Francis Hector Clergue (August 28, 1856 – January 19, 1939) was an American businessman who became the leading industrialist of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, at the turn of the 20th century. Biography Early life Clergue was born on August 28, 1856, in the American state of Maine. The Canadian Encyclopedia lists his birthplace as Brewer, Maine, while the Dictionary of Canadian Biography instead lists Brewer's sister city of Bangor. His father was Joseph Hector Clergue, a barber who was of French Huguenot origin. His mother, Frances Clarissa Lombard, was descended from 17th century American colonists who had originated in Kent, England; her father was a master shipbuilder. He was born at a time when Maine reaped the economic benefits of timber and maritime economies. As a teenager, he delivered telegrams for the local railway stationmaster, exposing him to the rail transport industry. As a later businessman and industrialist, Clergue would repeatedly engage with these industries. Ventures Some aspects of Clergue's early life are uncertain, and he may have studied engineering at the Maine State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, or taught school. He eventually settled on a legal career, working at the law office of Frederick M. Laughton. He was called to the bar in 1878. He began to practice as a solicitor in Bangor under the partnership of Laughton and Clergue. The two lawyers became very active in promoting various business ventures, such as a silver mining scheme in nearby Hampden. His schemes grew increasingly grandiose, as he promoted a variety of ventures in regions as far away as Alabama and Persia, and the scope of industries ranged from tourism, railways, public utilities, and shipbuilding. This included civic improvement projects in Bangor such street lighting and a street railway, a power station on the Penobscot River, an iron mine in Digby, Nova Scotia, a pulp mill, a foghorn manufacturing company, and new rail lines extending from Bangor into rural Maine; these ventures met with varying success. To support them, Clergue created the Eastern Trust and Banking Company as a financing vehicle. Clergue was remarked on for his skill as a speaker, who could draw in potential investors even as many of his ventures failed. The biographer Duncan McDowall remarks that "he possessed a knack for recognizing the potential of a new technology," but his ideas were often beyond practical possibility, and he lacked the technical knowledge