JOSEPH RIELLE.
In the long years of an active professional career Joseph Rielle has made continuous advancement until he stands today not only as a veteran civil engineer and surveyor, but also as one of the most capable representatives of his chosen calling in Montreal. Each year has found him in advance of the position which he occupied the previous year, because of his developing powers and growing ability. He was born at Laprairie on the 6th of October, 1833, and received his initial business training with the firm of Ostell & Perrault, architects and land surveyors, whose service he entered in 1850 when a youth of seventeen years. He continued with that firm for four years and then became assistant to Mr. John Page, chief engineer of public works. He next accepted the position of assistant engineer to the harbor commission and eventually entered upon the general practice of land surveying in Montreal and the surrounding district. He has been connected with extensive surveys for the Grand Trunk and the Canadian Pacific Railways and the harbor commissioners of Montreal and in addition to his general practice has made a number of important hydraulic surveys. In 1904 he was presented with a testimonial by members of the society of land surveyors to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his entry into civil engineering and land surveying.
While this has been his chief life activity, Mr. Rielle has done important work in other connections. He was formerly vice president of the Pontiac Pacific Junction Railway, and he has done much work of a public and semi-public character, whereby the general interests of the country at large have been greatly promoted. He was secretary and manager of the Montreal Turnpike Trust for about fifteen years. He was a member of the council of Verdun, Montreal, from 1875 until 1900 and was intrusted with many important public works. He is a life governor of the House of Industry and Refuge, also of the Montreal General Hospital, and is president of the Fraser Institute and Free Public Library of Montreal. His activities have been of a nature that have contributed largely to the general development and good, but he has never taken an active part in politics.
JOSEPH RIELLE
Mr. Rielle married Miss Jeannie T. Goldie of Laprairie, P. Q., who was vice president of the Montreal Industrial Rooms and who died in June, 1904. Mr. Rielle has his home at No. 90 Union Avenue and is a member of the St. James Club. He has now reached the advanced age of more than eighty years, but is still active in his profession and in spirit and interest seems yet a man in the prime of life.
JOHN STUART BUCHAN.
No phase of life affecting the political and local status of the province or its educational or moral development fails to elicit the attention and interest of John Stuart Buchan and seldom fails to receive his hearty cooperation and support. He is ever willing to divide his time between his profession and public service, recognizing ever the duties as well as the privileges of citizenship and the obligations which devolve upon man in relation to his fellowmen. He is well known as a practitioner at the bar and his reputation as a capable lawyer has been well earned. He was born at St. Andrews, P. Q., October 28, 1852, the only son of the late William and Katherine (Stuart) Buchan, of St. Andrews. The family is descended from the old earls of Buchan. After attending public schools of his native city John S. Buchan entered McGill University and won his B. C. L. degree in 1884. He had determined to make the practice of law his life work, and following his graduation he became an advocate, since which time he has continued a representative of the Montreal bar. Here he has worked his way up to leadership and in 1899 was created a king’s counsel. For almost a third of a century he has been engaged in practice here, and his ability has long since placed him in a position of distinction among the leaders of the legal profession in Montreal. At one time he was a member of the editorial staff of the Canadian Jurist, and in 1904 he was a royal commissioner for the revision of the provincial statutes. Thus important governmental problems in connection with his profession have elicited his deep interest and called forth his abilities.