Denis Robert Arthur Yale (November 11, 1860 – March 6, 1917) was a Canadian politician and businessman, who became one of the founders of Plateau-Mount Royal in Montreal. He was DeLorimier's first Secretary-Treasurer and became Alderman of the town of Cote-des-Neiges. He also acquired and gave his name to the Yale Islands on Rivière des Mille Îles, Saint-Eustache, located about 20 miles from downtown Montreal. Through most of his career, he was involved in banking and mining ventures.
Early life
Arthur Yale was born in Saint-Didace, Quebec, Canada, on November 18, 1860, the son of fur merchant Edward William Yale and Sophie St-George, members of the Yale family. The Yales were notables as early benefactors of Yale University and founders of the Yale Lock Company. Here's how Vancouver's Yaletown got its name from the 'wickedest little settlement in B.C, Vancouver is Awesome Newspaper, Brendan Kergin, November 22, 2022 Arthur was the grandnephew of chief trader James Murray Yale of the Hudson's Bay Company, and his cousin, Isabella Yale, was the daughter-in-law of Gov. Sir George Simpson, the de facto Viceroy of Prince Rupert's Land, and resident of Montreal's Golden Square Mile.John S. Galbraith, “Simpson, Sir George,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 8, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed January 28, 2024 Another cousin, Eliza Yale, married Capt. Henry Newsham Peers, grandson of Count Julianus Petrus de Linnée, member of a noble family of France.
His father was in the fur business along with his brothers, including Arthur's uncle, Major George Henry Yale, 1st mayor of Louiseville. Maj. Yale was a wealthy manufacturer, proprietor of 3 fur factories, two sawmills, a flour mill, a watermill, a cheese factory, a shoe factory, and also owned a village named Yaletown with its 14 homes and commercial buildings.Gazette officielle du Québec. Québec official gazette., 28 octobre 1882, samedi 28 (no 43), p. 1923 He had acquired Yaletown from Lord Samuel Gerrard, 2nd President of the Bank of Montreal, and would eventually become the second pioneer tanner in his specialty in Canada.L'écho de St-Justin, janvier 1924, mercredi 2 janvier 1924, p. 16 One of Arthur's brothers, Peter Henry Yale, was in the fur trade in Massachusetts, and became the father of Dr. Henry Yale, while one of his nephews, Alfred Cinq-mars, became a lawyer in Outremont and brother of King's Counsel Alexandre Cinq-mars.Le devoir, 21 mars 1917, mercredi 21 mars 1917, p. 3Le devoir, 15 janvier 1945, lundi 15 janvier 1945, p. 7L'Action Universitaire, 1944 Février Vol 10 No 6, p. 33
His two other brothers were Capt. George Yale, chief-engineer of the Harbor Commission of the Port of Montreal, and William Yale, fur merchant and hide dealer.La presse, 5 mars 1987, E. Annonces classées, p. E 6Collection d'annuaires, Lovell de Montréal et sa région, 1842-2010, p. 122La patrie, 10 mars 1917, samedi 10 mars 1917, p. 14 William Yale, a resident of Saint-Lin, became one of the pioneers of Mont-Laurier in 1897, named after another St-Lin resident at the time, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, 1st French Canadian Prime Minister of Canada.Notes historiques sur Mont-Laurier, Nominingue et Kiamika, 1822-1937, Maurice Lalonde, Quebec National Library, 1937, p. 142 He was the namesake of William Yale Road in Mont-Laurier, named after his former waterfront estate.Montée William-Yale, Commission de Toponymie, Quebec Government, Toponymie.gouv.qc.ca, Accessed January 28, 2024 The Yales were large landowners in the region and eventually founded one of the first campings in the Laurentides, including a marina and other enterprises.Votre Destination Camping depuis 1962, Historique, Campingalaclairiere.com, Accessed January 28, 2024
Arthur Yale and his brothers were the nephews of Dr. Francois Desmarchais and Rev. Desmarchais, relatives of Cote-des-Neiges mayor, Ferdinand Desmarchais, and of the Lacombe family, who together, were the largest landowners in Cote-des-Neiges, with about 11 estates in 1879.Villages of Cote-des-Neiges and Outremont, Archives of the City of Montreal, Montreal, Map of 1879. See names Desmarchais and Lacombe.Les merveilles de l'Oratoire: l'Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal, 1904-2004, Denise Robillard, Les Editions Fides, 2004, p. 15, See map in the box on the top rightMassicotte, E.-Z. (1939). Notre-Dame-des-Neiges. Les Cahiers des Dix, (4), p. 160L'Étoile du Nord, 26 janvier 1905, jeudi 26 janvier 1905La presse, 16 août 1897, lundi 16 août 1897, p. 1 Territories of Cote-des-Neiges eventually became part of Westmount, Outremont, Mount-Royal and Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.Petite histoire de Côte-des-Neiges, Corporation de Developpement Communautaire de Cote-des-Neiges, Montreal, September, 2013, p. 9Le territoire de la Côte-des-Neiges, Société d’histoire Souvenirs et mémoires de la Côte-des-Neiges, January 10, 2023, Accessed January 29, 2024 They were also the relatives, through the Desmarchais, of Judge Philémon Cousineau, mayor of St-Laurent and President of the Mount Royal Telephone Company.La patrie, 20 juin 1907, jeudi 20 juin 1907, p. 11
Biography
Arthur Yale started his career working in the meat industry, first as a tallow merchant in the East End abbatoir, then as superintendent.Collection d'annuaires Lovell de Montréal et sa région, 1842-2010, p. 213 He was also a clerk and an accountant. The abbatoir had been cofounded by his uncle, industrialist George Henry Yale, along with Honoré Beaugrand, the future mayor of Montreal, and other investors.Gazette officielle du Québec. Québec official gazette., 30 décembre 1882, samedi 30 (no 52), p. 2307 Yale then became a member of the Union des Abbatoires of Montreal, launched in 1884 by Ferdinand Bayard, a brick manufacturer and his future partner. The union was formed to prevent the formation of a monopoly in the meat industry, and was conceived to protect the interests of number of merchants and manufacturers.La patrie, 29 octobre 1913, mercredi 29 octobre 1913, p. 14 Yale would later become the Union's Secretary and be a manager of other slaughterhouses.La presse, lundi 13 décembre 1897Collection d'annuaires, Lovell de Montréal et sa région, 1842-2010La presse, 8 mars 1917, jeudi 8 mars 1917, p. 14
By 1892, at 32 years of age, he founded with Bayard and three others the North America Mining Company, with a capital stock of $200,000, or about 300 million dollars in 2024 money in relation to GDP.Gazette officielle du Québec, Québec official gazette., 24 septembre 1892, samedi 24 (no 39), p. 2192-2193Montreal daily herald, 7 septembre 1892, mercredi 7 septembre 1892, p. 8Seven Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1790 to Present, MeasuringWorth.com, Accessed January 29, 2024 He was made the company's Secretary and was elected among its board directors, with Guillaume-Narcisse Ducharme as president.The daily witness, 1 mai 1899, lundi 1 mai 1899, p. 4 Ducharme was the head of Banque Jacques-Quartier at the time, and later, he would become the president of the Provincial Bank of Canada, where Yale would be one of the bank's largest shareholders.Canada Department of Finance (1898), Shareholders in the Chartered Banks of the Dominion of Canada, S. E. Dawson, Printer to the Queen's Most Excellent Majestry, No. 3, p. 183Quebec National Assembly, 3rd Session, 13th Legislature, 5 George V, 1915
The Provincial bank, formerly seated in Place d'Armes Square at Aldred Building's site, would merge to form the National Bank of Canada. Notable shareholders with Yale in the charter of 1900 included Senator Sir Alexandre Lacoste, Outremont founder Louis Beaubien, Judge Louis-Philippe Pelletier, Governors Narcisse Pérodeau, Sir Louis-Amable Jetté, and Montreal Mayors and Senators Sir William H. Hingston, Charles Wilson and Alphonse Desjardins.List of Shareholders of the Chartered Banks of Canada, as on the 31st December, 1900, p. 183
The North America Mining Co. would also be known as the North Mica Mining Co., and had its first office on St-François-Xavier Street in Old Montreal, close to the Old Montreal Stock Exchange.The Gazette, 16 May 1893, Tue ·Page 5 The company was dealing in mines, and had discovered a mica vein at Saint-Hippolyte, Quebec, in Terrebonne county. They later moved their offices to Little Burgundy, close to Griffintown. A few years later, manufacturers were expanding their operations in Montreal on the east side of Mount-Royal, creating a growing demand for a city adapted to their needs. With the advances in technologies, especially electricity, manufacturers didn't need to stay around the St-Lawrence river, and could locate their factories closer to their customers, lowering their cost of distribution.Une banlieue tout à fait fashionable : le village De Lorimier, 1895-1909, Amelie Roy-Bergeron, October 2018, p. 1-2-3-36
When came the time to incorporate the growing village known as DeLorimier, the town would elect Yale on January 12, 1895, as its first Secretary-Treasurer, being in charge of financial transactions such as raising capital through bond offerings.Journal Le Prix Courtant, 1898, Montreal, p. 888Le Prix Courtant, 1901, Montreal, p. 1137HistoirePlateau.Org, Société d'Histoire du Plateau-Mont-Royal, Journal La Patrie, Samedi 28 Mai 1898, p. 6.The Herald, 6 avril 1897, mardi 6 avril 1897UQAM, Laboratoire d'histoire et de Patrimoine de Montreal, Épisode 2 – L’histoire du Village de Lorimier avec Amélie Roy-Bergeron This village, combined with 3 other founding villages, would later be known as Plateau-Mount Royal, with DeLorimier as its electoral district. Once elected, he passed a resolution with Mayor Chabot to prevent the erection of a contagious diseases hospital within the limit of the municipality, with the intention to make the new municipality a model one.Montreal daily herald, 13 février 1895, mercredi 13 février 1895, p. 8 In 1897, he attended the banquet of orator Edouard D. Roy at the Hotel Richelieu, Old Montreal, along with various mayors, doctors and industrialists.La presse, 1 décembre 1897, mercredi 1 décembre 1897, p. 6