Part 41

For many years the name of Joseph Charles Wray figured in connection with the undertaking business in Montreal, but in July, 1907, he retired from active management of a business which had been established by his grandfather in 1840. Mr. Wray was born in Montreal on the 25th of March, 1857, and is descended from Irish ancestry, his parents being William and Marion (McGregor) Wray, the latter of Scotch lineage. The father came to Montreal at an early age with his father. The latter, Joseph Wray, established an undertaking business in 1840 and was joined by his son, William Wray in its conduct and management. The business was originally conducted under the name of Joseph Wray, but upon the death of the grandfather, William Wray succeeded to the ownership and management of the business, which he afterward conducted under his own name. However, his health failed him about six months later, and he was obliged to retire from active business. He was then succeeded by his son Joseph Charles Wray.

The last named had been a pupil in the public schools of Montreal and after putting aside his text-books became connected with the confectionery business in the employ of James Griffin. At length he entered the undertaking business that had been established by his grandfather, and when his father was forced to retire from the management Joseph Charles Wray assumed control and conducted the business under his own name for thirty years, his patronage growing with the development of the city. In July, 1907, however, the firm style was changed to Joseph C. Wray & Brother, and Mr. Wray of this review retired from active management, being succeeded by his youngest brother, Frederick A. Wray, who has always been connected with the business. The Wrays were the first to establish ambulance work in Canada in connection with the hospitals, and they now own the ambulances used in connection with the hospitals of the city. They began this in July, 1883, and the value of the work done by them can be scarcely overestimated, the ambulance service largely annihilating time and distance in cases of emergency, bringing the patient to medical and surgical aid with as little discomfort as possible.

On the 7th of September, 1900, in Trinity church, Mr. Wray was united in marriage to Ellen Louise Gibbon, a native of Wales. They are members of the Church of England, and Mr. Wray is identified with Mizpah Lodge, I. O. O. F., and Elgin Lodge, No. 7, A. F. & A. M. He votes independently, exercising his right of franchise as his judgment dictates. He has long since won place among the prosperous men of the city, his position being attributable entirely to his close application and honorable business methods.

OSCAR DESAUTELS.

Of distinguished French-Canadian ancestry, Oscar Desautels worthily wears the family name and worthily carries forward the family traditions. He is a successful notary of Montreal, in which city he has many interests. His Canadian ancestry goes back to Pierre Desautels, who was born of the marriage of Thomas and Marie (Buisson) Desautels, of Malicerne, in the bishopric of Mans, France. Pierre Desautels married Marie Remy and to them was born Joseph Desautels at Montreal on the 29th of October, 1666. He married Marie Charlotte Chatillon, and they became the parents of a son, Michel, who was born at Pointe-aux-Trembles, Montreal, October 1, 1701. Michel Desautels married Louise Catherine Bergeron, and their son Michel was born at Sorel in 1727. He married Marie Charlotte Rondeau, and they became the parents of a son, Michel, who was born at St. Ours on the 11th of August, 1759. To this Michel Desautels was born a son, Michel, at Beloeil in 1796. He married Josephte Morin, and their son Elzear was born at St. Jean Baptiste, November 25, 1827. He was the father of our subject. His wife was Malvina Guertin, and their son Oscar was born at St. Jean Baptiste, April 26, 1872.

Oscar Desautels pursued a classical course at the Petit Seminaire of Ste. Marie de Monnoir at Marieville and was graduated in June, 1893, with the Bachelor of Arts degree. From 1893 to 1898 he studied law at St. Hyacinthe, in the office of Taché & Desautels, notaries. He was admitted to practice on September 10, 1898. On November 1st of that year he established himself as a notary at Montreal and in the evening kept an office in the town of St. Louis. His entrance into the legal profession and his first years thereafter were arduous but his ability, energy and honesty led him to success. During the first ten years--as is so often the case in professional careers--his clientele grew slowly. He was notary of the corporation of the town of St. Louis and also of the school commission of the various parishes of the town of St. Louis and is counsel for various other important institutions. He enjoys today a numerous and representative clientage which recruits itself largely from the old town of St. Louis, which is now the ward Laurier of the metropolis. Mr. Desautels is interested in various enterprises, largely along real estate lines, among which is La Compagnie Nationale d’Immeubles, of which he has always been one of the directors. He has interested himself actively in mutual societies and has held official positions in nearly all those societies established in the town of St. Louis.

At Beloeil, on the 8th of June, 1903, Mr. Desautels was united in marriage to Miss Corine Bernard, a daughter of Elophe and Mathilde (Lafontaine) Bernard. To them have been born four children, Bernard, Robert, Thérèse and Bruno. Mr. Desautels gives his political allegiance to the liberal party and is treasurer of the Liberal Club of the town of St. Louis. He is an effective worker for his party, in which he enjoys great prestige. An excellent notary and public-spirited citizen, he is highly esteemed and respected by all who know him. As a notary he enjoys the highest reputation as to ability and integrity, and more and more important interests have come under his direction as the years have passed.

ZEPHIRIN HEBERT.

Zéphirin Hébert, president of the wholesale grocery firm of Hudon, Hébert & Company, Ltd., the leading concern of its kind in Canada, was born in Montreal, February 6, 1866, the son of Charles P. Hébert, who was the first president of the above mentioned firm. In 1883 Zéphirin Hébert became connected with the business of which he is now the head. In 1893 he was admitted as a partner. In 1906, on the incorporation of the company, he became assistant manager and a director. In 1908 he was elected to the office of vice president and in 1911 succeeded his brother, the late Albert Hébert, as president. For about twenty-five years he has been a member of the Montreal Board of Trade and since the 1st of February, 1913, he has served on the council of that body, and in December, 1913, was elected a member of the transportation bureau of that organization.

Mr. Hébert is president of the Dominion Wholesale Grocers Guild, chairman of the prize committee for the province of Quebec, president of the Montreal Wholesale Grocers Guild, president of the Montreal Wholesale Liquor Association, treasurer and governor of Notre Dame Hospital, governor of the Montreal General Hospital and governor of Laval University. He is also a member of the Canada Club, the Montreal Jockey Club and L’Association St. Jean Baptiste.

Mr. Hébert married Miss Blanche Robidoux and their four children are, Marielle, Gertrude, Charles P. and Jacques R.

REV. WILLIAM O’MEARA.

A man of scholarly attainments, great force of personality and broadness of mind, Rev. William O’Meara has made these qualities the basis of many years of successful work as rector of St. Gabriel’s church in Montreal and in the promotion of the work along many lines in which the Catholic church is interested. He was born in Sherrington, Quebec province, May 6, 1857, and is one of twelve children born to the late Captain William and Judith (McManus) O’Meara, the former a native of Waterford, Ireland, who came to Canada in 1832.

Rev. William O’Meara acquired his early education in the grammar schools of Sherrington, and later entered the College of Ste. Thérèse, where he took a classical course, graduating with the degree of B. A. in 1880. He then entered Grand Seminary in Montreal, where he pursued his theological studies for three years and a half, being ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood December 22, 1883. He was first made curate at St. Ann’s church in this city and was then transferred to St. Cecelia’s parish in Valleyfield, where he remained as assistant from 1884 to 1889. In the latter year he came to St. Gabriel’s church, Montreal, and in January, 1890, was made rector, a position which he still holds. This parish was organized in 1873 as a mission from St. Henry’s parish and was made an independent congregation two years later. The first church was a wooden structure, presided over by Rev. John J. Salmon, and here services were held until 1891, Rev. Thomas McCarthy succeeding the first parish priest. The new church was started in 1891 by Father O’Meara and was completed in 1894, at a cost of one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars. It is a beautiful structure, built of limestone, in the Roman and Byzantine styles of architecture, having a capacity of one thousand people and the dimensions being one hundred and sixty by seventy feet. There is a main altar of white wood, a chancel rail of oak and stations of the cross which are fine specimens of work in terra cotta. Father O’Meara built in 1895 a parish house costing eleven thousand five hundred dollars, and the entire church property is valued at one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The affairs of the congregation, which numbers eight hundred families, are administered in a capable and farsighted way, Father O’Meara having proven himself a reliable business man as well as an earnest and consecrated worker in the cause of religion. He is particularly interested in the schools of his parish and has now erected two excellent institutions of learning, which are conducted in connection with his church. These are a school for boys, built at a cost of thirty-seven thousand dollars, and an academy for girls, representing a value of fifty-five thousand dollars.

Father O’Meara was formerly a governor of the Catholic high school of Montreal and was on July 1, 1905, appointed a Catholic school commissioner. He was elected chairman of the commission in 1910 and since that time has been accounted one of the prominent educators of the city as well as one of the greatest individual forces in the promotion of Catholic education. He has given a great deal of time and attention to this work and in 1907 was sent as a delegate to the Dublin International Exposition in order to study the national school systems of Ireland, France, England and Belgium. He is interested in the work of St. Gabriel’s Total Abstinence and Benefit Society, of which he is president, and he has recently been appointed honorary canon of the archdiocese of Montreal. He has, indeed, accomplished a great deal of important and constructive work among the people of his parish, and he holds their love in large measure, while he enjoys the confidence and respect of people of all denominations. He has demonstrated that the business affairs of St. Gabriel’s parish are in the hands of a farsighted, capable and energetic man, while his religious zeal is evidenced in his constant and untiring labor in the promulgation of the doctrines in which he believes. He is widely and favorably known in Montreal and has earned mention by the Montreal Gazette as “a broad-minded, well informed, energetic and popular priest.”

LOUIS BEAUDOIN.

In commercial circles of Montreal, Louis Beaudoin is widely known as president of Beaudoin Limited, accountants and auditors. Louis Beaudoin of this review occupies the executive position in this firm, and Gérant L. M. Philéas Beaudoin is secretary-treasurer. They maintain offices at 33 Notre Dame Street West and have been eminently successful in their line, enjoying an extensive and important clientage. Louis Beaudoin was born August 29, 1869, in Repentigny, L’Assomption county, Quebec, and is a son of Pierre and Melina (Lachapelle dit Jeannotte) Beaudoin, the former a well known agriculturist of Repentigny. The paternal grandparents of our subject were Pierre and Adelaide (Rochon) Beaudoin, the former also a farmer of Repentigny. The great-grandfather, Jean Baptiste Beaudoin, also followed that occupation at the same place. The maternal grandfather, Pierre Lachapelle, was an agriculturist of Mascouche. The Beaudoin family is historically known in two variations, that of Baudoin and Bodin. The earliest record of a member of this family goes back to Alexis Beaudoin, born in 1694, who on November 27, 1720, married at Ste. Croix, Angeline Houde and had seven children. Of these his son Louis married Louise Barrat, at Montreal, on May 6, 1748, this being the first mention of the family in Montreal archives.

Louis Beaudoin acquired his education in the College de L’Assomption and began his career in the grocery business, also being connected with butchering and merchandising. He subsequently became president of Beaudoin Limited and has since given his entire attention to the extension of the interests of that firm. Recently a line of Assyrian products has been added. Natural ability and keen observation of existing conditions make him eminent in his profession, and he is today recognized as one of the foremost men in his line in Montreal.

On February 4, 1889, Mr. Beaudoin was united in marriage to Evelina Legault dit Deslaurier, a daughter of Jean Baptiste Legault dit Deslaurier. The father for many years has been connected with commercial interests. Mr. and Mrs. Beaudoin have the following children: Philéas, Coramance, Armand, Honoré, Adrien, Aurélien, Albert, Adolphe, Laurent, Amedée, Eveline and Clément Marcel. In his political views Mr. Beaudoin is a liberal, stanchly upholding the principles of his party. Although he has never cared to participate in public life he has done much toward promoting worthy public enterprises. He is a valued citizen of Montreal, prominent in commercial circles and effective in his private capacity in furthering the interests of the city, where he has been so long and so successfully engaged in business.

THOMAS J. DAWSON.

“Not the good that comes to us but the good that comes to the world through us is the measure of our success.” Judged by this standard, Thomas J. Dawson was a most successful man. His life measured up to the standard which all men acknowledge good. His record was as an open book which all might read and there were many who bore testimony to his kindness of heart and his generous spirit manifest in active effort for the alleviation of hard conditions of life for the unfortunate and for practical improvement along the line of civic and moral reform. Mr. Dawson was born at Knockmanoul, Ireland, April 29, 1843, and spent his early life in Dublin and Belfast. His parents, Rev. Abram and Anne (Graham) Dawson, were both natives of the Emerald isle. The father was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church and coming from Ireland to the new world engaged in preaching in Ontario near Kingston. Thomas J. Dawson came to Canada in 1864 and spent several years at Sydenham and Guelph, Ontario. In 1870 he arrived in Montreal, from which date until his death he was actively engaged in commercial pursuits. For fifteen years prior to his demise he was connected with the custom service and during the latter part of that period was the appraiser in the postoffice department.

Mr. Dawson was a splendid type of the Irish gentleman, possessing native wit and humor and scattering cheer wherever he went. His geniality and cordiality ever made him popular in social circles and his friends were almost as numerous as his acquaintances. His spirit of benevolence was one of his strongly developed characteristics and, again and again, found expression in tangible effort for the benefit of others. He was deeply interested in the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society, was a life governor of the Montreal Homeopathic Hospital, was for years secretary of the Old Brewery Mission and was an active member of the Westmount Methodist church, which numbered him among its earnest, helpful workers. Any movement tending to bring about civic or moral reform received his indorsement and cooperation. In 1866, upon its organization, he became a member of the Young Men’s Christian Association, retaining his membership until his death, and to the support of which he contributed liberally. He gave, too, of his time and efforts for its upbuilding and always took a most active interest in young men, realizing how necessary are uplifting influences in the plastic age. Life was to him purposeful and fraught with opportunity for good, which he did not neglect, and when he passed away October 21, 1910, he left behind him a memory that is a benediction to all who knew him.

In 1876 Mr. Dawson was married to Miss Louisa Holland, daughter of George A. Holland, who came from Ireland as a young man and was the active head of the G. A. Holland & Son Company, dealers in wall paper, established by him in 1843. He built up that business to large proportions and remained in close identification therewith until his demise. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Marian Hutchins, was a native of Canada. He was one of the volunteer firemen of Montreal at an early day and he passed away in this city in July, 1882. Mr. and Mrs. Dawson had three children: Ralph H. of Montreal; Arthur B. of Calgary; and Mabel L., the wife of R. Macaulay Cushing, and they have two children, Dorothy M. and Arthur M.

LOUIS ALFRED ADHEMAR RIVET.

“A man of ideas; a man with a future; a coming man,” is the way the Toronto Globe describes Louis Alfred Adhemar Rivet, of Montreal, and all who have come in contact with him during the course of his brilliant and successful career as a barrister and legislator fully concur in this opinion, adding also that he is one of the most able members of his profession in Quebec province, a distinguished statesman and one of the greatest of the younger generation of French Canadians. He was born in Joliette, Quebec, on the 15th of September, 1873, and is a son of Charles and Herminie (Michaud) Rivet, of French Canadian origin.

In the acquirement of an education Mr. Rivet attended Joliette College and Laval University, from which institution he was graduated B. A. in 1892 and LL. B. in 1895, in the same year being called to the bar as advocate. He was made king’s counsel in 1906 and for a number of years has been practicing successfully in Montreal, where he is ranked among brilliant and forceful barristers. For a time he was associated with the late C. Beausoleil, M. P., but the death of the latter severed this connection and subsequently he became associated with other firms, the present one being Rivet, Glass & Sullivan. He is recognized as a strong and able practitioner, a barrister whose knowledge of underlying legal principles is comprehensive and exact and whose application of points of law is always correct and logical. His keen and incisive mind grasps quickly all the details of the most intricate case, seizes upon the most telling points and arguments, and his presentations are models of conciseness and accuracy. Mr. Rivet has thus won distinction in his chosen profession and has secured a representative clientage in Montreal connecting him with a great deal of notable litigation. He has been interested and active in affairs affecting the Montreal bar, his ability being widely recognized in professional circles.

As is often the case, Mr. Rivet’s success in law has carried with it prominence in politics and his interest in the growth and welfare of the province has carried him forward into important political relations. At the bi-election of 1904 he was returned to the house of commons and, representing Hochelaga in that body, served with ability and distinction until 1911. During this time he accomplished a great deal of constructive and important work in statesmanship, leaving the impress of his personality and standards upon useful, and beneficial legislation, his vote and influence being always on the side of right, reform and progress. A stanch liberal, Mr. Rivet has always supported the principles and policies of that party and has been one of the greatest individual forces in its expansion in Montreal, where he founded the St. Gabriel Liberal Club, of which he served as president in 1898. He has been a director of the Montreal Reform Club. He calls himself an imperialist and is one in the sense that the greatness of the empire depends to a great extent on the fair development of the colonies. He is, however, a stanch advocate of Canadian customs and institutions and has done as much as any one man in the Dominion to promote their spread and growth. Although of French Canadian extraction he speaks English fluently and often addressed the house of commons in that language. In a lecture on the dual language of Canada delivered before the Nomads’ Club in 1909 he advocated Canada as a bi-lingual nation and he has done much to promote the fusion of the two great nations which dominate the country. He also addressed the Canadian Club in Ontario, advocating closer relations between the two races, in view of national unity.

Mr. Rivet married in January, 1898, Mlle. Rose Cypihot and both are widely and favorably known in social circles of Montreal. Their children are: Gaston, born June 23, 1901; Marguerite, January 10, 1904; and Gerard, January 24, 1906.