ANDRE ODORIE RONDEAU.
Capable, earnest and conscientious, and well versed in the knowledge of the law, André Odorie Rondeau enjoys a large practice, especially among the French citizenship of Montreal, ably representing valuable French interests in the local courts. A man of sound judgment and logical reasoning, he readily discerns the moving factor in any legal situation and presents his views and conclusions so concisely that he seldom fails to convince court or jury. He is gifted with all the qualities of which a lawyer may be proud and has a deep insight into human nature, understanding the springs of human conduct, which qualities assist him in his work. As the years have passed he has come more and more to the fore in his profession and is now recognized as an authority upon many subjects of the law.
Born at St. Marcel, in the county of Richelieu, on the 8th of June, 1876, André O. Rondeau is the son of Louis Rondeau, a successful agriculturist, who was born in the county of Berthier, and Lucie (Ouellette) Rondeau, a daughter of Godefroy Ouellette, born in St. Ours, in the county of Richelieu. Both parents are highly respected in their locality. The earliest record of the Rondeau family goes back to one Pierre Rondeau, a son of Jean, who married Catherine Verrier on September 30, 1669, at Ste. Famille, and had a large family. Another of these early records mentions Jacques Rondeau, born in 1663, who married Françoise Beaudry at Trois Rivières on November 6, 1691, and had a family of seven children.
André O. Rondeau after acquiring his preliminary education attended a commercial college at St. Aimé and the preparatory seminary of Ste. Marie de Monnoir, from which he obtained his bachelor’s degree. He received his law diploma from Laval University of Montreal, after having studied for two years at St. Hyacinthe under the supervision of Blanchet & Chicoine, well known barristers. Since Mr. Rondeau has joined the legal fraternity of Montreal he has made great strides towards success, having left the ranks of the many and joined those of the successful few. He is skillful in the presentation of his evidence, shows marked ability in cross-examination, persuasiveness before the jury and has a strong grasp of every feature of the case in hand. While his learning never intrudes itself when uncalled for and he makes no display thereof, it comes into requisition when wanted. He is a man who exemplifies in his conduct the lofty ideals of his nation and noble calling and he honors his profession by paying it honor and by his adherence to the solid virtues and enlightened principles underlying the law. It is his ambition to make his native talent subserve the demands of the social and business conditions of the day and he stands today as a splendid representative of a lawyer to whom personal prosperity is secondary in importance to the public welfare and less vital than many other elements which go to make up human existence.
On June 29, 1908, at Montreal, at the church of St. Jacques, Mr. Rondeau was united in marriage to Miss Rose Blanche Trudeau, a daughter of Louis Napoléon Trudeau, a well known dentist. The religious affiliations of Mr. and Mrs. Rondeau are with the Catholic church. In his political views he was during his earlier years a liberal but since 1906 has endorsed the nationalist movement as he is in sympathy with their ideas. Outside of his profession he has had important interests and is the builder of the Boulevard Trudeau and Rondeau, in the Prairie River district, which leads through lots Nos. 16 and 17. He was one of the founders and also one of the first directors of La Cie Zootechnique de Labelle, Limitée, at Macaza, P. Q., which has for its purpose the raising of fur-bearing animals. Mr. Rondeau is highly respected in Montreal as an able lawyer and as a citizen of public worth and is especially popular and influential with the French, of which race he is an able representative in this city.
SAMUEL COTTINGHAM STEVENSON.
There was no man to whom the success of Canadian expositions and exhibitions was more largely attributable than to Samuel C. Stevenson, who as a commissioner, represented his province and country in connection with a number of leading affairs of this kind on the continent. He was born in Montreal in 1848 and came of Scotch ancestry, being a son of James Stevenson, a native of Scotland, who after his arrival in Canada was identified with shipping interests, owning a number of boats. His wife was, in her maidenhood, Miss Elizabeth Cottingham.
Their son, Samuel C. Stevenson, pursued a high-school course and in 1872 was granted his Bachelor of Arts degree at McGill. He was assistant secretary to the first large provincial exhibition and was identified with all the expositions of the province from that time until his death. When the first one was held at Mile End, he was given entire charge of the industrial department. In 1876 he was appointed a commissioner of the province of Quebec to the great Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia and in 1877 when a permanent exposition committee was appointed for the province, he was made its secretary for the industrial department and held that position until the organization of the Montreal Exposition Company in 1889. He was chief organizer and manager of all the important expositions that were held in Montreal from 1886 until his demise and he represented the Canadian interests as commissioner for the province of Quebec at the Colonial and Industrial Exhibition in London, in 1886. In 1892 he was appointed a member and secretary of the provincial commission in connection with the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and was secretary of the council of arts and manufacture of the province of Quebec. His long experience enabled him to know adequately just what was most attractive for exhibition purposes and how to assemble such, and the success of Canada’s exhibits, both provincial and at the international expositions in the United States, was due in large measure to his efforts. He was a corresponding member of the Industrial Education Association of New York and a director of the Great Northern Railway of Canada.
Mr. Stevenson’s military experience began in his youth. When a boy he belonged to the High School Cadets and afterward joined the Victoria Rifles, going to the front with his regiment at the time of the Fenian raid of 1866. Later he received a commission in the Prince of Wales regiment and was a subaltern in the company of that corps which was sent to the relief of the force that engaged the Fenians at Eccles Hill. He remained in the corps until 1881, when he retired with the rank of major. Mr. Stevenson’s interests and activities aside from those already indicated were manifest from his membership in the Art Association and in the Crescent Street church.