PHILEMON COUSINEAU, B. A., LL. D., K. C., M. L. A.
As a member of the firm of Bastien, Bergeron, Cousineau, Lacasse & Jasmin, Philemon Cousineau, K. C., occupies a foremost position among the legal fraternity of Montreal. Moreover, he has gained a reputation as a legislator and is considered today one of the foremost authorities on constitutional law in the province. He has important commercial interests, and his career has had in its various aspects a lasting influence upon the growth and development of the city. He was born at St. Laurent, Quebec, on October 25, 1874, and is a son of Gervais and Angelique (Grou) Cousineau.
Philemon Cousineau was educated at Sainte Therese College and Laval University, from which he graduated in 1896. Being called to the bar, he began the active practice of law in July of that year and has ever since continued with increasing success. He is professor of constitutional and municipal law at Laval University, which institution of learning conferred upon him the degree of LL. D., after he had presented a thesis on Corporations. He has also been for some time king’s counsel and enjoys a profitable and representative practice.
Mr. Cousineau is extensively interested in industrial and financial projects which have had to do with the city’s progress, among them being the Mount Royal Telephone Company, of which he was president, and previous to its absorption by the Canadian Light & Power Company he was a director of the Saraguay Light & Power Company. He is also president of the St. Lawrence Tobacco Company. He was mayor of the town of St. Laurent from 1904 to 1908 and both as an official and citizen has had no little to do with the progress of that flourishing town.
In 1897 Mr. Cousineau was united in marriage to Miss Helmina Gendron, and they have four daughters. In politics Mr. Cousineau is a conservative and in 1908 was elected to the legislature of the province of Quebec from the county of Jacques Cartier and reelected in 1912. He is a trusted counselor of the party and has done far-reaching work on committees as well as on the floor of the house. Public-spirited in the most noble sense of the word, he has ever stood for that which is best for the greatest number. In 1913 he was delegate of the Canadian government to the general meeting of the International Institute Of Agriculture at Rome, Italy.
PHILEMON COUSINEAU
EDOUARD NAPOLEON HEBERT.
The house of Hébert has been one of the foremost families of the Dominion since the early dawn of Canadian history. One of the first Canadian farmers, Louis Hébert, arrived in Quebec with his family in 1617. Tradition has it that previously he passed some time in Acadia, where he “was the first to utilize the salt-water marshes of the Bay of Fundy by building dikes to keep out the tides.” He continued to cultivate the soil at Quebec and on February 28, 1626, as a reward to him and an encouragement to others, the Duc de Ventadour, viceroy of New France, issued a patent granting Hébert “in fief noble to him and his assigns forever” a seignorial domain on the River St. Charles, near Quebec, and confirming to him a concession made by the preceding viceroy, the Duc de Montmorency. It was expressly stated in the deed that these grants were made in consideration of Hébert’s “long and painful labors, perils and expenses, incessantly supported in the discovery of the lands of Canada and that he is the head of the first family which has settled and dwelt there since the year 1600 till now * * * having left his relations and friends to go and form this commencement of a colony of Christian people in those lands * * * which are deprived of the knowledge of God.” Charles Lecroix Hébert, a rich trader and the first farmer on the island of Montreal, built a residence in 1655 on Jean Baptiste Street, which is still standing and which is shown in one of the illustrations of this history. Hébert, named Larivière, was born in 1633 and was a companion in arms of Dollard and present at the massacre of Long Sault in May, 1660.