A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time: A Collection of Persons Distinguished in Professional and Political Life, Leaders in the Commerce and Industry of Canada, and Successful Pioneers
History
A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time: A Collection of Persons Distinguished in Professional and Political Life, Leaders in the Commerce and Industry of Canada, and Successful Pioneers
=Baillairgé, Chevalier Chas. P. F.=, M.S., Quebec. The subject of this
who is a Chevalier of the Order of St. Sauveur de Monte Reale, Italy,
was born in September, 1827, and for the past forty years has been
practising his profession as an engineer, architect and surveyor, in the
city of Quebec. Since 1856 he has been a member of the Board of
Examiners of Land Surveyors for the province, and since 1875 its
chairman; he is an honorary member of the Society for the Generalization
of Education in France; and has been the recipient of thirteen medals of
honour and of seventeen diplomas, etc., from learned societies and
public bodies in France, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Japan, etc. Mr.
Baillairgé’s father, who died in 1865, at the age of sixty-eight, was
born in Quebec, and for over thirty years was road surveyor of that
city. His mother, Charlotte Janverin Horsley, who is still living, was
born in the Isle of Wight, England, and was a daughter of Lieutenant
Horsley, R.N. His grandfather on the paternal side, P. Florent
Baillairgé, is of French descent, and was connected, now nearly a
century ago, with the restoration of the Basilica, Quebec. The wife of
the latter was Cureux de St. Germain, also of French descent. Our
subject married, in 1845, Euphémie, daughter of Mr. Jean Duval, and
step-daughter of the Hon. John Duval, for many years chief justice of
Lower Canada, by whom he had eleven children, four of whom only survive.
His wife dying in February, 1878, he, in April of the following year,
married Anne, eldest daughter of Captain Benjamin Wilson, of the British
navy, by whom he has two sons and a daughter. Mr. Baillairgé was
educated at the Seminary of Quebec, but, finding the curriculum of
studies too lengthy, he left that institution some time before the
termination of the full course of ten years, and entered into a joint
apprenticeship as architect, engineer and surveyor. During this
apprenticeship he devoted himself to mathematical and natural science
studies, and received diplomas for his proficiency in 1848, when only
twenty-one years of age. At that period he entered upon his profession,
and for the last twenty years has filled the post of city engineer of
Quebec, manager of its water works, engineer of its new water works
under the Beemer contract of 1883; engineer, on the part of the city, in
and over the North Shore, Piles and Lake St. John railways during their
construction. Mr. Baillairgé has held successive commissions in the
militia, as ensign, lieutenant, and captain; and in 1860, and for
several years thereafter, was hydrographic surveyor to the Quebec Board
of Harbour Commissioners. In 1861 he was elected vice-president of the
Association of Architects and Civil Engineers of Canada. In 1858 he was
elected, and again in 1861 unanimously re-elected, to represent the St.
Louis ward in the City Council, Quebec. In 1863 he was called for two
years to Ottawa, to act as joint architect of the Parliament and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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