A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time by Rose
1869. In 1870 he married Marie Malvina, third daughter of Francis
764 words | Chapter 121
Gagnon, farmer. Throughout his life, Mr. Gagnon has taken the keenest
interest in politics and has done yeoman service to the Liberal party
with which he is identified, in numberless contests in both Provincial
and Dominion affairs. He also directed considerable attention to
municipal affairs, his knowledge of those being recognized by his
appointment as secretary of the municipality, and, later, secretary of
the Board of School Commissioners. He also fills the office of treasurer
of the Fabrique. He was president of the board of liquidators of the
late Stadacona Fire and Life Insurance Company of Quebec. In October,
1885, he was appointed president of the Board of Notaries, of the
province of Quebec, and this position he still holds. In 1873 he was
appointed valuator for the St. Lawrence District of the Intercolonial
Railway, which was then under construction, and a year later was
appointed receiver of wreck for the district of Kamouraska, holding
those offices concurrently until March, 1878, when he resigned to
contest Kamouraska in the Liberal interest. He was successful in the
contest, as he was in the next election in 1881. He was unseated after
this election, each party paying its costs, but was again elected in
1883, and has continued to represent the constituency ever since. He was
one of the strongest and ablest supporters of the Joly administration
during its short career, and when the Liberal party went into opposition
he rapidly came to the front as a leading man in the small but resolute
band which opposed the policy and methods of the Conservative government
under its successive leaders. When the Nationalist agitation arose, he
took the same position as his leader, Mr. Mercier, that the interests of
the Dominion demanded that a fair field should be given to the people of
Quebec, and that union on the part of those people was the best means of
calling attention to their demands. Battling strongly on this line, it
was natural that when the Nationalist cause triumphed under Mr.
Mercier’s leadership, Mr. Gagnon should be called to a position of honor
and responsibility. He was sworn in as Provincial Secretary and member
of the Executive Council on 29th June, 1887.
* * * * *
=Reid, Rev. Charles Peter=, Sherbrooke, Quebec, was born at Cornwall,
Ont., on the 14th of August, 1811. He was the eldest son of the late
Rev. James Reid, D.D., for fifty years rector of Trinity Church,
Freleighsburg. He was educated at the Grammar School founded by the
Royal Institution in Montreal, and taught by the late Alex. Scakel, and
for a while at the similar school in Quebec, taught by the Rev. R. R.
Burrage. He took his Divinity course at the Theological Seminary at
Chambly, at which the late Rev. J. Braithwaite, M.A., was the principal.
He was admitted to the diaconate by the Right Reverend Dr. Stewart,
bishop of Quebec, on the 23rd of June, 1835, and to the priesthood at
the first ordination held by the late Right Reverend Dr. Mountain,
bishop of Quebec, on the first of Nov., 1836. His first mission after
his ordination was Rawdon, in the present diocese of Montreal, where he
remained a short time. He removed from Rawdon to St. John’s, as curate
to the Rev. D. Baldwin, and missionary at Laprairie. While at St. John’s
he was married to Julia Gray, eldest daughter of John Gray of her
Majesty’s Customs. He then removed to Compton, where he remained
fourteen years, building two churches, and organizing the work of the
mission on a secure basis. On the 1st of April, 1854, he was appointed
to Sherbrooke, of which place he has been rector for thirty years.
During this long ministry the church under his charge has grown into a
strong and flourishing one, and he has been identified with every good
work which has been accomplished in the town. Not only by active
interest, but by liberal donations, he has helped to support various
charitable institutions. Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, is specially
indebted to him. There are few figures more widely known or more truly
beloved throughout the whole District of St. Francis, than that of Dr.
Reid. He is spending his ripe old age in Sherbrooke, and, still active
in mind and body, is never so happy as when assisting in the services of
God’s house or ministering in his old field of labor, to those who have
become endeared to him by a life-time of loving intercourse. Dr. Reid
has been one of the trustees of Bishop’s College from the foundation, in
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