JOSEPH RIELLE.
In the long years of an active professional career Joseph Rielle
has made continuous advancement until he stands today not only
as a veteran civil engineer and surveyor, but also as one of the
most capable representatives of his chosen calling in Montreal.
Each year has found him in advance of the position which he
occupied the previous year, because of his developing powers and
growing ability. He was born at Laprairie on the 6th of October,
1833, and received his initial business training with the firm of
Ostell & Perrault, architects and land surveyors, whose service
he entered in 1850 when a youth of seventeen years. He continued
with that firm for four years and then became assistant to Mr.
John Page, chief engineer of public works. He next accepted the
position of assistant engineer to the harbor commission and
eventually entered upon the general practice of land surveying in
Montreal and the surrounding district. He has been connected with
extensive surveys for the Grand Trunk and the Canadian Pacific
Railways and the harbor commissioners of Montreal and in addition
to his general practice has made a number of important hydraulic
surveys. In 1904 he was presented with a testimonial by members
of the society of land surveyors to mark the fiftieth anniversary
of his entry into civil engineering and land surveying.
While this has been his chief life activity, Mr. Rielle has
done important work in other connections. He was formerly
vice president of the Pontiac Pacific Junction Railway, and
he has done much work of a public and semi-public character,
whereby the general interests of the country at large have been
greatly promoted. He was secretary and manager of the Montreal
Turnpike Trust for about fifteen years. He was a member of
the council of Verdun, Montreal, from 1875 until 1900 and was
intrusted with many important public works. He is a life governor
of the House of Industry and Refuge, also of the Montreal General
Hospital, and is president of the Fraser Institute and Free
Public Library of Montreal. His activities have been of a nature
that have contributed largely to the general development and
good, but he has never taken an active part in politics.
[Illustration: JOSEPH RIELLE]
Mr. Rielle married Miss Jeannie T. Goldie of Laprairie, P. Q.,
who was vice president of the Montreal Industrial Rooms and who
died in June, 1904. Mr. Rielle has his home at No. 90 Union
Avenue and is a member of the St. James Club. He has now reached
the advanced age of more than eighty years, but is still active
in his profession and in spirit and interest seems yet a man in
the prime of life.
JOHN STUART BUCHAN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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