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
=Casgrain, Philippe Baby= (Quebec City), lawyer, parliamentarian and
author, is of an old and distinguished family, which includes in its
record besides himself, the late Abbé P. H. Casgrain, of literary fame;
the Hon. Senator Charles E. C. Casgrain, M.D.; the Hon. Thomas Chase
Casgrain, the distinguished lawyer and Minister of the Crown, and the
Hon. Senator J. P. B. Casgrain. The subject of this sketch was born in
the city of Quebec, on the 30th December, 1826. He is the son of Mr. C.
E. C. Casgrain, who was at one time the Deputy Commissioner of Public
Works. His mother’s maiden name was Miss Anne Baby, a daughter of the
Hon. James Baby, Cabinet Minister. He had his earlier education at St.
Anne’s College. In 1850 he was called to the Bar, and was given his K.C.
in his thirty-third year, after being associated as a law-partner with
the Hon. Mr. Cauveau, the Solicitor-General of his time. After this he
was given a position as assistant in the Prothonotary’s Office, and was
later on chosen Clerk of the Circuit Court. Subsequently he was elected
a member of the House of Commons for the constituency of L’Islet, which
he continued to represent from term to term for nearly twenty years. It
was not until 1891 he was defeated by Mr. Georges Desjardins. During his
parliamentary days he was ever diligent in assuming his share of
committee work, having taken a prominent part in the Royal Commission
appointed to investigate the administration of public affairs in the
constituency of Rimouski. Two years after his defeat in L’Islet, he was
given the presidency of a second Royal Commission to enquire into the
affairs of the Montreal and Sorel Railway. During his long term of
office in the Court House, he gained a prominence as a writer and
investigator of the traditions that fringed the historical atmosphere of
his native city. He was elected for a term of two years President of the
Literary and Historical Society in 1898, and seven years afterwards he
was chosen for the same position a second time. He also was a member of
the Navy League, and took an active part in securing the Plains of
Abraham as a federal asset, thus preparing the way for its becoming a
permanent acquisition of the National Battlefields Parks Commission. In
1907 he was elected Vice-President of the Canadian Landmarks
Association, and was later awarded a diploma from the Royal Society of
Canada for his zeal in archæological research. The Transactions of the
Royal Society and of the Literary and Historical Society bear testimony
to his industry in preparing historical and antiquarian matter for
publication, which otherwise might have been lost. For instance, he
successfully located the site of the fountain from which the founder of
the colony, Samuel de Champlain, had water drawn to supply his
habitation, as well as the site of the house in which General Montcalm
lived during his sojourn in Quebec, and the house in which he died; the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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