Sanford, Hon. William E., Hamilton, Ontario, Senator of the Dominion of Canada, is fairly entitled to be classed among the business men of Canada who have won distinction as successful merchants, and who have by personal industry and genuine business ability succeeded in establishing wide business relations and accumulating large fortunes. No name stands more prominently before the public, or is worthy of more honourable mention than he who is the subject of this sketch. His career has placed him in the front rank of the “merchant princes” of the country. Success is always a relative term, and is used appropriately only when employed to describe conditions in which effort, guided by intelligence and skill, to a definite end, accomplishes its aims. If this be true, then no man in Canada to-day has a stronger claim to this distinction than the Hon. Mr. Sanford. His business life has been simply a series of triumphs over difficulties that would have daunted weaker natures, and these victories have been won by tireless energy, unyielding perseverance, a keen foresight of events, a skilful adaptation to the tastes and necessities of the public, and the intelligent use of definite means to a well defined purpose. The magnificent “Sanford Block” in the city of Hamilton, consisting of offices, warerooms, stock, show and packing rooms; the extensive business connections established in every province in the Dominion, and extending from the Pacific to the Atlantic, giving employment to over two thousand hands, and employing a capital of about a million dollars, constitute a monument of which the most ambitious might be proud. Senator Sanford is a lineal descendant of Thomas de Sanford, who was knighted by William the Conqueror on the battlefield of Hastings (see Burke’s “Landed Gentry”). The American branch of the family settled in Redding, Connecticut, and one of its members, Ezekiel Sanford, engineer, built Fort Saybrook, Conn., in 1626. Born in the city of New York, in 1838, both his parents dying while he was a mere child, he was sent, ere he had reached his seventh year, to live with his uncle, the late Edward Jackson, of Hamilton, one of the pioneer merchants of that city, whose singular uprightness of life and large benefactions to religious, educational and charitable enterprises, gained for him a widespread confidence and respect. In the home of such a one, and surrounded by the most salutary influences, he was brought up, and to this formative period of his life may doubtless be traced many of those elements of character which have since distinguished his career. He received a liberal education in one of the academies of New York, and at the age of fifteen made his first venture in business, entering the then well-known publishing firm of Farmer, Brace & Co., of New York, in whose employ he continued until he reached his majority. The remarkable business ability displayed by him, even at this early period, won for him the esteem and confidence of the firm, and also an offer of a partnership in the business. The death of the senior partner, occurring about this time, caused certain changes which resulted in the disappointment of young Sanford’s hopes. The firm was re-organized, leaving him out. The value of his services was, however, recognized by a rival firm, from whom he received the offer of a salary of three thousand dollars per year. This offer he declined, determined in future to sink or swim as master of the ship he sailed. His own words were, “I am determined never to accept a position as clerk to any firm.” Mr. Sanford now returned to Canada, was united in marriage to Miss Jackson, only daughter of his friend, Edward Jackson, and then went to London, Ontario, and entered into a business partnership with Murray Anderson and Edward Jackson, and under the firm name of Anderson, Sanford & Co., carried on one of the largest foundries in western Canada. His wedded happiness was of short duration, for at the end of about eighteen months his accomplished wife died. Completely crushed and disheartened by the blow, he retired from the firm, and returned to Hamilton. His restless energies, however, refused to remain inactive, and with characteristic energy, he, with some New York dealers, went into the wool business. In less than a year, he was master of the situation, having obtained control of the wool market of the province, and was soon known among dealers as the “Wool King” of Canada. Not long after this, Senator Sanford entered upon the business which, under his skilful management, has grown into such large proportions, in which he has achieved his greatest success, and with which he is still identified. He formed a partnership with Alexander McInnes, for the manufacture of ready-made clothing. With that keen discernment of what the public needed that has ever characterised him, he determined, from the best goods to be found in the market, to manufacture for the public demand clothing that would combine cheapness with elegance and style of finish. Twenty thousand dollars capital was invested at the beginning. The most skilful labor to be found was employed, and samples to meet the requirements of the public produced. Mr. Sanford put the goods upon the market himself, while his partner attended to the office work. The goods were what the people needed, and from that day the trade in Canada was revolutionised; the character of the firm as “first class” established, and the foundation of future success laid. Various changes have taken place in the personnel of the firm since its establishment in 1861. After ten years Mr. McInnes retired, and two of the employés were taken in as partners. These remained for a few years, and then also retired, leaving Senator Sanford sole proprietor, who now carries on the business under the title of W. E. Sanford & Co. Since the establishment of the firm, and through all its subsequent changes, Senator Sanford has been the moving and controlling spirit of the concern. He is complete master of all the details of the several departments, as well as director of the whole establishment. While he pioneers the great public contracts, he at the same time keenly observes and anticipates any change in the public taste, and invariably has the supply in advance of the demand. The requirements of each province or community is a separate study, and whether it be Prince Edward Island or Manitoba or the Pacific coast, each is suitably supplied from the endless variety produced at the central warerooms in Hamilton. While other firms are studying the problem and counting the cost, Senator Sanford is selling his goods and pocketing the profits. In social life Senator Sanford is most affable and attractive; in manners he is courteous and gentlemanly, and is always the soul of the company in which he is found. He can come from the most perplexing concerns of business, and plunge at once into all the mirth and merriment of the evening party, as though there was no such thing as care in the world. For a man whose mind is so deeply occupied with the various financial schemes with which he is identified, one would go far to find another who has the disposition, and finds the opportunity, to do so many acts of genuine kindness. A few flowers from his conservatory, or some rare relish to tempt the appetite, is his thoughtful and appropriate way of relieving the weariness of many a sick chamber. Hon. Mr. Sanford is a leading member of the Methodist church, a trustee and steward of the Centenary Church, Hamilton, and a liberal supporter of the missionary, educational and other connexional agencies of the church. To each of the recurring general conferences he has been invariably elected by the proper constituencies, and is treasurer of several of the most important church funds. As a citizen, he is public-spirited, and justly held in high esteem. He has been president of the Board of Trade, is vice-president of the Hamilton Provident Society, a Bank director, one of the Board of Regents of Victoria University, director of the Empire newspaper, president of the Hamilton Ladies College, and one of the projectors and vice-president of the Manitoba and North-Western Railway Company. He is the owner of a tract of upwards of sixty thousand acres of land on the line of the above mentioned railway at a point commencing within a few miles of Portage la Prairie; and upon this he has established a large cattle and horse ranche. He has now about completed the organization of a company for the development of his immense marble deposit in the township of Barrie, which is claimed to be the largest in the world. In politics he is in sympathy with the protective policy of the present administration, and consequently gives his support to the Conservative party. A few such men make a city, and are indispensable to its prosperity and development. When shrewdness, ability, enterprise, and industry combine, and succeed in accumulating wealth, the benefit is not alone to the one who is thus gifted, but to the many to whom the means of livelihood is afforded, and to the city and country as well, on which they bestow the fruits of their talents and their toil. He was called to the Senate of Canada in March, 1887, and we have no doubt he will make his influence felt in that body for the benefit of the country of his adoption. In 1866 he was united in marriage to Sophia Vaux, youngest daughter of the late Thomas Vaux, accountant of the House of Commons, Ottawa, a lady of culture and dignity, whose genial and refined spirit makes the home delightful, and whose open hand of charity is a proverb in the city in which she lives.
Routhier, Hon. Adolphe Basile, LL.D., Quebec, rests his claim to a prominent place in a work of this kind, not only on his eminence as a judge of the Superior Court of the province of Quebec, but on his well-earned fame as a littérateur and a poet. He was born at St. Placide, in the county of Two Mountains, near Montreal, on the 8th May, 1839, his father, Charles Routhier, a farmer, whose ancestors came from Santonge, France. Educated in the classics at the college of Ste. Therese, in the county of Terrebonne, young Routhier was the first graduate of that institution to receive the degree of B.A. from Laval University, Quebec, at which he also studied law. Called to the bar in December, 1851, he settled down to the practice of his profession at Kamouraska, P.Q., and soon won success and distinction by his abilities as a pleader and a jurist. During this stage of his career, public attention was also first directed to the literary talents which he has since developed in such a remarkable degree. Newspaper writing occupied the time snatched from his profession, and his editorial contributions to Le Courrier du Canada, published at Quebec, and Le Nouveau Monde, published at Montreal, showed that a new and formidable competitor had entered the journalistic field. A Conservative in politics, he threw himself with ardor into all the controversies of the time and, before long, came to be recognized as the leader of the Ultramontane Catholic or so-called Programmist party in his native province, whose cause he championed with a vigorous pen. In 1869 he was selected as the party’s candidate to contest the seat in the Canadian House of Commons for the county of Kamouraska, but was defeated by his Liberal adversary, Hon. C. A. P. Pelletier, afterwards minister of agriculture and immigration in the Mackenzie cabinet, and now a senator of the Dominion. In 1872 Mr. Routhier was created a Queen’s counsel, and in the following year he was raised to the bench as one of the justices of the Superior Court by the Macdonald government—the judicial district assigned to him being that known as the Chicoutimi district, over which he still presides with marked credit to himself and satisfaction to the local bar and public. On the bench he is noted for his affability, painstaking character and profound knowledge of the law, and his decisions are always marked by great clearness and soundness. Indeed, Mr. Justice Routhier is a model magistrate in the fullest sense of the term, and as such, as well as for his fine social qualities, is very generally admired and esteemed throughout the province of Quebec. The question of the undue influence of the clergy of Lower Canada in politics was first raised and argued before him by Hon. F. Langelier, M.P., the present mayor of Quebec, in the celebrated case of Tremblay vs. Langevin (Charlevoix contested election), and though his judgment, which was in favor of the clergy and created great excitement at the time, was afterwards reversed on appeal, its powerful arguments in its own support, and its thorough impartiality, have never been questioned. Judge Routhier has been a great traveller, and to this feature of his life the country is indebted for some of his best literary works. He has made the tour of Europe several times, and, at the time of writing, is again there. He has also visited the Holy Land. When in Rome, in 1876, the late Pontiff Pius IX. conferred on him the dignity of a knight commander of the order of St. Gregory the Great, for his eminent services to the cause of religion; and during the same visit to the other side of the Atlantic, he spent four months in Paris, where he became acquainted with the leading writers of the French Catholic press and the Legitimist party, and delivered at the Cercle du Luxembourg a speech which attracted the favorable notice and praise of L’Univers and Le Monde, the great Catholic and Legitimist organs of the French capital. After his return to Canada he took a conspicuous part in the Quebec national festivities of June, 1880, and was chairman of the Congres Catholique held at Laval University, and vice-president of the Convention Nationale. On these memorable occasions his addresses created a profound sensation and won for him from La Minerve, of Montreal, the leading organ of the Lower Canadian Conservatives, the title of “champion of the Catholic party of Canada.” They were afterwards published in the Revue Trimestrielle, of Paris, with the flattering recommendation of M. Lucien Brun, the chief of the Legitimist party of France. Judge Routhier is one of the most charming of French Canadian writers both in verse and prose. His “Causeries du Dimanche,” “Impressions de Voyage,” “Poesies,”, and “Conférences et Discours,” published at various times since 1871, as well as his fugitive articles and poetical effusions scattered through the newspaper press, are marked not only by great vigor of thought, but by much beauty and grace; and in literary circles his abilities are recognized as of the highest order. Indeed, by many of the best authorities he is ranked as the greatest master of the French language at the present day in the province of Quebec—his writings being admired as much for their purity and polish as for their force. As a literary critic, he is admitted to be unsurpassed in that province, and his Jean Piquefort is a perfect model of keen and polished satire. Laval University acknowledged his literary eminence in 1881 by conferring upon him the distinction of LL.D. He is also a prominent member of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1862 our subject married Miss Marie Clorinde Mondelet, only daughter of the late Jean Olivier Mondelet, advocate, and niece of one of the eminent judges of the same name, who, some years since, graced the bench of the Montreal district. Mrs. Routhier is one of the leaders of Quebec society and a lady as remarkable for her gracefulness as for her social distinction. By her he has had issue four children, three daughters and one son.
Shannon, Hon. Samuel Leonard, D.C.L., Halifax, Judge of the Court of Probate for the county of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was born in Halifax, on the 1st June, 1816. His father, James Noble Shannon, was a merchant in Halifax, and his mother, Nancy Allison, belongs to Horton, Nova Scotia. The Shannons, with which the subject of our sketch is connected, came from Ireland, to the colony of Massachusetts, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and the progenitor of the family was Nathaniel Shannon, who held the office of “navie officer,” at Boston, Massachusetts. His descendants settled at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and were connected with the Vaughan and Cutts families of that place. Mr. Shannon’s grandfather, Richard Cutts Shannon, was a prominent lawyer in Portsmouth when the revolutionary war broke out, and by taking the royal side became subject to persecution, imprisonment, and loss of property. His son, the father of the subject of our sketch, left Portsmouth when he was a boy, and came to Nova Scotia, and finally settled in Halifax, where he carried on business as a merchant until his death in 1857. The mother’s family, the Allisons, came from the north of Ireland about the year 1769, and settled in Horton, Nova Scotia, on land which had been previously occupied by the French Acadians. Hon. Mr. Shannon received his primary education at the Halifax Grammar School, of which the Rev. Dr. Twining was master; and in 1832 he entered the University of King’s College, Windsor, from which he graduated B.A. in 1836. He received the degree of D.C.L. from the same university, in 1875. He studied law with H. Pryor, D.C.L., and was admitted to the bar of Nova Scotia, in 1839. In 1866 he was appointed a Queen’s counsel. Having taken an interest in military affairs, he received a commission as second lieutenant in the 2nd or Queen’s Halifax regiment of militia, in 1837,—the commission signed by Sir Colin Campbell, the then governor of Nova Scotia. He was promoted lieutenant in the same regiment in 1838; became captain in same regiment in 1859,—commission signed by Lord Mulgrave, the then lieutenant-governor, and major, in 1862. He was subsequently appointed lieutenant-colonel of the reserve Halifax battalion, and commissioned by the Dominion government. Entering political life, he was elected member of the Nova Scotia legislature, for the western division of the county of Halifax, including the city, in 1859; re-elected by the same constituency in 1863; became member of the provincial government in 1863; and remained in the government until the province entered into confederation in 1867. He then retired from politics, and was appointed judge of the court of probate, for the county of Halifax, in 1881. In 1870 he received the title of “honorable” from her Majesty the Queen. Judge Shannon is president of the Nova Scotia Bible Society; president of the Nova Scotia Evangelical Alliance; a trustee and member of the Young Men’s Christian Association of Halifax, and a shareholder and member of several local mercantile companies. He has travelled extensively in the United States and Dominion of Canada, which he has visited repeatedly. In 1847 and 1848 he spent nine months travelling in England, Scotland, and on the continent of Europe. He was in Switzerland when the war of the Sonderbund took place, in 1847; in Paris, only a few weeks before the revolution of 1848, and in London, during the Chartist riots of the last mentioned year. He was brought up a Methodist, and has always been identified with that denomination. He was married in October, 1855, to Annie, daughter of Benjamin Fellows, of Granville, Nova Scotia.
Sinclair, Donald, Walkerton, Ontario, Registrar of Deeds for the county of Bruce, was born in the Island of Islay, Scotland, in July 1829. His parents were Neil Sinclair and Mary McDougall, first of Kileenan, afterwards of Bowmore village. He was educated at the parish school of Bowmore. He immigrated with his parents to Canada West, in the summer of 1851; and came to the county of Bruce in the summer of 1853, where he remained for a couple of years with his parents who had settled in the township of Arran in 1852. Mr. Sinclair taught school in the Gore area of Toronto, Chinguacousy and Toronto township, and afterwards in the township of Saugeen; and then settled permanently in the county of Bruce, in 1858. He has always taken a deep interest in municipal affairs, and was deputy-reeve of Arran; and sat in the municipal council of the united counties of Huron and Bruce in 1863, in which year he removed to Southampton and became bookkeeper for his brother, Alexander Sinclair, general merchant and grain buyer. In general politics, too, he was greatly interested, and became the standard-bearer of his party, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, at the general election in 1867, as member for the North Riding of Bruce, which riding he represented continuously till 1883. He was appointed registrar of deeds on the 24th of February, 1883, for the county of Bruce, and this position he still holds. Mr. Sinclair removed from Southampton to Paisley in the year 1869, where he resided and carried on business as a general merchant till he received his appointment. He married, 26th April, 1871, Isabella, daughter of Thomas Adair, of Southampton. He is a member of the Baptist church, and was always a Liberal in politics. Mr. Sinclair is a sociable Scotchman, and is held in high esteem by his friends.
Scott, Hon. Richard William, Q.C., leader of the Opposition in the Senate, and ex-Secretary of State, was born in Prescott, Ontario, on the 24th February, 1825. He is of Irish parentage on his father’s side, while, on his mother’s side he claims kinship with the McDonnells of U. E. loyalist fame. Young Scott had the advantage of a good education, his parents being in comfortable circumstances. He was educated by a private tutor, William Spiller, of Prescott, until he was ready to enter upon the study of law. He read in the office of Messrs. Crooks & Smith, of Toronto, and was called to the bar at the age of twenty-three years. He settled in Ottawa, then a small town, and entered upon the practice of his profession. He early exhibited a leaning towards public affairs, and took an active part as a young man in many warm political contests. In 1852 he was elected mayor of Ottawa, and filled his term of office with general satisfaction to the people. In 1857 he was elected to the Canadian Legislature for Ottawa, but suffered defeat on seeking re-election in 1863. When confederation was consummated and the first general election for the Ontario Legislative Assembly was held, Mr. Scott was again elected for Ottawa, and from that time to the present he has been continuously active in Canadian public affairs as a member of one of the great legislative bodies. He has held high positions in several administrations, and is to be credited with the initiation of some of the most important laws under which the Canadian people now live. He was elected speaker of the Ontario Legislative Assembly in 1871, but in the organization of the Blake administration he was asked to accept a portfolio and a seat in the executive council, and resigned the speakership after two weeks of office. He became commissioner of crown lands, and administered the affairs of that exceedingly difficult office with marked ability. In 1873 he was called to the Privy Council of the Dominion, as a member of the Mackenzie administration, and resigned his place in the Ontario government and his seat in the house. He was chosen as the fittest man to lead the Senate in conjunction with Hon. Mr. Pelletier, and was called to the upper house and made secretary of state, in March, 1874. His position in the government was that of secretary of state and registrar-general. When Hon. (now Sir) Richard Cartwright, minister of finance, went to England in that year, Hon. Mr. Scott acted in his place; and subsequently, in the absence of other members of the government he acted at one time as minister of internal revenue, and at another as minister of justice. On the defeat of the Mackenzie administration at the polls in 1878, Hon. Mr. Scott became leader of the opposition in the Senate, which position he still holds. The legislative enactment by which he is most widely known, and which forms his highest title to a high place among Canadian law-makers, is the Canada Temperance Act of 1875, better known as “the Scott Act.” This measure was the outcome of a long agitation on the part of the temperance people for an advance in some way upon the license laws and the old “Dunkin Act,” until then the ones in force. The “Dunkin Act” was a local option measure, but was of so defective a character that it was but lightly considered by the prohibitionists, and was not of much use as a guide in framing another law based upon the local option principle. The Canada Temperance Act is therefore a pioneer in the path of local option legislation in regard to the liquor traffic, and it is a remarkable tribute to the sagacity and legal ability of its framer that in the ten years since it was passed, although it has been the subject of the fiercest legal disputes, not only has its constitutionality been upheld by the highest court of the empire, in spite of the determined efforts of the greatest pleaders to overthrow it, but so perfect have its details been found that even now some half-dozen amendments are all that the prohibitionists are asking, and of these some arise out of advance in the temperance sentiment of the country which could not have been legislated for in the first place. Another important act which owes its origin to Mr. Scott, and which now forms part of our constitutional system, is the Separate School Law of Ontario, prepared and carried through parliament by him as a private member, in 1863; a measure which was the means of removing a vexed question from the political arena, and of allaying much public irritation. Mr. Scott is a man of quiet, methodical ways, but remarkable for his perseverance and tenacity of purpose. As a speaker, he makes no oratorical flourishes, but arranges his arguments with marked ability in such a way as to produce the most telling effect upon a candid mind. Personally there is no man in parliament who is held in higher or more deserved respect by representatives of all shades of political opinion.