed by the Imperial government to act, in conjunction with the Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, in negotiating a treaty with the government of the United States of America in relation to the Canadian fisheries, and the commissioners brought their labors to a close during the month of February, 1888. While in the Nova Scotian legislature, Sir Charles introduced and saw carried through many important measures, which are now bearing good fruit. Among the measures he introduced into the House of Commons at Ottawa, and saw pass into law, we may mention the act prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors in the North-West Territory, the Consolidation Railway Act of 1879, the act granting a charter to the Canadian Pacific Railway Company in 1881, the act of 1884 granting a loan to that company, the Railway Subsidies Acts of 1883 and 1884, and the act of 1884 respecting an agreement between the province of British Columbia and the Dominion of Canada. Sir Charles was appointed by Act of Parliament, in 1862, governor of Dalhousie College, Halifax; and was president of the Canada Medical Association from its formation in 1867 until 1870, when he declined re-election. In October, 1846, he was married to Frances Morse, of Amherst.