Joseph-Octave Beaubien was a Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

 physician and political figure. He represented Montmagny

Montmagny (electoral district)

Montmagny was a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1935.This riding was created by the British North America Act of 1867. It consisted iniitally of the County of Montmagny...

 in the 1st Canadian Parliament

1st Canadian Parliament

The 1st Canadian Parliament was in session from November 6, 1867 until July 8, 1872. The membership was set by the 1867 federal election from August 7 to September 20, 1867, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it was prorogued prior to the 1872 election.It was...

 as a Conservative

Conservative Party of Canada (historical)

The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...

 member.

He was born in Nicolet

Nicolet, Quebec

Nicolet, Quebec is the county seat of Nicolet-Yamaska Regional County Municipality, Quebec, Canada. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 7,827...

 in Lower Canada

Lower Canada

The Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...

 in 1824, studied at the college there and then studied English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 in Rochester, New York

Rochester, New York

Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...

. He returned and studied medicine, becoming a doctor in 1847 and settled at Montmagny

Montmagny, Quebec

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. He was elected to represent Montmagny in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada

Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada

The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was the lower house of the legislature for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper Canada, then known as Canada West and later the...

 in 1857, 1861 and 1863; he was reelected after Confederation

Canadian Confederation

Canadian Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed on July 1, 1867. On that day, three British colonies were formed into four Canadian provinces...

. He served in the cabinet

Cabinet of Canada

The Cabinet of Canada is a body of ministers of the Crown that, along with the Canadian monarch, and within the tenets of the Westminster system, forms the government of Canada...

 as Commissioner of Crown Lands. He was also named to the Legislative Council of Quebec

Legislative Council of Quebec

From 1867 until 1968, the Legislative Council of Quebec was the unelected upper house of the bicameral legislature in the Canadian province of Quebec...

 for La Durantaye division in 1867 and served until his death. He operated large farms at Montmagny and Cap-Saint-Ignace

Cap-Saint-Ignace, Quebec

Cap-Saint-Ignace is a town in the Montmagny Regional County Municipality within the Chaudière-Appalaches region of Quebec, Canada...

. Beaubien served as lieutenant-colonel in the local militia. He was also a director for the Canadian Pacific Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...

.

He died in Montmagny in 1877.

He was the nephew of Pierre Beaubien

Pierre Beaubien

Pierre Beaubien was a physician and political figure in Canada East.He was born in Baie-du-Febvre in 1796 and studied at the Séminaire de Nicolet and the Petit Séminaire de Montréal. He went to France, where he studied at the Académie de Paris and later became a doctor in 1822...

, who had also been a member in the Legislative Assembly from Canada East

Canada East

Canada East was the eastern portion of the United Province of Canada. It consisted of the southern portion of the modern-day Canadian Province of Quebec, and was primarily a French-speaking region....

. His daughter, Caroline-Alix, married Jules-Joseph-Taschereau Frémont

Jules-Joseph-Taschereau Frémont

Jules Joseph Taschereau Frémont was a Liberal member of the Canadian House of Commons and a mayor of Quebec City. He was born in Quebec City, Quebec, the son of doctor Charles-Jacques Frémont and Marie-Cécile Panet, and became an author, lawyer and professor.Frémont was educated at the Collège...

, who later became a member of the House of Commons.