A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography. Various

Ont. For years Mr. Breithaupt was a member of the Berlin—now Kitchener—City Council as Councillor, Deputy Reeve, Reeve and Mayor, which last office he held for two years. He was also a member of the Waterloo County Council; Warden of the County in 1898, and a member of the Provincial Legislature of Ontario from 1900 to 1902. His fellow-citizens, in fact, have honored this representative Canadian with practically every office in their gift, he having also been Chairman of the Schools and Park Boards, and at various times President of what was then the Berlin Board of Trade. He has taken an active interest in the work of the local Canadian Patriotic Fund, of which he was Vice-President for two and a half years, and afterward became President. Mr. Breithaupt was on the first board of the Kitchener-Waterloo Hospital and has been a Director of the Economical Fire Insurance Company of Kitchener for many years, and also a Director and member of the Executive Board of the Mutual Life Assurance Company of Canada, whose head office is at Waterloo, Ont. Louis Breithaupt is the eldest son of Louis and Catharine (Hailer) Breithaupt, his grandfather having come to Waterloo County in 1831, where he was one of the earliest manufacturers and built the fifth or sixth house in the embryo city of Berlin. At the time of his demise in 1880, after an active life, Mr. Louis Breithaupt, Senior, was its Mayor. The subject of this sketch was born at Buffalo, N.Y., March 3, 1855, and was educated in the Public and Grammar Schools of Berlin (now Kitchener), and in Toronto. He married Emma Alvarene, second daughter of the late Benjamin Devitt, J.P., ex-Mayor of Waterloo, by whom he has eight children, Louise Evelyn, Emma Lilian, Martha Edna, Rose Melvina, Louis Orville, William Walter, Catharine Olive and Paul Theodore. Among his clubs are the Grand River, Country and Golf, and Kitchener Clubs, of Kitchener, and the Ontario, of Toronto. He is a member of the Evangelical Association in religion, and an Independent Liberal in politics.

Best, John (Shelburne, Ont.), was born in Australia in 1861, of Irish parentage. His father, John Best, was a farmer, and his mother was Elizabeth Rolland. The subject of this sketch received his education in the public school at Whitfield, in the County of Dufferin, and for many years has been prominent in the municipal life of his township and county. For 14 years he was a member of the County Council, and for 7 years President of The Dufferin Fire Insurance Company. In 1909 he was selected as successor to the late Dr. L. John Barr, M.P., as the Liberal-Conservative candidate for Dufferin in the House of Commons, being returned by acclamation in 1911. He was again elected on the Reciprocity issue by the large majority of 1,459. Elected in 1917 by over 2,600 majority. Mr. Best has proven a most capable and efficient representative, being thoroughly well versed in all the problems which especially concern his constituents. A practical farmer, he takes a lively interest in everything tending to promote the advancement of the basic interest industry of agriculture. Realizing the importance and advantage of the governmental scheme of Rural Mail Delivery, and its necessity and benefit, he advocated its extension and development in his own riding, where it has now reached the highest degree of efficiency and service. He is also a liberal supporter of Agricultural Societies. Mr. Best is well informed on all matters of National importance, and is a ready and effective speaker. The inclination and ability for public service is a family characteristic, for two of Mr. Best’s cousins are in the Imperial Parliament, Mr. James Best, M.P., and Mr. Thomas Best, M.P., who represents an Irish constituency. In 1887 Mr. Best married Charlotte, only daughter of Mr. Thomas Thompson, of Thornbury, and has one son John Chester. The member for Dufferin is prominent in the Orange Order, being Past County Master. In religion he is a member of the Church of England. Recreations: Motoring and fishing.

Bowell, Sir Mackenzie (Belleville, Ont.). A name universally known in Canada is that of the late Hon. Sir Mackenzie Bowell, K.C.M.G., ex-Premier of the Dominion and ex-Leader of the Conservative Party in the Senate. He was born on December 27th, 1823, at Rickinghall, Suffolk, England, the son of the late John Bowell, a carpenter and builder. He came to Canada with his parents, ten years later, the family locating at Belleville, Ont., then Upper Canada, which has ever since remained his home, and where he was shortly afterwards apprenticed to learn the trade of a printer in the office of the Belleville “Intelligencer,” a newspaper of which in after years he became editor and proprietor. As a young man, Sir Mackenzie became prominent in public affairs. He became an Ensign in the Belleville Rifle Company, which he assisted in organizing in 1857, and was one of the corps of observation on service in Western Ontario during the American Civil War. During the Fenian Raids of 1866 he was on service at Prescott. In 1874 he retired from the service with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of the 49th Battalion. He also became prominent in the Orange Order and rose to the position of Grand Master and Sovereign of the Order for British North America and President of the Tri-annual Council of the Orangemen of the World. He also took an interest in educational matters and served as Chairman of the Public and Grammar School Boards, as Vice-President of the Agricultural and Arts Association of Ontario, and as President of the Ontario Press Association. A Conservative by conviction, he was a candidate in North Hastings for the Canadian Assembly, in 1863. He was defeated. In 1867, he was elected to the House of Commons for the same constituency and held the seat continuously for twenty-five years, until his elevation to the Senate in 1892. He was a member of the select committee of Parliament to inquire into the troubles in the North-West Territories in 1869–70. When the rebel leader, Louis Riel, was elected to the House of Commons, shortly afterwards, the subject of this sketch moved his expulsion as a traitor to the Crown. After the Conservative victory of 1878, he entered Sir John A. Macdonald’s Cabinet as Minister of Customs, and held that portfolio for thirteen years. In that capacity it devolved upon him to carry out the new tariff system known as the National Policy. On the death of Sir John A. Macdonald, he became Minister of Militia in Sir John Abbott’s Cabinet, and on the demise of the latter, Minister of Trade and Commerce in Sir John Thompson’s Ministry. After the latter’s tragic death at Windsor Castle, England, he was called on in December, 1894, to form a Cabinet, which he succeeded in doing, taking the portfolio of President of the Council, and on January 1, 1895, was made Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George. When the Manitoba School question arose, he was a strong advocate of justice to the minority, and after some differences with his colleagues, he resigned the Premiership on April 27, 1896. He was succeeded by Sir Charles Tupper, who paid him the compliment of adopting his policy. In 1893, during his incumbency as Minister of Trade and Commerce, he went to Australia to promote inter-Imperial trade and the laying of an all-British Pacific cable between Canada and that continent. Early in 1896 he went to England to urge forward the Canadian-Australia or “all-red” cable, now an accomplished fact, and sat in the third congress on the subject which met in London, England. In 1896 he resumed the active control of the “Belleville Intelligencer,” which he had relinquished when he entered Sir John A. Macdonald’s Cabinet in 1878. In Belleville he was regarded as the “grand old man,” and no Canadian boasted a wider circle of friends in the country at large. The amiability of his nature, his large intellectual capacity and his ability as a public speaker, marked him for distinction. In religion he was a Methodist, and was married in December, 1847, to Harriet Louisa, eldest daughter of the late Jacob G. Moore, of Belleville. His helpmate died in 1884, and he followed her to the grave in 1918. Of nine children born to them, five survive.

Langley, James P. (Toronto), was born in the Provincial Capital on June 15, 1864, and educated in Toronto, graduating from the Model School in 1877. Son of Aylmer Langley and Alice (Thornber), his father being a native of Ireland and his mother born in New York State. The subject of this sketch early developed a marked ability as an expert accountant and was one of the early members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario, an institution which has done much to stimulate the study of higher accounting and to keep pace with the commercial and municipal necessities of the day, and is a Fellow of the Institute so founded. Mr. Langley is recognized as a man with a large and intimate knowledge of industrial and financial enterprises, and his services are in constant requisition by such institutions throughout the Dominion. He is retained annually as the auditor of many leading business concerns, and is trustee of large estates, his extended experience making his advice particularly dependable. Mr. Langley married Carrie, daughter of Nathan Brower, of New Jersey, U.S., and has one son, Clarence Aylmer. He is a member of the Masonic order and of the Granite and Albany Clubs, Toronto. He is also a Justice of the Peace; a member of the Church of England. Politically he is a Liberal-Conservative. Recreations, motoring and golf. Mr. Langley is one of the best known business men in the province and enjoys the confidence of the mercantile