Jean Baptiste David Legare

Jean Baptiste David Legare, one of the most successful real-estate promoters in the city of Montreal, was born in the parish of Sillery, near Quebec, June 7, 1865. Fortune did not smile on him for many years. His father having died when the son was an infant of but three months, he was reared in the home of his maternal grandfather, F. Cote, of St. Foy. While there he acquired his elementary education and later attended the academies at Sillery and Quebec. Manifesting laudable ambition from early youth, at the age of eighteen years he began business life as a clerk in the general store of Louis Bourget in Quebec. Subsequently he was employed in the wholesale dry-goods houses of P. Garneau and William McLimont & Sons in Quebec. Later he became a representative of large grain and flour mills and also became proprietor of a wine and vinegar manufactory in Quebec. Fate was against him and he failed for seventy-two thousand dollars. This would have utterly discouraged and disheartened many a man of less resolute spirit, but an optimistic nature would not allow Mr. Legare to acknowledge defeat and still held before him the promise of later success. He then engaged in promoting various undertakings in Quebec, but still the results were not such as were desired.

In 1908 Mr. Legare came to Montreal and continued in the promoting business, making a specialty of real estate. This proved to be the turning point in the career of Mr. Legare and he has since gradually but surely advanced to the goal of success. In the past five years he has made over three hundred thousand dollars and when the sum he had acquired was sufficient to cancel all of his indebtedness he made a special journey to Quebec for that purpose. Mr. Legare says that through all of the dark days, when the storm clouds gathered about him that threatened disaster and defeat, it was his wife’s encouragement and her faith in his future that buoyed him up and made possible his ultimate prosperity.

The principal companies which Mr. Legare has successfully promoted during the past five years are: The Greater Montreal Land Investment Company, Limited; and The Chateauguay Garden City Company, Limited. He was also the promoter of the town of Chateauguay. He is the owner of twenty-seven lakes on the seigniory of Mille Isles and the water rights pertaining thereto. A strong man physically and mentally, his optimistic temperament makes him an ideal promoter. The various business enterprises which he has promoted during his career have contributed a great deal toward the development of the natural resources of the Dominion.

Mr. Legare was married in Quebec, in 1891, to Alda Garneau, daughter of Charles Garneau, ex-sergeant of arms of the Quebec assembly. Upon the maternal side she is descended from the De Villers and the De Lachevrotiere families, both being of the noblest families of France. Mr. and Mrs. Legare are parents of a daughter, Yvonne, who was married in 1913 to Dr. Rene Turcot, and they reside in Quebec.