A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography: Brief biographies of persons distinguished in the professional, military and political life, and the commerce and industry of Canada, in the twentieth century
History
A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography: Brief biographies of persons distinguished in the professional, military and political life, and the commerce and industry of Canada, in the twentieth century
Canada -- Biography
He is a nephew of the late Cardinal Taschereau,
Archbishop of Quebec. In 1891 he married Miss Adine Dionne, daughter of
the Hon. E. Dionne, of the Legislative Council of Quebec, by whom he has
had three sons and two daughters. Altogether he has made a record for
himself in his native city and province as an able advocate, an astute
governmental administrator, and a loyal citizen. Sprung from a
distinguished and talented family, his career as a public man has added
to its fame.
* * * * *
=Ross, James Gibb= (Quebec City), Senator of Canada, was born in
Carluke, a village of Lanarkshire, in Scotland, on April 18, 1819. He
came out to Canada in 1832, in company with his elder brother, John
Ross; and, after attending one of the private schools of Quebec for a
year or two, he entered the business office of his uncle, Mr. James
Gibb. At this time the firm of James Gibb & Company was one of the
largest of the wholesale grocery and provision houses in what has always
been known as the Lower Town of Quebec; and there the Scottish lad laid
the foundation of his business career, which was eventually to place him
among the wealthiest merchants of Canada. In 1843, Mr. Thomas O. Gibb,
son of Mr. James Gibb, returned to Quebec, after finishing his school
education in Edinburgh; and in the same year a company was formed in
which Thomas O. Gibb, John Ross, and James G. Ross were the partners,
until the first mentioned of the three died in 1845. Eventually, on Mr.
James Gibb’s death, the two Ross brothers took the business name of Ross
& Co., and as such continued in active operation up to the year 1868. By
this time the firm had amplified its business by other branches of
trading; and in 1868 the older of the two members of the firm withdrew
to conduct a business of his own, for the most part confined, as it was,
to the grocery and provision trade. With him was associated his youngest
brother, Frank Ross. At the time of the Senator’s death, in 1888, the
firm of Ross & Co. had developed into one of the wealthiest business
concerns in the country, having depots for the distribution of their
wares in nearly all the larger cities of Canada and the United States.
With millions at his command, the sole partner of the firm took an
active interest in shipbuilding and railroad construction. Nearly every
branch of industry was enhanced by the money advances of the
multi-millionaire. The shipping interests, especially, felt the effects
of his business acumen, especially when he took in charge for sailing
purposes the ships the building of which he had assisted with advances
of money, but which, for market reasons could not for a time be sold.
The railroads which came in for assistance included the Quebec and Lake
St. John Railway and the Quebec Central, both of which may trace their
success as paying concerns to the financial foresight of Senator James
G. Ross, who thus both directly and indirectly aided the colonization of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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