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E. Edwin Howard

 

B.
3 Nov. 1868 Wolfe Island, Ontario
M.
4 Apr. 1906 Montreal To: Evalyn I. Peverley
D.
19 May 1934 Montreal Buried: Magog, Quebec

Education: Iroquois High School, Ontario
Inverness Academy, Quebec
McGill University B.A. 1895
President of his class
Gold Medallist
B.C.L. 1898
Gold Medallist gif
1899 Admitted to the Bar
Member of the Firms of [later on]:
Hatton, McLennan & Howard
McLennan, Howard & Aylmer
Howard, Aylmer & DeWitt
1908 President, Canadian Club of Montreal
1908--1914 Rep. Fellow in Law, McGill
1912--1917 Lecturer in Civil Law, McGill
1918--1919 Prof. of Commercial Law, McGill
1920 Elective Fellow in Law, McGill
1920--1934 Prof. of Civil Law. McGill
Sept. 1919 Sworn in as Judge of Superior Court, Quebec
July 1920 Transferred to the Court of Appeals:
i.e. Court of King's Bench, Quebec.
1928--1934 Elder of the Church of St. Andrew & St. Paul.

Edwin was thirty years old by the time he had finished his formal education --- about five years above the average. This was because he was earning, by teaching, the money to pay his way. There is no mention that I can find of where he was teaching and the only hint of a home address comes in Old McGill 1898 when he was in his junior year in Law which gives Philipsburg, Que. But very often just as he had gathered enough money together there would be a crisis in the family and the money would have to be spent elsewhere. Anyway, he lived, during term time, at least, in the M.A.A.A. Probably during his last year in Law he was articled to Mr. Francis McLennan's Legal Firm. I remember very clearly Mother telling us that he pawned his Arts Gold Medal to pay for his first year in Law and then redeemed it at a later date.

It must have been Mr McLennan who organized his trip to Europe in 1900. Undoubtedly, this brilliant young man who had been taken into the Firm had need of a greater knowledge of French and of the world so he was sent to France for a year to study both the language and the Côde Napoleon. While there he managed a trip to Italy and came back with momentos. I still have the two Botticelli Angel pictures, but where the little models of the leaning tower of Pisa and Giotto's campanili in Florence are I don't know.

If I knew more about Freemasonry perhaps I would know why my father was interested in it and what the two documents in my possession actually mean. My guess is that he joined the Masons of the Grand Lodge of Quebec in Montreal shortly after he got back from Europe and that in November 1905 he became a 33rd degree (which is the highest and final degree) mason of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (or, at least, I think this is what that ``parchment'' in the black trunk says.) There was a lot of regalia involved in the Masonry: a couple of satin ``aprons'' trimmed with gold braid, and several masonic symbols in ``gold'' such as a stone mason might use. As children we played with these things (actualy we more admired rather than played with them) and I think Mother gave them back to the Lodges after Daddy died.

Edwin was fair with blue eyes. He wasn't tall (about 5'10'' or 11'') but he was strongly built and had good coordination. He used his hands well and was quite good at the sports he took up. Apart from being able to ride a penny-farthing bicycle, he was a keen snow-shoer and learned to play golf and to curl which, as a gregarious man, he enjoyed greatly. He gave us children lots of encouragement in learning skills in any of the sports that appealed to us. We all swam from a very early age; we all could handle boats, including doing repairs on the Evinrude engine in the ``Lady Jane''. (The Buffalo engine in the long narrow mahogany boat he had bought from Mrs Routledge was so complex that it defeated us). We all had our chance at the use of a diving board and a tennis court and at riding horses, though, I guess, we would have been more proficient had there been lessons available. I was lucky because Marg Murray had a groom (whose name was Strange) to teach her how to ride and, you bet, I wasn't letting an opportunity like that slip by me!

Looking back on that last year of my father's life I suppose I should have realized that he was not a well man. But I didn't. At 24 one is still so self-centered! I do remember him once saying that he and Mother thought he might retire early. But that was all. And then, in January, it was diagnosed that it was sclerosis of the liver (caused, I think, by worry --- not by alcool because he didn't drink) and he might have six months. He managed to complete his lectures at McGill but he didn't, I think, mark his students' papers

He died at home on Saturday, the 29 of May. There was to be no eulogy at the funeral but at the Sunday morning service this is what Dr. Donald said: ``I have the sad duty of announcing that the Honorable Justice E. E. Howard passed away yesterday. As you know he was a much honored elder of this church. He was admitted as a member of the session in 1928 and from the beginning he gave unstintingly of his wisdom, experience and counsel to our deliberations.'' ``He was a man of very high and definite ideals and was remarkable for the clarity of his thought, for the wide sweep of his knowledge, and also for the reverence of his nature and the humanity of his big heart.'' ``On the Bench I am told that he never faltered in his just, deliberate and painstaking judgments, and that he was widely respected.'' ``In the Church he was a pillar of strength and reliability.'' ``In his home he was unselfish and thoughtful, imparting knowledge and inspiration and wise guidance to those most near to him.'' ``A great personality has passed on from among us. He faced the end quietly confident. He seemed to me to await the greatest adventure of all with rare assurance and faith.''

I think I haven't yet said anything about Christmasses. They, like almost everything else in our early lives, seem to have been organized by Daddy. Always there were in our stockings an orange, a tangerine, nuts and miniature Japanese garden furniture (a bridge, a pagoda, etc., etc.) made of china and greatly treasured: sometimes a length or two of tracks for the model train: other things of course. And under the tree a copy of The Girls' Own Annual) which somehow seemed always to belong to Jane (her right, I guess, as the eldest) but which, I think, we all read. I did anyway. Christmas Day was meticulously organized --- and each year when we were in town exactly like all the others. Stockings hung on the ends of beds and opened whenever; breakfast; Church; mid-day dinners; 4 p.m. the doors to the living room opened and there was the tree all decorated and lit with candles; Daddy standing by (and close by him a pail of water). We all stood like statues and took it all in. It never ceased to be surprizing and miraculous. Only the candles provided light so star like that it scarcely illuminated the piles of gifts all wrapped in white tissue paper, tied with coloured string and covered with stickers, but though we knew they were there it was the tree itself that held our attention for the 4 or 5 minutes the candles were allowed to burn. When we were at the Farm mostly the same routine but no Church and the children had helped in decorating the tree --- cut and dragged home on Christmas Eve --- with only those things that the birds would eat: popcorn, cranberries, etc. and candy canes (for us) because on Boxing Day it was put outside where it was instantly popular (with the birds!)

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Family Trees  

Excerpts from the History of St Patrick's Parish, Magog  


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Next: About this document Up: No Title Previous: The Rev. Mr.



Prof. T.H. MERRETT
Fri Oct 17 12:03:53 EDT 1997