Johan Beetz

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Johan Beetz (1874-1949)

Johan Beetz (August 19, 1874 – March 26, 1949) was a Canadian naturalist of

Baie-Johan-Beetz
in his honour, along with the nearby bay, known as the baie Johan-Beetz.

He was born in Boortmeerbeek, Belgium, in the château d'Oudenhouven, to an aristocratic family. His father Johannes Beetz died when he was two years old and his mother Céline Verzyl (or Versyl) remarried an English major named Walter Turner. He had a privileged childhood and the future King Albert was among his childhood acquaintances. In his youth, he participated in hunting in Morocco, Algeria and Congo, and took part in archeological digs. He studied medicine and biology.

However, his fiancée (and cousin) Marthe Versyl died of pneumonia. Apparently seeking a change in his life, he considered moving from Belgium to Africa, but then he happened to converse with a certain Monsieur Warner, who talked about the hunting and fishing in Pashti-Baie (or Piastrebaie), rename Baie-Johan-Beetz in 1914,[1] in Côte-Nord region, along the shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Quebec, Canada, where Warner had a house.

Beetz bought Warner's house on the spot and moved there in May 1897. Within this year, Beetz meet Henry de Puyjalon, a pioneer in Canadian ecology who was among the first to suggest wildlife conservation areas.[2]

Beetz married a local girl Adéla Tanguay (1884-1954), on September 27 1898, he built a

Spanish influenza
in 1918–1919 by restricting external contact and disinfecting mail.

The many activities of Johan Beetz brought considerable impetus to the socio-economic development of the locality and that of the North Shore.[3]

In 1922 the Beetz family moved to Saint-Laurent, then a suburb of Montreal and today a borough of the city. He bought a house there at 54 rue Saint-Germain. In July 1924, he was made a chevalier in the Order of Leopold II by the Belgian government. He later lived at 322 avenue Laurier, in Quebec City, which has a plaque mentioning that fact. In 1931 he founded a zoo in Charlesbourg (today part of Quebec City), later known by the name Jardin zoologique de Québec (it closed in 2006).

He continued to raise foxes at a farm in

Vaudreuil. When the business was badly affected by the 1929 stock market crash, he was named director of the fox furring department at the Service de l'élevage des animaux à fourrure of the Quebec government. He wrote a book on the subject entitled "L'Indispensable" à l'éleveur de renards argentés;[4] it was published in English translation as "The Indispensable" for Fox Breeders, translated by Thos. J. Carbray. The Université de Montréal wished to give him an honorary doctorate; however, he preferred to deliver an oral thesis presentation, for which he was granted a Doctor of Science
degree (Docteur ès Science agricole (vulpiculture)). The fox breeding industry in Quebec did not survive long after the death of its founder, however.

In 1965, the village where he spent many years of his life was renamed

unorganized territory, which may be named for him, although the Commission de toponymie du Québec does not attest this.[5]

Johan Beetz was the grandfather of Jean Beetz, a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.[6]

References

  1. ^ "Baie-Johan-Beetz". Quebec Gouvernement (in French). Commission de Toponymie Quebec. 12 May 1968. Retrieved 15 June 2024. In 1996, the extension of Route 138 made it possible to connect this municipality to that of Havre-Saint-Pierre, and in doing so, to break its isolation.
  2. ^ "Henry de Puyjalon". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Retrieved August 24, 2019.
  3. ^ Christine Lebel (4 January 2020). "Johan Beetz (1874-1949), biography" (PDF) (in French). Retrieved 20 June 2024. Director of the provincial vulpiculture service, he received the title of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1936 Agricultural Science of the University of Montreal. He was also a co-founder of the Society Zoologique de Québec.
  4. ^ Johan Beetz (1931). "L'Indispensable" à l'éleveur de renards argentés (in French). Montréal: Librairie Beauchemin limitée.
  5. ^ "Banque de noms de lieux du Québec: Reference number 4617". toponymie.gouv.qc.ca (in French). Commission de toponymie du Québec.
  6. ^ "Beetz, Johan". Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec. Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec. Retrieved 16 January 2021.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Johan_Beetz&oldid=1230065557"