Davie, George Taylor, Levis and Quebec, is one of the prominent figures in the shipping trade of the port of Quebec, and few men of his day have done more to promote it, as well as to lessen the perils incidental to the navigation of the St. Lawrence. He was born in the city of Quebec, in the year 1828. His parents were both English—his father being the late Alison Davie, master mariner, of Yarmouth, England, and his mother Miss Taylor, daughter of the late George Taylor, of Shields, who came to Canada in 1811, establishing himself at Quebec, and was for many years a leading ship-builder at that port. In 1827, Mr. Taylor, acting under instructions from the Earl of Dalhousie, then governor-general of Canada, built at his yard in Quebec, a splendid gun-brig or frigate named the Kingfisher, for the Imperial naval service. The Quebec Gazette of the 17th May, 1827, reporting the launching of this vessel three days previously, and the ceremonial on the occasion, referred in the most commendatory terms to the beauty of its model, and to Mr. Taylor’s skill and enterprise as a shipwright, mentioning also the presentation to him, by the governor-general, of a magnificent silver cup as a memento of the event. This precious souvenir, which is of massive silver, and valued at £40 sterling, bears the arms of the Dalhousie family and a suitable inscription, and is surmounted by a cover the handle of which is formed by a beautifully chiselled figure of the unicorn. The whole is encased in a handsome mahogany box, and preserved as a cherished heirloom in the family of Mr. Taylor’s descendants, being now in the possession of his grandson, G. T. Davie, the subject of this sketch. The Kingfisher, which carried eighteen guns, was afterwards sent to England under the command of Captain Rayside, who was, later on, deputy harbor-master at Quebec, and, still later, harbor-master of Montreal. Mr. Davie was educated at Gale’s boarding school, at St. Augustin, some twenty-five miles from Quebec, but was taken early from school to learn the trade of the shipwright. Arrived at the age of manhood, he went into the shipbuilding business on his own account, and successfully built a large number of ocean vessels, as well as river, tug and passenger boats; he came into possession of the patent slip at Levis, opposite Quebec, on the death of his father, who, in 1832, first introduced it, which bears his name, and which has proved of such immense advantage to the shipping trade of the St. Lawrence. This valuable convenience he still runs in connection with his floating docks and the wrecking business, in which he has been engaged with the greatest success for some years. Indeed it is no exaggeration to say that Mr. Davie’s improved appliances for raising and saving wrecks, and his skill and enterprise in that line, have been the means of rescuing millions worth of property from total loss in the river and gulf of St. Lawrence, and fairly constitute him a public benefactor. Among the more important property of this kind which he has snatched from destruction on Anticosti, St. Pierre, Miquelon, and elsewhere, may be mentioned the steamships Corean, of the Allan line, Vendolana, Warwick, River, Ettrick, Colina, Douro, Amaryllis, Titanic, and Lake Huron. In some instances the salvages of these vessels was a real feat of skill and daring without parallel in the history of the wrecking business on the St. Lawrence, and Mr. Davie can fairly lay claim to the title of the most successful of Canadian wreckers. The first vessel to be docked and repaired in the new graving dock was the s. s. Titania, which Mr. Davie had successfully hauled off Anticosti, where it would have been otherwise doomed to destruction, having been condemned by surveyors and bought from underwriters by him. The execution of the repairs to this vessel, also by Mr. Davie, further proved that work of this magnitude can now be done as well in Canada as on the Clyde. Indeed, Mr. Davie has erected at the Levis graving dock repair shops, as complete in all respects as the best on the other side of the Atlantic, and the shipping trade of the St. Lawrence has been thus provided with an important and long needed facility which must tend to its increase and prosperity. In other respects, also, Mr. Davie is known as a public-spirited citizen. He has served for about ten years in the town council of Levis as the representative of Lauzon ward, and is a large employer of labor on that side of the river. On the 3rd of September, 1860, he married Mary Euphemia Patton, daughter of the late Duncan Patton, of Indian Cove, in his day one of the great lumber merchants of Quebec, and by her has issue a number of children, who are still in their teens. He has travelled considerably in Canada, England, and the United States, but always on business.
Kenny, Thomas Edward, M.P. for the County of Halifax, N.S., was born in Halifax city on the 12th October, 1833. He is the eldest son of the Hon. Sir Edward Kenny, knight, former member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada. There were two young Irishmen, Thomas and Edward Kenny, natives of county Kerry, who came to Halifax in 1824, and there, four years later, established the wholesale dry goods house of T. & E. Kenny. Sir Edward Kenny was born in 1800, and married, in 1832, Anne, daughter of Michael Forrestall. He and his wife are still living in green old age. He has been for sixty years a leading representative of the Catholics in Halifax, having been mayor of the city, twice president of the Charitable Irish Society (the great Irish social organization of Halifax), a director of the Union Bank, and also of the Merchants Bank of Halifax, and a commissioner for signing provincial notes. He sat in the Legislative Council for twenty-six years, during eleven of which he was president of that body. Upon the forming of Sir John A. Macdonald’s first government under confederation, in July, 1867, Sir Edward Kenny was sworn in a privy councillor, and appointed receiver-general in the ministry. He held this office until October, 1869, when he was transferred to the presidency of the privy council. He retired from the cabinet in May, 1870, when he was appointed administrator of the government of Nova Scotia. He was created a knight by her Majesty in September, 1872. He never represented a constituency in the House of Commons, but sat in the Senate from 1867 to 1870, when he resigned. During all these years he and his brother Thomas carried on the dry goods business, and on retiring from its management placed it in the hands of T. E. Kenny, under whom it has grown and prospered. Thomas Kenny built himself a handsome residence on the borders of Bedford Basin, not far from the Duke of Kent’s classic lodge. It has recently been sold to a corporation for the use of the ladies of the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Spring Garden road, Halifax. The subject of this sketch was educated at Stonyhurst College, the great educational institution of the Jesuits in England, and also spent some time at St. Servais College, at Liege, in Belgium. Having finished his studies and his travels for that time, Mr. Kenny returned to Halifax, and assumed a position in the dry goods business. Of late years he has been extensively interested in shipbuilding, which he carried on in the counties of Kings, Hants, Colchester, Pictou and Cumberland. He was especially interested in shipbuilding with Alfred Putnam, of Maitland, the popular M.P. of Hants county. In 1866 he had built in England the iron ship Eskasoni, of 1,715 tons. A branch of the firm’s business is carried on in London, England, under the management of F. C. Mahon. In dry goods the firm does an extensive wholesale trade at their massive granite emporium at the corner of Granville and George streets, Halifax, employing a large staff of clerks and other employés, and keeping a number of travellers on the circuit in the maritime provinces. Mr. Kenny, like his father, is a man of great geniality, wit and common-sense. He has been president of the Charitable Irish Society, and is president of the Merchants Bank of Halifax, the bank doing, perhaps, the largest business in the city, excepting the Bank of Nova Scotia. He has been a warm friend of many new industries, having taken a prominent part in starting the N.S. Cotton Manufacturing Co., of which he is a director, as well as a large stockholder in the sugar refinery. When, two years ago, there was a disposition on the part of some of the shareholders to sell out the refinery and wind up the concern, Mr. Kenny took an active part in organizing a new company, and was instrumental in securing to Halifax the advantages of this great industry. Mr. Kenny is a director of the North Sydney Marine Railway Co.; a trustee of the Western Counties Railway Co.; and a member of the Royal Commission on Railways. His brother and business partner, Edward Kenny, was one of those Halifax merchants who were lost in the City of Boston, the Inman liner, which left Halifax in the early part of 1869, and was never afterwards heard of. Another of the family is a member of the Society of Jesus, who began life as a successful lawyer, but entered the priesthood. The youngest brother, Jeremiah F. Kenny, does business in Halifax as an insurance agent. A sister of theirs is the wife of M. Bowes Daly, ex-M.P. for Halifax county, and another is mother superior of the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Halifax. T. E. Kenny was married in New York, on the 2nd of October, 1856, to Margaret Jones, daughter of the Hon. M. Burke, of New York. He has several children and grandchildren. His eldest son, Captain Kenny, was an officer in the Halifax battalion which served during the Northwest rebellion in 1885. Mr. Kenny resides at a charming residence, called Thornvale, on the banks of the North-West Arm, about three miles from his warehouse in the city, and it is a lovely spot in summer, having abundant facilities for boating and bathing. Here, in the enjoyment of every beauty of wave and sky, surrounded by luxuries of every description, and furnished with everything that conduces to comfort and repose, the busy merchant and politician takes his ease. In the rôle of politician Mr. Kenny, through the absorbing nature of his commercial pursuits, has never until lately taken a prominent position, but he has made his influence, though silently, none the less powerfully felt in the sphere of politics for many years. He has repeatedly been offered the nomination as standard-bearer in the House of Commons of the Halifax Conservatives, but, until the nomination was forced upon him, on the eve of the general election of February, 1887, never accepted. As a well-known Catholic in the city, his approbation of measures affecting his co-religionists has always been sought. He and John F. Stairs were the government candidates, and were opposed by such well-known and experienced men as the Hon. A. G. Jones, ex-minister of militia, and H. H. Fuller. The vote stood—Jones, 4,243; Kenny, 4,181, defeating Stairs, 4,099; Fuller, 4,098. Thus Messrs. Jones and Kenny represent Halifax county. Mr. Kenny distinguished himself during the campaign by his unfailing good nature, cheery Irish wit and great good judgment. In the Commons the same useful qualities have secured for him general respect and esteem. Although getting up in years, Mr. Kenny is possessed of a tall form and commanding presence, and enjoys vigorous health. He has probably many years ahead of him, during which honors and emoluments will be heaped upon him. Electors voted for Jones and Kenny because, according to the popular cry, they were the best men, quite independently of their political leanings. Few, if any, counties in the Dominion are better represented in parliament than Halifax, N.S.
Rose, George Maclean, Printer and Publisher, Toronto. A writer in “The Scot in British North America,” says that Mr. Rose has been so long and prominently associated with the development of Canadian literature that his name may well be introduced in this connection. He was born in Wick, Caithness-shire, Scotland, on the 14th of March, 1829, and learned the printing trade in the office of the John O’ Groat Journal. A year after he had attained his majority the family settled in Canada. He entered the employ of the late John C. Becket, of Montreal, who was then engaged in the publication of the Montreal Witness and other journals. After the death of his father, which took place in 1853, the care of the family devolved upon him. The means at his command were but scanty, but in partnership with his elder brother, Henry, he started a small job-printing office, in Montreal, and by strict industry and economy they obtained a fair measure of success. In 1856 they dissolved partnership, George having become convinced that Western Canada offered more scope for his energies than Montreal. In connection with John Muir he established the Chronicle, in the village of Merrickville, but he did not remain there any length of time. Among his other engagements about this period, was that of city editor of the London Prototype. In 1858 he came to Toronto as manager of the printing office of Samuel Thompson, for whom he published the Toronto Atlas, started in opposition to the Colonist, which had taken ground adverse to the government of the day. Mr. Thompson having obtained the contract for government printing, Mr. Rose was assigned to take the management of the office in Quebec, whither he removed in 1859. This arrangement did not long continue. Mr. Thompson found himself unable financially to carry out his contract alone, and a company was organized for the purpose, including Mr. Rose and Robert Hunter, an experienced accountant. Mr. Thompson retired from the business altogether soon afterwards, leaving it to the new firm of Hunter, Rose & Co., who completed the contract and secured its renewal. On the removal of the seat of government to Ottawa in 1865, the firm of course followed. A large and lucrative business was soon built up, and in 1868 a branch was established at Toronto, the firm having secured a ten years contract for the printing of the Provincial government. In 1871 their relations with the Dominion government terminated, and the business was consolidated in Toronto. The firm now entered extensively into the business of publishing Canadian reprints of English copyright books, principally the popular novels of living writers, for which a ready market was found. The firm honestly compensated the authors whose works they reproduced, although this of course placed them at a disadvantage as compared with the piratical publishers of the United States. Another and probably a greater service to the intellectual progress of the country rendered by this enterprising firm, was the publication—at first for others, but latterly at their own risk—of the “Canadian Monthly,” the last and by far the best literary magazine ever issued in this country. This venture unfortunately did not prove pecuniarily successful, and though sustained for many years with a liberality and public spirit highly creditable to the publishers, was at length discontinued. In 1877 the death of Mr. Hunter left Mr. Rose the sole member of the firm, and a year afterwards he took his brother, Daniel, into the concern, the well-known firm name being still retained. Widely as George M. Rose is known to the Canadian people as a successful and enterprising publisher, he has acquired a still more extensive reputation by his unselfish exertions in the cause of temperance and moral reform. A life-long total abstainer and prohibitionist, he has taken an active part in temperance work in connection with various organizations. He has attained the highest offices in the gift of the Sons of Temperance in the Dominion, having been several times chosen to fill the chair of grand worthy patriarch of the order both in Quebec and Ontario, and has also held the second highest position conferrable by that order for the whole continent, having been most worthy associate of the National Division of America. His heart and purse are always open to the appeals for the advancement of the Temperance cause, which he regards as being of vastly more importance than mere party issues. Though a Liberal, politically, he regards all public issues from the standpoint of Temperance reform. Personally Mr. Rose is genial, sociable and unassuming. As his career shows, he has abundant business capacity, and the enthusiasm which forms so strong a feature of his character is well regulated by a fund of practical common sense. For a number of years Mr. Rose has been an active member of the Board of Trade. In 1881 he was elected vice-president of the board, and the following year (1882) was chosen president. On the expiration of his term of office, in 1883, he was elected treasurer, and has been annually re-elected to fill this office ever since. For a number of years he has also been a director of the Ontario Bank. In politics Mr. Rose is a prohibitionist, and in religion a Unitarian. In 1856 he was married to Margaret C. J. L. Manson, daughter of the late William Manson, farmer, Oxford county, and has had a family of ten children—nine of whom survive, six sons and three daughters.
LaRocque, Basile, M.D., St. John’s, province Quebec, was born at Chambly, January 10th, 1813, of the marriage of Joseph Henry LaRocque, a respectable and intelligent farmer of that locality, having for wife a Miss Lafontaine, allied to the same family which has furnished to the country the Hon. Sir Louis H. Lafontaine, whose political rôle belongs to history, and whose career at the bar was sufficiently brilliant to make him chief justice of the Queen’s Bench for the province of Quebec. Dr. LaRocque is the third son of a family of seven brothers, of whom the eldest became the distinguished bishop of the diocese of St. Hyacinthe, P.Q. The doctor completed his classical course at the College of St. Hyacinthe, in 1828. Among the number of his schoolfellows was Louis Antoine Dessaulles, a man of talent, a remarkable writer, author of several works, legislative councillor under the union, and afterwards registrar for the Crown for the district of Montreal at the end of his career in this country. His course terminated, the doctor began his medical studies under Dr. Vimbler at Chambly, and at Marieville under Dr. Davignon, who played a notable part in Canadian politics, but removed from there to the University of Vermont, at Woodstock, then in great repute owing to its scientific professors. He ultimately settled at Burlington, where he was prosperous and successful. On the 1st July, 1837, our subject successfully passed his examinations at Quebec, and was admitted to the practice of medicine. He commenced his medical career at St. John’s, but in a short time left there and settled at Acadie, where his brother was then curate and afterwards became bishop. Here he lived for thirty years, occupying at different periods many prominent positions of trust and confidence, such as justice of the peace, school trustee, judge of summary causes, etc., etc., and being offered on several occasions by the leading men of the parish and of the county of St. John’s, parliamentary candidature. The doctor preferred a calm, quiet life, practising his profession for the love of science and duty, and passing his leisure time in the contemplation of nature and its beauties. After the decease of one of his best friends, Dr. Wright, he was persuaded by many who fully appreciated his talents to settle at St. John’s in 1871, where, notwithstanding his advanced age, he continued the practice of his profession, alike attending poor and rich, through all the inclemency and rigor of a trying climate, and bringing hope and comfort to many weary sufferers by his kind, genial manners. Dr. LaRocque refused on several occasions the honor of being a professor of the School of Medicine at Montreal, his modest tastes leading him rather to charitable acts and the pursuit of an unostentatious, useful life. The doctor married at Acadie, on the 18th January, 1843, Melanie Quesnel, eldest daughter of Dr. Quesnel, brother of the celebrated lawyer, Hon. Auguste F. Quesnel, barrister, etc., and an old member of the Legislative Council under the union. Of this marriage there were sixteen children, of whom seven are living. One died in holy orders, and two daughters as nuns. The eldest surviving son is Dr. Henry LaRocque, practising at Plattsburg, where he holds an enviable position among his American confrères, enjoying a splendid professional reputation; Emile, a doctor at Malone; Alphonse, surgeon dentist at Worcester; and Joseph, a doctor at Biddeford; Marine Hector, apothecary at St. John’s, P.Q.; and William, manager and proprietor of a large commercial house in St. John’s. Dr. Basile LaRocque is one of those men whose capabilities and talents have shown themselves in spite of his humility of character and modest tastes. Those who bear his name have reason to be proud of it.
Black, Thomas R., Amherst, Nova Scotia, M.P.P. for Cumberland county, was born at Amherst, 16th October, 1832. His paternal grandfather was a native of England, having been born there in 1727, and emigrated to Nova Scotia in 1774, where he married the daughter of a U. E. loyalist. Mr. Black, the subject of our sketch, received his education in the Grammar School in Amherst, and after leaving school turned his attention to farming and other business pursuits. He first entered the Legislative Assembly in July, 1884, having been returned by acclamation to fill the vacancy caused by the retirement of C. J. Townsend, who had been elected to represent Cumberland county, in the House of Commons at Ottawa. On the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly in May, 1886, Cumberland was one of the few constituencies in which the question of the repeal of the federal compact was not an essential element in the campaign; the contest was, therefore, run on personal grounds, and at the close of the poll the popularity of Mr. Black was evinced by the large number of votes that had been given him. The votes stood thus: T. R. Black, 2,083; R. L. Black, 2,064; G. W. Forrest, 1,939; C. J. McFarlane, 1,855; and G. B. Wilson, 341. Mr. Black is a justice of the peace. That he is public-spirited, we have only to point to the handsome block of buildings he has lately erected in his native town. The first stone building erected at Amherst was the passenger station of the Intercolonial Railway, built by the Dominion government in 1867; the second the Dominion building, containing the public offices, built by the government in 1886; but the first erected by private enterprise is that now under notice. It has a front of 100 ft., is 60 ft. deep, and has three stories above basement, including Mansard roof, the whole height being 50 ft. The material used throughout is dark red sandstone from the quarry of A. B. Black, two and three quarter miles distant. It is of a darker shade than that in the Dominion building, and from tests at Ottawa and Boston has been pronounced to have, in addition to its admirable appearance, all the requisites for a first-class building stone, as it is easily worked, durable, and fire-resisting. The whole work was done by day’s work under the immediate superintendence of the owner and of his son, William, the latter spending all his time at the building and the quarry; and the judicious manner in which he managed the erection of derricks, hoisting of stone, and general supervision being specially noteworthy in one so young. It is considered that if the work had been let in the ordinary way the building would have cost $30,000 or upwards, but Mr. Black, by taking two years to build it, was able with his resources to construct it for a considerably smaller sum. It is the good fortune of Amherst to have citizens like Mr. Black. The value of building property in town, purchased, built and improved by him within the last few years must be about $45,000. He too takes a deep interest in farming and stock-raising enterprises, and has imported a good number of valuable Hereford stock into his county, which has benefited the community greatly. Mr. Black is a staunch temperance man, and strong advocate of all movements that have for their object the elevation of his fellow men. In politics he is a Liberal, but not an avowed follower of any party. “Measures before Party” is his motto. He was married on the 20th March, 1860, to Eunice, daughter of the late W. W. Bent, who, during his lifetime, was a member of the Provincial parliament.