Part 8

Louis Joseph Arthur Surveyer, one of the best known business men of Montreal, his ability and enterprise finding exemplification in his substantial success, was born May 16, 1841, in the town of Beauharnois, in the province of Quebec. His father was Dr. Joseph Surveyer, a well known physician of Beauharnois and surrounding parishes, and his mother bore the maiden name of Eugenie Duclos Decelles.

L. J. A. Surveyer was educated at St. Laurent College and entered upon his business career as a clerk in a general store in St. Johns, P. Q. After eighteen months he came to Montreal and entered the retail hardware store of Messrs. Ferrier & Company on Notre Dame Street. After nine months’ service in the employ of that firm they sold their business and Mr. Surveyer entered the employ of Mr. Thomas Davidson in his retail store, continuing in that employ for seven years. He was ambitious to engage in business on his own account and so wisely used his time and talent that he was now able with a capital of six hundred dollars to open a store of his own. His venture proved successful from the beginning and has been developed and built up to its present extensive proportions so that Mr. Surveyer is now ranked with the leading business men of the city.

In 1868 Mr. Surveyer married Miss Amelie Pelletier, who died thirteen months later. In 1873 he married Miss M. A. Hectorine Fabre, a daughter of the late E. R. Fabre, and the youngest sister of the late Archbishop Fabre. Of this union there were born eight children, seven of whom are living, as follows: Edward Fabre, a lawyer in Montreal, of whom there is further mention in this work; Eugenie, now Mrs. N. K. Laflamme of Montreal; Arthur, of Surveyer & Frigon, consulting engineers; Paul, a lawyer in Montreal; Gustave, of Montreal; Marie; and Therese, now Mrs. Jules Faurnier of Montreal. Mr. Surveyer is a member of the Canadian Club and of the Alliance Nationale. There is found in his life history the strong proof of the fact that the road to opportunity is open to ambition and energy, and that it leads to the goal of success.

NORVAL DICKSON.

Norval Dickson, practicing as a notary in Montreal in partnership with R. B. Hutcheson, and controlling an important, representative and growing clientage, was born in Howick, Quebec, in 1878 and is a son of Robert Dickson who came to Canada from Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1830.

Norval Dickson acquired his preliminary education in Huntingdon Academy, Huntingdon, Quebec, and afterwards entered McGill University in Montreal, receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1901 and his degree in law in 1904. Immediately afterward he began practice in Montreal, continuing alone until May, 1910, when he formed a partnership with R. B. Hutcheson under the firm name of Hutcheson & Dickson. Mr. Dickson has proved an important and helpful factor in the success of the firm, for he possesses a deep and comprehensive knowledge of the underlying principles of his profession and has a well deserved reputation as a reliable and competent notary. The firm controls a growing and extensive patronage and has a high standing in legal circles of the city.

REV. ABRAHAM DE SOLA, LL. D.

Rev. Abraham de Sola, LL. D., who for many years was so familiar a figure in literary circles in Montreal and who earned so wide and deserved a reputation as an Oriental scholar and theologian, was a descendent of an illustrious Spanish-Jewish family. The marvelous history of Israel must ever be of peculiar interest to mankind, and perhaps no chapter in the post-biblical portion of that history possesses more charm than that which relates about the Jews of Spain and Portugal, or Sephardim, as they are styled. These lived free and untrammeled during those mediæval times when their brethren in less favored countries were weighed down by the burden of oppression, and with the Saracens they kept alive the flame of learning and science in the Iberian peninsula at a time when it burnt lowest in the rest of Europe. Power, rank and honor were theirs; and when afterwards clouds obscured the sky of their prosperity, and the storm of persecution burst pitilessly over their heads, their record of heroic martyrdom and thrilling adventure is a tale as fascinating as that of many of the most imaginative pages of fiction.

Among the many bright names which illumined Spanish-Jewish history, that of De Sola stands prominent. The De Solas had settled in Andalusia as early as the sixth century, whence they had come from Judea by gradual stages through northern Africa. They held various offices under the Saracenic caliphs at Toledo and Cordova, and afterwards when they removed to Navarre they were received with like favor by the Gothic princes. From their estate in this province, their surname had its origin. A particularly distinguished member of the family was Don Bartolomeu de Sola, who, in reward for his services, was ennobled and, after being a minister of state, held for a while the position of viceroy of Navarre.

During the fourteenth century another De Sola distinguished himself fighting under the Infante of Aragon and figured conspicuously in the Spanish wars of that period. During the succeeding centuries the family continued to hold an illustrious place, owing to the large number of eminent scholars, physicians and statesmen it produced. Their fortunes, however, changed when King Ferdinand, having by the conquest of Granada destroyed the last vestige of Moorish power in Spain, decided to drive therefrom all who did not conform to the dominant faith; and in 1492 was promulgated the terrible edict of expulsion, which, at one blow, deprived hundreds of thousands of Spain’s most intelligent and industrious inhabitants of happy and prosperous homes. The De Solas took refuge in Holland, but a branch of the family continued to hold business connections with Lisbon, and eventually some of them settled in the Portuguese capital, where they amassed much wealth. Watched by the Inquisition, they, like many other Portuguese Jews, for some time evaded the danger by assuming to become Marannos or Nuevos Christianos--as converted Jews were styled--while they secretly remained loyal to Judaism. In the latter part of the seventeenth century, however, suspicion was directed towards them, and David de Sola (who to elude his persecutors had assumed the name of Bartolome) was apprehended and charged with having relapsed into Judaism. Although placed under the most fearful torture nothing seems to have been proved, as he was allowed to afterwards go free; but he was physically broken down by his terrible sufferings. Escape from the country by a suspect was then extremely difficult, but in the next generation his son, Aaron de Sola, managed to secure refuge on board a British man-of-war and to make good his escape with his family to England; not, however, before two of his relatives had been imprisoned, tortured and condemned to death at an auto-da-fé, by the Inquisition, for secret adherence to Judaism.

It was in 1749 that Aaron de Sola fled with his wife and family to England, and now that they were freed from the terrors of the Inquisition they openly avowed once more their loyalty to the faith of their fathers. From England they took passage for Holland, where they rejoined their relatives, and taking up their residence in Amsterdam they soon again rose to distinction in the various learned professions.

Previously to this--in the year 1690--one of the preceding generation, Isaac de Sola, had settled in London and had acquired a high reputation in the Hebrew community there as an eloquent preacher and author. Several volumes of his works are still extant.

Four sons had accompanied Aaron de Sola in his flight from Lisbon in 1749, of whom the eldest, David, was the great-grandfather of the Dr. Abraham de Sola who forms the chief subject of this sketch. The youngest of Aaron de Sola’s, sons, Dr. Benjamin de Sola, attained to a foremost place among the practitioners of the eighteenth century. He was court physician to William V of the Netherlands and was the author of a large number of medical works. The other two sons of Aaron de Sola settled in Curacao, and one of them was the grandfather of General Juan de Sola, who became so distinguished as a commander of cavalry under Bolivar and Paez when the South American states revolted from Spain. He took part in the decisive battle of Carabobo, and led the charge on Puerto Cabello when that city was stormed by Paez, receiving a sabre wound during the fight. After the restoration of peace he held important public offices during the Paez regime.

The Rev. Abraham de Sola, LL. D., was born in London, England, on the 18th of September, 1825. His father, David Aaron de Sola, was senior minister of the Portuguese Jews of London, to which city he had been called from Amsterdam, and was eminent as a Hebrew author, having produced among many other works an elegant translation of the Jewish Forms of Prayer; also, in conjunction with Dr. Raphael, an edition of Genesis, very valuable to biblical students on account of its commentaries and copious notes, and the first English translation of Eighteen Treatises of the Mishna. His mother was the daughter of Dr. Raphael Meldola, chief rabbi of the Spanish-Jewish congregations of Britain. The Meldolas had given eminent chief rabbis to Europe for twelve generations. Abraham de Sola received careful tuition in all the usual branches of a liberal education. He became early engrossed in the study of Oriental languages and literature and of theology, and continued to devote his attention to those subjects until he acquired that profound knowledge of them which subsequently won him so prominent a place among scholars. Having been offered the position of rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Congregation of Montreal he accepted the call and arrived in this city in the beginning of 1847, and here, for over thirty-five years, he continued to minister to the spiritual wants of his people. His able pulpit discourses soon attracted attention. Dr. de Sola’s abilities, however, were not destined to be confined exclusively to his official duties. Before leaving London he had been associated in the editorial work of a Hebrew journal, The Voice of Jacob, and soon after his arrival in Canada he delivered a course of lectures on Jewish history before the Mercantile Literary Association. In 1848 he published his “Notes on the Jews of Persia under Mohammed Shah,” and also “A History of the Jews of Persia.” Within the same year there appeared his important work on “Scripture Zoology.” Soon afterwards he published his “Lectures on the Mosaic Cosmogony.” This was followed by his “Cosmography of Peritsol,” a work displaying such erudition that it gained a wide circulation in Europe and was reprinted there in several languages. His next work, “A Commentary upon Samuel Hannagid’s Introduction to the Talmud,” was a book which deservedly attracted much attention, owing to the light which it threw upon an interesting portion of rabbinical literature and to its depth of Talmudic knowledge. In 1853 he published, conjointly with the Rev. J. J. Lyons, of New York, a work on the Jewish Calendar System, chiefly valuable on account of its excellent prefatory treatise upon the Jewish system of calculating time.

Dr. de Sola’s mastery of Semitic languages and literature early attracted the notice of our learned bodies, and, after first acting as lecturer, he was, in 1853, appointed professor of Hebrew and Oriental literature at McGill University. The high abilities which he displayed as occupant of this chair proved the wisdom of the appointment, and he continued to hold the position during the rest of his life.

For some time Dr. de Sola had been engaged in the preparation of one of his most important productions, “The Sanatory Institutions of the Hebrews.” The work was published in two parts and was an exhaustive exposition of the hygienic laws of the Hebrews, as exhibited in both Scriptural and rabbinical writings, critically examined in the light of modern scientific knowledge. It was a production which evinced how deeply the author had penetrated into scientific as well as rabbinical paths of learning. Shortly afterwards he published a supplemental work to it, entitled “Behemoth Hatemeoth.”

The prominence to which Dr. de Sola had now reached among men of letters led McGill University to confer upon him the degree of LL. D. in 1858.

In 1860, Dr. Hall, the editor of The British American Journal, devoted to physical and medical science, induced Dr. de Sola to assist that publication with his pen, and, among other contributions, his series of articles “Upon the Employment of Anaesthetics in Cases of Labor, in Connection with Jewish Law,” call for particular mention.

Dr. de Sola’s wide range of studies had made him very popular both as a public lecturer and as a contributor to various literary papers. The themes of some of these were afterwards much amplified by him and republished in their elaborated and completed form. At comparatively short intervals he gave to the public his works on “Scripture Botany,” “Sinaitic Inscriptions,” “Hebrew Numismatics,” “The Ancient Hebrews as Promoters of the Arts and Sciences,” “The Rise and Progress of the Great Hebrew Colleges,” and “Philological Studies in Hebrew and the Aramaic Languages.” Turning his attention again to Jewish history, he, in 1869, wrote his interesting “Life of Shabethai Tsevi, the False Messiah.” The following year he completed his “History of the Jews of Poland,” and in 1871 he published his “History of the Jews of France.”

Dr. de Sola closely identified himself with many of our literary and scientific associations, notably with the Natural History Society, in which he was an active colaborer of Sir William Dawson and Sir William Logan. He was for many years president of the society and received H. R. H. Prince Arthur (afterwards Duke of Connaught) when that prince visited the society in 1870. His address upon “The Study of Natural Science,” delivered upon that occasion, called forth a letter of approbation from Queen Victoria.

During all his intense literary activity Dr. de Sola was taking a very prominent part in all matters affecting the Jewish people. His mastery of Jewish theology, in all its branches, had earned him wide renown among his own race and had gained him a high place among the very foremost rabbis of the day. Convinced that the fences which orthodoxy placed around the citadel of his ancestral faith were the best safeguards against disintegrating forces, the upholders of historical Judaism found in him an able and powerful champion. Equally noticeable were his bold attacks upon the weak points of the skeptical school of modern biblical criticism. His intimate knowledge of all those branches of learning which bear upon this subject made him particularly formidable in this respect. The Jewish press and pulpit and the lecture platform were the vehicles by which he usually reached the public on these subjects. He had, indeed, since his first arrival in Canada been a particularly active contributor to Jewish journals, more especially to the Occident of Philadelphia, with which he was for years identified, being in intimate literary relations with its editor, the gifted Isaac Leeser.

Dr. de Sola’s ability in the pulpit led to his frequently being invited to lecture in the United States, where he had acquired much prominence and popularity. On the 9th of January, 1872, he was invited by General Grant’s government to perform the ceremony of opening the United States congress with prayer, and for the first time was witnessed the unique spectacle of one who was not a citizen of the United States nor of the dominant belief officiating at the opening ceremonies at the assembling of congress at Washington. The broad liberality of this act, upon the part of the United States government, was fraught with particular significance at that time, owing to the fact that diplomatic relations between Britain and the United States had then but lately been strained to dangerous tension by the “Alabama Claims,” and this high compliment to a British subject was the first evidence of the growth of a better feeling between the two countries. Sir Edward Thornton, the British ambassador at Washington, formally extended to Dr. de Sola the thanks of the British government, and Mr. Gladstone--then prime minister, also personally communicated his satisfaction.

Upon the death of Isaac Leeser, Dr. de Sola purchased the stereotyped plates of his works and issued a new edition of that author’s translation of the Bible according to Jewish authorities. He also brought out a revised translation of the Jewish Forms of Prayer, in six volumes, based upon the editions of D. A. de Sola (his father) and of Leeser. He was invited to become the successor of Mr. Leeser in his ministerial office but declined. He had previously refused several similar offers.

Dr. de Sola’s onerous duties were at this time further increased by his being offered the chair of Hebrew at the Montreal Presbyterian College, and later on he accepted the appointment of lecturer in Spanish literature at McGill University, a literature and language with which he was specially familiar and to which he was particularly attached.

But such incessant application to work could not but prove exhaustive, and his naturally vigorous health broke down under the strain. A year’s rest, spent in Europe, proved sufficiently beneficial to enable him to return to some of his duties. For a while he also resumed his contributions to the Jewish press, and among other interesting writings we notice his “Yehuda Alcharizi and the Book Tachkemoni.” In 1880 he published his last important work, “Saadia Ha-Gaon,” a book giving a very valuable description of the writings and life of one of the greatest of Jewish philosophers and also containing an interesting account of the court of a prince of the captivity.

But failing health was destined now to check forever the labors of his active pen, and while in New York, on a visit to his sister, he was taken ill and his death occurred on June 5, 1882. The remains were brought on to Montreal and there interred. He had not yet completed his fifty-seventh year when he passed away.

In his death the Hebrew community sustained a loss whose magnitude could scarcely be overestimated. His self-sacrificing devotion to the service of his race, his ceaseless labor in everything which could elevate and promote both their moral and intellectual welfare, his quick readiness to assuage, with kind counsel and help, the lot of those in adversity, and the rare talents which he had displayed in his multifarious writings, had won for him the warmest admiration and attachment of his people and had gained him a reputation among them that was world-wide. His loss, indeed, was scarcely less regretted by Gentile than by Jew, for the prominence which his scholarly attainments had acquired for him among Canadian litterateurs, the active role which he had for thirty-five years played in our various learned bodies, and the distinguished position which he held in our leading university, achieved for him an illustrious place among Canada’s public men.

Dr. de Sola was married in 1852 to Esther Joseph, the youngest daughter of Henry Joseph, of Berthier, one of the earliest Jewish settlers in this country. Of his several children, the eldest son, the Rev. Meldola de Sola, succeeded him as rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal, and another son, Clarence I. de Sola, is general manager of the Belgian syndicate, “Comptoir Belgo-Canadien.”