Part 45

JOSEPH EMILE VANIER.

In the ranks of civil engineers and architects of Montreal Joseph Emile Vanier has constantly forced his way to the front until he is today widely and favorably known as a specialist in municipal engineering and architecture. He was born at Terrebonne, P. Q., January 20, 1858, a son of the late Emilien and Lucie (Soucy) Vanier, the former at one time a produce merchant of Montreal. In his youth Joseph Emile Vanier became a pupil in the Jacques Cartier normal school and attended successively the Commercial Academy and the Polytechnic School of Montreal, a department of Laval University. He was graduated therefrom with honors with the class of 1877, and entered upon the practice of his profession in which he has since continued, making a specialty of municipal engineering and architecture. He has given special attention to public engineering projects in the cities and towns surrounding Montreal and has been retained as expert engineer by the Dominion and Quebec governments. He is secretary for the Architects Association of Quebec, and he designed the New Polytechnic School of Montreal in 1904. He was elected president of the Montreal Polytechnic School Association in 1910. He is a member of the Society of Civil Engineers, a member of the Société des Ingénieurs Civils de France and a member of the society of Architects of the Province of Quebec.

The Montreal Gazette says that Mr. Vanier has ever been “a credit to his province.” He believes in “Canada for the Canadians,” and this has been the policy upon which he has worked in behalf of public interests. His religious faith is that of the Roman Catholic church. He maintains his residence in Montreal in the winter seasons and has a summer home, Beauverger, at Ste. Rose, P. Q. In club and sporting circles he is also well known. He belongs to Club Canadien, Club Lafontaine, the Fish and Game Club, the Engineers Club and the Automobile and Aero Club of Montreal.

PIERRE LOUIS DUPUIS.

Among the recent additions to the Montreal bar is Pierre Louis Dupuis, who has already gained a reputation which many an older practitioner of law might well envy. He was born in the parish of La Longue Pointe on the 3d of September, 1887, a son of Louis Napoleon Dupuis, former merchant, one of the founders of Dupuis Freres, Limited, and for some time controller of the city of Montreal. The mother, who bore the maiden name of Melanie Levesque, was a daughter of the late Pierre Thomas Levesque, whose ancestors rendered valuable services to the province and Dominion in judicial and legislative capacities.

In the acquirement of his education, Pierre Louis Dupuis pursued a classical course at L’Assomption Collège, which he attended from 1900 until 1908, winning the Bachelor of Arts degree in that institution. He took up the study of law in Laval University, which he attended from 1908 until his graduation on the 26th of June, 1911, with the LL. L. degree. On the 4th of August, 1911, he was admitted to the bar.

His commercial course was pursued in Eastman’s Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York, during the meantime, and he was graduated with honors from the institution on the 30th of September, 1910.

Before locating permanently in Montreal, for the practice of his profession, Mr. Dupuis took an extended European trip, having previously traveled extensively in both Canada and the United States. He entered upon the active practice of his profession in January, 1912. Most liberal educational opportunities had been his and added to his knowledge is laudable ambition and unfaltering determination, qualities which are building up for him a large and gratifying practice. At the beginning of his professional career in January, 1912, he became junior partner of the law firm of Dussault, Mercier & Dupuis, recognized as one of the strong law firms of the city. In addition Mr. Dupuis is connected with many financial interests and his judgment in business as well as professional interests is sound and discriminating.

In politics Mr. Dupuis is a conservative, well informed on significant and vital problems. He belongs to the Catholic church, the Knights of Columbus, the Canadian Club and the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association--associations which indicate the nature of his interests and his recreation and the principles which govern his conduct.

On the 15th of January, 1913, Mr. Dupuis was married, at St. Benoit, in the county of Two Mountains, to Miss Carmel Girouard, a daughter of Joseph Girouard, a notary and ex-deputy of Two Mountains, who is a conservative leader of that district. The Girouards are of the earliest and most prominent French families of the province. Mr. Dupuis has one son, Rene, born October 9, 1913.

ALFRED HAWKSWORTH.

A spirit of business enterprise and laudable ambition advanced Alfred Hawksworth to an enviable position among the manufacturers of Montreal where the latter years of his life were passed. In the course of an active career he learned to discriminate readily between the essential and nonessential and utilizing the former and discarding the latter he met success in his undertakings. He was, at the time of his death at the head of the firm of Alfred Hawksworth & Sons, Limited.

He was born on the 9th of October, 1846, at Glossop, Derbyshire, England, a son of Samuel Hawksworth, who always remained a resident of England. In early manhood Alfred Hawksworth crossed the Atlantic to the United States and settled at Lonsdale, Rhode Island, where he was employed in connection with the cotton mills of that place. Subsequently he removed to Concord, Massachusetts, and was made overseer of Daymen & Smith’s cotton mill. His expanding powers and growing ability later lead to his appointment to the responsible position of manager of the largest cotton mill at Manville, Rhode Island, and during his residence there he invented a loom for the weaving of velvet and plush. At different times he was in charge of cotton mills at New Bedford and Newburyport, Massachusetts, and Pawtucket, Providence, and Pontiac, Rhode Island, being thus identified with some of the largest manufacturing interests of that class in New England, while in Pontiac he was for eight years superintendent of the cotton mills of B. B. & R. Knight, and by reason of his responsible position, was accounted one of the foremost business men of that place. He also became an important factor in the public life of the community, being greatly interested in everything that pertained to the general welfare. He sought earnestly and effectively to improve roads, schools and libraries and in fact to advance any measure relative to the public good.

On the 19th of March, 1895, Mr. Hawksworth arrived in Montreal, becoming manager of the Merchants cotton mills at St. Henri, now a part of the plant of the Dominion Textile Company, Limited.

About eight years prior to his death he resigned that position and established the mill supply house of Alfred Hawksworth & Sons, Limited, which was incorporated in 1905 and is still one of the important productive industries of Montreal. The business from its inception proved a profitable one and under the careful guidance of its founder, developed into one of the large enterprises of this character in Canada. Mr. Hawksworth, through long experience, was familiar with every phase of the manufacture of cotton goods and knew the needs relative thereto, his mill supply house being an outgrowth of his experience and knowledge.

While living in Lonsdale, Rhode Island, in June, 1871, Mr. Hawksworth was united in marriage to Miss Esther A. Moss, a daughter of Edward Moss of that place, and they became the parents of a daughter and five sons: Fred, of Montreal; Edward, who is connected with the Hawksworth & Sons Company, Limited; Harry, who is vice president of that company; Walter L., who is secretary-treasurer, and also assistant manager of the supply house; and Lester A. The daughter, Miss Alice M. Hawksworth, is at home with her mother.

Mr. Hawksworth joined the Masonic fraternity in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1870, and in June, 1903, was made a life member of the Mount Moriah Lodge, No. 8, F. & A. M., of Limerock, Rhode Island. He was also made an honorary member of Mount Moriah Club at Limerock and in Masonry he attained the Knights Templar degree. He was a communicant in St. Simon’s church in Montreal and his entire life was actuated by high and honorable purposes and manly principles. He was a great reader, possessing scholarly taste and his private library contained three thousand volumes with the contents of which he was largely familiar, spending many of his pleasant hours in close association with men of master minds within the four walls of his library.

Mr. Hawksworth could truly be called a self-made man--a title of which he had every reason to be proud. It indicated not only his substantial success in business, but also his intellectual growth and progress. Along the former line he possessed notable ability in coordinating force and unifying elements into a harmonious whole. More than his success, the breadth of his mind and character commanded respect and endeared him to those with whom he came in contact. In his leisure hours he was always to be found at his own fireside or in those circles where intelligent men were wont to meet in discussion of vital problems, and when he passed away on the 16th of February, 1913, a feeling of deep regret was manifested by all of his associates, for his genuine worth had given him firm hold upon the affections of those with whom he was brought in contact.

THOMAS BASSETT MACAULAY.

Thomas Bassett Macaulay, actuary and well known in insurance circles, not only in Montreal but throughout Canada and the United States, has aside from his business affairs led a life of intense and well directed activity, being identified with various organized movements which have to do with the promotion of moral progress or which seek to alleviate hard conditions of life for the unfortunate.

Mr. Macaulay is a native of the province of Ontario, having been born in Hamilton on the 6th of June, 1860, a son of Robertson and Barbara Maria (Reid) Macaulay. After pursuing his early education in Hamilton he continued his studies in Montreal and made his initial step in the business world in the service of the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada at Montreal in October, 1877. He bent every energy to the mastery of the duties intrusted to him and the recognition of his ability and faithfulness came to him in promotion. In 1880 he was appointed actuary and in 1891 was made secretary of the company. In 1898 he was elected a director and in 1906 became managing director of a corporation that is acknowledged to be one of the strongest and most reliable insurance companies of the world. By examination he became a fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Great Britain and is now supervisor at Montreal in connection with examinations of the institute. He is a charter member of the Actuarial Society of America and was honored with election to its presidency in 1899 and in 1901, while he is now a life member of its council. He has indeed a wide reputation in his profession and extended acquaintance. He is a member of the Royal Statistical Society of England, a corresponding member of the Institute des Actuaires Françaises de France and in 1895 was again a delegate to the International Commerce of Actuaries in Brussels, and again in 1898 in London and in 1900 in Paris. At the last mentioned he was elected vice president to represent both the United States and Canada. He was also elected vice president of the International Actuaries Association in 1906.

Important and responsible are the duties which have come to Mr. Macaulay with his developing powers, and he finds rest and recreation therefrom in his interests in farming and stock-raising. He has valuable farming property at Hudson Heights, Quebec. He also has other business connections, being a director of the Illinois Traction Company, of the National Trust Company and of the Dominion Glass Company. He is likewise actively interested in organizations having to do with the public welfare, being a governor of the Montreal General Hospital. He is likewise a governor of the Congregational College of Canada which is indicative of his church relationship. In 1911 he was elected president of the Congregational Union of Canada. The same year he was elected president of the Canadian and West Indian League. He is a careful student of all the vital problems and questions of the age and fearlessly he pronounces his opinions yet is never aggressive. He favors the imposition of a moderate import duty by the United Kingdom and colonies to be kept distinct from local duties and to be applied to imperial defence.

In 1881, Mr. Macaulay was married to Miss Henrietta M. L. Bragg, who died in 1910. She was the daughter of the late Oliver Bragg, M. D., and a step-daughter of the Rev. J. Lawson Forster, D. D., of London, England. In 1912 he married Miss Margaret Allen, a daughter of the late Rev. William Allen of London, England. Many have expressed the opinion that he should take a more active part in public life for his qualifications are such as would make him a powerful factor in the discussion of important questions. He is an agreeable speaker, clear, fluent and forceful, and he has the ability of instructing while entertaining. It would be difficult to mention the line along which his usefulness has been greatest for he has accomplished much in various connections, and his work has ever been an influencing factor on the side of reform, progress, improvement and right.

THE BAGG FAMILY.

The Bagg family is one of the oldest English families on the island of Montreal and one whose members have been foremost in social, financial, religious, political and military circles for the past century, or since the arrival of the first representative of the name, Stanley Bagg, Esq., who was born in County Durham, England, where this branch of the family possessed large landed estates. In Canada for the past three-quarters of a century such men as Lieutenant Colonel Stanley Clark Bagg, scholar, financier and philanthropist, and his son, the late Robert Stanley Bagg, a worthy son of an honored sire, have placed the name on a high plane.

Stanley Bagg, Esq., the first of this family to settle in Montreal, was born in England in 1786 and died at Fairmount, the family residence on Sherbrooke Street, October 31, 1853, aged sixty-seven years. He left to his son, Stanley Clark Bagg, large landed estates in Montreal and County Durham, England. Lieutenant Colonel Stanley Clark Bagg, son of Stanley and Mary Ann (Clark) Bagg, was born at the manor house in Montreal on December 23, 1820. He studied law and afterwards took up the notarial profession, which he practiced successfully for a number of years but abandoned it in order to give his attention to the management of estates which he inherited from his grandfather, as well as a freehold property in County Durham, England. He was at one time the largest landholder on the island of Montreal, gave many streets and squares to the city and made very substantial benefactions to the citizens. He was an honorary member of the Montreal Field Battery and Artillery and of the Light Infantry, and his name figured in connection with public office through appointment to the position of one of Her Majesty’s justices of the peace in 1859, after which he performed judicial duties for a time. In 1865 he was solicited to become mayor of Montreal but declined the proffered honor. In politics he was a conservative but without political ambition, refusing nomination for a seat in parliament. He was, however, a deep student of the questions of the times, wrote largely for the press and his writings were received warmly in both England and America. He was greatly interested in philanthropic projects and in efforts to promote intellectual progress. He became one of the founders and the first president of the English Workingmen’s Benefit Society, was one of the founders of the Antiquarian and Numismatic Society, which honored him with its presidency, and a life member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He also belonged to the Cathedral Young Men’s Christian Association, the Natural History Society and the Mechanics Institute. His activities had their root in principles inculcated by the Church of England and he was a devoted member of Christ Church Cathedral. He married Miss Catharine Mitcheson, a daughter of Robert and Frances (MacGregor) Mitcheson, natives of England and Scotland respectively, and died at his residence, “Fairmount,” in Montreal, August 8, 1873.

Robert Stanley Bagg, son of Lieutenant Colonel Stanley Clark and Catharine (Mitcheson) Bagg, and the head of the family in the third generation in this country, was born at the manor house in Montreal in July, 1848, and was educated in the Montreal high school and McGill University, from which he graduated, after which he proceeded to England to complete his studies. On his return to Canada he was called to the bar of Montreal but never practiced law extensively, although he formed a partnership with Donald Macmaster, now a member of parliament. At his father’s death, however, the management of the largest landed estate on the island devolved upon him, so that he abandoned the active practice of the legal profession.

Much of his time and energy was also given to public life and he was considered a powerful platform orator. In 1896 he was nominated for the St. Lawrence division seat in the house of commons, but resigned for political reasons. His father, Lieutenant Colonel Bagg, was a Tory and a personal friend of the late Sir John A. Macdonald, and it was natural that the son should espouse early in life the conservative cause. He was frequently heard on the platform in support of principles of the party, being known as a stanch conservative both in and out of power, while at one time he was president of the Liberal-Conservative Club, giving a great deal of his time to the work of organizing as well as to public discussion. He was well known among the French Canadian people and spoke their language almost as fluently as his mother tongue. Mr. Bagg was mentioned several times as the party candidate in the federal contests, but the house of commons had no attraction for him. He was known personally to all the party leaders from the time of Macdonald down to the present day. Like his father, he was a most generous supporter of charities and benevolent projects, and he was a governor and benefactor of the Montreal General Hospital and the Montreal Dispensary. He was likewise a member of almost every social and sporting club on the island of Montreal; was a splendid horseman and a good soldier, being at one time commanding officer in the Fifth Royal Scots, taking part in the quelling of the Quebec riots and doing much active military duty.