A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography. Various
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persuaded Mr. Harris to accompany him to the Ottawa Valley. When they reached again the region of kingly pines and booming waterfalls, they were everywhere met with testimony from river experts, saying that the Ottawa was not suitable for the safe driving of saw logs, but Mr. Bronson recommended to his partner the purchase of hydraulic lots at the Chaudiere Falls, then held by the Crown. At the sale of the lots, made by Mr. Horace Merrill, general superintendent of the Ottawa River works, a purchase was made, and here, under the personal supervision of Mr. Bronson, their mills were built within sound of the thunder of the falls. The mills having been erected, Mr. Bronson removed his family to Ottawa, and there they were established permanently. The relation of Mr. Bronson to the sawn lumber trade of the Dominion of Canada will be better understood when it is learned that his was the first movement in the Ottawa District for the manufacture of sawn lumber for the United States market. The original mill embodied all the modern improvements of the times, including iron gates of novel model, a contrivance planned by Mr. Bronson himself, and afterwards used in most of the gang saw mills on the Ottawa River. Several other gentlemen, stimulated by the enterprise and success of Mr. Bronson and his partner, likewise set out for Ottawa; and, after a time, chiefly owing to the persistency of Mr. Bronson, a series of costly river improvements were constructed, which made the driving of logs upon the Ottawa a matter of greater convenience than upon many a smaller stream, which has no large lakes to act as a reservoir for checking the fury of the spring freshets. In 1864, Mr. Harris retired from the business, Mr. Bronson still continuing the extensive manufacture of sawn lumber, and owing to his splendid abilities as a manager, his operations not alone maintained their ground, but gradually increased. The present firm at Ottawa is known as The Bronson Company. Mr. Bronson married, on November 5, 1840, Editha E. Pierce, of Bolton, N.Y., and had four children. Gertrude, the only daughter, is the wife of Levi Crannell. The sons are Erskine Henry, Frank P., and Walter G. The family are members of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Bronson, like another great prince of business men, Sir Hugh Allan, did not care for political life, and held himself aloof from parties, but he was connected with several benevolent institutions and business enterprises. In 1889, death called this pioneer Canadian lumberman and high-principled citizen. His private and social relations had won for him everywhere good will and highest regard. Men had learned to esteem the man because of his tested and sterling worth. In the commerce of Canada Mr. Bronson’s name will go down in history as the first lumberman in the Ottawa Valley to manufacture sawn lumber for the American market, and as a pioneer in the development of the resources of that section of Canada to the point where its principal city was deemed worthy of being named as the Capital City of the Dominion. Business courage and keenness of perception were required to accomplish these ends, but in more ways than one Mr. Bronson had shown himself to be a man of practical vision and rare foresight. To men like the late Henry Franklin Bronson, Canada and in particular the business life of the Capital, must ever remain in debt.
Lemieux, Auguste, K.C., F.R.C.I., LL.B. Few barristers in Ottawa are better known or more popular than the subject of this sketch, who occupies offices at No. 30 Rideau Street. Mr. Lemieux was born in Montreal, February 20, 1874. His father, H. A. Lemieux, was Inspector of Customs for the Province of Quebec until 1911. Some of his elder brothers are Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux, K.C., P.C., M.P., ex-Postmaster-General and Minister of Marine and Fisheries in the Laurier Cabinet; Dr. L. J. Lemieux, Sheriff of Montreal, and Chairman of the Board of Censors of the Province of Quebec, and Dr. Gustave Lemieux, M.L.A., for Gaspé, P.Q. Mr. Auguste Lemieux received his education at L’Assomption College and St. Mary’s College (Jesuits), Montreal, graduated from Laval University with honors and was conferred the degree of Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) in 1898. He was called to the Quebec Bar in the same year and to the Ontario Bar four years later. In 1908, at the early age of 34, he was created K.C., and practised, successfully, his profession in Montreal from 1898 until 1902, when he located in Ottawa, and has since established a wide and ever increasing clientele in that city. His brilliant defence saved Laderoute from the gallows in the Bryson murder trial of 1906, and Blondin (charged with murdering Dr. Empey) at L’Orignal, in 1910. He was Councillor of the Ontario Bar Association from 1910 to 1913; President of L’Institut Canadien Français, of Ottawa, 1903 to 1905; President of La Société du Monument National, Ottawa, 1909 to 1910; President of the Belcourt (Liberal) Club for several years; Vice-President of the Ottawa Reform Association, 1904 to 1906; President of Le Club Littéraire Canadien Français, Ottawa, 1911 to 1918. He is a member of the Y.M.C.A., and also a member of the Ontario Club of Toronto. Mr. Lemieux has been frequently mentioned as candidate for Parliament. He is the author of the work on the Quebec Law of Landlord and Tenant and writes frequently for the French and English Press. In April, 1914, the French Government, in recognition of Mr. Lemieux’s proficiency in French literature, conferred on him the decoration of “Officier d’Académie” (Academic Palms), through Monsieur Réné Viviani, then Minister of Public Education of France. He was also elected, in 1913, Fellow of the Royal Colonial Institute of London, England, for life. Mr. Lemieux is an eloquent platform speaker and has frequently rendered services to his party. He married Esther Barbeau, daughter of the late Henry Barbeau, General Manager of the City and District Savings Bank and Assistant Receiver-General, Montreal, in October, 1899, and has one son and two daughters. He resides at 16 Somerset Street West.
Lawlor, H. W. (Hawkesbury, Ont.), was born at Hawkesbury, September 12, 1863, of Irish and American parentage. The son of Richard Lawlor, of Hawkesbury, for many years Coroner of this district, and grandson of William Lawlor, for over forty years manager for Hamilton Bros., and Sarah Hersey, daughter of Z. S. M. Hersey, a New England pioneer, who settled in Hawkesbury shortly after the British-American War of 1812, and who at the time of his death was the town’s most prominent citizen; he was educated in the Provincial Schools and graduated from Osgoode Hall in law in 1890. In 1896, was appointed agent for the Justice Department in his district, and has conducted some important litigation on behalf of the Crown, the most prominent being the Exchequer Court Case of Stewart vs. King, in which the late B. B. Osler made his last public appearance. He has been Police Magistrate of Hawkesbury for over eighteen years and has never had a conviction appealed or quashed. Has been Local Solicitor for the Canadian Northern Railway since the date of its construction; is Town Solicitor and also Solicitor for the several banking institutions. Has never entered Municipal politics, but has sat on the Board of Education; was first President of Hawkesbury Board of Trade. Is a Presbyterian and a Liberal-Unionist.
McNeillie, James Richardson, Clerk and Treasurer, County of Victoria, Lindsay, Ont., was born in the Parish of Johnstone, Dumfries-shire, Scotland, July 18, 1846, and came to Canada with his parents, Rachel Kerr and James Richardson McNeillie, public school teacher, in 1853, who settled in the County of Durham, where he was educated in the Public School. He spent eleven years, from 1861 to 1872, in the village of Omemee, where he was associated in the drug business and in municipal work with Mr. Thomas Matchett, who was the first member of the Legislative Assembly for South Victoria after Confederation. From 1872 to 1875 he was engaged in the business department of the Montreal Telegraph Company at Toronto, but returned to the County of Victoria on the invitation of the Hon. S. C. Wood, to become his assistant in the office of Clerk and Treasurer. When the latter became Provincial Secretary, Mr. McNeillie retained the same position under Mr. Matchett from 1875, until his own appointment as Clerk and Treasurer of the County, in 1900. When the Ross Memorial Hospital was founded by the late James Ross, of Montreal, in 1902, he was appointed a Governor under the Act of Incorporation, and is Secretary-Treasurer of the Trust. He is also a member of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, and was Chairman of the Board of Education of the Town of Lindsay for nine years, following on nineteen years’ service as member. Always taking an active interest in movements for the betterment of the criminal and mentally enfeebled classes of the Province, he was President of the Canadian Conference of Charities and Correction for the year 1909. In politics he is a Conservative, and in religion a Presbyterian. He married Esther (deceased), daughter of William Thorton, of Emily, January, 1872; and Loretta, daughter of Ralph Gardiner, of Morpeth, 1882. He has three sons, James Kerr, Ralph Gardiner and George Gardiner, and one daughter, Alice Gardiner. J. K. McNeillie has been successively, Divisional Superintendent of the Canadian Pacific Ry., General Superintendent of the Canadian Government Railways, and now Superintendent of the Susquehanna Division of the Delaware and Hudson Railway. R. G. McNeillie is Assistant General Passenger Agent of the Canadian Pacific Ry. at Winnipeg, Man., and G. G. McNeillie