Gareau, Noah J.

editor and publisher. He was the editor and publisher of an attractively prepared book called Canada’s Heroes in the Great World War: Cornwall, Alexandria, Vankleek Hill, Hawkesbury and Intermediate Points (Memorial Edition, Vol. I, Ottawa, War Publications Limited). It is undated, but is certainly a publication of 1921, and has a preface dated 29 March 1921. It is irregularly paginated, but totals a little over 222 pp. The book offers a history of the war, and some pictures of general significance relating to the war, but, most importantly, it contains some 60 pages of hundreds of small but extremely well-reproduced portraits of servicemen and nurses from the area of Ontario described in the title. As a Canadian visual record of the war, this work is superb. The title page describes the book as being “Edited by” Gareau with the “Historical Narrative” being by Lt. Col. F. McKelvy Bell.

The 1921 volume described here may have been intended as the first of a series which would eventually cover a sizeable part of Canada. It was unknown until a few years ago even to knowledgeable collectors of Glengarry publications. There is now, however, a hardcover facsimile reprint. Copies of the original edition survive, however rare they may be, in institutions including the National Library, and in the hands of a few lucky people. It is an interesting question whether the wider success the original edition clearly deserved in terms of its quality was blocked by some feeling of resentment against it based on a notion that it was a commercial exploitation of the veterans. An advertisement in the Cornwall press (Cornwall Standard 1 Sept. 1921), which rather strangely fails to give the book’s title, states that “only a limited number of these volumes have been printed over and above the number already subscribed for.” It would be most interesting to know how the subscriptions were obtained. Were house-to-house salesmen employed? Also, how were the photographs assembled? With regard to current (post-subscription) sales, the advertisement merely advises the public to contact the publisher’s office, at 122 Bank Street, Ottawa.

In the Ottawa city directories of 1919 (pp. 449, 827) and 1928 (pp. 325, 756, 859), Noah J. Gareau appears as President and General Manager of War Publications Ltd, publishers, of 122 Bank Street. In the 1928 directory, he is also a General Insurance Agent at the same office. The War Publications firm may have produced only one other book, An Historical Sketch of the Seventy-Seventh Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force (Ottawa, War Publications, 1926). One may wonder whether the publisher, by some link which has now been lost to sight, had GC family connections. He does not seem to have been a war veteran himself, or at least enquiry at Ottawa (2007) has not retrieved any official record of his service in WWI.

Who was Noah J. Gareau? Almost certainly, the publisher was the following man: Noah J. Gareau (14 May 1867-21 June 1956). Born at Rigaud, Que., just east of GC. Parents: Emedy Gareau and his wife Philomene Chevrier. Noah J. Gareau was educated at Rigaud, and began his working career at Pembroke, Ont., before settling in Ottawa, his home for many years. His father is described as being a lumberman of Pembroke. Noah J. Gareau was married at Chapeau, Que. (near Pembroke), in 1890 to Mary Emma Jewell (d. 1953). (three children) Noah J. Gareau is described as having been “a consultant accountant” previous to his retirement. He was a Roman Catholic, active in the work of St. Joseph’s Church, Ottawa. He was buried in Notre-Dame cemetery, Ottawa.

Frederick McKelvey Bell (1878-1931), who prepared the narrative for the volume, was a fairly prominent man in his time, born in Kingston, a medical graduate of Queen’s University (1903) and a physician in Ottawa from 1904, and the author of The First Canadians in France (1917). He was deputy director of medical services for Canada and medical director of the Dept. of Soldiers’ Civil Re-establishment. He served overseas in the war. He does not seem to have had any GC-area connections.