Part 13

Mr. Ogilvie and his brother John were the pioneer wheat buyers in Manitoba. He had traveled through Canada’s present wheat fields years before they were cultivated and many times afterwards. From the first small shipment of five hundred bushels from Manitoba in 1876, the shipments, in Mr. Ogilvie’s lifetime, to his own mills increased until they reached the enormous total of eight million bushels of No. 1 hard wheat, all purchased by his own expert buyers from the farmers, at his seventy elevators, extending all over the wheat section of Ontario and the northwest.

In the manufacture of flour Mr. Ogilvie spent a lifetime and spared neither time, labor or expense in bringing his product to the very acme of perfection. By steady industry and indomitable energy and most of all the superior quality of his products, upheld at all cost, the business grew until it not only became the largest of its kind in the Dominion, but the most extensive flour business in the world controlled by one man.

Mr. Ogilvie was the first to introduce into Canada the patent process of grinding by rollers. In 1868, he visited Hungary where this system originated, for the purpose of investigating it. He saw at once its value and adopted it. He invented improved machinery used in the milling business, and was always ready to adopt the improvements of others that were practical.

It was said that he had better knowledge of wheat and wheat lands than any man in Canada. His business furnished a market for wheat growers and proved a stimulating influence in the agricultural development of the great wheat-raising section of middle and western Canada. His labors were directly responsible for much of the growth, progress and prosperity of Manitoba and the provinces farther west, and his worth as a business man and citizen was acknowledged by all.

Mr. Ogilvie’s identification with commercial interests was large and diversified. He was a director of the Bank of Montreal; the Montreal Transportation Company; the North British and Mercantile Insurance Company; the Old Dominion Board of Trade; and the Sailors Institute. He was president of the Corn Exchange Association; St. Andrew’s Society; and the Montreal Horticultural Society; governor of the Montreal General and the Royal Victoria Hospitals; president of the Manufacturers’ Association, and served as a member of the Harbor Board.

In regard to agricultural and horticultural interests he manifested an interest and enthusiasm that were contagious, his efforts constituting an example that many others followed. He served both on the council and board of arbitration of the Montreal Board of Trade and was president of that body in 1893-4. In matters of citizenship he was extremely public-spirited and what he accomplished represented the fit utilization of his innate talents and powers. His political belief is indicated in the fact that in 1896 he was president of the Liberal Conservative Club of Montreal. He was a forceful speaker in both French and English and frequently, in his earlier days, addressed public meetings during political campaigns.

As a young man he served as lieutenant and subsequently as a captain in the Montreal Cavalry under his brother, being thanked in brigade orders by Colonel Pakenham in 1866.

He was one of the prominent members of St. Andrew’s church. Mr. Ogilvie always gave with a free hand toward various public institutions, and there was no movement of importance to which he did not contribute. His benefactions were liberal, varied and by no means local. He gave thirteen thousand dollars, towards making up a deficit for completion of the Jubilee wing of the Winnipeg General Hospital. He was one of the first to subscribe to the patriotic fund for the families of those who went with the Canadian contingent to the Transvaal war. Mr. Ogilvie was a man of great business capacity and to a most remarkable extent maintained a personal knowledge of his diversified interests.

His death on January 12, 1900, was very sudden. He had been at his office attending to business as usual, after which he attended a directors’ meeting of the Bank of Montreal. On his way home he was taken ill and passed away soon after reaching there.

Many of the leading mercantile houses and public offices flew their flags at half mast through respect for him. The Montreal Gazette at time of his death, said on January 13, 1900, editorially:

“It is long since any event caused such a painful shock in Montreal as did the death yesterday of W. W. Ogilvie. Strong in body, clear in mind, actively interested in the details of great concerns, he was one of the last whose taking away would be thought of. His loss will be felt the more because of its suddenness and it is a great loss, to the city’s commercial life. Mr. Ogilvie’s business intelligence and energy long ago raised him to a place not among Canada’s alone, but among the world’s great merchants.

“It was a just pride that he felt in directing the greatest milling interest in the world under one man’s control; and the pride was more than personal. He early saw what the northwest meant to Canada, both commercially and nationally, and it was a pleasure to him to feel that as his business spread it was making known the resources of the country, in all of whose affairs he took the deepest interest.

“The success that he gained in his own business caused his counsel to be sought in the direction of other great enterprises. He was a director in the country’s greatest financial corporation, and in other institutions in which he had investments. On the Corn Exchange and on the Board of Trade, his was an influential voice, and it was always raised in behalf of that which was best and broadest.

“He knew how to give generously to a good cause. He earned the respect of all who were brought into contact with him and especially that of the hundreds of men who served him in the enterprise of which his was the directing brain.

“It was a big place that he won through his heart as well as by his head and it will be long ere there will be found another capable of filling it.”

Mr. Ogilvie was survived by his widow and four children, three sons and a daughter, Albert Edward, William Watson (died 1906), Gavin Lang and Alice Helen. Mrs. Ogilvie previous to her marriage in 1871, was Helen, a daughter of Joseph Johnston of Paisley, Scotland.

R. A. BALDWIN HART.

R. A. Baldwin Hart, prominent as a representative of one of the old families of Montreal, manager-executor of the Theodore Hart estate, and a public-spirited citizen, was born in Montreal, December 5, 1852, a son of Theodore Hart. For a long period the family had been represented in this city, the name figuring prominently in connection with its history. His education was acquired in the schools of Montreal and his life was spent in his native city.

In 1900 in Montreal Mr. Hart was united in marriage to Miss Mary Isabella Owen, who survives him, the death of Mr. Hart having occurred on the 11th of September, 1903, when he was yet in the prime of life. He was very fond of outdoor sports. He was a wide reader and kept abreast with the events of the day and the progress of the times. Charitable and kindly in spirit, he listened attentively and sympathetically to a tale of sorrow or distress and no worthy object failed to receive substantial assistance from him. Civic affairs were a matter of interest to him and he supported movements which he deemed of benefit to Montreal. His was indeed a well rounded character in which the varied important interests of life received due consideration and he stood as a high type of Canadian manhood and citizenship.

ALAN JUDAH HART.

Alan Judah Hart, founder of the Hart Manufacturing Company, of Montreal, is a descendant of one of the oldest English speaking families of Canada, the ancestry being traced back to one who came from New York with General Amherst in 1759. For many generations the family was represented at Three Rivers, Canada. Lewis A. Hart, father of Alan J. Hart, has for forty years or more been a notary in Montreal. He was born at Three Rivers and was educated in Montreal, supplementing his preliminary studies by advanced courses which won him the degrees of Master of Arts and Bachelor of Civil Law. He married Fanny Elizabeth Benjamin and they became the parents of four sons and four daughters: Claude Benjamin, a commission merchant; Arthur Daniel, a manufacturer’s agent; Philip Beyfus, a commercial traveler; Alan Judah; Ethel Muriel; Mabel Ruth; Gladys Judith; and Dorothy Marguerite.

Alan Judah Hart was born in Montreal, October 4, 1879. He was educated in Montreal and for some years was employed by E. A. Small & Company, manufacturers of men’s clothing, and later was with A. H. Sims & Company, manufacturers of ladies’ clothing, acting as superintendent of the house for three years. In 1902 he established the Hart Manufacturing Company for the purpose of manufacturing ladies’ tailor-made suits and cloaks and in the conduct of this business he has been very successful. Mr. Hart is a director of H. Vineberg & Company, Limited, manufacturers of the Progress Brand clothing and has become widely and favorably known in commercial circles.

Mr. Hart married Miss Eva Vineberg, a daughter of Harris Vineberg, and they have a family of five children: Edward Henry, Gordon David, Lawrence Ezra, Alma Ruth and Vera Esther.

Mr. Hart is a life governor of the Montreal General Hospital and a director of Mount Sinai Sanitarium at Ste. Agathe. He was likewise a member of the executive board of the Canadian Manufacturers Association, serving in that capacity in 1912 and 1913, and he is a member of the Montreal Board of Trade and of the Royal Arcanum. His interests and activities are varied and important, winning him recognition of his worth in both commercial circles and in public life.

HON. LOUIS JOSEPH FORGET.

Hon. Louis Joseph Forget, whose name is written large on the pages of financial and industrial history of Montreal during the past forty years, left the impress of his great constructive force and energy upon mammoth projects which are figured as some of the Dominion’s leading enterprises. He was born March 11, 1853, at Terrebonne, P. Q., a district that has produced many eminent statesmen, writers, merchants and financiers. He was one of the nine sons of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Forget and was descended from a family that came to Canada from Normandy in 1600. Among those nine sons there were two priests, one of whom declined episcopal robes, a notary, two lawyers, two contractors, one farmer and he who was destined to become a power in the financial world, Louis Joseph Forget. His education was acquired at Masson College and his entrance into business circles was in connection with a dry-goods establishment. He had almost reached the determination of trying his fortune in the United States when he chanced upon a newspaper that contained an advertisement of office help being needed by Thomas Caverhill. Mr. Forget applied for the position the next morning and was accepted. From the beginning of his work with Mr. Caverhill the young man displayed unusual aptness as well as great eagerness to learn. He was not an ordinary boy. He took great interest in his work and often asked questions about other features of the business that did not come within his particular line of duties, but a knowledge thereof added to his capability and rendered him fit for promotion and opportunity offered later. It is only natural that a young man of this character should attract the attention of his employer. Mr. Caverhill took great interest in him and was instrumental in causing Mr. Forget to enter the brokerage business. The financial exploit during Jay Gould’s celebrated Black Friday in Wall Street reflected no little credit upon Mr. Forget, displaying in notable manner his insight and ability, and soon afterward he was nominated for membership in the Montreal Stock Exchange by his former employer. It is interesting in this connection to note that he was the first French-Canadian to be admitted to membership in that body and that before he had reached his majority he purchased his seat therein at a cost of nine hundred dollars. He began business as a stock broker in Montreal in 1873, from which time until his death, thirty-eight years later, his prominence and success in the investment security business were not over-shadowed by that of his contemporaries. He founded the financial house of L. J. Forget & Company, one of the foremost in its line in Montreal and remained its head during his life time. The Paris branch of L. J. Forget & Company at 7 Rue Auber, was the first to be established in continental Europe by a Canadian financial house and readily secured a clientele that materially broadened the operations of the firm.

Senator Forget was elected president of the Montreal Stock Exchange in 1895 to succeed H. S. Macdougall and in May, 1896, was reelected. His business and financial connections had been constantly broadening and had long since included a prominent identification with the foremost financial and industrial projects of the time. In 1892 he became president of what was then the Montreal City Passenger Railway Company, now the Montreal Tramways Company. He remained its directing head until 1911, in which connection he accomplished what has meant much to Montreal. To no one man is the city indebted as largely for the upbuilding and development of its transportation system as to Senator Forget. Under his regime the motive power was changed from horses to electricity and the market value of the company’s stock advanced from around one hundred dollars to three hundred and thirty-seven dollars and a half per share.

In 1895 Senator Forget became president of the Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Company. At that time the affairs of the company were far from being on a dividend-paying basis and the rehabilitation of its interests was but another illustration of Senator Forget’s constructive genius. He resigned his position as head of the company in 1905, but in the meantime the stock was paying a six per cent dividend and the affairs of the company generally were in a better condition than ever before.