Lachapelle, Emmanuel Persillier, M.D., Montreal, was born on the 21st December, 1845, at Sault-au-Récollet, province of Quebec. His parents were Pierre Persillier-Lachapelle, and Marie Zoé Toupin. Dr. Lachapelle received a classical education at the Montreal College, and took a course in medicine and surgery at the Montreal Medical and Surgical School, and after passing very brilliantly his examination, was admitted to the practice of medicine in 1869. In 1872 he was appointed surgeon to the 65th battalion, and held that position until 1886. In 1876 he was elected, and is still, a governor and treasurer of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the province of Quebec; and in 1885, during the small-pox epidemic, he took a leading part in the working of the Central Board of Health, and was appointed president of the first Provincial Board of Health recently organised. Dr. Lachapelle was the promoter and one of the founders of Notre Dame Hospital, one of the most useful charitable institutions of Montreal to-day. In 1884, wishing to free the hospital from debt, he, together with friends and the board of management, organized a grand kermesse which netted about $15,000 in one week. When the establishment of the branch of Laval University in Montreal was decided upon, he became one of its most ardent supporters and contributed in a great measure to its formation. He was elected general president of the Saint Jean Baptiste Society in 1876. As a journalist, Dr. Lachapelle is favourably known, having been the proprietor and editor of L’Union Médicale from 1876 to 1882. He is doctor in medicine of Laval and Victoria Universities, secretary of the Medical Faculty of Laval University, professor of general Pathology and Medical Jurisprudence, and an associate member of the “Société Française d’Hygiène,” Paris. He commenced practising in Montreal in 1869, and took a foremost rank in the galaxy of young men who about that time were entering on their professional life, and have since risen to high positions in Canadian society. Dr. Lachapelle enjoys the confidence of the general public, and through his genial disposition, has made a host of friends. He has been closely identified with all the scientific, national and political movements of the day, and his influence and advice have great weight and are highly appreciated.
Allen, Hon. John C., Fredericton, Chief Justice of New Brunswick, was born in the parish of Kingsclear, county of York, N.B., on the first of October, 1817. His grandfather, Isaac Allen, was a United Empire loyalist, and resided in Trenton, New Jersey, where he practised law. During the revolutionary war, which broke out in 1776, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the second battalion of New Jersey Volunteers, one of the provincial regiments raised during the war. At the peace in 1783, he settled in Nova Scotia, and when the province of New Brunswick was established, he was appointed one of the judges of the Supreme Court, a position he held until his death, in October, 1806. His wife was Sarah Campbell, of Philadelphia. His son, the father of the present chief justice, was John Allen, formerly a captain in the New Brunswick Fencibles, a corps raised in New Brunswick during the war of 1812, and commanded by General John Coffin. This regiment was disbanded in 1817, and Captain Allen was subsequently appointed lieutenant-colonel and inspecting field officer of the militia of New Brunswick, and when that office was abolished, was appointed quarter-master-general of the militia. He represented the county of York in the House of Assembly from 1809 to 1847. He died in April, 1875, aged ninety-one years, and his wife died in 1822. Chief Justice Allen was educated at the Fredericton Grammar School; studied law with the Hon. John Simcoe Saunders, son of the then chief justice in Fredericton; was admitted as an attorney in October, 1838; and to the bar in Michaelmas term, 1840. In 1845 he was appointed one of the commissioners for settling the claims to lands, under the fourth article of the treaty of Washington, 1842. While the boundary between the province of New Brunswick and the United States was in dispute, the portion of the country known as “the disputed territory,” extending from near the Grand Falls of the river St. John to the head of the river, and including the whole Madawaska settlement on both sides of the river, was being occupied by settlers, principally Acadian French, who held by possession only, the government refusing to make any grants of the land. By the treaty, the channel of the river, from a point about three miles above the Grand Falls to the mouth of the river St. Francis, a tributary of the St. John, about seventy miles above the falls, was fixed as the boundary between the two countries, and the fourth article of the treaty provided that all equitable possessory claims, arising from a possession and improvement of any land for more than six years before the date of the treaty, should be deemed valid, and be confirmed to the persons so in possession. The commission was appointed to investigate and settle the claims of the persons in possession of that portion of the lands in dispute, which fell within the dominion of Great Britain. During the years 1845 and 1847, they heard and determined the claims of all the settlers between the Grand Falls and the St. Francis, and grants of the lands were afterwards issued by the government to the respective parties, in accordance with the report of the commissioners. The other commissioner was the late James A. Maclauchlan, who was formerly an officer in the 104th regiment, and served in Canada between 1813-15, and who had for many years acted as warden of the disputed territory, by appointment of the British government, for the purpose of preventing the cutting of timber upon it. The most valuable part of the “disputed territory,” the fertile valley of the Aroostook, was awarded to the United States by the treaty. Hon. Mr. Allen was appointed clerk of the Executive Council of New Brunswick in November, 1851, and held that office till January, 1856, when he resigned it, and in February following was elected a member of the House of Assembly for York county. In May following, was appointed solicitor-general, which position he held until May, 1857, when the government resigned, having been defeated at the general election of that year. In 1852 was elected mayor of Fredericton and continued to hold the office till 1855, when he resigned. In 1860 he was offered the position of Queen’s counsel, but declined. He was speaker of the New Brunswick Assembly from 1862 until that house was dissolved, in 1865, for the purpose of ascertaining the opinion of the people upon the question of confederation, as agreed upon by the delegates assembled at Quebec, in September previous. Having been again elected as a representative opposed to confederation, in April, 1865, he was appointed attorney-general, which office he held until the 21st September following. In June of that year he was sent by the Provincial government, with the Hon. Albert J. Smith (afterwards Sir Albert), as a delegate to the British government, for the purpose of urging the objections of New Brunswick to the confederation of the provinces. Soon after his return from England, on the 21st of September, 1865, he was appointed a puisné judge of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick, a vacancy having been caused by the resignation of Sir James Carter, and on the 8th of October, 1875, he was made chief justice of New Brunswick, as successor to the Hon. William Johnston Ritchie, who at that time was appointed a puisné judge of the Supreme Court of Canada. On the 8th of October, 1866, he was appointed vice-president of the Court of Governor and Council, for determining suits relating to marriage and divorce. By an act of the Legislative Assembly, passed in 1791, a court was constituted, consisting of the lieutenant-governor of the province and his Majesty’s council, for the determination of suits and questions concerning marriage and divorce and alimony, the governor to be president of the court. The governor was also authorized to appoint the chief justice, or one of the judges of the Supreme Court, or the Master of the Rolls, to be vice-president of the court, and to act in his place. In 1860, a new court for the trial of matrimonial causes was created by the Act 23 Vic., c. 37, and all suits pending in the court before the Governor and Council, except those in which evidence had been examined, which were to be proceeded with as before, were transferred to the new court. Justice Neville Parker was appointed the judge under this act, and we therefore presume Mr. Allen’s appointment as vice-president of the Court of Governor and Council was for the purpose of hearing some case commenced under the old law, in which evidence had been examined; but, so far as we can learn, he has never acted under his commission. In June, 1878, he was appointed, in the place of the late Governor Wilmot, one of the arbitrators for settling the North-West boundary of the province of Ontario. The other arbitrators were Sir Edward Thornton, the British Minister at Washington, and Chief Justice Harrison, of Ontario. The time appointed for the meeting of the arbitrators having been fixed for the early part of July, and difficulties existing in the way of a postponement, Chief Justice Allen was obliged to resign the appointment, as his judicial duties prevented him from attending to it, the trial of the Osborne family for the alleged murder of Timothy McCarthy, coming on at the Circuit Court then about to open, at which he was to preside. Among the most notable criminal cases which Chief Justice Allen has tried may be mentioned that of John A. Munroe, in 1869, for the murder of Sarah Margaret Vail and her child, at St. John; and in 1875, of a number of persons at Bathurst, in the county of Gloucester, who participated in the Carraquet riots, which originated in resisting the enforcement of the Common Schools Act; also that of Chasson and ten others, for the murder of one Gifford, who had aided the sheriff’s officers in arresting the Carraquet rioters mentioned above. He also tried the Osborne family twice for the alleged murder of Timothy McCarthy, at Shediac, in the county of Westmoreland. The first trial, in July and August, 1878, occupied six weeks. The jury having disagreed, the prisoners were again tried in November and December of the same year, the trial occupying nearly six weeks, and, as before, the jury failed to agree. In 1847 Hon. Mr. Allen published a book of the Rules of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick, and the Acts of Assembly relating to the practice of the courts. He has also rendered much valuable service to the legal profession, in the compilation and publication of six volumes of law reports, embodying the decisions of the court extending over a number of years. In his younger days the Chief Justice took an active interest in the militia of the province. About the year 1835 he joined a volunteer company of artillery, in Fredericton. In 1838 the several companies of artillery in the province, viz., at Fredericton, St. John, St. Andrews, and St. Stephens, were formed into a regiment called “The New Brunswick Regiment of Artillery,” under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hayne, formerly of the Royal artillery, and in 1838 Mr. Allen was appointed second lieutenant in the regiment; afterwards first lieutenant and adjutant, and captain, in July, 1841. The militia law having been materially altered in 1865, he has not since that had any active connection with the force. In 1844 he was appointed Provincial aide-de-camp to Sir William Colbrooke, the lieutenant-governor of the province, and continued so till he resigned the government, in 1848. In 1882 the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on Chief Justice Allen by the University of New Brunswick. Chief Justice Allen is a member of the Church of England, and for nearly forty years has been a member of the church corporation in Fredericton. He has also held the position of churchwarden in the parish church for over twenty-five years, and on several occasions has been elected delegate to the provincial synod at Montreal. In 1845 he married Margaret A. Drury, daughter of the late Captain Charles Drury, 29th Regiment of foot, who died at St. John in 1835. He has five children living—William, Thomas Carleton (the prothonotary of the Supreme Court), Edmund H., George W., and Henry.
Chapman, Robert Andrew, Dorchester, New Brunswick, was born in Dorchester, county of Westmoreland, New Brunswick, on the 2nd of February, 1835, where he has resided ever since. His father was Robert B. Chapman, and his mother, Margaret Weldon. Both Mr. Chapman’s great-grandfather and grandfather emigrated from Yorkshire, England, in 1775, and both represented the county of Westmoreland in the New Brunswick legislature. The wife of the latter was Sarah Black, sister to William Black, commonly known as “Bishop Black,” the father of Methodism in the Maritime provinces. Margaret Weldon’s grandfather on the paternal side, came to America from North Allerton, Yorkshire, in 1770, and her ancestors on the maternal side—the Killams—were United Empire loyalists. Robert A. Chapman received his primary education in the public schools, and afterwards studied under an Irish teacher, who was noted as a mathematician. When he grew up to manhood, he adopted mechanical pursuits, went largely into ship building, and from 1860 to 1878 built upwards of thirty vessels, principally barques and ships, varying from 600 to 1,500 tons burthen. Mr. Chapman holds a captain’s commission in the reserve militia. He has been a justice of the peace for a long time; and was high sheriff of the county of Westmoreland from 1879 to 1886. On the organization of the municipal council for Westmoreland county, he was, along with Hon. P. A. Landry, elected a member by acclamation for Dorchester parish, and continued to sit in this body until he was made high sheriff; and again, in 1886, he was elected to this council. He was an unsuccessful candidate in his county for a seat in the New Brunswick legislature in 1872; and again in 1878, against Sir A. J. Smith, for a seat in the House of Commons, at Ottawa. On both occasions, however, he polled a large vote. In politics, Mr. Chapman is a Conservative; and in religion, is an adherent of the Methodist church. He was married on the 18th of October, 1859, to Mary E. Frost, daughter of Stephen Frost, late of Chatham, New Brunswick.
Steele, Rev. D. A., A.M., Baptist Minister, Amherst, Nova Scotia, was born in the village of Barewood, Herefordshire, England, on the 17th September, 1838, and came to America in 1845. His ancestry on the paternal side came from Annandale, Scotland. He was educated at Acadia College, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, from which institution he graduated with the degree of A.M. He was ordained to the ministry there, on the 20th June, 1865. He took charge of the Baptist Church in Canso for two years; and then, in 1867, removed to Amherst and took the pastorate of the church which had for many years been presided over by the late Rev. Charles Tupper, D.D., father of Sir Charles Tupper, finance minister of Canada. The Rev. Mr. Steele was one of the promoters of the independent foreign missions of the Baptist church in the Maritime provinces, and is a member of the Foreign Mission Board. He is a member of the Senate of Acadia College, and also chairman of the Board of School Commissioners for Cumberland county. Rev. Mr. Steele has been an active worker ever since he assumed the pastoral office, and has left his mark for good on his adopted county. In 1865 he was married to Sarah Hart, the only surviving daughter of Spinney Whitman, whose ancestors came from New England to Annapolis on the expulsion of the Acadians.
Flint, Thomas Barnard, M.A., LL.B., Yarmouth, Barrister, and Assistant Clerk to the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia, was born on the 28th April, 1847, at Yarmouth, N.S. His parents were John Flint and Ann S. Barnard, who were married in 1834, and were respectively descended from Thomas Flint, of Marblehead, Massachusetts, and of Benjamin Barnard, of Salem, in the same state. Thomas Flint, the ancestor of all the family of that name in the western portion of Nova Scotia, came to Yarmouth, in 1771, and his descendants are very numerous in that part of the country. Benjamin Barnard, of Salem, came to the same part of Nova Scotia, in 1770, and although his descendants in Yarmouth are numerous, yet the family name has completely died out. It is however perpetuated in the names of Barnard street and Barnard lane in the town of Yarmouth. Both these families were, of course, thoroughly identified with the history of Yarmouth town and county, which were mainly settled from New England, and which still retain many of the New England characteristics. Thomas B. Flint, the subject of our sketch, received his early education at Yarmouth, and subsequently went to Wesley College, Sackville, New Brunswick, where he took the degree of B.A. in 1867; and of M.A. in 1875; and in the same year he carried off the “Moore” prize for the best essay on “John Milton.” He also took a course at the Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1872, and received the degree of LL.B. from that university. He adopted law as a profession, and studied in the office of Senator (now ex-judge) Ritchie, and on being admitted to the bar he began the practice of his profession in 1872. For years Mr. Flint has taken an active interest in educational matters, and in the temperance reform movement. For a long period he held office as a school trustee, and was secretary of the High School committee several years. He is a member and secretary of the Board of Governors of the Yarmouth Seminary. He was appointed high sheriff of the county of Yarmouth in the autumn of 1883, but resigned the same at the end of the year 1886. At the opening of the session of 1887 he was elected assistant clerk of the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia, in the place of the late assistant clerk, who was promoted to the chief clerkship. Mr. Flint, a Liberal and anti-Confederate in politics, was defeated as a candidate for the local legislature in 1873, when he contested the county against a former representative, who was declared returned by a majority of two votes. Although the return was contested by Mr. Flint, his opponent was confirmed in his seat. He was also a candidate for the House of Commons in 1878, in opposition to Frank Killam. Mr. Killam was elected by a substantial majority. As both gentlemen were supporters of the Liberal party, merely personal and local issues were involved in the contest. He was again a candidate for the local legislature in 1882 on the Liberal ticket, but was unsuccessful, having been defeated by a small majority. Mr. Flint was for many years engaged in shipbuilding; the management of shipping and various public enterprises; a stockholder in the Western Counties Railway Company, and other corporations. He is prominent in the Masonic fraternity, and is a past master of Scotia lodge, No. 31, R.N.S.; past district deputy grand master of District No. 3, and secretary of Scotia lodge. Since 1872 he has taken an active part, in the Liberal interest, in political discussions through the press and on the platform, particularly on occasions of general elections, and assisted in obtaining the Liberal repeal victory in Yarmouth county in February, 1887, when, however, the province generally returned a majority of representatives in opposition to the further continuance of the repeal agitation. He married, on October 14th, 1874, Mary Ella, daughter of Thomas B. Dane, of Yarmouth, who was also a descendant of a New England family that settled in Yarmouth county in 1789.