Date Published:
March 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Thomas-Chase Casgrain

Casgrain, Thomas Chase (1852-1916), postmaster-general of Canada (1914-16), was born in Detroit, Michigan, on July 28, 1852, the son of the Hon. Charles Eusèbe Casgrain, and a nephew of the Abbé H. R. Casgrain and P. B. Casgrain. He was educated at the Quebec Seminary and at Laval University, and was called to the bar of Quebec in 1877 (Q.C., 1887). In 1894 he was bâtonnier-général of the Quebec bar. From 1886 to 1890 and from 1892 to 1896, he was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec, first for Quebec county, and secondly for Montmorency; and he was attorney-general in the Boucherville and Taillon administrations. From 1896 to 1904 he was a member of the Canadian House of Commons for Montmorency; and from 1911 to 1914 he was chairman of the International Joint Commission. Shortly after the outbreak of the Great War, he accepted the office of postmaster-general in the Borden administration; and he died, in office, on December 29, 1916. In 1878 he married Marie Louise, daughter of Alexandre LeMoine, of Quebec.

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., pp. 11-12.