Part 51

=Parent, Hon. Simon Napoleon, K.C.=, who was Chairman of the National Transcontinental Railway Commission from 1905 to 1911, is the son of Simon Polycarpe and Luce (Belanger) Parent, of Beauport, Quebec, and was born there September 12, 1855. His education was had at the Quebec Normal School and Laval University, and between 1881 and 1902 he was awarded the following degrees and honours: Laval University, LL.L., with Lorne Gold Medal and Tessier Prize, 1881; LL.D., 1902; D.C.L. (Hon.), Bishop’s College University, Lennoxville, 1902. In 1881 Mr. Parent was called to the Bar, and was created K.C. in 1899. In October, 1877, he married Marie Louise Clara, daughter of the late Ambroise Gendron. Four sons and four daughters have blessed the union. At present Mr. Parent is President of the Quebec Streams Commission for the Province of Quebec. When admitted to the Bar, Mr. Parent successfully practised his profession in the city of Quebec, and from the start was looked upon as a practical man and a good and reliable lawyer. He served as an alderman in the Quebec City Council from 1890 to 1904, and was Mayor of the city from 1894 to 1905, during which time he built the new City Hall. Largely through his perseverance and energetic work, the splendid Quebec Bridge was built, and it was he who originated the park at St. Roch, between St. Roch and St. Sauveur. Quebec city streets were improved and the finances of the city placed on a better footing. Mr. Parent sat in the local legislature for St. Sauveur in the Liberal interest from 1890 to 1905, and served in the Marchand administration as Commissioner of Crown Lands, Mines and Forests from 1897 to 1900. On Mr. Marchand’s death in the latter year, Mr. Parent was called upon to succeed him as Prime Minister of the Province, and held that position up to 1905, when he resigned at the request of the Right Hon. Sir Wilfrid Laurier to accept the position of Chairman of the National Transcontinental Railway Commission, with headquarters at Ottawa, which Commission had charge and control of the construction of the Eastern Division of the Transcontinental Railway, extending from the city of Moncton, N.B., in the east to the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, in the west, and the operation thereof until completed and leased to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company. Mr. Parent was President of the Quebec Bridge Company from 1897 to 1908, was formerly a director of the Quebec Railway, Light and Power Company and the Quebec and Lake St. John Railway. During his whole public career, Mr. Parent has held the reputation for being an honest and able man; as one of the most industrious administrators of modern times; as a man of decision, business and legal ability, and rare enterprise in public matters; unassuming, courteous, and practical. A Roman Catholic in religion, Mr. Parent has ever been a staunch Liberal, and one of the late Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s best and most influential supporters. He is a member of the Rideau, Laurentian, and Ottawa Hunt Clubs in Ottawa, and of the Garrison Club, Quebec. His Ottawa residence is at 485 King Edward Avenue.

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=Rutherford, John Gunion, C.M.G., V.S.=, Ottawa, Honorary Associate of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, Commissioner, Board of Railway Commissioners for Canada (Ottawa, Ont.) born at Mountain Cross, Peeblesshire, Scotland, on December 25, 1857, son of Rev. Robert Rutherford, M.A., and his wife Agnes Gunion. In 1887, he married Edith, daughter of Washington Boultbee, of Ancaster, Ont., by whom he has three daughters. He was educated at the High School of Glasgow, and later spent several years in the practical study of agriculture in the counties of East Lothian and Selkirk. Coming to Canada at the age of seventeen, he attended the Ontario Agricultural College in 1875 and 1876, being one of the earliest students at that institution, and later gained valuable practical experience in agriculture on the famous Bow Park Farm at Brantford, Ontario. In 1879 he graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College with honors, winning the gold medal for the best general examination, and numerous other prizes. He practised veterinary medicine for several years in Ontario, the United States and Mexico, and returning to Canada in 1884, settled at Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, where he engaged in general practice and horse breeding operations. He served as Veterinary Officer with the North-West Field Force under General Middleton during the Riel rebellion in 1885, and holds medal and clasp for that campaign. During his residence in Portage la Prairie he was for several years President of the Horse Breeders’ Association of Manitoba and the North-West Territories; President of the Manitoba Veterinary Association; President of the Manitoba and Lakeside Agricultural Society; the Island Park Racing Association, and the St. Andrew’s Society of Portage la Prairie. In 1884 he was appointed Veterinary Inspector for the Manitoba Government, an appointment which he held until 1892, when he was elected to represent the constituency of Lakeside (Portage Plains) in the Manitoba Legislature, in which body he was Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture. He was re-elected by acclamation in 1896, but after one session resigned to enter Dominion politics as representative for the constituency of Macdonald, which then comprised over one-sixth of the province of Manitoba. He sat as member for this constituency in the Dominion House until 1900, and in 1901 went to Great Britain as special Quarantine Officer for the Canadian Department of Agriculture. In 1902, he was appointed Chief Veterinary Inspector, and in 1904, after organizing the Health of Animals Branch, he became Veterinary Director-General. In 1906, he also took over the office of Live Stock Commissioner, and in the same and the succeeding year organized the present Meat and Canned Foods Inspection Service. During his tenure of office many original and radical departures were made in connection with the control and eradication of contagious diseases among the live stock of the Dominion, the results achieved being eminently satisfactory. Under his direction, the work of the Live Stock Branch was very considerably extended, and brought into close correlation with that of the Health of Animals Branch, joint supervision over the work of both branches being in a number of cases exercised by the same officers, especially in those provinces farthest from Ottawa. In 1908, he went twice to Rome as delegate for Canada to the International Institute of Agriculture, and in the same year was appointed to represent the Dominion at the International Congress on Tuberculosis at Washington, D.C. He was President of the American Veterinary Medical Association in 1908-09, and Chairman since its inception of the International Commission on the Control of Bovine Tuberculosis. He was for several years President of the St. Andrews Society of Ottawa, and from 1909 to 1911 President of the Civil Service Association of Canada. He was created a C.M.G. in 1910. In May, 1911, he resigned from the Dominion service, but at the request of the Government retained office until March, 1912. Immediately thereafter, he was engaged by Lord Shaughnessy, then President of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, to undertake a campaign for the general development of the live stock industry and the encouragement of mixed farming in the three prairie provinces. In the organization of the campaign he found it advisable to co-ordinate this special work with that of the Company’s Department of Natural Resources at Calgary, Alberta, and in the following spring (1913) he was appointed Superintendent of Agriculture and Animal Industry, a position involving full responsibility for all the agricultural operations of the Company, including the educational and experimental activities in connection with its irrigation projects in Alberta. From 1913 to 1919, he was President of the Western Canada Live Stock Union, an organization in the creation of which he was largely instrumental, and which comprises in its membership all live stock associations and other bodies interested in the production of live stock in the four Western Provinces. In December, 1918, his portrait in oils was added by the live stock men of Canada to the collection of similar pictures of live stock celebrities in the Saddle and Sirloin Club of Chicago. He was a member of the Dominion Economic and Development Commission, as also a member of the Saskatchewan Royal Live Stock Commission, and has since its inception been Chairman of the Joint Committee on Commerce and Agriculture. While resident in Alberta he was Vice-Chairman of the Provincial Board of Agricultural Education, as also President of the Alberta Thoroughbred Horse Breeders’ Association, besides holding office in numerous other live stock and kindred organizations. He has had exceptional opportunities of acquiring a practical knowledge of Canadian agriculture, having actually farmed, more or less extensively, in every province of the Dominion except Prince Edward Island, his own farm being situated in the Chilliwack Valley in British Columbia. He was appointed to the Board of Railway Commissioners for Canada in November, 1918, and assumed office in February, 1919. Dr. Rutherford is a member of the following clubs: Ranchmen’s (Calgary), Rideau (Ottawa), University Club (Ottawa), Royal Ottawa Golf Club (Ottawa), and his home address is 218 MacLaren Street, Ottawa, Ont.

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=Breithaupt, John C.=, of Kitchener, Ont., is one of the most widely known business men of Canada, and has been particularly identified with the leather industry. He was born at Buffalo, N.Y., on February 27, 1859, the son of the late Louis and Catherine (Hailer) Breithaupt; but his parents removed to Kitchener, then known as Berlin, Ont., when he was very young. He was educated in the public and high schools of that thriving manufacturing city and later at the North-Western College, Naperville, Ill., of which despite his Canadian citizenship, he has in later life been a Trustee for upwards of twenty years. In Berlin, Ont., he became associated in the tanning business of his father, which of late years has grown to great dimensions. He is Secretary of the Breithaupt Leather Company, Ltd., with tanneries at Kitchener, Penetanguishene and Woodstock, Ont., and President of the Hastings Tannery Company, Ltd., with head office at Kitchener and tannery at Hastings, Ont. In addition to his widespread commercial interests Mr. Breithaupt has shown unselfish activity in public affairs. While his city was still known as Berlin he was a member of the Municipal Council for six years, first as Councillor, then as Reeve, and later, in 1896-7, as Mayor. He has been a member of the Board of Water Commissioners of the city since 1899 continuously, and Chairman for every year of that period but one. He held the office of President of the Local Board of Trade for a term, and is also a member of the Toronto Board of Trade, with which he has been connected since 1891. In all municipal movements for the betterment of civic government he has been a leader, and his voice has frequently been heard in the cause of progress in the province at large. He was President of the Berlin and Waterloo Hospital for several years and takes a deep interest in religious matters. He is a member of the Evangelical Association, and has been a member of various Boards and Commissions of the Church, having been delegate to the General Conference in 1911 and again elected in 1919 in a similar capacity. He is a member of the following clubs: Lancaster, Grand River County and Golf, and Ontario Club (Toronto). In 1892 he married Caroline C., eldest daughter of the late J. S. Anthes, furniture manufacturer of Kitchener, and has six children: John Edward, chemical engineer of the various Breithaupt tanneries; Louise Catherine, Carl Louis, who early in 1919 returned from overseas after two years’ service with the Canadian Engineers in France; Freida Caroline, Walter Hailer, and Helena Esther Breithaupt.

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=Cronyn, Hume, M.P.=, who represents the city of London, Ont., in the House of Commons, was born in London on August 28th, 1864, the son of Verschoyle Cronyn, LL.B., K.C., and Sophy Cronyn. The latter was a daughter of the late Hon. William Hume Blake, and a sister of the late Hon. Edward Blake, formerly leader of the Liberal party in the Canadian House of Commons, and later one of the ornaments of the British House of Commons as member for Longford, Ireland. The subject of this sketch was educated at Dr. Tassie’s famous grammar school, Galt, Ont., and at Toronto University, from which he graduated with the degree of B.A. He qualified for the law, and in 1889 received the degree of LL.B. from the same institution, and in that year was called to the Bar. He at once commenced the practice of law at London, and continued therein for the next eighteen years. In 1907 he gave up practice to take up the post of General Manager of The Huron and Erie Mortgage Corporation, a position he still holds in combination with the office of Vice-President. He is also General Manager of the Canada Trust Company, London, and a Director of the Mutual Life Assurance Company of Canada. Though long identified with the Liberal party, both from conviction and family association, Mr. Cronyn always declined public honors until the political crisis attendant on the adoption of the policy of conscription by Sir Robert Borden arose in 1917. Mr. Cronyn was one of many Ontario Liberals who decided to support the Prime Minister in forming a Union Government to carry out that policy, and when the general elections were announced on this issue, accepted the nomination as a Unionist candidate for the riding of London. The Laurier Liberals decided to make London one of the chief arenas of their battle against conscription, by nominating Mr. George S. Gibbons who had also been prominent in the politics of that city. After one of the most hotly contested campaigns of that momentous election, Mr. Cronyn was elected by a majority of over 4,000. In his younger days, he had been prominent in military circles; while a student at Toronto University he had enlisted in the Queen’s Own Rifles and served with that famous regiment in the North-West Rebellion of 1885, taking part in the engagement of Cut Knife Creek, for which he holds the medal and clasp. On returning to London, he joined the 7th Fusiliers, and served as Major in that battalion from 1899 to 1907, when he retired. During the late war he was active in promoting all patriotic causes. He is a member of the following clubs: London; London Hunt and Country; Toronto; Rideau (Ottawa); Royal Societies and the Zeta Psi fraternity. In religion he is an Anglican, and on September 6, 1892, married Frances A., second daughter of John Labatt, of London. He has three sons and two daughters, and his residence is at 580 Dundas Street, London, Ont.

[Illustration: COL. H. A. C. MACHIN Kenora]

=Davis, Albert Mayno=, President of the McAuliffe-Davis Lumber Company, Limited, lumber manufacturers and dealers, with head office on Duke Street, Ottawa, and a capital of $300,000, has been in the lumber business in Ottawa for over twenty years, first with the Export Lumber Company, later as manager of the Chaudiere Lumber Company, and for seven years as manager of the McAuliffe-Davis Lumber Company, Limited, of which he is now President. Mr. Davis is not only recognized as one of the leading retail lumbermen of eastern Ontario, and one with entire knowledge of trade conditions in Ottawa and throughout the valley, but is known to be one of the leaders among the younger business element in the city. In the Company, Mr. Davis has associated with him Mr. W. Allen Taft, Jr., of Boston, Vice-President, who is also President of the Export Lumber Company; Mr. W. J. Armstrong, Secretary-Treasurer; and the following constitute the Board of Directors: Messrs. Albert Mayno Davis, W. H. McAuliffe, George I. Dewar, W. A. Taft, and W. Allen Taft. Mr. Albert Mayno Davis is the son of C. W. Davis, Burlington, Vermont, and Jennie Taft, of the same place, and was born at Burlington, October 3, 1878. He was educated at the Burlington High School and the University of Vermont. June 23, 1903, he married Adele Sylvain, daughter of L. P. Sylvain, of Ottawa, Chief Clerk in the Library of Parliament, with which he has been connected since 1878. Two daughters and one son—Margaret, Philip, and Adele—add joy and lustre to the home. Mr. Davis is a member of the Laurentian, Royal Ottawa, Rivermead and Rideau Tennis Clubs. His recreations may be classified as outdoor sports. His residence is at 24 Clemow Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

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=Bâby, Wolstan Alexander Dixie=, Collector of Inland Revenue for the Division of Hamilton (Ontario), is one of the most widely known and respected of Federal Government officials. Moreover, he comes of one of the oldest of all Canadian families and his ancestry dates back almost to the beginnings of white settlement on the continent of North America. He is the son of the late William Duperon Bâby, attorney-at-law and sheriff of the County of Essex, Ont., and Christina Jane Wilson, daughter of Captain John Wilson, of H.M. Canadian Militia, Amherstburg, Ont., and was born at Sandwich, Ont., on April 13, 1858. As a matter of record it is important to say something of the ancestry and family history of Mr. Bâby. His forefathers came from France in the earlier years of French settlement, and settled at Fort Detroit in what is now the State of Michigan, but then part of the French domain of Canada. Later they moved across the Detroit River, and took up land in what is now the town of Sandwich, Ont. The founders of the family on this continent were Jacques Bâby de Rainville and his wife, Isabeau Robin, of Monteton, in the Bishopric of Agen, France. Jacques was an officer in the famous Carignan Regiment and with it came to America in the seventeenth century. Subsequently, in 1670, he was married a second time to Jehanne Dandonneau de Sables, of which union were born nine children. The eldest grandson of this couple was Hon. Jacques Duperon Bâby, who was born in 1731, and lived until 1796. While he was still a young man, the British conquest of Canada occurred, and Detroit falling into British hands in 1760, Jacques Duperon Bâby and his wife, Suzanne de la Croix Rheaume (who lived until 1812), became British subjects. In all they had twenty-two children. The name of Hon. Jacques Duperon Bâby is intimately interwoven with the history of the Essex peninsula. He played a prominent part in the defence of the Detroit district during the conspiracy of the Indian chieftain, Pontiac, in 1760. He was a man of great worth and integrity, who enjoyed the confidence alike of the French, English, and Indian population, and consequently was able to be of great assistance to the British government in the establishment of the new regime. Hon. Jacques Duperon Bâby was the eldest of his many children. He was born in 1762 and died in 1833, and held positions of honour and influence in the young colony of Upper Canada. Jean Baptiste Bâby, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a younger brother, and served as Treasurer of the newly-organized County of Essex. Two other brothers entered the British army, one, Daniel, rising to the rank of Major-General; while four of his sisters married British officers, one of whom was Lord Bellingham. The eldest son of Jean Baptiste Bâby was William Duperon Bâby, afterward sheriff of Essex, born at Sandwich in 1819; and the subject of this sketch was William’s sixth child. Since most of the various generations had large families, the Bâby family connection in Western Ontario, and indeed throughout America is literally enormous, and all have preserved the high tradition of “noblesse oblige.” Mr. Dixie Bâby was educated at the Separate Schools and at Assumption College, Sandwich, Ont., and at the Christian Brothers’ School, Toronto, in 1876. At the age of eighteen he was appointed to the Inland Revenue service, and detailed to Rae’s distillery as assistant officer to the late Pierre Ramon. He qualified himself so well as a vigilant watcher of the government interests in connection with the important revenue derived from excise that he has since served in many parts of Canada, including Paris, Woodstock, St. Catharines, Belleville, Brantford, Portage la Prairie, and Berthierville, Que. He was first stationed at Hamilton in 1886 as second officer to the late William Donaghy, and in 1890 transferred to Berthierville. In 1892 he went back to the Hamilton distillery, and was appointed officer in charge in October, 1898. On November 21, 1914, he was appointed Collector of Inland Revenue in charge of the entire Hamilton division. His duties have always been of a character which required expert knowledge as well as rigid probity, and during his forty-three years’ service he has won the unfailing confidence of the Department, no matter which party was in power. In December, 1880, he married Mary McDougall, of Belleville, Ont., who was born April 7, 1861. He has had seven children: Christina Caroline, deceased; Julia Fortier and Mary Louisa (twins, also deceased); Frances Jeanette, wife of Henri Bâby, notary public, Lachine, Que.; John Dixie; George Raymond; and Madeline Cecilia. Capt. George Raymond Bâby, M.D., C.M., who was born at Berthierville on April 1, 1892, went to France with the McGill University 1915 unit, Canadian Army Medical Corps, and was awarded the Military Cross for bravery and devotion to duty during the great British advance which began August 8, 1918, and only ended when the armistice was signed. The other son, John Dixie Bâby, is a civil engineer by profession, who assisted in building the Canton Hankow Railway, China.

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