A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time. Various

hale and hearty, and living a retired life.

Shaw, Lieutenant-Colonel James. The late Senator Shaw was born in New Ross, county Wexford, Ireland, in the year 1798, so famous in Irish history. He was descended from two ancient and honourable families, and took pride in tracing his lineage back many generations to persons of distinction, being Scotch on his father’s side, and on his mother’s he was of French extraction, her family, the d’Ouselys, being Huguenots, who fled to Ireland, the name being corrupted to Dowsley in the course of years. In the year 1820, after completing his education in Dublin, Mr. Shaw, in the twenty-second year of his age, came to Canada with letters of introduction to Lord Dalhousie, who attached him to his household, with an officer’s pay and rations for the following six months, where he was treated with great kindness by Lord and Lady Dalhousie, and in after days often referred to this pleasant portion of his life. Subsequently the government appointed him first clerk in the Lanark military settlement of Upper Canada, under the late Colonel William Marshall, the superintendent, and this situation Mr. Shaw filled for nine years. At the commencement of the work on the Rideau Canal, through Lord Dalhousie’s influence, he was appointed overseer of the works under the late Colonel John By, from Smith’s Falls to Bytown, now the city of Ottawa. After the completion of the canal, Mr. Shaw married Ellen Forgie, daughter of Mr. Forgie, of Glasgow, and carried on at Smith’s Falls a successful and extensive mercantile business up to the time of his entering parliament. He was one of the first promoters and directors of the Brockville and Ottawa Railway. During the Canadian rebellion of 1837 and 1838 he was stationed at Brockville as major of the third Leeds Light Infantry, and in later years he was made lieutenant-colonel of the militia of Canada. In his early days he was a member of what was known as the Johnstown District Council, and when the municipal system was adopted he filled the position of reeve of the municipality, which office he held until higher duties obliged him to resign. He was also a justice of the peace, but did not often act in that capacity. Mr. Shaw was a Free Mason, having joined the order as a young man in Ireland. He was a member of the Church of England—not extreme in his views, but unswerving in his support and allegiance to his church. In 1851 he was elected to represent the united counties of Lanark and Renfrew in the Legislature of Canada in the Conservative interest, and was again returned for the South Riding of Lanark in 1854. In 1860 he was elected for the Bathurst division by a large majority to a seat in the upper house, which he held until the confederation of the several provinces, when he was called by Royal proclamation to the Senate of the Dominion of Canada, which position he filled with honour to himself and credit to his country until his death. Mr. Shaw was a gentleman of fine physique and commanding appearance, of sterling principle, unswerving integrity, and by his genial disposition and urbanity of manner, endeared himself to all with whom he became acquainted. He died suddenly at his residence in Smith’s Falls, on the 6th of February, 1878, regretted and revered by all who knew him. His funeral was attended by a large deputation from both branches of the legislature.

      “In social haunts the ever welcome guest,

      So generous, noble, and of portly mien;

      ‘One of a thousand’ has been well expressed—

      No finer type of gentleman was seen.”

Saint-Pierre, Henri C., Advocate, Montreal, was born in the parish of Rigaud, county of Vaudreuil, province of Quebec, on the 13th of September, 1844, but was brought up at Isle-Bizard, in Jacques-Cartier county. He is the last child but one of a family of nine, composed of seven girls and two boys. His father, Joseph Saint-Pierre, a farmer of Isle-Bizard, died, when his son Henri was only two years old. His mother, Domithilde Denis, is still living. His first ancestor on his father’s side in Canada was Pierre Breillé-Saint-Pierre, who was usually called Pierre Saint-Pierre. He had emigrated from Normandy, and on his arrival in Canada settled at Isle-Bizard. In 1741 he was married to Françoise Thibault, by whom he had a large family. He was killed at the battle of Carillon in 1758. His eldest son, bearing the same name, was married to Marie Josephte Tayon, and from that marriage was born, on the 23rd of August, 1772, Guillaume, the father of Joseph, and the grandfather of the gentleman who is the subject of this sketch. Domithilde Denis, the mother of Mr. Saint-Pierre, belonged to a family of farmers from La Pointe Claire, which traces its origin in Canada as far back as the days of the first French settlements, the first colonist of that name, Jacques Denis, having settled at Lachine in 1689. After the death of his father, Mr. Saint-Pierre was adopted by a near relative, C. Raymond, a merchant at Isle-Bizard, who took charge of his education. At twelve years of age he entered the Montreal College, where he went through a brilliant classical course of study. He was the college mate of the unfortunate patriot, Louis Riel. From his childhood Mr. Saint-Pierre had always exhibited a strong liking for military life; but as he grew older, this liking ripened into an uncontrollable passion; so much so, that on leaving college one of the first things he did was to solicit from his mother and his adopted father the permission to enlist in the United States army. At this time the war between the North and South was raging at its highest pitch. It is almost needless to say that his request was unhesitatingly and peremptorily refused. With no small degree of disappointment and reluctance, he at last chose the study of the law, and was sent to Kingston in Ontario, in order that he might improve his knowledge of the English language. At Kingston he was articled to James Agnew, one of the leading lawyers of that city. He soon got tired of the law, however, and on the very day when he was to undergo his preliminary examination at Osgoode Hall, in Toronto, yielding to his passion for military life, he crossed over to Niagara Falls, and thence took the first train to New York. On his arrival there he enlisted in the 76th New York volunteers, which was then forming part of the first corps in the Potomac army. To his honour be it said, it was only after considerable hesitation that General Johnson, the chief recruiting officer, consented to enlist the runaway school-boy. Mr. Saint-Pierre of course entered the service as a private, but in less than two months he rose to the rank of sergeant. During General Meade’s retreat towards Centreville, in the fall of 1863, he was wounded at the crossing of the Rapahannock, and had only recently resumed duty when in the fight at Mine Run, near Fredericksburg, he was again wounded. He was picked up by a detachment of General Stewart’s rebel cavalry on the field of battle, and was brought to Gordonsville during the night, and on the following day sent to Richmond as a prisoner of war. In his regiment he had been reported as dead, and some time afterwards his name was published in the list of those who had been killed in that fight. The result of this information was that funeral services were held both in the Montreal College and in his native parish, and prayer asked for the salvation of his soul. To give a detailed and circumstantial account of the suffering which Mr. Saint-Pierre had to endure, and all the adventures he had to go through in his numerous attempts to escape from starvation and death in the southern stockades, would require a narrative which could hardly be comprised within the compass of a whole volume; but one may form some idea of it, however, when the names of the following prisons wherein he was successively detained are mentioned: Bell Island and Parmenton building at Richmond, Andersonville in Georgia, and Charleston’s race ground and Florence in South Carolina. After thirteen months of indescribable sufferings, he at last found himself free at Charleston on the day when the city was evacuated by the Southern troops in the spring of 1865. After the war was over, Mr. Saint-Pierre returned to his native country, where he was greeted as one who had risen from the dead. In March, 1866, he resumed his legal studies, and was first articled to the late Sir George Etienne Cartier, but a year afterwards he became a student in the office of the Hon. J. J. C. Abbott, where he remained up to the time of his admission to the bar on the 12th of July, 1870. In 1871 Mr. Saint-Pierre entered in partnership with the Hon. Gédéon Ouimet, then attorney-general, and some time afterwards prime minister for the province of Quebec; and on that gentleman’s appointment as superintendent of education, after his having resigned his office as prime minister, Mr. Saint-Pierre found himself at the head of his law office and the sole possessor of his large clientèle. Mr. Saint-Pierre soon reached the foremost rank in his profession, and to-day the firm of Saint-Pierre, Globensky & Poirier, is one of the leading firms in the district of Montreal. But it is more particularly as a criminalist that Mr. Saint-Pierre has distinguished himself. Few lawyers have been so successful in the practice of that branch of the law; and whether it be in the often arduous task of bringing conviction to the minds of juries, or in that no less difficult one of unravelling a knotty point of law, he has few equals and no superior in his native