Part 29

=Diver, Frederick= (Toronto, Ont.), was born in London, Eng., and came to this country with his parents when a youth. Mr. Diver learned the business of electrotyping and stereotyping, engraving, designing and “The Art Preservative of All Arts,” namely, printing. Some years ago, Mr. Diver established the Central Press Agency, Limited, of which he is the President. The head offices of the Company are situated at 110-16 York St., Toronto, and the Company has large business connections throughout the Dominion of Canada. Mr. Diver owes his success to his untiring industry, complete knowledge of the details of the various branches of the work of his Company, and to his practical business ability. His wife died a few years ago leaving her surviving children: Lt. F. G. Diver, who was since killed in action at the Battle of the Somme on Oct. 21, 1917; Ethel May, now wife of Halsey Wells of Detroit, U.S.A., and Victor Diver, Vice-President of the Central Press Agency, Ltd. Mr. Diver is a member of the National, Rosedale and Mississauga Clubs; of the Masonic Order, and also of the Church of England.

* * * * *

=Bellemare, Adelard= (St. Paulin, Que.), was born March 2, 1871, at St. Paulin, County of Maskinonge, P.Q., son of François Bellemare and Delima Julien, both French-Canadians. His grandfather was a teacher in 1845. Was educated at Three Rivers Seminary. Was formerly professor for three years at the College de Joliette and St. Laurent. Married, Feb. 2, 1898, to Parmelia, daughter of Edmond Bourgeois of Joliet, and is the father of six children: Hector, Lucien, Maria, Albert, Jeanne and Cecile. Was lecturer for the C. N. d’Economie. Elected to the House of Commons at the general elections in 1911, as an Independent Conservative, to represent the constituency of Maskinonge. In religion Mr. Bellemare is a Roman Catholic.

* * * * *

=Birkett, Thomas=, was born in Bytown (now Ottawa), February 1, 1844. He is the son of Miles and Elizabeth (Wren) Birkett, who came to Canada from Cumberland, England, in 1838, and who saw that he received a good education at the Public and Grammar Schools, and that he was thoroughly prepared for commercial business life. That their efforts were not in vain was shown at an early date, in the rapid and successful progress that greeted his efforts and ventures. But, and in addition, they had the good fortune to see their son make his mark in School, Municipal, Provincial and Dominion and other public affairs and to be elected to many public offices of trust where he distinguished himself in various ways and established an enviable record for progressive, reliable and lasting service. In every public office, to which he was elected he devoted the attention and care that was made so evident and pronounced in his private business with the result that he not only made good, but cemented and enlarged the confidence and esteem of those who had selected him as their representative. Whether as director or trustee of a public institution, as member of the city council, mayor of the city, or as member of Parliament, his conduct was the same and the result the same, viz., conscientious devotion to duty attended by successful results. Many a time it has been proclaimed, even by those who were politically opposed to him, that having rendered to the State the continuous and valuable public services that he did, and in a manner so effective, that he would long ago have been called to the Canadian Senate, and great has been the surprise that he has not been. But being still robust in health, mentally and physically, and his activities being as marked as they were in former years, it may not be out of place to say that a seat in the Senate will be honored by his presence at an early date. Having served as an apprentice in the hardware trade to Mr. Isaac, in 1866, Mr. Birkett opened a retail hardware store on Rideau Street, prospered, and soon had to remove to larger premises. For thirty years he kept in the retail business, which year by year assumed larger proportions and supplied goods to the many prosperous and wealthy manufacturing towns and villages and thriving agricultural districts in the Ottawa Valley. Finding the demand for his goods still on the increase in 1896 he converted his private firm into a joint stock company, of which he became president, his son Thomas M. Birkett, vice-president, and other members of the family shareholders, and launched into the wholesale business under the title of Thomas Birkett & Son Company, Limited, of Ottawa. To-day this wholesale firm is one of the most extensive, if not actually the largest hardware house in Eastern Ontario and is known from one end of Canada to the other. The building forms one of the best business blocks in Ottawa and is most advantageously situated, the warehouse doors opening direct on the wharves of the Rideau Canal basin. Mr. Birkett served as School Trustee from 1869 to 1873; as Alderman, from 1873 to 1878; as Mayor, during 1891 and 1892. Since 1900 he has been Trustee, Ottawa Collegiate Institute. In 1893 he declined nomination to the House of Commons, but in 1900 he was elected by a large majority. He ran in 1904 and 1908 and was defeated. Mr. Birkett is President, Thos. Birkett, Son & Co., Ltd., Wholesale Hardware Merchants, Canal St., Ottawa; Director, Pritchard-Andrews Engraving Co.; Life Director, Carleton County Protestant Hospital; Life Director, Protestant Hospital for the aged. He was instrumental in erecting the Lady Stanley Institute for Trained Nurses; is Honorary Director, Central Canada Exposition Association. In 1871 he married Mary Gallagher, daughter of Thomas Gallagher. She died in March, 1902. In August, 1904, he married Henrietta Gallagher, his deceased wife’s half-sister. He is a member of the following clubs: Ottawa Hunt, Rivermead Golf (director), and of the A.F. & A.M. (32nd degree), the Oddfellows, and St. George’s Societies. His recreation is golf. Politics, Conservative. Religion, Methodist, and he resides at 306 Metcalfe Street, Ottawa, Ontario.

* * * * *

=Anderson, Alexander James= (Toronto, Ont.), was born in Adelaide Township, Middlesex County, July 1, 1863, and was educated at Strathroy High School and Osgoode Hall. Toronto is as famous for its Bar as it is in its commercial and manufacturing industry, and in alluding to its leading members, prominent mention must be made of the subject of this sketch. Mr. Anderson started his professional career with J. S. Fullerton & Co., which partnership continued from 1891 to 1897; from 1894 to 1906 he practised alone; from 1907 to 1909 was a member of the firm of Anderson & Gray, and entered his present partnership as senior member of the firm (Anderson & McMaster) in 1910. Having municipal aspirations, Mr. Anderson was elected to the Council of Toronto Junction from 1899 to 1902; was corporation solicitor for West Toronto until the amalgamation with the city in 1909, when he was elected alderman to represent Ward Seven in the City Council. He was for four years a member of the West Toronto School Board, and was elected Chairman of that body in 1899. During the elections in 1904 he was unanimously selected by the Liberals of South York as the party standard bearer, and though defeated he made a very creditable showing at the close of the polls. Mr. Anderson has many warm friends and supporters in the western portion of the city, and he will show unexpected strength should he again become a candidate. He is a Mason and takes an active interest in the welfare of the Order.

* * * * *

=Barnard, Hon. George Henry, K.C.=, Member of the Senate of Canada (Victoria, B.C.), is a son of Francis Jones Barnard, a Canadian who went to British Columbia from Ontario, when gold was first discovered in the Fraser River, in 1859, and shortly afterwards became the founder of the stage and express line from Yale, head of navigation on the Fraser, to Barkerville, 400 miles to the north. On the famous Yale-Cariboo Road the elder Barnard long operated a line of stages and carried the mail to the mountain settlements of the district. The maiden name of the mother of the subject of this sketch was Ellen Hillman, and he was born at Victoria, B.C., Oct. 9, 1868. Sir Frank S. Barnard, K.C.M.G., Lieut.-Governor of British Columbia, is a brother. He was educated at Trinity College School, Port Hope, and qualified for the law, entering practice at Victoria. He was appointed King’s Counsel on Dec. 24, 1907. Senator Barnard took an active interest in municipal affairs and served as Alderman, 1902-3. In 1904 he was elected Mayor of Victoria and continued in office for two years. He was first elected to the House of Commons for that city at the general elections of 1908, as a Conservative and was re-elected in 1911. On Oct. 23, 1917, he was elevated to the Senate of Canada by the newly-formed Union Government of Sir Robert Borden. Senator Barnard is a prominent social figure both at Victoria and Ottawa, and is a member of the Union Club, Victoria, the Vancouver Club, the Rideau Club, Ottawa and the Constitutional Club, London, Eng. He was married on June 5, 1895, to Ethel Burnham, daughter of Lieut.-Col. H. C. Rogers, Postmaster of Peterboro, Ont., is an Anglican in religion and a Unionist in politics.

* * * * *

=Ashby, Joseph Seraphin Aime, M.L.A.= (Lachine, Que.), son of George Ashby and Eprosime Messier, both French Canadians; was born at Ste. Marie de Monnoir, Province of Quebec, April 30, 1876. Educated at the college of Ste. Marie de Monnoir. Married Hectorine Ste. Marie, daughter of Pierre Zotique Ste. Marie, of Longueuil, Que., and is the father of two children, Lucette, born November 7, 1908, and Georgette, born August 7, 1910. Mr. Ashby is a Roman Catholic in religion, and is a member of the Montreal Reform Club, the Order of Catholic Foresters, the Alliance Nationale, Union St. Joseph de Lachine, and The Knights of Columbus. Was elected to the Quebec Legislature as the Liberal representative for the constituency of Jacques Cartier on May 16, 1916. Mr. Ashby is a Notary Public by profession.

* * * * *

=Gariepy, Wilfrid, B.A., B.C.L., K.C., M.L.A.= (Edmonton, Alberta), was born at Montreal, P.Q., on March 14, 1877. He is the son of Joseph H. Gariepy, for many years a pioneer and leading merchant in the city of Edmonton, an alderman and school trustee, and, by the way, a native of St. Lin, P.Q., where was also born Sir Wilfrid Laurier. In days gone by the Gariepys and the Lauriers intermingled considerably and Sir Wilfrid when a boy attended the parish common school along with the grandfather of the hero of this sketch. It was only natural that our subject should at his birth be christened after the renowned Liberal Leader, who in 1877 was already in the political limelight. Four generations of Gariepys were born and lived on the same homestead at St. Lin, three miles from the parochial church. The mother of Mr. Wilfrid Gariepy, Etudienne Boissonneault, who is yet living and residing in Edmonton, as well as her husband, is a daughter of Noel Boissonneault, one of the founders of the Town of Morinville, Alberta, as he came from the Province of Quebec with the first contingent of colonists brought west in 1891 by the late Father J. B. Morin, one of the most enthusiastic colonization agents of his day. Noel Boissonneault was at one time a leading Liberal politician in the Eastern Townships and for some years was the moving spirit of the St. Onge Gold Mining Company, which did business on the Gilbert River in Beauce County, P.Q. A maternal ancestor of our subject was among the French-Canadian soldiers who fought for the British Crown in 1812. On the other hand it is worth noting that another figured in the uprising of 1837-1838, in favor of constitutional government, on the shores of the St. Lawrence. Mr. Wilfrid Gariepy was educated at the Sisters of Providence Academy, “Le jardin de l’enfance,” on St. Denis Street, in Montreal, beginning in September, 1881; at Notre Dame College, Côte des Neiges, Montreal, where he spent two years; at St. Laurent’s College with the Fathers of the Holy Cross, remaining there until January, 1891, when ill-health compelled him to abandon his classical studies. He was then in the middle of versification. Deciding to turn his activities into other channels, he attended the Montreal Business College for some months and afterwards became a clerk in his father’s store: first, in general groceries on St. Paul Street, Montreal, and later in Edmonton, on Jasper Avenue, to which town the family moved in March, 1893. In Montreal, although very young, Mr. W. Gariepy indicated his political tastes by being one of the active members of the “Club Letellier,” one of the oldest Liberal organizations, and also by taking a hand in a mayoralty campaign in favor of the Hon. James McShane, the famous “people’s Jimmy,” and by working for the Hon. Honoré Mercier and his candidates after the famous “renvoi d’office.” In 1893 Edmonton had just become a town, with a population of less than 1,000, no modern conveniences, with the exception of a rudimentary telephone and electric light system. Needless to say, streets were unpaved and there were not even any sidewalks. Still the town had a Mock Parliament, and we find our subject a member of it, with a portfolio in its government. Mr. W. Gariepy was elected one of the secretaries of the Liberal Club and also became, in 1894, at its foundation, secretary to the Société de St. Jean Baptiste of Edmonton. In 1895, with the Hon. Frank Oliver, who had just been selected as Liberal candidate of Alberta, Mr. W. Gariepy made a tour north of Edmonton, during which he addressed several meetings. It was in September, 1895, that Mr. Gariepy found his health and other circumstances such that he was able to return to the St. Laurent College to complete his classical course. He stayed in that institution until June, 1897, during which period he for one year filled the presidency of the Literary Academy of the college. In the rhetoric bacheloriate on papers submitted by Laval University, Mr. Gariepy succeeded with great honors. He next went to the Seminary of Philosophy with the Sulpician Fathers, to follow a two years’ course in philosophy, which gave him the degree of Bachelor of Arts of Laval University. He chose the profession of law and became articled in Montreal to Mr. Matthew Hutchinson, now a judge of the Superior Court, in Sherbrooke. P.Q., with whom he remained for three years, in the meantime following the law lectures at McGill University, from which institution he received, in April, 1902, the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law. In 1901 Mr. Gariepy had the honor of being selected by the McGill Faculty of Law to represent it at the Laval Law Students’ Banquet, at the city of Quebec.

In the federal and provincial campaigns in 1900, Mr. W. Gariepy for several months addressed meetings, spending the bulk of his time in the constituency of Terrebonne, at the request of the late Honorables Raymond Prefontaine and Jean Prévost. At that period, at the formation of a Liberal Students’ Association in Montreal, he was elected its Secretary, while the Vice-President thereof was Walter Mitchell, the present Provincial Treasurer of Quebec. Having been admitted to the Bar of the Province of Quebec in January, 1903, Mr. Gariepy immediately secured his enrolment in the Bar of the North-West Territories and opened an office in Edmonton on the same spot where years before he had been carrying on work as a clerk in his father’s store. In the following May a by-election having been called to elect a member for the constituency of St. Albert, in the North-West Territories Legislature, at a convention, Mr. Gariepy accepted the nomination but for personal reasons subsequently withdrew from the contest. For three years Mr. Gariepy was a member of the law firm of Taylor, Boyle and Gariepy, the senior member being Judge H. C. Taylor, of Edmonton District, and the other member, the Hon. J. R. Boyle, now Minister of Education in the Alberta Government. From 1907 to 1911, Mr. Gariepy was a member of the law firm of Gariepy & Landry, his partner being Mr. Hector Landry, son of the late Sir Pierre Landry, of New Brunswick. Mr. Gariepy is now the senior member of the firm of Gariepy, Dunlop & Pratt. This firm is among the leading firms of the City of Edmonton, and while his present political activities prevent our subject from devoting much time to law, he has always paid great attention to his law practice. He has had the distinction of figuring as leading counsel in two murder cases—one, the Gladu Brothers, who were acquitted, and the other the Barrett case, that life convict who was condemned to capital punishment after having been convicted of wilfully killing with an axe, Deputy-Governor Stedman, of the Edmonton Penitentiary. For six years Mr. Gariepy was a member of the Separate School Board of Edmonton, being chairman of the commission for two years. It was under his chairmanship that the Separate School on Third Street was erected. In December, 1906, he was elected an alderman of the city of Edmonton, and although running for the first time in the city at large, as there are no wards, he came second on the list, the first one beating him only by one vote. Two years later Mr. W. Gariepy was re-elected, this time at the head of the list, having some 300 more votes than the next man. While an alderman he held the chairmanship of several important committees and was delegated on two occasions: first, to Chicago with ex-Mayor J. A. McDougall, to inspect the automatic telephone system, which was eventually to be installed in Edmonton; and, second, to Ottawa with ex-Mayor Lee, to interview the Dominion Government respecting the Dominion’s contribution towards the construction of the C.P.R. high-level bridge between Strathcona and Edmonton. It was during Mr. Gariepy’s term of office that the Edmonton automatic telephone system was installed; that the street railway system was completed and put in operation; and that the C.P.R high-level bridge was completed and opened for traffic; and that negotiations for the amalgamation of Edmonton and Strathcona were begun. In 1910 Mr. Gariepy was chairman of the civic committee that organized such a splendid reception as was tendered to Sir Wilfrid Laurier, then Prime Minister, on the occasion of his visit to the Capital of Alberta, and it was at that time that Mr. Gariepy secured the adoption of a resolution by the city council giving to a park the name of “Laurier Park.” Mr. Gariepy took a leading part in the federal campaigns of 1904, 1908 and 1911. In 1909 he was the unsuccessful Liberal candidate in the provincial constituency of St. Albert, his successful opponent being also a Liberal, as there was no Conservative candidate running. In 1911 he was elected Grand Knight of the Edmonton Council of the Knights of Columbus; in 1907 he was elected president of the Edmonton Société de St. Jean Baptiste; in 1912 he was elected vice-president of the French-Canadian Alberta Convention, held in Edmonton, and by that convention was elected as the only delegate to represent it at the French-Canadian Congress held that year in the city of Quebec; in 1913 he was elected president of the Society du Parler-Français of Alberta, and as such presided over the French-Canadian congress of Alberta, held at Edmonton in 1914. On September 9, 1903, Mr. Wilfrid Gariepy married Albertina Lessard, daughter of Jean P. Lessard and Annie Davidson, of Cranbourne, P.Q., a sister of the Hon. P. E. Lessard, M.L.A., for St. Paul, and a former business partner of Mr. J. H. Gariepy. We may note that Mr. P. E. Lessard had previously married Miss Hélène Gariepy, the eldest sister of our subject. From the marriage of Mr. W. Gariepy with Miss Lessard have been born four children: Hormidas, Marcelle, Wilfrid and George. Mr. Gariepy is a member of the Y.M.C.A. and a lieutenant in the 101st Edmonton Fusiliers. In 1912 he was elected as president of the Edmonton Liberal Association; on March 17, 1913, he was elected a member of the legislature for Beaver River. At the first session of that parliament, in the following September, he was chosen to make the speech in moving the adoption of the Speech from the Throne. On November 28, 1913, he was sworn in as Minister of Municipal Affairs, becoming a member of the administration headed by the Hon. Arthur L. Sifton. On December 15, 1913, Mr. Gariepy was re-elected for Beaver River, by acclamation. On December 22, 1913, at the Cecil Hotel, as a compliment on his becoming a member of the government, his French-Canadian compatriots, numbering some four hundred, tendered him a banquet. In September, 1915, Mr. Gariepy represented, with the Hon. Mr. Sifton, the Province of Alberta at a national tax conference held in San Francisco, California. In March, 1913, Mr. Gariepy was made a King’s Counsel for the Province of Alberta. In August, 1915, the same honor was conferred on him by the Province of Quebec. At the date of writing this biography, Mr. Gariepy has been for over five years a member of the Alberta Government and his friends predict that he has yet a long public career to fulfil. As Minister of Municipal Affairs for Alberta Mr. Gariepy has been responsible for the introduction of legislation which has been a landmark in the western provinces, namely: The Wild Lands Tax Act and the Municipal Hospitals Act.

[Illustration: SENATOR W. C. EDWARDS Ottawa]

=Byrne, Daniel J.=, Vice-President and General Manager, Leonard Fisheries, Montreal, Que., producers, curers and packers of sea and lake foods. Entered the employ of that firm as a lad in 1886, and steadily rose to his present responsible position with a reputation as one of the leading authorities in Canada on all questions relating to the fishing industry. Leonard Fisheries, which started business in 1875, and is now one of the leading concerns in its line, was incorporated under its present form in 1917, as a result of the consolidation Leonard Bros., Matthews & Scott, and A. Wilson & Son. This was brought about largely through the efforts of Mr. Byrne, with the object of effecting economies in organization and distribution. The firm has branches in many parts of the Maritime Provinces, notably St. John, N.B., and Halifax, N.S. The subject of this sketch was born in Montreal, April, 1871, and married Mary Louisa, daughter of William Dalt, of Montreal, July, 1900, by whom he has one son, John W. In 1915 he was called on to address the Conservation Commission at Ottawa on the subject of “Canada’s Fisheries.” Mr. Byrne is a member of the following Clubs: The Engineer’s, Country and Rotary. He is a Roman Catholic in religion and Independent in politics. His recreation is golf, fishing and motoring.

* * * * *