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Cassils, William, Montreal,
was born at Denny, Stirlingshire, Scotland, on the 25th of June, 1832,
being the eldest son of John Cassils and Margaret Murray. The family
removed in 1835 to Renton, a village in the vale of Leven, Dumbartonshire,
where his boyhood was spent, and where in the parochial school he was
educated in such branches as were then taught in that institution. Having
relatives in Canada who urged that he should proceed thither, he sailed
from Glasgow in the barque Euclid on April 5th, 1851, arriving at
Quebec in the first week of May. On reaching Montreal a couple of days
later, and hearing that a young man was wanted to learn operating in the
office of the Montreal Telegraph Company, he applied for the situation and
was accepted. The company was then in its infancy; it owned a single line
extending along the highway from Toronto to Quebec, and had fourteen
offices in all, between these two points. In November, 1853, Mr. Cassils
took charge of the Quebec office; and three years later, the company
having acquired the lines of the British American Telegraph Co., was
appointed eastern divisional superintendent. On the 11th June, 1856, he
married Agnes Simpson, daughter of the late William Hossack of Quebec.
Resigning the position of telegraph superintendent in November, 1866, Mr.
Cassils removed to Montreal, becoming a member of a commercial firm, from
which he retired ten years later. While a resident of Quebec Mr. Cassils
commanded the esteem of a wide circle of acquaintances, and in addition to
active participation in church and charitable work, was chosen
secretary-treasurer of the board of Protestant School Commissioners of
that city, which position be held during several years. Shortly after
retiring from the wholesale trade in Montreal, he became president of the
Canada Central Railway Co., which position he retained for three or four
years, until 1881, when the line became part of the Canadian Pacific
Railway Cornpany’s system. His careful and methodical habits of business
becoming known, his services were in request by other public cornpanies.
He subsequently became Receiver of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Railway
Company, and now occupies the presidency of the following: the Dominion
Transport Company, limited; (the cartage agents of the Canadian Pacific
railway company) the Canadian District Telegraph Company, limited; and of
the Electro-Mechanical Clock Company, limited. He is also, we believe,
vice-president of the British American Ranche company, limited: and
director of the Montreal Herald printing and publishing company,
limited. By no means least in importance of the positions held by Mr.
Cassils in connection with public companies is his directorship in the
Montreal Telegraph Company, which has 1680 offices and 30,000 miles of
wire scattered over Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, as well as over
large parts of Vermont and New York and touching Michigan. His fifteen
years of experience in the early days of telegraphy, form an interesting
chapter in his life. Thirty-three years ago, before the time of submarine
cables, the wires were stretched across the St. Lawrence, near Montreal;
in summer, masts 210 feet high being set on either shore, while in winter
they were strung on poles stuck in the ice. There were but fourteen
offices in the five hundred miles between Quebec and Toronto, and telegram
from the latter city to Montreal cost 3s. 9d. currency. The modes of
transmission, such as the Bain and the House systems, as well as the more
successful Morse system, had not then passed the
experimental stage, while the instruments were
clumsy,
and measured by the progress of to-day, ineffective and
slow. Having been a practical telegrapher, however,
"in the day
of small things," eIectrically considered, and having watched the
development of the science to its present marvellous stage, the
experience and technical knowledge of the man we are describing proves of
decided service in his capacity of director to-day.
" To be a well-favoured man is the gift of
fortune," says the clown in the play, words which are hardly less absurd
than the rest of the sentence, "but readin' and writin' cornes by natur."
A man’s pleasant looks are far
more a matter of disposition, surroundings and descent, than of chance. In
temperament as well as in appearance Mr. Cassils is perceptibly a
debtor to his parents, who were both good looking; the
father being fine-featured and athletic, the mother (who
still survives) fresh and douce.
Both were of the spirited, sterling, God-fearing people of
whom Scotland has furnished so many to this and other lands. Their Sons
and daughters, eight in number, are all in Canada; the five sons are among
the respected business men of Montreal, and several of them besides the
eldest, whom we are describing, have attained positions of responsibility
and prominence in that great city. To be called "a popular man" is
sometimes an ambiguous compliment. In Mr. Cassils’ case, the popularity
enjoyed is founded rather upon integrity, geniality and quiet discernment
than upon more showy but less admirable qualities. |
