It was then that Mr. Michaud organized the firm of Michaud Brothers & Company, which soon took a foremost position among the leading wholesale grain and export firms of Montreal. Its existence covered a period of about fifteen years and an extensive business was conducted, constituting another forward step in the career of Alexander Michaud. However, recognizing the fact that the field of real-estate activity and land speculation in Montreal afforded great opportunity for profitable investment, he withdrew from active connection with the grain trade and entered the real-estate business. It is unusual for a man who has been so long identified with one line of business to make so radical a change, but the subsequent success of Mr. Michaud is indicative of his splendid business foresight and capability. The success that he has achieved in the real-estate business has been substantial, is well deserved and represents methods that have lent dignity to the undertaking. There are few, if any, who have more intimate or comprehensive knowledge of realty values or whose judgment is more to be relied upon and these facts have served to bring him an extensive and desirable clientage.
In connection with his public career a Montreal paper has said: “Perhaps the field in which Mr. Michaud was best known to the citizens of Montreal is political. He was an alderman and was president of the finance committee of Maisonneuve from 1905 to 1909 and was elected mayor by acclamation three times in succession. During this time Maisonneuve has made those wonderful strides in growth which have been the admiration of the entire country and have placed herself on a footing which is attracting the attention of the entire world. The part played in this great advance in manufacturing and commerce by the city is not a little due to the energy and foresight of her mayor, who has brought his business acumen and farsighted commercial judgment into play in running the civic side of affairs, the same as he did as a merchant or miller. Mr. Michaud prefers to talk about Maisonneuve rather than about himself, about the opportunities there are there for capital, the splendid locations for factories and the many other inducements which have made the city one of the leaders in commercial advancement during the past five years. It is an interesting subject and more Aladdinlike than Africa diamond mines or the gold strewn coasts of Alaska.” It may be mentioned here that Maisonneuve, though surrounded by the city of Montreal, is an entirely separate city, having its own autonomy.
Perhaps the most unique point in Mr. Michaud’s public career is its cause. Like many other men who had been similarly attracted to that locality, Mr. Michaud took up his residence in Maisonneuve but with neither time nor inclination for public office. The city at that period had a population of seven thousand. Twenty-four liquor licenses had been issued and the town, in modern parlance, was “wide open.” It was a great rendezvous for hundreds of people from Montreal who would go down there on Sundays, the open saloons serving as a great attraction. This disregard of the law and the undesirable notoriety it gave the town aroused the indignation of the better class of citizens, who, however, were powerless, owing to the inactivity of those who were in charge of the city government. Mr. Michaud was one who set about to bring order out of chaos and while his first article in the local papers attracted attention, his second and subsequent ones certainly aroused the opposition of the lawless element whose arrogance had so long held sway. Personal violence was threatened Mr. Michaud and his residence was attacked by a mob that broke every window within reach. Missiles of every description were hurled inside. This cowardly attack instead of intimidating Mr. Michaud, only spurred him on to further action and showed that the Irish blood in him could mean fight—not fight in the brutal sense of the mob but with that courage that comes of honest conviction combined with fearlessness. In the face of such bitter opposition Mr. Michaud became a candidate for alderman, was elected and wielded such an influence in favor of good government and progress that from the time he entered politics to the present he has made a most creditable record. No citizen of Maisonneuve has worked so incessantly or taken greater pride in what has been accomplished. That city today, with forty thousand population, contains but nineteen licensed saloons, all conducted under strict observance of the law. He is, indeed, a resourceful man and in the management of public affairs displays the same spirit of careful watchfulness and wise control that he does in conducting his private interests. He was named by the provincial government a member of the Metropolitan Parks commission of Montreal, of which body Sir William Van Horne is president.
In 1909 Mr. Michaud was the chief factor in the organization of the Dominion Light, Heat & Power Company and during the two years of its successful operation, before being absorbed by the Montreal Public Service Corporation, he was prominently connected with its management. He is a man but little past middle age and his whole capital when starting in life was energy and ambition, yet he has been highly successful, not only in the way of winning prosperity, but also in valuable service to the city and province. He gets much out of life in comfort and pleasure and has never lived solely to accumulate wealth, but has ever been a lover of nature and of outdoor life and it is only severe weather that prevents him from enjoying the four and a half mile walk daily from his office to his home. In the latter his greatest interest centers and he is always happiest when in the company of his family. Mr. Michaud was married February 21, 1898, to Miss Marie Virolle and to them have been born four children: Margaret, Paul, Germaine and Alexander. Mr. Michaud is an indulgent father and the comrade of his children. For a number of years he has spent the summers with his family at Old Orchard, Maine.
JOHN MILNE BROWNING.
In the later years of his life John Milne Browning lived retired in Montreal. He was of Scotch birth, a native of Edinburgh, born in June, 1826. His father, Matthew Browning, died when the son was a young man and the latter, who had been educated in the schools of his native country, came to Canada in 1852, when twenty-six years of age. He located at Beauharnois, where he continued until 1873 and then removed to Montreal, where he resided through the succeeding fifteen years. In 1888 he went to British Columbia, where he lived for eleven years, but on the expiration of that period returned to Montreal, where he spent his remaining days in well earned and honorable retirement from business. He had been a land commissioner and was also connected with the Canadian Pacific Railway Townsite Company. He displayed excellent business ability in that connection and handled important realty interests.
In 1855 Mr. Browning was united in marriage to Miss Magdeline H. Norval, born in 1833, in Beauharnois, Quebec, a daughter of R. H. Norval, who came from Edinburgh when twenty-one years of age and remained thereafter a resident of Canada until his death in 1856. His daughter, Mrs. Browning, has seen Montreal develop from a comparatively small place into a wonderful city, being ever an interested witness of the changes which have occurred. It was on the 20th of December, 1906, that Mr. Browning was called from this life and his loss was mourned in the various localities where he was well and favorably known. He was a member of a number of clubs and won popularity in those organizations. His public spirit found tangible expression in many ways and his religious faith was evidenced in his membership in the Crescent Street Presbyterian church. His life was honorable and upright at all times and he left behind him an untarnished name.